CHAP. I.-SAN BEPOEE THE EMPIEE. 
9 
(inserip. 17 b). What the exact historic position 
of Mermashau is, does not seem certain. Mariette 
supposed him to he a Hyksos king, from his 
name, read by Brugsch as Mer-shos-u, or Chief 
of the Shos, a name similar to Hak-shos-u, or 
Hyksos. But the face is not at all like that of 
the Hyksos figures, and is closely like that of 
Sebakhotep. If, therefore, this reading had 
been correct, it would rather seem to refer 
to his being the suzerain of the Shasu before 
they conquered Egypt. Lieblein identifies him 
with the first king of frag. 78 Turin Papyrus (260 
Konigsb.), solely from the Masha there legible, 
since merely the lea is left in the cartouche. 
This would place him just before Sebakhotep III., 
but it seems scarcely likely from the style, -which 
is different, and rather inferior. There is an¬ 
other king of the Turin Papyrus to whom this 
may be referred, Ba smen . , the last of 
frag. 101. On the whole, this latter may be the 
more likely, from two small considerations ; first, 
Apepi 'inscribed this alone of all the statues, 
and hence it may probably be the last statue 
before his time; and secondly, it is of grey 
granite, more alike to the Hyksos figures than to 
any other work at San. On the right shoulder 
of each of the statues Apepi has inscribed his 
cartouches and titles ; nuter nofer Ra-ua-a-ak-taui 
(or ahtaui or qenen) si ra Apapa, ta ankh, mcri 
sutekh (insor. 17 o) (PI. xiii. 6). On the side and 
back of each statue, Eamessu has added his name 
and titles, copying and modifying the old group of 
the two Niles with the lotus and papyrus, and 
introducing also Neshem and Uati; on the lower 
inscription of the side, we find the name of Sutekh 
spelled full length. 
14. A fragment of the feet of a similar statue 
is lying in front of the pylon; it has had an 
inscription, now'entirely out out, by the side 
of the feet, as is shown by the hollow and by 
the inoompletion of the bo-ws beneath the feet. 
A E'amesside inscription appears on the front. 
At Bulak there is also a statue of the 
thirteenth or fourteenth dynasty, appropriated by 
Eamessu II., brought by Mariette from San. 
An obelisk of a king unknown in the lists, Aa- 
a-ark-ra, was found during Mariette’s excavations, 
and carefully re-buried, so that I did not light 
upon it in clearing the stones this year. A copy 
of the inscription, as shown in Mon. Div. pi. 103, 
is given here in inserip. 20 A, B, c, D. It appears 
to commemorate the king, and his mother Per....; 
and the formula, mennu-f en, is the same as occurs 
on the obelisk of Nehesi. 
Among the lesser obelisks in the temple are 
two. (Plan, 117, 136) which are palimpsests, Ea¬ 
messu II. having erased the older inscription, in 
order to appropriate them. I have copied what 
figures I could see in slanting sunlight, and from 
these copies and photographs the inscriptions 21 a 
and 21 B are here given. The palimpsest can 
only be traced clearly on just the top of two sides 
of one obelisk ; but there are the signs of erasures 
in the irregular surfaces of the rest of this and 
the fellow obelisk. The Eamesside inscription, 
though of course by far the plainest, is here only 
outlined, while the older inscription is entered in 
full as far as it can be traced. There appears to 
have been a deep hole in the middle of the top 
of each face of the two obelisks, but it can hardly 
be the ra of a cartouche, as it comes too close 
to part of a banner name on 21 b; perhaps it 
was for affixing some metal work. On 21 a 
there was a group of a king offering to a 
god ; and on 21 B we can see fragments of in¬ 
scription mentioning Ea, and Tennu, probably 
from the title of Turn. Once again we must 
execrate the destructions of the nineteenth dynasty. 
Seeing that tw'o obelisks have been certainly re¬ 
worked, we may thus understand how some of the 
other obelisks of San (Plan, 163, 167, 168), in¬ 
scribed by Eamessu II., come to have their pecu¬ 
liar shape. They are rounded on the faces of the 
pyramidion, and their extreme apices have been 
in separate pieces, fastened on with groove and 
tongue. Now this device is -wholly unnecessary, 
in order to get a foot or two more length, since 
0 
