DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4657#0006
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
[With Pls. I., II.]
1. The present volume deals with the results of
excavations made for the Egyptian Research Ac-
count during the season 1900-1901, from the end of
November to the beginning of May. It had been
arranged by the Director that the exploration should
proceed from near the scene of the previous season's
work at Abydos over the desert lying immediately to
the north. The camp was fixed in the open desert
south of the village of Mahasna, not far from a walled
village (originally a large garden enclosure) called the
Maslahet-Harun, at a point where some partly-
cleared tombs of the Old Kingdom disclosed the
presence of a cemetery not completely plundered.
2. The scene of work was marked off on the south
by the northern boundary to the bay of Abydos—a
great headland which reaches down almost to the
cultivation near the village of Alawniyeh. From
here, after trending north-west, the hills again break
away westward so sharply that above the village of
Mahasna the lower desert is nearly six miles wide.
The surface is not all even, being broken in its
western half by a series of foothills fringing a small
plateau. North of Mahasna, above the village called
Ilg, the conformation becomes more regular ; and the
Libyan hills, curving inwards, narrow the desert to
three or four miles (some six kilometres). At this
point the surface lies unbroken, and the stretch of
waste sand is wide and impressive. Just to the
north, however, above the village of Bet Khallaf,
where the hills again fall westward behind a still
wider bay, the desert assumes a new character. It is
caused by a series of sand-dunes and pebbly mounds,
for the most part unconnected yet lying in curious
symmetry, which reach down to within two miles of
the cultivated land. It is here that the northern limit
to the season's work was reached.
The region examined was thus some ten miles in
length, embracing the villages of Alawniyeh on the
one hand and of Bet Khallaf on the other, with El
Mahasna about its centre, and with the smaller settle-
ments at Bet Allam, the Maslahet Harun, Bet and
Ilg, intervening along its edge. The more accessible
portions of this stretch of desert, where it abuts upon
the cultivation, or is of level or merely undulating
surface, were examined with some care; but the
portions of it on the west that are broken by low hills
were not explored systematically. The wildness and
isolation of the district would have required more
time for its exploration than could have been spared
from the work in hand. A cave-tomb, found half
way up the face of the further cliffs above the village
of Alawniyeh, apparently of Roman date, was the
only result of following up many stories brought by
local people.
3. Near to Alawniyeh, just above the houses
clustered together as Bet Allam, were traces of a pre-
historic cemetery already much disturbed. It proved
to be a small site, almost completely plundered ;
nevertheless some interesting objects of pottery and
flint were found in the few tombs that remained, with
a sufficient quantity of the more ordinary types to
enable its character and date to be determined.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the site first fixed
upon between El Mahasna and the Maslahet Harun,
great numbers of worked flints and some domestic
pottery indicated the presence of a Settlement also of
the prehistoric period. A great downpour of rain
helped materially to define its area and suggest the
lines for its excavation. It was almost in the centre
of the cemetery, between (and for the most part
avoided by) tombs of the IVth and Vlth Dynasties.
Its houses had been constructed of wicker, or, more
probably, of " wattle and daub," and in a few cases
their stouter piles remained in position to show how
they had been arranged. The spot they covered was
small; but the flint-strewn area was much larger,
reaching southward along the desert-edge, in a strip
B
INTRODUCTION.
[With Pls. I., II.]
1. The present volume deals with the results of
excavations made for the Egyptian Research Ac-
count during the season 1900-1901, from the end of
November to the beginning of May. It had been
arranged by the Director that the exploration should
proceed from near the scene of the previous season's
work at Abydos over the desert lying immediately to
the north. The camp was fixed in the open desert
south of the village of Mahasna, not far from a walled
village (originally a large garden enclosure) called the
Maslahet-Harun, at a point where some partly-
cleared tombs of the Old Kingdom disclosed the
presence of a cemetery not completely plundered.
2. The scene of work was marked off on the south
by the northern boundary to the bay of Abydos—a
great headland which reaches down almost to the
cultivation near the village of Alawniyeh. From
here, after trending north-west, the hills again break
away westward so sharply that above the village of
Mahasna the lower desert is nearly six miles wide.
The surface is not all even, being broken in its
western half by a series of foothills fringing a small
plateau. North of Mahasna, above the village called
Ilg, the conformation becomes more regular ; and the
Libyan hills, curving inwards, narrow the desert to
three or four miles (some six kilometres). At this
point the surface lies unbroken, and the stretch of
waste sand is wide and impressive. Just to the
north, however, above the village of Bet Khallaf,
where the hills again fall westward behind a still
wider bay, the desert assumes a new character. It is
caused by a series of sand-dunes and pebbly mounds,
for the most part unconnected yet lying in curious
symmetry, which reach down to within two miles of
the cultivated land. It is here that the northern limit
to the season's work was reached.
The region examined was thus some ten miles in
length, embracing the villages of Alawniyeh on the
one hand and of Bet Khallaf on the other, with El
Mahasna about its centre, and with the smaller settle-
ments at Bet Allam, the Maslahet Harun, Bet and
Ilg, intervening along its edge. The more accessible
portions of this stretch of desert, where it abuts upon
the cultivation, or is of level or merely undulating
surface, were examined with some care; but the
portions of it on the west that are broken by low hills
were not explored systematically. The wildness and
isolation of the district would have required more
time for its exploration than could have been spared
from the work in hand. A cave-tomb, found half
way up the face of the further cliffs above the village
of Alawniyeh, apparently of Roman date, was the
only result of following up many stories brought by
local people.
3. Near to Alawniyeh, just above the houses
clustered together as Bet Allam, were traces of a pre-
historic cemetery already much disturbed. It proved
to be a small site, almost completely plundered ;
nevertheless some interesting objects of pottery and
flint were found in the few tombs that remained, with
a sufficient quantity of the more ordinary types to
enable its character and date to be determined.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the site first fixed
upon between El Mahasna and the Maslahet Harun,
great numbers of worked flints and some domestic
pottery indicated the presence of a Settlement also of
the prehistoric period. A great downpour of rain
helped materially to define its area and suggest the
lines for its excavation. It was almost in the centre
of the cemetery, between (and for the most part
avoided by) tombs of the IVth and Vlth Dynasties.
Its houses had been constructed of wicker, or, more
probably, of " wattle and daub," and in a few cases
their stouter piles remained in position to show how
they had been arranged. The spot they covered was
small; but the flint-strewn area was much larger,
reaching southward along the desert-edge, in a strip
B