[69] Recent investigation has identified Tel-el-Maschuta, a spot not far from the modern Ismailia, as the site of both the Pithom and the Succoth of the Old Testament; the former was the sacred, the latter the civil name of the city, which is thus shown to have been one of the store-cities built by the Israelites (Ex. i. II), and also the first stage reached by them on their journey (Ex. xii. 37; xiii. 20). The word _Ar_, meaning storehouse, occurs in the inscription by which M. Naville first identified Pithom-Succoth. [70] Generally supposed to have been a daughter of Rameses, but if Moses was eighty when he stood before the successor of that monarch, that would have been impossible. [71] Ex. ii. 23. How well this incidental allusion coincides with the sixty-seven years’ reign of Rameses II.! [72] Such an investigation has been recently undertaken by the _Egypt Exploration Fund_. The extent to which it may be carried depends entirely on the means placed at its disposal. CHAPTER XII. Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties—The Ramessidæ and the Priest-Kings. (_Circa_ 1200-970 B.C.) It may be doubtful whether Rameses III., son of the Setnekht who pacified Egypt and restored order, was connected by blood with the preceding dynasties. He bore the name of an illustrious predecessor, however, and throughout his reign he appears to have made it his aim to emulate the great Rameses. His first task was to reorganise the public service, which had fallen into great disorder; to appoint and to regulate the station and office of the prince-governors, of the soldiers of the army and their foreign auxiliaries, of the inferior servants and the bondsmen. The earliest years of his reign were disturbed by invasion both from east and west. The Shashu and the Libyans, ever hanging on the confines, were always ready to cross the border of the Delta when opportunity served, and during the tumults, amidst which the nineteenth dynasty closed, such an opportunity certainly presented itself. After assailing the invaders and driving them back, Rameses transplanted his prisoners into large fortified places, where they were kept under guard, and a certain quantity of woven stuff and corn was yearly exacted from them, for the service of the temples. But a more dangerous foe remained to be assailed. A certain tribe, known as the Mashausha, had penetrated the land south of Memphis, had entered the oasis of the Fayoum, and had not only gradually crept south, but had advanced eastwards from the Fayoum to the Nile itself. Of certain towns these foreigners had even held possession for years. In the fifth year of his reign, Rameses III. attacked the Mashausha, and, after a fearful slaughter, drove them out of the land. The prisoners appear to have been employed as mercenaries in the army and navy, whilst their wives and children were removed to fortified places, and their flocks and herds confiscated to the service of the temple of Amen-Ra.