The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt as Illustrated by Tombs of the Middle Kingdom; Being a Report of Excavations Made in the Necropolis of Beni Hassan

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...which in the earliest dynasties were freely placed in the tombs of the kings and others to contain offerings. The very forms in use in this early age had disappeared from fashion and on the whole less use seems to have been made of the material. Some fragments found in the debris around the mouth of one of the Nomarchs' tombs showed that if called upon the Egyptians were still well able to work this material into delicate form and finish. In this case the object was a dish of alabaster, the rim of which was indented symmetrically in the manner which in pottery is typical of the XlIth Dynasty. The pattern is seen in the rim of type 54, and more particularly in the dish which follows it on Plate XV. But for the most part the vases found within the tombs of the officials were of less elegant design, and their forms follow a series of standard patterns from which custom apparently warranted little deviation. Those which were found in the tomb of Senb have already been seen in Fig. 1o6. These were for the most part nicely shaped and polished. They may be divided into five distinct types of form, all characteristic of the XlIth Dynasty. Group a comprises the end vases of the upper row, b, the second and third of the upper row, c, the fourth of the upper row and the first of the lower row, d, the two central globular vases of the lower row, while e, the standing cylindrical vase, narrowing towards the base, at the right hand of the lower row, represents a well-known class by itself. The first variety is clearly related in form to vases as old as the IIIrd Dynasty,1 though the size is smaller than was common in the earlier times. The globular vases and the cylindrical vase are typical of and almost peculiar to the XlIth Dynasty. The kohl vessels are less distinctiv...