2 62 EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 



and give important examples of the temple sculptures of this age. Some more decrees 

 of the kings of this time have been found at Coptos and published by Weill. 1 



XI-XIII Dynasties. The publication of the funeral temple of king Mentuhotep 

 Neb-hapt-ra by Dr. Naville 2 has been finished, and gives the only complete plan of 

 such a building in that period. It contained 260 columns and 160 pillars. The temple 

 of the Osirification of King Sankhkere was found on the top of the Theban mountain, 

 and an account published by Petrie. 3 



The last remains of the Labyrinth have now been excavated. The sculptures 

 show that it was a centre for all the local deities and worship of the Fayum, as well 

 as the funeral temple of Amenemhet III. Two immense shrines of granite were found 

 here by Petrie with statues of the king in them. The remains are all published. 4 



At the Second Cataract a cemetery of this age was cleared by Dr. Randall-Maclyer, 5 

 and two new points may be noted here. An iron spear head, of a broad leaf form, was 

 found in a cave tomb with an undisturbed burial containing jewellery, and with three 

 equally undisturbed burials in front of it, all dated to the Xllth or XHIth Dynasty 

 by the style; this is the earliest iron weapon known. An iron chisel in this cemetery 

 had a pot of Roman date in the same tomb, and so was doubtless a late deposit, espe- 

 cially as it is of the form known in the XXVIth Dynasty. The other notable point 

 is the keeping of fine jewellery of Amenemhet III, in use for twenty reigns, or much 

 over a century, before burying it in the reign of Noferhotep; it is seldom that such 

 long use of jewellery can be proved. Unhappily it has all been stolen from the Phila- 

 delphia Museum. 



Homes. In connection with this age may be noted the gradual growth of the 

 political divisions of the country: 6 by this time the division had extended to the 22 

 nomes of Upper Egypt and 20 nomes in the Delta, which is regarded as the standard, 

 and continued as the religious division of late times. But the ceremonial lists of 

 festivals, and relics of Osiris, have preserved the memory of a division into 13 nomes 

 in prehistoric times, and 16 in the 1st Dynasty; this increased to 42 in the Xllth Dynasty, 

 probably nearly 100 in the XlXth Dynasty, and 60 in Roman times. 



XVIII-XX Dynasties. The geography of the Delta is much debated in reference 

 to the Exodus. A list of towns has been published which is important, though as late 

 as the demotic period. It gives a list of places along the Wadi Tumilat, and the 

 crux is that no place is named between Saft-el-Henneh and Pithom, on the strength of 

 which Daressy 7 proposes that Pithom was near the west end of the valley. Beyond 

 Pithom eastward are mentioned four places named from frogs which might apply 

 to any part of the valley and then four places which cannot be identified, before 

 reaching Pihahiroth, then two Migdol fortresses and the Migdol of Baalzephon. As 

 there is some twelve or fifteen miles between the recognised Pithom and Pihahiroth 

 it is possible that the eight places named might be all east of it, or the position of Pithom 

 might have been put earlier in the list as the chief place of the district, and minor places 

 named after it not in strict order of position. Either of these chances seems more 

 probable than the shifting of Pithom from the large fortress and town where it is named, 

 and supposing it to have been where there are no noticeable ruins. In the eastern 

 connection may be noticed a collection of all the Egyptian equivalents of Semitic 

 names by Burchardt 8 ; from this it is clear that the value a or aleph formerly used for 

 the flowering-reed sign is almost the only one used in such equivalents, and yod is 

 never used; hence the new value of i given to that, and the recent habit of calling it 

 yod, is only a philological and not a practical matter. The same is shown by Ranke's 

 comparison of cuneiform versions of Egyptian words; there the reed is often aleph 

 or is represented by the termination -ia, where it is as likely to be aleph as yod; 

 never is it rendered by yod alone. A revision of the practical rendering at Berlin is 



1 Weill in Decrees of the Old Kingdom. 



2 Naville in Xlth Dynasty Temple at Dier el-Bahari. 



3 Petrie in Qurneh. 6 Petrie in Historical Studies. 

 1 Petrie in The, Labyrinth. 7 In Sphinx, xiv, 155. 



6 Randall-Maclver in Buhen. 8 Burchardt in Alt Kanaanaischen Fremdworte. 



