DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard; Hall, H. R.: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at Deir El-Bahari
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12055#0018
6
Egypt Exploration Fund.
kind of the Middle Empire period, and probably the finest relic yet found
of the Xlth Dynasty, is now in the Cairo Museum.
A fourth sarcophagus had been broken into small pieces. This is most
unfortunate, as it was not only sculptured, but also painted within and
Avithout. The fragments were exhibited at the annual exhibition of the
Egypt Exploration Eund in the rooms of the Society of Biblical Archeology
in Great Bussell Street, in July. It belonged to a priestess named
Kemsit, who was a negress. She is always depicted as black, not only on
the fragments of her sarcophagus, but also on a band of fresco, which runs
round the interior of her tomb-chamber. Her mummy, which has been
brought back to England, shows that her cranium was of a negroid
type.
In the tombs of Kemsit and Kauit were found small model coffins with
wax figures of the dead priestesses inside them. These are probably an
early form of ushabti. One of the wax figures was inscribed with the
name of Kauit, and all the model coffins have miniature funerary in-
scriptions. The tombs had all been violated by ancient tomb-rohbers, but
the remains of much of the ancient tomb-furniture, consisting of models of
granaries and workmen, etc., were found in them, as last year. In the shaft
of each tomb were also found the remains of an ox or cow, either a sacred cow
buried with the priestess of the cow-goddess, or a simple sepulchral offering.
In two or three cases secondary burials of the time of the XXth Dynasty
were found, with the painted coffins (with coarsely embossed stucco over
the wood! characteristic of that period. These later burials were rather
careless, the coffin being thrust into the tomb-chamber aslant and askew
on the top of the debris of the Xlth Dynasty burial. But the persons
thus carelessly buried in the tombs of the ancient priestesses were of some
consequence; one was Nekht, a throne-bearer (?), who lived after the
reign of Bamses XII.
All these tombs are contemporary with the founding of the temple.
They are excavated in the rock of the platform, and the pavement is laid
over them, being supported in one case by tree-trunks placed across the
mouth of the pit.
The work of excavation was not pushed further west, towards the cliffs,
beyond the shrines and tombs. The platform and pillars evidently
continue. The N.-W. boundary wall of the platform (a low parapet
continuing on the platform the line of the transverse wall, masking the
rock-face, which comes out from beneath the Hathor-shrine of the Great
temple, and forms the western end of the north court) turns westward
to lead up to something at the base of the cliffs. What this is, the
Egypt Exploration Fund.
kind of the Middle Empire period, and probably the finest relic yet found
of the Xlth Dynasty, is now in the Cairo Museum.
A fourth sarcophagus had been broken into small pieces. This is most
unfortunate, as it was not only sculptured, but also painted within and
Avithout. The fragments were exhibited at the annual exhibition of the
Egypt Exploration Eund in the rooms of the Society of Biblical Archeology
in Great Bussell Street, in July. It belonged to a priestess named
Kemsit, who was a negress. She is always depicted as black, not only on
the fragments of her sarcophagus, but also on a band of fresco, which runs
round the interior of her tomb-chamber. Her mummy, which has been
brought back to England, shows that her cranium was of a negroid
type.
In the tombs of Kemsit and Kauit were found small model coffins with
wax figures of the dead priestesses inside them. These are probably an
early form of ushabti. One of the wax figures was inscribed with the
name of Kauit, and all the model coffins have miniature funerary in-
scriptions. The tombs had all been violated by ancient tomb-rohbers, but
the remains of much of the ancient tomb-furniture, consisting of models of
granaries and workmen, etc., were found in them, as last year. In the shaft
of each tomb were also found the remains of an ox or cow, either a sacred cow
buried with the priestess of the cow-goddess, or a simple sepulchral offering.
In two or three cases secondary burials of the time of the XXth Dynasty
were found, with the painted coffins (with coarsely embossed stucco over
the wood! characteristic of that period. These later burials were rather
careless, the coffin being thrust into the tomb-chamber aslant and askew
on the top of the debris of the Xlth Dynasty burial. But the persons
thus carelessly buried in the tombs of the ancient priestesses were of some
consequence; one was Nekht, a throne-bearer (?), who lived after the
reign of Bamses XII.
All these tombs are contemporary with the founding of the temple.
They are excavated in the rock of the platform, and the pavement is laid
over them, being supported in one case by tree-trunks placed across the
mouth of the pit.
The work of excavation was not pushed further west, towards the cliffs,
beyond the shrines and tombs. The platform and pillars evidently
continue. The N.-W. boundary wall of the platform (a low parapet
continuing on the platform the line of the transverse wall, masking the
rock-face, which comes out from beneath the Hathor-shrine of the Great
temple, and forms the western end of the north court) turns westward
to lead up to something at the base of the cliffs. What this is, the