Medum. 
 
 ■ BY 
 
 W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE. 
 
 WITH CHAPTERS BY 
 
 F. LL, GRIFFITH, DR. A. WIEDEMANN, DR. W. J. RUSSELL, F.R.S., 
 
 AND W. E. CRUM. 
 
THE EISENLOHR COLLECTION IN 
 EGYPTOLOGY AND ASSYRIOLOGY 
 
 PRESENTED TO CORNEI,!, UNIVERSITY BY 
 
 1902 
 
 A.../A^J'.Zl. i^/.t/Z£^^.^ 
 
 3947 
 
DT 73.M4P49" """"""^ ""'"' 
 
 Medum / 
 
 3 1924 028 670 465 *,„, 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028670465 
 
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M E D U M. 
 
 BY 
 
 W: M^ FLINDERS PETRIE. 
 
 WITH CHAPTERS BY 
 
 F. LL. GRIFFITH, DR. A. WIEDEMANN, DR. W. J. RUSSELL, F.R.S., 
 
 AND W. E. CRUM. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 DAVID NUTT, 270, 271, STRAND. 
 
 1892. 
 
^.\UVV]1 
 
 LONDON: ^^^ 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limited, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHAKING CROSS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4- 
 5- 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Settling to work . 
 Copying the sculptures 
 Opening the tombs 
 Finding the temple 
 Clearing the temple 
 Other excavations 
 Personal 
 
 I 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 4 
 4 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 (Plates I-IV.) 
 
 The Pyramid and Temple. 
 
 8. Construction of the pyra- 
 
 mid 5 
 
 9. Survey 5 
 
 10. Form of the pyramid . . 6 
 
 11. Inner coats of pyramid . 6 
 
 12. Peribolus 7 
 
 13. Temple 8 
 
 14. Courtyard 8 
 
 15. Causeway 9 
 
 16. Contents of temple . . 9 
 .17. Southern building. . . 10 
 
 18. Grooves on pyramid . . 10 
 
 19. Entrance passage . . .10 
 
 20. Lower passages and cham- 
 
 bers II 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 (Plates V-VII.) 
 
 The Mastabas and Burials. 
 
 21. Mastaba No. 17. . . . Ii 
 
 22. Builders' construction lines 12 
 
 23. Cubits and dimensions . 13 
 
 24. Interior 13 
 
 25. Mastaba 16, Nefermat . 14 
 
 26. „ 6, Rahotep. . 15 
 
 27. „ 6, Annex . . 17 
 
 28. „ 9, Ranefer . . 17 
 
 29. „ 8 . . . . i8 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 30. Mastabas with open 
 
 chamber 19 
 
 31. Mastabas with sloping 
 
 passage , 
 
 32. Lesser tombs . 
 
 33. Contracted burials 
 
 34. Mutilations of bodies 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 19 
 20 
 21 
 21 
 
 (Plates IX-XXVIII.) 
 The Sculptured Chambers. 
 
 35. Scale and accuracy of 
 
 plates 22 
 
 36. Method of copying . . 23 
 
 37. Plates IX-XU; Rahotep 23 
 
 38. Plates XIII, XIV; Ra- 
 
 hotep 24 
 
 39. Plate XV ; Nefert . . 24 
 
 40. Inlaying by Nefermat's 
 
 method 24 
 
 41. Plates XVI-XXI ; Nefer- 
 
 mat 25 
 
 42. Plates XXII -XXVII; 
 
 Atet 26 
 
 43. Plate XXVIII ; Frescoes 27 
 
 44. Colouring of Rahotep . 28 
 
 45. Colouring of Nefermat . 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Early Hieroglyphs. 
 
 46. Importance of epigraphy 
 
 47. Natural signs . 
 
 48. Architectural signs 
 
 49. Weapons and tools 
 
 50. Sceptres, ornaments, &c. 
 
 51. Rope numerals, &c. . 
 
 29 
 29 
 30 
 31 
 32 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Small Antiquities. 
 
 52. Plate XXIX .... 34 
 
 53. Plate XXX .... 35 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 54. Plate XXXI .... 35 
 
 55. Analyses by Dr. Glad- 
 
 stone, F.R.S. ... 36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 (Plates XXXII-XXXVI.) 
 
 The Inscriptions. 
 
 By F. LI. Griffith. 
 
 56. Architect's note . . . 37 
 
 57. Mastaba inscriptions . . 37 
 
 58. Statuette and ostracon . 40 
 
 59. Graffiti of temple ... 40 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Varieties of Ancient Kohl. 
 
 By Dr. A. Wiedemann. 
 
 60. Names of eye paints . . 41 
 
 61. Account of samples . . 42 
 
 62. Galena powders ... 42 
 6^. Antimony and other 
 
 powders 43 
 
 64. Conclusions .... 43 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Egyptian Colours. 
 
 By W. J. Russell, Ph.D., F.R.S. 
 
 65. Red and yellow of Kahun 
 
 and Gurob .... 44 
 
 66. Blue and green frits . . 45 
 6y. Greco-Roman colours . 47 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Coptic Papyrl 
 
 By W. E. Crum. 
 
 68. Manuscripts of Fayum . 48 
 
 69. Theological texts . . 48 
 
 70. Letters 49 
 
 71. Accounts and lists . , 49 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. After having explored and described the towns 
 and products of the XVIIIth dynasty at Gurob, and 
 Lthe Xllth dynasty at Kahun, I naturally turned my 
 eyes to what seemed with reason to be the oldest 
 dated site in Egypt, the cemetery of Medum, which 
 was not far distant. Some time was lost before I 
 could begin work, by the attempted imposition of 
 new and onerous conditions ; but aftei- a good deal of 
 trouble and discussion I had the satisfaction, thanks 
 to Sir Evelyn Baring, of seeing reasonable terms 
 established for scientific work in Egypt, distinct from 
 the conditions for plundering merely for purposes of 
 profit, which should indeed be wholly prevented. So 
 vast an amount has been altogether lost, that the re- 
 mainder should be rigidly guarded and reserved for 
 scientific examination, from an archaeological and 
 ethnologic point of view, rather than merely for 
 finding inscriptions and bronzes. The present sys- 
 tem of allowing native overseers -and others to plun- 
 der tombs for their private benefit, without the 
 publication of any results, is most deplorable ; and it 
 has cost us the loss of all the information that might 
 have been recorded from the cemeteries of Ekhmim, 
 Siut, Mea, and innumerable other sites. Destruction 
 is not the less to be deplored because it is done by 
 legalised agents. Very few Europeans in Egypt, and 
 still fewer natives, would think of spending the needful 
 time to secure details before they are lost in working. 
 To spend one to two hours cramped in a small hole, 
 picking out the tiniest bones of a skeleton from a 
 tomb, and noting its position and any peculiarities, is 
 absolutely needful if we are to understand the details 
 of the race whose works we are studying ; and such 
 care has seldom, if ever, been given by excavators. 
 
 I began by going over to my old quarters at 
 Illahun to fetch my baggage, and engaged two or 
 three dozen of my old workmen, who were all willing 
 
 to go with me. They, and others of my older hands 
 from near Medinet, used to walk over sixteen or 
 eighteen miles with a sack of dried bread, work for 
 ten or eleven days,' and then walk back for fresh 
 supplies, thus returning every fortnight. These men 
 and boys were as honest and pleasant fellows as I 
 wish to see ; they camped in rough huts by my tent, 
 and served as guards by night and workmen by day. 
 I shall not forget the strange astonishment that it 
 was to me when a visitor asked Who protected my 
 things ? and If I could trust my people ? I never 
 missed any property while I was there ; and even if 
 treasures, such as a pocket knife, happened to be left 
 outside derelict, no one disturbed them. The thorough 
 kindly simplicity and good feeling of all the party 
 made it a pleasure to be with them. Where the 
 Egyptian is constantly misunderstood is by applying 
 English standards to him. He has many points in 
 which he is better and pleasanter than an English 
 workman ; but he cannot stand long-continued 
 temptation of any sort, nor being " given his head " 
 in any way. He needs " bossing," and he feels the 
 want of a " boss." When I was called away to Cairo, 
 and left my men for a few days, with an ample supply 
 of piece-work to go on with, I found that they had 
 not the heart to do it when not looked after, although 
 the loss was theirs. If constantly encouraged they 
 will earn surprising amounts, by work so hard that 
 any person would cry shame if they were forced to 
 do it. To tempt such people by constantly giving 
 them opportunities of stealing or cheating is extremely 
 wrong; but by guarding against this, and letting 
 them feel that they are always kept in hand and 
 noticed, they prove admirable, and industrious workers. 
 Of course so far as possible all my work was piece- 
 work ; and though the rate was only from i to i 
 piastre the cubic metre, or id. to i^d. the cubic yard, 
 according to the hardness of the ground, yet they 
 usually earned iSd?. to 2s. a day for a man and boy, 
 double the best native wages ; 1 5 to 20 cubic yards 
 
 B 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was a common discharge for a couple. I also em- 
 ployed many men from Medum and the villages near ; 
 and some of them were splendid workers. One 
 couple were nicknamed " The Fiends " ;"Handawi, the 
 man, was always rampant for fresh ground, and slaved 
 without intermission, and his lad ran to and fro the 
 whole day, carrying baskets of stuff and stones piled 
 on the top, on his back. Where the stuff required to 
 be moved to a distance I used to keep the same rate 
 for the metre, but allow the couple to bring a boy to 
 help them, to whom I paid day wages in addition. 
 These boys then were kept going by their patrons, 
 and gave me no extra trouble ; two additional day 
 boys were sometimes given to each couple of metre 
 workers, where the stuff had to be carried perhaps 
 loo feet distant and 20 feet up. Such a system works 
 very easily, is little trouble, and costs less than any 
 other. 
 
 I left Illahun with a couple of camels and a gang 
 of men and boys, and skirting the desert we walked 
 eighteen miles down to Medum, which is about forty 
 miles south of Cairo ; there I looked round for a 
 camping-place, where I could be quiet, and not hear 
 the men talking at night. For this end I settled into 
 Nefermat's sculptured chamber for my bedroom, and 
 pitched a tent in the front of it for stores and cooking. 
 Another tent served for a few of the men, and the 
 rest made huts of the bricks of Nefermat, which had 
 been thrown out by the hundred in past excavations 
 there ; these, roofed with durra straw, served them for 
 dwellings all the winter, although they found it a cold 
 harbour without any doors, in frosty nights. I had 
 not long been there when I had the pleasure of Mr. 
 F. Bliss coming to join me for three or four weeks, to 
 examine all the details of excavations, before he took 
 up the continuation of my work at Lachish for the 
 Palestine Exploration Fund. I had also several 
 visitors, as Medum was within the range of the private 
 tourist. Since it was needful to close all the tombs 
 the visitors will find less to look at, and probably drop 
 it out of their programmes. 
 
 2. After clearing the known tombs, there was a 
 lengthy business in copying them. This could not 
 in most parts be done by wet squeezes, as there was 
 colour on some of the stone, still left after the wet 
 squeezes which had been most shamelessly taken 
 before. I therefore took dry squeezes : holding up a 
 strip of paper, three feet long and one foot wide, 
 against the stone with the left hand, I outlined all 
 the sculpture with my fingers, creasing the paper over 
 the edge if it was incised, or scoring the outline with 
 
 my nail if it was in relief. To do this accurately 
 needs care ; as, if the paper is marked to the outline 
 of the carving the figure will be too wide by the 
 amount of curvature. The mark must be made 
 therefore on the rounding of .the edge, guiding the 
 nail by holding thumb and finger together. Having 
 obtained a creased outline the sheet was laid on a 
 board and drawn over by freehand, following the 
 marks and interpreting them by looking at the sculp- 
 ture. In this way, during six or seven weeks, about 
 1200 square feet of sculpture was copied in full-size 
 drawing, and notes of the colours marked. After 
 returning to England these slips were matched to- 
 gether, marked, turned over and joined by strips of 
 adhesive, so as to form large rolls, equal to the height 
 of the chambers, loj feet, and about 3 to 5 feet wide. 
 The outlines were then all inked in, and the sheets 
 were ready to be photo-lithographed. The joining 
 took over a week, and the inking took a month, 
 beside some kindly done by Mr. Spurrell. 
 
 3. After the drawing I worked at most of the 
 mastabas and the tomb pits that I could find. But I 
 found that the old people had had their pickings first, 
 and had plundered every tomb that was worth clear- 
 ing. The full knowledge of the arrangements that 
 was shewn by the spoilers, is evidence that the attacks 
 were made soon after the closing of the tombs, and 
 while the secrets of their plans were still known. 
 Veiy possibly some boy employed in the building 
 went there fifty years later, when the place was left 
 deserted, and made use of his memory. In one 
 mastaba were three pits. I first found the central one ; 
 it contained absolutely nothing but clean rock chips 
 in the pit and chamber. The next we found contained 
 only some bowls and flints in the bottom of the pit. 
 Both of these were left untouched till I went there ; 
 but the third pit, with masonry below it, had been all 
 plundered and wrecked, so that we could not clear it 
 in safety ; this doubtless was the sepulchre. In the 
 next mastaba I cleared a large pit, which was un- 
 touched ; with great excitement we found the stone 
 trap-door ; Mr. Eraser, who was there at the time, 
 helped me to shift it out with crowbars, and cut out 
 the stone filling of the passage, only to find that a 
 tunnel had been made from the outside straight to 
 the chamber, which was entered by breaking a hole 
 in the floor. Two mastabas, however, I did not 
 succeed in entering ; and it was evident, by the 
 various forced tunnels, that other people had been 
 equally unsuccessful. Possibly no one has yet found 
 those chambers. The common tombs repaid our 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 labour best, not from objects of workmanship, but 
 from the many complete skeletons of that remote age 
 which I was able thus to collect. 
 
 4. The main piece of work was on the pyramid. 
 I went there with the idea of finding, if possible, the 
 temple, as I had found the temple of Illahun. It 
 was soon clear that there was no temple on the 
 desert edge, distant from the pyramid ; and I tried 
 pits in the concreted rubbish within the peribolus on 
 the east side, but reached nothing but rock, although 
 I afterwards found that I was within a few feet of 
 the temple door. I hesitated at attacking the great 
 mass of rubbish piled up against the east face of the 
 pyramid. I walked about it, and speculated on it for 
 several days, while we were clearing the corners for 
 my survey. At last I determined to broach it ; but 
 it was needful to begin on a large scale, as I knew 
 that I had to descend through over forty feet of more 
 or less loose stuff ; and a wide hole was needed at 
 the bottom, 'to search for the temple. So I marked 
 out a space 70 feet long and 40 feet wide up the 
 slope of rubbish ; and, dividing that into strips or 
 stages, I allotted a stage 7 feet wide and 35 feet 
 long to each man and boy. Thus each party de- 
 livered the stuff out at the ends of my great hole, the 
 six north stages delivering at the north end, and the 
 south stages at the other. So far we started fairly, 
 and the measuring of the work was simple. But soon 
 we found large blocks of casing and other stones from 
 the pyramid, all lying at the angle of rest in the 
 sloping strata of rubbish ; and as we descended these 
 had to be taken out of the way. Then, almost with- 
 out being able to help it, one big block and then 
 another (which the men detested as hindering their 
 piece-work) slipped off the stage and went bowling 
 down all the other stages, breaking up their regularity. 
 Then the trouble came, whose block was whose ? Of 
 course I gave some extra pay for moving out big 
 blocks, but they were a terrible nuisance, and 
 dangerous as well. Two or three times I had to 
 break off all piece-work, and set the whole gang of 
 twenty-four or more to work together at clearing out 
 blocks, arranging all the shifting myself Though we 
 had dozens of stones so heavy that they needed 
 every man we could get around them to stir them, 
 and tedious crowbar work, yet we happily escaped 
 any accidents beyond scrapes, and a few trapped 
 fingers and toes. As we descended a fresh trouble 
 arose ; for the rubbish was much weaker in some 
 parts and could hardly sustain the large blocks left 
 in the steep side of the hole. There were some great 
 
 pieces which I expected to see drop any hour, but 
 which yet held up to the last. 
 
 Of course in cutting a deep hole in a slope the 
 stuff soon has to be lifted out, and so before long it 
 was impracticable to shoot it at the end of the 
 excavation. Then I opened two trenches, leading 
 east from the two sides of the work, which carried off 
 the stuff till we were low down ; and finally one deep 
 cut in the middle took out the bottom stuff and left 
 the hole of a T form. Thus by distributing the stuff 
 from different periods of the work at different parts, 
 I avoided raising it up a mountain of rubbish at the 
 last, and left the 6000 cubic yards so spread as to be 
 the least inconvenience. Whenever a large hole is 
 made one of the least obvious — but most necessary — 
 points to consider is, where the stuff shall go ; it 
 cannot be annihilated, and before beginning work it 
 is well to fully imagine as one looks at the ground 
 what the hole will be like, and how that amount of 
 stuff had better be placed. 
 
 At last we reached the bottom, and there found the 
 sloping .casing of the pyramid, and a wall at right 
 angles to it, and the side of a great stele ; our hole 
 was a success, but it only shewed where a building 
 existed by revealing one corner of it. We then had 
 to enlarge the pit at the north end, and before we had 
 gone far with that a fresh trouble arose. We had on 
 each side an imminent wall of loose rubbish ; on the 
 west it was as high as a London house — sand and 
 ■ chips and big blocks — all sloping in stratification so 
 as to slide off into our hole, from a height of forty or 
 fifty feet. I gave a moderate slope to this face, about 
 I in 4, which sufficed to hold it up so long as the 
 weather was tranquil. But soon a raging gale arose ; 
 I was in the pit some time that day, and shall never 
 forget the horrid confusion. The air was so full of 
 whirling sand that one's eyes had to be kept longer 
 shut than open ; whenever the battering of sand on 
 one's face ceased for a moment, and it was possible to 
 look about, the clouds of dust almost hid the sides of 
 the cutting. And as the sand was blown out from 
 the face of the work, the stones came rattling down 
 in avalanches. The width of the place was enough 
 to enable the men to stand in safety on one side 
 when a rush came, but constant attention was needful. 
 At last, in the midst of a grand howl of the gale, we 
 instinctively looked up through the murky brown 
 cloud in which we stood, and saw nearly all the 
 higher side of our pit coming over in a block ; one 
 man only was in front of me ; I saw him dash back 
 past me just in time, and knew that they were all 
 
 B 2 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 safe behind me, when smash came five feet thickness 
 of stones and sand over the greater part of our work. 
 So completely did this disorganise affairs, that it 
 took us a week to get it cleared out, interrupted by- 
 continual lesser falls. The scour of the wind con- 
 stantly undermined the face, and burrowed deeper 
 and deeper into the slightest hollows, until the top 
 overhung, and the face was grooved out, leaving tall 
 slender pillars of loose stuff. 
 
 5. After some three weeks of work, from having 
 first seen the building, we again reached bottom, and 
 cleared out the whole of the courtyard. To my 
 surprise there seemed to be no entrance to it, but a 
 continuous wall around it. But as we cleared down 
 we soon found a doorway, and I crawled into the 
 perfect chambers, which had not been touched since 
 the XVIIIth dynasty. To find under all that depth 
 of ruin such a complete building was an entire sur- 
 prise ; all I had looked or hoped for was to trace 
 some foundations, and find some fragments ; but here 
 nothing seemed to have been disturbed or injured 
 throughout the whole length of recorded history. 
 Here stands the oldest known building in the world 
 as perfect, except for slight weathering, as it was 
 when even Egypt was bare of monuments. I 
 eagerly looked over the 'inscriptions on the walls, 
 which I saw were of Tahutmes III. and Amenhotep 
 III. ; but my satisfaction was complete when I 
 caught sight of Seneferu's name, and knew that at 
 last there was monumental evidence for an attribu- 
 tion, which had always seemed very probable, but 
 which had been as yet without proof 
 
 The next work was to cut another pit to reach the 
 outer door of the temple ; and very glad I was that I 
 had not put all the stuff in front of my great pit, but 
 had so widely spread it ; for thus there was not much 
 to move a second time to reach the temple front. I 
 measured it all completely, photographed it, drew it, 
 copied all the inscriptions, and then reburied it as 
 thoroughly as could be desired. To have left it open 
 would have been to ensure its destruction in six months. 
 The pyramid of Medum is the quarry of all the 
 neighbourhood. Large piles of stone are to be seen 
 in the villages, all taken from there. The desert is 
 furrowed with cart tracks in all directions from the 
 pyramid. Every decent Medumi that dies has a stone 
 tomb built of pyramid casing. Expert stone-splitters 
 live there, who know how — with only a hammer — to 
 split up a 6-ton casing block into long bars of stone, 
 as I have seen them do in a quarter of an hour. The 
 
 great open quarries on the pyramid side are the sign 
 and the scandal of the present order of things. It is 
 only the vast mass of the pyramid that has saved the 
 tombs of Medum from utter ruin, and already one 
 block of the sculptured lintel of Rahotep's tomb is 
 gone. What wonder when no official ever goes to the 
 place to inspect? and even if a native guard was 
 there he would be as capable of selling the stone as 
 of selling the antiquities in his charge. The very 
 tombs of Gizeh are sold for stone to the. villagers by 
 the overseer there. 
 
 6. Besides clearing the temple I opened up each 
 corner of the pyramid, and found the original casing 
 remaining, even the actual corner casing-stone in one 
 place. This gave the material for an accurate survey 
 of it. I also traced out the peribolus wall all around 
 it, and the causeway which led up to it from the 
 plain, and now runs down under water-level. I also 
 exhaustively cleared the inside of the pyramid to see 
 if there were any other chambers or passages. For 
 though it was opened nine years ago by Professor 
 Maspero, the accumulation of stone and rubbish in it 
 had never been turned over. Every part of the rock, 
 or the flooring, of all the chambers and horizontal 
 passages has now been examined. It is most curious 
 to see the original great logs of wood wedged in at 
 the sides of the shaft in the pyramid ; still sound and 
 firm, although saturated with salt. Four months' 
 work at Medum has cleared up most of the questions 
 about it, and recorded its sculptures beyond reach of 
 future loss ; though there are still some interesting 
 matters awaiting a future explorer in that place. 
 
 7. The same friends as before have continued to 
 help forward this work in various ways. The costs of 
 labour and transport have again been defrayed by 
 Mr. Jesse Haworth and Mr. Martyn Kennard. Mr. 
 Spurrell, I have to thank for continual help with head 
 and hands in the details of the collections, and in 
 special researches of his own. Mr. Griffith has now, 
 as always, rendered every assistance in respect to the 
 inscriptions. And I am indebted to Brugsch Pasha 
 for favouring me with a first and hurried translation 
 of the graffiti, when I had the copies in Cairo. Two 
 chapters here are products of my previous work ; the 
 examination of the specimens of Kohl, for the account 
 of which I am obliged to Prof. Wiedemann ; and the 
 description of the Coptic papyri, which Mr. Crum has 
 taken in hand. I only now hope that my coming 
 season in Egypt may be as productive of historic 
 results as those which have gone before. 
 
THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE. 
 
 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE. 
 
 8. The pyramid of Medum is peculiar in construc- 
 tion, and unlike all others, excepting the small 
 pyramid of Rikkeh, and the oblong step-pyramid of 
 Sakkara. These three pyramids have been built 
 cumulatively, that is to say in successive coats each 
 of which bore a finished dressed face ; and further- 
 more two of these pyramids, Medum and Rikkeh, 
 have outer casings in one slope from top to base, like 
 the pyramids of the usual type. The system by 
 which the construction was carried on bears an evident 
 analogy to the building of the great mastaba tombs 
 in the cemetery of Medum. These tombs were rect- 
 angular masses of brickwork, or of earth coated with 
 brick, with faces sloping at about 75°, the mastaba 
 angle differing from the usual pyramid angle of 5 1°. 
 These wide, flat "mastabas," or "benches," were 
 added to during the owner's life by coating them with 
 one or two thick masses of brickwork all around, 
 thereby hiding the sculptured chamber of offerings 
 which contained ^the statue. And outside of these 
 coats a courtyard was built opposite the chamber of 
 offerings, where the worship of the deceased person 
 took place. 
 
 Such a system exactly agrees with what we see in 
 the pyramid of Medum (see PL. II), only it was 
 more fully carried out ; the coatings were seven in 
 number, the original mass was carried upward and 
 heightened as the circuit was increased, and lastly a 
 general coat covered over all the steps which had 
 resulted during the construction. The primal mastaba 
 appears to have been loo cubits square and 25 or 30 
 cubits high : covering over the sepulchral chamber, 
 which was reached by a passage just above the 
 ground level, on the north face of the mastaba. 
 
 The outer casing was largely removed at an early 
 date, probably by Ramessu II ; in the middle ages it 
 is described as having five steps, of which the two 
 lower have been removed in modern times ; thus 
 leaving the high towering mass isolated in the manner 
 which is familiar to all Nile travellers. Various mis- 
 conceptions have been written about it by passing 
 visitors, who supposed it to be a tower, and to have 
 had decorations at the places where the steps formerly 
 joined it ; but such remarks need not detain us. 
 The needful point to observe is that though this 
 pyramid was built cumulatively, it is no warrant for 
 assuming, as Lepsius did, that all other pyramids were 
 
 constructed similarly ; on the contrary no evidence of 
 such cumulative building occurs except in the three 
 pyramids which I have named, and there is positive 
 evidence that this was not the method followed in the 
 later cases. In short it was a transitional form, when 
 the mastaba had been greatly enlarged, and first 
 began to be smoothed over into a pyramidal outline : 
 that type once arrived at, there was no need for subse- 
 quent kings to retain the mastaba form internally, 
 and Khufu and his successors laid out their pyramids 
 of full size at first, and built them up at 5 1° and not 
 at 75°. 
 
 9. The excavations that were needful for making a 
 survey of the pyramid itself were not very large ; but 
 the discovery of the temple on the east side was a 
 heavy undertaking. At each corner of the pyramid 
 cuttings were made through 10 or 12 feet of rubbish, 
 to reach the original pavement and casing stones. 
 At the S.E. corner the lowest course of casing remains 
 entire ; at the other corners it has been partly re- 
 moved, and is only found at 20 or 30 feet distant 
 along the sides. Hence at these corners two separate 
 points were determined in the survey, and the corner 
 completed by calculation afterwards. The peribolus 
 wall also required some excavation all along its course, 
 to trace the remaining foundations ; for the masonry 
 wall itself only exists where its lowest course is left 
 buried, in the deep mass of chips south of the pyramid. 
 The temple excavations are described in other pages. 
 
 Having uncovered the ancient points of construction 
 an accurate survey was needed. As I only had a 
 4-inch theodolite at the place, I relied more on lineal 
 measure. Four stations were fixed at such a distance 
 from each corner as to be visible one from the other ; 
 these were just outside the peribolus wall, except at 
 the north-east, where the big mastaba No. 17 inter- 
 feres with the flatness of the ground, and the station 
 was nearer in. Then the distances of these stations 
 were measured by a steel tape, suspended and strained 
 by 10 lbs. tension. The points of support were 
 nearly in a level line, and usually at about 30 feet 
 apart ; so the whole amount of corrections was in 
 general only -i inch for differences of level, and -^ inch 
 for catenary curves, on a 100-foot length. Tempera- 
 ture was also noted. Probably the results are correct 
 within -2 or -3 inch (=2° or 3° cent.) on each base 
 measured. The theodolite therefore (which was read 
 to 10") was only trusted for the angles of the corners, 
 for the short distances from the corners to the casing, 
 and for the observations up to the upper steps. The 
 casing points were observed on from a distance by 
 
THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE, 
 
 stretching a string across each excavation, and hang- 
 ing a plumb-line down the hole to over the edge of 
 the casing ; the plumb-line was then observed from 
 the survey corner, and from a station along one side 
 of the measured lines. By measuring each angle, as 
 well as each side, of the survey square, four indepen- 
 dent checks were made ; as, given four sides and one 
 angle, the other three are mere results. In this way 
 the values for the other three corners were calculated 
 from each corner in succession, and the mean of the 
 four values of the angle for each corner was adopted. 
 The average error of the theodolite measurement was 
 24" on each corner, equivalent to about i inch on the 
 length of the sides : hence the lineal measures are 
 much the more accurate. The azimuth was deter- 
 mined by Polaris, with Canopus as a time .star, taking 
 three observations. Having stated the methods 
 adopted, we will now describe the results. But as it 
 is not likely that any one else will want to proceed on 
 the lines of this survey, I shall omit here all reference 
 to the purely trigonometrical stations, the nature of 
 the station marks (which were only permanent, and 
 buried, at the four corners of the survey) and the co- 
 ordinates of the calculation of the results, which were 
 entirely worked out on a rigorous basis. 
 
 10. The base of the pyramid is built on a pave- 
 ment, which underlies the casing at every part ex- 
 amined, of both sides and corners. The pavement 
 consists of three courses at the N.W., where the ground 
 was rather low. These courses are not thick, being 
 I7'6, 14, and 14 inches ; and they project not far 
 from the casing edge, being 22, 38, and 48 inches out, 
 respectively. The base of the finished casing of the 
 pyramid was on the 
 
 N. 5677-2, E. 5694-5, S. 5681-3, W. 5675-0 
 and the azimuth of the sides was 
 
 N. 35' 25", E. 20' 35", S. 23' 36", W. 18' 3". 
 Hence the average length of the base is 5682-0 with 
 an average variation of 6-2 inches : the average error 
 of squareness at the corners is 10' 1 1" : and its average 
 azimuth is 24' 25" W. of N., or 359° 35' 35" in absolute 
 azimuth. 
 
 The slope of the face cannot be well measured, as it 
 is only seen for a few courses at the door, and over 
 a very weathered surface discovered on excavating 
 the temple. The latter was so far bad that I did not 
 measure it. At the door the angle was taken as 
 52° 4', 51° 54', 51° 49', the first being worse than the 
 other two : but on combining the triangulation of the 
 door with that of the base the result would yield 51° 26'. 
 As the latter is dependent on the straightness of the 
 
 N. base from corner to corner, which was not un- 
 covered or seen, the directly measured angle is much 
 better : I conclude therefore that it was within a few 
 minutes of 51° 52'. Hence the height was 3,619 
 inches. 
 
 This angle, it will be seen, is just that of the Great 
 Pyramid of Gizeh, which was built next after this 
 pyramid. And we have therefore to consider if any 
 of the theories concerning the size of that are eluci- 
 dated by this. Now the most simple and promising 
 theory is that the ratio of 7 : 44, for that of a radius 
 to a circumference, is embodied by the Great Pyramid 
 height being 7 X 40 cubits and its circuit 44 x 40 
 cubits ; in short, that it was built 7 and 44 times a 
 modulus of 40 cubits. The angle being the same 
 here at Medum the ratio 7 : 44 will of course hold 
 good ; the question is if a simple modulus was used 
 here also. The base being 5682-0 inches, it is 7 x 25 
 cubits in height, and 44 x 25 cubits in circuit ; the 
 cubit required being 20 "66 ± -01 inches, or varying 
 from 20-63 to 20-70 according to different sides, which 
 is just the usual range of varieties of the Egyptian 
 cubit. We see then that there is an exactly analogous 
 theory for the dimensions of Medum to that for the 
 Great Pyramid ; in each the approximate ratio 7 : 44 
 is adopted, as referring to the radius and circle ; in 
 the earlier pyramid a modulus of 25 cubits is multi- 
 plied by these numbers to fix the dimensions ; in the 
 later pyramid a modulus of 40 cubits is used. 
 
 II. Turning next to the inner surfaces of masonry, 
 • of the successive coats of construction, seven such 
 faces may be seen on the concentric masses (Pl. II). 
 We cannot at present see any surface within the top- 
 most face visible, as the top of the pyramid is inac- 
 cessible : but there is some reason for supposing 
 another surface to exist inside, as, granting that the 
 step would be of the same width as that now existing 
 at the top, the dimension of the central mass at the 
 base, or the primitive mastaba, would be just 100 
 cubits either way. Such a face is therefore shewn in 
 broken line on the section (Pl. II), and is here 
 included in brackets in the list of faces. The angles 
 of the faces are variable ; the upper part of the high 
 face is at 73° 20', the lower part 73° 54' ; and the faces 
 now built over, from the outside through to the 
 passage, are at 74° 40' and 75°. The tendency there- 
 fore seems to be for the lower and outer parts to be 
 steeper than the higher. As an average I have used 
 73° 20' for reducing the sloping dimensions of the top 
 steps; and 74° 21', or 100 on 28, for projecting the 
 slopes down to the base. The steps at the top were 
 
THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE, 
 
 observed with the theodolite on the highest complete 
 corners, and the number of courses broken at each 
 corner was examined with a telescope, so as to make 
 allowance for the lost parts. The heights of the 
 courses were noted angularly by the theodolite. The 
 outer coats were measured across where they are 
 broken and accessible, at the top of the rubbish 
 mounds. The results are that the mean sizes of the 
 successive square coats at the pyramid base are as 
 follow : 
 
 (2063), 2368, 2673, 3081, 3478, 3879, 4267, 4667 inches, 
 but of course small differences may easily occur 
 owing to the uncertainty of the angle at which these 
 faces are built. The thickness horizontally of the 
 coats which are implied above are, in (152^), 152^, 
 204, 198-i., 200i, 194, 200, inches, out. And the 
 level of the finished steps above the base are : 
 top (?), broken, 2576, 2165, 1755, 1246.?, 
 978, 571 inches, base. 
 The steps vary somewhat on different sides. The 
 top step varies from 2221 to 2236 horizontally from 
 the outer base ; the second step varies from 1 890 to 
 1937. The lengths of the top edge of the top step 
 vary 12 12 to 123 1, and azimuth from + 8' to -34'; 
 the second step is 1832 to 1905, at +42' to -70'. The 
 thickness of the coats also varies, each ranging over 
 8 or 10 inches, in the parts where they can be directly 
 measured. It is evident therefore that no great 
 accuracy was aimed at in this internal construction, 
 although it was finished off with finely-smoothed 
 faces, well jointed, and of beautiful flatness. 
 
 The thickness of the courses varies, but is never 
 very much. The average at the base, by the temple, 
 is 16 inches ; in the- rough part above the rubbish 
 20-3 ; in different parts of the smooth faces 23*6 to 
 17 -8 ; in the upper face 21 to 16 ; and in the top 19. 
 The regular system of building was with alternate 
 courses of headers and stretchers, the same as in the 
 brickwork of the Medum mastabas. These blocks, 
 where accessible, average 32 wide and 58 long. The 
 inner masonry, within each of the finished faces is 
 very rough ; no attempt has been made to fit the 
 blocks, except by selecting chance adjustments ; the 
 courses are approximately equal, but a coarse mortar 
 is largely used to fill the hollows that are left. The 
 stone also is very inferior, brittle, splitting, stained, 
 and weathering badly ; the outer faces, on the contrary, 
 are of excellent stone, weathering to a rich brown, 
 and seldom crumbling away, and the smoothness of 
 the faces and of the jointing is very fine. 
 
 A line of levelling was carried all round the 
 
 pyramid, with a discrepancy of only \ inch on the 
 2000 feet length, or 2". The resulting levels of the 
 pavement surfaces at the corners are : 
 N.E.-f--s, S.E.+ -2, S.W.+2-0, N.W.-2-8 inches. 
 So in this respect the accuracy is comparable with 
 that of the Great Pyramid, although in size and 
 squareness it is far inferior to that. On the stones 
 may be seen red spots of paint left from the testing 
 by a reddened trial-plate, as on the stones of Khufu 
 at Gizeh. 
 
 12. The peribolus wall around the pyramid has 
 been entirely destroyed, excepting the foundation 
 stones in most parts, and the lower course of wall in 
 the deep chip rubbish on the south side. In some 
 parts even the foundations are gone, and their place 
 can only be traced by the hole being filled with sand, 
 against the chip and stone-dust bed which formed a 
 pavement outside of it. Where the wall remains it is 
 57 inches thick. Its height was probably 70 or 80 
 inches, judging by a block of the causeway v/all 
 described further on. The outer dimensions of the 
 wall were : 
 
 N. 8561 at -30' ; E. 9307,-f-i'4:; 
 S. 8479,-27'!; W. 9300,-29'. 
 
 It will be seen (PL. Ill) that the E. and W. sides 
 are practically equal, and the N. and S. azimuths 
 therefore alike. But the N. side is longer than the S., 
 and the E. azimuth differs from that of the other 
 three sides ; an error has therefore been made by the 
 builders, the N. being too long, or the S. too short. 
 
 The relation of this enclosure to the pyramid is best 
 stated by the distance of the outside of the wall from 
 the middle of the pyramid base on each side ; this 
 distance is yit^ i^^"^ 
 
 on N. side 2203 ; E. 1420 ; S. 1393 ; W. 1420. 
 The design for the breadth of the peribolus is pretty 
 clear, as 1420 "4 inches is a quarter of the base of the 
 pyramid, so that the enclosure was half as wide again 
 as the pyramid. The space on the south may have 
 been intended to be equal to that at the two sides. 
 But for the extra space on the north side — about 780 
 inches more than the other sides — I fail to see any 
 reasonable hypothesis. The peribolus entrance was 
 led up to by a causeway ; both of which we shall 
 notice in connection with the temple. 
 
 A puzzling question is raised by certain groups of 
 pitted holes, on the faces of the inner coats of the 
 pyramid. They are in square groups of five each 
 way, exactly like a modern siga board. And they 
 are so high up that they cannot have been reached 
 for some centuries. If they were ever used for 
 
THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE. 
 
 gaming-boards, like the many siga boards cut by- 
 Arabs, it could only be when the stones were lying 
 with the face horizontal, before they were built in. 
 Such is the view of Virchow, and of Reiss {Verh. 
 Berl. Anthrop. Gesell. i6 Nov. 1889). On the other 
 hand no instance of this game is known before Arab 
 times ; every old game-board that I have found 
 being 3 X 10 square. And it is most unlikely that 
 workmen would be allowed to so disfigure the outer 
 faces of finely-jointed masonry blocks before being 
 built. I must conclude therefore that they were cut 
 in Arab times, though it is hard to suppose that any 
 game could be played on a face sloping at 74°. 
 
 13. The temple adjoins the east face of the pyra- 
 mid. It is in the middle of the side, its axis being 
 2 • I inch south of the mid line of the face ; and this 
 is to be noted, as the east face is' 16 • 7 longer than the 
 mean of the other sides, so that the site for the 
 temple was found by bisecting the face, and not by 
 remeasuring an average half base along it ; also it 
 shews that the extra length of this face is not an 
 error of the present surveying. It is built quite 
 independently of the pyramid, not being bonded or 
 joined to it, but merely built against it. The outer 
 mass is plain and rectangular ; excepting a slight 
 batter of the outer sides, amounting to 5*5 slope 
 inward on 90 height ; and a rounding off of the top 
 edge of the roof in a segmental curve, leaving a slight 
 edge along the front. There is no other ornament, 
 either of moulding, bevelling, or panelling. The whole 
 building is absolutely perfect, roof, stelae, and altar, 
 all but small chips or flaking due to weathering. We 
 cleared it over the courtyard, the interior, the roof of 
 the chamber, and the front from the south corner to 
 the door ; but the rest of the front, the north side, 
 and the roof of the passage were not examined. No 
 stone but limestone is used in the whole building and 
 altar. 
 
 The temple (PL. IV) consists of a passage, entered 
 at the south end of the face, then a chamber, and 
 lastly the courtyard adjoining the side of the pyramid 
 and containing two steles, and an altar between them. 
 The door is 67-5 from the foot of the south wall, 
 and is 34*0 wide at top, 34*4 in middle, and flaked 
 below : it is 77*0 high, with a lintel 13 "7 thick over 
 it, below the roof slabs. In the passage the door- 
 way is 7"7 to 41 '8 from the south end ; the passage 
 is 48'0 and 48*5 at south, 45 "2 at north, 236*4 east, 
 237*2 west. The exit door is 6*2 to 40*3 from the 
 north end. The wall between it and the chamber is 
 42*5 thick at north side of door, 37*4 at top of south, 
 
 41 "O at base. In the chamber the east side has been 
 dressed down too much all over the upper part, and 
 left undressed below. The system of building being 
 to lay the stones in the rough, and dress out the faces 
 afterwards ; so that each stone turned the corner 
 somewhat when finished, as in the granite temple of 
 Gizeh. The chamber entrance is 5 • 5 to 39 • 2 from north 
 end ; the sides at north 75 • S, south 75-6, east 237 -4, 
 west 237*2 at top, 23s below: the exit door to the 
 courtyard is 86"8 to I47'8 from north, or 61 'O wide. 
 The E. wall of the court is 40 • o to 43 • o thick on north, 
 39-4 to 42-0 on south, being thickest at the base. 
 
 14. The courtyard is 237-0 long, and 92-0 wide to 
 the foot of the pyramid ; the side walls run on 
 horizontally over the slope of the pyramid face, and 
 so are "174 long on the top. The thickness of the 
 side walls is 56, and of the front of the temple 58. 
 Their top course is rounded in a flattish segment of a 
 circle. The steles are flat-sided, with spherically 
 curved tops, rounding over toward the faces as well 
 as to the edges. The breadths of the north stele are, 
 at base 40 Vi ^t top W. 40-5, E. 41 -o; of the south 
 stele, base 41 • 5, top £.40-8 to 41 • 5, edge rounded : 
 the thicknesses of the north at base N. 20 • 3, S. 20 • 6, 
 at top N. and S. 20-3 : the height is 155 '3 to the 
 beginning of the curve, 165 "O to the top. The size 
 therefore was i cubit thick, 2 cubits wide, and 8 
 cubits high, the top -i- cubit being rounded. The sides 
 are dressed very fair and flat, and are set up well in a 
 line, not \ inch out of parallel. The distances from 
 the sides of the court are 38*8 at north, 41 '4 at south, 
 leaving 74*6 between them. The distances from the 
 east side of the court are 16 '3 at north of north stele, 
 19*0 at north of south stele. These steles stand upon 
 low bases with sloping sides ; these bases project 9 to 
 10 inches from the steles, and are 2* 8 high, so they 
 are analogous to the bases beneath obelisks repre- 
 sented in early hieroglyphs, and reinforce the idea 
 that the Mastabat Faraun at Sakkara may have been 
 the base of an obelisk. 
 
 Between the two steles stands the altar of limestone, 
 without any sculpture or inscription. It is 25*0 wide, 
 and 54 'O long ; the thickness is 10 "7, but somewhat 
 sloping and flaked ; the spout is 14 long and 1 1 wide, 
 with a hollow in it, and a groove irregularly deepened 
 out on one side, as if due to corrosion of pouring out 
 drink-offerings of sour wine and beer. The east side 
 is in the east plane of the steles ; and the north is 
 10' 5, and south 10 '7 inches to the steles. 
 
 The courses of the building run the same through- 
 out. At the front the footing is 17 thick, resting on 
 
THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE. 
 
 9 
 
 desert pebble and sand, which also filled the space 
 between the footings in the passage and chamber ; the 
 courses are 16-4, 32-8, 47-5, 60-9, 77-0, 90-7, 1047 
 above the base. In the S.W. corner of the chamber 
 the footing is 17, and the courses i6-2, 32-5, 48-2, 
 6o* 8, 75 -o, and 90 -o. In the north side of the court- 
 yard, which is paved all over, they are 16-3, 33*2, 
 48-2, 61-5, 75-0, and 90-0. While the pyramid 
 courses are 17-0, 38-0, 56-2, 70-3, 79-0. The stone 
 is left rough in many parts ; the excess left on in the 
 chamber has been noted ; and the roof edge at the 
 courtyard is all roughly in excess. There is not the 
 fine finish or exactness here which meet us in the 
 later buildings of the IVth dynasty ; but, as in the 
 pyramid, the workmanship is solid and sound, though 
 not refined. 
 
 15. The peribolus wall has a doorway (Pls. Ill, 
 IV, VI), in the line of the entrance of the temple 
 carried out parallel to the causeway ; that is, 3-i-° 
 
 ,,jy/ askew to the peribolus wall. The doorway is 62 wide, 
 at 5207 to 5269 from the north end of the peribolus ; 
 and the causeway at its head is 118 wide, 5202 to 
 5320 from the north of the peribolus. The space 
 between the peribolus and the causeway is 180 wide. 
 The thickness of the causeway walls appears to have 
 been 66 at the base, according to the south side, but 
 on the north the foundation is 75 wide. A fallen 
 stone of the top coping of the causeway remains ; it 
 is of the whole thickness of the wall, and shews a 
 width of 51 "7 at 10*4 under the top, and 49*7 at the 
 top of the face, surmounted by a circular curve 10 "i 
 high ; this shews a batter of i in 10 on the sides ; and 
 hence, if the base was 66 wide, the wall was 90 inches 
 high over all outside. But the causeway was some- 
 what sunk below the ground level in parts, being flat, 
 and independent of the contour of the ground. Its 
 general direction is plainly ruled by its lying in the 
 bottom of a small valley in the edge of the desert ; it 
 runs down to the plain, and may go some distance 
 further, but my men were stopped by the water. If 
 this construction were tracked down to its original 
 end it would give us a valuable datum for the rise of 
 the Nile bed during some six thousand years ; but 
 such a research would need good pumps. 
 
 16, The inscriptions in the temple are none of 
 them due to the builders. The earliest is a scratched 
 graffito (XXXII, i) on the north wall of the chamber : 
 this is so exactly the colour of the stone, and so 
 uniformly. covered with a slight salt coat that I did 
 not observe it until making a final search. It is 
 certainly far earlier in its condition than the two 
 
 scratched graffiti (XXXII, 2, 3) on the east wall of 
 the chamber. As the latter appear to be of the Xllth 
 dynasty, by their style closely resembling the Assuan 
 graffiti of that age, it seems probable that the earlier 
 one is of the Vlth dynasty or before that. All three 
 of these graffiti are within the light from the court- 
 yard, and shew that that was open till after the 
 Xllth dynasty. The other graffiti are all ink-written, 
 facing the front entrance to the temple on the west 
 wall of the passage, and some on the sides of the 
 doorway. They are all of the XVII Ith dynasty : and 
 the reader should refer to their translations by Mr. 
 Griffith in Chap. VI. On the front of the temple are 
 three very rude graffiti of ships by the door. 
 
 The temple contained about two feet of blown 
 sand. It was evident that the courtyard had been 
 choked between the Xllth and XVIIIth dynasties, as ■■ 
 all the later graffiti were within the light of the outer 
 door, and pieces of burnt papyrus plant strewed the 
 chamber floor, having been taken in by persons 
 wishing to see the blocked doorway into the court- 
 yard, which we found much smoked. In this sand in 
 the passage was an interment of the XVIIIth dynasty, 
 with some beads, two small bronze lance heads, and 
 some pomegranates and nuts. This burial explains i 
 why I found the outer doorway carefully blocked with 
 pieces of stone : evidently the passage was looked on 
 as a convenient sepulchre, and the door was blocked, 
 and covered with rubbish. And this heaping-over of 
 it probably finished the hiding up of the temple, 
 which had been nearly covered before by blown sand 
 and fallen pieces of stone from the pyramid. Thus 
 it was mainly out of sight when the pyramid was 
 attacked for stone, probably by Ramessu II, and it 
 was thus saved from being destroyed. Certainly the 
 pyramid was largely pillaged in the XlXth or XXth 
 dynasties, as the burials of the XXIInd dynasty in 
 the rubbish are high above the temple level, some 20 
 to 30 feet up. 
 
 In the sand in the passage were a few objects, 
 probably of the IVth dynasty. Four stone hawks ^ 
 and one in blue glazed pottery (XXIX, 1-5) seem to 
 refer to the worship of " the Horus Snefru," as he is 
 called in the inscriptions here. The most interesting 
 piece is the base of a statuette in hard black serpen- 
 tine (XXIX, 6) : several curious points of the in- 
 scription will be seen in the chapter on inscriptions, 
 here we need only note that it is dedicated to the 
 gods of a town called Tat-Snefru by a woman named 
 Snefru-Khati. The lower part of a basalt stand 
 (PL. XXIX, 7) was also found, in the courtyard. 
 
 c 
 
lO 
 
 THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE. 
 
 We see then that a statuette, probably almost 
 contemporary with Snefru, was placed here, referring 
 to a person and a place named after him, shewing 
 that he was the genius of the neighbourhood. Next, 
 not later probably than the Vlth dynasty, a visitor 
 scrawls up " Thrice good is the name of king Snefru." 
 And in the XVIIIth dynasty, we find that his festival 
 was held here, and all visitors recognised this as his 
 pyramid and temple. Such a chain of evidence gives 
 the final precision to the general inference that the 
 cemetery is of the IVth dynasty, judging by the 
 nature of the pottery found in it. 
 
 17. On the south side of the pyramid a strange 
 excavation was partly examined. I observed when 
 first walking round the pyramid that there was a 
 stretch of high ground between the western part of 
 the south face and the peribolus. As it was formed 
 of limestone chips I concluded that some great 
 building had stood here, within the peribolus. Ac- 
 cordingly I began sinking trenches in the site, and 
 found some large blocks of stone, below the level of 
 the peribolus pavement. As the blocks were too 
 large to move in a trench, I then made a wide 
 square clearance, piling up the blocks around it when 
 they were too large to move out or to break. The 
 depth was about 25 feet, through hard concreted chip 
 and lime-dust. I thus found the side of a square pit 
 in the rock, within which a building had been con- 
 structed : the building must have been of considerable 
 height, judging by the great mass of chips resulting 
 from its destruction, and also covering a fair area, 
 although I only saw about 15 feet of the pit in 
 each direction. The pit is about eight feet deep in 
 the rock, which is here about six feet under the pave- 
 ment ; and the floor of the pit is flat dressed in the 
 rock. A tunnel roughly cut in the rock leads south- 
 ward from the pit ; but is broken away above, and 
 filled in, at 24 feet from the pit. What the purpose 
 of such a building can have been is doubtful. No 
 temple is known on the south of a pyramid ; and 
 neither for that, nor for a small pyramid, would such 
 a rock pit be needed. That it was not solely a sub- 
 terranean structure is proved by the great depth of 
 resulting chips. It would be desirable to clear it 
 completely ; but the depth and hardness of the 
 material, and the absence of a single stone left in situ 
 so far as I went, dissuaded me from working further. 
 
 18. One detail of the pyramid's exterior, perhaps 
 connected with the position of its chamber, was noticed 
 before I began to excavate for the temple, and in- 
 fluenced my excavation. On the eastern faces of the 
 
 upper two steps a slight groove or recessing may be 
 seen, especially when the sun is near noon (see PL. II). 
 Judging from below the recess is about an inch deep 
 on the face ; and by angular measurements the upper 
 groove is 2 1 1 inches wide, and the lower is 195. They 
 are not exactly one behind the other ; the distances 
 from the north base being 2991 to 3202 inches 
 for the upper, and 3020 to 3215 for the lower. 
 They are clearly excentric on the faces, and as 
 the temple is centred on the face they cannot be 
 connected in any way with that. But • the sepul- 
 chral chamber is about 2918 to 3 151 south of the 
 north base, which is not far from the position of the 
 grooves, about 60 inches different to the upper groove. 
 As the sculptured chamber with the ka statues is 
 often placed in mastabas east of, or before, the 
 sepulchral pit, and as the facade of that chamber 
 always forms a recess on the face, it is not impossible 
 that this shallow recess is a signal of the position of 
 the ka chamber, thus carried upward in the building, 
 and repeated on the outer coat, as we find the false 
 door repeated approximately (though never exactly) 
 in front of the inner chamber. If a ka chamber exists 
 — and it would be strange if the king had not a better 
 provision in this way than his subjects in their mas- 
 tabas — it is doubtless on the east face of the innermost 
 mass of the mastaba form, the first block built. 
 
 19. Having now described the exterior we proceed 
 to the passages and chambers. The entrance was 
 uncovered, and the passages partly cleared, by Prof 
 Maspero's workmen in 1882. The floor of the en- 
 trance passage begins at 574 "8 inches horizontally 
 from the middle of the north base, and 720 • 7 above the 
 pavement at that point (see PL. II). The passage is 
 62 • 5 inches high, at right angles, being built of three 
 courses 21 'O, 20 'O, and 21 "5 high: the floor is 20 "2 
 thick, and the Hntel 25-8 thick. The width is 32-2 
 at top, and 34*3 at base. The entrance was appa- 
 rently closed by wedges of stone. The block filling 
 the lower course was probably keyed into that of the ^^^ 
 middle course : this one was secured by the sides of 
 the passage being cut away sloping inward, so that 
 the block could wedge tight ; the upper course block ^ 
 was tapered in thickness so that it wedged between j. 
 the middle block and the roof Further in, at 326*3 
 measured along the floor, there is on each wall a 
 joint rising at 75°, the face of the outermost mastaba 
 coat ; the remains of a doorway fastening may be 
 seen in this coat ; the roof is higher by 7*3, for a 
 length of 48 • 2 ; and on each side are two D-shaped 
 holes, 14 "6 from the outer face, and 12 •7-16 -7, and 
 
THE PYRAMID AND TEMPLE. 
 
 II 
 
 55 7-59 -6, below the roof. These probably held 
 metal bars, against which rested a slab of stone filling 
 the doorway, until the outer coat was finished, and 
 the entrance wedged up. At S 16 • i from the entrance 
 is the face of another mastaba coat, also at 75°, on 
 either wall. Below this no joints could be found that 
 were not square with the passage. The whole passage 
 is built of masonry, and never enters the rock, con- 
 trary to some accounts. But the salt has so violently 
 scaled the surface of the stone, that it is exfoliated 
 into a circular cavernous form, and it is only by 
 referring to the joints that the plane of the roof can 
 be observed. The upper part of the passage, and 
 particularly the region of the outer casing coat, is of 
 excellent stone, clean and smooth. The tool marks 
 can be plainly seen — short, small adze strokes. And 
 the system may be traced whereby an excess was 
 left on the edge of the face until after the stone was 
 built in, when it was dressed down so as to insure a 
 smooth surface across the joint. The joint thick- 
 nesses are very fine, much under yi^ of an inch. 
 
 At a length of 2247 • 6 inches the sloping passage 
 ends, and the angle of it, observed from the entrance 
 to more than half-way down, is 28° 48'. Hence the 
 end is 2544*4 from the north base horizontally, and 
 362 • I below the base; But the floor itself was not 
 seen, owing to the large amount of exfoliated sheets 
 of stone which more than half fill the passage. 
 
 20. In the horizontal passages and chambers which 
 follow this, I have had the whole floor cleared and 
 thoroughly examined, a portion at a time, to make 
 certain that no other passages exist below those. 
 The roof drops 2' 9, and then proceeds horizontally 
 in one plane until reaching the well which ascends to 
 the sepulchre. The chambers here are 69*5 high. 
 First there is a widening of the passage on the east, 
 immediately it becomes horizontal ; thus forming a 
 chamber 82 ■ 7 wide (instead of the passage width of 
 30 • 7), and 103 ' 3 long. Then for a short way of 2 1 • 5 
 the passage is normal, and afterwards widens on the 
 west into a chamber 83 "6 wide, and 103*4 to 104 "2 
 long. These ^chambers are all lined with masonry. 
 Then a passage, still in the same line, goes south for 
 146 inches to the well, making a length of 374 in all. 
 The floor of this last piece is broken up, leaving rough 
 rock, with a trench or groove along the middle of it ; 
 and the lower part of the well is rough rock, the upper 
 part being lined with stone, which is supported at the 
 sides by large beams or wall plates of wood, still in 
 place, and still sound, though saturated with salt. 
 The floor of the sepulchre is also of rock, covered with 
 
 a thin paving which is now mostly torn up. Hence 
 the rock rises to about 1 30 below the pavement, and the 
 lower passages must be built in a trench in the rock. 
 The well in the lower part is 36* 3 on E., and 30" 5 
 on N. ; while above it is 46 on E., and 40-|- on N. Its 
 height, from the roof of the passage to the pavement 
 of the sepulchre, is 174 inches. The well rises in the 
 extreme N.E. corner of the sepulchre floor, which is 
 233 on the W. and 104 on the S. side. The E. and 
 W. sides of the chamber close together rapidly up- 
 wards in' a series of overlappings, formed by the pro- 
 jection of successive courses of stone. This is a 
 standard form in the mastaba chambers of this place, 
 and is seen in the gallery of Khufu's pyramid. 
 These overlappings are at 41, 63, 86, 107, 131, 155 ?, 
 180, 204?, and top 225? above the pavement of 
 the chamber ; the widths of the chamber being below 
 the laps 104, and then 91, 80, 64, 53, 36?, 20?, 4?, 
 the top space being irregular, and the stones almost 
 touching in parts. That this really was the sepulchre 
 is shewn by our finding thrown down the well the 
 pieces from a wooden sarcophagus, of the early plain 
 style, which had been very violently wrenched open 
 and destroyed. The position of the chamber is 2918 
 to 31 5 1 from the N. base, or ']6 to 309 south of the 
 middle of the pyramid. The azimuth of the passage 
 being 21' 33" west of north, it is very nearly that of the 
 pyramid sides, the deviation being about 2 inches : 
 hence the chamber sides would be 42 E. and 62 W. of 
 the middle of the pyramid. The pavement of the 
 chamber is 119 under, and the top 106 over, the north 
 pavement. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 21. The earliest mastaba of importance appea'rs to 
 be that at the north-east of the pyramid, No. 17 Plan, 
 Pls. I, VI. As it is the largest but one, and the 
 simplest in construction, we will consider it first. Its 
 outside was built of large crude bricks, the body of it 
 is formed of clean chips of limestone, evidently the 
 waste from the building of the pyramid : it is therefore 
 most probably contemporary with the pyramid. It 
 differs in internal arrangement from the other mas- 
 tabas ; and it has no sculptured chamber, opening to 
 the outside, but only a plain stone" facade opposite 
 the sepulchre, on the -east side. It also differs from 
 others in having been built entire at once, and without 
 any subsequent coating or addition. 
 
 c 2 
 
12 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 The outer faces slope at the characteristic angle of 
 mastabas, 76°, or an angle of 4 vertical on i horizontal. 
 And the walls do not rest on a level foundation, but 
 are carried down to reach a rock bed. This was found 
 very markedly on the north side. Seeing that there 
 was a mass of clean chips outside that face, I thought 
 that it might cover an entrance ; we therefore began 
 clearing it out, but found the face slope down without 
 any opening until the rock was reached about 20 feet 
 below the ground level. While examining the N.E. 
 corner, in clearing it for the survey, a very curious 
 wall was found outside it, and similar walls were 
 found on searching at the other comers. , As remarked, 
 the faces slope down to the rock, and hence it would 
 be very troublesome to lay out the building with 
 sloping faces on an irregular level, so as to bring it to 
 the dimensions required at the ground level. • 
 
 22. The laying out was therefore most carefully 
 arranged, on a perfectly true principle. Outside of the 
 corners vertical walls were built from the rock up to 
 the ground level of the intended mastaba (see the 
 four "corner walls" on the plan PL. VIII). These 
 walls are of L shape, running in front of both faces at 
 each corner ; they are of crude brick, plastered, and 
 whitewashed, to shew up the construction lines. 
 Levelling was then carried around the site, aiid all 
 the inner faces of the walls were divided by horizontal 
 lines into spaces of a cubit high (see PL. VIII), the 
 deep wall at the N.W. having as many as nine cubit 
 levels still marked on it. Vertical lines were then 
 drawn on the walls, in the planes of the ground lines 
 of the intended faces ; e.g. on the two northern pieces 
 of wall, at N.E. and N.W. corners, the vertical hnes 
 were 2065 apart, the intended breadth of the N. face at 
 the ground level. Then from the intersection of these 
 vertical lines with the ground level, sloping lines were 
 drawn down outwards at the intended angle of the face. 
 Thul at each end of the face was a slanting line 
 defining its plane ; and it was only needful to place 
 the eye on one line and sight the brickwork in a line 
 with the line at the other end, to know that it was in 
 the intended plane. Such was evidently the principle, 
 of which the evidences remain at each comer. But 
 for some reason a second sloping line was added out- 
 side the first, and the building was thickened out to 
 that. It is impossible to suppose that the ground 
 level was at the intersection of the outer line with the 
 vertical, though possibly that level was marked on 
 the mastaba side now destroyed : and it is equally 
 impossible not to regard the vertical lines as the in- 
 * tended dimension of the mastaba, as the breadth is 
 
 exactly 100, and the length 200, cubits. So we can 
 only suppose that the mastaba face was built one 
 brick thicker than at first intended. 
 
 The construction lines, vertical and horizontal, and 
 the inscriptions referring to them are all in red. The 
 working lines are in black. All the broad lines were 
 marked by two narrow edges, filled in between by 
 brush-work. The faces of the mastaba are exactly in 
 the plane of the outer edge of the outer line ; so thus 
 the wide line could be easily seen from corner to 
 corner, while the work could be formed with precision 
 to its outer edge. 
 
 Turning now to the details of each corner, at the 
 N.E. the cubit Hnes are 20-5 apart, and "3 thick; the 
 black lines are 3 • 2 wide on the north, and 2 • 4 on the 
 east; the red vertical is 3*2 on north, and 2*6 on 
 east. The mastaba faces differ from the outer edges 
 of the black lines by being • 3 inside on the E., and 
 I on 200 flatter angle on the N. The wall is 17*6 
 thick ; it was somewhat broken down anciently, as 
 the clean mass of stone chips overlies the broken top 
 of the wall ; and it seems as if the bricks had been 
 carried off, leaving the plastering projecting alone. 
 This corner is in brilliant condition of colouring. 
 
 The S.E. corner wall is somewhat decayed by 
 damp, and the colour a good deal injured, but the 
 same system is quite clear. The red vertical on the 
 east wall has been altered, being re-drawn at i • 6 
 further out ; the black lines evidently belong to the 
 later line. The black lines vary from i • 9 to 2 • 6 
 wide, and the red are 2 • i and 2 • 3. 
 
 The S.W. corner is very much decayed by rain ; the 
 red cubit lines are mostly effaced ; the S. red vertical 
 appears to have been altered like the line in the S.E. 
 corner ; and on the west wall no trace of a red vertical 
 can be determined, only a patch of red which by its 
 position may be part of the vertical, but which looks 
 on the spot more like part of a red triangle. The 
 corner of the walls is not continuous, each wall 
 standing separately. The black lines are 2*4 wide. 
 
 The N.W. corner is far the most important. The 
 rock bed was here 21 feet below the ground, and a 
 high wall was therefore needed to set out the con- 
 stmction lines. The perspective view of this corner is 
 shewn on PL. VIII, supposing the mastaba corner to 
 be complete at some height above the ground, in 
 order to render it clearer; in reality the mastaba 
 outer face is all broken away above the ground. This 
 corner bears inscriptions relating to the levelling. In 
 the fifth cubit space below the ground level we read 
 at each side, " cubits five under of the neferu." The 
 
THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 13 
 
 technical word neferu for ground level does not seem 
 to be yet known ; but its meaning is clear, and it 
 refers to the "finished" or "completed" surface. 
 Similarly in the eighth cubit space is " cubits eight 
 under of the neferu" The walls are not quite true ; the 
 west wall projects forward below, thus reducing the 
 breadth of the north wall ; and the north wall re- 
 cedes somewhat at the top part, thus increasing the 
 width of the west wall ; hence the crossing corner 
 lines in the diagram. The levelling is marked in 
 certain parts particularly by a red triangle, a sort of 
 bench-mark which is well designed, and may be 
 seen in other Egyptian work. The black lines vary 
 slightly in width, but the average is 2*4 for the inner 
 and I • 6 for the outer lines ; the red verticals are 2 • 5 
 wide below, and 2-2 above. The level lines were 
 drawn independently on the walls, and differ • i or ■ 2 
 at the corner ; they are about • 2 wide. 
 
 23. From these construction lines we have of course 
 a good evidence of the cubit. It is the usual royal 
 Egyptian cubit of 20 "6 inches. The heights of the 
 cubit spaces are changed on the walls by the compres- 
 sion of the brickwork, and the plaster is buckled off the 
 wall in parts by its not being compressed in the same 
 manner. The lower parts shew more compression 
 than the upper, and the mean of all is 20 •36, varying 
 from 20 "O to 20" 5. But, as we have already men- 
 tioned, the angle of slope is 4 on i, and therefore the 
 black lines extend i of a cubit further from the red 
 at every space. Hence there is another set of cubit 
 values, given horizontally, which are independent of 
 the vertical compression. There is no doubt but 
 that they were measured out from the vertical, and 
 probably the outer edges of the red and black lines 
 are the more correct parts to observe. The distances 
 measured are, on the west wall 20 ■ 5, 30* 6, 41*2, 5 1 • 5 ; 
 and on the north wall 20*3, 30 "8, 41 "i, 46-4, and 
 58*0. This last is clearly excessive, but the mean 
 cubit value from the eight other measures is 20 • 54 
 inches. Even this is probably somewhat reduced by 
 the contraction of the brick and plaster in very slow 
 drying, as I have found in a tomb the gesso coat of 
 fresco work much buckled off the brjck and mud 
 backing owing to the contraction behind. 
 
 The best data of all are the dimensions of the 
 mastaba shewn by the distances of the red verticals 
 apart. Owing to the very disturbed state of the 
 ground I could only measure this trigonometrically, 
 and owing to the distance of the stations observed 
 this is not a certain result within a few inches. 
 It yields, however, between the outer edges of the 
 
 red verticals N., 2065 ; E,, 412 1 ; S., 2063 ; W., 
 4,124; and hence a mean cubit value of 20 '627 ± 
 •007 inches, which is very closely that fixed 
 by the most accurate datum in Khufu's pyramid, 
 20 "620 + '005. The errors of squareness are con- 
 siderable in this mastaba, the S.E. and N.W. corners 
 being blunt, and the N.E. and S.W, corners sharp, by / 
 about 24'. The average azimuth of the E. and W. 
 sides, which were doubtless those fixed astronomically, 
 is 12' W. of N., which is only half the divergence of 
 the pyramid azimuth. 
 
 The levels of the lines at the corners are related 
 thus : the N.E. is 6- 5 high, S.E. is 4-7 low, S.W. is 2-8 
 low, and N.W. is i • o high. There is then an average 
 error of 3 • 7 inches, which is more than double the error 
 made in levelling the longer base of the Medum pyra- 
 mid. This shews that levelling was a matter which 
 tried their skill ; the error here is i in 400, which might 
 occur either by horizon observation, or by plumb line 
 levelling. The bricks had all been splashed with 
 yellow wash, when stacked before being used, in * 
 order \o prevent any thefts ; just like the bricks of 
 Hawara, and the coals in a modern depot. 
 
 24. The interior of this mastaba has not been 
 entered in modern times, and the position of the 
 chamber is yet unknown. On the east face will be 
 seen a stone facade on the plan, near the south end. 
 This has a stone paving before it. It was opened up 
 by Prof. Maspero's workmen in 1882, and left open ; 
 consequently nearly all the stone has now been carried 
 away. There was no sculpture, nor even a false door, 
 on it. When I cleared it again I found at the north 
 end of it a forced passage in the loose stone chips 
 which form the body of the mastaba. This I had 
 cleared out for some distance, when it turned down- 
 wards, and could not well be worked in, owing to the 
 looseness of all the material, and an old forced well 
 which opened into it, and was full of loose stufe I 
 had already scraped off the surface of the mastaba on 
 the top all along the middle, down to clean firm chips, 
 to search for a well, but in vain. I then sank a large 
 square pit with winding stairway, in the axis of the 
 mastaba, reaching from about the middle to near the 
 latitude of the N. end of the facade. This pit we 
 carried down to 48 feet under the top — a considerable 
 work ; but we neither reached a central chamber, nor 
 any passage leading to the chamber, as I had hoped 
 we might have done. The old forced passage just 
 mentioned was opened out north-west into the pit, 
 for safety of working, and was then cleared of loose 
 stuff, but it proved to have been abortive, as it ceased* 
 
14 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 in the mass of filling, without reaching the chamber. 
 An indication of the chamber was however reached, 
 as a brick wall was found in the bottom of my pit, 
 with a plaster lining and a red line on it, facing south. 
 This is doubtless part of a guiding wall for the work- 
 ing lines of the chamber, like the walls at the corners 
 of the mastaba. And this shews that the chamber is 
 about behind the facade, and E. of the axis. A long 
 sloping face of dry stone walling rises up above this 
 brickwork, evidently the retaining wall to keep back 
 the upper stuff while working, as this hole is about 20 
 feet below the pavement. These details were only 
 found in the last week of my work, and I had not 
 time to undertake the heavy task of clearing away 
 another large mass of stuff 48 feet deep to lay 
 bare the chamber. Where the regularly built entrance 
 is we cannot tell : there is no well on the top, nor any 
 passage leading into the chamber from the north, as 
 there is in other mastabas. 
 
 The whole length of the east side was laid bare 
 and examined in search of any other facade or false 
 door, but it was all made of smoothly plastered brick. 
 The outside of the brickwork had been a good deal 
 weathered and destroyed down to the ground level, 
 and it was then tunnelled into for graves in about the 
 XXIInd dynasty ; the bodies were much swathed, 
 occasionally in wooden coffins without inscriptions, 
 but there were no objects with them, except once or 
 twice a few beads. 
 
 25. The largest mastaba of all, however, is No. 16 
 (Pls. I, V), that of Nefermat and Atet. And first we 
 should notice that in each of the great mastabas here 
 there are two false doors, one near each end of the 
 east face. In No. 8 they are only plastered, and 
 plain ; in No. 9 the stonework is nearly destroyed ; 
 but in Nos. 6 and 16 we see that the southern door 
 has the master on the panel over it, while the 
 northern of No. 6 has the mistress and master, and 
 that of 16 has the mistress alone, while she is also 
 represented as the main figure of the lintel. Thus it 
 is clear that the northern door was that for the wor- 
 ship of the mother, while the southern is that of the 
 father. 
 
 Hence to avoid confusion between the two false 
 doors I have called the southern ones by the masters' 
 names Nefermat and Rahotep, while the northern 
 ones receive the mistresses' names Atet and Nefert. 
 The illustrations therefore of Pls. IX-XV. are all of 
 one mastaba, No. 6 ; and those of Pls. XVI-XXVII 
 are all of one other. No. 16. The variation of the 
 azimuth of the mastabas from that of the pyramid is 
 
 verified by magnetic bearings, besides the survey ; the 
 Denkmaler plan is therefore in error. 
 
 The outer part of No. 16 is of small bricks, and it 
 has been enlarged by a thick outer coat (see detail, 
 Pl. VII). The body of it is of layers of Nile mud, 
 poured in and left to harden before a fresh mass was 
 applied. It is thus full of large cracks which extend 
 far in all directions, which conduct currents of warm 
 air out whenever excavations are made, and which 
 form the home of serpents. The top is cOated with 
 3 to 5 feet of gravel and sand, to sponge up the rain, 
 and prevent it penetrating. 
 
 I endeavoured to find the well, or entrance to the 
 chamber, during some weeks of work. The top coat 
 of gravel was removed, and the mud body tested from 
 end to end all along the axis ; in the middle, around 
 which Mariette's men had made some wide digging, I 
 cut down to about 20 feet deep, and at the northern 
 part in the axis, behind the north door, I also went 
 down 20 feet deep. But only the same layers of Nile 
 mud were found. I also cleared the N. end down to 
 the ground, but found no trace of an entrance. When 
 I cleared the south door I found a forced hole below 
 it, which led into a forced passage ; this ran N.W., 
 but ceased before reaching the axis ; it was quite 
 empty and clear, 6 ft. high and 3 ft. wide, entirely cut 
 in Nile mud without any sign of other material. At 
 the north door a forced passage has been cut in the 
 south end of the cross space ; but as it was choked, 
 and I did not know, before I covered it over, with 
 what skill the plunderers sometimes cut for the point 
 of burial, I did not examine it. It became needful to 
 cover this facade soon after I had cleared it, as the 
 salt in the stone deliquesced with the dew, and was 
 destroying the remaining colours. The burial cham- 
 bers of this mastaba are therefore at present unknown. 
 
 The false doors and ka chambers here are facades 
 of stone, with a deep recess or chamber, closely alike, 
 Atet's being slightly smaller. As to the sculpture, 
 that will be noticed in the next chapter. The grand 
 masses of which Nefermat's chamber is formed are 
 striking. The back is all one block, over 156 inches 
 high, 50 wide, and 41 thick, weighing therefore about 
 8 tons ; the sides are 135 '5 high, iii average width, 
 and 40*4 thick, about 20 tons each; and the top is 
 all in one block across, 245 long, 97 deep back, and 
 41 thick, about 33 tons. These shew a fine mastery 
 in the art of using heavy blocks, and we must re- 
 member that they are older than the pyramid of 
 Khufu, and as early as an3^hing yet dated. The 
 chamber thus formed was 95*5 long at top, 137*4 at 
 
THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 15 
 
 base, varying according to the slope of the facade ; 
 50-0 wide at back and 56-5 in front, and 135 '5 high 
 to the under side of the drum, or roll across the top, 
 or 155*7 to the space behind the drum. These di- 
 mensions are not in even numbers of cubits, although 
 the cubit was evidently used in the thickness of the 
 lintel and sides, and depths of the drum. In the plan 
 (Pl. VII) it will be seen how the front of the stone- 
 work, or facade, is left exposed by a short cross 
 passage, the other sides of which are composed of 
 brick. It seems possible, as a sloping joint is seen on 
 the ends of this passage, that the facade is in the true 
 face of the first body of the mastaba. That W£ls 
 coated over with brick, leaving the facade clear, and 
 a passage to lead to it, which was lined with coloured 
 frescoes. And then a second coat of brick formed 
 the present outside, with a mere niche or false door 
 to indicate the place for offerings. A court was also 
 built in front of this, as we shall notice in the Rahotep 
 mastaba, and this court is analogous to that of the 
 pyramid. The fresco had nearly all perished, and 
 I only saw the lower part of Atet, clad in panther's 
 skin with striped border, and of Nefermat walking in 
 front of her. The fresco over the lintel had fallen 
 from the wall in early times, and part of it was found 
 lying at the foot along with some wood that had 
 formed the -roofing of this cross passage. The fresco 
 is shewn on PL. XXVIII. 
 
 There is a difference between the brick faces in all 
 these mastabas. The inner is quite plain, white 
 plastered ; while the outer is all in panels, or rather 
 a row of small false doors, as an ornament. The 
 angle also differs ; the outer is 82° 10' on the E. : the 
 inner 69° 40' on E., and 72° 20' below, 70° o' above, on 
 the N. The maximum height is 385 inches, probably 
 10 cubits (412) originally ; and the outer coat rises to 
 260, but is greatly denuded, so that it probably ex- 
 tended to the top. The panelling on it is in groups ; 
 wide niches of 2 cubits (41 ins.) are flanked by a 
 narrower one on each side, and each such group is 
 recessed from the general face, which has three narrow 
 niches between the groups. By the measurements 
 there must be 28 large niches in the length, and 1 5 in 
 the width, of the mastaba. The inner body is 2474 
 inches on N. and 2470 on S., 4550 on E., 4554 on W. 
 Probably 120 cubits (of 20 -60) and 220 cubits (of 
 20*69 inches). The outer coat varies in thickness, 
 97 on W., loi on S., 115 on N., 119 on E., to the 
 outermost parts, and to the continuous ground level 
 step from which the niches rise. 
 
 The chamber of Atet is of less grand blocks, the 
 
 top being partly compound, and the dimensions being 
 slightly less. The stone has moreover suffered greatly 
 by scaling in the inside. The chamber is 47 4 wide 
 at back, 47-5 at top of front, 46-2 at base: 106-5 
 long at base : and 127 high to under side of drum, or 
 148 "4 to roof. I should state that Mariette's plans of 
 this and other mastabas are all in error by his con- 
 founding the different coatings of the mastabas, and 
 measuring between an inner face on one side and an 
 outer on the other. This is certain, as I found that only 
 one or other face had been discovered on different sides. 
 
 26. No. 6 is very similar in design to the above. " 
 The body of it is, however, all built of bricks through- 
 out, and is now about 260 high, after most of the 
 gravel top is gone. It will be seen on the plan that 
 it was at first symmetrical ; 2060 long, and 1330 wide, 
 with a central pit, two false doors on the E. face, and 
 a second pit nearly behind the north door. The 
 innermost S.W. corner inside this is a division in the 
 mass of brickwork, which can hardly have any 
 designed meaning, as it runs too close to the chamber. 
 Afterwards it was enlarged on the south, and west, 
 and a large addition was made on the north, marked 
 as the " annex." Then a coat was run all round it, 
 making it 3207 long and 1548 wide; and lastly a 
 second coat 97 thick was added over the E. face, to 
 further hide the chambers. The angle of the inner 
 body is 'j6° 40', the ist coat 73^°, the outer coat 73^° 
 on the E. face. 
 
 The ka chamber (see Pl. VII) seems to have been 
 designed after that of Nefermat, as the cross-passage, 
 which was a mere accident of development there, has 
 here become an intended feature, embodied in the 
 masonry, and covered with carving. Within this 
 chamber stood the statues of Rahotep and Nefert, 
 now in the Ghizeh Museum ; and the doorway was 
 entirely blocked with masonry cemented into place 
 when Mariette's workmen found it, the chamber being 
 intact. After cutting out the blocking, and removing 
 the statues, and apparently taking wet squeezes from 
 the coloured walls — thus ruining them — the doorway 
 was earthed over by the discoverers. Never being 
 inspected, some traveller chose to unearth it, soon 
 before 1887, which date is written in the tomb ; and 
 it has stood open since then, with the result that every 
 face within reach is mutilated, most of the figures 
 spoiled, and all the edges of the stone broken away. 
 I completely reburied it. The sculpture on the side 
 walls is much cut away to insert the blocking, and as 
 similar cutting is seen on Nefermat's walls, it is 
 almost certain that statues of him and Atet existed 
 
i6 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 in his chamber. There is no such trace of blocking 
 in Atet's chamber. 
 
 In front of the false door which is in the outermost 
 coat of brickwork a courtyard was built, which con- 
 tains two steles bearing the inscription on PL. IX, 
 which does not contain the name. Mariette's descrip- 
 tion is erroneous in stating these to belong to another 
 mastaba built against the E. face of Rahotep's, to 
 which he gives the name of Ranefer as well as to 
 No. 9 ; the coat of brickwork was mistaken for a fresh 
 mastaba, in this, the only place where it was noticed. 
 These steles are iS-oto i8-2 thick, 23-2 wide, and 
 measuring from the roughened expansion at the base 
 they are I03-|- high to the beginning of the curve and 
 1 10 to the top, being formed like those of the pyramid 
 temple (PL. IV). In the court of offerings were many 
 small vases and saucers, like those found at the E. of 
 the pyramid and before other tombs here. At the 
 base of the niche of the false door at the back of the 
 chamber is a pit cut in the stone, apparently intended 
 for pouring down offerings. It is so rough that it 
 may have had some fine stone edging now removed. 
 
 The false door of Nefert is much less important, 
 being merely a niche, with an unsculptured facade on 
 either side of it. 
 
 The central pit of the mastaba had been furiously 
 searched for by Mariette's men ; they dug vast holes 
 in the brick body, but never cleared the top ; and a 
 trench of theirs cut away one side of the well, without 
 their seeing it. In course of clearing their cutting to 
 examine it my men found the well. It had stood 
 open for ages, and was deeply furrowed with rain- 
 fall on the sides. The west side was so rotten that I 
 had to remove a coat of brick from it before clearing 
 the pit. The section of the pit is given in PL. VII. 
 The sides of the pit have a groove on each side to 
 hold a great stone trap-door slid down to the bottom. 
 Some way down we noticed a hollow on the south 
 side, and opening it found a relieving chamber in the 
 brickwork, at the ground-level. The short passage 
 leading to this is curious for having two slight arches 
 built in it (see PL. VII) to relieve the thrust of the 
 overlapping sides. This true arch is important, as it 
 carries the use of it back from the Xllth dynasty to 
 the IVth. This chamber and passage we completely 
 cleared out, but found nothing in them. 
 
 Descending further we came on the top edge of the 
 trap-door, which I did not then understand clearly ; 
 but suspecting a chamber beneath the relieving 
 chamber, I cleared the well thoroughly first, in order 
 to be able to throw the rubbish from the chamber 
 
 into it. In the well were 41 blocks of stone, averaging 
 10x10x15 inches, about l cwt. each ; just as much 
 as I or the men could conveniently lift and carry about. 
 These lay loosely and had evidently been the filling 
 in of the passage leading to the chamber. Beneath 
 these was a copper adze in the dust 10 inches over the 
 bottom (Pl. XXIX), which must therefore be as old 
 as the first plunderers of the old kingdom ; and also 
 the red pottery pan (XXXI, 21) with a spout, in which 
 the men had mixed their plaster when closing the 
 passage with the masonry ; for no one would mix 
 plaster down there at a later time. The adze may 
 also have belonged to them. 
 
 Then clearing down between the shifted trap-door 
 and the wall we found a mummy interred there later, 
 and the passage leading to Rahotep's chamber. The 
 chamber was quite empty, and all the traces found 
 are some curved wooden bars of the inside of the 
 coffin, and some scraps of fine gauze, like that after- 
 wards found on Ranefer's mummy. The bottom of 
 the sepulchre is rock, and there was about 20 inches 
 depth of large flints, or very coarse desert gravel, 
 laid on it, all of which we turned over. Perhaps this 
 was a substratum to the floor, to serve as a sponge in 
 case of water getting down the pit, so that the body 
 might be preserved dry above it. Alas for the body ! 
 — where is it ? 
 
 A very curious point of construction is the wood- 
 work employed. In the sides of the well are wooden 
 beams occasionally ; just as wooden corner beams, 
 and a tie running into the wall, are found on the N.W. 
 corner of mastaba 17. And in the solid mass of 
 brickwork of Rahotep's mastaba are logs of trees 
 built in, nearly upright, and 8 or 10 feet long, to serve 
 to bind the material. So ramifying are some of 
 these that I thought at one time that a whole tree 
 had been built around, but a log was wrenched out 
 one night by the villagers, proving its isolation. 
 
 The second well was doubtless that of Nefert, being 
 behind her false door. It had been plundered 
 anciently and a crater surrounded it. For I may say 
 that Mariette's statement that there was no trace of 
 any pits on these mastabas is quite wrong ; nearly all 
 shew large pits of successful or unsuccessful plunderers, 
 on the top. We cleared this pit to a great depth, 
 over 40 feet below the crater top, as it is far deeper 
 than Rahotep's. We reached the chamber, but un- 
 luckily a snake dropped down, and the boys were 
 afraid to work it, having seen him just under their 
 feet one day. As it was plundered and had stood 
 open for ages, and was in a dangerous condition at 
 
THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 17 
 
 the sides, I then did not think it worth much more 
 trouble to proceed with it. 
 
 27. The annex is a very unaccountable piece of 
 work. It is certainly contemporary with the other 
 part, as the outer face is continuous ; but it is built 
 on to the white-plastered N. end of the mastaba, and 
 ) is 830 long without the outer coat. On the E. side of 
 it is a false doorway in the brickwork, white-plastered. 
 Above this in the mass of brickwork were two parallel 
 joints, marking where a space or passage had been 
 left (see PL. V), and filled up later with brick. This 
 I cleared out, and found it did not go lower than the 
 top of the false door ; and on proceeding inwards the 
 base of this filled space rose upward, and came to the 
 top of the mastaba at about the middle. There was 
 no sloping floor to it, only the parallel joints ended 
 and there was continuous brickwork below them. 
 The lower part of the space was filled with large 
 broken pieces of stone. It certainly seemed as if it 
 would lead to some unopened chambers. However I 
 cleared it completely without any clue. I then cut 
 about all over the top of the mastaba and searched 
 the brickwork everywhere, to see if any filled up pit 
 existed, looking for continuous joints in the brick, 
 and cutting about 6 feet deep all along the axis. 
 Nothing was found. I then sank a pit through the 
 solid brickwork at the end of the blocked space, and 
 in the axis. Nothing but brick was met with above 
 ground. But a round pit was found in the ground, 
 filled up with broken brick and mud. This seemed 
 very promising. It went through the gravels for 1 3 
 feet, then soft rock for 2 feet, and then into harder 
 rock, where 3-^ feet further it ended, with a flat bottom, 
 rough picked, 39 inches across. There was nothing 
 but brick and rubbish in it, and the object of making 
 such a pit for 1 8-i- feet seems inexplicable. Together 
 with 25 feet of cutting through the mastaba, our pit 
 was 43-^ feet deep. Beside the false door there was 
 another curious indication ; above the false door, a 
 little to the south was a hollow in the brickwork, 33 
 inches deep, 29 E. to W., 70 N. to S., and 90 to 1 20 
 inches inside the outer face of the brickwork. This 
 hollow was full of sheep's and goats' bones, as if 
 sacrificed and thrown in there. A similar hollow full 
 of ox bones was found near the top of Ranefer's 
 mastaba, a little N. of the N. doorway, about 10 feet 
 back from the back of the doorway. It was there 
 close to a sepulchral pit, and offering chamber ; yet 
 in Rahotep's annex no trace of such a pit or chamber 
 can be found. 
 
 28. The only other tomb with remaining sculpture 
 
 is what I have called Ranefer's, No. 9. The portions 
 of figures, PL. XIV, do not yield any such name. 
 But Mariette states " des deux chambres, du sud et 
 du nord, il ne reste que des pans de mur demolis au 
 milieu des quels nous avons pu recueillir le nom du 
 personnage" Ra-nefer. His account is so very in- 
 correct in other points that I do not feel much 
 confidence in this statement ; but as much stone 
 seems to have lately been removed from the south 
 doorway, and only small chips are now left, whatever 
 ground there was for the above attribution is now lost. 
 The matter is complicated by Baedecker's account 
 which describes, apparently as being here, a fine 
 complete chamber with very curious and interesting 
 sculptures, lassoing a bull, making of sarcophagi, and 
 an altar of offerings, for Khent and his wife Mara. 
 There is no possible site for such a tomb except at 
 the lately destroyed stonework of No. 9. Yet Mari- 
 ette says nothing whatever about it, and attributes 
 this to Ra-nefer according to mere chips that were 
 found. Probably this note about Khent and Mara 
 has been entirely displaced in the guide book, and 
 refers to elsewhere. 
 
 The plan of the Ka chamber, or false door, at the 
 N. of Ra-nefer will be seen, PL. VII : the coat of 
 brick filled up the stone recess, and has another recess 
 in it. The body of the mastaba is, at the base, 1 146 
 on N., 1 161 on S., 2161 on E., 2084 on W. The coat 
 of brick on it is 60 to 65 thick on the E. face. On 
 clearing at the middle of the top we found the well, 
 under about 5 feet of gravel. It was wide and quite 
 intact, and took a fortnight to clear out. The stone 
 trap door like Rahotep's was duly in position ; and 
 we cut away the side walls and levered it carefully 
 over so as to get behind it, and found a passage 
 blocked with solid masonry. Mr. Eraser, who 
 happened to be visiting me, cut this out with hammer 
 and chisel ; when I went down I found only one stone 
 in the way, I wriggled it out, and crawled into the 
 hole, looked over into the intact (!) chamber, only to 
 see a great black hole in the floor. It had been 
 burgled by cutting a tunnel from the back of the 
 south false door straight to the chamber, and breaking 
 away the floor. The plan and section of the chamber 
 is in Pl. VII. Ranefer's mummy lay hitched up 
 against the west wall, on its left side, head north, 
 facing east ; the head had been broken off by the 
 violators, but carefully replaced, with a stone under it 
 to support it in position. The wrappings on the body 
 were also torn up. The mode of embalming was 
 very singular. The body was shrunk, wrapped in a 
 
 D 
 
I8 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 linen cloth, then modelled all over with resin, into the 
 natural form and plumpness of the living figure, 
 completely restoring all the fulness of the form, 
 and this was wrapped round in a few turns of the 
 finest gauze. The eyes and eyebrows were painted 
 on the outer wrapping with green. The mummy is 
 now in the Royal College of Surgeons. There was 
 no trace of a coffin of either stone, or wood ; and 
 certainly none could have been dragged out through 
 the hole. Even if a wooden coffin had been broken 
 up it is unlikely that no bits of it would remain. 
 
 In the recess in the south end, similar to that in 
 Rahotep's chamber, there were parts of the internal 
 organs embalmed, forming lumps of resined matter 
 wrapped round in linen, and fragments of such were 
 in Rahotep's recess. Some insect had lived on it for 
 generations, and the place was deep in the cast skins. 
 There was no sign of these organs having been in jars 
 or enclosures ; and it seems as if these recesses in the 
 tombs were intended to lay the internal parts on 
 after embalming, before the use of jars for such was 
 introduced. 
 
 On making further search a second well was found 
 toward the north, doubtless that of the wife, like the 
 well behind Nefert's door. This had been plundered 
 anciently, and stood open for ages. We cleared it to 
 the chamber, but that was so large and full of rubbish, 
 that — as the well was rather dangerous and time 
 short — I relinquished it. 
 
 29. No. 8 is a smaller mastaba, without any coating 
 at the ends, as it stood too close to the others to 
 allow of it. The body is 1607 on E., 1610 on W., 
 614 on N., 616 on S. In all these mastabas, although 
 the actual base was not exposed at all corners I noted 
 the levels of the points of the sloping face where the 
 measures were taken, and compute the base length by 
 knowing the angle of the face. The E. coat is 93 and 
 109 thick, and the W. 116 thick. The angle is 80° 37' 
 on W., 82° o' on E., 84° 34' in S. recess and 88° 18' at 
 the back niche. The two false doors are both 
 smoothly white-plastered without any decoration. 
 In the southern door was a quantity of ox bones and 
 large goats' skulls, placed there before the outer coat 
 was built over it. 
 
 On the top of the mastaba, which is 195 high, are 
 three pits. None of these were found in Mariette's 
 digging, although the eastern side was much destroyed 
 then, and a small tunnel made which went into the 
 middle pit. The diggers could not understand it, and 
 left the place. On crawling in I saw that my head 
 was in a filled up shaft, and dug for it on the top. It 
 
 was difficult to find the top of the pit, as it was 
 covered with a thick coat of brickwork. About 6 feet 
 down the pit sides were clear, and it was found to be 
 full of clean chips of the soft yellow rock through 
 which the lower part is cut. It had evidently never 
 been disturbed, and our hopes were high. ' After 30 
 feet of brick sides we went through 9 feet of rock, and 
 found a short passage leading into a chamber on the 
 south side. But in neither chamber nor well was a 
 trace of any body or buried object to be found, 
 nothing but clean yellow rock chips. I carefully 
 examined all the floor myself and' saw that there was 
 no further cutting. 
 
 We then tried to the N. of this, and found another 
 well quite untouched. This was cleared down to the 
 level of the top of the doorway on the south side, 
 where objects were found. At this level a mat of 
 rushes had been spread on loose rubbish thrown into 
 the well. Upon this mat were laid 4 alabaster bowls 
 all tied up in cloths (PL. XXIX, 15) ; a broken red 
 dish (16) with 28 flint flakes in it tied up in a cloth, a 
 bundle of 50 flint flakes tied up together, 22 more 
 loose on the mat, and 7 at the mouth of the chamber, 
 in all 107 : also pieces of thin wood on edge, all quite 
 rotted, with some of the flints between them ; and a 
 conical pot of rough hand make like XXXI, 15. 
 Just at the mouth of the doorway was a block of Nile 
 mud 7x9x8 inches with ribbed outside, ribbing 
 about '4 inch wide ; a red pottery pan broken (Pl. 
 XXIX, 16), three large shells (17) one containing 
 some blue paint made of powdered Chessylite (car- 
 bonate of copper), and copper needles, 1 1 or more 
 thin, and mostly broken, and 3 thicker ones (18, 19). 
 I then went into the chamber and examined it, but 
 not a trace of a body was to be found in either the 
 chamber or the well, nor any objects beyond those 
 lying on the mat at the level of the top of the door- 
 way. The pit is ^50 to 57 inches wide, passage 43 
 wide and high, and chamber 97 on S., 84 on N., 73 on 
 W., roughly cut by a pick i • 6 wide, leaving rounded 
 sides. The flints (20-26) have been carefully sorted 
 by Mr. Spurrell, and rejoined as far as possible to 
 shew their original order and mode of manufacture. 
 They were all struck from only two or three blocks of 
 flint, but were all mingled together before being 
 divided into different lots in the burial ; so that the 
 lots as found have no significance. A similar flake 
 to these was found in the debris which filled Raho- 
 tep's well, so probably a similar deposit lay there 
 before being exploited. 
 
 On further trial a third well was found in the axis 
 
THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 19 
 
 of this mastaba, and this had been opened anciently. 
 We cleared it to near the bottom, but were then foiled 
 by coming on large irregular blocks of stone lying in 
 it. They were too heavy to raise, too large to turn 
 out of the way, and we dare not break them up for 
 fear of shaking down the very rotten and dangerous 
 sides of the well. So risky was it that I abandoned 
 the place, seeing that it had been all disturbed and 
 plundered. 
 
 30. We have seen how in these large mastabas the 
 southern false door has a courtyard for offerings 
 before it (see Nos. 6, 11, 16) ; but a different develop- 
 ment took place also, the E. front of the mastaba 
 being decorated by a row of small false doors, and 
 at the south end of it a doorway leading into a 
 chamber in which is a false door, as in Nos. 18, 22 ; 
 or else a much larger false door at the south, as in 
 No. 1 3. In all the tombs on the plans, a thick black 
 outline indicates the foundation of a brick wall which 
 is now destroyed. 
 
 No. 22 has three small false doors (see PL. VII), 
 which were painted, and next to these a chamber 
 with a false door, also painted ; the E. side was made 
 into a gallery by a wall in front of it, and the S. end 
 of this gallery was walled off, across from the chamber 
 door. This walled part retained fresco painting in a 
 fairly intelligible state, and I made a coloured, copy 
 of it which is here reproduced (XXVIII 5, 6, 7) and 
 is described in chap. III. The closed room behind 
 the chamber contained nothing ; probably the Ka 
 statues stood here, before the tomb was broken up. 
 The well had been plundered, and a burial of the 
 XXII (?) dynasty placed in it. 
 
 Mastaba 18 was evidently built later than many 
 here. While No. 17 shews itself to be contemporary 
 with the pyramid, by the whole mass being formed of 
 clean stone chips, with occasional relics of the work- 
 men. No. 1 8 is filled with whatever could be collected 
 at a later date, much of it the small vases and saucers 
 (XXX, 22 to 27) which were used for offerings in the 
 IVth dynasty. Such a large quantity of these offerings 
 would not Jje accumulated shortly, and as there is no 
 heap of such by the pyramid otherwise it seems that 
 this was btiilt after the special popular worship of 
 Seneferu was past, and no more were subsequently 
 accumulated. At the pyramids of Gizeh and Dahshur 
 there are similar heaps of these offerings. And they 
 also occur often in private tombs at Medum, as Nos. 
 4, 6, 7, II, &c. The number of wells in this mastaba 
 is not original. The primary wells are only the 5th 
 from the N., and perhaps one nearest to the back of 
 
 the chamber ; all the others are secondary, and can 
 be distinguished by being cut through the mastaba, 
 and lined with brick, leaving a belt of hard ground 
 full of chips shewing between the mastaba and the 
 rock. The chamber has a walled up niche or door- 
 way on each side, but it had been so much dug into 
 blindly by Mariette's men that I could not settle it. 
 On each wall are small decorative niches, on N.N.E., 
 I, on N.N.W. 3, on W.N.W. 3, on W.S.W. 4. These 
 niches are only at 21 to 41 inches (i to 2 cubits) from 
 the floor. Most of the wells we cleared out ; they 
 had all been plundered, and contained a few burials 
 in gaudy illiterate coffins of about the XXI Ind dyn- 
 asty. The strange enclosure S. of the mastaba is of 
 unknown use. The ground plan of it is quite com- 
 plete, with parallel walls, expanding into a sort of 
 doorway at the south end. Of course I thought we 
 had the entrance to some subterranean place ; but all 
 the north end was carefully cleared and examined, 
 and solid rock found under a bed of concreted chips. 
 31. The third principal type of tomb here is the 
 mastaba with a central well, and sloping passage like 
 a pyramid, leading to the chamber. The above 
 ground part of these tombs has all disappeared : and 
 seeing how solidly the brick mastabas have stood, 
 still 20 to 30 feet high, we cannot suppose that these 
 others were all swept away by denudation down to 
 the last course or so of brickwork. It seems as if 
 they must have been intentionally removed, not for 
 mere destruction as there are no remains about them, 
 but rather for bricks ; and this in a very systematic 
 way, and not by mere chance builders. One is 
 tempted to see in this the destructive hand of 
 Ramessu II. ; but whoever did it the mastabas seem 
 to have been removed by contract, so that one was 
 completely cleared, before another was touched. A 
 section of one of these passage mastabas is given on 
 Pl. VII. The upper part of the well is brick-work. 
 Then comes a breast-work on the south side, of large 
 courses of stone. At the base a passage slopes down 
 into the sepulchre, which has a recess for the em- 
 balmed viscera as in Rahotep's and Ranefer's tombs. 
 The group of destroyed tombs W. of the pyramid 
 (see Pl. I) were probably all of this type, and only 
 shew now as slight hollows in the desert. On trying 
 to clear one of them a wide pit full' of sand is found, 
 which requires a long struggle to empty it. Two of 
 these I examined, and others I tested enough to see 
 that they needed a lengthy clearance. Those I saw 
 were plundered, and one had re-interments in wooden 
 coffins of the XXIV-XXVIth dynasty without any- 
 
 D 2 
 
20 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 thing but a few beads. The first tomb of this type 
 which I opened was No. 1 5, and as the sand hole was 
 very wide and deep, and the well destroyed, and I did 
 not know the type, we had a very long affair with it. 
 The chamber in this was not low and flat roofed, as 
 in those W. of the pyramid, but was like the pyramid 
 chamber, all over-lapping ; and at the exposed end 
 one could see of what immense sheets of stone these 
 overlapping roofs consist. A high wind and falls of 
 sand blocked it up before I had made a plan of it. 
 The chamber contained nothing, and the recess in it 
 had been forced out at the end in search of other 
 chambers. From trials that we made and appearances 
 it seems that Nos. 14, 1 1, 3, 2, and i were all mastabas 
 of this type. 
 
 32. Having now described the three types of great 
 mastabas we turn to the lesser tombs, which we will 
 notice in order. No. 4 is a small mastaba much de- 
 stroyed ; but the panel over the north false door had 
 fallen in early times, and was found buried ; it shews 
 a man named Heknen to have been interred here 
 (Pl. XVI). The work is but rough, though rather 
 different in style to the usual, and we may see in the 
 turned up nose a sign of the aboriginal race, as I have 
 noticed elsewhere. In front of this are the remains of 
 another mastaba which produced nothing. 
 
 No. 5 shews just the foundation of the wall, and in 
 the pit we found the fragments of a fine alabaster 
 disc table on a conical foot, and a diorite bowl ; these 
 have been rejoined nearly entire, and are now at 
 Manchester. The tomb had been plundered in early 
 times, the large slab placed in front of the entrance 
 to the chamber being left in place and a hole made 
 above it. 
 
 No. 7 is a small, well-finished mastaba with a wall 
 along the front forming a passage, and a court in the 
 middle of the wall. The false doors are however at 
 the south end and in the middle. Part of the lintel 
 of the south door was found, and is given in Pl. XVI. 
 It was of the most delicate sculpture, but unhappily 
 was broken into small chips by the action of salt, so 
 that not a single sign could be removed. A copy and 
 a photograph were taken, from which it is here drawn. 
 It shews much the same titles as Rahotep, but there 
 seems to have been a priesthood of Sebek in the 
 Lake ; this, and the title " chief of the lake of the 
 crocodile " on Nefermat's tomb, are the earliest men- 
 tions of the Fayum. The body of this mastaba is all 
 of stone chips, very likely from the masonry of 
 Rahotep's tomb. No trace of a well could be found, 
 although we trenched three lines all the length of it, 
 
 down to solid rock. To the west of this is another 
 mastaba of some height ; but the tomb had been 
 plundered and left open anciently, like the other tomb 
 pits around here. 
 
 No. 10 is mostly denuded away ; the pit is a very 
 wide space filled with sand, which we did not clear. 
 No. 1 1 is a small mastaba ; pottery was found in the 
 court of it. The large number of pits to the east of 
 this were mostly separate, with a small brickwork top 
 and sometimes a little niche in the east face of it. 
 They are the poorest class of pit burial, and nearly all 
 the interments were contracted. The chambers below 
 were nearly all on the west side : a space usually 
 about 60 inches long (37-66), 30 wide (28-38) and 28 
 high (26-30) was cut in the soft clayey rock, the body 
 was placed in it, and the entrance filled by a rude flat 
 wall of crude bricks plastered with mud, which often 
 projected into the pit as much as its own thickness. 
 The pit was filled with earth. In one case the surface 
 brickwork had a slit in it to the N. of the niche, open- 
 ing into a small serdab, in which little vases stood. 
 
 No. 12 is one side of a mastaba remaining, and two 
 deep pits. No. 13 is a mastaba for general burials 
 apparently, a sort of undertaker's speculation. The 
 pits are very small, and in rows, as close together as 
 may be. In the southernmost but one was a long 
 wooden coffin, and a wooden head-rest with the body. 
 Many of these common interments had been crushed 
 by the fall of the rock roof or of the brick wall, and 
 though I preserved every skeleton that was complete 
 I could not obtain more than a dozen. 
 
 Passing to the Southern cemetery, Pl. VI, the 
 tombs 19, 20, 21 were greatly denuded, only just the 
 foundations being left. The pits had all been plun- 
 dered : those by 21 were peculiar, being long and 
 narrow. No. 22 has been described already. The 
 pit south of it had water over the entrance of the 
 chamber. In one of these pits about 23 a loose stone 
 sarcophagus was found, very rudely cut ; 75 inches 
 long, 24-3 wide, 19 deep inside ; 7 to 8 inches thick, 
 and 27 high outside : the head was to the north. 
 No. 24 had water nearly to the roof of the chamber, 
 and the floor could not be reached ; the pit had never 
 been opened before. To the S.W. of it was a small 
 pit in the mastaba, built of brick, but not descending 
 into the rock : in this was a large quantity of pottery, 
 two dozen bowls being obtained, nearly all broken 
 (see Pl. XXX, i to 8) ; some of the bowls were 
 wrap^jed in cloth, and some little clay models of jars 
 (XXX, 7) were found. In No. 27 a similar deposit 
 was found. There the northern pit was very shallow, 
 
THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 21 
 
 not 3 feet deep ; but just to the S.W. of it was a 
 smaller pit 30 X 32 inches, and 14 deep in the rock, 
 with another deposit of bowls &c. (XXX, 9 to 13). 
 And the southern pit, which is large and had been 
 plundered, had a pit to the S.W. with bones in it. 
 Thus it is evident that a custom existed of forming a 
 small secondary pit into which the offerings were 
 thrown ; the bowls were probably wrapped in cloth 
 to retain the food placed in them, and much dark 
 brown organic matter was found saturating this 
 pottery. This helps to explain the pit with bowls in 
 the mastaba No. 8. No. 29 are two small wells with 
 brickwork blocks over them, bearing a small niche on 
 the east face. 
 
 33. We now turn to the burials in these tombs. 
 Without giving the details of every skeleton found we 
 may summarise them thus. Thirteen were fully re- 
 corded in a contracted posture, while only one burial 
 besides Ranefer was found extended, setting aside 
 those of later age, which were secondary burials. 
 This long burial was in a wooden coffin ; a wooden 
 head rest with fluted stem lay by the head. Ranefer 
 (see sect. 28) doubtless had valuable objects buried 
 with him, as pieces of fine diorite and alabaster were 
 found in the second well of that mastaba. On the 
 other hand the contracted bodies very seldom have 
 any accompanying objects, and they are never em- 
 balmed. Of the 13, 12 lay on the left side, with the 
 head N., and the face E. ; the knees were usually 
 sharply bent, but the thighs were generally at right 
 angles to the body ; though sometimes bent up close, 
 so that the knee was only 6 inches from the vertebra. 
 The right arm was usually in front ; but sometimes 
 the hand was round the legs, sometimes up before the 
 face. The left arm was generally under the body and 
 legs, with the hand under the knees. The one burial 
 in a different direction was with head W. face N. in a 
 recess on the south of the well. But the motive of 
 the placing in general was not to lay the body looking 
 into the well, as in two other cases the chamber is to 
 the south, but the face is turned to the east. This 
 exceptional burial is also peculiar for having objects 
 buried with it, a walking staff, and a head-rest ; it 
 was placed in a box, which is the case as often as not. 
 Only two of the contracted bodies had objects with 
 them ; the one just named, and one with three small 
 vases (like XXX, 22) by the head. That this contracted 
 burial was not due to saving space, is seen by many 
 tombs in which the body does not fill the chamber ; 
 and in one case the body is doubled up 43 inches long 
 in a coffin 66 long, leaving over a third of the coffin 
 
 empty. And that the absence of objects with the 
 bodies is not due to poverty is seen by the cost and 
 care of the burials, in these tomb pits, which must 
 have involved some weeks of work, and the frequent 
 coffins of wood, which was always valuable ; while 
 even the rough little vases, which might be made in 
 hundreds in one day, are only found in a single case. 
 We are therefore led to believe that there was a dis- 
 tinct difference in beliefs between the peoplewho buried 
 at full length, usually mummified, with funereal fur- 
 niture, and the people who buried in a contracted 
 form, facing the east with the head north, and without 
 any objects. Such contracted burials have been 
 found at Gizeh, both by Rhind, and also in one case 
 in large jars at the Mena Hotel. Such a difference 
 points to a difference of race, and we see that the 
 contracted posture is only found in very early times. 
 As it died out, and was clearly the custom of the 
 poorer inhabitants, it probably belonged to the abori- 
 ginal people before the invasion of dynastic Egyptians ; 
 and the extended burial, with its accompanying 
 beliefs, is due to the upper race who founded Egyptian 
 history. Rhind notices that the Nasamones buried in 
 a seated posture (Hdtus. IV. 190) ; but this does not 
 seem to be a contracted lying position, though it 
 might easily be connected with it. Clothing remained 
 on some of the skeletons, and it was always plain 
 linen, more than a mere kilt or waist cloth, and with 
 a twisted linen girdle in one case. 
 
 The coffins that were found, were mere square 
 boxes ; only the one with extended body and a head- 
 rest had a framed lid, with large end blocks, and 
 boards inserted in a curve in the end. To shew how 
 far regular the boxes are I give the dimensions of 
 one; outside length 45*6, 45 "8; width 22*9, 23 'i ; 
 inside length 42 • 8, 43 • 2 ; width 19*8, 19 "9 ; depth 19-1. 
 Another was 31 "7 X I3"4 X I2-I. A baby was 
 found in an oval basket. 
 
 34. A very curious question is raised by the muti- 
 lations of these bodies. It should be said that the 
 skeletons lay exactly as placed ; sometimes the head 
 had just rolled over, but usually every bone was in 
 its articulation. There was no trace of any rats or 
 other animals having got access to the tombs to dis- 
 turb the bodies. And the skeletons noted were not 
 crushed, and were fairly clear of any fallen materials. 
 In one instance the whole left leg was missing from 
 the knee : the end of the thigh bone came close to 
 the brick wall, and not a trace of knee cap, leg bones, 
 or foot was present. The end of the bone did not 
 shew any change in the joint surface, so the amputa- 
 
22 
 
 THE MASTABAS AND BURIALS. 
 
 tion must have been shortly before death. In another 
 case the left hand appeared to have been cut off, the 
 end of the arm bone was close to the front wall, 
 without room for the hand, and the nearest wrist 
 bones or others were four inches from it, and those 
 appeared to belong to the right arm, while the left 
 hand bones were under the elbow. The arm bones 
 were not fallen or displaced : so the hand must have 
 been severed in life. In another case, where the arms 
 were both raised, and the hands placed together in 
 front of the face, a wrist bone was found under the 
 leg four inches below the knee, which was quite un- 
 disturbed. And in the same body a toe bone was 
 found under the pelvis. This is difficult to account 
 for by any ordinary supposition. Another strange 
 case was where three teeth were found by the pelvis, 
 though I had lifted the skull as carefully as possible, 
 as I always did, to avoid any chance of teeth dropping 
 out. So both from the care in moving, from the 
 skull not being lifted over the pelvis, and from the 
 teeth not being on the top, we must suppose them to 
 have been extracted before burial : possibly they had 
 been swallowed. Four such curious displacements of 
 bones in only 1 3 skeletons shews that much care must 
 be spent in fixing the positions when such are found 
 in future, in order to clear up the questions involved. 
 All of these skeletons are now being prepared at the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, and will there be studied, 
 with reference to race, and also for the various dis- 
 eases of the bones which are found in them. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 35. The plates IX to XXVII have all been exe- 
 cuted by producing full-sized drawings, and from 
 those reducing the present copies by photo-lithography. 
 No doubt it would have been better on the one hand 
 to have reproduced them here on a larger scale, in a 
 few cases the details are too minute or the lines too 
 fine, and a magnifier may be used with advantage to 
 most of these plates ; on the other hand a smaller 
 scale would have enabled a more connected view of 
 the scheme of decoration. The advantages obtained 
 here however seem to be the greatest. No wall is 
 divided on to two plates, excepting in the case of the 
 long lintels which spread across the whole length of a 
 tomb facade ; these are separated from the rest of the 
 facade, and each divided in two parts. Moreover in 
 
 all cases the scale is the same throughout, so that the 
 character of different parts can be compared. And 
 the reduction of a foot to one inch enables the whole 
 height of a tomb to appear on one plate. 
 
 In the details the greatest accuracy has been aimed 
 at. The individual expression of every face among 
 the farm servants, and other small figures and hiero- 
 glyphs, has been observed ; the exact shape of the 
 head in all of these, the form of the hands, the relative 
 lengths of the fingers, the number of lines and notches 
 in a wig, and such points, were all attended to indi- 
 vidually, and not merely done on a general system. 
 In the forms of the hieroglyphs the same detail has 
 been followed. For instance not only the number of 
 waves in n, but also the slope and thickness, have 
 been copied. If a sign is askew, misshapen, or tilted, 
 it has been strictly so drawn. Nothing has been 
 assumed or restored, except in a few cases of a notched 
 or injured line. But although all injuries which 
 destroy the outlines are observed, the forms have been 
 traced as far as possible, and credited with completion 
 wherever the original form was not irretrievably ]ost. 
 Hence these copies look more complete than are the 
 actual walls. In the many sad instances of disfigure- 
 ment since Mariette's copies were made (which com- 
 prise about S-i- plates out of the 19 here), it might at 
 first seem pedantic not to fill in the parts now lost 
 where those copies shew them. But it will soon be 
 seen on comparing those former copies with the 
 present, that no scientific value can be allowed to 
 their details. The frequent misplacement of signs, 
 omissions, and additions, even extending to inserting 
 a figure and action which does not exist (see top of 
 Pl. XXIII), and the inattention to the real forms of 
 the figures and signs, would make any additions 
 drawn from such a source a serious detriment to these 
 present copies ; to say nothing of the doubt as to the 
 very existence of the missing signs. Insertions of 
 dubious character would throw a suspicion over the 
 whole accuracy. To those students who may need 
 the fullest materials a reference to Mariette's plates is 
 not a weighty business ; while those who wish to 
 place as much confidence as may be put in human 
 work, can rely on these copies as being equivalent to 
 the original sculptures, for all purposes of study that 
 we can at present contemplate. No doubt but some 
 inaccuracies may have crept in. They will probably 
 be found in slight irregularities of the relative position 
 of parts, due to copying on separate sheets ; and 
 possibly a sign might have been omitted, certainly 
 none have been added. 
 
THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 23 
 
 36. The method of work was as follows. Sheets of 
 thin paper, 3 feet high, i foot wide, were used. Be- 
 ginning in a top corner, a sheet was held up by the 
 left hand, and every line of sculpture was outlined by 
 the right hand, a dry squeeze being thus taken. The 
 soft part of the fingers was used or else the nails, 
 according to the form. Then the squeezed sheet was 
 laid on a drawing board, held just below the sculpture, 
 and the outline was pencilled in, following the squeeze, 
 but looking at the stone for all fine details and in- 
 distinct points. Thus the accuracy of a cast, and the 
 interpretation of an eye-copy were combined. A 
 minute pencil cross on the stone, at the corners of the 
 paper, insured keeping a correct register of the posi- 
 tions of the sheets. Afterwards — in England — the 
 sheets were joined into large rolls ; the outlines 
 were all inked in of a suitable thickness, equivalent 
 to -f^ of an inch on the reduced scale ; and photo- 
 lithography did the rest of the business. For the 
 coloured parts proof copies were coloured, and 
 served for the chromo-lithographer to work by. The 
 tints of the colours of each figure had been care- 
 fully copied on a key sheet on the spot ; and samples 
 of the inlayed colours of Nefermat's tomb, which had 
 fallen out, and were found in the dust, served to give 
 their tints. From much of the surface the colours had 
 entirely vanished ; in Rahotep's tomb they had been 
 washed away by wet squeezes being taken in a bar- 
 barous way. In such parts the ground tint is made 
 continuous over the figures. Wherever a trace could 
 be found it is noted, but where a wide expanse of 
 colour is without detail, as in faces without eyes, it 
 means that the lesser parts have perished, leaving 
 only a ground-work. In the case of wigs which shew 
 details, they are left in outlines ; but in all cases the 
 hair is black. So far as the colours remain enough to 
 give a general combined effect, they are here repro- 
 duced ; but it did not seem worth the printing to give 
 only a few scattered touches in those plates where 
 the colour had nearly all perished. I have dwelt the 
 more on the details of these copies as I much hope 
 that published copies of all fine work will be made in 
 future on some such system. The very crude method 
 of irregular and inexact hand-drawing, which has 
 been hitherto usual — or even worse, the adopting the 
 style of some period of Egyptian art, on stone or 
 papyrus, and drawing everything in that manner— is 
 responsible for the neglect of Egyptian epigraphy, and 
 artistic detail of styles, and schools, and periods, 
 which is so lamentable. No doubt this exact copying 
 takes time. Altogether these plates have occupied 
 
 me about four days each, beside the lithographer's 
 work. But such time is well spent, if it opens out a 
 new study of art and history. 
 
 37. We will now turn to the separate plates and 
 give some account of them ; while the inscriptions will 
 be treated by Mr. Griffith in chap. VI. 
 
 Pl. IX. The lintel over Rahotep's facade is divided 
 here into two parts, on the upper half of Pls. IX and X. 
 It is less finely carved than the interior, and in very 
 low relief ; the separate panels of it are sunk so as to 
 obtain the depth required for the signs. No traces of 
 colour remain upon it. The wall of the tomb front 
 below it Is quite plain. The last block of the lintel has 
 been removed in late years ; and Mariette's copy shews 
 the remainder of the inscription to have been nearly 
 the same as on the " south side of the recess," Pl. XII, 
 ending with the name of Rahotep. The wider panel, 
 first on Pl. IX, is over the doorway. The south side 
 of the passage is all in relief, as is the rest of this 
 tomb ; it has been defaced near the door, by cutting 
 away the surface to allow of fitting in the closing 
 blocks. We here see Rahotep and Nefert standing 
 watching the chase in the desert, while below — in the 
 lower lands — is the ox led forward, and indicated by 
 three tethers or hobbles formed of a loop of rope 
 passing through two holes in a piece of wood. It 
 seems to be used here as a determination for the place 
 for tame animals, in contrast to the wild ones above. 
 
 Pl. X. Here, on the opposite side of the passage, 
 Rahotep and Nefert behold their sons snaring birds ; 
 and below the fishers coming to shore with the ropes. 
 The titles above contain some of the most important 
 forms of signs ; the column an, and the columns sup- 
 porting a roof, with a central pillar aa, in the sign Aed. 
 
 Pl. XI. This comprises the whole of the wall, 
 through which one enters the chamber ; and the 
 inscription on the drum over the door is here turned 
 round to appear in the doorway. Rahotep is standing 
 beholding the boat building : this part is in excellent 
 condition, excepting a large flake which has come off, 
 carrying the head and arm of a carpenter. Below 
 Rahotep are scenes of servants, a cattle-herd, two 
 slaughterers, and bearers of offerings of wine and of 
 sweet palm beer. On the other side are the fishers 
 drawing the net, which has floats above and sinkers 
 below it. The calf-herd and fowler, and six farm 
 servants, fill the lower scenes. 
 
 Pl. XII. This comprises the south end of the 
 chamber, and the west wall to the south of the recess 
 at the back. The fish-curer seated under the shade 
 of the lotus plants, splitting his fish with a knife, and 
 
24 
 
 THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 spreading them out to dry, fills the upper scene. The 
 leaves of the plants are only painted, and not carved. 
 Then the two boatmen who have caught a monstrous 
 fish, which they carry in triumph on an oar between 
 them. The ploughing and 6 farm servants occur below. 
 On the other wall is Rahotep standing in priestly dress 
 with a leopard's skin, as he held more than one high 
 priestly office in the country. The small* inscription 
 is from the stelas in front of the tomb ; both are alike. 
 It is rather roughly carved compared with the interior 
 work. This is what Mariette ascribes to a separate 
 mastaba which he attributes to a fictitious Ranefer. 
 
 38. Pl. XIII. The Hntel or architrave over the 
 whole west side of the chamber comes at the top. 
 Below this is the recess with its two sides ; but as 
 these sides are at right angles to the plane of the 
 lintel and wall, they do not of course appear beneath 
 the lintel actually in this way. The walls really 
 beneath the lintel on each side bear the two large 
 figures of Rahotep on Pls. XII, XIV. The need of 
 keeping the recess all together obliges this separation. 
 The lintel is finely painted, and furnishes some of the 
 best signs selected for the frontispiece. The left wall 
 is covered with lists of offerings many specified as 
 being of the very best, tep ha, or A i. The manner 
 in which the jars are all shewn, with lids fastened 
 down by a cloth band, and bound with string, and 
 sealed, is curiously detailed. In the centre is Rahotep 
 seated, with the usual table before him. The arrange- 
 ment of the list of offerings is just like that in the 
 earliest tombs of Abusir and Gizeh. Below this is 
 the niche, with the children of Rahotep at the sides ; 
 T'etta (or Zedda), Atu, Nezem-ab, Setet, Merert, and 
 Neferku. The damaged part in the centre is given 
 entire by Mariette, the lost signs being tu (legs) u.f. 
 On the right hand wall are further lists of offerings of 
 the same character. 
 
 Pl. XIV. Rahotep appears with a slight mous- 
 tache, as on his statue in Gizeh Museum. On the 
 north wall are wild cattle with their attendants ; one 
 of the farm names has been inserted in the lowest of 
 these scenes, and it occurs again in Nefert's tomb on 
 the next plate. The six servants bearing offerings 
 below, of clothing, meat, and drink, fill up the wall. 
 At the side of this plate are given the lower parts of 
 some figures, which are all that remain of the sculp- 
 tures of Ranefer's tomb, on the sides and back of the 
 recess. The work of this tomb is markedly inferior 
 to that of Rahotep. 
 
 39. Pl. XV. The tomb niche of Nefert, in the same 
 mastaba as Rahotep' s, has a lintel over it, of which the 
 
 small fragments left shew exactly the same arrange- 
 ment of titles as on the outer lintel of Rahotep, 
 Pls. IX, X : hence this was not copied. The outer 
 wall below it is blank. On PL. XV is shewn the sides 
 and back of the recess. The lists of offerings occupy 
 the upper part of the sides ; and the list of farms the 
 •lower part. Of these 12 occur in Rahotep's lists, two 
 here are not in Rahotep's, and one in Rahotep's is not 
 here. They all differ from the farms of Nefermat, so 
 it is certain that these were different families. Much 
 remains to be done in forming property lists of farms, 
 thus tracing the descent of property, and proving 
 genealogical connections by this means. From having 
 this repetition of the names, we can judge whether the 
 matter of the figures being male or female has any 
 significance. We find that of the dozen which recur, 
 four are always male, six are always female, and only 
 two vary, being male in Rahotep's and female in 
 Nefert's. This regularity shews that some intentional 
 distinction, probably in the gender of the name of the 
 farm, is intended. The tombs were not copied one 
 from the other ; the spelling of the names varies 
 somewhat, and the order is altogether different 
 throughout ; hence the distinction in the figures 
 would not have been maintained if they were purely 
 arbitrary and ornamental in their character. 
 
 In the middle are Rahotep and Nefert seated, on 
 the panel ; and below that the children occur on 
 either side of the niche, as in Rahotep's. The order 
 varies, so we cannot distinguish their ages, and there 
 is no difference shewn in the ages of the boys, so that 
 the sculpturing of the two tombs must have been 
 nearly contemporary. The distinctions of age 
 shewn in tombs are (i) unclad, pointing to mouth ; 
 (2) unclad but occupied ; (3) clad with kilt, hands 
 empty; (4) clad, holding sceptre; (5) clad, holding 
 sceptre and long staff; all these may be seen in 
 Nefermat's and Atet's tombs. 
 
 40. The decoration of Nefermat's tomb differs en- 
 tirely from that of Rahotep. The characters and 
 figures of the whole of this tomb, and of Atet's, are 
 incised in the stone, and filled up with coloured pastes, 
 level with the surface ; except a few figures down the 
 edge of Nefermat's chamber entrance, which are in 
 relief This system of colouring was a special device 
 of Nefermat's own, doubtless occasioned by his 
 observing the flaking and washing of colour from 
 painted sculpture. He particularly states (on Pl. 
 XXIV) that " He made this to his gods in his un- 
 spoilable writing." The sculpture is all hollowed out, 
 with the edges undercut, so that the coloured pastes 
 
THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 25 
 
 with which it is filled should key in. Over wide 
 surfaces special means were adopted. The area was 
 divided into a number of deeper cells in the bottom, 
 divided by cross ridges, of about a third of the height 
 of the whole hollow. Holes were then drilled 
 diagonally beneath these ridges, so as to meet and 
 form bent tunnels for complete loops of the paste to 
 hold in. The details of figures, such as the wig and 
 face, were often cut to different depths, partly to hold 
 the material better, partly as a guide to the artist in 
 paste, to shew where his internal outlines were to come. 
 Very narrow lines are simply graved out in a V or 
 U form, and filled up. Details of different colour, 
 such as features, or feathering on a bird, are made by 
 cutting outlines in the base paste, and filling them up 
 with a different colour. A base of cheaper colour was 
 often used, and a facing of more valuable paste was 
 incorporated with it. The invention was not a 
 success ; extremely tedious, it yet yielded to injury 
 more readily than the painted reliefs. The coloured 
 pastes were very easily picked out and destroyed, and 
 the action of the ever-present salt of Egypt has reduced 
 much of what remains to a mere loose powder, and 
 forced it out of the hollows in the stone, as a rotten 
 mass of dust that will hardly bear touching. Much 
 has been ruined since Mariette uncovered these tombs, 
 and left them to destruction at the hands of every 
 careless Arab and wanton tourist. The colours em- 
 ployed, and the means of fixing them, have been 
 most carefully examined, chemically and microscopi- 
 cally, by Mr. Spurrell ; and I have the pleasure of 
 embodying his results in the end of this chapter. 
 
 41. Pl. XVI. The architrave of Nefermat's tomb 
 is broken in the middle, where it is here divided on 
 the plate ; and the right hand end was altogether lost 
 in ages past, while all that remains is deeply weathered 
 by exposure. The titles can be traced out by the 
 list on Pl. XX. The portion of a stela, on the left 
 hand, is in relief, and of fine work. It was found 
 lying just in front of the chamber, almost on the 
 ground. Scattered near it were many chips of fine 
 work in relief ; these I brought away, as illustrating 
 the use of scraping tools for dressing surfaces. What 
 all these chips and the stela belonged to, and what 
 construction has been here destroyed, we cannot be 
 certain. But as the edges of the chamber door are 
 in relief, it seems not unlikely that the stone blocking 
 of the doorway (of which the traces are seen by the 
 cutting on the walls) had a relief sculpture on it of a 
 false door and panel ; and thence, after the destruc- 
 tion of that, came these fragments. 
 
 The other pieces on the same plate are miscel- 
 laneous. The stela or panel of Heknen was found at 
 the north false door of mastaba No. 4. It is of rough, 
 irregular work, of a primitive style. Now in the 
 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The portion of a lintel 
 from mastaba 7, is drawn from a photograph and 
 hand copy. It was so completely shattered by salt 
 that not even a corner of a sign could be moved and 
 kept whole. The titles are much the same as those 
 of Rahotep, and it was perhaps belonging to a son of 
 his, who inherited those offices. 
 
 Pl. XVII. The south side of the facade of Nefermat 
 is well preserved at the base, as that part was below 
 the evaporating level, and so kept constantly moist ; 
 hence the salt has not accumulated in it ; and happily 
 Mariette's men did not take the trouble to clear it. 
 The huntsmen carry long bent sticks, or flaps of 
 hippopotamus hide. Two of the sons appear as boys 
 leading tame apes. Below that the leopard is finely 
 drawn with the prowling action ; from the position it 
 seems as if he were a hunting animal, and not wild. 
 At the base is a dog hunting jackals. On the jamb 
 of the chamber front is Nefermat, with Atet behind 
 him. Below them are two sons who recur on the 
 back of the chamber (XX) and elsewhere, and four 
 children who do not recur ; from sen occurring added 
 to two names it may be that they are brothers' 
 children ; if not, they may be grandchildren, sons of 
 the sons above them. 
 
 Pl. XVIII. Here Nefermat stands with a son 
 before him ; and Atet is below with three sons. Her 
 robe is of leopard skin, the spots of which are partly 
 in a pattern (each spot is strictly copied) ; and on the 
 wrists and ankles are bead decorations, shewing how 
 coloured beads were then utilized. The son Khent's 
 title " chief of the lake of the crocodile " is very inter- 
 esting, as the earliest mention of the Fayum. On the 
 rest of the facade is, at the top, a slaughtering scene ; 
 below that, a very curious compound group, a hunts- 
 man, a large branching tree, up which a monkey is 
 climbing, and from which a goat is hung being 
 cut up, while a man near stirs the fire by which 
 it is to be cooked. It is very unfortunate that this 
 is so much injured, the surface in parts having 
 been scaled entirely away by the salt. A much 
 scaled group of fishermen comes below ; next 
 is only the lower edge of a very curious scene of 
 cattle, among some strange plants, which are inex- 
 plicable in form and colouring. A group of bird- 
 snaring, and a pair of ploughmen come below. 
 All the lower part is in excellent state, free from 
 
 E 
 
16 
 
 THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 salt, and never exposed until I uncovered it ; I 
 soon reburied it. 
 
 Pl. XIX. This comprises the side of the chamber 
 on the left hand when facing it ; the slope down the 
 left of the plate being the sloping front of the facade. 
 As much has been totally effaced here, owing to the 
 insertion of the blocks for closing the chamber, I 
 have brought together the parts of the remaining 
 sculpture, in order to include them in one plate. The 
 top left-hand piece should be about two inches further 
 out to the left, and the lower piece about three inches 
 out on the plate ; all the intervening space being 
 blank. The outer figures are all of farm servants, and 
 are in relief, as I have mentioned. Inside Nefermat 
 is standing, beholding the offerings for his tomb ; 
 while his sister or daughter Nub, seated on the ground 
 by his side, puts her arm round his leg. The details 
 are all lost, owing to the falling out of the inlayed 
 colouring, but this is the best female head that 
 remains to us in this tomb. Below are two lines of 
 farm servants with the names of the farms. Among 
 these is Methun, which has been considered to be the 
 ancient form of Medum. 
 
 Pl. XX. This shews the back of the chamber ; the 
 lower part of which is all destroyed, except the left 
 hand figure, which is here put at the side.* The 
 arrangement of the list of offerings is the same as in 
 Rahotep's, and the early tombs at Abusir, &c. The 
 granaries in the bottom line but one should be 
 noticed. In the niche below the panel is Nefermat ; 
 Atet, his wife, faces him, and five sons can be recog- 
 nised by their names. 
 
 Pl. XXI. This is the side of the chamber opposite 
 to Pl. XIX. The wall has been similarly disfigured, 
 and the remaining portion of the front part is here 
 brought closer in to the rest. At the top there is a 
 trace of a cartouche of Seneferu in a farm name, as 
 there is on Pl. XIX. These mentions of Seneferu 
 are the only cartouches found in any tomb at Medum. 
 Here Nefermat is being borne in a chair of state by 
 six supporters, the front figures of whom have been 
 cut away. Below are two lines of farm servants. 
 
 42. Pl. XXII. We now pass to the chamber of 
 Atet, in the same mastaba with that of Nefermat. 
 The lintel appears to have been complete in Marietta's 
 time, but it was left exposed then, and before 1882 it 
 was miserably shattered. It is useful therefore to 
 refer to his publication for a fuller view, although not 
 
 * The curious projection on the shoulders of Nefermat is not part of 
 the chair, but is some fitting of the leopard's skin priestly dress, as it is 
 always accompanied by that, either seated or standing. 
 
 a single point of detail that can be now checked, is 
 accurate in that copy. The scene is of Nefermat 
 closing a clap net, of which only just the top now 
 remains ; while his three sons carry birds that have 
 been caught to their mother Atet, who is seated at 
 the opposite end. Below this come the top scenes of 
 the facade, the rest of which appear on Pls. XVII, 
 XVIII. The slaughterer on the left is holding the 
 leg of the ox up, while the head is turned round 
 backward on the ground. The portion of the title ta 
 sab t'a, is on a fragment which I found below in 
 excavating, and is here inserted in its place, as I have 
 done with some other pieces found loose. These 
 fragments I of course buried again, putting them at the 
 extreme back of the tomb floor in a heap, with the 
 small fragments behind the larger. The name on the 
 drum is Atet, and not Teta as in Mariette's copy ; 
 and it is as well to say that his reading of Nefermat 
 as Nefertma is contradicted both by the sense and by 
 the inscriptions. 
 
 Pl. XXIII. Down the side of the facade is a 
 series of scenes, cattle at the top, then boat-building, 
 and six children at the base. On the edge of the 
 great monolith of the chamber side, is a figure of 
 Nefermat, in priestly robe, and five children below. 
 
 Pl. XXIV. This is the opposite side of the facade. 
 The edge of the chamber side forms a slight pilaster, 
 on which is Nefermat standing, and saying that " he 
 made this to his gods in his writing unspoilable." 
 Below him is Atet sedted, with two sons behind and 
 four below her. On the rest of the facade is a series 
 of scenes. At the top are servants bearing wine and 
 fruit, deb being figs or perhaps pomegranates from the 
 form. Beneath are the tame birds, with the deter- 
 minative of three tethers ; and two tame animals 
 below. This means therefore again the "place of 
 domesticated animals of the tomb " as in Pl. IX. 
 The next line shews the " coming out from the marsh," 
 the fowlers in a boat, with the stick, and loop of withy 
 on which the birds are strung, like the object held by 
 the seated figure sa. Next come two of the younger 
 sons, in marsh dress, catching birds in a net. And at 
 the bottom a very small boy looking after an ape — 
 who seems to have the better of him — and a monkey 
 in front who cannot resist pulling the bird's tail : the- 
 bird's hinder leg is suspiciously raised ; as if he was 
 just going to let fly with it right into the monkey's 
 face. 
 
 PL. XXV. This is the left side of the chamber 
 when facing into it. The wall is grievously scaled 
 by salt, and not half of the sculpture remains. 
 
THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 27 
 
 Nefermat is here standing viewing the boat building ; 
 and a fragment remaining at the bottom of the wall 
 shews a wine-press in use. 
 
 Pl. XXVI. The back of the chamber is much 
 destroyed, and the figure of Atet seated before a 
 table of offerings (which is shewn by Mariette on the 
 panel) is now wholly smashed away. Nefermat and 
 Atet appear below that, with several sons. 
 
 Pl. XXVII. This wall has suffered much in every 
 way. The middle has been much scaled, by salt 
 flaking the stone, while most of the upper part", has 
 been broken off in a huge flake, and lesser pieces, by 
 the Arabs since it has been left uncovered. Owing 
 to this shattered state it was difficult to piece it 
 together in the drawing, as the great flake was too 
 large to set up in place. Hence there is some little 
 distortion in this sheet. Nefermat stands with his 
 sister or daughter Nub behind him ; for an edge of 
 the sign nub remains. He is holding in two hunting 
 dogs by cords, while they are seizing a hare by the 
 neck and a gazelle by the leg. This scene appears to 
 have been designed on a larger surface, and then cut 
 down at the outer edge ; in the middle line there are 
 the horns of some animal which is not on the stone ; 
 in the top line the hind part of the hare is not included ; 
 in the lower line the animal's head is partly off. 
 Perhaps the design was done before the sloping edge 
 was cut, with the intention of a different form of front. 
 The lower part is occupied with tame animals. 
 
 43. Pl. XXVIII. The group of geese from Medum, 
 now in the Ghizeh Museum, is justly celebrated. It 
 was found by Mariette's workmen in clearing the 
 tomb of Atet, and was removed by Vassali. When 
 I came to clear out these tombs again, I found in 
 the open passages of Atet and Nefermat various 
 melancholy fragments of what had been fairly perfect 
 paintings twenty years ago. The heads had been 
 chopped out with a pick, and the morsels shewed how 
 barbarously the nineteenth century had treated what 
 had remained to us from the beginnings of history. 
 So ruined were these fragments that only one of them 
 is worth reproducing, No. 2, Pl. XXVIII, representing 
 two fowlers, one drawing the net rope, the other 
 carrying a bird. Some other lesser chips I placed in 
 a recess in the brickwork of Atet's tomb, before I 
 earthed that over. Beside what had been destroyed, 
 I found some portions which had happily escaped the 
 terrible attentions of the previous excavators. In the 
 narrow court in front of Nefermat's facade the ground 
 had not been disturbed at the bottom, since the 
 natural decay of the building. There lay the remains 
 
 of the blocking of the chamber, carved in relief with 
 a panel, which is in plate XVI. There were also 
 other chips of that work, which I carefully collected, 
 to examine the mode of stone dressing, as they were 
 quite fresh and sharp. Evidently a metal chisel or 
 adze, and a metal scraper were used ; for the scratch 
 lines all being sunk, were made by jagged projections 
 of metal. Whereas in Ranefer's stone-work a flint 
 tool was used for scraping (as at Lachish), all the 
 scratch lines being raised, owing to chipping out of 
 the flint edge. The source of this difference is proved 
 easily by experiment. I also found a long length of 
 painted fresco (XXVIII, i) which had covered part 
 of the mud-brick facade above the stone facade. It 
 had, in course of time, slipped off bodily from the 
 wall, and fallen into the court. Of course it was 
 much shattered, but yet it was fairly continuous. By 
 great care I removed the pieces, but the mud plaster 
 backing was so much rotted (by rains running down 
 into this hollow), that it broke up a good deal in 
 travelling. I therefore removed all the mud back, 
 and transferred the film of painted gesso to slate 
 backing, on which it is now quite safe : this occupied 
 about a week in England. It affords us some details 
 of colouring not otherwise known. The seated figure 
 sa is in a banded black and green costume ; and the 
 ia sign is curious and inexplicable, and differs from 
 the later forms. This remaining piece opens our 
 eyes to what was the great extent of fresco work in 
 this earliest time. From the arrangement of it, it 
 appears that there was a colossal figure of Nefermat, 
 standing or seated, with his titles and name above his 
 head. He was " Beholding his prosperity," typified 
 by servants leading in oxen, &c., before him. Judging 
 by the relative size of such inscriptions to the figures 
 in Pls. XVII to XXI, this must have been by the 
 average 84 inches high if standing, or 59 if seated ; 
 the latter is more likely, according to the length of 
 the inscription. This, with the inscription over him, 
 would require a fresco wall about 80 inches high. 
 The facade below it was about 1 80 inches high (in- 
 cluding a blank space below the sculpture) ; so that 
 the total required for the court is 280 inches. As the 
 mastaba was probably 412 high, this is quite possible. 
 In the base of this court we found pieces of wooden 
 logs, &c., belonging to the roofing, that had fallen 
 down into the space. It is indeed fortunate that the 
 former excavators did not persevere, and so clear out 
 the whole place, and destroy this evidence twenty 
 years ago. 
 
 Another fresco that I found was in a part of the 
 
 E 2 
 
28 
 
 THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 passage to Atet's chamber. All of this had been 
 finely painted, as Mariette describes, " erne de scenes 
 varices, de chasse et de p^che, peintes avec une grande 
 finesse sur le stuc " ; when I cleared it not one piece 
 of all this was left, except behind some of the brick- 
 filling of the passage which the ravagers had not 
 thought worth removing. I there secured the pieces 
 XXVIII, 3, 4. Nos. 2 and 3 are in the South Ken- 
 sington Museum ; No. 4 at Owens College Museum, 
 Manchester. In the passage to. Nefermat's chamber 
 I only found remaining a part of Atet in a leopard- 
 skin dress, and the legs of Nefermat. These I left on 
 the wall. 
 
 Another example of wall fresco of inferior style, 
 but interesting in detail, I found in the end of the 
 passage of mastaba 22 (see Pls. VI, VII, XXVIII, 
 
 5, 6, 7). The master was named Nefer uu and 
 
 had the title Kher heb. His son, who appears before 
 him in No. 6, had the title sar, ruler of the mansion, 
 and companion, but his name is lost. The scene on 
 the west wall No. 5 is the master standing (not copied, 
 as much defaced), before whom are led two pairs of 
 oxen, who have housings, or supports for a litter, 
 upon them. Before the man is the title " overseer of 
 the Khal' perhaps a thousand oxen. On the east 
 wall. No. 6, is the master, with three sons, watching 
 the farming scenes, of which two harvesters remain. 
 The white panniers, which they carry on their hips, 
 are to hold the ears as they cut them off. Although 
 no sickle is represented it is seen that only the left 
 hand grasps the straws together, shewing that some 
 implement must be held in the right to cut them. 
 The grain is long-bearded wheat. On the south wall 
 (No. 7) is a fowling and fishing scene. The plants 
 are interesting, as not of the conventional forms ; and 
 the fishers, though roughly done, are spirited, the 
 truth of the four men dragging up the net from the 
 water is better than stiff drawings of later times. 
 The remains of two fishes below show what care 
 was given to detail. The sinkers and floats to the 
 net are the same as in Rahotep's tomb. Poor as this 
 tomb is, the paintings are as good as most of those in 
 the great sepulchres of the Xllth dynasty. 
 
 44. I have been favoured by Mr. Spurrell with the 
 following results of his careful examination, chemical 
 and microscopic, of the colours employed in the Medum 
 tombs, to which I add my own observations on the 
 local details at Medum. 
 
 The coat of colours on the stone sculptures of 
 Rahotep's tomb and Nefermat's doorway has been 
 laid on with a brush, and in some instances apparently 
 
 rubbed into the stone so thoroughly as to become 
 adherent. The painting of the coloured frescoes, 
 from the passages of Nefermat's and Atet's tombs, is 
 also brush work, and was apparently mixed with a 
 medium which has decayed and left them sometimes 
 pulverulent. In the yellow ochre — on a deer — it 
 appears that something was employed much like 
 albumen in its resistance to water, but the film is too 
 thin to experiment on. These fresco colours are laid 
 on a fine thin layer of gesso, bright and pure, about 
 -sVth of an inch thick. The outlines are first traced 
 in faint red, and the final colouring laid over them. 
 The gesso is laid on a coat of lime and gypsum burnt 
 together, and mixed with tibn (chopped straw), about 
 i to i inch thick ; and this rests on a coat of mud 
 and tibn about \\ inches thick, which was applied to 
 the bare brick wall, and held up by keying into the 
 joints. 
 
 White is a pulverulent efflorescence of gypsum — 
 calcium sulphate — very bright if selected, but creamy 
 in general. 
 
 Black is lamp black, and no charcoal or graphite is 
 found. A circular cake of lamp black \ inch high 
 and i-i- across, slightly concave on top, was found 
 loose in Rahotep's well. 
 
 Yellow is yellow ochre with clay, in the best ex- 
 amples it is nearly pure ferric sesquioxide. Much 
 variation in tint was obtained, both by thickness of 
 the film and difference in the earth. Occasionally a 
 faint wash of red haematite over the yellow changes 
 the hue to orange. A yellow marl abounds at 
 Medum ; it might be used as a pigment alone, but in 
 no case has it been so found. After the removal of 
 the calcium carbonate from it by rain, the fine ochre 
 which would be washed into pockets and seams would 
 give a good colour. Steeped in sour wine the marl 
 gives a superior pigment, identical in colour with most 
 of the yellows. It is noticeable that this deepened 
 colour is 'not lightened with calcium carbonate, but 
 with sulphate (gypsum), when required by the artist. 
 A greenish grey on the deer (XXVIII, 3) was made 
 by a yellowish earth containing fine brown grains 
 (sand) of some mineral. 
 
 Red is red haematite ground in water. Coarser 
 and darker reds are from natural deposits of ochreous 
 clays, some of which appear to contain much 
 manganese. 
 
 Brown is frequently obtained by a thin wash of 
 haematite red over impure black, as for birds' feathers. 
 But it is usually an ochre unburnt, and sometimes 
 laid over a coat of haematite. 
 
THE SCULPTURED CHAMBERS. 
 
 29 
 
 Green is malachite, and being pure it is remarkably 
 uniform in tint. No traces of green or blue frits have 
 been found in all this early work. 
 
 Grey, and neutral backgrounds, often greenish, are 
 made of pale yellowish earth with a little lamp-black, 
 which burns out at a red heat. 
 
 Blue is a rarer pigment, and none was found loose 
 for removal, nor on the frescoes brought over. On 
 the walls it appears much of a blue verditer tint, 
 apparently derived from an impure earthy blue 
 carbonate of copper. The shell (XXIX, 17) bore, 
 smeared on the inside, some intensely blue chessylite, 
 very finely ground, and without the minutest trace of 
 malachite. The animal matter of the shell, and the 
 medium of the paint has perished. 
 
 45. The colours of Nefermat's and Atet's inlayed 
 work are wholly different in tone, all mixed with 
 more or less white. Their mode of application I have 
 already stated in section 40. These pastes char a 
 little, shewing organic matter, which disappears on 
 burning. No extract by water or alkali could be 
 obtained, nor any smell like albumen or gelatine when 
 burnt. Though some pieces retain their original 
 hardness and polish, most of them are powdery, 
 owing to decay of the medium, and action of salt. 
 This hardness and darkening extends a variable dis- 
 tance into the paste from its face. It is apparently 
 due to rubbing in an oil or Hquid turpentine, by 
 which the surface was polished and the colour en- 
 hanced. Occasionally the saturated part is not 
 thicker than a visiting card, and by drying has con- 
 tracted and separated from the mass, which is then 
 seen to be full of bubbles. 
 
 There are throughout most specimens many small 
 oval or globular bodies, mainly at the surface. These 
 globules can easily be extracted as they sink in water 
 from the intermixed colour. They are brownish 
 yellow, translucent, easily crushed, and soluble in 
 alcohol : burning brightly with a resinous smell, and 
 moderate smoke. They may be due to grains of 
 resin mingled with the p'aste before application, or to 
 a collection of the turpentinous polish into the air- 
 bubble spaces of the paste ; or — less likely — a segre- 
 gation of the turpentine originally mixed with the 
 paste. Turpentine may have been liquefied with 
 strong wine. 
 
 The colours are. 
 
 White, burnt gypsum, more or less creamy. 
 
 Black, or rather always grey, of lamp black and 
 burnt gypsum. 
 
 Red, in various shades lighter than haematite, is 
 
 an ochreous clay mixed with fibrous gypsum pounded. 
 In one case the red is mixed very intimately with 
 yellow ochreous clay. The painted lines of red are 
 rubbed hsematite. 
 
 Red brown is the same as olivey yellow that is 
 burnt, and it does not alter by further burning. 
 
 Yellow, (i) Clear, low tone, yellow ; of ochreous 
 clay mixed with powdered gypsum. (2) Olivey 
 yellow ; ochreous clay or earth. (3) The same, 
 darker, with brownish stains. None of these contain 
 carbonate of lime. 
 
 Green is pure malachite, lightened in some cases by 
 pure gypsum. It is often economised by filling below 
 with yellow, and facing that with the coat of green. 
 This accounts for certain signs which are usually 
 green appearing as yellow in these plates. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 EARLY HIEROGLYPHS. 
 
 46. A branch of Egyptology which has been re- 
 markably neglected hitherto is epigraphy. In the 
 limited and arbitrary alphabets of Phoenicia, Greece, 
 and other lands we know that epigraphy is one of 
 the most carefully and scientifically treated subjects. 
 But in Egypt epigraphy should be not merely a study 
 of arbitrary signs, but also of the greatest interest as 
 throwing a light on the civilization ; and yet it has 
 scarcely been thought of beyond the mere matter of 
 classifying the signs by their nature. Some variations 
 of forms in different ages are generally recognised, 
 but the question of the earliest forms known has 
 hardly been touched ; yet this matter is what explains 
 to us more of the condition of the earliest historic 
 Egyptians than any actual objects that have been 
 found. I propose here to state the illustrative details 
 of the signs that occur at Medum, and also a few 
 which I have noted in the Ghizeh Museum. 
 
 47. Following the usual order of classifying signs, 
 we first note the squatting figure holding a long stick 
 on which is a loop ; the colour is best seen on the 
 fresco (Pl. XXVIII), but there is a curious variation 
 in three lines radiating from the loop (Pl. XXII) ; 
 this seems to be the sa sign, and when we see the 
 fowler with such a loop of withy, on which they 
 strung their birds (Pl. XXIV) and so carried them 
 by a stick, it seems as if the source of the sign was 
 before us. The Libyan archer appears here (IX) as 
 distinct and characteristic as in any later time. 
 
30 
 
 EARLV HIEROGLYPHS. 
 
 One rare sign appears, a man pounding in a mortar 
 (XV) ; and in the old man sign {aau XIII, XIV) the 
 stick is forked below ; the other human signs {ur, ked 
 — build — shep's, s infant, and menat nurse determina- 
 tive) are all as known in general. 
 
 Among parts of the body is the nose, which is 
 sometimes alone (XXIV), and sometimes with the 
 eye (XXII). The heart is well shewn (XIII), and is 
 clearly not a vase as it has been classified. It is 
 noticeable that the markings on it, which are con- 
 stant until late times, are exactly the same as those on 
 the nefer ; it rather appears that the nefer is really 
 the heart and tracheae, as Mr. Spurrell has suggested 
 to me, and since no trace of strings is ever shewn 
 upon it, nor is the stem prolonged over the round 
 part as in drawings of guitars, we must feel much 
 doubt as to the usual explanation of it. The colour 
 of the parts of the body is not constant ; the mouth 
 is mostly yellow but sometimes red, the arm red, the 
 hand yellow, the legs both red and yellow. As red is 
 the male colour and yellow the female these colours 
 are suitable, but are hardly likely to refer to a differ- 
 ence of gender. 
 
 Among the animals the hog (XXI) is of rare occur- 
 rence, and looks here as if it were wild. The lion's 
 head,/^/^ (XIII, XIX), is clearly not a drawing from 
 the animal, but of some object formed like a lion's 
 head, perhaps a draughtman on the top of a staff. 
 
 The bird ur is unmistakably the wagtail, which is 
 so common in Egypt ; the general colouring (Front, 
 and XIII) and the black spot on the breast leave no 
 doubt on the subject. The eagle a is very well shewn 
 in coloured examples (Front, and XIII, XIV) ; and also 
 the owl (Front. XI, XII) which is very true to nature. 
 The oxyrhyncus occurs here (XIII), which is rare. 
 Of reptiles there is the crocodile, all yellow (XXIII), 
 or yellow with black feet (XVIII), which appears in 
 the interesting title '' chief of the lake of the croco- 
 dile," the earliest name of the Fayum. The frog also 
 occurs (XVII) yellow. A part of an animal which 
 has been very uncertainly attributed is here well 
 shewn ; Kka is certainly not a club, nor a part of the 
 human body : the structure shews the mouths of 
 glands (XII, XIII) and can only be referred to the 
 mammae of some animal. The sign shed, which has 
 been classed as a whip, and described as a skin 
 bottle, is here seen (Front, and XI) to be the skin of 
 an animal, yellow, or mottled black or white, flayed 
 off, and rolled up raw, with the fur outside ; the red 
 flaps of the inside of the legs and neck skin shew out 
 at the ends, and the roll is tied around the middle. 
 
 and each end, with a cord. The senses of shed (a 
 skin bottle, to pull off, flay, lift up, save, or select) 
 exactly agree with this. 
 
 Among plants there are some varieties of tree forms 
 which might be discriminated (XII, XIII, XV, XVII, 
 XVIII, XXIII); and a variety of the hen plant 
 (XV), which is clearly a low shrub, and suggests a 
 connection with the Arabic henna. The pod net' em 
 (XI, XIII) which is usually called the acacia is hardly 
 of that form ; and, from its meaning " sweet," it is 
 more likely to be the sweet pod of the Kharub or 
 locust tree. Coming next to inanimate objects we 
 notice the colouring of the hill sign du (XXVIII), 
 which is light red sprinkled with spots of black, white, 
 red, and green, representing the many-coloured 
 pebbles which catch the eye in walking over the 
 desert. In one case there is a strip of green below 
 it for the edge of the green land at the desert 
 foot (XIV). 
 
 A sign which has been most absurdly classed as a 
 framework, is the road, ua or her (IX) ; this is finely 
 coloured on a slab in the Ghizeh Museum, and ex- 
 plains itself as a red road or embankment, with a blue 
 banal on either side, and green trees growing along 
 the canals in alternation. 
 
 It is noticeable that water is always blue, green, or 
 black ; the wavy line n is black, the tank sh and water 
 in a mass are dark blue or green with black ripples. 
 To any one accustomed to the yellow-brown, opaque 
 waters of the Nile such colouring would be unnatural. 
 Does this colouring not seem then to have been fixed 
 by dwellers on the clear, dark waters of the Red 
 Sea? 
 
 48. Buildings are the next division ; and from the 
 hieroglyphs we learn far more of architecture in the 
 dark period of the first three dynasties, than we can 
 learn by actual buildings until the XVII Ith. But- 
 tressed walls were usual for forts, as the sign is of the 
 same form as the later determinative (XIV, XV). 
 The cornices of the law courts were already crowned 
 with a row of uraei, as shewn in the sign ta (XX, 
 XXI). And in the types of columns we see the same 
 highly advanced forms. The sign an, which is often 
 called an obelisk, is seen here to be a fluted eight- 
 sided column (Front., X, XIII), with a tenon on the 
 top to fit the lintel, and painted black below, then 
 white with an ornamental edge, and red above. This 
 form is not yet known in the round until the XI Ith 
 dynasty. Next the sign aa, usually called a spear, is 
 remarkably detailed here (XIII) and is seen to be 
 absolutely identical with the central support of the 
 
EARLY HIEROGLYPHS. 
 
 31 
 
 roof in heb (X), which sign has also octagonal fluted 
 columns at the sides. The aa it will be seen has the 
 tenon on the top like the an ; from its slenderness and 
 general form it was certainly of wood, and it appears 
 to have been the great central pole of a tent or 
 canopy, carved into the form of a lotus plant. This 
 then was the origin of the lotus columns and capitals, 
 with the curious inverted flower or bell, which are so 
 often found in the XVII Ith dynasty. Other forms of 
 columns were also known in the IVth dynasty ; I 
 have published a remarkable column with wide capital, 
 apparently derived from the form of a bowl on a 
 stand (Season in Egypt, PL. XXV), carved in the 
 tomb of Khafkhufu at Gizeh. And another, not 
 dissimilar, is seen on a wall-painting at Kahun in the 
 Xllth dynasty, but with a banded top (Illahun, PL. 
 XVI). Now on the dad (or tat) sign (PL. XIII) we 
 see a tenon on the top, an evidence of a column ; and 
 abstracting for a time the repeated forms of the top, 
 we see that the main body is much like the column 
 drawn at Kahun. What then is the meaning of the 
 multiple top? ,In representing objects which were 
 not all in one plane the Egyptians used certain con- 
 ventions, and one of these was that parts that were 
 behind others were placed above them ; this is seen in 
 the drawings of groups of offerings, the birds, vege- 
 tables, &c., being drawn one above the other, to 
 represent that they lay one beyond the other on the 
 table ; it is seen in the wall-painting at Kahun 
 (Illahun, Pl. XVI) where the interior with the master 
 and servant is drawn above the front view of the 
 house ; and it is the elementary convention of all 
 wall scenes (as Prof. Maspero has pointed out), that 
 the Nile, the cultivation, the near desert, and the far 
 desert, succeed one another up from the base to the 
 top of the wall, in registers one over the other. 
 Regarding this regular convention we can hardly 
 neglect to see that the dad is a row of columns one 
 behind the other with the capitals shewn one over the 
 other ; the ;line of columns to support a roof being 
 necessarily particularly stable and firm, and according 
 with the meaning of the sign. From all these we can 
 form some idea of the lost architecture of the first 
 three dynasties ; there were octagonal fluted columns 
 of stone painted in bands, columns with capitals of the 
 bowl and stand type, similar ones with capitals of the 
 dad type, and slender shafts of wood of the lotus type. 
 Such forms cannot have been introduced as familiar 
 signs in syllalaic writing until they were well established 
 as regular architectural members ; and we are left in 
 amazement at the fully developed and completed 
 
 types of decorative architecture which these reveal to 
 us at so remote and unknown an age. 
 
 Granaries are shewn in Nefermat's tomb (XX, in 
 list of ofl"erings). The form of the door-bolt s is 
 remarkably contracted in the middle, and has a double 
 line along the nick (XIII) ; such lines usually shew a 
 string, as on the tied-up necks of bags (XIII, XV), 
 and here it seems likely that the middle of the bolt 
 had a string round it, which could be sealed on to the 
 door to prevent it being moved. 
 
 49. We next turn to weapons. The axe, mab, here 
 (Front, XIII, XIV) bound into the handle, sdems 
 from its outline to be a stone hatchet, as both form 
 and colour are much like the blue grey hornstone 
 hatchets which I have found at Kahun of the Xllth 
 dynasty. The dagger in sheath tep is of the usual 
 type. The bows appear in a bow case (IX) ; but it is 
 curious that the mesha, archer (IX), is clearly a Lybian 
 in type ( ? connected with the name Mashuash), and 
 he bears a bow of different form from the Egyptian, 
 in one case (IX) with the string broken and hanging 
 partly from each end. The arrows both of the archer 
 and elsewhere (IX, XIII, XX) are all flat ended, 
 probably tipped with small flints to cut chisel fashion. 
 The aha sign of the arms holding a shield and mace, 
 shews that the shield had straight sides, but was either 
 curved (XV) or straight (XII) at the top. .The mace 
 is evidently the het! sign (which has been classed as a 
 vegetable), and it is well shewn in separate examples 
 (XII, XIII). We recognise the yellow staff", the red 
 binding, and the white stone head, with the yellow 
 staff-end projecting. Such a mace head of very hard 
 white limestone I found at Kahun (Xllth dynasty), 
 and a piece of one of bright white stone (magnesite ?) 
 with the names of Khafra, I picked up at Gizeh. The 
 particular whiteness of the heads of those I found, and 
 in the drawings, shews why this was taken to express 
 brightness or whiteness. The harpoon, ua, is very 
 well shewn (Front., XIII, XIV) ; the body being red, 
 probably of wood, the point blue for copper (like the 
 copper cauldrons being blue, see XIII), and the loop 
 is of cord, as is expressly shewn On the tomb of 
 Rameriankh in the Ghizeh Museum. 
 
 Among the agricultural implements the sickle, ma, 
 is the most interesting. It is always green in the 
 body, with a projecting line of teeth, drawn black on 
 white (Front., XI, XIII). This is explained by the 
 sickles which I have found of the Xllth dynasty ; 
 they are carved in wood, with notched flints inserted 
 for teeth ; such then was the nature of the sickles of 
 the Ilird dynasty, though why they should be painted 
 
32 
 
 EARLY HIEROGLYPHS. 
 
 green it is difficult to understand. The obvious 
 origin of this sickle is from an ox's jaw with flints 
 substituted for the animal teeth. Such was a wide- 
 spread implement in the later stone age, as we see 
 from the innumerable flints in Egypt and elsewhere ; 
 these are notched on the edge, and shew by their 
 polish that they have been set in a groove socket, 
 and worn on a hard material like siliceous straw. A 
 whole class of matters has been cleared up by these 
 flint sickles which we see drawn in the sculptures. 
 In one tomb-well here over a hundred flint flakes were 
 found. The hoe, mer, is of the usual type : but one 
 instance (XV) may be a natural hoe, such as I have 
 found in the Xllth dynasty carved out of a natural 
 branch like perhaps the hoe on XXI. The plough 
 (XII, XVIII) has always two handles, similar to our 
 modern ploughs, and unlike the Roman plough which 
 had a sort of rudder head for guiding it. An article 
 fashioned from a natural branch, with a pole bound 
 on to the fork of it (XII with the pole, and in XIII 
 without the pole), is seen several times ; but it is not 
 commonly known, and probably fell out of use in 
 early ages. 
 
 Of tools there are several. The chisel menkh 
 which became very much corrupted in late times, is well 
 drawn here (Front, and XI) and is unmistakable, as 
 there is both the name and the use of it represented. 
 The handle is of turned wood, with a copper blade 
 inserted. Another form of chisel is the mer, often 
 occurring in the title smer ; it varies in form, some- 
 times a wide-headed handle with a spike-shaped 
 blade, in others a barrel-shaped handle (XVIII, XX), 
 but most noticeable is the barrel handle with a pro- 
 jection on one side, and the blade excentric (XXIV) 
 and shewing in one case by the side of the handle ; 
 this seems to be of the same family as the adze (so 
 familiar in the sotp sign) where the blade is not 
 inserted but attached to the handle ; here apparently 
 it is secured by a band of metal around it, as the pro- 
 jection is sometimes green ; the handle is regularly 
 yellow, being wood, and the blade black. The nenu 
 or adze occurs on a grand scale where a carpenter is 
 using it (Front., XI, XXV), and also in the sotp sign 
 (XI) ; the blade is attached to the wood by a long 
 binding. I have much such a blade nearly a foot 
 long, and four inches wide ; and I have found the 
 blades in the IVth, Xllth, and XVIIIth dynasties, 
 varying in form. The so-called polisher t is always 
 black ; such polishing stones are rarely, if ever, found ; 
 but black stones of exactly this shape are very com- 
 mon in early times, with a highly worn hole in the 
 
 flat side ; these were doubtless the stone caps for bow 
 drills, and for fire sticks, and we can hardly err in 
 calling / the drill head. The maa sign (XVI to XXI) 
 which is commonly recognised as a cubit, is long, 
 thin, and square ended, plainly the side view of the 
 cubit ; this being confused with the ta sign of land, 
 an end view was later adopted, and the bevel, which 
 is characteristic of the section of a cubit, was thus 
 added to the sign to distinguish it. The somewhat 
 variable sign sem (XIV), often classed as a knife, is 
 undoubtedly a sharpening stone for whetting knives ; 
 it is represented as so used in early tombs, and it is a 
 stone, and not metal (or a steel), as it is secured by a 
 knob at the end and string binding, instead of passing 
 the loop through a hole. The stick for winding string 
 upon (Ranefer XIV) is perhaps what is otherwise 
 known as ud. The sledge for dragging stones, tern, 
 is of the usual form (XX) ; and I have found pieces 
 of such sledges, of hard wood, joined by mortise and 
 tenon, among the stone chip fiUing-in of the pyramid 
 of Usertesen II at Illahun. Two forms of the sign 
 net occur, one the knitting-needle (XIII, XVj such as 
 I have found of wood and metal in the Xllth dynasty ; 
 the other what is usually called the shuttle, but which 
 is a complex affair, that seems to have handles at the 
 end, and to be bound round with crossing bands 
 (XV) ; this is the usual emblem of the goddess Neit, 
 
 SO. Three forms of sceptre are shewn ; the uas or 
 fam (XIII) has no animal head, as is usual later on, 
 but is merely the natural stick branching from the 
 main stem and subdividing at the tip ; the hek does 
 not seem to be a crook as usually supposed, but a 
 bent rod, bound around (X, XXVIII, 6) ; the kherp 
 is as usual. The important divine sign, neter, is 
 hardly yet explained ; that it is an axe is impossible ; 
 the later idea of its being a roll of bandages on a stick 
 is not satisfactory, as such an arrangement would be 
 very awkward to use in swathing a mummy. Here 
 there are several varieties. The top is plain with a 
 simple rod (XXIV), or with a rod ending in a ball 
 (stela XVI) ; the top is divided into two strips in five 
 instances (XV), and into three strips with a cross line 
 in one case (XVI) ; the colour is yellow, with the 
 lower end of the rod black (XXIV). The ball at the 
 end, the slope at the top, the division into strips, the 
 colour, and the cross bands on the handle, all render 
 it a difficult problem, although it is classed with tex- 
 tiles in the early lists of offerings. 
 
 Of personal ornaments three are now explained. 
 The well-known sign of " chancellor " {sahu) is now 
 seen to be identical in its two forms, the upright loop 
 
EARLY HIEROGLYPHS. 
 
 33 
 
 and the curved loop (Front., XIII, XIV, XVI, XVII, 
 XVIII, XX) ; and in the finely carved and coloured 
 example (Front, XIII) it is clearly a string of beads 
 alternately long and round, green and red, with an 
 object attached ; this object appears to be a cylinder 
 of dark blue-green, with yellow ends, and a red knob 
 below ; and the nature of it suggests a signet cylinder 
 of green jasper, with gold ends, and a central pin with 
 a red jasper knob, to hold it in. It means then essen- 
 tially the seal, and the title must be the royal seal- 
 bearer, and hence treasurer. The sign mib was long ex- 
 plained as a cloth for washing gold ; but it is unmis- 
 takably a grand collar (XIII) with rows of green, red, 
 and black beads. As gold was probably first used for 
 ornament around the neck, the collar naturally came 
 to be the sign for gold. Another familiar object is 
 the shoulder fastener for garments, which is here 
 identical with the sign seta (XII, XIII, XV) ; the 
 manner in which it was used suggests that it was 
 a spiral coil of sheet metal, into which could be 
 slipped side-ways the thin part of a garment. 
 
 The draught-board, men , is well illustrated in these 
 sculptures (XI, XIII, XIX). It is regularly divided 
 into 3 squares one way and lo squares the other ; 
 and this carries back the use of this 3 X lo board to 
 the Ilird dynasty. As I have found these boards 
 also in the Xllth, XVIIIth and XXVIth dynasties, the 
 game was known for four thousand years. The board 
 is shewn in plan, and the row of pieces in elevation on 
 the upper edge ; these pieces are of two sizes, the 
 larger white, and the smaller, some red, some black ; 
 or the larger green, and the smaller as before ; there 
 were thus three kinds of pieces used, and from the 
 numerals on boards I have found we see that they 
 counted from left to right along the top row of the 
 board. (Kahun, p. 30.) 
 
 51. Among the rope and band signs the i, h, and 
 shes, all occur in usual forms. But a point which has 
 not been noticed is that the numerals are all pieces of 
 rope. The unit stroke is not a line, but a piece of 
 rope, with the lower end frayed out to shew it (num- 
 bers on stela, XVI). The ten sign is exactly the 
 shape of a rope tether, such as is used to express a 
 tairie animal (IX, XXIV). The hundred is certainly 
 a coil of rope. And though the origin of the thousand 
 sign is not clear, and it seems more like a plant, yet it 
 was expressed by kha, " to measure," and a '' cord for 
 measuring." If then all the system of numeration is 
 derived from rope or cord, we are led to conclude that 
 the primitive Egyptian notation was by a knotted 
 cord. Another remarkable point of notation here (as 
 
 is also seen in other early tombs) is the sign for a 
 continued series. We write for instance i, 2, 3, . . . . 
 100 to denote all numbers up to 100, or i, 3, 5, 7 ... . 
 45 for all odd numbers up to 45. So the Egyptian 
 wrote I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and then drawing a bar divided 
 into a multitude of small parts, he placed 100 below 
 it, to denote all the other numbers up to 100 (stela, 
 Pl. XVI). The sign sa (back) is here made clearly 
 not like a backbone (XIII), with which it was some- 
 times identified. The long mid line of it is continuous, 
 and the other loops are attached to that (XIII). It 
 is possible that this is the wide bsmd that goes behind 
 the climber in ascending palm trees ; it is most 
 emphatically that which backs or protects him, and as 
 such would be a suitable sign. The package,/, is 
 shewn with wavy lines of cord around it in the fresco 
 (XXVIII). The cartouche line, which has not been 
 explained, is drawn on a slab of the Vlth dynasty at 
 Gizeh Museum as a rope binding, lashed together at 
 the bottom, and with two bows which form the spread 
 base of it. We can see that rope lashings were used 
 on a very large scale, as the whole of a stone trap- 
 door was girded with no less than 80 turns of rope, in 
 Ranefer's tomb ; so this rope lashing of the cartouche, 
 to bind together the group of signs of a royal name, 
 is not an unlikely idea for early times. The sign for 
 a clap net (X, XVIII) is what has been classed as a 
 framework : it represents the two sides of a net. The 
 symbol of life, anM, is shewn with a divided upright 
 (XIV), and in a fine example in Gizeh Museum the 
 side parts are likewise split. It appears (as Prof. 
 Sayce has suggested) to be the fisherman's girdle 
 with the loop passing round the waist, and the loose 
 flaps hanging from it ; this is the marsh-dress such as 
 the Nile figures wear, and as we see in the figures of 
 fishers, &c. (X, XI, XVIII). A sign hitherto unex- 
 plained is the familiar kotep. It is derived by the 
 same system as the sign of the men board and pieces ; 
 the mat of green rushes lashed together with yellow 
 cross strings is shewn in plan, and above that in 
 elevation is the offering-dish piled up with flour or 
 other food which was placed upon it before the tomb 
 or shrine. The green mat and yellow strings are 
 finely shewn in several cases (XIII, XIV). The reel 
 for winding rope on is shewn in many of the figures 
 of bird catching, at the free end of the rope (XVlII, 
 XXII). Several other signs here remain as yet un- 
 explained, though the detailed colouring of Mer 
 (XIII) and i'a (XXVIII) ought to help us to guess 
 them. 
 
 We now see how much light we have gained from 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 THE SMALL ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 the study of only two tombs ; light both on the 
 sources of hieroglyphs, and on the civilisation which 
 filled the unknown age of the first three dynasties. 
 Far more work is needed on the early and fine 
 sculptures to secure their details, and above all to 
 record the colouring before it drops off in the air, or 
 is washed away by some barbarian taking wet squeezes 
 from the walls. Nearly all the colouring in the lower 
 part of Rahotep's tomb was thus destroyed, and 
 Mariette used the squeezes of it. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SMALL ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 • 52. The positions of the various objects found have 
 been described in the previous chapters, but here we 
 shall notice the details of the objects in the order in 
 which they stand on the plates. 
 
 Pl. XXIX, I to 5. Hawks found in the temple of 
 Seneferu. It is not likely that such peculiar offerings 
 would continue to be made on purpose long after the 
 death of the king ; we have seen that the offering of 
 small vases and saucers ceased before the mastaba 18 
 was constructed ; and probably as each king died the 
 worship would be transferred to the last deceased. 
 Moreover all these hawks are different, and must 
 have been specially made for offering here, and yet 
 all by different hands ; if offered till later times there 
 would probably have been one factory for them, and 
 they would have been all alike. The character of the 
 glazing of No. 3 — a clear light purplish blue, with dark 
 purple stripes — is also early, and cannot be of the 
 XVIIIth dynasty, nor hardly of the Xllth. I think 
 probably therefore that these are contemporary with 
 the- decease of Seneferu, and the oldest small figures 
 known. The base of a statuette, 6, will be noted by 
 Mr. Griffith in the inscriptions ; it is of black serpen- 
 tine. From both the offerer and the town being 
 named after Seneferu there is a probability of its 
 early date, and it might well be of the IVth dynasty. 
 The lower part of a basalt stand, 7, is evidently a copy 
 in stone of a pottery form, such as XXX, 21. The 
 hole in it is one of three around it, and copied from 
 the hole cut with a knife in the pottery. Both of 
 these seem to have originated in a wooden form, as 
 the hole seems to be the space left between joining 
 pieces of wood ; and is not likely to arise as a mere 
 decoration in pottery. It is the regulation type of 
 table stand as seen in the sculptures (Pl. XIII). 
 
 No. 8 is a potsherd of the XVIIIth dynasty with an 
 hieratic inscription, which was written when it had 
 been broken to nearly the present size. Mr. Griffith 
 will deal with this in the inscriptions. There were 
 also in the temple many blue beads of the XVIIIth 
 dynasty, two bronze lance heads, and dried fruits, from 
 the burial there. 
 
 No. 9 is a polished piece of ivory of unknown use ', 
 it seems like a toilet object, but the teeth are too 
 small for a comb ; possibly it was a skin-scraper. 
 
 No. 10 is a horn handle of a mirror, probably of 
 the IVth dynasty. 
 
 No. 1 1 is the adze blade which is certainly of the 
 old Kingdom, and perhaps of the IVth dynasty. The 
 type varies from those of the Xllth and XVIIIth 
 dynasties. The bevel edge is already fully developed ; 
 and the thickness of the head suggests that it might 
 be struck by a mallet. 
 
 No. 1 2 is a fragment of a rude saw ; the notches do 
 not join, and may have been made with a flint edge. 
 It was broken off anciently, and wrapped up in a 
 piece of linen tied together, to preserve it. I found 
 it among the broken stone and chips, which were 
 thrown in to make the ground level at the north of 
 mastaba 17. 
 
 No. 13 is a rude plummet of soft white limestone, 
 hung by a thread passing round it ; this was found 
 among the stone chips which form the mass of mas- 
 taba 17, which is probably contemporary with the 
 pyramid. Many pieces of linen were also found 
 among these chips ; some of it coarse and saturated 
 with ruddle, which may have been used to rub ruddle 
 on stones for colouring, or for masons' marks. 
 
 No. 14 is a small bronze chisel of the type of the 
 XlXth dynasty ; found low down in the pyramid 
 rubbish it was probably lost by the workmen of 
 Ramessu II when stripping the pyramid. 
 
 The find of objects in a well of mastaba 8 has been 
 described. The four alabaster bowls are all alike (15), 
 though but one is perfect. The pottery (16) has a 
 smooth dark red face. The shell (17) contains 
 powdered blue carbonate of copper, as a paint ; and 
 two similar shells empty were found with it. The 
 needles (18, 19) shew the thin and thick types. The 
 flints were all kept separate in lots as found, until 
 they were examined ; they proved however to have 
 been mixed together after manufacture, and re-divided. 
 Mr. Spurrell examined them and succeeded in restoring 
 the arrangement of seventeen in one block (20, 21), 
 which shews the exact order in which they were struck 
 off with unfailing regularity. The different types of 
 
THE SMALL ANTIQUITIES* 
 
 35 
 
 flakes are shewn in '22 to 26. For the first time we 
 have here dated flints as far back as the beginning of 
 historic Egyptian archaeology. The three other flints, 
 27 to 29, were found on the surface, among the desert 
 stones ; but as there were a hundred more chances of 
 their being dropped when the, place was crowded with 
 workmen in Seneferu's time than since it has stood 
 desert, there is a presumption in favour of their being 
 of the IVth dynasty. The portion 27 is a knife 
 handle of the type of those found at Kahun of the 
 Xllth dynasty. 
 
 S3. The pottery (Pls. XXX, XXXI) is quite dif- 
 ferent from that of any later period that I have yet 
 examined. The most distinctive point is the highly 
 polished red face to the bowls, the thinness and 
 hardness of them, and the sharp outlines (XXXI, 
 2 to 6). This ware I have noticed before (Archaeo- 
 logical Journal, 1883, p. 271) ; it is very fine, and all 
 but equal to the best Roman, far better than what is 
 called " mock-Samian." These bowls are the com- 
 monest type of all, and are made both of this fine 
 quality and also coarser ; in forms with beaded edge, 
 or turned in or with a lip, (XXX 1-6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 36; 
 XXXI, 2-6). A hard drab ware was also made 
 (XXX, 1 1), and in some pieces it has been heated until 
 the surface is half fused. It is certainly of the earliest 
 here, as a piece was found in the waste heaps of the 
 pyramid masons. The small cups on stems XXX, 
 14, 16, are curious, and unlike later forms ; the bowls 
 accompanied them, 15 with 14, and 17 with 16. In 
 15 is a quantity of haematite paint. The other 
 pottery with these was of early style. There is some 
 doubt about No. 19 ; it was found isolated, and is 
 much like some of the XXIInd dynasty. The tray, 
 20, of very rough red pottery was evidently made to 
 go on a pottery stand such as No. 21. The small 
 vases and saucers 22 to 27 were all found in the 
 filling of mastaba 18, from the offerings at the 
 pyramid. Such are also found in the places of offer- 
 ing at the tombs here, and at the pyramids of Gizeh 
 and Dahshur. 
 
 The occurrence of marks on pottery, so far back as 
 the beginning of the IVth dynasty, must be taken 
 account of, in considering the rise and origin of the 
 marks so often found in the Xllth and XVIIIth dyn- 
 asties. The figures here, Nos. 28 to 34, are all drawn 
 the same way up as on the pottery. 28 and 30 do not 
 occur in the signs I have collected before ; 29 may 
 well be a part of the fine pointed star (Kahun, XXVII, 
 182) ; 31 is the hieroglyph as ; and the cross in 32, 
 33, 34, XXXI, 9, 27, is a naturally frequent sign. 
 
 The deep pan 35 of rough brown pottery was found 
 with the fine hard browny white bowl 36, and the 
 rough light brown XXXI, 8 ; along with the ordinary 
 kinds of red bowls, &c, in mastaba 22. 
 
 54. In Pl. XXXI the bowl 4 is the only perfect 
 example of the fine polished red-faced ware, though 
 many pieces of this were found, varying somewhat in 
 outline (2, 3, 5, 6, 7), Such pottery I have found at 
 Gizeh of the IVth dynasty ; though from some of it 
 being on the surface there, I was inclined to place it 
 to the Roman age as well as the IVth dynasty. No. 9 
 is one of three large pots found in the E.N.E. masta- 
 bas, and bearing a cross on the shoulder and on the 
 bottom ; these are roughish red pottery. No. 10 is 
 bright red, not polished. 11 is of rough, thick, soft 
 brown ware, 12 is a curious form of stem, not found 
 in other cases here, and much like late pottery ; but 
 its age is certain, as it was found in the stone-chip 
 filling of mastaba 1 7. No. 1 3 is of -rough, hard, blackish 
 red pot from the filling of mastaba 18, and therefore 
 early. The rude hand-made pottery 15, 17, 19 is very 
 characteristic ; it is constantly found in the tombs 
 at Medum, and also in the rubbish heaps of Khufu at 
 Gizeh. The form 15 is that which is shewn in early 
 statuettes of a potter, squatting down and forming a 
 pot with one hand inside and one outside. 17 is a 
 very peculiar shape, the upper part being smooth, and 
 the bottom always rough and irregular. From being 
 always found by tombs it seems as if it were for 
 setting in the sand to pour offerings in. No. 20 is of 
 a hard pale red-brown ware, which is peculiar ; it is 
 scraped all over the outside in various directions, and 
 therefore seems as if it was hand made, although 
 very regular. 2 1 is one of the large pans with a pipe 
 spout, of which pieces occur in many groups here ; 
 this is fixed to the date of Rahotep, as it held the 
 mortar used for closing his tomb, and was found in 
 the bottom of his pit. Other forms of spout are shewn 
 in Nos. 22, 23. 24 is a thin bright red pottery; and 
 25 is rough brown, with a curious ledge round the 
 inside. Many pieces of rough limestone were found 
 in the builders' rubbish about the pyramid, bearing 
 large drilled holes (XXXI, 26). The holes are on 
 both sides in most cases, without any order, often in- 
 tersecting at the edges. It is certain this is a waste 
 product ; and as it was produced by some body 
 rotating under heavy pressure we are led to attribute 
 it to some arrangement for moving the stones. Any 
 .fixed crane or lifting machine would pivot on a large 
 stone, or in the rock. But it seems possible that blocks 
 might be moved by lashing them to the short end of 
 
 F 2 
 
36 
 
 THE SMALL ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 a lever bar, which rested on a pivot near the block ; 
 by a gang of men pressing on the long end, the block 
 would be lifted, and could then be transferred by the 
 men walking and rotating the lever on its pivot. 
 Such an arrangement would need a movable bearing 
 to be shifted onward at each lift, and these blocks 
 might well be for such bearings. 
 
 The two vases 27, 28 were found in the rock-cut 
 tunnel leading to the building of unknown purpose 
 south of the pyramid. They are intermediate in 
 character between the pottery of the IVth and the 
 Xllth dynasties, and may well be of about the Vlth 
 dynasty. The rough implement of black hornstone 
 is one of two found in the rubbish of the destroyers 
 on the east of the pyramid, at some distance from the 
 base. It is therefore certain that these belong to the 
 rude plunderers of stone in the XlXth or XXth 
 dynasties. They are like some implements which I 
 found at Gizeh ; those bore signs of having been 
 worked up out of more ancient wrought stone, and in 
 that case also therefore they were not of a primitive 
 age. 
 
 55. Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S., has very kindly favoured 
 me with the results of his analyses of the metals which 
 I collected at Medum. His report is as follows : — 
 
 " I. The broken piece of an adze. The (freshly) 
 broken face was very uniformly granulated ; while 
 the outer surfaces were dark red, as from suboxide of 
 copper. The specimen consisted almost entirely of 
 copper ; only 0"38 p. cent, of arsenic was found, with 
 traces of antimony and iron. There is some sulphur, 
 no doubt from imperfect reduction of the ore ; but no 
 phosphorus was detected, nor any tin. 
 
 " 2. The borings from an adze from the well of 
 Rahotep. (PL. XXIX, 11.) These again were almost 
 wholly copper : o • 54 p. cent, of arsenic was determined, 
 with traces of antimony, iron, sulphur, and probably 
 phosphorus ; but again there was no tin. 
 
 " 3. Piece of cylindrical rod found in mastaba 17. 
 This consists of an internal core, and a dark outer 
 ring. When examined under the microscope the core 
 is found to consist of miscellaneous granules very 
 various in colour ; the outer portion is also hetero- 
 geneous, containing a red suboxide spotted with green 
 and patches of blue. This was found to contain the 
 large amount of 8 "4 p. cent, of tin, with mere traces 
 of antimony, arsenic and iron ; no phosphorus was 
 detected. This must, therefore, be looked upon as 
 the earliest specimen of bronze. It is so very interest- 
 ing that I am making a more complete analysis of 
 the core, which I will send when ready. 
 
 "4. The dark filings from a pick found at Gizeh. 
 These were too small in amount to be examined with 
 accuracy. They consisted however of copper with a 
 little arsenic, and a trace of what may have been 
 either tin or antimony." 
 
 I should add that the specimen i was presumably of 
 the IVth dynasty, or early, from the form, and being 
 found at Medum. No. 2 is certainly of the old 
 kingdom, and probably of early IVth dynasty. No. 3 
 is the critical matter. It is a bit of rod hammered 
 square with truncated edges, 0-37 across and about 
 li inch long. The ends merely rough ; slightly 
 tapering, and hollowed on the end, evidently the 
 result of hammering out. The piece was found low 
 down in the deep foundation filling outside the N.W. 
 corner of mastaba 17 (see sects. 21-23); and, if this 
 position is beyond doubt, it must be of the age of 
 Seneferu, as the chips of the filling are the masons' 
 waste from the pyramid. The only doubt can be on 
 whether it fell in from above during the work, as I did 
 not find it myself. The sides of the excavation were 
 of brick wall, from which it could not come, only the 
 filling at the ends could be in question. The con- 
 cretions on it are of clean large grains of sand and 
 chips of limestone, quite free from fine wind-blown 
 surface dust, agreeing with its deposit in the bottom 
 of the foundation space. The corrosion on it is very 
 slight, indeed I have seldom seen bronze less attacked, 
 and certainly not where it was in contact with earth : 
 this strongly shews that it cannot have been dropped 
 and lain on the surface exposed to danip and air in 
 later times. And moreover no work was done at this 
 part after the building ; no workmen appear to have 
 been about this mastaba : and yet this is plainly a 
 workman's piece, probably for a dowel ; and it was 
 not a tool used by people in general. There is then 
 no reason to doubt the evidence of it as being of the 
 IVth dynasty. The presence of bronze in a stray 
 piece, and not in tools, seems to point to some civilisa- 
 tion external to Egypt from which it had come by 
 trade. No 4 is from the tip of a pick, which I found 
 concreted by stalagmite in a tomb at Gizeh never 
 exposed since the pyramid period. 
 
THE INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 37 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 By F. Ll. Griffith. 
 
 56. Pl. VIII. The short inscriptions against the 
 architect's lines read meh 5 (and 8) kher nefru {prkker 
 n nefru and must mean " 5 (and 8) cubits (respectively) 
 beneath the ground-level," or possibly "beneath the 
 intersection (of the two lines)." The former render- 
 ing, which suggested itself to Mr. Petrie, seems pre- 
 ferable and leads to a good translation for a passage 
 in the Papyrus Abbott (spoliation of the tombs at 
 Thebes) p. iii. 1. 12. "It was found that the thieves 
 had violated it (the tomb of king Sebekemsaf) tunnel- 
 ing along the ground-level ? nefru of its pyramid from 
 the exterior hall of the tomb of Neb- Amen." 
 
 57. Pls. IX-XXVIII. The inscriptions of the 
 mastabas. 
 
 In preparing this account I have referred to the 
 plates of Mariette, Mon. Div. PL. 16-20, to the 
 same author's Mastabas, pp. 468-487, ViLLlERS 
 Stuart, Nile Gleanings, the notices in Baedeker's 
 Handbook, and other sources of information, in order 
 to ascertain what signs or groups could be recovered 
 beyond those found still in place by Mr. Petrie. It is 
 a pleasure to find that there is not a single sign in 
 the new copy that one can regard with suspicion. 
 
 Pls. IX-X. The titles of Rahotep, as given very 
 fully on the architrave, may be compared with those 
 upon the celebrated group of the husband and wife 
 in the khedivial Museum {Mon. Div. Pl. 20, Mast. 
 p. 487). Rahotep, who was a " king's son of his 
 body" (his royal father's name is not stated), must 
 have lived in the reign of Seneferu, or at the latest in 
 that of Chufu. Three of his titles are of known 
 import — "high-priest, ur ma, of the Sun at Helio- 
 polis," " member of the Southern tens " (the tens 
 being apparently the name of a council consisting of 
 four tens, making forty members), and "captain of 
 the host." As high priest at Heliopolis Rahotep was 
 certainly one of the leading men in the Egyptian 
 hierarchy, but " captain of the host " is a title that 
 might apply to several military grades, general or 
 local, although I suspect that Rahotep was com- 
 mander-in-chief : " member of the Southern tens " 
 does not imply a very exalted rank. Of the other 
 titles, fourteen in number, which Rahotep bore, 
 several are partially intelligible : from these, however, 
 
 nothing of value can at present be deduced, excepting 
 that some appear to denote authority in particular 
 districts. 
 
 Turning now to the scenes, we see the king's son 
 Rahotep accompanied by the lady Nefert, a " royal 
 acquaintance." Upon the stela of the outer court 
 (Pl. XII) is an inscription which probably is to be 
 read " the royal acquaintance, the king's son of his 
 body, who has attained the reward of merit, Bu-nefer." 
 The name of this individual does not appear in the 
 stone chambers of the tomb, and his connection with 
 it is not explained. A rare peculiarity is that he 
 should be called a " royal acquaintance " as well as 
 " king's son." 
 
 Rahotep's children are all designated "royal ac- 
 quaintances." The sons are Atu, Deda, and Nefer- 
 kau, the daughters Satet, Nedem-ab and Merert (Pls. 
 XIII-XV). It has been reasonably supposed that 
 the term "royal acquaintance" was appropriated to 
 the grandchildren of kings : but there are a few cases 
 in which a " royal acquaintance " or a " true royal 
 acquaintance " is certainly not a royal grandson by 
 either parent, so it is perhaps best to consider the 
 phrase as denoting personal friendship with the 
 king as opposed to mere formal intercourse. 
 
 Rahotep and Nefert are " watching the chase " in 
 the upper row of PL. IX. This scene, like all the 
 others, is much abridged : we must imagine, what we 
 can see in later tombs, that a portion of the desert 
 has been fenced in, probably forming a decoy or 
 battue-ground rather than a park. In the lower row 
 " the stock-farms of the house of eternity " are pre- 
 sented to their owners' view. The "house of eter- 
 nity '' of any individual appears to mean the estate 
 settled permanently for the construction and service 
 of the tomb. 
 
 In Pl. X they " watch the netting of waterfowl," 
 in which diversion their sons "Atu " and " Deda" are 
 actively engaged. 
 
 Pl. XI. " Rahotep watches of the house of 
 
 eternity" (compare PL. XXV for the same difficult 
 expression). The men are spt " lashing " the planks ? 
 of the boat together (spt is commonly used of binding 
 together bundles of reeds to form rafts and boats), 
 and mnkk " using the chisel," perhaps only to tighten 
 the cords by forcing them on to a wider portion of 
 the vessel. 
 
 On the right side is the name " bullock ? " over a 
 hornless beast, and on the left, behind the oryx, 
 "bringing offerings," while over the animal is rn^ 
 meaning perhaps "stall-fed." Next sotept "cutting 
 
38 
 
 THE INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 off the choice portions " from an ox, and in the last 
 compartment the mysterious expression per-kheru for 
 " funereal meals ; " the first servant carries " wine," 
 the legend before the second is " bringing sweet 
 things." 
 
 Pl. XII. In the second row two men are "carrying 
 an aha (' fighting ')-fish." The accurate representation 
 enables me to identify it as the keshr of the Arabs 
 {Lates niloticus). This great species of perch attains 
 a length of 5 feet according to Dr. Gunther in his 
 work on the fishes of the Nile (printed in Petherick's 
 Travels), but its extreme length is given as no less 
 than 10 feet in the probably inaccurate account of the 
 Description de I'Egypte, where it is figured {Hist. 
 Nat. i. Pl. IX). Anyhow the artist at Medum is not 
 guilty of serious exaggeration in allowing its tail to 
 drag on the ground while its lip is raised level with 
 the bearers' shoulders. The fish is named in the 
 great medical Papyrus Ebers, and an argument for a 
 different reading of the sign aha has been founded on 
 an erroneous identification of the species, so this 
 marvellous piece of early painting is of importance in 
 more ways than one. 
 
 In the next compartment is '" ploughing," and be- 
 low are the domains, some of which we have already 
 passed by in the preceding plate. 
 
 In the very earliest tombs the estates of the de- 
 ceased are named and represented as slaves, male or 
 female according to the gender of the name. Later, 
 in the Vth and Vlth dynasties they were all alike 
 symbolised by female slaves, and after the end of the 
 Old Empire they are no longer individually recorded. 
 These names must have had very little stability and 
 probably they seldom survived more than one or two 
 generations, so that the record soon became meaning- 
 less. Sometimes the names of the nomes in which 
 the estates lay are mentioned, shewing that they were 
 spread widely over Upper Egypt or the Delta, but 
 at Medum there is no indication of their position. 
 Those of Rahotep and Nefert (Pls. XI, XII, XV and 
 one in XIII) are severally designated as " the temple," 
 "the place of pots," "the red," the "herb-producer," 
 "going-growing {crescit eundo)" "entrance-barred," 
 etc., etc. 
 
 Pl. XIII. In the niche is a prayer to Anubis that 
 the deceased " may come to the West as possessing 
 perfection," the West being the land of the sunset and 
 of departed souls. 
 
 Over the table of offerings are the names of " in- 
 cense, green eye-paint, wine, figs," and other offerings 
 are below. At the side are enumerated various sorts 
 
 of linen, viz. neter, sunu and aa. In Pls. XVI and 
 XX we see also dema, and in XX again nefer-res. 
 Of each variety there are different qualities, marked 
 e.g. 100, 9, 5, 3, 2, I (the numbers referring perhaps 
 to the strands in the thread) and 1000 pieces of each 
 quality are set down. 
 
 At the sides there are wonderfully detailed lists of 
 the furniture, accoutrements, and unguents belonging 
 to the tomb. On the right are jars, perhaps of sacred 
 oils, and vessels and other objects in uasmu (gold or 
 electrum) and silver, the former metal preponderating ; 
 amongst them is a ewer and basin of uasmu. On the 
 left are vessels, also a sedan-chair utes, a footstool 
 with sandals ? upon it ma, and various seats and stools, 
 a table, a box hen, writing-case kher-a and draught- 
 board sent. These named figures, will be valuable for 
 reference in the future, but as yet there is not much 
 possibility of illustrating them from other sources. 
 It would appear that most of the names became 
 obsolete soon after the IVth dynasty. The lower 
 half on each side is occupied by things pertaining to 
 the " treasure of the house of eternity." They include 
 a second series of the sacred oils ?, and on the right 
 are vessels principally of stone — " limestone ? ", " blue 
 stone," " granite " and " alabaster." 
 
 Pl. XIV. The animals are the oryx, stall-fed ? ren, 
 the addax nudu, and the ibex naa. The last is led 
 by a figure representing one of the estates, but the 
 name cannot be read. The six figures below are the 
 treasurer ? Demd, the butcher } Sen-ankh, Sesa, Dauf, 
 Anta and Sabu. 
 
 On the fragment from " Ra-nefer " we see some 
 names or portions of names — Nebef, Rud, Kheft. 
 
 Pl. XV. ; with the offerings of Nefert compare Pls. 
 XI. and XIII. We may note especially that on the 
 right side, top row, below the figure of a man pounding 
 with pestle and mortar there is a clear representation 
 of a pair of corn-muUers with the name akh: the 
 same utensils figure in PL. XIII, top line on the left. 
 
 Pl. XVI. Stela of Heknen, a " royal acquaintance." 
 The confused inscription seems to be " his estate, the 
 royal offerings which it brings daily : (the estates 
 named) Sunu-ta and . . . ta, (the offerings) incense, 
 sycamore-figs," etc. The fragment on the left runs 
 " the ka-servant Persen," who was doubtless repre- 
 sented with an offering. 
 
 The lintel of mastaba No. 7 shews a number of 
 titles which, so far as they are preserved, agree with 
 those of Rahotep : the deceased was " captain of the 
 host " and " superintendent of labourers ? " and of 
 " transports ? " like Rahotep, and a fragment of a new 
 
THE INSCRIPTIONS, 
 
 title remains that probably refers to the neighbouring 
 lake of the Fayum under the designation " lake of the 
 crocodile." 
 
 On the other hand the titles of Nefermaat, whose 
 inscriptions begin on the same plate, have no single 
 point of contact with those of Rahotep. He must 
 have been a greater man than the latter ; he was 
 "eldest royal son, chief justice" and in the hierarchy 
 *' priest of the goddess Bastet, of Khentsetet, of Khem, 
 of Thoth and of the Mendesian ram " (compare Pls. 
 XX, XXI). On PL. XX he is said to have " dis- 
 charged ■ every priestly function : " he was also 
 " superintendent of all works of the king." Nefer- 
 maat held the general dignities implied by rpa, ha, 
 ari-mkhen, and royal-treasurer ? and it is remarkable 
 that Rahotep had none of these. 
 
 Pl. XVII. Nefermaat's wife was "the royal ac- 
 quaintance Atet : " the " royal acquaintance Nub " of 
 Pl. XIX was perhaps a second wife. Their children 
 were distinguished. The short titles of the eldest son 
 Henan prove that he enjoyed several offices that were 
 held also by Rahotep : the second, Asu, was am-a 
 and priest of some goddess (Pl. XXIII), while the 
 other members of this numerous family were called 
 " friends of the king " semer or " royal acquaintances " 
 rekh suten : their names are Ankherfend, Ankhresh- 
 tef, Serefka, Teta, Khent (who appears to be entitled 
 " superintendent of the lake of the crocodile " but the 
 position of the signs makes this doubtful), Uhemuka, 
 Shepseska, Kakhent, Deftsen, Atisen, Ankaf, and a 
 daughter . . . gaut. 
 
 Pl. XVIII. There is a fragment of a remarkable 
 title in front of Nefermaat which was visible formerly 
 also on the lintel of Atet (Pl. XXII). Mariette 
 shews it more complete, and his copy is confirmed 
 by the useful sketch of the niche in Mr. Villiers 
 Stuart's Mle Gleanings, PL. G. It may be read 
 perhaps ud ser neb " commanding every noble." 
 
 Pl. XIX. The topmost figure on the left repre- 
 sents the estate called Menat-Seneferu," nurse of the 
 king Seneferu." It is noticeable that a city or estate 
 near Beni Hasan, called "nurse of king Chufu," 
 Chufu being the successor of Seneferu, played 
 an important rSle in the early Middle Kingdom. 
 Possibly this Menat- Chufu was an estate of the 
 usual type to which the name clung with unusual 
 tenacity. 
 
 Another estate-name on the same plate (bottom 
 row) has been credited with being the earliest form 
 of Medum. It contains the elements mtwn (deter- 
 mined by an ox), and the conventional transliteration 
 
 metun has a curious likeness to Medum ; but that is 
 all: we do not know even whether Metun lay in 
 Upper or in Lower Egypt. The modern name of 
 the place was indeed sometimes written Medun by 
 early European travellers ; the ears are often de- 
 ceived as to m and n in a. new name or word, and 
 Makrizi (Khitat i. p. 112), quotes from an older 
 Arab author a passage referring to the pyramid of 
 Medun (with n and short e) ! but both ancient and 
 modern authorities, Makrizi i. p. 119, the list of 
 villages published in De Sacy's Abdellatif, and the 
 new census of 1882, give Maidvlm, corresponding 
 exactly to the modern vulgar pronunciation M^dflm. 
 Thus writers who are or were familiar with the place 
 agree in final m; casual travellers may confuse the 
 two sounds n and m in sl village-name, but natives of 
 the place do not, so that it is useless to compare 
 Metun with Maidum. There is better reason for 
 supposing that Mertum (really pronounced Maitum) 
 is the ancient equivalent of the name. Ancient t is 
 constantly equivalent to modern d, and we know the 
 position of the town from the inscription of Piankhi, 
 which places it in this neighbourhood on the West of 
 the Nile. Unfortunately there is no new evidence to 
 shew for this identification, which was proposed long 
 ago. 
 
 It must be remembered that the gaps in the scenes 
 here, Pls. XIX, XXI, have been compressed in order 
 to get them into the plate. This circumstance affects 
 especially the list of offerings which must once have 
 existed in front of the large figure of Nefermaat. 
 
 Pl. XXI. It is unfortunate that the estate-name 
 towards which Nefermaat is being carried is broken 
 away : as Mr. Petrie has pointed out, it was com- 
 pounded with the name of a king. In the bottom 
 row a boar appears. During the IVth dynasty this 
 animal was domesticated (tomb of Amten, L. D. II. 
 pl. v.), and it is often seen in the earliest hieroglyphs ; 
 but from the Vth dynasty onwards it is of extreme 
 rarity. 
 
 Pl. XXIV. In front of Nefermaat is a statement 
 that has been translated " (the tomb) was made for 
 his gods in writing that cannot be destroyed." 
 Although this rendering may be thought question- 
 able, there is no doubt that the passage contains a 
 reference to the durable nature of the decoration. 
 
 In the second column servants are "bringing 
 wine " and " figs " : below are the products of the 
 "stock farms of the house of eternity," and in the 
 fourth compartment fowlers are bringing birds ? 
 " coming forth from the papyrus-marsh." 
 
40 
 
 THE INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 PL XXVII. In front of the fallow-deer is the 
 legend "bringing the tribute of the house of 
 eternity." 
 
 PL. XXVIII. There is a "stall-fed?" addax in 
 No. 3. The domestication of antelopes in the early- 
 periods of Egyptian history is well known. 
 
 58. The inscription on the base of a female 
 statuette (Pl. XXIX, No. 6) probably begins at the 
 side : " may her name [remain, established] in peace 
 before Uadti mistress of Asheru, Khnumu, . . . ? 
 Neb-Sau ? Horus ? and the gods (or Neb-sa and the 
 cycle of gods) who are in Dad-Seneferu, for the ka of 
 (the lady) Seneferu-Kheti, deceased, possessing per- 
 fection." It is a prayer that the name of Seneferu- 
 Kheti, represented by the figure, may remain before 
 various deities of the place, whose titles are somewhat 
 unusual. The chief value of the inscription lies in 
 the place-name Dad-Seneferu. In a collection of 
 wonder-tales, known as the Westcar papyrus, it is 
 related that a magician dwelt there in the time of 
 king Chu Fu. He was 110 years old and yet daily 
 consumed the haunch of an ox together with 500 
 cakes of bread and 100 jugs of beer. The legendary 
 home of this extraordinary individual who bore the 
 same name as one of Nefermaat's sons, may be fixed 
 with tolerable certainty at Medum. 
 
 No. 8 is an ostracon on which were jotted down 
 some accounts : the entries are difficult to unravel. 
 A name Apusenb and the style of the hieratic 
 together point to a date about the beginning of the 
 New Kingdom. 
 
 59. In reading the graffiti reproduced on Pls. 
 XXXII-XXXVI, the fact must not be lost sight of 
 that a certain amount of restoration or alteration is 
 allowable. The scribe's pen drawn over an irregular 
 surface may leave a gap where there should be a 
 continuous line or a blot where there should be no 
 ink. Add to these considerations the faintness or 
 complete obliteration of the originals in many places, 
 and a ready explanation is forthcoming for any in- 
 accuracies in the copies, which on the whole are so 
 admirably legible. 
 
 On PL. XXXII, No. I. reads " Thrice beautiful is 
 the name of the King Seneferu " (which means 
 " making beautiful "). 
 
 No. II. " Sebekhotepemsaf," a private name pro- 
 bably of the Xlllth dynasty. 
 
 No. III. "The scribe Antifi 1 " 
 
 No. IV. " Ameni." 
 
 These early records are true graffiti, having been 
 scratched on the stone : the remainder were written 
 
 in two inks from the ever-ready palette of the 
 Egyptian scribe. 
 
 No. V. "Year 41, 22nd day of Mesore, under the 
 majesty of the king Horus Strong Bull, who appears 
 gloriously in Thebes ; the wearer of the two diadems, 
 who prolonging his reign like the sun in heaven, 
 the golden (victorious) Hawk who wields might, 
 who prepares glorious visitations, the king of Upper 
 and Lower Egypt, Menkheperra, son of the sun 
 Thothmes III., who lives for ever to eternity upon 
 the throne of Horus (as ruler) of the living. 
 
 " Behold his majesty is as a young bull ... as a 
 goodly youth of 20 years whose equal has not been 
 produced : the god Menthu .? formed him for . . . : 
 the god Turn . . . him : the universal lord created 
 him : he is a mighty man very valorous in the field ? 
 of [battle ?]. 
 
 " The scribe Aakheperkara-senb, son of Amenmesu 
 the scribe and reader (Jihei'-heV) of the deceased 
 king Aakheperkara (Thothmes I.) came here to see 
 the beautiful temple of the Horus (king) Seneferu : 
 he found it like heaven within when the sun-god is 
 rising in it : and he exclaimed, ' The heaven rains 
 with fresh frankincense and drops incense upon the 
 roof of the temple of the Horus king Seneferu.' 
 
 " And he says, ' O every scribe, every reader, every 
 priest, who reads this inscription, and all people who 
 hear it, as ye would win the favour of your local 
 deities, transmit your offices to your children, and 
 be buried in the necropolis of Ptah-resanbef on the 
 west (of Memphis), after old age and long life on 
 earth — so say ye May the king give an offering, 
 and may Osiris, god of Busiris the great deity, god 
 of Abydos, and Ra Hru Khuti and Tumu god of 
 Heliopolis, and Amen Ra king of the gods, and 
 Anubis in the shrine, who dwells in the city of 
 embalmment, the god of the west — give offerings, may 
 they grant a thousand loaves of bread, a thousand 
 jars of beer, a thousand oxen, a thousand fowls, a 
 thousand offerings, a thousand provisions, a thousand 
 packets of incense, a thousand jars of wax, a thousand 
 bundles of linen, a thousand herbs, a thousand of 
 every good and pure thing that heaven gives, that 
 the earth produces, that the Nile brings from its 
 source — to the ka of the Horus king Seneferu who 
 has made good his claim ? before his father [Osjiris ? 
 the great god lord of the sacred land, and to the 
 goddess ?-queen Meres-ankh.' " 
 
 The complimentary remarks on the temple are 
 stereotyped phrases found also in the graffiti on the 
 tombs of Beni Hasan. They are none too appro- 
 
VARIETIES OF ANCIENT "KOHL." 
 
 41 
 
 priate in either case: the rock-cut tombs had no 
 "roof" exposed to the drippings of heaven, and the 
 bare walls of the Medum temple were but little like 
 the sky at sunrise. I imagine that the expressions 
 were considered the polite ones for admiring or 
 wondering visitors to make on entering a house, at 
 least I see no other explanation for their appearance 
 under such incongruous circumstances. 
 
 No. VI. Over the bird a name " Senefer(u ?)." 
 
 No. VIII. "Year 26, 21st day of the 3rd winter 
 month under the majesty of the king Menkheperra, 
 son of the sun Thothmes III., living for ever. The 
 scribe of measuring of the king Thothmes I., Aba ? 
 . . . came and said . . . the (possessions of the) house 
 of his father . . ." (there follows a list of land and 
 products or offerings. It is unfortunate that this is 
 so much mutilated). 
 
 No. X. " The carver (decorative) Fai ? " 
 
 No. XI. " The sculptor Au .?-senb." 
 
 No. XIV. "May the king give an offering, and 
 may the Horus king Seneferu, and Amen-Ra, king 
 of the gods, and Ra-Hrukhuti ... all things ? grant 
 glory ? in heaven, might ? on earth, drinking water in 
 the mid ? stream, breathing the sweet air of the 
 north breeze, to the ka of him who follows [the feet] 
 of the master of the two lands, Neter-mesu, who 
 renews life and has obtained the reward of faithful 
 service i^eb amakJi)!' 
 
 No. XVI. Record of a visitor, " son of Panehsi," 
 shewing traces of the formulae as in No. I. 
 
 No. XVII. " Year 30 under the majesty of the 
 king Neb-maat-Ra, son of the sun Amenhotepu III., 
 prince of Thebes, living for ever to eternity as king 
 established in this whole land. The scribe Mai came 
 to see the very great pyramid of Horus the soul ? of 
 king Seneferu." 
 
 No. XVIII. "Year 30 under the majesty of the 
 king Neb-maat-Ra, son of Amen, resting on truth, 
 Amenhotep III., prince of Thebes, lord of might, 
 prince of joy, who loves him that hates injustice of 
 heart, placing the male offspring upon the seat of 
 his father, and establishing his inheritance in the 
 land." 
 
 This remarkable graffito suggests that the rule of 
 inheritance through the female could be made an 
 instrument of oppression by unscrupulous kings. A 
 male heir would be more capable of defending his 
 rights, and Amenhotep III. may have encouraged 
 male succession as conducive of order : unless indeed 
 the scribe refers only to some personal benefit gained 
 in a suit against a female claimant. 
 
 From these graffiti and from a quantity of other 
 evidence converging on the same point, it is clear 
 that the pyramid of Medum belonged to Seneferu. 
 But there are questions still outstanding : this king 
 was most extravagant in the matter of pyramids : 
 not only was his pyramid a^ Medum "very great," 
 but he had built another somewhere ! At Dahshur 
 and elsewhere priests of the two Ma-pyramids of 
 Seneferu are named, and the southern Ma-pyramid 
 is expressly mentioned. Kha was therefore the 
 name of each, but whether the pyramid of Medum 
 was the southern or northern Kha cannot yet be 
 decided. 
 
 One more remark : the graffito No. V mentions the 
 queen Meresankh in such a way as to imply that she 
 was wife of Seneferu. While accepting this pro- 
 visionally, we must not forget that the scribe of 
 1500 B.C. may not have known the queens of 3000 or 
 4000 B.C. very accurately. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VARIETIES OF ANCIENT "KOHL." 
 
 By Dr. A. Wiedemann. 
 
 60. The subject of the ancient eye-paint (mestem) 
 was discussed from the literary side two years ago in 
 va.y Aegyptologische Studien (Bonn, 1889, pp. 25-44), 
 with some addenda in the Verh. der Berl. anthrop. 
 Ges. (1890, pp. 48-50). Before proceeding to the 
 study of the actual materials here, I may add some 
 details which illustrate the uses of the kokl. The 
 substance ua^, which often appears along with 
 mestem, is named as early as in these tombs of 
 Medum (PL. XIII) in Leps. Denk. II. 3 ; and both 
 occur in two funereal inscriptions in the Louvre 
 (c. 162, D. 59, in Pierret, Inscr. du Louvre, II. 59, 57) 
 and on a coffin of the middle kingdom from Ekh- 
 mim (Rec. 11, 142) ; it also appears in the usual 
 lists of offerings in tombs, the examples of which are 
 arranged by Schiaparelli (Libra dei funerali, 11, 342), 
 from the time of Unas to the Roman age. Of the 
 toilet boxes (described loc. cit. p. 35) there is an 
 example with four divisions in Leyden (F. 50, Lee- 
 man Mon. II, pi. 32) with the purposes of the various 
 preparations stated. On one is "for opening of the 
 sight," the second " for expelling the tears," the third 
 " for expelling the flower " (herer), the fourth " daily 
 eye-paint." Another toilet box is edited by Ebers 
 {Die hierog. Schriftzeichen der A eg. p. 17) from the 
 
42 
 
 VARIETIES OF ANCIENT " KOBL." 
 
 Wilbdur collection, bearing the inscriptions, " Inun- 
 dation, for opening of the sight ; " " Season when the 
 fields appear, for expelling all evil of the eyes ; " 
 " Harvest, for throwing off the waters from the eyes," 
 thus connecting the various cures with the Seasons. 
 This probably belongs to the Middle Kingdom. Ac- 
 cording to a statement, which is not perhaps worth 
 much, in the inscription of Sehel discovered by Wil- 
 bour, line 17, mestem and uai were brought from the 
 interior of Ethiopia. With this we come to an end 
 of our literary information at the present time on the 
 ancient kohl. 
 
 61. But while little advance has been made on this 
 side, we have learned much more about the actual 
 composition of the eye-paints : this is due to the 
 active researches of Mr. Petrie, who in his Fayum 
 excavations has found a long series of examples of 
 kohl; with the advantage over previous specimens, 
 from their place and age being known. Mr, Petrie 
 had the goodness to entrust me with 30 examples ; 
 and two others (31, 32) also found by him, I have 
 obtained through Prof Ebers. Dr. Xaver Fischer 
 undertook all the analyses, and will report (in the 
 Jour.fiirprakt. Chemie) the results of his careful and 
 exact work, which was carried out in the laboratory, 
 and under the kind superintendence, of Prof Hilger 
 at Erlangen. With Dr. Fischer's kind permission I 
 now proceed to state those results of his that are of 
 archaeological interest; for the more chemical details 
 the original memoir should be consulted. As that 
 however is not easily accessible to antiquarians, it 
 seemed suitable to give here the results, which are 
 valuable for the customs, and metallurgic and chemical 
 knowledge, of the Egyptians. 
 
 The specimens 1-8, 28-31 are from Kahun, 9-ro 
 from lUahun, 1 1-27, 32, from Gurob. As to age, 6, 7, 
 31 and perhaps 8 and 27, are of the Xllth dynasty ; 
 32, and probably 28-30, from the XVIIIth ; 11-26 of 
 the XlXth (18-22 being from the tomb with amulet 
 of Nefertari) ; 1-5 of the XlXth or XXth dynasty 
 from the tomb of Maket ; and 9- 10 of the Vllth 
 cent. A.D., 11-13 were in a quadri-tubular wooden 
 stand, of which one tube was empty. 
 
 The general result is that antimony appears very 
 rarely ; but galena (sulphide of lead) is very common, 
 both unaltered and manufactured. The powdered 
 sulphide was gently roasted, and left so, or mixed 
 with a slimy vegetable solution (gum), and poured as 
 a paste into pieces of reed. Thus the sulphide slowly 
 oxidised so long as it was kept moist. A rarer paint 
 was pyrolusite (sioft peroxide of manganese) which 
 
 was powdered alone, or in mixtures. As substitutes 
 we find oxide of copper (obtained from roasted 
 carbonate) ; magnetite (obtained by partly reducing 
 haematite with charcoal) ; and for a brown, iron ochres 
 were used. The green powders are a mixture of 
 finely powdered silicate (either native, or an artificial 
 glass) with basic carbonate of copper ; this was doubt- 
 less derived from the natural mixtures that are found 
 in native chrysocolla, such as occurs in Gurob. This 
 green powder (11) was in the wooden tubular stand 
 with ochres in 12: and 13. 
 
 The rounded grains of sand, and green and red 
 crystalline chips which occur, are probably accidental. 
 Resin is entirely absent ; and fats have disappeared, 
 if ever they were present. Free sulphur which could 
 be extracted probably comes from the galena, which 
 commonly contains some. 
 
 The eye-paints were sometimes wrapped in the 
 leaves of dicotyledons ; but were usually placed in 
 the stalks of graminiae, about as thick as the finger ; 
 the internodes were cut just below the knot, and the 
 half-liquid, salve-like mixture was poured into the 
 tube thus formed. Vessels of alabaster or pottery 
 were also used, both for the powders and for the 
 pastes. The rods of paint that may be extracted are 
 rather shrunk at one end, evidently having been 
 slowly dried pastes or salves. The longitudinal 
 streaks on such pieces are produced by the internal 
 form of the reeds Used to hold the paste. 
 
 62. The following are the various classes of ingre- 
 dients found. LA. Galena {sulphide of lead), Xllth 
 dyn. No. 7 ; XlXth, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24 ; XXth, 2, i>\ 
 Coptic, 10. These are native galena, without sul- 
 phate of lead, but with some sand and vegetable 
 remains, oxide of iron, and traces of lime, manganese, 
 and quartz. Nos. 14, 16, 24, also contained carbon. 
 AH of these were loose powders, except 24, which 
 was compressed dry in a reed, and had not therefore 
 become oxidised, but is still friable. Two samples 
 were quantitatively analysed, yielding 
 
 
 
 No. 18. 
 
 No 24. 
 
 Galena 
 
 Pb S 
 
 91-13 
 
 8.5-16 
 
 Peroxide of iron 
 
 re,03 
 
 3 '40 
 
 6-77 
 
 Carbon 
 
 C 
 
 
 2-78 
 
 Sand 
 
 SiOj 
 
 4-72 
 
 4'93 
 
 Vegetable matter 
 
 
 •48 
 
 
 Manganese 
 
 MnOj 
 
 
 trace 
 
 Calcite 
 
 CaCOa 
 
 trace 
 
 trace 
 
 99-73 99-64 
 
 The oxide of iron and some other items were 
 probably associated with the galena, but the carbon 
 is perhaps intentional. The amount of iron points to 
 
VARIETIES OF ANCIENT "KOHL." 
 
 43 
 
 a native lead ore being used. No. 3 is probably 
 of this class, as lead was found ip the few grains 
 available. 
 
 /. B. Galena roasted, Xllth dyn. Nos. 8, 31; 
 XVIIIth, 28, 30, 32; XlXth, 20, 23, 2,5, 26; XXth, 
 I, S ; Coptic, 9, with molybdenum. In these the 
 sulphide is partly changed by roastirig, and by 
 subsequent oxidation while moist. Both free lead, 
 and. free sulphur, are found; together with sulphide, 
 sulphate, and sulphite, of lead. The chance im- 
 purities are oxides of iron and manganese, ochre, 
 calcite, and chlorides of magnesium and potassium. 
 In No. 5 oxide of copper may be accidentally in- 
 troduced from another powder. Nos. 20 and 26 are 
 not homogeneous, and are divided here into 20 a, 
 b, c, and 26 a, b. The most interesting are the 
 following : — 
 
 
 
 No. 26a. 
 
 No. 26b. 
 
 Oalena 
 
 Pb S 
 
 30-00 (or 32-00) 
 
 trace 
 
 Sulphate of lead 
 
 PbSO^ 
 
 53 10 
 
 86-22 
 
 Oxide of iron 
 
 Fe.O, 
 
 •38 
 
 -68 
 
 Carbon 
 
 C 
 
 3-12 
 
 
 Sand and quartz 
 
 SiOj, 
 
 390 
 
 4-13 
 
 Chloride magnesium 
 
 MgCl 
 
 i-io 
 
 •87 
 
 Chloride sodium 
 
 NaCl 
 
 2-95 
 
 
 Chloride potassium 
 
 KCl 
 
 
 3-60 
 
 Sulphur free 
 
 S 
 
 1-75 
 
 i'33 
 
 Ochre 
 
 
 1-60 
 
 1-33 
 
 Vegetable matter 
 
 
 
 2-14 
 
 Lime and manganese 
 
 C^ Mn 
 
 traces 
 
 traces 
 
 97-90 
 
 100-30 
 
 The presence of metallic lead, which abounds in 
 other examples, along with the drossy pieces found 
 in some specimens under the microscope, shew that 
 the galena was roasted ; the iron and ochre may 
 come from accompanying silicates ; the three chlo- 
 rides may be intentionally added, as "sea salt," for 
 species of natron, are named in the Ebers papyrus 
 eye-salves. The lime is a white crust, derived from 
 the alabaster vessels which contained it. Another 
 piece of 26 contained a good amount of metallic le-ad. 
 
 The principal ingredients of the following were 
 determined. 
 
 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 No. 23. 
 
 No 25. 
 
 No. 28. 
 
 Galena 
 
 PbS 
 
 39 '43 
 
 23 81 
 
 29 '75 
 
 
 Lead 
 
 Pb 
 
 
 8-09 
 
 
 57- 
 
 Sulphur 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 •u 
 
 2-35 
 
 Sulphate of lead 
 
 PbSOi 
 
 43 '23 
 
 37-81 
 
 38-70 
 
 • • 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 SO3 
 
 
 ■• 
 
 •• 
 
 2-70 
 
 
 82-66 
 
 69-71 
 
 68-56 
 
 62-05 
 
 The reduced lead in 23 and 28 results from rapid 
 roasting. Nos. I, 5 and 30 are similar; 5 contained 
 chips of malachite, perhaps strayed. 20 b contained 
 sulphate of lead and sulphuric acid, in all 59.' 76 of 
 
 lead, Nos. 31 and 32 are like 26. No. 9 is rerriarW 
 able as containing sulphide of molybdenum, having 
 lead 58-10, molybdenum 6-o\, sulphuric acid S"o6, 
 and sulphur (as hydro-sulphuric acid) i'2.2, in 70*39 
 per cent. But this specimen is of Coptic date. 
 
 63. •//. Antimony. In No. 21, of the XlXth dynasty, 
 there is 32 per cent, of antimony, beside 35 per cent, 
 of matrix and some per cent, of quartz, and other 
 chance impurities such as are usually found in lead 
 powders ; but this is completely free from lead, and 
 is antimonious sulphide Sb2S3. 
 
 III. Ochre. XlXth dynasty, 12, 13, 15, 20 a; 
 XXth dyn. 4. These are more or less mixed with 
 quartz and plant remains, and are strongly ferrous. 
 They are from reeds, and also wrapped in dicoty- 
 ledon leaves. The green specks in some are perhaps 
 sulphate of iron, oxidised from the pyrites which' 
 occurs in clays. 
 
 V. Manganese. Xllth dynasty, 6 ; XVIIIth, 29 ; 
 XlXth, 26 c. In No. 6 is some oxide of copper, 
 perhaps intended to darken the tint. In 29 is 20 
 per cent, of Mn O2 along with other oxides of 
 manganese, and small quantities of galena, oxide of 
 iron, ochre and silica, so it is a powdered pyrolusite. 
 In 26 c is some lead, perhaps from 26 a. 
 
 V. Magnetite. XlXth dyn. No. 19, contains 
 silica 59*64, magnetite (Feg O4) 26 '93, carbon 11 •83.' 
 Iron I ■49. It is black and strongly magnetic; 
 probably reduced from oxide of iron (haematite ?) 
 by heating with charcoal, and mixed with sand and 
 more charcoal. 
 
 VI. Copper. Xllth dyn. ? No. 27, is oxide of 
 copper, doubtless produced by roasting malachite. 
 XlXth dynasty, Nos. 11 and 17 are malachite (car- 
 bonate of copper), with white chips — perhaps artificial 
 glass — and grains of sand. Perhaps the carbonate is 
 artificial, but as it is the only Egyptian ore of copper 
 this is less likely. Fischer points to a note in Zippe 
 that the green patina on some Egyptian bronze is 
 mainly a basic chloride of copper, corresponding to 
 Atacamite. But this is not usual. 
 
 64. Of the metals thus found the copper comes 
 certainly from Sinai, where the mines were already 
 worked by the Egyptians in the pyramid period ; 
 Fischer points this out in his introduction, which con- 
 tains a sketch of what was hitherto known on oriental 
 eye- paints. The iron, which is scarce in Egypt, must 
 also have been imported, probably from Sinai, scarcely 
 from Kordofan or India. Antimony and lead are 
 distant products, not being found in Sinai or Arabia. 
 Mestem is said in inscriptions to come from the 
 
 G 2 
 
44 
 
 EGYPTIAN COLOURS. 
 
 Arabian coast, but that only proves that the Egyp- 
 tians received it thence, not that it originated there. 
 Similarly in later times Arabia was named as the 
 home of such products as the cinnamon, which was 
 only conveyed by the Arabs. Thus the lead and 
 ajitimony were brought by them from India; and 
 probably also the tin which was needed for making 
 the bronze, which starts with the New Kingdom in 
 Egypt. The galena was substituted for the rarer 
 antimony perhaps in Arabia; and the manganese, 
 copper, and magnetite were Egyptian substitutes, 
 either openly or fraudulently ; for the true meaning 
 of mestem is yet uncertain. 
 
 In any case the analyses of Dr. Fischer have taught 
 us something more important than the philological 
 meaning of a word ; they have shewn us what mate- 
 rials the Egyptians actually used for eye-paints, and 
 provided evidence as to the primitive relations of 
 trade between Egypt and India. Even if this were 
 but indirect, through the Arabs, yet in conjunction 
 with the apparently Phoenician graves just discovered 
 by Bent on the Bahrein islands in the Persian Gulf, 
 this gives us an entirely fresh insight into the relations 
 of the people of the further east, in a time far before 
 the so-called Greek period. 
 
 [The above was kindly translated by Mr. Griffith, 
 and I have with Dr. Wiedemann's sanction incor- 
 porated one or two details bearing on the matter. I 
 may add as a personal suggestion that the green 
 uaf which accompanies the mestem in early times is 
 the green carbonate of copper, which was used around 
 the eyes as we see on early sculptures, and as I 
 found on the mummy of Ranefer. Also I believe 
 that the source of Egyptian tin was from Bohemia, 
 Saxony, and Silesia. That the civilization of Europe 
 was. in contact with Egypt before tin appears there, 
 is now certain. That the European civilisation ex- 
 tended to the north is also known from the northern 
 objects at Mykenae. And as tin (in bronze) is found 
 as early, or earlier, in Europe than in Egypt, we must 
 rather suppose that it went from Greece to Egypt, 
 than that it came from the east and was immediately 
 transmitted in large quantity across the Mediterranean 
 to the north, W. M. F. P.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EGYPTIAN COLOURS. 
 By W. J. Russell, Ph.D., F.R.S. 
 
 65. We shall consider here first the colours of 
 purely Egyptian origin, as found in the town of 
 Kahun (XII dyn.) and Gurob (XVIII-XIX dyn.) ; 
 and then notice the examples of Roman age. 
 
 The red pigments are all natural products and 
 consist essentially of ferric oxide. The mineral from 
 which they are obtained is commonest at Kahun, 
 and is known as oolitic haematite. Some of the 
 specimens are the mineral in its natural condition ; 
 others, from Gurob, are apparently lumps of the 
 same substance after being reduced to fine powder, 
 and probably to some extent purified. A remark- 
 able feature in all the natural specimens is that at 
 least one side is perfectly smooth and curved ; had 
 it been a fusible substance the inference would have 
 been that it had been melted and cast in a mould. 
 However, when the surface is carefully examined it 
 is found to be marked with fine lines. These 
 smooth surfaces seemed at first difficult to account 
 for, but I have now no doubt that they were pro- 
 duced by the ingenious way in which the pigment 
 was prepared from the natural product. Instead of 
 pounding or grinding the mineral they simply rubbed 
 it in a curved vessel, or might be a hollow in a rock, 
 with a little water ; fine particles were thus abraded 
 and the water present gradually carried them down 
 to the bottom of the vessel, from whence they could 
 be easily removed. I have tried this way of pre- 
 paring the pigment, and found it to answer admir- 
 ably. I took one of the specimens with a curved 
 smooth surface and rubbed it in a large porcelain 
 mortar with a little water, and thus with the greatest 
 ease obtained a wet powder which at once could be 
 used, without addition of any other medium, as a 
 pigment ; for it adhered to paper, to wood, and to the 
 fingers, with wonderful pertinacity, and alone it dried 
 up to a powder very similar to some of the specimens 
 found. 
 
 No doubt the specimens of haematite were care- 
 fully selected ; they differ somewhat in texture, but 
 very little in tint. One sample contained 79- 11 % 
 of ferric oxide, and another 8 1 • 34 %. 
 
 The yellow pigments are found at Gurob, and are 
 also entirely derived from native minerals, iron 
 ochres. They contain oxide of iron, which is again 
 
EGYPTIAN COLOURS. 
 
 45 
 
 the colouring constituent, in a hydrated condition 
 and mixed with a certain amount of silica and 
 alumina, and traces of other substances. The colour 
 is very permanent, but varies considerably in different 
 specimens. In some cases it is a light yellow, in 
 others of a much warmer tint. 
 
 ' 66. The lilue pigments are mainly from Gurob, 
 and those of Kahun are inferior : they are by far the 
 most interesting ones, for they are artificial pro- 
 ductions, and hence their existence may serve to 
 indicate to some extent the manufacturing skill and 
 knowledge of the producers. They vary greatly in 
 tint ; Mr. Petrie having found some of a light and 
 tolerably pure blue, others of a strongly greenish 
 blue, and some specimens of a very fine and slightly 
 purplish blue. All the specimens are of the same 
 character and are what are known as frits, that is a 
 kind of unfused or rather semi-fused glass. The 
 ingredients composing these frits are the same as 
 those found in glass, but the heat to which they have 
 been exposed is only sufficient to cause combination 
 of the constituents to take place, but not sufficient to 
 bring the whole mass into a liquid state. 
 
 Mr. Petrie was fortunate enough to find several 
 large pieces of these frits ; and in every case they 
 had a smooth and curved surface, exactly similar to 
 the curved and smooth surfaces of the haematite ; 
 and again I found that a powder which exactly 
 corresponded to the blue pigment which was used, 
 could with ease be obtained by rubbing the specimen 
 in a large mortar with water. It is to be hoped that 
 some of these vessels where this rubbing of the raw 
 material took place in the preparation of these paints 
 will before long be found. 
 
 As before mentioned, there is a great difference in 
 the tint existing in the different specimens, and often 
 the same specimen will have strangely different 
 colours in different parts. Most of the specimens 
 were of the well-known delicate greenish blue colour, 
 a few were of a stronger green colour, and one small 
 specimen was of a splendid rich blue tending towards 
 red, I imagine much the same tint as the so-called 
 Alexandrian purple. This specimen was wholly of 
 this colour, while others had the colour only in part, 
 and none I think were so brilliant in colour as this 
 small piece. 
 
 That copper was the colouring-matter in these 
 frits there could be but little doubt ; the only 
 question was with regard to the purple one just 
 mentioned. Most of the blues produced by silicates 
 of copper have a greenish tint, but this one was 
 
 quite free from it, and resembled exactly a frit easily 
 produced by cobalt ; but no trace of cobalt was 
 present. There seemed so many points of interest 
 with regard to the production of these different 
 coloured frits, for instance how exactly they were 
 made, what sort of furnace would be necessary, and 
 how it happened that they were at that time, with 
 their comparatively rude apparatus and imperfect 
 knowledge, able to obtain so many different shades 
 of colour, — that I was led to try to imitate exactly 
 the specimens which Mr. Petrie had found. The 
 purple was the most difficult to reproduce, but I have 
 made it, and it is quite equal' in colour to the original. 
 The others were, after experience had been gained as 
 to the general method to be employed, readily pre- 
 pared ; and there is no difficulty in considerably 
 extending the number of colours which can readily 
 be obtained by the same process. The colours are 
 all very stable, they do not fade, and are not acted 
 on by even strong acids. 
 
 With regard to the necessary appliances for making 
 these frits, judging from the large size of some of the 
 pieces found, we must conclude that considerable 
 quantities of material were acted on at once ; and it 
 is certain that the materials to form the frit must 
 have been raised not only to a red heat, but also 
 have been maintained at that temperature for several 
 consecutive hours. 
 
 Up to the present time I believe furnaces for 
 accomplishing this have not been discovered. I can 
 only express an ardent hope that before long we may 
 learn in what form of furnace this making of the frit 
 was conducted. The operation was not devoid of 
 difficulty. The materials they used were silica, 
 which was the principal constituent, and formed 
 perhaps 60 to 80 % of the whole mixture ; then 
 there was the copper to give the colour, no doubt 
 merely the crude mineral, but almost any salt of 
 copper would produce the same effect. The other 
 ingredients are alkali and lime. The amount of 
 alkali is small ; I used in my experiments 10 % of 
 potassium and sodium carbonates. These ingre- 
 dients have to be well mixed together ; and then 
 carefully heated in a crucible of some kind to pro- 
 tect them from the direct action of the gases given 
 off by the burning wood, otherwise the frit would 
 become more or less black. Again, a certain regu- 
 lation of temperature would be required, for if the 
 fire were not hot enough the necessary chemical 
 changes would not take place, and on the ether hand 
 if the temperature became unduly high the materials 
 
46 
 
 EGYPTIAN COLOURS. 
 
 would fuse, and a hard glassy body would be formed ; 
 such a body could not be reduced to powder by the 
 rubbing as above described, and it is of much interest 
 to note that every specimen of the frits that I have 
 seen has been in the friable condition, and not in this 
 glassy state ; this shews that they had not been ex- 
 posed to a high temperature ; and also that only a 
 small amount of alkali was used in their preparation. 
 I have found no difficulty in preparing all the imita- 
 tions of the frits in this friable state, so that on 
 rubbing they can be readily reduced to powder. In 
 certain cases a high temperature would also decom- 
 pose the copper compounds, and give a more or less 
 black instead of a blue frit. The colour of the frit 
 depends principally, but not altogether, upon the 
 amount of copper it contains. I found I could 
 imitate a very delicate greenish blue frit with a 
 mixture of 3 % to 5 % of copper carbonate : another, 
 and deeper coloured, specimen was exactly imitated 
 by a mixture containing 10 % of copper carbonate : 
 and the imitation of the Egyptian purple was pro- 
 duced when 20 % of the copper salt was used, but the 
 colour is much affected by the temperature at which 
 the heating has been carried on, and also by the 
 length of time of heating. Again, the amount of 
 lime, and presence of small quantities of iron, also 
 affect the colour to a great extent. No doubt the 
 desert sand was used, and I am informed that at 
 different places it can be obtained either white, and 
 it is then free from iron, or deeply coloured, and it 
 then contains much iron : at all events it is certain 
 that a very small amount of iron modifies the colour 
 to a very considerable extent. If the ordinary red 
 sand was used, then there was always a greenish blue 
 frit produced. The most common of the blue pig- 
 ments are the ones most easily produced, and contain 
 comparatively small amounts of copper, perhaps 3 to 
 10 % ; the ordinary brown sand was probably used 
 in preparing them, and lime in some form was added. 
 The copper compound thus produced very readily 
 and quickly forms, and is not altered even if exposed 
 to a high temperature, or a long continued heat. 
 The green frits, the darker and purer blue ones and 
 the purple ones are not formed quite so easily. The 
 green ones may be produced by the presence of iron, 
 the simplest way of preparing such as I have seen is 
 simply by using a very red sand, and about the same 
 amount of copper as gives the greenish blue frit ; but 
 the green colour can also be produced by copper 
 alone, but in this case the quantity must be larger 
 than what is required to produce the light blue frits, 
 
 and a careful and not excessive heating is necessary. 
 The green appears before the frit has come to its 
 permanent colour, and on continued heating passes 
 away. In some of Mr. Petrie's specimens there is a 
 beautiful mixture of colours ; in a small area you find: 
 a brilliant blue colour and a delicate but strong 
 green. I have often obtained exactly analogous 
 results, and some of great beauty, in the frits I have' 
 made ; different copper compounds are formed, their' 
 formation arising from accidental differences of tem- 
 perature or mixture. I have no doubt these effects 
 in the Egyptian specimens are purely accidental, and 
 are produced in mixture made with 10 % or more of 
 copper carbonate. When the amount of copper is 
 increased to 15 or 20 %, and about an equal amount 
 of lime is present, then the purple frits can be formed, 
 but this is a somewhat more delicate operation. The 
 amount of copper present 4s so much larger that it 
 takes much longer to convert it wholly into silicate, 
 and the range of temperature at which it forms is 
 more restricted than in the other cases, but there is 
 no real difficulty in forming it. At the same time I 
 doubt whether the Egyptians ever made this purple 
 as a sole product, the only piece of frit which was 
 entirely of this colour that Mr. Petrie has found was 
 not so large as the first joint of a little finger, and the 
 other pieces of that colour occur in larger specimens, 
 and are simply local, the rest being of a darkish blue 
 or blue green colour : in a word, its formation in 
 these cases was certainly accidental. With modern 
 appliances I have been much interested in carrying 
 out still further this same process for preparing 
 different coloured frits, and many are the tints in - 
 addition to those known to the Egyptians which 
 have been produced. In fact every shade of colour 
 from a pure and very delicate light blue to a very 
 dark indigo blue can be made, and again from a pure 
 blue every shade of green and blue to a strong 
 green ; many of these green blues are remarkably 
 forcible in colour and delicate in hue. 
 
 [I have since found part of a dish of frit at Tell 
 Amarna, which had been broken and withdrawn 
 from the furnace before complete combination. The- 
 pan was of rough pottery, shallow, about 9 inches 
 across ; probably covered with a tile to keep off the 
 reducing flame, as the edges are turned black. It 
 was supported by the edges resting on cylindric pots 
 inverted in the furnace. The frit is of a lilac-blue. 
 The uncombined silica is in large translucent splin- 
 ters, from quartz pebbles, quite white. The mass 
 was blown up while pasty, by about an equal volume 
 
EGYPTIAN COLOURS. 
 
 47 
 
 of gas, shewing that the! litne and alkali were used 
 as carbonates. I have also found many pieces of 
 broken pottery with blue paint in them, suggesting 
 rthat the frit and probably the haematite was ground 
 in a concave potsherd.— W. M. F. P.] 
 
 67. We now proceed to the pigments of the Greco- 
 Roman age, of which samples were found at Hawara. 
 These are of interest, as such colours appear to have 
 been used, mixed with wax, by the painters who pro- 
 duced the portraits discovered there ; and they are 
 -probably similar to the colours used by the great 
 Greek artists. 
 
 These pigments were obtained from six pots of 
 paint found in a burial; the pots had been undis- 
 turbed and evidently were just in the same state, as 
 when last used by the owner. In some of the pots 
 but little of the paint remained, but in others a Con- 
 siderable amount. The marks of the brush with 
 which the paint had been removed were still perfectly 
 evident. Mr. Flinders Petrie gave me a small speci- 
 men of each of the six pigments ; thej' are a dark 
 red, a light red, a pink, a yellow, a blue, and a white. 
 The specimens being so nearly in the condition in 
 which they had undoubtedly been used as paints, 
 gave them a special interest. 
 
 The Dark Red Pigment. — It has precisely the colour 
 of the burnt sienna of the present day, and is identical 
 with. it, consisting of ferric oxide. Like the modern 
 burnt sienna it does not dissolve completely in hy- 
 drochloric acid, and like it, leaves undissolved floc- 
 culent mineral matter and a little silica. No doubt 
 it was prepared from natural iron ochre by heating, 
 and afterwards grinding it ; similar operations to 
 those carried on at the present day for preparing 
 this pigment, and in fact this Egj^ptian colour is 
 indistinguishable from a sample of burnt sienna 
 purchased at the present time. 
 
 Light Red Pigment. — This is an oxide of lead, and 
 is known as red lead or minium. It is prepared by 
 heating in the air, to a temperature of dull redness, 
 lead, oxide of lead, or lead carbonate. It is some- 
 what paler in colour than the ordinary red lead of the 
 present day, but it has some dust and sand mixed 
 with it. 
 
 Yellow Pigment. — This is an iron ochre of a light 
 yellow colour. On heating it darkens and becomes 
 of a dull red colour. The dark red pigment, already 
 described, was probably made from this mineral by 
 heating it. This specimen of the yellow pigment 
 has apparently been mixed with some oil or wax, 
 no doubt as a medium, for on heating it white 
 
 ■furties, such as 'come from organic matter are given 
 .off. 
 
 The White Pigment consists of calcium sulphate or 
 gypsum. It is very tenacious, but is easily cut or 
 scraped with a knife. It has apparently been ground 
 and carefully prepared for use, and in its present state 
 would work smoothly and well ; and as a pigment it 
 could be used for many purposes simply on mixing 
 with water. 
 
 Pink Pigment. — This is a most interesting pigment 
 -belonging to a different class of bodies from all the 
 others : they are mineral compounds, whereas this 
 pink colour is due to an organic substance. The fact 
 that, even under favourable conditions, an organic 
 pigment should have existed for this length of time 
 is of interest ; and I think there is good reason to 
 suppose that it has not only existed, but has under- 
 gone little or no change of tint during this loijg 
 period. On heating this pigment the colour is im- 
 mediately destroyed, a slight empyreumatic odour is 
 given off, and a white mass remains, apparently equal 
 in quantity to the original substance. This residue is 
 calcium sulphate, the same substance as the white 
 pigment. The colour is therefore due to a very small 
 amount of an organic body which coloured the gyp- 
 sum, an amount too small to be recognised by chemi- 
 cal analysis. I therefore endeavoured synthetically 
 to determine the nature of the colouring matter which 
 gave to the calcium sulphate its peculiar tint. Mad- 
 der as a vegetable colouring matter which has been 
 known from the earliest time, naturally suggested 
 itself; and with some madder root I was able to 
 prepare a pigment which agreed in tint and in all its 
 
 ■ properties with the Egyptian one. It is readily pre- 
 pared in this simple way ; madder is boiled with 
 water ; the liquid cooled and strained ; and this 
 strongly coloured liquid well stirred up with calcium 
 sulphate. The colouring matter adheres strongly tb 
 the gypsum, and if it be allowed to dry, and is then 
 powdered, a substance is obtained of the same coloiir 
 as the Egyptian pink, the shade of colour depending 
 simply on the strength of the madder solution. Al- 
 though ordinary chemical analysis could not identify 
 the colouring matter in this case, it seemed to me highly 
 probable that I could confirm this view of the nature of 
 the colouring matter by means of spectrum analysis, 
 
 ■ for it is well established that the colouring matters 
 derived from madder root are characterised by very 
 definite absorption spectra. As this Egyptian colour- 
 ing matter appeared to be so little changed, it was 
 quite possible that even the small amounts which I 
 
48 
 
 COPTIC PAPYRI. 
 
 had at my disposal might yield at least the marked 
 and well-defined absorption spectrum of purpurine. 
 I first tried the experiment with some of my imitation 
 pink pigment ; it gave on boiling it with alum solution 
 very marked absorption bands which I proved, by 
 comparing them with a purpurine solution, to belong 
 to that body ; and on treating the Egyptian pigment 
 exactly as I had treated my imitation of it, it was 
 satisfactory to find similar absorption bands, which 
 leaves no doubt as to the nature of this colour, and 
 shews how little the colouring matter has changed in 
 the many centuries of its existence. 
 
 The remaining colour is a blue pigment. It is a 
 frit, or unfused glass, finely ground. The colour it 
 possesses is owing to the presence of copper, like the 
 frits previously described. It is a remarkably stable 
 compound, being practically unattacked even by strong 
 acids, and unchangeable by the action of light. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COPTIC PAPYRI. 
 By W. E. Crum. 
 
 68. The Coptic MSS. which Mr. Petrie brought, 
 3 years ago, from the Fayyum, form a collection very 
 similar to those in Berlin and Vienna, though less 
 extensive than either of these. They have in common 
 the same curious anomalies in regard to dialect and 
 the same, as yet insurmountable, difficulties of in- 
 terpretation. As with all Coptic literature, their 
 monastic origin is evident. Yet even the hypothesis of 
 monasteries with extensive circles of correspondents, 
 seems hardly a satisfactory explanation of the extra- 
 ordinary dialectual variety discernible in so com- 
 paratively small a body of texts. Of the six recognised 
 dialects, four — perhaps five, — are represented, not to 
 mention the several intermediate, local forms which 
 some of the fragments exemplify. One can not but 
 incline to Erman's opinion (Hermes, XXI) that 
 supply and demand of modern commerce have been 
 the main cause of the accumulation in the Fayyum of 
 documents which had their origin in widely different 
 provinces. 
 
 The only attempt made as yet to deal with the 
 Coptic " Fayyum " Papyri is that of Stern {Aeg. 
 Zeitschr. '85) ; for Krall (Mitth. a. d. Sammlg. Erzh. 
 Rainer, passim) has confined himself to some of the 
 more frequent formulae, place-names &c. But little 
 light has since been thrown either upon the vocabulary 
 
 or grammatical forms, which still seem as foreign to 
 those of the " classical " dialects as they 6 years ago 
 appeared. 
 
 The material upon which our texts are written is 
 either Papyrus, Parchment or Rag-paper ; the first 
 appearing, for all purposes, in a great majority, the 
 second used, (with one exception,) for purposes not 
 merely ephemeral, and the third exemplified only by 
 one or two epistolary fragments of late date. Some 
 of the Papyri are palimpsests ; while a number bear 
 two distinct texts, one upon each face. In one in- 
 stance, half a sheet, of which one side had remained 
 clear, has been employed by a second letter-writer, 
 who ends with the postscript ; " Blame us not because 
 I (sic) have not been able to find a clean papyrus, 
 worthy of your Honour." 
 
 Chronologically the Collection covers probably a 
 considerable period, although not a single date can 
 be cited or inferred. There may be palseographical 
 reasons for placing one of the parchments not later, 
 than the 6th century ; otherwise the texts would 
 seem to range from the 8th to the loth centuries ; 
 the frequency of the Arabic fragments forbidding an 
 earlier, the rarity of paper a much later boundary. 
 
 The following are the Dialects met with in the 
 Collection, in the order of their frequency: — i. Fay- 
 yumic ; 2. Lower-Sahidic, probably from Memphis 
 and its neighbourhood ; 3. Sahidic ; 4. Boheiric, with 
 its characteristic guttural letter, which seems not 
 to occur in the Vienna (z/. Mittheilungen II, 57,) or 
 Berlin texts ; 5. Achmimic* The presence of the 
 fourth only of these can be doubtful, in so far as the 
 two texts in which the characteristic letter occurs, do 
 not exemplify the dialect in its pure form, but bear 
 clear traces of a more southern influence. 
 
 69. The documents may be classified, on the basis 
 of subject-matter, as follows : — 
 
 A. Biblical fragments. One example only, being 
 at the same time the sole instance of the Achmim 
 dialect. A small leaf of thin parchment (4 x zh in.), 
 paged ujiH and COI0, bears w. 17-20 of the Epistle 
 of Jude ; while the quarter of a similar leaf has the 
 Epistle of James, iv. 12, 13. These are the only 
 traces, as yet recognised, of the Achmimic New 
 Testament. The text is in single column, and 
 written in so archaic a character, — the 4th plate (de 
 la Zouche) of Hyvernat's "Album " may be compared, 
 — that the 6th century would not seem too early a 
 
 * Dr. Steindorif points cut that the Graffiti {Recudl xi, 145) at 
 Achmim are the best confirmation of the accepted " provenance " of 
 this dialect. 
 
COPTIC PAPYRI, 
 
 49 
 
 date for these valuable fragments. When compared 
 with the Sahidic and Boheiric versions, our text is 
 seen to stand in close relation to the first, while the 
 second comes, of all, the nearest to the Greek. 
 
 B. Other theological texts. Part of a parchment 
 leaf has preserved two columns of what appears to be 
 a homily (somewhat in the manner of Jesus Sirach,) 
 upon the domestic virtues of women, and the futility 
 of hoping to atone for their loss by the display 
 of other qualities, if once the husband have ground 
 for mistrust. The dialect is pure Sahidic, and the 
 character an Uncial not unlike that of F. Rossi, Tre 
 Manoscritti, tav. II. Upon a fragment of Papyrus, 
 of late date, can be recognised the remnants of the 
 story of Athanasius and Arsenius, bishop of Hypsele, 
 whose hand the former was accused of cutting off 
 and using for magic purposes. The groundlessness 
 of the charge was proved at the» Synod of Tyre. 
 (See Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, I. 458, 464. I have 
 to thank Prof. Harnack for this identification.) 
 
 70. C. Letters. This section embraces so large a 
 majority of the fragments, that the remaining texts 
 may be looked upon merely as exceptions. Un- 
 fortunately there are but few of the letters which 
 approach completeness in preservation, and none 
 which do not present great difficulties to the trans- 
 lator. They are for the most part in the Fayyum 
 dialect, and, of course, in a character much more 
 cursive than that of the texts described above. 
 Ligatures are nevertheless not so frequent as in 
 Sahidic MSS. ; many of the fragments are wholly 
 free from them. In one instance a Papyrus letter, 
 of not more than ordinary importance, is written in 
 a very fine uncial script, the same being the case 
 with the only letter in the collection upon parchment. 
 
 The correspondence is wholly monastic ; indi- 
 viduals being rarely mentioned without the title 
 Monk, Brother, Deacon, Apa, or Presbyter. Other 
 ecclesiastical dignitaries, such as Bishop, Archi- 
 mandrite, Hegemon, also occur. Yet there does not 
 appear to be any monastery named which might help 
 to Jocalise the writers ; while but few of the place- 
 names which do occur, can, as yet, be identified. 
 Almost all the letters begin with a formula of 
 greeting ; " In God's Name ! (var. With God !) 
 First of all I greet and enquire for (var. embrace) 
 the health of thy God-loving Fatherhood (var. 
 Brothership, Sonship,) and thy whole company (or, 
 all the Orthodox). Further, I inform thee, &c." 
 In some cases this is more elaborate and mentions 
 by name the various inmates of the cloister whither 
 
 the letter is directed, adding in a Postscript, such as 
 may have been overlooked. The matters dealt with 
 appear to be chiefly commercial or financial affairs in 
 which the writer or his monastery are concerned. 
 They are often dispatched very summarily, a single 
 short letter referring' to half a dozen points, each 
 with its introductory XlITOrt (A.otTroi'). 
 
 The following may serve as a specimen of the style 
 and form usually adopted by the correspondents. 
 Great uncertainty as to the meaning of several words, 
 added to the incompleteness of the text, make a 
 fuller translation very difficult. 
 
 " With God ! I greet and embrace the well-being of 
 my god-loving, reverend Lord Brother . . . and I 
 greet the whole company, that is to say, the Elders. 
 Repose thy saintly Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 , . . from God. And now (lit. Thereafter) my Lord 
 Brother, behold, (here is) the Deacon, Apa Cyrus, 
 
 (and) I have sent thee the ? (cargos ? or salt ?), 
 
 namely those with which thou art used to favour me. 
 Send the Deacon, Apa Cyrus that he may lay them 
 before Apa Jacob, till the Deacon Pisynthius comes 
 and takes them . . , An answer, if thou desire it 
 afterwards, ... I greet my Lord Brother fairly, 
 (k^Xoc sic^ according to God's will. Farewell in 
 the Lord ! " 
 
 71. D. Accounts, Lists, &c. Though few in 
 number, the examples of this class are of consider- 
 able interest. The most remarkable is a large 
 fragment which bears, in double column on both 
 faces, the names of workmen and others and the 
 sums paid them during the " Inundation " and 
 summer months. Among them appear Gardeners, 
 Agricultural labourers, Shepherds, Camelherds, 
 Bakers, Carpenters, Potters, Smiths, Washermen, 
 Messengers, Watchmen. Several persons receive 
 payment, although the services rendered are not 
 stated. Some of those employed are monks ; " the 
 Deacon Georgios, the Carpenter," "Apa Petros, the 
 Gardener." Several bear, moreover, the names of 
 their villages, and from these we see that the mon- 
 astery was not confined, for the supply of its needs, to 
 the immediate neighbourhood, since the localities 
 identifiable range from Lake Moeris to the Bahr 
 Yusuf This document has striking similarity with 
 a Papyrus in Oxford, brought from Sohag, but 
 probably originating, (as its place-names and dialect 
 indicate,) in the Fayyum. 
 
 Another Papyrus, in a very fragmentary condition, 
 seems to bear monastic accounts in which the 
 measure of value is throughout KOirpi, the identifica- 
 
 H 
 
so 
 
 COPTIC PAPYRI. 
 
 tion of which with the Greek measure of capacity 
 Kovpi, Kopo'i, ')(op, I owe to Professor Wilcken, who 
 adds that it is frequently to be met with in Greek 
 MSS., especially in connection with wine. Although 
 the latter repeatedly occurs in our Papyri, as an 
 article of commerce, there is, in the present text, no 
 trace of it, Kep^-JULIA. (Kepafieia) and E-IXTIIti. (?) 
 being the only words, still legible, to which the 
 figures might be supposed to refer. 
 
 Upon another fragment the Catalogue (XoTOc) of 
 a monastic library is partially preserved. It has 
 included the canonical books of the New Testament, 
 in several copies and in Greek as well as Coptic ; the 
 Psalter, also in both languages, besides theological 
 works such as "The Rules of Apa Petros," both 
 Coptic and Greek " Mystica," works (?) of Syrianus, 
 as well as " Reading Books " (presumably Kara /xe/jo?, 
 lectionaries). Some of the books are of Parchment 
 (jULeqpcjort sic), others of Papyrus (^A.pTrHc). 
 Others are followed by the epithets neT^-Xoit or 
 i-TIieT^Xort, the exact meaning of which it is 
 difficult to determine. Prof. Wilcken suggests that 
 they perhaps serve to distinguish Books consisting 
 of leaves and Rolls of papyrus. 
 
 Of the Proper names which occur, little need be 
 said ; they are those which we are used to find borne by 
 the Copts, e.g. 0-ffertA.£.ep (Ovvw<^pL'i), nic-ffifri 
 (Ileo-w^to?), ElKTUjp (Victor), ^i.HX ([MtJ^cw^X), 
 UA-PKOc; less common are Uo'ffce^pi,* Hl- 
 Xa.JU.JU.U3, ^CUpe- The Place-names, on the 
 other hand, are of interest, and, in some cases, 
 recognisable still in their Arabic forms. Arsinoe, 
 under its Greek form, does not appear. It seems, in 
 one instance, to be represented by ni<LJU., the name 
 which otherwise designates rather the district than 
 its capital (but v. Quatremere, Mems. I, 391). Else- 
 where the same town is referred to merely as noXiC, 
 "the City." EUahun — Xeg^tJUni is met with several 
 times. Among the less important localities one need 
 scarcely hesitate to identify TcffTtUlt with the 
 modern ^jlaJ (Schweinfurth, " Tutun "). Ho'ff.LeiZs. 
 may be compared with laj.y (de Sacy, Abdallatif, 
 p. 685, note), iyKni.pU3 with jjja«» (11. 683). 
 
 * Here masc., but see Wilcken, Sitzungsber. d. Berl. Akad., 1883, 
 904. 
 
 KepKeccff^oc is already known from Greek 
 sources (v. Aeg. Zeitsch. '83, 162). Further, the 
 names TA.ncyeei, neX6ica3K, ncA.^eT ("the 
 Wall"), recur sufficiently often, either in this collec- 
 tion, in Berlin or in Oxford, to establish their 
 existence, although their identification be not easy. 
 
 [Note. — Mr. Petrie gives the following details as 
 to the above localities. "Tutiln is 10 m. S.W. of El 
 Medinet ; Bawit is 7 m. W. of Derut (27° 39'), and 
 has large Coptic ruins ; Tansi is 18 m. S.E. of El 
 Medinet." The last may represent our TA-Hcgeei- 
 Sfinru should not be confounded with Senftres, lying 
 some 8 m. to its N.E. All the MSS. come from El 
 Hamim near Ellahun.J 
 
 Postscript to Chap. III. p. 27. 
 
 I AM desirous of making a correction to § 45 con- 
 sequent on a more careful and extended examination 
 of the inlaid colours than time allowed before Mr. 
 Petrie left England. I found the globular grains of 
 gum in all the specimens but the white. The gum 
 being insoluble in water, was probably pounded, 
 mixed with the paste, and heated to boiling point in 
 the endeavour to dissolve it ; but no more could thus 
 be accomplished than to bring it to the half melted 
 globular form. The gum comes nearest to Mastick 
 by tests, and especially imitative preparations. It 
 was doubtless new at the time of using, but changed 
 very much since, as it will no longer soften in boiling 
 water, as it must once have done. It is probable 
 that it was used instead of gum arable, or ignorantly 
 mixed with it. Some of the pieces of colour, which 
 had not been examined, were very hard. These 
 yielded an animal matter, which answered com- 
 pletely to gelatine, precisely as the extract does from 
 some of the bones from tombs of the same age. I 
 therefore conclude that the gum used having been 
 found incapable in places of retaining the pastes, 
 gelatine or size in some form was applied to the 
 surface of the paste, which it penetrated to varying 
 depths, thus ovei'coming the difficulty in part. The 
 whole process was evidently experimental. 
 
 F. C. J. Spurrell. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Aboriginal burials . . . 20, 21 
 Alabaster vessels . . . 18, 20 
 Amenhotep III graffiti . . 41 
 Analyses of copper . . .36 
 „ kohl . . .42, &c. 
 
 Animals in sculptures . . 37, 38 
 Ankh, origin of .... 33 
 Antimony, eye paint ... 43 
 Arch in Rahotep's tomb . . 16 
 Architecture of third dynasty 
 
 30, 31 
 Atet, sculptures of (see Nefer- 
 mat) 26, 39 
 
 Blocking of mastaba cham- 
 bers 15-, 16 
 
 Blue paint . . . . 18, 29, 45 
 Bones of animals in mastabas 17 
 Brickwork removed intention- 
 ally 19 
 
 Bronze, analysis of. . . . 36 
 Bunefer, stele of .... 37 
 Burials, mode of . . . 20, 21 
 
 Cartouche, origin of 
 Causeway . 
 Chancellor, sign for 
 Character of Egyptians 
 Chessylite . 
 Colours inlayed 
 
 „ nature of 
 
 „ Roman 
 Columns, forms of 
 Contracted burials 
 Copper analyses 
 
 „ carbonate 18, 
 
 „ eye paint 
 
 „ tools 
 Coptic papyri . 
 Copying tombs . 
 
 8, 
 
 33 
 
 9 
 
 32 
 
 I 
 
 18 
 
 24, 50 
 
 44. SO 
 
 • 47 
 30,31 
 . 21 
 
 • 36 
 29. 43. 44. 46 
 
 • 43 
 16, 34 
 . 48 
 
 2, 22 
 
 Crum, W. E., on papyri 
 Cubit at mastaba . 
 
 „ in pyramid . 
 
 „ sign of . . . 
 Cylinder seal . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 48 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 32 
 
 33 
 
 Destructions in modern times, 
 
 I, 4, IS, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 
 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 34 
 Dialects of Coptic .... 48 
 Draught-board sign . . -33 
 Drawing the sculptures . . 23 
 Dressing of stone .... 27 
 
 Endowment of tombs . 
 Excavations of Mariette 
 in mastabas 
 
 Eye paint 
 
 • 37 
 
 16, 18 
 
 13. 14, 
 
 17, 18 
 need of scientific i 
 difficult at temple 3 
 
 41, &c. 
 
 False pits in mastabas. 
 Farm servants, sculptured 
 Fayum papyri . 
 „ places in . 
 
 Fishers 
 
 „ drying fish. 
 Flints buried in mastaba 
 
 „ teeth of sickle . 
 Foundations, laying out 
 Frescoes .... 
 
 „ nature of . 
 Frit colours .... 
 „ unknown at 
 
 dum 
 Furniture of tomb . 
 
 Galena eye paint . 
 Gizeh great pyramid . 
 
 23 
 
 17,18 
 24. 38 
 . 48 
 
 • 50 
 . 24, 38 
 
 • 23 
 18,34 
 
 • 31 
 
 12,37 
 
 5. 19. 27 
 28 
 
 45 
 
 Me. 
 
 29 
 38 
 
 42 
 6 
 
 Gladstone, Dr., analyses by . 36 
 
 Glaze, early 34 
 
 Graffiti 9, 40 
 
 Griffith, F. LL, on inscriptions 37 
 Grooves on pyramid face . . 10 
 
 Hawks in temple ... 9, 34 
 Heknen, mastaba . . . 20, 38 
 Hieroglyphs, origins of . 30, &c. 
 Hotep, origin of 33 
 
 Inlayed colouring of Nefer- 
 mat 24 
 
 Jars, sealed , 
 Kohl . 
 
 Letters, Coptic . 
 Levels of pyramid . 
 „ at mastaba. 
 Libyan archer . 
 
 . 24 
 41, &c. 
 
 48 
 
 7 
 12 
 29 
 
 Madder pink, Roman ... 47 
 
 Magnetite eye paint ... 43 
 
 Manganese eye paint ... 43 
 
 Marks on pottery .... 35 
 
 Masonry, dressing of . . .27 
 
 Mastaba, system of, j, 12, 14, 15, 19 
 
 angles of. . 5, 15, 18 
 
 massive building of. 14 
 
 „ plundered anciently 17 
 
 „ sculptures of . 23, &c. 
 
 „ of aboriginal race 20, 2 1 
 
 „ earhest . . . . n 
 
 „ of Heknen . 20, 25, 38 
 
 „ of Nefermat . . 14, 39 
 
 of Rahotep . 15, 23, 37 
 
 ,, „ annex . 17 
 
 „ of Ranefer? . 17, 24, 38 
 
 „ „ fictitious 24 
 
52 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Medum, name of . . . .39 
 
 Meresankh, queen ... 40, 41 
 Mestem eye paint . . .41, &c. 
 
 Mosaic decoration, so called . 24 
 
 Moving blocks, machine for . 35 
 
 Mummifying, early . . .17 
 
 Mutilations of bodies . . .21 
 
 Nefer sign, origin of . . -30 
 Nefermat's decoration ... 24 
 „ mastaba . 14, 25, 39 
 
 Nefert, chamber of (see Ra- 
 
 hotep) 24 
 
 Nub sign 33 
 
 Offerings at pyramid . 
 Origins of hieroglyphics 
 Overlapping roofs . 
 
 Peribolus of pyramid . 
 
 „ building within 
 
 Pottery 
 
 Pyramid, excavations at 
 
 casing discovered 
 now a quarry 
 
 „ inside cleared 
 
 „ construction . 
 
 „ destruction of 
 
 „ size of . 
 
 „ angles of. 
 
 „ theory of. 
 
 19. 35 
 
 30, &c. 
 
 II, 20 
 
 7 
 10 
 
 20, 35 
 3 
 
 3,4 
 4 
 4 
 5 
 
 4.5 
 6 
 6 
 6 
 
 Pyramid, inner coats of 
 „ levels of . 
 „ causeway 
 „ passages . 
 
 Races, two in Egypt 
 Rahotep mastaba 
 Ranefer? mastaba 
 Rope cartouche 
 „ numerals . 
 signs 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . . 6 
 
 • • 7 
 
 • • 9 
 . 10 
 
 . 20, 2 1 
 15. 23, 37 
 17. 24. 38 
 
 • • 33 
 . • 33 
 
 33 
 
 Russell, Dr., on colours . 44, &c. 
 
 Sculptures 23, &c. 
 
 Seal, cylinder 33 
 
 Sealing of offering jars . . 24 
 Secondary burials . . . . 19 
 Sickle with flint teeth . ..31 
 
 Siga board 7 
 
 Skeletons mutilated . . .21 
 
 „ preserved . . 20, 22 
 
 Sneferu, evidence of . . .10 
 
 „ name found . 4, 26, 40 
 
 „ queen of . . . .41 
 
 Sneferu-khati ... 9, 34, 40 
 
 Spoilers attacked tombs . . 2 
 
 Spurrell, F. C. J., on colours . 28 
 
 Stone face, scraping of . . 27 
 
 Survey of mastaba . . . . 13 
 
 „ pyramid .... 5 
 
 Suten rekh, meaning of . -37 
 
 Tahutmes III graffiti . . 40, 41 
 r^i? sign, origin of . . . -31 
 Temple, search for. . . . 3 
 entered .... 4 
 position .... 8 
 
 court 8 
 
 dimensions ... 8 
 courses .... 9 
 graffiti .... 9 
 objects in . . 9, 34, 40 
 Third dynasty, civilization of 
 
 30, &c. 
 
 Tin in bronze 36 
 
 „ source of 44 
 
 Tombs, see Mastabas. 
 
 Tools, analyses 36 
 
 copper . . . . 16, 34 
 
 „ in hieroglyphs . . .32 
 
 Trade, evidences of ... 44 
 
 Uai paint 
 
 41, 42, 44 
 
 Water, colour of .... 30 
 
 Weapons 31 
 
 Wells of tombs, secondary . 19 
 
 Wiedemann, Dr., on kohl . 41, &c. 
 
 Wood used in construction . 16 
 
 Working lines of mastaba. . 12 
 
 „ of stone .... 27 
 
 Workmen , i 
 
WORKS BY MR. FLINDERS PETRIE. 
 
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