DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3236#0109
41
TELL NEBESHEH.
ware moulds were used. In this material there
are moulds for the hawk's heak, for hieroglyphs,
sacred eyes, and a Bes head. They are cut with
the sides sloping in, so that the moulded pieces
are narrower at the back than in front. The
same is the case with the limestone moulds which
seem to have been used here exclusively for the
large and simple forms, bars, &c.
A few words must be said as to how they were
put together into patterns. The glass varies in
thickness from -} to -fa of an inch, and pieces of
different thickness were used together. The panel
of the hawk mosaic seems to have been covered
with the thinnest possible layer of gilt stucco, and
wherever there was no glass, even between the
feathers, the gilding appeared.
Sometimes a piece of backing was inserted
behind the glass, and in one place a large triangle
of slaty stone had been put at the back of a group
of pieces to raise them, and cemented on to the
wood with yellow paste. The work does not seem
to have been cloisonne in the wood. Probably
the panel was grooved and channelled where re-
quired, and then filled in with glass, gilt stucco,
and cement, like the wings of the wooden Isis in
the Museum of Practical Geology.
Amongst the glass pieces are numerous frag-
ments of the outlines of cartouches. These
arc unfortunately in every case made separately
from the signs enclosed, and there is no certain
indication of the king's name amongst the hiero-
glyphs found. These include Su (ten) se ra, &c.
The occurrence of sen suggests Philadelphus or
his son, and tho lions might very well occur in
Ptolemaic cartouches. The hawk upon the panel
was no doubt the hawk of Lower Egypt over-
shadowing a king's title. An early Ptolemaic
date will agree very well with the rest of the
remains found in the sand, which included a piece
of Greek pottery, a small black and buff bowl of
bad glaze, but probably made at the end of the
fourth century.
Returning to the buildings in the temenos (see
pi. xxi.), the walls of the central chamber are
evidently only retaining walls for the foundations
of a stone building, for there is no exit. The
sand inside was quite clean, except where the pits
had been sunk in it, or wooden objects had decayed.
That the building was a temple seems almost
proved by the fact that no Egyptian stone building
has been found of an early date that is not either
a tomb or a temple. On the analogy of similar
buildings the space enclosed must have been paved
with large blocks of stone over the sand. Yet in
this sand were found many objects, some of them
of small value and deposited separately. It is
clear that the paving-blocks would not have been
raised all over the building in order to hide
these objects. It is evident, therefore, that with
the exception of the foundation deposits, they were
placed there after the complete destruction of the
building. Appearances are all in favour of this.
Some of the objects are unfinished, and parts only
of large designs which were hurriedly buried in
small lots at some time of panic.
40. The history of Gemaiyemi may now be
traced somewhat as follows. There was no
building here of which I found any traces, until,
about the time of the twenty-first or twenty-
second dynasty, a strong enclosure was built.
Of this nearly square building three sides of
the great wall remain, together with a small
detached piece of brickwork buried in the sand
between the E. end of the central chamber and
the later E. side of the enclosure, near the middle.
This is curved, and may be the last trace of a
gateway looking E. The wall perhaps enclosed
a temple of the same date, which has now entirely
vanished. I trenched the whole enclosure tho-
roughly without finding any other bricks as large
as those of the enclosure wall. This massive wall
no doubt served to guard the point at which the
canal or river branched to Tanis and Nebesheh.
Nothing more can be told of it until during the
flourishing Saite epoch the enclosure was repaired;
the E. end, which was then probably in ruins, was
carried out further, and the entrance stopped, while
TELL NEBESHEH.
ware moulds were used. In this material there
are moulds for the hawk's heak, for hieroglyphs,
sacred eyes, and a Bes head. They are cut with
the sides sloping in, so that the moulded pieces
are narrower at the back than in front. The
same is the case with the limestone moulds which
seem to have been used here exclusively for the
large and simple forms, bars, &c.
A few words must be said as to how they were
put together into patterns. The glass varies in
thickness from -} to -fa of an inch, and pieces of
different thickness were used together. The panel
of the hawk mosaic seems to have been covered
with the thinnest possible layer of gilt stucco, and
wherever there was no glass, even between the
feathers, the gilding appeared.
Sometimes a piece of backing was inserted
behind the glass, and in one place a large triangle
of slaty stone had been put at the back of a group
of pieces to raise them, and cemented on to the
wood with yellow paste. The work does not seem
to have been cloisonne in the wood. Probably
the panel was grooved and channelled where re-
quired, and then filled in with glass, gilt stucco,
and cement, like the wings of the wooden Isis in
the Museum of Practical Geology.
Amongst the glass pieces are numerous frag-
ments of the outlines of cartouches. These
arc unfortunately in every case made separately
from the signs enclosed, and there is no certain
indication of the king's name amongst the hiero-
glyphs found. These include Su (ten) se ra, &c.
The occurrence of sen suggests Philadelphus or
his son, and tho lions might very well occur in
Ptolemaic cartouches. The hawk upon the panel
was no doubt the hawk of Lower Egypt over-
shadowing a king's title. An early Ptolemaic
date will agree very well with the rest of the
remains found in the sand, which included a piece
of Greek pottery, a small black and buff bowl of
bad glaze, but probably made at the end of the
fourth century.
Returning to the buildings in the temenos (see
pi. xxi.), the walls of the central chamber are
evidently only retaining walls for the foundations
of a stone building, for there is no exit. The
sand inside was quite clean, except where the pits
had been sunk in it, or wooden objects had decayed.
That the building was a temple seems almost
proved by the fact that no Egyptian stone building
has been found of an early date that is not either
a tomb or a temple. On the analogy of similar
buildings the space enclosed must have been paved
with large blocks of stone over the sand. Yet in
this sand were found many objects, some of them
of small value and deposited separately. It is
clear that the paving-blocks would not have been
raised all over the building in order to hide
these objects. It is evident, therefore, that with
the exception of the foundation deposits, they were
placed there after the complete destruction of the
building. Appearances are all in favour of this.
Some of the objects are unfinished, and parts only
of large designs which were hurriedly buried in
small lots at some time of panic.
40. The history of Gemaiyemi may now be
traced somewhat as follows. There was no
building here of which I found any traces, until,
about the time of the twenty-first or twenty-
second dynasty, a strong enclosure was built.
Of this nearly square building three sides of
the great wall remain, together with a small
detached piece of brickwork buried in the sand
between the E. end of the central chamber and
the later E. side of the enclosure, near the middle.
This is curved, and may be the last trace of a
gateway looking E. The wall perhaps enclosed
a temple of the same date, which has now entirely
vanished. I trenched the whole enclosure tho-
roughly without finding any other bricks as large
as those of the enclosure wall. This massive wall
no doubt served to guard the point at which the
canal or river branched to Tanis and Nebesheh.
Nothing more can be told of it until during the
flourishing Saite epoch the enclosure was repaired;
the E. end, which was then probably in ruins, was
carried out further, and the entrance stopped, while