DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1036#0024
16
MEDINET GUROB.
during the work, and the western end of it is very
uncertain. The columns are marked here in outline
by analogy from six bases, found in my first season's
work, which are marked solid black. The outer
square wall was also traced and surveyed in the first
season.
The design of the plan (Pl. XXV) evidently was
a temple in an enclosing wall; surrounded by a great
square enclosure, which also comprised another space
similar to the temple area, side by side with that.
The only dimensions which appear to be laid out in
round numbers are the breadth of the temple area,
which is ioo cubits of 20*7 inches, and the length of
the forecourt of the temple, which was the same as
the breadth. Probably other rows of columns stood
in this temple, beside those marked here ; but this
ground was not exhaustively turned over ; and as
those lines marked are dependent on only two bases
of each row being found, it is very likely that no trace
would be left of other lines. The axis is marked by
the middle between the walls ; but it coincides exactly
with the doorway. The southern enclosure may have
had other doorways, but only those marked were
observed. Nearly all the dwellings of the town are
restricted to these two inner enclosures ; and most of
the square outside of them is bare sand, with only
occasional buildings. It will be noticed how the
dyke, which protects the Fayum, joins the desert
edge almost in a line with the axis of the temple, and
the entrance. Doubtless the temple was placed facing
the end of the dyke ; and a slight displacement of the
bank, by re-lining it, accounts for the difference. The
end of it has been further diverted to the south in
later times.
35. So far as the history of the place can be traced,
it is very nearly what I had supposed last season ;
but we can now be rather more definite. The temple
was founded by Tahutmes III ; and nothing what-
ever of earlier kings has been found here. So far as
we can judge, all the three enclosures belong to his
time. Within forty or fifty years of this, at most,
there is evidence of the foreigners being here, Aegean
pottery being found under Amenhotep III. Khuena-
ten cut out the name of Amen in the temple. Probably
Tutankhamen was the king who reinserted the name
of the Theban deity. Still the temple stood, and the
foreigners were here. Then we find the temple nearly
all carried bodily away ; hardly any of the stones are
left, and no chips to speak of; it was not therefore
cut to pieces by small workers for miscellaneous
stone, or there would be strata of fragments as at the
Labyrinth. As we know that Ramessu II carried
away the pyramid casing and temples of Illahun to
Ahnas for materials, it is pretty certain that this arch-
plunderer swept away the temple of Tahutmes III
in the same shameless manner. Probably before his
time dwellings had invaded the temple enclosure ; and
so soon as the temple was removed the people soon
filled the space with a mass of houses. As we have
before noticed, the town was ruined and deserted
under Merenptah, the range of kings' names on
amulets coming suddenly to an end, doubtless by the
expulsion of the foreign inhabitants in the Libyan
war. But some slight occupation existed under
Ramessu III, as his name has been found in two or
three instances.
36. A very remarkable custom existed in this town,
which I believe is unknown as yet elsewhere in ancient
Egypt. In many instances the floor of a room has
been taken up ; a hole about two feet across and a
foot deep was dug in the ground. A large quantity
of distinctly personal property, such as clothing, a
stool, a mirror, necklaces, kohl tubes, and toilet vases
of stone and pottery, were thrown in, and then all
burnt in the hole. The fire was smothered by pot-
sherds laid flat over it; and lastly the floor was relaid.
Such was the arrangement of one instance which I
examined in detail; and such is indicated by the
state of the things in other finds, and the accounts
given by Mr. Hughes-Hughes and by the native
diggers. It is evident that the objects buried are
such as belong to an individual personally, and not
to a household. No bones were ever found with the
burnt deposits. These were not therefore funereal
pyres. Yet we cannot imagine a general custom of
burning and burying valuable property, except on
the death of the owner. I conclude therefore that
there was a custom among the foreign residents of
burying the body in the Egyptian fashion, especially
as I found light-haired bodies in the cemetery ; and
that the personal property which would have been
piled on the funereal pyre in the Mediterranean home
of the Akhaians, was here sacrificed in the house, and
so put out of sight. In most instances Aegean pottery
was found in these deposits, an evidence of their
belonging to the foreigners.
37. We will now notice such groups of these
burnt remains as bear a date. On the upper part of
Pl. XVII is a group of the time of Amenhotep III;
it is dated by a kohl tube (20) with part of his car-
touch, . . ma neb, and that of a daughter of his Hent-
taui-neb, who is otherwise unknown. The signs are