Five Years' Explorations at Thebes: A Record of Work Done 1907-1911 by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard CarterCarnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, Earl of
History
Five Years' Explorations at Thebes: A Record of Work Done 1907-1911 by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter
Carnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, Earl of
_The flat-topped coffins_, Nos. 8, 15, 21, 22, 34, 36, 46, 48, 49, 55,
57, 75, 76, 78, 79, and 81 were often found to be made of scrap timber
from other sarcophagi, and on the whole they perhaps incline to be later
than the gable-topped coffins. The latest fixed date found on the
objects in them was that of the Divine Wife, Hatshepsût, which occurred
in that of No. 21, on a silver-mounted scarab ring (Pl. LXXII. 21). A
head-rest found with it is certainly different in character to others
found here, and it has engraved upon its stem the deities Bes and Taurt
(Pl. LXVIII. 21). The head-rest found in coffin No. 57 (Pl. LXVIII. 57)
has a short base, and it strikes one as being of a character between the
earlier long-based types like No. 15 (Pl. LXVIII. 15) and that of No.
21. Burial No. 78 was furnished with the most complete group of objects
(Pl. LXVIII. 78), and might be referred to the Early XVIIIth Dynasty.
The last section of this group, the open-grid bottomed coffins, Nos. 50
and 52, are of smaller size (see Pl. LX. 52). They recall some of the
older coffins of the Early Middle Kingdom found at Aswân that have false
bottoms of lattice work.[44] But these coffins constructed out of wood
from older sarcophagi are seemingly later than the rest, for in one of
them, No. 50, a necklace of beads and amulets (Pl. LXXIII. 50) is
certainly of the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty.
_‘Dug-out’ coffins._ Nos. 37 and 58 (see Pl. LXI. 58) are exceedingly
rough, and cut out of tree trunks. One of them had its lid bound to its
shell with rope. From a scarab (Pl. LXXII. 37) found in coffin 37 these
‘Dug-outs’ seem to belong to the beginning of the Second Theban Empire,
though similar specimens found in some of the tombs recorded above were
of a slightly earlier date.
_Rîshi coffins._ Nos. 2, 10, 11, 12, 60, 66, and 70 are a type peculiar
to the Theban Necropolis, and only a limited number of these coffins
have been discovered. They are named _Rîshi_[45] from the design painted
upon them being composed of two large wings of many-coloured feathers
that envelop the mummy form; for examples of those found here, see Pl.
LXII. 1.[46] They belong to the Intermediate Period. With the seven
specimens discovered in this cache there were only a few beads, a
cowroid seal (Pl. LXXII. 11), a bronze mirror, and a wooden head-rest
(Pl. LXX. 70); and, with the exception of the cowroid seal which might
be as late as the Early XVIIIth Dynasty, these objects do not seem later
than the end of the Intermediate Period.
The richest interment of this type, in personal objects, was the one
found by Prof. Petrie,[47] and the antiquities here were all
characteristic of the time between the Middle Kingdom and the New
Empire.
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