DISCOVERY 



255 



In 1914 the claim of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft 

 to the site naturally lapsed, and in 1920 the site 

 was granted to the Egypt Exploration Society, then 

 anxious to resume its excavations in Egypt, interrupted 

 in a course of over thirty years only by the war. 



The first campaign was opened in December 1920 

 and continued until the end of March 1921. The 

 general plan was to continue the systematic clearing, 

 recording, and planning of the town site, but at the 

 same time to attempt to find the cemeter\' in which were 

 buried the middle and poorer classes, as opposed to the 

 nobles, whose rock-tombs in the cliffs have already 

 been described. 



In the town area it was observed that the German 

 excavations had been mainh' devoted to clearing the 

 houses on both sides of a long street more than 

 fifty yards broad, but quite unpaved, which ran from 



still seen in native houses in Egypt. Rough logs and 

 beams were laid across from wall to wall ; these were 

 covered with smaller boughs and twigs placed at right 

 angles to them ; over these, again, were laid reeds, bound 

 together in some cases into rough mats, and the whole 

 was surmounted by a thick layer of mud. 



The arrangement of rooms was simple. In the centre 

 of every house lay a square room which we may call 

 the Central Hall. As it was surrounded on all sides by 

 rooms, it could only be lighted by carrying its walls up 

 higher than those of the surrounding apartments, and 

 inserting small windows in them at a high level. 

 In the Central Hall, as, indeed, in most of the larger 

 rooms, the roof span was considerable, and so one or 

 more columns of wood set on limestone bases were used 

 to support the roofing material. In every Central Hall 

 two pieces of furniture commanded notice. The first 



A TYPICAL irolSE Al-TL 



OF TIIE liASTliRN DESERT IS SEEN IX THE BACKGROUND. 

 Reproduced by courlesy ol Ihe Egypt Exploraiion Society.) 



north to south near the eastern edge of the town. 

 It therefore seemed advisable, instead of continuing 

 farther along this street, called by our predecessors the 

 Street of the High Priest, after one of the finest houses 

 in it, to start from some point in it and work westward, 

 with the view of clearing a whole block or quarter of 

 the town, and finding the general plan on which the 

 houses both large and small were set out. At an early 

 period in the excavation a new street was found west of 

 and parallel to that of the High Priest, and the systematic 

 clearance of the block betw^een these was begun. 



Each house of any pretensions to size was situated 

 in its own garden. This had a surrounding wall, no 

 less than ten feet high in many cases, and contained a 

 well (ensuring to the house its private water-supply), 

 stables, servants' quarters, and granaries. The house 

 Itself was built entirely of unbaked mud-brick, though 

 in a few cases limestone was used for door-posts and 

 thresholds. The floors were aU of mud -brick covered 

 \vith a thin mud-plaster. The rodf was of the tj'pe 



was a limestone slab with a raised edge, and on one side 

 a small runnel leading off into a movable pot sunk in 

 the earth. This slab was used for ceremonial ablutions, 

 probably before meals and after a journey. The 

 traveller stood on a small smooth block of stone, which 

 was placed in the centre of the slab for the purpose, 

 while water was poured over his hands and feet by 

 servants and flowed off into the vase, which was then 

 removed. The other striking piece of equipment is the 

 hearth. Near the centre of the floor lay an open dish 

 of pottery, about eighteen inches in diameter, filled 

 with burnt charcoal, and set in the mud of the flooring, 

 here raised a little for the purpose. 



To the north and west respectively of the Central 

 Hall lay two rooms exactly alike. These have been 

 called the North and the West Loggia respectively. The 

 name " loggia " seems suitable, since each room is long 

 and narrow, with a window so large and so long as to lay 

 the room half open to the weather. The occurrence 

 of two similar rooms has been explained on climatic 



