ROYAL TOMBS Ol' THK li DYNASTY.

photograph lxvi. 4. Another looser walling

further out, also seen in the photograph, is
probably that of plunderers to hold back, the
sand. Tho section of the side avail of the
On clearing tho entrance, the native hard
sand was found to- slope down to about four
feet above the floor, and then to drop to flour
level at about two and a half feet outside of tho
outer wall of the tomb. Here the space was
tilled to throe feet deep with sand saturated
with ointment. The fatty mutter was that so
common in the prehistoric times, in this Tst
Dynasty, and onward in the XVHIth Dynasty ;
hundredweights of it must have beeu poured out
hero, and the scent was so strong when cutting
away this sand that it could be smelt over the
whole tomb. In clearing this entrance was
found the perfect ivory tablet of king Komcmpses
(xii. 1 and xvii. 2<i) ; and his identity with tho
king Mersekha of this tomb was proved by the
scaling No. 72, pi. xxviii.
17. Tun Tomb op lxu Qa, pis. Ix., lxvi.,
lxvii. This tomb, which is tho last of the
Dynasty, shows a more developed stage tbau
the others. Chambers for offerings are built
on each side of tho entrance passage, and this
passage is turned to the north, as in the mastabas
of the IIIwl Dynasty, and in tho pyramids.
The whole of the building is hasty and defective.
The bricks were mostly used too new, probably
loss than a week after being made. Hence the
walls have seriously collapsed iu most of the
lessor chambers', only the one great chamber
was built of lirm and well-dried bricks. Iu tho
four chambers along tho passage, 1(1, 1ft, 2d, 24,
the walls have had to bo strengthened by
thickening them, so as to leave 'vide ledges
near the top, shown by the outlines iu the plan :
in chamber 25 the south side had crushed
forward with its weight, and so taken a slice oft'
the chamber width. And the wall had slipped
away sideways into chamber 12, and was thus
left ruined. In the small chambers along tho

oast side the long wall between chambers lU

and 5 has crushed out at the base, and spread
against the pottery in the grave 5, and against
the wooden box in grave 2. iloncc the objects
must have been placed in those graves within a
few days of the building of the wail, before the
mud bricks were hard enough to carry even
four foot height of wuU. The burials of the
domestics must therefore have taken place all at
once, immediately the kings tomb was built ;
and hence they must have been sacrificed at the
funeral.
The graves still contained several burials, and
these are all figured in position on the plan ;
fivo have the head to the north, and only one
to tho south; all arc. contracted. Thus the
attitude was that of the prehistoric burials, also
found in thy Till'd Dynasty at Jledum, ami
in the Yth Dynasty at Deshasheh. Hut the
direction is that of tho historic burials. Ileuee
the customs have a greater break between the
prehistoric and the 1st than between tho 1st
aud the Vtli Dynasty. The boxes in which the
bodies "-ore placed vary from 3(> to 45 inches
long, and 1H to 27 iuchcs wide ; tho average is
;!8 X 22. Tho height is usually l(i or 17 inches,
in one ease only 9 inches. The boards are I "2
inches thick. The sides appeared to have boeu
slightly pegged together, and they wore found
as merely loose boards much decayed. The
interior and space around the coffin were filled
with perfectly dean white sand, which must
have beeu intentionally filled in. Hut the
coffins can hardly have been made separately
to lit the bodies ; in grave K tho body is bent
back-outward, naturally, but the head has been
twisted rouud so as to bring tho face to tho
back ; perhaps it ""as actually out oil', as tho
atlas was an inch beyond the foramen. There
I were no personal ornaments or armlets found
. iu auy grave, though I carefully cleared every
coffin myself. Tire pottery placed in the cham
bers is all figured in position in the plan ; and
the forms "'ill be seen, with the references to