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The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty (Abydos), Part I W.E. Flinders Petrie | | | | |
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THE ROYAL TOMBS OF THE FIRST DYNASTY, PART I.
Chapter 2
DESCRIPTION OF THE TOMBS (Sections 8-19; Plates 60-67).
8.
The Tomb of Zet, pl.61. This tomb consists of a large chamber twenty
feet wide and thirty feet long, with smaller chambers around it at its
level, the whole bounded by a thick brick wall, which rises seven and a
half feet to the roof, and then three and a half feet more to the top
of the retaining wall. The exact dimensions of these tombs are all
given together in sect.19. Outside of this on the north is a line of
small tombs about five feet deep, and on the south a triple line of
tombs of the same depth. And apparently of the same system and same age
is the mass of tombs marked as “Cemetery W," which are parallel to the
tomb of Zet. Later there appears to have been built the long line of
tombs which arc marked partly Z, partly W, placed askew in order not to
interfere with those which have been mentioned. And then this skew line
gave the direction to the next tomb, that of Merneit, and later on that
of Azab. Such seems to have been the order of construction; but as the
great mounds of rubbish, which I have not yet moved, stand close to the
east of Zet and Cemetery W, there may be other features beneath them
which will further explain the arrangement.
Plate 61: Plans of tombs of Merneit, Azab, and Zet, and Cemetery W.
The private graves around the royal tomb are all
built of mud brick, with a coat of mud plaster over it, and the floor
is of sand, usually also coated with mud. The steles found in the
graves around Zet are shown in pls.33, 34, and the copies pl.31, Nos.
1-16. The places of such as could be at all identified with the graves,
are shown on pl.61 by the name from each being written on the chamber
plan. Beside these steles there were often the names inscribed in red
paint on the walls; these names are drawn in pl.63, and are written
close to the south wails of the plans. These painted names are always
on the south wall of the chamber, close to the top of it. A patch of
whitewash about eight or ten inches square was roughly brushed on the
mud plaster of the wall; on that the hieroglyphs were painted with a
broad brush. Some lines are pink, owing to the whitewash working up
with the red in the brush. On a few are traces of black also. The form
of inscription is much simpler than that of the steles; the ka akh,
"glorified ka," only once appears, and there are no titles or offices,
only the name. The ka arms often appear; but whether this refers to the
ka of Du, A, Si, etc., or is really a compound name, Ka-du, A-kat,
Si-ka, is not clear. Probably the latter is true, as the feminine t is
added to the ha in two cases, which points to its being in a name. Many
of these names were illegible, only fragments of the plaster remaining.
Three I succeeded in removing. The few contents of these graves, left
behind accidentally by previous diggers, will be fully catalogued in
the next Volume; a few jars and beads, and two or three pieces of
inscribed stone bowls (each marked with their source in pls.4 and 6),
are all that we found.
Plate 62: Section and detailed plan of the west end of the Tomb of King Zet.
9. Tomb of Zet, interior, pls.61, 62, 63. The first
question about these great tombs is how they were covered over. Some
have said that such spaces could not be roofed, (p.9) and at first
sight it would seem almost impossible. But the actual beams found yet
remaining in the tombs are as long as the widths of the tombs, and
therefore timber of such sizes could be procured. In the tomb of Qa the
holes for the beams yet remain in the wails, and even the cast of the
end of a beam. And in the tombs of Merneit, Azab, and Mersekha are
posts and pilasters to help in supporting a roof.
We must
therefore see how far such a roof would be practicable. The clear span
of the chamber of Zet is 240 inches, or 220 if the beams were carried
on a wooden lining, as seems likely. Taking, however, 240 inches
length, and a depth and breadth of 10 inches like the breadths of the
floor beams, such a beam of a conifer, supported at both ends and
uniformly loaded, would carry about 51,000 lbs., or 2900 lbs. on each
foot of roof area. This is equal to 33 feet depth of dry sand. Hence,
even if the great beams were spaced apart with three times their
breadth between each, they would carry eight feet depth of sand on
them; but as the height of the retaining wail is 3 1/2 feet, the strain
would be only half of the full load.
It is therefore quite practicable to roof over these
great chambers up to spans of twenty feet. The wood of such lengths was
actually used, and if spaced out over only a quarter of the area, the
beams would carry their load with full safety. Any boarding, mats,
straw etc. laid over the beams would not increase the load, as they
would be lighter than the same bulk of sand. That there was a mass of
sand laid over the tomb is strongly shown by the retaining wail (see
pl.62) around the top. This wall is roughly built, not intended to be a
visible feature. The outside is daubed with mud plaster, and has a
considerable slope; the inside is left quite rough, with bricks in and
out (see photographs on pl.64, Nos. 1, 2, 3). Such a construction shows
that it was backed against loose material inside it. The top of it is
finished off with a rough rounding. At the S.W. corner this retaining
wail ceases, and it seems as if this were left thus in order to gain
access to the tomb for the funeral. The full thickness of the tomb wail
stretches out several feet beyond even the outside of the upper
retaining wall.
Plate 64: Views of the Tombs of Kings Zet and Merneit.
Turning now to the floor, the section is
given in pl.62, and the view of it in photographs pl.64, nos. 3, 4. The
basis of it is mud plastering, which was whitewashed. On that were laid
beams around the sides, and one down the middle: these beams were
between 9 and 10.8 inches wide, and 7 to 7 1/2 inches deep. They
were placed before the mud floor was hard, and have sunk about
1/4 inch into it. On the beams a ledge was recessed 6.5 to
7.7 wide, and 4.7 to 6.0 deep. On this ledge the edges of the
flooring planks rested, 2 to 2.4 thick. Such planks would not
bend 1/4 inch in the middle by a man standing on them, and
therefore made a sound floor. Over the planks was laid a coat of mud
plaster .5 to .7 inch thick. This construction doubtless shows what was
the mode of flooring the palaces and large houses of the early
Egyptians, in order to keep off the damp of the ground in the Nile
valley. For common houses a basis of pottery jars turned mouth
down was used for the same purpose, as I found at Koptos.
The sides of the great central chamber are not clear in
arrangement. The brick cross walls which subdivide them into
separate cells have no finished faces on their ends. All the wall faces
are plastered and whitewashed; but the ends of the cross wails are
rough bricks, all irregularly in and out. Moreover, the bricks project
forward irregularly over the beam line, as outlined in the plan, pl.62.
This projection is 4 inches on the north, 4 on the east, and 2 1/2 on
the south; and on the east, one of the overhanging bricks had mud on
the end of it, with a cast of upright timber on it. It seems then
that there was an upright timber lining to the chamber, against which
the cross walls were (p.10) built, the walls thus having rough ends
projecting over the beams. The footing of this upright plank
lining is indicated by a groove left along the western floor beam, 3.7
wide between the ledge on the beam and the side of the flooring planks
(see plan pl.62). Thus we reach the view of a wooden chamber, lined
with upright planks 3 1/2 inches thick, which stood 3 to 4 inches out
from the wall, or from the backs of the beams. How the side chambers
were entered is not shown; whether there was a door to each or no. But
as they were intended to be forever closed, and as the chambers in two
corners were shut off by brickwork all round, it seems likely that all
the side chambers were equally closed. And thus, after the slain
domestics (p. 1.4) and offerings were deposited in them, and the king
in the centre hall, the roof would be permanently placed over the
whole.
The height of the chamber is proved by the cast of
straw which formed part of the roofing, and which comes at the
top of the course of headers on edge which copes the wall all
round the chamber. Over this straw there was laid one course of
bricks a little recessed, and beyond that is the wide ledge all round
before reaching the retaining wall. The height up to the top of this
course of headers is 89.6 in N.W. chamber, = 90.6 in main chamber, as
the floor is 1 inch higher; 93.2 in second chamber N., = 94.2 in main;
90.0 in third chamber S., = 91.0 in main; and 95.3 on mid W. So it
varies from 90.6 to 95.3 over the main mud floor. This implies about
92, less 4 for flooring, less probably 12 for roofing, or clear 76
inches height in the chamber. The retaining wall is 38 inches high
inside, and 47 high outside.
Having thus cleared
up the central chamber, we should notice those at the sides. The cross
walls were built after the main brick outside was finished and
plastered. The deep recesses coloured red, on the north side (see
pl.63), were built in the construction; where the top is preserved
entire, as in a side chamber on the north, it is seen that the roofing
of the recess was upheld by building in a board about an inch
thick. The shallow recesses along the south side were merely made in
the plastering, and even in the secondary plastering after the
cross walls were built. All of these recesses, except that at the S.W.,
were coloured pink red, due to mixing burnt ochre with the white. In
the outlines of pl.63 the condition of the walls does not profess to be
exactly as at present, but more or less broken down, so as to show the
plan and detail more clearly. The purport of these recesses is quite
unknown; but they can hardly be separated from the red recesses on the
walls of the central halls of houses at Tell el Amarna, of the XVIII
Dynasty. There was also a red recess, with a scene of worship of the
tree goddess painted over it, in a gallery of the Hamesseum. It seemed
from that as if these red recesses were false doorways for the worship
of domestic spirits. Possibly this may be connected with the red
recesses of this tomb. The supposition that these recesses were to hold
steles is impossible, in view of the sizes of the steles, and the
finishing and colouring of the recesses.
10.
The Tomb of Merneit, pls.61,64,65. This tomb was not at first
suspected, as it had no accumulation of pottery over it; and the whole
ground had been pitted all over by the Mission Amelineau making
“quelques sondages," without revealing the chambers or the plan.
As soon, however, as we began to systematically clear the ground the
scheme of a large central chamber with eight long chambers for
offerings around it, and a line of private tombs enclosing it, stood
apparent. The central chamber is very accurately built, with vertical
sides parallel to less than an inch. It is about 21 feet wide and 30
feet long, or practically the same as the chamber of Zet (exactly 250 X
354 inches to the brick walls, the plaster varying from ¼ to 1 inch).
Around the chamber are walls 48 to 52 inches thick, and beyond (p.11)
them a girdle of long narrow chambers, 48 wide and 160 to 215 inches
long. These chambers are about 6 1/2 feet deep, but the central chamber
is nearly 9 feet. Of these chambers for offerings Nos. 1, 2, 5, 7 still
contained pottery in place, and No.3 contained many jar stealings. The
great stele of Merneit (pl.00) was found lying near the east side of
the central chamber; and near it was the back of a similar stele (see
photograph, pl.64, No.6), on which the bottom of the neit and r signs
remained, and from which a piece of the top with the top of the
neit on it was found lying over chamber 5.
At a few
yards distance from the chambers full of offerings is a line of private
graves almost surrounding the royal tomb. This line is interrupted at
the S. end of the W. side, similar to the interruption of the retaining
wall of the tomb of Zet at that quarter. It seems therefore that the
funeral approached it from that direction. In the small graves there
are no red inscriptions, as in those belonging to Zet; but steles were
found, the names of two of which are entered on the plan, and the
figures are given in pls.31 and 34 Nos.17-19. A feature which
could not well be shown in the plan is the ledge which runs along
the side of these tombs. The black wall here figured is the width of
the level edge of the pit, but beyond this a slight edging of brick
rises a few inches higher.
11. The Tomb of
Merneit, interior, pls.64 and 65. The chamber shows signs of burning,
on both the walls and the floor. A small piece of wood yet remaining on
the floor indicates that it also had a wooden floor, like the other
tombs. Against the walls stand pilasters of brick (see plan 61,
photograph 64, No.5); and though these are not at present more
than a quarter of the whole height of the wall, they
originally reached to the top, as is shown by the smoking of the wall
on each side, even visible in the photograph. These pilasters are
entirely additions to the first building; they stand against the
plastering, and upon a loose layer of sand and pebbles about 4 inches
thick. Thus it is clear that they belong to the subsequent stage
of the fitting of a roof to the chamber. Such a roof would not need to
be as strong as that of Zet, as there was much less depth of sand over
it; so that beams only at the pilasters would serve to carry enough
boards to cover it. The pilasters, however, seem to have been
altogether an afterthought, as within two of the corner ones there
remain the ends of upright posts, around which the brickwork was
built. The holes that are shown in the floor are apparently not
connected with the construction, as they are not in the mid-line where
pillars are likely. The height of the chamber is 105 inches, at both E.
and S.W., up to the top of a course of headers on edge around it.
At the edge of chamber 2 is the cast of plaited palm-leaf matting on
the mud mortar above this level, and the bricks are set back
irregularly; this shows the mode of finishing off the roof of this
tomb.
12. The Tomb of Den-Setui, pl.59. From the
position of this tomb it is seen to naturally follow the building of
the tombs of Zet and Merneit. It is surrounded by rows of small
chambers, for offerings, and for burial of domestics; but as I have
only partially examined these as yet, no plan in detail is here given.
The king's tomb appears to have contained a great number of tablets of
ivory and ebony, fragments of eighteen having been found by
us in the rubbish thrown out by the Mission Amelineau, beside one
perfect tablet stolen from that work (now in the MacGregor collection),
and a piece picked up (now in Cairo Museum); thus twenty tablets are
known from this tomb. The inscriptions on stone vases (pl.5) are,
however, not more frequent than in previous reigns. This tomb appears
to be one of the most costly and sumptuous, with its pavement of red
granite; the details of it I hope to publish after its clearance next
season.
Plate 65: Tombs of King Merneit and Azab-Merpaba.
Around this tomb is a circuit of small private tombs,
leaving a gap on the S.W. like that of Merneit, and an additional
branch line has been added on at the north. All of these tombs are very
irregularly built; the sides are wavy in direction, and the divisions
of the long trench are slightly piled up, of bricks laid lengthways,
and easily overthrown. This agrees with the rough and irregular
construction of the central tomb and offering chamber. The funeral of
Azab seems to have been more carelessly conducted than that of any of
the other kings here; only one piece of inscribed vase was in his tomb,
as against eight of his found in his successor's tomb, and many
other vases of his erased by his successor. Thus his palace property
seems to have been kept back for his successor's use, and not buried
with Azab himself. In the chambers 58, 61, 62, 63 much ivory inlaying
was found, figured in pl.37, Nos.47—60. All the tomb contents will be
fully described in a future volume.
14. The Tomb of Azab, interior, pls.65 and 66. The
entrance to the tomb was by a stairway descending from the east, thus
according with the system begun by the previous king, Den. Each step is
about twenty inches wide and eight inches high; and thus descending ten
steps we reach the blocking of the doorway. On these steps, just
outside of the door, were dozens of small pots, loosely piled together,
of the forms marked Y in pls.42 and 43. These must have contained
offerings made after the completion of the burial. The blocking is made
by planks and bricks (sec pl.65, lower right hand). Two grooves were
left in the brickwork of the passage sides, plastered over like the
passage. Across the passage stretched planks of wood about two inches
thick, with ends lodging in the grooves. To retain them in place on
each other another upright plank was placed against them in the groove,
and jammed tight by bricks wedged in. Then the whole outside of
the planking was covered by bricks loosely stacked as headers; these
can be seen in the photograph (pl.66, No.2), the planking having
decayed away from before them.
The chamber was floored
with planks of wood laid flat on the sand, without any supporting beams
as in other tombs. These planks are 2.0 inches thick where best
preserved. They were cut to order before fitting into the tomb,
and hence in several places they were slightly too long. This has been
roughly remedied by chopping away the mud wall near the bottom so as to
let in the ends (see pl.66, No.1), or scraping down so as to jam the
board down into place.
The support of the roof was by wooden
posts, as in the tomb of Merneit; but here they were not cased round or
supplemented by brick piers. The base of one post remained in place at
the N.E. corner (see pl.65): it was 4 X 17 inches, and stood free on
the floor, not let in at all, 3 inches from the N. and 1 inch from the
E. sides. That this was not accidental in place is shown at the N.W.
corner, where the N. wall has been much chopped away in order to let
back an irregularly bent post. Beyond this there are no traces, either
from attachment or from burning, of uprights or divisions, or of
pilasters on the walls.
(p.13) The roof must have been about six
feet over the floor, as the walls are finished up to 78 inches high,
and then are rougher and more sloping above that. The plastering went
on simultaneously with the building: this is shown by a course of
headers on edge at 48 inches, up to which the plastering has been
done at once, while above that the plastering was separate. The
highest part of the wail is 89 inches high, the ground at the top step
being 97 inches. The roof broke in at the middle of the south end, and
let sand run in enough to fill the chamber at that end. Thus only the
two corners were left exposed to the fire in the burning of the
roof.
15. The Tomb of Mersekha-Semempses, pl.60. This
tomb is 44 feet long and 25 feet wide, a pit surrounded by a wall over
five feet thick. The surrounding small chambers are only three to four
feet deep, where perfect; while the central pit is still 11 1/2 feet
deep, though broken away at the top.
Few of the small
chambers still contained anything. Seven steles were found, the
inscriptions of which are marked in the chambers of the plan: the
photographs, pls.35 and 36, show these in Nos. 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36,
46; and other steles on these plates were also found here, scattered so
that they could not be identified with the tombs. The most interesting
are two steles of dwarfs, 36, 37, which show the dwarf type clearly;
with one (chamber M) were found bones of a dwarf. Another skeleton of a
dwarf was in chamber L; probably the other stele had belonged to this.
In a chamber on the east was a jar and a copper bowl (pl.12, No.11);
this last is the only large piece of metalwork that we found; it
shows the hammer marks, and is roughly finished, with the
edge turned over to leave it smooth. We here have a good example
of the rude state of metal-work at that time. The ivory leg of a casket
(pl.12, No.9) was found loose in the rubbish before the door-way of the
tomb, and had doubtless been part of the royal furniture. The small
compartments in the south-eastern chambers were probably intended to
hold the offerings placed in the graves: the dividing walls are only
about half the depth of the grave.
Plate 60: Plans of the Tombs of King Qa and Mersekha-Semempses.
16. The Tomb of Mersekha, exterior, pls.60, 61, and 62.
The structure of the interior is at present uncertain. Only in the
corner by the entrance (pl.66, No.4) was the wooden flooring preserved:
several beams (one now in Cairo Museum) and much broken wood was
found loose in the rubbish. M. Amelineau states that the tomb was
entirely burnt, and the floor carbonized, but there are few traces of
fire about the wails. The floor, where it yet remains, is made like
others; beams, 8 inches wide and 10 high, form the frame on which the
planks of the floor rest on recessed ledges (see pls.60 and 67). There
has been a wider and shallower cutting also at each side of the corner,
as if some skin of finer wood had been laid over it. The corner plank
has two holes through it, and the sign meht, "north" cut on it. This
shows that the woodwork was prepared else-where, and brought here
ready; and this was also seen in the tomb of Azab, by the chopping of
the walls to fit the wood. This piece of floor is not symmetrically
placed, being 50 inches from the N. end, and so agreeing nearly
to the 56 inches projection of the pilaster at the S. end (see
pl.66, No.3), whereas it is only 19 inches from the entrance
wall. At about a third of the length from the S. end was a soft hole in
the sand floor, which may be the place of a pillar. The span of 24 feet
is too great to suppose it roofed with single beams across, and the
pilaster at the S. end suggests that the beams were supported or
divided in the middle. Hence it seems likely that the places of
the main beams were about the lines dotted in the plan, pl.60. There is
no sign of holes for the beams, and no evidence as to the roofing
level.
The entrance is 9 feet wide, and was blocked by
loose bricks, flush with wall face, as seen in (p.14) the photograph of
pl.64, No.4. Another looser walling further out, also seen in the
photograph, is probably that of plunderers to hold back the sand. The
section of the side wall of the entrance is given on pl.67.
On
clearing the entrance, the native hard sand was found to slope down to
about four feet above the floor, and then to drop to floor level
at about two and a half feet outside of the outer wall of the
tomb. Here the space was filled to three feet deep with sand saturated
with ointment. The fatty matter was that so common in the prehistoric
times, in this 1st Dynasty, and onward in the XVIII Dynasty;
hundredweights of it must have been poured out here, and the scent was
so strong when cutting away this sand that it could be smelt over the
whole tomb. In clearing this entrance was found the perfect ivory
tablet of king Semempses (pl.12, No.1 and pl.17, No.26); and his
identity with the king Mersekha of this tomb was proved by the sealing
No.72, pl.28.
17. The Tomb of King Qa, pls.60, 66, 67.
This tomb, which is the last of the Dynasty, shows a more developed
stage than the others. Chambers for offerings are built on each side of
the entrance passage, and this passage is turned to the north, as in
the mastabas of the III Dynasty, and in the pyramids. The
whole of the building is hasty and defective. The bricks were
mostly used too new, probably less than a week after being made. Hence
the walls have seriously collapsed in most of the lesser chambers; only
the one great chamber was built of firm and well-dried bricks. In the
four chambers along the passage, l6, 18, 23, 24, the walls have had to
be strengthened by thickening them, so as to leave wide ledges near the
top, shown by the outlines in the plan: in chamber 23 the south side
had crushed forward with its weight, and so taken a slice off the
chamber width. And the wall had slipped away sideways into chamber 12,
and was thus left ruined. In the small chambers along the east side the
long wall between chambers 10 and 5 has crushed out at the base, and
spread against the pottery in the grave 5, and against the
wooden box in grave 2. Hence the objects must have been placed in those
graves within a few days of the building of the wall, before the mud
bricks were hard enough to carry even four feet height of wall. The
burials of the domestics must therefore have taken place all at once,
immediately the king's tomb was built; and hence they must have been
sacrificed at the funeral.
The graves still contained
several burials, and these are all figured in position on the plan;
five have the head to the north, and only one to the south; all
are contracted. Thus the attitude was that of the prehistoric burials,
also found in the III Dynasty at Medum, and in the V Dynasty at
Deshasheh. But the direction is that of the historic burials. Hence the
customs have a greater break between the prehistoric and the 1st than
between the 1st and the V Dynasty. The boxes in which the bodies were
placed vary from 36 to 45 inches long, and 18 to 27 inches wide; the
average is 38 x 22. The height is usually 16 or 17 inches, in one case
only 9 inches. The boards are 1.2 inches thick. The sides appeared to
have been slightly pegged together, and they were found as merely
loose boards much decayed. The interior and space around the coffin
were filled with perfectly clean white sand, which must have been
intentionally filled in. But the coffins can hardly have been
made separately to fit the bodies; in grave 8 the body is bent
back-outward, naturally, but the head has been twisted round so as to
bring the face to the back; perhaps it was actually cut off, as
the atlas was an inch beyond the foramen.
There
were no personal ornaments or armlets found in any grave, though I
carefully cleared every coffin myself. The pottery placed in the
chambers is all figured in position in the plan; and the forms will be
seen, with the references to (p.15) the chambers, in pls.40 to 43. In
the S.E corner of chamber 9 were some baskets, of which one and part of
another could be removed.
Few steles were found, only
three in all, but these were larger than those of the earlier graves.
One is hardly legible (pl.31 and 36, No.47), being faintly hammered on
the stone face; it shows the hare un, and nothing else is
certain. The other stele, No. 48, is the longest and most
important inscription known of this age; it is carefully reproduced on
pl.30. The general surface is hammered out, but has never been finished
by graving; the full lines are the traces of the black ink drawing, and
the red lines show the first sketch. The description of it is given
more fully in dealing with the private steles, sect. 20. The stele of
the king Qa was found lying over chamber 3; it is like that found by M.
Amelineau, carved in black quartzose stone. Photographs have not yet
been taken of it, so it will be reproduced in the following volume.
Near it, on the south, were dozens of large pieces of fine alabaster
bowls, and one of diorite with the inscription for the "Priest of the
temple of King Qa" (ix. 12), showing that the shrine of offerings for
Qa was probably on this side.
Among various objects found
in these chambers should be noted the fine ivory carving from chamber
23, showing a bound captive (pl.12, Nos.12,13; pl.17, No.30), described
on p.23; the large stock of painted model vases in limestone in a box
in chamber 20 (pl.38, Nos.5,6); the set of perfect vases found in
chamber 21 (pl.38. No.8); the fine piece of ribbed ivory (pl.37,
No.79); a piece of thick gold foil covering of a hotep table, patterned
as a mat, found in the long chamber west of the tomb; the deep mass of
brown vegetable matter in the N.E. chamber; the large stock of corn
between chambers 8 and 11; and the bed of currants, ten inches thick
though dried, which underlay the pottery in chamber 11. In chamber 16
were large dome-shaped jar sealings with the name of Azab, and on one
of them the ink-written signs of the “king's ka" (pl.32, No.35).
The
entrance passage has been closed with rough brick walling at the top.
It is curiously turned askew, as if to avoid some obstacle, but the
chambers of the tomb of Den do not come near its direction. After nine
steps the straight passage is reached, and then a limestone portcullis
slab bars the way, let into grooves on either side; it was moreover
backed up by a buttress of brickwork in five steps behind it. All
this shows that the rest of the passage must have been roofed in so
deeply that entry from above was not the obvious course. The inner
passage descends by steps, each about five inches high, partly in the
slope, partly in the rise of the step. The side chambers open off this
stairway by side passages a little above the level of the stairs.
Plate 67: Section of the tomb of King Mersekha-Sempempses, and section and plan of the tomb of King Qa.
Some
detail yet remains of the wooden floor (p.16) planned on the lower part
of pl.67. There were two grooves or troughs across it, and two planks
running at right angles to the others. There seems no reason to assume
that the chamber was all one, without subdivision; probably these
grooves are the places for fittings or panels.
The roofing is
distinct in this tomb. Large holes for the beams remain in the walls,
with red burning round each, and in one a mud cast of the rough hewn
end of the beam. These beam holes are marked on the plan (pl.60), and
are not opposite to one another. This implies that there was an axial
beam, and that the side beams only went half across the chamber. A hole
in the floor still retained part of an upright post; this was not in
the true axis, but as much to one side as the post at the side of the
doorway. Probably therefore the axial beam ran rather to one side of
the chamber, as dotted on the plan. The greater depth of the beam holes
on the east side would imply that about an equal length of beam was
used on either side. As this is the only tomb with the awkward feature
of an axial doorway, it is interesting to note how the beam was placed
out of the axis to accommodate it. There is no evidence that the axial
beam was a ridge beam, on the contrary the holes seem to show that the
side beams were horizontal. Above the side beams is a plastered
wall with a moderate batter, probably to retain the coat of
sand over the roof, as in the tomb of Zet. The thin white lines
left in the brickwork of the plan show the place of finished faces in
the brickwork.
The interior of the chamber is 208.8 and
209 inches across between the floor beams, 410 and 412 in length
between beams. This was doubtless the size of the wooden chamber, as
the posts are set back 2.0 to 2.4 from the beam face, and that is about
the usual thickness of planks in these tombs. The height from the top
of the floor planks to the base of the beam holes, where is a row of
headers on edge, 101 1/2 inches; the foot of the plastered upper
wall is 115 1/2, and the top of that wall 162 inches. So the
chamber was intended to be 10 x 20 cubits, and 5 cubits high.
19. For convenience of reference the principal measurements of the tombs (in inches) are here placed together.
Tomb of Zet; see sect. 9:
Length inside extreme . N. 470.0 S. 481.5
Breadth inside extreme E. 369.5 W. 309.0
Length inside over beams mid. 360.2
Breadth inside over beams E. 241.7 W. 240.5
Chambers. Walls.
Along N. side, from W. 70.5 15.5
50.5 15.5
43.0 16.5
26.0 17.0
28.5 17.5
31.0 15.5
31.5 16.0
27.5 17.0
31.0
Along E. side, from N. 68. 16.5
56.5 16.5
59.5 17.
57. 16.
62.5
Along S. side, from E 39.5 17.
53.0 17.5
65.5 16.9
73.2 18.0
21.0 14.7
64.7 15.9
33.4 11.2
20.0
Height 89.6 to 95.3.
Deducting
2 x 6.8 from the dimensions over beams in order to find actual
dimensions in wooden chamber, we have 352.6 X 228.l or 226.9 for the
chamber; or 17 cubits of 20.74 and 11 cubits of 20.73 to 20.63.
(p.17) Tomb of Merneit; see sect.11:
Inner chamber, E. and W. 354; N. and S. 250.
Inner chamber high, 105.
Offering chambers, over all, W. 557; N. 454; S. 457.
Offering chambers, lengths, 160 to 215.
Cubit, 20,63 to 20.83; average, 20-75.
Tomb of Azab; see sect.14:
Length at base E. 258 W. 257.2
Breadth at base N. 165 S. 163.5
At top these dimensions are 7 1/2 to 20 larger.
Offering chamber:
Length at base N. 161 S. 161
Breadth at base E. 97 W. 98
At top these dimensions are 13 to 23 larger.
Stairway width 63 wide below to 76 above.
By tomb chamber cubit 20.44 to 20.64, mean 20-57.
Tomb of Mersekha; see sect. 16:
Length inside E. 656 W. 651
Breadth N. 291-4 S. 293-1
at 60 up 295-2 mid. 296-0
Along S. side E. 130-4 31-5 pil. 131-2 W.
Along E. side S. 523-0 107 door 26 N.
Wall. Chamber. Wall. Chamber. Wall
On
N. side 59
71 10 60
E.
“
67 50
16 64 16
S.
„
60 94
0 0 0
W
62 46
16 42 10
Greatest height 139, but incomplete.
Tomb of Qa; see sect. 18:
Length inside of beams E. 410, W. 412-5.
Breadth inside of beams N. 208-8, S. 208, mid. 209-2.
Depth from sand 110 under beams, 124 slope to 170.
Depth from floor lOl 1/2 under beams, 115^ slope to 161 ½.
Wall. Door. Wall. Door. Wall.
Along E. side passage 76 26 109 28 8
Cubit 20.5 to 20.88, mean 20.72.
Every
chamber was measured, and the details of positions of objects drawn at
the time of clearing; but it seems needless to state all the figures,
as they are plotted in the plans. The above dimensions are the only
ones from which any deductions are likely to be required. The mean
values of the cubit are 20.70, 20.75, 20.57, 20.72 inches. Probably
20.72 was the standard cubit of that age.
[Continue to chapter 3]
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