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KHATAANAH, KANTIR,

Abydos in tombs of the Thirteenth Dynasty.
The evidence of the scarabs is, however, con-
clusive, since one of them is inscribed with the
name of a king of that period. We have thus
a burial-place of the Thirteenth Dynasty, which
corresponds with the name I deciphered on
the sphinx, and is consequently anterior to the
time of the Hyksos kings. I found but a few
of these urns ; all were broken in many pieces,
and I could not discover whether the fragments
of bones which they contained were human
or not. If human, it would be important to
know that the dead were sometimes burnt
under the Thirteenth Dynasty, and not always
mummified. This would be a most curious
discovery in a country where so much care
was taken to preserve the bodies of the
dead.

The isbet or farm of Khataanah is situate
about half a mile farther north, in the direction
of the Bahr Fakoos. Two years ago, the fella-
heen, when digging for sebakh, came across a
very large block of red granite, which had
formed the lintel-stone of a doorway, possibly
leading to the temple. This lintel was sup-
ported by two pillars also of granite, one of
which is yet extant, but broken in two. The
presence of water, and the necessity of not
endangering the neighbouring houses, pre-
vented me from digging as much as I should
have desired, and I could not turn the lintel,
because of its enormous weight. However, I
dug down to the original pavement of the door-
way, and I contrived to turn the fragments of
the pillar. These fragments were inscribed
with the names of three kings of the Twelfth
Dynasty : Amenemha I. on the lintel (pi. ix. a 1);
on one of the sides of the pillar, TJsertesen III.
(a 3); and another Amenemha, who must be
Amenemha III., as it is said that he renewed
what his father, TJsertesen, had made. To the
previous dynasty, the eleventh, must be attri-
buted a statuette of black granite found also on
the land of the islet, and which belonged to a

queen called Sent, whose name is preceded by
the usual titles (pi. ix. e).

Further north, but still within the area of
the old city, is another mound called Tell Aboo
el Feloos. I here found nothing but Roman
pottery. The place is distinctly an old Roman
settlement. Between the Tell and the Bahr
Fakoos are two wells of cement, which are also
undoubtedly Roman.

No geographical name has turned up; we
therefore do not know how this city was called,
though it must have been a large and important
place, and have lasted a long time, considering
that it contains relics dating as early as the
Twelfth Dynasty, and others as late as the
Twenty-first. When this city was abandoned,
we know not. Perhaps the Romans themselves
contributed to its destruction when they occu-
pied Tell Aboo el Feloos, which possibly was
only a camp situate on the Pelusiac branch, the
bed of which is easily traceable at the foot of
the mound. It may, perhaps, be one of those
military stations mentioned in the " Notitia
Dignitatum," of which only a very small number
have been identified.1

Under the Nineteenth Dynasty, when the
temple of Khataanah was yet standing, another
had been built, about three miles further north,
on the site of the present village of Kantir.
I had been told of a great granite block there,
and I went over to look at it. It is the base
of a large column bearing the ovals of Rameses
II. All around this village are cultivated fields,
and the people told me that they often came
across antiquities. For instance., they brought
me a small broken tablet which is now at the
Bulak Museum (pi. ix. f). A fellah showed
me in his field a basalt base inscribed with
beautiful hieroglyphs of Rameses II. That some
important buildings had once occupied this site
was, however, conclusively proved in the course
of a visit which I paid to an old bey who

1 Cf. Parthey, Zur Erdkunde Aegyptens, pi. 8.