The XIth dynasty temple at Deir el-Bahari .. - NYU | Digital Library ...

68 THE XlTH DYNASTY TEMPLE AT DBIR EL-BAHARI.
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'' The Kino; Kha-iiefer-Rii
(Sebekhetep 111. of the Xlllth Dynasty) erected
liis constructions to the King Neb-hepet-Ra,
renewing what had been done bv Kino; Kha-kau-
Rfi (Usei'tsen 111.) and King Kha-kheper-Ra.
(Usertsen II.) his father."
Thus the father of Usertsen III. had already
begun to otter to Mentuhetep what the inscrip-
til tllllH
tion calls ^^•^•^ , which are mostly statues or tables
of offerings, gifts made to the god, which always
must bear the name of the giver. The king
does so because he considei's his predecessor
Mentuhetep a real god like Amon.
We have not found anything of what
Usertsen II. did for Mentuhetep. Usertsen 111.
wished evidently to emphasize as much as
possible the religious character of the king of
the Xlth Dynasty. No doubt Neb-hepet-Ra
very soon after his death was placed among the
gods to whom a regular worship was offered.
Although every king was a divine being, he was
a greater god than the other kings of his family,
and, like Amenhetep I. after him, was the object
of a special veneration.
We do not know to what circumstance he
owed his pre-eminence— probably to the fact of
his having restored Egypt to its former extent
and power, to his having been a kind of second
Mena. Usertsen III. was one of his most
faithful worshippei's. He offered him in his
funerary temple six of his own statues as a gift,
aud he did more : at the western end of the
temple, close to the entrance of the long passage
leading to a subterranean sanctuary, which
has quite lately been excavated, he erected
a large stele, which was discovered a few
days before we closed the work in IMarch,
1906 (PI. xxiv.). This stele, in red granite
and of a height of 1 m. 60, is now in the Cairo
Museum. It is quite possible that it stood in
some sort of shrine or sanctuary which has been
destroyed. The back bears traces of another stele
which had been raised against it. The top line
is formed by a very long cartouche containing
all the constituent parts of Usertsen's name.
This comprehensive cartouche occurs frequently
at the time of the Middle Kingdom.
Under the cartouche are two scenes exactly
alike. On the left Usertsen stands before
Amon, on the right before Neb-hepet-Ra. To
both of them he presents a heap of offerings of
all sorts of food and drink. The gift is made by
his touching (fi ) the offerings three or four
times with his mace. The two gods are exactly
in the same i^osition. Neb-hepet-Ra wears the
double crown, showing that he was lord over the
two parts of Egypt. Usertsen is followed by
his livinij L'lj, his protector, the presence of
whom is necessary to his life. This ka is called
I M
^^^ divine form.
V''
Under the scenes of offerings are two hori-
zontal lines referring to Usertsen, " Life, dui-a-
tion, and happiness are before the feet of this
good god, the iu.at-relihm live every day ; he
will last through millions of Sed periods in very
great numbers." These are the usual promises
made to the king by the gods, with the mention
that the tuat-rekhiu ^ are living. These Avords
refer to beings which are often represented
under the throne of the king, plovers with
raised human arms perching on the sign ^^3^,
the basket, and generally followed by the words
-pn^^^vA^Aj "they are living." No satisfactory
explanation can yet be given of this group,
1 This lim; gives us the phonetic veading of the group :
^ SO W> rt "^^ !-£-'• •'-^^ Abbott Papyrus gives it
still more fully. It speaks of a I
^'^©'^'^(jfj-^^sQ,
JMc ^^
'^^'"^^
the "room of the
tuat-rckliitu," on the walls of which, probably, these
beings were represented (Maspero, Proces judiciaire,
p. 51).