DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4200#0006
INTRODUCTION.
3. At first I brought up some of our best men from
Koptos, and took on many of the Qurneh people for
the work. But as soon as we began to find anti-
quities, it was evident that the previous engagements
of these local workers to the various dealers of Thebes
took precedence of their engagement to me. Thusj
half or more of what they found was abstracted for
their old friends, although I was paying them so well
for things that I even bought back from dealers part
of what had been taken, at the same rate that I paid
the workmen. It was not a case of greater gain to
them, but of obliging their dealer friends with stock
for trade. This system was quickly defeated by dis-
missing all the local workers, excepting a few boys
and negroes, and bringing in a far larger garrison
from Koptos, while also drawing many from the
villages around. Thus, for two months, we completely
defeated the endless machinations of the Luxor and
Qurneh dealers, and the petty terrorism which they
tried to exercise. So long as I had Qurneh men, I
heard within twenty-four hours of what was stolen,
through reports sent to me from Luxor ; so soon as I
dismissed them, I never heard of anything else going
astray, nor had my good and honest old friend
Muhammed Mohassib at Luxor any knowledge of any-
thing reaching there. So for the first time excavations
at Thebes were carried on clear of the incessant
pilfering and loss which had been hitherto supposed
inevitable. Nothing short of a good garrison of
trained workers from a distance, entrenched upon the
work, kept in hand day and night with good esprit de
corps, prohibited under pain of dismissal from going
to the villages around, or from buying or borrowing
anything from the neighbours, together with continual
watchfulness and a free use of fire-arms at night—
nothing short of this will suffice for excavations at
Thebes. With this system we had the satisfaction of
digging up scarabs and other good things a few inches
below where the enraged Qurnawis had been walking
all their lives, without their being able to touch a
single piece. My man Ali Suefi was even more
valuable than before, as he was not only proof against
all the blandishments of the local rascals—the Abd er
Rasuls and others—but harassed them in any attempt
to get at the other workers, and saved us a large part
of our results. Of course I put him on to all the best
places, and he got about half of ali the bakhshish of
the season as his reward. When you have an honest
man, make it worth his while to continue so.
4. The whole of my work in this season here
described was, as in past years, carried on with the
assistance of my constant friends, Mr. Jesse
Haworth and Mr. Martyn Kennard. After nine
years of this association a change has come, by my
working for the Egypt Exploration Fund ; but a
change which leaves much regret in closing—at least
for the present—the most cordial and pleasant rela-
tions which have cheered my work for so long a time.
But for the ready help of these friends in providing
for excavations, to whatever extent seemed required,
it would have been impossible for us now to look back
on the portraits of Hawara, which restored to us the
Greco-Roman art of painting ; the pyramids of
Amenemhat III, and Usertesen II, the first that
were shown to be of the Xllth dynasty ; the towns
of Kahun and Gurob, with the insight into the Xllth
and XVIIIth dynasties that they gave us ; the Xllth
dynasty papyri, and the Ptolemaic papyri; the
clearing of Medum, which fixed the pottery ar.d
the hieroglyphs of the beginning of history; the
painting and other arts of the naturalistic age of Tell
el Amarna ; the prehistoric works of Koptos ; the
opening of an entirely new position by the history of
the New Race at Naqada; and lastly, the Theban
temples and the great stele naming the Israelite War.
All of these results are due to the public spirit of the
two friends who have been ever ready to let me draw
on their purses for such work. My best thanks, and
those of the public are due to them, for thus assisting
in filling up our knowledge of ancient Egypt. How
much this means we may feel by just trying to
imagine what our views would now be without this
insight, at almost every age, into the civilization and
works of that country.
5. In the preparation of this volume, Dr. Spiegel-
berg has rendered much assistance in undertaking the
editing of the inscriptions. While I was excavating,
he was staying at Thebes for studying the graffiti of
the Ramesside age, and as his researches lay specially
in that period, it seemed most fitting that he should
proceed to work over the ostraka and other hieratic
inscriptions that I found. Subsequently the great prize
of the Israel inscription—one of the longest and most
complete that is known—was brought to light; and
Dr. Spiegelberg copied it, worked over my squeeze
of it, and published the text in the " Zeitschrift." His
contribution to the present volume will show how
fully he has laboured at the material which we
collected, first in Egypt, and afterwards in England
and Germany. The drawings here given are my own ;
F
.
3. At first I brought up some of our best men from
Koptos, and took on many of the Qurneh people for
the work. But as soon as we began to find anti-
quities, it was evident that the previous engagements
of these local workers to the various dealers of Thebes
took precedence of their engagement to me. Thusj
half or more of what they found was abstracted for
their old friends, although I was paying them so well
for things that I even bought back from dealers part
of what had been taken, at the same rate that I paid
the workmen. It was not a case of greater gain to
them, but of obliging their dealer friends with stock
for trade. This system was quickly defeated by dis-
missing all the local workers, excepting a few boys
and negroes, and bringing in a far larger garrison
from Koptos, while also drawing many from the
villages around. Thus, for two months, we completely
defeated the endless machinations of the Luxor and
Qurneh dealers, and the petty terrorism which they
tried to exercise. So long as I had Qurneh men, I
heard within twenty-four hours of what was stolen,
through reports sent to me from Luxor ; so soon as I
dismissed them, I never heard of anything else going
astray, nor had my good and honest old friend
Muhammed Mohassib at Luxor any knowledge of any-
thing reaching there. So for the first time excavations
at Thebes were carried on clear of the incessant
pilfering and loss which had been hitherto supposed
inevitable. Nothing short of a good garrison of
trained workers from a distance, entrenched upon the
work, kept in hand day and night with good esprit de
corps, prohibited under pain of dismissal from going
to the villages around, or from buying or borrowing
anything from the neighbours, together with continual
watchfulness and a free use of fire-arms at night—
nothing short of this will suffice for excavations at
Thebes. With this system we had the satisfaction of
digging up scarabs and other good things a few inches
below where the enraged Qurnawis had been walking
all their lives, without their being able to touch a
single piece. My man Ali Suefi was even more
valuable than before, as he was not only proof against
all the blandishments of the local rascals—the Abd er
Rasuls and others—but harassed them in any attempt
to get at the other workers, and saved us a large part
of our results. Of course I put him on to all the best
places, and he got about half of ali the bakhshish of
the season as his reward. When you have an honest
man, make it worth his while to continue so.
4. The whole of my work in this season here
described was, as in past years, carried on with the
assistance of my constant friends, Mr. Jesse
Haworth and Mr. Martyn Kennard. After nine
years of this association a change has come, by my
working for the Egypt Exploration Fund ; but a
change which leaves much regret in closing—at least
for the present—the most cordial and pleasant rela-
tions which have cheered my work for so long a time.
But for the ready help of these friends in providing
for excavations, to whatever extent seemed required,
it would have been impossible for us now to look back
on the portraits of Hawara, which restored to us the
Greco-Roman art of painting ; the pyramids of
Amenemhat III, and Usertesen II, the first that
were shown to be of the Xllth dynasty ; the towns
of Kahun and Gurob, with the insight into the Xllth
and XVIIIth dynasties that they gave us ; the Xllth
dynasty papyri, and the Ptolemaic papyri; the
clearing of Medum, which fixed the pottery ar.d
the hieroglyphs of the beginning of history; the
painting and other arts of the naturalistic age of Tell
el Amarna ; the prehistoric works of Koptos ; the
opening of an entirely new position by the history of
the New Race at Naqada; and lastly, the Theban
temples and the great stele naming the Israelite War.
All of these results are due to the public spirit of the
two friends who have been ever ready to let me draw
on their purses for such work. My best thanks, and
those of the public are due to them, for thus assisting
in filling up our knowledge of ancient Egypt. How
much this means we may feel by just trying to
imagine what our views would now be without this
insight, at almost every age, into the civilization and
works of that country.
5. In the preparation of this volume, Dr. Spiegel-
berg has rendered much assistance in undertaking the
editing of the inscriptions. While I was excavating,
he was staying at Thebes for studying the graffiti of
the Ramesside age, and as his researches lay specially
in that period, it seemed most fitting that he should
proceed to work over the ostraka and other hieratic
inscriptions that I found. Subsequently the great prize
of the Israel inscription—one of the longest and most
complete that is known—was brought to light; and
Dr. Spiegelberg copied it, worked over my squeeze
of it, and published the text in the " Zeitschrift." His
contribution to the present volume will show how
fully he has laboured at the material which we
collected, first in Egypt, and afterwards in England
and Germany. The drawings here given are my own ;
F
.