6. On the second incline, eight metres above the bath, was part of a ‘serpentine’ wall ([Pl. XX]. 1), a peculiar structure not uncommon in building operations. Such a wall was found near the unfinished part of the north colonnade of the Queen’s temple. Another example was found this season in Site 14. Its specific purpose is not thoroughly understood, perhaps it was an economical method of making enclosures for the working staff. In this particular case the bricks used for it belong to different periods—the XIth Dynasty brick (black mud without straw) and stamped bricks of Amenhetep I, Aahmes-nefert-ari, and Hatshepsût; the latter shows that it cannot have been earlier than the date of the Thothmes family.
7. A natural fissure in the hill near by had been, in late times, converted into a group of small tomb-chambers (No. 22). They had in them the plundered remains of burials like those of site No. 5, found in the season’s work of 1909 (p. 23).
Trench 23, the next trench (parallel and east of 20), produced little or nothing. More stamped bricks of Aahmes-nefert-ari and Amenhetep I were found, and the beginning of an unfinished tomb-shaft in which was a boulder bearing the name, written in black ink,
Full attention being required by the Birâbi excavations, the third parallel trench was not begun until after an interval of ten days, when the good services of Mr. Cyril Jones were obtained for this express purpose. Mr. Jones, with thirty men and sixty boys, steadily continued the work as before, the base of his trench (No. 26) reaching as far as the north-east corner of the temple inclosure wall. The part ascending the valley side was barren and only exposed a plundered XIth Dynasty tomb (No. 30), re-used as an habitation, and afterwards as the place of a later burial consisting of a wooden dug-out coffin. But, on turning round the corner of the temple enclosure, he discovered a most interesting historical cache, a foundation deposit of the Dêr el Bahari dromos (for the exact position of this deposit see [Pl. XXIV]). For this deposit a circular hole, three metres deep and 140 cms. in diameter, had been made, and lined with a mud-brick wall with rounded and plastered coping ([Pl. XXI]. 2). The interior was filled with greyish (local) sand sprinkled with grains of corn. But for some reason the whole of the deposit was not placed in it. The tools and implements were found in a smaller hole, simply dug in the ground a few feet away, and like the former pit it was filled with sand and grain.
In the main pit the objects, placed in groups under alternate layers of sand, were discovered in the following order:—A few inches below the surface, the skull of an ox ([Pl. XXI]. 1), and underneath it a group of pottery, whole and broken, one pot containing grain, another containing fruit of the Nebbek tree. Then came the jaw-bone and fore-leg of an ox ([Pl. XXI]. 1), a piece of bread, a square sample of wood, an ebony symbolical knot ([Pl. XXII]. 2. E), and an alabaster pebble ([Pl. XXII]. 2. N) elaborately inscribed. In the third batch another symbolical knot, of cedar wood, two samples of fine linen, broken pottery that had contained oil, wines and foodstuffs, and two samples of coarse linen. Lastly, a rush mat, a pitcher-carrier, a second rush mat, and under it a second pitcher-carrier, masses of broken pottery, including a vessel containing a sample of mortar. Below these was plain sand reaching to the bottom of the pit.
Those of the second hole, mostly implements, were placed apparently not in any particular order, and are given in the following list, and illustrated in [Plate XXII]. 2:—A bronze axe (A), graver (B), and chisel (C); an adze with a bronze blade bound by leather thongs to its wooden handle (F); a wooden mallet (D), hoe (G), brick mould (H), and peg (J); two sieves, one of palm-leaf with coarse mesh (K), the other of halfa-grass, with fine mesh, and made of horse or donkey hair (L); a rushwork jar rest (?) (M); a smelting crucible made of sun-dried mud (I), and lastly a pottery dish and jar. Many of these models were quite large, about three-quarter actual size, and all in a most perfect state of preservation. The two knots ([Pl. XXII]. 2. E) have engraved upon them
The alabaster pebble ([Pl. XXII]. 2. N) has also the following legend:—
