Dows Dunham Recollections of an Egyptologist

Meroe. Deposit of the queen's jewelry in
Tomb W5. The skull of the queen's maid
is at top left.
.
I strolled off casually in the direction taken by Said Ahmed, who went
down into a hole where two or three of the Egyptians were working. I
followed him. The men were crouched down in a small tomb, busily
working with knives and brushes. I joined them and watched as they
laid bare a number of skeletons and a small deposit of objects, in which
the glint of gold was beginning to appear. After a time the situation
became sufficiently clear for me to begin taking notes and making
preliminary sketches. At the right the principal burial lay in the remains
of a wooden coffin, with a necklace of gold beads around its neck. To
the left were several other skeletons, one of which had on its chest a
bronze mirror that partly concealed a tight little group of jewelry. At
this point our Egyptian photographer was sent for, and he took a few
pictures while the already waning afternoon light still lasted. When
there was insufficient light for further work, we stopped for the night,
and two of our most trusted men settled down to keep watch until
morning. None of the local people had any idea of what was going on,
and the day's work came to an end without their suspicions being
aroused. As soon as it was light enough the next morning, the recording
was completed, and the contents, placed in covered baskets, were
removed to the house for further recording and safekeeping. The
tomb where this find was made was the burial under a small queen's
pyramid known as W 5, and the deposit of jewelry, originally contained
in a cloth bag, had been in the charge of the queen's maid, who was
buried with her mistress. It consisted of six pairs of gold earrings, two
pairs of gold and carnelian bracelets, and a number of necklaces. Half of
this deposit is now in the Boston Museum, and half went to the
Khartoum Museum.
Camp at Meroe.
Life at Meroe and Naga-ed-Dêr
During a considerable part of winter 1923 Reisner himself was in
Egypt, and I was in charge at the site at Meroe, assisted by my wife and
a young Bostonian named Amory Goddard. We had built a rough
excavating house of fieldstone, roofed with palm logs and palm leaves.
The weather was hot and the work was usually dirty, and our favorite
relaxation at the end of the day's work, after we had had a bath, was to
go riding. Unfortunately, however, we were not well provided with
mounts. The expedition had one horse, one donkey, and a hired camel
of rather indifferent quality. As all three of us much preferred the horse,
we used to take turns on him. The horse loved to gallop, and his
rider would dash about, running circles around the others. The donkey
was quite a good one and would trot along at a fairly steady pace. But
the camel, who was rather lazy, was difficult to urge into a slow shuffling
trot; this was only slightly less uncomfortable than his usual walk,
in which one was thrown forward and back in a distressing manner.
Really good riding camels are rare, but if one is lucky enough to find
one that moves at a slow trot, it is bearable and one can get accustomed
to it. Needless to say, the one whose turn it was to ride our camel was
distinctly out of luck.
This particular camel had one blind eye, which normally did not much
matter. When not wanted, he was hobbled and turned loose to graze,
mostly on the leaves of the many thorn trees that grew all about. His
owner, one of our local workers, would go out and catch him when
wanted and ride him into the camp. One evening when he was being
brought in, he promptly ran into a tree and then into a stone wall. It
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