Chapter XLI
of the ‘Book of the Dead’, a list of different names of Osiris.
5. Higher up, on the top of the low foot-hill, was a series of cells built against the second incline. In one of these was a washing slab made of sandstone, with a hole in the corner of its sunken bed to allow the water to drain into a cesspool below; this was perhaps the bathing-place for the workmen (Pl. XX. 2).
6. On the second incline, eight metres above the bath, was part of a ‘serpentine’ wall (Pl. XX. 1), a peculiar structure not uncommon in building operations. Such a wall was found near the unfinished part of the north colonnade of the Queen’s temple. Another example was found this season in Site 14. Its specific purpose is not thoroughly understood, perhaps it was an economical method of making enclosures for the working staff. In this particular case the bricks used for it belong to different periods--the XIth Dynasty brick (black mud without straw) and stamped bricks of Amenhetep I, Aahmes-nefert-ari, and Hatshepsût; the latter shows that it cannot have been earlier than the date of the Thothmes family.
7. A natural fissure in the hill near by had been, in late times, converted into a group of small tomb-chambers (No. 22). They had in them the plundered remains of burials like those of site No. 5, found in the season’s work of 1909 (p. 23).
_Trench 23_, the next trench (parallel and east of 20), produced little or nothing. More stamped bricks of Aahmes-nefert-ari and Amenhetep I were found, and the beginning of an unfinished tomb-shaft in which was a boulder bearing the name, written in black ink, [Illustration: hieroglyph], Mentu-hetep.
Full attention being required by the Birâbi excavations, the third parallel trench was not begun until after an interval of ten days, when the good services of Mr. Cyril Jones were obtained for this express purpose. Mr. Jones, with thirty men and sixty boys, steadily continued the work as before, the base of his trench (No. 26) reaching as far as the north-east corner of the temple inclosure wall. The part ascending the valley side was barren and only exposed a plundered XIth Dynasty tomb (No. 30), re-used as an habitation, and afterwards as the place of a later burial consisting of a wooden _dug-out_ coffin. But, on turning round the corner of the temple enclosure, he discovered a most interesting historical cache, a foundation deposit of the Dêr el Bahari dromos (for the exact position of this deposit see Pl. XXIV). For this deposit a circular hole, three metres deep and 140 cms. in diameter, had been made, and lined with a mud-brick wall with rounded and plastered coping (Pl. XXI. 2). The interior was filled with greyish (local) sand sprinkled with grains of corn. But for some reason the whole of the deposit was not placed in it. The tools and implements were found in a smaller hole, simply dug in the ground a few feet away, and like the former pit it was filled with sand and grain.
In the main pit the objects, placed in groups under alternate layers of sand, were discovered in the following order:--A few inches below the surface, the skull of an ox (Pl. XXI. 1), and underneath it a group of pottery, whole and broken, one pot containing grain, another containing fruit of the _Nebbek_ tree. Then came the jaw-bone and fore-leg of an ox (Pl. XXI. 1), a piece of bread, a square sample of wood, an ebony symbolical knot (Pl. XXII. 2. E), and an alabaster pebble (Pl. XXII. 2. N) elaborately inscribed. In the third batch another symbolical knot, of cedar wood, two samples of fine linen, broken pottery that had contained oil, wines and foodstuffs, and two samples of coarse linen. Lastly, a rush mat, a pitcher-carrier, a second rush mat, and under it a second pitcher-carrier, masses of broken pottery, including a vessel containing a sample of mortar. Below these was plain sand reaching to the bottom of the pit.
Those of the second hole, mostly implements, were placed apparently not in any particular order, and are given in the following list, and illustrated in Plate XXII. 2:--A bronze axe (A), graver (B), and chisel (C); an adze with a bronze blade bound by leather thongs to its wooden handle (F); a wooden mallet (D), hoe (G), brick mould (H), and peg (J); two sieves, one of palm-leaf with coarse mesh (K), the other of _halfa_-grass, with fine mesh, and made of horse or donkey hair (L); a rushwork jar rest (?) (M); a smelting crucible made of sun-dried mud (I), and lastly a pottery dish and jar. Many of these models were quite large, about three-quarter actual size, and all in a most perfect state of preservation. The two knots (Pl. XXII. 2. E) have engraved upon them [Illustration: hieroglyph], the ‘Nebti’ name and prenomen of Hatshepsût.
The alabaster pebble (Pl. XXII. 2. N) has also the following legend:--[Illustration: hieroglyph]. It mentions that Queen Maat-ka-ra (Hatshepsût) made this monument for her father Amen-Ra, when she measured out for Amen the Dêr el Bahari temple. Among the broken débris of pottery found in the main cache were two fragments bearing the words [Illustration: hieroglyph] ‘wine’, and [Illustration: hieroglyph] ‘roast meat’.
Types of the pottery are given in Plate XXII. 1. These vessels of red pottery have nearly all been dipped into colour of a terra-cotta hue. The lip, rim, and neck of the jars (D, F, H), the upper half of the bowls (E, G, I), the interior and rims of dishes (A, B, C), are all coloured in that manner.
There is no doubt that the pots were intentionally smashed when deposited, and that the probable reason for this breaking was to disperse their contents during the ceremony over the sand. From this cause most of the pots and potsherds were found adhering to one another, due to the spilt unguents as well as to the blood from the flesh-offering having dried and caked them together. This may be a reason for the more perishable objects being placed in a separate cache. The bones, shown in Plate XXI. 1, are those of a young beast, the ossification being that of an immature animal. They measure:--
_Skull._ Length from top of occipital tuberosity to end of the pre-maxilla, 457 mms. (approximate); width of frontal bone between orbits, 150 mms.; length of jaw, from the mandibula condyle to end of the sub-maxillary bone, 380 mms.
_Fore-leg._ Length of scapula, along scapula axis, 317 mms.; length of humerus, from the head to the tip of outer condyle, 283 mms.; length of radius, from head to the lower end, 287 mms.; maximum length of the great metacarpal, 215 mms.
Other details of interest brought to light by these excavations in these trenches are recorded below:--
1. A potsherd with charcoal sketch of a Sinaitic ibex upon it.
2. A fine ostracon, bearing, in hieratic, a receipt dated in ‘The 11th year (? Thothmes III), third month of Summer, 24th day’, for various articles given by the ‘Mayor’ Aahmes.
3. Fragments of a shawabti figure, of white and violet glaze, bearing the name and title ‘Royal Scribe of the Altar’, [Illustration: hieroglyph], Ky-nefer. Date XIXth Dynasty.
4. A group of broken shawabti figures, blue faience, of [Illustration: hieroglyph], Zed-Khensu-auf-ankh. Date XXIInd Dynasty.
5. Three jar seals--(i) bearing on top two cartouches, with only the two signs [Illustration: hieroglyph] visible; (ii) has the cartouche [Illustration: hieroglyph]; (iii) on the top surface is a cartouche-formed impression but illegible, and painted on the side is the commencement of the cartouche [Illustration: hieroglyph] in yellow on a blue ground.
6. A child’s toy--an interesting little pack-horse with removable packages, made of clay and housed in a pot. The packs are supported by four vine-leaf stalks which are stuck into the animal’s sides (Pl. XXIII. 1).
7. From the rubbish of the court in front of Tomb 30 a small bundle of linen containing a steatite scarab, a strip of plaited rushwork, and some diamond-shaped pieces of leather with minute multicoloured bead-work sewn upon them.
8. In two places the trenches cut through temple refuse heaps, one high upon the north side of the monument, the other at the north-east corner of the temenos. These heaps are certainly of great interest, and should one day be carefully worked through, for in them there are numbers of broken votive offerings, brought by the populace to invoke the aid and assistance of the local divinity. They consist of bronze, earthenware, blue glaze, Hathor heads, cows, _menats_, model bunches of grapes, rings, balls, sistrums, sphinxes, scarabs, scarab-shaped and cowroid beads (one bearing the name of Aahmes I), amulets, such as ears, eyes, and _Ankhs_, dishes, bowls and vases, some of which are of very large dimensions.
A full series of pottery is given in Pl. XXIII. 2.
_Types._ B, C, D, E, G, K, L, M are of rough red pottery. A, F, lightly burnt mud and lenticular in shape. I, red pottery, coloured white, and ornamented with black and red. J, red pottery, whitened. N, red pottery with black and red rings (fragment).
Plate LXXIX. 1 gives two examples of fig-basket found in the refuse heaps mentioned above.
Towards the end of the exploration of 1911 an attempt was made to discover the corresponding dromos deposit to that revealed by the work of Mr. Cyril Jones in 1910. The exact measurements of the position of the former one were taken, and laid down on the opposite side of the dromos; the spot thus indicated was dug, and within a few hours the second cache was exposed. It resembled the former one in every way, the only variant being that the inscription upon the alabaster pebble in this case was slightly different. It reads:--[Illustration: hieroglyph], ‘The Good Goddess Maat-ka-ra, living, beloved of Amen Ra, Lord of the thrones [of the two lands].’[17]
This completes our three consecutive seasons’ researches on the north side of the Dêr el Bahari Valley, which is mainly occupied by the early tombs of the XIth Dynasty.
WORK DONE IN THE BIRABI
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