SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT. 
pop 
II M N 
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 (13) calls attention to the writings of Diimichen (11) and 
Brugsch (8) 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. v:dh. 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. ouU or uax. 
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 (o. v. 2, pp. 3S5-3S6) : 
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 B ses II (1225 to 1215 B. C). was con- 
fronted with a combined invasion by the Libyan 
forces and the coast people-, which the inscrip- 
tions show he was able to overthrow with a 
great slaughter and the capture of many pris- 
oners (p. 569). 
Diimichen ill), after a most painstaking 
study of the early inscriptions, tells us that the 
ancient name of Siwa Oasi^ was " Sokhit am or 
ami." signifying an "orchard of palms " (Eig. 
: 1 i. and that the Egyptian name for the dwellers 
01 Siwa was literally "men of the palm or- 
chard- (Palmenhainmanner) . 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 
Chargeh 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 (1) 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 Xesubast. before \Yaycheset. the new governor. " lord of 
the oasis n (of Kharga and Dakhla) and " chief of irrigation," ap- 
pointed by Sheshunk I. of the Twenty-second Dynasty (945 to 924 
-Ancient name of 
Siwa Oa.-ds, " Sokhit 
am or ami," signifying 
li orchard of pa 
