DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51705#0015
THE TOWN AND FORT
3
(8) Cemetery G. Small group, mostly infants’
burials of the New Kingdom.
(9) Cemetery W. Large shafts and mastabas.
The system of recording, used by the British
School, is described in chapter III.
CHAPTER II
THE TOWN AND FORT
5. The reduction in level of the temple en-
closure of Thutmose III and the buildings round
it, has brought to light several points which were
not noticed in previous work, but has by no means
simplified the survey of the temple itself. The eastern
wall of the outer temple enclosure is now easily
traceable, but the remainder of the walls of both
the outer and inner enclosures must be far less
clear than when the plan on pl. XXV of Illahun,
Kahun and Gurob was made. The most we could
see was the general run of the walls, sometimes
merely the trench in which the wall was laid. We
were, however, able to place accurately the centre
of the main gate in the middle of the E. outer en-
closure wall, the south-east angle of the same and
the eastern entrance of the inner temple enclosure.
From these we have been able to put the plan
made in 1889 on to the present maps on pls. I
and II, adjusting the newer and the older. Of the
seven column bases exposed in the earlier plan,
six have been destroyed, and only one—that in
the centre—is now left. But six more have been
uncovered by the sebakh diggers, so that thirteen
are now recorded. There seems to have been a triple
colonnade in the portico of the temple, like the
quadruple colonnades of Luqsor and Dendereh. The
three bases which stand singly may have been shifted.
6. On the base of the western column we
found a roughly cut figure of a man presenting an
offering. This is shown on pl. XLVIII, no. 4. There
are no indications of its date. No inscriptions of any
sort were found in the temple area, with the excep-
tion of the fragments shewn on pl. XLVIII, 6, and
pl. XLIX, 5, 10 and 11, and a large number of bricks
from the west wall of the inner temple enclosure,
bearing the name of Thutmose III. A drawing of a
typical example of these is shown on pl. XLVIII, no. 1.
Although we found several of the holes mentioned
in sect. 36 of Kahun, Illahun and Gurob, we found
no untouched ones, but the local workmen all agree
that a large number of such burials have been found
there since the excavations of 1889.
The tracing of any connected series of walls on
the west side of any of the enclosures was impossible,
as the whole place was in chaos. Neither did we
find any traces of the shrine mentioned in Gurob
(Loat), sect. 3 and pl. XIV. We believe it to have
been entirely carried off by the sabbakhin and
stonemasons in recent years.
7. At the north-east corner of the outer temple
enclosure, we found the foundation trench of a
building which appears to have been a fort. No
trace of brickwork now remains, but the wall was
about six feet in thickness. A break in the continuity
of the trench enables us to determine the position
of the main entrance on the east, but in addition
to this, there were probably other doors now no
longer traceable. The fort stands on the edge of
the lower level of the desert just before it begins
to slope down towards the fields. On the southern
half of the east wall there were three raised plat-
forms, without traces of trench, but with a soil
which leads us to suppose that there had been
brickwork on them. The inference is that they were
either for bastions or, more probably (because of
their small size), for buttresses. They averaged
20 feet long by 8 feet thick. At the back of this fort
are the remains of another smaller square enclosure
which we found very difficult to trace, as there had
been a good deal of later building on the top
of it, such as glass factories and lime-kilns. Its re-
lation to the fort is not clear, but it is obvious that
the peculiar re-entrant angle of the north-east corner
of the outer enclosure wall of the temple was to
avoid cutting into some earlier building or estate
intimately connected with the fort. Another and
more convincing reason why the fort is older than
the temple of Thutmose III is that, descending
from the main entrance of the fort, there is a very
distinct trace of a dyke or “gisr” pointing directly
to the beginning of the last and westward curl of
the Gisr el-Bahlawan, the main highway to this
piece of desert. We found no objects which gave
any data as to the period of this fort, but, since
graves of the XIIth dynasty are entirely absent,
and those before the reign of Thutmose III numeri-
cally very few indeed, it seems reasonable to
put this fort at either the Archaic or the 2nd
2
3
(8) Cemetery G. Small group, mostly infants’
burials of the New Kingdom.
(9) Cemetery W. Large shafts and mastabas.
The system of recording, used by the British
School, is described in chapter III.
CHAPTER II
THE TOWN AND FORT
5. The reduction in level of the temple en-
closure of Thutmose III and the buildings round
it, has brought to light several points which were
not noticed in previous work, but has by no means
simplified the survey of the temple itself. The eastern
wall of the outer temple enclosure is now easily
traceable, but the remainder of the walls of both
the outer and inner enclosures must be far less
clear than when the plan on pl. XXV of Illahun,
Kahun and Gurob was made. The most we could
see was the general run of the walls, sometimes
merely the trench in which the wall was laid. We
were, however, able to place accurately the centre
of the main gate in the middle of the E. outer en-
closure wall, the south-east angle of the same and
the eastern entrance of the inner temple enclosure.
From these we have been able to put the plan
made in 1889 on to the present maps on pls. I
and II, adjusting the newer and the older. Of the
seven column bases exposed in the earlier plan,
six have been destroyed, and only one—that in
the centre—is now left. But six more have been
uncovered by the sebakh diggers, so that thirteen
are now recorded. There seems to have been a triple
colonnade in the portico of the temple, like the
quadruple colonnades of Luqsor and Dendereh. The
three bases which stand singly may have been shifted.
6. On the base of the western column we
found a roughly cut figure of a man presenting an
offering. This is shown on pl. XLVIII, no. 4. There
are no indications of its date. No inscriptions of any
sort were found in the temple area, with the excep-
tion of the fragments shewn on pl. XLVIII, 6, and
pl. XLIX, 5, 10 and 11, and a large number of bricks
from the west wall of the inner temple enclosure,
bearing the name of Thutmose III. A drawing of a
typical example of these is shown on pl. XLVIII, no. 1.
Although we found several of the holes mentioned
in sect. 36 of Kahun, Illahun and Gurob, we found
no untouched ones, but the local workmen all agree
that a large number of such burials have been found
there since the excavations of 1889.
The tracing of any connected series of walls on
the west side of any of the enclosures was impossible,
as the whole place was in chaos. Neither did we
find any traces of the shrine mentioned in Gurob
(Loat), sect. 3 and pl. XIV. We believe it to have
been entirely carried off by the sabbakhin and
stonemasons in recent years.
7. At the north-east corner of the outer temple
enclosure, we found the foundation trench of a
building which appears to have been a fort. No
trace of brickwork now remains, but the wall was
about six feet in thickness. A break in the continuity
of the trench enables us to determine the position
of the main entrance on the east, but in addition
to this, there were probably other doors now no
longer traceable. The fort stands on the edge of
the lower level of the desert just before it begins
to slope down towards the fields. On the southern
half of the east wall there were three raised plat-
forms, without traces of trench, but with a soil
which leads us to suppose that there had been
brickwork on them. The inference is that they were
either for bastions or, more probably (because of
their small size), for buttresses. They averaged
20 feet long by 8 feet thick. At the back of this fort
are the remains of another smaller square enclosure
which we found very difficult to trace, as there had
been a good deal of later building on the top
of it, such as glass factories and lime-kilns. Its re-
lation to the fort is not clear, but it is obvious that
the peculiar re-entrant angle of the north-east corner
of the outer enclosure wall of the temple was to
avoid cutting into some earlier building or estate
intimately connected with the fort. Another and
more convincing reason why the fort is older than
the temple of Thutmose III is that, descending
from the main entrance of the fort, there is a very
distinct trace of a dyke or “gisr” pointing directly
to the beginning of the last and westward curl of
the Gisr el-Bahlawan, the main highway to this
piece of desert. We found no objects which gave
any data as to the period of this fort, but, since
graves of the XIIth dynasty are entirely absent,
and those before the reign of Thutmose III numeri-
cally very few indeed, it seems reasonable to
put this fort at either the Archaic or the 2nd
2