Page:Six Temples at Thebes 1896.djvu/13

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and for the photographs reproduced, I have to thank Mr. Frank Haes for those taken in England, and Brugsch Bey for those of the steles kept at the Ghizeh Museum. Continually I have had the benefit of Mr. Quibell's help, both in finishing my affairs in Egypt, and in working over the materials brought away. So this year, as before, many friends make short work.

I should add that although the general direction of these temples is facing south-east, yet for convenience they are assumed to face east, in accord with the general north to south direction of the Nile Valley, and all directions are described in accord with the temples facing east and backing west. It will be noticed that the plans of buildings are all to a uniform scale, so that they can be compared together.


CHAPTER I.

THE CHAPEL OF UAZMES, AND THE EARLY XVIIITH DYNASTY.

6. This chapel or small temple lies immediately beyond the road south of the Ramesseum. It was discovered and cleared out by M. Daressy in 1887; and a plan of it was published as Pl. IV in "Le Musée Égyptien," of which only "Tom. I, Liv. I, Fasc. I" ever appeared, so that the promised text which was to come in Fascicule II has not been published. As this exploration bared the whole site it might seem needless to say more about it; but a small further excavation gave important results.

The present state of the chapel is given in Pl. XXVI, where the solid black shows the remaining brick walls, the open outlines at the doorways show the stonework, and the open outline of walls show what has disappeared since the uncovering in 1887. Several details shown on the earlier plan cannot now be traced out; but in one respect—the skew of the south side of the forecourt—the later plan is the more accurate. This skew was specially noticed as affecting the question of estimating the mean axis of the building.

Some few matters yet waited to be examined. At A the sandstone sill of the entrance pylon remains in place. The two lines crossing it show where the sides of the doorway stood. On tunnelling beneath it there was found a blue glazed ring of Amenhotep III of a fine colour (Pl. III, 26). From the position it does not seem at all likely that this can have been introduced after the building, and hence we must attribute a restoration of this chapel to Amenhotep III. What his object was in thus working here we may guess when we see that he took the temple of Amenhotep II, and largely altered it for a temple in honour of the Princess Sitamen, daughter of Amenhotep III. Probably therefore he made a similar re-appropriation of this chapel for some divinity or for some other princess of his family. At B, at the head of the low steps leading to the court, at 28 inches deep, upon the gravel, were seventeen little dumps of blue glazed pottery, about ⅓ inch across. At C was found a fine green scarab of Amenhotep II (Pl. III, 25) apparently beneath the brickwork of the door sill. And at D were three more blue glazed dumps and a flower, rather like that of Merenptah's foundations (Pl. III, 30). Along the west side of the building is a thick bed of rubbish and pottery, and on digging through part of that a piece of a blue glazed bowl was found (Pl. III, 27) which is broken at a tantalising point after the title of the "Divine wife of Amen," so that the name is just lost. The colour and drawing of this piece are like works of Amenhotep III, but very different to the earlier style of Hatshepsut. So this again shows that the activities at this place belong to the later date.

On looking at the sculptures found here in 1887, and published in Pls. I, II, III, V, VI, of "Le Musée Égyptien," about half of them belong to the earlier age, down to Tahutmes III (Pls. I, II, V a, VI b, d); while others are of the later part of the XVIII dynasty (III, VI c) and probably early XIX dynasty (V b, d; VI a). The official of the cemetery Pa-shed who adores Uazmes on the stele of Pl. III is very probably the same as the cemetery official Pa-shed of the Belmore altar No. 8, and the tablets 261, 262, 264, 282, 341 of the British Museum. (The numbers here given are those in the Synopsis of 1850, the only available list of that Museum). It seems therefore that this chapel was in use for the adoration of Uazmes, and perhaps of other persons, down to the XIXth dynasty; and that it was largely restored under Amenhotep III.


7. Some other remains of the early part of the XVIIIth dynasty were found in various sites: we here notice them in the order of the drawings.

In the temple of Tahutmes IV blocks of earlier sculpture had been freely used up: some of these appear to have been from tombs, as they bear figures of servants (Pl. I, 1, 2). The date is shown by the