DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3236#0122
CHAP. VIII.—THE KASR AND CAMP.
57
weights. In the floor was a large sink-jar, placed
half in the sand. In 19 c was a recess on the
E. side, and a sink-jar placed in the wall on the
E. of that with two little recesses on each side of
the jar to stand small things in as they were
washed up. The sink-jar was full of pottery
(including the pieces of the fine vase, pi. xxxii. 5)
and organic remains and fish hones mixed with
it. This whole block of chambers was built with
a slight batter in the wall, and covered with white
plastering like the fort.
At a later time, perhaps soon after the building
of these chambers, the great block of brickwork of
period e was inserted to block off communication
outwards from the palace on the E. side, leaving
only the front entrance on the W. This block is
still 20 feet high, and had to be cut through from
top to bottom, to extract the N.E. corner deposit.
Later still the long enclosing wall of period f
was built around the chambers 19, and also the
small block to narrow the passage in the palace.
It seems probable that the space 26 was an open
court, so as to light the chambers 11 and 17
without needing external windows.
56. Bsfore describing the lesser buildings
around, we will now notice the great mastaba or
pavement in front of the entrance (dotted in pi.
xliv.). All the N. end of this is so completely
denuded away, that its limits can only be found
where the brickwork is unusually deep around the
edge. The southern end, and eastern side par-
ticularly, were, on the contrary, buried deep in
wash and rubbish from the ruins above. This
made it not at all easy to examine, and time
failed me to work it out as closely as I should
have wished. To at least determine whether
any such stones as those mentioned by
Jeremiah still remained, or any cylinders of
Nebuchadrezzar in the lesser part yet undenuded,
I had the whole of the mastaba (excepting
a ledge on the S. side left as evidence) cut
away to over a foot in depth and turned over,
but without finding anything but a silver ring
(pi. xli. 33) and a few arrow-heads which had
been lost there.
The body of the mastaba is from 20 to 40 inches
thick of mud and brickwork, with a foundation of
brickwork about a foot deeper all round the edge.
The precise form of the N. end of the mastaba is not
very certain, as only the foundation of the edging
wall remains, and that may have been altered by
enlargements or otherwise; but so far as it could
be detected it is here marked. It was useless to
try to follow it, as it was much worn away into a
slope, and yet buried in washed mud, so that
scarcely any Arab could track it correctly; it was
only by cutting frequent sections through it that
anything could be determined. On the W. side
it seems to have had a bounding wall, at least on
the southern part; possibly an awning was
stretched across the corner thus formed between
the western and southern walls, so as to make a
shady corner. The two recesses in the southern
wall at this corner seem as if they might be sentry-
boxes for guards to stand in, so as to be sheltered
from the sun. From off this mastaba there must
have been a set of steps to reach a broad causeway
which was all in one with the south wall of the
mastaba; this causeway is 11 feet 4 inches wide,
and probably had a parapet wall on either hand,
now washed away. But from the raised ledge, or
roadway, over 10 feet wide, along the west wall of
the block of period b, there was probably also a
flight of steps up to the causeway, for direct access
without going on to the mastaba. The mastaba
was about 3 feet above the original plain, and the
causeway and entrance about 6J feet above the
mastaba (the exact levels are given in Chapter XIII.).
For defensive purposes it will be observed that
the mastaba is carefully kept away from the fort
wall, there being a complete drop down to ground
level between the parapet and the fort, a drop of
10 feet on one side and probably 40 feet on the
other, with a gap 10 feet wide. The wall was
only allowed to touch at the N.W. corner, but
here it probably did not reach within 30 feet of
the top of the fort. The entrance, it will be
i
57
weights. In the floor was a large sink-jar, placed
half in the sand. In 19 c was a recess on the
E. side, and a sink-jar placed in the wall on the
E. of that with two little recesses on each side of
the jar to stand small things in as they were
washed up. The sink-jar was full of pottery
(including the pieces of the fine vase, pi. xxxii. 5)
and organic remains and fish hones mixed with
it. This whole block of chambers was built with
a slight batter in the wall, and covered with white
plastering like the fort.
At a later time, perhaps soon after the building
of these chambers, the great block of brickwork of
period e was inserted to block off communication
outwards from the palace on the E. side, leaving
only the front entrance on the W. This block is
still 20 feet high, and had to be cut through from
top to bottom, to extract the N.E. corner deposit.
Later still the long enclosing wall of period f
was built around the chambers 19, and also the
small block to narrow the passage in the palace.
It seems probable that the space 26 was an open
court, so as to light the chambers 11 and 17
without needing external windows.
56. Bsfore describing the lesser buildings
around, we will now notice the great mastaba or
pavement in front of the entrance (dotted in pi.
xliv.). All the N. end of this is so completely
denuded away, that its limits can only be found
where the brickwork is unusually deep around the
edge. The southern end, and eastern side par-
ticularly, were, on the contrary, buried deep in
wash and rubbish from the ruins above. This
made it not at all easy to examine, and time
failed me to work it out as closely as I should
have wished. To at least determine whether
any such stones as those mentioned by
Jeremiah still remained, or any cylinders of
Nebuchadrezzar in the lesser part yet undenuded,
I had the whole of the mastaba (excepting
a ledge on the S. side left as evidence) cut
away to over a foot in depth and turned over,
but without finding anything but a silver ring
(pi. xli. 33) and a few arrow-heads which had
been lost there.
The body of the mastaba is from 20 to 40 inches
thick of mud and brickwork, with a foundation of
brickwork about a foot deeper all round the edge.
The precise form of the N. end of the mastaba is not
very certain, as only the foundation of the edging
wall remains, and that may have been altered by
enlargements or otherwise; but so far as it could
be detected it is here marked. It was useless to
try to follow it, as it was much worn away into a
slope, and yet buried in washed mud, so that
scarcely any Arab could track it correctly; it was
only by cutting frequent sections through it that
anything could be determined. On the W. side
it seems to have had a bounding wall, at least on
the southern part; possibly an awning was
stretched across the corner thus formed between
the western and southern walls, so as to make a
shady corner. The two recesses in the southern
wall at this corner seem as if they might be sentry-
boxes for guards to stand in, so as to be sheltered
from the sun. From off this mastaba there must
have been a set of steps to reach a broad causeway
which was all in one with the south wall of the
mastaba; this causeway is 11 feet 4 inches wide,
and probably had a parapet wall on either hand,
now washed away. But from the raised ledge, or
roadway, over 10 feet wide, along the west wall of
the block of period b, there was probably also a
flight of steps up to the causeway, for direct access
without going on to the mastaba. The mastaba
was about 3 feet above the original plain, and the
causeway and entrance about 6J feet above the
mastaba (the exact levels are given in Chapter XIII.).
For defensive purposes it will be observed that
the mastaba is carefully kept away from the fort
wall, there being a complete drop down to ground
level between the parapet and the fort, a drop of
10 feet on one side and probably 40 feet on the
other, with a gap 10 feet wide. The wall was
only allowed to touch at the N.W. corner, but
here it probably did not reach within 30 feet of
the top of the fort. The entrance, it will be
i