IN AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE

Evening Star, Issue 23038, 17 August 1938, Page 2

IN AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE

WOMAN’S WILL OF 1402 0.0. . On the banks of the. Nile 3,400' year* ago, a lady of wealth had her will carved in stone, probably never dreaming, however, that it would be uncovered for all the world to read in 1038 A.D. ’ The find was made during the winter season of the Egypt Exploration Society in the sanctuary of the temple at Amarah. . In clear-cut hierloglyphics the stela gives an agreement concerning family property which reads as follows: ■ • “ Speech of the second prophet Hori. As for all the possessions, of the overseer of the granary, Pashm our father, whether they be fields, meadows,' mala, or female servants, or trees, they belong to the songstress Khnuxn Iritekhu, to the son of her son and the heir of her heir. Speech of the songstress, Lord of Miam Tarmehu, she says—as for all the increase (that may accrue) to what the overseer of the granary, Pasitir, has done .for r me, I give it to Iri-Takbuy .my daughter, and Shb shall support me in my''old* age.” Another outstanding discovery - was made at the excavation of the fortified town of Sesebi in the Sudan (between the second and third cataracts about 180 miles south of Wadi Haifa)'. It is a complete sandstone bust about a foot higla belonging to a class of figures of which very few. examples are known, and dates from the time of Amenophis IV., the famous “ heretic ”• king of the eighteenth dynasty, about 1380 n.o. The excavations at Sesebi revealed no less than three superimposed buildings lying below two tombs of a milch later date. The lowest of these was an enormous circular brick construction sunk deep in the ground. This may have been either a prison or a store. Although fortified, Sesebi could evidently never have withstood attack for long. If had no. moat or special defences,, and.nolnternal water supply. The. inference, is that Egyptian control in the Northern Sudan was well established and the new foundations of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties were colonies set up for reasons of trade or vanity, or merely to serve os religious ■ centres.