James Edward Quibell

“ There seemed no great difference in the conditions to which these mummies and the bodies of the XIIth dynasty people had been exposed. Yet no trace of mummy-cloth, dried skin, hair, or bitumen was ever met with in the earlier cemetery. Nor in the early burials that I opened at Ballas were any mummies found, and certainly most of the mummies known belong to the XVIIIth dynasty or later. Is it possible that mummification was confined to the upper classes until the great increase of wealth in the XVIIIth dynasty led to the wider adoption of the custom? ”

“ A chamber generally contained more than one body; four was a not uncommon number, and in one chamber eight persons, probably women, lay side by side. This fact certainly agrees badly with the idea just expressed of the absence of mummification. The objects found in the graves were of well-known types. Bottle-shaped vases at the head and feet, alabaster kohl pots, kohl sticks of ivory, bronze mirrors without handles, paint-slabs with their pestles and spatulæ of serpentine and basalt, with beads of green glaze and various kinds of hard stone, were the regular staple of our finds. ”

“ These are anxious moments, for when this shifting ground has once begun to slip, the whole side of a tomb may fall at once. Happily we had no serious accident, though there were many narrow escapes. It is necessary in such work to watch the men very carefully, and to insist on their taking reasonable care, for they will, if left alone, burrow beneath dangerously overhanging masses of soil rather than take the trouble of removing them. The method in which the door of the burial-chamber was closed was not at first clear ”

“ The chambers inside the mastaba, left blank in the plan, were found filled with brick earth; this was cleared out, but nothing save a scrap of IVth dynasty pottery was found. The earth was doubtless thrown in in this way to economise bricks; the cross walls would serve only to keep this loose earth from falling down the well in the centre. The well was about 15 feet deep, filled with thick, damp clay, the bottom being, even in January, very near the water-level. The chamber was to the south, closed by a rough-hewn slab of sandstone three inches thick. ”

“ The relative dates of the different varieties of their tombs can be made out, and the graves with mutilated bodies found at Naqada are much earlier than those at Abydos containing the names of I-II dynasty kings. At some period which we cannot yet date, even on the rough scale of Libyan pottery, another race or races entered the country, bringing with them writing, the practice of mummification, the art of building in brick with recessed panels, and perhaps, as M. de Morgan suggests, metals. Thus was formed the Egyptian people of historic times. ”

“ The objects from this tomb are now exposed in the museum at Ghizeh, and it is interesting to observe that the pottery, the slate palettes, and the flint knives are distinctly of the later type of Ballas.
It has, then, become now fairly clear that the earliest known inhabitants of Egypt were a tall, fair race akin to the modern Kabyles. They buried their dead in a contracted position with the head to the south, and in the earliest times either mutilated the dead before burial, or kept the bodies for a long time before the final burial. ”

“ Time has rounded over the traces of the earlier robberies, so that anciently robbed tombs look much like those which are intact, but in which the roof has fallen in causing a dip in the ground not unlike the top of a tomb-shaft. The cemetery lies in a shoal in the dry stream-bed, at whose mouth El Kab was placed. This shoal is a great bank of gravel and a fine clay-like detritus, the beds of which lie alternately, the thickness of each varying in different parts. ”

“ With only the warning of the fall of a single pebble, or just a little gutter of sand, a mass of perhaps two tons would suddenly drop with a thud. On two occasions a man was caught by some part of the fall, and once, just as the helpless man was being dug out, a clumsy helper dislodged a few more hundredweight and buried him again. ”

“ Nothing in Egypt makes so pleasant a dwelling as a rock-tomb. In a house in which window and door are one, and three sides and the roof are of solid rock, there can be no draughts, and the range of temperature night and day is very small. We had a room each, another for a dining-room, and in two more I packed away my forty workmen. These were nearly all men known in previous years at Kuft and Naqada, for the natives of El Kab are few in number and of inferior physical strength, so that their labour at two piastres a day was dearer than that of the picked Kuftis at four. ”

“ In the side of the tomb were two small balls of limestone and one of carnelian, in shape and size like playing marbles, and some fragments of malachite. By the door were some chips of diorite bowls. The marbles were clearly part of a set for a game (cf. Naqada, Pl. VII) , and the fact that the set was incomplete, and that the stone bowls were broken, makes it probable, in spite of the presence of the gold nuggets, that the tomb had been partially plundered. The early robbers may easily have passed over the gold, for the moist and tough clay hides small objects only too well ”

“ The Libyans, too, as lovers of fine pottery, would surely have learnt the use of the wheel from the Egyptians, if they had come in contact with them at all; yet all the Libyan pottery (with the rarest exceptions) is handmade. ”

“ IV, 1, with many more small fragments of inscription on pieces of sandstone. The original temple, then, has gone, the pile of pottery thrown out from it will be carried away too; even the temple of Amenhotep may be undermined within no very long period. The effects of sudden storms in the desert are greater than might be supposed. There is no vegetation to stop and absorb the rain, the ground is excessively hard, and all that does not immediately sink into the soil runs rapidly down into the larger watercourses, and forms in a few hours a deep and broad stream. ”

“ The next mastaba (E) is of a curious form; the S. niche is over one of the wells instead of being in the outer wall. Both wells were cleared until we were stopped by water. From one came the fragments of a pottery sarcophagus of the small type.
The small mastaba (301) nearer the town wall was of more interest. In its well were found fragments of the rough early pottery (Pl. XII) , of the short type of earthenware coffin, and of a majūr (XX, 5) , also a piece of a diorite bowl, on which the name Sneferu had been very roughly scratched, and a small (3⁄4-inch) black stone cylinder (XX, 32) . ”

“ The entire absence of distinctly Egyptian objects from so large a series of tombs, and even from the villages of the same period, was difficult to explain on the supposition that the Egyptians were already in the land. ”

“ The forms from 28a to 35 are XVIIIth and XIXth dynasty, from secondary burials in the Middle Kingdom cemetery.
Pl. XIV.—All but No. 3 are water-jars, 5, 6, 7, and 8 being the common forms. No. 4, with the four ears, is in a fine hard drab ware, and No. 1 is painted, but the rest, which were by far the commonest forms, are of a rather coarse, soft pottery, varying in colour from dull brown to pink; the brown ware is the softest [Pg 20] and most liable to flaking. ”

“ It will be observed that the contents of the stairway tombs are very closely similar to those of the mastabas with square wells, but that objects characteristic of Neolithic tombs—green paint, double vases, marbles, etc.—are rather more numerous in the stairway tombs. This makes it seem likely that the stairway tombs here at El Kab are earlier in date than the mastabas with square wells.
12. Next we may describe the small graves, generally [Pg 9] about 3-4 feet deep, in which there is no chamber for burial, but the body is laid in the shaft or open grave. ”

“ The conclusion that these people differed from the Egyptians has not been much disputed, but the above dating has been opposed, and the evidence from El Kab convinced me that we were wrong, and that M. de Morgan was right in attributing the bulk of this civilisation to the praedynastic period. Of this dating, the remarkable finds of M. Amélineau at Abydos, and those of M. de Morgan himself at Naqada, have given very strong proof; but the more fragmentary evidence of El Kab, which led me independently to the same conclusion, may retain still a certain interest. ”

“ This slab being removed, the chamber was found to be full of a very tenacious clay, much of which had to be cut away with a knife, for in so tough a substance a light blow with an adze [Pg 4] has no effect, and a heavy one may damage some valuable object before it can be seen. The whole chamber was lined with flat sandstone blocks, but the thin roof slabs had given way under pressure of the earth above. ”

“ The shapes from 15 onwards belong to the Neolithic and Old Kingdom graves, but 14 was in a XIIth dynasty grave (36) ; 15 is from a small stairway tomb, 26 also. All the shapes are of alabaster, unless otherwise marked. A rough example of No. 44 was found at Ballas, used anciently as a lamp with floating wick.
34. Pl. XI gives the distinctly Neolithic forms of pottery. Nos. 1, 2, 4, 12, 16, 18 are of coarse brown ware, 5-9, with 11, 13, 14, good drab. No. 10 is a red pebble-polished ware, 15 is a dark red. Nos. ”

“ Sphinxes with human heads are generally of amethyst. Uninscribed scarabs, in carnelian, amethyst, and jasper, were not uncommon.
CHAPTER IV. NEW EMPIRE MONUMENTS.
23. Singularly little is left in El Kab of any period later than the Middle Kingdom, unless, indeed, the great walls be of later date than we have supposed. The broken pottery inside the town enclosure, that is the south-west corner of the great square, seems to be of various periods, but to contain a large quantity of a fabric most like that of the XXVIth dynasty. ”

“ There was also a large pot (of the shape XII, 49, but larger) , similar to the later pottery of the New Race.
Stairway 5 must be counted in this group of tombs, though it differed from the common type in three respects. It was much larger, the brickwork being 41 metres long by 20 wide; instead of an open stairway it had a small shaft opening into a long inclined plane which led down to the burial chamber; the chamber, too, was very large (7 m. square) . The recessed brickwork remained on the west side, and the passage which led to the niche on the east side can still be traced. ”

“ It is made of a veneer (? on wood) of ivory, and blue and black slips of glazed ware.
Nos. 3-9 are ivory fragments of another box.
Pl. IX.—Copies of water-colour sketches of a stairway tomb, both taken from below (by Miss Murray from Miss Pirie’s sketches) .
33. Pl. X.—Stone vessels. 1-5 are of alabaster, and, with 6, come from the sunk arches, believed to be of the earlier XIIth dynasty, i.e., some time between the Old Kingdom and the reign of Usertesen II; 7-12 are of the later XIIth dynasty; Nos. 7, 8 and 10 are the common ones, the shape 7, when in stone, being, of course, not decorated. ”

“ The cylinder is of a type known in the IVth and Vth dynasties, and [Pg 19] Dr. Petrie suggests that it may be Men-kau-ra, and that his Ka name was Men-maat, the maat being read with the straight sign only. If this be so, we must suppose that the owner of this grave had found the cylinder in some ancient site.
No. 6 shows one of the small clay figures of Nekheb found behind the stone work of the east gate.
Pl. VI.—No. 1. A group of the finest stone vases. The upright dish is of diorite; rather more than two-thirds of it was recovered, all in small pieces. It is inscribed suten biti Sneferu. ”

“ On the right hand are five slate paint slabs of the later [Pg 18] Neolithic type; nearer the wall are diorite bowls, alabaster tables, flat dishes of limestone and alabaster, a bronze ewer (from Ka-mena) , and a pottery model of a granary.
No. 2 shows all the small objects from the important tomb with a majūr burial (166) —shells, ivory disc, ivory hairpins, a flint flake, a steatite cylinder, beads, ivory bracelets, two pots and two stone bowls. (For inscription on the cylinder v. Pl. XX, 29) . ”

“ The clearing of this tomb formed a tedious task for six men during three weeks, and nothing important was found. A pot (X, 29) , found inside the great chamber, suggested that it had been entered during the XVIIIth dynasty, and three alabaster vases (28 cm. high) were most probably canopic jars from some late burial. This tomb is a prominent object to anyone looking north from the El Kab wall, and has the appearance of a natural mound.
Another stairway tomb was remarkable for the great number of coarse limestone and alabaster vertical jars which were piled at the bottom of the stair. ”

“ No. 7 gives the plan of the important tomb in which an inscribed cylinder was found in association with Neolithic pots (No. 166, § 13) .
No. 8 is a rough-sketch plan of the great temple of El Kab, inserted to show the position of the foundation deposits.
31. Pl. II.—1. The stone vessels of the Neolithic period and the Old Kingdom, as they were shown at University College. Only one was perfect; even those that look most complete were picked out in small pieces from the gravel or mud, and were put together by the help of our friends in England. ”

“ I, 8 N) , also under the great temple. Of green glaze are Nos. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 38, 39 and 48; of bronze are Nos. 31, 33, 34, 35, 32; of clay, 41 and 47. No. 42 is of bone, No. 37 of calcite, Nos. 36 [Pg 21] and 39 of red glass. Nos. 43 and 44 (scale 1⁄6) are the typical shapes of pottery. Nos. 45 and 46 show the coarse sandstone mortars found in these deposits.
39. Pl. XXII is a plan of the XIIth dynasty tombs found outside the east wall of the temple.
Pl. XXIII gives the large group of mastabas found under the heap of sand north of the town wall. ”