Some of the later Neolithic bodies were, however, dried, either by artificial means or by some property of the soil, so that the whole body could be lifted out without any of the limbs snapping off. It is reported that the body of an engineer, who, not many years ago, died and was buried at Assuan, and afterwards exhumed to be sold as a mummy, was dried up in this way.
A chamber generally contained more than one body; four was a not uncommon number, and in one chamber eight persons, probably women, lay side by side. This fact certainly agrees badly with the idea just expressed of the absence of mummification. The objects found in the graves were of well-known types. Bottle-shaped vases at the head and feet, alabaster kohl pots, kohl sticks of ivory, bronze mirrors without handles, paint-slabs with their pestles and spatulæ of serpentine and basalt, with beads of green glaze and various kinds of hard stone, were the regular staple of our finds. And the date of these was already well known from Kahun and other places; indeed the date of this cemetery could be seen at once from the chips of pottery lying on the surface. This conclusion was confirmed by the two private stelæ ([Pl. IV]), and a cylinder of Amenemhat III, found in one necklace. Inscriptions were extremely rare; there were few scarabs, and perhaps the most interesting object was the plain alabaster statuette ([Pl. V], 2), which was found close to the skull of its owner. This was the only figure of the kind found in the cemetery, and is probably the earliest dated ushabti. It represents a mummy-shaped figure; no hands, hoe, or basket can be seen, but the face is well executed.
The tombs were, of course, often robbed, how often, it was difficult to decide, for the destruction caused by the falling roof is very similar to that caused by early robbery. But it was very seldom that a skull could be preserved, or that the exact position of the bones in the body could be worked out. There had been very little re-use of the shafts; in one occurred pottery and a mirror of the XVIIIth dynasty, in another a Roman lamp; but these were exceptions; it was purely a Middle Kingdom cemetery.
22. A fine collection of beads was obtained, chiefly in hard stone. In one tomb alone (No. 156) I spent most of two days trying to recover the order in which the beads had been strung on the necklaces. Seven people had been buried in one chamber of this tomb; a great mass of pebbles had fallen from the roof, smashed the bones and pottery, and so scattered the beads that some care was needed to keep together those from one string. Some of the bodies were adorned with necklace, bracelets, and anklets, and had also a string of beads round the waist.
The commonest beads were spherical and barrel-shaped, of carnelian, haematite, and amethyst, and discs of shell, these last the commonest of all. In green felspar there were small flat discs, hawks, and hippopotamus heads. Sphinxes with human heads are generally of amethyst. Uninscribed scarabs, in carnelian, amethyst, and jasper, were not uncommon.
CHAPTER IV.
NEW EMPIRE MONUMENTS.
23. Singularly little is left in El Kab of any period later than the Middle Kingdom, unless, indeed, the great walls be of later date than we have supposed. The broken pottery inside the town enclosure, that is the south-west corner of the great square, seems to be of various periods, but to contain a large quantity of a fabric most like that of the XXVIth dynasty. As Nectanebo rebuilt the temple here, it is natural to suspect that this late pottery is of his reign or near it. Masses of similar pottery are to be found thrown out from several of the large tombs, in and behind the hill of Paheri. These tombs are probably of the XVIIIth dynasty, and were re-used for piles of poor burials at the later date. Of poor burials of the XVIIIth dynasty only two were found. These were in the long coffins of that coarse red earthenware, fragments of which may be seen by the tourist on his way to the tomb of Paheri. There are a few robbed tombs near the foot of the hill, but no large cemetery is known. It is possible that El Kab was not a very large town at this period; the family of Paheri and Aahmes may have been the only great house of the district.
24. Some examination was made of the beautiful little temple of Amenhotep III, which lies an hour’s walk up the desert, not with the view of copying it, for that work had already been undertaken by Mr. Clarke, but in order to discover, if possible, where the original temple was. It seems more than probable that all the VIth dynasty inscriptions on the great detached rock near the temple were made by pilgrims visiting a shrine; many fragments of Old Kingdom vases also are to be found lying near. It at first occurred to me that a cemetery of the Old Kingdom might lie here, and a search was made in all likely, and some unlikely, places, but nothing was found, except a broken water-jar with a late Greek inscription. The early pottery near the temple was then turned over; it appeared to be a mere rubbish heap, with no sign of tomb or of brick building. It lies on the slope of the bank of loose detritus, on which the temple itself is built. The torrent which, from time to time, sweeps down the old river-bed, is, at this point, wearing away its southern bank. Below the heap of old pottery is a little vertical cliff, 4 m. high, in so soft a rock that it is clear the steep face has been recently formed, and the temple itself is threatened by a small stream bed behind it. It may be, then, as Professor Sayce first suggested, that the original temple stood on the northern part of the shoal which is now washed away; this idea is confirmed by our finding in the stream bed opposite the present temple the early table of offerings shown in [Pl. IV], 1, with many more small fragments of inscription on pieces of sandstone. The original temple, then, has gone, the pile of pottery thrown out from it will be carried away too; even the temple of Amenhotep may be undermined within no very long period. The effects of sudden storms in the desert are greater than might be supposed. There is no vegetation to stop and absorb the rain, the ground is excessively hard, and all that does not immediately sink into the soil runs rapidly down into the larger watercourses, and forms in a few hours a deep and broad stream. Such a storm occurred three years ago at El Kab, and the inhabitants tell us that, for two days, a tributary stream entered the Nile there. The railway engineers have had to provide for the recurrence of such spates.