DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0113
M1NIEB TO SIUT. 95
the huge portal. A circular hole in the threshold marks
the spot where the great floor once worked upon its pivot;
and a deep pit, now partially filled in with rubbish, leads
from the center of the hall to some long-rifled vault deep
down in the heart of the mountain. • Wilful destruction
has been at work on every side. The wall-sculptures have
been defaced—the massive pillars that once supported the
superincumbent rock have been quarried away—the interior
is heaped high with debris. Enough is left, however, to
attest the antique stateliness of the tomb; and the hiero-
glyphic inscription remains almost intact to tell its age and
history.
This inscription (erroneously entered in Murray's Guide
as uncopied, but interpreted by Brugsch, who published
extracts from it as far back as 1SG2) shows the excavation
to have been made for one liepoukefa orllaptefa, nomarch
of the Lycopolite nome and the chief priest of the jackal
god of Siut.* It is also famous among scientific students
for certain passages which contain important information
regarding the intercalary days of the Egyptian calendar.!
We observed that the full-length figures on the jambs of
the doorway appeared to have been incised, filled in with
stucco and then colored. The stucco had for the most
part fallen out, though enough remained to show the stj'le
of the work. J
From this tomb to the next we crept by way of a pas-
sage tunneled in the mountain, and emerged into a spacious,
quadrangular grotto, even more dilapidated than the first.
It had been originally supported by square pillars left
standing in the substance of the rock; but, like the pillars
in the tomb of liepoukefa, they had been hewn away in
the middle and looked like stalactite columns in process of
* Tlio known inscriptions in the tomb of Haptefa have recently
been recopied, and another long inscription, not previously tran-
scribed, has been copied and translated, by Mr. F. Llewellyn Griffith,
acting for the Egypt exploration fund. Mr. Griffith has for the
first time fixed the date of this famous tomb, which was made dur-
ing the reign of Usertesen I, of the twelth dynasty. [Xote to
second edition.]
f See " Recucil des Monuments Egyptians," Brugsch. Part I.
Planche xi. Published 1862.
J; Some famous tombs of very early date, enriched with the same
kind of inlaid decoration, are to be seen at Meydum, near the base of
Mcydum pyramid.
the huge portal. A circular hole in the threshold marks
the spot where the great floor once worked upon its pivot;
and a deep pit, now partially filled in with rubbish, leads
from the center of the hall to some long-rifled vault deep
down in the heart of the mountain. • Wilful destruction
has been at work on every side. The wall-sculptures have
been defaced—the massive pillars that once supported the
superincumbent rock have been quarried away—the interior
is heaped high with debris. Enough is left, however, to
attest the antique stateliness of the tomb; and the hiero-
glyphic inscription remains almost intact to tell its age and
history.
This inscription (erroneously entered in Murray's Guide
as uncopied, but interpreted by Brugsch, who published
extracts from it as far back as 1SG2) shows the excavation
to have been made for one liepoukefa orllaptefa, nomarch
of the Lycopolite nome and the chief priest of the jackal
god of Siut.* It is also famous among scientific students
for certain passages which contain important information
regarding the intercalary days of the Egyptian calendar.!
We observed that the full-length figures on the jambs of
the doorway appeared to have been incised, filled in with
stucco and then colored. The stucco had for the most
part fallen out, though enough remained to show the stj'le
of the work. J
From this tomb to the next we crept by way of a pas-
sage tunneled in the mountain, and emerged into a spacious,
quadrangular grotto, even more dilapidated than the first.
It had been originally supported by square pillars left
standing in the substance of the rock; but, like the pillars
in the tomb of liepoukefa, they had been hewn away in
the middle and looked like stalactite columns in process of
* Tlio known inscriptions in the tomb of Haptefa have recently
been recopied, and another long inscription, not previously tran-
scribed, has been copied and translated, by Mr. F. Llewellyn Griffith,
acting for the Egypt exploration fund. Mr. Griffith has for the
first time fixed the date of this famous tomb, which was made dur-
ing the reign of Usertesen I, of the twelth dynasty. [Xote to
second edition.]
f See " Recucil des Monuments Egyptians," Brugsch. Part I.
Planche xi. Published 1862.
J; Some famous tombs of very early date, enriched with the same
kind of inlaid decoration, are to be seen at Meydum, near the base of
Mcydum pyramid.