DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4104#0022
TOMB AND CEMETERY OF SENUSERT III.
13
23. Under the cliff promontory, that is to
say, behind the back wall of the hosh, excavations
were made to discover Avhether an entrance to a
rock tomb lay there, the position of the real
tomb being then still unknown. At a depth of
a few feet brick rubbish was observed, and when
a small brick enclosure was laid bare the hopes
of all concerned rose high. This building (Si)
consisted of three chambers, the walls of which
stood from two to four feet high, the southern
chamber having had a mud flooring.
Digging
under the floor level of the largest of the three
divisions, a pier of rock was seen to jut out
from the cliff some 30 ft., apparently artificially
trimmed, to a rounded surface. Stonecutters'
chisels were certainly used here, for a quartzite
stone fragment on which some copper instrument
had been sharpened was found. Exactly upon
the top of this pier five brick pole-supports were
found arranged in symmetrical order, one more
having, no doubt, completed the original set.
They had apparently been used to support
wooden pillars or poles, for each had a circular
hole in the centre into which a pole could be
thrust in order to stand upright. If the room
had been roofed, these poles might have been
employed to support the rafters; but their
position to one side of the chamber and not in
the middle is unfavourable to this supposition.
Considering the fact that they lie almost exactly
in the line of axis of the whole cemetery it
seems more likely that they were the flagstaffs
placed above the tomb, which ran not very far
from this spot, though over a hundred feet of
solid rock lay between it and the surface. Such
flagstaffs are represented in tomb paintings, &c,
and are thought to have been the masts of the
funeral vessels which brought the bodies across
the Nile, or at any rate to have been derived
from this. The excavations in this quarter
were abandoned when it was seen that the
entrance to the tomb was elsewhere.
Another brick construction which ought, per-
haps, to be recorded, lay to the south of this
enclosure. Here, from behind the back wall
of the hosh, plunderers had built an unmortared
wall forming a rectangle, and within the court-
yard a small straight wall running for some
twenty feet. Excavations, however, revealed
nothing, and it is to be presumed that the
plunderers, who invariably built Avails to hold
the sand back from the mouth of a tomb-shaft,
were mistaken. It is, too, about this spot that
the " skew " platform points, and it may be this
that misdirected their work, exactly as the
original architect had intended.
24. To the right of the causeway, and close
to the store chambers there was a large pit,
later known as S 9, with sand rubbish thrown
high up around it. This was the spot where
M. Amelincau began to excavate, and here the
earliest work of the season was centred. When
completely cleared the tomb was found to be of
extremely interesting design, and although all
portable antiquities had been carried away
by the plunderers who had ransacked the place,
the architectural features more than justified
the labour expended upon it. The plunderers
had torn away all the roofing of the passages,
and the whole of the inner workings of the tomb
were therefore exposed when the sand had been
removed. The construction was as follows:—
A large pit was first dug through the hard sand,
and at the bottom of this the passages were laid
out, being built of smooth limestone blocks,
usually about 4 ft. by 3 ft. by 2 A ft. The
entrance was roofed by a sins-le limestone block
[now overthrown] 8 ft. by 3^ ft., arched on the
under side, and standing originally, no doubt,
on two side blocks. This wras some 10 ft. from
the surface. Passing it a sloping passage was
entered, 3^ ft. wide and probably about 4 ft.
hio'h, which ran clown until the way was blocked
by a huge quartzite sandstone portcullis, which
had been let down from above by the knocking
away of the supports, as soon as the mummy
had been placed at rest. Behind this the
passage continued for another four feet, and
13
23. Under the cliff promontory, that is to
say, behind the back wall of the hosh, excavations
were made to discover Avhether an entrance to a
rock tomb lay there, the position of the real
tomb being then still unknown. At a depth of
a few feet brick rubbish was observed, and when
a small brick enclosure was laid bare the hopes
of all concerned rose high. This building (Si)
consisted of three chambers, the walls of which
stood from two to four feet high, the southern
chamber having had a mud flooring.
Digging
under the floor level of the largest of the three
divisions, a pier of rock was seen to jut out
from the cliff some 30 ft., apparently artificially
trimmed, to a rounded surface. Stonecutters'
chisels were certainly used here, for a quartzite
stone fragment on which some copper instrument
had been sharpened was found. Exactly upon
the top of this pier five brick pole-supports were
found arranged in symmetrical order, one more
having, no doubt, completed the original set.
They had apparently been used to support
wooden pillars or poles, for each had a circular
hole in the centre into which a pole could be
thrust in order to stand upright. If the room
had been roofed, these poles might have been
employed to support the rafters; but their
position to one side of the chamber and not in
the middle is unfavourable to this supposition.
Considering the fact that they lie almost exactly
in the line of axis of the whole cemetery it
seems more likely that they were the flagstaffs
placed above the tomb, which ran not very far
from this spot, though over a hundred feet of
solid rock lay between it and the surface. Such
flagstaffs are represented in tomb paintings, &c,
and are thought to have been the masts of the
funeral vessels which brought the bodies across
the Nile, or at any rate to have been derived
from this. The excavations in this quarter
were abandoned when it was seen that the
entrance to the tomb was elsewhere.
Another brick construction which ought, per-
haps, to be recorded, lay to the south of this
enclosure. Here, from behind the back wall
of the hosh, plunderers had built an unmortared
wall forming a rectangle, and within the court-
yard a small straight wall running for some
twenty feet. Excavations, however, revealed
nothing, and it is to be presumed that the
plunderers, who invariably built Avails to hold
the sand back from the mouth of a tomb-shaft,
were mistaken. It is, too, about this spot that
the " skew " platform points, and it may be this
that misdirected their work, exactly as the
original architect had intended.
24. To the right of the causeway, and close
to the store chambers there was a large pit,
later known as S 9, with sand rubbish thrown
high up around it. This was the spot where
M. Amelincau began to excavate, and here the
earliest work of the season was centred. When
completely cleared the tomb was found to be of
extremely interesting design, and although all
portable antiquities had been carried away
by the plunderers who had ransacked the place,
the architectural features more than justified
the labour expended upon it. The plunderers
had torn away all the roofing of the passages,
and the whole of the inner workings of the tomb
were therefore exposed when the sand had been
removed. The construction was as follows:—
A large pit was first dug through the hard sand,
and at the bottom of this the passages were laid
out, being built of smooth limestone blocks,
usually about 4 ft. by 3 ft. by 2 A ft. The
entrance was roofed by a sins-le limestone block
[now overthrown] 8 ft. by 3^ ft., arched on the
under side, and standing originally, no doubt,
on two side blocks. This wras some 10 ft. from
the surface. Passing it a sloping passage was
entered, 3^ ft. wide and probably about 4 ft.
hio'h, which ran clown until the way was blocked
by a huge quartzite sandstone portcullis, which
had been let down from above by the knocking
away of the supports, as soon as the mummy
had been placed at rest. Behind this the
passage continued for another four feet, and