Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 10 in CENTURY: EGYPT 073
the whole space, furnishing ample shelter against the rays of
an African sun. From the courtyard one entered the women's
apartments, the " harem," the principal room of which
was an open court surrounded with colonnades. Towards
another side a door led from the courtyard to the diningrooms,
and farther, into the sleeping-apartments of the owner
and his grown-up sons. Behind these were the spacious
kitchens and stables. Servants' rooms, larder and a granary,
which was filled through a door reached by a ladder, completed
the arrangements of such an Egyptian house. In
the buildings there were discovered all sorts of remains of
the ancient inhabitants : pots and bowls, plates and little
lamps of earthenware, sewing needles in bronze, flint
knives,
balls of wool, fishing nets, toys and simple ornaments.
Rich booty was obtained from the rubbish heaps, upon
which atone time potsherds and old paper had been thrown.
Especially the fragments of papyri discovered in this way
are the most important for us, as up to the present onlv
verv'rew documents of the profane literature of this period
have come down to us. Their contents are various : to
the literary pieces, such as parts of a papyrus on medicine,
like the famous one of Ebers, or a book on veterinary medicine,
must be added all sorts of private letters, official documents,
bills and such like. And so by means of these we
gain an interesting insight into the life of a small Egyptian
town, an insight which cannot be gained from
the tomb inscriptions
and the sepulchral objects deposited with the dead.
Similar are the results obtained by the excavation of a
second town in the Fayum, the ruins of which are called todav
Gurob. This town is about four or five hundred years
later than Kahun, above described. Its existence was likewise
of only short duration. It joined a temple founded
by Thothmes III. in the first half of the fifteenth century
before Christ, and was deserted, after many struggles,
under
the successor of Rameses II., King Merenptah, 1300 b. c.