EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 593 



on one of the walls informs us that the neighboring statue was erected 

 for King Sahoura himself. 



Mit-RaMneh (August, 1892). — The excavations undertaken on the 

 site of the temple of Ptah brought to light two statues of this god, 

 4 meters high and made of hard sandstone. These two colossi are the 

 largest divine statues thus far discovered. The sanctuary also con- 

 tained a boat in rose-colored granite and another in solid limestone, 

 surmounting a naos, containing a statue of the god Khnoum, a bust in 

 limestone representing a king, perhaps Barneses IT, and finally a group 

 in rose-colored granite of the god Ea-Hor Khouti and of the Pharoah 

 Barneses II. 



(August, 1893.) — Excavations of little importance made in the koms 

 led to the discovery of the remains of the studio of a sculptor of the 

 Ptolemaic epoch. The models in limestone and plaster, the molds and 

 the casts furnished at once specimens of the two schools, which had 

 flourished in the valley of the Nile, that of the Egyptian and that of 

 Greek art. 



Saqqarah (January, 1893). — While I supervised in person the work 

 in the Said, E. Brugsch-Bey, conservator of the Service of Antiquities, 

 carried on some excavations on the site of the necropolis of Saqqarah, 

 concerning which he had been for a long time in doubt. These 

 researches were crowned with complete success; for in a inastaba of 

 crude bricks of the fifth dynasty, the chief of the works found two 

 painted limestone statues of perfect execution. One represented a sit- 

 ting person, the other a scribe, unfortunately unknown, crouching in 

 the attitude of a man waiting for orders. This statue is one of the 

 most admirable achievements of ancient art; only the " Sheik-el-Beled" 

 and the "Scribe" at the Louvre can be compared with it. These two 

 statues were inclosed in hollow niches in the crude brick walls of the 

 steps of the inastaba. 



(July, 1893.) — I had devoted the entire summer of 1893 to the study 

 of the necropolis of Saqqarah. The considerable excavations formerly 

 executed by Mariette guided me not only for my investigations in, that 

 locality, but also for those which I proposed to make in the other 

 necropolises of the ancient and middle empire. 



The soil of Saqqarah has been many times removed for examination 

 of the tombs. Already, at the time of Pietro della Valle's travels in 

 Egypt, the fellahin knew all the secrets of the discovery of mummies. 

 But it was especially after the great work of Mariette that this part of 

 the desert became a veritable chaos, where heaps of ruins and cavities 

 resulting from excavations followed each other like the billows of 

 the sea. 



I had just arrived in Egypt, and of course was not yet accustomed 

 to researches in a sandy soil. I therefore resolved to profit from the 

 diggings of Mariette and only to attack those sites left untouched by 

 my illustrious predecessor. 

 SM 96 38 



