September 12, 1907] 



NATURE 



495 



lure being incomplete and its parts improperly fitted 

 together. Before leaving the mummy, thus trans- 

 ferred to its final abode, careful erasure was made 

 of every occurrence of the name and figure of the 

 heretic Khuenaten, who had laid his mother to rest 

 at Tell el-Amarna, and had dedicated in her tomb 

 funerary furniture bearing the record of his filial 

 piety. That the transference took place in the reign 

 of Tutankhamen is shown by the discovery in the 

 tomb of seals bearing his name. 



Such are the conclusions to which Mr. Ayrton has 

 been drawn by the study of the condition of the 

 tomb, and there is little doubt that they are correct. 



The funeral pomp of the queen had been of great 

 splendour and unusual design, but has most un- 

 happily been damaged bv water, which at some 

 period unknown has penetrated into the tomb. The 

 result is that most of the woodwork will not bear 

 handling; much, however, including the skull and 

 bones of the queen, has been preserved by means 

 of boiling paralfin wax, which soaks into the porous 

 substance to which it is applied and solidifies it. Of 

 erf-nt splendour mii-t undoubtedly have been the 



Y\^. 2,-TheTombof Tii. 



great catafalque, in the form of a shrine, which 

 covered the coffin of the queen instead of a sarco- 

 phagus. This, on which are delicate reliefs, was 

 entirely overspread with thick gold, the remnants of 

 which 'filled the tomb, so that everywhere the ex- 

 cavators trod upon gold when they entered. Of 

 unusual design was the actual coffin, the woodwork 

 of which was covered by a frame of gold, inlaid 

 with carnclian and with blue and green glass in 

 scale patterns and- the forms of hieroglyphs record- 

 ing that Khuenaten had had it made for his mother. 

 The mummy itself, the lamentable condition of which 

 contrasts so strongiv with the splendid preservation 

 of the mummies of luaa and Tuaa, was wrapped in 

 sheets of gold. On the head of the mummy was a 

 golden diadem in the form of a vulture with wings 

 spread round to embrace the head. The workman- 

 ship of this diadem shows that it is merely a funerary 

 object, and was not an actual crown worn by the 

 queen in life. 



Of the other objects found in the tomb, the most 

 important are the " canopic jars," which contained 

 the mummified viscera of the deceased. Usually the 

 lids of these jars are formed in the shape of the 

 heads of the " four genii of Amenti " (the under- 



NO. 1976, VOL. 76] 



world) ; but in this case the heads are those of the 

 dead queen herself, beautiful portraits in alabaster, 

 with the eyes and brows represented in lapis-lazuli 

 and obsidian. As portraits, these heads are remark- 

 able, and evidently are accurate likenesses of the 

 queen. 



Of other funerary furniture there was little, the 

 reason being that it had been left behind at T^U 

 el-Amarna. 



Such is the most remarkable discovery of the j'ear 

 in Egypt. The completion of the excavation o1 tHe 

 funerary temple of King Mentuhetep at Deir el- 

 Bahari, not far off, naturally makes a bad second in 

 point of view of general interest, but is of muCh 

 greater scientific importance to the student of 

 Egyptian architecture and religion. 



The explorations which have been carried oi(it 

 during ten seasons at Deir el-Bahari by Prof. Naville 

 for the Egypt Exploration Fund have now been 

 brought to an end with the completion of the excava- 

 tion of the Eleventh Dynasty temple (see Nature, 

 vols. Ixx., 1904, D. 155; Ixxiii., 1906, p. 468). Four 

 seasons have been occupied with this work since the 

 discovery of this temple by Prof. Naville and Mr. 

 H. R. Hall, of the British Museum, in 1903. F6r 

 part of each season Mr. Hall has been associated 

 with Prof. Naville as his principal assistant and 

 coadjutor, while Mr. C. T. Currelly has also assisted 

 during the whole of the last two seasons' work, 

 taking the place of Mr. E. R. Ayrton, who assisted 

 durinsr the second season, but has since transferred 

 his energies to the work of excavating the royal 

 tombs, as we have seen above. During the fourth 

 season Mr. M. D. Dalison also worked as a regular 

 member of the Fund's staff, having in the preceding 

 year worked as a volunteer. In the second season 

 Mr. H. Garnett-Orme, and in the third and fourth 

 Mr. J. T. Dennis, also volunteered their assistance. 

 The preparation of the plans has been carried out by 

 Messrs. C. R. Peers and Fatio, under the supervision 

 of Mr. Somers Clarke ; and Madame Naville has 

 speciallv undertaken the work of piecing together the 

 fragments of sculpture, a task which demands much 

 study. 



The work of the third season (1905-6) was chiefly 

 notable for the discovery of the remarkable Cow. of 

 Hathor in her shrine, now in the Museum of Cajro. 

 This was the most sensational archseological dis- 

 covery in Egypt last year, as the find of Tii's tornb 

 is the most sensational discovery this year. Nothing 

 so sensational has been discovered in Mentuhete|p's 

 temple this year, though the results of the work pre 

 archaeologically important. At the extreme westprn 

 end of the temple, immediately beneath the cliffsj of 

 Deir el-Bahari, is a pillared hall, of ten rows' of 

 eight columns each, at a slightly higher level tl'ian 

 the rest of the temple. Within this is a small c^Wa 

 or sekos, which contains a white limestone altar.l of 

 unusual form — squaie, with a circular depression ; on 

 its surface, on to which libations were poured. This 

 altar is placed in front of a niche in the rock, which 

 formerly contained a stone shrine. 



The whole of this Western Pillar Court, with .the 

 cella. is placed above the most remarkable feature 

 of this part of the temple — the Tomb-sanctuary of 

 the ka of King Mentuhetep. This is to all appear- 

 ance a rock-cut royal tomb, like those of the Valley 

 of the Kings. It descends in the regular way at a 

 gentle slope for a distance of 450 feet until a chamber 

 is reached, faced with splendid granite blocks like 

 those of the Pyramids, and containing an alabaster 

 shrine in which once stood a statue of the king. 

 In .M. Naville 's view the monarch himself was 

 not buried here; this was a sort of imitation 



