DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4664#0033
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28
KOM EL AHMAR.
When the two legs of the statue had been re-
moved, the torso below was seen to be incomplete,
the hips being missing. On the chest, and adhering
to it by the green corrosion, lay a crumpled sheet
of copper with an embossed inscription of Pepy I.
(PL. XLV.).
The statue was taken up to the tomb in which
we lived, and an attempt made to clean out the
hollow trunk. It was then found that this contained
a smaller complete statue of the same technique as
the larger, and divided in the same way into three
pieces, body and two legs. This could not be con-
veniently removed with the means at our disposal,
and the torso was brought down to Gizeh, with the
small statue still enclosed in it. At the Museum
both figures were very skilfully restored by M. Bar-
santi, and the photographs show the statues as they
now stand at the Museum. Some fragments of the
plate, with the embossed titles of Pepy, have also
certain eye-shaped signs, of which I did not at Hiera-
konpolis see the meaning. M. Barsanti pointed out
that they are the ends of the bows on which the king
is often represented as standing, and Dr. Borchardt
showed us that the small statue and the large one
probably formed a single group of the king with one
of his sons.
This proved to be the case : the arrangement of
the bows gave the approximate breadth of the in-
scribed plate, and showed that it had covered the
common base of the two statues.
The back of the head and the hips of the king are
missing ; doubtless they were formed of some other
material than copper: traces of gilt plaster remain on
one thigh.
The technique of both statues is the same : they
are formed of plates of copper, joined together by
rows of nails (not rivets), placed close together.
These must have been driven into a core of wood.
The seams run down the inside of the arms and legs.
The sides of the trunk and the forearms are made
separately, and fastened in the same manner at the
elbows. The core of wood must have been extremely
rotten when the statues were taken to pieces, or the
nails would have been bent and the plates damaged.
But this observation does not help the dating, for the
termites, or "white ants," in Egypt now sometimes
render a village uninhabitable by eating every particle
of wood in it.
69. The lion is of a porous reddish pottery, with
a bright red polished surface. It is of the same
material and technique as some of the fragments of
statues found below the temple of Koptos, and as the
Osiris statuettes from the Ramesseum and Medinet
Habu. In condition it was perfect, except that it
was saturated with salt.
There is no inscription on it ; but in the form of
the face, and the treatment of whiskers and mane, it
closely resembles the lions on an alabaster table of
offerings from Saqqara, attributed to the early Old
Kingdom.
70. The green stone statue (PL. XLI.) shows the
king wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and a large
robe folded across the chest and falling nearly to the
ankles ; this is the robe used in the Sed festival.
Scratched on the base, in front of the feet, is the
Horus name of the king, Klia-sekliem, and round the
sides of the base are rudely-scratched figures of dead
bodies lying on a field of battle. These inscriptions
make us attribute the statue to the early Old King-
dom, though the style of the figure would have led to
a much later date. Unlike the lion or the Pepy
statue, this object is somewhat battered, and the right
side of the head was never found, though a wide
search was made.
Of these three objects one is of the time of Pepy ;
of the others, one and probably both are of much
earlier date. The copper statues had been taken to
pieces, and their wooden cores removed, the sheathing
of the base torn off, and crushed together, and the
whole packed in a compact manner so that it could
be buried in a small hole.
The hole was in the centre of the chamber, and
the discoloured sand did not extend beneath the
walls.
Therefore the objects were buried after the walls
were built, and most probably very soon after.
The good state of preservation of the copper
statues seems to show that, though they had become
obsolete, they were still thought worthy of some
respect, and were so saved from the melting-pot.
This group was buried in the sand without any
surrounding walls or covering slab.
71. The third of the groups was still more re-
markable than the last, and contained a great number
of objects, all of them, apparently, of the earljest
historical period.
They, too, lay at a low level, below all the existing
walls of the temple, at a point on the E. side of the
temple area, and to the south of the set of five cham-
bers mentioned above. Here there was a small rise
of about 2 metres in the ground, the ancient walls
having been for some reason much less denuded here
'.level
Mi
28
KOM EL AHMAR.
When the two legs of the statue had been re-
moved, the torso below was seen to be incomplete,
the hips being missing. On the chest, and adhering
to it by the green corrosion, lay a crumpled sheet
of copper with an embossed inscription of Pepy I.
(PL. XLV.).
The statue was taken up to the tomb in which
we lived, and an attempt made to clean out the
hollow trunk. It was then found that this contained
a smaller complete statue of the same technique as
the larger, and divided in the same way into three
pieces, body and two legs. This could not be con-
veniently removed with the means at our disposal,
and the torso was brought down to Gizeh, with the
small statue still enclosed in it. At the Museum
both figures were very skilfully restored by M. Bar-
santi, and the photographs show the statues as they
now stand at the Museum. Some fragments of the
plate, with the embossed titles of Pepy, have also
certain eye-shaped signs, of which I did not at Hiera-
konpolis see the meaning. M. Barsanti pointed out
that they are the ends of the bows on which the king
is often represented as standing, and Dr. Borchardt
showed us that the small statue and the large one
probably formed a single group of the king with one
of his sons.
This proved to be the case : the arrangement of
the bows gave the approximate breadth of the in-
scribed plate, and showed that it had covered the
common base of the two statues.
The back of the head and the hips of the king are
missing ; doubtless they were formed of some other
material than copper: traces of gilt plaster remain on
one thigh.
The technique of both statues is the same : they
are formed of plates of copper, joined together by
rows of nails (not rivets), placed close together.
These must have been driven into a core of wood.
The seams run down the inside of the arms and legs.
The sides of the trunk and the forearms are made
separately, and fastened in the same manner at the
elbows. The core of wood must have been extremely
rotten when the statues were taken to pieces, or the
nails would have been bent and the plates damaged.
But this observation does not help the dating, for the
termites, or "white ants," in Egypt now sometimes
render a village uninhabitable by eating every particle
of wood in it.
69. The lion is of a porous reddish pottery, with
a bright red polished surface. It is of the same
material and technique as some of the fragments of
statues found below the temple of Koptos, and as the
Osiris statuettes from the Ramesseum and Medinet
Habu. In condition it was perfect, except that it
was saturated with salt.
There is no inscription on it ; but in the form of
the face, and the treatment of whiskers and mane, it
closely resembles the lions on an alabaster table of
offerings from Saqqara, attributed to the early Old
Kingdom.
70. The green stone statue (PL. XLI.) shows the
king wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and a large
robe folded across the chest and falling nearly to the
ankles ; this is the robe used in the Sed festival.
Scratched on the base, in front of the feet, is the
Horus name of the king, Klia-sekliem, and round the
sides of the base are rudely-scratched figures of dead
bodies lying on a field of battle. These inscriptions
make us attribute the statue to the early Old King-
dom, though the style of the figure would have led to
a much later date. Unlike the lion or the Pepy
statue, this object is somewhat battered, and the right
side of the head was never found, though a wide
search was made.
Of these three objects one is of the time of Pepy ;
of the others, one and probably both are of much
earlier date. The copper statues had been taken to
pieces, and their wooden cores removed, the sheathing
of the base torn off, and crushed together, and the
whole packed in a compact manner so that it could
be buried in a small hole.
The hole was in the centre of the chamber, and
the discoloured sand did not extend beneath the
walls.
Therefore the objects were buried after the walls
were built, and most probably very soon after.
The good state of preservation of the copper
statues seems to show that, though they had become
obsolete, they were still thought worthy of some
respect, and were so saved from the melting-pot.
This group was buried in the sand without any
surrounding walls or covering slab.
71. The third of the groups was still more re-
markable than the last, and contained a great number
of objects, all of them, apparently, of the earljest
historical period.
They, too, lay at a low level, below all the existing
walls of the temple, at a point on the E. side of the
temple area, and to the south of the set of five cham-
bers mentioned above. Here there was a small rise
of about 2 metres in the ground, the ancient walls
having been for some reason much less denuded here
'.level
Mi