| Southport : Original Sources in Exploration |
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Archaeological Survey of Nubia C. M. Firth, G. Elliot Smith, and D.E. Derry
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Archaeological Survey of Nubia (Bulletin 5). (Published in 1910 by the Egyptian Ministry of Finance, Survey Department, Cairo.)
Archaeological Report (by C.M. Firth).
The Destruction of the Cemeteries in the Neighbourhood of Dakka.
The half-season's work of the Archaeological Survey of Nubia, with
which this Bulletin deals, was the excavation of the cemeteries and
buildings of the ancient district of Pselchis. The great plain of Dakka
consists of a wide expanse of ancient alluvium resting on the Nubian
sandstone. The portion to be dealt with in this preliminary report is
about eight kilometers long by cne-and-a-half broad.
The ground presents many analogies with tbat of Koshtamna, only on a
larger scale. There was the same Ptolemaic-Koman cemetery with graves
of the Early Dynastic period scattered through it; the same large
C-group cemetery with sand-buried superstructures and pottery only just
preserved by this very chance from entire removal by sebakh digging.
Cemeteries succeed each other throughout the eight kilometers , and
where the sebakh-digging in ancient and modern times has been active,
the disturbed surface strewn with fragments of bone and pottery affords
evidence that, in that part at least of the alluvium which adjoins the
desert, there was hardly a square meter of suitable ground which
had not been utilized for burial.
There is no doubt that the whole plain was at one time cultivable
either by direct irrigation from the river, or, as at present, from
deep wells in the alluvium. It would appear that the water percolates
into these from the river, perhaps along the horizontal junction of the
sandstone and the alluvium, and this percolation is favoured by the
fact that the alluvium appears to be actually deeper in the centre of
the plain than at the river bank, although accompanied by no
corresponding rise in the level of the ground, but rather the reverse,
as one goes inland from (P.2) the river.
When the Aswan Dam is completed, and the reservoir is full, a
considerable shallow lake will be formed behind Dakka temple; the
existing wells and saqia shafts will remain full, and a very large area
will become cultivable as soon as the reservoir begins to be emptied.
The existence of these wells will enable a permanent village to be
built on the desert edge, an event otherwise impossible, owing to the
great distance of the desert from the river. The late summ er
cultivation will coincide with the presence of a considerable male
population in the villages, for at the season in question a large
number of servants and others leave Cairo and the other large towns
owing to temporary non-employment. But even if these men do not engage
in agricultural work, the land will be available, and it is possible
that the flooding by the reservoir will not prohibit the growth of
date-palms at certain places, particularly on those higher alluvial
banks next the desert to which reference has already been made.
The present method of cultivation is one which has been peculiarly
fatal to ancient remains, and owing to the special conformation of the
Dakka plain „ it would appear that the method of irrigation by well and
saqia has been in use at least from Roman times. This species of
irrigation has, however, the great disadvantage that the water contains
no suspended matter, and since every heavy wind covers the plain with
sand, it becomes necessary to add a thin layer of fertile soil to the
fields each year. This soil is dug from the higher ancient alluvial
banks, and since it is precisely those banks which were utilized in
ancient times as burial-places, the Nubian cemeteries have suffered
severely at the hands of cultivators. Sometimes an entire alluvial bank
is removed together with any ancient remains which may have existed in
it, but more generally it is the surface only, to a depth of from one
to two meters , which is thus removed, a depth, however, which is still
amply sufficient for the destruction, of the vast majority of ancient
cemeteries.
While a considerable amount of this sebakh-digging is, no doubt,
recent, a great deal of it is ancient enough. The earth removed when
cutting a Ptolemaic-Eoman tomb must have been considerable, and it
seems to have been carried away at the time the graves were dug, no
doubt for agricultural purposes. This may have led to the removal of
the soft contents of ancient graves as a fertilizer, and this fact
alone can explain the disappearance of the entire contents of (P.3)
chambers, even down to the bones. In modern grave-plundering, the bones
usually remain, but in this sebakh-digging the grave is filled with
blown sand, while on the floor are perhaps a few of the larger bones,
such as the femora, which were set aside as being too large to go into
the sebakh-baskets. Pottery generally shared the fate of the smaller
bones, being smashed to pieces and sent out with the earth ; only the
large jars round the sides of the grave, or the smallest pieces, which
escaped notice by being covered by the layer of debris on the floor of
the pit, being preserved. No doubt an occasional profit on bronze,
gold, or beads, rendered this plundering of ancient tombs attractive,
but in view of the fact that the contents of the grave were removed
bodily, and are not found just outside the graves, it is quite
permissible to conjecture that the destruction was due (as it is at the
present day) not from the desire to obtain objects of value, but from a
motive which was primarily agricultural.
The fellahin of Nubia, even in the presence of active sebakh-digging,
are quite prepared to attribute the resulting disturbance of the ground
to dealers from Luxor or the visits of an archaeologist. They have
learnt that antiquities have a value, and that ancient sites are the
special care of the Government, and in their desire to escape censure
(especially from a Government official), they will endeavour to fix on
anyone but themselves the blame for a condition of things which is the
outcome of the more imm ediate needs of an unsophisticated peasantry,
and which may have taken place long before the historical value of
ancient Egyptian or Nubian sites was recognized. A properly excavated
site is always recognizable, even after the lapse of several years. The
small piles of bones at each graveside, with the broken pottery by
them, are a perfectly unmistakable indication that the work has been
done in a more or less orderly manner. In the same way, plundering in
ancient times shows a local disturbance of the skeleton or
grave-furniture, and in this respect differs from the modern system,
which turns everything over in the search for objects of value, and
leaves the grave and its surroundings in such a condition as to at once
betray the influences which have been at work.
The partial destruction of the Dakka cemeteries may, then, in general
be attributed to the sebakh-digging, which has completely destroyed or
scarred the even surface both of the alluvial banks and of the desert
itself. Such cemeteries as have survived will be found briefly
described in the following pages.
Summary of Work done up to December 31, 1909 (p.4).
The following cemeteries were excavated:—
Cemetery 92/200, East Bank.
(i). A large plundered New Empire communal grave.
(ii). Two side-chamber graves of the mediaeval or Byzantine period.
(iii). A few isolated poor C-group graves, entirely cleared out by sebakh -digging.
Cemetery 93.
A small cemetery, completely plundered, of the latest Early Dynastic
and B-group. One or more early C-group graves have been intruded on the
cemetery. The graves are, for the most part, of the circular beehive
type.
Cemetery 94/1.
Late C-group, with a few intruded New Empire burials. The cemetery is
dug in the upper desert in a stratum of rolled pebbles and sand. The
graves are oval or rectangular, with small stone cairns. The funerary
offerings were placed, as usual, outside the superstructure, but the
handsome incised pottery is almost entirely absent, and the
red-polished black-topped bowls are reduced to the size of models. The
cemetery is probably a poor late one, perhaps contemporaneous with the
New Empire.
Cemetery 94/100.
Just below the above cemetery, there is a bed of ancient alluvial mud
deposited between the desert and a lower outcrop of sandstone.
The New Empire cemetery (p.5) was dug in this ground as being more
suitable than the higher desert with its loose stony soil. The New
Empire graves are rather long deep pits, with or without side-chambers.
The burials were in many cases made in coffins which had been entirely
eaten away by white ants.
Grave 125 was a large comm unal or family burying-place of the pit and
end-chamber type, and contained a large quantity of the funerary
pottery typical of the period.
Grave 128 had two side-chambers in opposite walls of the pit. The
northernmost of these chambers contained an extended burial accompanied
by some blue-glazed faience and a good copper mirror.
Cemetery 94/200.
A group of archaic graves of the circular beehive type, mud-plastered
internally. Three New Empire burials were also found in this cemetery.
Cemetery 94/300.
A large Ptolemaic-Roman cemetery of pit and end-chamber tombs cut in
the ancient alluvial mud, with door-blocks of vertical sandstone slabs
or mud-bricks. A few tombs contained mumm ies in gilded and painted
affixed cartonnages, but these, although apparently in good
preservation, had been entirely destroyed by white ants, only the
coloured and gilded plaster surviving the ravages of these insects.
Cemetery 95/1.
A few poor graves of the Early Dynastic period, together with a few plundered New Empire burials.
Cemetery 95/100.
A patch of empty circular archaic graves.
Cemetery 96/1 (p.6).
Dug in the high desert. Large comm unal burial-places with two or more
chambers entered from a central shaft. The contents of the chambers
were in the utmost confusion through plundering and frequent re-use as
burial-places. The scarabs point to this and the next cemetery being
from the period of Thothmes III and Amenophis III onwards. There were
very considerable quantities of pottery in the chambers, much of which
was of the Middle New Empire.
Cemetery 96/100.
Evidently a continuation of the above, containing the same types of
comm unal grave with the addition of a few single burials. Grave 106
had a later burial in the mouth of the shaft, which was plundered.
Beneath it, however, remained an undisturbed interment of the New
Empire, with a very complete equipment of pottery and funerary
furniture, including a fine bronze knife and axe, which were
undoubtedly the actual weapons of the owner of the grave.
Both No. 96/1 and No. 96/100 had in their neighbourhood a certain
number of graves of the C-group period, but of the poorest description.
These are probably the original graves of a cemetery of which the use
was continued in the New Empire. It is, however, quite possible that
when poor C-group graves are found in the neighbourhood of those of the
New Empire, the burials are those of slaves. These C-group graves are
roughly roofed with sandstone, and covered with a low heap of sand and
pebbles.
Cemetery 96/300.
Repeats on a smaller scale what has been observed in No. 96/1 and No. 96/100.
Cemetery 97.
A large C-group cemetery dug in drift-sand with remains of the usual
stone cairns or superstructures with incised pottery bowls and jars in
position. The cemetery had, however, been entirely plundered. (p.7) But
in one grave also was found a very fine carved and glazed steatite seal
of scarab shape, with the back carved into the form of a couchant lion
of very fine work. Such skeletons as remained in position were
contracted on the right side, with the head towards the river (local
east).
Cemetery 98/1.
A considerable cemetery of the Ptolemaic-Roman period, dug on the site
of an Early Dynastic cemetery. The whole ground was being cut to pieces
by sebbakhin on our arrival, and broken pottery and bones from the
early and late graves lay scattered on the freshly disturbed surface.
The whole cemetery was cleared, recorded and planned, although, from
its terribly damaged condition, results of great value could hardly be
expected.
Cemetery 98/100.
Contained a few graves of the New Empire, all much plundered.
Cemetery 99.
A small Predynastic and Early Dynastic cemetery of oval or rectangular
graves, once closed with sandstone slabs. The cemetery, although in
actual process of removal by the sebbakhin, yielded several pieces of
the incised pottery of the Early Dynastic period.
Cemetery 100.
The name given to the excavations carried out on the site of the town
of Pselchis. Near the river and about 500 meters north of Dakka
temple, was a small mud-brick building which had been converted into a
"sheikh" or Moslem saint's tomb. The character of the brick-work
revealed the nature of the structure, which probably owed its
preservation to the piety of the villagers. The offerings of modern
Nubian pottery were removed, and the building cleared out. It appeared
to be of Roman date, and consisted of two small rooms with a staircase
leading to a small upper platform. To the west of (p.8) this building
was a huge mass of Roman pottery just covered by the sand. There were
two hundred or more amphorae, both broken and unbroken, together with
pots and jars of other shapes, and a number of bowls of fine
blue-glaze. It is possible that the small building represents a customs
house or store, at which cargoes were disembarked. Around and to the
north of this building, a complex of house walls and water-channels was
uncovered.
A considerable amount of work was done in the neighborhood of Dakka
temple. The foundations of a projected, but unfinished, addition to the
temple were cleared. The foundation blocks bore the cartouches of
Thothmes III, and are evidently taken from some earlier building, but
whether at Dakka or at some other place it is at present impossible to
determine. There is a construction platform or causeway of smooth
blackened stones, taken from the river bed, and leading to it. The
causeway could not be followed to the water's edge, as some modern
Nubian houses are built across it.[1] The wall of the Roman camp which
protected the temple on its south and west sides, was cleared, and the
south and west gates opened. These latter were protected by bastions,
in the lower stories of which were rooms the shape of which could be
established. The legionary corn mill and part of a military inscription
were recovered from the south gate.
Finally, the well of the temple was cleared out, a laborious piece of
work, rendered necessary by the possibility of its containing some
pieces of statuary or inscriptions. Nothing, however, was found, and
the well was finally filled in at the request of M. Maspero, Director-
General of the Department of Antiquities, lest it should endanger the
stability of the new underpinning of the temple. In all, about 300
Greek ostraka were recovered from the neighbourhood of the temple, and
the small brick building mentioned above.
(p.9) The above brief account covers the work of the Survey only up to
the end of November [1909]. The month of December has been entirely
taken up with the clearing of the very large and important C-group
cemetery (No. 101), of which the more detailed account must be held
over for the sixth Bulletin.
It may, however, be mentioned that it is a large cemetery of six
hundred graves with stone superstructures of the same type as those of
Cemetery 87 (Bulletin 4).
The cemetery is, in part, somewhat later than No. 87, and many of the
graves are closed with well-constructed mud-brick leaning vaults. The
superstructures are provided with chapels of mud-brick containing the
funerary pottery which was more often simply deposited at the foot of
the superstructure.
The stone superstructures have held up an enormous quantity of blown
sand, the removal of which alone has already necessitated a month's
work with a railway and. trucks. The thorough clearing of the site down
to the original surface of ancient Nile mud and compact sand has
disclosed the existence of an earlier cemetery of the Early Dynastic
and Predynastic periods, the graves of which are still closed with the
original sandstone slabs. The C-group superstructures are in some cases
built right over these covering stones.
The general impression given by the archaeological remains of the plain
of Dakka is that a large population has, in all periods, been attracted
to this fertile locality, securely situated on the west bank of the
Nile, and further protected by the great fortress of Kubban, built as
early as the Middle Kingdom to guard the desert road to the copper
mines of the Eastern Desert and the gold workings of the Wadi Alagi.
ANATOMICAL REPORT (By Professor G. Elliot Smith F.R.S., and Dr. D. E. Derry.) [2]
At the end of last season (March, 1909) we relinquished our anatomical
work in Nubia and returned to Cairo when the archaeologists were
beginning to open a cemetery (No. 92) on the east bank of the river,
nearly opposite the ancient fort at Kuri. This cemetery proved to be of
very great importance, as it yielded a most interesting series of
remains of the people who lived in the Byzantine Pagan-Period
(X-group), i.e., between the second and fourth centuries AD. A
collection of anatomical material from this cemetery was packed and
sent to Cairo, and, before this season's field-work was begun, some
time was devoted by one of us (D.E.D.) to the examination and
comparison of these bones with other Nubian and Egyptian specimens.
Cemetery 92 (X-group).
In the earliest examples of material belonging to this Byzantine
Pagan-Period, which were studied during the first season's work
(Cemetery 15 and elsewhere), we found that the people buried in graves
of the X-group were either Negroes or persons with a strong Negro
taint. Thus, in the course of last season's work (see Bulletin 3, p.
40), we were very much surprised to find that the X-group remains
(which were very few in number) showed little evidence [3] of any
negroid traits, but conformed to the Egyptian type in the men and to
the Nubian type in the women (see accounts of Cemeteries 72 and 74 in
Bulletin 3). The results of the examination of the contents of this
cemetery (No. 92) entirely support the opinion which we formed (p.12)
during the first season's investigations, viz., that the X-group people
were strongly negroid aliens, who had suddenly made their way north
into Nubia, bringing with them a mode of burial and a type of pottery
(see Bulletin 3, pp. 15 to 17) which Dr. Reisner has declared to be
distinctly non-Egyptian.
Moreover, the crania obtained from this cemetery present the
distinctive traits of the X-group series from Cemeteries 15 and 59.
Thirty-one skulls from Cemetery 92 were measured. The average maximum
lengths of fifteen male and sixteen female crania were 188/7 mm
and 181-6 mm respectively ; and the averages of the maximum
breadths of the same series were 133-6 mm and 129-3 mm
respectively. These skulls are considerably longer than those of most
other groups found in Egypt and Nubia ; they are, moreover, very narrow
in proportion—a feature which serves to distinguish them from another
long-headed series of negroid people, the Late Dynastic E-group, which
irrupted into Nubia five or six centuries earlier (see Bulletin 4, p.
28).
The X-group people were markedly prognathous and had very flat noses,
the nasal index of most of them being also highly platyrhine. Other
measurements emphasize these Negro characteristics. In most of the male
crania the cranial and facial bases are approximately equal, and in
those of the women the facial base exceeds the cranial base. The height
of the skull is almost equal to the breadth in both sexes. The relation
of the length of the tibia to the femur adds further confirmatory
evidence.
The sudden incursion into Nubia at this particular time (second to
fourth centuries A.D.) of a group of Negroes with distinctive physical
characteristics, customs and arts, is of great interest. The frequency
of injuries, especially of the skull, suggests that their journey north
had not been of an altogether peaceful nature ; but the presence of an
equal number of women amongst them exhibiting the distinctive physical
characters of the group does not favour the hypothesis that these
X-group people were members of a purely military raiding party. These
facts, taken in conjunction with the whole circumstances of the orderly
burials of these people over a widespread tract of country, suggest
that there was an imm igration into Nubia of this well-defined tribe of
Negroes as settlers, and not merely as soldiers, even if they had to
fight for their foothold in, the country.
Some (p.13) of the cranial injuries present features of special
interest. A young man buried in grave 121 had received (long before his
death) two extensive wounds (Figs. 1, 2 and 3, A and B) of the cranium
(one from a sword, the other from a heavy sword or perhaps an axe), and
then, at some subsequent period, received a third—the fatal— injury as
a slicing cut from a sword, which removed a considerable part of both
parietal bones (C).
Figs.1, 2 and 3:—Three
views of the skull of a Negro (92: 121: x) showing three severe sword
cuts of the cranium, A, B and C, from two of which (A and B) he had
recovered, and survived for some time before receiving the fatal injury
C.
A sword or axe laid open the left (p.14) side of the frontal region of
the cranium (figs.1, 2 and 3, A), destroying the prefrontal region of
the cerebral hemisphere, and forcing the anterior fragment of the
broken frontal bone forward so as to leave a huge gaping wound, the
edges of which are 28 mm apart. The weapon cut through the zygomatic
arch and the great wing of the sphenoid, and smashed through the roof
of the orbit (Fig. 3, A). From the tip of the great wing of the
sphenoid the wound extends obliquely inward and forward almost as far
as the middle line of the skull above the glabella—a length of 62 mm.
The supraorbital part of the frontal bone, which was prised forward by
the blow, had been cracked into several fragments, some of which must
have come away when the damage was first inflicted. The pieces which
remained had become firmly rejoined by callus-formation, and the
supra-orbital arch, which became broken away and displaced downward
when the injury was inflicted, is now firmly fixed.
It is astounding that this man could have survived the shock of such an
appalling blow, and have lived, as this man certainly did, for long
afterwards with this gaping chasm in his forehead and a large part of
his brain destroyed. But the case becomes more surprising still when we
realize that he recovered from another serious cranial injury (Figs. 1
and 2, B), although it is not possible to determine whether it was
inflicted at the same time as the lesion just described, or on some
other occasion. A rounded piece (B) of the left parietal bone, 42 mm.in
diameter, had been severed by a slicing blow, presumably from a sword,
and the man lived long enough afterwards for the edges of the separated
slice to become rejoined and consolidated to the skull in the greater
part of its circumference. Some small gaps exist where union had not
taken place (Fig. 2, B). After recovering from—or, perhaps, it would be
more correct to say, surviving —these two terrible cranial injuries,
this warrior eventually received his coup de grace in the form of a
slicing cut, presumably inflicted by a sword, which shaved off a part
of both parietal bones (Fig. 1, C), leaving an aperture in the cranium
measuring 43 mm in the transverse diameter and 19 mm sagittally, the
corresponding diameters of the outermost edges of the injury being 65
and 32 mm respectively. There is no evidence of any vital reaction in
the bone around the edges of this wound, which was apparently the
death-blow.
(p.15) Another skull (from grave 114) presents a lesion the nature of
which is not altogether clear. The remains are those of an elderly man
and the frontal bone presents, on the left side, a large depression,
about 37 by 18 mm , with sinuous edges. Partially encircling this
depression in its deepest part there is a clean-cut oval groove (its
major and minor axes measuring 25 mm and 17-5 mm
respectively), which has the appearance of having been scratched on the
bone artificially. But there is no reason for supposing that this
curious groove is the result of any surgical procedure. Two other
skulls, both those of men, exhibit interesting examples of healed
fractures of the skull. In one, there is a healed fracture of the left
parietal bone, involving both tables, which had been inflicted by an
axe or heavy sword. In another, an extensive wound of the left frontal
bone reached from the supra-orbital notch almost as far upward as the
coronal suture.
As a general rule in these people the teeth are very much worn, and
their pulp-cavities often exposed. For this reason, alveolar abscesses
caused by infection of the pulp-cavities are of common occurrence.
Cemetery 94/1.
The third season's work was begun at a site between two and three
kilometers north of the temple of Dakka, on the west bank of the
river and about half-a-kilometer from it.
A patch of high ground, well above the alluvium, contained thirty-five
graves included in this section, all of them dug either in sand or
sandy gravel.
The majority of these graves belonged to the Middle Nubian or C-group,
but were poorer and less well constructed than those in Cemetery 87.
There were also a few graves of the New Empire period, situated
principally on the outskirts of the cemetery. Of the thirty-five
graves, seven contained men's remains; thirteen women's ; six
children's; and the remainder were empty.
Middle Nubian Remains.
Only four male skeletons were in a condition to permit full notes and
measurements to be made. Six female crania and some or all of the long
bones of eleven bodies were examined and measured.. (p.16) The men's
crania were exceptionally large for C-group people, the averages of the
lengths and breadths of these four skulls being 190-1 mm and
135-6 mm , whereas the corresponding figures for fifty-seven Middle
Nubian males examined during last season's work are 182-6 mm and
133-1 mm respectively.
These crania are more strongly negroid than is customary in this group,
a fact which is also indicated by the proportions of the limb bones.
This applies also to the female crania, which are larger than the
average Middle Nubian women's, but they conform much more closely to
the prevailing C-group type than do the male series in this cemetery.
None of the male bones showed any sign of disease or injury; nor, in
fact, did any of the women's skeletons, but in the pelvis of one of the
latter there was a semilunar calcified mass (50x34 mm), hollowed out to
a shape somewhat like an oyster-shell. It was found lying upon the
lower of the two innominate bones (the body being on its right side).
It is most likely the remains of a partly calcified uterine myoma.
New Empire Graves.
Only two of the pits contained bones and only one of them a skull, which seemed to be that of a woman of Nubian type.
Cemetery 94/100.
This section of Cemetery 94 consisted entirely of graves of the New
Empire period. All the bodies that were still in position were extended
in long deep graves, with or without side-chambers, or in mud
moghraras, each opening off a deep pit. But a considerable amount of
disturbance of the contents of the graves had taken place at some time.
There were forty graves, only a few of which were empty: most of them
contained bones and some of them two or more bodies. Of the forty-six
skulls examined and measured, twenty-six were women's. Nine of these
were recorded in our notes as exhibiting non-Egyptian traits. Two women
were definitely Sudanese Negresses: the other seven, four women and
three men, seemed to conform to the Nubian type.
The mean lengths and breadths (p.17) of the crania in seventeen males
and twenty-four females, are respectively 184-2 and 134 mm, and 176-8
and 130-1 mm. These figures closely resemble those of the Archaic
(A-group) Egyptians found in Nubia. This portion of Cemetery 94 was
remarkable for the number of old people buried in it. It was rare to
find youthful or even young adult bodies, and the majority was composed
of people in extreme old age. Most of the skulls were quite edentulous.
One of the two Negresses buried in this cemetery exhibits the most
extreme condition of sub nasal prognathism we have ever seen (Fig. 4).
With a cranial base of 103 mm, she had a facial base (basion to
prosthion) of no less than 127 mm . This gives an alveolar index of
123-3. Duckworth [4] gives the following averages
Fig.4: The skull of a Negress (94: 136: A) exhibiting an extreme degree of prognathism.
Duckworth [4] gives the following averages for the alveolar index:
new-born European children, 93-5; adult Europeans (average from the
Catalogue, of the Royal College of Surgeons Museum, compiled by Sir W.
H. Flower), 96-2 ; male Australian Aborigines, 100-4; female Australian
Aborigines, 103-1; Ancient Egyptians (Flower's Catalogue), 95 ; African
Negroes (Flower's Catalogue), 104-4.
To further illustrate (p.18) how far removed from the majority of human
beings and how simian this woman was, in respect of this feature, we
might refer to the further figures relating to apes (taken from the
same source, p. 263): Chimpanzee, 128-8; Gorilla, 139-7; Orangutan,
153-3.
The whole of the premaxillary portion of the upper jaw projects forward
as a horizontal shelf which is on the same plane as the floor of the
nose. The incisor teeth were broken, but their roots remain: they also
were set in the horizontal plane, and, before they were broken, must
have accentuated the length of the mandible. The mandible also presents
simian features.
Cemetery 94/200.
A group of Early Dynastic (late A- or early B-group) graves were almost
all empty. Only one skull was obtained and a few long bones.
Cemetery 95/1.
This group of burials was in line with and close to Cemetery 94. It
contained a few graves of the New Empire period. In one grave was found
the skeleton of a young adult woman, in whose pelvis and abdominal
cavity there was a foetus in the seventh or eighth month of
development. The foetal head measured 92-5 mm in the
glabello-occipital diameter: it was engaged in the pelvis, the greater
part of the rest of the foetus being in the false pelvis ; but the legs
extended upward into the abdominal region and under cover of the lower
ribs. The head was lying transversely across the pelvic cavity, with
its face to the left. No deformity of any kind was found in the pelvis
to throw light upon the cause of death, such as we found in most of the
other cases of death in childbirth in other cemeteries (see Bulletin 3,
pp. 31 and 48).
Cemetery 95/100.
This part of Cemetery 95 consisted of mud moghraras containing
Ptolemaic mummies. As might be expected from the date of this cemetery,
the people (p.19) buried here were of mixed origin, although the
Egyptian type predominates. A few of them were almost certainly Nubian,
and one or two exhibited more pronounced negroid features.
Here again, as in a cemetery (No. 89) of the same period at Koshtamna,
we found representatives of the massive negroid people (see Bulletin 4,
p. 28), with whose remains we first became acquainted in the
Pre-Ptolemaic burial-place at Shellal (Cemetery 7, E-group). We had
occasion to remark, when describing the remains of these people in
Cemetery 89 last season, that they (the negroid people) were either not
mummified or treated in the crudest fashion with some pitch-like
material. This was found to be the case in Cemetery 95 also.
The mummies in this cemetery afford yet another illustration of the
decadence of the embalmer's art as practised in Nubia in Ptolemaic
times. Further examples were found of the makeshifts to which the
Ptolemaic embalmer resorted to restore the forms of bodies that had
fallen to pieces in the early stages of the process and of the other
practices, which Dr. Wood Jones has described at length in the first
Annual Report (pp. 195 et seq.) of this survey in reference to the
mummies from Hesa (Cemetery 3), Khor Ambukol (No. 14), Dabod (No. 25),
Mahdi el Qadi (No. 26), Wadi Qamar (No. 35), Meris (No. 39), and Siali
(No. 40).
All the graves that contained bodies were examined, the remains of
sixteen men and thirteen women having been studied and measured. It is
of interest to note that the white ants, which destroyed the greater
part of the cartonnage cases of these mummies, had attacked the bones
also.
There was little of pathological interest in this cemetery. A few
striking examples of osteo-arthritis and alveolar abscesses (associated
with well-worn teeth and exposed pulp-cavities), were the only cases of
disease.
There was an interesting example of pronounced asymmetry of the
forehead due to early closure of the right half of the coronal suture
and persistence of the metopic.
Cemetery 96/1.
On the highest part of the gebel, adjoining the alluvial mud in which
the graves of Cemetery 95 were cut, there were a few tombs (p.20) of
the New Empire period. They were constructed as chambers opening from
the bottom of a pit. Skeletons heaped in confusion were found in them.
Forty-six crania, almost all conforming to the Egyptian type, were described and measured.
Cemetery 96/100.
This group is really a repetition of the state of affairs just
described, on the same gebel' and about half-a-kilometer distant.
Twenty-four New Empire crania were examined and measured, bringing the
total of complete specimens representing that period in this season's
work up to 111.
Cemetery 96/200.
Still further south there was a small group of tombs, one of which, cut
in the solid sandstone, contained the remains of at least twenty
persons, some of the New Empire and others of the Ptolemaic period.
Only nine crania were obtained in a condition to permit full
measurements to be made. Of these, seven were male and they conformed
to the Dynastic Egyptian type. Five of the male skulls yield an average
breadth of 138-4 mm.
Cemetery 97.
This cemetery was of the same date (Middle Nubian) and type, as No. 87
at Koshtamna (see Bulletin 4, p. 23), but, unlike the latter, the
material was in such a poor state of preservation, that one hundred
graves yielded only five skulls fit for measurement. All five were
female and conformed to the Middle Nubian type.
Cemetery 98.
The graves included in this cemetery were spread over an immense plain
of alluvial soil, about one kilometer from the river, behind the temple
of Dakka.
Unfortunately, the graves have suffered badly at the hands of the
(p.21) sebbakhin, who are daily engaged in carrying away the soil. This
seems to have been going on for ages, for there is hardly a spot in the
wide extent of this vast cemetery, which has not been rifled. Most of
the tombs were moghraras of Ptolemaic-Roman date, but there was a patch
of New Empire burials, and in the upper part of the cemetery, where the
alluvial soil approaches nearest to the gebel, there were a number of
graves of Early Dynastic date. Most of these have been destroyed. It is
highly probable that great numbers of them have been cut completely
away, and even those which remain have suffered badly.
Early Dynastic Burials.
Crania of six men and four women were examined. One of the latter,
supposed to belong to the Archaic Nubian or B-group, was extremely
negroid.
The other skulls conform to the Predynastic Egyptian type, which we
have found to be the case in all the cemeteries of this date so far
examined.
In view of the considerations already stated in last year's Bulletins,
(Bulletin 3, p.32, and especially Bulletin 4, pp. 20 and 26) it is of
the utmost importance to note that of these ten archaic skeletons no
less than four showed evidence of disease of the spinal column.
Moreover, these four cases were obtained from two graves. Grave 314
contained the remains of a man and a woman. In the former, the 8th, 9th
and 10th dorsal vertebrae were affected: they were fused together and
enclosed a large abscess-cavity. The body of the 9th vertebra had been
completely eroded and that of the 8th had fallen in upon the 10th,
producing a condition of acute kyphosis.
The woman had an abscess-cavity involving the bodies of the second and
first segments of the sacrum, and the surface of the bone in the
neighborhood of the cavity exhibited very marked evidences of the
damage effected by suppuration.
Grave 452 contained the skeletons of two adult men and a boy of about
nine years of age. In one of the men the body of the 10th dorsal
vertebra had been almost entirely destroyed by the disease, which had
also affected the 11th vertebra. The usual collapse of the (p.22)
column had occurred, producing a very acute curvature of the spine. The
boy in this grave was a victim to the same disease. In his case the
last three dorsal and the upper two lumbar vertebrae were severely
damaged and distorted to form one irregular mass.
Whether or not these cases should prove to be tubercular it must remain
for future investigation to determine. But in view of the results of
last year's inquiry into this matter (see especially Bulletin 3, p. 32)
it is more probable than not that they are examples of the destruction
wrought by the tubercle bacillus.
It will become a matter of considerable interest to inquire whether the
close association of these four cases is a mere coincidence or is
evidence of infection, perhaps in the members of one family; for it is
hardly likely that in these Prehistoric or Early Dynastic times Dakka
could have been looked upon as a sanatorium for the treatment of
tuberculosis, of which Cemetery 98 was the necropolis! No evidence of
disease was found in any of the other six skeletons, except that one
man had suffered from spondylitis of the lumbar vertebrae and sacrum
and osteo-arthritis of the left knee.
New Empire Burials.
The most southerly part of Cemetery 98 included a series of graves of
the New Empire period. In some cases they were in the form of large
pits such as were found at Shellal (Cemetery 7) during the first
season's work (see Bulletin 1). These contained large numbers of
skeletons, in one case as many as twenty-five in a single pit. Nearly
all of these were studied and measured.
In one grave, a bronze arrow-head was found deeply embedded in the body
of one of the cervical vertebrae. It had entered from the front, passed
through the centrum of the vertebra and cut across the spinal canal and
its contents, remaining fixed in that position. The slain man was an
Egyptian.
Ptolemaic-Roman Burials.
As this portion of Cemetery 98 contained nearly seven hundred graves,
and in numerous cases there were as many as four bodies in one
moghrara, it was not possible to examine more than a comparatively
small proportion of them.
A sufficiently (p.23) large number, taken at random from every part of
the cemetery, were studied to enable us to make a reliable diagnosis of
the racial characteristics of the people buried here. Many of the men
conformed to that definite type of Egyptian found in all the New Empire
cemeteries in Nubia, but there were a large number of negroid men,
whose physical characters were suggestive of a mixing of Egyptian and
Negro, rather than the results of the more ancient blending of the
ancestors of the same stocks which we call Nubian.
In this cemetery, the skeleton of a tall Negro (height estimated at 6
feet 2 inches) was found buried in the same grave as three Egyptians
(two men and a woman). From his physical characteristics he probably
belonged to the same tribe as the E-group people (see account of
Cemetery 7, in Bulletin 1). Most pronounced prognathism was present and
well-defined simian furrows.
The chief point of interest, however, was the evidence of filing of the
teeth. All of the teeth in both jaws had been filed on their labial
aspect, but the two upper central incisors had had their edges rubbed
down also and filed to assume a semilunar form. In this process all the
enamel had been removed from the labial surfaces. Of the female crania
examined, only a minority were Egyptian in type, the rest being equally
divided into Negresses and Negro- Egyptian hybrids.
One of the Negresses, whose face was extremely prognathous, had had
both upper central incisors filed so that their inferior edges inclined
to form a wide-angled inverted V-shaped notch; and all the lower
incisors seem to have been deliberately removed. The latter operation
must have been done soon after the eruption of the permanent dentition,
for the other teeth have inclined inwards towards the gap, which is now
much too small to hold four incisor teeth. These evidences of dental
mutilations are of interest in view of the widespread occurrence of
similar practices among certain African Negroes at the present day. For
example, the tall Masai file a triangular space between the upper
incisors; [5] and Sir Harry Johnston states that " almost all the men
and most of the women knock out the two lower incisor teeth, a very
ancient custom inherited by the (p.24) Masai from the Nilotic stock
which was their origin: for amongst these people the removal of the
lower incisor teeth is a very common practice." [6]
The same writer states also that "the Bantu Kavirondo usually pull out
the two middle incisor teeth in the lower jaw " (op. cit., p. 728); and
that the Ja-luo also have a similar practice and " it may also occur
amongst these people, as amongst the Lango tribes to the north, that
not only the four incisors, but even the canines, are taken out, at any
rate from the mouths of boys " (op. cit., p. 783). Of the Bunyoro,a
people largely intermixed with Hamitic and Nilotic elements, Johnston
says: "They are tall and well-proportioned, with faces which would be
very pleasing were it not for a custom amongst them to extract the four
lower incisors ; this is a practice learnt, no doubt, from the
neighbouring Nilotic tribes " (op. cit., p. 581).
With reference to the custom of filing teeth, the same writer makes the
following remarks in reference to the Congo pygmies: "All in both sexes
had their upper incisor teeth and canines sharpened to a point, after
the fashion of the Babira and Upper Congo tribes" (op. cit., p. 538).
It seems to be generally admitted that the practice of removing the
lower incisors was derived by these southern people from the Dinka and
allied Nilotic populations. It is, therefore, a matter of considerable
interest and importance to us in this inquiry to find that the tall
Negroes who entered Nubia in Ptolemaic times (and perhaps earlier) had
the same curious custom then.
In the course of the first season's work we found two examples of this
practice, but, as it was not certain that the teeth may not have been
lost from natural causes, no special mention was made of them. In
ancient Egyptian and Nubian remains, no evidence of the practice of
dental mutilations is found. In several cases grooves were found on the
edges of teeth, which had been produced by constant rubbing of some
stick-like instrument in the interdental spaces for cleansing purposes.
In the remains of a young woman (of the Late Dynastic period) found in
Mr. Quibell's excavations at Saqqara, we found that the lateral margins
of the upper incisor teeth had been filed, apparently for aesthetic
reasons. These are the only instances of tampering with the teeth that
we are acquainted with.
In the (p.25) same grave as the Negress, whose filed teeth suggested
this digression, there was another Negress whose atlas had been fused
congenitally to the occipital bone and partially assimilated to it. The
posterior arch is incomplete and the articular surfaces are adapted to
the double movements which took place at the atlanto-axial joints.
Another Negress had very small bones and a pygmy pelvis. Her height was
computed at 4 feet 6 inches.
Two other Negresses had absolutely flat noses and small nasal bones such as are commonly found in bushmen.
The much larger proportion of Negresses and negroid women as compared
with Egyptians in this cemetery (in contrast to their frequency in
other Ptolemaic-Roman cemeteries) is worthy of note.
Cemetery 99
Immediately to the south of the cemetery just referred to there were
about ninety graves of Early Dynastic date, but only a few fragments of
bone in a state of disintegration were found in them.
Cemetery 100.
Three or four graves of Roman date in the vicinity of the temple of Dakka contained nothing of note.
Cemetery 101.
From the archaeological point of view this Middle Nubian cemetery is
one of the most interesting sites yet examined in the course of the
Survey, but Unfortunately the human remains are in very bad condition.
Most of the graves had been plundered, and in many cases the skeletons
had disappeared. Even when bones were present they were usually so much
disturbed and damaged as to be of little use to us. At the time of
writing the work of excavation is still in progress, but so far we have
obtained the crania of only three men and eight women, and very few
other bones.
Nothing of special interest has come to light in our part of the work;
but the contents of a portion of the cemetery yet await examination,
the results of which will be recorded in the next Bulletin.
Footnotes:
1. This causeway and the inscriptions on the foundation
blocks to which it leads were known to exist. In view, however, of the
temple being re-copied by Dr. Roeder for the Department of Antiquities,
he was communicated with, and the foundations, cleared of sand, placed
at bhis disposal. As the platform into which the inscribed blocks are
built has not been underpinned, and may possibly surfer when the
Reservoir is completed, it seemed desirable, even at the risk of
repetition, to uncover it once more, that the inscriptions might
complete the transcript of the temple of Dakka undertaken by the
Department of Antiquities. Should the platform be considered of
sufficient importance to warrant its preservation in the future, it is
hoped that the small amount of time and labour spent on it may prove of
assistance. In two or three years it will be again covered with blown
sand.
2. This account is based upon Dr. Derry's report
of the field-work, which he has carried on (i.e., so far as the study
of the human remains is concerned) single- handed this season.
3. Cemetery 59 (Bulletin 3, p. 34) is an exception to this statement.
4. Morphology and Anthropology, pp. 203 and 234.
5. Hutchinson's Living Races of Mankind, p. 35G.
6. The Uganda Protectorate, Vol. II, p. 803.
[Continue to Bulletin 6]
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