1898.] on the Development of the Tomb in Egypt. 781 



The next tomb, that of Prince Adu II., has the same arched door- 

 way. The passage is much steeper, as they wished to reach the same 

 depth more quickly. The well is at the end of the passage, and not 

 intersecting it midway. The chamber is T-shaped, as before; but it 

 is lined with bricks, and had brick vaults for roofing each part ; all 

 of these have now fallen in, together with much of the gravel rock 

 above. 



The plan of Adu II. has the ofiering chamber and well in the 

 usual positions. But, in addition, there is a second well in the N.W. 

 corner, which was, doubtless, for his wife Ana, who appears on a 

 tablet with Adu ; in the chamber at the bottom was a female skull. 

 The chamber of the second well was to the south, so that it came 

 nearly behind the second false door in the upper chamber of offering. 

 The large false door is exactly in front of the place of the sarcophagus 

 in the main funereal chamber. The front of this mastaba has a full 

 development of the false-door decoration : twelve doors on one hand, 

 and eighteen on the other, thirty in all. A feature of these large 

 mastabas of the nobles is the provision of tombs for their families 

 near them, much as several of the kings had the small pyramids of 

 their family adjoining their own pyramid. This plan is most distinct 

 in this mastaba, where a court is added on at the south end, containing 

 nine pit tombs for the family of Adu, beside a tenth in front of the 

 false doors. 



The next tomb shows a new departure in construction. The very 

 steeply sloping passage of Adu II. had probably caused trouble in 

 making the barrel roof of it — an early settlement of the lower part 

 is to be seen. So a new idea appears in the providing a horizontal 

 barrel roof to a sloping passage, thus keeping all the brickwork level, 

 while the floor rapidly descends. The result is a passage which is 

 about fifteen feet high at the end. The well is put nearer to the end 

 of the passage, and the sloping floor continues down past it into the 

 chamber. This lower, or funereal chamber, has so much caved in 

 that the details are lost. 



Having thus succeeded in economising material by the construction 

 of dofty hollows vaulted over, the same principle was carried further 

 in-*;the mastaba of Prince Merra. Here an entrance passage opens 

 into a court, from which a flight of steps led to the top. But there 

 is no doorway from this court into the passages. The only entrance 

 was by a well behind the court, which led to a high vaulted passage 

 with sloping floor. This passage was lighted by a high-up archway, 

 at the deep end of it opening on to a well shaft. Beyond the wall 

 was another lofty passage chamber with a domed roof, and through 

 this the funereal chamber was reached. This was much simpler and 

 poorer than before, not having any lateral branches, but being merely 

 a place large enough to get in the sarcophagus and place it to one 

 side. Nor was there any sculpturing of the sides, or indeed any 

 lining. 



