NA rURE 



169 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1893. 



THE TOMBS AT BEN I HASAN. 

 Bent Hasan. Part I. (Published under the auspices 

 of the Egypt Exploration Fund.) By P. E. Newberry 

 and G. W. Eraser. (London: Kegan Paul, 1893.) 



IN the handsome volume which lies before us the 

 Egypt Exploration Fund publishes the first part of 

 an "Archaeological Survey of Egypt," which it proposes 

 to issue under the direction of Mr. F. L. Griffith ; and 

 we believe that it will be generally admitted the site 

 selected for description and illustration in the first part of 

 the projected work could not have been better chosen. 

 We are also very glad to see that the committee has 

 changed the scene of its excavations from Lower to 

 Upper Egypt, for there it is moderately certain that 

 excellent results will accrue to the archaeologist and 

 Egyptologist. It must not be thought for a moment 

 that we wish to underrate the value of the excavations 

 which the Fund has made in the Delta, but it must be 

 said that in the days, now past we hope, when senti- 

 mental Egyptology was more rampant than it is now, too 

 much time and money were spent in the endeavour to 

 bring to light "proofs" of the truth of the Bible narra- 

 tive which could not exist, and in twisting evidence to 

 suit the fancies of enthusiastic dilettanti. We admit 

 that in the Delta these things are " in the air," for the land 

 of Goshen lieth there, and the sites at which the Israel- 

 ites are supposed to have halted must be sought therein, 

 and the yam siiph, or '• sea of reeds," must border it in 

 some part ; but in Upper Egypt we are face to face with 

 the mighty monuments of some of the best periods of 

 Egyptian art and sculpture, and we are free from the 

 influence of the heterogeneous mixture of peoples in the 

 Delta, and in the everlasting hills which fringe the 

 banks of old Nile we have the remains of a nation which 

 could boast of a hoary antiquity, even before Joseph 

 came into Egypt. The spot chosen for the new scene 

 of labour by the Egypt Exploration -Fund is Beni 

 Hasan, probably better known as Jebel Beni Hasan, 

 which forms a link in the long chain of cliffs which 

 bound the eastern side of the Nile valley, and for which 

 we may look on the map between Minyeh and Roda, a 

 little more than 150 miles south of Cairo. Here, high 

 up in the rock, are hewn two ranges of tombs, which are 

 approached by a sloping path, at the top of which is a 

 terrace whereon all the large tombs open. Of the thirty- 

 nine tombs at Beni Hasan, twelve are inscribed, and of 

 these eight are of governors of the nome wherein they 

 are situated ; two are of princes, one is of the son of a 

 prince, and one is of a royal scribe. In one range — the 

 northern — are thirteen tombs, and in the southern are 

 twenty-six. Speaking broadly, it may be said that both 

 ranges were hewn during the twelfth dynasty, or about 

 B.C. 25 o. Of the twelve inscribed tombs six may be 

 dated with a fair amount of accuracy ; one (No. 14) bears 

 the name of Amenemhat I., and another was probably 

 hewn at the end of his reign ; No. 2 belongs to the reign 

 of Usertsen I., and Nos. 3, 4, and 23 we must place in 

 the reign of Usertsen II. Concerning the remaining 

 six, we need have little doubt as to their age, for the 

 NO. 1260, VOL. 49] 



position of some of them indicates that they belong to 

 the period anterior to the reign of Amenemhat I. 



Considered historically, the tombs of Ameni-Amenem- 

 hat and Khnemu-hetep are of the greatest importance, 

 for they afford us some insight into the life of high 

 officials in those days, and incidentally record some 

 interesting historical facts. In the reign of Usertsen I. 

 Ameni held the high rank of hereditary prince, and he 

 was chosen by his royal master to make three expedi- 

 tions into Nubia and Ethiopia; on the first occasion he 

 accompanied his king ; on the second he set out with the 

 royal heir at the head of four hundred men, and brought 

 back the appointed tribute ; and on the third, he marched 

 at the head of six hundred men. In quaint, character- 

 istic language this worthy nobleman paints his own 

 character, and says : " I wronged not the daughter of a 

 poor man, I oppressed not the widow woman. I was not 

 hostile to any farmer, I stood not in the way of the 

 cattle-keeper, I levied no men for my works, there was 

 no beggar round about, neither felt any man hunger in 

 my days. In the season of famine I ploughed the land 

 of the nome, north and south, I saved the life of its 

 people, and I provided food, so that there was no 

 man hungry therein. I gave to the widow the same as 

 to the married woman, and in this respect I treated the 

 younger as the eldest son. When, in after years, there 

 were abundant Niles, and wheat and barley were plenti- 

 ful, I did not claim payment for what I had given in the 

 previous years." The most interesting text in the book, 

 however, is that in which Khnemu-hetep, a feudal chief, 

 records the chief events of his life, and the high services 

 which he had rendered to his king. He was the son of 

 Nekhera, and of the daughter of a princess called Baket, 

 and he held the office of governor of the Arabian 

 desert, and utcheb priest of Horus and Pakhet ; the king, 

 Amenemhat II., granted unto him the inheritance of his 

 father and mother in Menat-Khufu, and his property lay 

 on each bank of an arm of the Nile, or of that river 

 itself. As a landowner, he gave great attention to the 

 adjustment of the boundaries of each city in the nome, 

 and his fair and upright dealing in this respect gained 

 him great favour in the sight of all men. The king pro- 

 moted him over the heads of all his nobles, and con- 

 ferred favour after favour upon him ; his sons, Necht 

 and Khnemu-hetep, who had been born to him by the 

 lady Khati, were each raised to the rank of Smer uat. 

 Following the example of his father Nekhera, the 

 son of Sebak-ankh, who from his earliest child- 

 hood had held the highest place in the king's 

 favour, Amenemhat built a tomb, upon which are his 

 own name, and that of his father, and it is to the in- 

 scription which he caused to be engraved upon it, under 

 the direction of the architect Baqet, that we owe our 

 knowledge of the life and times of this trusted official. 

 The hieroglyphic text of the inscription has been pub- 

 lished several times, but Mr. Newberry has succeeded 

 in correcting several errors, one of the most important 

 being in line 12. There is no doubt that this edition 

 of the text is the best hitherto published. But hiero- 

 glyphic texts are, in the main, only useful for Egyptolo- 

 gists, and they form, after all, but a very small part of 

 the book, which owes its chief attraction to the large 

 number of beautiful plates which are in it. In these we 



