DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4031#0041
28
LEONTOPOLIS.
every day meat of oxen is offered to them, and
while they eat people sing to them in Egyptian."
If there were sacred lions at Leontopolis, it is
to be expected that some day, in parts of the
Tell which have not yet been excavated, or at
least somewhere in the neighbourhood, a
necropolis of those animals will be found.
The attention of Mariette and other Egyp-
tologists was directed to Tell Mokdam chiefly
owing to the discovery made there by the
fellaheen of the base of a statue in black
granite, bearing near the feet the cartouches
of a king who was supposed to be a Hyksos,
because it was thought that his name began
with the sign of the god Set, the divinity wor-
shipped by the foreign invaders. Deveria,
Ebers, and others have considered him as being
the Shepherd king called Salatis by the chrono-
graphers. This name is not the original one ;
it is not the first engraved upon the statue, it is
that of an usurper. The monument, judging
from the style of the sculpture, must be attri-
buted to the Xllth or the XHIth Dynasty. It
was left on the spot where it was discovered until
last year, when it was removed to the Museum
at Ghrzeh at the same time as two other bases
were sent to Europe. But the cartouches
which were engraved on each side of the feet
have been published by Deveria4 and by
Mariette.5 In comparing these two publica-
tions with mine (pi. iv. B.i B.2), it would seem,
if they are correct, that the monument
had suffered mutilation since it was first
found. All inscription on the left side has
disappeared from the group ^=° which pre-
ceded the cartouche; even the goose "^ is
gone. We have lost a cartouche which was
quite illegible, and the words
__d
who worships the lord of Avaris. I am rather
4 Rev. Arch., Nouv. serie, vol. iv., 259.
5 Mon. divers, pi. 63. The sides are inverted in both
publications.
inclined to think that there may be a mistake in
these publications, and that these words which
were thought to be the end of the left line belong-
to the back of the statue, where the son of
Rameses II., Merenphthah, engraved a dedica-
tion to Set of Avaris. The monument bears
no traces of recent mutilations. On the
occasions of my two visits to Tell Mokdam, in
1885 when I came to see the place, and in
1892 when I settled there to excavate, the
monument was almost entirely buried in heaps
of potsherds, and I suppose this has been the
case ever since it was discovered. Besides, it
would be extraordinary to find the city of
Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos, mentioned
in an inscription which is older than the
Shepherd Kings. And after having made
several paper casts of the monument, and
studied it attentively, I found out that the
reading of the name is quite different from
what it was supposed to be. The name reads
thus :
I \\ I Nehasi, the Negro. The mis-
take arose partly from the ' which is behind
the bird i\ and which, as the characters are
not very distinct, was taken for the tail of Set,
and partly from the two crests on the head
of the bird, which are not unlike the two ears
of the typhonic animal.
The name Nehasi has been found in other
places. In the list of the Turin papyrus it is
borne by a king who belongs to the XlVth
Dynasty, and it was also found at San by Prof,
F. Petrie6 as that of a royal son, the first-
horn, the worshipper of Set the lord of Roahtu
It is natural to think that the three
names refer to the same man,7 that the royal
son of San, the negro who raised buildings
G Tanis, i., pi. iii.
7 It is remarkable that in the Turin papyrus, and on the
stone at San, we find the unusual spelling noticed here,
,
LEONTOPOLIS.
every day meat of oxen is offered to them, and
while they eat people sing to them in Egyptian."
If there were sacred lions at Leontopolis, it is
to be expected that some day, in parts of the
Tell which have not yet been excavated, or at
least somewhere in the neighbourhood, a
necropolis of those animals will be found.
The attention of Mariette and other Egyp-
tologists was directed to Tell Mokdam chiefly
owing to the discovery made there by the
fellaheen of the base of a statue in black
granite, bearing near the feet the cartouches
of a king who was supposed to be a Hyksos,
because it was thought that his name began
with the sign of the god Set, the divinity wor-
shipped by the foreign invaders. Deveria,
Ebers, and others have considered him as being
the Shepherd king called Salatis by the chrono-
graphers. This name is not the original one ;
it is not the first engraved upon the statue, it is
that of an usurper. The monument, judging
from the style of the sculpture, must be attri-
buted to the Xllth or the XHIth Dynasty. It
was left on the spot where it was discovered until
last year, when it was removed to the Museum
at Ghrzeh at the same time as two other bases
were sent to Europe. But the cartouches
which were engraved on each side of the feet
have been published by Deveria4 and by
Mariette.5 In comparing these two publica-
tions with mine (pi. iv. B.i B.2), it would seem,
if they are correct, that the monument
had suffered mutilation since it was first
found. All inscription on the left side has
disappeared from the group ^=° which pre-
ceded the cartouche; even the goose "^ is
gone. We have lost a cartouche which was
quite illegible, and the words
__d
who worships the lord of Avaris. I am rather
4 Rev. Arch., Nouv. serie, vol. iv., 259.
5 Mon. divers, pi. 63. The sides are inverted in both
publications.
inclined to think that there may be a mistake in
these publications, and that these words which
were thought to be the end of the left line belong-
to the back of the statue, where the son of
Rameses II., Merenphthah, engraved a dedica-
tion to Set of Avaris. The monument bears
no traces of recent mutilations. On the
occasions of my two visits to Tell Mokdam, in
1885 when I came to see the place, and in
1892 when I settled there to excavate, the
monument was almost entirely buried in heaps
of potsherds, and I suppose this has been the
case ever since it was discovered. Besides, it
would be extraordinary to find the city of
Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos, mentioned
in an inscription which is older than the
Shepherd Kings. And after having made
several paper casts of the monument, and
studied it attentively, I found out that the
reading of the name is quite different from
what it was supposed to be. The name reads
thus :
I \\ I Nehasi, the Negro. The mis-
take arose partly from the ' which is behind
the bird i\ and which, as the characters are
not very distinct, was taken for the tail of Set,
and partly from the two crests on the head
of the bird, which are not unlike the two ears
of the typhonic animal.
The name Nehasi has been found in other
places. In the list of the Turin papyrus it is
borne by a king who belongs to the XlVth
Dynasty, and it was also found at San by Prof,
F. Petrie6 as that of a royal son, the first-
horn, the worshipper of Set the lord of Roahtu
It is natural to think that the three
names refer to the same man,7 that the royal
son of San, the negro who raised buildings
G Tanis, i., pi. iii.
7 It is remarkable that in the Turin papyrus, and on the
stone at San, we find the unusual spelling noticed here,
,