Jan.9] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1894.peopleof the province of Unt (theharenome). We are left in the
darkas to whose statueit was. Baedeker,for some reasonI do not
follow,saysit was that of Kai the son of Tehuti-hotep ; but Kai was
the fatherof Tehuti-hotep, andit does not appear to be stated in
the inscription thatthe statue representedhim. It was morelikely
to represent one of the Usertesen or Amenemhat kings.
Theinscriptionspeciallymentionsthe road by which the statue
was brought as remarkable, andwe shall see the reason of this later
on.
§ II. Now havingexhaustedour references, it onlyremainsto say
that the actual position of the quarry wasunknown, but it was
generallyand apparently wrongly supposed to be the alabaster
quarrieswhichlie in the eastern hillsnearAsyut.
Towardsthe end of December, 1891, the Arabs nearTell el
AmarnatookMr. P. E. Newbury, thenin the service of the Egypt
Exploration Fund, to what theyappearto have thought wasthe
tombof Khu-n-aten, for which he was searching. Insteadof a tomb,
if turned out to be the largest of the alabaster quarries, andhere
Mr.Newburystayeda short while,andnotedthe names of several
kings inscribedon the walls of the entrance passageandon the
fallenmassesof rock at the foot of the passage inside.
Greatlyinterestedby the description he gave us, Mr. Blackden
andmyselfwentthereimmediately,andstayedsomewhile.
We found besidesthe cartouches seenby Mr. Newbury, some
newones,and a quantity of hieratic graffiti,and it was from these
latterthatMr.Blackdenmadethe important discoverythatwe had
stumbledon the original Hat-nubof Una. Leavingthe great quarry,
we made a sketch mapand exploredthe surrounding hills, and
founda number of uninscribed alabasterworkings,andonesmall
quarry containinga number of stelae and graffiti, chiefly of the
Xllthdynasty.
We were unableto spend moretime, so the copying hadto be
left till later, andit is with the results of our third expeditionthatI
wishto deal.
Thislast was undertaken in order to accurately copyas much as
was visible, andso we camped in the great quarryandworkedfrom
sunriseto sunset for eight days.
As we were aboutfive hours distantfromthe cultivation, it was
necessaryto send backa camel everynight for water, and if our
provisionshad not run short we should not have comebackso soon.
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