U'SERTE'SEN. The name of three kings of Egypt of the Twelfth Dynasty. UtiERTESEN the Iro6yxmcus of Manetho, was the son and successor of Amuenenthat I. (q.v.), the founder of the dynasty. His reign of 44 years began alma B.C. 1976, but for the first ten years lie ruled as co-regent with his father, and for the last two years of his life his son, Amenemhat II., was associated with him on the throne. Accord ing to a leather roll, written in the time of Amenophis TV., the temple of the sun at Heliopo lis was rebuilt in the early part of Usertesen's reign. One df the two granite obelisks erected by Usertesen before this temple is still stand ing; it is 66 Teel in height and is the old est obelisk in Egypt. (See OBELISK.) At Tanis three finely executed granite statues of the King have been found. A stele was discovered by Champollion at Wadi llalfa, near the second cataract of the Nile, containing a list of eleven Nubian tribes conquered by Usertesen, and an inscription at Beni Hassan records an ex pedition to Nubia in the King's forty-third year. The remains of Usertesen's pyramid tomb are still to be seen at Lisht, about 36 miles south of Cairo. —USERTESEN I I., the fourth King of the dynasty, was the son of Amenembat 11., and the grandson of Usertesen 1. lle reigned from about 'Lc. 1896, being for a short time co-regent with his father. A painting in a tomb at Beni Hassan, which depicts a number of Asiatics visiting the Nomarch Chnumhotep in the sixth year of Usertesen II., has been supposed to repre sent the arrival in Egypt of Abraham or of the sons of Jacob, but there is no evidence in support of either theory, and both are equally improbable.
Statues of Usertesen U. and of his Queen. Nofret, were found at Ilieraconpolis and at Tanis re spectively. The pyramid tomb of the King is at Illahun. 1\lanetho calls this King Sesostris and ascribes to him the conquest of the world, but there is no evidence that Usertesen 11. ever conducted any foreign wars. (See SESOSTRIN.)— USERTESEN III., the son and successor of User tesen IL, reigned for at least 26 years from about B.C. 1883. His chief energies were directed to the subjugation of Nubia; and to protect the southern frontier of his kingdom, lie built two strong forts at Senmeh and Kimmel, about 40 miles south of the second cataract of the Nile. Near Semneh the King set lip, in the eighth year of his reign, a boundary stone with the injunc tion that no negro should pass it except such as came into Egypt for the purpose of peaceful traffic. He was, however, compelled to under take two subsequent expeditions against the Nubians in the sixteenth and nineteenth years of his reign, before the country was finally sub.
Usertesen III. built a temple at Hera eleopolis (q.v.) in his fourteenth vegan! year. His tomb is probably the more northerly of the two brick pyramids at Dahshur known as the Black Pyramids. Consult: Wiedemann, A egyp tische Gesehiekte (Gotha, 1884.88) ; Petrie, A History of Egypt (New York. 1899) ; Budge. A History of Egypt (ib., 1902).