DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0021
8
EXCAVATIONS AT DEIR EL BAHRI
its chapel, and a series of tombs, built against the face of the cut,
thus proving that the cut was earlier than they were. Now one of the
tomb-chapels against the cut still retained traces of Seventeenth or
early Eighteenth Dynasty decoration. Others yielded pottery which
we know to be typical of that period. Finally, we found a series of
funerary cones, stamped with the names of the original occupants of
the graves. One was of a high priest of Amun, the Chancellor Thuty,
who lived under Adr-mose I, first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty;
and another was of a priest of Amun, Amen-em-heb, who lived under
Amen-hotpe I. The known dates of this little cemetery are thus from
1580 to 1540 b.c., with the first tomb probably a little earlier.
Meanwhile, near the Twelfth Dynasty tomb on the south side of
the causeway, we had found part of a small statue, in black granite,
of Amen-em-het HI of the Twelfth Dynasty. We know that his
predecessors had placed votive statues in the great temple of Neb-
hepet-Ref above, where they were found when that temple was
excavated by the Egypt Exploration Fund. This statue of Amen-em-
het, therefore, was undoubtedly one which he had placed in the
valley temple of the same king, near the site of which it must have
been when we uncovered it.
The Egypt Exploration Fund found statues of Neb-hepet-Reb
represented as Osiris, around the main temple above, when they
cleared it. There is a battered torso of a similar statue lying on the
surface halfway down the causeway, and we found fragments of others
in our excavation, which had been there undisturbed since 1000 b.c.,
at least. There is every reason to believe, then, that such statues
were placed at intervals along the causeway, just as we found them
at Lisht in the causeway of Sten-Wosret I.
As to the valley-temple of Neb-hepet-Ref, we concluded that it
must lie just beyond the present edge of the desert, under what is
now the cultivation. The reasons leading us to locate it here are three:
first, the finding of the statue of Amen-em-het 111 nearby; second, the
widening of the causeway at this point, suggesting the clearing of a
level platform, broader than the causeway, as Hat-shepsut had done
for her valley-temple just to the north; and third, the presence of
Middle Kingdom tombs in our excavations and, nearby to the north,
in Lord Carnarvon’s concession. At Deir el Bahri we noticed how the
tombs of the great nobles of the Eleventh Dynasty are grouped about
the amphitheatre of cliffs looking down on the temple of Neb-hepet-
ReC They were the tombs of his courtiers, surrounding the king in
death as they themselves had in life. The group below, nearer the
EXCAVATIONS AT DEIR EL BAHRI
its chapel, and a series of tombs, built against the face of the cut,
thus proving that the cut was earlier than they were. Now one of the
tomb-chapels against the cut still retained traces of Seventeenth or
early Eighteenth Dynasty decoration. Others yielded pottery which
we know to be typical of that period. Finally, we found a series of
funerary cones, stamped with the names of the original occupants of
the graves. One was of a high priest of Amun, the Chancellor Thuty,
who lived under Adr-mose I, first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty;
and another was of a priest of Amun, Amen-em-heb, who lived under
Amen-hotpe I. The known dates of this little cemetery are thus from
1580 to 1540 b.c., with the first tomb probably a little earlier.
Meanwhile, near the Twelfth Dynasty tomb on the south side of
the causeway, we had found part of a small statue, in black granite,
of Amen-em-het HI of the Twelfth Dynasty. We know that his
predecessors had placed votive statues in the great temple of Neb-
hepet-Ref above, where they were found when that temple was
excavated by the Egypt Exploration Fund. This statue of Amen-em-
het, therefore, was undoubtedly one which he had placed in the
valley temple of the same king, near the site of which it must have
been when we uncovered it.
The Egypt Exploration Fund found statues of Neb-hepet-Reb
represented as Osiris, around the main temple above, when they
cleared it. There is a battered torso of a similar statue lying on the
surface halfway down the causeway, and we found fragments of others
in our excavation, which had been there undisturbed since 1000 b.c.,
at least. There is every reason to believe, then, that such statues
were placed at intervals along the causeway, just as we found them
at Lisht in the causeway of Sten-Wosret I.
As to the valley-temple of Neb-hepet-Ref, we concluded that it
must lie just beyond the present edge of the desert, under what is
now the cultivation. The reasons leading us to locate it here are three:
first, the finding of the statue of Amen-em-het 111 nearby; second, the
widening of the causeway at this point, suggesting the clearing of a
level platform, broader than the causeway, as Hat-shepsut had done
for her valley-temple just to the north; and third, the presence of
Middle Kingdom tombs in our excavations and, nearby to the north,
in Lord Carnarvon’s concession. At Deir el Bahri we noticed how the
tombs of the great nobles of the Eleventh Dynasty are grouped about
the amphitheatre of cliffs looking down on the temple of Neb-hepet-
ReC They were the tombs of his courtiers, surrounding the king in
death as they themselves had in life. The group below, nearer the