500 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



larly recorded, and, in the New Empire at least, duplicate registers 

 were kept in the treasury and the royal granary. Boundaries were 

 described as north, south, east, and west, without being any more ex- 

 actly defined, just as in the Egj-ptian title deeds of to-day, and the 

 Nile, the desert, or the land of such and such a landowner were re- 

 corded as being situated on the confines of the plot referred to. A 

 nomarch of Assiut, about 2300 B. C, says that he irrigated by a new 

 canal the highland which otherwise could not be cultivated. The 

 Vizier Rekhmara, in his tomb at Thebes, records how cases of dis- 

 puted ownership in land were to be dealt with, and all approved titles 

 registered, but unregistered claims were ignored. 



At El Kab, in the tomb of Sebek-nekt, land is divided into low- 

 lying, of which there were twenty " thousands," and land on the high 

 ground (one hundred and twenty " thousands ") : the unit which the 

 sign for " thousand " represents is 10 aroura?, or about 6.3 acres. 



At every period, therefore, of ancient Egyptian history, the land 

 was measured and recorded with considerable accuracy ; property was 

 dealt in regularly, and an elaborate sj^stem of registration was main- 

 tained. No map of landed property in ancient Egypt has come down 

 to us, but on the tomb walls we meet with representations of land 

 measurers at work. Their methods of land measurement are repre- 

 sented on the walls of the tomb of one Menna at Sheikh Abd el 

 Qurna, in Thebes, a land overseer and inspector of the boundary 

 stones of Anion. The scene depicted shows two chain men measuring 

 a field of com with a long cord, on which are knots or marks at inter- 

 vals which seem to be about 4 or 5 cubits in length ; each also carries 

 a spare cord coiled up on his arm. Beside them walk three officials, 

 who carry writing materials, and who are accompanied by a small 

 boy carrying writing materials and a bag in which are probably docu- 

 ments and plans referring to the property. An old man and two boys 

 also accompany the surveyors, and a peasant brings a loaf of bread 

 and a bunch of green corn. 



A similar scene is pictured on the walls of a tomb belonging to a 

 certain Amenhotep, also at Sheikh Abd el Qurna, Here only one man 

 accompanies the chain men, each of whom, as usual, carries a spare 

 cord. The figures are larger than in the tomb of Menna, and though 

 they are now much damaged, it is possible to see clearly that the cord 

 terminated in a ram's head. 



The statue of the priest Pa-en-anhor from Abydos, and now in the 

 Cairo Museum (Cat. No, 4875), shows him in a kneeling position and 

 holding a rolled-up measuring cord, at the end of which is a ram's 

 head. 



Of their topographical maps two alone have come down to us 

 drawn on papyrus. One of these, which is only partially preserved, 

 represents the mining district east of Quft, and dates from the time 



