DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4862#0036
THE TOMB AND THE SITE
he knew of it, was near at hand, the strange place of interment of King The form of
the sarcoph-
Mentuhotep at Deir el Bahri. Sarcophagus and sarcophagus-chamber, agus
namely, are one; the latter being no more than a receptacle for the wooden
coffin and the burial furniture.1 To form it, a rectangular cutting slightly
larger in every way than the proposed cist was cut in the shaly rock,
more than half of its height being below the floor of the anteroom; so
that a little clever "camouflaging" of the one visible slab might hope to
conceal it successfully even from practised eyes. The walls are built up of
thin slabs of sandstone, two for each end and several fitted together to
make up the longer walls, and then roofed over with thicker stones. The
bottom was merely sunk a few inches below the walls in living rock.
Finally, the sides were smeared over with a wash of plaster to conceal the
joints and an upper end-slab left to be replaced after the coffin was
inserted. But the thieves penetrated the secret, and, breaking the slab in
two, rifled the place. A few scraps of rotten wood were found in the
debris inside, derived from a box with gabled lid some thirty-two inches
long, on the sides and ridge of which hotpedens prayers were incised to
the Lord of Abydos that Puyemre, "second temple-father, one having
access to the person of the god" might have food, and to another god
that he "might be on earth in his temple {ro-per)." An interesting feature
is the provision of a little niche high up on the three free walls, probably
in order to contain the magic clay bases, whose written spells for protect-
ing the chamber from intruding thieves, sand, and other enemies of the
dead, have been found to be lamentably inefficient in the case of this
tomb, to say nothing of others.2 These tablets, according to the rubric,
were to be sealed up in each of the four walls, facing outward. One of the
sandstone blocking-slabs was found near by, and this, added to the thick
wash spread over the walls, effectually concealed the hiding-place.3
JSo in the tomb of Mena (Petrie, Dendera, p. 6); frequently, too, in the Middle Kingdom, as tombs
in this same valley show (cf. also Musee Egyptien, II, pp. no, 116, 117).
2 See Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, p. 117. A fragment of such a magic tablet was found in the
vicinity.
3 The passage which descends from the same well, but in an opposite direction, by a long staircase
to rooms filled with late interments, and the tomb at a lower level in the courtyard, which yielded a heavy
granite sarcophagus of bad style, are described, with other burial-places which the courtyard contains, in
Vol. II, Appendix B.
i3
he knew of it, was near at hand, the strange place of interment of King The form of
the sarcoph-
Mentuhotep at Deir el Bahri. Sarcophagus and sarcophagus-chamber, agus
namely, are one; the latter being no more than a receptacle for the wooden
coffin and the burial furniture.1 To form it, a rectangular cutting slightly
larger in every way than the proposed cist was cut in the shaly rock,
more than half of its height being below the floor of the anteroom; so
that a little clever "camouflaging" of the one visible slab might hope to
conceal it successfully even from practised eyes. The walls are built up of
thin slabs of sandstone, two for each end and several fitted together to
make up the longer walls, and then roofed over with thicker stones. The
bottom was merely sunk a few inches below the walls in living rock.
Finally, the sides were smeared over with a wash of plaster to conceal the
joints and an upper end-slab left to be replaced after the coffin was
inserted. But the thieves penetrated the secret, and, breaking the slab in
two, rifled the place. A few scraps of rotten wood were found in the
debris inside, derived from a box with gabled lid some thirty-two inches
long, on the sides and ridge of which hotpedens prayers were incised to
the Lord of Abydos that Puyemre, "second temple-father, one having
access to the person of the god" might have food, and to another god
that he "might be on earth in his temple {ro-per)." An interesting feature
is the provision of a little niche high up on the three free walls, probably
in order to contain the magic clay bases, whose written spells for protect-
ing the chamber from intruding thieves, sand, and other enemies of the
dead, have been found to be lamentably inefficient in the case of this
tomb, to say nothing of others.2 These tablets, according to the rubric,
were to be sealed up in each of the four walls, facing outward. One of the
sandstone blocking-slabs was found near by, and this, added to the thick
wash spread over the walls, effectually concealed the hiding-place.3
JSo in the tomb of Mena (Petrie, Dendera, p. 6); frequently, too, in the Middle Kingdom, as tombs
in this same valley show (cf. also Musee Egyptien, II, pp. no, 116, 117).
2 See Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, p. 117. A fragment of such a magic tablet was found in the
vicinity.
3 The passage which descends from the same well, but in an opposite direction, by a long staircase
to rooms filled with late interments, and the tomb at a lower level in the courtyard, which yielded a heavy
granite sarcophagus of bad style, are described, with other burial-places which the courtyard contains, in
Vol. II, Appendix B.
i3