Hierakonpolis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ...seal of yellow clay. These, with other objects, lay all together, and the wall had to be undermined to obtain them. Another pit was made on the N. side of the wall, and more than twenty objects, all of archaic types, were found lying together; a green glaze monkey, a large quartz mace, and some pieces of inscribed ivory. Two other trenches skirting this same group of rooms, and approaching from the N. and E., ran into similar groups of archaic objects. In the middle of these different groups the objects were really heaped one on another: at one point limestone maces lay in scores, and, stained by the clay, looked much like a heap of potatoes. There was also a great heap made up entirely of objects in ivory, chiefly statuettes. We at last realised that we had found a great heap of archaic objects, not distributed in separate chambers, as Amelineau's finds in the royal tombs made us expect, but carelessly thrown together. The heap was approached from every side till its boundaries were known, and the objects were gradually removed. This was a month's work, and for more than half this time we were working with penknife and steel ruler, instead of adze and basket, extricating the delicate objects from the sandy clay in which they were embedded. It is impossible to give a detailed plan of so confused and close packed a heap of objects; and as the order in which they were taken out was largely accidental, it will be simpler to give a general account of their relative positions, following this by a complete list of all the objects found in the group, but leaving details of measurement, &c, to the catalogue in the plates. This will involve some repetition, but the fault is hard to avoid. 72. The best point to begin will be from one of the largest objects, the f...