DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12249#0080
PERIOD TO WHICH THE TOMBS CHIEFLY BELONG. 49
ancient days of the growing city are not to "be recog-
nised. They may have been comparatively few in
number or, in certain cases, so little elaborate that,
from the absence of decoration, no mark remains to
distinguish them; or some may have been reduced
to the same indefinite condition by the more length-
ened action of time on their painted walls. But
without any of these suppositions, the circumstance
is not difficult to account for if we remember that
under the nurture of the three Dynasties named, the
changes and the prosperity were so great, as the
monuments show, that the stamp of that period was
essentially impressed upon the city. In the Necro-
polis, with an increasing demand for space, it was
not likely that the older tombs would be preserved
untouched in perpetuity, and that they should escape
the vicissitudes of rcappropriation which circumstances
invited and practice sanctioned. It is sepulchres
dating under those three of the Diospolitan Dynas-
ties, which now present themselves so frequently
at nearly every point, that they almost give the
whole assemblage a representative character as re-
gards that flourishing period. From the Valley of
the Tombs of the Queens to El Drah-aboo-Neggeh they
are to be found — not in any topographical sequence
according to relative age,— and they, although not they
exclusively or without intermixture, occur at nearly
every part of the range, wherever paintings or sculptures
on the interior walls enable dates to be determined. A
prominent exception, is, indeed, to be made in favour
E
ancient days of the growing city are not to "be recog-
nised. They may have been comparatively few in
number or, in certain cases, so little elaborate that,
from the absence of decoration, no mark remains to
distinguish them; or some may have been reduced
to the same indefinite condition by the more length-
ened action of time on their painted walls. But
without any of these suppositions, the circumstance
is not difficult to account for if we remember that
under the nurture of the three Dynasties named, the
changes and the prosperity were so great, as the
monuments show, that the stamp of that period was
essentially impressed upon the city. In the Necro-
polis, with an increasing demand for space, it was
not likely that the older tombs would be preserved
untouched in perpetuity, and that they should escape
the vicissitudes of rcappropriation which circumstances
invited and practice sanctioned. It is sepulchres
dating under those three of the Diospolitan Dynas-
ties, which now present themselves so frequently
at nearly every point, that they almost give the
whole assemblage a representative character as re-
gards that flourishing period. From the Valley of
the Tombs of the Queens to El Drah-aboo-Neggeh they
are to be found — not in any topographical sequence
according to relative age,— and they, although not they
exclusively or without intermixture, occur at nearly
every part of the range, wherever paintings or sculptures
on the interior walls enable dates to be determined. A
prominent exception, is, indeed, to be made in favour
E