of a single
thick gold wire. The total weight of gold was about 4 oz. (125
grammes). In the N.W. corner of the tomb, behind the head, were five
vessels of ivory, two very coarse vertical jars (14 and 19 cm.), two
bowls (23 and 26 cm. diameter), one with a spout (X, 26), and a bowl
of the spreading shape of Ka-mena's bronze (XII, 51); there was also a
small double vase of limestone (X, 15). A little steatite plaque with
the inscription Neb.ra was stated by the workmen to have come from
this tomb, and there is no reason to doubt them; but I did not
actually see it in place. The name Neb.ra is one of the three Ka names
on the shoulder of the famous archaic statue No. I at Ghizeh, and the
name on the plaque may perhaps be the same, though it is not written
in the square Ka frame.

In the side of the tomb were two small balls of limestone and one of
carnelian, in shape and size like playing marbles, and some fragments
of malachite. By the door were some chips of diorite bowls. The
marbles were clearly part of a set for a game (_cf._ Naqada, PL. VII),
and the fact that the set was incomplete, and that the stone bowls
were broken, makes it probable, in spite of the presence of the gold
nuggets, that the tomb had been partially plundered. The early robbers
may easily have passed over the gold, for the moist and tough clay
hides small objects only too well; it was only the weight of two small
lumps of clay that betrayed to me the presence of the nuggets inside.

The quantity of gold remaining in so small a tomb shows how rich the
large interments may have been, and how strong was the temptation to
rob them.

In Stairway 1 the lines of the surrounding mass of brickwork were
traced, but the walls were not high enough to show the recessed
panels, which probably once existed.

In Stairway 6, a large tomb, coarse shapes of pottery (XII, 23, 35)
were found, and also vertical alabaster jars, fragments of an
alabaster table, and of bowls, hairpins of ivory, and an oblong slate
palette with two stone rubbers. This was of one of the later shapes of
Naqada. There was also a large pot (of the shape XII, 49, but larger),
similar to the later pottery of the New Race.

Stairway 5 must be counted in this group of tombs, though it differed
from the common type in three respects. It was much larger, the
brickwork being 41 metres long by 20 wide; instead of an open stairway
it had a small shaft opening into a long inclined plane which led do