The regular temple of the pyramid stood about half a mile to the east of it, on the edge of the desert; and it has been destroyed like the shrine, and by the same hands, as two cartouches of Ramessu II were found on the blocks; several beads, &c., of the nineteenth dynasty occur in the ruins; and I found the name of Usertesen II on a piece of a granite pillar of Ramessu II at Ahnas, some miles to the south, showing for what purpose Illahun had been plundered. The outline of the temple can be traced by the thick brick wall which surrounded it. The plan is square, and it seems to have consisted of brickwork externally, lined with limestone masonry. But of the internal arrangement not a trace can be recovered. Probably a shrine of granite stood at the west end of the court, and objects of sandstone in the area, judging by the position of the chips. Also a large basalt statue existed here, of which only one fragment was found; the statue must therefore have been removed (probably to Ahnas), and not broken up here. One interesting discovery was made, however. In the middle of the area I noticed a slight hollow in the rock surface, about two and a half feet square. I thought of a foundation deposit, and examined this place. A block of stone lay fitted into it; on breaking and raising this, a second block was seen; when that was removed, we found plain sand. Scraping this out, we came on much broken pottery, and then some bronze models of tools, and a large number of carnelian beads. There were four sets of objects, thrown in pell mell; but the strings of carnelian beads, all exactly alike, are a puzzle. Is it possible that they were bead-money? They have the requisites of an exchange standard, as well as gold; they need a regular amount of labour to produce them, they are unalterable, and they serve for ornament when not used for exchange. However that may be, we have here far the oldest foundation-deposit known.
82. Foundation Deposit. 1: 4.
The great prize of Illahun was unknown and unsuspected by any one. On the desert adjoining the north side of the temple, I saw evident traces of a town, brick walls, houses and pottery; moreover, the pottery was of a style as yet unknown to me. The town-wall started out in a line with the face of the temple; and it dawned on me that this could hardly be other than the town of the pyramid builders, originally called Ha-Usertesen-hotep, and now known as Kahun. A little digging soon put it beyond doubt, as we found cylinders of that age, and no other; so that it was evident that I actually had in hand an unaltered town of the twelfth dynasty, regularly laid out by the royal architect for the workmen and stores, required in building the pyramid and its temple. After a few holes had been made, I formed up the workmen in a line along the outermost street, and regularly cleared the first line of chambers, turning the stuff into the street; then the chambers beyond those were emptied into them; and so line after line, block after block, almost every room in the town was emptied out and searched. The only part not quite cleared was where habitations had been formed in Roman times by lime-burners, who had disturbed the place and destroyed the ancient walls. Every chamber as it was cleared was measured and planned, and we can see the exact scheme of the architect, and where he expanded the town as time went on.
83. North side of Kahun, showing Line of Town Wall.