Palestine

(see Amarna and Hebrews), and slew the rulers of Gezer, Lachish, Askalon, and other cities of Philistia. A me no phis IV acceded after his father had reigned 36 years; and we know him to have been contemporary with Burn a bur i as of Babylon—about 1440 or 1430 B.c, He was the principal builder of Tell Amarna, though the seals and correspondence of his predece ors are found there also. His throne name was Nefer-Kheper- Ra, or Nabkhuriya. He a umed later the name Kbu-en-Aten. In his reign certain texts with the names of Amen seem to have been mutilated; but he is addre ed by the Asiatic princes as being, like his father, a worshiper of Amen (as well as of Aten), and the Ritual occurs on bis coffin. He was no doubt influenced by his Armenian wife, and his foreign mother, Teie. In his time ’Aziru, son of ’Abdashérah, revolted and captured Semyra, Gebal, Beira, Sidon, and probably Tyre; while the Hittites of Kadesh, under Edugama, invaded Bashan in league with Amorites, and attacked Damascus. This second revolt may have been after the death of Dusratta, to whom a large part of N. Syria—from Haran to Kalkhis (Kinnesrin), appears to have been granted under Egyptian suzerainty, at the time of Tadukhepa’s marriage to A me no phis IV. The Hittites of Mer’ash were still independent in this region, and those of Kadesh on the Orontes, further 8., became so also during this later rebellion. The last-named king of this famous dynasty was Horus (Hor-em-heb: Proc. Bib. Arch. Socy., March 1896), of whom little or nothing is known. His throne name was Meri-en-Amen; and he was apparently a worshiper of Amen, Hor, Thoth, Khem, Set, Maut, Athor, Anuk and other native Egyptian gods. He is called “the lion of the land of Kush... like to Mentu, lord of Thebes.” His wife was a sister-in-law of A me no phis [V; and he appears to have died about 1400 B.c., or a little earlier, Egyptian chronology is only approximate down to about 800 B.c. 19th dynasty, at Thebes; about 1400 down to1200 Bc, The founder Rameses I (Rame u, enthroned as Men-pehti-ra) appears to have been at war with Sap-lil, the Hittite king of Kadesh, while striving to recover what had, perhaps, been lost during the reign of A me no phis IV. He was succeeded by Meren-ptah, or Seti I, said to have been his son-in-law. This king began by defeating Asiatics at Sharuhen, east of Gaza, and fought with Mautenar, the Hittite king of Kadesh [an inscription with his name was found in 1901 at Tell esh Shehab, in Bashan, by the Rev. John Kelman.—Ep.] His fleets sailed on the Red Sea, but we hear of no naval exploits in the Mediterranean, He began (or continued) a canal from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez, which his son completed; and built temples at Karnak, Thebes, and Abydos. In the “Valley of Kings” he excavated the deepest tomb in the world for himself: the shaft runs 900 feet through solid rock; and here his empty sarcophagus—now in the Sloane Museum— was found by Belzoni in 1817, The mummy, like most of those of the 18th and 19th dynasties, was transferred later to the rocky hiding-place at Deir el Baheiri. This coffin is covered with portions of the Ritual, describing Amenti; the boat of Ra; and the punishment of the wicked by Tum and Horus, Seti I calls himself Setimeri-Ptah (“lover of Ptah”); but, on the gates of temples at Karnak and elsewhere, he appears as a worshiper of Amen, Mentu, Shu, Khem, Knef, Sati (Set), Tefnut, Ank, Maut, and other gods, His miners in the deserts between the Red Sea and the Nile (as shown by the stela of Kuban, near Daké), were perishing for want of water, and (like Moses) he is said to have supplied it: “He spoke to the rock and the water flowed forth.” A shaft was dug for 120 cubits (200 feet); the water at length sprang up to 6 feet above the ground (this being the first known artesian well); and the people cried; ‘Thou art Ra; whatsoever pleases thy heart shall happen, If thou seekest light in the night, it is so. If thou sayest to the water come up upon the mountain; lo! the ocean will come forth” (see Rec. of Past, New Series, vol. v), The tablet of Abydos comes down to Seti I, giving 75 kings before him, from Menes to Nefer-ka-ra (Nitocris) the last of the 6th dynasty, followed by 18 unknown kings; the 57th name is Mentu-hotep, and that of Seti’s father immediately precedes his own. The list differs, however, from that of Sakkara, Seti’s wife, Tua, is believed to have been a daughter of A me no phis IV. He had three sons, the eldest being Miamun (Rameses II), whom he is said to have a ociated with himself in the government when only 12 years old, The reign of Rameses II must have begun about 1330 Bo, He is said in one text to have ruled “when yet in the egg”; and from his mummy (with sparse grey hairs) he appears to have been an old man when he died. 58