BEING
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
OF THE
ASSYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS

PUBLISHED UNDER THE SANCTION
OF
THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

___________________
NOTE
Every Text here given is either now translated for first time, or has been

specially revised by the Author to the date of this publication.
CONTENTS
PREFACE i

Inscription of Anebni
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 1
Inscription of Aahmes
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 5
Obelisk of the Lateran
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 9
Obelisk of Rameses II
By FRANCOIS CHABAS. 17
Treaty of Peace between Rameses II. and the Hittites
By C. W. GOODWIN, M.A. 25
Tablet of 400 years
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 33
Invasion of Egypt by the Greeks in the reign of Menephtah
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 37
Dirge of Menephtah
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 49
Possessed Princess
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 53
Tablet of Ahmes
By PAUL PIERRET. 61
Neapolitan Stele
By C. W. GOODWIN, M.A. 65
Rosetta Stone
By S. BIRCH, LL.D. 69
ETHIOPIAN ANNALS:
Stele of the Dream
By G. MASPERO. 79
Inscription of Queen Madsenen
By PAUL PIERRET. 87

Stele of the Excommunication
By G. MASPERO. 93
MYTHOLOGICAL AND ROMANTIC TEXTS:
Hymn to Osiris
By FRANCOIS CHABAS. 97
Hymn to the Nile
By Rev. F. C. COOK, M.A. 105
Festal Dirge of the Egyptians
By C. W. GOODWIN, M.A. 115
Book of Respirations
By P. J. DE HORRACK. 119
Tale of Setnau
By P. LE PAGE RENOUF. 129

THE success which has attended the publication of the "RECORDS OF THE PAST" is
evinced by the appearance of the fourth volume containing another selection of
some of the most important historical and other texts. Most of these have been
previously translated, but as they are scattered in works either difficult of
access or expensive to purchase, or else have appeared in periodicals of
scientific importance not publicly known, or published in different European
languages, their republication in a popular form with the final corrections by the
translators, whether English or foreign, invests them with a fresh interest. It is
hardly necessary to refer to their value as contributions to mythological,
historical and philological knowledge as this is now universally recognized. They
suddenly appear as apparitions of a departed past, which at one time it was
supposed would never be recovered. The history of the West had been told in the
glowing pages of the Greeks and Romans, that of the East a hazy and ill-defined
conception of thought remained so, till rock and clay, leather and papyrus, had
been compelled to reveal the secrets of the unknown and almost magical characters
in which {p.ii} at history was written. It then melted away from the mere vague
wedge or conventional sign, to appear as the great drama of a history long passed,
whose leading characters, personal relations, and continuity of action were again
presented to the intellectual eye. It is now removed from the closet of the
student to the wider domain of the general public, and all can equally enjoy that
which has hitherto been the privilege of a few to attain. The course of time, the
rapid and irresistible progress of science and criticism, may have hereafter to
add some additional corrections and final touches to the translations which have
hitherto been prepared. Such is however after all the fate of translations of all
books and in all languages, each generation of mankind preferring to hear the
language of its day and each school of students proposing its own form of
transmitting thoughts. The grand outlines and principal details remain however
essentially the same, and the highest ambition of improvers can neither destroy
the golden thread of the web of thought or disfigure the immovable features of the
history of the past.

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{p.1}
ANNALS OF THOTHMES III, THE INSCRIPTION OF ANEBNI

THE inscription is engraved on the dress of a small statue in calcareous stone, at
present in the British Museum, representing the prince Anebni seated on a
pedestal. The inscription is in horizontal lines of incuse hieroglyphs coloured
blue. It came from Thebes and probably from the tomb of Anebni, as is proved by
the sepulchral character of the dedication.

This small statue which was dedicated to Anebni by the joint order of Thothmes III and the queen {p.2} Hatasu or Hatsheps is valuable for proving their united reign and their relationship to each other. The whole of the prenomen Ramaka has been erased, except a part of the seated figure of Truth, Ma. There is however enough of this figure remaining to show what it was and to prove the historical fact. The statue itself was probably made just previously to the sole reign of Thothmes III, the revolution which took place and deprived Hatasu of her power and probably her life, being indicated by the erasure of her name, the sign of the strong political feeling or passion which accompanied that event.

1 MADE by the desires of the good goddess the mistress of the world RA-MA-KA
living and established like the Sun1
2 and her brother the good god, the Lord doing things, RA-MEN-KHEPER (THOTHMES
III) the giver of life, like the Sun eternal.
3 An act of giving peace to AMEN, Lord of the seats of the two lands, to OSIRIS,
Eternal Ruler, to ANUP2 who dwells
4 in the temple, attached to the coffin, Lord of Taser,3 who give sepulchral food
of bread and beer, oxen, fowl, clothes, incense, wax
5 all good and pure things, and all things, which come on their altar
6 in the course of every day, to drink the water
7 out of the stream of the river, to breathe the delicious air
8 of the North wind, to go in and out of the region Ra-sta,4 to the person
9 the perfect one, praised of his god, beloved
10 of his Lord on account of his good work, following his Lord at his

________
1 Her name is partly erased, but proves their joint reign. Ramaka is the prenomen
of the Queen Hatseps.
2 Anubis.
3 A region of the Hades or Cemetery.
4 Another region of the Hades, apparently that of the gates or roads leading
there.

11 footsteps in the lands of the South and North, the royal son, Chief of the
land, Superintendent of the weapons
12 of the King, ANEBNI, justified to the company of the great gods.

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{p.5}
ANNALS OF THOTHMES III, INSCRIPTION OF AAHMES