" temple of Thothmes III.
XXVII. Catalogue of small Libyan tombs.

INTRODUCTION.

1. It was on Mr. Somers Clarke's proposition that El Kab was selected
for last winter's work of the Research Account. Mr. Clarke has for
some years been interested in this site, and has published some of
the XVIIIth dynasty tombs there. He wished to see the smaller tombs
excavated, and the great area inside the town examined, so, with his
colleague, Mr. J. J. Tylor, he offered a considerable subscription to
the funds, on condition that El Kab should be the selected site. To
Mr. Jesse Howarth, equally with these gentlemen, we are indebted for
that support without which the excavations could not have been carried
out.

We arrived at El Kab on the 1st of December, and within four days had
cleared out several of the uninscribed tombs in the famous hill, and
had made them into a most comfortable house. Nothing in Egypt makes so
pleasant a dwelling as a rock-tomb. In a house in which window and
door are one, and three sides and the roof are of solid rock, there
can be no draughts, and the range of temperature night and day is very
small. We had a room each, another for a dining-room, and in two more
I packed away my forty workmen. These were nearly all men known in
previous years at Kuft and Naqada, for the natives of El Kab are few
in number and of inferior physical strength, so that their labour at
two piastres a day was dearer than that of the picked Kuftis at four.
All the conditions of work were very pleasant, much better than I
have known in Egypt before. No crowd of loiterers and dealers' spies
haunted the work as at Kuft, no robbery by workmen threatened us as
at Thebes. Surveying poles were left out for weeks together; at most
villages they would have been stolen the first night for firewood.

There was some delay in getting the necessary permission for digging;
after a fortnight's waiting we received it, and began to work upon
the XIIth dynasty cemetery. Halfway through March the digging was
gradually brought to an end, and map-making and packing occupied the
time till we left in the beginning of April. Fifty-four boxes of
pottery and other objects were brought to England, were exhibited
during the month of July at University College, and were then
dispersed to various museums, Oxford, Philadelphia, Chicago and
Manchester, receiving the largest shares. I have to acknowledge much
help received both in Egypt and England.