1042 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



its rolls as Grenf ell, Sayce, Thompson, 

 Naville, Peet, Griffith, Hunt, Hogarth, 

 and, for some time, Petrie, and a host 

 of secretaries, this association has won 

 the respect and confidence of govern- 

 ments and scholars. Their devotion to 



the work, their singleness of purpose, 

 their sacrifice, their effective results, and 

 the fact that no organization puts a 

 larger per cent of its receipts into its 

 work, all render the fund worthy of the 

 esteem in which it is universally held. 



THE SACRED IBIS CEMETERY AND JACKAL 

 CATACOMBS AT ABYDOS 



By Camden M. Cobern 



Honorary Secretary Egypt Exploration Fund, in Egypt Season ipi2-ipi^ 



I AM writing this in the Abydos camp, 

 with six ibises under my cot and i6 

 more covering the floor. There has 

 been a great ''find" here, differing from 

 anything ever before made in the entire 

 history of Egyptian exploration, and to- 

 day was the climax of it. Some months 

 ago, when one of the excavators of the 

 Egypt Exploration Fund here, which is 

 this year under the general direction of 

 Mr. T. Eric Peet, struck an Ibis ceme- 

 tery, built some 2,000 years ago over a 

 sixth dynasty human cemetery, every 

 one knew a unique discovery had been 

 made, yet no one fully realized how sur- 

 prising and entrancingly interesting it 

 was. No other discovery of the year in 

 Egypt can equal it, I think, in archeo- 

 logical value. Ibises have been found 

 before, but no such wonderful cemetery 

 as this. 



Mr. Leonard Park Loat was the for- 

 tunate man who discovered and opened 

 this strange and in some respects mys- 

 terious burial place, and as a special 

 favor he allowed the writer to help him 

 a little in his happy task of uncovering 

 these surprising treasures. Undoubtedly 

 a worthy monograph may shortly be ex- 

 pected from his pen, authoritatively set- 

 ting forth the history of the exploration 

 and its bearings upon animal and bird 

 worship among the ancient Egyptians; 

 but meanwhile a little information con- 

 cerning this astonishing discovery and a 

 few suggestions which may sharpen in- 

 terest in Mr. Loat's fuller report may 

 not be inopportune. 



Hypogeums of ibises have previously 

 been found at various places in which, 

 some of the bodies were mummified, no- 

 tably near Hermopolis Magna, an ancient 

 city sacred to Thoth, and here at Shunet 

 deb-hib, within the environs of this sa- 

 cred city of Abydos, dedicated to Osiris, 

 god of the Dead. But this particular 

 burial place of the sacred ibis compares 

 with all other burial places as the Tombs 

 of the Kings compare with all other hu- 

 man cemeteries, and as the Apis Tombs 

 compare with all other animal burial 

 places. 



HOW THi: IBISES WE:'RE BURII^D 



These ibises are as carefully mummi- 

 fied as the royal personages buried at 

 Deir-el-Bahari, and if it had not been 

 for the white ants, those most successful 

 grave robbers of the earth, we should 

 now be able to examine from this ceme- 

 tery hundreds of these sacred birds in as 

 perfect a state of preservation as when 

 buried. 



Their clay sarcophagi, which resemble 

 in some respects canopic jars, but are 

 much larger, are in many instances thor- 

 oughly well made and are exquisite in 

 shape and quality of material. They are 

 generally so large as to hold easily fifty 

 or more full-grown birds, yet are sym- 

 metrical and smooth as vases — much 

 better than the jars generally used in 

 Palestine and elsewhere for child burials 

 (see pages 1043 ^^^ 1045). 



The burial wrappings, too, are really 

 quite royal in the quality of material and 



