TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 515 



5. Excavations at Memphis and Hawara in 1911. 

 By Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. 



The sites excavated this year lay between Memphis and Hawara, about fifty 

 miles south of Cairo. They are of various ages from prehistoric to Roman times. 

 At Hawara, where excavations had been made in 1888, about seventy por- 

 traits were found; many were entirely rotted, but nearly half were in tolerable 

 condition, and some were as fine as any yet known. The most interesting is that 

 of ' Hermione Grammatike,' the earliest woman professor of the classics that 

 we know. Another is of an old lady named Demetris, aged eighty-nine. The 

 manner in which the cedar panels of the portraits have been roughly cut down 

 to fit the mummy suggests that they were not painted originally for funerary 

 purposes; they rather seem to have been painted from life, in early or middle 

 age, as pictures for hanging in the houses, and then to have been later cut down 

 by the embalmer. 



On the site of the Labyrinth a colossal shrine of red granite was found with 

 two figures of King Amenemhat III. Near this was half of a second shrine, 

 and fragments of a third. 



Of the statues of the gods there remained some busts and half-length figures, 

 of Sebek, Hathor, and an unknown goddess with palm branches. Such figures 

 of the Xllth dynasty are new to us, as (after the prehistoric age) no statues of 

 . gods are known till a few of the XlXth dynasty. They are finely cut in very 

 hard white limestone. The latest date connected with the Labyrinth is given 

 by an inscription on granite on a great architrave recording a dedication by a 

 Ptolemy and Cleopatra, which must be at least as late as 200 B.C. This gives 

 a range of over three thousand years for the existence of the great temple. 



Other important sites of the Xllth dynasty, with extensive stone-work and 

 building, are the pyramids of Mazghuneh, which were hitherto unknown. They 

 were brick pyramids with passages of stone, on the same plan as those of 

 Hawara and with external temples. It seems probable that they were built by 

 Amenemhat IV. and Sebek -neferu. One pyramid has around it a wavy wall 

 of brickwork, like that by the tomb of Senusert III. at Abydos. 



Of earlier date is a prehistoric cemetery at Gerzeh, about four miles north of 

 Meydum, dating from the middle of the second prehistoric period. Many 

 finely formed stone vases of the usual types were found, also some beautifully 

 naked flint knives, and much pottery. The objects that were new were a slate 

 palette, with a horned object, perhaps a Hathor-head, bearing stars on the 

 points; a pottery horn ending in an animal's head; and some iron beads. This 

 is the earliest occurrence of iron yet known, and it was probably derived from 

 a piece of native iron from basalt. 



In cemeteries of the Xllth and XVTITth dynasties, and of the Roman age, 

 were found some fine canopic jars, white limestone ushabtis, and a model couch 

 of wood belonging to the earlier period. Of the Roman age are groups of toys, 

 including a convex and a concave mirror, painted pottery figures of Horus in 

 different attitudes, a stone sundial with the elongation of the pole star marked 

 on it, several funerary inscriptions, one of which is dated under Claudius, and 

 a variety of glass and pottery. 



At Memphis in two fields in the temenos of Ptah the hinder part of a 

 colossal sphinx was found, but as the ground ran into another property it has 

 not yet been cleared. No building appeared in these areas, but to the south 

 the foundations of a Christian church were found, composed of blocks from the 

 temple of Ptah, with scenes and cartouches of Rameses II., some of which are 

 unusual. Two deeply cut carvings — a capital and a border — belonged to the 

 church, apparently dating from early in the sixth century. 



6. Predynastic Iron Beads from Egypt} By G. A. Wainwright. 



This spring I found in unplundered Predynastic graves at El Gerzeh, about 

 forty miles south of Cairo, two lots of iron beads, seven in grave 67 and two in 



' Publiahed in full. Man, 1011, No. 100. 



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