A guide to the Egyptian collections in the British MuseumBritish Museum. Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities
History
A guide to the Egyptian collections in the British Museum
British Museum. Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities
Egypt -- Antiquities
Among his monuments worthy of special note are: =1.= A =pair= of
=obelisks=, inscribed with his names and titles, and dedicated to
“Thoth, the Twice Great,” before whose temple they were set up. They
were taken from a town in the Delta during the eighteenth century, and
stood for many years before one of the mosques of Cairo (see =Plate
XLVI=). (Bays 31, 32, Nos. =919=, =920=.) =2.= Portion of a statue of
Ȧmen-Rā(?), dedicated to the god by this king. (Bay 30, No. =921=.)
=3.= =Sarcophagus of Nectanebus I.= (See =Plate XLVII=.) This most
valuable and interesting object is one of the most remarkable monuments
of this king. The inside is decorated with figures of the gods, and on
the outside are cut the texts and illustrations of a series of sections
of the great funerary work entitled the =Book of what is in the Ṭuat=
(_i.e._, the Other World). The =Ṭuat= was a long narrow valley which ran
parallel with Egypt, and was neither above nor below this earth; a river
flowed through its whole length. It was entered on the left bank of the
Nile near Thebes, ran due north as far as Saïs, then curved to the east,
and finally terminated where the sun rose. This valley was divided into
ten sections, and at each end was a sort of ante-chamber or vestibule.
Each section was filled with its own peculiar beings, many of whom were
hostile to the dead who wished to pass through it in the Boat of the
Sun-god, which traversed it nightly. The god himself could only do this
by uttering words of power. The Book of what is in the Ṭuat was supposed
to contain these words of power; and copies of it were written on papyri,
or cut on sarcophagi, so that their possessors or occupants might be able
to recite them in case of need. The representations of the gods which
accompanied the texts enabled the dead to recognize the several beings of
the Other World when they met them, and to recite the appropriate words
of power. On the rounded =head= of the sarcophagus the First Section
of the Ṭuat is sculptured, and on the =foot= the Ninth Section; on the
=right= hand side are the Second and Sixth Sections, and on the =left=
are the Third and Eighth Sections (Bay 25, No. =923=). These Sections
refer to the kingdoms of the dead of Thebes, Abydos, and Saïs; the other
six Sections were probably sculptured on the cover, which was destroyed
in the eighteenth century; those relating to Memphis and Heliopolis are
omitted.
Nectanebus I was succeeded by his son =Tcheḥrȧ= (Teôs, or Tachos), in
whose reign the Persians led by =Artaxerxes II= made an attack upon
Egypt, but failed to conquer it.
[Sidenote: B.C. 358.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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