DOI Artikel:
Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S.: Egypt Exploration Fund: graeco-roman branch (excavations in the Fayûm and at El Hîbeh)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12054#0017
Ghaeco- Roman Beanch.
3
Unfortunately they were of poor quality, producing a single inscribed bone
cylinder (now in the Cairo Museum) and a few head-rests. The rest of
the tombs nearer to the cultivation proved to belong entirely to the late
Roman or Byzantine periods ; and other cemeteries in the neighbourhood
of Sela station were of the same date and equally unproductive. Dis-
appointed in the hope of fresh discoveries of Ptolemaic papyri in this
district, we devoted a short time to finishing the cemetery of Manashiu-
shaneh, the later portion of which we had been unable to deal with in
1901. Here we were rewarded by several sporadic papyrus mummies;
and the Roman and Byzantine tombs yielded some well-preserved portraits
on wood, and a good collection of glass vases, besides a quantity of rings,
bracelets, and other small ornaments, and a varied assortment of beads,
which were often buried in small wooden boxes. A handsomely decorated
stucco mummy, with portrait head painted on a flat surface, which, was
retained by the Cairo Museum, is deserving of special attention as
supplying a link between the ordinary portrait mummies and those in
stucco with moulded features. A mummy-tablet was found mentioning
Tanis in the division of Heraclides, thus confirming our identification of
that village with Manaskiushaneh (Arch. Report, 1900-1, p. 6).
In the middle of February we transferred our camp to Talit in the
south of the Fay urn, where we soon came upon a good-sized cemetery of the
late Ptolemaic period in a ridge running east and west, about a mile to the
south of the town. From this we obtained a number of vases of alabaster
and earthenware, and other small objects, but no cartonnage except in the
case of a few tombs whose contents had however been spoiled by damp.
The earlier Ptolemaic burials at this site seem to have been confined
to the low rocky ground surrounding the town, where they had been
thoroughly rifled long ago, and in any case could hardly have produced
cartonnage in good condition. Accordingly we moved further west to
Khamsin, a considerable site, where we had opened a number of Ptolemaic
tombs in 1900 while working at Tebtunis, which is about six miles off.
The Roman portion of this cemetery, which is about a quarter of a mile
east of the Ptolemaic, was disappointing ; but at a short distance to the
west of the latter were found tombs [containing mummied crocodiles, in
the preparation of which, as at Tebtunis, papyrus had been used in a fair
proportion of cases. A large number of documents, both Greek and
demotic, were thus secured; aud since these appear to belong for the
most part to the middle of the first century b.c., they do not overlap the
bulk of the crocodile papyri of Tebtunis, and are on that account par-
ticularly valuable. Several mentions occur of the village of Kerkethoeris,
3
Unfortunately they were of poor quality, producing a single inscribed bone
cylinder (now in the Cairo Museum) and a few head-rests. The rest of
the tombs nearer to the cultivation proved to belong entirely to the late
Roman or Byzantine periods ; and other cemeteries in the neighbourhood
of Sela station were of the same date and equally unproductive. Dis-
appointed in the hope of fresh discoveries of Ptolemaic papyri in this
district, we devoted a short time to finishing the cemetery of Manashiu-
shaneh, the later portion of which we had been unable to deal with in
1901. Here we were rewarded by several sporadic papyrus mummies;
and the Roman and Byzantine tombs yielded some well-preserved portraits
on wood, and a good collection of glass vases, besides a quantity of rings,
bracelets, and other small ornaments, and a varied assortment of beads,
which were often buried in small wooden boxes. A handsomely decorated
stucco mummy, with portrait head painted on a flat surface, which, was
retained by the Cairo Museum, is deserving of special attention as
supplying a link between the ordinary portrait mummies and those in
stucco with moulded features. A mummy-tablet was found mentioning
Tanis in the division of Heraclides, thus confirming our identification of
that village with Manaskiushaneh (Arch. Report, 1900-1, p. 6).
In the middle of February we transferred our camp to Talit in the
south of the Fay urn, where we soon came upon a good-sized cemetery of the
late Ptolemaic period in a ridge running east and west, about a mile to the
south of the town. From this we obtained a number of vases of alabaster
and earthenware, and other small objects, but no cartonnage except in the
case of a few tombs whose contents had however been spoiled by damp.
The earlier Ptolemaic burials at this site seem to have been confined
to the low rocky ground surrounding the town, where they had been
thoroughly rifled long ago, and in any case could hardly have produced
cartonnage in good condition. Accordingly we moved further west to
Khamsin, a considerable site, where we had opened a number of Ptolemaic
tombs in 1900 while working at Tebtunis, which is about six miles off.
The Roman portion of this cemetery, which is about a quarter of a mile
east of the Ptolemaic, was disappointing ; but at a short distance to the
west of the latter were found tombs [containing mummied crocodiles, in
the preparation of which, as at Tebtunis, papyrus had been used in a fair
proportion of cases. A large number of documents, both Greek and
demotic, were thus secured; aud since these appear to belong for the
most part to the middle of the first century b.c., they do not overlap the
bulk of the crocodile papyri of Tebtunis, and are on that account par-
ticularly valuable. Several mentions occur of the village of Kerkethoeris,