Image not availble: Fig. 9. Scarab from Tomb No. 5.Fig. 9. Scarab from Tomb No. 5.
Site 10.A tomb with large open courtyard facing south. This was completely excavated. On the east side of the main door was a low single brick wall; between it and the east corner a shallow round hole in the floor, like that for a foundation deposit (see tomb No. 16). In the east wall of the court was a small chamber, its entrance passage was three parts full of sand, while the chamber itself was comparatively clean. It must have been open anciently for many years as the ceiling, walls, and even the pots in it, were covered with mason-bees’ nests. Mingled with the rubbish were pots of peg-top shape (Pl. XVIII. 10), broken pieces of coffins, funereal cones (seeFig. 6), and human bones, all of different dates and occurring here accidentally. The pieces of coffin were eaten by white ants, a pest certainly foreign to this part of the Theban necropolis, and for that reason I believe these wooden fragments came from some other portion of the Theban necropolis. There is reason to suppose that the courtyard was never finished; there were many huge stones protruding out of the rock and jutting into the yard. In this yard more pottery was found, with among them two small pieces of linen tied up and containing pellets, like masticated corn mixed with grains of wheat.
Sites 11 and 12produced nothing of further interest than a palm-tree in front of one of the tombs (12) which had been planted there in Nile mud brought up from the cultivation.
Site 13, a large rubbish heap formed of the débris thrown out by the ancient workmen when making the neighbouring tombs.
Here our hopes were to find a grave covered and protected by stuff thrown over it. Such indeed was the case, for within a few days the greater part of the mound was cleared away and the mouth of a cutting exposed. Naturally this raised great expectations, as the chances were that it would be undisturbed. But, as nearly always happens to the excavator in such cases, it is the unsuspected that occurs; the tomb had never been completed!
Sites 15 and 16were on the open desert close to one another. 15 proved to be unfruitful. 16, though it at first appeared to be more promising by there being plenty of artificial chippings, had but little interest outside the fact that it led to a cutting of an already pilfered tomb. At the entrance of this cutting, in a small hollow in theTaflerock, on the west side, was a ‘pocket’ of barley, which was at first a puzzle, as it did not seem accidental. Afterwards, on thinking that it might be of the nature of a foundation deposit to the tomb, the opposite side was carefully searched, and a corresponding ‘pocket’ with barley was eventually found; thus proving the conjecture to be correct, and showing that the tombs here, like the royal ones in the Valley of the Kings,[16]had foundation deposits as was customary also in the temples.
At the doorway of this tomb a pottery pan offering like a ‘Soul House’ was found (Pl. XVIII. 16).
Site 17.Here a pair of rush sandals and a pottery female figure were the prizes of the last day’s work of the season of 1909 among the sepulchres of this region.
InPl. XVIII. 3 are shown examples of each type and shape of the XIth Dynasty pottery found in the above excavations. There were only two other examples of a later date (Coptic), and they were of the most common form; the numbers on the illustration refer to the sites they came from.
Continuing the work in the year 1910, the large mounds immediately east of the footpath leading to the Biban el Mulûk were thoroughly investigated. These extend north and south on the hill slope below the great rock-cut tombs which are situated under the cliff at the top. This work was divided into two sites, Nos. 18 and 19 (Pl. XIII) and placed under two reises. It produced practically nothing, being only an immense covering of stone chippings upon thegebelthrown out from the tombs above. Among this accumulation, which varied in depth from one to five metres, many horns of animals suggesting sacrifices, leather thongs from implements, broken timber, andbalaniteskernels (Pl. LXXIX) were found; in fact the refuse from the workmen who had been employed upon the sepulchral caverns above. Thus, in the two seasons, this half of the north side of the valley between the eastern foot hills at its mouth and the mountain path may be said to have been thoroughly explored, leaving but small chances of undiscovered tombs.
The men were then removed further westward, close to Hatshepsût’s Temple, where parallel trenches, twenty-five to forty metres broad, were dug. They began at the base of the slope and were carried up, in some cases, nearly to the foot of the vertical cliff; the excavations were continued until the rock surface had all been exposed.
Trench 20, begun from the temple temenos, yielded the following results:—
1. On the flat of the valley bed, between the temenos and the rising ground, was disclosed the mutilated foundation of a large wall (Pl. XIX. 1), extending east and west, two metres wide, and built of crude bricks stamped with the cartouches of Amenhetep I and Aahmes-nefert-ari (Pl. XXIII. 20).
2. Over and along the side of the wall were many irregularly built mud dwellings for workmen, made of stray bricks of the XIth and early XVIIIth Dynasties; they no doubt were the rest-houses of the builders of the Queen Hatshepsût’s temple.
3. Among the huts, in a depression roughly enclosed by limestone blocks, were the roots and stem of a date palm, set in black soil. Below the roots of the tree were several pots and a broken limestone statuette, placed as offerings for the welfare of the palm (Pl. XIX. 2). The pots contained a mud sediment. The statuette, which seems to have been used also as an offering, has the following inscriptions upon it:—
Image not available: hieroglyph
They mention the ‘True Royal Scribe, Scribe of the Altar of the Lord of the Two Lands’, Amenemhat, calledKeriba(the Son of) ‘Scribe of the Altar’ Amenhetep. It was dedicated by Amenemhat’s brother, ‘Who made to live his name,’ ‘The Royal Scribe,’ Userhat.
4. A few metres above, in the first part of the hill slope, hewn in theTafle, was a chamber (No. 21). The interior had been plastered and it appears to have been a kind of office for the clerk of the works for the Queen’s temple. It contained a broken rush and wicker-work stool, fragments of a mat, a basket,torn fragments of papyrus, clay pellets for seal impressions, and a donkey halter. Leading up to the entrance was a small causeway. The fragments of papyrus, forty-three in number, when fitted together, proved to be part of Chapter XLI of the ‘Book of the Dead’, a list of different names of Osiris.
5. Higher up, on the top of the low foot-hill, was a series of cells built against the second incline. In one of these was a washing slab made of sandstone, with a hole in the corner of its sunken bed to allow the water to drain into a cesspool below; this was perhaps the bathing-place for the workmen (Pl. XX. 2).
6. On the second incline, eight metres above the bath, was part of a ‘serpentine’ wall (Pl. XX. 1), a peculiar structure not uncommon in building operations. Such a wall was found near the unfinished part of the north colonnade of the Queen’s temple. Another example was found this season in Site 14. Its specific purpose is not thoroughly understood, perhaps it was an economical method of making enclosures for the working staff. In this particular case the bricks used for it belong to different periods—the XIth Dynasty brick (black mud without straw) and stamped bricks of Amenhetep I, Aahmes-nefert-ari, and Hatshepsût; the latter shows that it cannot have been earlier than the date of the Thothmes family.
7. A natural fissure in the hill near by had been, in late times, converted into a group of small tomb-chambers (No. 22). They had in them the plundered remains of burials like those of site No. 5, found in the season’s work of 1909 (p. 23).
Trench 23, the next trench (parallel and east of 20), produced little or nothing. More stamped bricks of Aahmes-nefert-ari and Amenhetep I were found, and the beginning of an unfinished tomb-shaft in which was a boulder bearing the name, written in black ink,Image not available: hieroglyphMentu-hetep.
Full attention being required by the Birâbi excavations, the third parallel trench was not begun until after an interval of ten days, when the good services of Mr. Cyril Jones were obtained for this express purpose. Mr. Jones, with thirty men and sixty boys, steadily continued the work as before, the base of his trench (No. 26) reaching as far as the north-east corner of the temple inclosure wall. The part ascending the valley side was barren and only exposed a plundered XIth Dynasty tomb (No. 30), re-used as an habitation, and afterwards as the place of a later burial consisting of a woodendug-outcoffin. But, on turning round the corner of the temple enclosure, he discovered a most interesting historical cache, a foundation deposit of the Dêr el Bahari dromos (for the exact position of this deposit seePl. XXIV). For this deposit a circular hole, three metres deep and 140 cms. in diameter, had been made, and lined with a mud-brick wall with rounded and plastered coping (Pl. XXI. 2). The interior was filled with greyish (local) sand sprinkled with grains of corn. But for some reason the whole of the deposit was not placed in it. The tools and implements were found in a smaller hole, simply dug in the ground a few feet away, and like the former pit it was filled with sand and grain.
In the main pit the objects, placed in groups under alternate layers of sand,were discovered in the following order:—A few inches below the surface, the skull of an ox (Pl. XXI. 1), and underneath it a group of pottery, whole and broken, one pot containing grain, another containing fruit of theNebbektree. Then came the jaw-bone and fore-leg of an ox (Pl. XXI. 1), a piece of bread, a square sample of wood, an ebony symbolical knot (Pl. XXII. 2. E), and an alabaster pebble (Pl. XXII. 2. N) elaborately inscribed. In the third batch another symbolical knot, of cedar wood, two samples of fine linen, broken pottery that had contained oil, wines and foodstuffs, and two samples of coarse linen. Lastly, a rush mat, a pitcher-carrier, a second rush mat, and under it a second pitcher-carrier, masses of broken pottery, including a vessel containing a sample of mortar. Below these was plain sand reaching to the bottom of the pit.
Those of the second hole, mostly implements, were placed apparently not in any particular order, and are given in the following list, and illustrated inPlate XXII. 2:—A bronze axe (A), graver (B), and chisel (C); an adze with a bronze blade bound by leather thongs to its wooden handle (F); a wooden mallet (D), hoe (G), brick mould (H), and peg (J); two sieves, one of palm-leaf with coarse mesh (K), the other ofhalfa-grass, with fine mesh, and made of horse or donkey hair (L); a rushwork jar rest (?) (M); a smelting crucible made of sun-dried mud (I), and lastly a pottery dish and jar. Many of these models were quite large, about three-quarter actual size, and all in a most perfect state of preservation. The two knots (Pl. XXII. 2. E) have engraved upon themImage not available: hieroglyph, the ‘Nebti’ name and prenomen of Hatshepsût.
The alabaster pebble (Pl. XXII. 2. N) has also the following legend:—Image not available: hieroglyph. It mentions that Queen Maat-ka-ra (Hatshepsût) made this monument for her father Amen-Ra, when she measured out for Amen the Dêr el Bahari temple. Among the broken débris of pottery found in the main cache were two fragments bearing the wordsImage not available: hieroglyph‘wine’, andImage not available: hieroglyph‘roast meat’.
Types of the pottery are given inPlate XXII. 1. These vessels of red pottery have nearly all been dipped into colour of a terra-cotta hue. The lip, rim, and neck of the jars (D, F, H), the upper half of the bowls (E, G, I), the interior and rims of dishes (A, B, C), are all coloured in that manner.
There is no doubt that the pots were intentionally smashed when deposited, and that the probable reason for this breaking was to disperse their contents during the ceremony over the sand. From this cause most of the pots and potsherds were found adhering to one another, due to the spilt unguents as well as to the blood from the flesh-offering having dried and caked them together. This may be a reason for the more perishable objects being placed in a separate cache. The bones, shown inPlate XXI. 1, are those of a young beast, the ossification being that of an immature animal. They measure:—
Skull.Length from top of occipital tuberosity to end of the pre-maxilla,457 mms. (approximate); width of frontal bone between orbits, 150 mms.; length of jaw, from the mandibula condyle to end of the sub-maxillary bone, 380 mms.
Fore-leg.Length of scapula, along scapula axis, 317 mms.; length of humerus, from the head to the tip of outer condyle, 283 mms.; length of radius, from head to the lower end, 287 mms.; maximum length of the great metacarpal, 215 mms.
Other details of interest brought to light by these excavations in these trenches are recorded below:—
1. A potsherd with charcoal sketch of a Sinaitic ibex upon it.
2. A fine ostracon, bearing, in hieratic, a receipt dated in ‘The 11th year (? Thothmes III), third month of Summer, 24th day’, for various articles given by the ‘Mayor’ Aahmes.
3. Fragments of a shawabti figure, of white and violet glaze, bearing the name and title ‘Royal Scribe of the Altar’,Image not available: hieroglyphKy-nefer. Date XIXth Dynasty.
4. A group of broken shawabti figures, blue faience, ofImage not available: hieroglyphZed-Khensu-auf-ankh. Date XXIInd Dynasty.
5. Three jar seals—(i) bearing on top two cartouches, with only the two signsImage not available: hieroglyphvisible; (ii) has the cartoucheImage not available: hieroglyph(iii) on the top surface is a cartouche-formed impression but illegible, and painted on the side is the commencement of the cartoucheImage not available: hieroglyphin yellow on a blue ground.
6. A child’s toy—an interesting little pack-horse with removable packages, made of clay and housed in a pot. The packs are supported by four vine-leaf stalks which are stuck into the animal’s sides (Pl. XXIII. 1).
7. From the rubbish of the court in front of Tomb 30 a small bundle of linen containing a steatite scarab, a strip of plaited rushwork, and some diamond-shaped pieces of leather with minute multicoloured bead-work sewn upon them.
8. In two places the trenches cut through temple refuse heaps, one high upon the north side of the monument, the other at the north-east corner of the temenos. These heaps are certainly of great interest, and should one day be carefully worked through, for in them there are numbers of broken votive offerings, brought by the populace to invoke the aid and assistance of the local divinity. They consist of bronze, earthenware, blue glaze, Hathor heads, cows,menats, model bunches of grapes, rings, balls, sistrums, sphinxes, scarabs, scarab-shaped and cowroid beads (one bearing the name of Aahmes I), amulets, such as ears, eyes, andAnkhs, dishes, bowls and vases, some of which are of very large dimensions.
A full series of pottery is given inPl. XXIII. 2.
Plate LXXIX. 1 gives two examples of fig-basket found in the refuse heaps mentioned above.
Towards the end of the exploration of 1911 an attempt was made to discover the corresponding dromos deposit to that revealed by the work of Mr. Cyril Jones in 1910. The exact measurements of the position of the former one were taken, and laid down on the opposite side of the dromos; the spot thus indicated was dug, and within a few hours the second cache was exposed. It resembled the former one in every way, the only variant being that the inscription upon the alabaster pebble in this case was slightly different. It reads:—Image not available: hieroglyphImage not available: hieroglyph‘The Good Goddess Maat-ka-ra, living, beloved of Amen Ra, Lord of the thrones [of the two lands].’[17]
This completes our three consecutive seasons’ researches on the north side of the Dêr el Bahari Valley, which is mainly occupied by the early tombs of the XIth Dynasty.
THEsite between the native house ‘Beit el Meleitên’ and the village mosque, about one hundred and fifty metres north-east of the mouth of the Dêr el Bahari valley, was examined in 1908, and as it resulted in the discovery of a XVIIth Dynasty tomb (No. 9), it was continued in the following year 1909. We began by exhaustively clearing tomb No. 9 that for the sake of protection during the interim had been re-covered with earth. In 1908 the front court, pit, and pit-chamber had been investigated: in 1909 our attention was thus confined to the inner chamber only, but everything of interest was discovered during the earlier work.
During the work of 1908 the courtyard was found to contain great masses of pottery and mutilated mummies, and it was among these, on a rock ledge, that the important historical tablet referring to the expulsion of the Hyksos by the General Kamosi (see further description by Griffith, p. 36), and the second broken tablet were recovered. In the first chamber were found parts of a wooden painted Canopic box, with three of its jars in pottery painted to imitate alabaster (Pl. XXV. 1 and 2), among other destroyed remains of a plundered burial. But in 1909, owing to the depth and sliding nature of the rubbish, a more extensive excavation had to be made to open the main chambers. Little more was found here than further examples of pots, a child’s coffin too decayed for preservation, and a reed burial of a poorer and much later man (for example seePl. XLII. 3). The tomb consisted of a court formed by low stone and mortar walls, with a cutting in the centre leading to the entrance: this entrance or doorway gave access to a passage, cut in the rock, some six metres in length, which led to a rectangular chamber that apparently formed one of the sepulchral repositories. Cut in the floor of this chamber, on the west side, was a shaft nearly three metres deep, giving ingress to two other chambers, one above the other.
It hardly seems credible that such a mass of pottery as was found in the rubbish outside could have all come from so small a tomb, and one is inclined to think that the greater part must have come from some neighbouring and perhaps larger tomb.
Plate XXVIgives the different types of the pottery vessels found here. The earthenware is fine in quality, deep red, with smooth surface, and of a soft nature. Some are of a yellowish-grey material, and examples of these are given inPlate XXVI. 2 (the five pieces on the right hand of the lower row). In the top illustration are shown three very fine specimens of complete jars with lids in red pottery with black lines round the circumference of their bellies.
The name on the Canopic box is Kati-nekht,Image not available: hieroglyph
THEwriting tablet (Carnarvon Tablet I) is a document of the highest historical importance, preserving as it does a contemporary record of the conflict of the Theban Dynasty with the Hyksos. On the face of the tablet eight lines of hieratic contain the introduction to the famous Proverbs of Ptah-hetep, setting forth how the Wazir Ptah-hetep, son of a king, spoke to his King Assa of the advance of old age upon him and the diminution of all his powers, and requested that he might delegate his duties to his son, whom he would instruct in the words and ways of the Ancients. The King accorded his request and bade him proceed, and thus originated the rules of good conduct which go by the name of the old Wazir. The text[18]of the tablet shows some considerable differences of reading from the only other copy known—that in the Prisse Papyrus.
Below this fragment of philosophy are marked the lines of a draught-board, in squares 10 × 3. Four of the compartments contain hieratic signs indicating their place in the game.
The historical text on the other side consisted of no less than seventeen long lines. Unhappily the flaking of the stucco[19]about the fracture has robbed us of one line and of the greater part of two more. The text is singularly difficult, and this great gap, added to some minor imperfections, further obscures the meaning. In the following brief analysis I have had the help of a number of excellent readings suggested by Mr. A. H. Gardiner.
The text is dated in the seventh year of King Kamosi, who is described as beloved of Amen-Ra, the god of Karnak. His Majesty was speaking in his palace unto the court and nobles who attended him, ‘Consider for what is my might! One prince is in Avaris, another in Ethiopia!’ He continues to discourse of the division of the land and mentions Memphis and Cusae in an obscure context. ‘And the nobles of his court said, “Behold, the Asiatics have approached (?) unto Cusae, they have drawn (?) their tongues in one manner, [saying?]We are happy with our Black Land as far as Cusae, ... our barley is in the papyrus-marshes ... our barley is not taken.”’ The meaning of this is very uncertain. Then after a gap, ‘they are painful to His Majesty,’ perhaps referring to the replies of the countries.
After a long gap, ‘[The king, mighty in] Thebes, Kamosi, protector of Egypt [said?], “I have gone north victorious to drive back the Asiatics by the command of Ammon: the plans of my army have succeeded: every mighty man was before me like a flame of fire, the mercenaries of the Mezaiu (Nubians) were like the threshing instrument (?) to seek out the Satin and to destroy their places: the East and the West were successful (?), the army rejoicing at each thing in its order. I led the victorious mercenaries of the Mezaiu ... Teta the son of Pepa in Nefrus, I allowed him not to escape (?). I stopped the Asiatics, I freed (?) Egypt ... I was in my ship, my heart rejoicing! When day dawned, I was on him like a hawk: at a moment of ... I drove him out, I hacked down his wall, I slew his people, I caused my soldiers to embark like wolves with their prey, with slaves, cattle ... honey, dividing their property; their hearts ...”’ Another very obscure line follows. As Ahmosi, the successor of Kamosi, completed the overthrow of the Hyksos by the capture of Avaris early in his reign, one may conjecture that this text gives us the stage in the expulsion of the Hyksos when they were driven from Middle Egypt and confined to Lower Egypt by the Theban power. The latter had also to contend with a rival in Nubia, who was likewise crushed by Ahmosi.
It is remarkable that the titles of Kamosi as given here do not agree with those upon the Treasure of Ahhotp; the handwriting proves that Lord Carnarvon’s tablet (Carnarvon Tablet I) had been written within a few years of the events recorded in it. The publication of the facsimile is certain to rouse the interest of every student of one of the most fascinating problems in oriental history.
The fragments of the second tablet (Carnarvon Tablet II), facsimiled inPlate XXIX, have not yet been translated.
ADJOININGthe site of Tomb 9 is the ‘Valley’-Temple to the Dromos of Hatshepsût’s Mortuary Chapel at Dêr el Bahari (Site 14,Pl. XXX).
It was first discovered by the excavation of the tomb No. 9, which exposed some of its stone-work, and it was a surprise to find here, in such a well-known place, a finely built limestone construction of considerable proportions quite near to the surface.
At the beginning this building was a puzzle to us, the part revealed in season 1909 being only a long piece of the outside wall which gave but few data, and thus became a source of much speculation as to its meaning. This wall ran east and west, having a base measurement of 2·60 metres broad with its outer faces sloping—their ‘batter’ being 4 cms. in every rise of 25 cms. Its construction consists of two outer skins of small well-made limestone blocks built upon sandstone foundation slabs, with, in the middle, a core of stone and mortar rubble mixed with sand. In it was a doorway, about half-way along the length cleared, which opened out to the north—its door-jambs being on that side. The eastern extremity of the excavation then made, showed that in that direction it descended. Under the doorway a search was made for a deposit but with no result, though at the west end, the part of the wall first discovered, there was a pocket of sand which seemed to have belonged to something of that nature.
The extensive exploration of this site in 1910 clearly determined that it was an unfinished portion of a building of Terrace-Temple form; and that the wall, which had given rise to many theories, was only its northern boundary wall (Pl. XXXI. 1 and 2).
The intended scheme of this unfinished building seems to have been an Upper and a Lower Court, divided by a single Colonnaded Terrace (see plan and section,Pl. XXX), similar somewhat to Hatshepsût’s Mortuary Chapel at Dêr el Bahari. It is, however, all in the very early stages of construction, the wall itself being the only part that shows any signs of completion. Very possibly, in earlier times, a great deal more of the structure existed, for it had been used as a quarry for limestone at some late period.
In detail, the ‘battered’ boundary wall, averaging nearly 6 metres in height, was capped by a coping-stone curved on the top. The base of its outer face declines from the level of the Upper Court down to the level of the Lower Court, a matter of nearly 4·50 metres difference in level; while, on the inner side, the base is horizontal and takes the levels of the two courts. When looking at the plan (Pl. XXX) it will be noticed that the wall gradually swells on the outer face between the two sections, viz. the Upper and Lower Courts, and suddenly returns to its normal thickness. This can be explained by the fact that a ‘battered’ surface must necessarily spread as it descends to a lower level. It was at this point (the level of the Lower Court) blended back to the normal base measurement of the wall by a small angle of masonry (seePl. XXXI. 1).
Image not availble: Fig. 10. Hieratic Inscriptions from ‘Valley’-Temple.Fig. 10. Hieratic Inscriptions from ‘Valley’-Temple.
The Lower Court, as far as the excavation shows us, seems to be a plain open quadrangle, abutting a raised terrace colonnade, of which one base alone of the square columns of the Terrace still exists. Above this Terrace, the back of which served as a retaining wall, is what we can only suppose to be the Upper Court, and like the lower one is a square open enclosure. On the north side of this Upper Court is a doorway (mentioned above) in the boundary wall. Behind the masonry of the Terrace are the remains of the original mud-brick scaffold for supporting the earth of the Upper Court while building the back stone wall of the Terrace itself. The masonry in some cases is good, while in others it is of the roughest kind, and in many parts the surfaces have been left undressed.
Hieratic inscriptions, written in ink upon the under surfaces of the stone blocks from the walls (seeFig. 10), name the architect ‘the Second Priest of Amen, Pu-am-ra’, whose tomb (dated Thothmes III) is in the Assassif.
This fixed the date of the monument to the reign of Queen Hatshepsût or Thothmes III, but to which of these two reigns, and for what use the edifice was intended, still remained unanswered for want of further data.
Later, in the year 1911, we at last discovered a foundation deposit of the building (seePl. XXX, marked Hatshepsût’s Deposit A and B), and here a smallbrick pillar and model tools gave the owner’s name, ‘Maat-ka-ra’ (the prenomen of Queen Hatshepsût), and on the tools themselves was the name of the building ‘Zeser-zeseru’. The occurrence of these names shows at once that the building formed part and parcel of the Dêr el Bahari edifice, and from its position it is clear that the building was the termination of the dromos of the famous temple—in fact its Portal or ‘Valley’-Temple—assimilating in idea the older plan of the pyramid chapels and ‘valley’-temples connected by great causeways of the pyramids at Gizeh, the tomb which takes the place of the pyramid being in this case on the opposite side of the cliff in the valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
The foundation deposit, like that of the other end of the dromos found in 1910 (p. 31), was composed of two separate groups, (1) a pillar of ten mud-bricks, each stamped with the Queen’s prenomenImage not available: hieroglyph(see Plan,Pl. XXX, marked A); and (2) a few metres from it (see Plan,Pl. XXX, marked B) were found two model adzes in wood inscribed with the following hieroglyphic inscription:—Image not available: hieroglyphThese were fully four metres below the pavement level of the Upper Court of the ‘Valley’-Temple.
Image not availble: Fig. 11. Graffiti on Stones from ‘Valley’-Temple.Fig. 11. Graffiti on Stones from ‘Valley’-Temple.
Objects found during the excavation of, and belonging to this monument, were:—
1. Lying loosely in the rubbish, a very fine specimen of a workman’s hoe (Pl. XXXII. 3).
2. In the masonry of the corner of the terrace colonnade, a mason’s mallet, exactly similar to those found in the Queen’s Temple of Dêr el Bahari by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1893-1896.
3. Generally distributed about the site were stamped bricks of the Queen (Pl. XXXII. 2), and also two larger bricks stamped with the cartouches of Thothmes I and Maat-ka-ra in conjunction, with the epithetsImage not available: hieroglyphsunder their names (Pl. XXXII. 4).
4. A red crystalline sandstone tally-stone bearing the prenomen of Hatshepsût (Pl. XXXII. 1).
5. Low down, about the foundation level and half-way along the lower section of the north boundary wall, was a mass of stones with dressed faces for building. These stones, numbering seventy-six in all, were stacked with their faces downwards. Out of these stones thirty-five had painted in black upon their faces the signsImage not available: hieroglyph‘the Good Festival’, with one of the batch having the supplementary wordImage not available: hieroglyph‘Brick’. Another had an illegible inscription beginning with the signImage not available: hieroglyphand the word ‘Amen’. Six had peculiar signs or quarry marks scrawled in charcoal (seeFig. 11). That on the fifth stone can be read asImage not available: hieroglyphthe name of the Queen’s architect Sen-mut. The signImage not available: hieroglyphSent, that occurs on four of the other stones might be interpreted as ‘a ground plan’.
COVERINGthe upper stratum of the sites explored in the Birâbi were numerous brick-vaulted graves, mostly found not more than a metre or so beneath the surface rubbish (Pl. XXXIII).
Probably when these vault-graves were first made they actually stood above the surface, their superstructures being in all probability intended to be exposed, as would be gathered from the fact of their external walls showing, in some cases, painted decoration upon the plaster still adhering to them (Pl. XXXIV. 2). In every case they were found to be plundered, and in the course of examining some forty examples that we came across, we rarely found but the very slightest traces of the burials they once contained. And all that we were able to gather from these vestiges of the actual interments was that they were of the Ptolemaic period, but almost pure Egyptian in type. This fact thoroughly corroborates Mr. Edgar’s statement that ‘during the Ptolemaic period many of the Greek inhabitants began to adopt the practice of mummification. At first naturally their custom went to the native undertakers, and their mummies were decorated just like those of the Egyptians. Here and there as time goes on, signs of Greek influence begin to appear. But it is not till the Roman period that the style becomes what could be properly called Greek.’[20]
In these graves the coffins were of rectangular and anthropoid form, and the mummies were enclosed in canvas cartonnages covered with stucco elaborately decorated with pictures of the numerous Egyptian deities and ritual inscriptions of the usual formulae. Their funerary objects were glazed faience bowls of several colours, such as many different blues, violets, &c.; small roughly glazed shawabti figures; porcelain deities and amulets; painted carved woodBa-birds; erotic figures in faience; and beads, &c. There were also vases and bowls inpottery; and in two instances we found a bowl of copper gilt (Fig. 12) and vases in lead, left or forgotten by the plunderers.
Luckily the substructure of these graves was nearly always found intact, and likewise in many cases their superstructure. And by this we were able to gather that it was a common custom for them to have small brick vestibules or shrines before their entrances; and that under the floors of either the out-buildings or the vaulted chambers themselves, one or more amphorae were buried for water or food for the dead (Pl. XXXIV, Fig. 1); the mouths of these jars were covered by inverted bowls and sealed with mud.
Image not availble: Fig. 12. Gilt Copper Vessel From Ptolemaic Vaulted Graves.Fig. 12. Gilt Copper Vessel From Ptolemaic Vaulted Graves.
In one of these sealed vessels, found under the floors, two demotic papyri were discovered (see description by Spiegelberg, p. 46); in others were date cakes, grain, and seeds of different kinds; and in the corner of one of the small outer chambers a batch of forty-seven Ptolemaic coins (p. 44). The fortunate discovery of the papyri and coins, treated hereafter, give data for fixing the period of these vaults to the earlier Ptolemaic times.
With regard to construction, these vault-graves built of mud-brick are of a rectangular longitudinal shape. The side walls, one and a half bricks thick, are from six to ten bricks high, while the end walls are carried up to the height of the crown of the vault. On the inner face of the side walls a ledge is left, half-way up, for a support to carry the vaulted roof (the outer faces are run up as high again to receive the thrust of the vault). The vaulted roof, one brick in thickness, has its rings leaning against the end wall, starting at thefoot with first one brick on either side, then two, three, and so on, until the feet of these incomplete rings are far enough out to allow a complete leaning ring to be formed with its crown actually touching the end wall at the top. To this complete ring the bricks of the subsequent rings of the vault are stuck, thus avoiding the force of gravity and enabling the vaulting to be built without the aid of timber centring. This is a method by which a barrel-vault can be made, technically known as aflown-vault, and which is known and used by natives in Egypt at the present day.
For strength and to reduce the thrust, the vault is of parabolic section and not truly semicircular.