Sekhmit open a happy year for its owner " ; or

May Isis open a happy year for its owner"; or

"May Amen-Ra open a happy year for its owner" (B.M. 4767, 4768, 24651). The Meroïtic sepulchral vases are of fragile make, have graceful shapes and forms, and are frequently painted with simple but pretty designs.

FUNERARY TERRA-COTTA CONES

THIS name was given by the early Egyptologists to the terra-cotta conical objects that were at one time found in large numbers in and about the tombs at 'Asasîf and Kûrnah in Western Thebes. It is doubtful if any have been found elsewhere in Egypt. The oldest of them date from the XIIth dynasty, and they were in general use under the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties; none has been found that can be later than the XXVIth dynasty. They vary in length from 6 to 10 inches, and in diameter, at the larger end, from 2 to 4 inches. The base or face of the cone usually bears upon it an inscription, in hieroglyphs stamped in relief, containing the name and titles (if any) of the person in whose tomb it was found; these inscriptions appear to have been made with a stamp with the characters incuse. The end of the cone bearing the inscription is sometimes coloured red and sometimes white. The style and character of the inscriptions are illustrated by the following examples : 1. Cone of Userḥat, overseer of the cattle of Amen,

4mm

www

(B.M. 9659). 2. Cone of the ERPÃ ḤA-Ã, Menthuem-hat, fourth priest of Amen, Scribe of the sanctuary of the temple of Amen, inspector of the priests in the buildings of the King's

of Ruru, a superintendent of the Matchaiu (Police of Thebes)

6. Cone of Amenemḥat, scribe and accountant of the

of

(B.M. 9640). 7. Cone of a second priest of Menkheperrā called

Amenemka,

DAY (B.M. 35660).

4mm

8. Cone of Nefer-ḥeb-f, a priest of Amenḥetep II, and his sister, the

9. Cone of Meri, chancellor of the god, high priest of Amen, Director of the priests of the South and the North, overseer of the estates of Amen, keeper of the granary of Amen, sealer-in-chief (?) in the king's house (life, strength, health to it!), and inspector of the cattle of Amen.

As to the use of these cones opinion is divided. The simplest explanation is that they are models of the pyramidal loaves of bread, , or of a pyramidal-shaped offering of some kind which we see worshippers presenting to the various gods. If they were models of loaves of bread they were placed in the tomb with the view of supplying bread to the ka of the deceased person. Birch thought that they were used to mark the site and extent of tombs, or were worked as ornaments into the building of the tomb. Hodges, Tyler, Cull and others attributed to them a phallic signification. And others, having seen bricks with pyramidal sides (e.g., B.M. 35697) with one repetition of the inscription, or more, upon them, have said that the cones were seals. But an examination of the shape of any such brick shows that the object of impressing the name and titles of the deceased upon it several times1 was to make it to represent several cones. This is proved by the pyramid shape of the sides of the brick, and the cones were assuredly not seals.

1 B.M. 35468 has four stamps or impressions upon it.

395

THE EGYPTIAN GRAVE AND TOMB

Of the Palaeolithic and early Neolithic graves in Egypt nothing is known; the earliest graves in the Nile Valley consist of shallow hollows dug in the sandy or stony soil which lies between the River Nile and the mountains on each side of the river. These hollows have no fixed shape, but they are usually oval or circular. The graves in late Neolithic cemeteries lie very close together and often overlap, and sometimes one part of a body lies in one grave and the other part in another. The body was often wrapped in a reed mat, and sometimes in the hide of an animal, probably a bull or gazelle; the men buried in hides were chiefs. The body was laid upon its left side, the head usually faced the south, and the knees were bent up on a level with the top of the breast, and the hands were placed before the face the usual pre-natal position. Round the body were placed vessels made of coarse earthenware filled with offerings of food, and with these are often found flint weapons and implements. The food offerings were intended for the use of the deceased on his journey to the Other World, and the flint weapons were given to him to enable him to defend himself against the attacks of enemies and to kill beasts when he went hunting. No attempt to mummify the dead was made at this period. Later the body was placed in a very rough box or basket, and sometimes an earthenware cover was placed over the grave to prevent the body being dragged out of its grave by animals, or broken up when new graves were being dug close by. Sometimes the body was dismembered, and its limbs were buried in the sand or mud, until such time as all the flesh had been eaten off the bones; this done the bones were collected and brought to a grave and finally buried. This custom persists in some parts of the Sûdân to this day. When the body was laid in its final position the grave was filled in with earth or sand and stones; whether its place was marked by any kind of monument cannot be said. "The Land of the Dead was believed to be situated in the west, and therefore isolated graves and cemeteries, and rock-hewn tombs, are usually found on the western bank of the Nile. The best and fullest material for the study of the graves of the Neolithic and Archaic Periods will be found in de Morgan, Recherches, Paris, 1896-7; Les Premières Civilisations, Paris, 1909; Reisner, Early Dynastic Cemeteries, Parts I and II, Leipzig, 1908; Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Vols. I-IV, Cairo, 1910; Petrie, Naqada, London, 1896; Quibell, Archaic Objects, 2 vols., Cairo, 1904-5. For the literature on the subject generally see the list of Baillet, Recueil de Travaux, tom. XXII, p. 180 ff., and for a summary see Wiedemann, Umschau, Bd. I, pp. 561 ff., 590 ff.

Under the IIIrd dynasty, and perhaps even under the IInd dynasty, chiefs and men of importance were buried in graves that were cut in the rock. Long before this time men of importance must

have been buried in clefts in the rocks and in small natural caves, but now attempts were made to place the dead in pits more or less deep, which were sunk in the skirts of the hills and mountains. Both at Aswân and at Bani-Ḥasan1 the tomb consisted of a small square chamber which was hewn in the rock, and a shallow pit was dug in the floor of it to hold the body. Sometimes a recess was cut in the pit for the body, and this was clearly the prototype of the mummy chamber which is always found, in one form or another, in the great tombs of the later dynasties. At Aswân we found the remains of the wooden coffins in which the bodies were buried, but at Bani-Ḥasan the coffins discovered by Dr. Garstang were made of earthenware, and were usually oval in form. From these early dynastic tombs it is clear that the tomb of any important man must contain: 1. A chamber, which gives access to a pit, and in which

offerings to the dead can be placed. 2. A shallow pit or shaft.3. A recess to hold the body. All these requisites are found in the Maṣṭabah, which may now be briefly described. "Maṣṭabah" is the name that the Arabs gave to the low, long stone building which marks the site of a tomb at Ṣakkârah, because its length, in proportion to its height, is great, and as it reminded them of the long, low seat, or diwan, which was familiar to them, they called it maṣṭabah, i.e., "bench." The maṣṭabah is a heavy, massive building of rectangular shape, the four sides of which are four walls symmetrically inclined towards their common centre. The exterior surfaces are not flat, for the face of each course of masonry, formed of stones laid vertically, is a little behind the one beneath it, and if these recesses were a little deeper, the external appearance of each

1 See Garstang, Funeral Customs, London, 1907, p. 26.