The amulets found in these tombs are all of the figures of deities, specially Bast, and are of pottery covered with light olivey-green glazes, quite different from those of the nineteenth or twentieth dynasties. A revival of glazed work took place under the twenty-second dynasty, of very delicate character, and fine glazing. But the amulet system went into a very different stage in the twenty-sixth dynasty; then in place of two or three, generally varying in size, we find dozens all uniform in style, either of pottery or of polished stone, arranged in rows on the mummy according to a system. Such was the plan of the amulets at Hawara and at Nebesheh. Yet a later period had left its remains at Illahun. In Coptic times, about the sixth and seventh century A.D., the ground all about the temple, and on a hill near the canal, was used for a cemetery. Though I could not spend time on clearing such remains myself, the people of the place readily grubbed up their forefathers, and disposed of their garments to any one who would buy them. I thus obtained a large quantity of embroideries and woven stuffs, the best of which are now at South Kensington. Illahun has then proved of great value to our knowledge of Egyptian civilization; it has shown us a completely arranged town of the middle kingdom; it has surrounded us with all the products and manufactures of that age; it reveals the simultaneous use of finely wrought flint tools with those of copper, when bronze was yet unknown; it provides us with the writings of the period, including a will two thousand years older than any known before; the pyramid proves to be of a design new to us, and contains one of the finest examples of mechanical skill; while of later ages we learn the date of Phoenician pottery, and of the earliest figured Greek vases, and can trace the history of the use of amulets. Of the blanks in the history of civilization, one more has been filled up. [Illustration: 95. FLINT HIPPOPOTAMUS, TWELFTH DYNASTY.] [Illustration: 96. BRONZE PANS, NINETEENTH DYNASTY.] CHAPTER IX. GUROB. 1889-90.