EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND. THE STOEE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. BY EDOUARD NAYILLE. WITH THIRTEEN PLATES AND TWO MAPS LONDON: MESSRS. TRUBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL, E.G. 1885. a? EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND. THE STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. BY EDOUARD NAVILLE. WITH THIRTEEN PLATES AND TWO MAPS. LONDON: MESSRS. TRUBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL, E.G. 1885. Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive in 2015 littps://arcliive.org/details/storecityofpitlioOOnavi OF THE GENEROUS PRESIDENT OF THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND, SIR EEASMUS WILSON, LLD, F.E.S. LATE PRESIDENT OP THE ROYAL COLLEGE OP SURGEONS; VICE-PRESIDENT OP THE SOCIETY OP BIBLICAL ARCHiEOLOGY; ETC., ETC., ETC. CONTENTS. PAGE Tbll-el-Maskhutah 1 The Names oe the Ancient City 5 The Desceiption of Pithom 9 The Histoey of Pithom 11 The Monuments Discoveeed 13 Geogeaphioal Remaeks 20 The Route of the Exodus 23 Ptolemy Philadelphos 26 Appendix 1 29 Appendix II 32 PREFACE. The Memoir which I herewith have the honour of submitting to the public represents the first-fruits of the first excavations carried out by The Egypt Exploration Fund, under the gracious authorization of His Highness the Khedive, during the spring-time of the year 1883. I shall readily be believed when I assert that the life of the Egyptologist knows no keener delight than that of searching out the manifold secrets which yet lie hidden beneath the sands and mounds of Egypt. Of all pursuits which the hunting-grounds of his science have to offer him, this is not only the most attractive and the most exciting, but it is that which makes the largest demand upon our patience, and which frequently rewards us in the most un- expected manner. In publishing, therefore, the results of this first expedition, I hasten to seize the opportunity of paying a just tribute of gratitude to those founders and promotors of The Egypt Exploration Fund to whom I am indebted for my initiatory experience as an explorer in the Eastern Delta of the Nile. The first name which presents itself to my pen — the name of Sir Erasmus Wilson, the enlightened patron of Egyptology in England, and first President of The Egypt Exploration Fund — recalls the heavy bereavement which the Society has recently sustained in the loss of that eminent man whose commanding intellect ranged over the widest domains of knowledge, and whose nobleness of character and inexhaustible liberality have graven an ineffaceable record upon the age in which he lived, I also tender my acknowledgements to the members of the Committee, and especially to the two Honorary Secretaries, Miss Amelia B. Edwards and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, to whose indefatigable zeal the foundation and popularization of the Society are due, and to both of whom I am much indebted for their constant support. viii PREFACE. and also for their valuable assistance in the revision of this Memoir for the press. To my illustrious friend M. Maspero, Director-General of the Museums of Egypt, I offer my warm thanks for the cordiality with Avhich he welcomed me as a fellow- worker on Egyptian soil, and for the invaluable way in which he furthered the objects of my mission by instructions to the local authorities. Nor must I omit the names of either M. Jaillon, the distinguished French engineer, or of my learned compatriot. Professor Paul Chaix ; the first of whom not only furnished me with the necessary labourers, but himself shared in the daily toils and anxieties of the work, while the second has kindly taken upon himself to prepare the Map by which this Memoir is illustrated. In the deductions which I have drawn from the inscriptions discovered at Pithom, I well know how much is conjectural ; but I venture never- theless to hope that this brief essay may at all events incline the public to appreciate the important ends to be attained by the exploration of Lower Egypt. Not mere antiquities for exhibition in the galleries of museums, not even works of art, no matter how great their artistic value, are the main objects of our quest ; but rather the solution of important historical and geographical problems, and the discovery of names, of facts, and, if possible, of dates. My reward will be great should the perusal of these pages awaken a more general interest in Egyptology, which, as a field of study, embraces a period of more than forty centuries, and as a field of exploration is of vast extent, of unexampled wealth, and in many parts comparatively unknown. The plates and maps have been executed by the Typographic Etching Company. EDOUARD NAYILLE. Malagny, near Geneva. At^gust, 1884. THE STOEB-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. TELL EL MASKHUTAH. On the south side of the sweet water canal which runs from Cairo to Suez through the Wadi Tumilat, about twelve miles from Ismailiah, are the ruins of European houses now abandoned, but where a few years ago was a flourishing village. This was one of the chief settlements of the engineers and workmen who dug the Ismailiah canal, and there was at that time a railway station at this point. The Arabic name of the place is Tell el Maskhiitah, "the mound of the statue." The French have called it Ramses. None of these names are ancient. The Arabic Tell el Maskhutah is derived from a monolithic group in red granite, representing a king sitting between two gods. This monolith has been described by the French engineers who surveyed Egypt at the end of the last century. The place was then called Ahou Kachah or Ahou Keycheyd. We know, from the valuable memoir of the engineer Le Pere, that " these ruins bore all the characteristics of an Egyptian city," among them being a very remarkable monument, of which he speaks as follows :^ "It consists of a monolith of granite, cut in the form of an arm-chair, on which are seated three Egyptian figures, apparently ' "Description de I'Egypte," Ed. Panckoucke, vol. xi. p. 295. belonging to the priestly order, as one may judge from their costume and the caps they wear. The monument is still standing upright, and the figures are turned towards the east. They were buried up to the waist ; but having dug down to the feet, we have been able to see the whole of them and to measure them. The back of the arm-chair is entirely covered with hieroglyphics, which have the appearance of a regular and com- plete picture. Among the ruins are many blocks of sandstone and granite inscribed with hierogly- phics, and all such remains as mark the sites of destroyed cities in Lower Egypt," Since the above description was written, the aspect of the place has changed, the numerous blocks of which the Frenchman speaks have been removed, or covered by the sand ; and till a few years ago, the site of the old city was indicated only by a hardly discernible mound, or rather an undulation of the ground on the top of which stood the monolith, the size and execution of which showed that it must have belonged to a temple of some importance. The inscriptions have been published^ and deciphered. They show that the three figures represent Barneses II. between two solar gods, Ba and Turn. The circumstance that the king has ^ Wilkinson, " Materia Hieroglypliica,"' Apj). 4. Prisse. Mon. de I'Egypte, PI. XIX. B 2 STOEE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OP THE EXODUS. placed himself among the divinities led M. Lepsius^ to consider him as the local god to whom the city was consecrate, and therefore to identify Tell el Maskhutah with the city of " Eaamses" built by the Israelites during the Oppression. When, therefore, a party of French engineers settled there in 1860, and gathered a great number of workmen around them, the name of Eamses was adopted for the locality, and has remained in use up to the present time. For several years Ramses was a place of some importance — a European and Arab village, distinguished by the elegant villa of M. Paponot. But since the canal was finished, all the inhabitants have left the place, which is once again a desert, the ruins of houses and of a mosk, and the wasted gardens being the only witnesses of its former prosperity. The mound or 1:6m of Maskhutah is situate on the southern side of the present canal, the high banks of which are crowned by the earth- works thrown up by Arabi's soldiers. Before the making of the Ismailiah canal this place was watered by an older work, called the canal of the Wadi, which is now only a marsh full of reeds. Moreover, it is still possible to trace the bed and part of the banks of a much older channel, the canal of the Pharaohs, re-established by Ptolemy Philadelphos and again by the Emperor Trajan. It skirted the south-eastern side of the city. Standing on the bank of the canal, and looking from Arabi's redoubt towards the desert,^ we first note two sides of a very thick wall meeting at right angles, and constructed of very large bricks. The northern side rises above the sand to a height of some two or three yards. On the western side it used to be entirely covered by sand ; but it was laid bare a few years ago, and its great width (eight yards) gives it the ap- pearance of a causeway. The angle of the southern side is still discernible ; but that part is entirely covered by the villa Paponot. It is easy ' Lepsius " Chronologie," p. 348 ; " Zcitsclir. fiir JEg. Spnche," 1866, p. 32, = Cf. Plate I. to trace the direction of the eastern side, and to reconstruct the plan of the whole enclosure ; but on that side, owing to the vicinity of the old canal, the wall has very likely been destroyed to make way for the houses of the inhabitants. At the time when the villa was constructed, nothing except the monolith and the northern side of the enclosure could be seen above the sand. One day, however, in digging for the garden, the work- men came across another monolith of the same size as the first, the pair having once stood symmetrically at the entrance of some edifice. Concluding that these monuments flanked each side of an avenue, M. Paponot continued the excavations in the same direction. The result was the discovery of two sphinxes in black granite, placed also on each side of the avenue or dromos ; then, farther on, a shrine or naos in red sandstone, very well executed, and a large stele in red granite which was lying flat, and had been used as the foundation of a Roman wall of baked bricks. The discovery of these monuments, which all belong to the reign of Rameses II., seemed to offer additional evidence in favour of M. Lepsius's theory that this was the site of Raamses. M. Maspero, who pubhshed some of them,^ came also to the conclusion that it was a city of Raamses, perhaps that of the Israelites, the starting point of the nation going to conquer the land of Canaan. This, however, was not yet a well estabhshed fact. The geography of the eastern part of the Delta is not nearly so well known as that of Upper Egypt. We are acquainted only by name with a great number of its cities, canals, and lakes. Not only in the hierogl}q)hical lists of nomes which are inscribed in several temples, but in the writings of the Greeks and Romans, we have a great deal of information regarding the Delta, which was visited by several invading armies and by a considerable number of traders and travellers. But most of the ' " Eevuc Arclieologique," ]S'ouv. Serie, vol. xxxiv., p. 320. STORE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 3 sites have not yet been identified ; and except a few famous places like Heliopolis, Tanis, Mendes, and Bubastis, the reconstruction of the geography is still a guess-work, in which conjecture occupies a large place. The only means of bringing some light to bear on these obscure questions is to make excavations. At this present time fresh and decisive information is to be expected not so much from the study of written texts, as from the pick and spade. Owing to the uncertainty in the determination of localities, two very different theories have been started as to the route of the Exodus and the sea which the Israelites had to cross. The old theory makes them start from Wadi Tumilat and cross the sea somewhere in the neighbourhood of Suez. The new theory originated by Dr. Schleiden and M. Brugsch supposes them to have departed from the country round Tanis, and maintains that the crossing of the sea must be understood as meaning that the Israelites followed a narrow causeway between the Mediterranean and the Serbonian bog. That dangerous track still exists at present, and is subject to be wholly washed over when there is a heavy sea. This last theory, which has been advocated with a great deal of learning and supported by very ingenious arguments, has occasioned much dis- cussion, not only among Egyptologists, but also among those who take interest in biblical geo- graphy. On which side lay the truth ? Would it ever be possible to arrive at any certain con- clusion, or at least to find one or two definite points of that famous route ? This very im- portant and obscure question has been brought before the English public in the most complete and scientific way, in a series of papers^ by the distinguished secretary of our society. Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who, after having gathered and sifted the evidence on both sides, discarded M. Brugsch's ' "Was Kamses II. the Pharaoh of the Oppression?" by Amelia B. Edwards. A series of Papers in " Knowledge," years 1882 and 1883. opinion, and adhered to M. Lepsius's view, so placing Eaamses at Maskhutah, and Pithom at Abu Suleyman, near the railway station of Ahu Hammed. The question re-opened by those papers, and the desire to come nearer if possible, to the solution of the Exodus problem, induced the society to choose Maskhutah from among the various localities where the kindness and the liberality of M. Maspero allowed excavations to be made. And thus the great task of the explo- ration of the Eastern Delta was begun. Before attempting to excavate, it was necessary to study the monuments formerly discovered near M. Paponot's villa by the French engineer M. Jaillon, and now deposited in one of the squares of Ismailiah. They consist, as has been said before, of a monolith of red granite ; a great tablet of the same stone ; two sphinxes in black granite ; and a broken naos of red sandstone of the same style and material as those which may be seen at San. The naos is also a monolith, but the inner part is not empty. It contains a recumbent sphinx with a human head, not detached, rising from the floor. One sees at first sight that all these monu- ments have been dedicated to the god Turn, of whom the other form is Horemkhu, Harmachis, the same who was worshipped at Heliopolis. It is he who is represented on both sides of the tablet, once as Tum, with a human head bearing the double diadem, and once as Harmachis with a hawk's head surmounted by a solar disk. Another emblem of Harmachis is the sphinx with a human head, of which a gigantic example is seen in the sphinx near the Great Pyramid. Each time Rameses II. is mentioned he is spoken of as the friend of Tum or Harmachis. It is clear there- fore that Tum was the god of the city. It is true that the name of Pi Tum, the abode of Tum, is not to be found on the monuments of Ismailiah; but it may have been carved on the top of the tablet, or in some of the lines which are now obliterated ; besides, I subsequently found B 2 4 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. one of the lost fragments of the naos, containing not only the cartouche of Ramses II,, but also the name of the region in which Pi Tum was con- structed, Thiiku, ^^ J © is a striking proof of the truth of this assertion, which is corroborated by the spelling of many common names. I need not dwell on this philological de- monstration, which seems to me quite conclusive. The transcription of Thulcet would be the Hebrew ni3D Succoth.^ It is not at all surprising that the Hebrew word should mean tents. We have here an example of a philological accident which con- stantly occurs in mythology and geography. A name passing from a language to another keeps nearly the same sound and the same appearance, but it undergoes a change just sufficient to give it a sense in the language of the people who have adopted the word. The new sense may be totally different from the original.'* It is the same with the name of Moses, in Egyptian [] P ^ ^ mesu, the child or tlie hoy, which the Hebrews con- verted into r\tr2, Mosheh, "drawn out of the water," a turn of meanino^ which of course has nothing to do with the Egyptian word. We know therefore the site of Pithom and the region of Succoth. Pithom must not be looked for near Abu Hammed ; still less in the marshes of Lake Menzaleh. It lies buried under the brow of Maskhutali, and the enclosure, which still rises ' "Pap. Anastasi," v., 25,1.2. Bmgsch, "Eev. Egypt," i., ]). 22 and foil. = r.rngsch, "Aeg. Zeitschr.," 1875, p. 7. " Ecv. H. G. Tomkins has pointed out tint wc have the Assyrian transcription of Succoth in the IskMt of Esar- haddon. Academy, March .3, 1883. Cf. the vory good remarks on this point in Lcnormnnt, "Los Originos de I'lii.stoirc," 2nd ed., ii., p. 171. above the sand, was the defence of the city, which was both a storehouse and a fortress. Pithom changed its name at the time of the Greek dynasty. It became HerodpoUs, which the Romans abridged into Ero. This is most deci- sively proved by one of the Latin inscriptions found upon the spot. The stone on which it is engraved formed part of a wall in white calcareous stone, situate not very far from the entrance, in the line of the dromos, and near some Roman brick- work, which very Hkely was a gate. The inscription was engraved by two different hands.^ It seems to me very clear that after the letters LO, of which I do not know the meaning, the writer intended to engrave EROPOLIS, but stopped short after the letter P, the remainder being finished by ano- ther hand. Whatever doubt may remain on the first two lines of the inscription, the last two are perfectly clear, ERO C ASTRA, the camp of Ero. 'Hpo), Hero, says Stephanus Byzantinus, is an Egyptian city, which Strabo calls 'Hpcocov ttoXlv, HerodpoUs. The second inscription^ is more in- teresting, because it gives the distance from ERO to CLVSMA. If I had not found the other, it might have been doubtful whether we were at the start- ing-point ERO, especially as the distance given entirely disagrees with the numbers of the Itinerary of Antonine. A small fragment with the Greek word HPOT is also an evidence of the site of the city of Heroopolis. A very interesting confirmation of the identity of Pithom and Heroopolis is found in that passage of Genesis (xlvi. 28) which relates that Jacob, going to Egypt, " sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen." Here the Septuagint, who, as M. Lepsius rightly observes, must have known the geography of Egypt, differ from the Hebrew text, and translate, instead of Goshen, near Heroopolis in the land of Piamscs, Ka6^ 'Hpaxov ttoXlv eU yrju Paixecra-rj. The Coptic version, however, which was translated from the Septuagint, keeps the old name of the city, and ' Plate XL A. Plate XL B. STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 1 has, near Pithom the city in the land of Ramses, This striking coincidence shows that at the time when the Coptic version was made the old name had not yet been obhterated ; Heroopohs was still for the natives the abode of the god Tum, who very likely was still worshipped there. Ahou Keycheijd, or as it is called now Tell el Maskliutah, was the site of Heroopohs. The famous French geographer d'Anville,^ with his admirable acuteness, had already guessed the truth. More recently Quatremere, Champollion, Dubois Ayme, Le Pere, and LinantBey,^ adopted the same view, which has however been opposed in the most contemptuous terms by Dr. Schleiden,^ the originator of the theory of the Mediterranean Exodus. M. Lepsius* places Heroopohs at Magfar, three miles from Maskhutah. M. Brugsch in his earlier works supported the identity of Heroopohs and Pithom, which he translated "fortress;" but in his memoir on the Exodus, following Schleiden's system, he placed Pithom near lake Menzaleh, and Heroopohs near Suez, but on the other side of the gulf.^ This great discrepancy of opinion among such numerous and high authorities shows how difficult it is to reconstruct the ancient geography of Egypt upon the scanty information given by Greek and Roman authors, and how absolutely necessary it is to make excavations, in order to come to some definite results. Several interpretations have been proposed for the name of Heroopohs. M. Lepsius derives it from the god 'Hpw or 'Hpcov, who, as Champollion and Wilkinson rightly observe, is the equivalent of Tum in the inscription of the obelisk of Her- ' "Memoires sur I'Egypte," p. 121 et seq. - " Memoires sur les principaux travaux executes en Egypte," p. 158. ^ "Die Landenge von Sues," p. 120 et seq. * " Chronologie," p. 345. ^ Since this was written a very interesting article by M. Brugsch, in the "Deutsche Eevue," has brought forward before the German public the discovery of Pithoni-Hero- opolis. mapion, quoted by Ammianus Marcellinus. Hero- opohs then would be the city of Tum. But next comes this question : How can 'Hpd) be a translation of Tum? What is its derivation? Whence comes its etymology ? I believe that Heroopohs may be quite differently inter- preted and in a manner corresponding to the special character of the city. Among the titles of one of the Ptolemaic priests, we find the following: "cravSi Mer ar, "the keeper of the storehouse." Ar written with the initial d would be transcribed in Greek HP; and as the storehouse was one of the principal parts of Pithom which had been constructed as a store- city, it is quite possible that it may have given its name to the place. The discovery of the site of Heroopohs Pithom is of great importance for the reconstruction of the geography of the eastern part of the Delta. It is difficult not to admit that at the time of Rameses II. the Red Sea, or rather the Arabian Gulf, extended much further north than at pre- sent, and comprehended not only the Bitter Lakes but also Lake Timsah. Even supposing Heroopohs to have been the most important city near the sea before the foundation of Arsinoe, it would be strange that the Arabian Gulf should also have been called Heroopolitan, and that Strabo should say that Heroopohs was built at the end of the Arabian Gulf, eV ijlvx^ tov 'Apa^lov koXttov, if it had been about seventy Roman miles away from the sea. We may say, with M. Lepsius, that the ancients considered as a gulf the two large inner basins now called the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah, when they had been united by means of a wide canal, such as the work of Philadelphos ; but at the time of the Exodus the natural communica- tion must have existed. Dr. Schleiden himself, who opposes this opinion from distances taken from Herodotus and Strabo, agrees that the geological facts establish without any doubt a great extension of the Red Sea towards the north ; but 8 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. he maintains that we must go back to prehistoric times in order to find such a hydrographic state of the Delta. We shall revert to this subject when dealing with the geography of this district ; but for the present we may say that, on the contrary, all the authors, even of later times, speaking of Heroopolis, seem to point to the vicinity of the sea. Agathemeros^ says that the Arabian Gulf began at Heroopohs ; and Artemi- doros^ states that from there the ships started which went to the land of the Troglodytes : hence yve may safely conclude that not only at the time of the Exodus, but even under the Komans, the physical condition of that part of the Delta was very different from what it is now. This change, the consequences of which have been so consider- able, may even then have begun very gradually, very slowly to take place. It is not necessary to travel very long in the Delta in order to see that there has been much movement in the soil. In some parts it must have sunk considerably; as around Tanis or in Lake Menzaleh, where impor- tant ruins are several feet under water. In other places, which were certainly under water, it has risen. Heights have been upheaved, like the banks of Chalouf; the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah have become isolated ; and the Ked Sea has shrunk back as far as Suez. Let us consider two other names, referring not to Heroopolis itself, but to the region in which it was situate. The Septuagint, mentioning the land of Goshen, call it Goshen of Arabia,^ Peo-e/x 'Apa/3ia<;. Herodotus^ quotes Patumos as a cit}^ of Arabia, ndTovixo<; 17 'Apa/Sir]. Strabo speaks of Arabia as the land extending between the gulf and the Nile. This name, which was evidently imported from abroad, means first a vague region which was contiguous to Arabia proper ; through which lay the way to it ; and which was very ' "Googr. graeci min. Ed. Miiller," ii., p. 475. ' Strabo, xvi., p. 769. Gen xxxvi., 3-1. * Herod, ii., 158. possibly inhabited by a population of the same race. The Greeks speak of a nome of Arabia, just as on the western side there was a nome of Libya. The Arabian nome derived its name from its vicinity to Arabia. I believe that the name of the Egyptian region, called Arabia, exists in the hieroglyphics, and that it has been tran- scribed in Egyptian by two words which have a certain likeness in sound to the Semitic word. Arabia would be the eastern door ^ M ^ ' ro ab.' Osiris, who on the tablet of Philadelphos immediately follows the god Tum, is called the lord of Arabia, or rather of the Arabian city ^ . In two texts of Denderah,^ he is addressed in these words : Thou art in Pithom of Arabia iu TJaTovixu) tt} 'Apa^irj ; and again. Thou art in Pithom of Arabia, living like the living God. I I I T I I Lastly, we meet with another name which seems to be very ancient, and which belongs to a large region, the boundaries of which are not well marked ; it is the region of An ' °C5^ . Some- times, as on the statue of Ankh renp nefer, it is Tmn^ho is lord of An; generally it i& Hatlior who is the goddess of the country. This name is found in the lists as referring to the territory of the eighth nome, the nome of Pithom, and M. Brugsch has recognized in it the Aacant quoted by Pliny.*^ The learned Roman says that the Arabs call Aacant the gulf of the Red Sea on which Heroopolis is built — another proof that the sea extended very near Pithom. There are many more geographical names in the great tablet ; but several are difficult to identify owing to the bad state of the sculptured text. Of the others we shall speak in dealing with the geography and route of the Exodus. * "Dumiclien. Gcogr. Inschr.," ii., pi. 29, 3; i., pi. xcviii. , 12. « Plin. "Hist. Nat.," vi., 29, § 165. STOEE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. 9 THE DESCEIPTION OF PITHOM. The square area enclosed by enormous brick walls, the direction of which is visible in Plate I., contained a space of about 55,000 square yards. Before the excavations were begun, the ground was nearly flat, sloping gently towards the marshes. The traces of the former excavations were still visible. The highest part was be- tween the enclosure and the monolith. Here only there was a kind of mound, or hdm. Except the walls and the monolith, no ruins appeared anywhere ; not even such heaps of bricks and tumbled-down houses as usually mark the sites of ancient Egyptian cities. Judging from the aspect of the place, and the ordinary construction of Egyptian temples, it might have been thought that the enclosure was the temenos, the area belonging to the sacred building, which sometimes, as at Sdn, or still more at Thebes, covered a very extensive surface. The monolith would then have been at the en- trance of a long dromos leading to the temple. The result of my excavations has been to show that it was not so. The temple occupied only a small space in the south-western angle in the neighbourhood of the monolith ; or rather of the monoliths, for we know there was one on each side of the entrance. The naos of Ismailiah was found at a distance of less than thirty-two yards from the monolith, and it certainly could not have stood at the entrance of the temple, but at the farther end. Near the naos was found the great tablet of Philadelphos, of which it is said in the inscription that the king ordered it to be erected before his father Turn, the great god of Succoth. The whole temple extended on]y a little farther than the naos. It had not been finished, to judge from the big stones roughly hewn which were left there. One of them was cut in the form of a tablet ; another, a fine piece of black granite, had been cut in the form of a sitting statue, but was left unfinished, and abandoned, I should think as early as the time of Rameses II., the founder of the city. The temple was enclosed on both sides by walls, or square masses of bricks. It was a rectangular space, divided from the rest of the building. Very likely bricks were the materials of which the greatest part of it was built. The monuments which have been preserved are either of red or black granite, or a kind of red sandstone. The inner walls were made of white limestone of Toora, which, in spite of its Egyptian name, "the good stone of An," has no durability, is broken with the greatest facility, and does not resist the action of the air. Everywhere in the course of our excava- tions, pieces of that stone have turned up ; some- times a block from the foundation of a wall ; sometimes a fragment with one or two hiero- glyphic signs, showing that it was part of some sculpture ; sometimes also I found several feet deep of white gravel entirely composed of that stone, which had crumbled to pieces. Evidently a con- siderable number of inscriptions have been thus destroyed, and this explains why I found so few. It was in limestone that the buildings of the twenty-second dynasty, and of the Ptolemies were made. When the Romans levelled the ground, in order to establish their camp, they destroyed without mercy an immense number of inscriptions which would have been most precious to us. Many fragments of porphyry and gi-anite were scattered among the ruins of houses, having been used as mortars, mill-stones, or thresholds. \ Outside of the space which I consider as the temple, and excavating farther towards the north- east, we reached some very strange buildings, no indications of which appeared above the sand, but which, however, were of considerable extent. We came upon thick walls built of crude bricks, joined by thin layers of mortar. These walls are remarkably well built, and have a thickness of from two to three yards ; the surface being per- fectly smooth, and as well polished as possible with such a material as mere Nile mud. Everything 0 10 STORE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. indicates a very good epoch, when the Pharaohs built with the intention of making a lasting work. These are the walls of a great number of rect- angular chambers of various sizes, none of which had any communication with each other. In the first we reached,^ at about two yards from the surface, we found pieces of a very fine statue, in black granite, representing a sitting king, but without the uraBus. It had been thrown from the top, and had been broken into quite small pieces, showing that it must have fallen from a good height. The head only and the upper part of the bust had not suffered much ; and these have been removed to the Museum of Boolak. Lower still were bricks thrown without order, sand, earth, and limestone chips. It is evident that the intention had been to fill up the chamber to a certain height after the top had fallen in. About four yards from the soil the walls stand on natural sand, showing that it is the basis of the building. At the height of two yards from the bottom there are regular holes at corre- sponding distances on each side, where timber beams had been driven in. About one yard higher there is a recess in the wall at the same level in all the chambers which I excavated to that depth. The wall above had been covered with a kind of stucco, or white plaster. I excavated to the bottom of chambers 1 and 2 ; but seeing that they had been intentionally filled up, it seemed useless to go on emptying them, so I confined the work to digging deep enough to trace the direction of the walls, without attempting to go to the bottom. What was the object of those chambers ? I believe them to have been built for no other pur- pose than that of storehouses, or granaries, into which the Pharaohs gathered the provisions necessary for armies about to cross the desert, or even for caravans and travellers which were on the road to Syria. It is also very hkely that the ' No. 1 of the Map. Cf. Plato II. Ptolemies used them as warehouses in the trade with Africa, which took place through the Hero- opolitan Gulf. We know in fact, from the great tablet, that Pithom was one of the places to which the African vassals brought their tribute. For a border-fort, which was also a store-place, means of defence were necessary, and therefore it was surrounded by the very thick walls, part of which are yet preserved. These facts explain the shght difference which we find between the Septua- gint and the Hebrew text in speaking of Raamses and Pithom. The Hebrew calls them jnj3DD, which, according to Gesenius, means 'storehouses,' while the Septuagint translate TToXeis o^^upa?, ' fortified cities.' Both expressions are equally true. Hero- opolis at the entrance of the Gulf, the place from which fleets sailed to the Eed Sea, must have been a strong place with a garrison. Such certainly was the case under the Eomans, who called it the ' Camp of Ero.' I laid bare the upper part of the walls of several of these store-chambers, which I do not doubt extended over the greater part of the space surrounded by the enclosure. In order to make an exact plan, it would be necessary to dig the whole surface to a depth of three feet. Wherever shafts were sunk, I came across brick w^alls more or less decayed, and belonging to different ages. It would be impossible now to reconstruct the plan of these chambers in the eastern part, where the enclosure has disappeared. This part, being nearest the canal, was evidently encroached upon at an early period by the houses of the inhabitants, and the old constructions have sufi'ered. There the excavator finds a compact mass of bricks of all ages, in w^hich it is hopeless to trace any kind of plan ; but the part near the temple is in a much better condition. The chambers had no communication with each other; the access to them was only from the top. It is possible that the recess which exists in the wall was employed for an awning, or for supporting some kind of ceihng. If the chambers were filled with corn, it must have been thro"VMi STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 11 down from above and drawn up afterwards in the same way. The area thus occupied was of course not a convenient ground for a camp ; therefore the Romans filled up most of the chambers ; and they used for that purpose whatever came first to hand. Thus they have thrown down the fine black statue of the unknown king, and, what was still more precious, a beautiful pillar of Nectanebo I., which was entirely gilt on one side. This must have been a very fine monument. The fragments have been removed to Boolak. If all these cellars were excavated, it is quite possible that many other monuments, more or less broken, would be found in them, having been cast in to level the ground. If excavations are ever re- sumed at Pithom, the remaining store-chambers will have to be cleared out. The civil city of Thuhi extended all round the sacred buildings of Pithom, the Abode of Tum. There are traces of habitations on all sides ; and nearly all are of the time of the Romans. For a long time I entertained hopes of finding the ne- cropolis of Pithom. At the time when the canal was being dug, the workmen came across a great number of coffins in white calcareous stone, some of which were roughly carved in the shape of mummies. In other places, at a small depth in the sand, they found mummies enclosed in large earthen pots. The shafts which I sank led to no result. During several days my labourers were engaged in excavating a singular structure near the canal. It consisted of two masses of bricks, sloping gablewise, and resting on the sand. Instead of joining together at the top, however, they are separated by a kind of gutter about a yard wide. It might have been thought that underneath them could be found one, if not several coffins. We did not find anything, except at one end a pit in which bones of men, of dogs, and even of fishes, were intermingled with a few small amulets. THE HISTORY OF PITHOM. The founder of the city, the king who gave to Pithom the extent and the importance we recog- nize, is certainly Rameses II. I did not find any- thing more ancient than his monuments. It is possible that before his time there may have been here a shrine consecrated to the worship of Tum, but it is he who built the enclosure and the storehouses ; he is the only king whose name appears on the naos and on the monuments of Ismaihah. Nowhere is it said, as on the monolith of Abou Seyfeh,^ that he restored con- structions of former kings. Very likely he found it necessary for his campaigns in Asia to have storehouses for provisioning his armies ; and also means of defence against invaders from the East. We find here confirmation of the evidence derived from other monuments that he is the Pharaoh of the Oppression, as he built Pithom and Raamses, the site of which last is still uncertain. Rameses II. built much in the Eastern Delta ; it is clear that he attached great importance to that part of the country. There are ruins likewise at Tell Rotab, near Kassassin, which may possibly be also attri- buted to his reign. If there were cities like Pithom in the Wady Tumilat, there must have been a canal to supply them with the necessary water. We know, in fact, from Strabo ^ that according to tradition, it was Sesostris who first attempted to dig a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. After Rameses, Menephtah, who built much at Tanis, (San) did not neglect Succoth, We know from the papyri that there was a fortress here bearing his name ; but I did not find his oval anywhere, not even on the bricks. It is extra- ordinary that among the hundreds of bricks which I examined at Pithom, I never found one bearing a royal stamp. It does not appear that the kings of the ' Prisse, "Mon. Eg.," pi. xix. c 2 ' L. L, p. 38. 12 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. twentieth dynasty did anything for Pithom. It is possible, however, that to the reign of one of those sovereigns we may attribute a calcareous stone with three faces,^ on which there is repre- sented a king worshipping Horus. This king had evidently returned from a successful campaign, for on one side he is seen bearing his mace and his bow, while, on the other, he holds by the hair a prisoner with his hands tied behind his back. The two broken cartouches, traces of which are still visible, are impossible to decipher. If he was a king of the twentieth dynasty he would not be the only one of this family who is met with in the Delta ; for independently of Rameses III., who built much at Tell el Yahoudeh, the name of Seti II. is found at Tanis. After Rameses II., the kings who seem to have done most for Pithom are those of the twenty- second dynasty, the kings of Bubastis — Sheshonk I. (Shishak),^ of whom we have a fragment in black granite, and especially Osorkon II., who very likely enlarged the temple of Tum. On several occasions I found fragments of calcareous stone, generally cornices, on which the name of Osorkon II. was painted in red, in order to be sculptured after- wards : the red colour disappeared when exposed to the sun, but I could distinctly read the name. Besides, to his time belongs one of the most attractive monuments found during the excava- tions, namely, the statue of the Atennu, the lieutenant of the king, Aiikh renp nefer,^ who speaks of Pithom as a place where Osorkon celebrated festivals. For kings hke Shishak and Osorkon, who had repeatedly to fight the nations of Asia, it was very important to hold the cities com- manding the roads leading to the desert ; and therefore we find them building on the northern route at San and on the southern at Pithom. I attribute also to Osorkon II. the sitting statue which had been thrown in the chamber No. 1. I should think the stone for this statue had been brought under Rameses II. It was in- tended to be one of a pair, for, as already noticed, there was at the end of the temple a large block of the same stone roughly carved in the form of a sitting statue of the same size, which had been left unfinished. The two portions of another statue, unfinished and very roughly hewn, were found walled in a door-post of Roman time. On the back I could decipher the name of one of the Taheloths. The Pharaoh who fought the Persians, Nckht- horheh or Nectaneho J., also built at Pithom, and, strange to say, with a richness which would not be expected in a city of that kind. At the northern end of the excavations, between the enclosure and the outer wall of the chambers, I found, together with many pieces of granite, some fragments of a pillar of calcareous stone of a bluish colour. The sculptures are of the best workmanship. They represent scenes of offerings to the god Tum ; and one of the sides is entirely covered with very thin gold, remarkably well preserved. I suppose it is to the Romans that we must attri- bute the destruction of this beautiful monument. It was not possible to make out anything from the inscriptions, except one of the ovals of the king, and the name of Succoth.^ By far the most important monument dis- covered at Pithom is the great tablet of Philadel- phos, which was near the naos. It records what was done for Pithom by the king and his queen and sister Arsinoe II. The day before it was found, the workmen laid bare the base of a statue of which the feet only were left, and on which were sculptured two royal ovals. ^ One contained the the name of Arsinoe; the other was unknown. Next day, when the great tablet was discovered, I saw that Arsinoe had adopted two ovals, one of which is a kind of coronation name, Kum ah Shu mer netcru. The tablet, which unfortunately is very hard to read, is a very interesting document ' Plate VI. ' Plate III. b. s Frontispiece and Plate IV. * Plate III. c. « Plate VII. c. STOEE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. 13 not only as regards the history of Pithom, but also as regards that of Ptolemy Philadelphos. We learn from it that Pithom and the neighbouring city of Arsinoe, which the king founded in honour of his sister, were the starting points of commercial expeditions to the Red Sea ; and that from thence one of Ptolemy's generals went to the land of the Troglodytes and founded the city of Ptolemais Orjpwv, for the special purpose of facilitating the chase of elephants. And it was to Heroopolis that the ships brought those animals, which played such an important part in the warfare of the successors of Alexander. For a general of that time it was as important to have an elephant force, as in our days it is essential to have a strong body of artillery. We learn also that close to Pithom there was a city called Piherehet, or Pikeheret, which must have been an important place, judging from the amount of taxes which the king attributes as revenue to its temple. THE MONUMENTS DISCOVEEED. We will now study more closely the principal monuments discovered during the excavations. Plate III. A. — The large monuments of Rameses, now at Ismailiah, have been known for several years. Besides the name of the royal founder, which we learn from them, we see also that Tum Harmachis was the divinity of the place. To him was dedicated the naos in red sandstone, in the base of which a sphinx is sculptured. The naos is not perfect. The fore-part has been broken ; but I found part of it, bearing the upper portion of the name of Rameses and the words ^ ^ (s^ , the lord of Thehu, of Succoth. It is possible that underneath there was the sign which has been broken away. This small frag- ment shows that the name of Succoth was already in use in the time of Rameses II., and that it was considered as a border land. Plate III. b.^ — I found only a small fragment of this tablet, which, judging from the stone of which it was made, and the style of the engraving, was certainly very fine. Two goddesses, repre- senting Upper and Lower Egypt, promise a long and prosperous reign to a king who makes an offering to them. This king is Sheshonk I. (Shishak), whose name is still legible. The Bubastite kings, and particularly Shishak, must have used the storehouses of Pithom for pro- visioning their armies going to Syria. Feontispiece and Plate IV. — One of the most elegant monuments found at Pithom belongs to the twenty- second dynasty. It is the statue of Ankli renp nefer ^ J now at the British Museum, and of which we here print the inscriptions. This statue is of red granite, and represents a squatting man with his hands crossed on his knees. Before him is a small naos containing a figure of Osiris. On the knees are engraved the two ovals of Osor- kon II. (F), of whom he was an officer, and between the hands is the monogram of Ankh renp nefer (E). At each side, sculptured on the legs, are representations of gods who promise their protection to the deceased. The inscriptions con- cerning them are engraved on the sides of the naos (C and D). Even on both sides of the head Osiris and Sokaris are engraved. Ankh renp nefer was ^a^aaa ,^ first lieutenant of tJie king. This title is very like another belonging to the same locality ; the lieutenant or tvakeel of the territory of Succoth ^ [X] His other titles are the great inspector of the palace ; the good recorder of Tum or of Pithom, P ^ ^ J or /ww«'-^'f% ; lastly, a title of which I do not * Here, as well as in the Ptolemaic inscription, Plate VII. a. 1. 2, the sign U~2 has the form nH . It is a variant, which is found also in the Eosetta stone, passim j <^> instead of and I I I instead of mi j\ ra © n © ' "Pap. Anastasi," V. Brugsch, "Eev. Egyp.," i., p. 22 et seq. 14 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. know the meaning, ^ | , which I beHeve to be read hehaa. These titles seem to indicate some civil or judicial office. Ankh renp nefer recites his own praises in the three lines of text engraved on the back of the statue (A) : — Line 1. The first lieutenant of the king, the first inspector of the palace, Ankh renp nefer speaks thus : " I had the right of entering the palace, I was honoured by my lord who gave me his praise, I entered before him at the head of his in- timates . . ." Li7ie 2. I inquired for the royal will,' and I went out bearing his order, banishing misery and softening quarrelsome talk . . . Line 3. His obedient son has dedicated to his father Pithom the abode of the festivals of the king,^ the divine offspring of Ea, Osorkon, beloved of Amon, son of Bast. I found the way . . . On the sides of the naos are the following in- scriptions ; on the right side (D) : — Amon Ka Mut and Khonsu, grant that may last the name of the good recorder of Turn, the god of the region of An, Ankh renp nefer, the kebaa of the abode of Turn (Pithom) the god of An. And on the left (C) :— Horemkhu Shu and Tefnut, grant that may last the name of the first inspector of the palace, the good recorder of the abode of Turn, the god of An. On the top of the naos is an inscription which repeats the title of first inspector of the palace, and adds the title of Kebaa, with the name of a city, which may be Bubastis, although the sign which reads Bast is different from that which occurs in the cartouches of Osorkon. 1\J . This sentence is difficult because of the group | . In the tablet of Ptolemy Philadelphos the king is called | dates, which seem to indicate that means 'royal :' the royal sound of loords means very likely the Royal will or the Eoyal command, 1 3* I consider those words as a variant of According to M. Brugsch, "Diet.," vol. viii., p. 8U5, this group means an abode in the form of a tdjd or tahernude. Plate V. — To the period of the last Pharaohs, but probably later than the preceding monument, we must refer another statue, also of a squatting man, in black granite, with inscriptions engraved on both front and back. It was made for a priest of the name of Aah. The inscription on the back reads thus : — Let a Eoyal offering be made to Seb, let all the funeral oiTerings, geese and oxen, be given to the Prince, the head of the prophets, Aak, the justified, the beloved. Thy spirit is in heaven among the stars, thou art one of the gods. Prince Aak. The inscription in front is much more difficult. It gives us the titles of Aak in full : — The first Erpa (Prince) of Sept, the lord of the East, the head of the prophets of Turn, the great god of Succoth, Aak, the son of Atsheb, speaks thus : " I am he in whom the great Sahu appears. He is not driven back, the judges have not found anything hateful. All that appears on the altar of Turn is for thy Ka, Aak ; we give (?) thee every day the things . . . . " The god ^ ^ , Sept or Sopt, is often desig- nated by this title lord of the East, or even lord of Asia.^ He is also the god of the twentieth nome of Lower Egypt, the nome of Phacusa. In the middle of the inscription, the deceased addresses the priests of the locality. The first of them has a curious name, .Auliau unti.^ This title is found again in a Ptolemaic text from Pithom (Plate VII. b), with the variant \T . He seems to have been one special priest chosen among the class of the r\ , Auliau.^ This last name reminds us of the ^ ^ nome of Sais. It is very hkely that this title occurred on a list of priests at Denderah,® where the texts concerning Pithom are destroyed. Auliau means properly with lojig limbs. It is one ' Brugsch, " VGlkertafel," p. 30. * I have adopted the new reading a for the sign . cf. Brugsch, "Diet. Hier.," vol. vii., p. 500. ' Cf. Plate A^I. A and B. ' Brugsch, "Diet. Geog.," p. 137G. STOEE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 15 of those titles which have a symbolic sense, of which we do not understand the meaning or the origin, and it was peculiar to the locality of Succoth. A man might be an auhau, and at the same time an | j ^ prophet ; a usual title, found in all the temples of Egypt. The deceased ad- dresses the priests who are entering the temple : Au hau unti, and all the priests who go into the sacred abode of Turn, the great god of Succoth, let them say that a royal offering he made to the Ka of the beloved of the great god . . . that the ceremonies be made to the Ka of him tvhose name is not destroyed ^ in the temple before " &c. This inscription alone would be sufficient to prove that it was the Abode of Tum, Ha Tum, or Pithom of Succoth, which lay buried under Tell el Maskhutah. No oval of any king gives us the reign to which this monument belongs. It is very likely, however, that it is earlier than the Ptolemies. I should not be surprised if it dated from a dynasty later than the twenty-second, for example, from the time of Nectanebo I., who, as we have seen, enlarged the temple of Pithom. Plate VI. — Before going on to the Ptolemaic monuments, I must mention a three-sided calcare- ous stone, on each face of which is an engraved subject. In the middle we see a king with his hands raised, in the act of worshipping the god Horus. The lower part of his cartouche is still extant ; but, despite the most careful inspection, I could not succeed in deciphering these signs, and therefore in determining the king whose name they contain. The same king appears on the two other faces ; on one he holds his bow and his mace and seems about to start for a military expedition ; on the other, on the contrary, he holds by the hair a prisoner with his elbows tied behind his back, which indicates that the campaign must have been successful, and that the king had been victorious. This stone was found among remains of the cal- careous wall at the foot of the monolith. ' The negative lias been omitted. Plate VII. a, b. — Following the chronological order, we now come to two monuments of which we have only small fragments, but which are both important. These fragments belonged to two statues of white limestone which had been erected in symmetrical relation to each other. One of them is the statue of a man of which we have about two-thirds, while the shoulder only of the statue of the woman has been preserved. The size and the style of the inscription, and all else, indi- cate that these monuments were erected together. The statue of the man, discovered on the 10th of February, was the first thing which confirmed the opinion I had formed at Ismailiah, that Maskhutah was the site of Pithom and not of Eaamses. There are three lines of text at the back of the statue : unfortunately they are broken at the top and at the end : Line 1. — I go into his abode with joy, and I go out with praise. My lord Tum and my lady Hathor give me food and provisions in abundance, all good things, and children in great number. The next line gives us the titles of the priest : Line 2. — the metal vase ;^ the Auhau, the chief of ,^ the head of the storehouse, the official of the temple of Tum of Succoth, the prophet of Hathor of An, the prophet Pames * Isis, the son of the Auhau, the official the prophet thou art pure in the presence of all ; thou pleasest thy lady Hathor, who is in perpetual joy ; she grants that thy name may remain with this statue,^ in the abode of Tum the great living god of Succoth. It will not be destroyed. The few signs which are still extant of the inscription of the other statue are interesting, 2 Brugsch, " Diet. Hier.," vol. vii, p. 1261. * fu ^^^^^ ^ a new word, of which I do not know the sense. * On the reading mes of the lock of hair , cf. Bergmann, "Hier. Inschr.," p. 16. ^ . The papyrus Ebers contains a word 1^ which M. Brugsch compares to the Coptic UIGCICIUT, which would have no sense here. I trans- lated conjecturally statue. M. Brugsch, in a private letter, writes that in this instance it is the only meaning acceptable . 16 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. because they give us twice the special name of the priests of Succoth. The first Hne contained the names and titles of the priestess : The beloved of her lord, the Auhau unt Men , ■ . of Hor Sam Toui in all seasons. . . . thy name, like thy father the Auhau of the great Tsis. Plates VIII. to X. — We have now to study the most important monument discovered — the great inscription of Ptolemy Philadelphos ; or, as it may well be called, the Stone of Pithom. The tablet has a height of four feet three inches, and a width of three feet two inches. It is now pre- served in the Museum of Boolak. This tablet, judging from its context, was in- tended to be an important historical record of certain acts of the second Ptolemy. It is to be regretted that it is engraved so carelessly that the interpretation of it is very difficult, and that merely to get a quite correct copy of it, it will be necessary to collate it several times with the original. The scenes of adoration with which it begins are sculptured very fairly, although the inscriptions are not finished. The first line of the text is quite legible ; but after this the engraver becomes more and more careless. He does not seem to have even calculated the length of the signs which he had to put in ; in the middle lines we see large signs badly drawn, irregular, and sometimes separated by blanks. Suddenly, at line twenty-four, the style changes, the engraver being perhaps replaced by one more skilful ; and we have hieroglyphics of the Ptole- maic style, much smaller, but well engraved and easy to read. In such conditions, it is impossible to give a complete translation of the tablet, which contains many new words and geographical names, which add to the difficulty of decipherment. It is therefore only a first attempt, a rough sketch, which I now venture to offer, both as regards the transcription and translation of the text. There are many blanks in the inscription which might be filled up by a careful comparison with the original. The plates are engraved from my own paper casts, and from photographs made by Mr. Emile Brugsch. These plates will have to be completed ; they cannot be considered as more than the first sight of the document. I must appeal to my learned colleagues who may study the tablet at Boolak, in order to assist me in the reconstruction of this text, the importance and interest of which are particularly striking. The tablet reads from right to left, and begins with three scenes of adoration. In the first, the king Ptolemy Philadelphos offers the image of Ma to several standing divinities. The first is Turn, the great god of Succoth, the heloved eternally for ever, the lord of heaven, the Mng of the gods. Behind him comes Osiris, the lord of Bo Ah (the Arabian city ), who resides at Pihehercth. Behind him comes Harmachis, whose name has been forgotten, as well as that of Hathor. Lastly, the queen Arsinoe II., dressed as a goddess, with her two cartouches, the royal wife, the royal sister, the princess queen of the tivo lands, Num ah en Sliu mer neteru, Arsinoe, the mighty Isis, the great Hathor, This scene is accompanied by the following texts : The offering of Ma to his father, ivho gives him life. As usual, the gift is followed by a promise or a recompense on the part of the god who is thus worshipped. Tum says : I give thee an eternal duration, and a reign without end. Osiris: I give thee the crown of Ba in heaven. Harmachis : I give thee dominion and victory over all lands. Hathor: I give thee the offering of cdl lands as to Ba. Arsinoe : I give thee panegyrics in great number before the gods. Near this scene are two other ones, but facing the opposite side, so that the two representations of Arsinoe are back to back. The divinities are also less numerous. First, Tum the great living god of . . . — the inscription is not finished ; then Hathor, and then again Arsinoe. This time the offering consists of two vases of milk. STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 17 Turn says : I give thee those . . . ivith joy as to Ra. Hathor : I give thee as an offering all the countries which are under thy feet. Arsinoe : I give thee to live near thy father Turn, who gives thee panegyrics. A third scene shows Ptolemy before a king who is certainly his father Ptolemy Soter. His son presents him with a symbolic eye, and the father answers : I give thee all the countries and all the lands as to Ra eternally. I will endeavour now to give the sense of part of the tablet ; premising that this is only a first attempt, which will have to be revised and com- pleted both as to the text and the translation : — Line 1. — The living Horus, the victorious child, the lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, the very valiant, the golden Horus who has been crowned by his father, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, the lord of the two lands, Userkara mer Amon, the son of Ra, the lord of diadems, Ptolemy, living like Ra eternally ; Turn the great living god of Succoth, the living Tum, the first of the living on earth, like Ra eternally ; all life is derived from him ; he loves the gods and goddesses of the Heroopolitan nome,^ and lives eternally; Line 2. — the living and beautiful god, the child of Tum, who united both thrones . . . the illustrious issue of Unnofris, who lasts like Turn for ever, the living image of Tum the grea.t god of Succoth, the admirable likeness of Harmachis, the divine blood of Tum the lord of the two On, the glorious descendant of Khepra ; he has been suckled by Hathor the lady of Ant. AVhen he was born, the atef crown was on his head ; Line 3. — the two snakes are on his brow, when he receives it (the atef crown), for he has been nursed to be the lord of her who brought him forth . . . standing in his place like a king, like a prince in his palace, like his son Hor Sam Toui the great god who resides at Succoth. It is he who joined the thrones of the two gods, who honoured his father Tum above millions, he who has averted the enemy from this land ..... The following lines are so uncertain that it is impossible to give a translation. The eulogy of the king seems to continue ; but instead of the commonplace formulas which we found in the first three lines, we have here some direct ' We do not know the reading of the compound sign which represents the name of the eighth nome. I call it by the Greek name, Heroopolis. allusions to what the king has done. It is said that he fights for Egypt and protects its children ; then, that he collects horses, and ships on the sea, that he averts the Tesheru, the nomads of the Arabian desert. After some very obscure expres- sions mention is again made of his great military deeds, of the gathering of horses, and of some- thing which takes place on the sea. The narrative begins at the end of the sixth line. The sixth year, Line 7. — under the reign of His Divine Majesty ; when it was reported to him that the abode had been finished for his father Tum, the great god of Succoth ; the third day of the month of Athyr, His Majesty went himself to Heroopolis, in the presence of his father Tum. Lower Egypt was in rejoicing the festival of his birth. When His Majesty pro- ceeded to the temple of Pikerehet, he dedicated^ this temple to his father Tum the great living god of Succoth, in the festival of the god. Line 8 commences with something relating to the revenues of the temple. Next follows : His Majesty made this fine abode, which was erected by the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ptolemy, to his father Tum. There was no fine abode like this in the time of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. He who built it to his venerable father, it is the golden Horus, Userkara mer Amon, the son of Ra, the lord of thrones, Ptolemy, who lives eternally. Again His Majesty proceeded to ... in order to do the business of his father Line 9. — Tum ... • The text becomes again very indistinct. It refers evidently to all that the king has done, in order to enlarge and adorn the before- mentioned temple of Pikeheret, of which it has just spoken. It is remarkable that the text speaks of horses which are brought from the land of To-neter ; for the inhabitants of To-neter honour the hing and bring him their tributes. At the following line (1. 11) we come across several geographical names, such as Pithom, '^U]'^, I read the first word sarh, lit. lie finished. I suppose it to be a kind of dedication or con- secration. Cf. 1. 21 : [| "^^^ J ^ , all the cere- monies of dedication ; 1. 28. _ ^ _ , he dedicated the temple there (at Succoth). - ? 18 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. and other places which I could not make out completely. Here, I believe, occurs the first mention of the canal, in a very obscure sentence which speaks of joining the sands (? ) of the canal (?) which is cast of Kharma, on its eastern side, to the lake of the scorpion. We know, in fact, from the lists, that Kharma was a landing-place on a canal, and that the laJce of the scorpion ^^^^ was the lake of the eighth nome. The above sentence must be compared to that which is found in line 12, /vwvvA <:^> 1 1 L/7T\ III \> I I H © , translated literally : He made a lake of their sands, ivhich became the great eastern canal of Egypt, as far as Ronif; all Egypt ivas in joy. It is clear that this work must have been of high importance, since it was celebrated as a great benefit in the whole country. It appears that this great enterprise was undertaken in connec- tion with a journey performed by the king, in which he found the gods of Egypt, which he brought back (lines 11 and 12), and which, as far as I can judge, he placed at Pithom (line 13). The canal of the East is mentioned also in an inscription of Edfoo which gives a measurement of the land of Egypt ;^ there was also a canal of the West. I suppose the place called "^ T^ © Ronif, literally, the gate of the wind, must have been somewhere near the end of the canal, at the place where the ships ceased to row and began to sail ; it must be in the region called further Kemuerma. All these lines, as well as the following, are very obscure ; this being perhaps the one part of the whole tablet which it is most desirable to collate thoroughly, in order that the large gaps may be filled up, and the real sense, which I give here conjecturally, may be ascer- tained. I am obliged to pass on to line 15. In his twelfth year Philadelphos comes with his sister Arsinoe to Heroopolis. In the next • Eouge, "Inscriptions d'Edfou," Tlate CXVI., 10. line there is another date, but it is uncertain. Here the king seems to have fixed the amount of revenue which was to be brought to the gods. This revenue is given in kind and in money. We find catalogues of the offerings of cattle, wood, hins of oil and honey, and besides utens of silver. We have here also many geo- graphical names which occurred before, and of which some are new, as well as several of the common names. Though still very badly engraved, the text is more readable, from the middle of line 20 : . . . After these things, His Majesty •went to Kemuerma (the shore of Kemuer) ; he founded there a large city to his sister, Line 21. — with the illustrious name of the daughter of king Ptolemy ; a sanctuary was built there to the princess who loves her brother ; the statues of the gods PhUadelphi were erected, and the ceremonies of dedication were made by the prophets and priests of his father Tum, the great living god of Succoth, as it is usual in the temples of Upper and Lower Egypt. At the first month His Majesty called for transports, Line 22. — ships laden with all the good things of Egypt to the first general of His Majesty . . . they sailed to Kemuerma he navigated m the Eed Sea ; he arrived at Khatit. Line 23. — He reached the land of the negroes he brought provisions to the king he sailed in the sea in the lake of the scorpion. He brought all the things which are agreeable to the king and to his sister his royal wife ; and he budt a great city to the king with the illustrious name of the king, the lord of Egypt, Ptolemy. Line 24. — And he took possession of it with the soldiers of His Majesty and all the workmen of Egypt and the land of Punt (?) ; he made there fields and cultivated them with ploughs and cattle ; he did not come back before it was done. He caught elei^hants in great number for the king and he brought them on his ships to the king, on his trans- ports on the sea. He brought them also on the Eastern Canal ; no such thing had ever been seen by any of the kings of tlie land. There came ships and ships to Kemuerma .... there was abundance after scarcity. Line. 25 they know in their hearts the admirable qualities of the king. When he arrives, the chiefs bring him their tributes, for they honour the king in their hearts ; they gather their taxes in his storehouse of this harbour where the king has done all these things, the harbour of his father Tum the great living god of Succoth. It is Ra who made it, Ra who has done all that he desired. He has done it for his son who loves him, the sou of Ra, the lord of thrones, Ptolemy. After these things, the king lionoured Apis and Mnevis, Line 26. — and ho caused them to be put together, until STORE-CITY or PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. 19 they entered again their abodes. His Majesty and his Royal Consort honoured them as it had never been done before by any of the foregoing kings. The account of all the taxes which His Majesty has given as revenues to the two divisions of Egypt, on the income of each year of gold. His Majesty gave 150,000 argentei. The account of all the taxes which His Majesty has given as revenues to Pikerehet, taxes due by the houses of the city and taxes due by the inhabitants, Line 27. — as income of each year 950 argentei. His Majesty has given tliem in his first panegyry to his father Turn, of whom are born all his limbs, and who gave him life. It has been provided for his needs by the hands of Isis and Nephthys, the thirtieth day of the month of Athyr. The twenty-first year, the first day of the month of Pharmuti, under the reign of His Majesty, account of all the taxes which His Majesty has given as income to the temples of Upper and Lower Egypt; taxes due by the houses of Egypt 90,000 uten of silver; taxes due by the inhabitants as taxation of each year 660,000 argentei. These revenues which have been given to his father Turn and to the gods of Egypt, have been inscribed Line 28. — on this tablet before his father Tum the great living god of Succoth, on the day of the coronation of the king, when he dedicated the temple which is there; this day has become the day of festival of the city. The gods and men of the city are in joy and celebrate him because of those gi'eat deeds, in all times, in order that may last the illustrious name of His Majesty in this land for ever. He shines like Horus the creator of the living ; he is his son who abides on the throne of Egypt during his time ; all the lands bow down before his will, and all strange nations are united under his feet as to Ra, for ever, eternally. Plate XI. — Besides the hieroglyphic monu- ments, I have found also two Latin inscriptions, of which I here give facsimiles. The first was found near the entrance, only a few feet distant from the monolith, in a calcareous wall, which very likely belonged to a gate. It is easy to see that the inscription was cut by two different hands. The first hand stopped in the middle of the P of the second line. These characters were engraved deeply and with a certain care ; but then the engraver left off"; or perhaps the same man, a soldier, who did it with some rough instrument, found the method slow, and wished to finish quickly. However, it seems cer- tain that he wished to write EEOPOLIS after the two letters LO, of which I do not know the meaning. POLIS is quite distinct, as well as the following words ERO CASTRA, as to which there is no possible doubt. We have here therefore the ERO of the Itinerary of Antoninus, the Greek 'HPSl, 'Hpdioiv TTokiq which we know from the passage of Ste- phanus Byzantinus quoted before. The other inscription is more important, because it bears a date. It must be referred to 306 or 307 A.D. It reads thus : — " Dominis nostris victoribus, Maximiano et Severo im- peratoribus, et Maxiniino et Constantino nobilissimis CaesariVjus, ab Ero inClusma, M. Villi. — ©. " Under our victorious lords, the emperors Maximianus and Severus, and the most illustrious Caesars Maximinus and Constantine, from Ero to Clusma there are nine miles. — Nine." Thus, if we consult this inscription, the reading of which is absolutely certain, there are only nine miles from Ero to Clusma. Turning to the Itinerary of Antoninus^ we read that there are eighteen miles from Ero to Serapiu, and fifty from Serapiu to Clusma, which makes a sum of sixty-eight. We are therefore compelled to admit that one of the documents is wrong, either the Itinerary or the milestone, in which the engraver would thus have made a double mistake. For, as it was usual in the provinces where Greek was spoken, the distance is given both in Latin and Greek. The sign which is at the end of the last line is a 6, which means niae.^ Besides, unlike the other one, this inscription is complete ; there is no gap, no unfinished character, all the letters have been engraved with the same care. It would, indeed, be extraordinary that the engraver should have made a mistake precisely in the numbers which gives the distance to the next station. He would thus have done just the reverse of what the stone was intended for. The stone does not seem to have had any other purpose than to mark a station for soldiers and travellers, and to indicate the length of the road to the next city or camp. We may reasonably admit that this distance was 1 "Itinerarium Antonini," p. 170, ed Wesseling. ' I am indebted for this valuable information to a kind letter from Prof. Th. Mommsen. The eminent Latin scholar says there can be no doubt as to the correctness of the inscription. D 2 20 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. given correctly, and that it was not stated at more than fifty miles shorter than its actual length. Therefore, in examining the evidence in favour of the written text and the engraved inscription, I cannot help thinking that the stone is right ; and it agrees with a fact on which I shall have to dwell later, the vicinity of Pithom to the head of the Arabian Gulf. GEOGKAPHICAL REMARKS. We have now again to consider the inscriptions which have been translated, and to draw from them some information regarding the geography of the Eastern region of the Delta ; and particu- larly what is now called the Wadi Tumilat. It will chiefly be the tablet of Philadelphos on which our argument will be based. The tablet, as we have seen,^ begins with three scenes of offering, which differ in the names and number of the gods to whom the sacred gifts are brought. We see first Tum of Succoth, Osiris of Pikeheret, Har- machis, Hathor, and Arsinoe. The next scene shows us Tum, Hathor, and Arsinoe, who are turned to the left ; this circumstance indicating that the second scene does not refer to the same historical fact as the first. We have seen in the inscription, at first, a narrative of what Philadel- phos has done at Pikerehet, or Pikeheret, the city of Osiris, in which, nevertheless, there was also an abode of Tum. Pikerehet plays an important part in the tablet of Philadelphos, the last lines of which give the amount of taxes which were granted as income to the temple of the city. According to the diflerent lists of nomes, we see that the capital of the eighth nome of Lower Egypt is either Pi Tum or Pike- rehet, sometimes written Se Kerehet f but, which- ever name is mentioned, it is always added that it ' Plate VIII. ' j|i^;^* ^°"Se, "Inscr. d* Edfou," PI. CXLV. belongs to the region of Succoth. I believe there- fore that Heroopolis, or rather the capital of the region of Succoth, contained two sanctuaries, very near to each other. Pi Tum and Pikerehet ; the last one being nearer the sea than Pi Tum, which travellers coming from Heliopolis first reached. If now we remember that we have given to the milestone the preference over the text of the Itinerary, and that we have thus reduced the sixty- eight miles from Ero to Clusma to nine, the result is that all distances are considerably shortened ; and that the eighteen miles which the Itinerary puts between Ero and Serapiu must have been only a very short interval. And this leads me to the conclusion that Serapiu is nothing else than the Latin name of Pikerehet. This place is the only Serapeum, the only sanctuary of Osiris of which we know the existence in that part of the country. Another proof in favour of this idea is the fact that the Itinerary describes a road sixty miles long, which goes from Serapiu to Pelusium, and of which the stations are indicated. The description of that road follows immediately that of the road from Heliopolis to Clusma, of which Serapiu was the last station but one. Se- rapiu was therefore a branch station from which two roads started, one of which led to Clusma, the other to Pelusium. Now, supposing Serapiu to be eighteen miles south of Heroopolis, as most of the maps indicate it, near the present Bitter Lakes, or even farther towards Suez, there is no reason why it should have been a starting-point, or a junction, or why the road of Pelusium should have branched off at that point. If such had been the case, the traveller going from Heliopolis to Pelusium would have had to pass through Ero, and thence to go on to Serapiu ; then from Se- rapiu he must have retraced his steps, if not through Ero, at least close to it, through a line parallel to that which he had just followed. But if Serapiu Pikerehet is close to PJro Pi Tum the difficulty is easily solved. The traveller coming from Heliopolis went through Ero and STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 21 reached the neighbouring sanctuary of Serapiu. K he wished to go to the sea, he followed the canal, and arrived at Clusma nine miles distant ; if he wanted to go to Pelusium, he left the canal at Serapiu and turned to the north. The authors who speak of Heroopolis are unani- mous in declaring that the city was near the sea, at the head of the Arabian Gulf, which was also called Heroopolitan. Strabo and Pliny declare it in the most distinct way. The geographer Ptolemy places Heroopolis and Arsinoe at the head of the Arabian Gulf, in the same degree of latitude. The consequence of this agreement in the testi- mony of the Greeks and the Romans is that, as we said before, we must admit that formerly, under the dominion of the Romans, the Red Sea extended much farther north than it does now ; but that then the retreat of the sea, and the changes in the surface of the soil had already begun to be felt. Not only were the Bitter Lakes under water, but I believe we are compelled to admit with Linant Bey,^ who derives his arguments from geology, that Lake Timsah, and the valleys of Saba Biar and Abu Balah were, under the Pharaohs, part of the sea. Some traces of this may be seen on the map of the French engineers drawn at the end of last century. Contiguous to Lake Timsah there is a narrow extension towards the west which has the appearance of the head of a gulf. Thus the sea would have extended as far as the place now called Magfar, only three miles from Heroopolis. There the canal ended which, before the time of Neko, watered the land of Goshen and the cities like Pithom, which were built in the Wadi Tumilat. It is possible that the canal was traced and dug in an imperfect way : at the end there may have been those marshes and pastures in which the Bedawees of Atuma asked the Pharaoh Menephtah to allow them to pasture their cattle. * " Memoire sur les principaux travaux d'utilite publique executes en Egypte," p. 195. It must have been at the head of the gulf near Heroopolis that the upheaval of the soil, and the retreat of the sea were first felt. Gradually the water sank, the communication with the gulf was partly cut off, and there remained salt marshes such as are seen at present in several parts of the Delta, and which were called by Strabo and Pliny the Bitter Lakes. Linant Bey^ very justly observes that the Bitter Lakes of the ancients cannot be identical with those of to-day, the extent of which is so considerable that it is quite impossible that they should have be- come sweet after the water of the Nile had been admitted into them, as we learn from Strabo. At the time of the Pharaohs there were some Bitter Lakes at the head of the gulf near Heroopolis. Linant Bey's statement is confirmed by Pliny,^ who says that the length of the canal is thirty-seven miles as far as the Bitter Lakes. Taking the be- ginning of the canal near Bubastis, as we know from Herodotus, thirty-seven miles would carry us only a little further than Pithom. It was through those lakes, or rather through those marshes, that Philadelphos cut his canal, on the banks of which he built Arsinoe, the city which according to the hieroglyphic text was situate at Kemuerma. I consider the word Kemuerma as meaning the shore or the landing-place of Kemuer^ And this name reminds me of one of the oldest papyri which have come down to us, the papyrus of Berlin, N°. L, which relates the travels and the adventurous life of an Egyptian called Saneha.^ This fugitive relates that in his vagrant journey he arrived at the lake of Kemuer v\ which evidently was a salt lake. Thirst, says he, overtook me in my journey, my throat loas parched ; ^ Id., p. 178. ^ Du Bois Ayme, " Memoire sur les anciennes limites de la mer Eouge," ed. Panckouke, p. 380. * Cf. Brugsch, Diet. Hier. vol. vi., p. 536. ' Cf. Maspero, " Melanges d'arclieologie," 209 et seq. ; Goodwin, " Kecords of the Past," vol. vi. 22 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. I said this is the taste of death. Fortunately for him, he saw a Bedawee, a Sati, who brought him some water; and he escaped thus from dying of thirst. It is interesting to know that at that time, long before Rameses II., that part of the country was inhabited by Sati, Asiatic Bedawees, against whom the Pharaohs had to fight ; for before arriving at Kemuer, Saneha had passed a fortress which the king had made to keep off the Sati. It was for the same purpose that Rameses and his son Menephtah built the for- tresses of the Wadi Tumilat. I believe the lake of Kemuer to be the present lake Timsah, but very probably to have had a different form from what it has now ; I think also that the gulf which Pliny calls Charandra must be understood as meaning the lake Timsah. There, at the head of the gulf, Philadelphos built the city of Arsinoe, which he dedicated to his second wife, his sister, the princess to whom he granted divine honours. This city does not seem to have lasted very long. Ptolemy built it in order to facilitate the trade with the Red Sea.^ In proportion as the sea retreated it became necessary to carry the canal farther; Pithom Heroopolis was too far back. Agatharchides says that it was from Arsinoe that the ships sailed to the Red Sea ; and Pliny mentions this city as the place where the three roads met which led from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. At the beginning of the fourth century, when Constantine was not yet emperor, Arsinoe was no more, and had been superseded by the camp or fort of Clusma,^ which is mentioned on the mile- stone, and which the geographer Ptolemy places very near Arsinoe.^ From the inscription, which gives the distance of nine miles from Ero, we may conclude that Clusma was at the place where is now the station of Ncjiclic, close to Lake Timsah. St. Epiplianius says that Clusma was at the head of ' Linant, 1.1., p. 166. ''Linant, 1.1., p. 158. ' Quatreuiere, " Memoires geographiques et historiques sur Egypte," i., pp. 151 et seq. one of the gulfs of the Red Sea. Lucian speaks of a young man who sailed from Clusma to India. Philostorgos also says that one of the gulfs ends at the Egyptian city of Clusma, from which its name is derived. This shows that the city of Arsinoe no longer existed and had been forgotten. If from the Roman inscription we know the site of Clusma, where now shall we put Arsinoe ? According to Strabo it was near Heroopolis, and close to the end of the canal which went through the Bitter Lakes. Pliny says that Philadelphos stopped at the Bitter Lakes, fearing lest the country might be overflowed if he carried his canal farther. He calls the canal Ptolcmaeus amnis, the Ptolemean river, and he says that it flows along Arsinoe (prfefluit Arsinoen). From this I should conclude that Arsinoe was situate where in the time of the Pharaohs there were marshes ; which marshes were made navigable by Philadelphos ; and I should place Arsinoe at the village of Magfar. At that spot the French engineers of the last century saw some ruins which were still visible when Linant Bey made his first journey. Those ruins were situate on the north side of the old canal, like Pithom. This would agree with Ptolemy, who says that Clusma was south of Arsinoe; and to a certain degree with the Tabula Peutingeriana, in which the two cities are separated by the sea. Pliny, speaking of the canal, says that it unites the harbour of Daneon with the Nile. The name of Daneon has not been identified ; it looks like a genitive plural, and seems to indicate a tribe. I believe this name exists in hieroglyphic text, in the papyrus of Saneha before quoted. After he has been rescued by the Sati near the lake of Kemuer, Saneha goes with him to the region of Atima,* which is under the dominion of the prince of Tennu ^^^^^'^^^^ • This seems to be the word which Pliny has transcribed Daneon. It ' ITk-^ •• Pap. aeBcri.,"i., 1.29. III, 1. 182. Cf. Chabas, "Pap. de Berlin," pp. 40 aud 75, Maspero, "Mel. d'archeologie, jS'o. 9, p. 155. STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. 23 would thus refer to some nomad tribe living near lake Timsah. THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. Among the historical events upon which the dis- covery of Pithom contributes to throw light, one of the most important is certainly the Exodus, and the route which the Israelites followed in going out of Egypt. On this point, although many conclusions are still conjectural, we have at all events gained some fixed data which must now be brought forward. The Israelites were settled in the Land of Goshen, in a region which perhaps extended further northward, but which certainly compre- hended the Wadi Tumilat, wherein was situate the city of Pithom, where, according to the Sep- tuagint, Jacob and Joseph met when the Patriarch came to Egypt. Bound for Palestine, two dif- ferent routes lay before them. The northern route had been followed by the great conquerors. It went from Tanis to the Syrian coast ; it was the shortest way, but it went through several for- tresses, particularly the great stronghold of Zar. Besides, the first part of it crossed a well-culti- vated and irrigated land occupied by an agri- cultural population, which was not a land of pasture necessary for a people of shepherds. This northern route is called in the Bible the ivay of the land of the Philistines; and, from the first, before any other indication as to the direction they followed, it is said that the Israelites did not take that road. The other was the southern route, which their ancestor Jacob had taken before them, and which, according to Linant Bey,^ was still followed by the Bedawees of our days before the opening of the canal. They went straight from El Arish to the valley of Saba Biar ; while the traders, travelling through Kantarah, Sahhieh and Korein followed very nearly the old northern ' Linant, 1.1., p. 159. route. The Israelites had only to go along the canal as far as its opening into the Arabian Gulf at a short distance from Succoth ; then pushing straight forward, they would skirt the northern shore of the gulf, and reach the desert and the Palestine way without having any sea to cross. "The children of Israel journeyed from Eameses to Succoth." It is useless now to discuss the site of the city of Rameses, which will only be ascertained by farther excavations. It is quite possible that we must understand the name as re- ferring to the land of Rameses, rather than to the city ; the land must have been either west or north of Pithom. The first station is Succoth, Thuhet, or Thuku ^ or \ ^ . Here it is im- portant to observe that the name of the place where the Israelites first encamped is not the name of a city, but the name of a district, of the region of Thuket, in which, at the time of the Exodus, there existed not only Pithom, but the fortifications which Rameses II. and his successor had erected to keep off the invading Asiatics. It is quite natural that the camping ground of such a large multitude must have had a great extent. It was not at Pithom that the Israelites halted ; the gates of the fortified city were not opened to them, nor were the storehouses. Besides, the area of the enclosure would have been quite in- sufficient to contain such a vast crowd. They pitched their tents in the land of Succoth where Pithom was built, very likely near those lakes and those good pastures where the nomads of Atuma asked to be admitted with their cattle. There has been much discussion about the site of the next station, Etham, which has always been considered as a city, and even as a fortress, and the name of which has been derived from the Egyptian hhetem, ® Q ^ , which means a stronghold. The name of Succoth, of a region, shows that we are not to look for a city of Etham, but for a district, a region of that name. And here we must again refer to the text of the papyrus of Saneha. He says that, leaving the Lake of 24 STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OF THE EXODUS. Kemuer, he arrived with his companion at a place called Atima, which could not be very far distant. Let us now consult a document of the time of the Exodus, the papyrus Anatasi VI. ^ We find there the passage which has already been alluded to several times. We follow M. Brugsch's transla- tion: — *' JVe have allowed the tribes of the Shasu of the land of Atuma to pass the stronghold of King Menejjlitah of the land of Succoth, toivards the lakes of Pithom of King Menejihtah of the land of Succoth ; in order to feed themselves and to feed their cattle in the great estate of Pharaoh . . . ." That is what I consider as the region of Etham, the land which the papyri call Atima, Atma, Atuma, {| ^^^^^ (| ^ ^ . It was inhabited by Shasu nomads, and as it was insufficient to nourish their cattle, they were obliged to ask to share the good pastures which had been assigned to the Israelites. The determinative ^ indicates that it was a borderland. Both the nature of the land and its name seem to agree very well with what is said of Etham, that it was in the edge of the wilderness. Eouge, Chabas and Brugsch have transcribed the name of Atuma as Edom, considering that the Egyptian generally transcribes the Hebrew "7. It is certainly rare to find a Jl corresponding to a ; however, these transcriptions from the Semitic languages do not follow an invariable rule.^ JT) very often transcribes c , for instance in the name of Pithom, and <=^ and o are equi- valent to each other in a considerable number of Egyptian words. ^ Moreover, it is an anachronism to admit the existence of a land of Edom at the time when the papyrus of Saneha was written, under the twelfth dynasty. It would have been * " Pap. Anastasi," YI., p. 4. Enigsch, "Diet. Geog.," ]). 642. Cliahas, " Recherches pour servir a I'lustoirc de la .\ix. dynastie," p. 107. ^ nun, r.nigsch, Diet, llicr. vol. vii.,p. 1360. ' AA/WV\ much too far distant, especially in the case of the Shasu. On the contrary, it is quite natural to suppose that Atuma was a region near lake Timsah, then called Kemuer. The Shasu, or the Sati as they are called in the papyrus of Saneha, who are wandering about at the edge of the desert, finding no food for their flocks, ask the agent of the royal estate to be allowed to feed their cattle in the pastures which were watered by the canal of Pithom. Another reason which induces me to think that Etham is a region, and not a citij, is that in the Book of Numbers* we read of the ivilderness of Etliam, in which the Israelites march three days after having crossed the sea. This desert, then, would have extended very far south of the city from which it derived its name; and one does not see how Etham, an Egyptian city, would have given its name to a desert inhabited by a Semitic population, and the greatest part of which was on the opposite side of the sea. I believe, therefore, Etham to be the region of Atuma; the desert which began at Lake Timsah and extended west and south of it, near the Arabian Grulf. As this desert was occupied by Shasu and Satiu, Asiatic nomads of Semitic race, they may have had, somewhere on the shore opposite to Egypt, a sanctuary dedicated to their god Baal Zephon ; and this was not necessarily a large place. It may have been a small monu- ment, a place of worship or of pilgrimage, like those numberless shekhs' tombs which are found on the hills and mountains of Egypt, The Israelites leaving Succoth, a region which we now know well, the neighbourhood of Tell el Maskhutah, push forward towards the desert, skirting the northern shore of the gulf, and thus reach the wilderness of Etham ; but there, because of the pursuit of Pharaoh, they have to change their course, they are told to retrace their steps, so as to put the sea between them and the desert. * XXXIII. , 9. STORE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. 25 The next indications of Holy Writ can only be determined conjecturally. Surveys and exca- vations are needed to give us definite infor- mation. However, although it is impossible yet to bring forward positive evidence in favour of this or that theory, I will attempt to trace the route followed, relying on what seems most probable : — " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying : ' Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal- zephon ; before it shall ye encamp by the sea.' " We must bear in mind that the sea was only at a very short distance from Succoth, and that it covered the valley of Saba Biar. Judging from the appearance of the ground, such as it is given in the maps, it is clear that the gulf must have been very narrow in the space between Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes. We have left the Israelites in the land of Atuma, on the northern shore of the Arabian Gulf, at the edge of the wilderness. There they receive the command to camp near the sea, so as to be separated by the gulf from the desert which they had to cross. They are obliged therefore to turn back ; to pass between Pithom and the end of the gulf, somewhere near Magfar, then to march towards the south to the place which is indicated as their camping ground. The question is now. Where are we to look fox Migdol and Fi Hahiroth? As for Migdol, the ancient authors, and par- ticularly the Itinerary, mention a Migdol, or Mag- dolon, which was twelve Koman miles distant from Pelusium. It is not possible to admit that this is the same Migdol which is spoken of in Exodus, for then it would not be the Eed Sea, but the Mediterranean, which the Israelites would have before them, and we should thus have to fall in with MM. Schleiden and Brugsch's theory, that they followed the narrow track which lies between the Mediterranean and the Serbonian Bog. How- ever ingenious are the arguments on which this system is based, I believe it must now be dismissed altogether, because we know the site of the station of Succoth. Is it possible to admit that from the shore of the Arabian Gulf, the Israelites turned to the north, and marched forty miles through the desert in order to reach the Mediterranean? The journey would have lasted several daj^s ; they would have been obliged to pass in front of the fortresses of the north; they would have fallen in the way of the land of the Philistines, which they were told not to take ; and, lastly, the Egyptians, issuing from Tanis and the northern cities, would have easily intercepted them. Besides, when the text speaks of the sea, it is natural to think that it means the sea which is close by, of which they are skirting the northern coast, and not that other sea, which is forty miles distant. All these reasons induce me to give up definitively the idea of the passage by the north, and to return to the old theory of a passage of the Ked Sea, but of the Red Sea as it was at that time, extending a great deal farther northward, and not the Red Sea of to-day, which occupies a very different position. The word Migdol, in Egyptian is a common name ; it means a fort, a toicer. It is very likely that in a fortified region there have been several places so called, distinguished from each other, either by the name of the king who built them, or by some local circumstance ; just as there are in Italy a considerable number of Torre. I should therefore, with M. Ebers,^ place Migdol at the present station of the Serapeum. There the sea was not wide, and the water pro- bably very shallow; there also the phenomenon which took place on such a large scale when the Israelites went through must have been well known, as it is often seen now in other parts of Egypt. As at this point the sea was liable to be driven back under the influence of the east wind, and to leave a dry way, the Pharaohs were obliged to have there a fort, a Migdol, so as to guard that part of the sea, and to prevent the Asiatics of the ' "Durch Gosen zum Sinai," p. 422. E 26 STORE-CITY OP PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS. desert from using this temporary gate to enter Egypt, to steal cattle and to plunder the fertile land which was round Pithom. That there was one spot particularly favourable for crossing, be- cause of this well-known effect of the wind, is indicated by the detailed description of the place where the Israelites are to camp. There is a striking difference between this description and the vague data which we find before and after. It is not only said that they are to camp near the sea, but the landmarks are given, Pi-Hahiroth, Migdol, Baal Zephon, so that they could not miss the spot, which perhaps was very restricted. Let us now try to identify Pi-Haluroth. At first sight I was struck by the likeness in the sound of the Hebrew word Pi-Hahiroth with the Pikeheret, or Pikerehet, which we have found in the tablet of Philadelphos, At present I do not know of any other Egyptian name which may so be compared to the Hebrew. But we have not yet found the word Pikerehet on a monument of the time of Barneses II., and it is possible that this sanctuary of Osiris may have been built by Phila- delphos. However, in general the Ptolemies did not innovate ; they restored the old worships and enlarged the temples ; but they adhered to the local traditions. It is therefore most probable that from a very high antiquity Osiris had a temple at Pikerehet. We have considered Pikerehet as being the second sanctuary of Heroopolis, at a short distance from Pi Turn, but nearer the sea ; and there is the following circumstance which makes me think that it is Pi-Hahiroth. In the tablet of Philadelphos there is frequent mention in connection with Pikerehet, of horses which are brought there, and of cattle given to the sanctuary for its annual income. Now, if we revert to the papyrus Anastasi and to the Shasu of Atuma, we see that they ask to drive their cattle in the pastures which belong to the estate or to the farm of Pharaoh. The Egyptian word ah (|| means a farm where cattle or horses are bred ; an estate with live stock upon it.^ If we look at the passage in Exodus where the route of the Israelites is described, we find there that the Septuagint, who made their translation during the reign of Philadelphos, and after them the Coptic version, instead of mentioning Pi-Hahiroth, have written a-rrevoLVTL rrj^ eVauXeco?, before the farm, the exact translation of the Egyptian Thus while the Hebrew gives the proper name of the sanctuary, the Greek speaks of the farm, which we know from the papyrus Anastasi was close by in the land of Succoth, like Pikerehet. We have now the landmarks of the camping ground of the Israelites: on the north-west Pi- Hahiroth, Pikerehet, not very far from Pithom ; on the south-east Migdol, near the present Serapeum ; in front of them the sea; and opposite, on the Asiatic side, on some hill like Shekh Ennedek, Baal Zephon. There, in the space between the Sera- peum and Lake Timsah, the sea was narrow, the water had not much depth, the east wind opened the sea, and the Israelites went through.- This seems to me at present the most probable route of the Exodus. I think it agrees best with what we know of the geographical names, and of the nature of the land. Besides, it does not suppose very long marches, which would have been quite im- possible with a large multitude ; the distances are not very great, and on that account the information which we owe to the Roman milestone is invaluable. However, it is most desirable that further excava- tions remove the obscurities of the topography ; especially let us hope that some day we shall ascertain the site of Migdol of the Red Sea. PTOLE^IY PHILADELPHOS. It is not my intention to write the history of the second of the Greek kings of Egypt, but only to dwell on a few facts connected with the monu- ' Brugsch, "Diet. Ilier.," vol. v. p. 122. ^ I am bound to say, that following a totally diflferent line of argument, I have come very nearly to the same conclusion as Linant Bey, in his admirable work already referred to. STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS 27 ments of Pithom. Philadelphos was the son of Ptolemy Soter, the General of Alexander, who had received Egypt as his share when the huge empire was divided, and who succeeded in preserving his kingdom amid all the wars and intrigues which followed the death of the Macedonian conqueror. Philadelphos was the favourite son of his father, who associated him with himself upon the throne B.C. 285, so giving him the preference over his elder brother, Keraunos, who fled to Lysimachos, king of Thrace. When Keraunos, after having treacherously put to death Seleucus Nicator, claimed the throne of Macedonia, he was supported by Philadelphos, who in that way consolidated his own crown. One of the first acts of Keraunos, when he had succeeded to the throne of Mace- donia, was to kill the children of his sister Arsinoe, widow of Lysimachos, who fled to Philadelphos. The second Ptolemy, as we know from Strabo and Diodorus, had delicate health, and was very fond of novelties, and of everything which came from distant countries. We hear several times of his taste for the chase of elephants and for strange animals. He paid large sums to the travellers who brought them, and succeeded in collecting a large number of elephants which he drew from Ethiopia. A short time after his accession to the throne, some palace intrigues, and a real or supposed plot against his life, induced him to repudiate his first wife, Arsinoe I., the daughter of Lysimachos, king of Thrace, by whom he had three children, and to exile her to Coptos. The wife who succeeded her was the king's own sister, Arsinoe II., who received the title of Philadelphos. The historian of the successors of Alexander, Dr. Droysen,^ at- tributes to political motives this marriage, which was not repugnant to the Egyptians, but which must have been most offensive to the Greeks and Macedonians who surrounded the king. He thinks that Philadelphos wished to make a claim to cities like Ephesus, Heraclea, and Cassandrea, which ' " Geschichte des Hellenismus," ii , p. 234 et had been given to Arsinoe. Whatever may have been his motives, his new wife was very difierent from the portraits which the court poets have left of her. She was about forty years of age, much older than her husband, and in her past life had committed some awful crimes. When she was wife of Lysimachos, king of Thrace, with the help of her brother Keraunos, she put to death Aga- thocles, the son of another wife of Lysimachos and heir to the throne. A few years after, her associate Keraunos repaid upon her the death of Agathocles. On the day when, yielding to his en- treaties, she had consented to marry him, and amid the celebration of a great festivity, Keraunos slaughtered her two younger sons on her knees. Arsinoe fled to Philadelphos, her second brother, who raised her to the throne of Egypt. No queen ever had so many honours heaped upon her head as Arsinoe. Philadelphos put her among the gods, and was himself her priest. And the worship of Arsinoe seems to have been par- ticularly solemn, for it lasted under the successors of Philadelphos. Official records, such as the decree of Canopus, after the name of the king and queen in whose reign the decree is made, mention the name of the priestess of Arsinoe (Kapr](j)6po<;), which shows that it was a very high dignity. Not only did Philadelphos grant divine honours to his wife, but it is very likely that he gave her an important position in the government of the country. He must have considered her as having a right to the throne, because, in opposition to what we see for all other queens consort of Egypt, he gave her the right to bear two ovals, like a Idng. I do not know of any other Egyptian queen who enjoyed this honour, unless by usurpation ; not even under the twenty-first dynasty. The first of these ovals, Nimi ah Shu mer neteni, has some likeness to the first cartouche of Amasis, except that it contains the god Shu instead of Ka. A great many cities were named after Arsinoe, or founded in her honour. Stephanus Byzan- tinus mentions ten. There were two in Egypt : one in the Fayoom, the other near Heroopolis. E 2 28 STOEE-CITY OF PITHOM AND THE EOUTE OP THE EXODUS. There was one also in the Troglodytice. Ptolemy sent several expeditions to this last land ; this coin- cided with his taste for what came from far away ; and it encouraged the trade by the Ked Sea, of which he felt the importance for the welfare of his kingdom. It is one of the merits of the first Ptolemies, and particularly of Phila- delphos, to have opened new commercial roads which were previously unknown, or at least unfrequented. Diodorus^ says that before Philadelphos no Greek had ever reached the extreme boundaries of Egypt or penetrated into Ethiopia, where he sent a military expedition. It is he who made known to his subjects the immense wealth which would be derived from those remote countries, which, since the Pharaohs of the great dynasties, the Egyptian armies had never seen. The ancient authors, Diodorus, Agatharchides, Strabo, and Phny, assign as the inducement for those ex- peditions the fancy of the king for elephants, which was carried so far, that according to Aga- tharchides, he tried to persuade the Elephanto- phagi to give up the habit of eating the flesh of that animal. Our tablet says, in fact, that elephants^ were brought to the king from the coast of Africa. But it would not be fair to attribute to a mere fancy those naval expeditions, of which Philadelphos dispatched several. He evidently recognized well the great advantages which Egypt would derive from her position between Europe and the East ; and he added much to the prosperity and the wealth of his kingdom, by bringing to his harbours the products of Eastern Africa, and even of India, which was absolutely unknown to the old Pharaohs. The hieroglyphic text relates that a considerable fleet of transports was gathered at Kemuerma, in the present lake Timsah, under the command of the first General of His Majesty, whose name ' Diodori, "Bibl.," i., .37. is not given. Strabo ^ mentions two Generals of Philadelphos who were ordered to explore the Troglodytice ; first Satyros, who founded the city of Philotera, then Eumedes. In skirting the coast of the Troglodytice, which our text calls the land of Khatit, "Eumedes," says Strabo, " after having passed an island covered with olive-trees, came upon a peninsula, where he landed quite unawares, and entrenched himself, digging a ditch and building a wall in order to keep off the natives ; but he dealt with them so skilfully, that he made friends of them instead of foes. He founded the city of Ptolemais Orjpcov, ' Ptolemais of the chase,' specially destined for the pursuit of elephants, and landing place for the travellers who went into the inner part of the country." We have seen in the lines 22 to 25 of our tablet an account of the foundation of the city, whence the elephants were brought by ships on the sea. The text seems even to allude to the skill with which Eumedes succeeded in making friends with the natives and their chiefs. It speaks of the settlement of the colony which was established there, and of the goodwill of the inha- bitants, who brought at once the products of the land, and sent a tribute to Philadelphos. The site of Ptolemais Theron has been much discussed. It is generally placed between Souakim and Massowah, near a promontory which Dr. Droysen calls Ras Turhoba, and others Ras el Debir. It appears that Philadelphos considered the foundation of this city as one of the important acts of his reign, for he relates it fully in the tablet of Pitliom, while he does not mention Philotera and Berenice, which were also on the Bed Sea. The last line of the tablet raises some important questions as to the coinage in the time of Phila- delphos. All the sums of taxes and incomes are given in silver ; and this confirms what is known from Demotic and Greek documents, that under Philadelphos the standard of the coinage was silver.* ' Strabo, p. 770. * Cf. the interesting researches of M. Eevillout, " Ivevue Egyptologique," iii. aunee. APPENDIX 1/ The greater part of this Memoir was already written, when I received an article written by M. Lepsius in the Zeitschrift of Berlin, under the title Uber die Lage von Pithom (Sulckoth) und Eaemses (HeroonpoUs). The learned author, start- ing from the description of the Sweet Water Canal of the Pharaohs, which he gave in his standard work on the Chronology of the Egyptians, seeks to prove that the identification of Tell el Maskhutah withEaamses, which he advocated in the year 1849, holds good as before ; and that Pithom must be looked for at Tell Abu Suleyman, twenty-two miles farther back, to the westward between Abu Hammed and Tell el Kebir. The chief argument upon which M. Lepsius relies for throwing overboard nearly the whole results of the excavations at Maskhutah, is that the site discovered does not agree with the passage of Herodotus on Patumos, or with the distances given in the Itinerary ; and that those two texts must be considered as the unassailable foundation to which we are to adapt our inter- pretations of the hieroglyphic texts. My venerable master will allow me to differ en- tirely as to this method, and to proceed exactly from the opposite end. I really do not think that the facts related by Herodotus, and still more the numbers of the Itinerary, (a document of a very late epoch) can be more weighty as evidence than dated Egyptian inscriptions found on the spot; and which though of various epochs are quite unanimous in the in- formation they give us. I believe that the sound method, not only for Egyptology, but for history in general, is to test the later, and especially the foreign documents, by the hght of contemporary records ; especially when those records are en- graved on stone and preserved at the very place where they were originally erected. Besides, it is easy to show that the two texts referred to do not at all overthrow the discovery of Pithom. On the contrary, there is a remarkable confirmation in Herodotus, whom I quote in full.^ Fa/xjatTt^ou Se NeKoj^ Trais iyeuero /cat i/BacriXevcre AlyvnTov, OS Trj Si,(6pv)(^L eVe^eipTycre Trp(t)ro<5 rfj es Ty)v 'Epvdprjv daXacrcrav (jtepovay, rrjv /I ape to? 6 TIip(jri<; Sevrepa Sicopv^e .... '^H.KTai Se aTro rov NeiXov TO vSwp es avTrjv, rjKTai 8e Karvnepde okLyov Bov^dcTTLO^ 7rdX.tos napa UaTovfjuov Trjv 'Apa^ir)i> ttoXlv. 'Ecr€)(^ei, 8e e's T-qv 'EpvOprjv OoXacraav. " Psammitichus left a son called Nekos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea — a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian The water is derived from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, near Patumos the Arabian town ; it runs into the Red Sea." This is the text which is given in the new editions of Herodotus, and on which M. Lepsius relies to prove that Pithom lies under the pre- sent mounds of Tell Abu Suleyman, between Abu Hammed and Tell el Kebir. Whoever knows the country, or looks at the map, will be struck at once by the fact that, if M. Lepsius's identifi- cation is right, Herodotus must be wrong : for Patumos in such case would be not above, but about fourteen English miles heloio Bubastis. Besides, it would be a strange way of indi- cating the place where the canal branches off from the Nile, to mention a city which is a great ' This was written and printed before tlie lamented death of the celebrated Egyptologist. ' Herod, ii., 158, ed. Miiller : Paris, Didot. ( APPENDIX I. 30 deal farther from the heginnmg of the canal than Bubastis itself. Herodotus would thus say " the water is derived from the Nile, a little above Bubastis which is close by the origin of the canal, near the city of Patumos which is fifteen miles distant ; and before the water of the canal reaches Patumos it has to flow for one-third of the whole length of the canal." Or again it would be like saying in our days : the canal branches off a little above Zagazig, near the station of Tell el Kebir. Further, if we consider the next sentence, eo-e^et Se, &c., it runs into the Red Sea, it seems quite an unnecessary repetition. Herodotus describes the canal to the Red Sea ; it is a matter of course that the canal runs into the Ked Sea. He would not have said that, if he had not intended to indicate the part of the Red Sea where the canal joins it. He gives us here the two ends of the canal, the starting point near Bubastis, and the point of junction with the sea near Patumos. The text is evidently corrupt, but is easily amended. It is only necessary to divide the sentence otherwise, and to displace 8e. Thus we read : — ■ 'HKTat §€ KaTurrepOe okiyov BovfidcTTLOs ttoXio?. Ilapa ndTovfiov Se rr^t' 'Apa/3Lrji> ttoXlv icri^eL e? TTjv 'Epvdprju 6aka(T(Tav. " The water is derived from the Nile, a little above Bubastis, and it runs into the Red Sea near Patumos, the Arabian city."^ The sentence is quite symmetrical ; the descrip- tion is quite fluent ; and it is exactly what we learn from the inscriptions of Maskhutah. Let us now examine the texts of the Itinerary ^ and tbe ' Notitia Dignitatum,' which mention a city of Tliou, Thohu, Tohn, Thouin. Two manu- scripts only of the Itinerary read Thoum, all the others read Thou, and all the manuscripts of the 'Notitia' Thohu. Judging from the Itinerary, this ' I believe this reading is found in the edition of Lareher, which I have not seen; Wesseling advocates it in one of tlie notes. I liave seen only the edition of Wesseling of the Itinerar}^ which does not mention Thoum. Parthey, the editor of the Itinerary, in his maps made from that text, quotes only Thou and Thohu. (Zur Erdkunde des Alten Aegypteus). city must have been at the opening of the Wadi Tumilat, at the junction of the roads to Pelu- sium and Clusma. I see no reason why Thou should be Pithom, the abode of Turn. On the con- trary, if the name is derived from one of the gods, it cannot be from Turn, whose name in the Itine- rary, like the names of all the great gods of Egypt, is not given in its Egyptian form, but translated into Greek. Ra is Helios, and his city is Heliopolis ; Amon, Zeus, Diospolis ; Thoth, Hermes, Hermo- polis ; Hathor, Aphrodite, Aphroditopolis ; Osiris, Serapis, Serapiu; Tum, 'Hpco, Hero. I cannot, like M. Lepsius, consider mistake the remarks of Champollion ^ and Wilkinson,* that on the Pam- philian obelisk, the translation of which is pre- served by Ammianus Marcellinus, the Egyptian '^^'^ , si Tuin, the son of Turn, is rendered vlo^ "Hp(ovo<;, of which the Greeks have made 'Hpaxov ttoXls, slightly changing the word so as to give it a sense in their own language. Thou is therefore not Tum. It may not even be the name of a divi- nity.^ Neither can it be an abbreviation of Patumos. The city was called in Egyptian Pi Tum, or Ha Tum ; and in the Itinerary we see that the last syllables of Egyptian names are cut off, but not the beginning. This word would have been shortened in a different way from the other names. It is very possible that Tell Abu Suleyman may be the site of Tliou ; but whatever may be the sense of this name, we must keep the reading Thou or Thohu, and not Thoum. M. Lepsius then dwells on the fact that on the monolith Rameses II. is seen sitting between Ra and Tum. It shows, according to his argu- ment, that Rameses was the local god, and that the city must have borne his name, as was the case at Abu Simbel, where Rameses is seated in the sanctuary in company with the three chief ^ Gramm., p. 361. ^ "Manners and Customs," 2nd ed., iii., p. ITS. ' I should not wonder if we found some day that Thou is the equivalent of Bubastis. APPENDIX I. 31 deities of Egypt. But at Maskhutah the case is quite different. The monoHth does not belong to the sanctuary. There were two monoliths exactly alike, placed opposite to each other, at the entrance. It is a pure hypothesis to admit that there was a third monolith in the sanctuary, con- sidering that the naos has been preserved. Why should the third have disappeared ? There is not the slightest doubt that the naos was dedicated to Turn Harmachis, as may be seen from the inscrip- tions and the sphinx which is cut in the base. Those two monoliths have the same purpose as the inscriptions which we often meet with in temples, chiefly near the entrance. The king is between two gods ; for instance, Tum and Mentu, or Tum and Khonsu, who introduce him, and promise him a long and prosperous reign, and un- interrupted happiness, and who record his praises in the stereotyped sentences, which are found on the walls of all temples. Here, where there was no stone wall, the monolith has taken the place of the engraved picture ; only the king is seen sitting instead of standing. On the monolith which has been published, it is Tum who speaks, addressing the king with the usual promises and eulogies; on the other the formulas are of the same kind. Nowhere, neither at the entrance, nor on the naos, nor on the granite tablet, nor on the sphinxes, is there any mention of a Pi Barneses, a city of Rameses, which certainly would not have been omitted if that were the name of the town. Besides, if, as a rule, every place where Rameses was worshipped as a god was called the city of Barneses, we have to give that name to all the sanctuaries of Nubia, Bet el Wally, Gerf Hussein, Sebua, Derr, Abu Simbel, and even to the great temple of Karnak.^ The final argument of M. Lepsius is that the city which was at Maskhutah must have been named from one of the gods of the monolith. It could not be Ra, because there is already a Pi Ra, Heli- » Cf. Leps., "Denkm.," iii., 148, 177, 178, 181, 182, &c. opolis; it could not be Tum, because we know the existence of Pi Tum at Tell Abu Suleyman, and two cities so very near each other could not have the same name ; — it must therefore be Raamses. M. Lepsius will allow me to observe that this argument takes for granted, and rests on the very point which is under discussion. I, for my own part, do not admit at all, and far less consider as a well proved fact, that there was a Pithom at Abu Suleyman. On the contrary, the reader knows what I think of the texts of Herodotus and the Itinerary, which alone are cited as supporting this idea. Be- sides, the objection of the too great vicinity of two cities with the same name would be much stronger in the case of the identification of M. Lepsius. If ever there was a city dedicated to Tum, it was Heliopolis, which is sometimes called ^^^^ Pi Tum; 2 and HehopoKs is nearer Tell Abu Suley- man than Tell Abu Suleyman is to Maskhutah. Summing up the results of this Paper, I beheve the identification of Pithom with Tell el Mas- khutah to rest on the most satisfactory evidence, upon that of inscriptions found on the spot, and dating from the reign of Rameses II., the founder of the city, to Ptolemy Philadelphos. We have found the name of the nome ^W"^- that of the district which became afterwards the civil name of 1^^^ ; > (3 the capital : Q. the sacred city ^ lake ^^^HZTC I I /www ^AAAA/> and that of the region ; that of that of the If we look at all the lists of nomes, these names, without exception, belong to the eighth nome of Lower Egypt, the nome of Pithom, which became under the Ptolemies Heroopolis, and under the Romans Ero Castra.^ - "Inscr. of Piankhi," 1. 106. ^ It is useless to insist on a curious consequence of M. Lepsius's identification. Admitting that Eaanises is at Mas- khutah, and Pithom Succoth at Tell Abu Suleyman, the first march of the Israelites would have been to go twenty-two miles towards the west, turning their backs to the Ked Sea. APPENDIX II. The former proprietor of the villa at Tell el Maskhutah, Mr. Paponot, had the kindness to send me paper-casts of two small monuments which were found at the same time as those which have been brought to Ismailiah. They were lying beneath the great monolith. Both are fragments of statuettes in black granite. One of them consists only of two lines of text on the back, of which we print one here ; the second being only T well known formulas. ^ The text reads thus : ivhose surname is Nefcr ah Ba neh pehti ( the most valiant Nefer ah Ra ), the son of Thothua, the issue of Sit pa Hap speaks thus This fragment is particularly interesting because it gives the name of a king which had not yet been found at Pithom. Nefer ah Ra is the first cartouche of o •0- , I in I Psammetik II., the third king of the twenty-sixth dynasty, who reigned six years between 594 and 589 B.C., and who was chiefly engaged in wars against the Ethiopians. It was usual at that time for priests and officers to adopt a surname consisting of the name of the king with an adjective. Thus the son of Thothua, whose real name we do not know, was called the valiant Nefer ah Ra, an epithet of which the king himself was fond, as he once added it to his second cartouche, making it Psemtek neh pehti/ ' Leps. Denkm., iii., 275. If the valiant PsammetiJc. We know also another man whose surname was the valiant Nefer ab Ea ; he was called Uza hor sunt, and a cup dedicated by him was found at Damanhour.^ The style of this inscription is exactly that of the two fragments of Plate VII., which I had at first attributed to the early Ptolemies. It gives them a date. It shows that they belong to the twenty- sixth dynasty. Of the second statuette of Mr. Paponot, also in black granite, two fragments remain ; a line of the back and part of the inscription of the apron. We print here the line of the back. It reads thus : the living god of Succoth, the Auhau on the horizon of Turn of Succoth^ the fosterer of Hor Sam Taui We have again here the title of Auhau which we have found on other statues. As to the temple it is called the horizon of Turn, a metaphor which is very natural, as he is a solar god. The title of Khencmt, fosterer, or nurse when it is a feminine, is frequent with gods considered as children ; thus we find it also vnth. Khonsu, the child.^ From the monuments of the ^ twenty-sixth dynasty we should say that the triad of Pithom consisted of Tum, Hathor and Hor Sam Taui. ^ Descr. de I'Eg., Ant. v. pi. 74. ' Brugsch., Diet. Hier., p. 1102. AAAAAA London : Printed by Gilbert and Rivington ^Limited), St. John's Square, Clerkenwell Road. A PI 4. PI 5 A PI 5. I A B DDNMVICfOHiBVS /sANXIMIAN0eT3rVERo MAKiniNOEfCONSrAAJr/|/ vim s/^ PI. 12. GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE