abydos - ees supplement

8/8/2019 Abydos - EES Supplement

1/242


2/242

fD D D

C2\ucz It

ot^

D D D

z^


3/242


4/242


5/242


6/242


7/242

I

NEW YORK UNIVERSITYWASHINGTON SQUARE COLLlGE

LIBRARY


8/242

ABYD0, TE^ENOS OF OS, R ,S. HEADS OF AAHMES .. AND AMENHOTEP ,.FROMT.

AAHMES.

I |C ;, J

\

1I4

i

AAHMES.AMENHOTEP.


9/242

A B Y D SPART I. 1902

BYW. M. FLINDERS PET HI E

Hon. D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D., Ph.D.,F.R.S., Uon. F.S.A. (Scot.)

MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL [NBTITDTI ;CORRESPONDING MEMBER OP THE SOCIETY OP ANTHROPOLOGY, BERLIN

MEMBER OF THE ROMAN SOCIETY OF ANTHROPOLOGY ;MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES;

EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.

With Chapter In/A. E. WEIGALL

TWENTY-SECOND MEMOIR OFTHE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND

PUBLISHED BY OBDEB OF THE COMMITTEE

LONDONSOLD AT

The OFFICES OF THE EGYPT EXPLOEATION FUND, 37, Great Russell Street, W.C.and 59, Temple Steeet, Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

and by KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Paternoster House, Chaiung Cross Road, W.C.B. QUAR1TCH, 15, Piccadilly, W. ; ASHER & CO., 13, Bedford Street, Coyent Garden, W.C.

and HENRY FROWDE, Amen Corner, E.C.1902


10/242

-fn 57V. c&

LONDONPRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LTD.

ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL.

YORKUNiVERSIT'MIARY

f,vS^*,|VHET >fr( - BlMfc&UJ!


11/242

EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND.president.

SIP JOHN EVANS, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.Uicc=prc3tCicnt0.

Sir E. Maunde-Thompson, K.C.B., D.C.L.,LL.D.

Lt.-Geneeal Sir Francis Grenfell, G.C.M.G.,G.C.B.

The Rev. Peof. A. H. Sayce, M.A., LL.D.

The Eon. Chas. L. Hutchinson (U.S.A.).Prof. G. Maspero, D.C.L. (KraiProf. Ad. Eeman, Ph.D. (Germany).JOSIAII MULLENS, Esq. (Australia).fit. Charles Hentsoh (.Switzerland).

ibon. (Treasurers.H. A. Grueber, Esq., F.S.A. F. C. Foster, Esq. (Boston, U.S.A.).

Ibon. Secvctars.J. S. Cotton, Esq., M.A.

Members of Committee.T. H. Baylis, Esq., M.A., K.C., V.D.Miss M. Brodrick, Ph.D. (for Boston).Mrs. Buckman (for Pittsburg).Major E. B. Cassatt, B.A.Somers Clarke, Esq., F.S.A.W. E. Crum, Esq., M.A.Louis Dyer, Esq., M.A. (for Chicago).Arthur John Evans, Esq., M.A., F.K.SF. Ll. Griffith, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.T. Farmer Hall, Esq.F. G. Kenton, Esq., M.A., Litt.D.Mrs. McCldre.The Rev. W. MacGhegor, M.A.

A. S. Murray, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A.The Marquess of Northampton.Francis Wm. Percival, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.F. G. Hilton Price, Esq., Dir.S.A.Mbs. Sara G. Stevenson (for Philadelphia).Herbert Thompson, Esq.Mrs. Tirard.The Rev. H. G. Tomkins, M.A.Emanuel M. Underdown, Esq., K.C.E. Towry Whyte, Esq., F.S.A.Major-General Sir Charles W. Wilson,

K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S.

IP T 5 2 S


12/242


13/242

CONTENTS.INTRODUCTION.

SECT.

1. Scope of the t'Xr;i\;itioilS .2. The work and workers

CHAPTER I.Objects feom the Royal Tombs.

3. King Ka. Pis. i-iii .4. King Ro. PI. iii5. Small inscriptions. Pis. iv-v6. The pottery. Pis. vi-vii .7. The Aegean pottery. PL viii8. The stone vases. Pis. ix, x9. The labels, &c. Pis. xi, xii

10. The steles, &c. PI. xiii1 1 , The flints. Pis. xiv, xv .

CHAPTER II.The Osiris Temenos.

1 2 . Character of the site ....1 3 . The early town.....14. The flints. Pis. xvi-xxvi .15. The stone vases. PL xxvii16. The pottery. Pis. xxviii-xxxv17. The M. tombs .....18. The plans of M tombs. Pis. xlviii,

xlix19. The pottery and stone. Pis. xxxvi-

xlvii ......20. The date of the town and tombs2 1 . The slates and tools. PL 122. The amulets, &c. Pis. li-liii .

99

10121214

15

18192323

CHAPTER III.The Osibis Temple.

SECT. PAGE23. Position and history . . . .2724. Before the Xllth Dynasty. Pis. liv-

lvii 2V25. Xllth and XHIth Dynasty. I'ls.lviii-

lx 2826. The XVlIIth Dynasty. Pis. Lxi-lxiv 2927. The XlXth Dynasty. Pis. lxv-lxvii 3128. The XXVIth Dynasty, and later.

Pis. lxviii-lxx . . . .31CHAPTER IV.The Cemetery G.

29. Range of the cemetery30. Early tombs31 . Tomb G. 57. Pis. lxxii, lxxiv32. Construction of the later tombs33. Tomb of Zedher. Pis. lxxv, lxxix34. Other tombs ....CHAPTER V.

The Inscriptions.By A. E. Weigall.

35. Monuments of Vlth-XIth Dynasty36. The Xllth and XHIth Dynasty37. The XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasty .38. Monuments of Un-nefer39. The XXVIth and XXVIIIth Dynasty40. Sarcophagi, XXXth Dynasty41 . The hypocephali ....42. Inscriptions nut figured

343535363739

4142434648484951


14/242


15/242

LIST OF PLATES.PLATE


16/242


17/242

ABYDOS I.INTEODUCTION.

1. The present volume completes the accountof the objects found in the Royal Tumi is ofthe earliest dynasties, the discoveries in Avhichduring the previous two years have appearedin the last two volumes. The account of theresults of the present year's excavations coversnearly all that has been yet found in theTemenos of Osiris and the well-known ceme-tery ; but another large part of our work is keptback for publication when completed next year.It is always difficult to decide between partialpublication in sections, issued rapidly for theimmediate benefit of scholars, and systematicpublication delayed until every detail has beeniinally sifted and settled. But the worst of thebulletin system is that the student is afterwardsdependent on indexes to find connected subjectswhile the worst of the great book long delayedis that often the material loses value whilewaiting, and the delays may run on so thatmuch is forgotten in the interval.The Temenos of Osiris I had wished to ex-

cavate since I first saw it in 1887. It wasundoubtedly one of the oldest centres ofworship, and had a long history to be un-ravelled. If it has proved so far ratherdifferent to what was expected, it the morecorrects our ideas. But the real temple sitehas not yet been touched below the level of theXVIIIth Dynasty ; and a vast deal still remainsto be done there.

The cemetery G was only worked as proveddesirable in intervals of other work, and to < r iveemployment to workmen between other enter-prises, hying close behind our huts, and withscarcely any small objects of value casuallyfound in it, such a place was an ideal resortwhenever men could not be kept on elsewhere.I should hardly have worked it for its own sakealone; but as a stop-gap it proved very con-venient, and fairly desirable.The other large work, which is not described

at all in this volume, occupied half of our men,or more, all the season. About a mile south ofAbydos, at the foot of the desert cliffs, I hadnoticed some great tombs when first visitingthe ground. The temple which Mr. Maclverexcavated two years ago (see the volume onEl Am mli just issued) proved to belong to aking Kha-kau-ra, presumably Userteseu III.,but possibly of a king of the XHIth Dynasty.The temple lies on the edge of the desert, and along causeway leads up to one of the greattombs which we have found. As probablymost of next season's work will be occupiedwith these tombs, before they are finallycleared, it is best to leave aside the plans whichhave been prepared, and give a connectedaccount of the whole site next year.

2. Our excavators were the same gang ofmen and boys from Koptos who have workedfor me during many years. Indeed that gang

NEW YORK UNIVERSITYWASHINGTON SQUARE C0LEGE LIBRARY


18/242

ABYDOS I.has served as a nucleus for all other recentexcavators, as Dr. Reisner, at Girgch, hasdrawn almost entirely on that centre, and theGerman work at Ahusir has used our trainedQuftis for headmen, to say nothing of theResearch Account work at El Kab, which hasdepended on the same source. I have no doubtother places would furnish equally desirableworkers, but when once a large party have beentrained, they are naturally sought for elsewhere.It is needful, however, to carry on a continualweeding of old hands, as the Egyptian alwaysbecomes spoiled with prosperity ; and some ofthe boys, as they have grown up, have cometo the front line in their intelligence andconduct. We also employed over a hundredboys, from villages near the work, to do thecarrying.Our camp was entirely fresh, as those who

were with us before had all passed on to otherwork. Mr. Arthur Weigall came out for thefirst time, and proved a most successful worker.I greatly regret, for the sake of our Avork, thatI have to congratulate him on passing on atonce to a better position. He entirely super-intended the men at the great southern tombs,which I only visited to give general direction tothe region of work. He also looked after the

close of the temenos work, and drew some of theinscriptions, the whole of which he commentson in this volume. Mr. Laurence Christie, whocame for artistic copying, has done more thanfour plates in this volume ; but most of his timewas given to copying selected sculptures in theScty temple for the Research Account. Ex-cavations at the Sety temple, on the same basis,were carried on by Mr. A. St. G. Caulfeild, whoalso took many photographs, some of whichappear in this frontispiece. My wife was closelyoccupied with drawing nearly all the season ;especially on the tedious figuring of nearly fourhundred flints, and the exact facsimile copiesof inscriptions. My own work lay in theTemenos of Osiris, directing the diggers,levelling and recording, and general manage-ment and account keeping ; for the season'swork involves some 40,000 entries of smallsums. I have also drawn thirty-seven of theplates here, and taken the photographs. Theimmediate production of a fully-illustratedbulletin of the results of a season, before theobjects reach England, involves organizing allthe copying on the spot ; but the advantages ofquick publication make it well worth while tocarry out this system, as we have now done forthree years.


19/242

CHAPTER I.OBJECTS FROM THE ROYAL TOMBS.

3. The earliest royal tomb that can vet beplaced in the series is that of king Ka, whichwas described in the last volume (Royal Tombs,ii, p. 7). Within the chamber were hundredsof fragments of cylindrical jars (type, pi. vi, 1),some of them with cross-lined pattern copiedfrom cordage. Such jars are well known inthe later prehistoric pottery, and belong to thesequence date 78 in that scale. On many ofthese jars are inscriptions, roughly written inink with a brush ; and on comparing all of thefragments, I have succeeded in putting togetherthose which are copied in plates i., ii., and iii.They prove to be all of two formulae, one forthe king, and one for his queen. And as beingthe oldest hieroglyphic inscriptions known,probably half-way back in the dynasty beforeMena, they deserve our closest attention ; theyshow the oldest shapes of the signs, and provethat at that age writing was so familiar that arapid form of it was freely used to write ondozens of common pottery jar's.On plates i. and ii. it is seen that the whole

formula was Suten Ap, the Horus Kit, followedby three strokes ; and on plate iii. the secondformula was //>' hemt en Horus Ka. Thus, asclearly as possible, these jars are inscribed forthe king Ap, whose Horus name is Ka, and forHa, the wife of the Horus Ka. The name Apoccurs as a masculine name in the Old Kingdom,and also very commonly the form Apa : whileHay and Hayt are known as feminine names.No objection has been made to this reading,even by those who are most surprised by suchgrammatical writing at that age. The meaning

of the three strokes below the Horus name isnot clear, and probably we shall bave to wailfor some better drawn inscription to explainthem, as writing was so familiar to the scribethat mere indications were then enough to rivethe idea. There is no parallel to this groupfollowing any of the other early Horus namesand, as maa kheru and neb taui both belong tofar later times, we may perhaps suppose theselines to represent some steps on which thefunereal stele was erected, as on the alabaster ofAzab, pi. v, or the pottery marks, probably allfrom Azab, in Royal Tombs, i, pi. xlvi, 111155. The signs themselves show more than isyet known about them. Observe especially thesuten plant, which is sometimes of the laternormal form, as in Nos. 4, 7, and 9 ; moregenerally it has the leaf or flower at the toplike the qema or res sign of the south ; andgenerally the root is shown as a wavy linehanging from it, see especially Nos. 1, 2, 17, 19.This plant was then separate from the nen orneJcheb plant, but no distinction between thesuten and qeuin plant was yet made. Probablythe use of this plant for qema or south wasthen in the stage of naming the kingdom, parexcellence, before any other region to the northhad been formally included in it : much as weshould at present mean the British Isles byspeaking of " the kingdom," in contrast to thefar larger parts of the present kingdom in otherregions.The inversion of the form of the Horus- or

fc-name is strange. That the strokes abovethe arms represent a panelling, like that placed


20/242

ABYDOS I.below the name in all later examples, seemsproved by their great variety, having anynumber of lines from two (fig. 5) to five (figs.4, 20, 23), or even thirteen strokes scratchedon pottery (B. T. ii, xiii) ; such could hardlybe a hieroglyph. From later instances thispanelling certainly is copied from the front of abuilding, tomb, or palace : so here we must takeit as such, and see the space below it, whichcontains the sign, as equivalent to the doorwayof the building. The instances scratched onpottery (R. T. ii, pi. xiii) should probably allbe turned, with the Tea arms upwards, and thepanel strokes above them. It is evident thatthe position of the panelling strokes was changedbetween the time of Ka and that of Narmer.The reed a has here the separate flowex-s of

the feathery head, as in all early examples ; butthey vary from three to five in number. Themat-work p has the ends all left loose, as in theseals Nos. 16, 57-60, 72, 118, 160 (R, T. i, andii.). The plant ha is like that on the Ahaebony tablet in having no base line (B. '/'. ii,x, 2) ; but the base line came in at that time, ason the tablet B. T. ii, pi. iii, 4, and perhaps thesame on the tablet No. 3 in the same plate.The signs hem and n might belong to almostany later age.Thus on the whole there are but two points

in which a change took place between the signsof king Ka and the general usage of two orthree centuries later; the suten sign passedinto two distinct forms, those for "kin"-" and-nth," a political change hardly due to hiero-

glyphic development, and the hi name passedfrom the doorway of the panelling to the spaceover the panels. Neither of these changes aredue to immaturity in the writing; and when werlm> reach back a couple of centuries beforeMenu without finding any marked difference,and meet with a cursive writing, it is plai" thatwe are very far from touching the period of itsformation.

Beside the ink writing three more examples

of incised writing of this same king are given,similar to those already published (R. T. ii,pi. xiii). On pi. iii, M 36 shows the tail of thehawk, part of the lea arms, and the top of thesuten ; 37 shows the lea arms and a sign nearby which is probably a star and crescent marklike No. 605, &c. (R. T. i, pi. Ii) ; 38 shows thatin one case, at least, the panel strokes were putbelow and the arms hang down, as the sutensign unquestionably shows which way up this is.We may here briefly note the remainingfigures in pi. iii. Nos. 3943 are all numericalsigns neatly painted in ink on alabaster jars, 39from the tomb of king Den, 4043 from thetomb of king Mersekha, but perhaps thrownover from Den or elsewhere. 44, 46, and 47are ink writings on stone vases. 45 is inkwriting on a jar from the tomb of Den ; itreads sesh, and should be compared with otherwriting on vases R. T. i, pi. xxxii, 34 37;pi. xiii, 5764; R, T. ii, pi. xxv, 13 27.The figure of the god Min (48), ink-drawn on apiece of slate bowl from the tomb of Khase-khemui, is the oldest drawn figure of that god.The signs on 49 are from a slate bowl ofPerabsen.

4, When last year the names of the earliestkings were grouped together in Royal Tomlis,vol. ii., I did not observe the presence of anothername until the publication of the volume. OnB. T. ii, pi. xiii, is a sealing No. 96, of whichseveral fragments were found ; this shows thehawk on the mouth hieroglyph. Again, onli. T. i, pi. xliv, there are several examples(Nos. 2 to 8) of what seems to be the samegroup. Considering that this group is thusformally cut on a seal, and often drawn onpottery, I think we are justified in seeing in itthe royal hawk and the hieroglyph r or ro,expressing the hi name of a king, Ro. All ofthe jDottery examples come from the tomb 13 1,which, with 13 2, was worked by Mr. Maclver inthe first year ; and this accords with their givingthe name of a king, incised like the other early


21/242

OBJECTS FROM THE ROYAL TOMBS.kings' names, Ka (pi. iii, 38, &c.) and Nar(/?. T. i, pi. xliv, 1), and belonging to the tombof the king. These tombs B 1 and 2 are shownon the plan (R. T. ii, pi. lviii) immediatelyabove the name Bener-ab.The age of this king Ro cannot be far from

that of king Ka. The position of the tomb doesnot indicate whether it was before or after thatof Ka. But Ave must observe the presence of agreat jar (R. T, i, pi. xxxix, 2), which is usuallater, but does not occur in the tomb of Ka;the style of the sealing, which is more like thoseof Narmer or Mena than like the very simpleone known of Ka (No. 89) ; and the clay, whichis yellow marl (hei/b Arab.) like later sealings,and not black mud like the Ka sealing. All ofthese details point to the order of the kingsbeing KARO

ZESERNARMERSMAbefore the 1st Dynasty opens with AhaMena.Thus we can now tolerably restore half of eventhe ten kings who reigned at xYbydos beforethe united kingdom was established. Thelist on p. viii of F. T. ii, should be thusamended.

5. Some small inscribed objects were notphotographed till they reached England, socould not be included in the previous volume.They are here given on pi. iv. Figs. 1 and 2are pieces of crystal and syenite cups bearingthe name of king Sma ; by careful wiping withcolour the hieroglyphs nebui Sma are herebrought out visible. Fig. 3 is a piece of ivorybracelet, which was found in the tomb B 2 byMr. Maclver; I then supposed that it mightbear the name of Aha, and in the next seasonthe objects of Benerab clearly showed that thiswas one of her bracelets, with her name andthat of Aha, which had strayed over from theneighbouring tomb. Fig. 4 is a fragment of a

volcanic stone bowl from the tomb of Khase-khemui. Fig. 5 is a piece of an upright cup ofpink Limestone, with part of a Btrange hiero-glyph upon it which we have not met withelsewhere ; it might possibly be the base of alr


22/242

ABYDOS I.tomb. The gold foil of Qa seems to have beenpart of a model mat of a hotep offering, likethat found at Hierakonpolis (Hierakonpolis, i,pi. xx, 9). The great stele of king Qa wasfound on the east side of his tomb as described(B. T. i, p. 15) ; the lower part of it had beenremoved by the Mission Amelineau, and waskept at the Cairo Museum ; thence it has nowbeen exchanged, and will rejoin the upper partin the Philadelphia Museum.

6. The pottery from the Royal Tombs isgiven on pis. vi, vii, in addition to that alreadypublished in B. T, i, pis. xxxixxliii. It ishere classed according to the period ; and thefollowing references are given to the volumesRoyal Tombs, i (7?.), and the present Abydos (A.),with the number of the pottery drawing in each.The large jars begin under king Ro with twobands and a bottom ring of rope pattern (7?. 2) ;then pass on to plain bands, under Zer (A. 13) ;next the bands come closer together, underMersekha (7?. G) ; further on they pass up toabove the shoulder (7?. 7), or dwindle to a singleband, under Qa (7/. 5) ; and lastly we see thejar far smaller with a single band, underPerabsen (J. 31).

Some curious late variants of the wavy-handled jars come from the tomb of Mena,B. 19. They are very thick, and so differ fromthe earlier types, though the form A. 3 is likethat found far earlier ; the arched patternaround it is, however, certainly late. Theother forms, A. 5, 6, are more than half solid,and the arch pattern has sunk to two curves,or merely three finger pits. Later on underZer, .1. 15, 16, these become even more for-malized ; but it is curious that two differentforms, this one and the cylinder jar, A. 1, 11,12, were both derived from one prototype. Itis explained, however, by the cylinder jar beinga form influenced l.y approximating to thealabaster cylinder jars, wnici ore already longin use (Diospolis Parva, p. 15, pi. iii) ; andthe forms here, A. 3, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16 ; 7/. Ill

114, must be looked on as the real close of thewavy-handled type.The survival of black-topped pottery, A. 9,

10, under Zer is unexpected, as few forms lastbeyond 60, and scarcely any after 70, sequencedate. These, however, are very different inappearance to the earlier black-topped, and areof forms unknown in the prehistoric ; only theaccidental blacking beneath the ashes resemblesthe early ware. The oval dishes, A. 19, 20, arethe last descendants of the oval forms so usualin the early prehistoric ; and no later examplesthan these have been found.On reaching Perabsen we find the links to

the regular forms of the Old Kingdom. Theform A. 28, probably derived from that ofMena's age, B. 110, is the parent of the typeof the Vlth Dynasty (Dendereh, xvi. 5, 7, 22).The hand-made pot with diagonal linger marks,A. 27, is the parent of the usual pot of theIllrdIVth Dynasty (Medum, xxxi, 15);which in another variety {Medum, xxxi, 19)lasted on to the Vlth Dynasty (Dendereh,xvi, 8).The large limestone bowl, A. 33, found in the

tomb of Mena, is like that of which a piece bearsthe name of Zet (B. T. ii, pi. vii, 2). Thehuge pilgrim-bottle, A. 34, is probably of theXXIInd Dynasty.

7. The Aegean pottery here figm-ed, pi. viii.114, was found together in a single deposit inthe tomb of Zer, as described in detail in RoyalTombs, ii, pp. 9, 46 ; the account already givenshould be referred to, and we need only heresay that the date and the foreign origin of thisgroup are beyond epiestion. Some regularEgyptian forms, such as 9, 10, 13, 14, and thealabaster 11, were deposited with the foreign(onus, and show by the contrast the widedifference between them. The painted piecesbelow are from the tombs of Den (T) andMersekha (U); the zigzag Line between parallelsis a well-known later design, but not hithertomet with in this aye.


23/242

OBJECTS FROM T1IK ROYAL TOMBS.8. ( ha plate ix are some outlines of stone

vases, supplementary to those given in lim/nlTombs, ii, pis. xlviliii. Fig. 1 is a portion ofa syenite enj> of king Sma, the inscri])tiun ofwhich is here shown in photograph on pi. iv. 2.The very curious rush tray carved in alabaster,fig. 4, is here restored from fragments whichwere found scattered far apart. It is most likesome of the remarkable slate carvings whichhave yet to be published, when the portionsnow hidden in Paris are available for science.The dolomite marble vases, figs. 5, 6, 7, LO,are those with gold caps, already published inphotographs (li. T. ii, pi. ix, 210). Figs. 8,9, were found with the copper bowls (R. T. ii,pi. ix, 13, 15). The diorite bowl, fig. 13, isphotographed in 11. T. ii, pi. ix, 11 ; for theposition see R. T. ii, p. 13, chamber 44. Thebowls, figs. 14, 15, are mentioned in positionin R. T. ii, p. 12, chamber 1G.On plate x. is shown a small group found

in the chamber Z 1 1 , south of the tomb of kingZet. The zig-zag pattern, fig. 16, is incisedon a bird's leg-bone, which probably served tohold copper needles; the copper borer, 19, isquadrangular ; the two flint scrapers should becompared with those from Z on pi. xiv. Fig.20 is a portion of a carved wooden tray, muchweathered, but apparently of a close-grainedconifer, probably cedar ; the base is shown inthe sketch, and part of the curved side. Fig. 21is from a broken cup of thin horn, found in thetomb of Mena. The rude vases of alabaster areselected to show the variety of forms among thegreat number found in the tomb of Ehase-khemui ; the depth of the hollow is shown bya dotted line ; these were drawn by Mr.Weigall.

9. As it was impossible to draw all theengraved labels for the last volume, severalare given here which were issued only inphotographs last year. It will be clearest forreference to state the number on plate xi.,the reference to the photograph, and the

comparison with duplicate labels alreadypublished.

PI. xi.


24/242

ABYDOS I.known of this age. On 148 it seems as if thedouble hill du was used as a variant for thetriangle gift da, and it should read Hotep-du-Neit, " Neit give peace." The painted inscrip-tion in red, 156, is uncommon. On 159 seemsto be a hyaena. 168 is a fragment of a largeroyal stele, found in what is probably thetomb of Narmer ; it is carved with relief inthree different levels, indicated by differentshading ; the object appears to be part of adecorated facade (like that in Deshasheh, xxvi),and if so, the royal name was probably in thedoorway below it, as on the inscription of kingKa, Unhappily no more was found ; but, ofcoivrse, there may be other fragments in Parisquite unknown. The gold bar of Aha, 171, ishere outlined in side view, and the markings onthe ends also shown ; the photograph of theends has been already published in R. T. ii,pi. iiiA 7, and described on p. 21.

11. On plates xiv., xv., the worked flintsfound in the royal tombs are arranged in theirhistorical order. In the upper half of the'seriesthe flakes and scrapers are placed, and belowthese are the knives and fragments. The namesof the kings are placed at the top of eachcolumn, and the letters of the tombs and somedetails are written on the photographs. In noother country or age has such an admirableseries been found for the study of variations inthe types and the rate of variation. And thisonly adds one more to the bitter regrets thatthis collection consists of only the scraps leftbehind after the shameless plundering of thesetombs by speculators, with the full assent ofthe Egyptian authorities.At the top the small pointed flakes begin

with Mena, and disappear under Merneit ; theflakes under Den are rougher, and such con-tinue to Perabsen. On the other hand, thesquare-ended flakes begin under Den, butdevelop strongly and distinctively during theIlnd Dynasty. The round-ended flakes arefinely worked with wide flat sides ; beginningunder Zer, they are poorer under Den, andmerge into the square-ended flakes by the endof the 1st Dynasty.The flat scrapers are not of well-marked

types at first ; a tailed scraper is seen underMerneit, and a rounded triangular one underAzab. The triangle is sharper under Mersekha,and by the time of Khasekhemui the tri-angular scraper, long or equilateral, is thecommonest form of flint.The knives begin with the deep back curve,

as in that found in the Mena-tomb at Naqada(De Morgan, Bech. ii, fig. 769). The handleby the first large knife does not belong to thatspecimen, but is only placed to carry on thefigure. The curve becomes less gradually,until it is almost straight backed underKhasekhemui. The surface working, whichis far below that of the prehistoric flints evenat first, becomes rougher on the later knives,and the body is left much thicker and coarser.One instance of a recurved tip occurs under Zet.The small knives, with two nicks for tyingthem on to the girdle, are only found underZer, see foot of plate. The sharp toe to thehandle is most marked in the first half of thedynasty, and fades away after that until it isalmost lost under Khasekhemui. The mosttypical series of these varieties for comparisonis in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.


25/242

CIIAITKU II.THE TEMENOS OF OSIRIS.

12, As the excavations in the greatTemenos of Osiris still need one or two yearsmore of work to complete them, it is notdesirable to prepare a tentative plan; butanyone wishing to follow closely what isdescribed can use the plan made by Mr.Garstang, and published in El Arabah. With-out a plan it is useless to trouble a reader withtopographical descriptions, and hence theaccount here is restricted to explaining therelations of the various things found andfigured in these plates.

So far as our excavations have yet gone,the history of the site may be briefly summedup thus. A temple of Osiris stood here uponthe sandy edge of the desert, certainly in theVlth Dynasty, and presumably before the1st Dynasty. Outside of the temple enclosurea town sprang up behind it on the desertbefore the 1st Dynasty, and mingled with thattown are a few large tombs and some smallerburials of the 1st Dynasty. These seem tohave been placed amid the deserted houseswhen that part of the town was unoccupied.This town spread for some hundreds of feetaround the temple, and lasted on to theIVthVlth Djmasties. Some time after theOld Kingdom a great enclosure wall was built,far outside of the temple ground, resting uponthe town rubbish. A corner of this was boxedoff with cross walls, and filled up with inter-ments of the XlthXVIIth Dynasties, knownlater as the Kom es Sultan, which was com-pletely emptied out by Mariette's workmen.In the Xlth Dynasty Antef V. rebuilt the

temple with octagonal columns of limestone.In the Xllth Dynasty many monuments wen-added by Usertcsen I. In the Xlllth DynastySebekhotep III. built a black granite gateway.

In the XVHItli Dynasty Tahutmes III.lniilt a massive inner enclosing wall to thetemple, over twenty feet thick, with a greatred granite pylon on the back or desert Bide,opening into the larger walled area. Much ofthe larger wall had been destroyed, and a townspread over the space, as before in the OldKingdom ; but later, probably in the troubles ofthe XXth Dynasty, the old line of outer wall wasbuilt again, over the later town. In the XXVIthDynasty the temple was rebuilt, and additionsmade in the XXXth Dynasty. Where theoriginal shrine of Osiris stood is not yet known ;but presumably it was the nucleus of theoriginal temple, and therefore beneath the latertemples. We have not yet cleared the templesite below the foundations of the XVIIIthDynasty, and work there will be very difficultowing to the rise of the Nile level placing thelower parts under Avater.

13. The excavation of the temenos area wasa difficult matter to arrange. On every side itwas bounded so that no clear space could bebegun upon ; and I was obliged to start bythrowing back along a line of existing ruins.In the higher part of the ground, nearer to thedesert, the clean sand surface of the old deserlwas found beneath all the towns piled one overthe other. But this clean sand was inaccessiblebeneath the water in every part of the templeground bounded by the great wall of Tahutmes


26/242

10 ABYDOS I.III. That most important region we haveonly yet searched as far back as the XVIIIthDynasty ; but having now finished a large spaceoutside of it, we can proceed next year tounload the temple ground on to the spacealready searched, and thus work down over it,leaving only the lowest levels to be cleared atthe dry end of the season. In the whole spaceoutside of the temple ground not a trace of anybuilding of the early time was found exceptmud brick houses. We have, then, to deal withwhat was a series of towns, piled up in stratawhich are usually (i inches to 1 foot thick.To denote the positions of small objects found,

I marked each with a trench number and alevel. The trench numbers I have not pub-lished here, as it appears that there was agenerally level spread of the town in all partsthat we dug, for peculiar tyj)es of flints orpottery are found at closely the same level indifferent trenches. The levels were at firstdenoted in inches absolutely above a fixeddatum point ; but as work went on it provedmore convenient and satisfactory to denotethem in inches over the basal slope of cleansand. This sand gently sloped down from thedesert to the cultivation, and hence absolutelevels are not comparable, but heights oversand show the true depth of ruin. Every levelstated on the drawings of flints, pottery, andother objects here is in inches over sand, orabsolute depth of ruin at the point. Roughlyspeaking, the town began about the beginningof Dynasty 0, and the stratified material thatwas left untouched by the sebakhin rarelyextended beyond the Ilnd Dynasty. Thediscussion of the relations of the pre-historicsequence dates, the kings' reigns, and the townlevels will best be taken after describing thevarious material that we have found. In manyplaces I dug through the basal sand for a footor two, but always found it clean and undis-turbed, and in no case did I observe any gravesor hollows dug in it and filled up, though I

often looked for them carefully. The walls ofthe houses were sometimes visible for a coupleof feet or so in height when a clean section wascut ; but the bricks were quite indistinguishable,and the wall could only be detected as theinterruption of lines of charcoal and potsherdsby a vertical face of uniform earth. It was,therefore, not practicable to trace out theseparate houses, or to make any plan of thebuildings ; and in no case did we find any lengthof uniform wall more than the side of a roomor two, or any thicker mass than the usualchamber walls. There does not seem to havebeen any large enclosure or uniform mass ofbuilding, but only small houses. The wholecompacted mass of wall-stumps, mud and sherdsis so unified by pressure and wet beingsaturated at high Nilethat only clean cutsections would show anything ; and there wasno discriminating cohesion in one part morethan another.

14. Throughout the early town, flints moreor less wrought were abundant. Thousands offlakes were found (of which a portion werelevelled, and are figured on pis. xxiv, xxv) :and some hundreds of worked-up flints, knives,scrapers, saws, &c, which were all levelled whenfound in undisturbed earth. The sebakhin had,however, dug over the whole site, and parts ofit down even to the sand ; and therefore manyflints Avere found in their siftings which cannotnow be levelled. Though some of these werefine examples, they are not figured here, as noexact historic value can be given to them. Thedrawings here were all made by outlining theflints on the paper, copying the edge flakes, andthen drawing in the general flaking by freehand,observing the form of each flake carefully.Every flint has its level in inches over the basalsand, or the depth of ruin when it was dropped,marked below it.

Pis. xvi, xvii. Flint Knives withoutHANDLES.On comparing these it did not seemthat there was any restriction of types to special


27/242

THE TKMKNOS OF OSIRIS. 11Levels ; lience these are arranged rather l>v theamount of curvature in the back, as this enablesa comparison with any other specimen to bemost readily made. The whole of the flakingis rough compared with the prehistoric work,and it resembles that of the knives of the 1stDynasty tombs and the Hierakonpolis deposit.Many of the specimens are greatly changed inoutline by wear ; for instance, the snubbing ofthe edge of 27 shows plainly in the drawing.This snubbing is always on the side next theperson when the flint is held in the right hand :and was doubtless the result of scraping awayfrom the person. Sometimes a flint will liesnubbed half the length on one face and half onthe other face, having been held sometimes byone end, sometimes by the other. This wearmay be noticed in the drawings of 5, 7, 14, 19,27, 35, and 3G, outer end. The wide finelyre-curved knives 30, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 and 42belong to levels 22 to 65 (as the M tombs werecut into the ground, see below) ; and this corre-sponds to the first half of the 1st Dynasty,agreeing to the fine one of this type, in theNaqada tomb of Plena's queen. No butt endsof this type of knife were found in the royaltombs, excepting perhaps one of Zet and one ofMersekha ; but owing to only the broken piecesbeing known from those tombs, it is difficult tomake comparisons. The tip 40 is much likeone of Zer ; and the recurved tip 39 is like oneof Zet.

Pis. xviii, xix. Flint Knives with Handles.These seem to cover the same range of levelsas those without handles. They are arrangedhere in order from the most concave backs tothe most convex. The work is generally rougherthan is seen on those from the royal tombs ; anatural difference between working articles androyal specimens. None of the very pointedtoes are found on the handles, and the bladesare far thicker than the royal knives. Wemay well compare fig. 53 with the knives ofKhasekhemui, the long narrow blade GO with

tin' long blade 4 the same king, and fig. 5 1 ismosi like the knives of Azab and Mersekha.The l.isi example, fig. 84, is of the XlthXllthDynasty, as it is closely like those in Dendereh,xxii, Kahun, \\i, and lllahun, vii, \iii.

PI. xx. 'I'm: Flint Hoes.These form awell-marked group, mine being found below 38,and most being within 2 inches, from 75 to 95.The form underwent very slight changes downto the Xllth Dynasty (Illahun, vii.). Most ofthese hoes show the high polish due to wear inuse; and the mode of setting is seen in hiero-glyphs of the Vth Dynasty, where three hoes ina line are bound on to the end of a long handle,at right angles to it.

Pis. xxixxiii. The Scrapers.These areroughly classed as tailed, irregular, and round;in each class they are arranged in the order oftheir levels.The tailed scrapers are mostly poor and slighl

up to about 10 level; but from 30 to 51 thereis a class of thick, carefully-flaked, pieces, withthe edge often notched. After 51 only twoslight ones are known. The history of thisform is therefore very definite.The irregular scrapers are mainly before 40

22 being in the first 40 inches, and only 8 inthe next such space.The round scrapers are similarly distributed,

three-quarters in the lowest part of the town.As in the royal tombs it is only when the finer-worked flints were given up that the rougherscrapers were buried, it is useless to comparethe few scrapers found there with those fromthe town. At the base of the plate are twoflint borers ; a broken disc of flint, probably incourse of working for a bracelet ; and a flintcore.PL xxiv. Long Scrapers.These have all

been used for scraping a wide surface ; somemay probably be misused knives (189, 193),but others are evidently maJe for scraping, as194, 195, 198.Flakes are classified into plain flakes (199


28/242

12 ABYDOS I.236), tipped flakes (2372G6), worked flakes(26728 1). rounded flakes (282285), andsquare flakes (286291). The simpler formsare pretty equally distributed ; the roundedends are wide before 60, and narrow after,much as in the tombs they are wide to Merneit,and narrow from Den onward. The regularsquare form does not here begin till 40, and weknow that it continued in use till the end of theIllrd Dynasty (Medum, xxix, 26).PL xxvi. Three pieces of animal figures

chipped in flint were found ; and such arealready known from elsewhere (see Man, 1902,art. 14). The figure 294 is certainly a crocodile,and the others may be intended for the samebeast.The smaller saw flints are probably all from

sickles ; they belong to the lower levels in thetown.The crescent flints are nearly all of the higher

levels, over 50 inches. The use of them issuggested by finding a great quantity in astratum of white sand and stone dust ; thisindicates that they were used like the vasegrinders (pi. liii. 2334), but probably for theearlier rough stages of drilling out alabaster vases.The comb flints 315327 are hitherto un-

known ; but it seems likely that they are adevelopment of the round scraper, perhaps forscraping the scales from fish.

15. The stone vases, pi. xxvii, which werefound in the temenos strata are mostly frag-mentary. They show, hoAvevcr, the periods ofseveral well-known types, which may all beplaced here Avithin the 1st Dynasty or a littlebefore it. Referring to the stone vases whichare dated by the Royal Tombs (It. T. ii, pis.xlviliii), we may compare here :

Stone.

Alab.Bas.'i It

3045

King. Number.jMena(ZerZer

29729854

Stone.


29/242

THE TBMBNOS OF OSIBIS, issmall saucers, 1014, are so easily invented atany time that they are not important.The everted bowls L527 are both of rough

brown pottery (see X. I J 24, 26, 28) or ofpolished red ware of poor and late quality(see .V. P 15, 17, 18).The brim bowls, 2831. are of late origin,

but of various ware; some red polished ( .V.P 14), some rough brown, but more usuallyof hard late ware (A. L 7, 8, 9, 10).The inturned bowls are the commonest of

all, and descend from early ages; they aredivided into four columns here, the straightsided, the curved sided, the rounded sided, andthe wide based.

It should be noted that the different classesof bowls were not in use similarly at all levels.The rough small saucers are all of or 3 levelthe everted bowls at to 25, and one laterthe wide bases usually 25 to 50 ; the brim bowls19 to 85; the rounded bowls 18 to 115. Thisshows that fluctuations in fashion went on fromone generation to another, within the widerrange of the mere existences of such forms whichcover much longer periods.The rough-bottomed bowls, 5762, were

made by dropping a lump of mud into a hole inthe ground, and then shaping it up by hand.They are all very thick, and of soft, poorly-baked mud ; sitms marked with the finderoften occur on the inside of the bowls, and suchare copied here. The earlier forms are flatter,the later ones more upright.The great pans, 66 69, were probably used

for storage, as also the ovate jars 7077.These forms are not known in the graves,except very rarely a jar. But the great panswere used to invert over a contracted body, soas to constitute a grave ; and they are commonlyknown to explorers by their modern name ofmagv/r. The pans are found in all levels, butthe jars only range from 18 to 62.The great jars with narrow mouths (78S3)

were probably sunk in the ground and used to

store grain. \ recess around the mouth (seesection in 81 | was made I" retain a lid. Thelevels stated here are taken a little below thetop, at the probable ground level. The sameform of mouth to a spheroidal jar was foundalong with a cylinder of Ka-Ra, probablyKhaires who reigned either just before or afterKhasekhemui in the [Ind Dynasty {El Kab, ii, 2).This would be probably rather later than theexamples here, which are at 68 to 88 levels.

The largest jar (Fig. S3) is much later, beingfound at 55 inches under the pavement ofAanenhotep I ; the height over sand is yetunknot n.The cylinder jars, 84 - 86, are of the usual

late type, such as is found in the latest pre-historic graves, probably contemporary withsuch jars in the Mena and Zer tombs. Theseries of further degradation of this form isgiven in /,'. T. i, 119129.

The minute forms, 8891, seem to be modelsof the large jars 102, &c. They are all early.The rough brown jars, 9297, are of the

form of the late ash jars of the prehistoricgraves ( A'. L 30). In two or three houses longlines of these were found stacked against a wallin one case 21 jars, along a chamber 145 by 86inches, standing mouth down on the sand(fig. 92) ; elsewhere more than a dozen, mouthup (fig. 97) ; elsewhere a long line, mouthdown (tig. 95); and in nearly all of these casesthe bottoms were broken off.

The smooth, hard, light brown jars, (J8 101,are not so common in the town as they are ingraves.The class of great jars, 102105, is quite

distinct from all others. The earliest is thatfrom the tomb of King Ro (Ii. '/'. i, 2), whichhas the raised bands marked to imitate ropethis is a copy of a jar slung in cords, like theexample carved in stone found by Amelineau(De Morgan, Eech. ii, tig. 823). For a smallpottery model of the same see 11. T. ii, pi.xxxviii, 1. Such jars were found by me with


30/242

14 ABYDOS I.the remains of actual cordage upon them in theofferings to Merneit : and the impression of thering of cord round the neck is usually found onthe lower edge of the great sealing*. Thesuccessive stages of degradation of these jarshave been already noted in section 6. Theelaborate pattern on 105 must be due to anarchaistic imitation, or possibly the piece wasdug out from the lowest level in early timescertainly it is not in place in the series at 63level. The plain jars without bands (104) arcof the same age as those with bands, see B. T. i,1 12; but they are generally of a fuller formthan the banded jars.The hand-made pottery, with diagonal finger

marks, 106 116, is well known in the OldKingdom (Medwn, xxxi, 15 ; El Eab, xii, 23) ;but it does not occur in prehistoric graves. Itappears from the levels to belong to the IlndDynasty and onward ; and may be a degrada-tion of the well-made jars of the 1st Dynasty,such as in R. T. i, 1631, or the forms 122,129131, 136 here, which are earlier than themajority of these rough jars.The jars with a deep collar, 118121, are

pi'obably the latest stage of the ash-jar of theprehistoric graves (N. L 33, 34 ; D. L 34c).The whole class of rotund jars, 123140,

are usually of hard fawn-coloured pottery,which is common in late prehistoric times.They run on into the Illrd Dynasty, compare129 and Medum, xxx, 11; and the Vth Dynasty,see 135 and Deshasheh, xxxiii, 20.The little round-bottomed jars, 141150, arc

rare in tombs, but common in the town : theydo not occur in the lowest levels, before the1st Dynasty, but are known in the prehistoric(/V. R 63) from 50 S.D. to the end. The earlierones are well shaped with a good brim, andthey become ruder in later instances.The small globular pots, 151174, are

common in the earlier levels, but are all morerounded at the bottom than the late prehistoricforms, N. R 6469.

The model vases 182 187 are of hard fawnware like their larger prototypes.The ring stand 192 is one of the rudest forms.

In 193 there is a combined cup and stand inone piece. 194 is a dish with lip. In 195197 we see combined bowls and stands made inone. Such are found in late prehistoric time,7276 S.D., but seem to be quite unknown inthe Illrd Dynasty and onwards. The standpierced with triangular holes (198) is almostexactly like one in Dendereh, xvi, 38. Thelarge globular jar on a small stand (211) is anextreme instance of the combined form. Thedecoration of red lines on the fawn pottery in205211 belongs to the late prehistoric age.The triangular tube 203 is unknown elsewhere.Several solid cylinders of pottery (204) werefound, with wiped lines around the ends, anddiagonal finger marks ; they were probablyused to support a wooden floor above theearth, like the jars at Kop>tos.

17. Outside of the smaller enclosure, closearound the Osiris temple, the town had sprungup before the 1st Dynasty ; and when four orfive feet of rubbish and ruins had accumulated,at about the earlier half of the 1st Dynasty,several large tombs (some as much as thirteenfeet by six) were sunk within the town, just out-side the temple gateway. Probably that partof the town site was unoccupied then, and afterstanding a couple of generations the houseshad crumbled down, and the place seemed bareenough for a cemetery, although it was after-wards again covered by the town. Thesetombs were then subjected to such pressureand wet in the soil that their contents andwalls are hardly to be distinguished from thetown rubbish outside of them. It is only whena group of pottery or stone vases is found (batwe can be certain of the presence of a tomb,and it needs careful examination to settle theheight of the walls. As will be seen in dis-cussing the dates in section 20 the walls aretraceable up to, or within a few inches, of the


31/242

Till: TEMBNOS OP OSIRIS !..level which corresponds to the age of the t b ;and hence the tombs were cut down throughabout four or five feet of town rubbishjgenerally to the clean sand (see top of pi.lxxx), and lined with a wall which rose to theground surface of that age. The roofing wasdoubtless of branches, twigs, and earthlikethe prehistoric tombswhich gave way, andlet the rubbish from the surface fall over, andtill up the hollow. Most of these tombs seemnever to have been disturbed ; the bodies wereunbroken, the jars complete, and the fine stonevases in place: but as no gold work was found,and the only valuables were some beads, andin one case copper tools, it may be that covetablcobjects bad, perhaps, been taken away. Oneof these tombs was found by accident two yearsago, and its contents are published in B. T. ii,pi. xxxiii, numbered M 1. This year elevenmore tombs or interments of that age werefound, and the plans are shown in pis. xlviii,xlix, the pottery in pis. xxxvixli, the stonevases in pis. xliixlvii ; the copper tools inpi. 1, the beads in pi. lii, and the flint knivesin pi. xvii.

18. In the plaus pis. xlviii, xlix, everyjar is shown in outline to scale. The potteryis in plain outline, the stone vases are cross-shaded one way, the blocks of stone single-shaded one way, and the brick walls single-shaded the other way. The numbers on thevases are those which were marked on themduring the clearing of the tomb, and agree tothe numbers on pis. xxxvixlvii. Thenecessities of the excavation made it impossibleto keep a regular order of the numbers, eitherin position or nature of the objects. Some-times only a part of a tomb could be done atfirst ; sometimes it was needful to remove allthe valuable stone vases overnight, for fear ofrobbery, and do the pottery next clay ; some-times a space had to be cleared to stand orkneel in, so as to reach the delicate parts ofthe clearance carefully. Almost every vase was

sketched into ;.| Ian as it appeared, with often

some measurements i*< secure the position, andthen a number was marked n it to identify itagain. AfhT making the drawings of the forms,the plans were fair-drawn fr the dimensions


32/242

16 ABYDOS I.attitude of the prehistoric bodies. This is con-trary to the attitude of head north, face eitherway, in which were found most of the servantsof king Qa ; and face cast, as the IITrd Dynastypeople of Medurn.M 17 is the only instance of a bricked gravecontaining a clay coffin. The coffin was at 50inches over the sand (pi. lxxx) ; and as by thestone vases the burial can hardly be later thanMerneit, when the surface level was 60, theblack clay coffin can scarcely have been coveredby the grave, but was hidden by heaping overthe top. The body in the coffin was that of awoman ; that in the grave was a child, and ata rather lower level. By its hands was a smallsquare packet of beads. The mass below vase 10was a lump of soft white earth, like roughplaster, which was not found in any othergrave. The vases are figured on pis. xxxix,xliv.M 14 is the only instance of a burial withhead to north. The length of the femur17'8 ins. (452 mm.) is usual for a man, butextreme for a woman. For the vases seepis. xxxix, xliv. The base of the tomb was1 1 inches over the sand, and therefore dugabout four feet deep from the surface of thattime. This burial was unusually rich inhaving seven flint bracelets on the left arm,besides one flint bracelet on the right arm ;also a flint knife (xvii. 28) under the head.Tn the earth over the body were black lines allin one plane, with streaks of bright haematitethis stuff was probably a rush mat painted withruddle. Between the bowl 52 and the wallwas the skull of an animal (gazelle?) By thehead were about 8 inches of carnelian heads.about (i inches of steatite tuhe heads, the sameof green glaze ball heads, and some long glazedtube beads. In front of the body beneath thehand was a huge rough stone. The thicknessof the walls was measured (12 inches), but theheight could not he traced. The south wallwas not found.

M 15. From the bareness of this tomb, andthe poorness of its contents (see pis. xxxix,xliv) it seems probable that it had been robbedanciently. The west wall was not traced.M 18. This was another bare tomb withonly the commonest pottery and broken stonevases. It lay next to M 15, and had probablybeen robbed. At the S.W. corner was theskeleton of a gazelle.M 19. This was the richest tomb of all,having twenty-two stone vases. We see here,as also in the next two tombs, large blocks ofnatural rough rolled stones laid on the floor ofthe grave. These are placed at the head andthe feet ; and in each grave they mark out theline of the cylinder jars placed by the head.It seems likely that these stones were thebases of wooden pillars or props which sup-ported the roofing, and which delimited aninner space around the body. There may evenhave been a central boarded chamber with someobjects placed in it and others grouped outsideof it. This would be like the central woodenchamber of the royal tombs of Zer, Zet, andDen, with the offerings in spaces outside of it.In M 19 the stone vases by the head, and thepottery cylinders 9 12, would all be piled upwithin the chamber ; and the group of stonevases at the north end would lie outside. InM 12 the cylinder jars 14, 15, bowls 4 andslate, would be stood up inside the chamber, andthe other offerings in lines outside. In M Hithe large slate 48 and alahaster 8 would beleaning against the chamber side, and thevases 6, 22, 3740, 50, 51 stacked inside;also the vases 10 12, IS, 32, 43, 45, 47, andthe howls 42, 44 leaning against the side. Onthe decay of the woodwork the vases wouldnaturally fall over into the positions in whichwe find them. Thus the arrangement of thecontents points to some inner framing of wood,which rested on the Large stones as a footing.In the section (pi. lxxx) it is seen that neitherthe walls nor the interment reach down to the


33/242

THE TEMENOS OP OSIJ 17clean sand ; within the walls is a layer of brokenbricks and lumps of rubbish, and then curvedstrata of town rubbish, charcoal and pot-sherds,filling up the hollow, where the roofhad collapsed. There is 7 to 12 inches of houserubbish beneath the walls; and in the middlemud wash up to 15 inches, and then brokenbrick to 25 inches over the sand.A very curious point in this burial is thaiat 13 upon the knees was part of the knee boneof an ox, and at 14 upon the humerus was pariof the shoulder blade of an ox. These bonesmust have been intended to act by sympatheticmagic, in order to impart the strength of theox to the limbs of the deceased. For thereferences to the vases see pis. xli, xlvii. Thelarge vase 16 had the lesser one 26 placed init, and 36 also in it beneath 26. Bowl 170was placed in 70, and 178 in 78. The northwall of the tomb was not traced, nor was thethickness of the walls ascertained.

M. 12. This grave was opened up late oneafternoon, and I planned and removed the stonevases before dark, but had to leave the rest fordaylight ; unfortunately one of the boys thoughtthat I had finished the ground in the middle,and cleared it out next morning, so the attitudeof the skeleton was not observed beyond theplace of the head. Of course that was the lasttomb that boy ever touched. The vase figuresare given on pis. xxxvi, xlii, xliii ; the Pplaced to some bowls denotes polished redpottery. On the N.E. stone was a slate palette4d ; on that the basalt bowl 4c, in that theblue volcanic stone bowl 4b, and in that thebasalt bowl 4a. The alabaster saucer 8 wasplaced in two pottery saucers containing mala-chite chips ; and the alabaster 9 was in a pile ofsix pottery saucers. The pan 38 containedwood ashes. The pot and saucer 43, 44 werehigh up on the west side.

M. 16. This tomb had walls preserved higherthan any of the others, being 52 inches oversand ; as the level of its age is 55 inches in the

town strata, the wall is preserved up to theoriginal surface. The body bad a Blate braceletnil tin' right Fore-arm, and three shell braceletsmi tin' left. Two heads, of goat or gazelle, laybefore it : seme leg hones to die north "I' thebeads ; and behind the body many gazelle bones,and another head. The large pan. 20, behindthe 1m .(I \ was base upwards. For the forms "1Vases see pis. xl. \lv.M. 13. This was the largesi "t the tombs,

and contained the greatest amount of pottery,and also copper tools; but three other tombscontained more stone vases. So it is true


34/242

18 ABYDOS I.impossible to suppose that the spine has merelyfallen apart during decay. The right femurwas 19-0 ins. (480111.111.), the left femur 19*2 ins.(489 m.m.) long, which is a very full size for amale. There were four carnclian beads atintervals around the head. Behind the bodywere two heads of calves and the bones of abird.The vases are figured on pis. xxxvii, xxxviii,

xliii. The large pottery cylinder jars madein imitation of alabaster were filled with cleansand. A bowl, 63, was inverted over 13. Asecond bowl was placed under bowl 12. In thedeep bowl 2 was painted stuff (linen or leather),a bone netter, a rough pan, a rough brown jar,bird bones, and bits of limestone painted red.The saucer 4 contained white paint. The largejar 41 was in the earth outside of the tomblimits, and it hardly seems likely to belong tothe tomb, but rather to be one of the jars leftin the town ruin at an earlier date. Beyondthe feet, near the north end, the copper toolswere found lying together ; the position is notcertain, as they were moved in the course ofclearing, and I had to rely on the workman'sobservation. With the copper tools describedon p. 23 (pi. 1) were also two polished blackquartzose stones, doubtless used for hammeringand burnishing metal. This tomb is kept at theCairo Museum to be arranged as an exampleof the burial of the 1st Dynasty.

It is unfortunate that this series of fine graveswas placed in so low a situation, where, by therise of water level, they are now below highNile level, and the soil is so wet that it can,with a little shaking, be poured out from thevases as a stream of mud. This wet hasdecayed all the bones, so that it was impossibleto keep one whole, and it has also made itdifficult to trace the walls or the structuraldetails, or to find small objects in the soft mud.But having been buried over with some twentyfeet of earth above them, these tombs have beenpreserved from later robbers, and we are able

now to reconstruct in our museums thesesumptuous burials of the earliest age of theEgyptian monarchy.

19. It is hardly needful to say much indetail about the pottery of the M. tombs, pis.xxxvixli, as the classes have been noticedin describing the pottery of the early town,section 16. In some plates it has not beenthought needful to repeat the varieties of thelarge jars, but cross references are given fromone to another. (Correct the lowest referenceon pi. xxxvi. 45, from 57 to 67.) In somecases of large numbers of bowls no separatenumber was attached to each, but the stars putto some forms show how many examples werefound. The large jars M. 13 ; 13, 14 are madeof light drab pottery in imitation of alabaster.The bottle M. 13, 65 is of hard pale pottery, likeall the late pre-historic bottles (Naq. L. 6066).In the tomb M. 18 there were practically onlytwo forms of pottery, the bowl 3 and the vase 4,and the slight varieties are not noted separatelyin place.The stone vases, pis. xliixlvii, were found

in all of the M. tombs ; sometimes there wereonly a couple, but in M. 19 as many as twenty-two. They were almost always buried inperfect condition, for though the more tenderones have often been broken, the exact positionof the fragments shows that they were buriedentire. In one case, M. 18, the pieces lay as ifthe bowl and vase had been broken beforeburial ; and as this tomb contained only verycommon pottery, some disused broken stonevases may have been put in, for economy.Certainly there is no sign of " killing " thevases of either stone or pottery at the burial.The alabaster cylinder jars are mostly rathercoarse and carelessly made, as if for funeralpurposes, and are not nearly as well finishedas those of the royal tombs. The splendid tombM. 19 is again exceptional in having much finervases than the others.

It will be seen in 11. T. ii, stone vases IV,


35/242

THE TBMBNOS OF OSIRIS I"

None


36/242

20 ABYDOS *I.

Level of age

town between 45 and 60 inches over the sand ;the value finally adopted for each being placedafter the bracket.

The meaning of this in relation to the con-struction of the tomb must be noticed. Theheights of the walls of the tombs (pi. lxxx) overthe sand are thus :

TombM. 12 50M. 13 45M. 16 55M. 19 60

so that the walls where traceable extend to3 to 15 inches below what was probably thecrround level at the time : a conclusion whichshows that our results by the types of thepottery are probably true to a few inches oflevel.

B. The dating of the M. tombs in relation tothe royal tombs depends on both the potteryand the stone. Taking the pottery first Avesee

M. 1 ; 3 similar to Zer

Top of wall45405245

511619

about Zet /before Mersekha

Zei

M. 12; 4511, 4715

M. 13; 25275123

Zerbefore Mersekha ' Zerbefore QaZerbefore Qa

M. 14; 4,6, 13, 17 all Merneit3

M. 16; 2127, 28314 IS

Mersekha ?Zeras M. 1, ZerZet, MerneitQaZerMerneit

Zer

Merneit

Merneit

Zet

Zet

M. 18; 4M. 19; 50, 75

57, 586510116069, 94

Turning to the stone vases Ave see that theymay be compared Avith those in B. T. ii asfolloAvs ; M. 1 being omitted as Ave have not thesections for comparison.

Zeras M. 1, ZerZetZet, MerneitMerneitbefore MersekhaMersekha

M. 12


37/242

THE TBMEN08 OF OSIEIS.M. is


38/242

22 A BYDOS I.75 inches = Azab80 Mersekha90 Qa110 Perabsen

D. Lastly we have the relation of the levelsand reigns to the series of prehistoric sequencedates. Of course the end of the series is theweakest point, as there is no comparison withdata that come after it, as in other parts. Ishall here omit all comparisons with types thathave a long range of sequence dates, or a rangethat extends up to 80, as they are of no usealso those ranges before 70, as it is certain thatthey cannot be in question here. The usefulmaterial then is :Type


39/242

TIIK TBMEN08 OP OSIRIS. 23The close of the series of sequence dates, at

80, is best fixed by the cylinder jars which Ihave trusted, as they are generally in accordwith the vaguer indications of the other pottery.

21. Plate 1. The Slates, Tools, &cAtthe top of the plate is the expanded designwhich is painted on a howl of rough red pottery,the outline of which is shown below. The 'painting is done with red ochre, coarsely put onwith a brush. It was found at level 23, and istherefore about the time of king Ka. Theanimal to the left seems by the horns to be in-tended for the kudu, now known in Abyssinia ;the design of birds on a tree is not known onany other Egyptian pottery. Beyond the twoanimals in the middle are probably two forms ofsnaring nets, and a goat and kid seem to havebeen on the part now lost. Above the drawingare some fragments of painted pottery of thelate prehistoric style, with the levels wherefound.A few slate palettes were found loose in thetown ruins. They are all of late type, alreadyknown to belong to sequence dates almost aslate as here found. Beside these see pi. xxxvi,M. 12, 4d ; pi. xl M. 16, 47, 48 ; pi. liii, 12. Acurious piece of yellow limestone from level 11with four holes at the corners is shown at thebeginning of the copper tools ; one side isrounded and one flat. The use of it is un-known.The copper tools were mostly found in grave

M. 13; a square axe, a round-headed adze, acutting-out tool (broken) and the ends of twoknives ; all these lay together at the N. end ofthe grave (see pi. xlix). Another square axewas found at level 53. These tools are ofexactly the pattern of those found at Abadiyeh(see Diospolis vii) which were dated to s.d. 78.Here M. 13 is about s.d. 79, and the other axeabout s.d. 80. The long double-edged cutting-out tool found at level 20 is wider than theform from the tomb of Zer (B. T. ii pi. vi, 24)for the series of such tools, and their use, see

Man litiil art L23. A small square-bodiedchisel was found at 25 level.

\t (he base of the plate are some marks onpottery, others of which are on pi. xxix. Theyare of much the same nature a- those alreadypublished, except the strongly alphabetic formsmarked broadly with the fineer O K and P.

22. The amulets and small personal objectsfound in the town were not frequent ; but theyare of special value as being better dated thanany found before. PL li. 1 is a cylinder oftranslucent Iceland spar, pierced to hang ona necklace, similar to the drop-shaped pendantof alabaster in tomb M. 1 4, see pi. xliv.

2 is a slate pendant which seems to be amodel of a stone axe of a form not known inEgypt ; found loose in top rubbish, so uncertainm age.

3 is a rather similar pendant of green glaze,also undated.

4, 5, are bull's head pendants of greenserpentine, of a type well known in prehistorictime (see Man 1902, art. 14; Diospolis p. 20)and these prove that the form continued to theearly kings though the origin of it was certainlyforgotten when 5 was made, probably underMena.

6 is a pendant of earthy green serpentine,perhaps derived from the form of a shell, suchas continued in use to the Xllth Dynasty.Beginning of Dyn. 0.

7 is a pendant of clear green serpentine,shaped like the brilliant green beetles whichare now brought to Egypt from the Sudan.Beginning of Dyn. 0.

8, 9, are two forehead pendants of thin slateand shell, of the kind usual in late prehistorictime.

10 is a piece of a model cylinder seal, madeof clay, with the hieroglyphs I; m

11 is a cylinder of light green glaze, withthree crocodiles incised. (Cairo Museum.)

12 is a cylinder of dark violet glaze, withincised hieroglyphs ; these seem to read "'give


40/242

21 AUYDOS I.the house of bread to thee " ; the house of breadbeing an early equivalent of the per-hheru oflater funeral inscriptions. This type of inscrip-tion is just that found on most of the earlyblack cylinders, which mention offerings andprovisions, and usually have a figure seatedbefore a table of offerings ; such cylinders seemto have been the earlier form of the prayer,which was later expressed on the innumerablefuneral steles. Reign of Zer.

13 a fragment of slate palette from level 52 ;about reign of Zet.

14 a piece of carved ivory inlay, such as isfound in the royal tombs of Merneit, Den, andAzab (/?. T. ii, xxxix, 37; xl, 458; xlii,71-2). The level of it, 40 inches, points to thebeginning; of the reign of Zer.

15 an ivory draughtsman, rather differentfrom those of Mena and Zer, but more like thatof Den (7i\ 7'. ii, xli, 74) ; this seems to be ofthe level of Zer.

Ki, the tip of an ivory 'arrow, of the formused by Zer (R. T. ii, xxxiv, 47), and the levelshows the same reign.

17 a fragment of the incised black potteryAvith white inlay ; from the level this may beabout the Illrd or IVth Dynasty.

18, 19 ivory pin with spiral end, and ivorycrossdined cylinder.

20 a shell notched as a scraper, probably forcleaning fish (see Kahun, viii, 10). Age ofMena.21a model knife of flint ; age of Mena.22 a model forked lance of flint ; age of Den.

This is a good link in the series of such objects;

at first Ave find forked lances of flint in the pre-historic age, from the earliest times (Diospolisiv). Next there is a forked lance set in a goldhandle as a funereal implement, of the laterprehistoric age (Annates du Service ii, 131).Next there is the implement reduced to a,model in the 1st Dynasty. After that there isthis form in the sets of funeral offerings in theVTth Dynasty (Dendereh xxi) where a slab of

limestone has the models of the various funerealimplements let into it. And thus Ave reach thepesh-ken amulet, of Avhich a fine example Avasfound of the Xllth Dynasty (Diosjiolis xxv,Y 61, middle group), carved in carnclian, Avitha gold head in a wig as the handle of it.It seems also further that this amulet maybe continued in Avhat is usually classed as adouble feather, on the mummies of the XXVIthDynasty. Two forms of feather amulet certainlyexist, the straight feathers, and the two plumesAvith rounded tops ; a third form Avith pointedends turned outAvard, is found on the samemummies Avith the other tAvo, so it cannot bea variant of either of those ; and as no suchfeathers are shoAvn elseAvhere this is probablythe pesh-lcen amulet modified by confusion withthe double plumes. (See Man, 1902, art. 64.)

23 is one of the discs of pottery Avith groundedges, and a ground hole, several of which werefound ; this bears a sign cut upon it. Age ofZet.The four sealings Avere found just outside

of the temenos, in some Old Kingdom townrubbish beneath the portal of Ramessu II.They seem from their style to be of about themiddle of the Ilnd Dynasty.The fishdiook is about the age of Merneit.

The bone netter or bodkin, and blue glazedbutton, arc undated.

PI. Hi. The beads are all levelled and soapproximately dated. The top string andcircle of shells is of the beginning; of the IlndO Dynasty. The second string of Zer or Zet.The third string M. 14 is of Merneit; and thesmall beads, 91 level, must be at the end of the1st or early Ilnd Dynasty. They are of formsAvell knoAvn in the later prehistoric age.The limestone spindle whorls Avere abundant

in the toAvn. Many were undated, being foundin the shifted rubbish. Those here of one dateare put into the same column ; and they range;from the beginning of Dynasty to about thetime of Den. There is some change of form,


41/242

THE TEMENOS OF OSIRIS. 25the early ones being more regular and flatterthan the later; about ."> a coarse cylinder formappears, and soon after larger and bigher conicalforms.

At the bottom of the plate arc some laterobjects. The piece of a slate cubit has thedigits 12, 1."., and 14, marked on the top; onthe edge are as many divisions as the numberof the digit, a favourite way of giving a scale ofall fractions of the digit; on the base are somefragments of hieroglyphs. The arrowhead is ofbronze; it was found within the thickness of abrick wing of the Kamesside portal, accordingto the workman, and its appearance agreedwith this statement; so this gives a date for thelarge quantity of such arrowheads picked up atAbydos. The piece of a large blue glazed nnHis of Ramessu II ; it was probably a piece oftemple furniture like the anhh of Tahutmes III(Dendereh xxiii, 7). The weight marked withfour strokes is of black quartzose stone, 1590 grs.or 4x397. The lazuli bead was found in thetemple with the XXVIth Dynasty sculptures;it beat's the name " Psamthek mer Asar."

PI. liii. 1. A fragment of crocodile boneappears to have been carefully shaped like abull's head, probably as an amulet. Foundloose, undated.

2. A flint flake has at one end an attachmentwhich seems to be calcareous clay or cementthe material might be a natural concretion; butthe symmetry of the form of it seems to showthat it has been intentionally modelled like twohorns. Unlevelled.

3. Disc of gold and strip with turned edge,found doubled up together ; they fit so wellthat it seems likely they were stripped from agold-headed stick. Level 91 ; beginning ofIlnd Dynasty.

4. 5. Pieces of glazed quartz, with holes foraffixing. Found loose.

6. Limestone figure of a bird, found loose.7, 8. Green glazed figures of baboons, found

at about 70 level, age of Den.

9 12. Green glazed apes, and beads, tubeand hall forms; slate palette with crossedcorners. All these I removed from the earth at28 level, and therefore before the 1st Dynasty.There are a huge number of beads, and thewhole seems to have belonged to a woman.The resemblance of these baboons to those ofthe main deposit at Ilierakonpolis of the age ofNarmer should be noted. (See Eieralconpolis i,xxii, I 1. 12.)

13 -18. Many pieces of pottery were found,which I guessed to he parts of fire places, andat last a whole fire ring was found entirewith a deep bed of white wood-ashes within it.The forms 15 and 16 seem to come from anencircling serpent of pottery round the place,with its head turned inward to the fire; thuscombining the agatln daemonwhich was thedomestic fetish of the prehistoric agewith thehearth place. The levels of the pieces arc';tig. I 7 at 17 level, a plain zigzag like fig. l(i atIS level; fig. 1G at 20 level; fig. 13 at 20 level ;a piece of a corner with notched ledges like 17,at 28 level; and a piece like 14 at ">"> level.Thus most of these are at 1728 level or a fewreijms before Mena ; and one is of the age ofZet.

1922. Many pieces of ribbed tiles coveredwith green or violet glaze were found, likethose found at Hierakonpolis. The piece 1!) isthe earliest, found at 1!) level, or some reignsbefore Mena; the others were from 12, 36 and38 levels, or about the reign of Mena. Thestyle of ribbed inlay ornament, and the colouredglaze on other objects, are both familiar in theroyal tombs of the 1st Dynasty.2334. In many parts of the town stone"Tinders were found, which from their formswere evidently used in manufacturing the in-numerable stone bowls of the early dynasties.The examples here are arranged to show thedifferent views of the grinders; 2 1, 30, .".I, 33,34, are all in side view, showing the curvaturewhich they would produce, 24 being for a deep


42/242

26 ABYDOS I.cup and 34 for a wide shallow dish ; the othergrinders are placed in base view, showing thehollow or notch on each side by which theywere held in a stick so as to be turned round.They were usually found in a layer of whitesand and stone dust, evidently the refuse of thegrinding powder which was used with them.The levels of these showed that they belong toall parts of the 1st Dynasty. With these wemust connect the crescent flints (xxvi, 305314), which were mostly found in a stratum ofsand and stone dust, sloping between 80 and50 level ; from such association it is clear thatthey were used for the vase business, and aspreliminary drills they would be effective onmost of the stones that were worked. Theirage runs throughout the 1st Dynasty. Similarcrescent flints have been found in the IllrdDynasty at Beit Khallaf.

35, 36. These rough red pottery figures of a

hippopotamus head, and a kneeling leg, wei*efound loose in the rubbish, and therefore un-dated ; they are of the same class as the earlypottery figures from Koptos.

37. A very rough scniatting figure in lime-stone, found at the base of the town.

38. A strange piece of a large object of redpottery, marked all over with deeply cuttriangles ; possibly part of an animal figure.

39. A torso of a human figure in roughpottery.

40. Pottery figures of kine, of which theupper one is fairly modelled : they were foundat 55 level, about the age of Zet, in the S.E.cornier of a space filled with sand, which mayhave been the foundation of a building. Inthat case the space was probably dug downas a hollow, and hence the town level wouldbe higher then, about the end of the 1stDynasty.


43/242

27

CHAPTE 1 1 MlTHE OSIRIS TEMPLE.

23. As we have already stated, the Osiristemple occupied but a small part of the grealtemenos which was later built around the site.The temple of the XVIIIth Dynasty, which isthe lowest level yet cleared on this site, hadclose around it a massive brick wall, somethirty feet thick ; in the west side of which wasa great pylon of red granite, opening into therest of the larger temenos. As the plans arenecessarily still so incomplete, they are notpublished this year ; but a general surface viewof the site is given in Mr. Grarstane's El Arabah. OThe temple buildings principally consist of

two parts : the first, or easternmost, is a squarebuilding, of which nothing but foundations and? loose blocks remain ; the second part has stillthe lower few feet of the walls of two pillaredhalls and some chambers.

In the square building were blocks of theXVIIIthXXXth Dynasties, and foundationdeposits of the XVIIIthXXVlth Dynasties.The halls behind were built by Amenhotep I,and perhaps added to until the XXVIthDynasty. Outside of the whole temple block,in the south of the great temenos are otherbuildings of the XlXth and the XXXthDynasty. Until the excavations are com-pleted it is premature to discuss the exacthistory of the site. At least it may be saidthat as the town of the earliest dynasties liesjust behind this temple site, it is probable thatthe earliest temple stood there also ; for a latertemple would not be built on town ruins, norwould it be likely to abandon the primitivesacred ground.

The inscriptions, as such, are dealt with byMr. Weigall in chap, v; so here we are con-cerned more with the position and historicalmeaning of the various sculptures.

24. The remains before the XIIili Dynastyare not numerous (see pis. liv-lvii), as thework has not yet reached the true level of thatage in the temple ground, and all the stonesthat have been obtained are re-used. Theblocks of Merenra, Mehtiemsaf (pi. liv), werefound in the foundation of the hall next to thatof Amenhotep I : they are of slight and roughwork, but show that some building was donein the Vlth Dynasty, so more may be found infuture. No buildings of this king were yetknown, except his pyramid ; so any furtherresults will be of value.The three pieces of large private steles, pi. liv,were found near together in the square templesite. From the work it seems likely that theybelong to the Vlth Dynasty. The left handupper piece is from the left of a stele ; thelower is the bottom of the right side of a stele ;the right hand piece is from the upper righthand of a stele. These belong to two if notthree steles ; and unfortunately only one nameis left, that of a mother, a royal favourite Adu.The clay sealing of Shepses-kaf (pi. lv, 1), isthe only such known in the IVth Dynasty;and other remains of him are extremely rare.The royal name is seen in the third column,and the first column gives his lea name, whichwas hitherto unknown. It reads Shepses, " thenoble " ; and it gives a further proof that thehawk name was that of the king's lea, for as


44/242

28 ABYDOS I.this ha name is Shepses, so the king's thronename is Shepses-kaf, " his ka is noble." Thisis the only instance of a personal name derivedfrom the lea name.The Yth Dynasty is represented by the lower

part of a limestone seated figure of Assa(pi. lv, 2). No figures of this king are hithertoknown. The stone is a soft fawn-colouredlimestone ; and the upper part was originallyjoined on by tenons, the dowel holes of whichare seen on the upper surface. The work isfine and detailed, making us regret the lossof the head and body. The inscription ismerely the ha name and throne name. TheVlth Dynasty inscriptions have already beendescribed.The Xlth Dynasty opens with an important

stele of Nekht, a son of King Antef (pis. lv, 8,lvii). Unhappily only two quarters of itremain, which were found in the square templeruins. The stone is a coarse, soft, limestone,which was cut very thick in order to give itsufficient strength. The signs are roughly cut,and were coloured red. The figures are thoseof a king Antef and his son Nekht, beforewhom probably stood a figure of Anher or ofOsiris. The temple of Antef is named, whichwe might call the Antefeum in Abydos. AndNekht is the follower of the royal son of theSeq Antef; so he must have been attached toan elder brother's retinue. The mention of theEeq points to this king being the first of theAntefs, as the later kings use the usual royaltitles.

Antef V built largely at Abydos, probablyrenewing the temple of Osiris, as he did thatof Min at Koptos. We found many pieces ofcolumns of fine white limestone (pis. lv, 35 ;lvi) ; and one architrave with cartouches read-ing in each direction from a central anlch, as onthe slab of Usertesen (pi. lviii) ; but the ci\^(^had been trimmed off, so as to form a roughoctagonal pillar in later times, and only anarrow middle strip of the face remains, so that

we left the block on the site. The pieces ofcolumns do not fit together, excepting thatlv, 4 and 5, may reasonably fit at an originaljoint in the stone. On pi. lvi the total heightof the columns is indicated at the top by thefirst column, and continued below by theparallel inscription on the second. The dimen-sions of the capital are 18" 1 inches wide at top,17-1 below, 8'8 high; the shaft 17"4 wide at24 down, but dressed narrow just below thecapital to give it some projection. It isremarkable that, even in this temple of Osiris,the king is named as beloved of Anher of Theni.The piece of column on the left in pi. lvi is ofrather a different style, and might be of aanother reign, perhaps of Usertesen I. Mostof these pieces of columns are taken for theCairo Museum.

25. Of the Xllth and XHIth Dynasty thereare many striking remains ; the colossal redgranite statues of Usertesen I found by Mariette,showing that the temple was greatly adornedat this time. To the later part of the Xllth,or to the Xlllth Dynasty, must be attributedthe head of a colossal statue of red granite(lv, 6, 7), which was found with other fragmentsbeneath a mass of loose dust a little to thesouth of the Kom es Sultan in the greattemenos.The slab of Usertesen I, shown in pi. lv, 9, 10,

and pi. lviii, is of a form as yet unknown. Tnthe photograph (9) it is seen to be a thick slab,finished on the front and sides, but rough belowwith a projection downward along the back. Itis about 9 inches thick, ?> ft. deep back, and 4 ft.wide. Now not far from it, also to the southof the Kom es Sultan, lay another block (10),of the same width, and of a depth backwardwhich would just end clear of the projection inthe upper block. What clenches their relationis that the two strange grooves in the front ofthe upper Mock (9) exactly lit over the twoholes in the lower block (10). The lower blockis quite rough and unfinished around the edges,


45/242

THE OSIRIS TEMPLE. 29and was certainly to be sunk in an unseenfoundation. Bence the upper block musf havebeen only a step, 9 inches high, on the floor.The holes seem to have been for poles to be se1upright, in the line of the froni of the step.On the Hat upper face are three lines ofinscription (pi. hiii), which from their styleseem to be of the Xlllth Dynasty. Thus thesurface of the >ir[> was always clear ami hare.The middle line is rather more worn than theside lines; hut the space between the poles,13 inches, is not enough for passing, and thewear must be due to placing objects upon it.The whole arrangement is unlike anything thaiwe know in temples elsewhere.The ends of the large front inscription runround the sides of the block, hearing anhh zet

ta ; this proves that the step was not built intoa line, but stood clear and apart, except at theback edge. The names of the king in the laterinscriptions have all been carefully hammeredout ; but we can recover Ra-sekhem, and in thepersonal name three groups of different heights :the Horus name in three groups with v, isalmost useless to us owing to so few examplesbeing known of this period. Of the possiblekings there are the Nos. 2, 15, 20, 74 and 88of the Xlllth Dynasty in the Turin papyrus.No. 2 is barred by the Horus name se-arikh-taui.No. 88, Sebek-em-saf, will not fit the sizes of thethree groups in the personal name. Nos. 15and 20, Sebekhotep I and II, would fit Avell ifwritten out s.b.k. I crocodile on shrine 1 hotept.p. ; but No. 74 whose name is unknown mightfit equally well. The gods here honoured areUp-uat of the south, Up-uat of the north, andOsiris Khentamenti. This block and its baseare taken for the Cairo Museum.

In the halls at the back of the square templewere several blocks of black syenite, from alarge gateway of Ramessu II. On one of themis an inscription of Sebekhotep III, see pi. lix.It is shallow in the cutting, and almost effacedin parts by the crumbling of the stone, due to

salt. Behind tl king was his /-.> emblem, ahead on a pole, with the ka name behind it, andthe description mten ha mil. -living lea of theking"' above it.The fragment of a cartouche at the hase of

pi. lix is there ( ipleted as Ba'seJehem'nefer'hotep; an unknown name. Inn of tin- same typeas Ba'seJchem'nefer'khau, Op-uat-em-saf. Itmight however he a combined cartouche ofBa'kha'seshes'Nefei"hotej3 } with a badly formedseshes, like selchem.The altar of offerings, outlined in small size

at the left foot of the plate, was found in thecemetery G, lying still in place before a. part ofthe front of a niastaba of about the VllthDynasty. The inscription is shown more fullyabove. The block with deeply cut inscription,next to it, was found near it, in the samecemetery. The two-column inscription of auartu of the prince's table, and the sevencolumns of another such official, Sebekhotep andhis wife Nefert-uhen, were found last year inthe Xllth Dynasty cemetery. D.

In pi. lx, No. 1 is a piece of a limestone stelefrom cemetery D, tomb 7b, found last year.No. 2 is inscribed on the front of a kneelingstatue of soft limestone found in the tcmenosbehind the temple enclosure, near the statue ofPtah-em-ua. No. 3 is a part of a stele of lime-stone from cemetery G, which bears the in-congruous names of Aincny and Sit-pepy.No. 4 is a piece of limestone stele from thetemenos, of the Xlllth Dynasty. No. 5 is afragment of a sandstone figure of a scribe Ab.Beside these a large stele of limestone wasfound behind the temple, giving long familylists connected with the queen Auhet-abu ; butas the copying of it occupied so long a time, itmust be left over to appear next year.

26. Of the XVIIIth Dynasty the firstimportant work was a large hall, about 30 feetwide and 40 feet long, the uof of which wasborne by six pillars; three chambers adjoinedthis hall; and another and larger hall to the


46/242

30 ABYDOS I.north of it may be rather later in date. Thesehalls lie behind the square mass of temple ruins.The walls yet remain about 30 inches high,bearing the ends of some lines of inscriptionaround the doors ; and in the hall and chamberswere several loose blocks of sculpture.From the sculptures (Frontispiece, and pis.

lxiilxiv) we see that these buildings wereerected by Amenhotep I. His personal namehas been erased from the cartouches, but histhrone name is intact, which points to theerasure being done by Akhenaten. BesideAmenhotep there is a figure of Aahmes I (toppi. lxii) ; but only as deceased, since he wearsthe menat like Osiris, while Amenh

abydos - ees supplement

Documents