USERTSEN III. OCCUPIES THE SUDAN jewellery, of which such splendid specimens were discovered by M. J. de Morgan at Dahshur.

Here we may note that the inscriptions which belong to the reign of AmenemhAt II. supply us with another name for the country to the south of the First Cataract, namely Ta-Kenset,' or more fully " Ta- Kenset of the Nehesu," i.e., " Ta-Kenset of the Blacks." This is the name given to Nubia by Sa-Hathor, who also speaks of a journey which he made to the land of Ha." Also the feudal lord of Elephantine, who must have been a contemporary of Sa-Hathor, described himself as " great chief of Ta-Kenset, and superintendent of the desert lands [of the south]."-'' Under Usertsen II., the next king of this dynasty, the Government quarries at Elephantine were kept working, and an official called Menthu-hetep, who was overseer of them, tells us that he successfully repulsed the attacks which the local Nubians made upon his men. A statement of this kind goes to show that the authority of Egypt was not accepted by the natives, and it seems that, after all, Egypt's hold on the country was slight, and that so soon as her soldiers left the First Cataract after an expedition, the " conquered vile Nubians " rose up in rebellion behind them.

Usertsen II., who was identified with Sesostris by Manetho, appears to have made no expeditions into the Sudan, but, if his governors of the frontier succeeded in extorting tribute from the natives regularly, they would be unnecessary.

Soon after the next king of Egypt, Usertsen III., ascended the throne, about B.C. 2333, he decided to complete the conquest of the Sudan, and to occupy it, if not with Eg3ptian troops, at least with native levies under Egyptian officers. He set to work to carry out his plans in a systematic manner. Knowing well how difficult it would be to take large boats through the First Cataract, especially if his men were to be attacked by the natives whilst they were hauling them through the " gates," he determined to make a canal,' or rather to clear out and enlarge an old one, which appears tohave existed under the Vlth Dynasty. When _ c:.

See my account of the Aswan tombs in Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1887, p. 32. See Wilbour, in Maspero's Recueil, torn. xiii. , pp. 202, 203.

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