EXCAVATIONS AT TELL EL-AMARNA, EGYPT, IN 



1913-1914.1 



By LUDWIG BOECHARDT, 



[With 13 plates.] 



Following the discoveries of last year, which were mainly at 

 the houses of the chief sculptor Thutmes and his workmen (pi. 1, 

 P 47, 1-3), it was natural this year to investigate the adjoining 

 estates, so far as they had not been previously excavated. The 

 excavation was therefore started westward from the Thutmes' house 

 and following the northern edge of the Wadi extended to the main 

 street which connects the modern villages Hagg Qandil and Et-Till 

 (see pi. 1). This street, corresponding to the main thoroughfare 

 of the old city, wasi reached at house N 47, 1. There were also 

 laid bare the groups of houses Q 48, 1-3 and O 48, 14r-15 among 

 the hills rising from the Wadi. Behind the first row of estates, 

 west of "the street of the high priest" and north of the Wadi, 

 the premises lying westward were disposed of as also a block of 

 smaller estates, Q 46, 18-23, to the north of " the Christmas house " 

 (Weihnachtshaus"), Q 46, 1. On the east side of this part of "the 

 street of the high priest," between it and the eastern city line, 

 several estates were cleared up, and the work was considerably 

 advanced northward. The area of the city so far' excavated was 

 thus about the form of a T, the upper or horizontal bar running 

 from south-southwest to north-northeast — from M 51 to Q 45 — 

 and the perpendicular bar extending from west-northwest to east- 

 southeast — from N 47-48 to Q 48-49. The lower bar at the present 

 state of the work appears split into two strips of houses separated 

 by the Wadi, though it is certain that in ancient times the entire 

 ground was fully built up. 



Strange as it may appear, the ancient Egyptians in building up an 

 area did not take the precaution to leave the lower levels free of 

 structures. They apparently disregarded rains in distant parts of 

 the desert which caused torrents to rush into the Nile Valley carry- 



1 Abstract translated from Mitteilungen der Deiitschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin, 

 No. 55, December, 1914, pp. 1-45. 



445 



