AHNAS EL MEDINEH. THE TOMB OF PAITEEI AT EL KAB. EGYPT EXPLOEATION FUND. Iprcsiticnt. SIR JOHN FOWLEK, Daut., K.C.M.G. Uicc=iCirc5i5cnt5. Sir Charles Newton, K.C.B., D.C.L. The Hon. Edwauh O. Mason (U.S.A.). Prof. R. Stuart Poole, LL.I>. (Hon. ,Sei-.). TnE Hon. John Geo. Dourinut, D.G.L. E. Maunde TiioMRSON, Esq., C.B., D.C.L., LL.L). (Canada). Charles Dudley Waenei;, Esq.,L.II.l)., LL.D. PiiOF. G. :\rAsrEi!0, D.C.L. (France). (U.S.A.). Josun Mullens, E.sq. (Australia). TuE Rev. W. G. Winslow, J ).])., D.C.L. i\L Charles IIkntsch (Switzerland). (Ron. Trcas. and Hon. Sec, U.S.A.). n. A, Grueuer, Esq., F.S.A. The Kev. W. C. Winslow, D.D., D.C.L. (Boston, U.S.A.). Clarence H. Clark, Esq. (Penn. U.S.A.). 1I.ion. Sccrctair. PuoF. R. Stuaut Poole, LL.J). /Ilbcnilici'!5 of Committee. The Kt.Hon. Loud Amheust OEnACKNEY,E.S.A. The Rev. W. ^MacGregor, :\I.A. T. n. Baylis, E.sq., Q.C., M.A. J. G. Meiggs, Es(i. (U.S.A.). Miss Bradbury. Prof. J. H. Miudleton, M.A., Litt.D. J. S. Cotton, Esq., ILA. A. S. Murray, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A. M. J. HE Morgan {Dirccteur Gmcral i/cs Anti- D. Paurisii, Esq. (U.S.A.) quit^s lie l'E<jiji)te). Col. J. C. Ro.ss, R.E., C.M.G. Siu John Evans, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D. The Rev. Prof. A. H. Sayce, M.A., LL.D. W. Fowler, Esq. H. ViLLiERS Stuart, Esc^. Major - General Sir Erancis Grenfell, Mrs. Tiraru. G.C.M.G., K.C.B. The Rev. H. G. To.mkins, M.A. F. L. Griffith, Esq., B.A., E.S.A. The Rt. Rev. The Lord Bishop of Truro. T. Farmer Hall, Esq. Hermann Weber, Esq., M.D. PnoF. T. Lewis, Haytek F.S.A. Major-General Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., Mrs. McClure. K.C.M.G., F.R.S. /AHNAS EL MEDINEH (HEPtACLEOrOLIS MAGNA) / AVITII CHAPTERS ON JIENDKS, THE NOME OE THOTH, AND EKONToPoLlS BY EDOUARD NAVILLE '/ AND APPENDIX ON P.YZANTINE SCDEPTUKES BY Professor T. HAYTER LEWIS, F.S.A. THE TOMB OF PAHEEI AT EL KAB BY J. J. TYLOR, F.S.A. , and F. Ll. GRIFFITH, B.A., F.S.A. ELEVENTH MEMOIR OP THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND. PUBLItiUED BY OllDKR OF THE COMMITTEE. LONDON: Sold at thk OFFICE OF THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND, 37, Gp.e.\t Russrli, Street, W.C. AND TiY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Patebnosteu Housr, Ciiaiung Ciios.s Road; B. QUARTTCH, \r^, Piccadilly; A. ASHER & Co., 13, Bedford Stiieet, Covkxt Gakde.n-. 1894 D m z m > < m O -n H I m H m nT3 m O Tl o z m >37 O r-m O O-a > o AHNAS EL MEDINEH (HEEACLEOPOLIS MAGNA). PREFACE. The present memoir comprises the result of two campaigns ; and it bears testimony to what every experienced excavator knows only too well, that sites Avhich at first sight seem the most promising are often those which cause the greatest disappointment. But still, although I did not find at Ahnas remains of the Xth and Xlth dynasties, as 1 had hoped, and although Tmei el Amdid and Tell Mokdam yielded only a few monuments, the excavations at those places have by no means been barren. They have materially contributed to the solution of historical and geographical (jucstions, and have thus furthered the progress of Egyptology. Besides, the Byzantine ornaments discovered at Ahnas are quite unique among the products of Christian art in Egypt. I have particularly to thank my eminent friend, Prof. Erman, for the map of Ahnas, which he drew during his visit to the spot with Dr. Schweinfurth. As in the former memoirs, the linear plates have been drawn by Mmc. Naville, and the phototypes have been executed from negatives taken by the Rev. Wm. MacGrcgor and myself EDOUARD NAVILLE. Malagny, Julij, 1893. CONTENTS. Heeacleopolis Magna— page Its Origiu and its Name ......... 1 Divinities of Ileraclcopolis ........ 7 Monuments Discovered ......... 9 The Necropolis . ,11 Mendes 15 * TnK Nome op Thotii . .22 Leontopolis 27 Appendix on Byzantine Scdi.ptures found at Ahnas 32 Indexes 35 ; HEEACLEOPOLIS MAGNA ITS ORIGIN AND ITS NAME. About twelve miles north-west of the town of emperors, before tlie ]\loliammedan conquest, Beni Siief, the great canal which bounds the for it contains the ruins of several Coptic cultivated laud, i.e. the Balir Yusuf, makes a churches—chiefly bases and shafts of columns, strong curve towards the east. There it skirts some of them very large. But nothing indi- huge mounds of decayed houses, covered with cated the site of an ancient Egyptian temple, masses of broken pottery, and a few granite and yet there had been more than one. It monuments scattered here and there amongst was by mei'e guess-work that we discovered thorn. The mounds extend over an area of the place where the god Arsnyhes had his 360 acres. They are popularly known as Onnn dwelling, and we made many soundings before el Kemau, the Mother of MonmU, because of we hit upon it in a depression west of the their size. The Copts called the place Almas ; Kom el Dinar. One may form an idea of the its official name is Hcnassiet el Medinch, I he, labour required for discovering and clearing /iity of Henassieh, and it has long been recog- the remains of this temple, when 1 say that, nized as the site of Ileracleopolis Magna. to this end, I was obliged to remove more The greater part of these mounds is waste tlian -to, 000 cubic metres of earth. We do not land, utilized by the inhabitants for sehakh know at what date Hcracloopolis was founded, digging only. This is especially the case with but very anciently it was one of the important the mound called Kom el Duu'ir. But sevci'al cities of Egypt. Manetho says that the IXth hamlets and villages now occupy the site, the and Xth Dynasties were Heracleopolitan, and, most important of them being the one called even from the scanty information which has Melaha. Just in front of this village are come down to us, we must conclude that Ilera- four standing columns, called the Kciiisch, or cleopolis played an important part in the church, and belonging to a Eomau or Byzantine events of that obscure period. The tombs of edifice. Two abandoned saltpetre pits are also Sioot, attributed to the Xth Dynasty by M. to be found. They were used at the beginning Maspero and Mr. Griffith, describe the wars of this century in the manufacture of gun- waged on behalf of their Heracleopolitan powder for the Mameluks and Mohammed Ali. sovereign by the vassal princes of Sioot, pro- Although this was the occasion of much dig- bably against rebels from Thebes. Hence, ging, it does not seem to have led to the there is frequent mention of the city of Hera- discovery of any antiquities. The place must cleopolis in these inscriptions, and even the have been important in the time of the Greek name of one of the kings who is supposed to ; TIKKACLEOPOLIS; Its have resided tlicre is also given. We might romance, and not an historical document. therefore have reasonably expected that our description of the city in no way agrees with excavations would throw some light on those the eminence of Heracleopolis in mythology, a dark times, and help us to fill up this great point which we shall have to consider later, nor historical gap in our present knowledge. yet with the oldest historical text wherein the Mariette entertained great hopes as to excava- city is mentioned, and which dates from the tions in the mounds of Ahnas. He reverts Xllth Dynasty. to the subject several times in his last memoir, The Xllth Dynasty, which, as we may judge published in 1879, and which has justlj- been from its important work in the Fayoom, had a " special this district, could not well called his Archaeological Will.^ C'est i"i Ahnas liking for el Medineh, representee aujourd'hui par des neglect Ahnas, and we have proof that it did mines asscz etendues, qui n'ont ete jnsqu'ici not, in a stele engraved on the rocks of I'objet d'aucune investigation serieuse, que Hamamut.^ It belongs to an officer called nous devrons essayer do faire revivi'c des ° '^ Khani, relates that in the % (] who [j souvenirs des IX" et X" dynasties." But these fourteenth year of his reign, U [ A J A hopes, in which I also shared, have been com- pletely disappointed ; the oldest remains which <:^ I I I 1 ^ I h ^ ^^^A^^ _Z1 of Ahnas belong to the I found in the mounds ^25- ^ cz:^ Xllth Dynasty. •I v I Jf' Blajesfij ordered him io r/o to Roliennu One of the most ancient references to the city His in order to tiring the of Heracleopolis exists in a tale, whose origin (Hamamdt), fine monu- may be assigned to the Xllth or XTIIth ments iiiJticJi tris Majesti/ erected, to Tiershe f {Arsaphes) the lord, Hvncnsntcn. in- Dynasty,- although the events which it relates of This reign are supposed to take place much earlier, under scription belongs to the of Usertesen III., the reign of Nebkara of the Illrd Dynasty. but as the king erected statues at Hunensuten locality, it is It describes a quarrel between a peasant and a to the god of the clear that the huntsman who had robbed him.