Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/756

732 732 EGYPT [HISTORY. Egyptian inscriptions they are jailed llebu, or Lebu, and appear on early monuments as a dark people. Under the Empire they have Caucasian characteristics. The change was probably due to the great maritime migrations of the Pelasgic tribes, in which the Libyans had an important share. To the next king, Tosorthros, Manetho assigns the invention of building with hewn stones and cultivation of letters, and says that for his medical knowledge the Egyptians called him JEsculapius. If the Pyramid of Steps dates from an earlier king, the first statement must be qualified, though it is to be remarked that the difference of constructive skill between that monument, if so early, and the works of Dynasty IV., would almost justify the historian ; and again the discovery of inscriptions of a less accurately ordered kind than those of Dynasty IV. may support the second statement; the third seems at variance with the Memphite worship of the Egyptian ^Esculapius, Imlu^ep. On the monuments contemporary history begins with the last king the lists assign to this dynasty, Senoferu, probably Mauetho s last but one, Sephuris. We may now take a retrospect of the age. It is in some respects curiously primitive in comparison with that which immediately follows it. Dr Brugsch has remarked the general absence in the kings names of the name of Ha, afterwards essential to throne- names, which from the medallic character of some of these they seem to have been, and the equally general absence of the names of other gods, Ra occurring once in the three dynasties and Sekeri once. Again he has observed the some what plebeian aspect of these names, as proper to men who sternly ruled the masses. Mena is &quot;the stable,&quot; he who resists; Tota, &quot;he who strikes;&quot; Senta, &quot;the terrible;&quot; Huni,&quot; he who strikes.&quot; Senoferu is &quot; the betterer.&quot; As &quot; the striker of the peoples,&quot; for so he is called in his in scription at Wadee Magharah, in the Sinaitic peninsula, he is a foreign conqueror. 1 From Senoferu, at the close of Dynasty III., to the end of Dynasty VI., we have a succession of contemporary monuments by which history can be reconstructed, not only in its political events, but in those details of the condition of the population which make an essential part of all real history. Under Senoferu we find great material prosperity, and the arts already in that condition of excellence which makes the Pyramid age in some respects the most remarkable in the annals of Egypt. We also find foreign conquest, not us in the time of the Empire for glory, but with the view of extending the Egyptian rule to countries whose products were valuable for the arts. It is thus that this Pharaoh is the earliest who has left a tablet in the Sinaitic peninsula, where perhaps he, as Dr Brugsch thinks, was the first to plant military colonies to protect the workers in the mines of copper and the valuable blue stone called &quot; mafkat,&quot; and this idea is supported by his being afterwards worshipped there. He is also the first king whose pyramid is found with its special name on the monuments. Dr Brugsch thinks it is that now called the Pyramid of Meydoom, near which chapels of tombs bearing his name have been discovered, and a group consisting of two statues, remark able as a splendid specimen of Egyptian archaic art. The subjects, it may be remarked, were usually buried near tLe pyramid of the reigning king. Senoferu the betterer left a good name as a beneficent king, and his worship was main tained until the Ptolemaic period. Khufu, the Suphis I. of Manetho and Cheops of Hero- 1 The chronological length of this first unknown period in the thirty dynasties cannot be determined. In the Turin Papyrus three durations of reigns are preserved. They are each less than Manetho s numbers of the same reigns, however we fit the two lists together. It is further remarkable that while the length of Dynasty I. gives nearly a generation of 33^ years to each reign (253-f-8 = 31 6) that of Dynasty II. gives almost exactly this average (302, Afr. -r-9 = 33 5 ; 297, Bus. -r-9 -33.) dotus, immediately succeeds Senoferu in the lists of the monuments, so that he may be regarded as the legitimate head of Dynasty IV. The list of that dynasty is as fol lows: Khufu, Ratatf, Khafra, Menkaura, Shepseskaf, corresponding to eight kings in Manetho, in whom also the order is different, Ratatf (Ratoises) following Menkaura (Mencheres), a natural consequence of the association in fame of the builders of the three most celebrated pyramids, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura. 2 The age of the pyramid-builders is the most brilliant before the Empire. We can judge from the royal tombs of the magnificence of the kings, and from the sepulchres around of the wealth of the subjects. The construction of the pyramids has perhaps been unduly marvelled at : we should know in what other manner the kings employed the vast amount of manual labour at their disposal, if we would estimate how much they could have effected by it in pyramid-building in the long period of time for which they ruled. If the two reigns of Khufu and Khafra extended over more than a century and a quarter, we may measure what we know them to have done against the works of other states during a like interval, and the comparison reduces our wonder. The regal power at this time seems to have been very strong. So at least may we infer from the phraseology of the inscriptions, and from the fact that the kings threw much, if not all, of the force of the nation into personal monuments for their own memorial. Never in later times is the royal tomb the chief object of the king s reign, or is he so completely detached from the welfare of Egypt. The pyramids with their priesthoods are proofs that then the Pharaoh was more positively worshipped than ever after wards. It must, however, be admitted that the great men whose tombs are planned around the pyramids enjoyed abundant wealth and ease. Their time was passed not in war or in state affairs, but in the management of large estates, probably royal gifts, and in superintending the handicrafts of their people, and giving no small share of their leisure to the pleasures of the chase, to hospitality, and to the enjoyment of musical performances. In the chapels of their tombs these occupations of everyday life are portrayed. There is no sign of war, no great military class. It is true that the common folk seem to have been very poor, but their life in that land of abundance is at least represented as happy. On the other hand, it is significant that the nobility include a large number of the royal family, and that the king is 2 The numbers of Manetho are irreconcilable with those of the Turin Papyrus assigned by scholars to this period. There is evidence that they cannot be considered to be consecutive in the inscription which mentions a lady, a Queen Mertitefs, as a great favourite of Senoferu and Khufu and attached to Khafra. M. de Rouge remarks that she must have been very old at the time of Khafra (Six Prem. Dyn., 256 scqq.), but in the list of Manetho the intervening reigns (Ratoises 25, Suphis [II.] 66) amount to 91 years. If we allow her to have been 14 years old at the end of the reign of Senoferu and to have lived a year into that of Khai ra, her age would not be less than 106 years. This is very near the extreme limit of human life in the Egyptian inscriptions, 110 years, and it is based on the minimum of time possible in the case. The length of early kings lives in the Turin Papyrus supports this view. Probably the reigns overlapped one another. This idea is supported by the two chief chambers in the Great Pyramid, which has already made M. de Kouge suspect that it was the tomb of two kings (Id. 261. note 1). A sound argument for the chronology of the time might be found in the size of the three chief pyramids. A pyramid was the great work of a king s reign, and it was so constructed that it might be continually increased in size and yet easily completed at any time. The Great Pyramid would indicate a reign of maximum dura tion; so, too, the Second; whereas the Third would, in its original size, mark a shorter time. By this method we should be induced to accept Manetho s numbers for Khufu, 63 years, and Khafra, 66, but to doubt the long reign of Menkaura, 63. It would be reasonable on the other evidence to make Ratatf contemporary with Khufu or Khafra.