780 



Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie 



[June 3, 



In the later part of the old kingdom, about 3400 B.C., we have a 

 splendid series of tombs of the Princes of Dendereh, built upon the 

 type of the sloping passage. Adu I. built a grand vaulted tunnel 

 of brickwork, which led down to the funeral pit. This tunnel has 

 four rings of brickwork in the vault arch, and is finely built. It 

 would be set down as Roman by most persons, but in the last few 

 years we have pushed back the history of the Egyptian arch of brick 

 to the XlXth dynasty, then to the Xllth, and now to the YIth 

 dynasty. Probably it began even earlier, but it is here in full use at 

 3500 B.O. 



In the section the entrance is through an arched doorway in the 

 outer wall. That opened on a very narrow court or passage, in 

 which a stairway led to the top of the mastaba, as in Mena's. This 

 court was filled up with brickwork to cover the entrance to the tunnel. 



ADU 11 



Fig. 12. — Sections of tombs of Adu I. and Adu II. 



The tunnel ran down at a steep slope, the roof of it afterwards turn- 

 ing horizontal to meet the wall at the tower, and it was walled up. 

 The well did not cause any break in the floor, and scarcely any on 

 the side of the passage, which runs on downward in the rock to the 

 funeral chamber. Two small chambers at the sides of the passage 

 contained funeral ofi'erings of pottery, &c. Entering the chamber, it 

 is of a T form, wide on either hand, and then narrowing to a long 

 recess of just the wirlth of the sarcophagus lid. The sarcophagus 

 itself is sunk in the rock floor, and the lid lay on the floor, or possibly 

 with a pavement flush with the top. The whole chamber and coffin 

 recess was lined with sculptures of ofi'erings ; this provision for the 

 support of the ka having been at this age transferred down from 

 the place of ofi'erings above to the actual place of the body below the 

 ground. This tomb is the most complete of this type, and enables 

 us to understand the others which follow it. 



