778 



Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie 



[June 8, 



This type was carried further by prefixing the pillared court 

 directly in front of the chamber, as in a tomb at Dendereh. And the 

 same is carried out more fully in the tomb of Ateta at Saqqara. 



Lastly, the court was incorporated entire in a single construction 

 of the mastaba as a square block of building in the tomb of Ptahhotep 

 at Saqqara, in which the primary mastaba is lost sight of in the in- 

 creasing complication of chambers. 



Such complication was, however, only exceptional. On coming 

 down about a thousand years later, we still find the old type of 

 mastaba existing, as in that of Mentuhotep at Dendereh. There the 

 faQade has thirteen false doors along it. The chamber has become 

 lengthened out with a continuation to the whole length of the mastaba, 

 and an entrance appears in the north end of the mastaba, the purpose 

 of which we cannot now be certain about. 



Fig. 10.— Plan of tomb of Ty. 



The most distinct change in the later time, that is to say, about 

 the Xlth dynasty, or 2800 b.c, was in the funeral pits. In all the 

 earliest tombs they are square : and soon after they were lengthened 

 out from north to south, and ran southward into the funeral chamber, 

 which lay behind the false door. In the later time, however, they 

 were placed just behind the false door, with the chamber west of them 

 below. And they were therefore lengthened from east to west, in 

 order to pass the coffin more conveniently into the chamber. This 

 distinction in the direction of the pit, at first north to south, and later 

 on east to west, is one of the first tests of the age of a mastaba. Often 

 two pits were made side by side, as here, leading each to a chamber, 

 apparently for the husband and wife separately. One false door 

 served for both of them, and this would not be unlikely, as the wife 



