But it was evident that some temple had existed here before Aahmes, as the monuments were of earlier ages; and on looking at the plan it is seen that his temple is not in the middle of the enclosure, nor is it in the line of the axis, but at right angles to it. I therefore searched for the first temple about the midst of the area, but for a long time nothing appeared besides chips. At last a mass of sand was found with a vertical face, and this I at once recognised as the sand bed laid in the earth, on which the walls of the temple had been founded. It was covered with about twelve feet of dust and chips, but by sinking pits at intervals it was traced all round the whole extent of the former temple. The foundation deposits were unattainable, as they were too deep beneath the water level, and the great sand bed collects the water so readily that it could not be kept down more than three feet by baling.
50. Sanctuary and Temples.
51. Lykaonian Spearheads and Vases.
The cemetery was the other object at this place. It proved to be of tolerable extent, about half a mile long; but the earliest tomb found was of Ramesside age. Most of the burials were of the twenty-sixth to the thirtieth dynasties, and the rarity of earlier interments was explained by the condition of those which remain. The tomb chambers were all subterranean, yet most of them were found roofless, though level with the ground; of some, only a few bricks remained at the sides; very few were still complete with a brick vault. In fact they were in every stage of removal, owing to the denudation of the sand ground in which they were placed. The inference is only too evident, that the earlier tombs have simply been denuded wholly away, below the last brick of the walls. Many of the chambers were excavated, but only in a few of them were any ushabti figures found. Some of them were sumptuous buildings of limestone; but mostly they were of the mud bricks, both in the walls and the arched roofing. The most interesting class were those of Lykaonian mercenaries; most likely from an outpost of the Daphnae camp, stationed here. In those tombs there were no ushabtis; the bodies lay north and south, instead of east and west, as in the Egyptian tombs; there were bronze and sometimes iron spear-heads, and curious forked spear-heads, like that on a funeral stele at Iconium; and moreover, Cypriote pottery, generally pilgrim bottles.
While working in the cemetery we found one unrifled tomb, containing four mummies, with their sets of amulets intact. These I carefully took off the bodies, noting the position of every object, so that I could afterwards rearrange them in their original order exactly as found. But the greatest discovery here in point of size was a great tomb formed by a brick-walled yard or enclosure sunk in the ground. Within this were two limestone sarcophagi inscribed, and a splendid basalt sarcophagus, highly wrought, and with a long inscription; this was encased in a huge block of limestone for protection, and it required much work to break this away when Count D’Hulst removed it to London. These sarcophagi were for a family who held offices in the Egyptian town of Am; another sarcophagus found near these also named Am, and a piece of a statuette from the temple gave the same name. From these many different sources it appears that Am was the name of Tell Nebesheh; especially as Uati was the goddess of Am, and hers was the statue of the great shrine and temple here. This gives a fresh point in the geography of ancient Egypt, and explains what Herodotos means by the Arabian Buto, in contrast to the other Buto (or ‘Temple of Uati’) in the western half of the delta.