Five Years' Explorations at Thebes: A Record of Work Done 1907-1911 by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter

By Howard Carter and George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert Earl of Carnarvon

Five Years' Explorations at Thebes is a work by George Carnavon. It depicts excavations made near Thebes, with concise descriptions of discoveries made. For Egyptologists or fans of the subject!

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: May 28, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547029397

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Howard Carter, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert Earl of Carnarvon

Five Years' Explorations at Thebes

A Record of Work Done 1907-1911 by The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter

EAN 8596547029397

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

PREFACE

ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION BY THE EARL OF CARNARVON

CHAPTER I THE MORTUARY CHAPEL AND SEPULCHRE OF TETA-KY By Howard Carter

CHAPTER II THE PAINTINGS AND INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PAINTED VAULTED CHAMBER OF TETA-KY By George Legrain.

CHAPTER III THE FUNERARY STATUETTES FROM TOMB OF TETA-KY By Percy E. Newberry

CHAPTER IV EXCAVATIONS IN THE VALLEY OF DÊR EL BAHARI By Howard Carter

WORK DONE IN THE BIRABI

CHAPTER V THE SEVENTEENTH DYNASTY TOMB No. 9 By Howard Carter

CHAPTER VI CARNARVON TABLETS I AND II By F. Ll. Griffith

CHAPTER VII THE ‘VALLEY’-TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSÛT By Howard Carter

CHAPTER VIII PTOLEMAIC VAULTED GRAVES By Howard Carter

CHAPTER IX DEMOTIC PAPYRI AND OSTRACA By Wilhelm Spiegelberg

CHAPTER X COLONNADE AND FOUNDATION DEPOSIT OF RAMESES IV By Howard Carter

CHAPTER XI OTHER ANTIQUITIES DISCOVERED By Howard Carter

CHAPTER XII THE LATE MIDDLE KINGDOM AND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD NECROPOLIS By Howard Carter

CHAPTER XIII THE HIERATIC TEXTS OF TOMB NO. 37 By George Möller

CHAPTER XIV VEGETABLE REMAINS FOUND IN THE EXCAVATIONS () By Percy E. Newberry

INDEX

PREFACE

Table of Contents

The following volume contains a record of work done in the Theban Necropolis during the years 1907-11. In the editing of this report I have availed myself of the generous help of several scholars, whose names appear at the heads of the chapters they have contributed. To these gentlemen I wish to tender my sincere thanks for their co-operation.

Mr. Howard Carter has been in charge of all operations; and whatever successes have resulted from our labours are due to his unremitting watchfulness and care in systematically recording, drawing, and photographing everything as it came to light.

To Professor Sir Gaston Maspero, the Director-General of the Service des Antiquités, I wish to proffer my thanks for his most kind and valuable support; as also to Mr. Weigall, who, in the course of his official work, has given me his most willing assistance. To Dr. Budge I should also like to express my indebtedness for several valuable suggestions.

CARNARVON.

Highclere

,

August 1911.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Table of Contents

ILLUSTRATIONS

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

BY THE EARL OF CARNARVON

Table of Contents

THE necropolis of Thebes—the great city which for so many centuries had been the capital of Egypt—lies on the western side of the Nile valley, on the margin of the desert opposite the modern village of Luxor. No ancient site has yielded a greater harvest of antiquities than this famous stretch of rocky land. From time immemorial it has been the profitable hunting-ground of the tomb robber; for more than a century a flourishing trade in its antiquities has been carried on by the natives of the district, and for nearly a hundred years archaeologists have been busy here with spade and pencil. The information that has been gleaned from its temple walls and tombs has enabled scholars to trace, point by point, the history of the city from at least 2500 B.C. to Ptolemaic times. The necropolis itself extends for some five miles along the desert edge, and evidences of the explorer and robber present themselves at every turn. Open or half-filled mummy pits, heaps of rubbish, great mounds of rock débris, with, here and there, fragments of coffins and shreds of linen mummy-wrappings protruding from the sand, show how active have been the tomb despoilers. Notwithstanding all the work that has been done here, very little can, in any sense, pretend to have been carried out in a systematic manner; and as few records of the various excavations have been kept, the work of the present-day explorer must necessarily be a heavy one. Often he will get no further in his excavations than the well-sorted-over dust of former explorers; and if he is fortunate enough to make a ‘find’, it is often only after clearing away a vast amount of rock débris and rubbish to the bed-rock below.

With a view to making systematic excavations in this famous necropolis, I began tentative digging among the Kurneh hills and desert margin in the spring of 1907. My workmen were all from the neighbouring villages and their number has varied from seventy-five to two hundred and seventy-five men and boys. I had three head reises—Mansûr Mohammed el Hashâsh, Mohammed Abd el Ghaffer, and Ali Hussên—who all worked well and satisfactorily. The labourers themselves were a willing and hard-working lot: but though they were no more dishonest than other Egyptian fellahin, inducements for them to steal were many, and we found it essential to proceed in our work with great care. I made it a rule that when a tomb was found, as few workmen as possible should be employed; and, in order that the opportunity for stealing should be reduced to a minimum, no clearing of a chamber or pit was carried on unless Mr. Carter or I was present. That nothing should escape us, we also, in certain cases, had to sift over the rubbish from the tombs three times.

Image not availble: Fig. 1. Excavations in the Birâbi.

Fig. 1. Excavations in the Birâbi.

My preliminary excavations eventually resulted in my confining attention to three sites in that part of the necropolis which lies between the dromos leading to Dêr el Bahari and the great gorge giving entrance to the valley of the Tombs of the Kings. These three sites were: (1) a spot a few metres to the north of the village mosque, where, according to the natives, lay a hidden tomb; (2) the Birâbi,[1] which is near the desert edge, between the hills of Drah abu ‘l Nagga and the cultivated land, and adjoins the entrance to the dromos of Hatshepsût’s famous terrace temple; and (3) that part of the XIth Dynasty cemetery which lies along the hill slope, on the northern side of the Dêr el Bahari valley.

Excavation on the first site was begun in 1908, and, after a fortnight’s arduous work among the native houses and rubbish heaps of the village, an important inscribed tomb of the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty was opened. This tomb proved to be of a ‘King’s Son’ named Teta-Ky, and contained, among many painted scenes, a figure of Aahmes-nefert-ari, the queen of Aahmes I and mother of Amenhetep I. This is the earliest known portrait of the celebrated queen, who

Image not availble: Fig. 2. First Appearance of the ‘Valley’-Temple Wall.

Fig. 2. First Appearance of the ‘Valley’-Temple Wall.

afterwards became the patron goddess of the necropolis: she is figured as of fair complexion and not black, as is usually the case in her portraits of a later date. The scene shows her adoring the goddess Hathor, as a cow issuing from a cliff; and behind her is a lady, presumably the queen’s mother,[2] named