DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard: Egypt Exploration Fund, [3]: Excavations, Work at the Temple of Deir el Bahari
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10055#0017
Excavations at Deir el Bahari.
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hall, in order to protect it from the stones falling from the mountain.
A few days after my departure, a fall of stones occurred which covered
the floor, fortunately after Mr. Carter's work was finished, as he had
begun there in December.
Next to the northern hall of offerings is the open court, in the middle
of which is the great altar of white stone (PI. ii.) erected by the queen to
"her father Harmakhis." This court had also been cleared down to the
pavement last year. This winter Mr. Newberry has built in the loose
blocks which belonged to the altar, so that it is nearly complete, and there
are only a few signs missing from the dedicatory inscription. The same
has been done in the funerary chapel of Thothmes I., which opens on to
this chamber. The pavement has been restored, as well as the arched
stones over the entrance. The chapel has been provided with a wooden
door, and the wonderfully fresh paintings it contains are now quite safe,
while the crumbling cliff above has been shored up strongly with rough
masonry, in order to prevent the court from being again filled with
debris. Mr. Newberry has made architectural drawings of the altar,
and the paintings of the chapel have been copied by Mr. Howard Carter,
some of them in colour. The side-niche of the chapel has given us the
name and portrait of the mother of Thothmes I., Senseneb, allowing us to
fill up a gap in the genealogy of the XVIIIth Dynasty. As for the altar,
it is unique in the temples of Egypt, and it is curious that in a building
where the worship of Anion is prevalent we should find a monument
dedicated to Harmakhis, the god of Heliopolis. It is to be noticed
also, that altars of the same description were adopted by Khuenaten in
his religious reform, and erected in his new capital at Tell el Amarna;
for we see in the paintings of the tombs at that place altars exactly
like that of Deir el Bahari, and built similarly in open courts, with the
king standing upon them making offerings to the solar disk.
In the vestibule which precedes the chamber of the altar, Mr. Newberry
rebuilt entirely a brilliantly painted niche, all the stones of which have
been found, including those of the ceiling. The queen is there repre-
sented in male attire, as usual. The sculptures of this, as well as those
of auother niche and of the entrance to the vestibule, have been copied
by Mr. Verney Carter.
On the middle platform, only the tops of the pillars and of the wall were
visible when I closed my work in 1893. The chief occupation this last
winter has been to carry away the enormous mounds which covered the
platform, as well as the hypostyle hall contiguous to it on the north side
and the colonnade which joins the hall at right angles (PI. iii.). The
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3
hall, in order to protect it from the stones falling from the mountain.
A few days after my departure, a fall of stones occurred which covered
the floor, fortunately after Mr. Carter's work was finished, as he had
begun there in December.
Next to the northern hall of offerings is the open court, in the middle
of which is the great altar of white stone (PI. ii.) erected by the queen to
"her father Harmakhis." This court had also been cleared down to the
pavement last year. This winter Mr. Newberry has built in the loose
blocks which belonged to the altar, so that it is nearly complete, and there
are only a few signs missing from the dedicatory inscription. The same
has been done in the funerary chapel of Thothmes I., which opens on to
this chamber. The pavement has been restored, as well as the arched
stones over the entrance. The chapel has been provided with a wooden
door, and the wonderfully fresh paintings it contains are now quite safe,
while the crumbling cliff above has been shored up strongly with rough
masonry, in order to prevent the court from being again filled with
debris. Mr. Newberry has made architectural drawings of the altar,
and the paintings of the chapel have been copied by Mr. Howard Carter,
some of them in colour. The side-niche of the chapel has given us the
name and portrait of the mother of Thothmes I., Senseneb, allowing us to
fill up a gap in the genealogy of the XVIIIth Dynasty. As for the altar,
it is unique in the temples of Egypt, and it is curious that in a building
where the worship of Anion is prevalent we should find a monument
dedicated to Harmakhis, the god of Heliopolis. It is to be noticed
also, that altars of the same description were adopted by Khuenaten in
his religious reform, and erected in his new capital at Tell el Amarna;
for we see in the paintings of the tombs at that place altars exactly
like that of Deir el Bahari, and built similarly in open courts, with the
king standing upon them making offerings to the solar disk.
In the vestibule which precedes the chamber of the altar, Mr. Newberry
rebuilt entirely a brilliantly painted niche, all the stones of which have
been found, including those of the ceiling. The queen is there repre-
sented in male attire, as usual. The sculptures of this, as well as those
of auother niche and of the entrance to the vestibule, have been copied
by Mr. Verney Carter.
On the middle platform, only the tops of the pillars and of the wall were
visible when I closed my work in 1893. The chief occupation this last
winter has been to carry away the enormous mounds which covered the
platform, as well as the hypostyle hall contiguous to it on the north side
and the colonnade which joins the hall at right angles (PI. iii.). The
b 2