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EGYPTIAN RESEARCH ACCOUNT1897

E L K A B .BY

J . E QU IBELL

I N A S S O CI A TI O N W I T H T H E W O R K OF

L O N D O N :B E R N A R D Q U A R I T C H 15 P I C C A D I L L Y WO

898

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LONDONPRINTED Y WILLIAM LOWES ND SONS LIMITED

S T A M F O R l l S T R E E T A N D C H A R I N G C R O SS .

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CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.SECT PAGEI Course of work I2. Chance of inscribed tombs. 23 Description of site

CHAPTER I.THE EARLIESTTOMBS.

4. Mastabas and stairway tombs 35 Ka-mena mastaba 36. A mastaba 47. Compound mastaba 48 Nefer-shem-em 5g Early black cylinder. 510 Smaller mastabas 5I I. Stairway tomb with inscribed cylinder. 712. Open graves 8I 8 aju~ nd cist burials 9

CHAPTER 11.DATEO F THE NEW RACE REMAINS.

14. Variety of names . 11I 5 First dating erroneous 1116. Evidence from El Kab 1217. From other sites 1218. Doubtful points I3

CHAPTER 111.MIDDLEKINGDOM EMETERY.

SECT P GE19. Early XIIth dynasty tombs and the wall I320. Tombs in detail I421. Later XII th dynasty tombs I422. Beads 5

CHAPTER IV.

23. Few XVIIIth dynasty remains I24. Temple of Amenhotep 111. 1625. Foundation deposits. 1626. Temple near the east gate I727. The date of the wall. I728. Bronzes I729, Pigeon-house I7

CHAPTER V.DESCRIPTION F THE PLATES.

30. Plate I I731. Plates 11-VI. Photographs I732. VII-IX. Mastabas and tombs . I933. Plate X. Alabaster vessels. I934. Plates XI-XII. Libyan and early pottery 1935. XIII-XVII. XII th dynasty pottery 1936. XVIII-XIX. Marks on pottery 2037. Plate XX. Pottery, scarabs, and cylinders 2038 XXI. Foundation deposits 2039. Plates XXII-XXVI. Plans 2140. Plate XXVII. Contents of tombs . 2 1

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CONTENTS

LIST PLATES

I Tomb plans.11 Old Empire stone vases, etc. photographs).111 Sandstone statue of Nefer-shem-em, and group

of objects from the tomb of Ka-menaphotographs).IV. Sandstone table of offerings and two stelzphotographs).

V. XIIth dynasty statuette and ushabti, a latebronze, etc. photographs).

VI. Diorite, alabaster and pottery vessels of OldEmpire photographs).

VII. Sketches of mastabas.VI II . Sketch of mastaba, and box of ivory and

glaze veneer.IX. Views of a stairway tomb.X. Alabaster vessels, XIIth and IVth dynasties.XI. Libyan and Old Kingdom pottery.

XII. Old Kingdom pottery.XIII, Pottery, early XIIth dynasty.XIV. XI It h dynasty water-jars.XV. pottery.XVI. : 9 1

XVII. 9 ,XVIII. Marks on Old Kingdom pottery.XIX. Middle Kingdom pots.XX. Pottery, scarabs and inscribed cylinders.

XXI. Foundation deposits.XXII. Plan of cemetery E. of town.

XXIII. mastabas N of town.XXIV. tombs in S.E. angle of the en-

closure.XXV. Plan of gateway in wall.

XXVI. temple of Thothmes 111XXVII. Catalogue of small Libyan tombs.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N .E IT was on Mr. Somers Clarke s proposition th atE l K ab was selected for last w inter s work of theResearch Account. Mr. Clarke has for some yearsbeen interested in this site, and has published some ofthe XV III th dynasty tombs there . H e wished tosee the smaller tombs excavated, and the g reat a reainside the tow n ex amined , so, with his colleague,Mr. J J Tylor, he offered a considerable subscriptionto the funds, on condit ion that E l Ka b should be theselected site. T o Mr. Jesse Howarth, equally withthese gentlemen, we are indebted for that supportwithout which the excavations could not have beencarried out.W e arrived a t El K ab on the 1st of December, andwithin four days had cleared out several of th euninscribed tombs in the famous hill, and had mad ethem into a most comfortable house. Noth ing inEgypt makes so pleasant a dwelling as a rock-tomb.In a house in which window and door are one, andthree sides and the roof are of solid rock, there can beno draughts, and the range of temperature night andda y is very small. W e had a room each, another fora dining-room, and in two more I packed away myforty workmen. Thes e were nearly all men known inprevious years a t Ku ft and N aqada, for th e natives ofEl Kab are few in number and of inferior physicalstrength, so that their labour at two piastres a daywas dearer than that of the picked Kuftis at four.All the conditions of work were very pleasant, muchbet ter than I have known in Egy pt before. No crowdof loiterers and dealers spies haunted the work as atKuft , no robbery b y workmen threatened us as a tThebes. Sur veyin g poles were left out for weekstog ethe r; at most villages they would have beenstolen t he first night for firewood.The re was som e delay in ge tting the necessary

permission for digging after a fortnight s waitingwe received it , and began to work upon the XIIthdyna sty cemetery. Halfway throu gh March thedigging was gradually brou ght t o an end, and map-making and packing occupied the t ime ti l l we left inthe beginning of April. Fifty-four boxes of potter yand other objects were brought to England, wereexhibited du ring the month of July at U niversityCollege, and were then dispersed to various museums,Oxford, Philadelphia, Chicago and Manchester, re-ceiving the largest shares. I have to acknowledgemuch help received b,oth in E gy pt an d En gland. T oMr. Clarke, besides the financial support mentionedalready, we owe thank s for help in the work of ex -cavation, in plan-making, drawing, etc., and for hisuntiring hospitali ty. T o Miss A. A Pirie, who waswith us for the later two-thirds of the season, we areindeb ted for several coloured drawing s of tombs, etc.,now at University College, and to her, as also to mysister, for constant aid in the varied daily occupationsof the digger, tasks in which their experience makesthem most valuable helpers, an d which th ey cheerfullyadded to the labours of desert housekeeping. InEng land, several friends have helped in th e work ofunpacking, exhibiting, drawing plates, etc., notablyMiss Griffi th, Miss Murray, Mr. Herbert Thompsonand Dr. Walker. Few outside the l i t t le ring ofdiggers and their friends know how much drudgeryin Egypt and in England is taken off our handsby friendly helpers, working without a thought ofreward.

2 The si te of El Kab is a large one. The a reainside the town walls alone would have required toclear i t five t imes the money we had at our disposaland besides that, there was rhe hill of XVIIIthdynasty tombs, the cemeteries outside the walls, andthe temples far up on the desert . I t was necessaryto make careful choice of such s pots a s would repaythe labour expended on them. The most obvious

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EL KAB

place to search would be the sandstone hill in whichwe lived, where the fine inscribed tombs of Paheriand Aahmes are well known. But is there muchchance of finding inscribed tombs anywhere in Egyptexcept at Thebes We know that the tomb was leftopen for the visits of relatives, and open it mustalways have remained, unless i t go t drifted u p withsand, or unless the quarrying of another tomb on ahigher level sent down a mass of chips which hid it.A t the capital, tombs were often lost for long periodsin this way ; in less crowded cemeteries the accidentwould seem to be less likely to happen. Many traces inthe existing tombs a t E l Kab show that earlier tombswere quarried away in order to make room for them.This would seem to minimise the chances of findinganyth ing valuable of early date and if by chancesome inscribed tomb still remains hidden in thetalus of chips in the lower part of the hill, thebusiness of making a thorough search there would beso long and expensive that it will probably remainundiscovered.3 Th e greatest monument at El Kab is the townwall, the huge mass ofwhich must arrest the attentionof every passer-by on the river., I t encloses a greatsquare of about 580 yards in the side he walls are

4 eet thick, and in most places still reach a heightof 20 feet. Th e diagonal of the square runs, roughly,N and S., and the S.W. wall is parallel t o the river.The S.W. corner has disappeared ; indeed the rivernow runs over the point where it must have stood.Ther e is evidence tha t th e Nile has moved eastwardat this point, but not to any great extent, within t helast 2 years, for some remains of a landing-stage,believed to be Roman, can still be seen a little southof the town. About a quarter of the area inside thewalls was cut off from the rest by a curved doublewall, and only inside this smaller area are there manytraces of buildings. Here, in th e early part of thecentury, was a large mound, but now the sebakhinhave carried it all away, and we look over a mostdesolate space, at one part red with the broken potteryof all periods, thrown out from the sebakh-digger ssieve, at anoth er white with the salt tha t everywherepermeates the soil. A few great brick walls remain,and the foundations of the temple, but no part of thesuperstructure. Outside this town, but inside thegreat square of the walls, the character of the groundis quite different. There are no great masses ofpottery, hardly any brick walls ; in the lower partslittle parallel ridges in the soil show that cultivationhas been carried on there within the last few years

for the rest, the ground is covered with pebbles, muchlike the untouched desert, and here and there arefragments of pottery, evidently of early date. Thesewere most numerous on two or three slight riseswhich, as we afterwards found, had contained groupsof tombs. Thus, on the day we arrived, was presentedthe first puzzle of El Kab. Th e greater part of theenclosure had never been inhabited, a t least by peopleliving in houses and using pottery. What, then, couldhave been the purpose of the huge walls? he northwall (strictly, the north-west, but called north for con-venience) could be crossed by walking up the greatsand-slope, which reaches to its top on both sides.This is driven up by the prevalent north wind. Asimilar, but much smaller, heap has drifted against t henorth side of the south wall. From the top of thenorth wall one has a good view of the whole neigh-bourhood. Th e town lies at th e mouth of a widevalley, flanked by broken ranges of sandstone hills.An hour s walk up this valley is to be seen the littlesquare block of Amenho tep 111 s temple, the greatisolated rock of the graffiti, and, rather nearer, thesmall temple of Rameses. Th e low hill to the left,half a mile away, is the hill of tombs. Th e row ofblack dots sloping downwards to the east are th e door-ways of the tombs ; they follow the bed of soundestrock. Furthe r to the north is a rock looking, in th edistance, like a huge mushroom. This is a hill ofwhich there remains only the upper part, resting ongreat pillars ; the flanks of the hill and all the insideof it except these pillars have been quarried away,the stone being used probably for the temples ofEl Kab. Th e strip of cultivated land is very narrowat this part, often less than 5 yards wide.Immediately to the east of the walls the groundhas been disturbed, being covered with small andequal rises and depressions scraps of XI It h dynastypottery scattered over its surface showed that herewas the cemetery of the Middle Kingdom.

Note.-I stopped for five hours at Kafr-es-Zaiat onthe railway journey from Alexandria to Cairo toexamine site, which may be the Serapeum of theSaite nome. On the map, in the Description del Egypt, some ruins are marked as the village ofEl Naharieh, north of Kafr-es-Zaiat. I found, ontalking with the people, that ruins had existed therethirty years ago, but that now all the ground theyhad covered had been brought into cultivation.Und er the mats in the mosques some blocks ofgranite of old Egyptian work may be seen, and I

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T H E E A R L I E S T T O M B S . 3noticed th e cartouche of Necho twice. T h e sheikh evidence, there were ab out fifty-three; but m anyof the village had, too, a fine lintel, used as a gate-p ost. mol-e, which, from their position, orientation, a nd size,This he k indly had moved for me, and on i t I saw the could be assigned to the early period, were quitename of the Serapeum of the Saite nome, flat-biti empty, or contained only a few potsherds.again with the cartouche of Necho. (Cf. de Rouge, 5. The most important mastaha was tha t of Ka-Geographic de la Basse kgypte, p. 22.) mena (PL. XX III ). I t is one of a group which wefoutid under the great m ound of drifted s and on thenorth side of the wall . PL. V11 gives tw o views ofC H A P T E R I. this group of tombs du ring the process of excavation.

THE E A R L I E S T T OM B S. Th e low walls are denuded near the end of th e sand-slope to a single brick's height in the centre they4 The lower parts of the ground inside the en- are a metre high, and they sink again towards theclosure had been very thoroughly looted, chiefly by end under the great wall . Th ey are buil t withthe natives of El Kab , when cult ivating. W e found recessed panels, an d were origina lly plastered an dmany small graves about 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and painted white. Rou nd the whole tom b runs a

waist deep, but containing no bones, and with so boundary wall. T he two small closed chambers atl i t t le pot tery in them tha t i t took some t ime to the end of the last passage (corresponding to thosedetermine their pcriod. Bu t in thc two low mounds which, in the t om b of Nefer-sheni-em, contained histo the nor th , and the la rger one in the south, graves two statues) were empty, but a few fragments of th eof several kinds soon appeared. Of these one se t legs of a small sandstone statue were found near. I nwere clearly later tha n the rest. Their enclosure the E. wall i tself there a re two, nichc s; in a nd nearwalls, within w hich several burials w ere found, were them were found ma ny small pieces of worked lime-a t right angles to the great wall of the town, and cut stone, some inscribed. Th ey arc copied in PL.through the other graves (mastahas) which, though X V II I , 49-53 and 55. The face in 49 retained aparallcl to one another, were skew to the town walls. touch of green paint on the cheek, an important pieceThes e earlier tom bs were of sevcral types I ) mas- of evidence for the dating of the Naq ada tombs, thetabas with square shafts (2) mastabas with sloping occupants of which also used this metho d of adorn ingstairways, both of crude brick (3) burials in the themselves. T he pieces, 53 and 54, seem to be partskind of large earthenware p ot tha t our workmen call of a stela ; 50 and are from the bases of l i tnestonea majzir and (4) burials of that now well-known statues.typ e which has been called New Race, Libyan, Th e inscriptions give us, Ka-m ena's namc, andNeolithic, etc., and which is distinguished by the show him as a king's acqu aintance and a priest .contracted position of the body with the head to the Th e chambers inside the mastaba, left b lank in t hsouth, and by a very definite class of pott ery, paint plan, were found filled with brick earth this wasslabs, beads, etc. Th e mastabas were found both cleared out, but nothing save a scrap of IVt h dyn astywithin and outside of the town walls, one group pottery was found. Th e earth was doub tless thrown(PL. XXIII) ly ing qui te c lose to them. On th ree in in this way to economise bricks ; the cross wallsdiorite bowls found in these graves (one inside the would serve only to keep this loose earth from fall ingwalls, t he others outside) the nam c of Snefcru down the well in the centre. Th e well was aboutappeared. A s this is the only king's nam e occurring 5 feet deep, fil led with thick, dam p clay, the bo ttomin any of thcse tombs, i t seems probable that m ost of being, even in January, very near the water-level.them may belong to the re ign of Sneferu, or to the Th e chambcr was to the south, c losed by a rough-period immediately following. And thc town walls, hewn slab of sandston e three inches thick. I t shou ldbeing buil t thr oug h t he Old-K ingdo m cernctery, are, be noted tha t the sandston e in the neighbourhoodof course, the latcr in date. breaks naturally into very flat plates, so that i t isAb out thirteen stairw ay tombs and thirty-seven eas y,to pick out slabs which, with very l i t t le dressing,mastabas were examined . T he precise number will serve for buildin g; such pieces were found incannot be given, for when the walls of the mastaba many of the carly tombs. This slab being removed,are entirely denud ed, and on ly the well is left , one the cham ber was found to he full of a very tenaciouscannot be sure tha t the grave was ever of the mas- clay, much of which had to be cut away with a knife,taba form. O f smaller graves which yielded any for in so tough a substance a l ight blow with an adze

2

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has no effect , and a heavy one may damage somevaluable object befor e ' i t can be seen. Th e wholechamb er was l ined with flat sandstone blocks, but thethin roof slabs had given way under pressure of theearth above. T he style of building was irregularv. PL. I), the blocks being fi t ted, but not squared.The body had lain on the west side, with i ts headnorth no trace of a coffin remained, and the boneswere a mere white paste, only to be dist inguished byscraping sections with a knife through mud and bone.

Under the whole body was a bed of white sand.Nea r th e entrance were six vases (XI , 12), of a shapeand fabric indistinguishable from a late Neolithicform common a t Naqada , and opposite the middle ofthe body was a grou p of important objects. Thes ewere : a model granary in rough red pottery PL.VI), each l i t t le storehouse having an opening above,closed by a stopper; another similar granary infragments, three vertical alabaster jars, an alabastercircular table, and the group of bowls and mqdeltools shown in PL. 111. Th es e last consist of-(I.) A bowl an d ewer, probably of copper, no t ofbronze.(2.) bowl of porphy ry, a flat bowl of a beautifullight-coloured and translucent diorite, and a flat dishmade of a darker variety of the same stone. Th i slast is inscribed with the K a name of Snefru, NebMaat, the chisel-like sign of th e maat being writ ten onthe convex side of the sickle, and the door-frame ofthe name surmounted by a hawk.(3.) A set of model tools, axe, knife, adzes andchisels, shown again in outl ine on PL. XV II I, 56-65.These have been analysed by Dr. Gladstone, whowrites a s follows :The Iargest fragment gave-

Per centopper . 98 4rsenic. 0 3I ron 2ismuth traceLead raceAntimony race?Oxygen as cuprous oxide . traceIt is, of course, essentially copper, the minute quan-ti t ies of the other consti tuents being due, in allprobabili ty, to impurit ies in the ore. T he to talabsence of tin is the most notable feature.6. Th e sma l l mas t aba W. of Ka-mena's is of simplerconstruction. T he brickwork may have been re-cessed, though this could not be ascertained, as i tswalls were only two bricks high, and the panell ing inthe other rnastabas does not reach so near th e ground.

The re is no enclosing wall , but there is a passage onthe east side, with low cross walls which I do notunderstand. Th e chamber a t th e bot tom of the welli s to the so uth ; i t was not c losed by a s tone. Nearthe mouth, to the east , was a small coffin of redpottery ; ts size showed it to be th at of a child buriedin a contracted posit ion. Between the coffin and theside of the chamber was a diorite bowl south pf thiswere tw o vertical jars an d a circular table, all ofalabaster. On t he west side of the cham ber lay thebody, on i ts left side, and with the head north ; t hearms and legs were sharp ly bent, the heels beingbrough t close to the hips.7. T o the west of th is i s the compound mastabamarked C in the plan. Th e southern half was builtlater than the northern, the panell ing of which can beseen inside the first well beyond the cross wall. T hespaces marked I 3 and 6 are only chambers filledwith clay ; 2, 4 and 5 are all tomb wells.T h e well (4) was exceptional in that i ts chamber wasto the west and not to the south. I t was 5 .3 m.deep, and scattered through the earth in i t werecoarse po ts of th e ty pes in PL. X I 1 (23, 30, 31, 33,34, 40). Insid e the cha mb er were two vertical ala-baster jars, a circular table, a diorite bowl, fragmentsof malachite, a small river shell containing whitepaint, and one of th e pots (X I, 12) l ike those in Ka -mena's tomb.A t the bot tom of the next wel l 5 ) stood one of thelarge hemispherical pots majzys)which were used ascoffins (XX, 5 . It was 60 cm. in diameter, but wasemp ty and inverted. Against th e mouth of thechamb er was a stone slab two metres high, one sideof i t much broken away. T he chamb er was, as in allthese tombs, filled with thick mud, and scatteredthrough this mud, or on the floor, lay the followingobjects: a diorite bowl of the ordinary shape, con-taining a small vase of alabaster inverted over a massof green paint (malachite), a smaller bowl also ofdiorite, an alabaster table upside down, an d two m orealaba ster vessels.Below these lay wha t once had been a very curiousbox. T he pattern of the lid. is shown in PL.V I I I , 2.I t is composed of small flat strips of ivory, I mm. thick,and of pieces of glaze, blue and black; these hadapparently been glued on to a background of wood,but this had entirely decayed, and the thin fi lm ofdecoration was left in the mass of heavy clay. Afte rclearing i t sufficiently to learn i ts nature and size, wedrove a piece of tinplate und er it, and so lifted ou tthe whole lum p of ea rth in which i t was contained.

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THE EARLIEST TOMBS. 5Inside the house we could a t leisure scrape away thesoil from one side, and pour melted beeswax in itsplace, then turn the whole over and repeat the processon the other side. In this way a large piece wasbrought to England embedded in wax. This waxwas afterwards removed, and replaced on the insideby plaster of Paris. Th e size of the box was about1 2 inches long by 8 inches broad, and inches high.I t had been much crushed, and the sides could not besaved. The contents were a small porphyry bowlX, M ,a shell, and some green paint.

8. The mastabas C, Ca, and D were contained inthe same boundary wall. C appears to be the earliest,then Ca, then D. The inner half of the passagebetween C and D is lined with stone; at the end,bricked up in a little chamber, were found the twostatues of Nefer-shem-em ; to him, therefore, belongedthe tomb D. The statue to the west was in sand-stone (PL. 111), a standing figure, life-size; thehead was missing, only a few fragments of it beingfound below the statue. The surface of the stonehad been covered with a fine layer of plaster, red-dened with haematite, of which some traces re-mained he skirt was painted white.The other statue of limestone represents Nefer-shem-em seated. The head is well preserved, andthe whole statue is a good example of Old Kingdomwork, though not of the most finished style, and muchdamaged by salt. I t does not show the Schmink-striche. Th e inscriptions incised on the base of thestanding figure, and on the right side of the chair ofthe seated one, are the same :

Sutetz y kh s k e z Tzetev kon Nefeer shewem(Number in Ghizeh Catalogue, 650.)The mastaba D of Nefer-shem-em is of theorhinary type, with two niches on the east, twochambers filled with brick earth, and a central well.This well was filled with bodies, not buried with care,but thrown down in every contorted attitude. Th eposition of twenty-three skulls and bodies was noted,and then, as no plan or arrangement appeared, therest were left to be taken out by the men. A scarabof Amen-ankh-as, found in one of the bodies on theupper level, appears to give the late XVIIIthdynasty as the date for this mass of burials.9. The next mastaba E) is of a curious form ; theS. niche is over one of the wells instead of being inth e outer wall. Both wells were cleared until wewere stopped by water. From one came the frag-ments of a pottery sarcophagus of the small type.

The small mastaba 301) nearer the town wall wasof more interest. In its well were found fragments ofthe rough early pottery (PL. XII) , of the short typeof earthenware coffin, and of a w n j ~XX, 5 , also apiece of a diorite bowl, on which the name Sneferuhad been very roughly scratched, and a small( inch) black s tme cylinder (XX, 32 . This is of atype already fairly well known from bought specimens(there are twenty-one in t he Edwards Coll.), andsuspected to be early, but not hitherto found byEuropean. Th e engraving shows a figure seatedbefore a table and wearing a huge wig.

IO. The next mastaba No, 288 was inside thetown. Just to the south of the tomb passage, as ifthrown out from it, lay a great many pots o coarsepottery of the shapes shown in the top of PL. XII.These pots were also found in the passages betweenmastabas, and fragments of them in very greatquantities were scattered over the tombs, especiallyover those of the (stairway type. This suggeststhat the coarse pottery was used, not in the inter-ment, but for the offerings brought by relatives to thetombs. They were placed, probably, opposite theniches, and when they became inconveniently numer-ous, were thrown away over the tomb wall. Severalhundreds of these pots were found, heaped together,behind two mastabas to the north of the wall PE.VII, C, D). Fragmen ts of one ofthe large, circular, bowl coffins (XX, 5 were scatteredthrough the earth all down the shaft, and the greatslab which had closed the door w s thrown over atthe bottom of the well. Th e chamber was empty,but under the flat stone were found fragments of aslate dish, of an alabaster table, and of four dioritebowls. Of one of these, the largest I have seen(PL. 11, I), more than two-thirds of the pieces re-mained ; it was inscribed, in neat, deep characters,sut n bit i Snefem the name of the king being writtenwithout the cartouche. In this tomb was also one ofthe coarse bars of pottery that I have found both inOld Kingdom and in Neolithic tombs, the use ofwhich is by no means clear. They were, whencomplete, about feet 6 inches long, and 4 inchesthic k; they are fla t on one side, rounded on theother. The sides of one Neolithic tomb at Ballaswere lined with bars of this kind. In another, thebody was sheltered by a large inverted dish restingupon several of them requently fragments of two orthree were found in a tomb. Perhaps they were usedas supports for the coffin.

Th e tomb had been robbed.

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6 EL KAB.In tom b No. 312, which was probably a mas taba,thou gh the walls were not observed, the well was b ut

2 metres deep. Th e chamber was at the west, andwas just large enough to contain the pottery coffinan d a few pots. T h e coffin was of th e short typ e(3 feet long) th e bo dy lay on its left side,crouched up, head to the N., and face E. One bonefrom th e foot lay outside the coffin at the foot end,where also lay a small bowl of diorite, part of anoth erin limestone, bracelets in shell and horn, an ivoryhairpin, and a shell containing green paint. Thr oug hthe earth in the tomb-shaft were scattered a largenumber of coarse pots PL. XII, two of 41, 45, 43,a hundred and four of 22, more than a hundredof 31).In tomb No. 318, the burial chamber lay to thewest of the well, 2 m. above the bottom of it , 3.7 m.from the top. Th e bones were scattered and broken,but th e chamber was so smal l that the burial musthave been a contracted one. Th ere remained adiorite bowl (I I inches diamete r), a vertical alaba sterjar, a smaller one containing green paint, and par t ofa bowl in a good red ware, of the same open shape asthe bronze bowl of Ka-m ena s tomb.

No. 315 contained a fragment of sculpture (XVIII,55). No. 319 had the regular gro up of alabastertable and small an d large diorite bowl, with tw o ofthe long egg-shaped pots (X I, 12), a vase with aspout (PL. XI I , 55), and one of the open red pot terybowls, as in No. 3 18, and Ka-m ena (PL. X II , 5 I).Ne xt comes a grou p of tomb s with sq uare wells,and chambers closed by a large block of stone, whichtombs are probably mastabas , a l though th e panel ledbrickwork was not found.No. 42. A large square well, 200 m. to the N. ofthe town wall. Scattered in the earth were fragmen tsof all the com mon coarse varieties of I V th d ynas typottery, and also of the bowl-like coffins (XX, 5 .T h e half of an ivory cylinder (XX , 33) and the smallblack cylinde r (XX , 31), with an inscription which is,apparently, not Egyptian, were found amongst them ;there was also a small slate dish, and the egg-shapedpot (=I, 49).No. 88, inside the town, was a well 2 metres deep.Th e chamber was closed b y a large s tone (I 00 m.65 m.), bu t an entrance had been effected behind it .Th ere remained in t he chamber four stone bowls ofthe shap es so often found tog ether (X, 22, 39, 4 48),and in the shaft were par t of a majzy, an d twenty-fivecoarse po ts (n ineteen of X II , 23, two of 37, fourof 31).

No. 101. A well, 3 metres deep, with cham ber tothe south, contained, with the regular coarse pottery,the less common shape XII, 26, and also somefragments of the later Neolithic large vases (Naqada,XL , 40 or 46). Necks of these same vases were inNo. 150 with t he coarse pottery, and also one of t heyellow clay dolls, about 15 cm. long, representing awoman with very long legs, and a great square-endedwig. The se dolls are well known, and were supposedto be of the Middle Kingdom. Ther e was no s ign inthis tomb of a secondary burial, so it ma y be that thedolls are even of the Old Kingdom.No. 185. A t 2 - 1 0 metres below the surface werethe pieces of a small pottery cist, a majGr (complete),under which lay the body, in the contracted position,the head to the south, a s tone bowl, and an ivorycomb, together with a few beads, felspar discs, andshell-shaped beads of serpentine, apparently of Neo-lithic style. Fo rty cm. lower were some cylindricalbeads in green glaze, and shells with the stains ofgreen paint. In th e earth above were scatteredexamples of the regular series of coarse pots (XII,23, 31, 3545).No. 187, a well 3 m etres deep, contained o nly a ninverted potte ry cist, inside which was a bo dy lyingupon t he left side, with th e head to th e north.No. 191, a well 2 . 50 metres deep, was peculiar inthat i t contained no chamb er; the body was pro-tected from the earth above by a double roof ofsandstone slabs, supported o n other slabs at th e sides.The body was sharply bent up, the knees beingnearly opposi te the mouth; i t lay on the left s idewith the head south. A t the head s tood an alabas tervase (X, 31) of a late Neolithic shape. Th is tomb,but for its exceptional depth, might be classed amongthe Neolithic interments.I n No. 192 the bo dy was in an abnorm al position,for whi le th e arms lay at full length, and thethighs in a line with the body, the knees were sosharply bent that heels and hips were in contact.T h e head was to the north, and the face east.No. 204 was another square well with a chamberbelow, which had been closed by a thin brick wall ; tcontained a square, flat, slate palette, parts of a slatedish, and three pots of a Neolithic shape (XI, 12).

No. 228 was a square well near a group of stairwaytombs. In it were two burials, the first in a potterycist placed in one corner of the well a t I 5 metre fromthe surface. T he body was contracted, the head tothe north the only object placed with th e body wasa shell near the hips. Below this cist lay anoth er

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THE EARLIEST TOMBS.body in a wobden box painted white. This also wasin the sharply contracted Neolithic posit ion, handsand knees both before the face ; th e head lay tathe north, and the b ody was on i ts left side. Lowersti l l in the well were pots of the coarse Old Kingd omtypes. Both these bodies, presumably, are secondaryburials.No. 231 contained three pots of Old Kingdomtype s ( X II , 23, 54, 31), with fragm ents of a larg er n j g ~ XX , S), an d o ne sh erd of a thin ware, blackinside, and decorated outside with rows of prickedmarks. Th is canno t be distinguished from certainfragments obta ined in the Neol i thic cemetery a tBallas.No. 280, a well north of the wall, sunk below water-level, but in the fi ll ing were found the regular groupof coarse p ots ( X II , 31, 36, 35, 33).

I n 97 the coarse pottery occurred with chips ofmalachite, and in 233 with a vertical alabaster vasean d fra gmen ts of a large vase identical with a largelate Neolithic shape.

11 W e,n ext turn to the o ther la rge class of tombs,those entered by sta i rways. The se may a l l have beenmastabas. T he characterist ic massive brick wallsremain in several cases, in one, at least, retaining therecessed panel work an d niches. Bu t i t m ay be tha tthese s ta i rway tombs are ra ther older than thosemastab as which have square wells, an d i t seem s bestnot to group them together . T he appearance ofthese tombs ma y be seen in M iss Murray s blackand wh ite reproduction of two sketches by M iss PiriePL. IX).The first view shows the stairway, as seen from

below, looking northward in the other view one issupposed to be looking southward a t the ver tica lend of the shaf t , the tomb ent rance and the stonedoor.All these tombs were robbed, excepting, possibly,one. Th is (St. 2) was th e smallest tom b of the kindthat I have seen. Th e sta i r was reduced to a coupleof roughly cut s teps the total depth was only I In.,and though a large stone slab had been placed as adoor to th e bur ia l chamber , a robber had only t opierce 20 cm. of soil to ge t in to the chamber throughthe roof. T he chamber , which was about a metresquare, was fi lled with a thick dam p clay. Th ebones had decayed so much tha t only a few par tscould be identified but dist inctive fragments of theskull , the hi p end s of the two femurs, a t ibia, a radius

and ulna , enabled one to see tha t the body had la inon the left side with the head to the north. Beforethe face was a n ivory cup (shape X, 44). Below thebody was a l i t t le red du st with sp ots of white in i t ,probably the remains of a wooden coffin paintedwhite.In and below t he white paste, which was all th atwas left of the bones of the han d, were two nug gets ofgold (one 18 dwts. = 28 grammes ) and a handful ofbarrel-shaped carnelian beads mixed with very smallbeads of gold. By scraping away the earth verygent ly , one could see tha t the gold b eads had beenst rung together to form ba nds 5 or 6 mm. broad,alternating with band s of carnelian. A gold bar,2 cm. long, pierced with five holes, had clearly servedto hold the strings on which the beads were threaded.The re was also a bracelet of a single thick gold wire.The total weight of gold was about 4 oz. (125grammes). In th e N.W. corner of the tomb, behindth e he ad, were five vessels of ivory, two very coarsevertical jars (14 an d 19 cm.), two bowls (23 and26 cm. diameter), one with a spout (X, 26), and abowl of the speadin g shape of Ka-m ena s bronze(X II, 51) there was also a sm all double vase oflimestone (X, 15). A l i t tle s tea t i te plaque wi th theinscription Neb . ra was s t a ted by t he workmen tohave come from this tomb, and there is no reason tod o u b t t h e m ; b u t I did not actually see i t in place.Th e name N eb . ra i s one o f t he t h ree K a names onthe shoulder of the famous archaic statue No. I a tGhizeh, and the name on the plaque may perhapsbe the same, though i t is not writ ten in the square Maframe.

In the s ide of th e , tomb were two smal l ba l ls ofl imestone and one of carnelian, in shape and size l ikeplaying marbles, and some fragments of malachite.By th e door were some chips of diorite bowls. Th emarbles were clearly part of a set for a gam ecf. Naqada, PL. VII) , and the fac t tha t the se twas incomplete, and that the stone bowls werebroken, makes i t probable, in spite of the presenceof the gold nuggets, that the tomb had been partiallyplundered. T he early robbers ma y easily have passedover the gold, for the moist and tough clay hidessmall objects only too well i t was only the weight of

two smal l lumps of c lay tha t be t rayed to me thepresence of the nuggets inside.Th e quant i ty of gold remaining in so smal l a tombshows how rich t he large interments may have been,and how st rong was the tempta t ion to rob them.In S t a irway I the l ines of th e surrounding mass of

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brickwork were traced, bu t th e walls were not highenough to show the recessed panels, which prob ablyonce existed.In S t a i rway 6, a la rge to m b, coarse shapcs of,pot tcry (XII , 23, 35) were found, and also verticalalabaster jars, frag ments of an alabaster table, and ofbowls, hair-pins of ivory, and an oblong slate p alettewith two stone rubbers. This was of one of the latershapes of Naqad a. Th ere was also a large pot (ofthe shape XII , 49, but la rger) , s imi lar to the la terpottery of the New Race.Stairway must be counted in this group of tombs,though i t differed from th e common typ e in threerespects. I t was much larger, the brickwork being41 metres long by 20 wide nstead of an open stair-way i t had a small shaft opening in to a long inclinedplane which lcd down to the bur ia l chamber; thechambcr, too, was very large 7 m, square). Th ercccssed brickwork remained on the west side, andthe passage which l e d t o the niche on the east s idecan sti l l be traced. Th e clearing of this tomb formeda tedious task for six men during thrce weeks, andnothing important was found. A po t (X, 29), foundinside the great chamber, suggested tha t i t h ad beenen t ered durihg t h eX V II I t h dynas ty , and t h ree a l a-bastcr vases (28 cm. high) werc most probably canopicjars from some late burial . This to mb is a pro-minent objec t t o anyone looking north f rom theE l Ka b wall , and has the appearance of a na tura lmound.Another s ta i rway tom b was remarkable for thegrea t n um ber of coarse l imestone and alabastervertical jars which were piled a t the bottom of thestair. Th ere were 150 of these, but nothing else inthe tomb, except a few pieces from a bowl of browninciscd ware (XX, I), somewhat l ike the rare inciscdpottery found at Naqada.Staircase 8 contained a stand of coarse pottery an da small coarse saucer XII, 31, 4 4 , the rough hand-made vase (X II , 23)) fragmen ts of large water-jars ofbctter ware, and two alabas ter bowls, oneo f thc sharp-edged type (XI, 33), the other of the common shape,drawn in a t thc mouth (XI, 44) there were also twomud jar-seals of flat saucer-like shape.In Stairway 9 the sides of the shaft had beenplastered with mud. The stone door of the bur ia lchamber was st i l l standing, the robbers havingapparcntly found i t easier to force their way throughthe comparatively soft earth above the great slab.W e were frequently able to trace their mode ofcntrance, and found that thcy sank their shafts at the

deep en of the stairway, ncver clearing the longflight of steps. Th is would seem to show that therobberies took place while this method of burial wasremqnbered. This tomb conta ined fragments ofone of the largc hemispherical pots used as coffinsrna,G~s),and pieccs of a largc jar of polished rcdware, the lines of polish on which run lengthways;this ware again cannot be dist inguished from theLibyan. Th ere was also a vertical jar of veinedmarble, the horizontally-pierced han dle of a typicalLibyan stone vasc, an alab aster bowl an d a vase(X, 4 3 , with a couple of coarse pottery bowls ofI V t h d y n a s ty t y p e ( X I I , 37 .Sta i rway 1 contained only the coarse po tteiy, butthe common jars (X II , 23) bore a scries of simplemarks made before firing (X V III , 21-4, and atriangle).Sta i rway 12 had becn robbed, though the sand-s tone door h a d no t been moved. Th e body hadbeen laid in a wooden bo x (So cm. long), whichnearly fil led the chamber. T he wood had dis-appeared, but the thin layers of paint st i l l kept thcirplace. T h e body lay on th e left side, contracted, thehead to th e north. A small diorite bowl stood nearthe head of the coffin, and a common alabaster vasein the ear th above i t . Rou nd th e bones of th e arm

were carnelian beads of short barrel shape.No. 226 was exceptional in the posit ion of theent rance to the tomb chamber. On descending thestairway, one found oncsclf at the b asc of a largewcll, in t he east sidc of which, an d not visible fromthe stairway, stood the great door. In the fil ling wasfound good flint knife, of the usual early type , withsmall handle, but much inferior. to the finer Neolithicwork.T he con tents of this series of tom bs have becngiven thus in detail , in order t o show that the s amegroup ing of objec ts occurs over and ov er again, an dthat they can therefore be with confidence attributedto thc original burials, though if only a single tom bha db ee n examined there would be no proof of thecontemporaneousness of any object in it. I t will beobserved tha t the contents of the s ta irway tombs arcvery closely similar to those of the mastabas withsquare wells, but that objccts characterist ic of Nco-lithic tombs-green paint, double vases, marblcs, etc.-are rather more numerous in the stairway tombs.This makes i t seem l ike ly tha t the s ta i rway tombshere a t El K ab are ear lier in da te than the mastabaswith square wells.

12 Nex t we may describe the small graves, gener-

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THE EARLIEST TOMBS.

ally about 3-4 feet deep, in which there is no chamberfor burial, but the body is laid in the shaft or opengrave. These were found chiefly inside the fort of ElKab, though a few were outside the walls. Somewere distinctly of Neolithic type, but of that latervariety in which the fine black and red pottery is notfound. Of the earlier type, only one small group oftwenty graves was discovered ; these were well out-side the town, on the west side of the railway, and sothoroughly cleared out that only half a dozen chips ofpottery remained to show their real nature. But ofthe later kind many examples were found, and stillmore numerous were the empty graves which, bytheir size and position, seemed to belong to the sameclass.This type is characterised by the contracted posi-tion of the body, the vertical jars with cordage pattern,the square slate palettes, t he flat alabaster dishes, andfour shapes of alabaster vases (X, 22, 44, 48, 3 ) , twoof which often occur also in th e mastabas. Th e firstgroup obtained were inside an oblong brick building,which showed red in t he distance, the colour beingdue to the great number of broken pots of the OldKingdom (XI I, 20, 23) scattered over it. Th e earthwithin its walls was found to consist largely of thesepots, of which there was an unbroken layer, two feetthick. Below this we came upon the Neolithictombs. Th e walls were of the small bricks which wesoon learnt t o associate with the work of the OldKingdom in El Kab. I t is not probable that thewalls had any relation to the tombs, for they werenot quite parallel to one another, and there weremore tombs outside these walls. But it is importantto observe that a thick layer of the coarse pottery ofthe Old Kingdom here overlies Neolithic tombs. I tis just possible that the pottery may have beenthrown by cultivators upon this mound, but theprobabilities against this seemed to me very strong.In one of these tombs L, 2) the body was foundcomplete, lying on the left side, with the head to thesouth. A t the head end were one wavy-handled potof a late type (XI, 3), two vertical jars (as XI, 5),with cordage pattern, a square slate palette, and abovethese a pot (X I, g), with decoration in wavy redlines ; also an alabaster cup (X, 38), containing six,finger-bones. A t the other end were a\bowl, and twovases of well-known forms.The middles of the graves were generally empty,and bones were rarely found ; the stone bowls, whichformed the bulk of the finds, were at the north andsouth ends. I t does qot seem worth while to transfer

from the notebooks the full description of each ofthese small tombs, for they have been so thoroughlyrobbed and turned over that the position of thedifferent objects in the tomb has no particularmeaning, but it may be well to give a short catalogueof the objects found v. PL. XXVII). Each of thetombs is about I 50 m. to 2 00 m. long, go m. wide,and I deep.In one tomb (No. 237) the body was laid in awooden box (length not seen, '40 m. broad, wood3 cm. thick), in a contracted position, with the headto the south, but the bones were disturbkd, and t hepottery lay at various levels, no all on the flaor ofthe tomb. Ther e were traces of mat-work a t thenorth end.No. 241 was lined with four stone slabs, andanother that lay near had served for roof. In thefilling was a head of some animal ? antelope) madeof the coarse red pottery of the early period.No. 206 had a fragment of a square Neolithicpalette, an alabaster bowl with a spout X , ~ g ) ,taller bowl, also of alabaster (X, 30), and a lot ofbeads-felspar discs, long cylinders of copper ?)andsteatite.

1 3 The only untouched small tomb (No. 166) layto the north of the town. Th e plan of this tomb isgiven in PL. I, 7, and the objects in collotype inPI,. 11, 2. Th e tomb was cut in the hard black mud,of which the ground north of the wall is formed, to adepth of .g metre. Th e northern half was occupiedby an inverted large hemispherical bowl maji i~ X,5) ; though inverted, it was quite full of thick blackmud, in which the bones of the deceased were em-bedded. Th e head lay to the north and the faceeast, the body of course contracted. South of this atall alabaster jar lay on its side, and at the end of thetomb a squat alabaster jar, a smaller one of the sametype, and two pots (XI, 7, 8) of a rather smooth pinkware, with red lines and dot s painted over it. Th esmaller pot is really a lid, and is pierced at the topfor suspension. Between the w jgr and the side ofthe tomb were some pieces of ivory I inch by inch),probably the veneer from a bo x like that in PL.VIIE,2. From th e mud in the decorated pot the followingsmall objects were picked ou t: two ivory hairpins,three bracelets, a disc of ivory with a grooved rim, apolished brown pebble, a small alabaster cup (X, 4.4two shells, both withr green stains inside, with beadsof ivoiy, green felspar, gold, carnelian, blue frit, andserpentine, and, ~ o s tmportant of all, an inscribedcylinder of translucent steatite. Th e inscription

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10 EL KAB.

given in PL. XX, 29, is perhaps a name com-pounded with that of a king, the latter being in acartouche. If this reads ka-ra, it may be conceivablyEn-ka-ra of the VIIIth dynasty (though I do notthink this likely), or, as Professor Sayce suggests,Manetho s a ~ p q ~f the IIn d. Th e first columnseems to give the Hor .nu b name of the king asNefer, or Nefer-Ka.Th e beads are nearly all of known Neolithic typesone form is noticeable, a blue frit cylinder with goldcaps at th e ends. I t is convenient to mention here theother cases of burial under the large hemisphericalpots or nzajiirs.Two (No. 186) were found, each in a small holewest of Ka-mena s mas taba ; the first lay mouthupwards and contained the much-decayed bones ofa child the second was inverted and contained nobones, but a bowl of a rather coarse red ware, two ofthe very coarse IV dynasty saucers and a commonpot of the same period. Anothe r nzajlZ~ ay at thebottom of a well in one of the great groups ofmastabas which have been already described.Another (No. 249) lay at the bottom of a longopen grave (3.70 m.) with two burials in potterycists. Th e arrangement of the bones in it could notbe made out.Another (in a well I m. deep) contained a sharp-edged bowl (XII, 53), wheel-made, covered with awash of haematite. Thi s was above the skeleton,which lay on its right side, doubled up, the kneesbefore the face, the head north below the body weretraces of wood in the bowl was a short cow s ?)horn.Near to this was another small well I .30 m. deep),and at the bottom of it a small nzajzy, in which theposition of the bones could be but partly made out.Th e head was t o the north, the body lay on its back,with the thighs spread out wide, and one hand by thehips.Another of these burials was in a small hole coveredby a+flatstone. Two shells were under the left arm.No head was found The shoulders were on theeast, humeri pointed downwards, forearms prone ;. thelegs were bent, the knees up and south of the back-bone. Th e last three burials were close to the largegroup of mastabas.A much disturbed group of mqZr burial 178) isimportant as giving a dated object together with oneof these majGrs, the copper ?) cylinder of User-kafPL. XX, 30). These majz2ys were probably withinthe area of a mastaba, but so little of the brickwork

remained tha t it was not possible to say whether themastaba was made over the graves containing them a j i i ~ ~ ,r the graves cut through the brickworkof the mastaba. On the floor of the square well laya fragment of a flint bracelet, and some pieces ofgreen felspar, alabaster, and malachite. In the fillingwere fragments of Old Kingdom pottery , of a brokenpottery cist, and of the rude pottery bars. In thesmall chamber to the south were three alabastervessels of the usual shapes (X, 16 and 44, and askeleton, contracted and lying on the left side. Thi swell was presumably that of the mastaba of which thefew patches of brickwork near were the remains. Ju stto the south of it lay the irregular grave in which thecylinder was found. Close to the surface lay twoskeletons and majzr , the pot was to the north thetwo skeletons, both in the contracted position, andwith heads to the north, faced one another. Belowthese was another skeleton, lying upon its right side,with head to the east below it, and to the west,another, the skull of which lay crown downwards, theline of the body north and south. This was t he onlyskull that could be got out unbroken; it was veryweak, and in spite of very careful packing, was brokenbefore it reached England. Below this were parts oftwo more skeletons, and there was another in thelarge mq iir further, leaning it1 the south-west cornerat the bottom of the grave, was a sandstone slab,behind which was yet another contracted burial theskeleton was on its left side, with the head to thenorth. Th e cylinder was below the first pair ofskeletons. Th e other objects in the tomb were aIV th dynasty pot (35), an ivory comb and spatula, ashell and some green paint. This grave had evidentlybeen to some exte nt disturbed, and it is just possiblethat the cylinder and the burials are not contempo-raneous, but the simplest explanation is that they are,and t hat the grave was cut through the early mastaba.When I was clearing this tomb, Mr. (now Sir William)Richmond was sitting on the edge watching me, andwe were both struck with the singular shape of theunbroken skull, the strong projection of the cheek-bones reminding us of the Mongol type. No greatweight can be attached to this observation, as measure-ments of t he skull could not be taken, but I mentionit as showing how important it may be that anyunbroken skeleton found in a nzaji2r should be pre-served. Th e early date of these burials can hardlybe doubted, but it has not yet been determinedwhether they belonged to the same race as do theordinary Neolithic graves, the mujar being a cheap

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DATE O F TH E NE W RACE REMAINS. I

subst itute for th e wooden roof of t he earlier time, orwhether they belonged to some other element in t hepopulation, as the presence with them of the twoillegible black cylinders would suggest.

Th e burials in pottery cists, not hitherto mentioned,may now be taken. These cists were found at Ballasboth in "stairway" tombs and in open Neolithicgraves. A t El Ka b they have been already mentionedas occurring in mastaba wells. Th e cists are shortcoffins, about feet in length, made of a coarseand porous red ware, and are generaHy without lids.In one instance (174) the cist was found betweenwalls and beneath a roof of sandstone blocks. Theskeleton, which was young, as the epiphyses were notunited, lay on its left side, facing east, the head north.A small shell, with chips of malachite, was before theface. In another, the cist lay at the bottom of asquare well, the body again on its l eft side, with thehead t o the north, the knees brought up before theface he left elbow was by the side of the left handbefore the face, while the right arm lay over the head.There was a little decayed linen cloth in the cist, and,near the hips, a shell.

In tomb No. 249 a wzajz~ nd two cists lay uponthe sloping bottom of a long (3.70 m.) well; them jsr was at the southern end, which was lower by60 cm. than the northern. In both cists the body layas in the two last-mentioned graves one contained asharp-edged shallow bowl of red ware.

Anothe r cist (316) lay at the bottom of a shallowwell near the large group of mastabas I a 5 0 m. byI . 1 m. by I a 6 deep). Th e sides of the cist werebroken down, and niany of the bones were disturbed,but a part of the spinal column and the legs sufficedto show that the body had lain with the head north,but on its right side.No. 312 has been already mentioned among themastabas. Th e cist lay in a small chamber, the bodyon its left side, with head to the north.

CHAPTER 11.DATE O F TH E NEW RACE REMAINS.

14 The greatest interest of El Kab lay in the lightthat it shed on the same civilisation which had beendisclosed two years before at the cemeteries ofNaqada and Ba las. In these we had examined3000 graves of a type till then unl

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I L KAB

-and many of the objects he found are alreadyexhibit ed a t Ghizeh, others are at Paris, and a fewhave found their way to England. Among them aremany pots and stone bowls of undoubted la te Neo-lithic ty pe, with whole classes of objects which didnot occur at Naqada, st elz , inscribed scraabs of lime-stone, and clay seals stamped with t he K a names ofkings. Th e long pots on which these inscribed clayseals still fit are of a type found once a t Ballas, andso prove some conriection of th e Ka names with thecontracted burials.

This year Sethe s important paper (A. 2 XXXV, I )identifying th ree of Amklineau s names with knownltings of the 1st and IInd dynasties, has brought anew precision into th e whole question, but this, ofcourse, was not known to us at El Kab. YetAmklineau s association of the Libyan pottery withinscriptions of an archaic style, which would mostnaturally be dated long before the IVth dynasty,made our later dati ng of t he p ottery improbable, andnecessitated a re-examination of the evidence. Thecrucial case a t Ballas was the secondary burial of aLibyan found in one of a group of stairway mastabas.Th e mastabas were believed to ,be of the IV th dyn-asty, because the fragments of potter y and of ala-baster bowls found in them were similar to IVthdynasty objects from the cemetery of Medum.

16. This dating of the alabaster was, as we nowthink, rather too late, but the interment certainlyproved tha t one Libyan died when a tomb of theearly Old Kingdom had already been plundered, andlay open, affording an easy means of burial. But notonly was this intrusive burial found in one stairwaytomb green paint and stone vases with horizontally-pierced handles, were found in others of the samegroup. Thes e Libyan traces were also interpreted asthe remains of secondary interments, but when a t ElKab, I saw the s ame Libyan remains in the stairwaytombs there, it immediately became clear tha t themalachite, vases, etc., more probably belonged to theoriginal interments, not to secondary ones, that thestairway tombs (perhaps, also, the other mastabas)were but another form of Neolithic burial, and thatthe eariier Neolithic tombs were anterior t o the OldEmpire. As th e digging went on, other scraps ofevidence came to support this view. Th e coarsepottery which lay in heaps over and near the mas-tabas of the IVth dynasty is identical with thatfound in some of the small Neolithic graves.

A vzse of hard red ware found in Ka-mena s tomb,which was cer tainly of Sneferu s time, was almost

indistinguishable Trom a Libyan form common atBallas.

One of the incised bowls-a rare but distinctivespecies of Libyan pottery-was found in a stairwaytomb at El Kab.

Th e small late-Libyan graves lay between themastabas of t he time of Sneferu, not interfering withthem, or dug through them, giving the impressionthat all were approximately of the same date.

In one tomb there was found, with undoubtedLibyan pottery, a green steatite cylinder of a typeknown in the Old Kingdom.

In a walk taken one day over the cemetery of Komel Ahmar, opposite to El Kab, I observed again thesame mixtur e of Old Kingdom and Libyan potterynear a group of mastabas.

17 T o this evidence must be added some con-siderations abou t the first cemetery of Naqada andBallas, which were felt by us from the beginning asdifficulties in the way of accepting the later da ting tothe VII- X dynasty.

The entire absence of distinctly Egyptian objectsfrom so large a series of tombs, and even from th evillages of the same period, was difficult to explainon th e supposition that the Egyptians were alreadyin the land.

Th e Libyans, too, as lovers of fine pottery, wouldsurely have learnt the use of the wheel from theEgyptians, if they had come in contact bi th them atal l; yet all the Libyan pottery (with the rarest ex-ceptions) is handmade.

Th e Libyan s habitually placed green paint amongthe other toilet articles buried near the head. Th eEgypti ans of th e early Old Empire are sometimesrepresented with green paint upon the face. I t ismore natural to suppose that this was a fashioninherited from the praedynastic times, than to sup-pose th at so peculiar a mode of ornamentation waspractised at two independent periods in the history ofthe country.

Lastl y, there is the negative evidence from themound of Nubt. He re Dr. Petrie found on thesurface walls of the XVIIIth dynasty, with inscrip-tions and dated pottery below them walls of theXI I th dynasty, with pottery again, and lower still,walls and layers of pottery of the Old Kingdom.But between these last two, no scrap of th e Libyanpottery occurred, though a Libyan town lay but aquarter of a mile away.

On an examination, then, of the whole evidencefrom our two cemeteries of Naqada and El K ab, I

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MIDDLE K I N G D O M CEMETERY, I3came to the conclusion tha t our f ir s t da t ing had beenn o t ea r ly en o u gh , th a t th e la tes t ty p e o f to mb a tNaqada was contemporary with the mastabas of theOl d Empire, and tha t the ear l ies t type (character isedby dissevered skeletons, very fine flint knives, grea tquantitie s of ashes, an d a small num ber of red a ndblack pots of good quali ty) must be at tr ibuted to amuch earlier period.

Since then much more information has come tolight, M. de Morgan s second volume of Re-ch erc h e ~ u r les Or ig ines d e y B g y p ten co nta in s asummary of the discoveries made by M. AmClineauat Abydos, together with an account of the greatroyal tomb found by M. de Morgan h imself atNaqada. M. AmC.lineauls finds are recognised asbeing chiefly of the first three dynasties , and on a nivory plaque from the royal t om b of Naqa da, Dr.Borchardt has poin ted out the na me of Meneshimself.T he objects f rom th is tomb are now exposed in th emuseum at Ghizeh , and i t is in teres t ing to observethat the pottery , the s late palet tes , and the f l in tknives are d is t inctly of the l tev type of Ballas.I t has, then, become now fairly clear that th e earliestknown inhabitants of Egypt were a tall, fair race akinto the modern Kabyles . Th ey buried their dead in acontracted position with the head to the south, and inthe ear l ies t t imes ei ther muti lated the dead beforeburial, or kept the bodies for a long tim e before th efinal burial. T h e relative date s of the differentvarieties of their tombs can be ma de out, and thegraves with muti lated bodies found at Naqada aremuch ear l ier than those at Ab ydos contain ing thenam es of 1-11 dyna sty kings. A t some period whichwe c annot yet date, even on th e rough scale of Libyanpottery, another race or races entered the country,bringing with the m writing, the practice of mum mi-fication, the a rt of build ing in brick with recessedpanels, and perhaps, as M. de Morgan suggests ,metals . Th us was formed the Egyptian people ofhistoric times.18. A point t ha t ha s not been explained is thedifferent position of the bodies in the open gravesand in the s tairway tombs. In the former, the headlies south ; in the s tairways and in th e graves ofMedum , i t is to the nor th .The burials, too, under the large pots which wecall n z a j z ~ s re not understood, nor is their exactperiod known. A s they were found in th e latercemeter ies of Ballas , El Kab, and Kom el Ahmar ,but not at Naqada, i t seems l ikely that they belong

to t he later division of the Lib yan period, viz.,af ter the Egyptian invasion , perhaps even af te rthe tim e of Menes. But t o which race, if to either,is not clear.

C H A P T E R 1 1 1 .MIDDLE K I N G D O M CEMETERY.

19. Inside the town walls, never outside, were founda few exam ples of a d is tinct ty pe of tomb, withunderground br ick arches , pottery akin to that of theusual XII th dynasty , but not identical with i t , andstone vases of d is tinctive shapes. Th e types ofpotte ry are shown in PL. X, 1-28, the alabas ter vasesin X, 1 6.In PL. X X IV some walis in broken l ine a re seenwhich cut through the walls of three mastabas, whichlast are shown in dead black. T h e tomb s in questionlay parallel with these walls, some within t he squa rechambers, some also outside ; and the walls are,roughly, parallel with the great walls of the town.T he m ethod of construction seem s to have been asfollows An ob long excava tion, abou t 6 m. long bywide and m. deep, was mad e in the gravel.About half the length of th is was needed for thet o m b ; the o ther half formed a rough sloping stair-case for the workmen. T he s ides of the grave werebuilt of brick walls, and these were covered by anarch of brick about I so m. h igh . In th is the bodywas laid a t full length, on th e left side, the head toth e n o r th ; in front of the bod y was a gre at m ass ofpottery . T he in teres t of th is set of tombs l ies in thebear ing they m ay have on the qu es tion of the d ate ofthe wall, for if it be grante d tha t these are probablyof the ear ly X II th dynasty (as the pottery suggests) ,then we have ear ly XII th dynasty tombs inside, andtombs of the reign of Amenemhat I11 outs ide thewalls. (Th ere were, however, two tombs inside thewalls in which the remains of the pottery were muchlike those in the tombs outside.) Now there is a stelaf rom El Kab, to which Dr . Spiegelberg calls my at ten-t ion (published in Stobar t , Egy pt. Antiq . , PL. I), whichstates that Amen emha t I11 res tored the walls a t E lK ab which User tesen I1 had buil t. W hat wallsthese were the s tela does n ot s tate , but the evidencefrom the pottery would suppor t the idea that theywere the grea t town walls. A nd if this be so, thecommon pottery of the Middle Kingdom can nowbe split into two sections, between which the reign ofUsertesen I1 will form the dividing line.

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I 4 EL KAB.20. he tombs ~ detailIn No. 203 there were only two pots and a marblevase. Traces of the roofing arch were found. Theskeleton as it lay measured I 8 m. long.No. 205 contained pottery of shapes XIII, 2, 12,

27. 24, 20.No. 216 contained four examples of XII I , 5, oneeach of 2, 19, 4 and about fifty of t he smallsaucer, 12 a.No. 242 contained 26, 2 3.No. 25 contained a great mass of pottery of nearlyall the shapes (2, 5, 4, 12, g, 17), much of which lay ata higher level than t he two bodies of these, one layupon its back, the other in the regular position.Before the face of the northern body w s an ala-baster vase (X, 4), a small shell and a fragment ofbronze rod. Anothe r alabaster jar (X, 3 stood bythe hips of the southern skeleton.No. 264 was in better condition than most, andcontained a great number of pots, including morethan fifty of the shape XIII, 22, and many ofXII I, 20. Nearly all were, however, broken, for,as in all these tombs, the arch had fallen in. Thistomb contained also a string of beads, barrel beads oflapis lazuli, carnelian and gold foil, and small discs ofgold.In No. 265 were found more than two hundred potsscattered in all directions a few were nested in arecess halfway down the side of the tomb. All theshapes X II I, 1-28, excep t 15 and 22, were found inthis tomb. The re was no skeleton. A hole had beenpierced in the base of every pot after baking.One group of tombs of this period v. PL. XXIV)had apparently been made at one time. In three ofthem the skeletons remained with two or three coarsepots laid before the face. Outside the enclosure wallof another of these groups of tombs was a heap ofsaucers (like XII I, IZ), painted inside with a roughcross of white paint. These are, by the fabric, pro-bably of the same period as the tombs.

21. In the great XIIth dynasty cemetery outsidethe town the graves were of different construction,consisting of a long and narrow shaft from which, atboth the north and the south ends, opened a chamber.~ u two, or perhaps three, tombs of this form werefound inside the walls. This cemetery was wellknown to the Arabs, and a few years ago a party ofthe Qurneh dealers, arfned with a bogus Museumpermit, dug there for several weeks. Th e tombs theyhad rifled could be distinguished from tombs thatwere intact or had been plundered in early times by

the sharper edges of the depressions left. Time hasrounded over the traces of the earlier robberies, sothat anciently robbed tombs look much like thosewhich are intact, but in which the roof has fallen incausing a dip in the ground not unlike the top of atomb-shaft. Th e cemetery lies in a shoal in the drystream-bed, at whose mouth El Kab was placed.This shoal is a great bank of gravel and a fine clay-like detritus, the beds of which lie alternately, thethickness of each varying in different parts. Thepractice in the XIIth dynasty was to sink the tomb-shaft until a layer of gravel was reached sufficientlystrong for a chamber to be safely cut out of it. Th echambers were about 2 m. square and probably ratherless than 1.50 m. high, but they were made flat-roofed, and in most cases the roof had fallen in,crushing the bones and often also the pcttery below.Even if the roof was complete when we opened thetomb, it would usually fall before we could examineand clear out t he interment. With only the warningof the fall of a single pebble, or just a little gutter ofsand, a mass of perhaps two tons would suddenlydrop with a thud. On two occasions a man wascaught by some part of the fall, and once, just asthe helpless man was being dug out, a clumsy helperdislodged a few more hundredweight and buried himagain. These are anxious moments, for when thisshifting ground has once begun to slip, the wholeside of a tomb may fall at once. Happily we had noserious accident, though there were many narrowescapes. I t is necessary in such work to watch themen very carefdly, and to insist on their takingreasonable care, for they will, if left alone, burrowbeneath dangerously overhanging masses of soilrather than take the trouble of removing them.Th e method in which the door of t he burial-chamberwas closed was not a t first clear but four or five ofthe large jars (PL. XIV) were so often found justinside the entrance that it seemed prohable they hadbeen used as a building material, just as the peasantsnear Keneh now use the spoilt water-jars from thepotteries there. Later on two of the doorways werefound actually blocked up in this way-three jars inthe lower tier, two more above them, and the inter-stices filled with mud. Probably, then, these largepots were the common wqter-jars of t he MiddleKingdom. Other tomb-doors were blocked withbricks, very roughly laid. Coffins were very rarethere was one of unbaked clay, long and narrow anda trace of wood (No. 121) in another grave may havebeen pa rt of a coffin. But t he soil of El Kab is so

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N E W E M P I R E

damp and full of salt that unpainted wooden coffinsmay have disappeared without leaving any trace.The same causes have doubtless removed the clothesin which t he dead were buried, for of these I saw notrace. Th e most remarkable fact was the entireabsence of mummification, at least, of any effectivekind. In the ground near the good XVI IIt h dynastytombs, mummies were found, perhaps the servantsof the great men of the inscribed tombs. Thereseemed no great difference in the conditions to whichthese mummies and the bodies of the XIIth dynastypeople had been exposed. Yet no trace of mummy-cloth, dried skin, hair, or bitumen was ever met within the earlier cemetery. Nor in the early burials thatI opened at Ballas were any mummies found, andcertainly most of the mummies known belong to theXV II It h dynasty or later. Is it possible that mummi-fication was confined to th e upper classes until thegreat increase of wealth in the XVIIIth dynasty ledto the wider adoption of the custom, Some of the later Neolithic bodies were, however,dried, either by artificial means or by some propertyof the soil, so that the whole body could be lifted outwithout any of the li db s snapping off. I t is reportedthat the body of an engineer, who, not' many years'ago, died and was buried at Assuan, and afterwardsexhumed to be sold as a mummy, was dried up inthis way.A chamber generally contained more than onebody; four was a not uncommon number, and inone chamber eight persons, probably women, lay side

by side. This fact certainly) agrees badly with theidea just expressed of the absence of mummification.The objects found n the graves were of well-knowntypes. Bottle-shaped vases at the head and feet,alabaster kohl pots: kohl sticks of ivory, bronzemirrors without handles, paint-slabs with their pestlesand spatulae of serpentine and basalt, with beads ofgreen glaze and various kinds of hard stone, were theregular staple of our finds. And t he d ate of thesewas already well known from Kahun and other placesindeed the date of this cemetery could be seen atonce from the chips of pottery lying on the surface.This conclusion was confirmed by the two privatestelae (PL. IV), and a cylinder of Amenemhat 111,found in one necklace. Inscriptions were extremelyrare here were few scarabs, and perhaps the mostinteresting object was the plain alabaster statuettePL.V, 2), which was found close to the skull of its

owner. This was the only figure of the kind found inthe cemetery, and is probably the ear iest dated

ushabti. I t represents a mummy-shaped figure nohands, hoe, or basket can be seen, but the face iswell executed.The tombs were, of course, often robbed, how often,it was difficult to decide, for the destruction caused bythe falling roof is very similar to that caused by earlyrobbery. But it was very seldom that a skull couldbe preserved, or that the exact position of the bonesin the body could be worked out. There had beenvery little re-use of the shafts in one occurredpottery and a mirror of the XV II It h dynasty, inanother a Roman lamp but these were excep-tions it was purely a Middle Kingdom cemetery.22. A fine collection of beads was obtained, chieflyin hard stone. In one tomb alone (No. 156) I spentmost of two days trying to recover the order in whichthe beads had been strung on the necklaces. Seven

people had been buried in one chamber of this tomba great mass of pebbles had fallen from the roof,smashed the bones and pottery, and so scattered thebeads that some car: was needed to keep togetherthose from one string. Some of the bodies wereadorned with necklace, bracelets, and anklets, andhad also a string of beads round the waist.The commonest beads were spherical and barrel-shaped, of carnelian, haematite, and amethyst, anddiscs of shell, these last the commonest of all. Ingreen felspar there were small flat discs, hawks, andhippopotamus heads. Sphinxes with human headsare generally of amethyst. Uninscribed scarabs, incarnelian, amethyst, and jasper, were not uncommon.

CHAPTER IV.N E W E M P I R E M O N U M E N T S

23 Singularly little is left in E l K ab of any periodlater than the Middle Kingdom, unless, indeed, thegreat walls be of later date than we have supposed.The broken pottery inside the town enclosure, thatis the south-west corner of the great square, seems tobe of various periods, but to contain a large quantity~f a fabric most like that of the XXVIth dynasty.As Nectanebo rebuilt the temple here, it is natural tosuspect that this late pottery is of his reign or near it.Masses of similar pottery are to be found thrown outfrom several of the large tombs, in and behind thehill of Paheri. These tombs are probably of theXVII It h dynasty, and were re-used for piles of poorburials at the later date. Of poor'burial s of theXVII It h dynasty only two were found. These were

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in the long coffins of that coarse red carthenware,fragments of which may be seen by the tourist on hisway to the tomb of Paheri. Ther e are a few robbedtombs near the foot of the hill, but no large cemetei-yis known. I t is possible that El Kab was not av er ylarge town at this period ; thc family of Paheri andAahmes Inay have becn the only grcat house of thcdistrict.24, Some cxamit~ationwas made of the beautifullittle temple of Amenliotep 111,which lies an hour swalk up the desert, not with the view of copying it,for that work had already been undertaken by Mr.Clarke, but in order to discovcr, if possible, where thcoriginal temple was. I t secms morc than probablethat all thc VIth dynasty inscriptions i n the greatdetached rock near the temple were made by pilgrimsvisiting a shrine ; matly fragments of Old Kingdomvases also are to be found lying near. I t at firstoccurrcd to me that a cemetery of the Old Kingdommight lie here, and a search was made in all likely,and some unlikely, places, but nothing was found,except a broken watcr-jar with a late Greek inscrip-tion. Thc carly pottery near the temple was thenturned over ; it appeared to bc a merc rubbish heap,with no sign of tomb or of brick building. I t lies onthc slope of the bank of loose detritus, on which thetcmplc itself is built. Th e torrent which, froni timeto time, sweeps down the old rivcr-bed, is, a t thispoint, wearing away its southern bank. Below theheap of old pottery is a, little vcrtical cliff, 4 m. high,in so soft a rock that it is clear the steep face hasbeen recently formed, and the tcmplc itself is threat-ened by a small stream bed behind it. I t may be,then, as Professor Sayce first suggested, that .theoriginal tcmple stood on thc northcrn part of theshoal which is now washed away; this idea is con-firmed by our finding in the stream bed opposite thepresent tcmple the early table of offerings shown inPL. IV, I, with many morc small fragments of in-scription on pieces of sandstone. Th e originaltemple, then, has gone, the pile of pottery thrownout from it urill be carried away too ; evcn the temple,of Amcnhotep may be undermined within no verylong period. Th e effects of sudden storms in thedesert are greater than might be supposed. Ther e isno vegetation to stop and absorb the rain, the groundis excessively hard, and all that does not immediatelysink into the soil runs rapidly down into the largerwatercourses, and forms in a few hours a deep an dbroad stream. Such a storm occurred three yearsago at El Kab, and the inhabitants tell us that, for

twd days, a tributary stream entcred the Nile there.The railway engineers have had to provide for therecurrence of such spates.25 The foundation dcposits may be consideredtogether. They came from two temples-the large

one within the walls, and the small temple of Thot h-mes 111,which lies to the north of the tbwn, and wcskof the hill of Pahcri. In the latter the deposits werevery numerous for so small a temple v. PL.XXVI).Under each corner of the main wall was one of,thclittle pits filled with sand, which have now become sofamiliar, and at a metre s distance along the side wallwas another and larger deposit. The pits were about.60 m. in diameter ; in two, there was at the bottoma reccss, filled with the small cups of brown clay.The objects a re all closely similar to those found inthe other deposits of this reign at Koptos and Nubt.One shape of pot, however (XXI, 14 , has not beenseen in a foundation deposit before, and the flat tiles(15 cm. long) of blue glaze, one in each deposit,must be mentioned. All t he deposits were carefullyunearthed, and the position of the differcnt objectsnoted, but there was no obvious design in thearrangement.

The dcposits found under the great temple are ofmore interest ; those of Amenhotep 11, under .wallscovered with inscriptions of Rameses 11, give onemore instance of the latter s usnrpations. Depos itsof two other distinct classes contained no inscriptionsof kings names, and cannot be dated. Thei r positionis shown in the very rough sketch of the plan of thetemple in PL. I.Thc contents of the different deposits is givenbe OW :N. I. R polygonal sandstone mortar (XXI, 46),twenty small cups (43), three small round dishes,three taller pots 44, flat tablets of red and greenglass, a bronze pan 30 ) , five long glass beads 38),the green glaze figure 29) like a srnall ushabti, asmall green glaze modcl of ail ox with the legs tiedtogether, the bronze models 33, 34, 35 , a tile of dullgreen glaze, a model clay brick, a small piece ofbitumen, and a piece of resin which burns with asmell like myrrh.

N. 4. Sandstone mortar, eye in green glaze 28),the other objects as in N. 1 but with the addition oftablets of calcite and lead.N. 5 contained the glaze block 40), a bronze knife,a little brick of myrrh, and pottery, as in the others.N. z and N. 3 consisted each of a single object, one

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DES CRI P TI ON O PLATES 17a small oblong block of iron 4 inch long, and theother a tablet of blue frit (like 37).

These last two deposits clearly do not belong tothe same builder as the rest.

The deposits of Amenhotep I1 contained alabastetmodels, the inscriptions identical with those of Thoth-mes 111, excepting the change of cartouche.

26. The temple to the east of t he central easterngate of the town was excavated, and a XIIth dynastytomb was found beneath it. The walls had beencarried away, but the floor of the temple was nearlycomplete, and from the scratches made upon it bythe masons the plan was recovered. This will bepublished by Mr. Clarke. No foundation depositswere discovered, and the only scrap of inscriptionwas a part of the cartouche of Nectanebo.

27 No certain solution can be given of the ques-tion of the date of the great wall. Reasons forthinking it to be the work of Usertesen I1 havebeen already given, but several attempts were madeto test this hypothesis. The base of the wall wascleared at several points to search for any accumula-tion of rubbish left by the builders, and all t he gate-

-ways were examined for foundatioh deposits. In theeast gate, at a height of 3 feet above thie stone pave-ment, there was a layer of potsherds, painted with arough decoration of comma-shaped dashes, and withthem were some fragments f an ostracon written inlate demotic. This would show that the gatewaywas already partly ruined and blocked in Roman ?)dmes. And between the row of mastabas to thenorth and the great wall were found th e foot of anushabti, perhaps of the XXVIth dynasty, and a pot(=L. XX, 1 3 , probably Roman. The first was onthe ground level, the second feet above it. But theposition of these objects only shows that the sand-heap had not reached its present level when theywere dropped, and I observed nothing quite incon-sistent with the early date suggested. It should beadded, however, tha t the stonework of the gates andthe arch in the north wall seem, to Mr. SomersClarke s experienced eye, to show some features of amuch later style. These he will describe in his ownwork on El Kab.

28 A group of late bronzes were found at onepoint in the south of the great enclosure. They wereSoo in number, each mounted on little wooden base.One (PL.V 3) was a fine piece, representing Nekhebadored by a .kneeling figure. The rest were Osirisfigures, except one, which represented Imhetep.About a hundred were inches high, or upwards, of

fair workmanship, made in thin bronze cast on a core.They were all piled together in a space 1 1 m. bp6 m., not near to any tomb.29 Near the south-east corner of the town (PL.

XXIV) was a peculiar brick building, consisting offour rows of brick pillars, six in each row, enclosedin a surrounding wall. Th e pillars were about 2 m.square, the passages between thein only about 80 m.wide. Th e actual height of the brickwork was I .so m,or less, but the building may have been a high one,for the base of a brick staircase remained between twoof the pillars. Throughout the building were greatnumbers of pots, chiefly broken, of a long bottle-shape with a wide mouth, and pierced at the bottom,with a hole an inch wide (XX, 14) hese pots exactlyfitted certain holes left at regular intervals in thebrickwork. Pots nearly of this shape, but shorter, arestill used in Egypt , being built into the walls ofpigeon-towers to serve as nesting-places for the birds.So far as the pottery guides us, the building mightthen be of Arab times, but the large size of the bricks(34 cm. 17 1I), part of a stone window foundon the south side, and the smooth surface of the sitebefore we began to dig, make it unlikely that thestructure is recent.

CHAPTER V.DES CRI P TI ON OF PLATES.

30. PI . I.-Nos. I , 2 and 3 are the plan, elevation,and longitudinal section of one (264) of the sunkarch tombs believed to belong to the early XIIthdynasty.

No. 4 gives the plan of the chamber in the IVthdynasty tomb of Kalmena and 6 are rough notesof the stone walls on the east and south sides of thesame chamber.

No. 7 gives the plan of the important tomb in whiehan inscribed cylinder was found in association withNeolithic pots (NO. 166, 13).

No. 8 is a rough-sketch plan of the great temple ofEl Kab, inserted to show the position of the founda-tion deposits.

31 PL. IL r. The stone vessels of the Neolithicperiod and the Old Kingdom, as they were shown atUniversity College. 0 1 1 1 ~one was perfect eventhose tha t look nlsst complete were picked out insmall pieces from the gravel or mud, and were puttogether by the help of our friends in England. Or:~e right hand are five slate paint slabs of the latM

D

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EL KAB

Neolithic type ; nearer the wall are diorite bowls, and may be the dedicator of this stela, So we havealabaster tables, flat dishes of limestone and alabaster, the following genealogy :a bronze ewer (from Ka-mena), and a pottery model ~ r t u y?)of a granary.No. 2 shows all the small objects from the im-portant tomb with a m a j z ~burial (166)-shells,ivory disc, ivory hairpins, a flint flake, a steatitecylinder, beads, ivory bracelets, two pots and twostone bowls. (For inscription on the cylinder vPL. XX, 29).

No. 3 represents the objects from Ka-mena's tombas photographed in front of our house soon after beingfound (larger size in PL. 111, 2).

No. 4 shows a mastaba wall when just ex-

U rtsn-Mryt-[&]tfsIKhuy3 Limestone stela of the end of the X II th dynasty,

from the cemetery, dedicated by a certain Sabna tohis father, who had the same name and was a prophetof Amon.

In the first line we have the formula of offeringaddressed to Osiris, the next contain this gene-alogy : Ankhti t I

cavated.No. 5 is a view of our house with the stacks of

pottery before it.

IAnkht - i t I = Sabna I = Mrt-i tsIHny Sabna I1

- PL.-111.-NO. . The sandstone statue of Nefer-shem-em.No. z The bronze and stone objects from Ka-mena

of the time of Sneferu, with whose name the flatdiorite bowl below was inscribed. The centralbowl is of very light-coloured, translucent diorite,and the deeper one of porphyry. Below are modeltools in copper. (These are given in outline, PL.XVIII, 56-65.

PL. IV. (Note by Dr. Spiegelberg.)I. Table of offerings from dry stream bed on desert

near Amenhotep's temple, dedicated with the usualformula addressed to Anubis, Osiris, and Nekhbet, byth e confidential friend of the king, the treasurer,

chief prophet, destroying the evil (?) [Kfau asf ?]and to his father deserving well of his god,the confidential friend of the king, the treasurer,'chief prophet, privy councillor of the royal treasureShemaA.

This is the person mentioned in a rock inscriptionof El Kab, published by Stern (Aeg. Zeitschr., 1875,P . I r.). By this identification we can claim thistablet for the VIth dynasty.

2. The inscription of this X II th dynasty sandstonestela from the cemetery must be divided in themiddle. The right half- the well-deserved ofAnubis, Usrtsn, son of Srtuy ?) -relates to thechief personage holding a nn dt in the left handand the well-known sceptre of command in theright.

The person behind, who carries a long Nymphaea

PL. V.-No. I A figure of blue-glazed ware from aXIIth dynasty tomb (No. I). It represents a veryflat-headed deity, with the youthful side-lock, thebody in mummy form, the darker lines representinga bead network.

No. 2 is the alabaster ushabti of the X II th dynasty.No. 3 is the fine bronze (height 19 cm.), now at

Ghizeh, representing a man adoring Nekheb; hishands are side by side before him, palms down. Thi sis by far the finest of the 800 bronzes found togetherof these 700 were worthless, the rest ordinary Osirisfigures.

No. 4. A group of the peculiar pots in which thecharacters of a table of offerings and a model of ahouse seem to be combined. They are only known inthe Middle Kingdom, occurred at Ballas as well as ElKab, and are common in museums. Th e offeringsinside can be seen in good examples t o be the headand legs of an ox, bread (?),and jars of water. Onemodel shows the roof of a hut made of logs of wood,and the outside staircase.

No. 5 A group found together, consisting of a samulet of bronze, a dark steatite cylinder, and a littleglazed steatite draughtsman with a human head andtraces of some sign inscribed below. Th e inscriptionon the cylinder is copied in PL. XX, 28, and is ratherpuzzling. Th e name in a cartouche seems to be Ka-kau-ra, which is not that of a known king. A s thepottery in the tomb is of the XII th dynasty, and thetomb is in the cemetery of that period, one mightread Kha-kau-ra, Usertesen 111, but his Ka name,

eaerulea, is his beloved son, Khuy, son of ~r yt -[ al tf s, Neter-kheperu, is known, and cannot be read in the* For dasz~ta,see Spiegelberg in a forthcoming paper of Aeg. other name on the cylinder. The cylinder is of aZeits. type known in the IVth and Vth dynasties, and

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DESCRIPTION O F PLATES. I9Dr. Petrie suggests that it may be Men-kau-ra, andthat his Ka name was Men-maat, the m t being readwith the straight sign only. If this be so, we mustsuppose that the owner of this grave had found thecylinder in some ancient site.

No. 6 shows one of the small clay figures ofNekheb found behind the stone work of the eastgate.

PL. V1.-No. I. group of the finest stone vases.The upright dish is of diorite rather more than two-thirds of i t was recovered, all in small pieces. It isinscribed suten iti Sneferu. Th e jar on the left isof green slate, the central bowl of porphyry, and therest alabaster. All are probably of the IV th dynastyor earlier.

No. 2. On the le