THE EARLIEST TOMBS.

4. The lower parts of the ground inside the enclosure had been very thoroughly looted, chiefly by the natives of El Kab, when cultivating. We found many small graves about 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and waist deep, but containing no bones, and with so little pottery in them that it took some time to determine their period. But in the two low mounds to the north, and the larger one in the south, graves of several kinds soon appeared. Of these one set were clearly later than the rest. Their enclosure walls, within which several burials were found, were at right angles to the great wall of the town, and cut through the other graves (mastabas) which, though parallel to one another, were skew to the town walls. These earlier tombs were of several types: (1) mastabas with square shafts; (2) mastabas with sloping “stairways,” both of crude brick; (3) burials in the kind of large earthenware pot that our workmen call a majur; and (4) burials of that now well-known type which has been called New Race, Libyan, Neolithic, etc., and which is distinguished by the contracted position of the body with the head to the south, and by a very definite class of pottery, paint slabs, beads, etc. The mastabas were found both within and outside of the town walls, one group (Pl. XXIII) lying quite close to them. On three diorite bowls found in these graves (one inside the walls, the others outside) the name of Sneferu appeared. As this is the only king’s name occurring in any of these tombs, it seems probable that most of them may belong to the reign of Sneferu, or to the period immediately following. And the town walls, being built through the Old Kingdom cemetery, are, of course, the later in date.

About thirteen “stairway” tombs and thirty-seven mastabas were examined. The precise number cannot be given, for when the walls of the mastaba are entirely denuded, and only the well is left, one cannot be sure that the grave was ever of the mastaba form. Of smaller graves which yielded any evidence, there were about fifty-three; but many more, which, from their position, orientation, and size, could be assigned to the early period, were quite empty, or contained only a few potsherds.

5. The most important mastaba was that of Ka-mena (Pl. XXIII). It is one of a group which we found under the great mound of drifted sand on the north side of the wall. Pl. VII gives two views of this group of tombs during the process of excavation. The low walls are denuded near the end of the sand-slope to a single brick’s height; in the centre they are a metre high, and they sink again towards the end under the great wall. They are built with recessed panels, and were originally plastered and painted white. Round the whole tomb runs a boundary wall. The two small closed chambers at the end of the last passage (corresponding to those which, in the tomb of Nefer-shem-em, contained his two statues) were empty, but a few fragments of the legs of a small sandstone statue were found near. In the E. wall itself there are two niches; in and near them were found many small pieces of worked limestone, some inscribed. They are copied in Pl. XVIII, 49-53 and 55. The face in 49 retained a touch of green paint on the cheek, an important piece of evidence for the dating of the Naqada tombs, the occupants of which also used this method of adorning themselves. The pieces, 53 and 54, seem to be parts of a stela; 50 and 55 are from the bases of limestone statues.

The inscriptions give us Ka-mena’s name, and show him as a king’s acquaintance and a priest.

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. It should be noted that the sandstone in the neighbourhood breaks naturally into very flat plates, so that it is easy to pick out slabs which, with very little dressing, will serve for building; such pieces were found in many of the early tombs. 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 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 style of building was irregular (v. Pl. I), the blocks being fitted, but not squared. The body had lain on the west side, with its head north; no trace of a coffin remained, and the bones were a mere white paste, only to be distinguished by scraping sections with a knife through mud and bone. Under the whole body was a bed of white sand. Near the entrance were six vases (XI, 12), of a shape and fabric indistinguishable from a late Neolithic form common at Naqada, and opposite the middle of the body was a group of important objects. These were: a model granary in rough red pottery (Pl. VI), each little storehouse having an opening above, closed by a stopper; another similar granary in fragments, three vertical alabaster jars, an alabaster circular table, and the group of bowls and model tools shown in Pl. III. These last consist of—

(1.) A bowl and ewer, probably of copper, not of bronze.

(2.) A bowl of porphyry, a flat bowl of a beautiful light-coloured and translucent diorite, and a flat dish made of a darker variety of the same stone. This last is inscribed with the Ka name of Snefru, Neb Maat, the chisel-like sign of the maat being written on the convex side of the sickle, and the door-frame of the name surmounted by a hawk.

(3.) A set of model tools, axe, knife, adzes and chisels, shown again in outline on Pl. XVIII, 56-65. These have been analysed by Dr. Gladstone, who writes as follows:—

“The largest fragment gave—
Per cent.
Copper 98·4
Arsenic 0·3
Iron 0·2
Bismuth trace
Lead trace
Antimony trace?
Oxygen as cuprous oxide trace

It is, of course, essentially copper, the minute quantities of the other constituents being due, in all probability, to impurities in the ore. The total absence of tin is the most notable feature.”

6. The small mastaba W. of Ka-mena’s is of simpler construction. The brickwork may have been recessed, though this could not be ascertained, as its walls were only two bricks high, and the panelling in the other mastabas does not reach so near the ground. There is no enclosing wall, but there is a passage on the east side, with low cross walls which I do not understand. The chamber at the bottom of the well is to the south; it was not closed by a stone. Near the mouth, to the east, was a small coffin of red pottery; its size showed it to be that of a child buried in a contracted position. Between the coffin and the side of the chamber was a diorite bowl; south of this were two vertical jars and a circular table, all of alabaster. On the west side of the chamber lay the body, on its left side, and with the head north; the arms and legs were sharply bent, the heels being brought close to the hips.

7. To the west of this is the compound mastaba marked C in the plan. The southern half was built later than the northern, the panelling of which can be seen inside the first well beyond the cross wall. The spaces marked 1, 3 and 6 are only chambers filled with clay; 2, 4 and 5 are all tomb wells.

The well (4) was exceptional in that its chamber was to the west and not to the south. It was 5·3 m. deep, and scattered through the earth in it were coarse pots of the types in Pl. XII (23, 30, 31, 33, 34, 40). Inside the chamber were two vertical alabaster jars, a circular table, a diorite bowl, fragments of malachite, a small river shell containing white paint, and one of the pots (XI, 12) like those in Ka-mena’s tomb.

At the bottom of the next well (5) stood one of the large hemispherical pots (majurs) which were used as coffins (XX, 5). It was 60 cm. in diameter, but was empty and inverted. Against the mouth of the chamber was a stone slab two metres high, one side of it much broken away. The chamber was, as in all these tombs, filled with thick mud, and scattered through this mud, or on the floor, lay the following objects: a diorite bowl of the ordinary shape, containing a small vase of alabaster inverted over a mass of green paint (malachite), a smaller bowl also of diorite, an alabaster table upside down, and two more alabaster vessels.

Below these lay what once had been a very curious box. The pattern of the lid is shown in Pl. VIII, 2. It is composed of small flat strips of ivory, 1 mm. thick, and of pieces of glaze, blue and black; these had apparently been glued on to a background of wood, but this had entirely decayed, and the thin film of decoration was left in the mass of heavy clay. After clearing it sufficiently to learn its nature and size, we drove a piece of tinplate under it, and so lifted out the whole lump of earth in which it was contained. Inside the house we could at leisure scrape away the soil from one side, and pour melted beeswax in its place, then turn the whole over and repeat the process on the other side. In this way a large piece was brought to England embedded in wax. This wax was afterwards removed, and replaced on the inside by plaster of Paris. The size of the box was about 12 inches long by 8 inches broad, and 5 inches high. It had been much crushed, and the sides could not be saved. The contents were a small porphyry bowl (X, 44), a shell, and some green paint.

8. The mastabas C, Ca, and D were contained in the same boundary wall. C appears to be the earliest, then Ca, then D. The inner half of the passage between C and D is lined with stone; at the end, bricked up in a little chamber, were found the two statues of Nefer-shem-em; to him, therefore, belonged the tomb D. The statue to the west was in sandstone (Pl. III), a standing figure, ? life-size; the head was missing, only a few fragments of it being found below the statue. The surface of the stone had been covered with a fine layer of plaster, reddened with haematite, of which some traces remained; the skirt was painted white.

The other statue of limestone represents Nefer-shem-em seated. The head is well preserved, and the whole statue is a good example of Old Kingdom work, though not of the most finished style, and much damaged by salt. It does not show the “Schminkstriche.” The inscriptions incised on the base of the standing figure, and on the right side of the chair of the seated one, are the same:—

Suten rekh se hez neter hon Nefer-shem-em.

(Number in Ghizeh Catalogue, 650.)

The mastaba D of Nefer-shem-em is of the ordinary type, with two niches on the east, two chambers filled with brick earth, and a central well. This well was filled with bodies, not buried with care, but thrown down in every contorted attitude. The position of twenty-three skulls and bodies was noted, and then, as no plan or arrangement appeared, the rest were left to be taken out by the men. A scarab of Amen-ankh-as, found in one of the bodies on the upper level, appears to give the late XVIIIth dynasty as the date for this mass of burials.

9. 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 majur (XX, 5), also a piece of a diorite bowl, on which the name Sneferu had been very roughly scratched, and a small (¾-inch) black stone cylinder (XX, 32). This is of a type already fairly well known from bought specimens (there are twenty-one in the Edwards Coll.), and suspected to be early, but not hitherto found by a European. The engraving shows a figure seated before a table and wearing a huge wig.

10. The next mastaba (No, 288) was inside the town. Just to the south of the tomb passage, as if thrown out from it, lay a great many pots of coarse pottery of the shapes shown in the top of Pl. XII. These pots were also found in the passages between mastabas, and fragments of them in very great quantities were scattered over the tombs, especially over those of the “stairway” type. This suggests that the coarse pottery was used, not in the interment, but for the offerings brought by relatives to the tombs. They were placed, probably, opposite the niches, and when they became inconveniently numerous, were thrown away over the tomb wall. Several hundreds of these pots were found, heaped together, behind two mastabas to the north of the wall (Pl. VII, C, D).

The tomb had been robbed. Fragments of one of the large, circular, bowl coffins (XX, 5) were scattered through the earth all down the shaft, and the great slab which had closed the door was thrown over at the bottom of the well. The chamber was empty, but under the flat stone were found fragments of a slate dish, of an alabaster table, and of four diorite bowls. Of one of these, the largest I have seen (Pl. II, 1), more than two-thirds of the pieces remained; it was inscribed, in neat, deep characters, suten biti Sneferu, the name of the king being written without the cartouche. In this tomb was also one of the coarse bars of pottery that I have found both in Old Kingdom and in Neolithic tombs, the use of which is by no means clear. They were, when complete, about 2 feet 6 inches long, and 4 inches thick; they are flat on one side, rounded on the other. The sides of one Neolithic tomb at Ballas were lined with bars of this kind. In another, the body was sheltered by a large inverted dish resting upon several of them; frequently fragments of two or three were found in a tomb. Perhaps they were used as supports for the coffin. In tomb No. 312, which was probably a mastaba, though the walls were not observed, the well was but 2 metres deep. The chamber was at the west, and was just large enough to contain the pottery coffin and a few pots. The coffin was of the short type (3 feet long); the body lay on its left side, crouched up, head to the N., and face E. One bone from the foot lay outside the coffin at the foot end, where also lay a small bowl of diorite, part of another in limestone, bracelets in shell and horn, an ivory hairpin, and a shell containing green paint. Through the earth in the tomb-shaft were scattered a large number of coarse pots (Pl. XII, two of 41, 45, 43, a hundred and four of 22, more than a hundred of 31).

In tomb No. 318, the burial chamber lay to the west of the well, 2 m. above the bottom of it, 3·7 m. from the top. The bones were scattered and broken, but the chamber was so small that the burial must have been a contracted one. There remained a diorite bowl (11 inches diameter), a vertical alabaster jar, a smaller one containing green paint, and part of a bowl in a good red ware, of the same open shape as the bronze bowl of Ka-mena’s tomb.

No. 315 contained a fragment of sculpture (XVIII, 55). No. 319 had the regular group of alabaster table and small and large diorite bowl, with two of the long egg-shaped pots (XI, 12), a vase with a spout (Pl. XII, 55), and one of the open red pottery bowls, as in No. 318, and Ka-mena (Pl. XII, 51).

Next comes a group of tombs with square wells, and chambers closed by a large block of stone, which tombs are probably mastabas, although the panelled brickwork was not found.

No. 42. A large square well, 200 m. to the N. of the town wall. Scattered in the earth were fragments of all the common coarse varieties of IVth dynasty pottery, and also of the bowl-like coffins (XX, 5). The half of an ivory cylinder (XX, 33) and the small black cylinder (XX, 31), with an inscription which is, apparently, not Egyptian, were found amongst them; there was also a small slate dish, and the egg-shaped pot (XII, 49).

No. 88, inside the town, was a well 2 metres deep. The chamber was closed by a large stone (1·00 m. × ·65 m.), but an entrance had been effected behind it. There remained in the chamber four stone bowls of the shapes so often found together (X, 22, 39, 44, 48), and in the shaft were part of a majur, and twenty-five coarse pots (nineteen of XII, 23, two of 37, four of 31).

No. 101. A well, 3 metres deep, with chamber to the south, contained, with the regular coarse pottery, the less common shape XII, 26, and also some fragments of the later Neolithic large vases (Naqada, XL, 40 or 46). Necks of these same vases were in No. 150 with the coarse pottery, and also one of the yellow clay dolls, about 15 cm. long, representing a woman with very long legs, and a great square-ended wig. These dolls are well known, and were supposed to be of the Middle Kingdom. There was no sign in this tomb of a secondary burial, so it may be that the dolls are even of the Old Kingdom.

No. 185. At 2·10 metres below the surface were the pieces of a small pottery cist, a majur (complete), under which lay the body, in the contracted position, the head to the south, a stone bowl, and an ivory comb, together with a few beads, felspar discs, and shell-shaped beads of serpentine, apparently of Neolithic style. Forty cm. lower were some cylindrical beads in green glaze, and shells with the stains of green paint. In the earth above were scattered examples of the regular series of coarse pots (XII, 23, 31, 35, 45).

No. 187, a well 3 metres deep, contained only an inverted pottery cist, inside which was a body lying upon the left side, with the head to the north.

No. 191, a well 2·50 metres deep, was peculiar in that it contained no chamber; the body was protected from the earth above by a double roof of sandstone slabs, supported on other slabs at the sides. The body was sharply bent up, the knees being nearly opposite the mouth; it lay on the left side with the head south. At the head stood an alabaster vase (X, 31) of a late Neolithic shape. This tomb, but for its exceptional depth, might be classed among the Neolithic interments.

In No. 192 the body was in an abnormal position, for while the arms lay at full length, and the thighs in a line with the body, the knees were so sharply bent that heels and hips were in contact. The head was to the north, and the face east.

No. 204 was another square well with a chamber below, which had been closed by a thin brick wall; it contained a square, flat, slate palette, parts of a slate dish, and three pots of a Neolithic shape (XI, 12).

No. 228 was a square well near a group of stairway tombs. In it were two burials, the first in a pottery cist placed in one corner of the well at 1·5 metres from the surface. The body was contracted, the head to the north; the only object placed with the body was a shell near the hips. Below this cist lay another body in a wooden box painted white. This also was in the sharply contracted Neolithic position, hands and knees both before the face; the head lay to the north, and the body was on its left side. Lower still in the well were pots of the coarse Old Kingdom types. Both these bodies, presumably, are secondary burials.

No. 231 contained three pots of Old Kingdom types (XII, 23, 54, 31), with fragments of a large majur (XX, 5), and one sherd of a thin ware, black inside, and decorated outside with rows of pricked marks. This cannot be distinguished from certain fragments obtained in the Neolithic cemetery at Ballas.

No. 280, a well north of the wall, sunk below water-level, but in the filling were found the regular group of coarse pots (XII, 31, 36, 35, 33).

In 197 the coarse pottery occurred with chips of malachite, and in 233 with a vertical alabaster vase and fragments of a large vase identical with a large late Neolithic shape.

11. We next turn to the other large class of tombs, those entered by stairways. These may all have been mastabas. The characteristic massive brick walls remain in several cases, in one, at least, retaining the recessed panel work and niches. But it may be that these stairway tombs are rather older than those mastabas which have square wells, and it seems best not to group them together. The appearance of these tombs may be seen in Miss Murray’s black and white reproduction of two sketches by Miss Pirie (Pl. IX).

The first view shows the stairway, as seen from below, looking northward; in the other view one is supposed to be looking southward at the vertical end of the shaft, the tomb entrance and the stone door.

All these tombs were robbed, excepting, possibly, one. This (St. 2) was the smallest tomb of the kind that I have seen. The stair was reduced to a couple of roughly cut steps; the total depth was only 1 m., and though a large stone slab had been placed as a door to the burial chamber, a robber had only to pierce 20 cm. of soil to get into the chamber through the roof. The chamber, which was about a metre square, was filled with a thick damp clay. The bones had decayed so much that only a few parts could be identified but distinctive fragments of the skull, the hip ends of the two femurs, a tibia, a radius and ulna, enabled one to see that the body had lain on the left side with the head to the north. Before the face was an ivory cup (shape X, 44). Below the body was a little red dust with spots of white in it, probably the remains of a wooden coffin painted white.

In and below the white paste, which was all that was left of the bones of the hand, were two nuggets of gold (one 18 dwts. = 28 grammes) and a handful of barrel-shaped carnelian beads mixed with very small beads of gold. By scraping away the earth very gently, one could see that the gold beads had been strung together to form bands 5 or 6 mm. broad, alternating with bands of carnelian. A gold bar, 2 cm. long, pierced with five holes, had clearly served to hold the strings on which the beads were threaded. There was also a bracelet of a single thick gold wire. The total weight of gold was about 4 oz. (125 grammes). In the N.W. corner of the tomb, behind the head, were five vessels of ivory, two very coarse vertical jars (14 and 19 cm.), two bowls (23 and 26 cm. diameter), one with a spout (X, 26), and a bowl of the speading shape of Ka-mena’s bronze (XII, 51); there was also a small double vase of limestone (X, 15). A little steatite plaque with the inscription Neb.ra was stated by the workmen to have come from this tomb, and there is no reason to doubt them; but I did not actually see it in place. The name Neb.ra is one of the three Ka names on the shoulder of the famous archaic statue No. I at Ghizeh, and the name on the plaque may perhaps be the same, though it is not written in the square Ka frame.

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; it was only the weight of two small lumps of clay that betrayed to me the presence of the nuggets inside.

The quantity of gold remaining in so small a tomb shows how rich the large interments may have been, and how strong was the temptation to rob them.

In Stairway 1 the lines of the surrounding mass of brickwork were traced, but the walls were not high enough to show the recessed panels, which probably once existed.

In Stairway 6, a large tomb, coarse shapes of pottery (XII, 23, 35) were found, and also vertical alabaster jars, fragments of an alabaster table, and of bowls, hairpins of ivory, and an oblong slate palette with two stone rubbers. This was of one of the later shapes of Naqada. 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. 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. There were 150 of these, but nothing else in the tomb, except a few pieces from a bowl of brown incised ware (XX, 1), somewhat like the rare incised pottery found at Naqada.

Staircase 8 contained a stand of coarse pottery and a small coarse saucer (XII, 31, 44), the rough handmade vase (XII, 23), fragments of large water-jars of better ware, and two alabaster bowls, one of the sharp-edged type (XI, 33), the other of the common shape, drawn in at the mouth (XI, 44); there were also two mud jar-seals of flat saucer-like shape.

In Stairway 9 the sides of the shaft had been plastered with mud. The stone door of the burial chamber was still standing, the robbers having apparently found it easier to force their way through the comparatively soft earth above the great slab. We were frequently able to trace their mode of entrance, and found that they sank their shafts at the deep end of the stairway, never clearing the long flight of steps. This would seem to show that the robberies took place while this method of burial was remembered. This tomb contained fragments of one of the large hemispherical pots used as coffins (majurs), and pieces of a large jar of polished red ware, the lines of polish on which run lengthways; this ware again cannot be distinguished from the Libyan. There was also a vertical jar of veined marble, the horizontally-pierced handle of a typical Libyan stone vase, an alabaster bowl and a vase (X, 43), with a couple of coarse pottery bowls of IVth dynasty type (XII, 37).

Stairway 10 contained only the coarse pottery, but the common jars (XII, 23) bore a series of simple marks made before firing (XVIII, 21-4, and a triangle).

Stairway 12 had been robbed, though the sandstone door had not been moved. The body had been laid in a wooden box (80 cm. long), which nearly filled the chamber. The wood had disappeared, but the thin layers of paint still kept their place. The body lay on the left side, contracted, the head to the north. A small diorite bowl stood near the head of the coffin, and a common alabaster vase in the earth above it. Round the bones of the arm were carnelian beads of short barrel shape.

No. 226 was exceptional in the position of the entrance to the tomb chamber. On descending the stairway, one found oneself at the base of a large well, in the east side of which, and not visible from the stairway, stood the great door. In the filling was found a good flint knife, of the usual early type, with small handle, but much inferior to the finer Neolithic work.

The contents of this series of tombs have been given thus in detail, in order to show that the same grouping of objects occurs over and over again, and that they can therefore be with confidence attributed to the original burials, though if only a single tomb had been examined there would be no proof of the contemporaneousness of any object in it. 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 about 3-4 feet deep, in which there is no chamber for burial, but the body is laid in the shaft or open grave. These were found chiefly inside the fort of El Kab, though a few were outside the walls. Some were distinctly of Neolithic type, but of that later variety in which the fine black and red pottery is not found. Of the earlier type, only one small group of twenty graves was discovered; these were well outside the town, on the west side of the railway, and so thoroughly cleared out that only half a dozen chips of pottery remained to show their real nature. But of the later kind many examples were found, and still more numerous were the empty graves which, by their size and position, seemed to belong to the same class.

This type is characterised by the contracted position of the body, the vertical jars with cordage pattern, the square slate palettes, the flat alabaster dishes, and four shapes of alabaster vases (X, 22, 44, 48, 31), two of which often occur also in the mastabas. The first group obtained were inside an oblong brick building, which showed red in the distance, the colour being due to the great number of broken pots of the Old Kingdom (XII, 20, 23) scattered over it. The earth within its walls was found to consist largely of these pots, of which there was an unbroken layer, two feet thick. Below this we came upon the Neolithic tombs. The walls were of the small bricks which we soon learnt to associate with the work of the Old Kingdom in El Kab. It is not probable that the walls had any relation to the tombs, for they were not quite parallel to one another, and there were more tombs outside these walls. But it is important to observe that a thick layer of the coarse pottery of the Old Kingdom here overlies Neolithic tombs. It is just possible that the pottery may have been thrown by cultivators upon this mound, but the probabilities against this seemed to me very strong. In one of these tombs (L, 2) the body was found complete, lying on the left side, with the head to the south. At the head end were one wavy-handled pot of a late type (XI, 3), two vertical jars (as XI, 5), with cordage pattern, a square slate palette, and above these a pot (XI, 9), with decoration in wavy red lines; also an alabaster cup (X, 38), containing six finger-bones. At the other end were a bowl, and two vases of well-known forms.

The middles of the graves were generally empty, and bones were rarely found; the stone bowls, which formed the bulk of the finds, were at the north and south ends. It does not seem worth while to transfer from the notebooks the full description of each of these small tombs, for they have been so thoroughly robbed and turned over that the position of the different objects in the tomb has no particular meaning, but it may be well to give a short catalogue of the objects found (v. Pl. XXVII). Each of the tombs is about 1·50 m. to 2·00 m. long, ·90 m. wide, and 1·50 deep.

In one tomb (No. 237) the body was laid in a wooden box (length not seen, ·40 m. broad, wood 3 cm. thick), in a contracted position, with the head to the south, but the bones were disturbed, and the pottery lay at various levels, not all on the floor of the tomb. There were traces of mat-work at the north end.

No. 241 was lined with four stone slabs, and another that lay near had served for roof. In the filling was a head of some animal (? antelope) made of the coarse red pottery of the early period.

No. 206 had a fragment of a square Neolithic palette, an alabaster bowl with a spout (X, 19), a taller bowl, also of alabaster (X, 30), and a lot of beads—felspar discs, long cylinders of copper (?) and steatite.

13. The only untouched small tomb (No. 166) lay to the north of the town. The plan of this tomb is given in Pl. I, 7, and the objects in collotype in Pl. II, 2. The tomb was cut in the hard black mud, of which the ground north of the wall is formed, to a depth of .9 metre. The northern half was occupied by an inverted large hemispherical bowl (majur XX, 5); though inverted, it was quite full of thick black mud, in which the bones of the deceased were embedded. The head lay to the north and the face east, the body of course contracted. South of this a tall alabaster jar lay on its side, and at the end of the tomb a squat alabaster jar, a smaller one of the same type, and two pots (XI, 7, 8) of a rather smooth pink ware, with red lines and dots painted over it. The smaller pot is really a lid, and is pierced at the top for suspension. Between the majur and the side of the tomb were some pieces of ivory (1 inch by ³/₁₆ inch), probably the veneer from a box like that in Pl. VIII, 2. From the mud in the decorated pot the following small objects were picked out: two ivory hairpins, three bracelets, a disc of ivory with a grooved rim, a polished brown pebble, a small alabaster cup (X, 44), two shells, both with green stains inside, with beads of ivory, green felspar, gold, carnelian, blue frit, and serpentine, and, most important of all, an inscribed cylinder of translucent steatite. The inscription given in Pl. XX, 29, is perhaps a name compounded with that of a king, the latter being in a cartouche. If this reads ka-ra, it may be conceivably En-ka-ra of the VIIIth dynasty (though I do not think this likely), or, as Professor Sayce suggests, Manetho’s ?a???s of the IInd. The first column seems to give the Hor.nub name of the king as Nefer, or Nefer-Ka.

The beads are nearly all of known Neolithic types; one form is noticeable, a blue frit cylinder with gold caps at the ends. It is convenient to mention here the other cases of burial under the large hemispherical pots or majurs.

Two (No. 186) were found, each in a small hole west of Ka-mena’s mastaba; the first lay mouth upwards and contained the much-decayed bones of a child; the second was inverted and contained no bones, but a bowl of a rather coarse red ware, two of the very coarse IV dynasty saucers and a common pot of the same period. Another majur lay at the bottom of a well in one of the great groups of mastabas which have been already described.

Another (No. 249) lay at the bottom of a long open grave (3·70 m.) with two burials in pottery cists. The arrangement of the bones in it could not be made out.

Another (in a well 1·5 m. deep) contained a sharp-edged bowl (XII, 53), wheel-made, covered with a wash of haematite. This was above the skeleton, which lay on its right side, doubled up, the knees before the face, the head north; below the body were traces of wood; in the bowl was a short cow’s (?) horn.

Near to this was another small well (1·30 m. deep), and at the bottom of it a small majur, in which the position of the bones could be but partly made out. The head was to the north, the body lay on its back, with the thighs spread out wide, and one hand by the hips.

Another of these burials was in a small hole covered by a flat stone. Two shells were under the left arm. No head was found. The shoulders were on the east, humeri pointed downwards, forearms prone; the legs were bent, the knees up and south of the backbone. The last three burials were close to the large group of mastabas.

A much disturbed group of majur burial (178) is important as giving a dated object together with one of these majurs, the copper (?) cylinder of User-kaf (Pl. XX, 30). These majurs were probably within the area of a mastaba, but so little of the brickwork remained that it was not possible to say whether the mastaba was made over the graves containing the majurs, or the graves cut through the brickwork of the mastaba. On the floor of the square well lay a fragment of a flint bracelet, and some pieces of green felspar, alabaster, and malachite. In the filling were fragments of Old Kingdom pottery, of a broken pottery cist, and of the rude pottery bars. In the small chamber to the south were three alabaster vessels of the usual shapes (X, 16 and 44), and a skeleton, contracted and lying on the left side. This well was presumably that of the mastaba of which the few patches of brickwork near were the remains. Just to the south of it lay the irregular grave in which the cylinder was found. Close to the surface lay two skeletons and a majur, the pot was to the north; the two skeletons, both in the contracted position, and with heads to the north, faced one another. Below these was another skeleton, lying upon its right side, with head to the east; below it, and to the west, another, the skull of which lay crown downwards, the line of the body north and south. This was the only skull that could be got out unbroken; it was very weak, and in spite of very careful packing, was broken before it reached England. Below this were parts of two more skeletons, and there was another in the large majur; further, leaning in the south-west corner at the bottom of the grave, was a sandstone slab, behind which was yet another contracted burial; the skeleton was on its left side, with the head to the north. The cylinder was below the first pair of skeletons. The other objects in the tomb were a IVth dynasty pot (35), an ivory comb and spatula, a shell and some green paint. This grave had evidently been to some extent disturbed, and it is just possible that the cylinder and the burials are not contemporaneous, but the simplest explanation is that they are, and that the grave was cut through the early mastaba. When I was clearing this tomb, Mr. (now Sir William) Richmond was sitting on the edge watching me, and we were both struck with the singular shape of the unbroken skull, the strong projection of the cheekbones reminding us of the Mongol type. No great weight can be attached to this observation, as measurements of the skull could not be taken, but I mention it as showing how important it may be that any unbroken skeleton found in a majur should be preserved. The early date of these burials can hardly be doubted, but it has not yet been determined whether they belonged to the same race as do the ordinary Neolithic graves, the majur being a cheap substitute for the wooden roof of the earlier time, or whether they belonged to some other element in the population, as the presence with them of the two illegible black cylinders would suggest.

The burials in pottery cists, not hitherto mentioned, may now be taken. These cists were found at Ballas both in “stairway” tombs and in open Neolithic graves. At El Kab they have been already mentioned as occurring in mastaba wells. The cists are short coffins, about 3 feet in length, made of a coarse and porous red ware, and are generally without lids.

In one instance (174) the cist was found between walls and beneath a roof of sandstone blocks. The skeleton, which was young, as the epiphyses were not united, lay on its left side, facing east, the head north. A small shell, with chips of malachite, was before the face. In another, the cist lay at the bottom of a square well, the body again on its left side, with the head to the north, the knees brought up before the face; the left elbow was by the side of the left hand before the face, while the right arm lay over the head. There was a little decayed linen cloth in the cist, and, near the hips, a shell.

In tomb No. 249 a majur and two cists lay upon the sloping bottom of a long (3·70 m.) well; the majur was at the southern end, which was lower by 60 cm. than the northern. In both cists the body lay as in the two last-mentioned graves; one contained a sharp-edged shallow bowl of red ware.

Another cist (316) lay at the bottom of a shallow well near the large group of mastabas (1·50 m. by 1·10 m. by 1·60 deep). The sides of the cist were broken down, and many of the bones were disturbed, but a part of the spinal column and the legs sufficed to show that the body had lain with the head north, but on its right side.

No. 312 has been already mentioned among the mastabas. The cist lay in a small chamber, the body on its left side, with head to the north.