DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0031
THE RULERS OF UPPER EGYPT IN THE ELEVENTH DYNASTY I I
in 2057 b.c. However, all of these conflicting considerations need
not cause us too much worry. The remarkable fact is that they come
so near to agreeing that we may consider the births of the Tenth and
the Eleventh Dynasties as being closely related, one to the other,
and as growing out of the same conflicts in the Nile Valley.
The rebellion of the five southern nomes succeeded when Seher-
towi had only three or four years left to live, but after he himself
had finished his enormous tomb on the western side of the river
(Pl. 33). He must have been ruler over Thebes itself for many years,
for in the north of the cemetery, somewhere near the tombs of the
nomarchs, he dug this great sajf, or “row,” the name given by the
Arabs to the first royal tombs of Thebes with their rows of doorways
sunken in the desert plain (Pl. 3).4 These $ajfs were oriented more
or less toward Karnak. Here in the flat, gravel plain nearly 3 kilo-
meters across the river from the temple of Montu was his $aff, some
5 or 6 meters deep but appearing much deeper because of the enor-
mous piles of chips heaped on either hand. Its width was nearly 80
meters, and its length was well over 100 meters before the modern
irrigation canal cut across its eastern end.
One walked from the river bank opposite Thebes across a narrow
plain where the Eleventh Dynasty brickmakers made their very
sandy bricks. In later years the river swung to the east, and the finer
clay then deposited near the cemetery made bricks more like those
we know today. A few paces beyond the brickmakers’ pits came the
desert and the great sunken court with doors all around which led to
the last resting places of Seher-towi’s courtiers. And, if we are to
believe the stories told me by the modern Arabs from whom I
acquired the stela of Magegi,5 6 the descendants of some courtiers
were being buried among their grandfathers half a century later. At
the back of the saff are the dozen or so doorways of the prince’s own
tomb, descending at an angle into the rock from a projecting and
slightly sloping facade. It is possible that this facade served as the
base of the mudbrick pyramid which Seher-towi surely built over
his tomb.
By usurping a cartouche and some of the style of kingship Seher-
towi had ended the line of nomarchs who had ruled Thebes for per-
4 Winlock, AJSL, 1915, pp. 19, 22, Figs. 1, 4. Cf. Bonomi (ed. Newberry), Annales, 1906,
p. 85, “Bab es-Sat.”
6 See below, p. 19.
in 2057 b.c. However, all of these conflicting considerations need
not cause us too much worry. The remarkable fact is that they come
so near to agreeing that we may consider the births of the Tenth and
the Eleventh Dynasties as being closely related, one to the other,
and as growing out of the same conflicts in the Nile Valley.
The rebellion of the five southern nomes succeeded when Seher-
towi had only three or four years left to live, but after he himself
had finished his enormous tomb on the western side of the river
(Pl. 33). He must have been ruler over Thebes itself for many years,
for in the north of the cemetery, somewhere near the tombs of the
nomarchs, he dug this great sajf, or “row,” the name given by the
Arabs to the first royal tombs of Thebes with their rows of doorways
sunken in the desert plain (Pl. 3).4 These $ajfs were oriented more
or less toward Karnak. Here in the flat, gravel plain nearly 3 kilo-
meters across the river from the temple of Montu was his $aff, some
5 or 6 meters deep but appearing much deeper because of the enor-
mous piles of chips heaped on either hand. Its width was nearly 80
meters, and its length was well over 100 meters before the modern
irrigation canal cut across its eastern end.
One walked from the river bank opposite Thebes across a narrow
plain where the Eleventh Dynasty brickmakers made their very
sandy bricks. In later years the river swung to the east, and the finer
clay then deposited near the cemetery made bricks more like those
we know today. A few paces beyond the brickmakers’ pits came the
desert and the great sunken court with doors all around which led to
the last resting places of Seher-towi’s courtiers. And, if we are to
believe the stories told me by the modern Arabs from whom I
acquired the stela of Magegi,5 6 the descendants of some courtiers
were being buried among their grandfathers half a century later. At
the back of the saff are the dozen or so doorways of the prince’s own
tomb, descending at an angle into the rock from a projecting and
slightly sloping facade. It is possible that this facade served as the
base of the mudbrick pyramid which Seher-towi surely built over
his tomb.
By usurping a cartouche and some of the style of kingship Seher-
towi had ended the line of nomarchs who had ruled Thebes for per-
4 Winlock, AJSL, 1915, pp. 19, 22, Figs. 1, 4. Cf. Bonomi (ed. Newberry), Annales, 1906,
p. 85, “Bab es-Sat.”
6 See below, p. 19.