Chapter I: The First Chaldæan Empire and the Hyksôs in Egypt (5)

** His priests and the minor _employés_ of his cult are
mentioned on a stele in the museum at Turin, and on a brick
in the Berlin Museum. He is worshipped as a god, along with
Osiris, Horus, and Isis, on a stele in the Lyons Museum,
brought from Abydos: he had, probably, during one of his
journeys across Egypt, made a donation to the temple of that
city, on condition that he should be worshipped there for
ever; for a stele at Marseilles shows him offering homage to
Osiris in the bark of the god itself, and another stele in
the Louvre informs us that Pharaoh Thûtmosis IV. several
times sent one of his messengers to Abydos for the purpose
of presenting land to Osiris and to his own ancestor
Ahmosis.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

Amenôthes I. had not attained his majority when his father thus winged his way to heaven, leaving him as heir to the throne.* Nofrîtari assumed the authority; after having shared the royal honours for nearly twenty-five years with her husband, she resolutely refused to resign them.** She was thus the first of those queens by divine right who, scorning the inaction of the harem, took on themselves the right to fulfil the active duties of a sovereign, and claimed the recognition of the equality or superiority of their titles to those of their husbands or sons.

* The last date known is that of the year XXII. at Tûrah;
Manethos lists give, in one place, twenty-five years and
four months after the expulsion; in another, twenty-six
years in round numbers, as the total duration of his reign,
which has every appearance of probability.

** There is no direct evidence to prove that Amenôthes I.
was a minor when he came to the throne; still the
presumptions in favour of this hypothesis, afforded by the
monuments, are so strong that many historians of ancient
Egypt have accepted it. Queen Nofrîtari is represented as
reigning, side by side with her reigning son, on some few
Theban tombs which can be attributed to their epoch.

Drawn by Bouclier, from the photograph by M. de Mertens
taken in the Berlin Museum.

The aged Ahhotpu, who, like Nofrîtari, was of pure royal descent, and who might well have urged her superior rank, had been content to retire in favour of her children; she lived to the tenth year of her grandsons reign, respected by all her family, but abstaining from all interference in political affairs. When at length she passed away, full of days and honour, she was embalmed with special care, and her body was placed in a gilded mummy-case, the head of which presented a faithful copy of her features. Beside her were piled the jewels she had received in her lifetime from her husband and son. The majority of them a fan with a handle plated with gold, a mirror of gilt bronze with ebony handle, bracelets and ankle-rings, some of solid and some of hollow gold, edged with fine chains of plaited gold wire, others formed of beads of gold, lapis-lazuli, cornelian, and green felspar, many of them engraved with the cartouche of Ahmosis. Belonging also to Ahmosis we have a beautiful quiver, in which figures of the king and the gods stand out in high relief on a gold plaque, delicately chased with a graving tool; the background is formed of small pieces of lapis and blue glass, cunningly cut to fit each other. One bracelet in particular, found on the queens wrist, consisted of three parallel bands of solid gold set with turquoises, and having, a vulture with extended wings on the front. The queens hair was held in place by a gold circlet, scarcely as large as a bracelet; a cartouche was affixed to the circlet, bearing the name of Ahmosis in blue paste, and flanked by small sphinxes, one on each side, as supporters. A thick flexible chain of gold was passed several times round her neck, and attached to it as a pendant was a beautiful scarab, partly of gold and partly of blue porcelain striped with gold. The breast ornament was completed by a necklace of several rows of twisted cords, from which depended antelopes pursued by tigers, sitting jackals, hawks, vultures, and the winged urasus, all attached to the winding-sheet by means of a small ring soldered on the back of each animal. The fastening of this necklace was formed of the heads of two gold hawks, the details of the heads being worked out in blue enamel. Both weapons and amulets were found among the jewels, including three gold flies suspended by a thin chain, nine gold and silver axes, a lions head in gold of most minute workmanship, a sceptre of black wood plated with gold, daggers to defend the deceased from the dangers of the unseen world, boomerangs of hard wood, and the battle-axe of Ahmosis. Besides these, there were two boats, one of gold and one of silver, originally intended for the Pharaoh Kamosû--models of the skiff in which his mummy crossed the Nile to reach its last resting-place, and to sail in the wake of the gods on the western sea.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Bechard.

Nofrîtari thus reigned conjointly with Amenôthes, and even if we have no record of any act in which she was specially concerned, we know at least that her rule was a prosperous one, and that her memory was revered by her subjects. While the majority of queens were relegated after death to the crowd of shadowy ancestors to whom habitual sacrifice was offered, the worshippers not knowing even to which sex these royal personages belonged, the remembrance of Nofrîtari always remained distinct in their minds, and her cult spread till it might be said to have become a kind of popular religion. In this veneration Ahmosis was rarely associated with the queen, but Amenôthes and several of her other children shared in it--her son Sipiri, for instance, and her daughters Sîtamon,* Sîtkamosi, and Marîtamon; Nofrîtari became, in fact, an actual goddess, taking her place beside Amon, Khonsû, and Maut,** the members of the Theban Triad, or standing alone as an object of worship for her devotees.

* Sîtamon is mentioned, with her mother, on the Karnak stele
and on the coffin of Bûtehamon.

** She is worshipped with the Theban Triad by Brihor, at
Karnak, in the temple of Khonsû.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
Bey.

She was identified with Isis, Hathor, and the mistresses of Hades, and adopted their attributes, even to the black or blue coloured skin of these funerary divinities.*

* Her statue in the Turin Museum represents her as having
black skin. She is also painted black standing before
Amenôthes (who is white) in the Deir el-Medineh tomb, now
preserved in the Berlin Museum, in that of Nibnûtîrû, and hi
that of Unnofir, at Sheikh Abd el-Qûrnah. Her face is
painted blue in the tomb of Kasa. The representations of
this queen with a black skin have caused her to be taken for
a negress, the daughter of an Ethiopian Pharaoh, or at any
rate the daughter of a chief of some Nubian tribe; it was
thought that Ahmosis must have married her to secure the
help of the negro tribes in his wars, and that it was owing
to this alliance that he succeeded in expelling the Hyksôs.
Later discoveries have not confirmed these hypotheses.
Nofrîtari was most probably an Egyptian of unmixed race, as
we have seen, and daughter of Ahhotpû I., and the black or
blue colour of her skin is merely owing to her
identification with the goddesses of the dead.

Considerable endowments were given for maintaining worship at her tomb, and were administered by a special class of priests. Her mummy reposed among those of the princes of her family, in the hiding-place at Deîr-el-Baharî: it was enclosed in an enormous wooden sarcophagus covered with linen and stucco, the lower part being shaped to the body, while the upper part representing the head and arms could be lifted off in one piece. The shoulders are covered with a network in relief, the meshes of which are painted blue on a yellow background. The Queens hands are crossed over her breast, and clasp the _crux ansata_, the symbol of life. The whole mummy-case measures a little over nine feet from the sole of the feet to the top of the head, which is furthermore surmounted by a cap, and two long ostrich-feathers. The appearance is not so much that of a coffin as of one of those enormous caryatides which we sometimes find adorning the front of a temple.

We may perhaps attribute to the influence of Nofrîtari the lack of zest evinced by Amenôthes for expeditions into Syria. Even the most energetic kings had always shrunk from penetrating much beyond the isthmus. Those who ventured so far as to work the mines of Sinai had nevertheless felt a secret fear of invading Asia proper--a dread which they never succeeded in overcoming. When the raids of the Bedouin obliged the Egyptian sovereign to cross the frontier into their territory, he would retire as soon as possible, without attempting any permanent conquest. After the expulsion of the Hyksôs, Ahmosis seemed inclined to pursue a less timorous course. He made an advance on Sharûhana and pillaged it, and the booty he brought back ought to have encouraged him to attempt more important expeditions; but he never returned to this region, and it would seem that when his first enthusiasm had subsided, he was paralysed by the same fear which had fallen on his ancestors. Nofrîtari may have counselled her son not to break through the traditions which his father had so strictly followed, for Amenôthes I. confined his campaigns to Africa, and the traditional battle-fields there. He embarked for the land of Kûsh on the vessel of Ahmosi-si-Abîna for the purpose of enlarging the frontiers of Egypt. It was, we may believe, a thoroughly conventional campaign, conducted according to the strictest precedents of the XIIth dynasty. The Pharaoh, as might be expected, came into personal contact with the enemy, and slew their chief with his own hand; the barbarian warriors sold their lives dearly, but were unable to protect their country from pillage, the victors carrying off whatever they could seize--men, women, and cattle. The pursuit of the enemy had led the army some distance into the desert, as far as a halting-place called the Upper cistern--_Khnûmît hirît_; instead of retracing his steps to the Nile squadron, and returning slowly by boat, Amenôthes resolved to take a short cut homewards. Ahmosi conducted him back overland in two days, and was rewarded for his speed by the gift of a quantity of gold, and two female slaves. An incursion into Libya followed quickly on the Ethiopian campaign.

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph supplied by Flinders
Pétrie.

The tribe of the Kihaka, settled between Lake Mareotis and the Oasis of Amon, had probably attacked in an audacious manner the western provinces of the Delta; a raid was organized against them, and the issue was commemorated by a small wooden stele, on which we see the victor represented as brandishing his sword over a barbarian lying prostrate at his feet. The exploits of Amenôthes appear to have ended with this raid, for we possess no monument recording any further victory gained by him. This, however, has not prevented his contemporaries from celebrating him as a conquering and victorious king. He is portrayed standing erect in his chariot ready to charge, or as carrying off two barbarians whom he holds half suffocated in his sinewy arms, or as gleefully smiting the princes of foreign lands. He acquitted himself of the duties of the chase as became a true Pharaoh, for we find him depicted in the act of seizing a lion by the tail and raising him suddenly in mid-air previous to despatching him. These are, indeed, but conventional pictures of war, to which we must not attach an undue importance. Egypt had need of repose in order to recover from the losses it had sustained during the years of struggle with the invaders. If Amenôthes courted peace from preference and not from political motives, his own generation profited as much by his indolence as the preceding one had gained by the energy of Ahrnosis. The towns in his reign resumed their ordinary life, agriculture flourished, and commerce again followed its accustomed routes. Egypt increased its resources, and was thus able to prepare for future conquest. The taste for building had not as yet sufficiently developed to become a drain upon the public treasury. We have, however, records showing that Amenôthes excavated a cavern in the mountain of Ibrîm in Nubia, dedicated to Satît, one of the goddesses of the cataract.

It is also stated that he worked regularly the quarries of Silsileh, but we do not know for what buildings the sandstone thus extracted was destined.* Karnak was also adorned with chapels, and with at least one colossus,** while several chambers built of the white limestone of Tûrah were added to Ombos. Thebes had thus every reason to cherish the memory of this pacific king.

* A bas-relief on the western bank of the river represents
him deified: Panaîti, the name of a superintendent of the
quarries who lived in his reign, has been preserved in
several graffiti, while another graffito gives us only the
protocol of the sovereign, and indicates that the quarries
were worked in his reign.

** The chambers of white limestone are marked I, K, on
Mariettes plan; it is possible that they may have been
merely decorated under Thûtmosis III., whose cartouches
alternate with those of Amenôthes I. The colossus is now in
front of the third Pylon, and Wiedemann concluded from this
fact that Amenôthes had begun extensive works for enlarging
the temple of Amon; Mariette believed, with greater
probability, that the colossus formerly stood at the
entrance to the XIIth dynasty temple, but was removed to its
present position by Thûtmosis III.

As Nofrîtari had been metamorphosed into a form of Isis, Amenôthes was similarly represented as Osiris, the protector of the Necropolis, and he was depicted as such with the sombre colour of the funerary divinities; his image, moreover, together with those of the other gods, was used to decorate the interiors of coffins, and to protect the mummies of his devotees.*

* Wiedemann has collected several examples, to which it
would be easy to add others. The names of the king are in
this case constantly accompanied by unusual epithets, which
are enclosed in one or other of his cartouches: Mons.
Kevillout, deceived by these unfamiliar forms, has made out
of one of these variants, on a painted cloth in the Louvre,
a new Amenôthes, whom he styles Amenôthes V.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
Bey.

One of his statues, now in the Turin Museum, represents him sitting on his throne in the posture of a king giving audience to his subjects, or in that of a god receiving the homage of his worshippers. The modelling of the bust betrays a flexibility of handling which is astonishing in a work of art so little removed from barbaric times; the head is a marvel of delicacy and natural grace. We feel that the sculptor has taken a delight in chiselling the features of his sovereign, and in reproducing the benevolent and almost dreamy expression which characterised them.* The cult of Amenôthes lasted for seven or eight centuries, until the time when his coffin was removed and placed with those of the other members of his family in the place where it remained concealed until our own times.**

* Another statue of very fine workmanship, but mutilated, is
preserved in the Gizeh Museum; this statue is of the time of
Seti I., and, as is customary, represents Amenôthes in the
likeness of the king then reigning.

** We know, from the Abbott Papyrus, that the pyramid of
Amenôthes I. was situated at Dr-ah Aboul-Neggah, among
those of the Pharaohs of the XIth, XIIth, and XVIIth
dynasties. The remains of it have not yet been discovered.

It is shaped to correspond with the form of the human body and painted white; the face resembles that of his statue, and the eyes of enamel, touched with kohl, give it a wonderful appearance of animation. The body is swathed in orange-coloured linen, kept in place by bands of brownish linen, and is further covered by a mask of wood and cartonnage, painted to match the exterior of the coffin. Long garlands of faded flowers deck the mummy from head to foot. A wasp, attracted by their scent, must have settled upon them at the moment of burial, and become imprisoned by the lid; the insect has been completely preserved from corruption by the balsams of the embalmer, and its gauzy wings have passed un-crumpled through the long centuries.

Amenôthes had married Ahhotpû II, his sister by the same father and mother;* Ahmasi, the daughter born of this union, was given in marriage to Thûtmosis, one of her brothers, the son of a mere concubine, by name Sonisonbû.** Ahmasi, like her ancestor Nofrîtari, had therefore the right to exercise all the royal functions, and she might have claimed precedence of her husband. Whether from conjugal affection or from weakness of character, she yielded, however, the priority to Thûtmosis, and allowed him to assume the sole government.

* Ahhotpû II. may be seen beside her husband on several
monuments. The proof that she was full sister of Amenôthes
I. is furnished by the title of hereditary princess which
is given to her daughter Àhmasi; this princess would not
have taken precedence of her brother and husband Thûtmosis,
who was the son of an inferior wife, had she not been the
daughter of the only legitimate spouse of Amenôthes I. The
marriage had already taken place before the accession of
Thûtmosis I., as Ahmasi figures in a document dated the
first year of his reign.

** The absence of any cartouche shows that Sonisonbû did not
belong to the royal family, and the very form of the name
points her out to have been of the middle classes, and
merely a concubine. The accession of her son, however,
ennobled her, and he represents her as a queen on the walls
of the temple at Deîr el-Baharî; even then he merely styles
her Royal Mother, the only title she could really claim,
as her inferior position in the harem prevented her from
using that of Royal Spouse.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph taken by Émil
Brugsch-Bey.

He was crowned at Thebes on the 21st of the third month of Pirît; and a circular, addressed to the representatives of the ancient seignorial families and to the officers of the crown, announced the names assumed by the new sovereign. This is the royal rescript to announce to you that my Majesty has arisen king of the two Egypts, on the seat of the Horus of the living, without equal, for ever, and that my titles are as follows: The vigorous bull Horus, beloved of Mâît, the Lord of the Vulture and of the Uraeus who raises itself as a flame, most valiant,--the golden Horns, whose years are good and who puts life into all hearts, king of the two Egypts, Akhopirkerî, son of the Sun, Thûtmosis, living for ever.* Cause, therefore, sacrifices to be offered to the gods of the south and of Elephantine,** and hymns to be chanted for the well-being of the King Akhopirkerî, living for ever, and then cause the oath to be taken in the name of my Majesty, born of the royal mother Sonisonbû, who is in good health.--This is sent to thee that thou mayest know that the royal house is prosperous, and in good health and condition, the 1st year, the 21st of the third month of Pirît, the day of coronation.

* This is really the protocol of the king, as we find it on
the monuments, with his two Horus names and his solar
titles.

** The copy of the letter which has come down to us is
addressed to the commander of Elephantine: hence the mention
of the gods of that town. The names of the divinities must
have been altered to suit each district, to which the order
to offer sacrifices for the prosperity of the new sovereign
was sent.

The new king was tall in stature, broad-shouldered, well knit, and capable of enduring the fatigues of war without flagging. His statues represent him as having a full, round face, long nose, square chin, rather thick lips, and a smiling but firm expression. Thûtmosis brought with him on ascending the throne the spirit of the younger generation, who, born shortly after the deliverance from the Hyksôs, had grown up in the peaceful days of Amenôthes, and, elated by the easy victories obtained over the nations of the south, were inspired by ambitions unknown to the Egyptians of earlier times. To this younger race Africa no longer offered a sufficiently wide or attractive field; the whole country was their own as far as the confluence of the two Niles, and the Theban gods were worshipped at Napata no less devoutly than at Thebes itself. What remained to be conquered in that direction was scarcely worth the trouble of reducing to a province or of annexing as a colony; it comprised a number of tribes hopelessly divided among themselves, and consequently, in spite of their renowned bravery, without power of resistance. Light columns of troops, drafted at intervals on either side of the river, ensured order among the submissive, or despoiled the refractory of their possessions in cattle, slaves, and precious stones. Thûtmosis I. had to repress, however, very shortly after his accession, a revolt of these borderers at the second and third cataracts, but they were easily overcome in a campaign of a few days duration, in which the two Âhmosis of Al-Kab took an honourable part. There was, as usual, an encounter of the two fleets in the middle of the river: the young king himself attacked the enemys chief, pierced him with his first arrow, and made a considerable number of prisoners. Thûtmosis had the corpse of the chief suspended as a trophy in front of the royal ship, and sailed northwards towards Thebes, where, however, he was not destined to remain long.* An ample field of action presented itself to him in the north-east, affording scope for great exploits, as profitable as they were glorious.**

* That this expedition must be placed at the beginning of
the kings reign, in his first year, is shown by two facts:
(1) It precedes the Syrian campaign in the biography of the
two Âhmosis of El-Kab; (2) the Syrian campaign must have
ended in the second year of the reign, since Thûtmosis I.,
on the stele of Tombos which bears that date, gives
particulars of the course of the Euphrates, and records the
submission of the countries watered by that river. The date
of the invasion may be placed between 2300 and 2250 B.C.; if
we count 661 years for the three dynasties together, as
Erman proposes, we find that the accession of Ahmosis would
fall between 1640 and 1590. I should place it provisionally
in the year 1600, in order not to leave the position of the
succeeding reigns uncertain; I estimate the possible error
at about half a century.

** It is impossible at present to draw up a correct table of
the native or foreign sovereigns who reigned over Egypt
during the time of the Hyksôs. I have given the list of the
kings of the XIIIth and XIVth dynasties which are known to
us from the Turin Papyrus. I here append that of the
Pharaohs of the following dynasties, who are mentioned
either in the fragments of Manetho or on the monuments:

Syria offered to Egyptian cupidity a virgin prey in its large commercial towns inhabited by an industrious population, who by maritime trade and caravan traffic had amassed enormous wealth. The country had been previously subdued by the Chaldæans, who still exercised an undisputed influence over it, and it was but natural that the conquerors of the Hyksôs should act in their turn as invaders. The incursion of Asiatics into Egypt thus provoked a reaction which issued in an Egyptian invasion of Asiatic soil. Thûtmosis and his contemporaries had inherited none of the instinctive fear of penetrating into Syria which influenced Ahmosis and his successor: the Theban legions were, perhaps, slow to advance, but once they had trodden the roads of Palestine, they were not likely to forego the delights of conquest. From that time forward there was perpetual warfare and pillaging expeditions from the plains of the Blue Nile to those of the Euphrates, so that scarcely a year passed without bringing to the city of Amon its tribute of victories and riches gained at the point of the sword. One day the news would be brought that the Amorites or the Khâti had taken the field, to be immediately followed by the announcement that their forces had been shattered against the valour of the Egyptian battalions. Another day, Pharaoh would re-enter the city with the flower of his generals and veterans; the chiefs whom he had taken prisoners, sometimes with his own hand, would be conducted through the streets, and then led to die at the foot of the altars, while fantastic processions of richly clothed captives, beasts led by halters, and slaves bending under the weight of the spoil would stretch in an endless line behind him.

Meanwhile the Timihû, roused by some unknown cause, would attack the outposts stationed on the frontier, or news would come that the Peoples of the Sea had landed on the western side of the Delta; the Pharaoh had again to take the field, invariably with the same speedy and successful issue. The Libyans seemed to fare no better than the Syrians, and before long those who had survived the defeat would be paraded before the Theban citizens, previous to being sent to join the Asiatic prisoners in the mines or quarries; their blue eyes and fair hair showing from beneath strangely shaped helmets, while their white skins, tall stature, and tattooed bodies excited for a few hours the interest and mirth of the idle crowd. At another time, one of the customary raids into the land of Kûsh would take place, consisting of a rapid march across the sands of the Ethiopian desert and a cruise along the coasts of Pûanîfc. This would be followed by another triumphal procession, in which fresh elements of interest would appear, heralded by flourish of trumpets and roll of drums: Pharaoh would re-enter the city borne on the shoulders of his officers, followed by negroes heavily chained, or coupled in such a way that it was impossible for them to move without grotesque contortions, while the acclamations of the multitude and the chanting of the priests would resound from all sides as the _cortege_ passed through the city gates on its way to the temple of Amon. Egypt, roused as it were to warlike frenzy, hurled her armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history. The isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; the conflict of the nations was about to begin.