Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/524

 404 REMARKABLE OBJECT OF THE REIGX OF AMEXOPHIS III. were erected in emulation of his ancestors by this Iving in honour of the god Amen. At Elephantina^ he erected a temple to the local deity, Nem or Clinem(is), and two monolith naoi, or shrines, are found at Tennu^ or Gebel Silseleh. Additions were also made by him to the tem- ples of Samneh and Mount Barkal.^ There are several monuments of this reign, but they do not throw light upon the political condition of the kingdom, further than to show that the government and religion remained unaltered.* The name of the princess mentioned on the plinth appears to be Amen-sa-t, or Amense, of whom a notice is found upon the sepulchral tablet of the steward of her house or palace in the ]Iuseum at Florence,^ which is dated in the reign of Amenophis III. ; and as the princess is not styled queen, this officer must have died before her adoption. There is also, in the British Museum, the lower part of the statue of Amenhept,^ a royal scribe, particularly attached to the goods, seal-bearer, yeoman of the guard, Idng's eyes and ears, nomarch {I'cpa ha), governor of the south, and steward of the house or palace of the eldest princess. Tliis statue is stated to have been " placed by the king's orders at the temple of Amen, in Thebes," The name of Amenra is not erased upou this statue. As princes succeeded in the order of their birth to the throne, it is probable that she Avas the only surviving issue of the monarch, was adopted into the Empire, and associated with the monarch. A similar case occurred in the reign of the monarch Sebakhetp I. of the Thirteenth dynasty ; for his two daughters the queen Shahet, surnamed Fent, and the princess Anekatet, both deceased, are represented on a tablet' in adoration to the god Khem. Both were born of the Queen Benna, and had prematurely died in their father's lifetime. It also appears from an inscription^ at El Hegs, that the queen regent, Ha-tasu, had taken into the government her eldest daughter, the Queen Ra-neferu, who died or fell with her. Amenophis himself seems to have ended his days in peace, and was buried in the tombs of the Western Valley, but after his death the flames of religious war burst forth, and its occur- rence is marked by the erasure on the plinth. The religion > Rosellini. M. St. t iii. pi. I. p. 214. * Roselliui M. St. T. I. p 240. -Ibid, 215. * l<. Saloou. No. 151. Syuopis. 1. c. ' CailliaU'l. Voyage a Meroe, ii., PI. xiv. "> Prisse, Mon. Egypt. PI. viii. p. 26U.
 * Sliarpe, Eg Ins.; RoseliiuL. MS. t. iii. ^ Communicated by Sir G. Wilkinson.