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the work of Sekhet,* [and] the birds [which] he sets apart

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Lower register. Nekht and his wife sitting in a summerhouse "to make himself glad and to experience the happiness of the land of the north" (i.e., Lower Egypt); before them funereal offerings are heaped up. In the upper division of this register are seen Nekht's servants gathering grapes, the treading of the grapes in the wine-press, the drawing of the new wine, the jars for holding it, and two servants making

Sekhet was the goddess of the country, and was the wife of the god Khnum. She is represented with the sign for field, upon her head, she wears a girdle of lotus plants round her waist, and upon her hands she bears a plantation filled with all manner of wild fowl. See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 1095.

offerings to Nekht of birds, flowers, etc. In the lower division we see Nekht instructing his servants in the art of snaring birds in nets, the plucking and cleaning of the birds newly caught, and two servants offering to Nekht fish, birds, fruit, etc. In the other scenes we have Nekht, accompanied by his wife Taui, making an offering of anta unguent and incense to the gods of the tomb, and a representation of his funereal feast.

Other sepulchres worthy of a visit are:

IX. (1) The tomb of Amsu (or Menu)-nekht,

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(2) The tomb of Sen-nefer, an official of Amen-ḥetep and an important member of the brotherhood of Amen.

(3) The tomb of Men-kheper-Ra-senb, high priest of Amen under Thothmes III.

(4) The tomb of Peḥsukher,

(5) The tomb of Mentu-her-khepesh-f, a prince and chancellor.

(6) The tomb of Amu-netcheḥ, high official of Thothmes III.

(7) The tomb of Mãi, M.

(8) The tomb of Nefer-hetep, father of Åmen under Heru-em-heb.

(9) The tomb of Kha-em-ḥāt, official of Amen-hetep IV.

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(11) The tomb of Ḥeru-em-heb, A.

the chancellor of Thothmes IV.

During the winters of 1902-1903 Mr. Robert Mond cleared out and repaired, at his own expense, a number of the tombs of officials who flourished under the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties; among these may specially be mentioned the tombs of Qen-Åmen, Sen-nefer, Menna, Rā-men-khepersenb, Kha-em-hat, Userḥāt, a priest, Teḥuti-em-heb, a baker, and the mummy pits of User and Amen-mes. He also began to excavate some tombs of the XIth dynasty, which lie between Dêr al-Madîna and Dêr al-Baharî. His work at Thebes may be thus summarized. He began to work at the end of December, 1903, and, first of all, cleared out the tomb of Men-kheper-Ra-senb, wherein he found 185 funeral cones. Next in order he cleared out and repaired the tombs of Khā-em-ḥāt and Userḥat; the former was discovered by Lloyd in 1842. Userḥāt was a priest of the KA, or double," of Thothmes I. Mr. Mond excavated the tomb of Åmen-em-ḥāt, and examined a large brick wall which had formed part of the court of the tomb of Meri-Ptaḥ, and cleared the mummy pit of User, a high official. At Kûrna he examined two mummy pits, and the tombs of Api, Åmen-em-åpt, Uaḥ, , and Amen-mes.

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At Dêr al-Baḥarî, in the "second circus," he also carried on work, and he discovered a number of small but interesting objects. Between Kûrna and Dêr al-Madîna he found in a pit the coffin of Puảm □

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of the

XVIIIth dynasty. He cleared out the tomb of Teḥuti-emheb, which lies near that of Khā-em-ḥāt, and excavated the

tombs of Qen-Amen and Sen-neferȧ. The excavations and restorations which Mr. Mond has carried out are of a most useful character, and he deserves the thanks of all lovers of the civilization of Egypt for the pains and money which he has spent on his work.

In the cemetery at Kurnet Murrai are large numbers of tombs, also of the XVIIIth dynasty, but few of them are sufficiently important to need careful examination. The most interesting, that of Hui, a viceroy of Nubia under the XVIIIth dynasty, has been provided with a door by the Administration of Antiquities, and many will be glad that the uncommon scenes depicted on the walls will be preserved. Those who have the time and are prepared to face a large number of bats, should visit the tomb of PețăÀmen-em-åpt, a nobleman and priest who flourished under the XXVIth dynasty. During his own lifetime this priest prepared for himself a tomb containing 22 rooms, and a large number of corridors, all hewn out of the living rock, and he decorated the walls of these with texts and scenes referring to the making of funeral offerings, according to the use employed in the Pyramid Period; the ritual of Funeral Sacrifice, with scenes; the "Book of the Gates of the Underworld"; and a number of hymns and religious scenes copied from documents of a much older period. A great many of these have, unfortunately, been destroyed, but large numbers of passages may be restored by the help of the texts on the walls of the corridors and chambers in the pyramids at Sakkara. In the Valley of the Tombs of the Queens the most important sepulchre is that of Queen Thi; the colouring of the scenes is very good, and the paintings are comparatively well preserved.

In 1903-1904 Messrs. Schiaparelli and Bellerini opened the tomb of Queen Ast (No. 51), and the tomb of a person without name (No. 46), and they discovered the tombs of Queen Nefert-ȧri-meri-Mut (No. 66), of Åmen-her-khepesh-f

(No. 55), of P-Ra-her-unami-f (No. 42), and of Ảāḥmeset, the daughter of Seqenen-Ra.

Mr. Seton Karr has shown that the tombs at Thebes, and elsewhere in Egypt, were dug out by means of tools made of chert, and that metal tools were used for the final shaping and smoothing of the chambers. He has found numbers of chert chisels and other tools near the tombs and among the stone fragments which were cast out from them in ancient days, and there is reason to believe that tools of this material were in use for hewing stone so far back as the Neolithic Period. The light used by the workmen in the course of their work was, no doubt, that of ordinary lamps, which were probably suspended from stands. In 1905 a lamp, with stand complete, was found in a tomb a few miles to the south of Thebes.

X. The Tombs of the Kings, called in Arabic Bibân al-Mulûk, are hewn out of the living rock in a valley, which is reached by passing the temple at Kurna; it is situated about three or four miles from the river. This valley contains the tombs of kings of the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth dynasties, and is generally known as the Eastern Valley; a smaller valley, the Western, contains the tombs of some of the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty. These tombs consist of inclined planes with a number of chambers or halls receding into the mountain, sometimes to a distance of 300 feet. Strabo gives the number of these royal tombs as 40, 17 of which were open in the time of Ptolemy Lagus. In 1835, a1 were known, but the labours of Mariette, Professor Maspero, M. Victor Loret, and Mr. Theodore M. Davis. have brought 20 others to light.

The Tombs of the Kings form a very important and interesting class of monuments, the like of which exists nowhere else in Egypt. They were all made between B.C. 1700 and B.C. 1050, that is to say, they were hewn and built during the most flourishing period of Egyptian history,

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