DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6641#0084
70 MINOR EXPLORATIONS.
almost entirely ravaged by fellahin and dealers,
and little or nothing can now be learned from it.
There can be no doubt that the place was occupied
only for a short time, probably during the reigns
of the Mendesian or Sebennyte kings. The tombs
are all on a small scale.
Telle Billeh, north-east from Mansureh; a
small mound. At this place I found abundantly
a large marsh-loving shell that was much used for
food in Roman times at Naukratis, to judge from
the numbers of old shells in the topmost strata.
Mr. Edgar Smith, of the Natural History Museum,
has identified it as Ampullaria ovata, Olivier var,
Kordofana Parreyss. .Noteworthy names on the
road are : Tannah, with some signs of antiquity,
Baranaqs, near a small late mound, and Sablent.
At Damanhur, the capital of the province
Gharbiyeh, and the ancient Hermopolis parva, I
could not find any inscriptions.
Qantareh. The inscription on the base of the
larger monolith1 should read
IV.—EL 'ARISH.
ODD ^
"He (Rameses II.), made it as his monument
to his father, Horus, Lord of Mesen, and he
set up his image in stone of bat. Behold, his
majesty found it becoming covered up, upon the
foundation many centuries old." The image was
therefore an ancient one.
1 Nebesheh, PL li., of. Prisse, Mon., PI. xix. 2, and Nebe-
sheh, p. 104.
After making considerable collections of material
for a memoir on the northern caravan route from
Egypt to Syria, I find myself compelled, by the
pressure of other work, to throw them aside and
restrict myself to the shortest possible explanation
of the four plates headed El 'Arish.
The shrine forms the piece de resistance, and
to copy its inscriptions was the object of my
journey through the desert. This long text
refers to the sanctuary of the twentieth nome of
Lower Egypt, that of Arabia, whose capital Qes,
or Qesem, has been identified with the Biblical
Goshen.2 The warlike God Sepd was worshipped
at Qes, and guarded the eastern frontier; it is
therefore possible that Sepd was worshipped in
the Egyptian coast cities east of Pelusium,3 and
the classical reader might think that Zeus Casius,
whose temple stood at the present Qels, or Qess,
on the north side of Lake Serbonis (Sabkhat
Berdawil) was really the God of Qes, transported
from his seat at Saft el Henneh ; but if Sepd has
been changed to Zeus (Zevs), it can only be by
the error of ignorant Greek sailors; for Sepd is
identified with Shu,4 and Shu is properly Ares not
Zeus : so until a Sepd neb Qes ' Sepd of Qes,'
' Sepd Casius ' is found to have been worshipped
at Casius, we must not conclude anything rashly
about the name. It seems practically certain that
the shrine of Sepd or Shu, now at El 'Arish, was
2 See M. Naville's memoir on Goshen.
3 There is reason to suppose that Horus of Mesen, the
god of T'aru or T'al, was the principal god in this district.
Cf. Nebesheh, &c, p. 106.
4 PI. xxiv. 1. 10 and Goshen, PL ii. and p. 10, hut also
probably with Harmachis and some other deities.
almost entirely ravaged by fellahin and dealers,
and little or nothing can now be learned from it.
There can be no doubt that the place was occupied
only for a short time, probably during the reigns
of the Mendesian or Sebennyte kings. The tombs
are all on a small scale.
Telle Billeh, north-east from Mansureh; a
small mound. At this place I found abundantly
a large marsh-loving shell that was much used for
food in Roman times at Naukratis, to judge from
the numbers of old shells in the topmost strata.
Mr. Edgar Smith, of the Natural History Museum,
has identified it as Ampullaria ovata, Olivier var,
Kordofana Parreyss. .Noteworthy names on the
road are : Tannah, with some signs of antiquity,
Baranaqs, near a small late mound, and Sablent.
At Damanhur, the capital of the province
Gharbiyeh, and the ancient Hermopolis parva, I
could not find any inscriptions.
Qantareh. The inscription on the base of the
larger monolith1 should read
IV.—EL 'ARISH.
ODD ^
"He (Rameses II.), made it as his monument
to his father, Horus, Lord of Mesen, and he
set up his image in stone of bat. Behold, his
majesty found it becoming covered up, upon the
foundation many centuries old." The image was
therefore an ancient one.
1 Nebesheh, PL li., of. Prisse, Mon., PI. xix. 2, and Nebe-
sheh, p. 104.
After making considerable collections of material
for a memoir on the northern caravan route from
Egypt to Syria, I find myself compelled, by the
pressure of other work, to throw them aside and
restrict myself to the shortest possible explanation
of the four plates headed El 'Arish.
The shrine forms the piece de resistance, and
to copy its inscriptions was the object of my
journey through the desert. This long text
refers to the sanctuary of the twentieth nome of
Lower Egypt, that of Arabia, whose capital Qes,
or Qesem, has been identified with the Biblical
Goshen.2 The warlike God Sepd was worshipped
at Qes, and guarded the eastern frontier; it is
therefore possible that Sepd was worshipped in
the Egyptian coast cities east of Pelusium,3 and
the classical reader might think that Zeus Casius,
whose temple stood at the present Qels, or Qess,
on the north side of Lake Serbonis (Sabkhat
Berdawil) was really the God of Qes, transported
from his seat at Saft el Henneh ; but if Sepd has
been changed to Zeus (Zevs), it can only be by
the error of ignorant Greek sailors; for Sepd is
identified with Shu,4 and Shu is properly Ares not
Zeus : so until a Sepd neb Qes ' Sepd of Qes,'
' Sepd Casius ' is found to have been worshipped
at Casius, we must not conclude anything rashly
about the name. It seems practically certain that
the shrine of Sepd or Shu, now at El 'Arish, was
2 See M. Naville's memoir on Goshen.
3 There is reason to suppose that Horus of Mesen, the
god of T'aru or T'al, was the principal god in this district.
Cf. Nebesheh, &c, p. 106.
4 PI. xxiv. 1. 10 and Goshen, PL ii. and p. 10, hut also
probably with Harmachis and some other deities.