DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at Abydos
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12420#0015
I.-EG-YPT EXPLORATION FUND.
A.—Excavations at Abydos.
The site of Abydos has again been the scene of the explorations of the
Egypt Exploration Fund. The concession consisted of the southern part
of the cemetery as far as the Sety temple, including the so-called royal
tombs.
The interest of these very ancient monuments is well known ; and it is
desirable that, they should be completely searched, in view of their
paramount importance for the reconstruction of the earliest dynasties. In
this respect our work has been merely tentative. It soon appeared that
this excavation must be made on the principle which we applied with such
good results at Deir el-Bahari, and which has been adopted in all large
explorations by the Germans and the Americans at Ghiza, Abusir, and
elsewhere. A monument is not well excavated unless it is cleared ; and
for that a railway plant is necessary. M. Maspero kindly promised to
lend us the same plant which we had for nine years at Deir el-Bahari.
We shall not resume work in the royal tombs until we have a railway.
Nevertheless the work of last winter has not been quite barren. In
the mounds where M. Amelineau and Prof. Petrie had been digging before
us, we discovered two causeways, the supporting walls of which are made
of two rows of large horizontal pots. We cleared about twenty yards of
one of them; of the other one we traced only the beginning. In the
mounds which cover these causeways are thousands of terra-cotta cups of
coarse ware which seemed never to have been used. It is difficult to
assign a date to that pottery and to recognise the purpose of those heaps of
small cups.
b
A.—Excavations at Abydos.
The site of Abydos has again been the scene of the explorations of the
Egypt Exploration Fund. The concession consisted of the southern part
of the cemetery as far as the Sety temple, including the so-called royal
tombs.
The interest of these very ancient monuments is well known ; and it is
desirable that, they should be completely searched, in view of their
paramount importance for the reconstruction of the earliest dynasties. In
this respect our work has been merely tentative. It soon appeared that
this excavation must be made on the principle which we applied with such
good results at Deir el-Bahari, and which has been adopted in all large
explorations by the Germans and the Americans at Ghiza, Abusir, and
elsewhere. A monument is not well excavated unless it is cleared ; and
for that a railway plant is necessary. M. Maspero kindly promised to
lend us the same plant which we had for nine years at Deir el-Bahari.
We shall not resume work in the royal tombs until we have a railway.
Nevertheless the work of last winter has not been quite barren. In
the mounds where M. Amelineau and Prof. Petrie had been digging before
us, we discovered two causeways, the supporting walls of which are made
of two rows of large horizontal pots. We cleared about twenty yards of
one of them; of the other one we traced only the beginning. In the
mounds which cover these causeways are thousands of terra-cotta cups of
coarse ware which seemed never to have been used. It is difficult to
assign a date to that pottery and to recognise the purpose of those heaps of
small cups.
b