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Inscriptions on the obelisk-shaped support. A. The back of the support: top (Pl. i, l). At the top, in the centre, is the winged disk, from vliich hang nine "Anklis", in three rows of three. Below this Ahnies is shown worshipping Amim and Osiris, who face right and left respectively.
l
I am much obliged t o Mr. Guy Brunton for obtaining the photographs for me.
B
Before Amiin: Amen-R$, King of the Gods, primeval one of the Two Lands, with upraised arm. And: The servant who praises his lord, the divine father Ahmes, justi$ed. Before Osiris: Osiris, Onnophris. And: The follower of Osiris in pr-gtA (?), the divine father Alzmes, justified.
B. T h e main inscription on t h e back (Pl. i, l ) . l . The divine fatlzer and prophet of Amiin in 'Ipt-swt, Ahmes, justified, says :0 Amen-BEr, Icing of the Gods, primeval one of the Two Lands, self-created, I a m thy servant, who follozus thy K a , a revered one who sees his lord. Grant me thy lqe infolloztiing thy majesty. M a y I not grow tire& of seeing thy face, zwll embalmed and adorned excellently in the hlecropolis beside 'I& JJ1mt.b Mayest thou set m y childrenc in thy city as those who have been appointed by the g0ds.d 2. The embalrner and divine puri$er of AnzzTn, Ahmes, justijied, says : 0 N u n the Old, who came into existence in the beginning, primeval one of the Two Lands, with upraised arm, m y heart i s loyal to tl~ee.May I be in tlzy following, may I praise thy beauty in thy noble shrine, mayest thou establislz m y image within tlzy sacred place, may m y name be uttered by thy servants, nzy children being in thy tenzple, and followinge thy majesty ecery day zcithout cease inf thy 'Ipt-swt. 3. The prophet of Amaunet, who is in 'Ipt-swt, Ahmes, jusf$ed, says: 0 Mut, who came into txistence aforetime, I am thy chil& (?) in thy court. I haw not done evil (??) with m y left hand against the Temple of Afzd throughfear (lit. trembling) of Khonsu (7). A great ofering in his goodly jestival oj the New Yearh (?) consisting of incense of Punt, that ( m y )rettiardjrom thee, 0 mistress of tlze gods and goddesses, may be a long life with good fortune. 1Mayest thou cause m y dwellingi to endure in the portal of thy temple, mayest thou establish those who come after me therein. 4. Tlte baron of the Memphite Nome, the govemor of the Hare hrome, Ahmes, justified, says : I went to the Residence, I sailed up-stream to Hermopolis, a royul rescript being with me.j I bent m y arms to the proplzets and their priests. I did good to their citizens. The reward tlzereof was that Tenen and Thoth caused me to arrive at Thebes as a n ho?~oured one. May I complete nzy in the following of Amfin, as a divine purijier i n his great place. lifek upon e a ~ t h 5. The p~ophetof Sokar-Osiris, Alzmes, justi$ed, says: I a m thy sermnt, 0 King of the Gods, in (thy ?) temple1 (?). T h y censer i s (extended) tottiards me. I amm a n embalmer in Pr-rnb-irw,n who revivi$es Osiris in the Ht-nb. Mayest thou jmt me among the excellent spirits who are in thy train, and the srhw who are beside thee. May m y Ba not perish, may m y body not die, . . . again, may I come and go on earth every day, may I enter in to the god and not be repelled. 6. The prophet of Amenopet of ~ b - s w tAlzmes, ,~ justified, says :Praise to thy face, 0 phallus oj the goas, Amenopet, bull with ~ p r a i ~ e arm, d living image of R I ? in Hernzont1zis,p who grants provisionsq to him who i s in his favour. Mayest thou give them to me, 0 m y great lord, for I a m loyal to thy majesty. Grant tlzat I may see thy noble B a wlzen it sails (to) Bo-stau. May I live on tlze offerings which are made to tlzee. 7. The prophet of K1zonsu Amenopet, Ahmes, justijied, says : I inscribe the gateways of Khonsu in Thebes, the noble sbm in Bnnt.t I exalt his fear, I make great his majesty, I write upon the wall of his temple. 1May he make a reward for me by prolonging m y life as a revered one, "one who has gone to his I<a''.u May he grant that I should see his Majesty when he crosses the west of Thebes to receive snw-bread in his favour.
! 'Igt-Pzrnt: Medinet Habu; cf. Sethe, A m u n z ~ n d die ucht a Read bn g(g)?~.i; cf. TVb. d. ueq. Spr., v, 155. J Urgotter von Hermopolis, 3 103. c Read j s w k prt4 ? Read W L swd m-& ntrw. Read (hr) grns Reading m for n. g Probably we should read h t i . j ; cf. W b . cl. aeg. Spr., I, 78. The exact hm+k.
f
Plate I1
Statue of Ahmes, son of Smendes. Cairo Museum, No. 37075. Height g5 cm.
1 rft is a late variant Try, "encampment"; cf. Wb. d. aeg. Spr., I , 182. j Read iw wd-niswt r-hnr4. For this writing of iw cf. a. d . aeg. Spr., I , 42. k Skm4 t p - t ~ i . 1 Read m-7JnLst(.k) ? m Emend iw.i m &v$-S&I. Pr-m&-irw: u r m b g t o Gauthier, Dict. ge'og., II, 63, this is a word for "tomb" or ''necropolis". Cf. Bergmann, Das Bwh LW Durchwundeh der Ewigkeit, 20, which, however, does not explain the nature of the building or ubce. 0 @-swt: the pyramid of Mentuhotep I V a t D& el-Bahri, and the cemetery attached t o it; cf. 8-authier, Dict. ge'og., I, 7 ;Sethe, op. cit., $ 7 . The spelling which is given here is unusual and greatly abbrep For this title of Amennated, but compare the variant i n the inscription on the left side of the support. o p t cf. Sethe, op. cit., Taf. v = Theb. T. 96, b. It is used of Amenopet as the heir of the Eight Gods. It is very tempting t o see i n this phrase an equation between Amenopet and Buchis, who, as the Buchis stelae p u r e , was not merely the heir of the Eight Gods, but also their father, and the father of their fathers, as -we -4miin and Mentu. Buchis also bears the epithet m in one case (Buchis Inscription No. 6-a stela o f Ptolemy IV). q Read wd k ~ w ? Some slight emendation of the original is obviously necessary. Possibly ;be fourth * Read should be replaced by the normal determinative, or should be omitted altogether. i d mwi. S m~hdt: probably the same word as n, Wb. d . ueg. Spr., 11~30. t Bnnt: the temple of K h m u a t Karnak; cf. Gauthier, op. cit., 11, 22; Sethe, op. cit., $ 50. sb n k ~ f an : epithet of a dead pmmn; cf. Wb. d. aeg. Spr., III, 430.
h&, "offering". It would now appear not merely does this title refer t o a priest i n Hermonthis, but that i? was borne by priests of Buchis. I n the course of the excavations a t the Bucheum, and i n the Cemetery 200 &eh liea close by and in which some of the priests of Buchis were probably buried, a number of offering ubles or hagments of offering tables bearing this title were found (Buchis Inscriptions Nos. 28-32). It is
akniflcant that in every case the offering tables bore the titles "embalmer, divine purifier", in addition t o Auk:-hnk, hri-S&I,rbw ntr. It will be noticed, too, that in the three instances of hnk on this statuethe other t f l h also occur. The evidence is hardly sufficient as yet t o be absolutely conclusive, but it is exceedingly p b a b l e that i n the Ptolemaic period a t least &nk was one of the titles of the priests of Buchis.
A n offering which the 7cing gives to Amen-RCr, the primeval one of the Two Lands, that he that is offered on his altar every day to the K a of the divine father and prophet Osiris, the embalmer and divine purifier, who enters the burial-place of the Bull which i s in Mdam&i,awho sees the secret of the first primeval one, prophet of Amaunet, who i s in 'Ipt-swt, .mphet of Amenopet of JIJ-swt, scribe of the fourth phylt? of Am&, Ahmes, justified, son of the w~-&r-~h Smendes, > justified, born of the dancer of Amen-Rt?r, Kamephis, Ti-nub, justified.
mop give everything
* The mention of the bull of Medamtid is of interest since Buchis, as a sacred bull like Apis and Mnevis,
already in existence. I n the Bucheum Memoir it will be seen that there is strong reason for considering Bwhis was the embodiment of the four bull-forms of Mentu. The fact that, a t a time when Buchis was d i p p e d , the bull of Medamild was sometimes looked upon as a separate entity (at Medamtid itself, for zmsanw, as the excavations of the French Institute have shown) i n no way disproves this statement, for the phenomenon can be observed in the case of the local bulls of Tfid and Hermonthis. Neither, it may be out, does the mention of the burial place of the bull of Medamtid speak against this theory. No
H. W. FAIRMAN
trace of a cemetery for the bull has been found a t Medamad, and doubtless it never will. I f the bull of Medamad was merely one of the four forms of Mentu united in one, i.e. in Buchis, there is no contradiction in equating the imntt of the bull of Medamad with the Bucheum, the burial-place of Buchis, of whose nature the bull of Medamud formed a part. 1) m?/-dsr-rh: for this title cf. Cairo 42211 (Legrain, Statues et .statuettes de rois et particuliers, 111, 28 ff.). Compare also m a &r m rh: Cairo 41017 (Moret, Sarcophages de Fepoque bubastite Vepoque suite, 184), and Cairo 41062 (Gauthier, Cercueils anthropotdes des pretres de Montou, 391).
The statue is not absolutely free-standing, and a comparatively thin piece of stone connects it with its support. The available spaces in this stone are utilized for further inscriptions. Right side (PI. ii, 1). Ahmes' eldest son, Smendes, is shown standing up, clad in a long robe which reaches from his breast to below his knees. The text reads: H i s eldest, beloved son, prophet of Osiris, Smendes, born of the lady of the house and ihyt of A n G n , T-sherit-Min, justified. We thus possess the names of Ahnies' father and son, both of whom were called Smendes, his mother, Ti-nub, and his wife, T-sherit-Min. At present no further details seem to be known about these people, or about Ahmes himself, but it is not at all impossible that the final publication of the statues from the Karnak Cache may produce the desired information. Left side (PI. i, 2). Ahmes is shown kneeling and facing left, with hands raised in adoration. Above his head, and in front of him is a short inscription: T h e si-sta in " T h e Mistress of Cities",b the prophet of Osiris, Ahrnes, justified.
a A priestly
to
Below the figure of Ahmes is an inscription of sixteen lines: T h e prophet of Amen-REr in his temple, Ahmes, justified, s a y s : 0 ye "dw-ntra and priests of the great B a , ye embalmers of " T h e E y e of REr"b who enter " T h e Heaven u p o n Earth"" o n their feet while performing their duties therein, stretch forth your arm{s) to m e with a n "offeringiu1zich-the-l~ing-gives",stretch forth your arms to m e ~ a y i n g " ,~ M a y he praise thee in peace, namely Amen-REr, the noble shm, chief of all the gods. M a y t h y Ba live in heaven before Rer; m a y t h y K a be divine before the gods; m a y t h y body endure in the Underworld before Osiris; m a y t h y m u m m y be glorious among the Shining Ones; m a y t h y noble B a go to blendes and the Thinite N o m e o n the d a y of the festival of Solcar. " 0 doer of good to irhom good i s done, icho does not take vengeance (?), zuho spends the night in taking thoughte (?), m a y f h y real heart be pleasant to m e f (?), (for) m y heart is loyal to his majesty, m y disposition is pure and far from evil, ( I ) hate wrongg (??) . . . my lord, m y god, m y father, m y protector, who does not grow tired of protecting his servant, m a y m y n a m e be happily pronounced by those zc1w are u p o n earth as (that o f ) a revered one i n the favour of his god. a rdw-rtr: a priestly title ; cf. Wb. d. aeg. Spr., I, 240. to irt RC: one of the names of Thebes ;cf. Gauthier,
Dict. gkog., I, 99. " y t ltr ssti-: a name of Karnak; cf. Wb. d. ag. Spr., I, 491. e I am d Emend m dd? not a t all certain that I have grasped the real meaning of these phrases, which seem to contain an invocation to Amiin. The last clause (s& md-n.f ?) is reminiscent of the Cairo Hymn to Amiin: "who spends the night watching over mankind, who spends the night seeking good things for his cattle", i.e. for men (Cairo Hymn to Amiin, 7, 1 = Mariette, Les Papyrus igyptiens du Muse'e de Boulaq, 11, PI. 12). Compare also a somewhat similar passage in Thoth's letter on behalf of Rer to Neith in Chester Beatty I, recto 2.11.l The translation which is given here necessitates the mbstitution of ib.k for ink. &h. R. 0. Faulkner, however, suggests the following translation: "I am well-disposed (?), I am one true of heart, who is loyal to his majesty." g These words are somewhat obscure and may well need emendation. Possibly with is a n error for or ^.%, and we should emend m d ( - i ) m. The meaning of n&J, or n@, is unknown ; it is apparently a verb of thinking or praising. I owe this reference to Mr. Faulkner.
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