DOI Artikel:
M. Johnson, J. de: Egypt Exploration Fund: the greco-roman branch; excavations at Atfieh
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12421#0022
10
Egypt Explokation Fund.
body-pieces the breastpiece was formed by the familiar collar design
surmounted by the winged beetle and terminating on either side in
hawks' heads ; the piece from the abdomen, by the goddess Nut surrounded
by the four Genii. The leg-piece in Fig. 8 was accidentally inverted in the
photograph. " Boots " with the usual painted feet and sandal straps were
invariable, sandals never occurring (Fig. 10).
With the types of mask shown in Figs. 6 and 7 in stone coffins occurred
quite frequently the unusual band of spherical glazed beads on the fore-
head (see Fig. 7 for the circlet in place). The central bead often
differed in colour from the two or three flanking it on either side and is to
be compared with the painted circlet with its Uzat-eye centrepiece (Fig. 3),
of which it was probably the symbol used by the poorer, this type of plain
ungilded mask being, in fact, the commonest.
The banding of the bodies, which differed in detail, is seen in Figs. 2,
6, 9.
In the case of a man who had evidently met a violent end the fragmentary
remains were wrapped in one packet surmounted by cartonnage body-
pieces. The empty mask lay in the place of the head, but boot there was
none.
A subsidiary type of tomb found rarely in the main stone coffin area
but rather more frequently towards the fringe was a very narrow shaft of
varying depth opening into a chamber at one or both ends, with papyrus
cartonnage; but as this constitutes one of the main types of cemetery B
it will be dealt with there.
A month's work had now accounted for between two and three hundred
five-piece cartonnage mummies, of which only some four per cent, had
emerged perfect; and although the fringe still extended outwards, I
determined to move on to the northern ridge where I imagined there was
only a small group of the shaft and chamber tombs. I was quickly
disillusioned; the extent of cemetery B covers nearly 200 yards north
and south, and probably considerably more east and west, while the
graves in parts are crowded one upon the other. Scattered at intervals also
over this site are huge rectangular shafts with brick-facing and a hard
cement-like artificial filling of mud, which belong perhaps to an earlier
period but are plundered. In the Ptolemaic burials the shaft and chamber
type which I had first encountered remained the dominant type with
coffinless cartonnage burials. This absence of coffins resulted in
extreme narrowness of the shaft (the narrowest was only 43 centi-
metres). The depth of the shaft was usually between 1\ and 3^ metres,
while the width of the chamber or chambers varied according to the
Egypt Explokation Fund.
body-pieces the breastpiece was formed by the familiar collar design
surmounted by the winged beetle and terminating on either side in
hawks' heads ; the piece from the abdomen, by the goddess Nut surrounded
by the four Genii. The leg-piece in Fig. 8 was accidentally inverted in the
photograph. " Boots " with the usual painted feet and sandal straps were
invariable, sandals never occurring (Fig. 10).
With the types of mask shown in Figs. 6 and 7 in stone coffins occurred
quite frequently the unusual band of spherical glazed beads on the fore-
head (see Fig. 7 for the circlet in place). The central bead often
differed in colour from the two or three flanking it on either side and is to
be compared with the painted circlet with its Uzat-eye centrepiece (Fig. 3),
of which it was probably the symbol used by the poorer, this type of plain
ungilded mask being, in fact, the commonest.
The banding of the bodies, which differed in detail, is seen in Figs. 2,
6, 9.
In the case of a man who had evidently met a violent end the fragmentary
remains were wrapped in one packet surmounted by cartonnage body-
pieces. The empty mask lay in the place of the head, but boot there was
none.
A subsidiary type of tomb found rarely in the main stone coffin area
but rather more frequently towards the fringe was a very narrow shaft of
varying depth opening into a chamber at one or both ends, with papyrus
cartonnage; but as this constitutes one of the main types of cemetery B
it will be dealt with there.
A month's work had now accounted for between two and three hundred
five-piece cartonnage mummies, of which only some four per cent, had
emerged perfect; and although the fringe still extended outwards, I
determined to move on to the northern ridge where I imagined there was
only a small group of the shaft and chamber tombs. I was quickly
disillusioned; the extent of cemetery B covers nearly 200 yards north
and south, and probably considerably more east and west, while the
graves in parts are crowded one upon the other. Scattered at intervals also
over this site are huge rectangular shafts with brick-facing and a hard
cement-like artificial filling of mud, which belong perhaps to an earlier
period but are plundered. In the Ptolemaic burials the shaft and chamber
type which I had first encountered remained the dominant type with
coffinless cartonnage burials. This absence of coffins resulted in
extreme narrowness of the shaft (the narrowest was only 43 centi-
metres). The depth of the shaft was usually between 1\ and 3^ metres,
while the width of the chamber or chambers varied according to the