DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4391#0008
KOPTOS.
age of the IVth dynasty. It seems therefore that
though Koptos belongs to the dawn of history, its
occupation does not stretch far back into the pre-
historic age.
Beside the flint implements there was another class
of stone-working which may be rather later in origin.
Axes of quartzose rock (II, 7-13) are often found in
the lower levels of the town (Univ. Coll.) ; but we did
not happen to discover any well placed in our own
working, so that the exact positions cannot be stated.
The regions from which they have been gleaned by
the village boys are both cleared down to early
levels ; on the south of the temple, and on the north-
west, the natives have dug the earth-ruins away, until
further work is difficult from the depth of potsherds
and stones left behind. On sinking further in these
parts I found that the basal clay is at a lower level
than it is beneath the temple, which was founded on
the highest point ; and it appeared that the axes
must belong to the lowest yard or two of the town
ruins, but not be of the age of the first settlement.
The absence of them from our own work is accounted
for by our clearances being in the temple area. That
space was occupied by the flint-using settlement, but
was later enclosed as sacred before the axe-makers
dwelt there. In the IVth dynasty the forecourt of
the temple (about the third pylon) was common
ground, as we there found habitations, and large
quantities of pottery of the regular style of the
Medum vases. Yet although many rectangular flints
were found, as at Medum, no stone axes appeared.
It seems then not unlikely that these stone axes
belong to the Old Kingdom down perhaps to the
Vlth dynasty. The types vary from the plain ovoid
to the wide axe with lugs ; and as one of the latter in
hornstone, and others in flint, were found at Kahun
in the Xllth dynasty, there is no reason that they
should not extend over the earlier historic age here.
That they are so much commoner here than else-
where is easily accounted for by the nearness of the
mountains of primitive rock in the Hammamat
Desert.
7. The remains of dwellings in front of the temple
show that the compact clay was found to be un-
pleasant as a soil, and careful arrangements were
made to obtain a dry floor. We found dozens of
cylindrical pots of rough earthenware, inverted, and
near together on the ground in regular rows ; while
over them was about three inches of Nile mud
entirely clear of pottery chips. This appears to
have been a dry floor made of inverted jars, with a
paving of brick laid over them. The types of the
pottery, as we have noticed above, are all familiar at
Medum ; the coarse hand-made jars (Medum XXXI,
15) with a pointed bottom, abounded, and pieces of
many varieties of the fine red-faced pottery bowls
(M. XXXI, 2-7) ; the strange thick cup-shaped pots
(M. XXXI, 17), with a rough unformed outside over
the lower half, were also found. The whole group
was a most satisfactory evidence that the types which
had been found at Medum were not merely local, but
that the same forms and materials characterise this
age in Upper Egypt as in the lower country.
8. Of actually dated remains a few pieces of the
Old Kingdom were obtained. I bought from asebakk
digger on the low ground south of the temple, a
piece of a large alabaster jar bearing the name of
Khufu (XXI. 3) (Univ. Coll.). From the style of the
cutting, and the seated king determinative, it is
probably contemporary ; and it most likely came
from the royal furnishing of the temple of the IVth
dynasty. Of the Vlth dynasty a small piece,
apparently of the front of a statue-throne, bears the
ka name of Pepy I (Univ. Coll.) ; and two limestone
slabs show scenes of Pepy II (V, 7, 8). These are
cut in the local limestone, which is not of good
quality, being much fissured, and containing flint
nodules. They indicate that a rebuilding done here
by Pepy was left to local resources, and did not draw
on the royal quarries of fine limestone. These blocks
had been removed from the old part of the sanctuary
in Ptolemaic times, and were laid face down to fill up
some holes in the basal clay beneath the great sand
bed of the Ptolemaic temple. One of them shews
Pepy offering to a god which was doubtless Min, as
the king is named " Beloved of Min " (at Manchester).
The other block bears part of the royal figure with a
large cartouche (Pepy Ra-nefer-ka) before it, bordered
with the early double rope line. Below the scene is
a frieze of dad signs alternating with figures, the
lower parts of which are like the Isiac girdle tie, while
above they have the human Hathor head, with cows'
ears and horns, as on a sistrum. They seem as if
they might be copies of some primitive Hathor idol,
which was modified into the sistrum type in later
times. In any case they are the earliest Hathor
heads of this type that are yet known (Univ. Coll.).
9. In considering the remains found in the temple
itself, of an earlier date than the Middle Kingdom,
we must take them as a group and disentangle them,
without beginning necessarily with the earliest. The
main feature of importance for determining the age
. I
j■■_»- -^'"-^r^-
age of the IVth dynasty. It seems therefore that
though Koptos belongs to the dawn of history, its
occupation does not stretch far back into the pre-
historic age.
Beside the flint implements there was another class
of stone-working which may be rather later in origin.
Axes of quartzose rock (II, 7-13) are often found in
the lower levels of the town (Univ. Coll.) ; but we did
not happen to discover any well placed in our own
working, so that the exact positions cannot be stated.
The regions from which they have been gleaned by
the village boys are both cleared down to early
levels ; on the south of the temple, and on the north-
west, the natives have dug the earth-ruins away, until
further work is difficult from the depth of potsherds
and stones left behind. On sinking further in these
parts I found that the basal clay is at a lower level
than it is beneath the temple, which was founded on
the highest point ; and it appeared that the axes
must belong to the lowest yard or two of the town
ruins, but not be of the age of the first settlement.
The absence of them from our own work is accounted
for by our clearances being in the temple area. That
space was occupied by the flint-using settlement, but
was later enclosed as sacred before the axe-makers
dwelt there. In the IVth dynasty the forecourt of
the temple (about the third pylon) was common
ground, as we there found habitations, and large
quantities of pottery of the regular style of the
Medum vases. Yet although many rectangular flints
were found, as at Medum, no stone axes appeared.
It seems then not unlikely that these stone axes
belong to the Old Kingdom down perhaps to the
Vlth dynasty. The types vary from the plain ovoid
to the wide axe with lugs ; and as one of the latter in
hornstone, and others in flint, were found at Kahun
in the Xllth dynasty, there is no reason that they
should not extend over the earlier historic age here.
That they are so much commoner here than else-
where is easily accounted for by the nearness of the
mountains of primitive rock in the Hammamat
Desert.
7. The remains of dwellings in front of the temple
show that the compact clay was found to be un-
pleasant as a soil, and careful arrangements were
made to obtain a dry floor. We found dozens of
cylindrical pots of rough earthenware, inverted, and
near together on the ground in regular rows ; while
over them was about three inches of Nile mud
entirely clear of pottery chips. This appears to
have been a dry floor made of inverted jars, with a
paving of brick laid over them. The types of the
pottery, as we have noticed above, are all familiar at
Medum ; the coarse hand-made jars (Medum XXXI,
15) with a pointed bottom, abounded, and pieces of
many varieties of the fine red-faced pottery bowls
(M. XXXI, 2-7) ; the strange thick cup-shaped pots
(M. XXXI, 17), with a rough unformed outside over
the lower half, were also found. The whole group
was a most satisfactory evidence that the types which
had been found at Medum were not merely local, but
that the same forms and materials characterise this
age in Upper Egypt as in the lower country.
8. Of actually dated remains a few pieces of the
Old Kingdom were obtained. I bought from asebakk
digger on the low ground south of the temple, a
piece of a large alabaster jar bearing the name of
Khufu (XXI. 3) (Univ. Coll.). From the style of the
cutting, and the seated king determinative, it is
probably contemporary ; and it most likely came
from the royal furnishing of the temple of the IVth
dynasty. Of the Vlth dynasty a small piece,
apparently of the front of a statue-throne, bears the
ka name of Pepy I (Univ. Coll.) ; and two limestone
slabs show scenes of Pepy II (V, 7, 8). These are
cut in the local limestone, which is not of good
quality, being much fissured, and containing flint
nodules. They indicate that a rebuilding done here
by Pepy was left to local resources, and did not draw
on the royal quarries of fine limestone. These blocks
had been removed from the old part of the sanctuary
in Ptolemaic times, and were laid face down to fill up
some holes in the basal clay beneath the great sand
bed of the Ptolemaic temple. One of them shews
Pepy offering to a god which was doubtless Min, as
the king is named " Beloved of Min " (at Manchester).
The other block bears part of the royal figure with a
large cartouche (Pepy Ra-nefer-ka) before it, bordered
with the early double rope line. Below the scene is
a frieze of dad signs alternating with figures, the
lower parts of which are like the Isiac girdle tie, while
above they have the human Hathor head, with cows'
ears and horns, as on a sistrum. They seem as if
they might be copies of some primitive Hathor idol,
which was modified into the sistrum type in later
times. In any case they are the earliest Hathor
heads of this type that are yet known (Univ. Coll.).
9. In considering the remains found in the temple
itself, of an earlier date than the Middle Kingdom,
we must take them as a group and disentangle them,
without beginning necessarily with the earliest. The
main feature of importance for determining the age
. I
j■■_»- -^'"-^r^-