href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@27466@[email protected]#PLATEXII" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">XII, 20, 23) scattered over it. The earth within its walls was found to consist largely of these pots, of which there was an unbroken layer, two feet thick. Below this we came upon the Neolithic tombs. The walls were of the small bricks which we soon learnt to associate with the work of the Old Kingdom in El Kab. It is not probable that the walls had any relation to the tombs, for they were not quite parallel to one another, and there were more tombs outside these walls. But it is important to observe that a thick layer of the coarse pottery of the Old Kingdom here overlies Neolithic tombs. It is just possible that the pottery may have been thrown by cultivators upon this mound, but the probabilities against this seemed to me very strong. In one of these tombs (L, 2) the body was found complete, lying on the left side, with the head to the south. At the head end were one wavy-handled pot of a late type (XI, 3), two vertical jars (as XI, 5), with cordage pattern, a square slate palette, and above these a pot (XI, 9), with decoration in wavy red lines; also an alabaster cup (X, 38), containing six finger-bones. At the other end were a bowl, and two vases of well-known forms.

The middles of the graves were generally empty, and bones were rarely found; the stone bowls, which formed the bulk of the finds, were at the north and south ends. It does not seem worth while to transfer from the notebooks the full description of each of these small tombs, for they have been so thoroughly robbed and turned over that the position of the different objects in the tomb has no particular meaning, but it may be well to give a short catalogue of the objects found (v. Pl. XXVII). Each of the tombs is about 1·50 m. to 2·00 m. long, ·90 m. wide, and 1·50 deep.

In one tomb (No. 237) the body was laid in a wooden box (length not seen, ·40 m. broad, wood 3 cm. thick), in a contracted position, with the head to the south, but the bones were disturbed, and the pottery lay at various levels, not all on the floor of the tomb. There were traces of mat-work at the north end.

No. 241 was lined with four stone slabs, and another that lay near had served for roof. In the filling was a head of some animal (? antelope) made of the coarse red pottery of the early period.

No. 206 had a fragment of a square Neolithic palette, an alabaster bowl with a spout (X, 19), a taller bowl, also of alabaster (X, 30), and a lot of beads—felspar discs, long cylinders of copper (?) and steatite.

13. The only untouched small tomb (No. 166) lay to the north of the town. The plan of this tomb is given in Pl. I, 7, and the objects in collotype in Pl. II, 2. The tomb was cut in the hard black mud, of which the ground north of the wall is formed, to a depth of .9 metre. The northern half was occupied by an inverted large hemispherical bowl (majūr XX, 5); though inverted, it was quite full of thick black mud, in which the bones of the deceased were embedded. The head lay to the north and the face east, the body of course contracted. South of this a tall alabaster jar lay on its side, and at the end of the tomb a squat alabaster jar, a smaller one of the same type, and two pots (XI, 7, 8) of a rather smooth pink ware, with red lines and dots painted over it. The smaller pot is really a lid, and is pierced at the top for suspension. Between the majūr and the side of the tomb were some pieces of ivory (1 inch by ³⁄₁₆ inch), probably the veneer from a box like that in Pl. VIII, 2. From the mud in the decorated pot the following small objects were picked out: two ivory hairpins, three bracelets, a disc of ivory with a grooved rim, a polished brown pebble, a small alabaster cup (X, 44), two shells, both with green stains inside, with beads of ivory, green felspar, gold, carnelian, blue frit, and serpentine, and, most important of all, an inscribed cylinder of translucent steatite. The inscription given in Pl. XX, 29, is perhaps a name compounded with that of a king, the latter being in a cartouche. If this reads ka-ra, it may be conceivably En-ka-ra of the VIIIth dynasty (though I do not think this likely), or, as Professor Sayce suggests, Manetho’s χαιρησ of the IInd. The first column seems to give the Hor.nub name of the king as Nefer, or Nefer-Ka.

The beads are nearly all of known Neolithic types; one form is noticeable, a blue frit cylinder with gold caps at the ends. It is convenient to mention here the other cases of burial under the large hemispherical pots or majūrs.

Two (No. 186) were found, each in a small hole west of Ka-mena’s mastaba; the first lay mouth upwards and contained the much-decayed bones of a child; the second was inverted and contained no bones, but a bowl of a rather coarse red ware, two of the very coarse IV dynasty saucers and a common pot of the same period. Another majūr lay at the bottom of a well in one of the great groups of mastabas which have been already described.

Another (No. 249) lay at the bottom of a long open grave (3·70 m.) with two burials in pottery cists. The arrangement of the bones in it could not be made out.

Another (in a well 1·5 m. deep) contained a sharp-edged bowl (XII, 53), wheel-made, covered with a wash of haematite. This was above the skeleton, which lay on its right side, doubled up, the knees before the face, the head north; below the body were traces of wood; in the bowl was a short cow’s (?) horn.

Near to this was another small well (1·30 m. deep), and at the bottom of it a small majūr, in which the