Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. Excerpt:... the great temple of Abu-Simbel, between two pillars of the first hall, there is a large tablet which has been added, evidently, a long time after the completion of the temple. This tablet, which is the object of the present translation, is covered with a text of 37 lines, containing a speech of the god Ptah Totunen to the king Rameses II., and the answer of the king. It was very likely considered by the kings of Egypt to be a remarkable piece of literature, as it has been repeated, with slight alterations, on the pylons of the temple of Medinet-Habu, built by Rameses III., The tablet, which is decaying rapidly, has been published three times; first, by Burton, in the Excerpta Hicroglyphica, pi. 60; then from the copies of Champollion, in the Monuments deV&gypte etde la Nubie, I., pi. 38.; and, finally, by Lepsius, Denkm'dler III., pi. 193, The inscription of Medinet-Habu has been copied and published by M. Duemichen, in his Historiche Inschriften I., pi. 7-10., and by M. Jacques de Roug6, in his Inscriptions recueillis en Egypte, II., pi. 131-8. I am not aware that any complete translation of this long text has been made. The first part has been translated into German by Mr. Duemichen (Die Flotte einer Aigyptischen Kbnigin. Einleilung), from the text at Medinet-Habu; a portion of it is also to be found in Brugsch, Algyptische Geschichte, p. 538. The present translation I have made from the tablet, which, being more ancient than the inscription, is very likely to be the original. It contains an interesting allusion to the marriage of Rameses with a daughter of the king of the Kheta. The inscription at Medinet-Habu, which is written more carefully than the tablet, and with less abbreviations, has given me a clue to several obscure passages of the ancient text...