DOI Artikel:
Ayrton, Edward Russell; Loat, Leonard: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at El Mahasna
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12420#0021
Excavations at El Mahasna.
7
hollow ivory cubes perforated round the top and carved into the figure of
a hippopotamus at the other end.
A clay sheep with long twisted horns and an ox of the same material
with a rough drawing of a lion (?) scratched on the side were also found.
Beads were found in a great many of the graves, including gold, car-
nelian, steatite, faience and amber.
Slate palettes of rhombic shape were found in the earlier graves and a
few fish-shaped and rectangular palettes in the later.
Of pottery several new types were found, especially in the " painted "
class. The finest of these was decorated in white on a polished red
ground, on the inside with two crocodiles and two hippopotami, and on
the outside with two elephants (?) and two horned cattle or deer. Only
one vase of the rare black incised ware was found, and this came from
a plundered grave. In stone vases the site was distinctly poor, only four
being found; the two earliest were of cylindrical form with a slight lip,
another was globular in shape, with handles, and the last was a small
slate bowl of the protodynastic period.
One ivory cylinder seal was discovered near a plundered brick tomb
(early part of 1st Dynasty); it is decorated with wavy lines cut round
the circumference, except at one point where a design is carved of a lion
couchant with a branch of a tree before it and a small hollow (a smaller
branch ?) over its back.
Copper was found in a few graves. In a large plundered grave was
found a small sickle-shaped implement, a little copper bowl, and a small
copper tool obviously copied in shape from the flint knives with the
crescent-shaped top.
In another grave a child wore a copper bracelet on the left wrist.
The full description of this cemetery and the objects found will shortly
be published under the title of El Mahasna.
E. E. Ayeton.
L. Loat.
7
hollow ivory cubes perforated round the top and carved into the figure of
a hippopotamus at the other end.
A clay sheep with long twisted horns and an ox of the same material
with a rough drawing of a lion (?) scratched on the side were also found.
Beads were found in a great many of the graves, including gold, car-
nelian, steatite, faience and amber.
Slate palettes of rhombic shape were found in the earlier graves and a
few fish-shaped and rectangular palettes in the later.
Of pottery several new types were found, especially in the " painted "
class. The finest of these was decorated in white on a polished red
ground, on the inside with two crocodiles and two hippopotami, and on
the outside with two elephants (?) and two horned cattle or deer. Only
one vase of the rare black incised ware was found, and this came from
a plundered grave. In stone vases the site was distinctly poor, only four
being found; the two earliest were of cylindrical form with a slight lip,
another was globular in shape, with handles, and the last was a small
slate bowl of the protodynastic period.
One ivory cylinder seal was discovered near a plundered brick tomb
(early part of 1st Dynasty); it is decorated with wavy lines cut round
the circumference, except at one point where a design is carved of a lion
couchant with a branch of a tree before it and a small hollow (a smaller
branch ?) over its back.
Copper was found in a few graves. In a large plundered grave was
found a small sickle-shaped implement, a little copper bowl, and a small
copper tool obviously copied in shape from the flint knives with the
crescent-shaped top.
In another grave a child wore a copper bracelet on the left wrist.
The full description of this cemetery and the objects found will shortly
be published under the title of El Mahasna.
E. E. Ayeton.
L. Loat.