address Cairo.

My dear Smyly,
I hope you have been
receiving instalments of Tebtunis I regularly, and
that some ideas have occured to you about 61.¹ We
have long driven away the cobwebs of κεχωρισμένη
πρόσοδος κ.τ.λ. in the interest of new finds.²
Our career has been more than usually chequered.³
The first cemetery proved a frost,⁴ nothing but
late Roman or pre-4th dynasty Egyptian, neither
at all in our line:⁵ so we returned to the place
we found the papyrus mummies in tolerable
preservation last year and set to work on the Roman
tombs.⁶ These produced several rather fine portrait
mummies & some nice glass etc,⁷ but what was more
to the point there were some early Ptolemaic tombs mixed
up with the Roman, so we got a few more papyrus
mummies, which will form a useful supplement to those

obtained last year.⁸ Then we moved southwards and
at a site about 6 miles west of Tebtunis, called
Khamsîn discovered another cemetery of crocodiles.⁹
It was quite small and only took 2 ½ days to
dig, but the proportion of crocodiles stuffed
with papyri was extraordinarily high, and 5
or 6 of the beasts rank in quantity ^of papyri with
the best of the Tebtunis ones, except 27.¹⁰
Fortune however dealt us a nasty blow by
causing demotic to preponderate greatly.¹¹ Still
there are some nice Greek documents, and it is
rather useful that they follow immediately after
the Tebtunis ones in date, belonging to
Soter II, after his return from exile, and Neos
Dionysius.¹² The Ptolemaic tombs there we had
mostly dug in 1900 when we found only 8 or 9
papyrus cartonnage mummies, the majority of
them having been buried in large pit tombs
which had been plundered anciently.¹³ This time

however we took the trouble to clear these out,
and the desert being particularly good we
recovered sundry pieces of cartonnage and even
a few mummies in good condition and not much
knocked about.¹⁴ Then hearing that the
natives had discovered a crocodile cemetery
at Illahun we moved here a day or two
ago. This cemetery necropolis was of course dug by Petrie
14 years ago, but not very well.¹⁵ It is odd
for instance that he didn't find out in digging
the temple of Kahun that the sides of the ridge
on which it stands were honeycombed with
Ptolemaic tombs containing papyrus mummies
(2nd cent) and that there was a nice cemetery
of 3rd cent B.C. mummies within 100 yards.
The natives however naturally of course found out both subsequently
and naturally have destroyed pretty nearly
everything.¹⁶ The crocodile cemetery however was
not discovered until a few months ago, being
away by itself in a very low piece of desert¹⁷

So it is practically untouched. So far however
it has not proved a success, papyrus being scarce
and badly preserved. What papyri there are seem
to be of Augustus' time.¹⁸ Whether the Ptolemaic
crocodiles are th included in these which have no
papyri or are somewhere else, we have not yet
decided.¹⁹ We expect to finish this place in a
fortnight and then to move to Hawara which is
about 7 miles off, there to investigate the crocodile
tombs which Petrie found but did not dig seriously.²⁰
Since Hawara was the cemetery of Arsinoë, there
are possibilities, but I dont put much faith in
them.²¹ We shall hardly get back much before
April 28, and Tebtunis I, I foresee, will not be
finished till the end of June.²² Are you going to
the Coronation ?²³ It would be nice if you ^could come and
pay us a visit at Oxford in the last week of June
or thereabouts. Having found more miscellaneous
antiquities than usual this time we are contemplating
a joint exhibition with Petrie, so shall be in town
the first week in July.²⁴

Jouguet has had great luck in finding papyrus
mummies in good condition this time.²⁵ His camp was
only 1 ½ hour from ours at Khamsîn²⁶ so we were
able to exchange visits and mutually gloat over
our respective finds and the ill success so far of
our German rival,²⁷ who had the ὕβρις to select
Harît which we dug in 1899, but having found
nothing there he's now gone elsewhere.²⁸ The Fayûm
has is frightfully exhausted. We are on the track
of one or two rather promising sites in Upper
Egypt for next year. The use of papyrus cartonnage
was by no means contained to the Fayûm, and
we have been buying some rather good pieces from
a new place, though they can't see the light
unfortunately for some years yet.²⁹ But in view
of the approaching slump in Ptolemaic papyri
owing to the various new discoveries it behoves
you to get out P.P. III as soon as possible.³⁰
Jouguet will make rather a mess of his, I expect.
He is a very nice chap, but hasn't much idea of
reading a papyrus - still less of undoing a
mummy case.³¹
We have been favored by exceptionally gorgeous
weather and have had a rare good time. The next
month will be more trying probably, for the sirocco

is now due.³²
The nice example set by Dublin in giving me
a degree was nothing in being followed by
Germany which has made us Ph Ds of Königsberg.³³
There is no hood, I regret to say. The Dublin
one excites much envy among my colleagues.
Love to Mahaffy. Dont let him put any of the facts
of this letter into print. We There is not the least
chance of our being able to come to Dublin this year,
I fear. Indeed now that the French & Germans have
taken up papyrus digging we shall go on with it
regularly so long as we, the sites & the money
last, and so shall always be as busy as ever
in England.
Hoping to see you in the summer and
with remembrances from Hunt.