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THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION I916-19I9

the limestone enclosure-wall to the south of
the pyramid may bring to light further
material of this type, for here the present
surface of the ground shows that it has
scarcely been disturbed in modern times.

very likely that in this object (fig. 7) we

have the actual sledge on which was loaded
a statue of Sesostris I which was conveyed
to the pyramid in his funeral procession
nearly four thousand years ago.
It is hoped that the complete clearance of

AMBROSE LANSING.

II. EXCAVATIONS IN THE ASASIF AT THEBES

SEASON OF 1918-19

tion was necessary in this depression, but

such tombs as existed were found to be
almost completely plundered. They were
mainly of the Middle Kingdom, being the
lowest row of the tombs of that date, which
looked down from the steep hillside on to
the Mentuhotep temple causeway. The
most interesting object found in them was
a bow with arrows wrapped in a cloth.
These tombs had also been used for later
burials, and smaller tombs had been cut
in the rock during the Late-Dynastic
Period. Lying loose in the debris were
found two ushabti figures of Mentemhat
(fig. I) whose tomb will be mentioned
shortly. The depression having been completely cleared, and thus prepared to receive the debris, a railway line was completed on January 10, 1919, running to this
spot from the main excavations.
In the middle of the valley about a
quarter of a mile east of the two temples of
Deir el Bahri is a group of three rockcut tombs dating from the Saite Period,
whose superstructures consist of brick enclosure-walls with high entrance pylons.
The largest of these is that of Mentemhat,
whose enormous brick arch is one of the
familiar objects of the Theban landscape.
About these tombs and to the east of them
are great heaps of limestone chip, for the
nobles who prepared tombs for themselves
cared very little for the condition of the
tombs neighboring the sites which they had
chosen, and allowed their workmen to get
rid of the stone cut out of the rock as best
pleased them. The result was of course
that the stone and chip were carried as
small a distance as possible and were usu1See BULLETIN of the MetropolitanMuseum
for January, 1914, and Supplement to the ally thrown on adjoining tombs.
It seemed probable that an area just east
BULLETIN
for May, 1917.

DURING the season of 1918-19 the

field work of the Museum's Egyptian Expedition was confined to its Theban concession in the Deir el Bahri district. This site,
called locally the Asasif, which will eventually be completely cleared, consists of a
long stretch of desert in the valley which
runs up from the cultivation to the two
temples of Deir el Bahri. It is bounded
on the north by the causeway of the Hatshepsut temple, and on the south by the
hill on which the house of the Expedition is
situated. Hitherto the major excavations
of the Expedition have been confined to
the lower end of the site near the cultivation edge,' the problem of getting rid of
the debris having necessitated a program
of work whereby the debris of each succeeding year's work is dumped on the area
cleared the year before; for in the higher
portions of the Asasif the piles of chip are so
deep and the tombs so close together that
it is almost impossible to clear any part of
it without irretrievably burying an adjoining area.
To the north of the Hatshepsut causeway, however, there is a large depression
which is the original bed of the valley,
before her causeway buildings and those
of the Mentuhoteps were undertaken.
This depression lies beyond the limits of
the concession, but permission was obtained from the Service des Antiquites to
use it for a dumping ground, and thus it has
become possible at the present time to
commence the heavy clearing which is
necessary in the Upper Asasif (fig. 2).
A certain amount of preliminary excava-

II

BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM OF ART

at Nagada. The tomb proper of Pedamenopet lies a short distance to the south of
this wall, and consists of a large open court
cut in the rock. The subterranean chambers opening from this are equaled in extent by no others in Thebes, not even by
any of the Tombs of the Kings.
Against this wall was found a coffin,
to be seen in the same photograph, rectangular with arched lid, and decorated with
blue inscriptions on a white ground. From
the title, "Chief of the Prophets of Amon,"
one would have expected rather a better
quality of coffin, but this discrepancy was
partly explained when the coffin was
opened; for instead of containing a mummy,
there was nothing but cloths impregnated
with a resinous matter, parcels of natron,
and other materials tied up in bits of cloth.
Two similar deposits of embalming materials were found in the near vicinity: one in a
decorated anthropoid coffin, and the other
in a square coffin of another type. With
this second coffin were a number of pots
containing the same sort of materials, some
of them having about them the rope nets
in which they were carried. A second
deposit of pots, of a different shape, was
found here also, and with them two baskets
made of rushes and halfa grass (fig. 4).
The clearing continued deeper and
deeper, through varying types of rubbish,
all of which had very evidently been thrown
out from rock excavations. In the debris
little was found: an occasional ostracon:
flakes of limestone with hieratic ink inscriptions, mostly in the nature of accounts;
fragments of wood from coffins; and two
stelae, one of which is shown in fig. 3.
Finally the bed rock was reached at a
depth of about 15 meters, but, though an
area of over three hundred square meters
was cleared, there was no tomb.
As the clearing continued eastward
along the great wall of Pedamenopet and
north of it, the first of a series of coffins
of the Middle Kingdom and the period
between it and the XVIII dynasty came to
light. At the end of the season more than
forty of these, which had evidently been
moved from some other place and deposited
here, were found. To trace the movement
from the original resting place is not dif-

of this group of standing tomb courts had

been covered in this manner, and to such a
depth that the modern plunderers had not
attempted to attack it; for the limestone on
the surface had acquired that yellow color
which indicates that it has lain undisturbed
for a century or more. Since it was

USHABTI OF
FIG. I.
MENTEMHAT

thought that an unplundered tomb might

exist here, and as it was the point nearest
the dump, it was decided to commence
the excavation here.
During the first days of clearing part of a
great brick wall was laid bare (fig. 5).
This proved to be the enclosure-wall of
the tomb of Pedamenopet, a noble of the
Saite Period. The archaizing tendency
of the age is shown by the decoration of
the wall with deeply recessed panels of
the false-door type, which strongly resemble those of the great I dynasty tomb
12

FIG.

2.
LINE

GENERAL
IS THE
DEIR

VIEW
MODERN

EL BAHRI.
OF THE
OF

OF THE
ROAD

UPPER
ON THE

TO THE

DEBRIS
SAITE

RIGHT

END

OF THE

HATSHEPSUT
OF THIS

ASASIF,

IS THE

FROM OUR EXCAVATIONS.

TOMBS,

AND

IN

FRONT

LOOKIN

CAUSEWAY

LEA

DEPRESSION

ON THE OTHER
OF

IT

THE

ARE

BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

ficult, for it almost certainly resulted from

the following circumstances.
The Mentuhotep temple with its long
wide causeway leading up from the cultivation was the model for the mortuary
temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Her temple
was built close under the cliffs just north
of that of her predecessor of the XI dyn-

FIG. 3.

MUSEUM OF ART

the spur which extended from the high

mountain side on the north and to run her
street through this. The material required to fill the bed of the valley up to the
desired level was taken from the cut as it
progressed.
But the contemporaries of the Mentuhoteps had used the spur, like the whole
of the slope of the mountain, for their
tombs, which were built to look down on
the dromos of that period. Some of these
tombs seem to have been reused, and perhaps others had been cut during the Intermediate Period. Consequently when the
cut through the rock was being made, many
burials were disturbed. The coffins and
some of the furniture were removed with a
considerable degree of care and evidently
laid at the end of the tip in the hollow so
that they should be covered up. They
had suffered somewhat, for they were
piled up (fig. 7) and some of them had lost
their contents on the way, but there is
scarcely any evidence that they were deliberately plundered. They were almost
all, however, the burials of rather poor
people, and this may be one reason that
they were respected.
The coffins comprised three types: (i)
The Middle Kingdom rectangular type.
Most of the coffins found were of this
type. (2) An unusual type of rectangular
coffin with arched lid and bands of inscription on a black ground. Of this type,
which dates from about the XIII dynasty,
only six were found, and these were all
empty. (3) The "Rishi" type of coffin.1
This type was used during the XVII dynasty and continued in fashion until the
early reigns of the XVIII.
Although few of the burials produced
anything very remarkable in the way of
articles of adornment or toilet appurtenances, yet in the sum, the material, being
well dated and having been found undisturbed on the bodies, is of considerable
value. This is especially true of the
strings of beads: necklaces, bracelets, and
girdles, which it was possible to string in
an order identical with the original. One

STELA OF THE XVII DYNASTY

asty six hundred years before. Her

causeway too ran north of that of Mentuhotep and parallel to it. But here the
lie of the land was not so favorable for
such work, for near the temple was the
deep valley bed which had to be filled to
the level of the proposed causeway1 and
farther down Mentuhotep had completely
occupied the width of the valley in its
narrowest part. Hatshepsut was consequently compelled to make a cut through

'For a descriptionof this type of coffin see

Supplement to BULLETIN for May, 1917, pp.

See fig. 2, where the amount of filling re-

i6-I8.

quiredfor the Hatshepsutcausewayis evident.

I4

FIG.

4.

POT
OF

FIG.

5.

DEPOSIT
PABASA

ENCLOSURE-WALL

WITH
IN

BASKETS.

THE

RUINED

PYLON

BACKGROUND

OF THE

TOMB

OF

PEDAMENOPET

BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

burial had, in addition to jewelry and

a set of toilet articles, an inkstand of
a most unusual form (fig. 6). Another
coffin which, unlike most of them, was inscribed, the name being Amendidit, contained no burial, but not far away a very
fine small wooden statuette was found
broken (fig. 8). It bore the same name,
and had undoubtedly been part of the
funerary equipment. The dressing of the
hair with bands of silver leaf, which is also
used to represent the bracelets and anklets,
is remarkable. Among the coffins, too,
were found a number of bows and staves,
which are typical funerary equipment during the Middle Kingdom; also a broken
harp, and a weaver's "beater in."

FIG. 6.

MUSEUM OF ART

order, during which occurred a revival

of arts and culture commonly called the
Saite Period. Then followed successive
invasions and dominations by the Persians,
the Greeks, and the Romans.
In Thebes, before the Ethiopian Dominion, civil power was invested in the "Divine Votress or Consort of Amon," an
office which carried with it royal titles,
and was a sort of vice-regency; it was held
by a princess of the reigning house, then
Shepnupet I, a daughter of Osorkon III
of Bubastis in the Delta. Piankhi, the
Ethiopian, in order to strengthen his power,
caused his sister Amenardis to be adopted
by this princess; and she, at the death of
the latter, succeeded to the office. His
daughter, Shepnupet I I, became Divine
Votress in the same manner. When
Psamtek I expelled the Ethiopians he
had his daughter Nitocris adopted by
Shepnupet II in order to secure his overlordship of Thebes. It is with an official of
the regency of this Nitocris that we have at
present to deal, for the tomb which was
cleared is that of her Chief Steward, Pabasa. Fig 9 shows the process of clearing
east of this tomb of Pabasa, while the cover
design illustrates the excavation of the
courtyard of the tomb.
Nitocris had an extremely long reign as
Divine Votress of Amon in Thebes. The
date of her birth is not known, but she
was adopted B.C. 654, in the ninth year of
her father Psamtek I, and her induction
into office must have taken place shortly
after, for at the time the estates of Shepnupet II were transferred to her. She died
in the fourth year of Apries (B.C. 584), no
less than seventy years after her adoption.
It is impossible at present to fix exactly
the time during her reign when Pabasa
held office as her Chief Steward. We know
that he died while Psamtek I was still king
-that is to say, before B.C. 609. There is,
also, evidence of a Chief Steward Pedihor
early in her reign, and in the twenty-sixth
year of Psamtek I (638 B.C.) an official
by the name of Aba, whose tomb is not far
from that of Pabasa, was appointed to
the same office. We have hence the choice
of placing Pabasa either before or after
Aba's tenure of office; and the more likely

AN INKSTAND FROM A MIDDLE

KINGDOM COFFIN

Earlier in this report a group of tombs

with brick superstructures of the Saite
Period were mentioned, and it becomes
necessary to return to their consideration,
inasmuch as the clearing of one of them was
undertaken.
The period in Egyptian history following the downfall of the Theban Empire
was one of civil strife and foreign conquest
during which no family was long able to
retain control of the whole country. During the XXIII dynasty the princes of
Napata in Nubia increased in strength
until Piankhi was able to invade Egypt
and to establish the Ethiopian Dominion,
about the year 720 B.C. The rule of these
Ethiopians was not of long duration and
was troubled by revolts of the local dynasts
of the North, who joined forces with the
Assyrian invaders against them. The
ruling family of Sais was finally able to
drive out the Ethiopians, and Psamtek
I founded the XXVI dynasty, a last era of
i6

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION 1916-1919

supposition is after, that is to say, shortly
before the death of Psamtek I-possibly
between 625 and 6io B.C.
The plan of the tomb of Pabasa is interesting, especially because it shows variation from earlier Theban tombs, and
is typical of the tombs of the Saite Period.
The type plan may be shortly described
as an enclosure built of mud brick, to
which access is obtained through a pylon
in its east side. This wall encloses the area
below which the subterranean chambers cut

FIG.

7.

the two tombs just west of his, for both of

the pylons have fallen, and none of the
walls are preserved to any great height.
By referring to the other two tombs, however, it has been possible to restore the
tomb with probable accuracy. (See plan
and section, figs. IO and II.) The brickwork was plastered and painted with a
drab wash, and the eastern gate, at least,
was provided with stone door jambs.
The rock-cut portions are in a better state
of preservation, though the poor quality of

PART OF THE DEPOSIT OF COFFINS AS FOUND

the limestone in this region has caused some

of the pillars to fall, and though plunderers
have cut out many pieces from the hypostyle hall which was accessible from another tomb for a century or more. The
plan of the lower level (fig. 10) is also
fairly typical of the tombs of the period.
The staircase, at its lower end, gives access
to a small antechamber. Through another
door in the south side of this the court of
offerings is reached, which is the most
characteristic part of the tomb. Its chief
interest lies in the fact that it is open to
the sky. At this point the floor level is
over fourteen meters below the surface,
and it was necessary to build up the rockcut walls for nine meters in brick in order

in the rock, that is to say, the tomb proper,

are situated. These are at such a depth
that in order to make them easily accessible a long sloping way must lead from the
surface of the ground down to their level.
In the case of the three tombs mentioned
above, this was impossible from within the
enclosure itself, and a second smaller
pylon was built at some distance north of
the tomb. From here a regular slope was
made down to a doorway at about the level
of the bed rock. This gave on a stairway,
cut in the rock, and open to the sky, which
led to the actual tomb.
Such is the plan of the surface constructions of Pabasa's tomb. They have
suffered a great deal more than those of
I7

BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

to prevent the debris from slipping in. The

lighting effect in the court which this deep
well produces, is most pleasing. The court
has a row of four pillars on either side,
supporting the ceilings of narrow side aisles.
In the south side a door opens into the
hypostyle hall, which has likewise two

MUSEUM OF ART

to be sure, scenes of daily life, but they

occupy very little space as compared with
the formal offering ceremonies which are
depicted, and the plethora of religious texts
which cover the walls. And such representations of daily activities as exist have
none of the vitality which is so pleasing in
the Empire tombs, but remind one of the
stiffer reliefs in the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs; which indeed the Saites were in
the habit of copying.
A considerable part of the wall space is
covered by the many titles of Pabasa,
with one or more of which he prefaces his
name every time there is occasion for inscribing it. The list of titles is a long one,
but it may prove of interest to the reader.
It must be remembered that many of these,
which originated in the earlier dynasties,
had lost much of their significance long
before the Saite Period, and were used
mainly as a matter of form and habitmuch like the use of "Esquire" in England
today. Those of the titles of Pabasa which
may be classed in this group are: "Hereditary Prince; True Relation of the King,
Beloved of him; Sole Beloved Friend; Royal
Chancellor; Greatest of the Great, Noblest of the Noble; The Mouth of the King
which Pacifies the Two Lands."
Another class of titles has relation to
priestly offices, though it is doubtful
whether all of these necessitated the performance of any duties. They read:
"Priest of Amon-Re, King of the Gods;
Chief of the Priests of the Gods of Upper
Egypt; Priest of Monthu, Lord of Thebes,
who is Adored in Southern On (Arment);
Chief of the Priests of Horus the Great;
STATUETTE OF
FIG. 8.
Chief Steward of Amon."
AMENDIDIT
The titles in a third class are more closely
rows of four pillars each, but which is en- connected with the civil life of Pabasa,
tirely roofed. Smaller chambers leading and his duties as a servant of the King:
"Great Prince in Thebes; Overseer of the
to the burial pits open on this hall.
While not of the best work, the decora- Whole of Upper Egypt; Chief of the Princes
tion of the Tomb of Pabasa serves very of Upper Egypt in all its Extent; The Eyes
well to illustrate the archaizing tendency of the King of the North and the Ears of
which characterizes the Saite Period. The the King of the South in Upper Egypt;
freedom with which the nobles of the Em- The Extinguisher of Fires in the King's
Palace."
pire, especially during the XVIII dynasty,
A last set of titles gives us an idea of the
reproduced on the walls of their tombs the
scenes which they had enjoyed during functions which he performed as an official
their lifetimes is lacking here. There are, of the Divine Votress Nitocris: "Chief

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION I916-1919

seated, receiving offerings from his son
Horpekhepesh. In the other (fig. 13),
at which a priest officiates, a pleasing touch
is given by Pabasa's pet gazelle which
stands under his chair holding a lotus flower
in its mouth. In both of these scenes, the
sculptor, dissatisfied with the quality of the
limestone rock in which the tomb is cut,
has had blocks of fine-grained limestone
let in, and has evidently set out to do his
best. The poor proportions of the figures,
especially the seated ones, are a disturbing

Steward of the Divine Votress of Amon;

Chief of the Princes of his Mistress in Upper and Lower Egypt; Controller of all the
Divine Offices of the Divine Consort of
Amon; Lord of the 'Comings' in the House
of his Mistress."
To judge from this lengthy array of
titles, Pabasa must have been in his time
the most important man in Thebes.
Though allowance for exaggeration must
be made in the case of some of his titular
assertions, there is no doubt at all of

FIG.

9.

CLEARING

EAST

the power which the Chief Stewards of the

Divine Votresses of Amon enjoyed during
the Saite Period. The latter were a
convenient means of government which
the kings, who ruled in the Delta, employed; and the favor of the great nobles
was retained by appointing them to high
offices such as those listed above. The
nobles seem to have been the real rulers of
Thebes, and their preeminence is reflected
by the costly nature of the tombs of such
officials as Mentemhat, Pedamenopet,
and Pabasa.
To return to the description of the
latter's tomb. The antechamber is distinguished by two large relief sculptures
in one of which (fig. I2) Pabasa is shown

OF TOMB

OF

PABASA

element, but the detail and finish are admirable. This is especially true of the very
fine work on the wig, and the elaborate
pleating and fringing of the garment, the
loose end of which is thrown over the left
shoulder.
The remainder of the antechamber walls
are devoted entirely to inscriptions of a
funerary character, except for a register
around the bottom in which a representation of the journey to Abydos is given.
The lower parts of the walls in this chamber are unfortunately much damaged by
the action of the salts in the rock and the
waterwhich flowed in from the stairway and
nearly filled it with sand.
The court of offerings is very well pre19

BULLETIN

MUSEUM OF ART

OF THE METROPOLITAN

repeated in a more elaborate arrangement

on the lintel and jambs of the doorway leading to the antechamber.
The doorway in the south wall of the
court of offerings has been considerably

served, for the collapse of the brick retaining wall above it had filled it with rubbish,
and plunderers had only been able to reach
it on one side. From an architectural
point of view this court is quite the most
SCALe

Ft////g

PLANS
UN/DERGROUND

SURFACEPLAN

FIG. 10.

PLAN OF THE TOMB OF PABASA

damaged by plunderers who dug down into

the debris of the court on this side, and
broke into the hypostyle hall by this entrance. On either side of it are offering
scenes: To the left Psamtek I makes an
offering of milk to Re Harmachis. Behind

interesting part of the tomb. The rows

of square pillars on the east and west sides
give it an air of spaciousness which the
actual dimensions scarcely justify (fig. I4).
A roll and torus cornice, brightly painted,
finishes off the decoration of the walls of

"I.?
I,llO

I v .I
I

.5l? is I

-~
.

..

a.

.
1i,,IM

PYLON
EA5T

''l

, -L-

C'-

..

FIG.

II.

SECTION OF THE TOMB OF PABASA

him Nitocris rattles the sistra. They are

attended by Pabasa, who is here depicted
as smaller than the royal personages. On
the right of the doorway Nitocris "gives
wine to her father Osiris" who is accomNitocris is
panied by Horus and Isis.
again attended by her Chief Steward, but

the court, and above this rises the roughly

cut rock, and then the brickwork. Below
the cornice the architraves are inscribed
with two lines of large, well-cut hieroglyphs
which give the titularies of the ruling
sovereigns, Psamtek I and Nitocris, and
the name and titles of Pabasa. These are
20

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION I916-1 919

in this case he has had himself sculptured
equal in height with her. This may be
taken as a commentary on the relative importance of the Divine Votress and Pabasa,
in the latter's opinion at least. It is
worthy of note that when the king appears
in the same scene, the steward is more
modest.
The east and west sides of the court, be-

FIG. 12.

into rectangles and are decorated with a

great variety of patterns.
The decoration of the pillars in the court
of offerings provides us with something
more than the usual repetition of funerary
scenes. The sides of the pillars which
face the court are, to be sure, taken up
entirely by inscriptions, and most of the
relief scenes with which the other three sides

PABASA RECEIVING OFFERINGS FROM

HIS SON HORPEKHEPESH

hind the pillars, are taken up by scenes

in which Pabasa is the recipient of mortuary offerings. On the east side his son
officiates at this ceremony in which the
"table of offerings" is inscribed. The west
side is divided into two similar scenes in
one of which Horpekhepesh again makes
the offering, and in the other the "sam"
priest. Both of these walls had been
protected from the weather by the ceiling
above them, and the color is quite well
preserved. The same is the case with the
ceilings themselves, which were divided

of each column are decorated are representations of bearers of offerings for the
deceased. But on one column a set of
four scenes is devoted to the catching of
fish, and not only is the hauling in of the
net full of fish depicted, but also the spinning of the twine and the making of the
nets.
On another column is the familiar scene
of the vineyard: the plucking of the grapes
and the pressing out of the juice. A third
column is unfortunately not completely
preserved, for on it is a scene of bee-keeping
21I

BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

which, so far as the writer is aware, is
unique in Egyptian painting. The scene
is by no means naturalistic, for each of
the bees is represented as being equal in
size to a man's head, and the arrangement

FIG. 13.

this part of the tomb was done very hurriedly-probably after the death of Pabasa.
Some of the inscriptions were scarcely
more than scratched on the chiseled surface
of the walls before it was smoothed down.

OFFERING SCENE FROM THE ANTECHAMBER

OF PABASA

It consists mainly of these funerary inscriptions, and such small vignettes as

exist are lacking in interest.
The burial chambers and pits which open
from the hypostyle hall had, some of
them, been plastered and inscribed, but
little remains of this, and all had been
thoroughly plundered. This is accountable by the fact that this tomb broke into

is extremely formal to say the least: a row

of honeycombs and then two rows of bees,
and so forth.
The hypostyle hall is in a bad state of
repair, for the rock here is especially poor
and not at all suitable to be left as piers
for the support of the roof. Some of these
pillars have fallen out entirely, and none
are intact. In addition the decoration of
22

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION 1916-1919

an adjoining one, and that it had long been
possible for tomb robbers to work in it
unobserved. The sarcophagus of Pabasa,
which must have come from the largest
of these burial chambers, is at present in the
collection of Lord Hamilton, and has been
published by Colin Campbell.

FIG. 14.

bers. In the court, too, was a heavy granite offering table which was probably used
in the funerary ceremonies to which this
court was dedicated. The inscription on
the offering table had been defaced.
The Tomb of Pabasa is an extremely
valuable addition to the series of the Tombs

THE COURT OF OFFERINGS IN THE

TOMB OF PABASA

Only a few small fragments of his

funerary material were found in any of the
burial chambers. But in the court, where
it had evidently been thrown out by early
plunderers, was a fine large hard-limestone
anthropoid sarcophagus of a descendant
of Pedamenopet. It is possible that this
was a relation of Pabasa who had been
buried in one of the subsidiary tomb cham-

of the Nobles which combine with the Mortuary Temples and the Tombs of the Kings
to make the Necropolis of Thebes one of
the most important links between our civilization and that of past ages. Pabasa's
is by no means the largest Saite tomb in
Thebes, but the more considerable tombs,
such as those of Mentemhat and Pedamenopet, have lain open and been at the mercy
23

BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

of native plunderers too long a time for

them to retain their original wealth of inscriptional and pictorial material. So
that the Tomb of Pabasa, being as it is
almost intact, gains in importance by their
loss, and will remain one of the best monuments of the Saite Period in Thebes.
Another piece of work was undertaken
while the excavations which have been
described above were being carried on.
This was in an outlying portion of the
Asasif concession, in the cliffs south of the
Temples of Deir el Bahri. It was done

III.

MUSEUM OF ART

mainly in order to forestall plundering

which had been started there. Some
interesting results were obtained, but since
further excavation is being conducted there
during the present season of 1919-20, it is
better that the two pieces of work should
be considered together, and they will be
the subject of a separate paper.
To L. F. Hall and Walter Hauser the
writer is indebted for the plan and section
of the Tomb of Pabasa; and to H. E. Winlock for many valuable suggestions.
AMBROSELANSING.

THE WORK OF THE TYTUS MEMORIAL FUND

FROM the close of the season of 19617 at Thebes, it proved necessary during
the final period of the war to limit the
activities of this fund to work at home;
but the rich harvest previously gathered
in more than sufficed, after war had claimed
its heavy toll on the services of the staff,
to keep it fully employed. Considerable
progress was made in preparing the tombs
of Puyemre, Weserhat, Kenamun, and Apy
for publication, and, now that craftsmen
have again become available for colorprinting, it is hoped that two additional
volumes of the series may appear in the near
future and others follow without delay.
Specimen scenes from the fascinating
tomb of Apy (No. 217) have not yet appeared in accounts of the work of the fund.
I had occasion recently to cite them1 and
the features to which I then drew attention
may well be enlarged upon a little here
and foreshadow some of the interest that
the coming publication is bound to arouse.
It is a tomb of the early Ramesside period, and, like most of the Theban sepulchres, has a lamentable history; the more
so as the present generation is responsible
for its misfortunes. The little chamber
was very insufficiently copied, and published with astonishing misstatements and
omissions in I891, when in a fairly perfect,
though precarious, state. It was then reburied in such a way as to invite ruin.
When it was re-discovered a few years ago,
'Journalof Egyptian Archaeology,vol. IV, p.
237.
24

the Expedition of our Museum roofed it in

in a solid way that might well be taken as a
model for other tombs in the necropolis.
But by that time one of the most interesting
walls had almost completely disappeared.
By this loss, which only the charitable
can call an accident, a very charming
scene has been lost for ever; the only mitigation of the tragedy being that a relatively good copy of it had been made by
the first discoverers, and that the other
walls still survived to be preserved and
published by the best means at our disposal.
In The Tomb of Nakht (Vol. I of the
Tytus Memorial Series) I have said, "With
the failure of the mysterious movement,
political and religious, which culminated
under Amenhotep the Fourth (Akhnaton),
the most promising era of Egyptian history came to a sudden end in full prime and
every subsequent growth was checked
though the influences of the past
?.
era are carried over into the first reigns of
the Nineteenth Dynasty" (p. 12). I wish
here to adduce some proofs from the tomb
of Apy that the stirring of the Egyptian
spirit which became manifest in the revolt
referred to, though outwardly suppressed,
was by no means barren. Being rooted in
the national character and environment,
it necessarily contributed something to
that succeeding age which we call the
Ramesside period, and most markedly in its
opening years. As in the great philological
phases which we call New-Egyptian, Dem-