DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard: Egypt Exploration Fund, [1]: Excavations: Work of the Winter 1892
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10054#0015
Excavations 1892.
3
move extensive. Some of the stones of the basement are still in situ—
they bear the names of Eameses II. and his son Menephthah. I cut a
great number of trenches in the area of these two halls; everywhere I
came across chips of the stones broken and burnt for lime. The only
monument I discovered is a statue now exhibited in the museum of
Ghizeh. (See p. 2.) It represents a king standing, of natural size.
The material is hard stone of Gebel Ahmar; the statue was never
finished, the polish is wanting, and the traces of the hammer are still
visible all over the body. Head-dress, attitude, emblems in the hands,
everything in the statue is absolutely Pharaonic. The style would point
to the Saitic epoch, and a fragment of the same stone found close to the
statue, and which possibly was connected with it, suggests that it was
Apries. But the head has been reworked, the royal asp has been erased,
and the whole face has been recut, so as to give it the appearance of the
Roman emperor, Caracalla, as he has been identified by Mr. Murray and
Mr. Grueber from the busts in the British Museum. The dark veins of
the stone and the rather rough cutting give the head a grim and ill-
natured expression, which agrees well with the character of the emperor
whose portrait it is. This monument presents a curious mixture of
Pharaonic and Roman art.
Except the inevitable Rameses II., the only kings whom I came across
in the excavations at Tmei el Amdid are Saites. A cartouche of
Psammetichus II. was found on a fragment of a statuette of a priest'; that
of Apries on a stone in the temple, and on a limestone slab in the mosque
of the neighbouring village of Roba ; and of Amasis on a block discovered
near the shrine, which was part of a dedication to the god of the place,
the ram-headed divinity, called also the living spirit Seb. The vast
enclosure encircled more than one building; in front of the temple,
towards the north, are traces of several constructions which may have
been connected with the cemetery of sacred rams, which was uear the
temple. In one of the sandy mounds, on which was erected a building
of that kind, was discovered a very line capital with a Hathor head in
black granite.1 The style of this capital is not the same as those I found
at Bubastis, a specimen of which is in the British Museum. At Tmei el
Amdid the type of the face is different, the nose is more aquiline, and the
features remind one of the profile of Barneses, such as it may be seen in
some of his statues. The locks are not so heavy as in the specimen from
Bubastis, which I believe may be assigned to a much earlier epoch.
See illustration ou p. 8.
B 2
3
move extensive. Some of the stones of the basement are still in situ—
they bear the names of Eameses II. and his son Menephthah. I cut a
great number of trenches in the area of these two halls; everywhere I
came across chips of the stones broken and burnt for lime. The only
monument I discovered is a statue now exhibited in the museum of
Ghizeh. (See p. 2.) It represents a king standing, of natural size.
The material is hard stone of Gebel Ahmar; the statue was never
finished, the polish is wanting, and the traces of the hammer are still
visible all over the body. Head-dress, attitude, emblems in the hands,
everything in the statue is absolutely Pharaonic. The style would point
to the Saitic epoch, and a fragment of the same stone found close to the
statue, and which possibly was connected with it, suggests that it was
Apries. But the head has been reworked, the royal asp has been erased,
and the whole face has been recut, so as to give it the appearance of the
Roman emperor, Caracalla, as he has been identified by Mr. Murray and
Mr. Grueber from the busts in the British Museum. The dark veins of
the stone and the rather rough cutting give the head a grim and ill-
natured expression, which agrees well with the character of the emperor
whose portrait it is. This monument presents a curious mixture of
Pharaonic and Roman art.
Except the inevitable Rameses II., the only kings whom I came across
in the excavations at Tmei el Amdid are Saites. A cartouche of
Psammetichus II. was found on a fragment of a statuette of a priest'; that
of Apries on a stone in the temple, and on a limestone slab in the mosque
of the neighbouring village of Roba ; and of Amasis on a block discovered
near the shrine, which was part of a dedication to the god of the place,
the ram-headed divinity, called also the living spirit Seb. The vast
enclosure encircled more than one building; in front of the temple,
towards the north, are traces of several constructions which may have
been connected with the cemetery of sacred rams, which was uear the
temple. In one of the sandy mounds, on which was erected a building
of that kind, was discovered a very line capital with a Hathor head in
black granite.1 The style of this capital is not the same as those I found
at Bubastis, a specimen of which is in the British Museum. At Tmei el
Amdid the type of the face is different, the nose is more aquiline, and the
features remind one of the profile of Barneses, such as it may be seen in
some of his statues. The locks are not so heavy as in the specimen from
Bubastis, which I believe may be assigned to a much earlier epoch.
See illustration ou p. 8.
B 2