NYU IFA LIBRARY
3 1162 04538887 4
RETORT OF EXCAVATIONS AT REQAONAH 1901-2
TOMBS OF The Third Egyptian Dynast)
AT REQAQNAH AND BET KHALLAF
BY
JOHN GARSTANG B.A B.Litt F.S.A
1 'ormerly Scholar of Jo, i ColU.ee, Oxford; Reader in Egyptiau Archaeology at the University 0/ Li. :rpoot
WESTMINSTER ARCHIBA-LD CONSTABLE & CO. LTD
2 WHITEHALL GARDENS
1904 -^^ /
The Stephen Chan Library of Fine Arts
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES A privMe university in the public service
INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS n/^r\I^H>-(<-. ouMTi^b.cxv V'
THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY
RETORT OF EXCAFATIONS AT REQAQNAH 190 1-2
TOMBS OF The Third Egyptian Dynasty
AT REQAQNAH AND BET KHALLAf
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
JOHN GARSTANG B.A B.Litt F.S.A
Formerly Scholar of Jesus College, Oxford; Reader in EgypUan Archaeology at the Universily of Liver/'ool
Author of *^ Ei Artil'ah" ^^ Mahasna and Bet Khallaf" *' Roman Ribchester"
WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO. LTD
2 WHITEHALL GARDENS
1904 INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS NEW yosK WiiiVERsinr
K f 5 c^l
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Piii.ting Works, Frorae, and Luiidon. DEDICATED TO MR. & MRS. JOHN RANKIN
OF LIVERPOOL
CONTENTS
I "AGES Title; Dedication; Contents; List hk Illustkations I-IO
ll-lo Chapter I. lNTRi)iJU(.'TnRv. With Plates I-III
Site of excavations, \<\k 11, 1'2. Nature nf results, p. i:-5. Relation to History, p. 14. Biblio-
graplij' and list of references, p. T5.
Chapter II. On the Continuity of Early History 10-20
Place of the Third Dynasty in Ancient History, p. IG. Sequence of development, p. Ki. Two
suggested breaks, p. Iti. Evidence aiiplicable to the problem, p. 17. Race of the Monarchy, p. 17. The Con- question of writing, p. 18. The natural conclusion, p. lit. Growtli of the Pyramid Age, \<. VJ.
tinuity of Historj- natural to Egj'jit, p. 20.
Chapter III. Construction of Stairway Tombs. With Plates IV, V, VI 21-23
General description, p. 21. Superstructure, p. 21. Substructure, p. 21. Masonry and architec-
ture, p. 22.
Chapter IV. Ou.jects from the Stairway Tumbs. With Plates VII-XIII 24-27
\i. employed, Nature of the objects, p. 24. Iniijoitance of stone and pottery forms, 24. Materials of vessels, pji. 20,27. II. 25. Desci-iption of stone vases, p. 25. The type-series, p. 25. Description pottery
Chapter V. Special Features of Stairway Tombs. With Plates XIV, XV 28-30
28. in other countries : Chaldsea, Khors- Arches : their construction ; evolution in Egypt, p. Use
abad, Persia, Tiryns, Judaea, Italy, p. 29. Other constructional details, p. 30.
Chaptek VI. The Larhe Mastab.\s or Platform Tombs. With Plates XVI-XVIII .... 31-33
Relation to stairway tombs, p. 31. Mastaba of Third Dynasty, p. 31. Mastaba of i^ourtli Dy-
nasty, p. 32. Mastaba of Fifth Dynasty, pp. 32, 33.
Chapter VII. The Evolution of Stairway Tombs. With Plates XIX, XX 34-37
Relation between stairway tombs and mastabas, the evolution and .selection of illustrations, p. 34.
Development in plan, p. 35. Development in section, p. 30.
Chapter VIII. The Necropolis. With Plates XXI, XXII 38-44
Position of the smaller tombs, p. 38. Growth of the Necroix)lis, p. 38. Details of architecture and 39-41. orientation, p. 39. Construction of the smaller tombs, p. 39. Vaulted tombs, unencdosed, pp.
Plain rectangular tombs, p. 41. Enclosed tombs, p. 41. The panel-recess, p. 41. Classification of
42 (b) Inverted pots, enclosed, 42 (c) Square shafts, solid tombs : (a) Vaulted tombs, enclosed, p. ; p. ; enclcsed, 43. Other cases, summary and analysis, superstructure, [i. 43 : (rf) Square shafts, merely p.
p. 44.
vii CONTENTS
PAGES Chapter IX. Burial Customs. With Plates XXII-XXV 45-50 — (a) ButiaJ types in general.- -Classification : (i) Burials in quadrangular enclosures, 45 (ii) p. ;
Burials under large pots, p. 46 (iii) Burial.s in vaulted tombs, 46 (iv and v) Burials in pit tombs, ; p. ;
p]-). 47, 48 (vi) Exceptional cases, p. 48. Summary, p. 49. ;
{n\ The Tomb of Shejises.— Description and details of burial, p. 4i).
Chapter X. Burials under Pottery Vessels. With Plates XXVT, XXVII 51-57
Continuity of the custom, p. 51. Description and characteristics, p. 51. Cases at Reqaqnah ;
their position and relation, ]>. 52. Imitations of the custom, ]>. 53. Illustrations of the<-,ustom: at
Ballas Amrah, 54 ; at El Kab, 55. Summary and conclusion, p. 56. Kawamil, p. 53 ; at and EI p. p.
Chapter XL Objects from the Smaller Tombs. With Plates XXVIII-XXXII 58-GO
(iii) 5!l. (a) Inacrilied nhjeefs: (i) Stelae : (ii) Door frame or shrine, p. 58; Claj' balls, p. of (b) Smaller objicfs : (ivj Pottery and stone vases and their forms, p, 59; iv) Inventory the
tomb deposits, p. 60.
Chapter XII. Archaeology of the Third Dynasty: A Sumniar}- iil-65
Inscriptions on wood and on Historical aspect ; Character; Metal and Stone, p. 61. Pottery; stone; Per.sonal 62. Names of Places Miscellaneous, p. 02. Sealings ; Names of Divinities; names, p. and
Vineyards; Titles, p. 63. Localities; Industries, p. 64. Architecture, p. 65.
Appendlk a. Note on Some Objects of L-vier D.vtk. With Plate XXXIII 66
Appendix B. Chaniometrical Analysis 67
Index 69, 70 — — — —— —
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter I. Sites of Excavations :
I The great tomb of Neterkhet at Bet Khallaf To face p. 11
II Third Dynasty sites at Mahasna and Bet Khallaf . 12 III Views of sites excavated ...... 14
Chai'ter II. On the Continuity of Early History : Pre dynastic vase inscribed (.sketch) ..... 18
Chapter III. Construction of Stairway Tombs : IV Tombs R 1, R 40, plans and sections ..... To face V Stairway tomb R 1, architectural features .... VI Stairway tomb R 40, architectural features ....
Chapter IV. Ob.jects from the Stair\vay Tombs : VII Stairway tomb R 40, stone vases (photographs) VIII-XII Types of stone vases. Third Dynasty (diagrams)
XIII Common pottery forms. Third Dynasty (diagrams) .
Chapter V. Special Features of Stairway Tombs ; — XIV Arches of the Third Dynasty ...... Diagrams showing origins of simple arch and off-set arch XV Miscellaneous architectural tomb featiu-es. Third Dynasty Chapter VI. The large Mastabas or Platform Tombs XVI Mastaba tombs R 75, R 50 (photographic views) XVII Mastaba tomb R 70, external features ..... XVIII Mastaba tomb R 70, internal features .....
Chapter VII. Evolution of Stairway Tombs : XIX Evolution of stairway tombs— in plan ..... XX Evolution of stairway tombs — in section .... Chapter VIII. The Necropolis :—
XXI Necropolis of smaller tombs and mastabas, jilan (double) XXII Smaller tombs R 54 and R G8 (views) .....
Chapter IX. Burial Customs ; XXIII Burial types, R 80, R 06, R 110 (photos) .... XXIV Burial types, R 88a, R 89 and R 03 (photos) .... XXV Tomb and burial of the royal scribe Shepses, R 04 Chapter X. Burials under Pottery Vessels:^ XXVI Burials under pottery vessels, R 55, R 70a .... XXVII Burials under vessels and imitations, R 87, 69, 250, 251 R R R , Chapter XI. Objects from the smaller Tombs: — XXVIII Inscriptions; Stela R 88a, Shrine R 04, Slab R 70, XXIX Decayed wooden shrine of Shepses (diagram) XXX Inscribed clay balls from tomb, R 50
XXXI Groups of pottery and stone vases . XXXII Diagrams of smaller objects .... Appendix A. Objects of Later Date :—
XXXIII Stelae, D. 1, B. 103 : Pyramidion and obelisk, B. 101 —
TERMINOLOGY
Prehistoric Period, remote, suggested ouly bj- rough stone implements.'
Archaic Period: —
(fli Pre-dynastic (sometimes called prehistoric).
.„ , B.C. 3(Xrj [Betoiej^I to 2500] (h) Protn-dynastic (First, Second and Third Dynasties). — Old Kingdom : B.C. 2500 Tlie Early Pyramid Age (Fourth to Sixth Dynasties). I Before - to 2000 [Transition (Feudal) Period, so called Seventh to Teuth Dynasties.] [ Middle Kingdom :— B.C. 2(XkJ The First Theban Period (Eleventh and Twelfth DynastiesX I Before - to Dynasties lOOi) [The Hyksos Period ; so called Thirteenth to Seventeenth
New Kingdom or New Empire : Period (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynastiei?). Beo-ins : B.C. 1(300 The great Theban
TOMB OF KING NETER-KHET. 111"° DYNASTY.
•"•*M»,^ .vv'i^V) 'i,';'.„ ^-'',•1 \.-. ^>^W'' I'ATRONS OF EXCAVATIONS AT REQAQNAH, 19U1-2
Uk\ii. \Vm. MAuGiiKdOR, of Taniwoilli. H. Mautyn Kenxakh, Esq., of London, S.W.
RaIJ'II lilJnOKLKDANK, Ks(\., of 1 vi VC'VpOol. F. Hilton Price, Esq., Dii-. S.A. (Hon. Treas.
Di;. Artiiiu; J. P^vans, F.R.S. (the Aslimolean Museum).
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY. SITE OP EXCAVATIONS. NATURE OF RESULTS. RELATION 'I'o HISTORY. BIIJLIOGRAl'HY, AND LIST OP REPERENCES.
With Plates I, II, III.
EXCAVATIONS made during the previous indeed, now possible to trace, imperfectly season, for the Egyptian Research Ac- maybe, but with some certainty, the story of count, had resulted in the discovery of the first this remarkable civiHzation, to follow to some identified monument of the Third Egyptian extent its development, and to illustrate, how-
Dynasty, the great toml) of King Neterkhet at ever incompletely, its cnstoms, from its remote
B.C. Bet Khallaf : this called attention to the desira- origins in the fifth and fourth millenniums bility of continuing the exploration of that through all its earliest stages, till it stands region, and so led directly to the formation more clearly revealed by the monuments of this expedition, the fruits of which are and literature of the Ancient Empire. It described in the following pages. But the is with this story, so far as it is illustrated description of new observations is not alone the by these researches, that the following pages object of the present volume. The earlier ex- ai'e concerned. cavations ' had already led to the identification chief scene of excavations lay Site of Ex- The of certain objects of art, forms, and customs, as cavations. near to Reqaqnah," an unimportant characteristic of the period ; to the determina- semi-Coptic village situated at the edge of the tion, that is to say, of a series of arclutological desert about two English miles northwards types, recognizable when or wherever they from Bet Khallaf. It was thus some ten miles shoiild be found, ready at once to serve as a from Girga, the seat of the magistrate, filled basis upon which to build with this newer at that time by Abdullah Bey, to whose good material. So much, too, has been done of government and unfailing courtesy this ex- recent years to illuminate the prehistoric ages pedition and others are indebted. But the and the first two dynasties, that these new place that ultimately absorbed most attention results fall naturally into place as a link with was only come upon in pursuance of a definite the comparative light of the Fourth Dynasty purpose, the exploration of the whole region and the Pyramid Age which followed. It is, - Pronounced Re£frt(/ueh (Ai-abicj: ^^Jj'^^').• the Q re- ' " Maliasna and Bet Khallaf": Scrcnth Memoir (if the presenting the letter Qaf, a guttural e/ or /,-. Egyptian Research Account. 12 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY northwards frmn tlio point where the Egyp- hills creep down on to the cultivation near tian Research Account had left it in the pi'e- Kawauiil, outside the limits of the map, and ceding winter. In that year an examination even beyond as far as Ari'iba(t)-abu-dahab, had been made of the district lying northward in the province of Sohag, which formed the
;' of El Arabah (Abydos) as far as Bet Kliallaf limit in that direction of the exploration. It but attention had centred chiefly on the village may be useful to summarize In-iefly the results of Mahasna and the necropolis to its south, and of these two seasons' examination of this tract, on tlie excavation of the royal and semi-royal from ArAba(t)-El-Madfuna (Abydos) on the tombs found isolated in the desert above Bet south to El Araba(t)-Abu-Dahab in the north. Khallaf. It therefore seemed desirable in the These places themselves are separated by 60 search for a general necropolis of the Third kilometres or 38 miles. In the following Dynasty, suggested l)y these larger monuments, account the distances in kilometres will be to return to Mahasna and re-examine the whole given from Abydos. The reference to the tract from that point northward beyond Bet year in which the e.xamination took place will Khallaf so far as the limited season would be indication also of the memoir in which allow. Camp was thus fixed at the outset further accounts may be sought, for the season more centrally near to Sararwah, a small 1899-1900 was confined to El Arabah (Abydos) village attached for administrative purposes exclusively, 1900-1 extended thi'ough Ma- to Bet Khallaf, where the good influences and hasna to Bet KhallAf, and 1901-2 resumed hospitality of the head man or Omda, Mahmoud from Mahasna and extended to El Arabah in Effendi, produced a friendly attitude on the the province of Sohag. The map published part of the inhabitants which was pleasant to in the report for " Mahasna and Bet Khallaf," recognize. It was thus found expedient not 1902, Plate I, will be found continuous with to move camp from this spot even when work that which illustrates this exploration. had passed considerably to the north. 0*^ El Arabaft i-El-Madfuna [Ab3-dos], ancient bmying The region traversed in this exploration in- places frequeutlj' through cludes some of the best examples of the Egyptian 5 El Kherbe to Alavvnah. near, at desert. Wide as it is at Bet Khallaf, yet more 7 El Alawniyeh,
8 Bet Allain [L, 1900-1] : (a) Predynastic cemetery northwards where the edge of the Libyan period (h) Roman tombs in upper desert. early ; plateau, its natural boundary, falls westward, 11 Maslahet [enclosed garden and houses]. To the it stretches out vast and impressive, in its north, site M, l'J0 AWLAD SALAMAH ^TO OASIS WESTERN DESERT PROVINCE OF Lower Desert GIRGA Upper Egypt n Sites or excavations H I ENCLOSED IN A DOUBLE LINeJ Eng/ish Miles 3 / Kilometres REQAQ shawahTn SA'ALKAI-1,5 HlOHER Q Oesept SARARWAH k a BET KHALLAF PATHiVAy TO G/Voa' Lower Desert ILG f\ BET EL-MA'HASNAH ^f^Y*^fJ-o, INTRODUCTION 13 tombs of early III Dyuast\'. (h) Necropolis of III Tlie southern portion was a faii'ly even tract, to Dynasties. IV somewliat higher than its surroundings. In 28. From Hallah to (30i Awlad Salanuili. No visible its south-east corner was a siiekh's tomb much remains. m. El Arabat. To the N. [1901-2]. A pUmdered revered by the women of the locality. There Dynasties. M. Morgan stairway tomb of II to III De was little indication on the surface of the tells of traces of pre-dynastic age. numerous tombs lying below— the existence of 38. El Kawamil S. Sites explored by M. De Morgan, now completely overturned. No. 40, for instance, was not betrayed or sug- 41. El Kawamil N. To the N., 3 kilos, the cliffs gested in any way. The great majority of the come down to the cultivation. On the S. of this toiu])s, more than thirty in number, were of a point are some cave-tombs, partly inhabiteil, of uncertain late and uninstructive character. date. On the mound above, the signs of tombs and burials, possibly of Old Empire. Nature of There were found, however, three 45. Bej'ond this point is an extensive Roman village ^""""- large stairway tombs, Nos. 1, 2, 40, in ruins, with rock-out tombs in the cliffs above. of first importance, and fruitful in objects 46. Shekh Hamed [Naga Abu Hamed]. From here to the White Convent (41, Der El Abiad) and beyond to carved in stone; while some numlter of similar the Red Convent i53, Der El Ahmar) very extensive tombs of smaller size, and differing in details, cemeteries of Roman and Coptic times, with some tombs supplied a special interest. To judge from the of earlier date. [54. Idfa. Aphrnditojiolis, lying in the cultivation.] analogies they provided, these tombs seem to 60. El Araba(t)-Abn-Dahab. On the S. non-e.xca- have been contemporary, or nearly so, with vated tombs of XIX Dynasty. To the N., signs which those of Bi't Khallaf, leading in type from the have been taken for a pre dynastic burying place. The graves may have been all plundered, but the appearance Second Dynasty into the Third, to which they may be caused entirely by salt sifting. chiefly belonged. The northern mound was found to cover a necropolis more systematically It was not until after a few months' work that constructed. It liad sprung up in its earlier the main quest was rewarded by the discovery stages, during the Third and Fourth Dynasties, that the site which M. de Morgan had recorded from a series of small tombs placed in definite as totally ravaged by the country people was relation to one another, or adjoining, with indeed that which was sought. It was difficult pathways lying between the rows in which at first to realize that the numerous small they had been built, as the photograph of it tombs, furnished for the most part so poorly in Plate HI, at the bottom, shows. Just that the native people had declined to plunder later, but belonging to nearly the same epoch, them further, constituted in fact the necropolis two great mastaba tombs, with internal which the expedition had come to seek and chapels and passages, and some elaboratiou of examine. But first the analog'ies of some larsre architecture, were constructed seemingly at stairway-tombs with those of Bet Khallaf, and its southern limit. A great mastaba enclosing then the co-relations between these and the a stairway-tomb had been already laid down smaller tombs, at length gave the clues which among the first, and serves by its character as led to the correct conclusion. a useful and reliable link in form between the The necropolis was found to begin about different types of the period. The extreme half-a-kilometre from Eeqaqnah, and to ex- northern portion, slightly separated by a fall tend northward about that distance. The in the ground, was occupied by pit tombs en- space lying nearer the village was occupied closed with low walls, belonging apparently to chiefly with Coptic l)urials. The site was the Fourth Dynasty. The mutual relations divided naturally Ijy an ancient watercourse, of these tombs and their disposition will in which a scanty cultivation still persevered. be studied in connexion with Plate XXI, 14 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY Chapter VIII. To the north, east, and south Egyptian history is now of the first import- this mound was limited by steeply falling ance and supreme interest. It is concerned ground; to the west it lay open to the Desert, directly with the origin of the Egyptian and seemed to be continuous with, and related people—not, indeed, with the ethnological to, a series oP tombs and burials of early question of their parent stock, for that is character. These had been, most unfortunately, necessarily associated with the study of its much disturbed, and the evidence they yielded early prehistoric period, but with a historical was not satisfactory. In some of them were point not less important, as to the continuity found fi'agments of pottery of the. kind or otherwise of the people, as revealed by the familiar in the latest prehistoric period, and prehistoric culture, through and into the period this fact tends to support the story of the when with the definite introduction of writing villagers that the pieces of pre-dynastic pottery the historic age, known by the name of the bought at Reqaqnah (figured on Plate XXXI) First Dynasty, began. That there should be came from that vicinity. In other cases in either case some overlap in art and customs burials were found, in the same area, of a type is not unnatural. But if no special innova- analogous to those of the better preserved tions are to be seen, and if continuity of racial portion of the necropolis. These seemed to or essential characteristics can be traced beyond suggest a mutual relationship, about which, and living through the early historic times, and however, there was no real evidence ; but it merging naturally with the gradual changes of seemed possible that the burials and the black- a later period, then there is evidence of con- topped pots were related either by accident or tinuity of race. And the measure of that con- by design. In the former case the beginnings tinuity will be determined by the proportion of of the site would be taken back a stage further those characteristics which survive to those than was otherwise suggested; in the latter which are discontinuous, and the extent to case the burials were a little earlier in date, which those which are continuous prevail over the pottery a little later, than might have or are predominated by any new ones which been supposed, and the two would thus have may appear at the suspected break. been contemporary. In either case they pointed Naturally the difficulties and limitations definitely to continuity in custom. But being to the problem are great, but the evidence as it were in a new field, dealing with a pre- scientifically collated of recent years by dif- viously unknown period, problems daily arose ferent explorers is now sufficient to warrant which at the time could not be solved. It was an attempt to solve it. A list of references only possible to make a record of observations, to the essential materials is appended to in the hope that later a patient comparison this chapter. Those sober records of exca- of these with one another, and with the re- vations i-ecently published by the Egypt cords of others, might point to a conclusion. Exploration Fund form a necessary prelimi- The next chapter will include a comparison nary, but the difficulty of tracing the series of and jjre-summary of the evidence thus ad- early archaeological types through the pages of duced, while the details of the excavations different volumes has led to the inclusion in from which they are derived, vfith occasional this book, both in the plates and in occasional summaries, follow severally in the subsequent summaries in the text, of the evidence bearing pages. upon the period of this excavation. ^^^^ problem whieli they open up is As having a direct relation in time and Relation to History, ouc wliicli in the study of early in character willi tlio monuments of Reqaq- REQAQNAH. VIEWS OF THE SITES EXCAVATED. 3. r» SOUTHERN MOUND AFTER EXCAVATIO;, V IL;V rnOM N.E, MURTHEflN MOUND AFTER EXCAVAT'ON, NORTHERN MOUND DURING EXCAVATION, EXCAVATION OF NORTHERN MOUN.D. NECROPOLIS IN NORTHERN MOUND LIST OP REFERENCES 16 nah, the careful records of excavations at El M.A.P. 1896. De Morgan : L'A;/c dr la Pierre ct les Metaux. Kab made by Mr. Qiiibell, Iiisj)ector- General M.E.P. 1897. De Moman Efli iiO(/raj>h if Prefi is- of the Service of Antiquities of Egypt, though f(iri(/uc, (if. I'.D.P. I!K)1. done at a time when the comparative evidences Petrie and Mace : Diospnlis Parva. were not accurately determined, yet viewed by the light of more recent discoveries becomes It'fhifidii of Prf-Dynasfif fa I)i/riasfic. of great importance. The scholarly account, S.B.A. 1902. Sclulfer: £//( /Iniflisfiirli .Mtii;/i//,tis- too, given by Mr. Randal 1-MacIver, of the ex- flnr Annalcn. cavations whifli he and the late Mr. Anthony N.P.P. 1903. Naville: Pierre df Palcriuf. R.M.A. 1902. Wilkin made at El Amrali, resulting in the Randall-Maclver : El Amrali {El Aiiirali and Abydos, Randall-Maclver and Mace). linking up, partially at least, of the later pre- P.A. 1902. Petrie: Ahydos I. historic with the early dynastic period, is a contribution to the subject not merely of direct Profo-lJyiianfif. application to the problem of this book, but M.T.R. 1897. De Morgan : Tumheau Royal de Neya- also essential to all serious study of early (lah, in M.E.P. Egyptian history. A.F.A. 1898. Amelineaii : Fouilles d'Abydos. BIBLIOGRAPHY. P.R.T. 19(X)-1. F&trie: Royal Tondis of First Dy- nasty, I, IT. WITH COXTRACTKIXS USED IX REFERENCES. Q.H. 1900-2. Q,mhe\\: Ilifrahwjiol is I, II. Pre-Dynastic. Q.K. 1893. Quibell: El Kab. P.N. Petrie : Negdda ] Neydda and Ballas, Petrie G.M.K. 1902. Garstang: Bet Elialldf {Mahdsna Q.B. Quibell : Ballas j and Quibell, 189G. and Bet Khalldf, Garstang and Sethel. — CHAPTER II ON THE CONTINUITY OF THE EARLY HISTORY. Place of the Third Dynasty takes its place This application of distinguishing names to Third Dyn. THE in Egyptian History at date successive stages in Ancient a of historical movement is History, somewliere in the fourth millennium equally objectionable and misleading in con- B.C., when the country was emerging from sidering the earlier times. It is the custom for infancy iiato a vigorous boyhood. It follows convenient reference to apply to certain periods, directly in time and in character the archaic which seem now to be divided as arbitrarily as culture of the earliest dynasties, and leads on were the dynasties themselves, a terminology towards that brilliant epoch in the life of the which unhappily suggests periodical breaks in country to which custom has sanctioned the the continuity of the early history. A nomen- name of tlie Old Empire. It was with this late clature somewhat as follows has been freely period that until recent years all histories of used to signify various chronological stages Egypt commenced : it is therefore well known (/. Pre-dynastic period dates 30- ; [Sequence its characteristics have been familiar from the beginnings of Egyptology, and its archaeology b. Proto-dynastic period [Dynasties I, II, has been the subject of much independent and III]. study. In this way it has become separated c. Old Empire or Old Kingdom [Dynasties from association with the earlier periods. To IV, Y, and VI]. any one noting only the individuality that Subsequent periods are denoted Two . ... Ill distinguishes the Pyramid Age, it might indeed Suggested HI a Similar manner ; and though Breaks. seem hopeless at first glance to attempt to trace j.j^j^ series of names is perhaps the it back to any relationship with the primitive best that has been suggested, it is still open to character of earlier days. the fundamental objection that it implies a dis- Yet now that the details of the continuity between stages a and b, b and c. Sequence of Develop- earlier period are scientifically re- The latter of these implied breaks is removed '"^"'' corded, it must appear, from the now by the archaeological evidences which the links of evidence which the Third Dynasty Third Dynasty provides, but in connexion with provides, that the features of individuality the earlier division between the pre-dynastic which have astonished the later world mark and the early dynastic periods, or, as some may but a stage in the natural development of an prefer to call it, the prehistoric and early earlier promise. It will be seen that it was historic times, there exists a problem which has due to no extraordinary influences from with- been exaggerated and indeed largely bases its out, but essentially to the natural evolution of origin on a point of terminology. national character, that this development was Since the time when the discoverers in an manifested. Indeed the separate term " Old error of identification applietl the terra New Empire " alone remains to imply any disunion Race to the people whom Dn MoRfiAN sub- with the culture ])y which it was preceded. sequently proved to be the veritable pre- — ; ON THE CONTINUITY OP THE EARLY HISTORY 17 dynastic stock of t]ie coiinti-y, that name has It may indeed be urged with some reason that continued to some extent in nse,tiionwh deprived from the examples which history affords, it of its original signiiicance. Originally used to rests with the upholders of discontinuity to define a race which was thought to appear be- establish their case by the deliberate destruction tween the |)eriods i Empires, it remains to imply a difference of race illustrate the disappearance of old and the between the pre-dynastic and the dynastic introduction of new customs ; to indicate breaks people to the minds of those English-speaking in the sequence curves iFhicli represent the Egyptologists who have used it. That the development of archaeological types, and so on; tei'm alone is largely tlie Sdurce of the pi'(:)bk'in yet from a neutral standpoint, as an ilhistration that lias arisen around it ajipears from the of method applicable to other instances, it is of attitude of many distinguislied archaeologists of interest to pursue the problem further. the Continent, who fail to see any difficulty, At first, in general, the character of tlie maintaining that it is unnatural to pre-suppose evidence is to be examined and the doubtful any change of race, and that the Ijurden of elements eliminated. In the third branch of proof must rest upon those who believe the evidence, for example, the methods of dynastic rulers to be a distinct people. Yet anthi'opometry, it is necessary to provide a that a prolilem of material difficulty does exist sufficient series of measures from each of the " appears from the words " dynastic conquerors two periods to be compared. This initial and " invasion of dynastic |)eople"' fi'om the difficulty of material, apart from others arising pen of an equally prominent English Egyptolo- from intrinsic difficulties of the method, pre- gist, who acctqits the matter as proved so far vents its application in the present instances. that he is able to define the features of the In the other branches, again, an element of conquerors. Neither side to this unwritten doubt rests in the assumed contemporaneity of controversy will admit the existence of a prol)- equivalent forms in different localities. It is lem, though opposed upon a fundamental obvious that a seqiience illustrated by a series point. of isolated examples can only be typological Evidence In the aljseuce of contein])orary and that it can only be made chronological by '^ literature, any evidence wliich may consideration of all elements of evidence both 'to'th'e Problem. ]^q applied to the problem must exclusive and inclusive. Such a series of necessarily be of an archaeological character. observations can only be made by examining Even the king-lists and early inscriptions of the whole history of each locality. sorts can hardly be introduced as liistorical With a hundred such considerations it would records : but these monuments supply archaeo- be necessary in the application to analyse the logical evidence of definite importance, which contents of as many volumes for evidence that though less direct is also less liable to error. might bear upon the possible discontinuity The continuity of early history must rely then or break of race between the pre-dynastic mainly on three such features as these Race of the period and the First Dynasty. But onarc y. (i. ) The Permanence of Maimers and Cus- £^^. ^^^^ present purpose the results toms. of the excavations made at El Amrah,' with (ii.) The Sequence of Archaeological Types. evidences introduced into later chapters of tlie (iii.) Anthropomctrical Analogies—and the volume, will be a sufficient illustration. There like. the explorers found that the site represented a ^ 1 '2, Petrie ; .1 llistonj of Egypt, i. (1903), pp. 3. R.M.A. — 18 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY period which actually bridged over in date the The Question I^ regard, too, to what has of Writing, pre-dynastic to the dynastic ; that continuity seemed an insuperable objection to was shown alike in the burial customs, in the continuity, namely, the sudden appearance of evolution of tomb construction, in the develop- writing with the foundation of the monarchy, ment of worked stone vases, in the survival of it would seem from a close study of monuments " later " forms of pottery, and that discontinuity unearthed in recent years that an explanation nowhere suggested itself. It will be shown in is forthcoming. The carved objects from El subsequent chapters describing the burial cus- Kab^ seem to depict the closing stages of tribal toms, tomb construction, and funereal furniture fusion which led directly to the uniting of how this archaeological continuity is further Upper and Lower Kgypt and the founding of demonstrated by direct survival or evolution of the monarchy.^ There is reason to believe pre-dynastic types even through the Third that under the nearer influences of Western Dynasty. On the other hand, two chief argu- Asia the culture of the Delta had advanced ments may be raised against the continuity of considerably beyond that of the South, and the the early race in dynastic times, which it may palettes which record the victories of the Hiero- be well to examine more closely konpolite princes suggest from their very style i. The disappearance of the fine polished- that these earliest monuments of Upper Egypt red, and black-topped, and decorated pottery, were the result of the culture thus assimilated. characteristic of the pre-dynastic period, and The Palermo Stone shows that a record of the appearance in its place of a rough pottery pre-dynastic princes of Lower Egypt was pro- suggesting little knowledge of ceramic art. vided from earliest times. It is reasonable to ii. The sudden appearance of writing as a believe that writing had already to some extent known art with the First Dynasty. developed in the Delta before the union, especi- Both of these objections have, superficially, ally as here and there signs of the art are found a show of weight. But in regard to the former, creeping into the upper country. In the tombs it may be seen by any one studying the changes where those pre-dynastic rulers lay buried, whom that took place in the pottery fashions of the Professor Petrie assigns to Dynasty 0, what- pre-dynastic age,' how even before half that soever may have been their period had passed, the finer " decorated " and precise sphere, there also was " black-topfied" ware was rapidly disappearing, familiarity with writing illus- and how in the latter half there appears the trated. Certain vases, un- increasing popularity of many of those classes questionably of early pre- which became the characteristic types of the dynastic times, one of which is First Dynasty. The art of pottery making was here pictured, are inscribed already declining, in favour of the working of with definite hieroglyphic stone vases, before the close of the pre-dynastic characters. The inscription it period : was by no means a sudden change has been stated to be a for- contemporary with the first monarch. That the gery, but an accumulation art not forgotten was appears from tlie sporadic of expert evidence has passed it as with- instances of the finer red pottery occurring out intrinsic evidence of being false. A in later here and there times, as the illustra- slate palette of the period from El Amrah tions of this volume testify. But Egypt is naturally a country of stone. ' Q.K. Plates XXV, XXVI b, c, XXIX. ' P.D.P. ^ Newberry, etc. : A Short History of Egypt. ON THE CONTINUITY OF THE EARI.Y HISTORY 19 has oil it signs not strictly hieroglyphic, supplies. That which, for instance, seemed a but directly analogous. sudden change from mastaba to pyramid is A piece of shell in the possession of the now seen to be a process of evolution through Professor of Assyriology at Oxford is inscribed successive stages. The huge mass of the mas- with a name of simple form and is associated taba of King Neter-Khet recalls at once, in ap- with objects of archaic character. Yet in few pearance, the lowest step of the first pyramid at private tombs indeed, and in none of the com- Sakkara : the two monuinents, it seems, were mon tombs of the First or Second Dynasty, is built during the same reign. The analogy is which any trace of writing to be found ; how much further borne out by the long stairway less, then, may it be expected in the poor graves descends into the interior, protected at intervals of the pre-dynastic people ! The introduction by doors of stone let down from aliove. The of writing, unaccompanied by any change of na- mastTiba itself is found to be merely an elabora- tional customs, is no evidence of change of race. tion of the familiar stairway tomb which traces Even the tombs of the kings themselves fell natu- back its origin to the graves of pre-dynastic rally into place as a phase in a natural evolution. period. the The Natural There is ill fine a lack of those The sites which have chiefly supplied Conclusion, foreign or new elements distinctively material for this volume are themselves con- associated with the early kings which would tinuous through the Fourth Dynasty, and the give them a character foreign to their surround- same was the case at El Kab also. It will be seen ings. 'I' hey were buried in tombs naturally that in each branch of archaeological evidence, evolved from those of pre-dynastic times, and in architecture and tomb construction, in furnislied largely with objects elaborated from pottery-making and the working of stone vases, those in common use. The testimony of these in the art of inscribing and the forms of names early writings unites most forcefully with the and titles, there is definite sequence, marked evidence of each branch of archaeology, to indi- sometimes as an evolutioii or development, to cate the natural development of the people be traced through the earliest dynasties into through tribal stages, and the formation of the light of the pyramid age which followed. a monarchy with the fusion of the tribes. It Continuity To any one familiar now with the of History is but an instance of that natural constitutional conservative condition of the Nile Natural to growth which the history of nations in the Egypt. valley, any sudden change of con- East and in the West, in the ancient and the stitution or radical change of race must seem modern world, has since illustrated by many violent and most unnatural to primitive condi- striking examples. If the evidence of the El tions. In a country so exposed, a constant Amrah excavations has been correctly read,^ stream of immigration, Avith the influences it would appear, too, that the First Dynasty which that brings, may be expected. But was well begun before the pre-dynastic period, there is no present proof of discontinuity as it is defined, had come to its end. The two of racial history at any stage, little even to periods merge so completely that there is no suggest it. join discernii)le. On the other hand, what seems true of its '^'^"^ appearance of any gap the whole. The history Growth of origin is true also of the Pyramid between the proto-dynastic period of ancient Egypt from its beginning to the end and the OM Empire is at once is that of a continuous people. There is the removed by the link which the Third Dynasty unique picture from the old world of the whole ' R.M.A., pp. 12-13. life of a nation. Its birth took place in the 20 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY dimmest distance of present histovical vision, tion ; and, receiving from time to time when first those stone and copper-using people, new strains and fresh impulse from the coming from no certain direction, found their numerous arteries of the country, developed habitation on the marshy banks of the Nile. a strength and a character that are with- Subject always to the same unvarying in- out parallel in the history of the ancient fluence of nature, they grew into a na- world. IVA 1150 REQAQNAH: TOMBS Rl. R-40. PLANS & SECTIONS. R I PLAN ..--^^^.r^ DESERT GRAVEL W^'" -7^ ; C H A m;b E R S g, Rl SECTION IVB I: 150. REOAQNAH.TOMB R.40. PLAN& SECTION R.40- PLA N wm/j/m//mmmm 'mi^//^77m^m^/m7/T:'i7/^/7//7^7777/77^77m DESERT GRAVEL DESERT R40Axis of Passage RAVEL 'A CH AMBERS R.40 SECTION CHAPTER in CONSTRUOTlUN OF THE STAIliWAY T(iMi:S. With Plates IV, V, VI. or small chapel THE large tombs at Reciiiqniih were entirely which was pr()l)alily a, sliriue of the similar in gener;i,l design to the royal and for offerings and ]>rayers. In some of stone- semi-royal tombs of Bet KliallAf. 'I'his fact, tombs at Bet Kliallaf,' there was trace coupled with the position and analogous work on the eastern side at this end, as though archi- character of the tomb furniture from within, the door or some other featui'e of the this led to their ready identification as a further tecture liad lieen specially embellished in also series of monuments of the Third Dynasty. The way. In the present plan of tomb R 40 inner walls at feature characteristic of this tomb is the stair- (Plate IVr,), there is sign of two to way which descends in each from the ground risht angles to the east face. These seem entrance level to a series of subterranean chambers. be the remains of a narrow doorway or extremity of the There is in each case also some superstructure, hall which opened out (at the chamber in the form of a rectangle, which encloses wall on tlic left or southern side) to a entirely the position occupied by the stairway, within the enclosure. It is not clear where the and usually the area of the underground entrance to the enclosure was placed, nor to judge, chambers also. what height the walls were built up. To the tombs K4, The superstructure is not, as a rule, found however, by the analogy of that the in sufficiently good preservation to enable any- K5, at Bet Khallaf,- it seems probable side, that thing more than its position to be determined. tomb was entered from the eastern over the position of In the plan of toml) R 1, for example (Plate the chapel or shrine stood wall IVa), the foundations of the stout enclosing the burial chambers, and that the outer wall alone remained, though doiibtless some enclosed the whole, including the long stairway, building had occupied the southern portion of which was itself probably roofed or covered the enclosure. The only tomb of this date that over in some manner. most was preserved above ground, that of Neter- The substructure of the tombs for the Differences Khet, showed no trace of any chambers in its part exhibits a similar uniformity. part superstructure, or anything other than solid of detail are determined for the most by gravel in brickwork, except where shafts for receiving the varying character of the desert dug. the door-stones and a few wells for offerings which the passage and chambers were walls on above the chambers appeared at intervals along Normally a stairway descends between cut in the the middle line. This one tomb, however, was either side to a series of chambei-s the desert somewhat exceptional. Among the others in o-ravel at a considerable depth. If is retpured both sites there seems to have been uniformly gravel is hai-d, then little brickwork a space provided above the burial cliambers, > G.M.K. Plates VII, XVIII, XXV. within the enclosure, for a special bi;ilding. 2 See also Plate XXI, ch. VIII. 22 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY in support, as in the case K 3, at Bet KhallAf. If, from the south-east, the positions of these cross however, the gravel is yielding, then the sides walls and their appearance from above are indi- of the passage are strengthened with brick cated, in correspondence with the plan on Plate walls on either hand to a sufficient depth. IV. At the foot of the passage, and closing the These walls are themselves built with a batter, doorway of the chambers, was found the slab leaning outward from the passage. They are of stone shown in the photograph. The also of considerable thickness, and their luiseen positions of the underground chambers are outer sides are left rough,with many projections, marked in the plan with black line upon the to bind more freely with the desert sand and cross-hatching of the surface. It seems gravel around. These side walls are also probable from several indications that, as in restrained from yielding to the outer pressure the cases at Bet Khallaf, the burial had lain in by cross walls built at intervals between them. the large room to the west of the series. The The strength of these buttress walls seems to chambers and passage ways were cut simply in have been determined also by local or special the gravel, unsupjjorted by masonry ; and considerations. Its variability may be seen by owing to subsidence it was found necessary to a comparison of tlie section of tombs R 40 and excavate them by means of a hole cut down to R 1. It will be seen in a subsequent chapter them from the surface above. that this feature is of peculiar moment in the The other of the two great tombs. No. 40, evolution of these stairway tombs. But the was evidently already partly collapsed before interposition of tliese buttress walls leads at the excavation was begun. The passage-way was once to another feature of interest ; for the strengthened by stout props placed from side passage being thus stopped, it becomes neces- to side as the excavation descended. The sary to avoid this difficulty by some means, and chambers, however, had been previously so the arch is introduced as the most ready reached by a hole forced from above, and it solution. If the cross wall is thick, as in tomb was found necessary to dig away for safety all R 1, then the simple arch becomes a sloping the superimposed weight. In removing the barrel roof, of which an elaborated instance props after the excavation had been completed, occurs in the tomb of Neter-Khet. The photo- the treacherous sand and gravel again collapsed, graphs on Plate V, showing the architectural falling through the roof of the em])ty chaml)ers features of tomb R 1, illustrates these details and carrying away a portion of the stairway, more clearly. as may be seen in the photograph. The section The picture of the stairway looking upwards thus exposed shows somewhat uniquely how from the bottom, shows how at the lowest the tomb was built. It seems that in this stages the desert gravel has been found suffici- instance the whole space for the passage was ently strong in itself, and how nearer the first hollowed out; the brickwork was then laid, surface it has been walled with brickwork on and the space without filled up with loose sand either hand. This picture looks under the and stones. When this upper sand had thus cross wall supports, but that to the left of it, been walled back, the work proceeded through which shows the arches and doorstone a harder stratum below, the brickwork being from above, illustrates with clearness the discontinued even on the stairway, which was methods of masonry employed, the bonding of continued by steps cut in the desert. The the arches and their construction, and also the construction of the tomb had probably been widening of the passage walls at the top. In the faulty from the outset, or too great I'eliance upper photograph, a view of the shaft-mouths had been placed upon the strength of the REQAQNAH. STAIRWAY TOMB, R1, EARLY IIP" DYN., ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES. 5. THE WEST OUTER WALL FROM N I ARCHES AND DOOP-STONE FROM ABOVE. THE STAIRWAY LOOKING N. FROM BELOW. DOOR-STONE CONCEALING ENTRANCE TO CHAMBERS CORNER OF BURIAL CHAMBER. REQAQNAH. STAIRWAY TOMB, R 40. 111'"^ DYN., ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES. KNIFE AND SPOONS GROUP OF COPPER VESSELS AND KNIFE COPPER CONSTRUCTION OP THE STAIRWAY TOMBS 23 before the natural bed of gravel, which failed to hold the 1 tirely collapsed excavation reached weight of the side walls, bulging as that point, and it was with great diflBculty they were from the pressure of the loose and some danger that the chambers were en- reached and the previous deposit rescued. sand without. Tiie lower archway had ] CHAPTER IV OBJECTS FROM THE STAIRWAY TOMBS, a. Vases (Plates VII-XII). b. Pottery (.Plate XIIIj THE various forms in stone working and eacli form is generally various, and may not be pottery characteristic of the Third the same as that of others with which it may be Dynasty are gathered together in the seven found associated. The truth might be illustrated following plates. The selection has been made in this way, if it were possible to represent an with a view to illustrating the varieties and average of equivalent forms by means of a variations of form, and to avoiding redundancy; graph, then each point on the curve would but several considerations have necessarily correspond to some place in history, and its interfered in the arrangement. To illustrate position would be co-ordinated with the sequence this subject properly it would be necessary to of time. While it is not possible, then, as a reproduce many of the objects several times rule, to define narrowly the jseriod of any under different heads, their shapes, their particular form, yet the associations of certain materials, their relation to other forms anterior forms, or otherwise certain groupings of objects, and posterior, and in general their position in may often be readily assigned to a definite date. the development of such. But some of the It is this principle which Professor Petrie used objects are exceptionally large, it is and found in his "sequence dating" of predynastic forms ; convenient to group these together. The but in regard to the early dynasties, the problem excavations at Reqaqnah, again, while supply- is more complex, and the material involved ing or illustrating a great proportion of the more copious and less definitive. types, required supplementing by the results On Plate VI., the vessels, knife and spoons ol)tained at Bet Khallaf in the previous winter of copper illustrate the metal forms of the age. to complete the series. These additions have But the working of stone bowls is specially therefore been placed together on Plate XII. characteristic of the early dynasties. In pre- In proceeding to a consideration of these dynastic times, this art shared with that of forms, it is well to note the extreme value and pottery-making an important place in the early at the same time the limitations of this branch Egyptian culture. But with the decline of pot- of archseological evidence. tery, towards the approach of the First Dynasty, It may readily be seen by turning over the the working of stone vases assumed a new char- pages of excavators' memoirs, that certain acter and stimulus. The royal tombs of the First forms in stone working and in pottery are Dynasty at Abydos have furnished numerous characteristic of certain periods. In this way examples of the height which this art rapidly it is possible to define a certain number of attained. At Hierakonpolis and El Kab arch^ological types for each period. But it is excavations have shown the forms familiar in not possible, except in special cases, to say these localities at a slightly later period. that the individual forms are exclusively char- The accompanying Plate, No. VII., illustrates acteristic of that time, for the range of use of a number of vases characteristic of the Third REOAONAH. STAIRWAY TOMB, R 40, III"" DYN., STONE VASES. &c. GROUP OF MODEL VASES VA8ES AND TABLE OF ALABASTER. 1:3 REQAQNAH. TYPES OF HARD-STONE VASES (i.), AND ALABASTER TABLES : THIRD DYNASTY. VIM. \Jviins I 8 i/iicflv in Diorilc. Nos. i and 4 in Porphyry also.\ r K. 40. ' K. 40. Siulixrini' Marlilt _/ A'. 1, Alabashr. A'. 40. ZD Alalhiskr A'. 40. A'. 1. A 6 Alalhulcr. A'. 40. Alabaster A"K. 1. Alal>aster. Alal'astd R. I. K, 40. 3 IX 1:3 REQAQNAH. TYPES OF STONE VASES, CONTINUED (ii.): THIRD DYNASTY. 21 in ; 12 /// Sachyrine Marble: 13-16 in Alabaster?^ [Forms y ami lo in Dioritc and Brcuia ; ii, iS, Brmia -^10 K. I. 24 25 15 26 13 A'. 40. /i'. 40. 16 19 17 18 R. I. i?. 40. 20 A'. 40. A'. 40. types, Plate A'//.] \For pholos of types, see Plate VII. : for additional (iii.): THIRD DYNASTY. X. 1:3 REQAQNAH. TYPES OF STONE VASES, CONTINUED \Fonin 28- ,^3 /// Alabastei\\ R. I (iv.) THIRD DYNASTY. XI 1:3 REQAQNAH. TYPES OF GREAT STONE VASES : Plate VII.\ [Forms 34-37 /// Alalmstcr. Photo of No. 37, a: I. 36 /.'. 40. A'. 40. 1:3 BET KHALLAF. ADDITIONAL TYPES OF STONE VASES (v.): THIRD DYNASTY. XII. \J''orm 38 /;/ Syoiite : 41, 42, 43 in Dioritc : 45 /// Porpliyry ; 39-50 /// .li'a/>astci'.\ 42 38 49 OBJECTS FROBF THE STAIRWAY TOMRS 25 Dynasty. The material of wliicli they are tlu^ deceased persons recovered. The tombs made is vai'ioiis. The Egyptian ahibaster (in were placed near the edge of the cidtivation, reality a limestone of special ({uality) was the and in each case the stairway descended .so favourite stone of the country, being found deeply that tlie chambers were found to have used for various purposes throughout its his- been filled from time to time with water, which tory. Of the hard stones, diorite is most fre- slowly accumulated in them even during the (juent, and is often worked down with wonderful excavation. Though sometimes pieces of clay skill until translucency is obtained. Breccia, of the kind used for jar sealings were come porphyiy and steatite are other varieties less upon, yet from this cause probably the signs frequently employed. Sachyrine marl)le, a upon them had been hopelessly obliterated. beautiful stone, of which one large bowl is There can be little doubt, however, in consider- pictured in the plate, is found somewhat rarely. ing th(^ proportions and furnitureof these tomlis, In this instance a table of offerings of the same comparing them on the one hand with those of material accompanied the deposit. Bet KhallAf, and on the other with the small A group of special interest pictured on Plate tombs of officials and others in the necropolis VII comprises a number of models of vases described in the ensuing pages, that these and other objects in limestone and diorite. lai'ger tombs were themselves of royal or semi- They are called models because they are .so royal importance. It seems very possible that unusually small and delicate, as the scale of these were the burial places of the kings of the the illustration (1 : 2) shows. In tlie upper row Third Dynasty. are two tiny vases, thin as paper, with a dimin- The five plates, numbered VIII to XII utive standing vase in the centre, all of lime- which follow, contain the outlines and sections stone. Below, on tlie left, is a limestone vase, of all the typical or exceptional forms in stone with narrower neck, and of somewhat larger size vases and bowls of the Third Dynasty. The than the others. The central object of the row series has been made as complete as possible by is the most remarkable. It is seemingly a the inclusion in the last plate of the series of mace head carved in alabaster, of balloon tliosc forms which occur in the royal tombs at shape and appearance. The neck tapers Bet Khallaf, but are not fully represented from with a small mouldino'. The different Reqaqnah. segments of the surface ai'e bounded 1)y a The chief use of such a series is practical; whip-cord pattern in relief, converging to the for the excavator determines largely by as- centre at the top, where a small cap of ivory is sociation with dated objects the period of his neatly inlaid. Next to this object is a small otherwise undated deposit. In tlie early dyn- ; model of a shell, carved in diorite; it is of the asties tlie forms and character of stone vases finest (juality of work, and translucent in final and ])ottery ai"e naturally the most reliable appearance. criteria. This series will in due course be The whole group just described was found found incomplete, indeed but a nucleus ; but in a single deposit within the burial chamber of it may be hoped that this publication may lead the great tomb, R 4U, where they had evidently readily to the identification of further tombs escaped the plunderers who had previously and objects of the Third Dynasty. As the robbed the burial of its treasures. It was a first volume devoted to the subject it will then source of much disappointment that in none of have served its chief purpose. these large stairway tombs of Reqaqnah could The groups of objects themselves re(iuire any seal impressions be found, nor the names of little explanation. Notes are added to the 26 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY plates, explanatory of the materials, and giving with dull brown surface. In this particular the numbering of the tombs to which the form they are seemingly characteristic of objects belong, as well as a running sequence the Third Dynasty, but they are essentially number for reference and quotation. The variations of the somewhat earlier and still student will find it interesting and instructive persisting form No. 4. The prototype of this to compare these forms with those of earlier dates back to the earliest beginnings of the times, published, for example in l^eqadah and dynastic period, linking even with the pre- Ballufi (Petrie and Quibell), El Amrah and dynastic. (See, for example, Uiospolis I'urra AhydoH (Randall-Maclver and Wilkin), Boiinl PI. II, where it is dated s.d. 70-80.) In the Tumh.s of First L)//iia.^fi/ (Petrie), Hicnthmpolis royal tombs at Abydos also it is known (as seen (Quibell). in B. T. I. PI. XLIII), and it is, indeed, one of It is noticeable, in conclusion, how definitely the common forms of the early dynasties. It separated is the stone working of the earlier survives in the Sixth Dynasty, as it appears dynasties from that of the Old Empire by the from more recent excavations in the necropolis absence as yet of any forms with pointed of Beni Hasan, in a diminutive form suggestive bases. But the archaeology of the period im- of No. 3. mediately following that which this site repre- No. 5 is of the same rough material and sents has not yet been separately summarised appearance as the foregoing, while tlie shape in convenient form, though well known in is natural, and hence common to several general. periods. The series of pottery reproduced Nos. T) and 7 are varieties of dishes in a the „f°"^^^;,. in outline on Plate XIII has been better class of ware, made probably from (Plate XIII). selected with a view to minimising same clay as the polished red pottery, but not the number of types, by omitting those so highly finished. numerous forms which may be considered to No. 8 is another example of the polished red be mere variations of these few. By this pottery, and also is found in the same simple means a small series is isolated, which may be shape at an early period. A prototype is more readily borne in mind in the course of pictured in Diospolis Pawn, where it is excavation or research. The variations may numbered 23a, with the long sequence-date be seen by reference to " Mahasna and range of 38-73. It does not, however, seem to Bet Khallaf ," and the few forms found in the have really died out, but rather persevered smaller tombs at Reqaqnah are shown by through some stage of change iintil it appears photograph and in outline on Plates XXXI, in its present form. XXXII. No. !• is a somewhat unusual variety of this of red clay. It seems to The form. No. 1 , which is somewhat rare, is unpolished pottery found in a good quality of polished red pottery. be specially characteristic of this period, An analogous shape may be seen on Plate though its prototypes of a slightly differing XXXII. The form is not an early one, and shape are well known at an earlier date. the material, while it suggests the good pottery No 10 may be placed almost in tlie same of pi-e-dynastic times, is best known from cer- category with No. 8. The material is much tain examples of the Fourth Dynasty and Old the same, and it suggests equally the polished Empire in general, though it also survives that red ware of prehistoric times. period. Nos. 11 and 12 are rough pots of the same Nos. 2 and 3 are both of thick rough pottery, material and appearance as Nos. 2 and -i, with 1:6 REQAQNAH AND BET KHALLAF. COMMON FORMS OF POTTERY: THIRD DYNASTY. XIII. \_Notcs : d is dull : p, polished ; r, rou^lt : s^sinootli : /ir, linnvii : i7, xelltnv : rd, ird.\ d, r, yl'ln s, yt-hr. ; OBJECTS FROM THE STAIRWAY TOMBS 27 wliich they are equally characteristic of the Nos. 21 and 22 are both forms which have early dynasties. The surface is generally quite persisted from the later j^re-dynastic period without finish, being dull and rough, with the latter might be regarded as a standard yellow-bi'own or dark brown colour. Its form from which Nos. 11 and 12 are derived. appearance is well shown by the photogra])h of Nos. 23 and 24, whicli are variations of the same pottery types on Plate XXXI. Pots of this model, are made in the best style of the period, character occur often numerously in gi-oups, with smooth surface of yellow-brown appear- as, for example, in the tomb deposit No. 68, ance. The form witli variations is well known illustrated on Plate XXII. and characteristic of the early dynasties, and The remaining varieties call for little com- it occurs quite plentifully in the royal tombs ment. Nog. 14 and 15 are tall pottery stands, of the First, Second, and Third Dynasties, hollow but substantial, of unpolished yellow- as well as in some of the larger tombs brown appearance. The spouted bowl. No. 16, with similar range. These twenty-four and the globular vessel, No. IS, are the better selected forms really illustrate the couunon class of dull red pottery. No. 1 7, another varieties of pottery during the Third Dynasty. form with spout, is of the same material, It is very noticeable how in this period, as in though not so well made. No. 19 is another the earlier dynasties, the art of pottery making example of an early form which dates liack to had declined from the high standard of the the middle of the pre-dynastic period. early and middle pre-dynastic period ; how it In No. 20 there re-appears a form common nevertheless preserved some of the elements of in the First Dynasty tombs of Abydos ; but this its character, and how here and there a vessel is unusual in the high polish, suggesting specimen of finest quality appears to show almost a varnish, which has been imparted to that the art was not really forgotten, but its brown surface. neglected. CHAPTER V SPECIAL FEATURES OF STAIRWAY TOMBS. a. Arches of the Third Dynasty. PI. XIV. b. Miscellaneous Features. PI. XY. N the royal of is comljined freely with that in Arches. tombs the Third rriethod which I Dynasty at Bet Khallaf, and in the bricks are trimmed down to a smaller size. other large stairway tombs of that period The employment of any form of keystone is not in the vicinity, a noticeable feature of each customary, and- probably occurs only by acci- is the barrel vault or series of arches under dent. An illustration of some interest is af- wliich the stairway descends. The oldest forded by tomb K 110 (Plate XIV) in which the dated arch hitherto discovered in Egypt is bricks placed lengthwise did not give the exact that in the tomb of Neter Khet, K 1, Plate span, and so caused the space to be filled by a XIV ; and the other arches shown on the same smaller shaped piece in the centre. The photo- plate, which ai'e dated by corelation with graph is shown somewhat tilted, owing to the this, as also those on Plates V and VI, show difficulty of position : the stick seen in the left by the variety of use and construction a per- is really vertical. It is doubtful whether the fect familiarity with the principle of arch- upper arch in this case woidd have stood by building even at tliis early date. The arches itself : it seems to have been designed are built for the most part with bricks of usual merely to give Ijalance and thickness to the size and shape placed on edge, and the inner whole. spaces in between adjoining bricks are packed Evolution in The cvolutiou of the arch with mud and broken chips. Egypt- Egyptian architecture seems to Construe- Approximately true roitusoirs, hovv- have been spontaneous, natural, and local. tion. ever, were not unknown. They were From the absence of any such feature in the obtained from the ordinary bricks in one of pul)lished plans of earlier tombs, it seems to two ways, either by the trimming down of date its origin to the early Third Dynasty. In one side (or of the two sides) to the required the necropolis of Reqa(|nah a number of smaller wedge-like form, or by tiie addition of an extra tombs illustrate the development of the cor- piece of mud to one side, which was allowed to belled or offset vault (e.g. Tomb oG, PI. XIV), dry on before it was used in the building, and from which the true arch seems to have natu- so gave the required shape. The best example rally evolved in Egypt as in Chaldasa. The figured in which vdiiKxoir.'i were freely employed seiies of sketches which show this has no is shown on Plate V, in the photograph of the chronological significance, for the form seems arches and doorstone fi'om above. The bricks to have developed spontaneously, as stated, but are fashioned in this case by the latter of the they are drawn from actual examples of the two processes, namely, the affixing of an extra Third Dynasty at Reqaqnah. piece of mud. In another examj)le on Plate Previous to this discovery the earliest dated XI V, from the tomlj of Hen-Neklit, tlie same arch of Egypt had been found in the tomb of REQAQNAH AND BET KHALLAF. ARCHES OF THE III'"' DYNASTY. 14. TOMB OF NETER-KHET. TOMB OF HEN-NEKHT FIRST ARCH TOMB R 40 SECOND ARCH TOMB R 1. FALSE ARCH, S END. TOMB R 56, IIUd DYN. DOUBLE ARCH TOMB R 110, lllno-IVTM DYN SPECIAL FEATURES OF STAIRWAY TOMBS Dia;4ranis showing origins of Simple Arch (2a) and Oft-set Arch (3). Ada I at Dendereh/ of the Sixth Dynasty. scientifically described. In any case the devel- M. Mariette, also, in a letter to MM. Perrot and opment was probalily independent. The Chipiez, cited by them in their History of same series of primitive attempts and " make- " Egi/ptian Art, II. p|). 77, 84, gives a rough shifts found at Reqaqnah have been observed diagram of an arch of the Sixth Dynasty, which also in the necropolis of Mugheir, the Ur of the " he had observed at Abydos, and says : Speak- Chakhvans. In Lower Ghahhva in general the ing generally, I believe that the Egyptians use of the off-set arch and the methods suitable were acquainted with the principle from the only to smaller buildings are frequent. The earliest times." In Egypt, as at a later date practical construction, too, seems to have been in Phoenicia, there was no natural cause for the effected in many instances by the same simple use of vaults or ai'chos on an elaborate scale. contrivance as is found in ancient and modern Long slabs of limestone for roofing the temples times in Egypt. For example, the method of and larger buildings could always be obtained supporting a small barrel roof, as described in at hand throughout the country, hence prob- Chapter VIII, during the process of building, ably it arose that the use of the arch and barrel- by inclining the bricks, seems to have been vaulting originated and chiefly developed as the equally prevalent in Ohald^a. The domed most practicable means of I'oofing the sub- roofs of ftheiklis' tombs and the houses of Nubia terranean passages and chambers of the early are erected with similar saving of trouble. In tombs. The application of the principle on a Chaldaja, too, the system elaborated with time larger scale in later dynasties shows it to have for decorative purposes. From the accounts of been properly understood. The vaulted i-oofs Strabo and Diodorus it seems that the hanging and spans suppoi'ted by columns intherockhewn gardens of Babylon must have been supported tombs at Beni Hasan, are examples of engineer- by real centred arches. Sargon's palace at ing skill in the Middle Empire ; while the Khorsabad also exhibited some of the finest vaulted roof in the temple of Seti, at Abydos, examples of this use. and the Ramesseum, the elliptical vaults, too, In these countries the use of the arch begins at Thebes, show the further elaboration of the at a much later time, and it is correspondingly New Empire. less probable that it developed locally. In In other The Same natural and spontaneous Persia at any rate the system was apparently countries, gyoi^tion of the arch whicli took copied, often rudely and without interest, from place in Egypt in the early Third Dynasty seems Chalda^a. At Tiryns there is a galleiy with a to have occurred at a corresponding period in pointed arch ; and though the principle seems Chaldtea also. In the al)sence of any early to have )jeen understood by the Greeks even relative chronology, and the uncertainty of the before the Trojan war, yet it cannot l)e traced actual dates of these early events, it cannot be back in their architecture to a spontaneous said in which country the principle first devel- beginning as in Egypt. In Judaja the arched oped. Present evidence points to Egypt, but aqueducts of Herod are the best known the earlier sites of CJhalda^a have still to be examples, but this belongs to a day when the ' Romans, aided by necessity, had long brought Petrie : Deudereh. lOOU. 30 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY the use of the arch to its perfection. It may from the other stairway tombs which have been be surmised that tlie Etruscans had brought described. It seems probable, considering all with them from tlieir Lydian home a know- things, that No. 2 was indeed the earliest of ledge of the principle derived by contact the large stairway tombs on the site, dating to through the Hittite with the Nile and the the Second or early Third Dynasty. It is thus Euphrates valleys. of special interest to note that its stairway was walls, Tomb R 2, (b.) In addition to the two large not supported at any point by cross Plate XV. j^Qj^^ijg ^vliicli have been described though it descended somewhat deeply. Its in the foregoing chapters, there were found angle too was steep, almost one in two. The and excavated several others with stairways sides were strongly bricked, and the stairway and other features of interest. One of them, also, as seen on the photograph of Plate X^", No. R 2, had been not less imjaortant than they. was laid with bricks in two coui'ses. The small proportion of objects found within it, No. 14. A number of steps, the beginning Plate XV. and the poor state of its superstructure, alone ,jg -^ seemed of an incompleted keep it out from a place among the chief results tomb, were found near to the position of tomb of tlio excavation. Some details of its con- No. 1 . They were numbered 14, and a picture struction, however, are of special interest. of them appears in the plate. The chief interest Above the ground only the outer wall could l)e in this is a hint of a curious constructional definitely traced, often being pi-eserved only in method. The side wall of the stairway is its lowest course of bricks. It was two metres completed only so far as the excavation was tbick, and enclosed the usual large rectangular proceeded, the courses ending irregularly pend- space. From the nortli end, at the middle, the ing completion. The' indication is that the stairway led down as usual to a depth of about building of these retaining walls, the chief ten metres, when the doorway to the chambers purpose of which was to keep back the falling was reached. After pidling l)ack the great sand, proceeded from the top. The bricks were slab of stone which served as usual for a door added one at a time as space was cleared for a serious subsidence occurred, necessitating them. This method was certainly not always the excavation to be renewed from above the used, but other indications of it in special cases chambers, by removing all the superimposed have been noted. stairway tombs pre- weight of gravel. It was then found that a No. 19. Other small small plunderer's hole had already been forced piate XV. (tented features of interest in con- in the same direction. Finally the clearing of nexion with the history of this form of the interior showed that the chambers were of sepulchre. In the case numbered I'J, the simple character, consisting mainly of a passage staircase descends for a metre and a half, and some eight metres in length leading on the leads only to a small sijuare space at tlie foot, right (to the west) into a square room, which where presumably the burial had been laid. from an analogy may be called the burial This is the type of construction numbered 4 chamber. The few objects, fragments of on Plates XIX, XX. Other instances were pottery, stone vases and copper implements, observed at El Kab. At the latter place, too, found within the tomb seemed to be of some- as here, the same form with tlie addition of what earlier character in general than those a small subterranean chamber is noteworthy. REQAQNAH. MISCELLANEOUS ARCHITECTURAL TOMB FEATURES, 111"° DYN. 15. ENCLOSED VAULT OF TOMR R 56 FROM S ENCLOSED VAULT OF TOMB R 72. FROM W REQAQNAH. MASTABA TOMBS. R 75. AND R 50; lll"°-IV"^" DYNS. 16. STUCCOED PASSAGE, LOOKING N S. WALL, PARTLY PANELLED. UNINSCRIBED SHRINE W. WALL, TO LEFT. STUCCOED. CITAPTKR VI TiiH lai;i;k mastahas m; rLA'iTiu;Ai-Ti)Mi;s. With Plate XVI (R 75, R50) ; Plates XVII, XVIII (R70); au.l Plate XXI (Plans). 'T~^HB foregoing chapters have described and R 70, which are analogous to it in [tlan, -* those tombs which are characterized by a but without any staircase. A comparison of the descending stairway, leading to a series of sub- tomb plans on I'hite XXI. will show also that terranean chambers. Tiie present chapter is R 75 is more clearly related to No. 50 than to concerned with those large tombs of which the No. 70, and there are other evidences that this conspicuous feature is rather the architecture indication is correct. and general plan of the superstructure—hence In the excavation of this tomb (No. 75), called mastabas. In these there is a noticeable there was nothing found to reveal the name of change in regard to the burial chamber and its the personage for whom it had been built. In a]iproaches. In one instance, the earliest, a the burial chamber, which was cleared with stairway survives, but in others it is supplanted some difficulty owing to the weakness of its by square shafts merely. It is found by sides and the constant accumulation of water, analysis that this change is, to some extent, there were found only some pottery vessels and chronological, and that the evolution of one fragments of stone vases, similar in character form from the other may be traced through to those from the stairway tombs of the Third various stages. This sequence lias a definite Dynasty. In the upper building, of which importance, and the chapter which follows this only the wall foundations remained, there were will be devoted accordingly to its considera- no small objects found. The entrance seems tion. to have been through a small porch on the In the present instance there are three eastern side, leading at once to a doorway with great mastaba tombs to be considered, num- stone threshold, which is shown in the photo- bered respectively R 50, R 70 and R 75, the plans graph on Plate XVI. This approach leads for which are shown to a scale of 1 : 2(»0 on directly to a long passage, running in either Plate XXI. Of these it appears at once, from direction, north and south ; and almost oppo- their positions, that R 70 is of later date than site is a large false door or panel of three R 75. There are indeed reasons, which aviII be recesses. The photograph shows the pre- made evident, for believing that R 75 belongs to served portion of this passage, looking south- the Third Dynasty, R 50 to the Fourtli, and ward along its length, with the door to the R 7(» to the later Fourth or Fifth. left. It may be seen that traces of white Thetomb is of Special to the walls. Here and Tomb R 75. R 75 interest. stucco remain adhering Plate While preserving the plan of an exten- there a close inspection suggested that the stucco XVI XXI sive superstructure, it also provides had been covered with hieroglyphs in columns, the feature of a descending stairway. It thus painted on ; but the portions were aggravat- serves as a bond in type between the stairway ingly small and the signs indistinctly pre- tombs, R 1, R 2, and R 40, described in the fore- served, so that nothing except the fact could going chapters, and the mastaba tombs R 50 be recorded. At the southern end of this passage 32 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY a door leads westwaixl to a smaller passage or southern end of tliis passage, as in the previous chamber, from which an inner door again pro- instance, a door leads westward into the in- vides a way to the interior of the tomb. This terior, from which there descend two square inmost portion is not in sufficient preservation pits. The one was a shaft leading down to a to show what were the further details of the chamber on the south side, which was found plan. From the northern portion of the enclo- empty ; the other was probably a well of sure, a stairway led down, southward as usual, offerings, but it descended to a great depth, to the single chamber below. It seems prol)- and could not be excavated owing to accumu- able that here, too, as in the case of the stair- lation of water. These pits were placed (as way tombs, the space over the burial chamber seen on the plan) centrally within the inner was devoted to the inner chapel or sanctuary. enclosure : it could not be determined whether The supplementary passages above ground, in there had been any roof, whether partial or this instance, seem to take the places of those covering the whole. Externally the western which in the earlier instances were cut out, wall was preserved to the exceptional height also below, on the eastern side of the burial of two metres ; it had also been plastered with chamber. Against this tomb there were built white stucco, as the photograph shows. The subsequently the series of tombs, 88, 89 of the northern and southern walls were found Third Dynasty, the vaulted tomb No. 68, and the panelled above a certain height, as the photo- great mastaba tomb No. 70. There is a notice- graph shows ; probably also the eastern face able absence in the plan of No. 75 of any external was similarly decorated, but it was not pre- panels or recesses, such as those which eml)el- served to the course of brickwork at which lish the face of No. 70. But this does not embellishment began. In the excavation of prove necessarily that they were absent from this tomb several small objects of interest were the architecture of the building, inasmuch as discovered. The burial chamber itself was only the lowest courses of the outer walls were found quite empty, but near the door of the preserved, and these panels, in the earlier tomb, at the southern end of the passage, instance, No. 50, did not reach down nearer some fragments of stone were found nicely than half a metre, or two feet, from the inscribed with hieroglyphs in relief and ground. painted. Unfortunately they gave little in- Tomb R 50. rpijg mastaba tomb, No. 50, presents formation, with the exceptioia of one piece xx[, ' some general affinities with the fore- having the reference snffu rekh (Friend of the going as well as some marked differences. King). In a small hole, again, bored into the The form, rectangular and oblong, with face to top of the wall near the north-west corner, the east, is similar. There are in this instance were found a number of small round balls of two doorways, both leading directly into the tenacious and seemingly foreign clay, inscril)ed passage running along the length. The inner with incised marks (as shown in Plate XXX) walls were plastered, as before, and were pre- in some manner, which is not readily construed. served (as the photograph shows) to a consider- Tomb R 70. jj^ ^jjg tomb numbered E 70 in the Plates XVII able height. The eastern side was furnished XVIII, xxi' plan there is seen to be a building of with three of the false doors, or small shrines, greater size and architectural elaboration than the middle one being larger than the others. those which have been previously described. The most northerly seemed to have been care- Here the whole of the eastern face may be fully prepared for the reception of some seen from the photographs of Plate XVII standing object, possibly a statue. From the to have been decorated with double panels REQAQNAH. MASTABA TOMB R 70, IV"^"-V^" DYN., EXTERNAL FEATURES. 17. OUTER AND INNER NORTHERLY ENTRANCES PANELLED E. FRONT FROM N REQAQNAH. MASTABA TOMB, R 70, IV"^"-V""" DYN., INTERNAL FEATURES. 18. WEST WALL, FROM S VIEW SHOWING PiRST INNER PASSAGE, FROM S. w * ^. V, THE TOMB SHAFTS, FROM N. FIRST INNER PASSAGE. FROM N. SHOV.IN'. PLTAILS "-, THE SAME, [I i EG' 'TJ I N N C THE I.ARGE MASTABAS Oil PLATFOHJI TOMBS 33 I'eaching almost to tho ground. The walls on descended to a great depth, and being unsound the other side are plain ; the outer wall on the at the lowest levels, a great excavation of the west is preserved in parts to the height of whole interior was necessitated. The progress nearly two metres. The plan shows that in of this (shown in Plate XXVI) resulted in the this instance there are two long passages discovery of an interesting pot-burial below. running parallel with one another, and with The result of this cleai-ance was to find the the eastern face. The curious way in which burial chamber broken, robbed and empty; l)ut this tomb is built up to No. 7-5 at its north- before the southern pit could be cleared out east corner suggests a possibility that the some serious subsidences during successive eastern wall, and with it the easterly passage, nights, threatening the upper walls of the was an addition to the original design of the tomb, made it necessary to leave that portion structure. There is no reason to suppose, on of the excavation not completed. the other hand, that it was not contemporary. Apart from its architecture, the chief in- There are in this case also two entrances, both terest of this great tomb thus devolves upon from the east, which lead directly through the a discovery made during the early stages outer and into the inner passage. The analogy of its excavation. This was a large slab of detail with tomb No. 50 is further borne of limestone placed as a jamli in the outer out by the threefold shrine or recess on the southern door, as seen on Plate XVII. eastern side of the inner passage, correspond- It is inscribed with hieroglyphs in relief, ing almost in position to the main shaft of arranged in seven columns, giving the names the interior. Unlike the two mastabas pre- of a number of scribes. Tht* inscription viously described, the inmost portion of the itself will be found described in Chapter XI, tomb was an entirely solid mastaba, or platform with Plate XXVII 1, where the pliotogra})h of brick. From this two pits descended simply shows better the (juality of the work. The from its surface. They seem to have been carving was of such clear character that the approached by a flight of steps leading as authorities of the Cairo Museum retained it as usual from the southern end of the inner an example of the work of the time. It passage. These pits were probably, as before, 'seems to Itelong to the best period of the the one for access to the burial chamber, the Old Kingdom, and to this date probably the other merely a well of offerings. They both tomb itself Tuay be assigned. CHAPTER VII THE EVliLUTlOX OF STAIRWAY TOMBS. With PlatLS XIX, XX. IN the four preceding clmpters the character dynastic period with the full light of historic of the larger tombs of the Third Dynasty times. This element of evidence is associated has been examined in detail. It has been seen in so closely with the conservative customs of a Chapter III that the class of tomb most people's history, that it must be regarded as of familiar to the period is characterized by a first importance in the pi'oblem of Egyptian stairway descending from the north to its sub- origins. terranean chambers, and in Chapter VI that a In the diagrams which illustrate this evolu- later class, distinguished by greater elaboration tion, the examples have been chosen so far as of the superstructure, seems to have gradually possible from the locality of Bet Khallaf and supplanted the former. Eeqaqnah. Occasionally for some special pur- These two classes were related. The one pose an isolated example of the elaboration of seems to have evolved directly from the other, certain features has been introduced from else- and to have followed it closely in time. where. It might have been possible, indeed, Ti)ougli distinguished from one another by by adding to these series a number of extra- names suggested l)y their leading features, neous intermediate forms which the site itself yet even from the drawings which have illus- supplies only indirectly or imperfectly, to have trated the foregoing chapters it may be seen illustrated a secpience of tombs changing that forms occur which combine to some extent gradually and uniformly from stage to stage. the features of each class, to which the names By this process the sand holes which served stairway tombs or mastaba tombs would he for graves in prehistoric times would be found equally or jointly ap])ropriate. But the stair- linked in sequence, for instance, with the way tombs have a direct relation with the pyramids themselves. A result seemingly so earliest form of Egyptian grave. In a site incongruous demands caution against any jointly representative of the pre-dynastic and error of generalization. ISmall changes seem- earliest. dynastic periods, such as El Amrah, it ingly in sequence are not necessarily consecu- is possible to trace the origins of the stairway tive in time. Forms may spontaneously recur, tomb from the simple grave made as a mere or even revert ; or a whole series illustrating hole in the ground. The later mastAba tombs, the development of an idea may prove to be on the other hand, link directly with the contemporary. In the' same way, analogous structures characteristic of the Pyramid Age types of different localities are known in and the elaborate architecture of the Old general to belong to the same period ; but the Kingdom. There is therefore to be found in fact cannot be used alone as evidence in par- the evolution of these tomb structures a definite ticular instances. It is only when the whole bond of continuity which links the earliest pre- history of a site is known in detail and in REQAQNAH AND BET KHALLAF. EVOLUTION OF STAIRWAY TOMBS PLANS. XIX. I L - '> % '^^ J-^-rJ-- ,=^ ^^^ t- J tvitli steps. I, 2. Simple pn-dynastic Graves. 3, 4. Deeper pre-dynaslic Graves, Stainvay Tomb of First Dynasty. 6. Elaborated Stainvay Tomb (of Qa) First Dynasty. % B 'with 7. StainiHiy Toinl> oj Tliird Dynasty, subterranean chambers. 8. Deeper Stairway 'Fond' of Third Dynasty, -with supporting cross 'Walls. 10 Tomb, Sixth Dynasty. Third Dynasty. 10. Final Form of Stainvay <(• Elaborated Stair'way Tomb of THE EVOLUTION OP STAIRWAY TOMBS 35 general, horn independent sources, that it It was dated to the First or Second Dynasty on becomes possible to trace the evobition of the the evidence of objects found in its excavation. forms it ilhistrates. Fortunately two years' It illustrates a further development of the work in this region have made it possible in motive in No. 4. The stairway is more decided, this instance. the chamber is more true and lined with l)rick- The diagrams which illustrate this evolution work. One end of the room is divided by are grouped separately under plans and sec- partition walls, providing a number of recesses tions. So far as it was found desirable for the or ante-rooms. The origin of this subdivision purpose, the sections are those of tombs whose has been traced at El Amrah-'- to a desire for plans appear on the preceding plate. Except small recesses wherein to place the different in the cases numbered 1 -4 of each, these kinds of offerings, and this development is seen drawings are made to scale from measurement to be in progress at the beginning of the First of oliserved instances. Dynasty. As a fiu-ther illustration showing The first four represent the simple the elaboration of this motive during the First Development„ , ^ ^ in Plan, gi'avcs of prcliistoric times. At Dynasty, the tomb of King Qa at Abydos^ is first there were holes dug in the of interest (No. 6). Here the stairway descends ( ) as to the provision of sand, either round 1 or oldong (2). Instances usual chamber, but the a of this class are numerous, as at Negadah and number of recesses about the main room is El Amrah, and locally at Alawniyeh. Stage already accepted as so necessary that they have (;^) shows the deeper grave to have suggested been built as separate chambers around the as a convenience a way down to it, provided central one. by a roughly cut out step or steps. This also It has already been mentioned that these was observed at Alawniyeh. The next stage tomb chambers were roofed over with timber is important, being the first form of stairway and earth, covered with mud ; and that the tomb, where the chamber and stairs are more experiment of excavating the chamber entirely truly constructed, and the former probably below the surface, leaving a natural roof, was covered by a roof of timber and mud. In- already being tried. All further development stances occur at Beqa(inah and at El Kab. seems to have been prompted by a striving The whole development up to this point is after greater security for the body of the natural and gradual. Another diagram might deceased. Hence the subsequent deepening of at this point have been introduced from the stairway, and the placing of a large stone instances observed at El Kab, where the stair- against the door of the Ijurial chamber, as it is way descends as here, but the desert surface found in a simple example (No. 7) of the late having been found sufficiently strong, the small Second or early Third Dynasty. The depth of chamber at the foot was cut out, leaving a roof the chambers below the surface now compels of gravel above it. The effect in appearance their excavation, and the same desire for ante- is the same exactly as that in which a roof is chambers finds expression in a number of small artificially supplied ; but the link is important rooms or recesses leading from the main as leading directly to the subsequent develop- chamber in various directions. The stairway ment, which it may be easier to follow sepa- tomb is now fully developed. rately from this stage in plan and in section. In No. 8 the same principles are illustrated; On Plate XIX the diagram numbered -5 only in that case the deeper stairway or the more shows the plan fora tomb found at Mahasna.' = R.M.A. Plate IV. 1 G.M.K, Plates XXXIII, XXXV. = P.R.T. (1). Plate LX. 3(! THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY yielding cliaractei' of the gravel through which Tlie sections of these tombs nre- Development i it is dug has introduced the necessity for cross in Section. Sent this cvolution from a different Plate XX. walls and buttresses to support the sides. The ^gppg^^ ajjfi illustrate at the same chambers are subterranean, and their door is time some points of analogy more clearly. The closed by a large stone as before. It is natural development of a stairway with the deepening that on tlie surface above the tomb, within its and elaboration of the earliest graves (seen in area, there should develop a chapel or shrine diagrams 1-4) is natural, and leads directly to for the making of offerings and jtrayers after the form of stairway tomb in the First Dyn- the usual custom.' asty, No. 5. It seems to have been an early The remainder of tliis evolution will be custom to roof these small graves with twigs clearly illustrated by the diagrams in section. and nnul, at the level of the surrounding sands. It is important to notice in regard to the plans The appearance when covered over must have 9 and 10 a continual approximation to- been the same as that of a small chamljer wards the familiar appearance of mastaba in excavated in the desert, leaving the natural the Old Empire, as exemplified by the further roof of gravel above. That this method was series R 75, R -50, and R 70 on l^late XXI. actually in use has been shown by observed This change is indicated l)y the gradual instances at El Kab" and at Reqaqnah. But widening of the cross walls in the passage, and until the stairway deepened considerably it the conse(juent closing of the open spaces must have been the simpler method to supply above the stairs until these assume the form of a new roof to replace the yielding surface sands. mere shafts at intervals, utilized in the elaborate In the Tliird Dynasty, however, when the deep- tomb (No. 9) as guides for lowering the stone ening of the stairway, in an effort to gain doors. The stairway appears next, in the Sixth greater security for the burial, led down to Dynasty tomb, completely roofed over, and so harder strata of desert gravel, it became not almost disappears from the surface plan. At merely possible but expedient to excavate the the same time the visible structure above chambers entirely below the surface, leaving for ground has been developing, and has already protection as great a thickness of desert gravel assumed the form in plan and the appearance as possible above them. This change marks a characteristic of the mastaba (e.g. No. R 75, definite stage of development : the perishable Plate XXI; No. 10, Plate XIX). The dis- timber roof gives way to the more desirable appearance of the stairway at this stage super-stratum of gravel. consetjuently involved no visible change. The The diagrams numbered G and 7 show well sliaft leading directly down to the bottom of the the stage of evolution reached at the beginning passage, which seems always to have been of the Third Dynasty. But these tombs (K 3 found indispensable, served equally well for and K 4) at Bet Khallaf happen to have been access to the chambers, when with this pro- placed where the desert gravel was remarkably cess of changes the necessity for a stairway hard in the lower strata. It was only under was no longer ap])arent. The plans of these such conditions that it was possible to excavate tombs thus ilhistrate a continual develop- the stairway to any great depth without sup- ment, prompted by a visible slow cliange of porting the sides. At Reqaqnah, for instance, purpose, linking tlie simple pre-historic grave as the next diagram (No. 8) shows, it was with the elaborate mastaba of historic times. found desii'able in tomb R 40 to line each side with a brick wall, mutually supporting each ' £t/i/jif/((ii Maspero : Manual of Arc/idioldi/i/ i litO'2), 2 etc. p. 342. Q.K., p. 7, REQAQNAH AND BET KHALLAF. EVOLUTION OF STAIRWAY TOMBS-SECTIONS. XX. -- T a m- fe;2^-^^^^r-'j''^^^^Sc=^-^ 1, 2. Sim/'/i' Gritvi's of /he 3. Deeper Grnve, 'vitli Step down 4. Deeper Roofed Grave, ivitli Steps pre dynastic Period. {Ala'tsniiyelt, eti.) (Reijaqnali, etc.) 5. Simple Stainvay Tondt of First 6, 7. Staif~i>ay Toint's of Early Tliird Dynasty, witli Sul'terraiieait Dynasty (A/a/tas/ia). CJiamliers {Bit KliallAJ). iJ chambers;""" —-y-^. ^'.-^ 'ST0NE!,7fl,.-^A--- 8, g. Large Stairjcay Toniln of TJtird Dynasty, with Cross Wall Supports to sides of Stairway and Sii/'terranean Chambers (Reipi 11. 10 IT. Pinal Porm oj Stainvay Tomb (Adu II., at Dendereh), Sixth Dynasty. 10. Elaborated Stainvay Tomb of Third Dynasty {Bet Khallaf). THE EVOLUTION OF STAIRWAY TOMBS 37 other by slight cross walls placed from side to bility of forcing a way, as was common, into side. The passage below was kept clear by the chambers below. It recalls at once, in means of an archway. In a further instance appearance, the lowest stage of the step pyra- {No. '.»), the supporting cross walls are made mid at Sakkara, of wliich the king who was wider and stronger; the spaces between them buried here is reputed to be the ))uih1er. It appear more as shafts or air holes, and the would seem, in any case, that the same motive archways below them take the form of a series prompted the engineers in each case. of short Ijarrel vaults. But this solid supei'structure was not charac- Thougli exceptional in many ways, the great teristic of the trend in tlio development of tomb of Neter-Khet provides an interesting smaller tombs. By a glance at Plate XXI, study in section (No. 10) of the elaboration of the plan of tomb R 75, and the other large the ]n^inciple of construction in stairway tomlss mastilbas, it may be seen that already the at this stage of their evolution. The whole custom was coming into vogue in the Third motiv^e for this remarkable structure was Dynasty of erecting some form of a shrine security for the burial chamber. 'I'he passage above the site of the tombs. The iirecise form leads down continuously to so great a depth which this took was probably dictated by ritual: that the shafts, which occur at intervals, the door is uniformly on the east ; the eastern appear as mere interruptions to an otherwise wall is often elaborately decorated, and there continuous tunnel. After serving their pur- is a passage-way or chapel coming along the pose as guides for the enormous stones which eastern intei'ior. Tiie principle of the mas- barred the way at six successive points, these tAba tomljs was thus already well developed. shafts were closed up, and, like the stairway The stairway might give way, through difficulty itself, tlieir position was concealed by masoni'y of construction, to tiie simpler tomb shaft built solidly above it. In these doors there ffivina: access to the chambers. In more im- may be seen the prototypes of those familiar portant tombs, as in that of Adu I or Adu II, survive, or in the pyramid passages : only in the latter at Dendereh, the stairway might case, after the stone had been supported in a recur, as a continuous tunnel. But from a glance position from which it could be readily dropped at the tomb plans of Plate XXI, or at those across the way as required, the remainder of mastabas which have been found elsewhere, it the pile was built upwards, leaving the door in is seen that the disappearance of the passage, readiness to be closed from the interior. It is the original feature of the stairway tomb, no an elaboration of the principle just demon- longer seems a matter of importance at a time strated in the tomb of Neter Khet. The whole when the superstructure of the mastaba tomb mass which constitutes the superstructure of was receiving the whole attention of the archi- this tomb, again, guards against the possi- tects in the Old Empire. CHAPTER VfTI THK NECIinPOr.lS. rOSITKiN ANU I '(iNSTKUCTInX dl'' TIIK SMAfJ.KK TiiMI'.S With Plates XXI, XXII. ' MIK picture of a portion of the northern built later than 75, and No. ^S was subse- I -*- necropolis in Plate III has already quently placed in the corner formed by them. shown the smaller tombs to have been arranged In this way certain definite relations between Position, in it with some show of system. In adjoining tombs are established. Bearing in Plate XXI. ^\y^<^ photograph twonarrow ways are mind also other matters of observation, such seen lying between the parallel rows of tombs, as the character of the tombs and the objects and in the plan on Plate XXI, two other divi- deposited with them, other relations between sions, less regular but more lengthy, are trace- the groups may be inferred. The pre-position able in a similar direction. The preservation of No. 67, for instance, seems to have deter- of the mastnbas numbered 50, GO, and 61, mined tbe somewhat symmetrical position of indeed, gives to the way between them the 64. No. 54, again, was probably earlier than appearance of a long walled passage, as shown the mastaba 50, because the smaller tomb is by the jjhotograph in Plate XVI of the west not placed in symmetry with the larger. wall of R 50. Combining all branches of evi- Growth of It is ap|)arent, too, from tlie plan, that both dence, the following seems to have Necropolis. the smaller tombs have been placed with due been the order in which this site regard to the positions and directions of the developed — others, and also bear some relation to the three Early III Dyna.sty. larger mastabas. There are suggestions in Mastfiba Nn. 75 : followed by ^roap 88-89, and airou]) these positions with regard to one another of 80-8.5. the general scheme by which the necropolis Later III Dyiia.st}'. No. 54 : Nos. .50 a.b, followed by 55 a.b. grew ; but it may be well first to examine what Nos. 53, 58, 57 : Nos. 52, .59 ; the tomb, 08. is more distinct, the evidence of the appro.xi- III-IV Dynasty. mations of adjoining structures. On Plate No. 04, followed by 03, (i'i, 01, in .succession. for example, the general view of the XXV, R'-V Dynasty. shrine of Shepses, just shows on the left hand Mastaba No. .50 : the walls, No. 51 and OO. how this tomb had been completed, with the V Dynasty. 08. usual batter to its walls, liefore that numbered 6:5 The Mastaba 70 ; the outer walls of tomb, Independently : III-IV D.ynasty : The series 91-99 to was built up to it. In other cases the evidence the north. is even more clear, where a wall of an existing tomb has been made to serve also for one The foregoing talnilation pre-surraises some placed against it with only three sides new. of the evidences which have not been described For illustration. No. 55a was built against in detail. Some other details may be of No. 54, No. (56 against No. 67 ; No. 70 was interest. The slope of the walls, or angle of 1200. REQAQNAH. NECI n 1200. REQAQNAH. NECROPOLIS of Smaller tombs and Mastabas. XXI. —— CONSTKUCTION OF SMALLER TOMBS S9 batter, was tested in sevci-al cnses, iiinong them The character and construction of this feature the following in its simple form is seen in the next plate, No. of J5iitter. Au^le XXII ; and its elaborate use as an architectural K 1 .sliipe: ") ill H( I, oi' mie-sixth. embellishment appears in the face of the large RoOW. „ : loin iJ-4, nr one-ninth (—). Old Kingdom mastAba No. 7(t on Plate XVII. R 54 W. „ : 23 in V22, or one-fifth { -). The effect of similarity which it gives to the R54N. „ : 17 in 122, or one-seventh (-). R Gl „ : 8 in 80, or one-tenth. outline plans of the smaller tombs, though it ") R 62 „ : in 7U, or one-fourteenth. illustrates a common custom, is not carried out in Ill the better construeted and better pre- furtluT detail. Otlier differences may be found served walls, the average batter lies between Construction, ill the coiistructioii of the tomlis Plate XXII. one-fifth and one-sixth. tliemselves. Excavation shows that The degree of orientation, too, the boundary wall may enclose variously a Orientation. . , . though generally determuied in great vaulted chamber or a large earthenware bowl, measure by the average direction of the Nile or that the interior may be Ijiiilt up solid with a Valley, lacks uniformity. In the larger tombs square shaft descending in the centre. The it is as follows character of the burials themselves varies little, 14i,° and there is equal uniformity between the E, L (West wall of [.assage) : W. R 2 • V° W objects deposited with them. It thus appears E 40. (Central line) : 10.|° W. at first glance that several modes of tomb con- R .54. (West wall) : 17° W. 231° struction are found co-existing at this period, R 64. ^Continuous face) : w. R 70. (East face) : 13° W. superficially resembling one another, but differ- The correction to be applied is about 4° ). { + ing in some details, hence tending from or Though actually losing the effect by differ- merging towards a common form. It would be convenient to first ences of preserved height, there is a general consider those tombs which similarity between the tombs as seen in the are not enclosed uniformly with the plan. This effect arises from the characteristic others, that is to say, with a brick wall panelled feature of early architecture, the panel-recess, with recesses upon its eastern face. used in some cases with great elaboration, but Vaulted tombs, Of thesB there are two chief here occurring only once or twice, upon the unenclosed kinds of present interest : the one eastern face, in all cases towards the southern is a vaulted burial chamber, built simply in end. The tombstone or other object is some- a hole dug in the groinid, and found like all times found within, as at El Kab and Hiera- the smaller tombs, covered with sand and hidden konpolis, and the evolution into a shrine or from sight. There is no picture here to show chapel is seen in the two instances numbered 62 the first appearance of one of these ; but on and 64 of this necropolis.' The architectural Plate XXIII the burial No. 110 is seen lying development of tliis feature is not traced : it under the ])artly opened roof, while the details occurs highly developed in the so-called tomb of this double arch are seen more clearly on of Mena at Negada ' of the First Dynasty. Nor Plate XIV. is it peculiar to Egyptian architecture, being familiar in the early monumental works of It is of singular interest to notice that in appearance and construction this class of tomb, Chaldffia ; and it disappears from common use in Egypt after the time of the Old Empire. though here covered by nearly two metres of deep desert gravel, is exactly similar to a form ' Cf. Maspero: ArcJiacologi/ (1902), p. 342. ' M.T.R., p. 157. commonly to be seen standing above ground in 40 THE THIRD EUYPTIAN DYNASTY many Arab cemeteries of to-day. Four or five course are supported by weight of brick or other thousand years have changed it not at all : for means. A second course is then laid upon the common use in Moslem burial it is the same now first, similarly projecting inwards beyond the in character, in construction, and in appearance course l^elow, further closing tlie top. The as it was then in the Third Egyptian Dynasty ; process is repeated and carried up until the only that now the direction of the graves tends two sides meet, and being solidly built tend towards the focus of Islam, whereas then it lay mutually to support one another further. Com- parallel with the Nile. Whether indeed its monly only two or three courses were used in use has been continuous tlu'oughout the inter- a roof of this character, like that of tomb -jti vening ages cannot be said, it may seem doubt- shown on Plate XIV ; but this principle was ful ; but it is of that simple design, coml)ining common and might be put to elaborate purpose, ease of building with cheapness of material, as in the case of the roofed passage to the burial which in a country where Nature suggests no chamber of N^zem-Ankh at Bet Khallaf. ' change, is most likely to persevere. The hole Cases at EI Toml)s of this kind have been Amrah. being dug, two low brick walls of the required found in othcr sites, and seem to length are raised parallel to one another : at be of eai'lier origin. At El Amrah they were one end they abut upon the desert, or are joined observed and their construction carefully de- there by a cross wall. The first bricks of the scribed." The roof there seems in all cases to vaulted roof are laid against this, leaning to have been the false arch : and the furniture it, and supported thus, by friction and mud- of the tombs, chiefly pottery and stone vases, mortar, even in the process of construction was all of that character which is found to before the span is completed. The next course, appear at the close of the jire-dynastic period. which extends the vault though like an inde- The conclusion to which the excavator came pendent arch, leans similarly back against from his consideration of the class in which he that which was just completed, to which it is would include this form of tomb is not a little bonded. In this way the barrel roof extends significant, though it refers more closely to the the length of the wall, leaving to the eye the form of tomb next to be considered. His com- effect, from the slant of the successive spans, jjarison of the forms of bowls and pottery, de- of a vault that has partly collapsed in the posited in these tombs at El Amrah and those dii-ection of its length. It is a common Oriental of Abydos, definitely assign the class to the method ; its use is found alike in the ruins First Dynasty, without excluding the possibility of ancient Khorsabad and in modern buildings that they may have extended a short way into of the Upper Nile. the Second. The vaulted tombs of this char- The exposed end may then be closed l)y At El Kab. an independent piece of walling, either ex- acter found at El Kalj are de- ternal or just inside the aperture. Another scribed, owing to reasons already explained, method of building the root was equally as belonging to the Middle Kingdom.' The familiar, and of possibly earlier origin. The definite relative dates now assigned to the side walls being made sufficiently strong to archaeological types which formed the basis support the thi-ust, either by their thickness or for this conclusion, enable the period to lie by pressure of sand outside, a course of bricks defined with j)recisiuu from the complete and is laid along them so that the ends of the bricks ' u.M.iv. ri.xxiv. project uniformly a little way over the interior ^E.M.A., 3-5. p.p. 28, 34. on either hand. The exterior ends of this ' Q.K., pp. 13, 14. CONSTRUCTION OF SMALLER TOMBS 41 scientific record which the excavator gave continued. The class occurs also at the Re- of his observation. It must appear that the qaqnah within an enclosure, as mentioned majority of these tombs at El Kab pertain below. The other form of tomb superficially to the same period as those of Reqaqnah, unlike the majority at Reqaqnah, and occin-ring namely the early Old Kingdom or the Third Plain itself but rarely, is that of a plain Rectangular and Fourth Dynasties. One or two toml)s, in rectangular enclosure. Of this particular No 264, seem to suggest a date in simpler type the group of tombs the Second or early Third Dynasty from its 88a, b, and 89, seen on Plate XXIV, is the only accumulation of pottery forms, which may be example. As shown in the plan, it is built up to classed under Nos. 12 and 22 on Plate XIII, an early stairway mastaba,and the pottery found and other associated ol)jects ; but none of them in it (XIII, 2, 5), is of the character familiarly apparently reach beyond that period in the Old met with in the stairway tombs of the locality. Kingdom where the class of objects familiar to The date of the group is thus plainly of the the early dynasties is gradually replaced by early Third Dynasty, and the association with the newer forms. it of a limestone stela of Se-Mery, inscribed and That the custom was continuous carved in low relief, makes the result of special At Ballas. however, appears from its occur- interest. A style of tomb so simple and rence at Ballas in an association which must elementary can hardly claim history a separate ; assign it in this instance to the early Middle yet its origins are carefully described in tlie Empire from the Sixth to the Eleventh pages of El Amrah, and its early analogies Dynasties.' The vases and pottery were an- noted. It may Ije that this was in fact the alogous in form and character to those forerunner of the well-tomb so familiar in the found in sites of this date at Dendereh later times. In the present instances the graves and at Mahasna. Bead necklaces, too, were 88a and n, with the small svu'face inclosure, common, made variously of shell, glaze and in which the stela was found on the eastern side, " " cornelian. In one case a button lying, it is seem to have been built first ; then 88c and 89 said, upon a man's jaw, and in another a seem to have been added successively, though scarab without inscription, are significant evi- there is nothing to suggest any interval of time dence. From what has since been learnt of the between the beginning of this group and its period of these objects, the general date of these completion. cases may be definitely inferred/^ It is of With the exception of the two Enclosed i . i i i -i 1 interest to find them here as elsewhere in de- relatively rare classes described tombs. •' finite association with graves of the recognized above, the tombs of this necropolis pre-dynastic character, though the excavator were rendered uniform in outer appearance by himself came to the independent conclusion the character of the wall which enclosed them from their relations that these tombs were on every side. However dissimilar in the clearly of a period posterior to that of the interior, they presented to the eye a walled " foreign " (really the prehistoric) race. superstructure, plain on three sides, but It is thus seen that this class of tomb, the panelled on the eastern face with a recess vaulted chamber (unenclosed) is familiar from similar to that shown in the photograph of before the First Dynasty till the dawn of the R 54 on Plate XXII. Middle Empire, and that its use was probably The same motive carried along e pane ^|^^ ^^^^ cousecutively is the familiar ' Q.B. p. 2. § 4 C2). recess. ' CM. PL XXXIX. decoration of the walls of large 42 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY mastabas (e.g. Tomb 75, Plate XVII). Some- some period shortly after the time of Seneferu, times the recess is represented in depth by a and, therefore, in the early Fourth Dynasty. single brick, as in the enclosure of the pot- (b) With regard to the age and origins of bnrials which adjoined the above (No. SSa, on the vaulted chamber, there is little more to add Plate XXYII). More commonly it is donljle, to the description given in a preceding section as seen on Plate XXII in the photograph of of this cha])ter. The addition of an enclosing pottery deposited against the side of No. 08. wall seems to be hei-e a development which is In other cases more elaborated it reaches a also chronological. That is to say, the vaulted depth of three bricks, or even more. Usually tombs which are enclosed seem also to be the in these smaller tombs there is one recess only, earlier and original practice. As in tlie case of eastward from the position of the body in the the enclosures of pot-burials, it may be that burial chamber. In cases where the tomb here the surrounding walls were built to consists of several separate portions there is harmonize witji the general architecture of the commonly one to each division, as in the necropolis, which was also characteristic of the larger tomb of Shepses, Plate XXV. In other age. That this was probably the case appears cases two are found, either dictated by a length from the case of tomb No. 68 shown in the of plain wall (e.g. R .56) or to add to an plate (No. XXII), and in the plan preceding. otherwise poor effect (e.g., R 55). In no case Here the vault seems to have been constructed in the smaller tombs are more than two recesses at some time just subsequent to the date of the found on a wall, nor do they appear on any early masti\ba, No. 75, to the west, which it other than the eastern face. Even in the adjoins, and a numerous deposit of pottery largest mastabas the western face (which was vessels (chiefly of the forms 11 and 12 of also towards the desert) is always plain. Plate XIII and their analogies) was placed With this general similarity in their outward near it on the eastern side. At a somewhat appearance, the enclosed tombs resolve them- later date, when the mastaba No. 70 was selves into four classes, distinguished by constructed or completed, in order seemingly differing forms of their interiors. to protect this tomb and at the same time to (/. Vaulted chambers within an enclosed area. preserve the harmony of appearance, the h. Large inverted pots within an enclosed area. panelled wall was built around it in the corner c. Square shafts through solid superstructure. formed by the adjoinment of the two mastabas, d. Square shafts within an enclosed area. upon and al)ove the pottery vessels which the (a) The first of these sub-divisions, the photograph shows to be lying under and cases of burials under inverted pots, will form around the wall on either side. The examples the subject of a subsequent chapter. It will of this class are plentiful. No. 56a, which is be seen that the custom is of early, possibly seen in the photograph of Plate XV, is a good pre-dynastic, origin, and that it continued into example, and No. 560 is similar to it. No. 80, the early days of the Fifth Dynasty. The two shown in detail on Plate XXIII, is deeper or three cases here in which they are enclosed within, and some of the offerings of pottery with a panelled wall, Nos. 55.\-b on Plate remained in the enclosed recess of its eastern XXVI and 250 on Plate XXVIl, may have a wall. local peculiarity suggested by the pre-existing A further case, No. 72, may be seen from the character of the surrounding tombs. It will photograph of Plate XV. to be less usual. be seen that these instances, from their Here the vault is placed at the foot of a associations mid furnitui-e, must be assigned to square shaft of iirickwork abont two metres in CONSTRUCTION OF SMALLER TOMBS 43 depth. This seems to \>e a definite link witli chamber, in the eastern interior wall of which the sub-division next to be described. was a wooden shrine of striking interest. (c) The pit-touibs or toml)S designed essen- This was composed of wooden jambs, recessed tially with a vertical shaft leading down to a in the usual way, with lintels above, the upper burialchaniberbelowthe ground, were uniformly and outer one s(|uared, the lower one rounded. similar in these features. They differed in the On the central panel was the figure of Shepses character of the superstructure, which was in with staff and baton, and the jambs are some cases solid, and in other cases merely an inscribed in relief in an early manner (Plates enclosure or enclosing wall. Those which XXTX, XXX). It is prototype of the were solid were related to one other and to the false door of later times. The end of the general necropolis ; those which were hollow mastaba, just seen on the left of the photo- were confined to a mound apart in the graph of the general view of the shrine on extreme north of the site. This distinction is Plate XXV, is completed with the usual batter also one of time ; for the former were homo- and finish. It thus apjiears that buildings geneous and dated approximately to the age of which abut upon it to the south, Nos. 03, 62, Seneferu ; while the latter were a slightly later ()1, 60, are of consecutively later work. growth dated by a cylinder seal of Khaf-ra. In the first of these cases, tomb No. 03, no The solid superstructures are in effect mastabas, chamber had been made, and the burial lay, and their tombs are models in miniature of the therefore, in a usual attitude at the bottom of greater structures which are more familiar by the shaft, as shown in Plate XXIV, and that name. In the plate (No. XXII) the described in the ensuing chapter. The other photographs of the nameless tomb No. 54 pit-tombs were normal ; some, however, were so show that it was nevertheless a well-finished deep that though the excavation of them was and imposing building. It had a length of continually postponed as water was come to, 7 metres, and is pi-eserved to a height of yet at the end of the season, with the approach 1 1 m. The walls have a uniform batter of of summer, their depth had not been fathomed. one-seventh, and the panel recess is constructed It was certainly greater than 13 metres. with some elaboration. The shaft is lined with (d.) The pit-tombs enclosed merely Shafts merely i bricks to a depth of 2 m., and leads i n i_i i down , , by an outer wall were themselves enclosed. ^ to a small chamber situated, as in all cases, to similar. In some of them the the south. In this the burial was found chambers were very small, and the burial undisturbed, as described in the ensuing consequently lay partly protruded into the chapter. bottom of the shaft. A weakness of the Still larger, and more elaborate, was the gravel bed at this jxjiut may have been the tomb structure of Shepses, royal scribe of cause. In some cases,' as may be seen in the Seneferu. In this case the building was 10 m plan, the enclosure was comparatively large, (33 feet) long, and, as may be seen in the while its wall was only one or two bricks plan, consisted of three portions, continuous thickness. but distinct. The northern end was solid, and In addition to these four chief Other cases, i; was furnished with a threefold panel in its classes,i tombsi or graves ot excep- eastern face. The central portion enclosed the tional character were occasionally met with. shaft which led down to the undisturbed Irarial The small and simple enclosure. No. 6i^ on Plate chamber. The southern end consisted XXIII, with its cover of large bricks, is an essentially of a small chapel over the burial instance, and being apparently a hasty expe- 44 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY dient, hardly constitutes a type. Possibly the of the district at the close of the Third imitation of round pot forms illustrated on Dynasty and the beginning of the Fourth. Their Plate XXVII should Ije included under this general co-relation with regard to date may category. A more striking case is that more suitably belong to the general problem of numbered 71 on Plate XV, where the design burial customs of the period, and will of a rectangular enclosure is combined with accordingly be considered in tlie ensuing that of the familiar form of recess, which is chapter. In this main question the evidence accordingly built on the eastern interior face, of tomb construction is naturally of first that is, of its western wall. importance, and may be used as a basis for the Such was the disposition and discussion. It is, therefore, convenient to character of the smaller tombs con- tabulate in some way suitable for reference the stituting the necropolis at Reqaqnah, repre- different classes into whicli the tombs have been sentative probably of the middle classes seen to group themselves. ANALYSIS OF SMALLER TOMBS AT REQAQNAH. Class. REQAQNAH. SMALLER TOMBS R 54 & R 68, LATE 111"'^ DYN. 22. SITUATION OF TOMB STRUCTURE PANEL RECESS, EAST WALL SHAFT MOUTH, FROM N W UUFilAL Df.i.,A>ED' f; .:^!$^^'; ^^ DEPOSIT OF POTTERY, FROM N. E TOMB-VAULT, WITHIN — ; CHAPTPJR IX r.t'K'IAL CI'STOMS. a. liurial Types in General. Plates XXII-IV. b. The Tomb of Shepses. Plate XXV. ri^HE previous chapter has considered the con- and in their earliest form followed a separate -A- struction of the smaller tombs found in ohiss in the catalogue which Mr. Maclver tlie necropolis of the Third Dynasty at Reqaq- gave of the tombs from the latter site.' There in the First nali : this and the subsequent chapter will be they appear to have come into use concerned rather with tlie burial ciistoms of the Dynasty, and to have continued during the period, the method of interment, and the furni- latter growth of the necropolis. The form ture placed with the dead. The differences evolves naturally from the unl>ricked grave of between them, distinguished here as types, similar shape, Avhich is again related back will be found chiefly in tlie character of the directly with the oblong, oval and round graves tombs themselves, and their relations one to of the prehistoric character. It appears to the other will thus depend in great measure have been roofed in various ways, as for in- upon the evidences already considered. stance in the case of the small grave No. 66, By turning over the plates of illustrations it Plate XXIII, roofed with a flat cover of brick may be seen that the first appearance of the but in its essential character of a four-sided burials present many differences, and it will Ije enclosure of lirick walling, it seems to have the object of the present chapter to see whether lieen roofed with boughs and twigs plastered these bear any relation to the character of the over with mud. tombs, and so farther advance the general No. R 88a. In the plates (XXIV and XV) only Plate XXIV. problem. ^ijj.gg pgggg Qf t-]ae Third Dynasty In the preceding chapter it was seen that are illustrated, but they include some features the tombs of the site group themselves into six of special interest. In the case of that num- classes, and it will be convenient to follow the bered R 88a, Plate XXIV, the chamber was order of tabulation with which tliat chapter about one metre in depth, with the same width concluded and a slightly greater length. Within, the (i.) Burials with rectangular enclosures, burial lay with the knees sufficiently bent to ' (ii.) Burials under inverted pottery vessels. admit the body to the grave. The original (iii.) Burials in vaulted tombs, presence of a decayed wood cotfin or lining to (iv.) Burials in pit-tombs with solid super- the tomb, was suspected by certain indications, structure. l)ut could not be proved. The face was towards (v.) Burials in pit-toml)s with enclosing the east, as the photograph shows, and behind wall, the head was a pot of the form No. 2 of Plate (vi.) Exceptional cases. XIII. Against the tomb on its eastern side, within a brick enclosiu'e, was a limestone stela, (i.) Burials (i-) The siuiple class of burial in Quadran- -^Yitliin a rectangular enclosure has a in somewhat poor condition, bearing a name gular " Enclosures, naturally early origin. They have which may be that of Se-Mery," a royal been observed at KawAmil and El Amrah, ' R.M.A., pp 11-12. 46 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY " Uab." The hieroglyphs are in relief, as also then overturned in its appointed place. In is the carved figure of the deceased, who is this way there is a total disregard of cardinal represented in the earlier style, with staff and points. Some examples occur within a masoned baton. This is one of the earliest private stela enclosure, others lie unattended in the desert known : it is now in the Ashmolean Museum sand. In the case of brick tombs built in at Oxford. imitation of this form, the lower course or No. R 1 In another tomb of the same courses seem to have first been laid, and the Plate XXIV. group, No. 89, Plate XXIV, the hodj then placed within. The building was grave is longer, and the l)ody consequently then completed above it. The graves of this extended. In this case the face looked towai-ds kind are accompanied commonly by the familiar the east, and no pottery or furniture of any kind forms of rough pottery. Types 2, 3, 11, 12, were placed with the deceased. The inner face of Plate XIII. the wall which enclosed the tomb was plastered (iii.) In (iii.j The evolution of this class of Vaulted . • > -, ^ i i ^ t- with mud, and even the outer wall of No. 88f', Tombs, brick tombs with vaulted roots has Plate xxiii. against which it was built, thus forming its jjggjj described already in the pre- north end, was similarly treated. Tlie other ceding chapter. The chamber is sufficiently compartments of this group contained little. long to enclose a full size coffin ; and its roof, No. 88 1!, which was attached to 88a, contain originally an imitation made on a principle of fragments of characteristic early pottery, chiefly compensated projection, became in the Third the form Type 12 of Plate XIII. The chamber and Fourth Dynasties a real arch constructed in 88c, which was distinct but not separated from different ways. This seems to be a class the two former, was quite enqity. definitely separable from that of simple quad- No. R71, A variant of these forms appears rangular enclosures, though included in that Plate XV. jjj ^jjg exceptional case of tomb category by the excavator of El Amrah.' It R 71, which lay on the western side oF the may, indeed, have evolved typologically from a large mastaba 75. Here the enclosure was small enclosure covered by slabs of brick somewhat large, but shallow, being, as may be placed across the top : the present excavation seen in the photograph of Plate XV, but five disclosed both that character of roof and a courses deep. In the eastern face of the further stage in which the grave being some- western and therefore inner wall, a panel-recess what wider the bricks were brought into ap- had been constructed as described in the pre- proximation at the top from either side. In ceding chapter. Along the eastern side, and this relation the earliest Ijurials were necessarily towards the south end of the enclosure, the compressed or contracted, as in the case burial lay extended on its back. No other grave No. R 66 on Plate XXIII. But the matured was found analogous to this, custom, as it seems preferable to separate it from ("') ^'^^ class of burials underlarge the introduction of a new principle of con- (ii ) Under Large Pots, inverted pottery vessels presents so struction, shows a certain uniformity. The [Chapter X.j • r j. i> i ^ i • many features of interest, and is re- burial lies in nearly every case extended, the presented both here and elsewhere in a series so head north and face eastward, with some complete, that a separate chapter, which follows contraction at the knees as determined I)y this, is devoted to its description. The burials the size of the tomb. There seemed, in most themselves were necessarily always violently cases, to be indications of wood coffins, hope- contracted ; and it seems })robable that the dead lessly decayed, in which they had been enclosed. was squeezed first into the vessel, which was 'K.M.A., p. 11. REQAQNAH. BURIAL TYPES, R 80, R 66 AND R 110, 111"° DYN. 23, REQAQNAH. BURIAL TYPES, R 88a, R 89 AND R 63, \\\^° DYN. 24. BURIAL DEPOSIT, VASES AND SHELLS. BURIAL FROM ABOVE, S BURIAL CUSTOMS 47 Pottery characteristically of tlie Tiiird Dynasty, XXII, XXIV and XXA\ numbered 54, 63, 64 both the rougher elements and the recurring respectively. finely polished red pieces (e.g. Types 1, 2, 11, The burying place itself is usually a s mall re- 12, l-l, 22 on Plate XIII), was placed com- cess under the southern end, at the bottom of monly in the grave, either within the vault or the shaft which leads vertically down through outside the door, or against the place of the gravel. The chamber itself is not masoned offerings on the eastern face. In one case a in any way, but about the mouth of the shaft wooden head-rest, with fluted column, lay near there is commonly a supporting wall which may the head (Plate XXXII). extend deeper than the general mass of the Perhaps no better illustration of this method superstructure. The whole series of this type of interment could be found than that num- is referred by analogy and position to the tomb bered R 80. In Plate XXIII may be seen of Shepses (No. 04), in which was found a bowl three photographs : the first shows the offering inscribed with the name of Seneferu, kiner place and recess on its eastern face (at the at the close of the Third Dynasty. south end, as usual) ; the second, a general view In No. 54 (Plate XXII) the burial No. 54. of the enclosure with the top of the vault based lay fully contracted in the small below ; the third, a view from above of the chamber, with head north and face east, as the burial itself, after partially removing the roof photograph somewhat indistinctly shows. In for the purpose. (The left frmiir is seen to the chamber on the east side of the liurial were have been broken and badly joined.) The three pieces of pottery, two of them examples character of the pottery is l)y photo- shown of the Type No. 2, Plate XIII ; and one of graph on Plate XXXI. The appearance of them a finely polished standing spouted vessel other burials of this class was very similar, of best red pottery and finish, the form of differences occurring only in construction of which is outlined on Plate XXXIT, No. 4. Both the tomb. The burial R 110 on the same plate, pots are shown in the photographs of Third for instance, shows a similar general character. and Fourth Dynasty pots and Plate XXXI, Other burials conforming directly with the being the first and third of the upper row. type were Nos. 50a-e (Plate XV), Xo. 22 Burial No. 64 was even more con- No. 64. (Plate XV), No. 68 (Plate XXII), and others, tracted , and seemed to have been set Nos. 57, 58, 67, 97, 98, 99 not illustrated on in hard mud. It lay in the same relative posi- the plates. A catalogue of the separate tomb- tion as the above. As seen in the photograph deposits will be found appended to Chapter XI. of Plate XXV, it was accompanied by a deposit (iv.) Pit It has been found convenient to of two alabaster pieces, both broken—the one pia°^ XXII, distinguish typologically between the a table, the other a bowl in which, as stated, XXIV, XXV. i^Q classes of pit-tombs at Reqaq- was the graffito of Seneferu. nah, namely those which are covered by a The burial numbered 63 was not No. 63. ., ,, solid superstructure through which the shaft ([uite tne same in appearance or descends, and those which are merely enclosed position. The gravel bed in which the shaft by a surface wall. Their features are described was dug was vei'y yielding, and no chamber in the preceding chapter. The examples of had been cut under the end for the reception each kind : are plentiful the burying places of of the burial ; the Ijody therefore lay in a less the mastilba tombs themselves fall into contracted attitude at the bottom of the shaft. one or other of these divisions. Of the A birds'-eye view taken from a difficult former kind illustrations occur on Plates position shows the features of the burial on 48 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY Plate XXIV. The outline of the decayed Nefeni vwr (Khafra), beloved of the Gods, is bones is seen in the dark earth, and at the shown on Plate XXXII. Another burial of head are a number of objects of stone and this class. No. !•'.), was accompanied by a well- shell. The deposit rested undisturbed, as seen worked bowl of steatite, shown in the same in the photograph, and the adjoining picture photograph. Other bi;rials e.g., Nos. 93, 95, shows its character. It comprises a table, a 9G, were furnished with pottery of the tyyjes standing vase of alabaster, and a bowl of the 2,3,11, 12, Plate XIII, as shown in the in- same material, a small vase of diorite and ventory at the end of Chapter XI. Proliably another of breccia, two shells, the one an owing to the damp character of the ground oyster, the other a common species found in the chambers for these tombs had not been the Red Sea, and a bracelet seemingly of bone. properly excavated ; and sometimes the burials By reference to Plate XXXII, where the forms lay partly protruding into the shaft, l)ut they of these objects are shown in outline, it may preserve nope the less their uniformity of be seen that the bowl of alabaster is of an un- appearance, being all fully contracted, with usual and interesting character. It seems to head generally north, and face toward the east. represent directly a form better known in It thus appears that the distinction between the copper, with an inner ridge all round to imitate two classes of pit-tombs is entirely one of the joining of two portions of different curva- super-construction, and that they are otherwise ture which compose it. The object is exquisitely related by character of the burials and tomb its out- furniture, dated objects almost con- wrought : the central basin which on and by side preserves the general straightness of temporaneous. outline and flat bottom, on the inside is worked (vi.) It has already been seen that the Exceptional down in a curve to the thinness of paper. [It ij^'jals occurriug here and there in at the Ashmolean remains, witli the group, Plates x'v. the necropolis at Reqaqnah are Museum.] XXIII, allied ultimately in character and class of pit (V.) Pit Burials in the second in tomb structure to one or more of the pre- Tombs (b). tombs wcro entirely analogous, but ceding classes, of which they are local variants. owing to an accident of situation it was not Thus the burial No. 71 shown on Plate XV, possible to obtain good photographs of them. within an enclosure somewhat differing in In some cases water stood in the bottom of the features from all others, still falls under (llass tombs for some weeks after they had been (i.) of quadrangular enclosures. The burial cleared, and it was only after this had dried away itself, extended and with head south, is excep- that the burial could be traced with difficulty tional —indeed, unique. Another case, No. Q^^ from the position of the decayed bones. These on Plate XXIII, is similarly to be allotted to shafts were uniformly somewhat deeper, aver- Class (iii.) of vaulted tombs, being indeed but a aging six to seven metres, against four to five of simple reversion to the original motive of such. the former class. The most important of these The burial itself is accordingly contracted. burials was No. 92, with which was a deposit Other exceptional cases occur, though early shown by photograph on Plate XXXI. It (e.g.. No. 100, allied to No. GO, but not roofed) consists of two small standing vases of ala- but all may be included ultimately in the fore- baster, a finely worked bowl of translucent going classes ; the type of burials may thus diorite, and a small glazed cylinder seal of be summarized, following the classification of Khafra, king of the early Fourth Dynasty. their tombs, with which the preceding chapter The inscri])tionon the latter object lln. Kha.cf., closed. REQAQNAH. TOMB AND BURIAL, R 64, OF THE ROYAL SCRIBE, SHEPSES, LATE 111''° DYN. 25. A5 FOUN' CLOSED OOOn OF BURIAL CHAMBER, FROM ABOVE. DEPOSIT ILEFT) AND BURIAL /. R uniform batter of 1 in (i. Near the northern //. Pnttcr;/ Vessiix. — Burials fully contracted; no definite |)osition. Here as usual not accompanied by objects end of this face (Plate XXI) is a small recess of thau rough pottei'y, but elsewhere (e.g. El Kab) other the kind already familiar, and in the place found richly furnished. more usual near the southern end is a further iii. Vaulted Chamlicm. — Burials generally extended, elaboration of the same motive. Here, as the with head invariably north and face east ; accompanied with rough and also with polished pottery vessels. photograph shows, a doorway leads into a ir. and v. Pit !roHi6.s. — Burials invariably contracted, small chamber or chapel, in the opposite wall with head north and face east. Furnished variously in of which, facing the east, is a panel recessed cases with vases and deposits of good quality, or with the between two pre-posed jambs on either side, rougher pottery. Two objects inscribed with kings' names, and one inscribed and panelled Shrine of with a rounded lintel, all of wood. It is in fact " Shepses, Royal Scribe." a prototype of the false doors common in a later vi. Exceptional cases are generally referable to one or period. The picture shows that tlie grave is more of these classes. inscribed with hieroglyphs in relief, and that the panel bears a figure of the deceased in civil h. THE TOMB OF SHEPSES. Plate XXV. dress, holding his staff and baton. The inscrip- tion was unfortunately most difficult to follow, The foregoing pages and the preceding the whole surface having been destroyed by chapter have given a description of the smaller the insidious woodworms so that the whole tombs at B-eqaqnah and the l)nriiil cu.stoms crvimliled away to the touch. So much as could which they exemplify. It may be fitting at be made out is further shown in detail on Plates this stage of the work to single out as a basis XXVIII-XXIX. But beyond giving the for comparison this tomb of Shepses, Royal name, Shepses, of the deceased, with his title, Scribe, for special description, to illustrate the Seten Se.'^h (Royal Scribe), and some indication kind of burial accorded at the close of the Tiiird of one formula known in the Old Empire, Dynasty to a somewhat important minor little more can be made out. official. It is not alone on account of the The surface of the tomb being cleared of identification possible in this case that it seems sand and stone, it was found to be structurally all worthy of special mention, but because also of solid, with the exception of a central shaft, two certain architectural features peculiar to its metres square at its mouth, whicli descended superstructure, as well as the completeness and to a depth of four metres. At this point the preservation of its interior. entrance to the burial chamber was reached on The building itself is seen in the photograph the south, showing the door closed up with on Plate XXV to have the appearance of an brickwork and imdisturbed. Opening this the oblong rectangular block of masonry, standing almost empty chamber revealed the simplicity rather more than a metre high above the of the burial. On removing a small accumula- original level of the desert. Until the clearing tion of rubbish fallen from the hollowed roof, seen in the picture was made it was entirely the bones of the dead were found in a fully con- hidden from view, and the regular surface of tracted and huddled-up position on the western the ground was covered, as the interior is seen site, with a deposit of one bowl and one table DYNASTY 50 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN natural size. It is the name, " Seten biti of alabaster on its eastern side, both broken. Se-nefer-u, " of Heneferu, the king of Upper On freeing the bowl it was found to be incised l^gypt, with whose death the Third on the inside with the graffito shown in the and Lower Egyptian Dynasty came to a close. plate by photographic enlargement, twice the CHAPTER X BURIALS UNDER rOTTKRV VE8SKLS. With Plates XXVI, XXVII. i^ONTINUITY of custom through the of this class, on the other hand, particularly ^^ earliest dynasties seems to be further those at Bl Kab,' are more elaborately furnished illustrated by a mode of burial more strange than those of other kinds which are more but not less significant than tliose which have plentiful. been described. From the latter end of the pre- The associations of these graves are fairly dynastic ]ieriod, continuing through the First, clear. In the early stages, at the close of Second, and Third Dynasties, so far as those the pre-dynastic period, they are found here can be distinguished, tlie crude method of and there, with the graves familiar to that time, interment in a large inverted bowl seems to and as the early stairway tombs begin to evolve have survived, and become possibly moi'e com- and the period merges with the early dynasties, mon, at the dawn of the Old Kingdom, when they are found with these, too, sometimes as other traces of the earlier manners were already separate burials, and sometimes in small fast disajjjjearing. chambers occupying the chief position in the The custom was never general : the recorded tombs. liater again, with the advent of tlie instances are few, and though doubtless others Old Kingdom, and the gradual disappearance of have been observed, yet it seems clear that this the stairway tomb in favour of the large mastaba, method was more generally familiar than these pot graves are found again in relation, practised. Whetlier, indeed, it was reserved for sometimes in the centre of a special small some special class or caste cannot be asserted building, at others placed in one of the main upon pi'esent evidence, though it may reason- burial places of a large mastaba which includes ably be conjectured. That it was generally some of the more general customs also. Before known is suggested by the diversity of the trying to establish any co-relation, it may be sites from Kawamil, north of Reqaqnah, to El well to examine first both the new instances Kab in the south. The persistence of this observed in this e.xpedition, illustrated on custom while others changed, too, in view of its Plates XXVI, XXVII, and to glance also comparative rarity, seems further to suggest through the accounts of other previously a special raisoii (.Vtire. From the nature of recorded examples. some instances which will be adduced, it does The burials of this class throwing most light not seem likely, as supposed by the explorer of upon the present problem are those two illus- EJ A II) rail, ^ that it is explained by the sub- trated on Plate XXVI. The burials them- stitution of a cheap ready-made receptacle for selves were much as usual. On inverting the the more elaborate cist or coffin. Some burials pots the bones of the buried were found entire, ' R.M.A., p. 11. 1 Q.K. pp. 4, 0, 9. 52 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY in the one case, numbered 55a, with the head chamber towards the south, which has already towards the north-east, in the other (70a), which been assigned in this necropolis to the period is plainly shown, with the head directly south. of Seneferu at the very end of the Third Dynasty. The former were black with the adhesion of The pottery deposited with this burial was some resinous substance, as in a case recorded accordant with this date. The mastaba No. 56 at El Am rah", and accompanying the burial was of a possibly earlier but nearly contem- was a rough pot shown in the photograph of the porary form, enclosing in a thin wall, with type No. 2 on Plate XIII, which is known to have small panels on the eastern face, a burial vault persevered from the late pre-dynastic period covered with an imitation arch. It is thus through the early dynasties to the beginning clear that the tomb R 55 is of date subsequent of the Old Empire.- In the latter case the to the end of the Third Dynasty. But that it was bones lay vividly white and undisturbed, and not widely separated in date from the tombs tlie large bowl, which was itself somewhat which it adjoins is probable, both from its rough, was not accompanied by any furtlier position in the necropolis, the analogous panels examples of pottery. In the details of burying, in its eastern face, and from the types of pots as in general, there is to be seen no conformity found within it. It is safe to say that it is of in these two cases with any defined custom. date just subsequent to the end of the Third, and The positions of the two coffins, again, were therefore of the early Fourth Dynasty. equally dissimilar, and it is of moment to com- As seen in the plan on Plate XXI, and in pare them in detail. the photogra{>h of the Positions of Enclosures, The tomb R 55 forms part of the general Plate XX\'], the tomb R 55 consists itself of necropolis of the late Third Dynasty. By refer- two separated portions, lettered A and B. Of ence to Plate XXI, it may l)e seen that this these A was the later, being built up to B ; but tomb lies between and abuts upon those num- as the tombs are identical in character with bered 54 and 56. No. 55 is also subsequent similar pot-burials, similarly furnished, they to either of these, because it is merely were probably contemporary, or nearly so. It built up to tlieir walls, which serve at its is also immaterial which one be selected for south and north ends respectively. The plaster illustration. Inside the enclosure, in the which originally covered the northern wall of middle, at the depth of about one metre in each No. 54, as may be plainly seen in the case, the inverted large pot was come upon as photograpli of its east face of R 55, Plate seen with photo (Plate XXVI), accompanied XXVI, is continuous, not only between the with the small pot of type No. 2 (Plate XIII). two walls of No. 55, but also behind the joins The pot tui'ued over revealed the burial as or abutments of these walls, showing that they found shown in the next picture. This is all had been Ijuilt up to an already completed that can well be said in description : the pot structure. The case is similar at the junctions A was rather smaller than usual, and was with R 56. R 55 is thus latei' than either R 54 seemingly made to contain the remains of a or R 56. Now of these. No. 54 is an example small man. of the class of small masti'dja with eastern The other burial under a pottery vessel pic- panel-recess, and with central shaft a few tured on this plate (No. 70 a, Plate XXVI) metres in depth, giving place to a burial was not accompanied by any masonry or other pottery. It was come upon in course of ex- ' R.M.A., p. 11. cavating the great mastaba No. 70, under the -Tor examples, see P.N., xli., 7G : xxix., CO-G'2 P. A., ; Q.H., Ixix., 15. foundations, lying in an older stiatuni of earth. REQAQNAH. BURIALS UNDER POTTERY VESSELS, R 55 & R 70a DATED III"''- V^" DYN. 26. E /> S T F A C F '"' F R n -^^ n BURIAL BELOW POT FROM W. BURIALS UNDER POTTERY VESSELS 53 The mastAba itself is dated to about the Fifth bones themselves being those of a person not Dynasty. We thus have two cases of pot yet adult. The method of construction is illus- burials (in all, three examples), to each of which trated by the picture below, in which is seen one limit of date may be assigned. The one the lowest course of bricks standing upon end, was not before the Third Dynasty (and probably and the beginning of the second course laid not much after) ; the other was not later than horizontally upon them. The bricks on the the Fifth Dynasty, with no limitation at the outer surface had been partly smoothed, and superior date. Since, as has also been seen in other the spaces between them roughly tilled with instances, the tendency in so small a site must broken pieces, and possibly with sand. It is be towards co-relation, and a consequent limi- of special interest to note that this construction tation of periods represented, the natural con- must have been built, in its upper courses at clusion, so far as it is warranted by consideration least, after the burial had been placed in its of three cases, is that on this site the class of destined position. burial pertains to the Fourth Dynasty or just In anotlier case (No. 251), also pictured, the eai'lier: it is thus synchronous, or nearly so, masonry was better and on and the imitation of it. The burial No. 87 is shown in the photograph. illustrated in a series of three photographs ; The six instances of burials under large pots the first shows the large pot as found without described above have been selected as illustrat- relation to anything at hand, in the desert, about ing both the characteristics of this mode of one metre deep. Still, viewing from the west, interment, and those special features which are the second picture shows the bones revealed either peculiar in themselves, or throw some by the up-turning of the pot; while the tliird light upon the nature and period of this strange picture shows in more detail the head towards custom. It seems plain tliat the method of the east, and the partial adherence of the skin, procedure was simply to scpieeze the body, in particularly to the thigh-bone and forearm, these cases unadorned, into a conveniently large preserved by application of some thin bitumin- pot, and to overturn it on the sand, either sunk ous liquid. between lightly-constructed walls, or without No. 250 was found isolated just to the south any further indication of the place of burial. of the mastAba No. 50. The surface was pro- In this site, too, the custom seems to have been tected by a strong retaining wall, with eastern contemporary with the period of the suiTOund- panel, and the large pot was within at a depth ings, the overlap of the Third and Fourth Dynas- of nearly two metres. The burial presented no ties. This does not, however, prescribe the limits unusual feature. to its use. It does not seem, indeed, to have The imitation of this form in brick is of lasted beyond the Old Kingdom ; if so, the exca- pecidiar interest. The best example is that vation of early Middle Empire sites, such as are numbered 59. The photograph on Plate found at Dendereh', Mahasna^, must have XXVII is taken from above, looking down disclosed cases of its survival. But of its upon the rounded construction, the top of which earlier usage there seems to be definite evidence. only had been broken, or had fallen in. Within, At KawAmil, some 20 kilometres Kawamil. the burial lay in the fully contracted northwards of this site, where a position, without accompanying deposit, the i^M.E.P., p. l-KJ. 64 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY span of the western hills abuts and looks down bones. At Abydos,' however, the same writer upon the cultivation, there seem to have been records his observations of several cases of in- cases found in association with pre-dynastic terest. In one case, numbered X 8, a cylindrical remains. flat-bottomed jar of pottery, of a type- supposed At Ballas' the explorer came to to have come into use at the close of the pre- Ballas. the conclusion after observing, but dynastic period, was found with the burial not recording, several instances, that " these below the round pot. Outside, but within the " burials occurred both inside and outside the grave, were three other pots, one specimen of " stairway tombs, and the mouth of the pot the prototype to No. 20, on Plate XIII, and " was sometimes upwards, sometimes down. two of a pot ' similar, but longer and thinner. " No grave was found certainly undisturbed, These three are found to appear late in the " but some Old Kingdom pottery was found in pre-dynastic ]ieriod, and to range also to its " each of them, and it is probable that the close. In a- third case, numbered X 45, " original mastabas (staircase tombs) were of another pot ' with flat bottom and decorated " the Old Kingdom, and also the large round with simple wavy lines, was included with the jjots." It is necessary to note with regard to burial. This pot also is known in the later this statement that observations at other sites pre-dynastic period. Two other graves, agree to demonstrate that the large pots unfortunately distm^bed (X GO and X 72) con- originally were placed mouth downwards, and tained pottery of the same time in which the that disturbance accounts for the finding of prototype of No. 22, Plate XIII is included, them in other positions." It is interesting to and with one was a slate palette also of notice that while the date of the necropolis in jjre-dynastic character. From this site, as well general was misplaced, yet the excavator's as from El Amrah, it appeared that these independent observation of these instances led burials under round pots were co-i'elated with him thus eai'ly to conclusions, now seen by the those within elementary coffins of pottery. light of newer evidences to be so nearly The excavator in fine was able to decide, from correct. consideration of the two sites, that the use of At El Amrali, just south of this mode of burial began in the late pre-dynastic El Amrah. Abydos, the excavator's scientific period and continued (at least some way) into examinations of this class of burial led him, the First Dynasty. from his experience, to record^ that " whenever While interesting in itself as a first example " these burials have not been disturbed, the pot of the application of scientific method to this " is always inverted over the body, which is inquiry, the evidence of this result is also of " laid in a violently contracted jjosition." great moment in its bearing on the question of The nature of these burials at El Amrah continuity. It shows in a scale clearly defined seems to have been similar to those already with regard to its surroundings, the origin of * described ; but, unfortunately, none of the this custom in the late pre-dynastic history of burials there of this class was accompanied by the locality, and its history continues with and any deposit. In one case only the traces re- possibly through the First Dynasty. In the mained of a reed mat which had covered the earlier part of this chapter it was seen that at 1 R.M.A. Abydos, p. 54. ' Q.B., p. 4. 2 P.N., xxxii, 85. =i3R.M.A., p. 11. ' P.N., xl., 3Ga, 38. ' R.M.A., Plate II, No. 3. •> P.N., xxxiii, 21. I REQAQNAH. BURIALS UNDER POTTERY VESSELS, R 87. R 59, R 250 & R 251. examples and imitat lOMO Ci-? *-\.cr- Si-- .A. '-V '%^^' '-'- <>5 ..wiiife t1«BJgggg'fr>. fc-Oi'' THE SAME, NEAfiLf; VI tW ENCLOSURE OF POT BUFilAL FROM N.E THE FORM COPIED IN BRICK. 2r¥^^ -«^4.' ^^^'v- •i.it?' iTi-!F_r, t / ' MPLL .INSTRUCTION OF ABOVE BURIALS UNDER POTTERY VESSELS 55 Reqaqnali the same custom was maintained at decoration. From one of these there were the close of the Third and during the Fourth taken out several objects of ivory, a small Dynasties. Tlie interval also is represented alabaster cup, two shells stained green with by examples ecjually significant and individually malachite, as well as beads of ivory, green of greater interest. felspar, gold, cornelian, l)lue grit and serpentine. In examining the records of obser- There were included beads of cylindrical form vations at El Kab, with due resrard to made of blue grit, with gold caps at the ends. the series of ai'chaeological types moi'e recently The whole character of the deposit is established from the early dynasties, it becomes reminiscent of the pre-dynastic character, yet plain that at this site the cases of this method the cylinder of translucent steatite found with of interment link at once the limits to its range it seems to give the name of ka-ra [nefer-ka], that have been found in the other places probably the Xaipri^ of Manetho, King of the mentioned. It is of singular interest to note Second Dynasty. The character of the deposit that in the case of the same excavator's work is accordant with this reading. at Ballas, while the true archaeological relation In a third case, numbered 185,^ accompanied of these early forms^ was still completely by an ivory comb, stone bowl, beads of various donbtfnl, yet his observations were such that patterns and material, the head of the l)urial they now become evidence of first value. was to the south, and the forms of the pottery analogies in detail the sites of The between found with it seem to assign it in date to the Eeqaqnali and El Kab have been already Second or Third Dynasty. Two further illustratetl ; but the origins of the latter are instances of burials accompanied by consider- considerably earlier. The round hollow graves able funereal deposits, bowls of diorite, tables of ' of pre-dynastic character are frequent, and alabaster and the like, approach more nearly others of the earliest find customs numerous the Reqaqnali period. With the one,' No. ;^0l, examples. was a black stone cylinder ,with the other a piece Cases of burials under large pots at El Kab of diorite bowl, both inscribed with the name of seem also to occur at the earlier dates, and to Seneferu. A seventh example belongs to the be from that time continuously represented. same time. In this case," C 5, the burial was Tliat numbered 231,- for instance, with its placed in one of several shafts of a mastilba, sherds of incised ware and early pottery cannot and was accompanied by diorite and porphyry well be later than the earliest dynasties. No. bowls, alabaster vase and table, a shell with 166,' again, is more definitely dated, as it green paint, and an interesting ivory inlaid a cylinder of to the seems, by Ka-Ea, Second box, The other burials in the mastaba seem to Dynasty. In this case, too, the burial pre- have been nearly contemporary. Tlie eighth served entirely its original furniture. Under instance, No. 42,'' belongs also the Fourth in an the large round vessel o])long grave, Dynasty, being furnished with a typical series in depth, the lay nearly a metre body packed of vases and pottery, which form a group of with in usual contracted position, with mud some interest. A last illustration, though from head to the face east. north and Outside were a disturbed buriaV No. 178, shows a copper same alabaster jars, the remains of an ivory veneered box, and two pots with line and dot ' Q.K., p. 0. '- Q.K., p. 5, XX, 32, ii, I. ' ' Q.K, p. .S3. Q.K., p. 4. § 7, xxiii. viii 2, X 44. 2 Q.K., p. 7, Plate XII. ' Q.K., p. 6, X, 22, 39, 44, 48, xii, 23, 27, 31. ' Q.K., p. !l, Plate 1-7. 5 Q.K., p. 10, XX, 30. B6 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY cylinder of User-Kaf, first king of the Fifth yet unbroken and without a flaw. The second Dynasty, the date at which the whole series question answered is that of the relative comes to an end. The excavator's impressions importance of these burials. So many of of these burials at El Kab led him to remark' them are found without furniture that they that " the early date of these burials can have been regarded in part as a cheap form of " hardly be doubted, but it has not yet been other allied classes with which they are found " determined whether they belonged to the same associated. But that does not seem to be " race as the Neolithic graves, or whether they correct. The examination of this necropolis " belonged to some other element in the at Reqaqnah has shown that nameless and " population." unfurnished graves at this age are no proof of poverty. The tomb of the royal scribe Shepses The selection of these examples of the time of Seneferu was not furnished at ^^^' of burials under large pottery greater cost than the graves of some nameless persons El vessels has been made chiefly with a view to at Kab whether of the same age or illustrating the range and continuity of this earlier, whose bodies rested simply under an custom. The series has thrown light incident- inverted bowl. ally upon two other associated problems. The A third point arises, in conclusion, and same sites which indicate the range of time requires a short consideration. Much of what delimit also in great measure the extent of has been demonstrated, particularly with regard country in which the use of this method has to the dates of the various graves, relies for its been chiefly observed. It is not to be concluded truth upon the assumed contemporaneity of that the custom was confined to the country early types in different localities. That this is lying between Thinis and Hierakonpolis. Cases a safe hypothesis for the later times of the have been observed in rock-hewn tombs north New and Middle Empires is known by even of Beni Hasan. Yet up to the present numerous examples. In the early days, too, the sites which most numerously represent this there is no reason to suppose that it was class are those districts of the upper country otherwise. The common forms of the pre- which are now best known from excavations. dynastic types in different and often widely separated places, the signs of a similar course The association of this custom indeed, with of development both at different sites, and on other burial customs of early origins, however the same sites at different epochs, and, more they might change, is not a little remarkable. conclusively, the remarkable dated analogies Through all the gradual changes by which the between burying places so far removed as early simple grave gave way to the early Reqaqnah and El Kab, go far to establish the stairway tombs, and these merged with the probability of this supposition. commoner mastAba, the instances of these pot- burials are foiuid in association not numer- It may then be concluded upon ous, but unvarying and persevering. And Conclusion, ^j^^ pi-gseut evideucc of observed conversely their associations are in all cases cases that the custom of interment under those which are uni(|uely of early origins and large round pots appears in Upper Egypt at the natural development. In this way a small close of the pre-dynastic period, and is evidence becomes of importance, though but a uniformly continuous through the early single thread in the bond of continuity it is dynasties to the advent of the Fourth. It is 'Q.K., pp. 10, 11. associated with other early modes of burial, at BURIALS UNDEE POTTERY VESSELS 57 tii-st only by proximity, and later also by appearance of the burial, which though not co-relation. As a practice it is not common, uniform as to orientation, invariably recalls the Init it is constant ; nor it is not demonstrably modes of Inu'ial familiar in the earliest representative of poorer or richer people or of origins, and it often appears to be furnished a differing element of race. But the latter with objects themselves seemingly of earlier possibility is suggested also by the intrinsic character than the period to which it belongs. CHAPTER XI ORTECTS FROM THK SMALLER TOMHS. With Plates XXVIII-XXXII. a. Inscribed : (ii (ii) Objects Stelie (xxviii) : Door frame (xxix) (iii) Clay balls (xxxL b. Smaller : ; Objects (iv^ Pottery and stone vases (xxxi) : (v) Forms of same (xxxii\ c. Inventory of Tomb Deposits. ' "*HE present chapter contains a description height. The carving is in relief in the best I -*- of the smaller objects individually. Their style of the Old Empire. The hieroglyphs are associations and their bearing on the general arranged in seven columns, with vertical subject of this volume have been examined in divisions. The portion preserved seems to give the chapter dealing with the tombs and de- a list of names of scribes, arranged symmetri- posits with which they were found. At the end cally in columns as follows : -, — is an appendix giving a list of these smaller (a) , Tlieiif-thi, 8enez-em-ab, tomb groups arranged in numerical (working) Ka-nefer, , TJa-san-es, Am-Klicnt. order of the tombs themselves after classifica- (h) Mesa, iSa-mery, Aii-qem-mu, Y-Kau, tion. Ih-vr, 8eref-Ka, Sliepsex-Tui. Inscribed (i) On Plate XXVIII the first (ii) Following the stela on Plate XXVIII Objects. photograph is that of a limestone are two views showing details of the in- stela, about 20 inches or -50 cms. in height. scribed wooden shrine of Shepses, R 64. It was found as described in Chapter IX Other pictures are given on Plate XXV in (Plate XXIV) against the eastern face of a connexion with the description of the tomb in small wall-enclosed tomb. Its condition was Chapter IX (b) ; and a scale diagram occurs on poor, and the surface was so weathered that the next plate, X^o. XXIX. The wood was this photograph of it after restoration of the entirely rotted by the action of wood worms, body at the Ashmolean Museum is preferable and though strengthened in every possible way to those taken at the time of discovery. The before removal became dust before its journey figure is represented in the old style, with was completed. The surface too had suffered staff and baton, facing left ; and in front are greatly by the action of this pest, and it was offerings including the leg of an ox, a goose, with the greatest difficulty that anything of the bread, and wine jars. All the carving and the inscription could be made out. Such as it was hieroglyphs are in relief. The inscription is the diagram shows : it contains some features of partly lost in the centre, but refers to a Royal interest, the drawing of the SH in the right Vab, whose name may have been Se-Mery. column, and the spelling out of the word SeSH On the same jilate the second photograph is with the letters S and SH, determined also that of the inscribed slab found in the south- pictographically with the usual sign. The for- ernly entrance to the great mastaba No 70, as mula is part of one usual in the Old Empire described in Chapter VI (Plate XVII). It is texts, and at the bottom there is plain made of limestone, and about 30 inches in the name of Shepses, Royal Scribe. [Un- ^e>f-' <^ REQAQNAH. INSCRIPTIONS: STELA R 88a, SHRINE R 64, lll«^ DYN. ; SLAB R 70. 28. STELA OF A ROYAL UAS, SE-MERY. STONE BEARING NAMES OF SCRIBES, V->' '~r(' '--'..* ; SHRINE OF THE ROYAL SCRIBE, SHEPSES NEARER VIEW OF THE JAMBS. : DIAGRAM. DYNASTY. 1:4 REQAQNAH : R 64. DECAYED WOODEN SHRINE OF SHEPSES THIRD XXIX |6Vv //,«/-«, PiaUs XXV., .V.V /'///.] C ..'^', ,/7 7 '' f / .^.U -s^r.,. a ^/ 0(^1 / :> msm I O; ^ 5: ^ /<^' ^ ^'/T ^ X £-:;f'l'l /r ' ::i ''^^. ,.- y,'.* ; 31 ^>y -<. ,„,^ f ^/,T S/i-/'. Lmver step. REQAQNAH. INSCRIBED CLAY BALLS FROM TOMB R 50. XXX. ^:3. PHOTOCSAPH IC VI£y^S OF Ti^O CLAY BALLS ^ ^<^ /;/ I rsJ S C Ri PT IONS ON THREE. CL/\^ B/\LLS Fi.SO. U /// /.'/ I iNSCRlPTIor^ ON A,MPHORA B OJ. REQAQNAH. GROUPS OF POTTERY AND STONE VASES. 31. DEPOSIT OF PREDYNASTIO POTTERY. T-rPES OF POTTLIi-i IIUd-IVth DYN 1 :8 OBJECTS FROM THE SMALLER TOMBS 59 fortunately, the right oohimn has Ijeen placed others had already been found and carried in the diagram a little too high : the photographs away by the villagers. show that the two letters SS really end the in- The right hand photograph illustrates some scription.] of the characteristic types of pottery of the (iii) The next plate, No. XXX, illustrates closing Third Dynasty. The two central pieces some of the deposit of inscribed clay balls of of the upper row are of polished red ware unusual character. They were found in a deep (56i; and 53) ; below, the tall stand is from non-masoned hole in the north west corner of tomb R 80. The remaining five specimens illus- mastaba No. 50. The photographs show two trate the rough character of the familiar forms of them, each from two points of view, at two- numbered 2, 4, 11, 12, 22, on Plate XIII. thirds of their natural size ; and the diagrams Below is a group of later pottery, probably below describe the incisions with which they from the necropolis lying between the Shawahin are inscribed, necessarily distorted by the joro- and Sarawah (sites B and S), mostly of the j action. Nineteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties. The substance of these balls is much harder At the bottom is a photograph (to two-thirds and more tenacious than the clay made chiefly scale) of an exquisite vase of alabaster worked of Nile mud, from which bricks were familiarly to translucency. It is of oval section, and the made. There is noticeable on most of them a body of the vessel rests upon a central leg. reticulated pattern, the interstices depressed, The lid is shaped to the form of a swan, with which is a conspicuous marking. Otherwise, returned neck. This object was bought from the inscription is confined to incised scratch- dealers from Abydos visiting tlie camp, and ings, more or less uniform in general design as hence its locality is uncertain. It was said to the drawings show. Possibly there may be made come from the vicinity of Assiout. In date out, if indeed the inscription is hieroglyphic, the it cannot be earlier than the Eighteenth words Seten rckh ; and the form of a crocodile Dynasty. It is now in the MacGregor collec- is visible on all. They have greatly puzzled tion. all who have seen them. To the left of the latter is a small group of At the bottom of the plate is a cursive vases, with seal of Khafra, from tomb K 02, inscription written in ink upon a large the description of which has already been given two-handled jar of the Twenty-second Dy- in Chapter IX. The objects include two small nasty. standing vases of alabaster, and a well finished Smaller (iv) On Plate XXXI are shown dish of diorite. The inscription on this small Objects. some groups of pottery and stone cylindrical seal is reproduced on the next plate. vases. The deposit of pre-dynastic pottery Adjoining is seen a well worked bowl of diorite, is comprised of a number of vessels found with somewhat unusual chai'acter of form at together in the northerly mound of the necro- the rim, which is quite plain. This is probably polis. These are nearly all standing flat- of the early Fourth Dynasty, from tomb R 94. bottomed tops with black tops assigned in Below are shown four objects of alabaster from Sequence Dates to the late pre-dynastic period. site B, chiefly of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Near them were two vases of the tall polished Many tombs were opened and examined in this forms swelling below the middle shown in the site B, and some other objects found within photograph below. Similar vessels and numer- them, for which see Plate XXXIII ; but the ous fragments of them were foi;nd plentifully details of this excavation yielded few results of on the western portion of the site ; and many special interest. — DYNASTY 60 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN mostly on Plate XIII, and the stone (v) On the next plate, No. XXXII, are occur XXXII. given the outlines of various forms of special vases on Plate character. This includes the whole of the 63 Pottery form XIII, 2. Polished standing pot with group to E 63, of the Third-Fourth Dyn- spout, XXXI. Fragments of polished red black tops. asties, which has been separately described pottery with 54 Chamber, pottery form XIII, 2. in connexion with Plate XXIII in Chapter IX. pottery form XIII, 3. 55a large pottery vessel ; The feature of most interest is the form of the 55b As 55a. 56b Pottery type XXXII, 5. alabaster dish No. (i), seemingly made, as has 57 Pottery form XIII, 12. been mentioned, in imitation of copper forms. fil Pottery forms XIII, 12 (6 pieces), XIII, 2. The small breccia vase No. (iii) is also un- 62 Fragments of form XIII, 1, or XXXII, 5. common. The group of polished pottery in- 63 Vases of alabaster, diorite, breccia, alabaster table, shells, bracelet ; XXIV, XXXII i i-vi ). the outlines of three pieces, numbered cludes 64 Table and bowl of alabaster, XXV. 12. 1-3, bought in the locality. Nos. 5, 6, have 67 Pottery form XIII, 15 ; XIII, 68 Pottery form XIII, 11 anore than 40 pieces). been seen in the photograph on the preceding 70a Large pottery vessel. plate. It is impossible not to see in these some- 80 Pottery forms XIII, 14 ; XIII, 11, 12 ; fragments what rare examples a direct survival of the XXXII, 5, and black topped. 81 Fragments XIII, 12 ; fragments black topped red method of burnishing employed in the pre- pottery. plate historic times. Lower down in the are 82 Pottery form XIII, 11, 12; some fragments of copies on an enlarged scale of the graffito blacked topped pottery. 83 Excavation not completed. inscription of Seten bifi Soieferu, from within 84 Pottery form XIII, 12 : fragments. (34, and of the Ba-Kha-ef, the bowl R 86 Pottery forms XIII, 4, 12 ; and fragments of neteru mer on the small glazed seal of group XIII, 1 ; or XXXII, 5. 87 Large pottery vessel. R 92. 88a Pottery forms, XIII, 3. Stela, Plate XXVIII (i). The last object to be mentioned is the wooden 88b Fragments of ])ottery form XXXII, 5. head-rest from tomb and burial R 72, which 89 Pottery form XIII, 12. 90 Deposit of black topped standing pottery vases was found in a decayed condition. Being pro- XXXI, (i). bably of the Third or Fourth Dynasty in date, 91 Pottery forms XIII, 3, 11. 2. Vases of alabaster, and it must rank as one of the earliest examples 92 Pottery form XIII, diorite, XXXI. Seal of Khafra, XXXI column, and also shows the use of the fluted XXXII. to have been familiar at this period. 93 Excavation not completed. 94 Pottery form XIII, 21. Bowl of diorite, XXXI. Inventory of (c) This chapter closes with an 95 Pottery forms XIII, 12, XIII, 2. Tomb Deposits, apj^eudix giving the grouping of 96 Pottery forms XIII, 3, 11, 12. pottery and other objects found in the smaller 97 Pottery forms XIII, 2. 98 Pottery forms XIII, 12. tombs. This list excludes the great tombs Nos. of pottery forms XIII, 1 ; XXII, 6 210 Fragments ; 1, 2, 40, 50, 70, 75, for which see the special XIII, 11. description and plates. The forms of pottery 250 Large pottery vessel ; form XIII, 3. , REQAQNAH. DIAGRAMS OF SMALLER OBJECTS: THIRD-FOURTH DYNASTY. XXXII. ft63(i) r i ALABAS TE R 13 DfOPtr TE /? 65'{0 R 6i('") I i 4iA fl A3rf /? V 2 3 BRECCIA f 63 (") flLfiB/\ST£R /? 63 d") / 3 13 Bene /f 63 ('") r55 l-i ryPS 5 f POLiSHCD' PorrcRt flSbm 4 urn 3-2 CRAFFITO OF SBNEFERU ft 64 2^!1/I^^^V^^^ 3 I StAL or KHAFRA Fi 9% 2 3 WOODEN HEAD-REST ; CHAPTER XII ARCHAEOLOGY 01'' THE THIRD DYNASTY A SUMMARY. ' histori- It otherwise, that Historical | ^HE Third Dynasty lies Empire. might have seemed Aspect. T'A cally ill a lull between two the builders of the pyramids must have heen waves of national progress. It follows the as a race of giants compared with those who first influx that attended the foundation of the made round holes in the earth wherein to Egyptian monarchy, tending to fall back to its double up the bodies of their dead. This was earlier level even while being gathered by indeed an old view which recent investigation newer forces to rise to the height of the has done much to dispel. Pyramid Age. Its archaeology is fully accord- The culture of the Third Dynasty Character. ant with its place in history. In all forms of is that of the proto-dynastic period art and technical skill, so far as they can be in general. The characteristics of a stone age separated, the earlier styles prevail, not, indeed, remain strongly marked, evidenced by the much decadent and degraded, but become in numerous and often lieautiful vases of stone some manner conventionalized and shorn of the and the other monuments. Flint imple- freshness of original motive. Yet a newer ments, too, survive, though retained probably spirit is sensibly growing up, as yet without for sj^ecial uses of a religious character. One power ; not foreign, but arising from the old, special form of flint, shaped like a crescent, yet imbued with so much individuality that it seems to have been common.* But side by seems almost to be stimulated by an extraneous side with these usages there appears a perfect influence. The motive which largely underlies familiarity with the working of copper. At this early development, itself arising also from first, in the earliest pre-dynastic period, a naturalistic origins, namely, the striving after scarcity of specimens suggests that this was grandeur of effect, is now emerging with new an incipient art, but the objects of the early vigour and character, as may be seen from the Metal and dynasties, though not numerous, ^'°"^' elaboration and adornment bestowed even at attest by their quality that the use this early period upon the abodes of the dead. must have been more known than practised. The first lesson which this archaeology enforces Of the Third Dynasty there are large copper is that of continuity in development. Just as vessels like buckets, with riveted handles modern investigations all tend to show that smaller vessels with riveted spouts, as well the civilization which attended the earliest as a knife and spoons ; while the imitations monarchy evolved naturally from the prehistoric of the metal forms in the stone working conditions, so now it is clearly .seen that the of the period « shows that it was probably Third Dynasty links naturally, if unassumingly, only tlie comparative scarcity of material the spontaneous culture of the early dynasties 1 G.M.K., Plate 15. with the more determined character of the Old See Plate XXXII. DYNASTY 62 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN kings of this period, but they are that accounts for the rarity of existing ex- the names of The names of kings (chiefly amples. As a word indicating the mergence not contemporary. occur also as graffiti on bowls of of two strains of culture, this metal-stone Seneferu) age has been defined not altogether satisfac- stone. in the case of the earlier torily by the term calcolithic. As Sealings. ^ . .-, r i In Egypt pottery making never dynasties, the impressions of seals Pottery. and stone attained during dynastic times a high rolled upon the mud caps of pottery are most fruitful source of contem- standard as an art. Probably the difficulty of seals, the inscriptions. From those found at Bet obtaining a suitable clay is the natural expla- porary Khallaf the following names and titles are nation. Inscribed objects of the Third collected, chiefly from the researches of Professor Inscriptions. Dy^^sty are not common. The Sethe :— . NAMES OF GODS. of glazed tiles from the step-pyramid doorway A goddess ia human form, holding the ' hand, of Sakkara, now at Berlin, is thought by some sonages. symbol of life and of happiness in her appears on a sealing of Neter-Khet. to belong to this period. If the surmise be Hot-, "Horus."' finest example, correct this must rank as the Hovakti, " Horus of the horizon."' to a but it is not at all characteristic. UjJ-uat, the name of the jackal god, applied as title priest. From the funeral stela, and portions WINE. On Stone | NAME OF A found, it King of others that have been ! Arep-Dua-Hor-Khenti-pet, name of a wine from Nineteenth would seem that the style of the period, as Neter-Khet ".s vineyard; found as late as the Dj'nasty in the temj)le of Abydos. before and after, was in low relief both for PERSONS. hieroglyphs and figures. The stela of Se-mery NAMES OF Personal AiipK l«itcji, a name appearing on fragments Ashmolean), taken from a small (now at the Names. of seals. tomb (R 88), suggests an archaic, or primitive, : Ary-> relief : he is represented as clad with a skin, Xc-maat-Hap, " Truth belongs to the Apis." The name of a Queen. holding staff and baton. Neter-Kltct, the Horus name of King Zeser (?); on sealings. In addition to these excavated Nezemaukh, "sweet life," name of a priest. Mis- Nez-netcrn, name of an official. cellaneous, objects, there ai*e others known Ra-kJiii/] name of an ofWcial. which have been descriljed in published works. liudef, a woman's name meaning "sound" i cursive Among them a certain number of scarabs bear writing). . . A SUMMARY 63 Sa-ef, a rare personal name or part of a name like Khrr-hch, " lector-priest," and nezcr ? or akch ? ains, Sebck-ni-sa-ef. an obscure title of which only the word ams, " sceptre," Sebctij-hcs, "Scribe of the Mem[iliite nome," connected is known. A title applied to the priest Nezem Ankh. with Ne-ankh-Sekhraet. Khei'p ShcmsK, " leader of the servants," a title .... oru-cf, jjrobably the end of a name (cursive following an obscure title on seal of Zoser. writing). Klicry-a, " assistant." Title of priest and of official. Se-menj, name of a royal inili. (Stela, Reqaqnah.) Khct-ekh, iinexplained sign on official seal of King Shepses, name of a royal scribe (wooden shrine). Neter Khet. NAMES OF PLACES AND VINEYARDS. Mer shoit Anpu "chief of the shent (^hundred ?j of Anubis, found on fragment of seal of Anpu-hotep. Place Atmntiuf, " the western Nomes,'' of the Mt'vy-seten, " beloved of the King." Title of official. Names. Delta ; on a sealing of Neter-Khet. Muf mcsii. siten, "mother of the King's children.'' As-svfaii, " provision office," to which the public vine- Title of Queen Ne-maat-Hap. yards were subject. Mut-nctcii-liafi, " mother of the King of Upper and Dun-IIdv-khcnti-pit, the name of a vineyard of King Lower Egypt." Title applied to Queen Ne-maat-Hap. Neter-Khet, meaning "Praised be Hnrus who i.s in the Nfhfi, a title of Neter Khet signifying his identity with front of heaven." the " two mistresses '' of the united double Kingdom, the Het-imb, name of the place near which were the vulture goddess El Kab and the uroeus goddess of Buto. alabaster quarries E. mid-Egypt. ; Ki'fcr ankh, " good in life, a god in commanding," Kami, vineyards ; of two public vineyards. applied to the official Nez-neteru. Keru-tani, "The terror of the two lands." Name of a Xcfcr medii, maa, " truly beautiful of speech." Title of fortress of Neter-Khet. private man, " Ary-sen." Per-ab-a, either a place name or the name of a building Xi'kht khciii, " strong of voice," a title frequently borne connected with King Pcv-ab-iicn. in the (_)ld Kingdom by officials of the granaries ; occurs Pev-xcUm pcr-dcshcv katiii, "king's house, red house, in seal of Sa-nekht. vineyard," the name of a government vineyard. Xcti-r uz nefcr ankh, "a god in commanding, good in Scbcti/ii-lu'zu, old name of Memphis : in cursive life." A title of Ampu-hotep. writing. Xezcm, "pleasant," with an illegible termination. In Scnpu probable name of a place; also Second (?), seal of King Neter-Khet. Dynasty. Xeza, a form of verb, " nez," to ask advice, used in Si' li-Dua-IIiir-khf lit y-pct , the fellow vineyard to that " conjunction with " Ren nezem to imply "a pleasant named Diia-Hor-klioify-pct teacher when asked for advice." Title of official Nez- Zci't, " wall," where the public vineyards were ueteru. situated. Xnb ''yold,'' a title of Neter-Khet, but as his name is TITLES. placed over the Nub-sign it may mean " Neter-Ivhet who _. Amy ab," favourite," connected with Neru- has conquered the god (Set of Ombos). taui as a title of official. The hiernglyph r which may fit on to the fragment Ary Nckhcm, guardian of Hierakoupolis. Title of nikht khcni, or to the incomplete title T - - - sh, both Nezem Ankh found in the seal of Sa-nekht. Avy-pr, guardian of Buto. Title of Nezem Ankh. Rckh-aiicn, •' aopiaintance of the King," applied to " Da-cf ankh, ttas, dedct, he gives, life, happiness, Neter-Khet's ac(iuaintauce '' Mery-sekhmet-maat." and stability." Title of the god Horakhti. Pen nezem, " pleasant teacher," title of official Nez- " Dua nctcr ra iirb, he who praises i,or thanks) the neteru. god (or king) every day." Title of official. Renii, " teacher," applied to Ary-sen, a private En sesheiR upt . . . ntj ? Unexplained titles on individual. official seal bearing of Horusname King Neter-Khet three iS'rt, " guard," on a seal with Horns name of King times. Probably titles of an official. Neter-Khet. Er-neb-ary, a sign from an une.xplained sealing. Sam, a title applied to the priest as " the high priest of ' Ifcn shell lit Xcbka, servant of King Nebka's Upuat." Later, "sam" was only the title of the high granaries," a title on seal of King Sa-nekht. priest of Memphis, and in the Third Dynasty it was more " " Hety-a prince," and ary Xekhvii, guardian of widely applied as " high priest of the temple of Anubis." Hierakoupolis. Titles of priest Nezem Ankh. Sam, " high priest," and ary Pe, " guardian of Buto.'' Hotep-(t(i/)n. Titles of Nezem Ankh. Hiir, " small, little, weak," a fragment of cursive Senesen zed, "delighting by saying," epithet of "Ary- writing. Naaii, " young men, adolescents," also a frag- sen," a private individual. ment of cursive writing. Senh, "scribe." Applied to official Nez-neteru. Khn, " to appear," " to rise," " to be crowned as king," Sesh, " scribe." Title of Ne-ankh-Sekhmet. "festival," or -'crown," and the word nhciiity, "to Sesh semt, " scribe of the desert," a title of official accompany, to follow," appears in seal of Sa-nekht. Ra-khuf. 64 THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY Sesh, or Scsh scmf, "scribe,"' nr "scribe of the garded, since the exploration of Minutoli, as the desert." Title of Hotep-(uy) n. work of King Neter-Khet; but there is no Scah, '• scribe,'' or sesh sli (a) " scribe of the lake," a title of Mery-ab. present evidence of any contemporary burial Scteiu/ bafi, " Kiag of Upper and Lower Egypt." within. It seems to have been much used Title of Neter-Khet. for interment in later times. Sticp-sa zed ra-nrh, " to make the body guard of the king every day," probably refers to an official of King In many other sites of wider range tombs Neter-Khet. are now readily to be identified as belong- Scfcii-hafi nibti. a royal title from an official .sealing. ing to this period. Chief among those of which Uty, " he of the town of Ut," a title of Anubis, also a priestly title, and may mean " Uty priest of Anubis." accounts have l)een published is El Kab, which Applied to official. presents many analogies. Other tombs have Za-Jier, " to turn the face towards," i.e. " an overseer," been found at Naga-Der, eastward from Girga, with reference to Dua-Hor-khenti-pet, the vineyard of King Neter-Khet. and in the vicinity of the early pyramids. Zcdet akhct iiebt ar!/-n-s, " if she says anything, it It is curious notice that the Industries.T„.4„o,, = to is done for her." Title of Queen Ne-maat-Hap. earliest efforts of the pre-dynastic Unc'.rplained titles having some connexion with the ornaments and clothing of the king. Applied to official people were directed to producing a specially Ea-khuf. good class of pottery, which was indeed never All iiijinrd title oi Queen Xe-maat-Hap, which might either be completed as Klut-Hor, "servant of Horus,'' equalled or excelled at any period before or as Mat Hor-Sef, " she who sees Horus-Set. the New Empire. But the natural influences Scfen rekh, a royal friend, title of an unknown of the country prevailed, and though now Hnsoribed stone, R50). Seti'ii scali, royal scribe, title of Shepses (RG4). and then a trace of the old art re-appears, Scten Uab, royal " uab," title of Se Blery (R 79). yet the study of pottery-making, even before At the present time only this one dynastic times, is found to have been grad- Localities. site has been identified as definitely ually laid aside in favour of stone working, pertaining to the Third Dynasty. Here at so that the feature characteristic of the early Bet Khallaf are five great tombs, the burial dynasties is rather the variety of vases carved places of two kings whose names are Neter- from the different qualities and colours of stone Khet and Sa-Nekht, and of three great in which the country abounded. personages, one of whom was a prince by In other miscellaneous industries there is not name Nezem Ankh. In the vicinity at much character apparent, (xlazed objects of this Reqaqnah (some two miles to the north) period are extremely rare. In recent excavation is a considerable necropolis of the period. only a few very small beads from a chamber in the It comprises a number of tombs similar tomb of Neter Khet attest definitely to the usage. in character to those of Bet KhallAf, three But if it is to be believed that the doorway of of which are of sixfficient importance to glazed tiles from the pyramid of Sakkara,now in justify a surmise that they l^elonged to persons the museum at Berlin, is really the contemporary of considerable rank. The greater number of work of the Third Dynasty, then there is a new the tombs are small, and presumably represent element of evidence to be considered in this con- private burial places. Amongst them, how- nexion. Certainly a precedent holds out the ever, are the tombs of a royal scribe (Shepses) possibility, for glazed objects seem to have been and of a royal uab (Se-Mery). The same found both of the First and Second Dynasties group includes three mastaba tombs of great at Abydos and at Hierakonpolis respectively. size, one of which was the tomb of a seten-relch, Cloth making has also a few examples. a man ranking among the royal acquaintances. Some fragments found within the tomb of At Sakkara, the step pyramid has been re- Neter-Khet, probably the remains of sacks in ARCHAEOLOGY OP THE THIRD DYNASTY 05 which grain was stored inside the galleries, are i known mastaba type. The necropolis of of coarse texture. One piece, the finest, has I Reqaqnah discloses a number of tombs in 37 wefts and 2i» warps to the inch. definite arrangement, with narrow ways between T'l^ architecture of the Architecture. Third the rows, a method not cliaracteristic of later Dynasty is known solely from the burying places. The smaller tombs are of tomb structures of the period. The large solid elementary character, allied with earlier and superstructure of the tomb of King Neter Khet, later examples. They are of varying charac- and the adjoining, stepped mastal)a of Sa- ter, some being a vaulted recess, others a Nekht, are direct links in form with the first shaft with underground chamber enclosed by of the pyramids, the step pyramid of Sakkara a surface building. Some methods of burial wliich belongs to the same time. These great are employed less usual or more simple, among buildings developed naturally from the earlier which the mode of interment under a large forms of tomljs in the effort to secure a safe pottery vessel is perhaps the most i-emarkable. abiding place for the dead. The characteristic In general there is little elaboration of design tombs of the period are of the stairway type, or ai-chitectural adornment observable. The advanced to a stage where the superstructure use of the arch, the most important feature of was claiming an increasing elaboration, and so the period, seems to develop from a construc- leading on directly to later tombs of the well- tional necessity, not as an embellishment. — ; ; APPENDIX 'A. NOTE ON SOME OF THE OBJECTS Op' LATER DATE. With Plates XXXI aud XXXIII. objects are figured in the \vi) Khety ; ivii) Klieut-KLety-em-hat XXXI S()M:vJ**^^^ (viii) Khent-Khety-hetep ^ixi Kbent- illustrationsil whicli do not other- ; 'Khet3'-hetep. wise enter into the general problem of this book. Aiuibis for Rows 4-5 : Prayer to Osiris, U|)-uat and Of them, the alabaster vase from uncertain locality, funeral oftering for Se-Ra. of unusual character. In shown on Plate XXXI, is Upper Scene. Left. Se-Ra seated with his wife [name horizontal section it is oval, and the base rests upon not inserted]. " His brother, Khent-Kheti- ' a single short pedestal in the centre. The lid is lietepu otFers before him. " Kiyht. " His [Sa-Ra's] brother Sebek-hetep fashioned in the form of a sleeping swan, the seated with his wife Sat-sen-mera. " His bill is in the favourite position under the wing, brother, Sen-mera," offers before him. neck coming back provides the handle and the long Line (J. Prayer to Osiris for benefit of Tehuti said by to the vessel. The work is fine, and the finish good. " his son who makes to have his name, the The thinness to which the stone is worked gives engraver Sa-Ra.'' Second Scene. Left. Tehuti seated with " his daughter a general translucency to the object itself which Sat-sen-mera and his mother Hetepu "' re- it with a noticeable delicacy of appear- provides ceives offerings from [right] " his son Sen- ance. It is now in the MacGregor collection. niera, his son Khety, his daughter Sa-sen-mera and his brother Antef."' Plate XXXIII. Turning to the last of the plates Line 7. Prayer to Upuat for benefit of Ivhent-Khety- " to of illustrations, the most interesting em-hat said by his i^sic) son who makes have his name, the engraver Sa-Ra." of the stone objects pictured is a great stela of Third Scene. Left. " His father Khent-Khety-em-hat Se-Ra, a sculptor or engraver, dated to aliout and his wife Hetepu and his daughter the Twelfth Dynasty. The workmanship is Sat-Ivhent-Ivhety " receive offerings from good, the hieroglyphs aud figures sharplj' incised, [riylit] "his son Ivhent-Khety-em-hat, his daughterSat-Tehuti, his daughter Hor-sek-hat and the surface of the stone well dressed. The and his sister Mern-es." parentage of Se-Ra is not quite clear. He Line 8. Left. Prayer to Anubis Upuat for benefit of of Hetepu ; his wife was Set-Khent- was born Sa-Ra made " by the son of his son who makes Khety. But in Scene 2 his father (Atef) is called to live his name Sa-Rii." Scene. Left. Sa-Ra (grandson) and " his wife Tehuti ; whereas in Scene 3, and on the back, his Fourth Sat-Khent-Khety " receive offerings from father (also Atef i is named Khent-Khety-em-hat, his son Khent-Khety-hetep. and his wife Hetepu. Doubtless there is some Line 8. Rhjht. Prayer to Osiris for benefit of Ivhety ambiguity or a double dedication. made " by the son of his daughter who The stone itself is so perfect that it may be makes to live his name, the engraver Sa-Ra." wife Sat-rereru of interest to print the following details, due to Fourth Scene. Riylit. Khety and receive offerings from his daughter Satpepy. Mr. P. E. Newberry Below are two scenes. Left. Sa-Ra seated, before him (1) " " his brother Antef," (2) " his mother Sat-upuat i?), 1-3 : of Osiris by Se-Ra and his Rows Adoration brother Unen . . . . and Sa-hor-sekhat. (3) his , (4) relatives. The names are : (i) Sa-Ra (3) ; Right. Sa-Ra seated, before him (1) . . . . (2) his (ii) Tehuti ; liiij Khent-Khety-em-uat, his brother Khent-Khety-em-hat, (3) his sister Sat- father (iv) Sebek-KLety (v) Se-Ra ; ; Ivent-Khety, (4) .... INSCRIPTIONS, STEL/E, Dl, XIT" DYN., B103; PYRAMIDION & OBELISK B 101, XIX"^" DYN. 33. :-r'n- y. r '/' ;•: ^^ 9^' BACK OF STELA %^ i^r^ji ,>Vu>u •^??^ s/ia s yj ^.i n ::l^££|||ffll4.lia:|.1 ^iU- STELA OF 8E-RA. SCULPTOR, STELA OF ? PA-AHA. PYRAMIDION (NEB. MERTU, EF) & OBELISK. TABLES AND INSCRIPTIONS OF LATE PERIOD THE THIRD EGYPTIAN DYNASTY 67 The small stela from site B, near Bet Kliallaf, in partly broken away, speaks of another Sedeni-atih a necropolis of the Ninteenth Dynasty, from tomb of Anhur " whose name seems to end in hu (? Sa - - No. 103, speaks of a '^ sedem-ash nf Anlmr" whose liu). The name of the chief lady is destroyed : her " name is flestroyed. In a lower row the same title daughter was - - - pa - drt," and another " recurs with the name Pa-Aha," which is proliablj' daughter B.ennut." that of the deceased. The stela is rather small and The tables of offerings and inscription of late the workmanship conventional. period were bought in Reqaqnah, and call for little From the same series of Nineteenth Dynasty comment. They probably come from some late tombs comes the pyramidion numbered 101. It bears tombs with vault and well found interspersed with the name " Neb-Mertu-Ef, scribe of the granaries the stairway tombs of the Third Dynasty among of the Divine Offerings of Anhur." On another which they had been placed. side is the name " Riy." The obelisk, which is APPENDIX B. CEANIOMETEICAl. ANALYSTS OF THIRD DYNASTY SKULLS FROM ]{EgA Supplied by Mr. Randall-Maclver. J3 a o in V — INDEX Abhrevialinns, List of, 15 Chapel or shrine, 21, 36 Handles riveted, 61 Abdullah lk\v, Mainur of Gir^a, 11 Chipiez and Perrot, Mm., 29 Headi-est of wood. Fluted, 47, (iO Adherence and preservation of skin. Clay lialls. Inscribed, 32. 59 Hen-Nekht or Sa-Nekht (king), 28 5.-? Cloth making. 64 Hiei'akonpolis, Excavations at, 24 Adu I (kinfi), Tomb of, 29, 37 Collin of |)ottery, 52 History, Continuity of, 16 Adu II (king), Tomb of, 37 Coffin of wood, 45 yVlabaster, 25 Construction of smaller tombs, 38 P]arly History, 16 Alawniyeh, site, 35 Continuity of Industries, 64 for, 18 Alydos', 12 Evidences Inscriptions, 62 15 61 Amelineau, M., Copper, 24, Inventory of tomb deposits, 60 58 vessel imitated, 60 Am-Khent (scribe), Copper 48, Inverted pots. Burials under, 42 Am-Qem-mu, 58 Cord pattern. 25 Amrah. El Amrah, site, 15, 35 Cornelian, 41 Analysis of smaller tombs, 44 Customs, Burial, 45 Arab cemeteries, 40 Judaea, Arch in, 29 Arch and barrel vault, 22 Arches of Third Dvnastv, evolution, 28 Dendereh. site. 37 Inventory of 60 Archaeological types, 24 Deposits, tomb, Kab, El Kab. site, 15, 36 of pit tombs. Archaeology of the Third Dynasty, Depth 43 Ka-nefer (.scribe), 58 61 Desert gravel. Strength of, 22 Ka-ra, ? king Second Dynasty, 55 plan of stairway Architecture, 05 Development in Kawamil, site, 51 of Architecture, a feature early, 39 tombs, 35 Kennard. H. Martyn, Esij., 11 in section of stairvvay Ashmolean Museum, 46, 58 Development Khafra, King, Seal of, 43 tombs, 36 Khorsabad, Palace at. 29 Diorite, 25 Khorsabad, Ruins of, 40 of glazed tiles, 62 Doorway Kings of Third Dynasty, Tombs of, Door stone to burial chamber. 22, 30 25 Babylon. Hanging gardens at, 29 Barrel roof, 40 Baton, 43, 58 Limestone slab inscribed, 32 Batter to walls, 22, 39 Egypt Exploration Fund. 14 Limestone vases, 25 Bead necklaces, 41 Egyptian names, 62 Lintel of wood, 49 Beni-Hasan, Pot burials near, 56 Pjgyptian people, Ethic origins of, Localities, 64 Beni-Hasan, Vaulted roofs at, 29 14 Long slabs for building, 29 Berlin Museum, 62, 64 Egyptian Research Account. 11. 12 B6t Khallaf (village). 11 Evans, Arthur J., Esq., F.R.8.. 11 Bone bracelet, 18 Evolution of stairway tombs, 34 Bowl with spout, 27 Excavations, Results of, 13 Breccia, 25 Mace-head of alabaster, 25 Brickwork in steps, 22 Mace, Mr., 15 Brocklebank, Ralph, Esij., 11 MacGregor, Rev. Wm., 11, 59 Maclver, Mr. Randall-, 15, 45 Burial chambers, 30 Femur, Broken, 47 Mahasna (village). 12 Burial customs. 45 Flint implements, 61 Mahmoud Effendi (Omda of Bet Burial under pottery \essel, 32, 46, Forms of stone vases and pottery, 24 51 Khallaf). 12 Button seal, 41 Map of site explored, 12 Buttress walls, 22, 36 Marble, Sachyrine, 25 Glaze. 41 Mariette. M., 29 ( Jlazed seal of Khafra, 48 Masonry, 22 Glazed tiles, 62 Maspero, M.. 39 Globular vessel, 27 Mastaba (platfoini) tombs, 31 Cairo Museum, 32 Gods, Names of, 62 Materials Calcolithic, The term, 62 Graffito of Seneferu, 47 Alabaster (Egyptian), 25, 48, 50, Chaldasa, Arch in, 28 Gravel, Desert. Collapse of, 22 60 P.anel recess in, 39 Greece, Arch in, 29 Bone, 48 Chambers underground, 22 Growth of necropolis, 38 Breccia, 25, 48, 60 G9 — 1 70 INDEX Materials (continued) — Obelisk. 67 Shepsos, Shrine of, 38. 58 Copper, 24, 48, 61 Objects from the stairway tombs, 24 „ Tomb of, 42, 49 Cornelian, 41 Orientation of tondjs, 39 Shepses-Ka (scribe), 58 Diorite, 25, 48, 59 Oyster shell, 48 Shrine or chapel, 21, 36 Flint, 61 Skin, Preservation of, 53 Glaze, 41.48, 62 Slate palette, 54 Limestone, 25, 33, 41 Smaller tombs, Objects from, 58 Palermo Stone, Tlic 18 Marble, Sacliyrine, 25 Sohag (i)i-ovince and town), 12 Palette, Slate, 54 Porphyry, 25 Spouts, Riveted, 61 Panel recess, 41 Shell, 4l", 48 Staff, 43 Panels as decoration, 32 Steatite, 25 Stairway tombs. Construction of, 21 Parallel rows of tombs. 38 Stone workinu, 62 „ " „ Date of. 21 31 Passages in mastaba tombs. of, 34 Wood, 45, 47, 49, 62 ,, ,, Evolution Patrons, 1 to masta- Mesa (scribe), 58 ,, ,, Related Pattern, Whi])cord. 25 Models of vases (small), 25 bas, 31 Perrot and Chipiez, Mm., 29 Monarchy, Race of p]i^yptian, 17 ,, Special features of. Persia, Arch in, 29 de Morgan, M., 13, 15, 16 28 Persons, Names of, 62 Mugheir, (Ur of the Chaldaeans), 29 Steatite, 25 Petrie, Professor, 15 Stela of Se-Mery, 41, 49 Phrenicia, Arch in, 29 Steps, Construction of, 22 Pit tombs, 43 Stone door to burial chamber, 22, 30 of, 63 Places, Names Stone vases, 24 Names, Egyptian Plunderer's hole, 30 Stucco, White, as decoration, 31 Polished pottery, 26, 59 Adu I (king), 29 Porphyry, 25 Adu II (king), 37 Pottery making. Art of, 62 Am-Khent (scribe), 58 Table of alabaster. 49 Pottery of pre-dynastic character. 14 Am-Qem-mu (scribe), 58 Terminology, 15 Decline of. 18 Hen Nekht or Sa Nekht (king), Thent-tha ('scribe), 58 ,, Forms of Third Dynasty, 26 28,64 ' Tiryns. Arch in, 29 Price, F. Hilton. Esq., 11 Hetepu, 66 Titles of officials, 63 Pyramid age, 61 Ka-nefer (scribe), 58 Tomb deposits. Inventory of, 6t) Pyramidion, 67 Ka-ra (king), 55 Tombs, royal, of Third Dynasty, 25 Khafra (king), 43, 48, 60 ,,. smaller. Construction of, 39 of, Khent-Khety-em-hab, 66 ,, ,, Analysis 44 Qa. Tomb of King, 35 Mesa (scribe), 58 ., Objects from, 58 Quibell, Mr.,15 ,, Nezem-Ankh (prince), 64, 40 Stairway (.see Stairway). Neterkhet (king), 11,37 „ Vaulted, 39 Pa-Aha, scdcm ash of Anhur, 67 Types of stone vases and pottery, 24 ga (king), 35 Rectangular tombs. 41 Sa-Nekht, or Hen -Nekht (king), Reqaqnah (village), 11 28,64 Riveted handles to copper ves.sels, 61 Uab, Royal, 49 spouts 61 Seneferu (king), 42, 47, 50 ,, ,, Ua-.sau-es (scribe), 58 Roofs large buildings, 29 Se-Mery (royal u'lb), 41, 45, 58 of Underground chambers, 22 chambers, 35 Seneferu (king). 42. 43. 60 ,, tomb Une.\|ilained titles, 64 tombs, 38 Senez-em-ab (scribe). 58 Rows of Ur of the Chaldwans (Mugheir), 29 of Dynasty. 25 Seref-Ka (scribe), 58 Royal tondjs Third User-Kaf (king), 56 Set-Khent-Khety, 66 Uz-ur (scribe), 58 Sety I (king). 29' Se-Ra (sL-uli)tc)r), genealogy, 64 Sakkara, site and necropolis, 37 Shcpses (royal scribe), 38,' 42, 43, Sa-Neklit (sc- Hen-Nekht). Vaulted tombs, 39 47, 49 Sararwah (village), 12, 59 Vaults and vaulted roofs, 29 Shcpses-Ka (scribe), 58 Sargon's Palace at Khorsabad, 29 Vessels, Burials under pottery, 46, Tlicnt-tha (scribe), 58 Schafer, Dr., 15 51 Ua-sau-es (scribe), 58 Seal. Button, 41 Vineyards, Names of, 63 User-Kaf (king), 56 Seal imiJiessions, 25, 62 Voussoirs, 28 Uzur (scribe), 58 Seal of Khafi'a, 48 Y-Kaii (scribe), 58 Se-Mery (scrilje), 58 Wefts and warps in clcith, 65 Names of (iods and persons, 62 .. (P.N.), Royal Uab, 41, 45 offerings, 32 Names of places and vineyards, 63 Senefuru (king). Time of, 42 Well of late Anthony. 15 Navilie, M., 15 Senez-eni-ab (scribe). 58 Wilkin, The Mr. pre-dynastit' age. 18 Necklaces of beads, 41 Seref-Ka (scribe). 58 Writing in ciilHii, 45 Necropolis, The, 38 Sethe. Professor, 15, 63 Wood Wciiidcn licad-rest fluted. 47. 60 Neter-Khet (king). II. 37 Sety I (king), 29 Nezem-Ankh. Tomb of, 40, 64 Shawahin, site, 58 Nile valley, conservative, 19 Shell beads, 41 Nubia, Houses of, 23 Shell of diorite, 25 Y-Kaii (scribe), 58 i Frome, nnd Lu^idon. Buder & Tanner, The Sdwood Printing Works, un