EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND 
 
 SPECIAL EXTUA EE POET 
 
 THE SEASON S WORK 
 A 1 1 X AS A XI) BEXI HASAX 
 
 CONTAINING THE REPORTS OF 
 
 M. NAVILLE, Mr. PERCY E. XEWBERRY 
 
 AXD 
 
 Mr. FRASER 
 
 (WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS) 
 
 1890—1891 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Limited 
 
 ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, cYeRKENWELL, LONDON, E.C. 
 ANT) SOLD AT 
 
 THE OFFICES OF THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND 
 17, Oxford Mansion, Oxford Circus, Londox, W. 
 
 Price T<r n Shilling* and Si.f'pmce 
 
 "DT73 
 ME 3 
 
THE SEASON'S WOEK 
 
 AT 
 
 AHNAS AND BENI HASAN. 
 
SPECIAL EXTRA EE POET 
 
 THE SEASON'S WORK 
 
 AT 
 
 AHNAS AND BENI HASAN 
 
 CONTAINING REPORTS BY 
 
 M. XAVILLE, Mr. PERCY E. NEWBERRY 
 
 AND 
 
 Me. GEORGE WILLOUGHBY FRASER 
 
 WITH AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 1890—1891 
 
 EL gy £ X.p\o rod S oc\eY y 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 GILBERT & RIVIXGTOX, Limited 
 
 ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, LONDON, E.C. 
 AND SOLD AT 
 
 THE OFFICES OF THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND 
 17, Oxfobd Mansion, Oxford Circus, London, TV. 
 1891 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/seasonsworkatahnOOegyp 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction . . Amelia B. Edwards, Honorary Secretary 1 
 
 ♦ 
 
 I. Excavations at Henassieh (Hanes) . Edouard Naville 5 
 
 II. The Tombs of Beni Hasan . . . Percy E. Newberry 11 
 
 III. The Clearance of the Tombs of Beni 
 
 Hasan .... George Willoughby Fraser 19 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 1. Frontispiece 
 
 EXCAYATIONS AT AHNAS (HENASSIEH), from a 
 photograph by the Kev. W. MacGregok. 
 
 2. Head-piece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 M. NAVILLE'S CAMP AT AHNAS (HENASSIEH), 
 
 from a photograph by the Rev, W. MacGregor . . 5 
 
 3. Tail-piece 
 
 COPTIC CROSS FROM THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT 
 COPTIC CHURCH AT AHNAS (HENASSIEH), 
 from a photograph by M. Naville . . . . .10 
 
 4. Whole- page Illustration 
 
 OUR DOMESTIC TOMB, from a photograph by Me. 
 
 G. WlLLOUGHBY FrASER to face ] 1 
 
 5. Head-piece 
 
 THE CLIFFS OF BEXI HASAN, from a photograph 
 
 by Mb. Percy E. Newberry 19 
 
 6. Whole-page Illustration 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE TOMB OF AMENI, from a photo- 
 graph by Mr. Percy E. Newberry . . to face 19 
 
 7. Tail-piece 
 
 OUR ARAB BOY, MAHOMMED, from a photograph by 
 
 Mr. G. Willoughby Fraser 22 
 
AHXAS AXD BENI HASAN. 
 
 The mounds of Ahnas, alias Henassieb, alias Almas el Medinet, alias 
 Henassieh el Medinet, have long been identified, by Egyptologists with 
 
 1m o /wwsa 
 U ffl cTo H a ~Khenensu J the Hininsi of Assyrian inscriptions, the 
 
 " Heracleopolis " of Greek historians and. geographers, and. the " Hanes " 
 
 of the Bible. These mounds are situate some twelve miles inland from 
 
 Beni-Suef, and seventy-three miles south of Cairo. They represent 
 
 all that is left of the capital city of the 20th, or Heracleopolite Nome, 
 
 which was the seat of government of the obscure IXth and Xth Egyptian 
 
 Dynasties. That Ha-Khenensu was in its foundation a city of prehistoric 
 
 antiquity may be gathered from the place it occupies in the mythological 
 
 records of Egypt ; for, according to a text quoted by Brugsch (Diet. Geo- 
 
 graphique, vol. i. p. 004) it was there that Ea, second king of the First 
 
 Dynasty of the Gods, began his reign upon earth. 
 
 Twelve years ago, in that remarkable paper which has been aptly 
 
 called his archaeological will, Mariette — then in fast-failing health, and 
 
 foreseeing the near end of his own brilliant career — drew the attention 
 
 of the French Academy to the importance of various sites in Egypt 
 
 which up to that time had been either quite neglected, or but 
 
 imperfectly explored. Among these, Ahnas occupied a prominent 
 
 place. " C'est a Ahnas el Medinet," he said, " representee aujourd'hui 
 
 par des mines assez etendues qui n'ont ete jusqu'ici l'objet d'aucune 
 
 investigation serieuse, que nous devrons essayer de faire revivre 
 
 des souvenirs des IX e et X e Dynasties" (Institut de France ; Academie 
 
 des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Seance Publique Annuelle, 21st 
 
 Novembre, 1879). Three years later, Professor R. Stuart Poole again 
 
 urged the claims of this site to systematic investigation. " Temple 
 
 and town, and the unknown necropolis that must lie in the Libyan waste, 
 
 should be excavated," he wrote, u for the materials of a lost book of 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 Ahnas and Bexi Hasan. 
 
 history. For liere ruled two ancient dynasties of kings at the second 
 capital of Egypt" {Cities of Egypt, ch. iii. p. 38). The Egypt 
 Exploration Fund was founded a few months after the publication of 
 Cities of Egypt, and Ahnas was one of the sites first proposed for excava- 
 tion by Sir Erasmus Wilson. Though at that time impracticable, the 
 project was never abandoned ; and at last, in 1890, it was decided that 
 M. Naville should be invited to undertake the task so long deferred. 
 He did not, however, actually begin work at Ahnas till the month of 
 January in this present year; and a summary of the results of his last 
 campaign is here reprinted from the columns of The Academy, July 25th, 
 1891. 
 
 That excavations on so large a scale should have brought to light no 
 vestiges of the IXth and Xth Dynasties is matter for regret, since it was 
 at Ahnas, if anywhere, that we had reason to hope for those lost links of 
 history. The necropolis also, which in Mariette's time was yet un- 
 discovered, had meanwhile been found and dug over by Arab and Greek 
 plunderers. The mounds have, nevertheless, yielded an abundant harvest 
 of beautiful Egyptian and Coptic sculptures, of which the former have 
 been ceded to the Egypt Exploration Fund, the latter having been 
 reserved by the local authorities for the National Egyptian Museum at 
 Ghizeh. 
 
 The well-known rock-cut chambers of Beni Hasan, excavated in the 
 face of the limestone cliffs on the east bank of the Nile, 170 miles above 
 Cairo, date, as now established by the researches of Mr. Percy E. 
 Newberry, from the Xlth to the Xllth Egyptian Dynasties. They were 
 made for the great vassal princes who ruled at that time in Middle 
 Egypt. Those princes were probably the lineal descendants of the 
 independent petty sovereigns of earlier times. Their position under the 
 Pharaohs of the Xlth and Xllth Dynasties closely resembled that of the 
 semi-independent princes of India at the present day. Nominally, they 
 were Nomarchs, or Governors, owing allegiance to the reigning Pharaoh; 
 but they were, in fact, each within the limits of his own province, absolute 
 rulers over the lives and property of the people of their district. They 
 held their provinces as fiefs, their duty towards the Pharaoh being to 
 preserve territorial boundaries, to regulate the work of irrigation, and 
 to furnish fighting men in case of need. Like the Indian princes, they 
 had not only their courts, court ceremonies, and household troops, but 
 an immense body of skilled serfs, or domestic craftsmen, who had their 
 workshops and dwellings within the precincts of the palace walls. Here 
 
Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 3 
 
 the goldsmith, the weaver, the dyer, the cabinet-maker, the glass-blower, 
 the shoemaker, the mason, the bricklayer, the carpenter, the rope-maker, 
 the potter, the painter, the carver, the metal-founder, and every other 
 artisan whose skill contributes to the necessities and business of a highly 
 civilized age, plied his trade in the service of his lord. And it is because 
 these craftsmen are represented on the walls of the Beni Hasan tombs 
 drawn and coloured to the life, handling their tools, and surrounded by 
 all the appliances of their trades, that these fast-perishing works of 
 ancient art are so invaluable to the student of archa3ology. Each wall- 
 painting is an illustrated page from the history of social science between 
 four and five thousand years ago. Here, too, we see the Nomarch 
 receiving deputations of foreigners, each tribe depicted with its racial 
 characteristics and its distinctive costume. And here again we find 
 accurate and most interesting representations of the domestic animals, 
 the birds, fishes, flowers, fruits and trees of the Nile valley. The 
 inscriptions interspersed throughout these tableaux are of the highest 
 historical value, some being of very considerable length, and containing 
 not only important biographical particulars of the lives of the former 
 occupants of the Beni-Hasan tombs, but also throwing much light upon 
 the details of local government in Egypt at a time supposed to be coeval 
 with the Hebrew patriarchs. 
 
 During the first half of the present century, when Champollion, 
 Rossellini, Wilkinson and Lepsius visited Egypt, these wall-paintings were 
 yet in fair preservation, and many of the most striking among them 
 were incorporated in the works of those great pioneers of modern research. 
 Yet to none of them does it seem to have occurred that mere selections 
 were of comparatively little value, and that for purposes of serious study, 
 no Egyptian monument could possibly yield its full measure of instruction, 
 unless copied as a whole. It is, however, to be remembered that those 
 who could interpret hieroglyphic texts were then but few; that 
 photography was not yet invented ; and that the work done by those 
 earlier labourers in the field of Egyptology was in truth stupendous. 
 The fact nevertheless remains that few texts were fully transcribed, 
 either in the Beni-Hasan tombs or elsewhere, and that all copies of 
 inscriptions made in Egypt before the era of the camera and the 
 magnesium light are more or less incorrect. It therefore becomes our 
 obvious duty to make faithful transcripts of all that yet remains of these 
 invaluable records — records which have long been the main source of 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 Ahxas and Bent Hasan. 
 
 our knowledge of the manners, customs, arts and industries of the most 
 highly civilized and interesting people of the ancient world. 
 
 It is in recognition of this duty, and as a practical protest against the 
 unchecked and barbarous damage recently done to the historic monu- 
 ments of Beni Hasan, of el Bersheh, and of Tell el Amarna, that the 
 President and Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund have entered 
 upon so vast an undertaking as the Archaeological Survey of Egypt. 
 
 A. B. E. 
 
 October, 1891. 
 
M. naville's camp at ahnas (hesassieh). 
 
 EXCAVATIONS AT HEXASSIEH (HAXES). 
 
 This year's campaign was devoted to the exploration of 
 Heracleopolis Magna, the Hanes of the Bible ; of the city 
 which was sitnate twelve miles west of the present Beni Suef, 
 near the Bahr Yussuf ; and of the necropolis on the opposite 
 side of the canal, in the ridge of hills which separates the 
 valley of the Xile from the southern part of the Fayum. 
 
 We began with the necropolis, and we settled in the desert 
 not very far from the village of Isedment el Gebel. I had 
 explored the place the year before, and I had seen then a 
 great number of pits which seemed to have been recently 
 plundered. Greeks from Medinet el Fayum had worked 
 there ; but I doubt very much whether they were largely 
 rewarded by the result of their work. The necropolis ex- 
 tends from the limits of the valley towards the hills, on a 
 slightly sloping and undulating grbund. The tombs are most 
 numerous on two rocky heights, which rise above the 
 others at the entrance of a wide concavity by which the 
 ridge is interrupted, and which is the way to the Fayum. 
 In that part the tombs are rectangular pits, at the bottom of 
 which there are two, and sometimes three, side chambers. 
 Many of them had been filled with sand, and we cleared 
 them with the hope of discovering the original interments ; 
 
6 
 
 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 but everywhere we found that the tombs had been re-used in 
 later times, plundered of their valuables, even of the coffins, 
 and employed for bodies evidently belonging to the poorer 
 class. They had no coffins, were generally not embalmed, and 
 were lying over or under a mat of reeds. "With the bones 
 were sometimes found small baskets containing food for the 
 deceased, chiefly nuts of the dom palm and bread ; some- 
 times also poppies and pigeons' eggs. Here and there were 
 a few remains of the former occupants — for instance, a piece 
 of a handsome funerary cloth on which the weighing of the 
 soul had been painted, fragments of papyri, and pieces of 
 limestone hieroglyphic tablets, evidently belonging to the 
 XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties. I should not wonder if even 
 these were not the original occupants, and if the pits went 
 back up as far as the Xlth or Xllth Dynasty. 
 
 On one of the hills, quite at the top, and at a very small 
 depth, among rubbish of broken bricks and chips of stone, we 
 found about twenty coffins, most of them of women. They 
 generally fell to pieces when they were moved. Two of them, 
 which we took away, were made more carefully ; the mummy 
 being in a cartonnage and enclosed in a double coffin painted 
 red. They all bear the characters of a very late epoch ; some 
 of them are even of the worst Roman style. They are with- 
 out names, and without ornaments or amulets, except neck- 
 laces of very small glass beads or small shells. 
 
 In the lower part of the necropolis, the coffins are plain 
 rectangular boxes without any ornament or painting. One 
 or two red vases of common pottery were put in the pit, 
 which was not deep, and of the size of the coffins. Twice 
 we discovered mummy-cases belonging to an older epoch, 
 which had been re-used, one of them of the XXth Dynasty, 
 the other possibly as old as the Xlth. The mummies which 
 they contained were quite out of proportion with the coffins. 
 The most plentiful crop we had in the tombs were hundreds 
 of wooden or terra-cotta statuettes, nshabtis of the coarsest 
 
Ahnas and Bexi Hasan. 
 
 7 
 
 description, some of which were mere little sticks on which 
 eyes and a nose had been indicated with ink, and where the 
 name was written in hieratic. These statuettes belong to 
 various epochs ; and, although many of them are undoubtedly 
 very late, I believe that some of them are remains of the 
 XXth and even of the XlXth Dynasty. In a few large pits 
 there were at the top painted coffins, and underneath heaps of 
 bones and of mummified bodies, the whole having been thrown 
 in without any order. 
 
 Finding that the necropolis gave so little result, and that 
 there was nothing belonging to older epochs, we left the 
 desert, and went over to the mounds of Henassieh. The site 
 of the old city is indicated by several mounds of such an 
 extent that they are called in the place itself, Ummel Kimam, 
 " the mother of mounds." Several villages are built over 
 them, the largest being Henassieh el Medinet, in the name of 
 which we may recognize a corruption of the old 6< Hanes." All 
 over the mounds, scattered blocks of red granite show that 
 there must have been some construction of importance ; but 
 nothing in the nature of the soil or in the appearance of the 
 locality shows distinctly, as at Bubastis, where the temple 
 must have been. Therefore it was necessary to trench and 
 dig pits in all the different parts of the Tell. This work was 
 done on a large scale, for we removed more than 40,000 cubic 
 metres of earth in order to ascertain where the temple had 
 been, and to lay bare what is left of it. We began near two 
 parallel rows of standing granite columns without capitals, of 
 Roman or Byzantine aspect, locally called " the Keniseh," the 
 church. There was nothing in the space between the two 
 colonnades, which is more than fifty yards wide ; but on the 
 west there was another hall with limestone columns bearing 
 well-sculptured Corinthian capitals. The whole seems to me 
 to have been a Roman temple. In digging under the pave- 
 ment of the western hall, we reached a small staircase leading 
 to a tank built of red bricks and cement, evidently a bath. 
 
s 
 
 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 Unfortunately, in the night which followed its discovery it was 
 broken to pieces by the inhabitants, who build all their walls 
 and houses with Roman bricks found on the Tell. 
 
 In two other places were several shafts of red granite 
 columns lying on the ground. Researches made all around, 
 and even underneath, did not lead to any result ; except the 
 discovery of a fragment of mosaic. These columns belonged to 
 Coptic churches ; the Coptic cross being engraved on several 
 of them. 
 
 We dug also near two huge granite bases, which looked like 
 Roman work. The excavations showed that they had 
 supported two large columns at the entrance of a Coptic 
 church, now entirely destroyed, but of which nearly all the 
 materials were left. They consisted of columns in grey 
 marble with Corinthian capitals, some of which had, instead 
 of astragalus, a Coptic cross, also architraves and friezes 
 well sculptured with flowers, arabesques, and animals, and 
 even with mythological subjects. I should not wonder if 
 a sculptured stone, bearing a coarse representation of Leda 
 and her swan, which was in a fellah's house, had come from 
 here. 
 
 In digging in a great depression in the western part of the 
 mounds, at a depth of about four yards, we at last hit upon 
 a granite monolithic column complete, with a palm-leaf 
 capital. We concentrated all our researches around it, and we 
 found that we had reached a vestibule which must have been 
 one of the side entrances of the temj)le of Heracleopolis. 
 The remains of it consist of six columns 17 ft. high, one 
 of which only is perfect, with sculptures representing Ra- 
 meses II. making offerings to various divinities, and in the 
 intervals the name of Menephthah, the son of Rameses. The 
 architraves which were supported by those columns are cut in 
 a building with the cartouches of Usertesen II. of the Xllth 
 Dynasty. The six columns were in one line. The length of 
 the vestibule is 61 ft., and it was open on the water side. The 
 
Ahnas axd Bent Hasan. 
 
 9 
 
 basements of the walls on the three other sides, and even a 
 few layers of stones have been preserved. This basement is 
 in hard limestone of Gebel Ahmar, which cannot be burnt for 
 lime ; it bears in hieroglyphs, sometimes more than 2 ft. high, 
 the following inscription : 
 
 " The living Horns, the mighty Bull who loves Ma, the lord 
 of panegyries like his father Phthah Tonen, King Rameses, 
 erected this building to his father Hershefi [Arsaphes], the 
 lord of the two lands [Egypt]." 
 
 It appears from this description that the temple was dedi- 
 cated to Arsaphes, a form of Osiris generally represented 
 with a ram's head. This divinity is sculptured on two of the 
 columns. The vestibule contained statues of which there are 
 a few remains. On the southern side, in the corner, was a 
 sitting statue of Rameses II. of heroic size, in red limestone. 
 We found it broken at the waist, but nearly perfect. It was 
 painted in bright red colour, still very vivid on some parts of 
 the throne ; the stripes of the head-dress were alternately 
 blue and yellow, like the granite Rameses II., now at Geneva, 
 which I discovered at Bubastis. The inscription on the lower 
 part of the base is a dedication to Arsaphes. On the same 
 side was the bust of a red granite statue of natural size 
 without any name, and also a group of two very weathered 
 kneeling figures. In the opposite corner was a statue of 
 Rameses II., symmetrical to the other, but broken in several 
 fragments. The head had disappeared. 
 
 From the vestibule, a door led into the inner part of the 
 temple. We had great hopes that behind the basement of 
 hard limestone we should find constructions of importance ; 
 but our disappointment was complete. The temple, except 
 the vestibule, was built of soft white limestone ; and the 
 result of this is that it has been entirely carried away. We 
 saw, still in situ, bases of columns more than 4 ft. in diameter, 
 showing that they must have been of considerable height. 
 But except a few stray blocks here and there, with a few 
 
 c 
 
t 
 
 10 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 hieroglyphic signs, the whole temple of Arsaphes has been 
 destroyed and employed for building purposes ; the material 
 having been taken for the Roman temple, and then for the 
 Coptic churches, of which there were several. So we can assert 
 that beyond this vestibule nothing remains of the temple of 
 Arsaphes. The considerable excavations which we made all 
 around, down to the original pavement, to a depth which was 
 more than 18 ft., show that there is no hope of finding any 
 more traces of this famous building. There may have been 
 other temples of Arsaphes in the city ; but it seems certain 
 that this was the principal sanctuary of Hanes, for in the Great 
 Harris papyrus, Rameses III., mentioning the chief temples of 
 Egypt to which he gave slaves, quotes " the temple of Hershefi 
 the King of the two lands." This title of the god, which is 
 characteristic, is that which is mentioned in the dedication of 
 Rameses II. in the vestibule. I cannot believe that there is 
 much more to be expected from excavations on the mounds of 
 Henassieh. 
 
 Edouard Naville. 
 
 COPTIC CROSS FROM THE RUINS OF AX AXCIEXT COPTIC CHURCH AT AHNAS (HENASSIEH). 
 
THE TOMBS OF BENI HASA.V. 
 
 The celebrated tombs of Beni Hasan, where the Archaeological 
 Survey party began work last November, are situate about 
 half-way up the Gebel Beni Hasan, a hill of the Arab chain 
 which overhangs the Nile about one hundred and seventy 
 miles south of Cairo. A short distance further to the south, 
 stands, on the same bank of the river, the picturesque little 
 village from which the hill and the tombs derive their name. 
 At the beginning of the present century there were three 
 villages of the " sons of Hasan " hereabouts, but only one of 
 these is now inhabited. The others were plundered and 
 destroyed by Mehemet Ali's soldiers, under the pretext that 
 the inhabitants were murderers and thieves, and their ruins 
 may still be seen on the edge of the desert between the Grebel 
 and the Nile. Even at the present day, the natives of the 
 district are considered to be dangerous characters, and we 
 were warned by the police authorities before going among 
 them to be always on our guard. During our six months' 
 residence in their neighbourhood, however, we seldom met with 
 anything but courtesy and civility. "When we wanted their 
 assistance we had no difficulty in procuring it, and as workers 
 we found them not much, if at all, inferior to their fellow- 
 countrymen of the Delta or the Fayum. 
 
 The survey party, comprising Mr. Fraser, myself and our 
 servants, reached Beni Hasan by boat from Minieh on the 
 evening of the 25th November, shortly after sunset. The 
 following morning we disembarked our goods and chattels, 
 hired camels from the village sheikh to convey our things to the 
 
 c 2 
 
12 
 
 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 tombs, and by midday we were, with all our possessions, on 
 the breezy heights of the Grebel. We selected one of the 
 uninscribed tombs for our abode, and in less than a week were 
 comfortably ensconced in it. We had two native palm-stick 
 beds, over which we suspended our mosquito curtains by 
 means of palm-sticks. The whole-page illustration, from a 
 photograph by Mr. Fraser, shows my own corner of our abode. 
 The mysterious-looking, cylindrical objects stored under the 
 table to the right are my rolls of tracings. Our servants (two 
 men and a boy) slept in a small circular tent which we rigged up 
 for their especial benefit ; and we also put up Mr. Fraser's tent 
 inside our tomb, to serve as a " dark room" for photographic 
 purposes. In short, this rock-cut chamber, which some 
 ancient Egyptian had excavated for his eternal resting-place, 
 was speedily turned into an inviting and homely-looking 
 abode. Our Arab friends always called it quies — " pretty" ; 
 and one distinguished visitor even went to the length of 
 saying that it was " a house fit for a king." Royalty might 
 not, however, have approved of our fellow-lodgers, for it 
 abounded in beetles, and was much favoured by bats. The 
 ceiling also was perforated with hornets' nests, and the cliff 
 above our heads was a meeting-place for jackals at night. 
 These, however, were minor and very unimportant dis- 
 comforts. 
 
 The tombs, numbering in all some thirty-nine, are placed in 
 a line, and extend along the face of the cliff. They all front 
 the west, and are packed so close together as to present the 
 appearance of a row of houses in a street. From the Nile 
 below, they look like a series of pigeon-holes. Before their 
 entrance is a kind of esplanade from which there is a noble 
 view over the Nile valley — from near Roda on the south to 
 Minieh and Kom el Akhmar on the north. Immediately 
 opposite, just across the river, is the Coptic village of Abu 
 Kerkas, behind which stretches, as far as the eye can see, the 
 Libyan desert. 
 
Ahnas and Bun i. Ha sax. 
 
 13 
 
 The principal tombs are entered by large doorways hewn 
 in the rock, and form spacious and comparatively well-lighted 
 rooms supported by columns forming a part of the rock. 
 Some of them have architectural fronts — a portico supported 
 by two octagonal columns. The walls inside have been 
 smoothed and covered with a thin coat of plaster : upon this 
 latter are the paintings and inscriptions for which the tombs 
 are justly celebrated. At the present time there are about 
 12,000 square feet of painted wall surface in the group : in 
 former times there must have been considerably more. Much 
 of this is in a fearful state of dilapidation, and year by year 
 it is getting worse. Large flakes of painted plaster are falling 
 from the walls ; many of the scenes have faded away so com- 
 pletely as to be hardly distinguishable ; and in a few years' 
 time, if active measures are not taken to preserve the tombs, 
 little will remain on their walls to tell of their former beauty. 
 Knowing that they could do but little, if anything, to arrest 
 this work of mutilation and destruction, the Committee of the 
 Egypt Exploration Fund decided to at least preserve a faith- 
 ful record of what yet remains ; and it was with the object of 
 making plans, tracings of all the paintings, and coloured copies 
 of the most interesting scenes, that Mr. Fraser and myself 
 (and later on Mr. Blackden, an artist of great ability) proceeded 
 to Egypt last winter. We worked there during the whole 
 winter season and far on into the spring, and by means of 
 ladders, a trestle, and tracing paper,* succeeded in doing 
 nearly all that could be done " to preserve a faithful record of 
 what yet remains." The tombs have been surveyed and 
 planned by Mr. Fraser, and I have brought back to England 
 outline tracings of all the wall-paintings in six out of the 
 eight painted tombs, as well as copies of all the hieroglyphic 
 inscriptions, a fine series of coloured drawings by Mr. Black- 
 den, and nearly a hundred photographs. At the present time 
 1 am preparing this mass of material for publication, and in 
 * See full-page Illustration facing p. 19. 
 
14 
 
 Ahnas and Ben i Hasan. 
 
 my forthcoming volume, which I hope will be ready for 
 distribution to subscribers in March next, I shall give in the 
 plates drawings of the scenes which are still preserved. The 
 book will also contain full explanations of all the scenes, with 
 hieroglyphic texts, and translations. 
 
 A brief description of some of the most interesting scenes, 
 and an account of the inscriptions, may not be without interest 
 in this report. 
 
 Twelve of the tombs in the group are inscribed. Of these 
 twelve, but eight contain wall-paintings. Three alone are 
 dated ; but curiously enough, from these three we can with 
 tolerable certainty date the remainder. The most ancient are, 
 without doubt, those at the southern end of the group, and 
 for several reasons (which will be stated fully in my forth- 
 coming volume) we may put down tomb No. 29 as the earliest. 
 It was excavated for a prince of the Oryx nome and Lord of 
 
 the town of Herur, named ^^0^ Baqta (!•)• By n ^ s 
 wife, named J^-^j Tahutiqa, this prince had a son, named 
 after his father, Baqta (II.), who inherited the princedom of 
 the nome, and was, at his death, buried in an adjoining tomb 
 (No. 33). These two tombs probably date from the beginning 
 of the Xlth Dynasty. The next tomb in point of age is 
 tomb No. 27. This was hewn out of the rock for a man 
 
 <r — :> /www n a 
 
 nameu. /ww\a /www IL Remushenta, also a prince of the Orvx 
 
 I /wwv\ <o 1 
 
 nome and Lord of <f>1^ Herur. He was not improbably 
 a son of Baqta II., though no direct evidence of his being so 
 remains. Tomb No. 15 was excavated for a son of Remu- 
 shenta, by his wife Hoteperau, named Baqta 
 (III.). He also was a prince of the Oryx nome and Lord of 
 Herur. Of his family but little is known, except that he had 
 a daughter (whose portrait is painted on the north wall of 
 
 his tomb) named J^ D ^°|^ Neferheput, which means 
 ' 6 Beautiful of rudders." Tomb No. 17 was made for a " son 
 
Annas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 15 
 
 of Baqt" called *^ = '(]lj J Kheti, and for his wife Q3£?j(^^> 
 Khnumhotep. Kheti was a distinguished soldier, and in an 
 inscription above his portrait on the north wall of his tomb he 
 is called " General of the soldiers in all places." His tomb is 
 apparently a copy of No. 17, and many of the scenes on the 
 walls are, one might almost say, facsimiled, from the correspond- 
 ing scenes in tomb .No. 17. A great portion of the designs are 
 here devoted to gymnastic exercises, especially wrestling, and on 
 the east wall are no less than 150 groups of wrestlers in almost 
 every conceivable position. There are many little descriptive 
 notes written over the various groups in cursive hieroglyphs. 
 One of these reads, " You are a coward, your heart trembles." 
 Another runs, " If you wish to get up, say ' dead ! ' " 
 
 Still taking the tombs in chronological order, the next to be 
 mentioned is No. 14. In this tomb I discovered several 
 inscriptions hitherto unknown. It was also hewn for a prince 
 of the Oryx nome and Lord of Herur, named Khnumhotep (I.). 
 He was the son of a lady named Baqt, and married a beautiful 
 woman whose portrait is painted next to his own in his tomb. 
 
 She was named '^=°^) (=1 ^ Set-a-pe, and was entitled " the 
 mistress of all women." According to an inscription in this 
 tomb, Khnumhotep (I.) was raised to the rank of a prince by 
 Amenemhat I., whose cartouche may still be seen on the right- 
 hand wall as you enter. By his wife Set-a-pe, he apparently 
 
 had two children, one a son named ® ^, Nekht, the other a 
 daughter named 1^ ^ Baqt. Nekht inherited the prince- 
 dom after his father's death ; but it does not seem that 
 he held it for long, as it soon passed out of the hands of this 
 family into those of a man named (l 1 ^"" 1 ^, Ameni, the son of 
 
 o _ I /www 1 I 
 
 a soldier by a lady named a ^ 0 J), Hennu. This great prince 
 Ameni * was buried in the grandest and most magnificent of all 
 
 * We have seen that Kheti was called " General of the forces in all places." 
 Tt is, in fact, within the bounds of possibility that he was Ameni's father. 
 
16 
 
 AlINAS AND BENI HASAN. 
 
 the tombs at Beni Hasan (No. 2). An inscription on the 
 south wall of the entrance gives its date — " the forty-third 
 year of the reign of Usertesen I., the second month of the 
 season of inundation, the day 15." A long inscription 
 below this gives us an account of his life and deeds. Other 
 inscriptions in the same tomb name his wife, a " priestess of 
 
 Hathor and Lady of the Valley," called Hotept, and 
 
 his eldest son, Khnumhotep. At Ameni's death, the prince- 
 dom of the Oryx nome reverted back to the family of Khnum- 
 hotep (1.). During Ameni's rule (or perhaps before) Nekht 
 had died, and the head of the family was his sister Baqt. She 
 
 /WW\A 
 
 had, it appears, married a certain ^ [j, Nehera," governor of the 
 New Towns," and son of a woman named ~ °(|(]^ 
 
 o □ 
 
 Arlthotep, and by him she had a son named Khnumhotep. 
 This man, Khnumhotep IT., has left us a most interesting and 
 important biographical inscription — the one well known to 
 students of Egyptology as the " Great inscription of Beni 
 Hasan." Tt is sculptured around the lower part of the walls 
 of his tomb (No. 3) and consists of no less than 222 lines. On 
 the south wall of the tomb are represented the various 
 members of his household : his wife Kheti, a daughter of 
 the prince of a neighbouring nome, all her children, and 
 
 his concubine, a woman named (^T^j^^ Djat. From his 
 biography we learn that his eldest son, named Nekht (II.), 
 was made a prince of the Jackal nome by Amenemhat II., 
 and that his second son, Khnumhotep (III.), was made 
 a smer uati aa or " great courtier," by the same monarch. 
 By his concubine he had three children, two sons and a 
 daughter. One of the former was afterwards an hereditary 
 prince, and the tomb which he contemplated excavating 
 at Beni Hasan to contain his body was begun but never 
 finished. Its portico was nearly completed and the inte- 
 rior chamber only just begun ; but he, nevertheless, had his 
 
AlINAS AND BENI HaSAN. 
 
 name carved up so that he who runs may read the simple 
 inscription : 
 
 " The hereditary prince, Khnumhotep, born of the Lady of 
 the house, Djat." 
 
 The wall-paintings of these tombs furnish us with the 
 fullest, and by far the most curious, representations we possess 
 of the daily life of the ancient Egyptians of the middle King- 
 dom. There is hardly an incident in ordinary life that is not 
 here delineated. We see represented the princes in their 
 robes with their wives and children ; their household officers, 
 from the herald to the sandal-bearer ; their agriculturists, 
 and their artisans. Even their barbers, their chiropodists, 
 their pet dogs and their monkeys are figured. In the tomb of 
 Ameni are represented the personal attendants on the Lady 
 Hotept. These are her fan-bearer and mirror-bearer, a woman 
 carrying ointments, another with linen, and another with 
 jewelry. Goldsmiths, potters, weavers, glass-blowers, bakers, 
 ropemakers, laundresses, carpenters, artists and sculptors are 
 represented at work. There are several battle scenes, in one 
 of which we see a party of Egyptians attacking a fortress with 
 the testudo. There are also hunting and fowling scenes ; and 
 in the tomb of Baqta (HI.), No. 15, are figured a large number 
 of wild animals and birds, each with its ancient name written 
 above it in hieroglyphic characters. In the same tomb are 
 also represented many (if not all) the games, from draughts to 
 playing with the ball, that were indulged in on the banks of 
 the Nile more than 4500 years ago. And what makes all 
 these pictures doubly interesting is the fact that they nearly 
 all have explanatory notes in hieroglyphs written just above 
 them. Over the head of the chiropodist, for instance, is the 
 inscription art ant, " doing the toe nails." 
 
 It should be added that in the tomb of Khnumhotep I. (No. 
 14 of our survey) I have discovered a group of foreigners 
 
18 
 
 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 which finds a parallel in that of his grandson, Khnumhotep II. 
 The scene here represents seven persons being led by an Egyp- 
 tian officer. Three of the seven figures are warriors with 
 yellow skin, blue eyes (now turned to green), and thick and 
 matted red hair, in which are stuck five or six ostrich feathers. 
 They are clothed in red garments fringed at the bottom ; in 
 the right hand they carry ostrich feathers ; in the left a curved 
 club. The remaining four figures of the group represent 
 women. They also are fair-skinned and blue-eyed, and have 
 light brown or red hair. Two of them carry children in a 
 basket slung over their shoulders, and two carry a red coloured 
 monkey on their backs. These peculiarities point to their 
 being Libyans. A facsimile of the group, of the size of the 
 original, has been made by Mr. Blackden, uniform with the 
 rest of his full-size facsimiles of the wall-paintings of this 
 group of tombs. It is extraordinary that this group of 
 Libyans should have been overlooked not only by the artists of 
 the French Commission, but by Lepsius, and all subsequent 
 travellers. 
 
 Finally, the history of the powerful family founded by 
 Khnumhotep is now traced through no less than five genera- 
 tions, from the time of Amenemhat I., through the reigns of 
 Usertesen I. and Amenemhat II., to the sixth year of the reign 
 of Usertesen II. ; and evidence has been found which proves 
 that the majority of the tombs in the Southern group (namely, 
 the tombs of Baqt, Kheti, Remushenta, Baqta I. and Baqta II.) 
 date from the Xlth and not the end of the Xllth Dynasty, as 
 has been before generally supposed. 
 
 Percy E. Newberry. 
 
TCVMT5 OF AMEN I. BENT HASAN. 
 
 [Page 10 
 
THE CLIFFS AT BEXI HASAN. 
 
 THE CLEARANCE OF THE TOMBS AT 
 BEXI HASAX. 
 
 Ox arriving with Mr. Xewberry at Beni Hasan (November 
 25th 5 1890), my first work was to construct a scaffolding 
 consisting of two trestles and some ladders. The ladders 
 were used by us continually all the time we were at work, 
 and one of the trestles was afterwards adapted and used by 
 Mr. Blackden while painting. 
 
 During the month of December, I employed parties of men 
 to clear all the tombs down to floor level. In this way the 
 two tombs of Baqt and Kheti, which appeared to have been 
 partially cleared by the authorities of the Ghizelr Museum, 
 were entirely cleared, and the proportions of the tombs can 
 now be clearly seen. 
 
 During the clearing of the tombs, an interesting discovery 
 was made of ancient stone chisels with which the surfaces of 
 the walls had been dressed down. They are chipped out of 
 the boulders which abound here, the material being a hard, 
 fine, crystalline limestone. They appear to have been used 
 with both hands, and not to have had any hafts. 
 
 During the clearing, a good deal of Coptic pottery was 
 
 d 2 
 
20 
 
 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 found, most of it broken. Such of the unbroken pieces as were 
 not taken by the Museum Inspector, I stored down one of the 
 tomb-wells before leaving. 
 
 From the date when the clearance of the tombs was finished 
 until early in April, I went on with the measurements and 
 survey of the tombs ; but having then received permission to 
 clear out the rest of the wells, I started a gang of men in 
 Khnumhotep's great tomb. The well proved to be only 28 
 feet deep, though large in the other dimensions. In it 
 was found part of one of the inside columns of the tomb, 
 weighing 1 ton 6 cwt. With Mr. Blackden's aid, this was 
 successfully raised, and has been left in the tomb. The 
 sepulchral chamber, which had been rifled, contained frag- 
 ments of pottery belonging to the early burial ; also pieces of 
 the great wooden coffin, and the table of offerings — a plain 
 one, worked in a very poor piece of limestone. At M. 
 Grebaut's request, I took this to the Museum of Ghizeh, on 
 my way to England. 
 
 A gang of men who had been started on a large well in the 
 tomb of Baqt, the son of Hoteperau, soon got into stones ; and 
 this well proved very troublesome. It was 80 ft. deep, and we 
 lifted not less than forty tons of stone out of it. With the able 
 assistance of Mr. Blackden, however, a tackle was constructed 
 which drew up a hoist made up of an old box strengthened. 
 By means of this, we were able to lift about 3 cwts. of stone 
 at a time, with only seven or eight men on the hauling 
 rope. 
 
 At 80 ft. down, we found a door leading into a chamber 
 placed S. of the well. In the centre of this chamber was 
 another well 20 ft. deep, leading to the real burial chamber, 
 which was made with benches along the side for the coffins. 
 Everything had been plundered in early times, and I have 
 reason to believe that the large stones in the well were due 
 to the religious, or other, animus of the plunderers, who must 
 
Ahnas and Bexi Hasan. 
 
 21 
 
 have taken much trouble to bring such a mass of stone in 
 from the hill side. 
 
 Amongst the debris, I found a few clay vessels of XTIth 
 or perhaps Xlth Dynasty shapes ; also a small saucer in hard 
 stone, and a kohl pot in marble. 
 
 I succeeded in photographing the tomb-chamber by means 
 of magnesium light. 
 
 Of the other tomb-wells cleared, the most noticeable was an 
 undisturbed burial, seemingly of the Xllth, or early XVIIth 
 Dynasty ; the name on the plain box coffin was unfortunately 
 illegible. The coffin was in bad condition, and not worth 
 removing ; but the inscriptions were copied. The body was 
 laid straight, the head to the north. The vessels found with 
 this burial were all of clay, and all broken ; but 13 clay stands 
 of various sizes were obtained perfect. 
 
 Another small well in an unfinished tomb yielded us a 
 broken bronze battle-axe of the same pattern as those shown 
 in the paintings, and the skull of the owner. 
 
 The well outside tomb 28, which was opened at the begin- 
 ning of our work, contained a disturbed burial, with some 
 unbroken clay vessels, apparently of the Xlllth, or XlVth, 
 Dynasty, to judge by the shapes ; also part of a finely cut 
 stela in three fragments. These objects, at the request of 
 the Ghizeh Museum authorities, were handed over to their 
 inspector. 
 
 I was able, however, to obtain photographs of the pottery 
 and the stela ; also of a fragment of a Greek inscription 
 found in tomb 32, and of the pottery found in the other wells 
 cleared later on. 
 
 Before leaving, I painted the numbers of the tombs (for 
 the purpose of the survey) above the door in each tomb, well 
 out of reach of the Arabs. 
 
 I continued my measurements and survey until June 6th, 
 when, my health not being very good, I decided to return. 
 
22 
 
 Ahnas and Beni Hasan. 
 
 The survey of the Northern and Southern groups of tombs 
 on both the upper and lower levels is now completed in the 
 rough. Certain points, however, remain to be finished next 
 season ; but will not require much time. 
 
 George Willoughby Fraser. 
 
 OUR ARAB BOY, MAHOMMED. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 pkixted by messrs. gilbert and eivington, limited, 
 st. john's hou->e, clekkenwell, e.c. 
 
PHOTOMOUNT 
 PAMPHLET BINDER 
 
 PAT. NO. 
 877188 
 Manufactured by 
 AYLORD BROS. Inc. 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 
DT73 .B4E3 
 
 The season's work at Annas and Beni 
 lUmmmSfSSS^ Seminar y-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00050 8038