SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT. 



important station on the great caravan route between the upper Nile 

 countries and Egypt, just as Siwa was on the great caravan route to 

 west Africa when Herodotus wrote of the stations from Thebes to 

 the Pillars of Hercules. 



Fischer (IS) calls attention to the writings of Diimichen {llj and 

 Brugsch (S) on ancient Egyptian inscriptions bearing on the Libyan 

 oases. 



Brugsch (8) , who made a close comparison of the early Egyptian 

 references to the western oases, contends that the Arabic word for 

 oasis, wdh, is from the Coptic wah or uah, and that this again is 

 derived from an early Egyptian word for an envelope or the wrap- 

 ping of a mummy, ouit or uaw. 



Breasted records that Puemre, architect under Queen Hatshepsut 

 and later under Thutmos III (1501 to 1447 B. C), is represented as 

 receiving "tribute from southern and northern oases," while the 

 scribes record the amount (5, v. 2, pp. 385-386) ; 

 and Intef in his stila, where he describes himself 

 as the " Royal Herald of Thutmos III," also pro- 

 claims himself as " chief of all the oasis country " 

 (p. 763). But the oasis dwellers have been hard 

 to hold in subjection, and Mereneptah, successor 

 to Barneses II (1225 to 1215 B. C), was con- 

 fronted with a combined invasion by the Libyan 

 forces and the coast peoples, which the inscrip- 

 tions show he was able to overthrow with a 

 great slaughter and the capture of many pris- 

 oners (p. 569). 



Diimichen (ii), after a most painstaking 

 study of the early inscriptions, tells us that the 

 ancient name of Siwa Oasis was " Sokhit am or 

 ami," signifying an "orchard of palms" (Fig. 

 2), and that the Egyptian name for the dwellers 

 of Siwa was literally "men of the palm or- 

 chards (Palmenhainmiinner). He gives us 

 most graphically this further conclusion (p. 33) : 



Already in ancient times there were established caravan routes between the 

 oases and the upper, middle, and lower sections of Egypt, over which there 

 came in great quantity the valuable products of the oases ; especially wine from 

 Ohargeh and Dachel, dates from Siwa, and natron from the Wadi el Natron ; 

 also olives and lemons, medicinal herbs, dyestuffs, and many other articles. 



The earliest of these inscriptions he places at the time of " Thut- 

 mosis III, the sixteenth century B. C. (16 Jahrh. v. Chr.)." (It will 

 be noted that Breasted places this reign considerably later.) This 

 is most interestingly confirmed by Ball and Beadnell {!) in their 

 account of the Egyptian antiquities of Baharia Oasis. They refer 

 to the discovery by Ascherson in 1876 of a stila of the time of 

 " Thotmes II," showing that at that early period (between 1501 and 

 1447 B. C, according to Breasted) this oasis was an Egyptian de- 

 pendency and the worship of Egyptian deities was established there. 



A most characteristic record of this oasis region of artesian wells 

 was a suit for the possession of a " flowing spring " and " cistern " 

 brought by Nesubast, before Waycheset, the new governor, " lord of 

 the oasis " (of Kharga and Dakhla) and " chief of irrigation," ap- 

 pointed by Sheshunk I, of the Twenty-second Dynasty (945 to 924 



Fig. 2. — ^Ancient name of 

 Siwa Oasis, " Sokhit 

 am or ami," signifying 

 " orchard of palms." 



