■ CHAP. IT.— BAKAKHUIir, THE LAWYER OP SAN. 
45 
burnt, that I have not yet removed it from San. 
Besides this, a long paint-holder of wood, with 
the usual recess for the reeds, and three hollows 
for the colours, shows that fine painting, probably 
on papyri, was' also practised here. Various 
fragments of burnt wooden objects were also 
found. A small silver spatula, IJ, in. long, is 
the only fragment of precious metal left in the 
house by the looters. There is also a small 
pierced garnet bead of fine colour; and a part of 
a tessera of bone found here is inscribed . . . 
niw . . . 
63. Turning now to stone objects, there are 
many examples of alabaster. A vase with cylin¬ 
drical neck, 5^ inches high ; a libation bowl, 
with long groove spout on one of four projections 
around it, 6 J inches diam. Another bowl, 6^ inches 
across and 4^ inches high. Two alabaster vessels 
rather shallower than their diameter, are 6^ and 
3| inches across; and two alabaster mortars 
are 3^ and 2^ inches diameter, the lesser one is 
finely made and was used for grinding kohl. 
Another curious object is a circular piece, 2 in. 
diameter, and about f in. thick, turned slightly 
concave on one side, more so on the other, and 
with a deep groove around the edge; it is turned 
thin until it is quite translucent. This seems^ to 
have been a stand for a small round-bottomed 
vessel, such as the Phoenician glass vases. In 
soapstone there is a piece of a cup 2^ in. dia¬ 
meter. In limestone, a pine-cone ornament, and 
a piece incised with a branching pattern, and a 
hexagonal rosette. Of brown basalt there is a set of 
three mortars, 7, 5^, and4 inches diameter, all well 
wrought, with two lugs on the outside of each. 
No pestles were found with these, and the basalt 
muller above mentioned was evidently for grind¬ 
ing on a flat surface. Of granite, a large bowl 
was found, 16 inches diameter, weighing about 
80 lbs.; also two flat grinding bowls 13 inches 
diameter, and not so thick ; a deep black granite 
mortar, 9^ inches diameter (broken) ; a circular 
piece of granite, which may be a grinder or weight, 
a black granite weight, mentioned in the list of 
weights in the last chapter, along with the bronze 
weight also found in this house. A number of 
various rubbers and hammers of different hard 
stones were also found, and a piece of emery 
whetstone. Many pieces of tesser® of white 
marble, blue, red and yellow glass, and other mate¬ 
rials belonged also to this house, and show that 
some mosaic existed here, probably on the floor 
of an upper room. 
64. Of blue glazed pottery there was a great 
quantity in this house; the largest object being a 
blue jar 10 inches high, which is veryfragile. This I 
found in the corner of the cellar, full of burnt wheat. 
Many bowls were found, ornamented with leaves 
and patterns on the outside ; but they were un¬ 
happily all so far destroyed by the fire, and the 
burial in the damp soil, that I could not, even with 
the utmost care, remove one whole. An oblong 
tray found here is very unusual, but it is so 
tender that it falls to pieces with its own weight; 
it has four dividing ribs in it joining up to a 
central circular cup, which makes the fifth sub¬ 
division. A blue glazed inkstand (2^ in. diam.) 
is also unusual; it is closed on the top, excepting 
two holes; one in the centre, from which a tube 
projects down in the inside, and the other hole in 
the edge of the top. The use of this seems to 
have been much like modem well-inkstands ; the 
hole in the middle being for dipping the pen in, and 
the hole at the edge for washing out the bottle ; 
this would be plugged up when in ordinary use, 
so that the ink could not spill if upset: of course 
no trace of ink remains, as, being carbon ink, it 
would burn away in the fire. Another piece of 
blue glazed ware is a very thick cup, or small 
bowl, 3| in. across, the hollow being not half the 
outside width j it had two lions on the brim, 
opposite to one another, but one was lost in the 
fire, and the other has slipped by the melting of 
the glaze. A piece of another bowl, not parti¬ 
cularly thick, and with a spout, was also found at 
San, with a lion on the brim; in each case the 
