* The first tomb seems to have been dug before his marriage, at the time when he had no definite ambitions; the second was prepared for him and his wife Tîi.
His sarcophagus, a large oblong of carved rose granite, still lies open and broken on the spot.
[Illustration: 111.jpg SARCOPHAGUS OF THE PHARAOH AÎ]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after the drawing of Prisse dAvenues.
Figures of goddesses stand at the four angles and extend their winged arms along its sides, as if to embrace the mummy of the sovereign. Tûtankhamon and Aï were obeyed from one end of Egypt to the other, from Napata to the shores of the Mediterranean. The peoples of Syria raised no disturbances during their reigns, and paid their accustomed tribute regularly;* if their rule was short, it was at least happy. It would appear, however, that after their deaths, troubles arose in the state. The lists of Manetho give two or three princes--Râthôtis, Khebres, and Akherres--whose names are not found on the monuments.** It is possible that we ought not to regard them as historical personages, but merely as heroes of popular romance, of the same type as those introduced so freely into the history of the preceding dynasties by the chroniclers of the Saite and Greek periods. They were, perhaps, merely short-lived pretenders who were overthrown one by the other before either had succeeded in establishing himself on the seat of Horus. Be that as it may, the XVIIIth dynasty drew to its close amid strife and quarreling, without our being able to discover the cause of its overthrow, or the name of the last of its sovereigns.
**** Tûtankhamon receives the tribute of the Kûshites as well as that of the Syrians; Aï is represented at Shataûi in Nubia as accompanied by Paûîrû, the prince of Kûsh.
** Wiedemann has collected six royal names which, with much hesitation, he places about this time.
*** The list of kings who make up the XVIIIth dynasty can be established with certainty, with the exception of the order of the three last sovereigns who succeed Khûniatonû. It is here given in its authentic form, as the monuments have permitted us to reconstruct it, and in its Greek form as it is found in the lists of Manetho:
Manethos list, as we have it, is a very ill-made extract, wherein the official kings are mixed up with the legitimate queens, as well as, at least towards the end, with persons of doubtful authenticity. Several kings, between Khûniatonû and Harmhabi, are sometimes added at the end of the list; some of these I think, belonged to previous dynasties, e.g. Teti to the VIth, Râhotpû to the XVIIth; several are heroes of romance, as Mernebphtah or Merkhopirphtah, while the names of the others are either variants from the cartouche names of known princes, or else are nicknames, such as was Sesû, Sestûrî for Ramses II. Dr. Mahler believes that he can fix, within a few days, the date of the kings of whom the list is composed, from Ahmosis I. to Aî. I hold to the approximate date which I have given in vol. iv. p. 153 of this History, and I give the years 1600 to 1350 as the period of the dynasty, with a possible error of about fifty years, more or less.