292 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Sept. 



the Osiride columns in the first Hall. The text* consists 

 of 37 lines of sculptured hieroglyphs, and it purports 

 to he an address from the God Ptluili Tatuuen to Ranieses 

 II., followed l.y the King's reply to the same. The speech 

 of the Gotl is conceivt-<l in the most florid stylo of oriental 

 compliment The King is his son, made after his own 

 likeness ; an eternal King ; a prince for ever, with " limbs 

 made in ehvtruni, with liones of brass, with arms of iron." 

 There is plrnty wheresoever he bends his footsteps. The 

 Nile is always high for him; tlie harvest always abundant; 

 tlie tisliing always plentiful. To him his divine father 

 grants i^uccess in all his works, enabling him (in allusion to 

 tlie enormous Colossi seatetl in front of the temple) " to 

 cut the mountains into statues immense, gigantic, ever- 

 lasting."' He then goes on to say: — "Thou hast built a 

 great residence to fortify the border of the land, the city 

 of Ramesi-s (Pa-Rameses) ; it is established on the earth 

 like the four pillars of the sky. Thou hast constructed 

 within it a royal Al>ode, where festivals are celebrated to 

 tliee as is done for me within." This last " within " does 

 not mea:i within the walls of the same " Abode," or temple, 

 in which Ranieses was himself worshipped as a divinity. 

 It is usetl in the .sense of the inner, or inland, country, as 

 oppose<l to the frontier country ; and means Mempliis, 

 which was the great centre of the cult of Pthah. The 

 topograjihical and strategical allusions in the above lines 

 are very valuable. They sliow that the Pa-Raineses in 

 question was a iwir city ; that it was a fortitied place upon 

 the lorders ; and that it was dedicated to the worsliip of 

 the Pharaoh in his divine character. It thus fulfills all the 

 conditiims necessary to its identification with the "Raamses" 

 of the Bible. 



The contemporary papyri in which we find mention of a 

 city (or possibly of various cities) called "Pa-Rameses" 

 are chiefly letters, or cojiic s of letters ; some being the 

 intimate corresjxindence of i)rivate persons ; others being 

 business letters on the most matter-of-fact subjects ; while 

 some, in a more ornate style, would seem to have been 

 transcribed either as exercises in penmanship, or as spe- 

 cimens of elegant composition, like the epistles in " The 

 Polite Letter- writer " of our grandparents. That such 

 documents, written upon a material so perishable as 

 papyrus, should have survived the wreck of ages, is at 

 least as wonderful as that the language in which they are 

 expressed, and the crabbed script in which that language 

 is writti-n, should U- as intelligible, and as legiljle, to 

 Egyptian scholars of this day as tliey were to those wlio 

 wrote and read tliem three-and-thirty centuries ago. And 

 if in these pages of fugitive correspondence we indeed find 

 passing mention of one, or l>oth, of those " treasure-cities " 

 which wiTc the scene of the oppression of the Hebrews, 

 the niar\el culminates. These lett<-r.s, found buried with 

 mummies in their coflRns, or in earthen pots among the 

 ruins of ancient dwelling.s, or in hiding-places excavated in 

 the rock, have Uen Wjught up from time to time by 

 travfllers in Egypt, and have so been re-sold to various 

 European Museums. Some with which we are now 

 esp<-cially concerned are among the famous " Ana.stasi " 

 papyri of the iJriti.sh Musf;um, wliili! others form part of 

 a very- large and curious document called "The Great 

 Hieratic Papyrus of Bologna." Tlie " Anastasi papyri " 

 (so callwl liecaune purchasixl from M. Anastasi by the 

 trustees of the British Museum) consist of a collection of 

 lett':ni, copies of letters, miscollaneous memoranda, minutes 



• Tn>niiIato<I for the firiit time com|>lctoly by M. E. Navillo, in 

 " Reconl» of tho Piwt," Vol. XII. Tho mme inscription, with n few 

 npCPMarjr alteration*, waa appropriate'! to hi« own honour by 

 IUine«r« III., and i* •colptorcl on one of the pylons of the Tcrnpio 

 f Mcdintt Uaboo, boiit by that I'haraoh. 



on judicial matter?, treatises written apparently for edu- 

 cational purposes, and tho like. The Great Hieratic 

 Papyrus of Bologna (which is in one piece, and measures 

 nearly two-yards and-ahalf in length) contains transcripts 

 of sixteen letters by various scribes, mostly in the service 

 of Menephtliali, the son and successor of Ranieses II. It 

 is dated by the copyist in the eighth year of that Pharaoh. 

 The allusions to Pa-Rameses which occur in these letters 

 are casual and unimportant. The scribe Mahoo of tho 

 Royal Workshops, writing to the scribe Pinem, cautions 

 this latter to pay particular attention to the building of 

 certain chariots for the superintendent of Panegyrics, adding 

 " As I am dospatdied to the town of Rameses Mer-Amen 

 (Pa-Rameses* Mer-Amen) take care that they are got 

 ready." Tho Chantrcss of Amen, SherauRa, writes a 

 letter of alTectionate greeting to one Piai, evidently her 

 near relative, invoking the Gods to grant him healthy 

 strength, and tho favour of the King. "All is well with 

 me," she .says, " I live. Be not anxious about me ; but my 

 heart woukl fain have news of thee daily. Behold, I go 

 to-morrow to rejoin thee at Pa-Rameses Mer-Amen," itc. 

 Others of these letters name Pa-Rameses still more in- 

 cidentally, the writers merely invoking " all tho Gods of 

 Pa- Rameses " to bestow health, and strength, and long life 

 upon the person to whom tho communication is addressed. 

 Some of these scribes and letter-writers lived at Memphis, 

 but others were evidently residents of Pa-Rameses. We 

 must rot forget, however, that there were three towns of 

 this naiiKt, and possilily nioie than three. It is therefore 

 just as likely that the foregoing allusions may have been 

 made with reference to a Pa-Rameses not identical with 

 the Pa-Rameses which was built by the Hebrews. When, 

 however, we turn to the evidence of the Anastasi papyri, 

 we at once tread on surer ground. Here is a curious des- 

 criptive fragment, of which we possess two copies, in the 

 above collection : — 



"His Majesty has built him.self a Bekiikn, the name of 

 which is Aa-nekht Its station is between Zahi (Palestine} 

 and Egypt. It is piovisioned with all kinds of delicious 

 food. It is planned like llermonthis (Erment). It is 

 stable as Memphis. The sun rises and sets upon its double 

 horizon. All men hasten to remove from their own cities, 

 that they may live within its boundaries; having the 

 Abode of Amen' in the west, the abode of Sutekh- in the 

 south, Astarte* in the east, and Ouadji* in the North. 

 The Bekhen is as the double horizon of heaven, Barneses- 

 Mer-Amen is its God," &c. 



The word liekhcn is of frequent occurrence in the papyri. 

 Its meaning is somewhat vague, but in its ordinary occu- 

 pation it would seem to be a military storehouse and 

 stronghold ; a place where provisions and arms might be 

 kept in readiness, and where booty might be conveniently 

 di-posited. In this sense it answers with peculiar fitness 

 tfj the Hebrew n^JDot'^y translated "treasure-cities." 

 Professor Maspero renders '^ ItMip.n" by "villa"; meaning 

 thereby a sumptuous royal residence including temples,, 

 barracks, and all kinds of builditig.s, like the villas o£ 

 the Roman Emperors. In tliia sense, a Belc/ten of the 

 extent and splendour above described may well be trans- 

 lated by "villa." All /M/tejinw, however, were not fortresses^ 



• Mcr-Ainen (bolovorl of Amen) in an iiitegrul part of tlio name- 

 of RnmcHCH II. It» addition horo in no wiao affects tljo identity of 

 tho name of tlio town. " I'a-RnmcBos Mer-Amen " would, in fact,, 

 bo more corrcet than '' Pa-Rameses." It was also sometimes called 

 Pa-Uameses Aanokht, or tho town of Uamcscs tlio Victorious. 



t Sco K.\oWLKi>OK, No. U, p. 220. 



1. Amen, the great God of Tho Thebaid. 2. fiutclih, tho God of 

 tho Ilykshos and Ilittitcs. .1. Asturte, a fiidonian OoddcHS ad- 

 mitted into tho Egyptian I'untlieon. 4. Ouadji, the Goddess of tho 

 North. 



