Continuing the work in the year 1910, the large mounds immediately east of the footpath leading to the Biban el Mulûk were thoroughly investigated. These extend north and south on the hill slope below the great rock-cut tombs which are situated under the cliff at the top. This work was divided into two sites, Nos. 18 and 19 ([Pl. XIII]) and placed under two reises. It produced practically nothing, being only an immense covering of stone chippings upon the gebel thrown out from the tombs above. Among this accumulation, which varied in depth from one to five metres, many horns of animals suggesting sacrifices, leather thongs from implements, broken timber, and balanites kernels ([Pl. LXXIX]) were found; in fact the refuse from the workmen who had been employed upon the sepulchral caverns above. Thus, in the two seasons, this half of the north side of the valley between the eastern foot hills at its mouth and the mountain path may be said to have been thoroughly explored, leaving but small chances of undiscovered tombs.
The men were then removed further westward, close to Hatshepsût’s Temple, where parallel trenches, twenty-five to forty metres broad, were dug. They began at the base of the slope and were carried up, in some cases, nearly to the foot of the vertical cliff; the excavations were continued until the rock surface had all been exposed.
Trench 20, begun from the temple temenos, yielded the following results:—
1. On the flat of the valley bed, between the temenos and the rising ground, was disclosed the mutilated foundation of a large wall ([Pl. XIX]. 1), extending east and west, two metres wide, and built of crude bricks stamped with the cartouches of Amenhetep I and Aahmes-nefert-ari ([Pl. XXIII]. 20).
2. Over and along the side of the wall were many irregularly built mud dwellings for workmen, made of stray bricks of the XIth and early XVIIIth Dynasties; they no doubt were the rest-houses of the builders of the Queen Hatshepsût’s temple.
3. Among the huts, in a depression roughly enclosed by limestone blocks, were the roots and stem of a date palm, set in black soil. Below the roots of the tree were several pots and a broken limestone statuette, placed as offerings for the welfare of the palm ([Pl. XIX]. 2). The pots contained a mud sediment. The statuette, which seems to have been used also as an offering, has the following inscriptions upon it:—
They mention the ‘True Royal Scribe, Scribe of the Altar of the Lord of the Two Lands’, Amenemhat, called Keriba (the Son of) ‘Scribe of the Altar’ Amenhetep. It was dedicated by Amenemhat’s brother, ‘Who made to live his name,’ ‘The Royal Scribe,’ Userhat.
4. A few metres above, in the first part of the hill slope, hewn in the Tafle, was a chamber (No. 21). The interior had been plastered and it appears to have been a kind of office for the clerk of the works for the Queen’s temple. It contained a broken rush and wicker-work stool, fragments of a mat, a basket, torn fragments of papyrus, clay pellets for seal impressions, and a donkey halter. Leading up to the entrance was a small causeway. The fragments of papyrus, forty-three in number, when fitted together, proved to be part of Chapter XLI of the ‘Book of the Dead’, a list of different names of Osiris.
5. Higher up, on the top of the low foot-hill, was a series of cells built against the second incline. In one of these was a washing slab made of sandstone, with a hole in the corner of its sunken bed to allow the water to drain into a cesspool below; this was perhaps the bathing-place for the workmen ([Pl. XX]. 2).