88 PEOF. FLINDERS PETKIE, D.C.L., ON KESEAKCHES IN SINAI. 



XVIIth Dynasties as preceding and following the Hyksos, when the 

 tablet of Al:)ydos, which gives a list of the predecessors of Rameses, 

 passes straight from the Xllth to the XVIIIth Dynasty, omitting all 

 mention of ancestors in between. Moreover we know that in the 

 latter part of the domination of the Hyksos in the north of Egypt 

 there were kings in the south, three of whom l)ore the name of Ra- 

 Sekenen, for we have a list of these in a record of the rifling of tombs, 

 besides a fragmentary correspondence between one of these and 

 Apepa, the Hyksos king ; while the naval captain Aahmes, son of 

 Abana, who, among other feats, tells us that he shows great courage 

 in the siege of Avaris, the Hyksos capital, under King Aahmes I., 

 founder of the XVHIth Dynasty, records also that his father had 

 been "a captain of the deceased Ring Ra-8ekenen " (Brugsch, Hist. 

 Egypt, English Translation, vol. i, pp. 282, 283). And we may 

 add that Manetho, in his story of the Hyksos, preserved by Josephus 

 (and almndantly confirmed by Professor Petrie in his discovery of 

 Avaris last year), says that " the kings of Thebes and other parts of 

 Egypt finally raised a revolt against the Hyksos, which led to their 

 departure from Egyptian soil." 



The Egyptians fixed their New Year's Day originally by an 

 astronomical event which falls at the time of year when the inunda- 

 tion of the Nile begins to be felt in their country, namely, the rising 

 of the dog-star (Sothis) with the sun, or as closely before the sun as 

 it can be seen, which takes place on July 21st,* as Censorinus tells 

 us.t But because the Egyptian kalendar year was always exactly 

 365 days (no leap years being used), the New Year's Day (the 1st 

 of Thoth) went back nearly a quarter of a day in each successive 

 year until it had made the whole circle of 365 days ; and the time 

 taken to effect this was known as the Sothic period. This is usually 

 accepted as 1,460 years, and Petrie so accepts it, while hinting that 

 this falls somewhat short of the mark, but it really was 1,506 years. 

 The precise length of the solar year in 1900 a.d. was 365'5*48*45*975 ; 

 and, since it has shortened itself in every century by only '5305, it 

 is easy to calculate that in Petrie's second Sothic period (1322 l.c. 

 to 139 .A.D.) its average length was 365-5'48-56, and in the next 

 period before that only 8 seconds longer. The 8 seconds make no 



* Of the Juhaii Kalendar or 22nd of t]je (hegorian. 

 t Petrie, ].p. 1G4 and lOn. 



