DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12654#0152
124
LIST OF THE CHAMBER OF KINGS
[Part II.
trust that the reader will excuse the dryness of some
of the preliminary details which I place before him in
order to present to him a complete view of the data
by which I am guided in this inquiry. The most im-
portant of the monumental data is the list of Kings
commonly called that of " the Chamber of Kings."
This list was sculptured in a small chamber of the
great temple of El-Karnak, and is now in the Louvre,
to which collection it was presented by M. Prisse, who
removed it from Egypt. It contained sixty-one royal
rings, fifteen of which are entirely obliterated, and ten
much injured; the remaining thirty-six being perfect,
or nearly so. I shall now show in what order this list
was arranged, and how the monuments enable us to
ascertain that order.
The list is divided into two equal parts ; one contain-
ing originally thirty, and the other thirty-one, royal
names, arranged in four rows: that part containing
thirty-one names, and which was to the left of a person
entering the chamber, is universally allowed to contain
the names of sovereigns of whom some, at least, were
anterior to those of the '*ther part. This part, there-
fore, I now examine.
The lowest line reads from right to left, as is proved
by our finding that No. 5, Seser-en-ra, whose prenomen
is composed of the same signs as those of the name of
an earlier King, (Sisires,) differently disposed, was a
predecessor of No. 8, Ter-ka-ra (Sesertesen I.); and
further, that No. 7, Sken-en-ra, was the immediate pre-
decessor of the same King*. The second line, or that
immediately above this, reads from left to right; as
No. 9, Amenemha I., reigned conjointly with No. 8,
* Colonel Felix's Notes on Hieroglyphics.
LIST OF THE CHAMBER OF KINGS
[Part II.
trust that the reader will excuse the dryness of some
of the preliminary details which I place before him in
order to present to him a complete view of the data
by which I am guided in this inquiry. The most im-
portant of the monumental data is the list of Kings
commonly called that of " the Chamber of Kings."
This list was sculptured in a small chamber of the
great temple of El-Karnak, and is now in the Louvre,
to which collection it was presented by M. Prisse, who
removed it from Egypt. It contained sixty-one royal
rings, fifteen of which are entirely obliterated, and ten
much injured; the remaining thirty-six being perfect,
or nearly so. I shall now show in what order this list
was arranged, and how the monuments enable us to
ascertain that order.
The list is divided into two equal parts ; one contain-
ing originally thirty, and the other thirty-one, royal
names, arranged in four rows: that part containing
thirty-one names, and which was to the left of a person
entering the chamber, is universally allowed to contain
the names of sovereigns of whom some, at least, were
anterior to those of the '*ther part. This part, there-
fore, I now examine.
The lowest line reads from right to left, as is proved
by our finding that No. 5, Seser-en-ra, whose prenomen
is composed of the same signs as those of the name of
an earlier King, (Sisires,) differently disposed, was a
predecessor of No. 8, Ter-ka-ra (Sesertesen I.); and
further, that No. 7, Sken-en-ra, was the immediate pre-
decessor of the same King*. The second line, or that
immediately above this, reads from left to right; as
No. 9, Amenemha I., reigned conjointly with No. 8,
* Colonel Felix's Notes on Hieroglyphics.