DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1036#0033
ILLAHUN IN THE TWENTY-SECOND DYNASTY.
25
a large wooden door was found in Kahun ; it is 86
inches high, and 43 wide, and i£ inch thick ; the
planks are all tongued together. Along the top and
bottom a strap of bronze has passed round the hinge,
as if to bind the cross bars on to the back-post; this
was punched with the cartouches and titles of Usarkon
I, and the wood was thus so impressed that it can be
read though the bronze was removed. On the middle
of the side was a large carved scene 20 inches square
of Usarkon offering to Neit and Horus ; this has been
all scraped and cut away, so as to be hardly traceable.
The door was covered with linen, and found lying flat
in a chamber of the fourth north mansion at Kahun
(see plan, "wooden door"). It must therefore have
been removed from some building of Usarkon, and
probably sold as old material, having the royal scene
erased. Hence some large building of Usarkon I
probably stood somewhere in this district. This door
was kept for the Ghizeh Museum.
47. The objects from these tombs on Pl. XXIX
are of about the XXIInd dynasty; and represent
well the characteristics of that age. The prevalent
colour is pale yellowish green or light blue ; the rich
blues of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties, and the
yellows, reds, and violets of the end of the XVIIIth
are nowhere seen. But the compensatory quality of
the Bubastite school was in modelling rather than in
colour. The glazing, though tame and flat in tone, is
very skilfully applied ; the surface is just sufficiently
coated, but not at all disguised, and the most minute
details are not choked. The skill of modelling is
seen in the delicate smooth figures (XXIX, 12,14, 20),
and the pierced work (21, 22), which is sometimes
astonishingly fine (24). Similar open-work rings are
found in a cemetery of the XXIInd dynasty at Zu
welein, near Tanis.
Amulets we also see here appearing for the first
time. On the burials of the XlXth dynasty but
little is on the body, perhaps a ring, or a single figure
which was valued; and around the body may be a
wooden headrest, used in life, a ka-figure, two or
three food vessels, and some ushabtis. But in the
XXIInd dynasty the placing of funereal amulets on
the body seems to have arisen to the exclusion of all
else but ushabtis. In a burial which I should assign
to the XXIst dynasty (see further on, sect. 49) there
are scarabs but no amulets. But on later bodies are
found some large coarse amulets ; on one was a large
plain beryl scarab on the chest, and a large lazuli bead
on the neck ; and an inscribed scarab of lazuli (suten
du hotep, &c.) and two headrests of haematite (XXIX,
48) were found in the dust. These early amulets
seem to be always coarse and clumsy ; and it is not
till the XXVIth to the XXXth dynasties that the love
of funeral amulets reached such a pitch of develop-
ment. The grand series of about 120 on Horuta (now
arranged in the original order in the Ghizeh Museum)
mark perhaps the highest range of the practice.
The scarabs of this period are different from all
earlier ones. The designs are poor and rude, kings'
names are scarce, and the colours are all of the
poor light greens of this age, the glaze generally
perishes. The most marked point in them is the use
of long straight lines (see XXIX, 7, 35, 44, 46, 47, 50,
55); and the border line, which graces all the early
scarabs, is sometimes omitted (as in XXIX, 46, 47,
49). Several classes which are well known in general
collections can now be dated from the Illahun ex-
amples of the XXIInd dynasty. Such are the rude
square plaques (XXIX, 1, 2, 44) ; the only examples
known of kings are of the XXIst and XXIInd
dynasties. The solar bark scarabs, (XXIX, 51, 55);
the flat pottery ovals with a plain back (49, which has
been broken and ground down on the edge); the rude
deep-cut figures, (2, 28) ; and the groups of circles
(1, 29), all appear to characterise the Bubastite time.
Another peculiarity is in the use of stone beads
(XXIX, 17, 26) of alabaster or calcite. The harder
stones, carnelian, jasper, &c, seem to have disappeared
altogether from use; and only these soft bulky, un-
suitable beads are found, in harmony with the poor
style of the other work. Strange beads of iron
pyrites, and of antimony (XXX, 56), also occur.
When made of pottery the larger beads are commonly
ribbed, or cut into knobs all over, (57). The smaller
glazed beads are very poor in colour; but they tried
to make up for that by incongruous uses of them for
decoration, threading them into patterns. The mum-
mies of this age are sometimes covered, not only with
a diagonal network of beads, but with designs done in
coloured beads threaded closely together. The labour
of thus producing an ungainly face or scarab must
have been immense, and the taste of it is as defective
as the colouring. When opening tombs of this age I
always cut or drew the pegs, which fastened the coffin
lids, as gently as possible. Then, looking in, I saw if
there was any pattern beadwork on the body. If
there were, the coffin was moved without the slightest
shake, as all the threads were rotted out, and the
beads lay loose. I then fetched a petroleum stove,
and pot of wax ; melting the wax down in the tomb
I then slopped out spoonfuls of it over all the beads.
E
25
a large wooden door was found in Kahun ; it is 86
inches high, and 43 wide, and i£ inch thick ; the
planks are all tongued together. Along the top and
bottom a strap of bronze has passed round the hinge,
as if to bind the cross bars on to the back-post; this
was punched with the cartouches and titles of Usarkon
I, and the wood was thus so impressed that it can be
read though the bronze was removed. On the middle
of the side was a large carved scene 20 inches square
of Usarkon offering to Neit and Horus ; this has been
all scraped and cut away, so as to be hardly traceable.
The door was covered with linen, and found lying flat
in a chamber of the fourth north mansion at Kahun
(see plan, "wooden door"). It must therefore have
been removed from some building of Usarkon, and
probably sold as old material, having the royal scene
erased. Hence some large building of Usarkon I
probably stood somewhere in this district. This door
was kept for the Ghizeh Museum.
47. The objects from these tombs on Pl. XXIX
are of about the XXIInd dynasty; and represent
well the characteristics of that age. The prevalent
colour is pale yellowish green or light blue ; the rich
blues of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties, and the
yellows, reds, and violets of the end of the XVIIIth
are nowhere seen. But the compensatory quality of
the Bubastite school was in modelling rather than in
colour. The glazing, though tame and flat in tone, is
very skilfully applied ; the surface is just sufficiently
coated, but not at all disguised, and the most minute
details are not choked. The skill of modelling is
seen in the delicate smooth figures (XXIX, 12,14, 20),
and the pierced work (21, 22), which is sometimes
astonishingly fine (24). Similar open-work rings are
found in a cemetery of the XXIInd dynasty at Zu
welein, near Tanis.
Amulets we also see here appearing for the first
time. On the burials of the XlXth dynasty but
little is on the body, perhaps a ring, or a single figure
which was valued; and around the body may be a
wooden headrest, used in life, a ka-figure, two or
three food vessels, and some ushabtis. But in the
XXIInd dynasty the placing of funereal amulets on
the body seems to have arisen to the exclusion of all
else but ushabtis. In a burial which I should assign
to the XXIst dynasty (see further on, sect. 49) there
are scarabs but no amulets. But on later bodies are
found some large coarse amulets ; on one was a large
plain beryl scarab on the chest, and a large lazuli bead
on the neck ; and an inscribed scarab of lazuli (suten
du hotep, &c.) and two headrests of haematite (XXIX,
48) were found in the dust. These early amulets
seem to be always coarse and clumsy ; and it is not
till the XXVIth to the XXXth dynasties that the love
of funeral amulets reached such a pitch of develop-
ment. The grand series of about 120 on Horuta (now
arranged in the original order in the Ghizeh Museum)
mark perhaps the highest range of the practice.
The scarabs of this period are different from all
earlier ones. The designs are poor and rude, kings'
names are scarce, and the colours are all of the
poor light greens of this age, the glaze generally
perishes. The most marked point in them is the use
of long straight lines (see XXIX, 7, 35, 44, 46, 47, 50,
55); and the border line, which graces all the early
scarabs, is sometimes omitted (as in XXIX, 46, 47,
49). Several classes which are well known in general
collections can now be dated from the Illahun ex-
amples of the XXIInd dynasty. Such are the rude
square plaques (XXIX, 1, 2, 44) ; the only examples
known of kings are of the XXIst and XXIInd
dynasties. The solar bark scarabs, (XXIX, 51, 55);
the flat pottery ovals with a plain back (49, which has
been broken and ground down on the edge); the rude
deep-cut figures, (2, 28) ; and the groups of circles
(1, 29), all appear to characterise the Bubastite time.
Another peculiarity is in the use of stone beads
(XXIX, 17, 26) of alabaster or calcite. The harder
stones, carnelian, jasper, &c, seem to have disappeared
altogether from use; and only these soft bulky, un-
suitable beads are found, in harmony with the poor
style of the other work. Strange beads of iron
pyrites, and of antimony (XXX, 56), also occur.
When made of pottery the larger beads are commonly
ribbed, or cut into knobs all over, (57). The smaller
glazed beads are very poor in colour; but they tried
to make up for that by incongruous uses of them for
decoration, threading them into patterns. The mum-
mies of this age are sometimes covered, not only with
a diagonal network of beads, but with designs done in
coloured beads threaded closely together. The labour
of thus producing an ungainly face or scarab must
have been immense, and the taste of it is as defective
as the colouring. When opening tombs of this age I
always cut or drew the pegs, which fastened the coffin
lids, as gently as possible. Then, looking in, I saw if
there was any pattern beadwork on the body. If
there were, the coffin was moved without the slightest
shake, as all the threads were rotted out, and the
beads lay loose. I then fetched a petroleum stove,
and pot of wax ; melting the wax down in the tomb
I then slopped out spoonfuls of it over all the beads.
E