Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/49

 (perhaps of many) years is possible in each reign when there is no direct evidence to the contrary. But the error is at all events not on the side of exaggerated numbers.

Monuments furnishing Evidence of a Succession of Reigns.

Still more important than the monuments which mention the year of a king, are those in which two or more sovereigns of the same period are mentioned, especially if their succession or other precise data are given. Such is the treaty made in the twenty-first of his reign between Rameses II. and the king of the Cheta, wherein Rameses II. calls himself the son of Seti I., who in his turn is called the son of Rameses I. There is a very large number of inscriptions belonging to personages who have been born in one reign and died in another, or who have served several kings in succession. And the inscriptions of the same period naturally confirm one another, or supply details which were missing. Thus, to take the case of the eighteenth dynasty, the sepulchral inscription of Aahmes, the son of Abana, gives the account of a naval officer who served three sovereigns one after the other,—Aahmes I., Amenhotep I. and Tehutimes I. (commonly called Thothmes or