DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4635#0056
14
EL KAB.
20. The tombs in detail.
In No. 203 there were only two pots and a marble
wise. Traces of the roofing arch were found. The
skeleton as it lay measured 1 •80 m. long.
No. 205 contained pottery of shapes XIII, 2, 12,
27, 24, 20.
No. 216 contained four examples of XIII, 5, one
each of 2, 19, 4, and about fifty of the small
saucer, 12 a.
No. 242 contained 26, 2, 3.
No. 255 contained a great mass of pottery of nearly
all the shapes (2, 5, 4, 12, 9, 17), much of which lay at
a higher level than the two bodies ; of these, one lay
upon its back, the other in the regular position.
Before the face of the northern body was an ala-
baster vase (X, 4), a small shell and a fragment of
bronze rod. Another alabaster jar (X, 3) stood by
the hips of the southern skeleton.
No. 264 was in better condition than most, and
contained a great number of pots, including more
than fifty of the shape XIII, 22, and many of
XIII, 20. Nearly all were, however, broken, for,
as in all these tombs, the arch had fallen in. This
tomb contained also a string of beads, barrel beads of
lapis lazuli, carnelian and gold foil, and small discs of
gold.
In No. 265 were found more than two hundred pots
scattered in all directions ; a few were nested in a
recess halfway down the side of the tomb. All the
shapes XIII, 1-28, except 16 and 22, were found in
this tomb. There was no skeleton. A hole had been
pierced in the base of every pot after baking.
One group of tombs of this period (v. Pl. XXIV)
had apparently been made at one time. In three of
them the skeletons remained with two or three coarse
pots laid before the face. Outside the enclosure wall
of another of these groups of tombs was a heap of
saucers (like XIII, 12), painted inside with a rough
cross of white paint. These are, by the fabric, pro-
bably of the same period as the tombs.
21. In the great Xllth dynasty cemetery outside
the town the graves were of different construction,
consisting of a long and narrow shaft from which, at
both the north and the south ends, opened a chamber.
But two, or perhaps three, tombs of this form were
found inside the walls. This cemetery was well
known to the Arabs, and a few years ago a party of
the Qurneh dealers, armed with a bogus Museum
permit, dug there for several weeks. The tombs they
had rifled could be distinguished from tombs that
were intact or had been plundered in early times by
the sharper edges of the depressions left. Time has
rounded over the traces of the earlier robberies, so
that anciently robbed tombs look much like those
which are intact, but in which the roof has fallen in
causing a dip in the ground not unlike the top of a
tomb-shaft. The cemetery lies in a shoal in the dry
stream-bed, at whose mouth El Kab was placed.
This shoal is a great bank of gravel and a fine clay-
like detritus, the beds of which lie alternately, the
thickness of each varying in different parts. The
practice in the Xllth dynasty was to sink the tomb-
shaft until a layer of gravel was reached sufficiently
strong for a chamber to be safely cut out of it. The
chambers were about 2 m. square and probably rather
less than 1-50 m. high, but they were made flat-
roofed, and in most cases the roof had fallen in,
crushing the bones and often also the pottery below.
Even if the roof was complete when we opened the
tomb, it would usually fall before we could examine
and clear out the interment. With only the warning
of the fall of a single pebble, or just a little gutter of
sand, a mass of perhaps two tons would suddenly
drop with a thud. On two occasions a man was
caught by some part of the fall, and once, just as
the helpless man was being dug out, a clumsy helper
dislodged a few more hundredweight and buried him
again. These arc anxious moments, for when this
shifting ground has once begun to slip, the whole
side of a tomb may^1 _i------
serious accident, =_ k\if#^
escapes. It is ne< E " »S^V/£>*
men very carefull E
reasonable care, f< = w
beneath dangeron E
rather than take E-
The method in wh E-^
was closed was no E.
the large jars (Pi = 1-
inside the entrance E
been used as a bui E a
near Keneh now -
potteries there. ! E~
found actually bio E—
the lower tier, twe =-
stices filled with E-b
pots were the c< =_
Kingdom. Othc E &
bricks, very rougl E
there was one of u -
— IT)
a trace of wood (Is -
been part of a cof E-
m
EL KAB.
20. The tombs in detail.
In No. 203 there were only two pots and a marble
wise. Traces of the roofing arch were found. The
skeleton as it lay measured 1 •80 m. long.
No. 205 contained pottery of shapes XIII, 2, 12,
27, 24, 20.
No. 216 contained four examples of XIII, 5, one
each of 2, 19, 4, and about fifty of the small
saucer, 12 a.
No. 242 contained 26, 2, 3.
No. 255 contained a great mass of pottery of nearly
all the shapes (2, 5, 4, 12, 9, 17), much of which lay at
a higher level than the two bodies ; of these, one lay
upon its back, the other in the regular position.
Before the face of the northern body was an ala-
baster vase (X, 4), a small shell and a fragment of
bronze rod. Another alabaster jar (X, 3) stood by
the hips of the southern skeleton.
No. 264 was in better condition than most, and
contained a great number of pots, including more
than fifty of the shape XIII, 22, and many of
XIII, 20. Nearly all were, however, broken, for,
as in all these tombs, the arch had fallen in. This
tomb contained also a string of beads, barrel beads of
lapis lazuli, carnelian and gold foil, and small discs of
gold.
In No. 265 were found more than two hundred pots
scattered in all directions ; a few were nested in a
recess halfway down the side of the tomb. All the
shapes XIII, 1-28, except 16 and 22, were found in
this tomb. There was no skeleton. A hole had been
pierced in the base of every pot after baking.
One group of tombs of this period (v. Pl. XXIV)
had apparently been made at one time. In three of
them the skeletons remained with two or three coarse
pots laid before the face. Outside the enclosure wall
of another of these groups of tombs was a heap of
saucers (like XIII, 12), painted inside with a rough
cross of white paint. These are, by the fabric, pro-
bably of the same period as the tombs.
21. In the great Xllth dynasty cemetery outside
the town the graves were of different construction,
consisting of a long and narrow shaft from which, at
both the north and the south ends, opened a chamber.
But two, or perhaps three, tombs of this form were
found inside the walls. This cemetery was well
known to the Arabs, and a few years ago a party of
the Qurneh dealers, armed with a bogus Museum
permit, dug there for several weeks. The tombs they
had rifled could be distinguished from tombs that
were intact or had been plundered in early times by
the sharper edges of the depressions left. Time has
rounded over the traces of the earlier robberies, so
that anciently robbed tombs look much like those
which are intact, but in which the roof has fallen in
causing a dip in the ground not unlike the top of a
tomb-shaft. The cemetery lies in a shoal in the dry
stream-bed, at whose mouth El Kab was placed.
This shoal is a great bank of gravel and a fine clay-
like detritus, the beds of which lie alternately, the
thickness of each varying in different parts. The
practice in the Xllth dynasty was to sink the tomb-
shaft until a layer of gravel was reached sufficiently
strong for a chamber to be safely cut out of it. The
chambers were about 2 m. square and probably rather
less than 1-50 m. high, but they were made flat-
roofed, and in most cases the roof had fallen in,
crushing the bones and often also the pottery below.
Even if the roof was complete when we opened the
tomb, it would usually fall before we could examine
and clear out the interment. With only the warning
of the fall of a single pebble, or just a little gutter of
sand, a mass of perhaps two tons would suddenly
drop with a thud. On two occasions a man was
caught by some part of the fall, and once, just as
the helpless man was being dug out, a clumsy helper
dislodged a few more hundredweight and buried him
again. These arc anxious moments, for when this
shifting ground has once begun to slip, the whole
side of a tomb may^1 _i------
serious accident, =_ k\if#^
escapes. It is ne< E " »S^V/£>*
men very carefull E
reasonable care, f< = w
beneath dangeron E
rather than take E-
The method in wh E-^
was closed was no E.
the large jars (Pi = 1-
inside the entrance E
been used as a bui E a
near Keneh now -
potteries there. ! E~
found actually bio E—
the lower tier, twe =-
stices filled with E-b
pots were the c< =_
Kingdom. Othc E &
bricks, very rougl E
there was one of u -
— IT)
a trace of wood (Is -
been part of a cof E-
m