Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

DOT. to. MENTU-HOTEP 51

placed lier own in tlie blue basalt sarcophagus con-
tained in the upper one.]

The Tablet of Abydos enumerates the names of
twenty sovereigns, who correspond with the unnamed
Pharaohs filling up five complete dynasties, according
to Manetho. According to the Turin Papyrus the
number of Pharaohs immediately preceding the Twelfth
Dynasty was six. These, again, were preceded by a
•series of seventeen or eighteen kings. From Mtocris
down to the first of these eighteen kings there was
room on the papyrus for the names of about ten kings.

DYNASTIES VII.-XI.1
A period of confusion now follows, during which,
according to the Tablet of Abydos, twenty kings reigned,
of whom we know practically nothing. The first of whom

the monuments speak was ( o -w I 1 Neb-kher-Ea,

who was also called Cg-Z \ ^
like one of his ancestors (his name on the monuments is
, Neb-taui-Ea).

, Mentu-hotep,

The kings to whom Mentu-hotep belonged were of
Theban origin, the feeble ancestors of whose line bore
alternately the names of Antef and Mentu-hotep. They
had established themselves in Thebes, and their tombs
(simple pyramids of brick-work) lay at the foot of the
western mountain of the Theban necropolis. Here it
Was that thirty years ago some Arabs brought to light
two very simple coffins of these Pharaohs. They were
discovered in that part now called Assassif, scarcely
hidden under heaps of loose stones and sand; one of
them contained the mummy of the king, his head

1 For Table of Kings see p. xxi.

33 2