DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4222#0012
- . .- 'S- '
HOYAL TOMBS OF THE 1st DYNASTY.
letters added to the numbers, and are fully
described in the text of this volume. They can
be procured either separately or bound together
with the whole series.
2. Again a rich harvest of history has come
from the site which was said to be exhausted ;
and in place of the disordered confusion of
names without any historical connection, which
was all that was known from the Mission
Amelineau, we now have the complete sequence
of kings from the middle of the dynasty before
Mena to probably the close of the Ilnd Dynasty,
and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of
art throughout these reigns. The 166 plates of
results from our work will need some twenty or
thirty to be yet added to record the whole of
the information, which no one could hope to
have recovered two years ago.
And this recovery is not only after the
removal of everything that was thought of value,
both by the Mission, and also by the thieves of
Abydos who did the work, but it is in spite of
the determined destruction of the remains on the
spot. The pottery jars were smashed, avowedly
to prevent any one else obtaining them. The
stone vases, broken anciently by fanatics, are
referred to thus, " ceux qui etaient brises et que
fai reduits en miettes" (Amelineau, Fouilles,
1897, p. 33), and we indeed found them stamped
to chips; the stacks of great jars which are
recorded as having been found in the tomb of
Zer (Fouilles, 1898, p. 42) were entirely
destroyed ; the jars of ointment were burnt, as
we read, " les matieres grasses brdlent pendant
des journees entieres, comme j'en ai fait l'ex
perience" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 18) ; the most
interesting remains of the wooden tomb chamber
of Zer, a carbonized mass 28 feet by 3 feet,
studded with copper fastenings, have entirely
disappeared, and of another tomb we read " j'y
rencontrai environ deux cents kilos de charbon
de bois" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 15), which has been
all removed. The ebony tablets of Narmer and
Mena—the most priceless historical monuments
—Avere all broken up in 1896 and tossed aside
in the rubbish, whence we have rescued them
and rejoined them so far as we can. In every
direction we can but apply to the destroyer
his own words concerning the Copts who left
the remains, " tous brises . de la maniere la
plus sauvage" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 33).
Of new methods employed in this work some
may be worth future use, such as the restitution
of the forms of the stone vases by an adjusting
frame, the clearing of the weathered stones
by a filling of sand on the face, and the adoption
of a complete mode of registering every wrought
fragment from a tomb by inventory sheets of
outlines (plates xxxii. to xlv.), which enable a
general idea to be obtained of the contents, and
the trial of any union with pieces elseAvhere
preserved.
As most of the tombs are diagonal to the
points of the compass, it may be stated that the
upper sides of all the plans here are called the
north in the descriptions, except pi. lxii., the
top of which is called east, as owing to the
shape it could not be turned ; and the general
plan, pi. lviii., which is placed with the west at
the top.
3, Tk
Jioiips
of
by the cb
found in
there is a
closely lik
only ibun
few in tb
Zet. On
and Khae
the IVth
intermed
of Khas
therefore
which th
tions on
order lie
the earl:
the kg
vest, pi
south o
internal
we sho
success!
4.
tive ok
of re-u
later fcj
lists W(
k fol
HOYAL TOMBS OF THE 1st DYNASTY.
letters added to the numbers, and are fully
described in the text of this volume. They can
be procured either separately or bound together
with the whole series.
2. Again a rich harvest of history has come
from the site which was said to be exhausted ;
and in place of the disordered confusion of
names without any historical connection, which
was all that was known from the Mission
Amelineau, we now have the complete sequence
of kings from the middle of the dynasty before
Mena to probably the close of the Ilnd Dynasty,
and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of
art throughout these reigns. The 166 plates of
results from our work will need some twenty or
thirty to be yet added to record the whole of
the information, which no one could hope to
have recovered two years ago.
And this recovery is not only after the
removal of everything that was thought of value,
both by the Mission, and also by the thieves of
Abydos who did the work, but it is in spite of
the determined destruction of the remains on the
spot. The pottery jars were smashed, avowedly
to prevent any one else obtaining them. The
stone vases, broken anciently by fanatics, are
referred to thus, " ceux qui etaient brises et que
fai reduits en miettes" (Amelineau, Fouilles,
1897, p. 33), and we indeed found them stamped
to chips; the stacks of great jars which are
recorded as having been found in the tomb of
Zer (Fouilles, 1898, p. 42) were entirely
destroyed ; the jars of ointment were burnt, as
we read, " les matieres grasses brdlent pendant
des journees entieres, comme j'en ai fait l'ex
perience" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 18) ; the most
interesting remains of the wooden tomb chamber
of Zer, a carbonized mass 28 feet by 3 feet,
studded with copper fastenings, have entirely
disappeared, and of another tomb we read " j'y
rencontrai environ deux cents kilos de charbon
de bois" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 15), which has been
all removed. The ebony tablets of Narmer and
Mena—the most priceless historical monuments
—Avere all broken up in 1896 and tossed aside
in the rubbish, whence we have rescued them
and rejoined them so far as we can. In every
direction we can but apply to the destroyer
his own words concerning the Copts who left
the remains, " tous brises . de la maniere la
plus sauvage" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 33).
Of new methods employed in this work some
may be worth future use, such as the restitution
of the forms of the stone vases by an adjusting
frame, the clearing of the weathered stones
by a filling of sand on the face, and the adoption
of a complete mode of registering every wrought
fragment from a tomb by inventory sheets of
outlines (plates xxxii. to xlv.), which enable a
general idea to be obtained of the contents, and
the trial of any union with pieces elseAvhere
preserved.
As most of the tombs are diagonal to the
points of the compass, it may be stated that the
upper sides of all the plans here are called the
north in the descriptions, except pi. lxii., the
top of which is called east, as owing to the
shape it could not be turned ; and the general
plan, pi. lviii., which is placed with the west at
the top.
3, Tk
Jioiips
of
by the cb
found in
there is a
closely lik
only ibun
few in tb
Zet. On
and Khae
the IVth
intermed
of Khas
therefore
which th
tions on
order lie
the earl:
the kg
vest, pi
south o
internal
we sho
success!
4.
tive ok
of re-u
later fcj
lists W(
k fol