776 



Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie 



[June 3, 



now enclosed in front to form a chamber within the mass. So far, 

 I have only dealt with tombs belonging to the first fifty years or so 

 of which such remains are known coming a little later. The next 

 step was to make a faQade front to the chamber, and to bring out the 

 panelled pattern, or repetition of false doors, on to the outer face. 

 This is shown in the tomb of Ptahshepses at Saqqara. 



Next a regular enclosure wall was put on before the tomb front, 

 as we see in a tomb at Medum (No. 22). There the chamber is com- 

 plete ; but an outer passage has been added, and the serdab is walled 

 off at the end of it, just as it had before been walled off at the end 



Fig. 8. — Head of Nefert, in limestone. 



of the primitive passage which developed into the chamber. Another 

 pit or chamber appears in the mass, probably for casting the 

 funeral offerings in ; as it was a custom to ascend the mound of a 

 mastaba, and leave dishes and jars of offering on the top near the 

 mouth of the pit. The pit or well is to the right hand. When — 

 as here — the well has been moved away to the right, and the chamber 

 or false door to the left, it was because a passage had been developed 

 between the well and the funeral chamber ; and thus the false door 

 was kept always close before the actual place of the body below. 



We reach the full completion of this type, rather later on, in the 

 Vlth dynasty tomb of Senna at Dendereh. There the passage in 



