(44) During the clearance of the west end of the north trench, a small pot was found, of the form shewn in figure 9, containing a small quantity of a substance which had the appearance of red brick dust. The pot appears to have had a neck, but it is now missing, and a section has been broken out of the side. On the other side of the pot there is a small hole. The shape of the pot is not characteristic, and it may well be of a date later than that of the obelisk. The glaze is of a dark reddish-brown colour, and is the coarsest I have ever seen, being very uneven and covered with bubble-craters. The Director of the Chemical Department kindly allowed analyses to be made of the glaze and also of the contents of the pot. As regards the glaze, Mr. W. B. Pollard of the Chemical Department staff, who has had experience in the analysis of glazes, has suggested that it is a natural one, perhaps due to the pot lying in a fire of burning vegetable matter. This seems very likely since there seems to have been a great deal of burning in removing the upper layers of granite during the extraction of monuments from the quarries (section 4).

The contents of the pot are reported to be ochre and not burnt brick, though the ochre is of poor quality. It seems that we have here the material of the paint used in the quarries. It was probably mixed, before use, with acacia gum.

Ochre, of various colours, occurs within a mile of the obelisk in the rocks above the Luxor-ShellÂl railway line.

(45) During the clearance of the west end of the north trench, we found part of an ostrakon in the hieratic character. It is written in black ink in a piece of pottery, measuring 16 ×12cent., of the dull red with yellow slip common to the XVIII^th–XIX^th dynasty. Mr. Battiscombe Gunn, who has lately been translating the recently discovered ostraka and graffiti for some of the excavators at Thebes, has kindly examined this ostrakon and reports that the writing is of characteristic XIX^th dynasty type. This is shewn in figure 10. {46}

The hieroglyphic version of the ostrakon is: ([glyph])

This is hardly satisfactory, and I cannot see how we could have got a fragment of a letter telling us less than this. It is quite likely that it was thrown down from the quarry work above.

It is tempting to read, in the word [glyph] qnqn, the pounding process by which the trench was made.

(46) On the east face of the high rock shewn at C on plate VII, there are two short inscriptions in the Greek character. That on the right reads:

The first name is doubtful as I am uncertain how many letters are missing. The remainder are Greek forms of Latin names.

On the left of the above is the Greek name ???????S. ??e???? is known in C. I. G., 3, nos. 5109; 4716.

The names have been fairly nearly cut in the granite with a fine pointed chisel. {47}

(47) There are over 25 obelisks known to-day whose weights exceed 50 tons, and all must have come from AswÂn, since it is the only convenient outcrop of granite in Egypt. It might well be asked from which quarries they have been taken. I have examined most of the quarries about AswÂn and ShellÂl, but must admit that I have not found one from which I am sure that an obelisk has been extracted. I think that, at any rate, some must have been taken from the quarries in the near neighbourhood of the AswÂn obelisk, as the stratum is good, and it is the most conveniently situated from the river bank. It would well repay the trouble taken to clear the quarry to the south, and the valley leading up to the obelisk, completely, exposing the floor, as it is there that we may expect to find the bed of one of the larger obelisks. It must be borne in mind however, that a quarry, good enough to furnish a large obelisk, would be worked as long as there was good stone to be extracted from it. The sand does not come in at any alarming rate, and a credit of L. E. 5 every year would be sufficient to keep the whole quarry clear. I estimate the cost of completely clearing the south quarry and the valley at L. E. 1500. It would leave a magnificent monument.