28

DENDEJJKH.

CHAPTER V.

THE CATACOMBS OF SACRED ANIMALS.

32, Next in time, Ave come to the catacombs
for the sacred animals, which were begun in the
XVIIIth Dynasty, and were added to until
Roman times. When we first settled at Den-
dereh I observed a great bank of coarse gravel
close to our huts, rising some ten feet higher
than the plain. We began by cutting trenches
through this; but reached nothing, until, after
passing the gravel bank, the men found the
brick roofs of tunnels. Gradually we discovered
and cleared these, in every tunnel moving out
some yards length of rubbish at once, and so
baring the floor in sections. Where there were
burnt bones on the floor they were left to be
cleared by my friends or myself, so that nothing
should be overlooked. It was a considerable
piece of work, the length of the passages being
about 1900 feet, or over a third of a mile, and
about 6000 or 7000 tons of stuff to be moved.
It was thoroughly done, and the floors sounded
all over for any buried deposits.

The oldest part appears to be a long row of
chambers side by side, entered from a narrow
passage running past the doors, marked XVIII.
Dyn. on the plan, pi. xxxvi. These and all
the other chambers were constructed by digging
out a mass of gravel, building a brick vault in
the hollow, and then replacing stuff over it:
the great bank of gravel that Ave first found
being the surplus due to the cavity of the
chambers. In one of the chambers in the
middle of the roAv there Avere some scraps of
carved ivory under the burnt bones; among
them tAVO sistrum handles, on one of Avhich
could be read the inscription of a priestess of
Hathor named Bukau (pi. xxiii.A). From the

Avork this is probably of the XVIIIth Dynasty.
More certain, hoAvever, Avere the pieces of blue
glazed ware, sIioavii on pi. xxiii. These Avere
found broken up and cast aside, amid the burnt
bones, and are clearly pieces of old temple
furniture of Tahutmes III. and Amenhotep II.,
the same kings Avho made so much blue glazed
furniture for Nubt, including the great uas
sceptre. They Avere nearly all in the Avest end
of the narroAv passage, and a feAV in the Avest
chambers. The great anlch (7) is exactly like
those from ISTubt. The pieces of Avands (2, 3)
shoAv the bend as on the dancers' Avands figured
in Deshasheh, pi. xii. There Avere several pieces
of boAvls and vases, mostly defaced by the fire,
but some shoAving patterns as in figs. (5, 14.
The hollow balls painted in stripes, figs. 8, 0,
are common in this period; there Avere frag-
ments of dozens of such, and it seems that they
Avere used in decoration, possibly representing
pendant fruit like the A'iolet glazed bunches of
grapes for attaching to the rafters. The entirely
novel objects are the papyrus stems fitting into
cross bases, figs. 10, 11, 12. Some fragments of
such may have been found before, but their
nature and design has not been apparent.
Their use in a temple is not obvious ; but as
the Hathor cow is often represented walking
in the midst of marsh plants, it is possible that
a grove of these papyri Avas placed beneath and
around a statue of the sacred coav in the temple.
The band of glazed Avare (10) shows traces of
hieroglyphs, although the Avhole surface is burnt.
Lastly, the little figures of Taurt (15, 17), and
Hathor (1(5), and the beads (18), are just what
Avere common in the Xllth Dynasty, and lasted



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