History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent DiscoveryKing, L. W. (Leonard William)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery
King, L. W. (Leonard William)
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C.; History, Ancient
The necropolis of Dêr el-Bahari was no doubt used all through the period
of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, and many tombs of that period have been
found there. A large number of these were obliterated by the building
of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, in the northern part of the
cliff-bay. We know of one queen’s tomb of that period which runs right
underneath this temple from the north, and there is another that is
entered at the south side which also runs down underneath it. Several
tombs were likewise found in the court between it and the XIth Dynasty
temple. We know that the XVIIIth Dynasty temple was largely built over
this court, and we can see now the XIth Dynasty mask-wall on the west of
the court running northwards underneath the mass of the XVIIIth Dynasty
temple. In all probability, then, when the temple of Hatshepsu
was built, the larger portion of the Middle Kingdom necropolis (of
chamber-tombs reached by pits), which had filled up the bay to the north
of the Mentuhetep temple, was covered up and obliterated, just as
the older VIth Dynasty gallery tombs of Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna had been
appropriated and altered at the same period.
The kings of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties were not buried at Thebes,
as we have seen, but in the North, at Dashûr, Lisht, and near the
Fayymn, with which their royal city at Itht-taui had brought them into
contact. But at the end of the XIIIth Dynasty the great invasion of the
Hyksos probably occurred, and all Northern Egypt fell under the Arab
sway. The native kings were driven south from the Fayymn to Abydos,
Koptos, and Thebes, and at Thebes they were buried, in a new necropolis
to the north of Dêr el-Bahari (probably then full), on the flank of a
long spur of hill which is now called Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga, “Abu-’l-Negga’s
Arm.” Here the Theban kings of the period between the XIIIth and XVIIth
Dynasties, Upuantemsaf, Antef Nub-kheper-Râ, and his descendants, Antefs
III and IV, were buried. In their time the pressure of foreign invasion
seems to have been felt, for, to judge from their coffins, which show
progressive degeneration of style and workmanship, poverty now afflicted
Upper Egypt and art had fallen sadly from the high standard which it had
reached in the days of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties. Probably the later
Antefs and Sebekemsafs were vassals of the Hyksos. Their descendants
of the XVIIth Dynasty were buried in the same necropolis of Dra’
Abu-’l-Negga, and so were the first two kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
Aahmes and Amenhetep I. The tombs of the last two have not yet been
found, but we know from the Abbott Papyrus that Amenhetep’s was
here, for, like that of Menttihetep III, it was found intact by the
inspectors. It was a gallery-tomb of very great length, and will be a
most interesting find when it is discovered, as it no doubt eventually
will be. Aahmes had a tomb at Abydos, which was discovered by Mr.
Currelly, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. This, however, like
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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