volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Monuments of Kashta and Harua. 335
standing that I had the first offer of everything found
there. I then crossed over to Luxor, where I found
de Morgan's workmen clearing out the ruins of a small
temple which had been built by the Nubian king Kashta
and his queen Amenartas. As the British Museum
possessed very few antiquities of the period of the Nubian
rule over Thebes, I acquired through the good offices
of the overseer of the excavations the unique statue
of Harua^ and the fine alabaster votive vessel bearing
the names of Kashta and his queen, ^ and several other
objects from the same site. Through the same official
I acquired the remarkable coffin of Pen-sensen Heru,'
the son of the Libyan Shaqshaq and an Egyptian lady,
who was probably a priestess. I had now made all
the arrangements possible with the natives for a future
supply of antiquities, and there was nothing to be done
but to await results. I therefore returned to Cairo,
and began to discuss with the officials of the Service of
Antiquities the possibility of acquiring monuments of
the Ancient Empire.
At that time the British Museum possessed very
few antiquities belonging to the period of the first six
dynasties, and as very few specimens of the bas-reliefs
and figures of that time came into the market, it seemed
as if we should have to abandon all hope of adding materially
to that section of the National Collection. Curiously
enough, none of the great collectors of the first half of
the nineteenth century, e.g., Belzoni, Salt,* Blacas,
D'Athanasi, seemed to be interested in acquiring monuments
older than those of the Xllth d3Tiasty, and all
their collections lacked large good specimens from the
mastabah-tombs at Sakkarah and Gizah, and from the
cemeteries lying to the south of these places. Mariette
'^
See Guide to the Third and Fourth Egyptian Rooms, p. 102 (No.
32.555)-
" See Guide to the Egyptian Collections, p. 256.
° See Guide to the First and Second Egyptian Rooms, p. 86 ff. (No.
24,906).
* We owe the statue of Betchmes (Illrd or IVth dyn.) to Salt
(see Guide to the Egyptian Galleries [Sculpture), p. 2.