DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0188
SEASON OF I928-I929
175
our men, five or six meters below what had been the surface of the
hillside when we began to dig. Day after day, and even week after
week passed in dully shifting dirt with nothing to show for the ex-
penditure of time and money, until the usual doubts began to haunt
us as to whether or not the job was justified.
On February 23rd—six weeks after we had started the work on the
hill—the Reis Gilani reported that the men had found a rough hole
in the rock under their feet, in the side of the ravine toward the
temple. It was obviously impossible to explore the hole then with the
loose sand and rock on the face of the excavations still overhanging
it and threatening to cave in on it—and perhaps by that time we had
become a little apathetic anyway. However, in due course we decided
that we could clean out just the mouth and see what the hole might
be. We chose a weekly market day, when the work is always shut
down, and set a few men to digging. They cleared out an irregular,
jagged opening in the rock, and when they were about waist deep,
brought to light some rather carelessly laid brickwork on the side of
the pit toward the temple.
Even that, however, failed to get us excited. True, brickwork down
a pit meant the entrance to a tomb, but that carelessly dug opening
and shoddily laid brickwork suggested nothing but a rather miserable,
late tomb such as we had often found before. Still, as a matter of
routine, we put guards on the spot, filled the hole up again, and
waited for three more days until we had a good clear space around
it (pl. 68). There was no reason to rush things.
On February 28th, when we had plenty of room, we went about
our job again in a leisurely way. Just as we had thought, the bricks of
which we had had a glimpse were merely stuffed into the mouth of an
opening facing toward the temple, and were only held in place with
a little clay smeared along the top of them. The pit itself was filled
with any old thing that had been lying handy around its mouth in
ancient times—dirt, rags, bits of a large white coffin, and the lids of
straw baskets. In fact it seemed to be a rather disreputable rubbish
hole, but still keeping to our routine, everything was photographed
before it was moved. Then we took out a couple of bricks and flashed
an electric torch inside.
It was only then that we had our first hint that our tomb was not
so simple and uninteresting an affair as we had supposed. A jumble
of white shawabti boxes and a headless Osiris figure could be seen
just inside the opening. Beyond were several big, round baskets, to
which the lids in the pit seemed to belong, piled against the wall of a
175
our men, five or six meters below what had been the surface of the
hillside when we began to dig. Day after day, and even week after
week passed in dully shifting dirt with nothing to show for the ex-
penditure of time and money, until the usual doubts began to haunt
us as to whether or not the job was justified.
On February 23rd—six weeks after we had started the work on the
hill—the Reis Gilani reported that the men had found a rough hole
in the rock under their feet, in the side of the ravine toward the
temple. It was obviously impossible to explore the hole then with the
loose sand and rock on the face of the excavations still overhanging
it and threatening to cave in on it—and perhaps by that time we had
become a little apathetic anyway. However, in due course we decided
that we could clean out just the mouth and see what the hole might
be. We chose a weekly market day, when the work is always shut
down, and set a few men to digging. They cleared out an irregular,
jagged opening in the rock, and when they were about waist deep,
brought to light some rather carelessly laid brickwork on the side of
the pit toward the temple.
Even that, however, failed to get us excited. True, brickwork down
a pit meant the entrance to a tomb, but that carelessly dug opening
and shoddily laid brickwork suggested nothing but a rather miserable,
late tomb such as we had often found before. Still, as a matter of
routine, we put guards on the spot, filled the hole up again, and
waited for three more days until we had a good clear space around
it (pl. 68). There was no reason to rush things.
On February 28th, when we had plenty of room, we went about
our job again in a leisurely way. Just as we had thought, the bricks of
which we had had a glimpse were merely stuffed into the mouth of an
opening facing toward the temple, and were only held in place with
a little clay smeared along the top of them. The pit itself was filled
with any old thing that had been lying handy around its mouth in
ancient times—dirt, rags, bits of a large white coffin, and the lids of
straw baskets. In fact it seemed to be a rather disreputable rubbish
hole, but still keeping to our routine, everything was photographed
before it was moved. Then we took out a couple of bricks and flashed
an electric torch inside.
It was only then that we had our first hint that our tomb was not
so simple and uninteresting an affair as we had supposed. A jumble
of white shawabti boxes and a headless Osiris figure could be seen
just inside the opening. Beyond were several big, round baskets, to
which the lids in the pit seemed to belong, piled against the wall of a