DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4635#0011
I
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THE EARLIEST TOMBS.
body in a wooden box painted white. This also was
in the sharply contracted Neolithic position, hands
and knees both before the face; the head lay to
the north, and the body was on its left side. Lower
still in the well were pots of the coarse Old Kingdom
types. Both these bodies, presumably, are secondary
burials.
No. 231 contained three pots of Old Kingdom
types (XII, 23, 54, 31), with fragments of a large
majur (XX, 5), and one sherd of a thin ware, black
inside, and decorated outside with rows of pricked
marks. This cannot be distinguished from certain
fragments obtained in the Neolithic cemetery at
Balks.
No. 280, a well north of the wall, sunk below water-
level, but in the filling were found the regular group
of coarse pots (XII, 31, 36, 35, 33).
In 197 the coarse pottery occurred with chips of
malachite, and in 233 with a vertical alabaster vase
and fragments of a large vase identical with a large
late Neolithic shape.
11. We next turn to the other large class of tombs,
those entered by stairways. These may all have been
mastabas. The characteristic massive brick walls
remain in several cases, in one, at least, retaining the
recessed panel work and niches. But it may be that
these stairway tombs are rather older than those
mastabas which have square wells, and it seems best
not to group them together. The appearance of
these tombs may be seen in Miss Murray's black
and white reproduction of two sketches by Miss Pirie
(PL. IX).
The first view shows the stairway, as seen from
below, looking northward ; in the other view one is
supposed to be looking southward at the vertical
end of the shaft, the tomb entrance and the stone
door.
All these tombs were robbed, excepting, possibly,
one. This (St. 2) was the smallest tomb of the kind
that I have seen. The stair was reduced to a couple
of roughly cut steps ; the total depth was only 1 m.,
and though a large stone slab had been placed as a
door to the burial chamber, a robber had only to
pierce 20 cm. of soil to get into the chamber through
the roof. The chamber, which was about a metre
square, was filled with a thick damp clay. The
bones had decayed so much that only a few parts
could be identified but distinctive fragments of the
skull, the hip ends of the two femurs, a tibia, a radius
and ulna, enabled one to see that the body had lain
on the left side with the head to the north. Before
the face was an ivory cup (shape X, 44). Below the
body was a little red dust with spots of white in it,
probably the remains of a wooden coffin painted
white.
In and below the white paste, which was all that
was left of the bones of the hand, were two nuggets of
gold (one 18 dwts. = 28 grammes) and a handful of
barrel-shaped carnelian beads mixed with very small
beads of gold. By scraping away the earth very
gently, one could see that the gold beads had been
strung together to form bands 5 or 6 mm. broad,
alternating with bands of carnelian. A gold bar,
2 cm. long, pierced with five holes, had clearly served
to hold the strings on which the beads were threaded.
There was also a bracelet of a single thick gold wire.
The total weight of gold was about 4 oz. (125
grammes). In the N.W. corner of the tomb, behind
the head, were five vessels of ivory, two very coarse
vertical jars (14 and 19 cm.), two bowls (23 and
26 cm. diameter), one with a spout (X, 26), and a
bowl of the speading shape of Ka-mena's bronze
(XII, 51) ; there was also a small double vase of
limestone (X, 15). A little steatite plaque with the
inscription Neb.ra was stated by the workmen to
have come from this tomb, and there is no reason to
doubt them ; but I did not actually see it in place.
The name Neb.ra is one of the three Ka names on
the shoulder of the famous archaic statue No. I at
Ghizeh, and the name on the plaque may perhaps
be the same, though it is not written in the square Ka
frame.
In the side of the tomb were two small balls of
limestone and one of carnelian, in shape and size like
playing marbles, and some fragments of malachite.
By the door were some chips of diorite bowls. The
marbles were clearly part of a set for a game
{cf. Naqada, Pl. VII), and the fact that the set
was incomplete, and that the stone bowls were
broken, makes it probable, in spite of the presence
of the gold nuggets, that the tomb had been partially
plundered. The early robbers may easily have passed
over the gold, for the moist and tough clay hides
small objects only too well; it was only the weight of
two small lumps of clay that betrayed to me the
presence of the nuggets inside.
The quantity of gold remaining in so small a tomb
shows how rich the large interments may have been,
and how strong was the temptation to rob them.
In Stairway 1 the lines of the surrounding mass of
SfflS
®*i«*;%4;
■
^H
THE EARLIEST TOMBS.
body in a wooden box painted white. This also was
in the sharply contracted Neolithic position, hands
and knees both before the face; the head lay to
the north, and the body was on its left side. Lower
still in the well were pots of the coarse Old Kingdom
types. Both these bodies, presumably, are secondary
burials.
No. 231 contained three pots of Old Kingdom
types (XII, 23, 54, 31), with fragments of a large
majur (XX, 5), and one sherd of a thin ware, black
inside, and decorated outside with rows of pricked
marks. This cannot be distinguished from certain
fragments obtained in the Neolithic cemetery at
Balks.
No. 280, a well north of the wall, sunk below water-
level, but in the filling were found the regular group
of coarse pots (XII, 31, 36, 35, 33).
In 197 the coarse pottery occurred with chips of
malachite, and in 233 with a vertical alabaster vase
and fragments of a large vase identical with a large
late Neolithic shape.
11. We next turn to the other large class of tombs,
those entered by stairways. These may all have been
mastabas. The characteristic massive brick walls
remain in several cases, in one, at least, retaining the
recessed panel work and niches. But it may be that
these stairway tombs are rather older than those
mastabas which have square wells, and it seems best
not to group them together. The appearance of
these tombs may be seen in Miss Murray's black
and white reproduction of two sketches by Miss Pirie
(PL. IX).
The first view shows the stairway, as seen from
below, looking northward ; in the other view one is
supposed to be looking southward at the vertical
end of the shaft, the tomb entrance and the stone
door.
All these tombs were robbed, excepting, possibly,
one. This (St. 2) was the smallest tomb of the kind
that I have seen. The stair was reduced to a couple
of roughly cut steps ; the total depth was only 1 m.,
and though a large stone slab had been placed as a
door to the burial chamber, a robber had only to
pierce 20 cm. of soil to get into the chamber through
the roof. The chamber, which was about a metre
square, was filled with a thick damp clay. The
bones had decayed so much that only a few parts
could be identified but distinctive fragments of the
skull, the hip ends of the two femurs, a tibia, a radius
and ulna, enabled one to see that the body had lain
on the left side with the head to the north. Before
the face was an ivory cup (shape X, 44). Below the
body was a little red dust with spots of white in it,
probably the remains of a wooden coffin painted
white.
In and below the white paste, which was all that
was left of the bones of the hand, were two nuggets of
gold (one 18 dwts. = 28 grammes) and a handful of
barrel-shaped carnelian beads mixed with very small
beads of gold. By scraping away the earth very
gently, one could see that the gold beads had been
strung together to form bands 5 or 6 mm. broad,
alternating with bands of carnelian. A gold bar,
2 cm. long, pierced with five holes, had clearly served
to hold the strings on which the beads were threaded.
There was also a bracelet of a single thick gold wire.
The total weight of gold was about 4 oz. (125
grammes). In the N.W. corner of the tomb, behind
the head, were five vessels of ivory, two very coarse
vertical jars (14 and 19 cm.), two bowls (23 and
26 cm. diameter), one with a spout (X, 26), and a
bowl of the speading shape of Ka-mena's bronze
(XII, 51) ; there was also a small double vase of
limestone (X, 15). A little steatite plaque with the
inscription Neb.ra was stated by the workmen to
have come from this tomb, and there is no reason to
doubt them ; but I did not actually see it in place.
The name Neb.ra is one of the three Ka names on
the shoulder of the famous archaic statue No. I at
Ghizeh, and the name on the plaque may perhaps
be the same, though it is not written in the square Ka
frame.
In the side of the tomb were two small balls of
limestone and one of carnelian, in shape and size like
playing marbles, and some fragments of malachite.
By the door were some chips of diorite bowls. The
marbles were clearly part of a set for a game
{cf. Naqada, Pl. VII), and the fact that the set
was incomplete, and that the stone bowls were
broken, makes it probable, in spite of the presence
of the gold nuggets, that the tomb had been partially
plundered. The early robbers may easily have passed
over the gold, for the moist and tough clay hides
small objects only too well; it was only the weight of
two small lumps of clay that betrayed to me the
presence of the nuggets inside.
The quantity of gold remaining in so small a tomb
shows how rich the large interments may have been,
and how strong was the temptation to rob them.
In Stairway 1 the lines of the surrounding mass of