Quite close to Hawara, at Illahun, in the ruins of the town which was
built by Usertsen's workmen when they were building his pyramid, Prof.
Petrie found fragments of pottery of types which we now know well from
excavations in Crete and Cyprus, though they were then unknown. They are
fragments of the polychrome Cretan ware called, after the name of the
place where it was first found in Crete, Kamares ware, and of a black
ware ornamented with small punctures, which are often filled up with
white. This latter ware has been found elsewhere associated with XIIIth
Dynasty antiquities. The former is known to belong in Crete to the
"early Minoan" period, long anterior to the "late Minoan" or "Palace"
period, which was contemporary with the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty.
We have here another interesting proof of a connection between XIIth
Dynasty Egypt and early Minoan Crete. The later connection, under the
XVIIIth and following dynasties, is also illustrated in the same reign
by Prof. Petrie's finds of late Mycenaean objects and foreign graves at
Medinet Gurob.*
* One man who was buried here bore the name An-Tursha,
"Pillar of the Tursha." The Tursha were a people of the
Mediterranean, possibly Tylissians of Crete.
These excavations at Hawara, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob were carried out
in the years 1887-9.
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