ABSTRACT
KOPTOS 49 (P·447). In the dark ages of the XIIlth and XVlth dynasties occasional light is shed upon the history of the city. Under King Nubkheperura Antef, an official of the temple of Min, named Teta, was found guilty of treason (?), and all his goods were given to the ha·prince of Koptos. The same king undertook some work in the temple, as blocks bearing his name indicate. Another king of this period, Ra-hotep, states that the doors of the temple had decayed, and were restored by him; and of the Pharaoh Sebekhotep IIlrd scarabs have been found here. During the Hyksos period Apepa 1st connected himself with the town; and when the kings of the XVIIlth dynasty came to the throne, the city came in for considerable attention. Thothmes lInd carried on some works here, and objects bearing the name of Hatshepsut have been found. Thothmes I I Ird rebuilt the temple, and we learn that in his reign the tax collected from the city was one deben of silver and half a deben of gold, ten measures of grain, some honey, and a number of calves. The smallness of the gold tax indicates that the gold-mines were not being vigorously worked in this neighbourhood. On the other hand, in the chapel of Menkheperrasenb (p. 125), we see the reception of the gold from the captain of the police of Koptos, and from the governor of the" gold country" of Koptos. The names of Thothmes IVth and Akhnaton have been found in the city; and we know that the latter king worked the quarries. Under Sety 1st and Rameses lInd (B.C. 1300) various building works were carried on; and a tablet found at Koptos relates how certain Hittite princes and a princess came to Egypt, apparently via Koptos, with horses, goats, cattle, gold, silver, and greenstone. Merenptah and Rameses II I rd undertook building works here, and under the latter king an expedition was sent to Punt which returned in safety to Koptos, where the goods which they had brought were loaded on to Nile vessels amid rejoicings. The king is said to have presented thirty-nine people to thc temples of the city. Rameses IVth seems to have paid a visit to the town on his way to the breccia quarries; and Rameses Vlth seems to have been connected with the place. In later times Painezem, Osorkon, Shabaka, Psammetik 1st (or lInd), Aahmes Ilnd, and Nectanebo have all left their names here.
