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November 16, 1958            

Dear Dr. Federn:

     It is good to know that there was no more serious illness than cold and that you are on your way to health again; would have I not called you by phone I would be by now very concerned, still not having had a letter from you since Nov. 2. In the meantime, I assume there is one in the mail with the letters that I have mailed you for reading.
     There is a great discrepancy in the number of reigning years as accorded to Ramses II and Necho II. What are the historical inscriptions? What is the latest Ramses II’s reigning year on a document like stela, and whether this is the only one such date or there are more like sixty-four, sixty-two, or sixty? And again, on the basis of what Necho is accorded a shorter reign? Greek sources, or also Egyptian sources?
     Is there any hint that Ramses II sent an expedition around Africa, besides building the canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas?
     What is the name under which Amasis II (who disposed [of] Apries) is known from Egyptian documents? How is it explained that from his reign, long and important, so little is left in inscriptions?
     It appears (am I right?) that so-called Psammetich II left many inscriptions (on temples?); and since in my identification Apries is an alter ego of Merneptah, and he was followed on the throne by Amasis, such as a Psammetich II must be either a son-coregent of Merneptah, or his place is somewhere else, no after Apries. What would you suggest? Amasis has a son by this name, and he ruled only a few months before overthrown by Cambyses, but could build these temples when his father was sitll on the thorne. How Psammetich II names himself, son of whom?
     It would be very fortunate if I could find among the Libyan chieftains of the sixth century the names mentioned by Merneptah, and of fourth century—names mentioned by Ramses III.
     By the way, Erman expresses himself about the buildings of the Ptolemaic age “and if we did not read the inscriptions, we could never guess that the temples of Esneh, of Edfu, of Denderah, and of Philae, belong to the times of the Lagides, the Caesars, and the Antonines.”
     Someday I shall show you my correspondence with Schaeffer; as much as we go together in the recognition of the great historical catastrophes in historical times, we do not see eye to eye the historical sequence. As in the case of Drioton, he took very seriously Ages I, and is thrown from his feet by Ages II. That Thutmose III or Solomon must be moved by centuries, this is less disturbing than that Ramses II and Necho is the same and that consequently Hattusil and Nebuchadnezzar is the smae, and the Hittite Empire was but the Chaldean kingdom. It is interesting that Gordon, like myself, in an article came to the conclusion that the Chaldeans lived mainly near the Black Sea, and he even transfers there Abraham’s Ur.
     Here I shall stop: I intend to write some fifteen letters, mostly procrastinated answers.
     Enclosed is a check.
     Regards from Elisheva. She received the first prize in sculpture in the current New Jersey State arts competition.

Cordially yours,                 

Im. Velikovsky

PS Presently the mail came and with it your letter. I am still baffled by your chronology. If Solomon was contemporary of Hatschepsut, as I put it, and if Hyksos ruled only a few decades, if at all, as you put it, then what do you do with the 480 years from the Exodus, after the 11th dynasty, as you choose it, till the time of Hatschepsut.

Im. V.


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