THE necropolis of Thebes—the great city which for so many centuries had been the capital of Egypt—lies on the western side of the Nile valley, on the margin of the desert opposite the modern village of Luxor. No ancient site has yielded a greater harvest of antiquities than this famous stretch of rocky land. From time immemorial it has been the profitable hunting-ground of the tomb robber; for more than a century a flourishing trade in its antiquities has been carried on by the natives of the district, and for nearly a hundred years archaeologists have been busy here with spade and pencil. The information that has been gleaned from its temple walls and tombs has enabled scholars to trace, point by point, the history of the city from at least 2500 B.C. to Ptolemaic times. The necropolis itself extends for some five miles along the desert edge, and evidences of the explorer and robber present themselves at every turn. Open or half-filled mummy pits, heaps of rubbish, great mounds of rock dÉbris, with, here and there, fragments of coffins and shreds of linen mummy-wrappings protruding from the sand, show how active have been the tomb despoilers. Notwithstanding all the work that has been done here, very little can, in any sense, pretend to have been carried out in a systematic manner; and as few records of the various excavations have been kept, the work of the present-day explorer must necessarily be a heavy one. Often he will get no further in his excavations than the well-sorted-over dust of former explorers; and if he is fortunate enough to make a ‘find’, it is often only after clearing away a vast amount of rock dÉbris and rubbish to the bed-rock below.

With a view to making systematic excavations in this famous necropolis, I began tentative digging among the Kurneh hills and desert margin in the spring of 1907. My workmen were all from the neighbouring villages and their number has varied from seventy-five to two hundred and seventy-five men and boys. I had three head reises—MansÛr Mohammed el HashÂsh, Mohammed Abd el Ghaffer, and Ali HussÊn—who all worked well and satisfactorily. The labourers themselves were a willing and hard-working lot: but though they were no more dishonest than other Egyptian fellahin, inducements for them to steal were many, and we found it essential to proceed in our work with great care. I made it a rule that when a tomb was found, as few workmen as possible should be employed; and, in order that the opportunity for stealing should be reduced to a minimum, no clearing of a chamber or pit was carried on unless Mr. Carter or I was present. That nothing should escape us, we also, in certain cases, had to sift over the rubbish from the tombs three times.

My preliminary excavations eventually resulted in my confining attention to three sites in that part of the necropolis which lies between the dromos leading to DÊr el Bahari and the great gorge giving entrance to the valley of the Tombs of the Kings. These three sites were: (1) a spot a few metres to the north of the village mosque, where, according to the natives, lay a hidden tomb; (2) the BirÂbi,[1] which is near the desert edge, between the hills of Drah abu ‘l Nagga and the cultivated land, and adjoins the entrance to the dromos of HatshepsÛt’s famous terrace temple; and (3) that part of the XIth Dynasty cemetery which lies along the hill slope, on the northern side of the DÊr el Bahari valley.

Excavation on the first site was begun in 1908, and, after a fortnight’s arduous work among the native houses and rubbish heaps of the village, an important inscribed tomb of the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty was opened. This tomb proved to be of a ‘King’s Son’ named Teta-Ky, and contained, among many painted scenes, a figure of Aahmes-nefert-ari, the queen of Aahmes I and mother of Amenhetep I. This is the earliest known portrait of the celebrated queen, who

afterwards became the patron goddess of the necropolis: she is figured as of fair complexion and not black, as is usually the case in her portraits of a later date. The scene shows her adoring the goddess Hathor, as a cow issuing from a cliff; and behind her is a lady, presumably the queen’s mother,[2] named Teta-hemt, who is otherwise unknown. In the course of clearing this tomb many wooden Funerary Figures, in model coffins, were brought to light. These figures were of two types: (1) rudely carved mummiform figures with model coffins of wood, clay, or pottery, some of which were inscribed with hieratic or linear hieroglyphic texts; and (2) well-carved figures in wood, painted and with gilt faces, and inscribed with an early form of Chapter VI of the Book of the Dead. The figures of the first type were all found in the four niches in the courtyard wall (Pls. I and II). Those of the second type were buried in pairs in shallow holes round the four sides of the top of the main pit shaft in the centre of the courtyard floor (Pl. II). The placing of shawabti figures in this position—as it were for them to guard the mouth of the pit of the sarcophagus chamber—is only known in this instance.

The clearance of Teta-Ky’s tomb having been completed, we turned our attention to the BirÂbi site. Three days’ digging in the loose dÉbris unmasked a hidden burial-place. Masses of pottery and denuded mummies were brought to light, and at the very threshold of the tomb (afterwards numbered 9) were discovered two wooden tablets (one in fragments) covered with stucco and inscribed with hieratic texts. One of these tablets has written (1) on its obverse, an important historical text relating to the expulsion of the Hyksos kings by the King Kamosi; and (2) on its reverse, a copy of part of the well-known Proverbs of Ptah-hetep.

In the early spring of 1909 work was continued on the BirÂbi site. The tomb (No. 9), discovered the previous season, was finally cleared, but nothing further was found in it. Jutting out of one side of the hole caused by the excavation of the tomb, however, appeared the beginning of a well-built stone wall. About forty metres’ length of this wall was cleared, and though unfinished, the masonry in general was good. A doorway, giving ingress from the north (see Plan, Pl. XXX), eighteen metres along its length, showed that its northern side formed its exterior face. The facing of the stone blocks, not agreeing in direction of their chiselling, showed that they had been re-used from some older building, and as the size of the blocks and their chiselling were similar to the masonry of the Mentu-hotep temple at DÊr el Bahari, it was conjectured that the wall must be of a date posterior to the XIth Dynasty. Regarding the purpose of the wall, we obtained no clue in 1909, nor could we then date it with any precision. In 1910, however, we found several blocks lying near the wall which bore hieratic inscriptions giving the name of HatshepsÛt’s master-builder, Pu-am-ra. Afterwards, similar inscriptions were found on the blocks built in the masonry. These, together with a single block bearing the name of the great queen’s famous architect, Senmut, clearly proved that the wall which we had found must have belonged to some building of HatshepsÛt’s reign. Further clearance revealed that the building was of the nature of a terrace temple like that at DÊr el Bahari. So far as we can at present see, the axis of the building corresponds to the axis of the dromos leading to HatshepsÛt’s temple. This point, together with the fact that a foundation deposit with objects bearing the prenomen of the queen and the name of her temple (Zeser-zeseru) was brought to light, apparently in the centre of our monument, shows that we are dealing with a building in some way connected with the temple at DÊr el Bahari. The probable interpretation is that this newly-discovered ‘Terrace Temple’ is in reality a ‘Valley’-Temple or ‘Portal’ to HatshepsÛt’s noble monument at DÊr el Bahari. It would, therefore, correspond to the so-called ‘Valley’-Temples of Gizeh and AbusÎr. Another interesting fact relating to HatshepsÛt’s DÊr el Bahari temple was the discovery of a foundation deposit at the north-west corner of the dromos (Pl. XXIV, b), where it joins the temple. This is the largest deposit that has hitherto been discovered, and exhibits two new features in connexion with the custom of placing of such deposits, namely, the consecration of the building by unction and flesh and blood offerings. These offerings were kept separate from the usual model tools and implements which were found near by, and the vessels containing the unguents and wines were smashed, and their contents, as well as grains of corn, were poured over the clean sand that filled the cache. In 1911 search was made for the companion deposit in the south-west corner (Pl. XXIV, c); this was soon found, and it differed only in the fact that the secondary group—i. e. the tools and implements—was missing.

Beneath the foundations of the ‘Valley’-Temple we cut through a layer of rock dÉbris averaging two metres in thickness, and discovered a series of pit and corridor tombs hewn in the rock-bed below. These had all been plundered, some indeed twice, and most of their contents had been scattered and some burnt. Several bore evidence of having been pilfered, in the first instance, shortly after the close of the Middle Kingdom, and then again during HatshepsÛt’s reign, probably by the workmen employed in building the ‘Valley’-Temple. As evidence of the earlier plundering we may mention the fact that fragments of one stela were found in two separate tombs (Nos. 27 and 31), on opposite sides of the great wall. After this first plundering, the rock dÉbris must have collected to a considerable depth above the tombs before the second spoliation took place, for rough retaining walls, built of stones and bricks found in the mounds, were made to support the sides of the shafts pierced through the earth by the later robbers.

The tombs, as we have already noted, are of two types: (1) pit tombs, comprising a vertical shaft with one or more chambers at the bottom, and (2) corridor tombs, with open court in front, vestibule and passage leading to chambers with vertical shafts, and sarcophagus chamber below. In all cases the original contents had been plundered and some of the tombs had been re-used towards the end of the Intermediate period. One of the pit tombs, however, contained an unopened coffin and objects scattered about the chambers, which all clearly belonged to the original burial. Fortunately one of the objects—the fine casket figured in >Pl. XLVIII—was inscribed with the cartouche of Amenemhat IV, and

this enabled us to date with precision tomb No. 25. This casket is of ivory, ebony, and cedar wood, and was found broken into about two hundred pieces, which have been admirably fitted together, and the whole box restored to its original form by Mr. Carter. Beside the names of Amenemhat IV this casket bore the name of the ‘Keeper of the department of Food’, Kemen. It is interesting to note that in the prayer inscribed upon the top of the lid, the god invoked is Sebek, Lord of Image not available: hieroglyph [H.]ent, a locality in the FayÛm where the later XIIth Dynasty kings appear to have been very active. Among the objects found in this tomb and belonging to the same early date, were the board for a game, which Mr. Carter has succeeded in elucidating (p. 56), a coffin bearing the name of Ren-senb, and containing, besides the mummified body, a fine bronze mirror with ebony handle mounted in gold, and a beautiful necklace of gold-capped obsidian beads. In tomb No. 24 were necklaces of beads and amulets characteristic of the same period, and a mounted XIIth Dynasty scarab-seal. The stela, fragments of which were found in tombs Nos. 27 and 31, is of the XIIIth Dynasty, and to the same period may be ascribed several other objects found in these tombs. All these antiquities certainly belong to the original interments; and this enables us to date the whole group of tombs to the period covered by the end of the XIIth and perhaps the whole of the XIIIth Dynasty.[3] These Middle Kingdom tombs, we have already noted, had in some cases been re-used: this fact was brought to light in 1910, when we discovered fragments of several RÎshi coffins in both the pit and corridor tombs. Coffins of this type are peculiar to the XVIIth and early XVIIIth Dynasties; so in them we had evidence of the tombs having been re-used at this period. In 1911 further light on this point was obtained by the discovery of tomb No. 37, which we found to contain some sixty-four coffins, and a large number of miscellaneous objects which may all be referred to the same period. Of the bricked-up chambers here, one bore seal impressions of Thothmes I, and among objects scattered over the floors of other chambers were scarabs of Amenhetep I, Thothmes I, Thothmes II, HatshepsÛt, Neferu-ra, and Thothmes III, as well as several scarabs contemporary with the XIIIth Dynasty and the Hyksos period: the contents of this tomb thus cover the whole of the Intermediate period to the beginning of the reign of Thothmes III.

Altogether about 11,000 square metres of dÉbris were cleared from the BirÂbi site and, of course, many miscellaneous antiquities were brought to light in the course of the excavation. On the dÉbris and rubbish that had collected above the ruins of the ‘Valley’-Temple were many vaulted graves, built of mud bricks; these, however, proved to have been plundered without exception. Under their floors were generally placed one or more amphorae which had been used for storing grain, water, and cakes, no doubt for the welfare of the deceased. One vase was sealed with clay and contained two well-preserved Demotic papyri, comprising deeds of sale, executed under Ptolemy Epiphanes; these documents, and a hoard of copper coins of Ptolemies III and IV, also found here, enable us to date the vaulted tombs to the Ptolemaic period.

Below these graves on the north-west corner of the site, and on the same level as the upper court of the ‘Valley’-Temple, we unearthed paving slabs bearing marks of columns, with, beneath the corner of these substructures, a foundation deposit of Rameses IV. This, fortunately, enabled us to differentiate the building from the earlier temple; but we have as yet no further clue as to its nature, except that it was of stone quarried from the DÊr el Bahari temple of the Queen.[4]

The third site which we worked was along the northern slope between the north-eastern foot hills of the DÊr el Bahari valley and the Queen’s temple.

Along the face of the cliff here are the rock-cut tombs of the great nobles of the Early Middle Kingdom, and lower down are some graves of their retainers. These tombs had been re-used at the time of the Priest Kings, and were afterwards again violated. Then at a later period they were used for interments of Saite date, and, lastly, they served as dwelling-places for the Copts.

Out of the fifteen locations investigated by us only one (No. 5) gave any reward, and here we found undisturbed burials of a poorish class of people belonging to late Saite times.

In nearly all the early tombs pottery cones were found, sometimes in great numbers, but not in a single case did we obtain one that was inscribed. They were always found in the front courts and were certainly contemporary with the tombs of the Early Middle Kingdom. In all other parts of the Theban necropolis these cones date from the beginning of the New Empire[5] downwards, and, with rare exceptions, they have the names and titles of the deceased persons for whom they were made. Their real meaning has always been an open question. Maspero has suggested that they are model cakes or loaves of bread, made in burnt clay for the sake of permanency. Rhind found them built into a wall in a tomb court; and he and others have asserted that they were intended for ornament in the construction of the tombs. The same argument that they were meant for decoration might be used in the case of the pots that the modern natives frequently use when building light walls at the present day in the same tombs. The bas-relief in the tomb of Kha-em-hat, shown in Fig. 7, together with the fact that the cones are found nearly always on the floors of the open courtyard of tombs, tends to corroborate the theory of Maspero.

Distributed over the surface of the hillside were numbers of chert hammers and chisels, and also heaps of flakes, showing that they had been made on the spot. These are exactly similar to others that have been found at Beni Hasan and other rock-cut tomb sites of Egypt. They were probably used for the rougher work when hewing out the rock.

Our trenches near to the DÊr el Bahari temple exposed the workmen’s dwellings and part of a large wall bearing the names, stamped upon its bricks, of Aahmes-nefert-ari and Amenhetep I. Here also were found votive offerings, as well as leaf offerings[6] in small pottery vessels, and oblations to trees.

These offerings to trees had already been noticed during the excavation of HatshepsÛt’s temple by the Egypt Exploration Fund,[7] when trees were discovered in the Lower Terrace with similar votive objects buried in the earth around them. In the tombs of the XVIIIth Dynasty and later periods representations of people offering to trees are often found; while even at the present day a general feature of the Mohammedan cemetery is its tree (generally a gemmÊz, ‘sycomore-fig’[8]), under which water and other offerings are often placed by mourners, while rags are attached to its branches or twigs. In the tomb of Thothmes III the deceased king himself is depicted[9] as receiving nourishment from the tree through a breast that protrudes from one of its boughs. It is interesting to note in regard to the votive offerings that within 600 yards of the scene of our excavations the tomb of Sheikh Abd El Kurneh, the local Mohammedan saint, is surrounded by heaps of mud model houses, small vessels of henna, and even the latest European wax candles, to invoke his assistance for the public weal.