Name from ancient Authors. Name from the Events. Ascended the Throne. 18th Dynasty, of Theban or Diospolitan Kings.* * For a more detailed chronological table, vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 510. † I have given my reasons for considering these two the same king in my Hieroglyphical Extracts, pp. 10. 12. ま Joseph. Antiq. ii. 9. Neith or Nêt, Minerva, was the deity of Saïs, and her name seems to have led to that of the Greek goddess, and of the new city. In Egyptian it was written from right to left, OHN, and the Greeks, by adding an A at either end, would make it AOHNA; reading from left to right. Vide my Materia Hieroglyphica, Pl. I. of the Kings. Syncellus gives Amenses. ¶ Amun-Toonh? probably Danaus, who lived at this time, vide p. 58. Amosis or Ames was the leader of the 18th Dynasty, and the period of his accession and this change in the reigning family strongly confirm the opinion of his being the "new king who knew not Joseph." And if we consider that he was from the distant province of Thebes, it is reasonable to expect that the Hebrews* would be strangers to him, and that he was likely to look upon them with the same distrust and contempt with which the Egyptians usually treated foreigners. They stigmatised them with the name of impure Gentilest; and the ignoble occupation of shepherds was for the Jews an additional cause of reproach.‡ Indeed, it is possible that the Jews, who had come into Egypt on the occasion of a famine, finding * Or the people of Joseph; for "Joseph was dead, and all his brethren, and all that generation." Exod. i. 6. He had been dead about 60 years. "Nations," an expression adopted by the Jews. The hieroglyphical character refers to a hilly country in contradistinction to the plains of Egypt. 66 ‡ Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." Gen. xlvi. 31.- Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers." xlvii. 3. 66 the great superiority of the land of Egypt both for obtaining the necessaries of life, and for feeding their flocks, may have asked and obtained a grant of land * from the Egyptian monarch, on condition of certain services being performed by them and their descendants. As long as the Memphite Dynasty continued on the throne, this grant was respected, and the only service required of them was that agreed upon in the original compact.. But on the accession of the Theban family the grant being rescinded, and the service still required, they were reduced to a state of bondage; and as despotism seldom respects the rights of those it injures, additional labour was imposed upon this unresisting people.† And Pharaoh's pretended fear, lest in the event of war they might make common cause with the enemy, was a sufficient pretext with his own people for oppressing the Jews, at the same time that it had the effect of exciting their prejudices against them. Affecting therefore some alarm at their numbers, he suggested that so numerous a body might avail themselves of the absence of the Egyptian troops, and endanger the tranquillity and safety of the country ‡, and * Some of them were tillers of land as well as shepherds; for besides their labour "in mortar and in brick," they were employed "in all manner of service in the field." (Exod.i. 14.) And in Deut. x. 11. we find this expression, "Egypt... where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it." †The Arabs, whenever they become settled in villages on the banks of the Nile, meet with much vexation from the Turkish authorities, and the Turks are always anxious that they should fix themselves in villages, in order to get them within their power. "Lest when there falleth out any war they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get them out of the land." Exod. i. 10. VOL. I. E that prudence dictated the necessity of obviating the possibility of such an occurrence. With this view they were treated like the captives taken in war, and were forced to undergo the gratuitous labour of erecting public granaries and other buildings for the Egyptian monarch.* These were principally constructed of crude brick, and that such materials were commonly used in Egypt, we have sufficient proof from the walls and other buildings of great size and solidity found in various parts of the country, many of which are of a very early period and the bricks themselves, both at Thebes and in the vicinity of Memphis, frequently bear the names of the monarchs who ruled Egypt during and prior to the epoch to which I am now alluding. The crude brick remains about Memphis are principally pyramids; those at Thebes consist of walls enclosing sacred monuments and tombs, and some are made with and others without straw. Many have chopped barley and wheat straw, others bean halm and stubble t; and in the tombs we find the process of making them represented among the sculptures. But it is not to be supposed that any of these bricks are the work of the Israelites, who were never occupied at Thebes; and though Josephus affirms they were engaged in building pyramids, as well as in making canals and em He evidently did not fear their obtaining possession of any part of Egypt; but of their committing depredations, and then escaping out of the country. *They built "treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses." Exod. i. 11. + Exod. v. 12. Some bricks were made "with stubble instead of straw." bankments, it is very improbable that the crude brick pyramids of Memphis, or of the Arsinoïte nome, were the work of the Hebrew captives. Towards the latter end of Amosis' reign happened the birth of Moses. His flight must have taken place in the second year of Thothmes I., and his return to Egypt after the death of this and the succeeding prince. Amosis, the leader of the 18th Dynasty of Diospolitans, appears to have derived his right to the throne from his ancestor Menmoph, the last Theban prince who preceded him, and sole member of the 15th Dynasty. Few monuments remain of his reign; but a tablet at the Trojan mountain ‡, behind el Maasara, shows that the stone of those quarries was used by him for the erection of some building at Memphis or in the vicinity. § Amosis was succeeded by Amunoph I., a prince whose name occurs in numerous parts of Thebes, and who seems to have been a great encourager of the arts of peace. He married an Ethiopian *Exod. iv. 19. "All the men are dead which sought thy life." My conjecture seems strongly confirmed by the position of the names in the chamber of Amosis' and Amunoph's family, where the name of Amosis follows that of Menmoph, as of the king from whom he claimed his right to the throne, his Diospolite ancestor. Amunoph I., the monarch in whose reign the sculptures were executed, occurs in the upper line as the then existing sovereign, but succeeding to the throne in uninterrupted order, therefore not deducing his claims from any distant predecessor. Vide my Extracts, Plate V. The Troici lapidis Mons of Strabo and Ptolemy. It is about nine miles to the south of Cairo. Some may suppose it to have been for the pyramids, but his era does not agree with the time of their erection. It is, however, from these quarries that the stone used for the outer tier, or casing, was taken, which is alluded to by Strabo and other authors. |