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CHAPTER II.—DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
[For copies of short inscriptions, see Plates XV and XXV.]
(a) The XIIth-XIIIth Dynasties.
Plates I-X.
Plate I, with references to Pls. Ill, XV, XVI.
Tomb
E. 108.
[Jewels, upper half of PL. I ; statuette,
PL. III.]
This group was recovered from the
southern chamber of a disturbed pit tomb, into
which plunderers had anciently made their way
from a tomb adjoining, but had retreated, with their
work only partly done, owing to a fall of sand from
the roof. The jewels include: (i) a set of hollow
beads like cowry shells, made of electrum ; (ii) two
ribbed bracelets of gold ; (iii) a shell breast-pendant,
or pectoral, of gold ; (iv) two small fishes with bodies
of green felspar set in gold ; and (v) a delicate
electrum charm-case, pendant, studded with rows of
small pins bound by an entwined thread of the
same metal, and containing a roll of papyrus. The
scarabs are, one of green glaze, with scroll pattern
surrounding the emblems Ra, Nefer ; another of
lapis-lazuli, mounted in gold as a ring, inscribed
with the name of Hor, Chancellor of the King of
Lower Egypt, Chief of the Secrets, etc. (see Pl. XV
and Chapter V) ; and a third, small, of glaze. The
beads of the upper string are blue glazed ; the small
dark beads in the middle are of garnet, and those
below are of rich coloured amethyst. Near the door
of the chamber, at the pit bottom, was found the
statuette pictured on PL. Ill, which is made of
serpentine, but not inscribed.
A pectoral similar in design, but of electrum, was
subsequently found in position on an undisturbed
burial (E. 230, Chapter III). It was suspended from
the neck by a plain circlet of the same metal, the
ends of which were curved slightly outwards but not
joined, remaining in approximation by the natural
spring of the material. A fish-pendant of this kind
has been found also with a Xllth dynasty deposit at
Hu (see Diospolis Parva, Pl. XXVII, W. 38); and
a similar pair are those numbered 30484-5 in the
Egyptian Room of the British Museum.
E. 30.
The photograph on the left hand in the
lowest half of Pl. I shows the deposit from
a rich Xllth dynasty burial, which had, however,
been partly disturbed. By a glance at Pl. II or
Pl. XXX it may be seen that the shaft of this
tomb adjoins the sloped approach which descends
under the mastaba, near which it is built, so that its
chamber, being on the south side, had been found
anciently most readily accessible to the plunderers of
the mastaba by a small hole pierced in the wall of
gravel that intervened. But their economy preserved
to us the essential features of the burial intact; for
the head and shoulders, being towards the north,
were covered by the sand which had poured in, to
its natural angle of rest, through the unclosed door
of the chamber. Through such a sand-slope it was
impossible for them to work down, for the place of
any sand removed would have been instantly filled
by fresh sand pressing in from without. Thus only
the legs and hands had been removed ; even the
beads from the wrists, though disturbed, remained
in separate groups ; so that a complete description of
the burial is deferred until Chapter III (Undisturbed
Burials, No. 1).
Lying on the breast was a group of gold jewels,
represented in the centre of the photograph, com-
prising crowned hawks of gold and silver, pairs of
birds, also of gold and silver, fishes and single birds
of gold. ' Around the neck was a long string of
amethyst beads, deep coloured, and of globular form
in graduated sizes. They passed twice closely round
the neck, and a third time more loosely, so encircling
the jewels in a loop of the heavier beads. The other
strings, from the wrists, are of carnelian and garnet
beads respectively ; with the latter are strung also
several small pendants of glaze and two scarabs, the
one of glaze and the other of plain garnet. The
vessels are of alabaster, and the mirror, of which
9> hoWn on
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