DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4657#0038
THE TOMB DEPOSITS.
33
These skulls date between the fifth and the
eleventh dynasties. Their number is too small, the
period covered by them too wide, and our present
craniological knowledge too scanty, to warrant the
full publication of these measurements in the present
report. They may advantageously be set out later,
when a further discovery of skulls from the same
periods is made. Suffice it here to say that in all
characters the skulls show remarkable variations.
The cranial breadth-index of the series extends from
68*3 to 82-9, the cranial height-index from 70 • 9 to
79-3, the gnathic index from 91 ■ 7 to 103*2, the nasal
index from 42-7 to 56-8, the upper facial index from
47*6 to 61-7, and the orbital index from 82*9 to
ioi"4. Equally wide divergencies were noted by
Mr. Randall Maclver in the far larger series of con-
temporary skulls found at Dendereh. It is curious
how nearly the mean cranial breadth, the mean nasal,
and the mean gnathic indices, agree in the two series.
In the Dendereh series they are respectively 74*4,
50'6, and 95 -6; in the present series they are 75 • 3,
49 "O, and 96-8.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TOMB DEPOSITS.
(a). Inscribed Objects.
The Stones: Pls. XXXII, XXXIII.
67. The table for offerings from tomb M 336 is
inscribed with the name of (?) Thyes, Veteran, First
under the King. This title, seten tep kher (says
Mr. Newberry), is fairly common for the Vlth
Dynasty, and does not appear to signify any great
rank. The photograph shows the character of the
monument, and the facsimile of the inscription shows
an irregularity in cutting and grouping the hiero-
glyphs, some of which are of crude and unusual
form.
The longer inscription of Pl. XXXIIL, from tomb
M 41, is translated in this way by Mr. Newberry :
" May the King give an offering to Anubis upon his
hill, within the Oasis, and Lord of Ta-zeser in all his
good places, for perkheru offerings for the Mayor, the
Royal Sealer, the Royal Friend, the Veteran in the
service of the Great God, Lord of Heaven, Hen$."
The hieroglyphs are incised. This stone is of rough
surface; it probably formed the lintel of a door-
frame, some smaller pieces of the jambs also being
found.
68. The button-seals. Pl. XXXIX.
This series of twenty-eight seals was found almost
exclusively with those burials which are assigned to the
Vlth and following dynasties. They were sometimes
threaded to a string of beads and pendants in the
manner followed in the burial 87 ; but more were
found attached to a finger by a thread (on which
might be a few small beads only), or held within the
left hand. The deposits associated with them in each
case will be found in a subsequent list.
The designs upon these seals differ in each case,
and are also unlike those with which they have been
compared in the hands of private collectors, and not
yet published. They were thus almost certainly
signets. The patterns upon them are in nearly all
cases conventional, in many instances symmetrical,
whether labyrinthine or naturalistic. In cases of
symmetry the likeness may occur in opposite halves
merely, as in those numbered 100, 28, 400; or may
appear in opposite quarters as 417, 43 ; or the sym-
metry may be perfect in each quarter, as in Nos. 316,
76, 348.
The motive for some of the designs is clear.
No. 343 seems to be possibly a seated figure with
arms outstretched ; Nos. 427, 348, 76, 316, are derived
from beetle or spider patterns, while 112 is possibly
evolved from a similar idea. The figures of animals
appear symmetrically on each half of 417, 43, and
470, and singly upon Nos. 348 (2) and 389. This
last is of exceptional form, being on the obverse dis-
similar in character to the rest, and having the simple
threading-hole usual on the reverse replaced by a
small animal figure in model. The other designs are
chiefly geometrical or tortuous. In no case does a
hieroglyph occur, nor any definite sign of a known
script. The analogies, however, with some designs
of Cretan or proto-^Egean characters, are strikingly
close. Compare, for instance, No. 440 with two from
the Hagios Onuphrios deposit, pictured on p. 108 of
Mr. A. J. Evans' Cretan Pictographs. No. 72A on
p. j6 of the same work, an object of black steatite
bought at Candia, implies a conventional expression
of the class to which 417 and 43 on Pl. XXXIX.
belong also. The four-sided seal numbered 319, on
the left, is so particularly of interest in this connection
that an enlarged photograph of the impression in
plaster of each side is here reproduced from a block
kindly lent for the purpose by the Keeper of the
Ashmolean Museum and the Clarendon Press at
Oxford. The analogy in detail, however, is not so
convincing as that of general motive. The sym-
metrical forms and spider patterns shown in the
F
33
These skulls date between the fifth and the
eleventh dynasties. Their number is too small, the
period covered by them too wide, and our present
craniological knowledge too scanty, to warrant the
full publication of these measurements in the present
report. They may advantageously be set out later,
when a further discovery of skulls from the same
periods is made. Suffice it here to say that in all
characters the skulls show remarkable variations.
The cranial breadth-index of the series extends from
68*3 to 82-9, the cranial height-index from 70 • 9 to
79-3, the gnathic index from 91 ■ 7 to 103*2, the nasal
index from 42-7 to 56-8, the upper facial index from
47*6 to 61-7, and the orbital index from 82*9 to
ioi"4. Equally wide divergencies were noted by
Mr. Randall Maclver in the far larger series of con-
temporary skulls found at Dendereh. It is curious
how nearly the mean cranial breadth, the mean nasal,
and the mean gnathic indices, agree in the two series.
In the Dendereh series they are respectively 74*4,
50'6, and 95 -6; in the present series they are 75 • 3,
49 "O, and 96-8.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TOMB DEPOSITS.
(a). Inscribed Objects.
The Stones: Pls. XXXII, XXXIII.
67. The table for offerings from tomb M 336 is
inscribed with the name of (?) Thyes, Veteran, First
under the King. This title, seten tep kher (says
Mr. Newberry), is fairly common for the Vlth
Dynasty, and does not appear to signify any great
rank. The photograph shows the character of the
monument, and the facsimile of the inscription shows
an irregularity in cutting and grouping the hiero-
glyphs, some of which are of crude and unusual
form.
The longer inscription of Pl. XXXIIL, from tomb
M 41, is translated in this way by Mr. Newberry :
" May the King give an offering to Anubis upon his
hill, within the Oasis, and Lord of Ta-zeser in all his
good places, for perkheru offerings for the Mayor, the
Royal Sealer, the Royal Friend, the Veteran in the
service of the Great God, Lord of Heaven, Hen$."
The hieroglyphs are incised. This stone is of rough
surface; it probably formed the lintel of a door-
frame, some smaller pieces of the jambs also being
found.
68. The button-seals. Pl. XXXIX.
This series of twenty-eight seals was found almost
exclusively with those burials which are assigned to the
Vlth and following dynasties. They were sometimes
threaded to a string of beads and pendants in the
manner followed in the burial 87 ; but more were
found attached to a finger by a thread (on which
might be a few small beads only), or held within the
left hand. The deposits associated with them in each
case will be found in a subsequent list.
The designs upon these seals differ in each case,
and are also unlike those with which they have been
compared in the hands of private collectors, and not
yet published. They were thus almost certainly
signets. The patterns upon them are in nearly all
cases conventional, in many instances symmetrical,
whether labyrinthine or naturalistic. In cases of
symmetry the likeness may occur in opposite halves
merely, as in those numbered 100, 28, 400; or may
appear in opposite quarters as 417, 43 ; or the sym-
metry may be perfect in each quarter, as in Nos. 316,
76, 348.
The motive for some of the designs is clear.
No. 343 seems to be possibly a seated figure with
arms outstretched ; Nos. 427, 348, 76, 316, are derived
from beetle or spider patterns, while 112 is possibly
evolved from a similar idea. The figures of animals
appear symmetrically on each half of 417, 43, and
470, and singly upon Nos. 348 (2) and 389. This
last is of exceptional form, being on the obverse dis-
similar in character to the rest, and having the simple
threading-hole usual on the reverse replaced by a
small animal figure in model. The other designs are
chiefly geometrical or tortuous. In no case does a
hieroglyph occur, nor any definite sign of a known
script. The analogies, however, with some designs
of Cretan or proto-^Egean characters, are strikingly
close. Compare, for instance, No. 440 with two from
the Hagios Onuphrios deposit, pictured on p. 108 of
Mr. A. J. Evans' Cretan Pictographs. No. 72A on
p. j6 of the same work, an object of black steatite
bought at Candia, implies a conventional expression
of the class to which 417 and 43 on Pl. XXXIX.
belong also. The four-sided seal numbered 319, on
the left, is so particularly of interest in this connection
that an enlarged photograph of the impression in
plaster of each side is here reproduced from a block
kindly lent for the purpose by the Keeper of the
Ashmolean Museum and the Clarendon Press at
Oxford. The analogy in detail, however, is not so
convincing as that of general motive. The sym-
metrical forms and spider patterns shown in the
F