8 
TAHIS. 
usual brutality, and placing Hs cartouches on the 
right shoulder (14 o). Finally, Sheshonk T. the 
great Shishak—occupied the left shoulder ■with 
his cartouches (14 e), and cut a long inscription 
all round the base (14 a, 14 b). The tip of the 
nose has been broken off and mended anciently, 
as there is a drill-hole in the surface ■where the 
piece has been affixed. The sphinx at San is 
more damaged, but there is evidence of its equal 
antiquity in the titles of an erased name by the 
left hind paw (16 a) ; these are cut ■with much 
fineness, and can hardly be attributed to a later 
time than the thirteenth dynasty, and yet they 
are on a defaced surface, showing that some 
earlier name has been erased. This seems to 
show that appropriation began as early as the 
thirteenth dynasty. After that Merenptah of 
course appropriated it with an inscription (15 b) 
on the left shoulder (so that both sphinxes 
showed his inscription to the spectator on 
approaching the temple), and Siamen followed 
his example by adding an inscription of his own 
by the side of it. It is curious to see how a 
good piece of old work would exercise an in¬ 
fluence on later sculptors, and how the kings 
whose work is but rude if standing alone, have 
their names executed with almost the fineness of 
the earher styles when the engraver had the early 
work alongside of his o-wn. Sheshonk I. appro¬ 
priated the base of this sphinx like the other, 
and perhaps also the right shoulder, but that 
part is now destroyed. One paw of this sphinx 
was taken by Mariette to the Bulak Museum. 
There is also a smaller sphinx in red granite, 
very much ■weathered, and without any inscrip¬ 
tion visible. The fore-paws are broken off, and 
Me beside it, in the temple, near the sandstone 
shrines. From the work, it seems not improbable 
that this belongs also to the twelfth dynasty. 
12. Turning now to the dark period after the 
twelfth dynasty, the first monuments that we find 
are two statues of Sebakhotep III. of the thirteenth 
dynasty; one in the Louvre, the other still at San 
(Plan, 102). That in the Louvre is stated by 
De Eouge in the Notice Sommaire (1879, p. 37), 
to be from Tell Basta, or from Thebes; but in the 
Notice des Monuments (1880, p. 16), to be most 
probably from San. Considering that it is an exact 
duplicate of that now at San, and that there is 
similarly a pair of statues of Mermashau, it 
seems most likely to have come from here. The 
inscription on the San statue is the more perfect, 
and the statue is only broken across the body, 
but is otherwise in good condition. It shows 
well the style of that period, both in the thinness 
and elegance of the figure, and in the hieroglyphs, 
which have not a flat bottom, but are out deeper 
just round the outline. The granite is peculiar 
in colour, being a brown-pink. These are the 
only early statues of San which have not been 
appropriated or marked by any later king, 
A granite statue of Mentuhotep, son of Sebak¬ 
hotep IV., is said by Brugsch Bey to have been 
found at San (histoire) ; and a statue of Sebak¬ 
hotep VI., unknown before, is said by Mariette to 
have been found here (Rev. Arch., 1862); these 
figures were reburied by their discoverer, to pre¬ 
serve them. 
13. The next monument is an obelisk of Prince 
Nehesi (inscr. 19 a ; Plan, 198), who is probably 
connected with the king Nehesi-ra of the Turin 
papyrus (first on fragment 97, No. 278, Konigsb.). 
This, though partially above ground, has not 
been Witiced or published before, and it is 
interes^ag, as gmng the name of a district, 
Ro-ahtu, of which Set is called lord. By the 
side of this block, on the south side of the sanc¬ 
tuary, is the top of an obelisk, perhaps the same 
as Nehesi’s (Plan, 197), ■noth part of a figure of 
Khem, and an inscription (19 e) ; and in the same 
neighbourhood are three fragments of obehsks of 
the same style and the same whitish granite 
(Plan, 208, 217; 19 b, o, d), which may all belong 
to the obelisk of Nehesi. 
Next after this come the pair of seated statues 
of Mermashau (Plan, 86, 98) ; these are the 
largest of the early statues at San, being over 
12 feet high, and are executed in black granite 
