History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
Some of the monuments they have left us, seem to show that their reigns
were as much devoted to war as those of the later Pharaohs. The king
whose Horus name was Narumir, is seen on a contemporary object which has
come down to us, standing before a heap of beheaded foes; the bodies
are all stretched out on the ground, each with his head placed neatly
between his legs: the king had overcome, apparently in some important
engagement, several thousands of his enemies, and was inspecting the
execution of their leaders. That the foes with whom these early kings
contended were in most cases Egyptian princes of the nomes, is proved by
the list of city names which are inscribed on the fragments of another
document of the same nature, and we gather from them that Dobu (Edfu),
Hasutonu (Cynopolis), Habonu (Hipponon), Hakau (Memphis) and others were
successively taken and dismantled.[*]
* Palette resembling the preceding one, and with it
deposited in the Gizeh Museum; reproduced by Steindokff, and
by J. de Morgan. The names of the towns were enclosed within
the embattled line which was used later on to designate
foreign countries. The animals which surmount them represent
the gods of Egypt, the king's protectors; and the king
himself, identified with these gods, is making a breach in
the wall with a pick-axe. The names of the towns have not
been satisfactorily identified: Hat-kau, for instance, may
not be Memphis, but it appears that there is no doubt with
regard to Habonu. Cf. Sayce, The Beginnings of the Egyptian
Monarchy in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archaeological
Society, 1898, vol. xx. pp, 99-101.
On this fragment King Den is represented standing over a prostrate chief
of the Bedouin, striking him with his mace. Sondi, who is classed in the
IInd dynasty, received a continuous worship towards the end of the IIIrd
dynasty. But did all those whose names preceded or followed his on the
lists, really exist as he did? and if they existed, to what extent do
the order and the relation assigned to them agree with the actual truth?
The different lists do not contain the same names in the same positions;
certain Pharaohs are added or suppressed without appreciable reason.
Where Manetho inscribes Kenkenes and Ouenephes, the tables of the time
of Seti I. gave us Ati and Ata; Manetho reckons nine kings to the IInd
dynasty, while they register only five.[*]
* The impossibility of reconciling the names of the Greek
with those of the Pharaonic lists has been admitted by most
of the savants who have discussed the matter, viz. Mariette,
E. de Rouge, Lieblein, Wiedemann; most of them explain the
differences by the supposition that, in many cases, one of
the lists gives the cartouche name, and the other the
cartouche prenomen of the same king.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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