MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS AND CONCLUSION.
(44) During the clearance of the west end of the north trench, a small
pot was found, of the form shewn in figure 9, containing a small
quantity of a substance which had the appearance of red brick dust. The
pot appears to have had a neck, but it is now missing, and a section
has been broken out of the side. On the other side of the pot there
is a small hole. The shape of the pot is not characteristic, and it
may well be of a date later than that of the obelisk. The glaze is of
a dark reddish-brown colour, and is the coarsest I have ever seen,
being very uneven and covered with bubble-craters. The Director of the
Chemical Department kindly allowed analyses to be made of the glaze
and also of the contents of the pot. As regards the glaze, Mr. W. B.
Pollard of the Chemical Department staff, who has had experience in the
analysis of glazes, has suggested that it is a natural one, perhaps
due to the pot lying in a fire of burning vegetable matter. This seems
very likely since there seems to have been a great deal of burning in
removing the upper layers of granite during the extraction of monuments
from the quarries (section 4).
[Illustration: Fig. 9.
Pot from obelisk trench.
Scale ¼.]
The contents of the pot are reported to be ochre and not burnt brick,
though the ochre is of poor quality. It seems that we have here the
material of the paint used in the quarries. It was probably mixed,
before use, with acacia gum.
Ochre, of various colours, occurs within a mile of the obelisk in the
rocks above the Luxor-Shellâl railway line.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Scale ½]
(45) During the clearance of the west end of the north trench, we
found part of an ostrakon in the hieratic character. It is written
in black ink in a piece of pottery, measuring 16 × 12 cent., of the
dull red with yellow slip common to the XVIII^{th}–XIX^{th} dynasty.
Mr. Battiscombe Gunn, who has lately been translating the recently
discovered ostraka and graffiti for some of the excavators at Thebes,
has kindly examined this ostrakon and reports that the writing is of
characteristic XIX^{th} dynasty type. This is shewn in figure 10. {46}
The hieroglyphic version of the ostrakon is: ([glyph])
[Illustration:
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(2) . . . . . taxed with (?) 2 . . . . .
(3) . . . . . thou saidst: “Thou beatest (?) it because (?) . . . the
20 . . . [13]
(4) . . . . . because (?) . . . which is here with me, because, he
said, the . . .
(5) . . . . . (drag, cut?), the whole of the stone, he said, bec[ause]
. . .
(6) . . . . . bringing the 20 . . .]
[13] [glyph][glyph] for _ḫr-f_, as frequently elsewhere.
This is hardly satisfactory, and I cannot see how we could have got a
fragment of a letter telling us less than this. It is quite likely that
it was thrown down from the quarry work above.
It is tempting to read, in the word [glyph][glyph][glyph][glyph]
_qnqn_, the pounding process by which the trench was made.
(46) On the east face of the high rock shewn at C on plate VII, there
are two short inscriptions in the Greek character. That on the right
reads:
ΑΜ[smudge][smudge][smudge] Am . . . . . . .
ΣΑΒΙΝΙΑΝΟΣ Sabinianos (and)
ΣΕΡΑΠΕΙΩΝ Serapeum, (sons)
ΟΡΣΟΥ of Ursus.
The first name is doubtful as I am uncertain how many letters are
missing. The remainder are Greek forms of Latin names.
On the left of the above is the Greek name ΕΡΜΕΙΝΟΣ. Ἕρμεινος is known
in _C. I. G._, 3, nos. 5109; 4716.
The names have been fairly nearly cut in the granite with a fine
pointed chisel. {47}
(47) There are over 25 obelisks known to-day whose weights exceed
50 tons, and all must have come from Aswân, since it is the only
convenient outcrop of granite in Egypt. It might well be asked from
which quarries they have been taken. I have examined most of the
quarries about Aswân and Shellâl, but must admit that I have not found
one from which I am sure that an obelisk has been extracted. I think
that, at any rate, some must have been taken from the quarries in the
near neighbourhood of the Aswân obelisk, as the stratum is good, and
it is the most conveniently situated from the river bank. It would
well repay the trouble taken to clear the quarry to the south, and the
valley leading up to the obelisk, completely, exposing the floor, as
it is there that we may expect to find the bed of one of the larger
obelisks. It must be borne in mind however, that a quarry, good enough
to furnish a large obelisk, would be worked as long as there was
good stone to be extracted from it. The sand does not come in at any
alarming rate, and a credit of L. E. 5 every year would be sufficient
to keep the whole quarry clear. I estimate the cost of completely
clearing the south quarry and the valley at L. E. 1500. It would leave
a magnificent monument.
{49}