Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

ANGELA P. THOMAS: The Rediscovery of some Dynasty III Stone Vessels from Reqaqnah

and as well as small items listed on a paper in pencil, a list on paper in ink* reveals that he was allocated a selection of stone vessels from tombs RI and R40 at Reqaqnah. The stone sherds, which came to Bolton from Tamworth Castle Museum are some of these vessels. Identifying the sherds as being from Reqaqnah is only a first step in making an assessment of them. The fact that they were not marked is explained by the procedure that although at Bêt Khallâf objects were inked as Kl, K2 and so on by Garstang, at Reqaqnah, he stuck hand-written paper labels on objects

9 and over time these were liable to become detached and lost, which had happened. Garstang published an account of his excavations at Reqaqnah,"' which included certain illustrations but he took more photographs than were likely to be published and these are very valuable in considering the site and its finds. The history of Dynasty III and identifying the royal and private monuments of the period is not entirely straightforward and there are a number of debateable issues. Manetho describes the rulers of Dynasties I and II as being from Thinis, the area of Abydos, and those of Dynasty III as being from Memphis and eight or nine in number." The only clearly recognizable figure in the list is the second ruler who is Djoser, in whose reign lived Imhotep, who created the first stone building. Modern scholarship has identified a possible five kings of the Dynasty, namely Nebka / Sanakht, Neterkhet / Djoser, Sekhemkhet, Khaba and Huni. The first two are associated with large mud-brick mastaba stairway tombs at Bêt Khallâf, which Garstang had excavated in 1900-1901. The tomb K.l with sealings of Neterkhet-Djoser stood to a height of eight metres above desert level and was approximately 85 metres long by 45 metres wide. The stairway in descending below ground level was covered by a barrel roof or archway of brick and there were also shafts down to the stairway, blocked at the bottom by portcullis stones. The chambers yielded a tremendous quantity of fragments of alabaster vessels and bowls as well as vessels of other stones, pottery and flints.'

2 Tomb K.2 of Sanakht was of similar type but not as large. It had two staircases leading to chambers of which one set had apparently not been 8 University of Liverpool, School of Archaeology, Classics & Oriental Studies Archive ink written list 9 University of Liverpool, School of Archaeology, Classics & Oriental Studies Archive - site information sheets. ,0 J. Garstang, Tombs of the Third Egyptian Dynasty at Reqaqnah and Bêt Khallâf Westminster 1904. 1 Manetho, Aegyptiaca, translated by W. G. Waddell, London 1964, pp. 40-45. '• Garstang, op. cit. (note 6), pp. 8-11.