History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent DiscoveryKing, L. W. (Leonard William)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery
King, L. W. (Leonard William)
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C.; History, Ancient
the Abydene tomb of Usert-sen (Senusret) III, was in all likelihood a
sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been buried at
Thebes, in the Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga. The Abydos tomb is of interesting
construction. The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a gallery
runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by eighteen
square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never
finished. Nothing was found in the tomb. On the slope of the mountain,
due west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a
terrace-temple analogous to those of Dêr el-Bahari, approached not
by means of a ramp but by stairways at the side. It was evidently the
funerary temple of the tomb.
[Illustration: Statue of Queen Teta-shera]
Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. About 1700 B. C. British
Museum. From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has
already been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A.
E. P. Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903. It lies north of
the Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos. It is a
great _bâb_ or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes,
with the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to
defy plunderers. The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is
probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they
found in it. Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the
plunderers, but the fact is that there probably never was anything in
it but an empty sarcophagus. Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered
some dummy mastabas, a find of great interest. Just as the king had a
secondary tomb, so secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the
XIth Dynasty pyramid at Dêr el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look
like the tombs of his courtiers. Some curious sinuous brick walls which
appear to act as dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham
cemetery. In a line with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation,
is the funerary temple belonging to it, which was found by Mr.
Randall-Maclver in 1900. Nothing remains but the bases of the fluted
limestone columns and some brick walls. A headless statue of Usertsen
was found.
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