DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4222#0051
41
CHAPTER VI.
THE VASES.
3 6. When we began to accumulate thousands
of fragments of stone vases from the royal
tombs, some practical method of dealing with
so great a mass of material became urgent. To
merely photograph the fragments in front view
is absolutely useless for study. In the first
place we had to abandon any hope of re-uniting
the pieces of broken slate and alabaster. In
some of the most promising classes, such as the
brims of slate bowls, or the alabaster cylinder
jars, we searched exhaustively for possible join-
ings of the pieces from one tomb, but found so
very few that it was clearly hopeless to deal
with the less distinctive fragments of bowls
without bottom or edge. Hence the slate and
alabaster fragments were only searched for such
pieces as gave in themselves some distinct form :
and the great bulk was left behind on the top
surface of our excavations (so as to be accessible
if wanted in future) or in heaps at our huts.
But every fragment of all other kinds of stone
was exhaustively collected : and these tens of
thousands of pieces have all been exhaustively
compared, so as to secure every possible join-
ing : and nearly all the forms that could be
restored have been now drawn, and are given on
pis. xlvi. to liiiG. Most unfortunately for
science much had been already carried away to
Paris, and has lain there since, entirely useless
and unstudied. Whenever that mass of frag-
ments is open to research it is obvious that most
of them will fall into place along with the other
pieces, which I have already classified into
hundreds of separate bowls. At present any
such re-union of fragments is declined. So the
only course now is to publish the forms which
I have restored.
37. How to separate and identify the varied
forms from each cart-load of broken scraps, was
the problem. In the first place all the pieces
from any one tomb were kept together, and such
were treated without reference to any other
tomb until worked up. They were sorted into
about two dozen different classes of materials,
such as quartz crystal, basalt, porphyry, syenite,
granite, volcanic ash, metamorphic, serpentine,
slate, dolomite marble, alabaster, various coloured
marbles and limestones, saccharine marble, grey
limestone, and coarse white limestone. The
classes were made as small as was compatible with
no piece being of uncertain class.
All the pieces of one class from one tomb
were then laid out, often numbering many
hundreds ; such as were of any peculiar stone
were put together, and the rest were laid with
all the brims together in lines along the top of
the table, all the middle pieces laid with the
axis vertical, and all bases together along the
lower edge of the table. A piece of brim was
then compared with every other piece, and any
of the same radius of curvature and profile
were put together. The same was done with
the bases. The brims and bases thus sorted
were then compared with the middle pieces,
especially noting the angle of the line of
fracture with the vertical, which gives the
quickest means of identification. Sometimes
several different bowls were so nearly alike that
only a complete and exhaustive trial of fitting
each piece to every other would suffice to settle
CHAPTER VI.
THE VASES.
3 6. When we began to accumulate thousands
of fragments of stone vases from the royal
tombs, some practical method of dealing with
so great a mass of material became urgent. To
merely photograph the fragments in front view
is absolutely useless for study. In the first
place we had to abandon any hope of re-uniting
the pieces of broken slate and alabaster. In
some of the most promising classes, such as the
brims of slate bowls, or the alabaster cylinder
jars, we searched exhaustively for possible join-
ings of the pieces from one tomb, but found so
very few that it was clearly hopeless to deal
with the less distinctive fragments of bowls
without bottom or edge. Hence the slate and
alabaster fragments were only searched for such
pieces as gave in themselves some distinct form :
and the great bulk was left behind on the top
surface of our excavations (so as to be accessible
if wanted in future) or in heaps at our huts.
But every fragment of all other kinds of stone
was exhaustively collected : and these tens of
thousands of pieces have all been exhaustively
compared, so as to secure every possible join-
ing : and nearly all the forms that could be
restored have been now drawn, and are given on
pis. xlvi. to liiiG. Most unfortunately for
science much had been already carried away to
Paris, and has lain there since, entirely useless
and unstudied. Whenever that mass of frag-
ments is open to research it is obvious that most
of them will fall into place along with the other
pieces, which I have already classified into
hundreds of separate bowls. At present any
such re-union of fragments is declined. So the
only course now is to publish the forms which
I have restored.
37. How to separate and identify the varied
forms from each cart-load of broken scraps, was
the problem. In the first place all the pieces
from any one tomb were kept together, and such
were treated without reference to any other
tomb until worked up. They were sorted into
about two dozen different classes of materials,
such as quartz crystal, basalt, porphyry, syenite,
granite, volcanic ash, metamorphic, serpentine,
slate, dolomite marble, alabaster, various coloured
marbles and limestones, saccharine marble, grey
limestone, and coarse white limestone. The
classes were made as small as was compatible with
no piece being of uncertain class.
All the pieces of one class from one tomb
were then laid out, often numbering many
hundreds ; such as were of any peculiar stone
were put together, and the rest were laid with
all the brims together in lines along the top of
the table, all the middle pieces laid with the
axis vertical, and all bases together along the
lower edge of the table. A piece of brim was
then compared with every other piece, and any
of the same radius of curvature and profile
were put together. The same was done with
the bases. The brims and bases thus sorted
were then compared with the middle pieces,
especially noting the angle of the line of
fracture with the vertical, which gives the
quickest means of identification. Sometimes
several different bowls were so nearly alike that
only a complete and exhaustive trial of fitting
each piece to every other would suffice to settle