Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned.  One of these statues is in the British Museum.  In the south court were discovered six statues of King Usertsen (Senusret) III, depicting him at different periods of his life.  Pour of the heads are preserved, and, as the expression of each differs from that of the other, it is quite evident that some show him as a young, others as an old, man.

[Illustration:  327.jpg GRANITE THRESHOLD AND OCTAGONAL SANDSTONE PILLARS]

     Of The XIth Dynasty Temple At Dee El-Bahari.  About 2500 B.C.

The face is of the well-known hard and lined type which is seen also in the portraits of Amenemhat III, and was formerly considered to be that of the Hyksos.  Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, as we have seen, consider it to be so, indirectly, as they regard the type as having been introduced into the XIIth Dynasty by Queen Nefret, the mother of Usertsen (Sen-usret) III.  This queen, they think, was a Hittite princess, and the Hittites were practically the same thing as the Hyksos.  We have seen, however, that there is very little foundation for this view, and it is more than probable that this peculiar physiognomy is of a type purely Egyptian in character.

[Illustration:  328.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE TOMB OF A PRIESTESS,]

     On The Platform Of The XIth Dynasty Temple, Der El-Bahari,
     1904.

On the platform, around the central pyramid, were buried in small chamber-tombs a number of priestesses of the goddess Hathor, the mistress of the desert and special deity of Der el-Bahari.  They were all members of the king’s harim, and they bore the title of “King’s Favourite.”  As told in a previous chapter, all were buried at one time, before the final completion of the temple, and it is by no means impossible that they were strangled at the king’s death and buried round him in order that their ghosts might accompany him in the next world, just as the slaves were buried around the graves (or secondary graves) of the 1st Dynasty kings at Aby-dos.  They themselves, as also already related, took with them to the next world little waxen figures which when called upon could by magic be turned into ghostly slaves.  These images were ushabtiu, “answerers,” the predecessors of the little figures of wood, stone, and pottery which are found buried with the dead in later times.  The priestesses themselves were, so to speak, human ushabtiu, for royal use only, and accompanied the kings to their final resting-place.

With the priestesses was buried the usual funerary furniture characteristic of the period.  This consisted of little models of granaries with the peasants bringing in the corn, models of bakers and brewers at work, boats with their crews, etc., just as we find them in the XIth and XIIth Dynasty tombs at el-Bersha and Beni Hasan.  These models, too, were supposed to be transformed by magic into actual workmen who would work for the deceased, heap up grain for her, brew beer for her, ferry her over the ghostly Nile into the tomb-world, or perform any other services required.