DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4102#0021
12
ABYDOS I.
236), tipped flakes (237—266), worked flakes
(267—281), rounded flakes (282—285), and
square flakes (286—291). The simpler forms
are pretty equally distributed ; the rounded
ends are wide before 60, and narrow after,
much as in the tombs they are wide to Merneit,
and narrow from Den onward. The regular
square form does not here begin till 40, and we
know that it continued in use till the end of the
Illrd Dynasty (Medum, xxix, 26).
PL xxvi. Three pieces of animal figures
chipped in flint were found; and such are
already known from elsewhere (see Man, 1902,
art. 14). The figure 294 is certainly a crocodile,
and the others may be intended for the same
beast.
The smaller saw flints are probably all from
sickles; they belong to the lower levels in the
town.
The crescent flints are nearly all of the higher
levels, over 50 inches. The use of them is
suggested by finding a great quantity in a
stratum of white sand and stone dust; this
indicates that they were used like the vase
grinders (pi. liii. 23—34), but probably for the
earlier rough stages of drilling out alabaster vases.
The comb flints 315—327 are hitherto un-
known ; but it seems likely that they are a
development of the round scraper, perhaps for
scraping the scales from fish.
15. The stone vases, pi. xxvii, which were
found in the temenos strata are mostly frag-
mentary. They show, however, the periods of
several well-known types, which may all be
placed here within the 1st Dynasty or a little
before it. Referring to the stone vases which
are dated by the Royal Tombs (It. T. ii, pis.
xlvi—liii), we may compare here :—
Stone.
Level.
Alab.
Basalt
30
45
King.
Number.
Mena
Zer
Zer
297
298
54
Stone.
Level.
King.
Number.
Alab.
27
Zer
491
Alab.
57
Zer
299
Alab.
50
Zet
156
Alab.
30
Merneit
330, 331
Alab.
85
Merneit
334
Alab.
64
Azab
306
It must always be remembered that stone
vases are liable to be retained in use for two
or three generations after being made, as we
see by the secondary inscriptions on those from
the royal tombs. But on the whole these
agree, the town being mainly of the 1st Dynasty,
and the exact levels we shall note again in
section 20.
It should be observed that several forms here
in the town, with pierced handles (levels 45,
23, 37, 58, 40, 28), are unknown in the royal
tombs, and only once occur (M 16, 6, pi. xlv)
in the large quantity of stone vases in the M
tombs; they are like some late prehistoric forms,
and seem to have been avoided for tomb furniture.
16. Pis. xxviii—xxxv. The Early Pot-
tery.—The whole of the pottery found in the
strata of the early town is here classed according
to its forms, from the most open to the most
closed. It might seem supei'fluous to give
figures of so many slightly differing varieties ;
but it is just the minute variations which best
enable us to study and discriminate the changes
and different periods. Therefore wherever a
difference could be distinctly seen, apart from
the mere irregularities of form in each pot, it
is here given for comparison. The forms are
all numbered through, 1 to 211, so that only
the numbers are quoted in the following ac-
count. Other publications of pottery are quoted
as N. (Naqada), D. (Dlospolis), It. T. i. {Royal
Tombs i.), and M (plates xxxvi.—xlvii. here, of
M tombs).
The forms 1—5, 8, 9, are roughly hand-
made, see iV. R 1 and 21. These and the
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