PYRAMIDS AT GEBEL BARKAL had to be abandoned. A depth had been reached which brought us down to the level of the Nile, or perhaps below it, and it seemed that its waters had forced their way by infiltration into the shaft.

This discovery was both vexatious and disappointing, for since I had no pump or pipes I was obliged to leave this portion of the year's work unfinished. For twelve weeks we all had worked hard in the intense heat, and under considerable difficulties, and it was disheartening, after the expenditure of much time and money, to have our labours suddenly brought to an end from such an unexpected cause.

From what has been said above it is clear that from first to last there is nothing in the pyramid, or in its shafts, which enables us to fix the date of its building. The reliefs in its chapel, as made known by Cailliaud, suggest, it is true, that the pyramid was built towards the end of the Ptolemaic Period ; but the first shaft, and the little chambers at the bottom of it, with their squat square pillars, were not unlike those which are found in rock-hewn tombs of the Xllth Dynasty in Egypt. One thing is certain, the shafts and the chambers were made after an Egyptian model. The inscribed fragment of the wine jar mentioned above is important, for the writing upon it is sufficiently distinct and good to indicate roughly when the jar was broken in the tomb. The expert to whom it was submitted a few years ago thought it belonged to the period of the first or second century before Christ, but Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, K.C.B., Director of the British Museum, and Mr. F, G. Kenyon, Assistant Keeper in the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum, are in favour of a later date, and are inclined to assign it to the second century after Christ. If the wine jar were broken at the conclusion of the sacrificial meal which was eaten in connection with the ceremonies performed when the deceased was buried under the tomb, then we must believe that the pyramid was built in the second century of our era. On the other hand, we know that in Egypt the tombs of royal personages, and of people of high rank, were kept open by the priests for the express purpose of inducing relatives and friends to contribute off'erings, chiefly in kind, at stated seasons of the year, and we are justified in assuming that 175