If the large tomb at Wady D was periodically worked over by robbers since 1916, this does not seem to have been the case with the small plundered pit excavated in the gebel floor south of the wady head (Fig. 29).
This pit was one of two observed on the right side of the wady head upon arrival, its east face parallel with the gebel cliff. Neither pit was sketched by Carter, and the one excavated is not visible in Burton’s 1922 photo (Fig. 25a). Thomas did not mention either pit, referring only to the seven Carter had noted further to the west along the wady bed (Figs. 10, 18). Thomas considered the seven pits subsidiary to the gorge tomb, as paralleled in Wadys A-C (Thomas 1966: 198). Since the pit excavated in 1988 was cut into rock, it was likely pharaonic.
Excavation revealed that an east-west rectangular pit had been cut downward (Pit), its eastern end in good rock and its western end in conglomerate. This pit measured roughly i. o x 2.0 m, and, near the surface in loose conglomerate, ancient sherds of types already encountered at Area I were found. A broken piece of orange quartzite, charcoal, and burnt wood as well as a cigarette or match box were also found (Figs. 83b, 84b). While excavating, good quality rock was uncovered on the east; this was the stratum into which a chamber was eventually hollowed (Chamber; Figs. 51, 53). The floor of this chamber was 3.5 m below the wady bed. Examination of the Chamber and the rocky side walls of the Pit revealed that a horizontal layer of chert separated the upper conglomerate from the good rock surface below it.
The Pit was also excavated in a westward direction, where a series of steps leading to the Chamber was revealed (Fig. 52). The steps were rather rough and crumbly near the surface but more stable further down.
The fill of the Pit yielded the following:
In the approximately 1.0 x 2.0 m depression at the surface and close to thegebelface, about a meter below the ground surface
A few cigarette or match box remains, sherds, and the following items thought to be Tuthmoside in date (see Fig. 28 for most): two model tools (Fig. 83a, c, e), a model offering pot with sHght residue (p75), a serpentinite vessel handle (Fig. 83b), and the rim of a small travertine ointment jar (Fig. 83d);
Slightly higher than these remains and to the west, when the Pit was extended
A mass of leather, bone, wood, and textile, some charred and covered with resin (Fig. 84c-e).
The nail-studded leather appeared to be sandal fragments, probably of Roman or Coptic date (see Chap, i); near them were modem black cloth, fine sand, and post-New Kingdom sherds (p 103-p 108). Also from this expanded area was a sherd that joined a New Kingdom sherd from the wady head (p4i); a second sherd from Area I (p89) may also have belonged to a sherd in the pit. Other fragments from Area I matched sherds found in the Pit (p33—p34, p6o, py6, p83, pi 12).
Fig. 28. Model objects from fill of Pit. Left to right: axe, blade, miniature bowl, rim of travertine ointment jar
The Pit further yielded i8th dynasty pottery: the neck of a decorated marl jug (p8s), part of a large foreign jar (pi02), a wall sherd of an extremely large marl jar (WQPB), and another model dish (p77). Also found were: a partially abraded, fine-grained black granite fragment that seemed to have been the shoulder of a statue (Fig. 83f), a three-sided hmestone fragment (Fig. 83g), a piece of a faience finger ring (Fig. 83 d [bottom]), and a section of wood worked with a rounded comer (Fig. 84a). All of these could have been contemporary with the tomb in the gorge above.
World History
