Читать книгу The Pharaohs and Their People - E. Berkley - Страница 9

Table of Contents

Successors of Amenemhat I.—Two Provinces added to Egypt.

The stone for the sarcophagus of King Amenemhat i. was hewn in the valley of Hammamat, and he was laid to rest in his pyramid called Kha-nefer, the ‘Beautiful Rising,’ leaving behind him an honoured name and an inheritance of peaceful days. Usertesen i., his son and successor, reigned in profound tranquillity, and turned his attention to the temples of the gods, which were neglected and falling into decay. They were, he said, the only monuments that could truly confer immortality on a king. First of all, he called together an assembly of the chief men of the land in that ancient home of Egyptian wisdom and learning, the City of the Sun, to consult about a temple that should be raised, ‘worthy of the name of Ra.’ Usertesen himself laid the foundation-stone, and gave the directions for the carrying out of the work. The ruins of both temple and city are now buried deep beneath the soil, but of the two stately obelisks of rose-coloured granite, which stood at the gateway of the temple, one is still standing in solitary grandeur amid the quiet fields; the hieroglyphs upon its surface still record that ‘the Ruler of the North and South, Lord of the Two Countries, Son of the Sun, Usertesen—beloved of the Gods of On, living for ever, the good god,’ executed this work.

At the ancient sanctuary of Abydos a temple was erected to Osiris, and Memphis was not overlooked. But whilst duly careful for those time-honoured sanctuaries, Usertesen did not neglect the new southern capital, and he carried on the construction of the great temple of Amen, which his father Amenemhat had begun.

The frontiers were vigilantly guarded, and now that quiet times had come back the mines in the Sinaitic peninsula were re-opened and worked. A thousand years had passed since they were first explored at the command of Senefru, and his name had become venerable in its antiquity throughout that region, where he was worshipped as a guardian deity, together with the goddess Hathor, protectress of the district.

One warlike expedition was undertaken during this reign, for the purpose of fixing the boundary to the south and of bringing back gold from Nubia. The command was intrusted to one Ameni, who has left a brief record of the expedition. The king’s eldest son accompanied him, and his success was certainly remarkable, if his statement is true, that of the 400 men he took with him not one was missing when he returned with the golden spoil. This Ameni was the head of that illustrious family, whose tombs at Beni-Hassan have proved such an invaluable storehouse for the investigator. They were hereditary governors of the district, or nome, and their power was very great. Under the firm controlling hand of the sovereigns of this great dynasty, the power and ambition of the prince-governors, which had once split up and half ruined Egypt, were turned into nobler channels, and sought after more peaceful honours. The Maxims of Amenemhat I. seem to awaken a response and to find an echo in the memorials left by some of the powerful governors, who were now serving loyally under the crown. Ameni, who gives an account of his warlike doings in the south, also tells us that he was a ‘kind master and gentle of heart, a governor who loved his city.’ He ruled for many years in his district of Mah, and he says: ‘I kept back nothing for myself; no little child was vexed through me; no widow was afflicted. I never interfered with the fisherman or troubled the shepherd. There was neither famine nor hunger in my days. I diligently cultivated every field in my district, from the north to the south, to its utmost extent, so that there was food enough for all. I gave to the widow as to the married woman, and I never showed favour to the great above the lowly.’

King and noble may alike have fallen short of their ideal, but at any rate their standard was high, and their words recall those of the departed spirit, who had to declare before Osiris in the judgment-hall of Truth—‘I have not oppressed the miserable; I have not imposed work beyond his power on any officer; I have allowed no master to maltreat his slave; I have caused none to weep or to perish with hunger. I have neither blasphemed the king nor my father, nor have I mocked or despised God in my heart. I have given bread to the hungry, water to him that was athirst, clothes to the naked, and shelter to the wanderer.’ There is a beautiful eulogy somewhere recorded on an Egyptian tomb—‘His love was the food of the poor, the blessing of the weak, the riches of him who had nothing.’

Egypt was probably never more prosperous, nor her people happier, than during the centuries in which the Amenemhats and Usertesens ruled the land. The only reign in which serious warfare occurred was that of Usertesen III. He determined to acquire for Egypt the disputed territory in the south—Ta-Khent (Nubia)—and, with it, its golden treasures. But he did not succeed in finally conquering and driving back the dark-hued tribes until after a very fierce and protracted struggle. He erected fortresses on the southern frontier, and an inscription on the rock proclaimed: ‘This is the southern boundary, fixed in the eighth year of King Usertesen iii. No negro shall be permitted to pass it except for the purpose of bringing vessels laden with their asses, camels, and goats, or of trading by barter in Ta-Khent. To such negroes, on the contrary, every favour shall be shown.’

Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.

BOATMEN AND CATTLE DRIVERS.

If Usertesen iii. secured one new province for Egypt by the ruthless force of war, his successor, Amenemhat iii., won another by gentler means.

Egypt is, no doubt, what Herodotus called it, the ‘gift’ of the Nile. But for the Nile the burning wastes of Sahara would stretch eastwards without interruption to the Red Sea. By means of the great river and its yearly inundation, the long narrow valley between the Libyan and the Arabian mountains is watered and richly fertilised for the space of several miles; where the inundation ceases the desert sand begins. This long strip of fertile country, together with the Delta into which it expands, constituted Egypt;[24] Khemi (the black country), its people called it from the dark colour of its rich soil, which rewarded the husbandman’s toil with two or three crops a year—crops of a luxuriance difficult for us to realise. The name of Egypt was a synonym for rich fertility: ‘Well watered everywhere,’ we read in Genesis, ‘like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.’

In the days when the twelfth dynasty ruled, i.e. probably more than 2000 b.c., the average rise of the Nile was more than twenty feet higher than it is at the present day. At the point where Usertesen iii. had erected his frontier fortress, the height attained by the river during many successive inundations is recorded. His successor, Amenemhat iii., not only carefully noted the annual rise, but turned his attention to the great work of controlling the overflow, for the country was liable to suffer severely in case either of an excess or a deficiency.

Westward from the Nile, behind the Libyan hills, lies the valley of Fayoum, about 60 miles distant from Cairo. There the king ordered the excavation of that immense basin or artificial sea known to us as Lake Mœris, and caused it to be connected by canals with the river. Lake Mœris was about 30 miles in circumference, and here the surplus waters were stored, to be distributed by irrigation or withheld, as might be best. The rock-encircled and desolate Fayoum thus became a smiling oasis, full of the most luxuriant vegetation, and alive with busy industry. When the Greek Herodotus visited Egypt, some 2000 years later, Lake Mœris was still in existence, as were also the two pyramids that stood either on its banks or in its centre. A still greater wonder met the eye of the inquiring traveller, and excited his profoundest amazement. This was the vast structure close by Lake Mœris, which the Greeks called the Labyrinth, for what reason it is hard to say. Herodotus tells us of this other gigantic work of Amenemhat iii., that it had twelve courts, with gates opposite each other, and that it contained 3000 chambers, half of which were above and half below ground; the courts were adorned with columns, and the walls covered with inscriptions. This colossal edifice covered a space 1150 feet in length, and 850 in breadth; its purpose is not altogether clear, but there seems some reason to think that it may have been intended for a vast Hall of Assembly. It is all in ruins now. Lepsius, who in 1844 visited the district, which is 25 miles distant from the Nile, states that it had been so arranged that three enormous masses of buildings enclosed a square place 600 feet long by 500 broad, and that in this square once stood the courts and columns mentioned by Herodotus, mighty fragments of which the explorer dug up: upon them was carved the name of the royal builder, Amenemhat iii.

Painting a Statue.

Carving a Statue.

After this peaceful victory, which won for Egypt so fair a province, and adorned it with such marvels of art, there is not much left to record concerning the twelfth dynasty. Its annals are quiet and prosperous throughout, and its art was progressive and beautiful. No man in the kingdom was more honoured than the artist, the man ‘of enlightened spirit and skilfully working hand.’ The office of ‘architect to Pharaoh’[25] was sometimes held by sons and grandsons of the sovereign. There is a remarkable account of a great noble, Mentuhotep, who was a judge and learned in the law, a priest and a warrior. It is recorded of him that, as chief architect of the king, he promoted the worship of the gods, and instructed the inhabitants of the country according to the best of his knowledge, as God had commanded to be done. He protected the unfortunate, and freed him that was in need of freedom. ‘Peace was in the utterances of his mouth, and the learning of the wise Thoth[26] was on his tongue. Very skilful in artistic work, with his own hand he carried out his designs as they ought to be done.’

The beautiful rock-hewn caves of Beni-Hassan bear witness to the rare excellence attained by architecture and sculpture. These tombs and memorial chambers were excavated in a limestone cliff on the east bank of the Nile, 160 miles south of Cairo. They were for generations the burial-place of the illustrious family of the Khnumhoteps, descendants of Ameni (p. 66), and hereditary governors of the district. The roofs of these rock tombs are vaulted; at the entrance to the northernmost, where Ameni, head of the family lay, are columns of great beauty, so closely resembling those called Doric 2000 years later that it is difficult not to believe that they served as prototypes. At the entrance to another tomb are columns still more graceful in design; these are purely Egyptian in style, and are formed of slender reeds bound together, and expanding into capitals like papyrus or lotus buds or flowers. Here was buried Khnumhotep, grandson of Ameni, a man of high character and great renown. The walls of the interior are covered with pictorial representations, invaluable for the insight they afford into the daily life of those long past times. Amongst the scenes depicted on the walls of Khnumhotep’s funeral chamber is one of much significance. A family group, consisting of 37 persons, is ushered into the presence of the great Egyptian lord, who receives them standing and surrounded by his dogs. They are Amu—foreigners of the East—and their errand is to bring from the land of Pitshu (Midian) a certain mineral substance from which was prepared a paint for the eyes much used in Egypt. Their faces are wholly unlike the Egyptians; they have aquiline noses and long black beards. They are evidently immigrants come to settle in the land. The men are armed, the women gaily dressed. They bring with them presents—the ibis and gazelle, and the splendid wild goat of the Sinai desert; one of the group is playing on a lyre of antique form. The children are carried in panniers, and women walk by their side; asses laden with baggage bring up the rear.

Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.

ASIATIC IMMIGRANTS.

This occurred in the sixth year of Usertesen ii., and it was a scene that was very likely often-times repeated. Families of foreigners came to settle in Egypt, attracted by its luxuriant plenty, and gradually developed into colonies. In the Delta more especially, foreigners settled in great numbers. There were colonists bent on peaceful industry, but there were others of a more restless and warlike type. It is possible that some may have been established there since the dark and troubled days that followed the sixth dynasty, when foreign tribes very probably held possession of part at least of the Delta for a time.

Egypt had often maintained a severe conflict on her southern frontier, where the boundary line was now marked by grim fortresses; but if trouble should ever overwhelm the land the storm would assuredly gather in the north-east. Fortresses had been erected there also, and Amenemhat’s wall of defence was still standing, but there was no absolute line of demarcation. The north-east of Egypt was inhabited by many settlers, aliens, who were allied more or less closely in blood to restless and warlike peoples beyond the frontier.

Their presence was but of ill omen to the land of their adoption.