DOI Artikel:
Petrie, William M. Flinders: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at Abâdiyeh and Hû
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11173#0016
2
Egypt Exploration Fund.
The first camp of the season was at Abadiyeh, and from there we worked
the cemeteries from about three miles to the east across to Semaineh on the
west. Later we moved to Hu, and from there touched our previous work,
and examined the cemeteries on to three miles west of Hu, where they had
been hopelessly wrecked by plunderers quite lately. It would have been
impossible for one person to have cleared half of this ground; and it was
only by having a party at work that such an area could possibly be covered.
Again this season, Mr. David Maclver generously volunteered to come and
help us, and he worked the middle part of the district. Mr. Arthur C.
Mace again gave his services to the Eund, and worked the two ends of the
district. The ground nearer to our camps I mostly worked, having also to
attend to photographing and working the results to some extent. Mr.
G. E. lies was with us for a few weeks, studying Arabic and helping in the
work. And at our camp Miss Orme and Miss Lawes attended to drawing
the marks on pottery and the new types that occurred, also doing the
marking of the objects found; in which, and the general arrangement of
things, my wife was also fully engaged.
The results of this thorough clearance of a region have been most useful
historically. The prehistoric cemeteries were recorded with full detail of
the type of every vase, numbered by the series, published in Naqada.
And by obtaining the complete details of over a thousand graves, it has
been possible to undertake the classification of the prehistoric civilization ;
thus reducing it to almost a historical condition by a system of sequence
dates. The graves were not rich, but several objects were new to us. The
disc mace heads were found with handles of ivory and horn in position.
Curious clay toys occurred in some graves ; a town wall with men looking
over it, a figure of a seated man wearing a dagger, dolls, a hoe, a chisel,
animals such as hippopotamus, sheep, crocodile, and tortoise. Many model
eggs in whitened clay were buried, of all sizes from the pigeon to the
ostrich egg. Many flint knives and lances were found; one piece of
coarse knife accompanied three fine copper tools, axe, adze, and chisel,
which were kept in Cairo. The pottery was very varied, and included
many forms not yet published. In Naqada there were 757 forms
drawn, and even these were so insufficient to describe what we found that
158 new drawings have been made. This brings the corpus of types and
varieties up to 915. So far from the variations being too minutely given in
Naqada, it was often necessary to add to them. All this work is a means
to an end, as the pottery gives us far the best material for arranging the
order of the tombs.
The other cemeteries have yielded a long series of tombs from the Vlth to
Egypt Exploration Fund.
The first camp of the season was at Abadiyeh, and from there we worked
the cemeteries from about three miles to the east across to Semaineh on the
west. Later we moved to Hu, and from there touched our previous work,
and examined the cemeteries on to three miles west of Hu, where they had
been hopelessly wrecked by plunderers quite lately. It would have been
impossible for one person to have cleared half of this ground; and it was
only by having a party at work that such an area could possibly be covered.
Again this season, Mr. David Maclver generously volunteered to come and
help us, and he worked the middle part of the district. Mr. Arthur C.
Mace again gave his services to the Eund, and worked the two ends of the
district. The ground nearer to our camps I mostly worked, having also to
attend to photographing and working the results to some extent. Mr.
G. E. lies was with us for a few weeks, studying Arabic and helping in the
work. And at our camp Miss Orme and Miss Lawes attended to drawing
the marks on pottery and the new types that occurred, also doing the
marking of the objects found; in which, and the general arrangement of
things, my wife was also fully engaged.
The results of this thorough clearance of a region have been most useful
historically. The prehistoric cemeteries were recorded with full detail of
the type of every vase, numbered by the series, published in Naqada.
And by obtaining the complete details of over a thousand graves, it has
been possible to undertake the classification of the prehistoric civilization ;
thus reducing it to almost a historical condition by a system of sequence
dates. The graves were not rich, but several objects were new to us. The
disc mace heads were found with handles of ivory and horn in position.
Curious clay toys occurred in some graves ; a town wall with men looking
over it, a figure of a seated man wearing a dagger, dolls, a hoe, a chisel,
animals such as hippopotamus, sheep, crocodile, and tortoise. Many model
eggs in whitened clay were buried, of all sizes from the pigeon to the
ostrich egg. Many flint knives and lances were found; one piece of
coarse knife accompanied three fine copper tools, axe, adze, and chisel,
which were kept in Cairo. The pottery was very varied, and included
many forms not yet published. In Naqada there were 757 forms
drawn, and even these were so insufficient to describe what we found that
158 new drawings have been made. This brings the corpus of types and
varieties up to 915. So far from the variations being too minutely given in
Naqada, it was often necessary to add to them. All this work is a means
to an end, as the pottery gives us far the best material for arranging the
order of the tombs.
The other cemeteries have yielded a long series of tombs from the Vlth to