DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard; Hall, H. R.: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at Deir El-Bahari
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12053#0027
Excavations at Deir El-Bahaki.
11
interesting is a series of small ex-votos of devotees of Hatlior, found in a
stratum of rubbish in the court between the two temples. These consist
of small cows (the sacred animal of the goddess) and female figures in
earthenware and faience, votive eyes and ears in bronze and faience, small
bronze plaques with roughly-incised cows on them, broken blue vases with
representations of the holy cow emblazoned with stars and with spiral
and lily patterns, etc., scarabs and beads, many on their original strings,
and so forth. These votive offerings, which nearly all date to the
XYIIIth Dynasty, were undoubtedly devoted originally in the Hathor
shrine of the great temple, and when the shrine became too full wrere thrown
down by the sacristans into the space between the two temples, which thus
became a dust-heap. In this dust-heap were also found specimens of
palm-fruits, nuts, shells, etc., and a piece of resin which may well be a bit
of the identical cargo of anti-gam imported from Punt by Hatshepsu [if
indeed her expedition in reality ever took place]. The blue beads and
bowl-fragments are so definitely characteristic of Deir el-Bahari that it
may well be that a special blue glaze factory existed here. The votive
cows and figures may be compared with the votive bulls and figures
found by Messrs Myres and Currelly on the hill of Tsofas or Petsofa
near Palaikastro in Crete in 1903. Both are votive deposits of similar
character.
Other miscellaneous objects were discovered. A perfect three-cornered
loaf of bread was found in the rough stone debris. It may have been cast
out from an Xlth Dynasty tomb. Hieratic ostraka and slips of dubsh
with artists' trial sketches were found in the colonnade, which seems to
have been used as an artists' school, probably at the time of the renovation
of Hatshepsu's temple by Barneses II. One of the ostraka refers to "the
Assyriaiiwho works turquoise " \ [j ) ^ T T
,)• l^1*s record °f au Assyrian, probably an enslaved
prisoner of war, at Thebes under the XVIIIth Dynasty is historically
important. On another ostracon is the plan of a building.
Demotic and Coptic ostraka were found all over the site, but the
largest find of the latter, with other Coptic objects (including a fragment
of a XXXth Dynasty alabaster cauopic jar, with an early Christian
drawing of an angel upon it), was made in the higher levels of the rubbish
in the court. In fact, just as down below we found the dust-heap of the
XVIIIth Dynasty Hathor-shrine, so up above we found the dust-heap of
the Coptic deir which was built over the Hathor-shrine. One of the
ostraka is a note from a bishop or hegumen to one of the Deir el-Bahari
11
interesting is a series of small ex-votos of devotees of Hatlior, found in a
stratum of rubbish in the court between the two temples. These consist
of small cows (the sacred animal of the goddess) and female figures in
earthenware and faience, votive eyes and ears in bronze and faience, small
bronze plaques with roughly-incised cows on them, broken blue vases with
representations of the holy cow emblazoned with stars and with spiral
and lily patterns, etc., scarabs and beads, many on their original strings,
and so forth. These votive offerings, which nearly all date to the
XYIIIth Dynasty, were undoubtedly devoted originally in the Hathor
shrine of the great temple, and when the shrine became too full wrere thrown
down by the sacristans into the space between the two temples, which thus
became a dust-heap. In this dust-heap were also found specimens of
palm-fruits, nuts, shells, etc., and a piece of resin which may well be a bit
of the identical cargo of anti-gam imported from Punt by Hatshepsu [if
indeed her expedition in reality ever took place]. The blue beads and
bowl-fragments are so definitely characteristic of Deir el-Bahari that it
may well be that a special blue glaze factory existed here. The votive
cows and figures may be compared with the votive bulls and figures
found by Messrs Myres and Currelly on the hill of Tsofas or Petsofa
near Palaikastro in Crete in 1903. Both are votive deposits of similar
character.
Other miscellaneous objects were discovered. A perfect three-cornered
loaf of bread was found in the rough stone debris. It may have been cast
out from an Xlth Dynasty tomb. Hieratic ostraka and slips of dubsh
with artists' trial sketches were found in the colonnade, which seems to
have been used as an artists' school, probably at the time of the renovation
of Hatshepsu's temple by Barneses II. One of the ostraka refers to "the
Assyriaiiwho works turquoise " \ [j ) ^ T T
,)• l^1*s record °f au Assyrian, probably an enslaved
prisoner of war, at Thebes under the XVIIIth Dynasty is historically
important. On another ostracon is the plan of a building.
Demotic and Coptic ostraka were found all over the site, but the
largest find of the latter, with other Coptic objects (including a fragment
of a XXXth Dynasty alabaster cauopic jar, with an early Christian
drawing of an angel upon it), was made in the higher levels of the rubbish
in the court. In fact, just as down below we found the dust-heap of the
XVIIIth Dynasty Hathor-shrine, so up above we found the dust-heap of
the Coptic deir which was built over the Hathor-shrine. One of the
ostraka is a note from a bishop or hegumen to one of the Deir el-Bahari