Petrie, William M. Flinders: Dendereh: 1898 ; extra plates (London, 1900)

48

DENDEREH.

from the hand of him that was stronger than he;

I judged brothers to [their] reconcilement............

of the desire /. 4................ privy councillor,

great chief of the Nome, lector, chief of the
transport (of Hathor), superintendent of the divine
service, keeper of the tkentei-cattle, Seten'emabu,
whose good name was [BJebaqer. I filled with

northern barley and spelt, cattle, goats ............

that is in......... I caused a man to 1.5..........

his lord, as is done unto a good heir; I overthrew

his enemies in very truth, that is not ...... said in

......his house with ......I made sweet its odours

with ......... [I tilled] its granary with northern

barley and spelt, as was done by Seten'eirabu
Beba."

Evidently Seterreirabu Beba was a prede-
eessor of Merra.

The titles of Merra, as recorded in pis. viii.,
viii.B., are " ha, superintendent of divine service,
keeper of the theidet-cattle, over the secrets of
the divine treasure, over the secrets of divine
words, over the secrets of the morning house
(place of the king's toilet?), chief of the trans-
port of Hathor lady of Dendereh." (This
"transport of Hathor" was no doubt some
ceremonial voyage or crossing of the Nile.)
One of the stelae on pi. viii. describes him as
" strong in mouth, stout of heart, finding the
knot in its entanglement, speaking according to
his voice (?) ; the people were silent on the day
of mourning (?)." The thentet-c&ttle are not
known apart from these inscriptions ; probably
they were the sacred kine of Hathor.

Pl. VIII.a. The inscriptions of this curious
false door present only the funerary formulae
with the titles and name of Merra. It is from
blocks shown on pl. viii. that we learn the name
of " his wife whom he loves, the confidential
royal favourite, priestess of Hathor lady of
Dendereh, Seheta," and of "his daughter whom
he loves, Aurrdet"sa (?). In the lower right-
hand corner of pl. viii.B we have the titles of a
woman, " familiar royal favourite (?), priestess
of Hathor lady of Dendereh, Theta."

Pl. VIH.b contains nothing of special interest.

Pl. VIII.c. It is distressing that the frag-

ments from the cornice should be so incomplete.
A good deal of rearrangement is required to
place them in something like their original
order, and even when that seems to have been
found the translation is in places very difficult.
Including at the beginning two small fragments
not shown on the plate, we obtain :—

" [Favour of the king, Anubis on his rock and Ami-Ut,
lord of the Sacred Land, to the ha, chancellor
of the King of Lower Egypt, confidential royal
friend, lector [Merra; he saith, I laboured] for

Dendereh in [its entirety, I ...............] its little

ones more than (?) its noJbles(?) I ............ the

farmers of Dendereh, when | there were har-
vesters (?) therein. I | was one that desired to
eat (?) what he saw, that is, I was not | one who
ate bound (?). I was beloved of | Dendereh in |
its entirety, praised of his city and beloved of it,
and of travellers | and negroes of the foreign
land. | I was one who hated evil things, | I loved

not to command conspiracy (?) | ............ it was

my abomination to s|lay men ............ | but I

did good | for Dendereh in its entirety. I was a
haven (?) for this land in its entirety."

The rest is too fragmentary to be intelligible.
The hieroglyphs are curious, not to say in-
correct ; the strangest of them is perhaps the
ten-legged crab (from the Red Sea ?) substituted
for the scarab; probably the only examples of
the kind in Egyptian sculpture are found here
and on pl. x.

52. Pls. IX.-X.a. Sculptured blocks and
fragments from the tomb of Sen-n(?)"nezsu,
whose name means " brother of the little," i.e.
of the poor. He was royal chancellor and
steward.

Pl. IX. Above the cornice of the false dour:
" Favour accorded by the king and Anubis,
pert-ldieru to," &c. Below the cornice, the
same from Osiris. On one side, " pure bread
that cometh from Dendereh"; on the other,

"......from the temple." Over the door are

titles, lists of offerings, &c, and " the steward
Sen-nezsu, he saith : ' I came out of my house,
I entered my (tomb ?)-chamber, I said what the
great loved, what the little praised, with the