DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6640#0029
THE THIRTEENTH DYNASTY.
15
THE THIRTEENTH DYNASTY.
"With the thirteenth dynasty we enter one of the
most obscure periods of Egyptian history. The
monuments become more and more scarce, and
the obscurit}' lasts as far as the beginning of the
New Empire* We do not know the transition
from the thirteenth to the fourteenth dynasty,
nor can we fix exactly the epoch when the
invasion of the Hyksos took place. Neverthe-
less, it remains a well established fact that in the
thirteenth dynasty, the Sebekhoteps and Nefer-
hoteps ruled over the whole of Egypt, not only
of Egypt proper, north of the first cataract,
but much farther south, as far as Upper Nubia.
Professor Wiedemann has given a list of one
hundred and thirty-six kings quoted by the
Turin papyrus between the twelfth dynasty and
the Hyksos. It agrees nearly with the number
given by Manetho for the thirteenth and the
fourteenth put together. The Sebennyte priest
assigns Thebes as the native place for the
thirteenth dynasty, and Xois for the fourteenth,
while the anonymous writer called Barbarus
Scaligeri calls them Bubastites and Tanites.
It is not impossible that both may be right in so
far as both dynasties came out of the Delta, and
that we have to interpret the name of Dios-
polites, given by Manetho to the thirteenth
dynasty, as signifying natives not from
Thebes, but from one of the cities of the Delta
dedicated to Anion, whether it be the city
called later Diospohs Parva or another.
In the list of the papyrus of Turin we find as
the sixteenth the cartouche given on pi. xxxiii.
I, G. In other texts it accompanies the prenomen
of Sebekhotep. It occurs twice at Bubastis, in
one case it is complete, in the other, two-
thirds of it have been erased. I found also
other fragments of the architrave, which gave
part of the titles of the king Q ^j^. The in-
scription must have been hidden in the wall in
the reconstruction of the temple, but the size of
the characters and of the architrave on which
they are engraved, indicates that it must have
rested on pillars of large dimensions, another
proof that the great columns already existed
at that remote epoch. This cartouche has
generally been considered as belonging to
Sebekhotep I., a king known to us through the
inscriptions which he left on the rocks of
Semneh in Nubia, and which record the height
of the Nile in the three first years of his reign.
Until now his name had never been discovered
on a temple, nor even on a monument of large
size. Judging from what was found at
Bubastis, he must have been a builder.
It seems that the kin?s of the thirteenth
dynasty, far from being Hyksos as Lepsius
believed, at first endeavoured to follow the
traditions of their glorious predecessors of the
twelfth. They gave a great value to the
possession of Nubia, and probably they made
military expeditions into that country, since
monuments of one of them have been found not
far from Mount Barkal, in the island of Argo.2
They belong to Sebekhotep III., who seems to
have been the most powerful, and of whom there
are several statues. One of them is at the
Louvre ; it is nearly certain that it comes from
Tanis, where its duplicate still exists,3 and one
was discovered by Lepsius in the island of Argo.
Looking at those monuments, one is struck
at first sight by their great resemblance with the
works of the twelfth dynasty. This likeness
•appears in the whole attitude, in the manner in
which the hands are stretched quite fiat on the
legs, and chiefly in the style in which the lower
part of the body, and especially the knees, have
been worked. The sculptor has applied all
his skill to the head, which was to be a portrait;
but the legs are coarse, made with a kind of
clumsiness, as it were, by a second-rate artist;
the knee-pan is rudely indicated, the ankle is
2 Lcps. Denkm. ii. 120-151. liouge, Notice des monu-
ments, pp. 15 et 16.
3 Rouge, Inscr. pi. 76. Petrie, Tanis i. pi. iii. p. 8.
15
THE THIRTEENTH DYNASTY.
"With the thirteenth dynasty we enter one of the
most obscure periods of Egyptian history. The
monuments become more and more scarce, and
the obscurit}' lasts as far as the beginning of the
New Empire* We do not know the transition
from the thirteenth to the fourteenth dynasty,
nor can we fix exactly the epoch when the
invasion of the Hyksos took place. Neverthe-
less, it remains a well established fact that in the
thirteenth dynasty, the Sebekhoteps and Nefer-
hoteps ruled over the whole of Egypt, not only
of Egypt proper, north of the first cataract,
but much farther south, as far as Upper Nubia.
Professor Wiedemann has given a list of one
hundred and thirty-six kings quoted by the
Turin papyrus between the twelfth dynasty and
the Hyksos. It agrees nearly with the number
given by Manetho for the thirteenth and the
fourteenth put together. The Sebennyte priest
assigns Thebes as the native place for the
thirteenth dynasty, and Xois for the fourteenth,
while the anonymous writer called Barbarus
Scaligeri calls them Bubastites and Tanites.
It is not impossible that both may be right in so
far as both dynasties came out of the Delta, and
that we have to interpret the name of Dios-
polites, given by Manetho to the thirteenth
dynasty, as signifying natives not from
Thebes, but from one of the cities of the Delta
dedicated to Anion, whether it be the city
called later Diospohs Parva or another.
In the list of the papyrus of Turin we find as
the sixteenth the cartouche given on pi. xxxiii.
I, G. In other texts it accompanies the prenomen
of Sebekhotep. It occurs twice at Bubastis, in
one case it is complete, in the other, two-
thirds of it have been erased. I found also
other fragments of the architrave, which gave
part of the titles of the king Q ^j^. The in-
scription must have been hidden in the wall in
the reconstruction of the temple, but the size of
the characters and of the architrave on which
they are engraved, indicates that it must have
rested on pillars of large dimensions, another
proof that the great columns already existed
at that remote epoch. This cartouche has
generally been considered as belonging to
Sebekhotep I., a king known to us through the
inscriptions which he left on the rocks of
Semneh in Nubia, and which record the height
of the Nile in the three first years of his reign.
Until now his name had never been discovered
on a temple, nor even on a monument of large
size. Judging from what was found at
Bubastis, he must have been a builder.
It seems that the kin?s of the thirteenth
dynasty, far from being Hyksos as Lepsius
believed, at first endeavoured to follow the
traditions of their glorious predecessors of the
twelfth. They gave a great value to the
possession of Nubia, and probably they made
military expeditions into that country, since
monuments of one of them have been found not
far from Mount Barkal, in the island of Argo.2
They belong to Sebekhotep III., who seems to
have been the most powerful, and of whom there
are several statues. One of them is at the
Louvre ; it is nearly certain that it comes from
Tanis, where its duplicate still exists,3 and one
was discovered by Lepsius in the island of Argo.
Looking at those monuments, one is struck
at first sight by their great resemblance with the
works of the twelfth dynasty. This likeness
•appears in the whole attitude, in the manner in
which the hands are stretched quite fiat on the
legs, and chiefly in the style in which the lower
part of the body, and especially the knees, have
been worked. The sculptor has applied all
his skill to the head, which was to be a portrait;
but the legs are coarse, made with a kind of
clumsiness, as it were, by a second-rate artist;
the knee-pan is rudely indicated, the ankle is
2 Lcps. Denkm. ii. 120-151. liouge, Notice des monu-
ments, pp. 15 et 16.
3 Rouge, Inscr. pi. 76. Petrie, Tanis i. pi. iii. p. 8.