DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4200#0022
18
LATER OBJECTS AND GENERAL PLAN.
king. Another admirable piece of rough drawing
was found in the brick chambers north of the pylon
of Tahutmes IV (VI, 17) ; it shows a young peasant
going out on his way in the world, with his swag on
his back, the delightful gauche rusticity of his up-
turned face and lank hair is one of the best sketches of
character that has been found.
37. One of the most prominent landmarks of the
western side of Thebes is a piece of brick wall that
stands on the hill between the temple of Tahutmes
IV and the great scarp around the temple of Tausert.
This wall is part of the back of the forecourt of a
large private tomb, the plan of which is shewn on
PL. XXVI as the tomb of Khonsuardus. The
three tomb wells shown in the three back chambers
were cleared out. In them were some pieces of
painted coffins. The better and earlier was finely
written, and covered with clear dark-brown varnish ;
from the fragments I could recover the name of
Khonsuardus, goldsmith of the temple of Amen. The
other coffin was coarsely painted without any varnish,
in the cold, hard style of the early XXVIth dynasty,
and bore the name of Psamtek. It seems, then, that
Khonsuardus was the temple jeweller at the close of
the XXVth or beginning of the XXVIth dynasty,
and a son of his was buried here also in the XXVIth
dynasty. Probably the wells were for separate
graves ; but the chambers have been all broken
through below, and the contents broken up and
mixed together.
38. The scarp behind the temple of Tausert is cut
through the thick bed of coarse Nile gravels, down to
the level of a bed of ancient Nile mud below them.
While that mud was still soft, the gravel bed has slid
down several feet toward the Nile, making a great
slickenside beneath the gravels, and leaving large gaps
between them and the mud below. This place
offered a most tempting position to excavate tombs,
and most of the mud bed has been removed, so that
the upper gravel bed has very little support left.
These tombs vary from single small chambers, to
three or four chambers with an outer court wall. The
most important of them had a long flight of steps,
going 171 inches horizontally, and steeply inclined, a
doorway at the bottom opened into a chamber
114 X 86 inches, from which opened out another
chamber 104 x 92 inches. We cleared out nearly all
of these tombs, but only found a few amulets and a
poor set of canopic jars of about the XXIIIrd
dynasty. One tomb was filled with bones of oxen.
39. Just below the scarp north of Tausert's temple,
not far from the corner, were remains of a brick
chamber built against the face of the cutting. In this
were found many iron tools and some bronze objects.
Beside those shewn in the photograph, PL. XXI, an
important piece was stolen by the finder, which I can
only describe from the sight of it which a friend of
mine had at Thebes. I had hoped that perhaps the
inspector of the Department of Antiquities, whom we
had to pay, might have been of some use to preserve
things; but, on the contrary, he was on the most
cordial terms with the dealers, and never prevented
anything being stolen. The trumpet which was
taken had an inscription on it, " Asar-hapi gives life to
Pekh-ar-Khonsu, son of Du-amen-neb-nest-taui, son
of Hor." This inscription gives the best indication
that we have as to the date of these things. Hor
and Du-amen-neb-nest-taui are both pretty common
names during two or three centuries before the
XXVIth dynasty. The other name gives a still
closer indication, as it is not so common ; it occurs in
this form (excepting the duck/ for the mat/) in a
husband of a woman Shep mut (stele Turin, Lieblein,
Diet. Norn., 1294) ; and it occurs with the mat/, as
here, on a bronze vase in the Louvre, where the man is
son of a Psemthek (Pierret, Inscr. Louvre, II, 121); but
in no case has the name the seated lioness determina-
tive to pekh, as here. These instances point to the
end of the XXVth dynasty (Shep-mut), or the close of
the reign of Psemthek I. As the name Du-amen-
neb-nest-taui seems hardly so late as the XXVIth
dynasty, we might put this trumpet to somewhere
between 680 and 630 B.C., or possibly anywhere
within the Vllth century.
Turning now to the photograph PL. XXI, it will be
seen that the largest object is a bronze helmet, the
form of which is wholly un-Egyptian. But such a
helmet is constantly found on the Assyrian sculptures
of the Vlllth century B.C. And we are led therefore
to look to the Assyrian occupation of Thebes by
Esarhaddon between 672 and 670 B.C. ; the later
invasion by Nebuchadnezzar a century afterwards in
572 B.C. is too late for the style of names which here
occur. The bronze bowl below the helmet is of a
usual form, and shows nothing further.
40. This foreign origin for these things is confirmed
when we look at the iron tools and see that they are
mostly of forms which were unknown to the
Egyptians. Large quantities of iron tools were
found at Khorsabad, and were therefore probably of
about 700 B.C., or the first half of the Vllth century,
which would agree to the common use of iron tools,
l
LATER OBJECTS AND GENERAL PLAN.
king. Another admirable piece of rough drawing
was found in the brick chambers north of the pylon
of Tahutmes IV (VI, 17) ; it shows a young peasant
going out on his way in the world, with his swag on
his back, the delightful gauche rusticity of his up-
turned face and lank hair is one of the best sketches of
character that has been found.
37. One of the most prominent landmarks of the
western side of Thebes is a piece of brick wall that
stands on the hill between the temple of Tahutmes
IV and the great scarp around the temple of Tausert.
This wall is part of the back of the forecourt of a
large private tomb, the plan of which is shewn on
PL. XXVI as the tomb of Khonsuardus. The
three tomb wells shown in the three back chambers
were cleared out. In them were some pieces of
painted coffins. The better and earlier was finely
written, and covered with clear dark-brown varnish ;
from the fragments I could recover the name of
Khonsuardus, goldsmith of the temple of Amen. The
other coffin was coarsely painted without any varnish,
in the cold, hard style of the early XXVIth dynasty,
and bore the name of Psamtek. It seems, then, that
Khonsuardus was the temple jeweller at the close of
the XXVth or beginning of the XXVIth dynasty,
and a son of his was buried here also in the XXVIth
dynasty. Probably the wells were for separate
graves ; but the chambers have been all broken
through below, and the contents broken up and
mixed together.
38. The scarp behind the temple of Tausert is cut
through the thick bed of coarse Nile gravels, down to
the level of a bed of ancient Nile mud below them.
While that mud was still soft, the gravel bed has slid
down several feet toward the Nile, making a great
slickenside beneath the gravels, and leaving large gaps
between them and the mud below. This place
offered a most tempting position to excavate tombs,
and most of the mud bed has been removed, so that
the upper gravel bed has very little support left.
These tombs vary from single small chambers, to
three or four chambers with an outer court wall. The
most important of them had a long flight of steps,
going 171 inches horizontally, and steeply inclined, a
doorway at the bottom opened into a chamber
114 X 86 inches, from which opened out another
chamber 104 x 92 inches. We cleared out nearly all
of these tombs, but only found a few amulets and a
poor set of canopic jars of about the XXIIIrd
dynasty. One tomb was filled with bones of oxen.
39. Just below the scarp north of Tausert's temple,
not far from the corner, were remains of a brick
chamber built against the face of the cutting. In this
were found many iron tools and some bronze objects.
Beside those shewn in the photograph, PL. XXI, an
important piece was stolen by the finder, which I can
only describe from the sight of it which a friend of
mine had at Thebes. I had hoped that perhaps the
inspector of the Department of Antiquities, whom we
had to pay, might have been of some use to preserve
things; but, on the contrary, he was on the most
cordial terms with the dealers, and never prevented
anything being stolen. The trumpet which was
taken had an inscription on it, " Asar-hapi gives life to
Pekh-ar-Khonsu, son of Du-amen-neb-nest-taui, son
of Hor." This inscription gives the best indication
that we have as to the date of these things. Hor
and Du-amen-neb-nest-taui are both pretty common
names during two or three centuries before the
XXVIth dynasty. The other name gives a still
closer indication, as it is not so common ; it occurs in
this form (excepting the duck/ for the mat/) in a
husband of a woman Shep mut (stele Turin, Lieblein,
Diet. Norn., 1294) ; and it occurs with the mat/, as
here, on a bronze vase in the Louvre, where the man is
son of a Psemthek (Pierret, Inscr. Louvre, II, 121); but
in no case has the name the seated lioness determina-
tive to pekh, as here. These instances point to the
end of the XXVth dynasty (Shep-mut), or the close of
the reign of Psemthek I. As the name Du-amen-
neb-nest-taui seems hardly so late as the XXVIth
dynasty, we might put this trumpet to somewhere
between 680 and 630 B.C., or possibly anywhere
within the Vllth century.
Turning now to the photograph PL. XXI, it will be
seen that the largest object is a bronze helmet, the
form of which is wholly un-Egyptian. But such a
helmet is constantly found on the Assyrian sculptures
of the Vlllth century B.C. And we are led therefore
to look to the Assyrian occupation of Thebes by
Esarhaddon between 672 and 670 B.C. ; the later
invasion by Nebuchadnezzar a century afterwards in
572 B.C. is too late for the style of names which here
occur. The bronze bowl below the helmet is of a
usual form, and shows nothing further.
40. This foreign origin for these things is confirmed
when we look at the iron tools and see that they are
mostly of forms which were unknown to the
Egyptians. Large quantities of iron tools were
found at Khorsabad, and were therefore probably of
about 700 B.C., or the first half of the Vllth century,
which would agree to the common use of iron tools,
l