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Abydos, Part I W.E. Flinders Petrie | | | | |
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Abydos, part I, by W.E. Flinders Petrie (Report published in 1902 by the Egypt Exploration Fund).
Chapter I-a (Sections 1-6).
INTRODUCTION.
1. Scope of the excavations .
2. The work and workers
CHAPTER I.
Objects from the Royal Tombs.
3. King Ka. Pls. i-iii .
4. King Ro. Pl.iii
5. Small inscriptions. Pls. iv-v
6. The pottery. Pls. vi-vii .
7. The Aegean pottery. Pl viii
8. The stone vases. Pls. ix, x
9. The labels, &c. Pls. xi, xii
10. The steles, &c. Pl.xiii
11. The Hints. Pis. xiv, xv .
Fig.1: Map of Egyptian sites, showing location of Abydos.
INTRODUCTION (p.1).
1. The present volume completes the account
of the objects found in the Royal Tombs of the earliest dynasties, the
discoveries in which during the previous two years have appeared in the
last two volumes. The account of the results of the present year's
excavations covers nearly all that has been yet found in the Temenos of
Osiris and the well-known cemetery; but another large part of our work
is kept back for publication when completed next year. It is always
difficult to decide between partial publication in sections, issued
rapidly for the immediate benefit of scholars, and systematic
publication delayed until every detail has been finally sifted and
settled. But the worst of the bulletin system is that the student is
afterwards dependent on indexes to find connected subjects; while the
worst of the great book long delayed is that often the material loses
value while Avaiting, and the delays may run on so that much is
forgotten in the interval.
The Temenos of Osiris
I had wished to excavate since I first saw it in 1887. It was
undoubtedly one of the oldest centres of worship, and had a long
history to be unravelled. If it has proved so far rather different to
what Avas expected, it the more corrects our ideas. But the real temple
site has not yet been touched below the level of the XVIII Dynasty;
and a vast deal still remains to be done there.
The cemetery G was only worked as proved
desirable in intervals of other work, and to give employment to workmen
between other enterprises. Lying close behind our huts, and with
scarcely any small objects of value casually found in it, such a place
was an ideal resort whenever men could not be kept on elsewhere. I
should hardly have worked it for its own sake alone; but as a stop-gap
it proved very convenient, and fairly desirable.
The
other large work, which is not described at all in this volume,
occupied half of our men, or more, all the season. About a mile south
of Abydos, at the foot of the desert cliffs, I had noticed some great
tombs when first visiting the ground. The temple which Mr. Maclver
excavated two years ago (see the volume on El Amrah just issued)
proved to belong to a king Kha-kau-ra, presumably Usertesen III, but
possibly of a king of the XIII Dynasty. The temple lies on the edge of
the desert, and a long causeway leads up to one of the great tombs
which we have found. As probably most of next season's work will be
occupied with these tombs, before they are finally cleared, it is best
to leave aside the plans which have been prepared, and give a connected
account of the whole site next year.
2. Our
excavators were the same gang of men and boys from Koptos who have
worked lor me during many years. Indeed that gang (p.2) has served as a
nucleus for all other recent excavators, as Dr. Reisner, at Girgeh, has
drawn almost entirely on that centre, and the German work at Abusir has
used our trained Quftis for headmen, to say nothing of the Research
Account work at El Kab, which has depended on the same source. I have
no doubt other places would furnish equally desirable workers, but when
once a large party have been trained, they are naturally sought for
elsewhere. It is needful, however, to carry on a continual weeding of
old hands, as the Egyptian always becomes spoiled with prosperity; and
some of the boys, as they have grown up, have come to the front line in
their intelligence and conduct. We also employed over a hundred boys,
from villages near the work, to do the carrying.
Our
camp was entirely fresh, as those who were with us before had all
passed on to other work. Mr. Arthur Weigall came out for the first
time, and proved a most successful worker. I greatly regret, for the
sake of our work, that I have to congratulate him on passing on at once
to a better position. He entirely superintended the men at the great
southern tombs, which I only visited to give general direction to the
region of work. He also looked after the close of the temenos work, and
drew some of the inscriptions, the whole of which he comments on in
this volume. Mr. Laurence Christie, who came for artistic copying, has
done more than four plates in this volume; but most of his time was
given to copying selected sculptures in the Sety temple for the
Research Account.
Excavations at the Sety temple, on the same basis,
were carried on by Mr. A. St. G. Caulfeild, who also took many
photographs, some of which appear in this frontispiece. My wife was
closely occupied with drawing nearly all the season especially on the
tedious figuring of nearly four hundred flints, and the exact facsimile
copies of inscriptions. My own work lay in the Temenos of Osiris,
directing the diggers, levelling and recording, and general management
and account keeping; for the season's work involves some 40,000 entries
of small sums. I have also drawn thirty-seven of the plates here, and
taken the photographs. The immediate production of a fully-illustrated
bulletin of the results of a season, before the objects reach England,
involves organizing all the copying on the spot; but the advantages of
quick publication make it well worth while to carry out this system, as
we have now done for three years.
CHAPTER I.
OBJECTS FROM THE ROYAL TOMBS (p.3).
3.
The earliest royal tomb that can
yet be placed in the series is that of king Ka, which was described in
the last volume (Royal Tombs II, p.7). Within the chamber were
hundreds of fragments of cylindrical jars (type, pl.6, 1), some of
them with cross-lined pattern copied from cordage. Such jars are well
known in the later prehistoric pottery, and belong to the sequence date
78 in that scale. On many of these jars are inscriptions, roughly
written in ink with a brush; and on comparing all of the fragments, I
have succeeded in putting together those which are copied in plates 1,
2, and 3. They prove to be all of two formulae, one for the king,
and one for his queen. And as being the oldest hieroglyphic
inscriptions known, probably half-way back in the dynasty before Mena,
they deserve our closest attention; they show the oldest shapes of the
signs, and prove that at that age writing was so familiar that a rapid
form of it was freely used to write on dozens of common pottery
jars.
Plate 1: Inscriptions on jars in Tomb of King Ka-ap at Abydos (Nos. 1-13).
The meaning of the
three strokes below the Horus name is not clear, and probably we shall
have to wait for some better drawn inscription to explain them, as
writing was so familiar to the scribe that mere indications were then
enough to give the idea. There is no parallel to this group following
any of the other early Horus names and, as maa kheru and neb tani both
belong to far later times, we may perhaps suppose these lines to
represent some steps on which the funereal stele was erected, as on the
alabaster of Azab, pl.5, or the pottery marks, probably all from Azab,
in Royal Tombs I, pl.46, Nos.111-155.
The signs themselves show more
than is yet known about them. Observe especiallv the suten plant, which
is sometimes of the later normal form, as in Nos. 4, 7, and 9; more
generally it has the leaf or flower at the top like the qema or res
sign of the south; and generally the root is shown as a wavy line
hanging from it, see especially Nos. 1, 2, 17 19. This plant was
then separate from the nen or nekheb plant, but no distinction between
the suten and qema plant was yet made. Probably the use of this plant
for qema or south was then in the stage of naming the kingdom, par
excellence, before any other region to the north had been formally
included in it : much as we should at present mean the British Isles by
speaking of "the kingdom," in contrast to the far larger parts of the
present kingdom in other regions.
Plate 2: Inscriptions on jars in Tomb of King Ka-ap at Abydos (Nos. 14-26).
The
reed a has here the separate flowers of the feathery head, as in all
early examples; but they vary from three to five in number. The
mat-work p has the ends all left loose, as in the seals Nos. 16, 57-60,
72, 118, 160 (R.T. I, and II.). The plant ha is like that on the Aha
ebony tablet in having no base line (R.T.II, pl.10, no 2); but the base
line came in at that time, as on the tablet R.T.II, pl.3, no.1, and
perhaps the same on the tablet No. 3 in the same plate. The signs hem
and n might belong to almost any later age.
Plate 3: Inscriptions on jars in Tombs of King Ka-ap and Queen Ha at Abydos (Nos. 27-49).
Beside the ink
writing three more examples of incised writing of this same king are
given, similar to those already published (R.T. II, pl.13). On
pl.3, No.36 shows the tail of the hawk, part of the ka arms, and the
top of the suten; 37 shows the ha arms and a sign near by which is
probably a star and crescent mark like No. 605, etc. (R. T. I,
pl.51); No. 38 shows that in one case, at least, the panel strokes were put
below and the arms hang down, as the suten sign unquestionably shows
which way up this is.
We may here briefly note
the remaining figures in pl.3. Nos. 39 - 43 are all numerical signs
neatly painted in ink on alabaster jars, 39 from the tomb of king Den,
40 - 45 from the tomb of king Mersekha, but perhaps thrown over from Den
or elsewhere. 44, 46, and 47 are ink writings on stone vases. 45 is ink
writing on a jar from the tomb of Den; it reads sesh, and should be
compared with other writing on vases R.T. I, pl.32, Nos. 34 - 37;
pl.13, Nos. 57- 64; R T. II, pl.25, Nos. 13 - 27. The figure of the god Min
(48), ink-drawn on a piece of slate bowl from the tomb of Khasekhemui,
is the oldest drawn figure of that god. The signs on 49 are from a
slate bowl of Ferabsen.
4. When last year the
names of the earliest kings were grouped together in Royal Tombs, vol. II, I did not observe the presence of another name until the
publication of the volume. On R.T. II, pl.13, is a sealing No. 96,
of which several fragments were found; this shows the hawk on the mouth
hieroglyph. Again, on R.T. I, pl.44, there are several examples
(Nos. 2 to 8) of what seems to be the same group. Considering that this
group is thus formally cut on a seal, and often drawn on pottery, I
think we are justified in seeing in it the royal hawk and the
hieroglyph r or ro, expressing the ha name of a king, Ro. All of the
pottery examples come from the tomb B 1, which, with B 2, was worked by
Mr. Maclver in the first year; and this accords with their giving the
name of a king, incised like the other early (p.5) kings' names, Ka
(pl.3, No.38, &c.) and Nar (R.T. I, pl.xliv, No.1), and belonging to
the tomb of the king. These tombs B 1 and 2 are shown on the plan (R.T. II, pl.58) immediately above the name Bener-ab.
The
age of this king Ro cannot be far from that of king Ka. The position of
the tomb does not indicate whether it -was before or after that of Ka.
But we must observe the presence of a great jar (R.T. I, pl.39, No.2), which is usual later, but does not occur in the tomb of Ka; the
style of the sealing, which is more like those of Narmer or Mena than
like the very simple one known of Ka (No. 89); and the clay, which is
yellow marl (heyb in Arabic) like later sealing, and not black mud like
the Ka sealing. All of these details point to the order of the kings
being — KA, RO, ZESEK, NARMER, SMA before the 1st Dynasty opens with
Aha—Mena. Thus we can now tolerably restore half of even the ten kings
who reigned at Abydos before the united kingdom was established. The
list on p.viii of R T. II should be thus amended. Plate 4: Inscriptions and artifacts from Royal Tombs at Abydos.
5.
Some small inscribed objects were not photographed till they reached
England, so could not be included in the previous volume. They are here
given on pl.4. Figs.1 and 2 are pieces of crystal and syenite cups
bearing the name of king Sma; by careful wiping with colour the
hieroglyphs nebui Sma are here brought out visible. Fig.3 is a piece of
ivory bracelet, which was found in the tomb B 2 by Mr. Maclver; I then
supposed that it might bear the name of Aha, and in the next season the
objects of Benerab clearly showed that this was one of her bracelets,
with her name and that of Aha, which had strayed over from the
neighbouring tomb.
Fig.4 is a fragment of a volcanic stone bowl from
the tomb of Khasekhemui. Fig.5 is a piece of an upright cup of pink
limestone, with part of a strange hieroglyph upon it which we have not
met with elsewhere; it might possibly be the base of a ka name, but
the crosses below are unexplained. Fig.6 is a piece of alabaster vase,
with a faint inscription of Neithotep. Fig.7 is the plait of hair and
piece of false fringe found in the tomb of king Zer, probably belonging
to his queen, on whose arm the bracelets were found: the fringe of
locks is exquisitely made, entirely on a band of hair, showing a long
acquaintance with hair-work at that age. It is now in the Pitt- Rivers
Museum at Oxford.
Fig.8 is an inscription on a fragment of pottery vase
from the tomb of king Zer. Fig.9 is a piece of black pottery with
incised patterns, belonging to the large class of such pottery known in
the pre-historic age, the III and IV Dynasties and the XII and XIII Dynasties (see Naqada, xxx; Dendereh, xxi, 1; Kahun, xxvii,
199 -202; Diospolis Parva, xl, 43). The place of manufacture of this
pottery is yet unknown, but it is wide-spread in the Mediterranean, as
we have noticed before. Fig.10 is the edge of a bowl of quartzose
metamorphosed slate; on it is carved in relief the triple twist
pattern. It is accidentally inverted here, and therefore reversed in
lighting. Fig.11 is a spirited drawing of a dwarf, outlined on a bowl
of metamorphic rock. Fig.12 is a piece of ivory, shown also in drawing
on pl.9, 2; fig.13 is a piece of ivory, with a row of heads in squares,
from the tomb of Zet : fig.14 a piece of alabaster vase from the W
tombs, probably of the reign of Zet.
The fragments of an alabaster inscription of Azab (plate 5, No.1) were published
separately before; for it was not till they came to England that I
observed that the pieces fitted together, as they were found scattered
in three different tombs. The inscription of Qa on volcanic ash (plate 5, No.2)was found accidentally
after publishing the others from that (p.6) tomb. The gold foil of Qa (plate 5, No.3)
seems to have been part of a model mat of a hotep offering, like that
found at Hierakonpolis (Hierakonpolis, I, pl.20, no, 9). The great quartzite stele of
king Qa (plate 5, No.4) was found on the east side of his tomb as described (R.T. I,
p.15); the lower part of it had been removed by the Mission Amelineau,
and was kept at the Cairo Museum; thence it has now been exchanged, and
will rejoin the upper part in the Philadelphia Museum.
Plate 6 (above right): Pottery from Royal Tombs at Abydos (nos. 1-20) Some curious late variants of the
wavy-handled jars come from the tomb of Mena, R.19. They are very
thick, and so differ from the earlier types, though the form A.3 is
like that found far earlier; the arched pattern around it is, however,
certainly late. The other forms, A.5, 6, are more than half solid, and
the arch pattern has sunk to two curves, or merely three finger pits.
Later on under Zer, A.15, 16, these become even more formalized; but
it is curious that two different forms, this one and the cylinder jar,
A.1, 11, 12, were both derived from one prototype. It is explained,
however, by the cylinder jar being a form influenced by approximating
to the alabaster cylinder jars, which were already long in use
(Diospolis Parva, p.15, pl.3); and the forms here, A. 3, 5, 6, 14,
15, 16; R.111 - 114, must be looked on as the real close of the
wavy-handled type.
Plate 7: Pottery from Royal Tombs at Abydos (nos. 21-34)
The survival of black-topped
pottery, A.9, 10, under Zer is unexpected, as few forms last beyond
60, and scarcely any after 70, sequence date. These, however, arc very
different in appearance to the earlier black-topped, and are of forms
unknown in the prehistoric; only the accidental blacking beneath the
ashes resembles the early ware. The oval dishes, A.19, 20, are the
last descendants of the oval forms so usual in the early prehistoric;
and no later examples than these have been found.
On
reaching Perabsen we find the links to the regular forms of the Old
Kingdom. The form A.28, probably derived from that of Mena's age, R.110, is the parent of the type of the VI Dynasty (Dendereh, pl.16, Nos. 5,
7, 22). The hand-made pot with diagonal finger marks, A.27, is the
parent of the usual pot of the III—IV Dynasty (Medum, pl.31, No.15);
which in another variety (Medum, pl.31, No.19) lasted on to the VI
Dynasty (Dendereh, pl.16, No.8).
The large limestone
bowl, A.33, found in the tomb of Mena, is like that of which a piece
bears the name of Zet (R. T. II, pl.7, No.2). The huge pilgrim-bottle,
A. 34, is probably of the XXII Dynasty.
footnotes:
1.
[Editor's note:] The Royal sign representing a king, called a serekh, shows Horus the hawk
seated on a rectangular sign for a palace. In this case, the name "Ka" for the predynastic king is shown by a pair of arms
(the "ka" sign) embedded in the lower part of the rectangle. The related royal sign for "Suten" is a plant (i.e., the suten plant) placed beside the serekh, while another
name of the King "Ap" is spelled out by the sign for reed "a", plus the matwork sign "p".
The sign for "ha" (i.e., the Queen's name) is a plant with three leafs at top. These
examples painted on pottery from the Royal Tombs at Abydos, as Petrie
points out, are among the earliest known forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
[Continue to part 2]
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