Green, F. W.; Quibell, James Edward: Hierakonpolis (Band 2) (London, 1902)

26

KOM EL AHMAR.



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Nile mud, but are really of considerable geologic age.
They were found by the archaic people very con-
venient for digging tombs ; and the traveller by rail,
between Luxor and Edfu, may see many mounds
that have been so utilised.

In one of these mounds was a group of tombs of
a type new to me. The graves were 1*5 to 2*o m.
long, i*2 m. broad, and yo cm. deep, and lined with
brickwork. At the N. end of the tomb two tiny
cells, 20 cm. square and 30 cm. deep, were bricked
off: in two cases these were occupied by coarse
vases, and in one of these there were traces of grain.
The body was in the regular contracted position,
head S., face W. The grave was covered with a
sandstone slab.

In one tomb were fragments of flat alabaster
dishes ; in another a rectangular slate palette, a
smooth pebble, and an alabaster cylinder-jar ; in a
third, part of a wooden coffin ; while in a tomb
situated in this group, but in which the body faced E.,
was one of the thick wooden cylinders, about 2 cm.
long and of the same diameter, similar to the well-
known black stone cylinders of the earliest times.

This was our limit to the N. Beyond it comes a
mile or more of desert in which no tombs have been
found, and then the pyramid of Kelh.

South of the fort is a watercourse leading up to
the round hill containing XVIIIth Dynasty tombs.

65. Near this hill, a little to the south, is a large
tract of smooth desert, on which small fragments of
archaic pottery may be picked up. As no tombs lay
open we expected to find here an untouched cemetery,
but were disappointed. Not a single tomb was dis-
covered. The potsherds were scattered over acres of
ground; but below them, save in a few circular
patches, the desert had not been touched. In these
patches, which were about 2 m. in diameter, a layer
of ashes and charcoal about 2 cm. in depth showed
that for some purpose large fires had been lighted
there. The ashes were covered by about 5 cm. of
gravel and sand, washed down from the hills.

At other points, further to the S., pottery was
scattered over the desert in much greater quantities,
again without graves to account for it, but on a soil
that had been disturbed. This was, at first, difficult
to account for, but an explanation of at least one
such spot was given me by a fellah. One of the low
mounds of black clay, mentioned above, had stood
there, containing many archaic graves; the whole
mound had been carried away as sebakh, and the
pottery from the graves left behind.

This explanation will, no doubt, suffice for some
places, but not for all. Some villages must have
existed here, and all the brick walls have been carried
away later by sebakhin.

In this southern part there are also patches con-
taining archaic tombs, but only the very poorest were
left untouched. There is also a small group of late
Middle Kingdom (?) tombs near to the fort ; all
robbed.

In the archaic tombs that were opened, most of
the features observed in the cemetery of Naqada
recurred. There was one clear case (No. 225) of
mutilated burial, a covering of skin and mat above
the separated burial being untouched. The lining of
tombs with mats, and the use of skins to cover the
bodies, was common here. In one tomb the skeleton
of a dwarf was found ; in another were painted clay
models of flint knives ; in another two fine copper
chisels and an adze-blade. The fine tomb decorated
in the style of the painted Naqada pots, was not
found till the second season.

66. Altogether, the results of the work on the
cemetery, though by no means devoid of interest,
would by themselves have hardly repaid the season's
work. I therefore began upon the mound within the
cultivation, which at first had not seemed promising,
but where a remarkable series of monuments was
soon to be unearthed. This kom is the town of
Hierakonpolis. It is a rectangular rise, hardly de-
serving the name of a mound, for it is but slightly
higher than the surrounding fields ; watercourses are
cut through it by the fellahin ; the boundary walls
can be barely distinguished ; very soon, unless care
be taken, it will slip into cultivation and disappear.

But early in the century it must have been of a
considerable height. Old peasants remember the
walls 6 metres high ; some part of the temple, too,
was then standing, and it is only within the last thirty
years that the stones have been taken to Esneh to
build a factory.

Formerlythe town must have stood on the very
edge of the desert, if not entirely within it; but with
the rise of level of the country, the cultivation has
crept up the gentle slope of the dry stream-bed, and
now there is a belt of watered land, 300 m. wide,
between the town and the desert.

The greater part of the line of the town wall can
still be traced : inside it, to the N., is a part covered
with a thick layer of pottery thrown from the sebakh
diggers' sieves. Here, too, is a line of modern huts ;
but most of the mound is covered with the aqul plant,

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