DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4863#0074
THE FACADE AND COURTYARD OF THE TOMB
descent is only eight feet long and is final. A small chamber, the entrance
to which is half blocked by a slab, is the final lot of the most unhappy
dead. The state of the hot air in the terminus of this winding burrow,
thick with the smell and dust of rent bodies which had been steeped in
preserving materials, can scarcely be imagined; and self-compassion over-
came any false pity for the dead on the part of the discoverer, long before
the plans were completed and the loathsome contents of the rooms ex-
amined.
Little of interest was secured from this mass of dry corruption.
Woodwork of coffins, if there had been any, had all been carried to the
fire. The remains gave the impression of a late age, and this opinion was
more than confirmed by some small pieces of cartonnage which were
composed in part of Greek papyri. But this does not in any way give a
date for the hewing out of the chambers, though these too wear a late
aspect. On the other hand, the descending slide suggests heavier burdens
than the late period generally furnished, and the mass of extruded coffins
of the Twenty-First Dynasty which were found in the courtyard may
have been previous occupants. The small size of the actual sepulchre in-
dicates that the tomb was not hewn as a common grave; while, on the
other hand, the dimensions of the lower chamber suggest a hospitable
attitude towards relatives or retainers.
A break in the ceiling in the corner opposite the ascending passage,
leads into the burial chamber of an upper tomb. By a short shaft one
gains the chapel above. It is uninscribed, and the doorway to the north-
east must issue somewhere not far beyond the bottom of Puyemre's
courtyard, east of the center.
The shaft (No. X) in the center of the boss of rock gave access to a
long, low chamber (No. 10), opening out of its western end and running
to a point underneath the doorway to the south chapel, thus supporting
the suggestion that it may have been the sepulchre of a wife or near re-
lation of the owner (Vol. I, p. 6). Besides smaller fragments of the
tomb, it yielded the topmost drum of one of the columns, and so materi-
ally aided the reconstruction of the portico.
59
descent is only eight feet long and is final. A small chamber, the entrance
to which is half blocked by a slab, is the final lot of the most unhappy
dead. The state of the hot air in the terminus of this winding burrow,
thick with the smell and dust of rent bodies which had been steeped in
preserving materials, can scarcely be imagined; and self-compassion over-
came any false pity for the dead on the part of the discoverer, long before
the plans were completed and the loathsome contents of the rooms ex-
amined.
Little of interest was secured from this mass of dry corruption.
Woodwork of coffins, if there had been any, had all been carried to the
fire. The remains gave the impression of a late age, and this opinion was
more than confirmed by some small pieces of cartonnage which were
composed in part of Greek papyri. But this does not in any way give a
date for the hewing out of the chambers, though these too wear a late
aspect. On the other hand, the descending slide suggests heavier burdens
than the late period generally furnished, and the mass of extruded coffins
of the Twenty-First Dynasty which were found in the courtyard may
have been previous occupants. The small size of the actual sepulchre in-
dicates that the tomb was not hewn as a common grave; while, on the
other hand, the dimensions of the lower chamber suggest a hospitable
attitude towards relatives or retainers.
A break in the ceiling in the corner opposite the ascending passage,
leads into the burial chamber of an upper tomb. By a short shaft one
gains the chapel above. It is uninscribed, and the doorway to the north-
east must issue somewhere not far beyond the bottom of Puyemre's
courtyard, east of the center.
The shaft (No. X) in the center of the boss of rock gave access to a
long, low chamber (No. 10), opening out of its western end and running
to a point underneath the doorway to the south chapel, thus supporting
the suggestion that it may have been the sepulchre of a wife or near re-
lation of the owner (Vol. I, p. 6). Besides smaller fragments of the
tomb, it yielded the topmost drum of one of the columns, and so materi-
ally aided the reconstruction of the portico.
59