GRANITE LIONS OF AMEN-HETEP III.

" mighty lion," ' and beloved of Amen-Ra. There is nothing in these words to indicate that the lion was brought from Sulb to Gebel Barkal, for they only say that king i Neb-MaAt-Ra j built a temple to his Image, the god Neb-Maat-Ra who dwelt in Hetkha-em-Maat. The inscription on the base of the other lion gives the names and titles of Tut-iinkh-Amen, one of the last kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and adds the important information that he "repaired the temple building of his father, the king of the " South and North, ( Neb-Maat-Ra |, son of Ra, f Amen-hetep, " prince of Thebes j, and built a temple to Father Amen-Ra, the "lord of the thrones of the Two Lands, and to Tem, lord of " Heliopolis, and to the Moon-god Aah." Now here there is no mention whatsoever of the temple of Sulb, and it is clear that if Tutankh-Amen says on a monument found at Gebel Barkal that he restored his father's buildings, there must have been something there to restore.

The portion of the stone hawk and its standard found at Gebel Barkal by Lepsius proves nothing, for the inscriptions upon it merely record the names and titles of A-men-hetep III. A figure of this particular variety of hawk, which was dedicated to the god Sept, who was a tutelary deity of the Peninsula of Sinai, as well as of the Sudan, existed in many temples in Nubia. There was one at least at Sulb, one at least at Gebel Barkal, and Mr. J. W.

Crowfoot and myself sent a portion of the black basalt standard of one, which we found near Kubba Salim, to Khartum.

From the facts given above it is clear that on the whole the rule of Amen-hetep III. in the Siidan was a beneficent one, and that, under the peace which his rule assured to the country, trade flourished and the material prosperity of the natives increased. The mines, of course, had to be worked, and the supply of slave labour required by Egypt to be provided, but in spite of all this there was a large class of people in Nubia who were benefited by the Egyptian rule, and who, seeing that there was no likelihood of overthrowing it, began to adopt quietly certain phases of Egyptian ' >5 .

British Museum, No. 34.

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