DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3236#0138
CHAP. XI.—THE SMALL ANTIQUITIES.
73
In noticing the general antiquities of the sixth
century, it will be best to group them according
to material—stone, pottery, bone, &c, gold,
silver, bronze, and iron ; for though this is
usually the least rational arrangement, yet
here the impossibility of separating Egyptian
from Greek work, and the main need of show-
ing the special work and products of the place,
make this the best system.
70. Of stone remains there are the curious
figures of captives carved in limestone; they are
all represented as having the legs bent back from
the knees, and the ancles and elbows bound to-
gether (pi. xl. 8 to 13). The cutting varies from
the rudest scratches on a mere peg of limestone,
as in fig. 8, up to rather good work of a rough
kind, as in fig. 12. The form being always an
approach to a peg in the rougher ones, suggests
that they may have been draughtmen for playing
with on the sand, sticking them in a draught-
board marked by little rows of pits in the sand
made by the fingers, as the Arabs do at present.
The form of the head-dress is peculiar: it generally
rises in a ridge from back to front; sometimes, as
in fig. 11, it resembles a wig. These were all
found together, some thirty or forty in all, many
being broken, lying in the desert on the east of
the Kasr, beyond 29.
Of limestone also is the piece of a cake stamp
(pi. xl. 14, 14a the reverse side) found in
chamber 27. This is clearly Greek, and there-
fore before the middle of the sixth century, yet
the style of it is what otherwise would be attri-
buted to a later period. It shows that the cake-
stamps of Naukratis (Nauk. pi. xxix.) may in
some cases be much earlier than was supposed.
With this before us, we might not be wrong in
attributing some with the honeysuckle, leaf, or
drop patterns to the fifth, or perhaps sixth,
century b.c, instead of to the Eoman imitative
archaistic taste. Two limestone dice were also
found, also seven alabastra 2J inches to 4 inches
high, from the camp.
The Egyptian objects in stone are mostly amu-
lets. Several examples of calcite (Iceland spar)
have been found about Defenneh: beads, seal-
stones, &c, but the only engraved one is the
natural rhomb (pi. xli. 40) engraved with the
name of the spirit Ket in a cartouche, and two
nefers or neferui on the other side; this was
doubtless a charm. A small hawk in greenish-
white translucent steatite was found in the camp.
Other amulets found were Taurt, cynocephalus
ape, and three scarabs in haematite; lion curled
round, ram with a scarab head, scarab, Horus,
hawk, lion-headed urasus (pi. xli. 39) of very
delicate work, star (fig. 38), and Tat of lapis lazuli;
fifteen symbolic eyes and Taurt of grey syenite ;
snake's head in green felspar; papyrus in beryl;
three symbolic eye-plaques in schist; crocodile
and frog in steatite. The cover of an eye, hemi-
spherical, probably from a cat's head, is brilli-
antly cut in rock-crystal, with the corners of the
eye produced. A model rubber-stone was found
in the camp, cut in slate (pi. xl. 2); also part
of large dish of slate. A scarab in banded agate,
found in or near Defenneh, is exactly of the stone
and work of the Phoenician scarabs. A piece of
a finely-polished syenite bowl was found in cham-
ber 19. Three jasper earrings were found, the
ring form with a slit in one side; one of them
with a crenellated edge. Also a carnelian finger-
ring, and draughtman.
The scarabaei are not important. One (xli.
42) of green paste, imitating jasper, is of the
regular style of fine Phoenician work; it comes
from the north of Defenneh. Fig. 54 looks
Ramesside in its style. Pig. 55 is another of the
rather common scarabs of Sheshonk IV., lia-
Ichepcr (" Tanis," p. 40). Two scarabs of dark
green jasper, 56 and 58, name Psamtik I. (or
Uah-ab-ra) and Ba men, probably a Greek mistake.
The obsidian scarab, fig. 57, is of a new king,
probably of the thirteenth dynasty. Two blue
paste scarabs, figs. 68, 69, are the only represen-
tatives at Defenneh of the great class of Nau-
kratite scarabs, another evidence of the strange
L
73
In noticing the general antiquities of the sixth
century, it will be best to group them according
to material—stone, pottery, bone, &c, gold,
silver, bronze, and iron ; for though this is
usually the least rational arrangement, yet
here the impossibility of separating Egyptian
from Greek work, and the main need of show-
ing the special work and products of the place,
make this the best system.
70. Of stone remains there are the curious
figures of captives carved in limestone; they are
all represented as having the legs bent back from
the knees, and the ancles and elbows bound to-
gether (pi. xl. 8 to 13). The cutting varies from
the rudest scratches on a mere peg of limestone,
as in fig. 8, up to rather good work of a rough
kind, as in fig. 12. The form being always an
approach to a peg in the rougher ones, suggests
that they may have been draughtmen for playing
with on the sand, sticking them in a draught-
board marked by little rows of pits in the sand
made by the fingers, as the Arabs do at present.
The form of the head-dress is peculiar: it generally
rises in a ridge from back to front; sometimes, as
in fig. 11, it resembles a wig. These were all
found together, some thirty or forty in all, many
being broken, lying in the desert on the east of
the Kasr, beyond 29.
Of limestone also is the piece of a cake stamp
(pi. xl. 14, 14a the reverse side) found in
chamber 27. This is clearly Greek, and there-
fore before the middle of the sixth century, yet
the style of it is what otherwise would be attri-
buted to a later period. It shows that the cake-
stamps of Naukratis (Nauk. pi. xxix.) may in
some cases be much earlier than was supposed.
With this before us, we might not be wrong in
attributing some with the honeysuckle, leaf, or
drop patterns to the fifth, or perhaps sixth,
century b.c, instead of to the Eoman imitative
archaistic taste. Two limestone dice were also
found, also seven alabastra 2J inches to 4 inches
high, from the camp.
The Egyptian objects in stone are mostly amu-
lets. Several examples of calcite (Iceland spar)
have been found about Defenneh: beads, seal-
stones, &c, but the only engraved one is the
natural rhomb (pi. xli. 40) engraved with the
name of the spirit Ket in a cartouche, and two
nefers or neferui on the other side; this was
doubtless a charm. A small hawk in greenish-
white translucent steatite was found in the camp.
Other amulets found were Taurt, cynocephalus
ape, and three scarabs in haematite; lion curled
round, ram with a scarab head, scarab, Horus,
hawk, lion-headed urasus (pi. xli. 39) of very
delicate work, star (fig. 38), and Tat of lapis lazuli;
fifteen symbolic eyes and Taurt of grey syenite ;
snake's head in green felspar; papyrus in beryl;
three symbolic eye-plaques in schist; crocodile
and frog in steatite. The cover of an eye, hemi-
spherical, probably from a cat's head, is brilli-
antly cut in rock-crystal, with the corners of the
eye produced. A model rubber-stone was found
in the camp, cut in slate (pi. xl. 2); also part
of large dish of slate. A scarab in banded agate,
found in or near Defenneh, is exactly of the stone
and work of the Phoenician scarabs. A piece of
a finely-polished syenite bowl was found in cham-
ber 19. Three jasper earrings were found, the
ring form with a slit in one side; one of them
with a crenellated edge. Also a carnelian finger-
ring, and draughtman.
The scarabaei are not important. One (xli.
42) of green paste, imitating jasper, is of the
regular style of fine Phoenician work; it comes
from the north of Defenneh. Fig. 54 looks
Ramesside in its style. Pig. 55 is another of the
rather common scarabs of Sheshonk IV., lia-
Ichepcr (" Tanis," p. 40). Two scarabs of dark
green jasper, 56 and 58, name Psamtik I. (or
Uah-ab-ra) and Ba men, probably a Greek mistake.
The obsidian scarab, fig. 57, is of a new king,
probably of the thirteenth dynasty. Two blue
paste scarabs, figs. 68, 69, are the only represen-
tatives at Defenneh of the great class of Nau-
kratite scarabs, another evidence of the strange
L