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                                                 CHAPTER   IX    GUROB   1889-90

                At the mouth of the Fayum, on the opposite side to Illahun, stood in later times another town, founded by Tahutmes 111, and ruined under Merenptah; thus its history falls within about two and a half centuries. While I was working at Hawara some beads and ornaments were brought to me from this place; I soon went to see it, and found that it was an early site unmixed with any later remains. In the beginning of 1889 I worked out part of the town , and the rest of it was cleared by Mr. Hughes in the end of that year, while I worked at Illahun. The general arrangement of it was a large walled enclosure, within which were two other enclosures side by side, one containing the temple, the other a small town. The temple had been founded by Tahutmes 111, and had lasted through Akhenaten's changes only to be destroyed soon after, probab;y by Ramses 11, when he carried away the temples of Illahun. That the town was ruined early inthe reign of Merenptah is indicated by the sudden end of the previous abundance of scarabs and rings with the kings' names at this point; of later times only one or two objects of Ramses 11 have been found.
             Of purely Egyptian objects many were discovered, but the main interest of the place is in the remains of foreigners from the Mediterranean who lived there. Of Egyptian work we may mention two funeral tablets; a lion's head, probably the terminal to the side of a staircase; two splendid bronze pans; a beautiful wooden statuette of a lady named Res, cladded in the ribbed drapery of the Ramesside age; a statette of a priestess, and a figure of a girl swimming holding a duck, carved in wood; a wooden box for papyri, inscribed, and some necklaces found in the town. The foreign inhabitants, although conforming to Egyptian ways in some respects, have left many traces here. Foremost is the coffin of a high official who was of the Tursha race, the Turseni, probably of the northen Aegean.The ushabti figure of a Hittite, Sadi-amia,was found in an adjoining grave. A wooden figure of a Hittite harper, wearing the pigtail of his race, was picked up in the town. A bronze mirror, with a Phoenician Venus holding a dove as the handle ofit, was found in the tomb. While constantly Aegean vases, such as those of the first period of Mykenea, are found in both the town and in the tombs.
              The Greek custom of a funeral pyre remained here in a modified form; although the body appears to have been buried in Egyptian fashion, yet the personal articles were all burnt. Apparently on the death of the owner a hole was dug in the floor of the room; into this were place the chair, the clothing, the mirror, the combs, necklaces and toilet articles, the glass bottles, the blue-glazed bowls and vases, the alabaster dishes, the knife and other implements, and the best pottery of the deceased. Allthese were burnt; the fire was smothered with potsherds laid over it; earth was then filled in, and then the brick floor of the room was relaid. No such custom is ever known among Egyptians, and this again shows the foreign occupation of the place. We know from inscriptions how the Mediterranean races,Libyans,Akhaians, Turseni, and others had pushed into Egypt from the west, and that they had settled in the Nile Valley to even somewhat south of the Fayum. This place was evidently then one of their settlements, andits sudden fall under Merenptah just agrees to his expulsion of all these foreigners in the fifth year of his reign.We have here then before our eyes the remains of a great invasion which has always been hitherto been a literary shadow.
             Gurob proved to be a treasury of a later age. In the Ptolemaic period some town had existed in this neighborhood, the inhabitants of which were buried here in the edge of the desert, apart from the earlier town.Their mummies are destitute of amulets or ornaments, and have all gone to black dust, their cartonnage coverings are without names and uninteresting.In no respect would these burials seem worth notice, had not the cartonnage makers used up old papyri as the cheapest material for their trade, and these are a treasure now. Some remians of even later times are found here; and I obtained from native diggers many Coptic embroideries, and a beautiful set of Roman glass vessels. The essential value of Gurob is in giving us a thoroughly fixed date for the earlier stages of the civilization of Greece; in showing the races of the Mediterranean at home in Egypt;and in explaining how far they had imbibed Egyptian culture during their first sojourn on the Nile; and what they may be expected to have borrowed from thence at this early period.

                                                   CHAPTER   X    MEDUM   1891    
                 
                  After having sampled the civilisation of each of the great periods of Egyptian history, back to the twelfth dynasty, I longed more than ever to discover the beginning of things. For this Medum offered the best chance for reaching back. I called together a selected lot of my old workers from Illahun, and we went over and made a camp at the cemetery of Medum; there we lived over four months, and I unravelled what could be traced on the questions that await us.The first question to settle was that of the age of the pyramid and cemetery. All the indications pointed to as an early an age as we knew, but not before Senefru, the first king of the fourth dynasty, and predecessor of Khufu. The most promising means of ascertaining the age, was to search for any remains of the pyramid temple; on the chance of inscriptions, such as I had found of Khafra at Gizeh,and of Usertesen 11 at Illahun. But where was the temple ? At last I determined on the large excavation needful, for I felt that we must solve the matter. I began a work of several weeks. We eventually had a hole that could beseen for miles across the valley, and so deep. we uncovered a courtyard, and found two steles; and moreover instead of a mere court there appeared a doorway on the east side, and crawling in I found a chamber and passage still roofed over and quite perfect. we had, in fact, found an absolutely complete, though small temple, not a stone was missing, nor a piece knocked off, the steles and the altar between them stood just as when they were set up; and the oldest dated building in the land has stood unimpaired amidst all the building and destruction that has gone on in Egypt throughout history. Thequestion of age was settled indirectly. The original construction had no ornament or inscriptions. But numerous mentions of Senefru, both during the ages near his own, and of the eighteenth dynasty, showed plainly what the Egyptians knew about the builder.
                   The pyramid of Meydum differs from nearly all the others. It is really the primitive tomb-building, or mastaba, such as is often found with successive coats added around it in the cemetery here; but this was enlarged by seven coats of masonry , widening and heightening it, until a final coat over all covered the slope from top to bottom at one angle. It is thus the final stage of complication of the mastaba tomb, and the first type of the pyramid. Later kings saved the intermediate stages, and built pyramids all at one design, without any additions. This architectural feature is another proof of the early age of this pyramid. And it is remarkably akin tothe pyramid of Khufu which follows it.
                   The tombs at Medum proved of great interest. One of the largest was built on a very irregular foundation; and below the ground level I found walls by which the builders had guided their work. Outside of each corner a wall was built up to the ground level; the sloping profile of the side was drawn on it; and then the wall was founded andbuilt in line between the profiles. But the most attractive matter was the study of the inscriptions on the tombs, which show us the earliest forms of hieroglyphs yet known.
                  We can thus estimate the architecture of the pre-pyramid period. There were columns with spreading capitals and abaci, set up in rows to support the roof. There were papyrus columns, with a curious bell-top on the flower. There were octagonal flutedcolumns tapering to the top and painted with a black dado, a white ornamental band, and red above. There was the cornice of uraeus serpents.  In short all the essentials of an advanced architecture architecture seem to have been quite familiar to the Egyptians.    
               Another glimpse of the prehistoric age in Egypt is afforded by the burials at Medum. The later people always buried at full length, and with some provision for the body. Such burials are found among the nobles at Medum. But most of the people were buried in a contracted form, nose and knees, or at least with the thigh bent square with the body and heels drawn up. Yet there was no mere indifference shown; the bodies are in deep well tombs, and always lying with the head to the north, facing the east. Here is clearly a total difference in beliefs, and probably also in race. Is it likely that the bulk of the people should have resisted change for 800 years,and then suddenly adopted it in two or three generations ? Does this rapid adoption of the upper-class custom, between the beginning of the fourth dynasty and the immediately succedding times, suggest that the dynastic race did not enter Egypt till shortly before we find their monuments ? At least the notion that the stages preceding the known monuments should be sought outside of Egypt, and that this is the explantion of the dearth of objects before the fourth dynasty, is strenghtened by the change of custom and belief which we then find.

                                CHAPTER   XI          THE FRESH LIGHT ON THE PAST

                      It might seem as if the researches described in these chapters, though interesting in themselves, yet not of particular account in the wider view of human history and civilisation.It is to focus together this new information, to show the results which flow from it, and to give a connected idea of our fresh light on thepast,that this chapter is placed here. The application of scientific principles to archaeology, the opening of fresh methods of enquiry, and the rigorous notice of the period of everything found, have been as fruitful in the East as it has proved to be in the West.
                     In Egypt, the oldest condition of the present country that is known - the beginning of history as distinct from geology - is an age of great rainfall and denudation; succeeding to the geological age , in which the existing masses of surface gravels were laid down. This rain nourished a dense vegetation, of which the chance remains may be seen in the various silicified forests, which occur where circumstances favoured their preservation. The amount of water falling on the country swelled the volume of the Nile to far beyond its greatest modern extent.   We come down to a later age. The Nile had fallen to near its present level but still filled its whole bed to perhaps fifty feet deep. Vegetation still grew on the hills; for we find traces of man at this time, and he must have lived on something. After that we know nothing more of man until we find the country in its present state, without any rainfall for practical purposes, the hills all barren desert, the Nile only filling the bottom of its old bed for a few months a year, and meanandering the rest of the time in achannel cut in its own mud, and man cultivating the old bed of the river when it is not overflowed.
                 The civilisation that we find before us in the earliest known history appears elaborate and perfect. After that, only slow changes of fashion and taste influenced it, and but few discoveries of importance were made during thousands of years which ensued. That this civilisation was imported by an incoming race seems probable; and the dynastic Egyptians already found in the country an aborginal population, whose features, whose beliefs, and whose customs, differed much from their own. The tweo races had not yet amalgamated when we first came into their presence at Medum; but soon after  that all sings of differnce cease.
               The earliest civilsation was completely master of the arts of combined labour, of masonry , of sculpture, of metal working, of turning, of carpentry , of pottery, of weaving, of dyeing, and other elements of a highly organized social life. The work of the great period of the twelfth dynasty difffers mainly in the freer use of writing, the greater quantity and poorer quality of the sculptures or paintings. The next great period, the eighteenth to the nineteenth dynasty, is marked by the use of bronze, and the disappearance of flint tools. The art of glazing was much developed and attained a brilliancy and variety of colouring, and a boldness of design, which was never again reached. The next serious change was the introduction of iron, of which there was no satisfactory evidence until 800BC. Iron may have been known perhaps as a curiosity, just as one example of bronze occurs 2,000 years before it came in to actual use; but it had no effect on the arts. But it is rather in Europe than in Egypt that our interest centres.As no European literature remians to us older than the sixth or seventh century B.C.(except the oral poems) it has been too readily assumed that no civilisationworthy of the name could have dwelt here, and that we are indebted to the East for all our skill. So far from this being the case, we must now reverse this view. We have in the Egyptian records the accounts of a great European confederacy, which smote Egypt again and again - Greece, Asia Minor, Italy, and Libya, all leagued together.

                                    CHAPTER   XII      -    THE  ART  OF   EXCAVATING 

                    There are ruins and ruins; they may differ greatly in original nature, in the way they have been destroyed, and in the history of their degradation. The only rule that may be called general, is that digging must be systematic; chance trenches or holes seldom produce anything in themselves, they are but feelers. The main requirement always needed is plenty of imagination. Imagination is the fire of discovery; the best of servants, though the worst of masters. A habit of reasoning out the most likely cause, and all other possible causes, for the condition of things as seen, is essential. If there is a slope of the ground, a ridge , a hollow -why is it there ? What can have produced it ? Which cause is the most probable for it ? The mere form of the ground will often show plainly what is beneath it. Is there a smooth uniform mound of large size ? Then a mass of house ruins may be expected. Is there a steep edge to it around ? Then there was a wall, either of the town, or of some one large building which forms the whole ruin.Is there a ring of mounds with a central depression ? Then there was a temple or large permanent building, with house ruins around it. Is there a gentle slope up one side, and a sharp fall on the other ? Then it is a rubbish mound. Is the mass high above the general soil ?  Then several successive layers of habitation may be expected. So, even from afar, some ideas may be gleaned before setting foot on a ruined site.
              Pottery is the very key to digging; to know the varieties of it, and the age of each, is the alphabet of work. Not that it is more distinctive in itself than most other products of various ages; but it is so vastly commoner than anything else, that a place may be dated in a minute by its pottery on the surface, which would require a month's digging in the inside of it to discover as much from the inscriptions or sculptures. A survey showing the form of the ground, and the position of every fragment or indication that can be of use, is essential to understandingit; and will often point out, by the probable symmetry of parts, what are the best spots to examine first. Having then made out as much as possible beforehand, we begin our diggings.If there appears to be remains of a temple, or some larger building, we first make pits about one edge of the site, and find how far out the ruins extend. Having settled that, a larger trench is dug along the whole of one side, reaching down to the undisturbed soil beneath. Then the inner side is dug away, and the stuff thrown up on the outer side by a row of men all along the trench. Thus the trench is gradually swept across the whole site, always taking from one side, and throwing back on the other. Each block of stone or piece of building found is surveyed, and covered over again if not wanted; sculptures or inscriptions are either removed or rolled up on to the surface of the stuff, or remain exposed in pits left in the rubbish.  
             The most fatal difficulty in the way of reaching what is wanted is when an early site has been occupied in later times.A city may have been of the greatest importance, and we may be certain that beneath our feet are priceless monuments; but if there are 20 or 30 feet of later rubbish over it all, the things might almost as well be in the centre of the earth. An excellent rule of excavating is never dig anywhere without some definite aim. Form at least some expectation of what may be found; and so soon as the general clue to the arrangement is known, have clearly in  the mind what you expect to find. It need hardly be said that the greatest care is required in making certain as to exactly where things are found. Workmen should never be allowed to meddle with each other's lots of potsherds or little things.  One of the most difficult questions always is to know what may what may be safely thrown away. Most trivial things may of great value, as giving a clue to something else. History, inscriptions, tools, ornaments, pottery, technical works, weights, sources of imported stones, ethnology, botany, colours, andany other unexpected subject that may turn up, must all have a due share of attention. And keeping up the record of where everything has been found, and all the information that will afterwards be needed, about the objects and the discoveries, the measurements and details for publication, is a serious part of the work.
           However much it may be desired to preserve some things, they almost defy the excavator's care. It is a simple affair to get an antiquity safe out of the ground, but then begin its perils of destruction, and unless carefully attended to, itmay slowlyperish n a few days or weeks. Apart from salt, another source of trouble is the rotting of organic materials, wood, string, leather, cloth etc.For all such things the best treatment is a bath of melted wax. The excavator should always be readynto take squeezes or photographs at once when required, and it is the best rule always to copy every inscriptionas soon as it is seen. Another matter in which it is essential that an excavator should be proficient, is surveying and levelling: in order to understand a place and direct the work, in order to preserve a record of what is done and make it intelligible to others, a survey is always needed, and generally levelling as well. Lastly, what most persons never think of, a great deal of time is required for safely packing a collection. This part of the business generally takes about a fifth of thetime of the excavations,and much care and arrangement has to be bestowed on the security of heavy stones, or pottery, or fragile stucco, or glass, for a long journey of railways and shipping.

                         
                                         CHAPTER   X111       THE   FELLAH      

                It is always difficult to realise the state of mind of another person, even of one who is perhaps an equal in education, and who has been reared amid the same ideas and surroundings as one's own, but it is impossible to really take the same standpoint as one of another race, another education, and another standard of duty and morals. We cannot, therefore, see the world as the fellah see it; and I believe this the more readily because after living the most part of ten years among the fellahin, and being accused of having gone some way toward them,I yet feel the gulf between their nature and my own as impassable as ever. The man who can read and write is the rare exception in the country; perhaps two percent of the fellahin men can doso, but probably not one woman in ten thousand. Of education there is but very little for the great majority of the people.
               The local festivals take place around a tall pole fixed in some open space by the village. Around this central point is the celebration of the 'molid' or birthdays of the village saint. Some 'molids' arefairsfor the whole district , lasting nine days or more, and attended by performers,shows, jugglers and so on. Many visitors to Egypt see the dancing and howling derwishes, but few know of the common and less obstrusive events of the same kind in the villages. They are connected strictly with a devotional sentiment. Akin to this fanaticism is the ruling view of everything as 'kismet', the allotted fate. Perhaps no abstraction is so deletrious to the character as this; as a man can thus shut his eyes to the consequences of his own actions, and refuse to learn by experience. I never yet found a fellah, who confessed to doing wrong, or to being sorry for what he had done. The very sentiment of remorse is so unknown that there are no means of expressing it in any form. The belief in 'kismet' and lack of co-operation, tells favourably in one way - the fellah is not revengeful. No matter whether he deserves whatill befalls him, or is an innocent sufferer, he never goes about for simple vengeance, but yields, and is ready to act as if no grudge or ill-feeling rested in his mind.
              The barrier which exists between the fellah and the European official is almost insurmountable. Not many officials visit the country districts at all. Then the fellah is timid, and unless there is something seriously amiss, the fellah in general will not fly to the European official. Two principles of the fellah nature which Europeans cannot realise at first are that theycannot excercise forebearance; and secondly, that they cannot stand long-continued temptation. One of the pleasantest points of the Egyptian character is the genuine and unfeigned hospitality so often met with. If in walking through a village I happen to pass the sheikh sitting at his door, he will usually press the stranger to come in and have coffee, and hardly take a refusal. This is hospitality for which no return is expected, or would be accepted. Even with poor people it is the custom for them to press one to stay, anmd to have coffee or food with them.     


                                 CHAPTER   XIV       THE  ACTIVE  TRIPPER  IN   EGYPT

                    Egypt is one of the most delightful countries for a walking tour. For three months from the middle of November there will never be a day too warm for active exercise; there will be hardly any rain above Cairo, nor as much in the Delta as during the summer inany European country. Of course the native language is as much needed as in any foreign country; but a suffiecient amount of colloquial Arabic can be learned in a few weeks. The great difference between Egypt and other countries is the lack of inns. Regular inns are tobe found at most of the main towns in the Delta, and at Assuan, Assiut, Medinet elFayum, and other large places. Also, if going to places where rock tombs abound, excellent quarters can be had in them; no dwelling is so warm at night and so cool in the day. But for any extended journey it is best to take a small tent, if not travelling by boat.  For goingabout away from the railway from the railway or Nile steamers, a donkey must be hired for the baggage. As to food , if constantly moving about, not much can be taken in the way of stores. But eggs, rice and lentils can be bought anywhere. Bread is not always eatable, as some villages only make dirty little pats of maize; but good flap bread is made at nearly all towns and most villages and a day's supply in advance should be carried. If staying for some weeks at one place, or going in a boat, it is best to order out for Britain assorted boxes of stores, each box to contain all that is wanted for three weeks or a month. Otherwise some tinned goods can be got in most large towns, and some canisters should be taken for sugar, salt , pepper, tea and coffee.
              The essential articles of the canteedn are - Petroleum stove, with saucepan, kettle, and frying pan, and a tin can with cork tocarry petroleaum,as the stove must be emptied when travelling. For sleeping, a mattress is a mistake as the same weight of blankets are as soft, more easily aired and packed. For medicines not much is needful, but incase ofemergencies take sulphate of zinc for the eyes, quinine, carbolic acid and any special remedies. The less clothing isused by day, and the more by night,the better;the clear nights are usually down to freezing in the winter, even far up the Nile, while the day may be really hot. The main matter is to avoid being out atsunset; or at least keep moving then, and avoid any chill, as fever is generally caught at that time.
            For a trip upthe Nile the most thorough way is to take a small native boat, with a cabin on it, entirely to yourself, or only with a like-minded companion. Such a boat can generally be found at the main towns, when more pretentious, with sevberal cabins, it ranks as a 'dahabyieh'. If only the principal places are tobe visited, the postal steamer will suffice, taking tent, blankets to stay where desired. When pitching tents, always stay by a village, and the sheikh is responsible for your safety. At Thebes the best camping ground is in the Ramesseum and under a tree by the pylon of Horemhab; and at Assuan in the bay above the town.
            There is no need to carry much money about, as post offices serve as banks. In case of taking luggage about by train or steamer, remember that nothing goes free except what is carried.All heavy things must be weighed, paid for, and a receipt obtained before the train leaves. These above details ofcourse only supplementary to the usual guide-book information. But there is no real difficulty likely to be met with in roughing it thus;and in case of emergencies the station-masters or post-masters can be appealed to, as they understand English or French.   

                                For   Chapter  1     to    Chapter  VI    see   Flinders Petrie  1
                                For   Chapter  VII   to    Chapter VIII   see    Flinders Petrie  2
      
                   
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