DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4863#0076
THE FAQADE AND COURTYARD OF THE TOMB
were once cased with limestone blocks, if not the entire chamber as well.
No inscriptional material attributable to it was found here, however,
unless we have in fragment g, Plate LXX, an inscription from the jambs.
From the back of the shrine, which seems as if it had been cut or length-
ened for this purpose, a little gallery communicates with the chamber of
the early shaft (No. 1). In front of the shrine is a very large well (No. XIII)
occupying most of the breadth of the chamber. At a depth of twelve
meters a low chamber is entered to the west, entirely occupied by two pits
sunk in the floor to receive coffins (Plate LXXVII, i, 4, 5). One had
probably never been used. The other was filled by an unpolished granite
sarcophagus of rude workmanship and anthropoid shape. This we had
been prepared for, not only by native report, but by signs (on which
perhaps that prophecy was based)—the size, namely, of the shaft, and the
provision above it in the walls of the chamber of large holes designed to
receive the ends of two thick beams. The lid had been broken in
two by previous thieves, and the sarcophagus (4 meters long by 1.16
wide) did not contain so much as a bone. Under the circumstances it
was comforting to think that perhaps it never had. It rested in its
narrow pit on a layer of finest gray river sand, apparently placed there
for liturgical reasons, since materials much closer to hand would have
served to form a bed and break the shock of its descent. Utilizing the
means by which the enormous block had been lowered, we succeeded in
raising the two parts of the cover, and they lie now in the courtyard as
a proof of the level to which ambitious art, devoid of taste, can descend.
It is possible that such decadence may already have been reached by the
end of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but it would be hard to affirm. A
trench across the floor chamber near the door was presumably the resting,
place of some humbler soul. The approach to the tomb was filled with a
mass of anthropoid coffins of late date, mingled with fragments of sculp-
ture from the hall of Puyemre. There was no attempt to place them in
order or to protect them in any way; they had been treated only as in-
conveniences to be put out of sight. This dump may be the work of men
who in the Greek epoch sought to clear the stairway tomb for re-use.
6i
were once cased with limestone blocks, if not the entire chamber as well.
No inscriptional material attributable to it was found here, however,
unless we have in fragment g, Plate LXX, an inscription from the jambs.
From the back of the shrine, which seems as if it had been cut or length-
ened for this purpose, a little gallery communicates with the chamber of
the early shaft (No. 1). In front of the shrine is a very large well (No. XIII)
occupying most of the breadth of the chamber. At a depth of twelve
meters a low chamber is entered to the west, entirely occupied by two pits
sunk in the floor to receive coffins (Plate LXXVII, i, 4, 5). One had
probably never been used. The other was filled by an unpolished granite
sarcophagus of rude workmanship and anthropoid shape. This we had
been prepared for, not only by native report, but by signs (on which
perhaps that prophecy was based)—the size, namely, of the shaft, and the
provision above it in the walls of the chamber of large holes designed to
receive the ends of two thick beams. The lid had been broken in
two by previous thieves, and the sarcophagus (4 meters long by 1.16
wide) did not contain so much as a bone. Under the circumstances it
was comforting to think that perhaps it never had. It rested in its
narrow pit on a layer of finest gray river sand, apparently placed there
for liturgical reasons, since materials much closer to hand would have
served to form a bed and break the shock of its descent. Utilizing the
means by which the enormous block had been lowered, we succeeded in
raising the two parts of the cover, and they lie now in the courtyard as
a proof of the level to which ambitious art, devoid of taste, can descend.
It is possible that such decadence may already have been reached by the
end of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but it would be hard to affirm. A
trench across the floor chamber near the door was presumably the resting,
place of some humbler soul. The approach to the tomb was filled with a
mass of anthropoid coffins of late date, mingled with fragments of sculp-
ture from the hall of Puyemre. There was no attempt to place them in
order or to protect them in any way; they had been treated only as in-
conveniences to be put out of sight. This dump may be the work of men
who in the Greek epoch sought to clear the stairway tomb for re-use.
6i