volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

338
The Mastabah of Ptak-shepses.
facade) of Ptah-shepses* which is ii feet 6 inches high
and 13 feet 6 inches in width. This distinguished official
was High Priest of Memphis, and he Uved in the reigns of
seven or eight kings, i.e., Mycerinus (about B.C. 3630),
and the six or seven kings who succeeded him. The
text on the fagade, which is complete, gives a full list
of his titles, and the inscriptions on the frames of the
panels of the " door " proper give the names of the
kings under whom he lived, and mention the honourable
offices which they entrusted to him. Among the basreliefs
may be mentioned that of Shera, a priest on the
foundation of Sent, a king of the Ilnd dynasty,^ that
of Ra-hetep from Medum,' and that of Queen Merttefs,
who flourished during the reigns of Seneferu, Cheops
and Chephren.* The only portrait figures I was able
to obtain were those of Katep and his wife Hetepheres,'
who were " royal kinsfolk " and flourished under the
IVth dynasty. My selection of monuments of the Ancient
Empire was removed to a special place of safety by its
owners, and each time I went to Egj^pt I brought back
a portion of it to England until the Trustees had purchased
it all. When they decreed the rearrangement of
the Egyptian Galleries, they ordered the Vestibule to
be devoted to monuments of the Ancient Empire, and
there the greater number of the stelae, false doors, etc.,
have been built up on its walls. It is the finest collection
of monuments of the Early Empire outside Egypt.
During the summer of 1893 and the winter of 1893-94
the natives made good progress in clearing the sites
and excavating the ruins mentioned above, and in the
autumn of 1894 news reached me from Suhag and
Western Thebes that they had made some finds of considerable
importance near these places. Moreover, the
natives of Tunah al-Jabal, about ten miles from Mallawi
al-'Arish, wrote to me saying that they had found some
^ No. 32. See Guide to the Egyptian Galleries [Sculpture) , p. 11.
' No. I. Ihid., p. I.
' No. 40. Ihid., p. 12.
* No. 7. Ibid., p. 4.
° No. 14. Ihid., p. 5.