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Archaeological Survey of Nubia (Bulletin 1). (Published in 1908 by the Egyptian Ministry of Finance, Survey Department, Cairo.)
Introduction
In accordance with the decision of the Egyptian Government, the
Archaeological Survey of that portion of Nubia which will be submerged
by the Aswan Reservoir when it is raised to the level of 113 meters
above sea-level was commenced in September last. As a report which
would be in any way complete cannot be issued for some years, it has
seemed preferable to publish the records of the results obtained and
the information collected as soon as possible, in order that they may
be available for archaeologists and anthropologists interested in them.
Dr. G. A. Reisner, assisted by Mr. C. M. Firth and Mr. A. M. Blackman,
undertook the archaeological survey and has superintended the
excavations, while Dr. Gr. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., studied the
anthropological material which was found. It soon became evident that,
in the district of Shellal at least, the anthropological material was
very abundant, and, in order to avoid delaying the archaeological
survey and to ensure a thorough treatment of this material, the
services of Dr. F. Wood Jones were obtained. Residing on the spot and
following the work from day to day, he has been able to collect much
valuable evidence which might otherwise have been lost, and to assist
Dr. Elliot Smith in this portion of the work.
The topographical map (scale, 1: 10,000) of the valley is being
extended to include the margin of the desert plateau and large-scale
plans (1: 1,000) are being made of the ancient sites, while the
cemeteries are being surveyed on a scale (1: 100) which admits of every
grave being shown. This work is being done by Mr. T. D. Scott, an
Inspector of the Survey Department.
In this way, it has been possible to carry on the archaeological, the
anthropological, and the topographical work simultaneously. With so
many lines of work being carried on and many new facts coming
continually to light, early publication of the information obtained
seemed to be of primary importance. Two or three bulletins (p.8) will
therefore be published during the season in which field-work can
efficiently be carried on, i.e. October to April; these will give a
short summary of the results obtained and will draw attention to any
points of special interest.
During the summer the results of the season's work will be put together
in a more complete form for publication, together with the necessary
plans and photographs, in the autumn as a report on the work of the
year.
The discussion of the results and the drawing of conclusions from the
information accumulated and from the study of the material collected
must be left over for the present: when the Archaeological Survey has
completed a considerable length of valley, those engaged in the work
will be better able to judge when such a publication can usefully be
undertaken.
December 7, 1907.
H. Gr. Lyons, Director General,
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NUBIA.
The archaeological survey of Lower Nubia has been undertaken (1) for
the purpose of ascertaining the value and extent of the historical
material buried under the soil, and (2) for the purpose of making this
material available for the construction of the history of Nubia and its
relations to Egypt. The questions on which it is hoped to throw light
concern the successive races and racial mixtures, the extent of the
population in different periods, the economical basis of the existence
of these populations, the character of their industrial products, and
the source and the degree of their civilization.
A certain amount of the political history of Nubia from the twelfth
dynasty downwards is already known. We even have a small amount of
material which suggests that in the pre-dynastic period Lower Nubia and
Egypt formed culturally, and perhaps racially, one district; that
Egypt's civilization developed rapidly owing to the invention of copper
implements and their use in the development of the natural resources of
the country; while, owing perhaps to the natural poverty of the
country, Nubia failed to keep pace with Egypt. At any rate, after the
Egyptian invasion of Nubia in the twelfth dynasty, when we get our
first dated Nubian material in Nubian settlements in Egypt, some of the
products of the Nubian civilization of that period resemble curiously,
in technicpie and material, products of the pre-dynastic civilization
common to both countries. It is as if the Nubians had gone on
practising certain of the old handicrafts with slow changes in form and
decoration during the intervening fifteen centuries. Whatever truth
there is in this suggestion, we have a blank of some fifteen centuries
in the history of Nubia to fill in with all the questions of race and
racial mixtures added to those of cultural development.
A preliminary examination of the stretch above the dam was undertaken
on September 2, 1907, to determine especially the district to be
affected by a possible rise of l 1/2 meters in the level of the water
held up by the Aswan Dam. This investigation was facilitated by the
white line (p.10) composed of bleached algae left on all rocks and
trees by the surface of the water at full reservoir level. It was found
that the work, in order to cover the whole territory to be affected by
the rise in level in question, must begin at Shellal Station and extend
southward as far as Dakka. On September 20, the detailed examination of
the territory was begun at Shellal with a force of about twenty-five
men. In a very short time eleven cemeteries were discovered:
No.1 was on the east bank at the village of Bugga about one kilometer
south of Shellal Station. This cemetery, which was manifestly of the
Christian period, had been badly plundered, and was for the greater
part under the 106-meters level which is the present high-water level
in the Reservoir.
No.2 was in a khor at the north-eastern corner of El Hesa.
No.3 was at the village of Gabar on El Hesa, about 300 meters south of Cemetery No.2.
No.4 was on the south end of El Hesa, called Eas-el-Hesa, and was completely submerged.
No.5 was found on the knoll just south of the temple of El Biga.
No.6 was on the top of the north-western part of El Biga, above the 113-meter level.
No.7 was located in the plain south-east of Shellal Station.
No.8 was in a bay in the granite rock north of Shellal Station.
No.9 was about 200 meters west of No.8, and lies for the greater part under the 106-meter level.
No.10 was found on the west side of Awanarti.
No.11 was found on the west bank opposite the south end of El Hesa.
A force of 150 men was brought up immediately, and work was begun on
Cemetery No.2 on September 25, and continued until, on November 30,
Cemeteries Nos. 2, 3, 5, and 7 were completely excavated and a Coptic
church in Cemetery No.8, together with a strip of the cemetery,
practically finished. The other cemeteries, Nos. 1, 4, 6, and 9, have
been examined sufficiently for present purposes. The work of recording
these cemeteries has gone on rapidly with the assistance of Mr. C. M.
Firth and Mr. A. M. Blackman. At the same (p.11) time, maps have been
made by Mr. T. D. Scott—general site-maps on the scale 1: 1,000 and
occasionally on 1: 2,500, and detail maps of cemeteries on the scale 1:
100. The single graves have been recorded on millimeter tomb-cards
giving plan and section of grave on the scale 1: 20 or 1: 50,
description and drawings of burial and other contents on the scale
1: 5 or 1: 10. A complete series of photographs has also been
made: (1) of all cemeteries and sites before and during excavation, and
(2) of the single graves. Wherever it was desirable, photographs of the
stages in the excavation or opening of single graves have also been
made. The tomb cards are being arranged in cemetery groups in numerical
order; the photographs are being registered day by day under running
numbers in three series for the three sizes of negatives used. It is
intended to print the photographic register later for the use of
archaeologists. The detailed classification of the small objects,
wrappings of bodies, inscriptions, etc., is being reserved for the
summer work in Cairo.
Cemetery No.2.
Plate 1: View of surface of the south-western end of Cemetery 2 before excavation.
Cemetery No.2 (Plate 1-3) was cleared first by removing all the surface
debris thus exposing the superstructures, the remains of
superstructures, and the contents of such graves as had lost their
superstructures. The cemetery contains 1,625 numbered graves and about
2,000 bodies, including those in family tombs. The large graves were
found to be of three types: —
Type 1.—-Type 1 consisted of a substructure formed by a skew
barrel-vault of mud-brick and entered by a small vaulted opening,
usually on the west end. The bodies had been placed in this vault
extended on the back, wrapped in cloth, with the head to the west, but
without coffins. These bodies had evidently been placed in the vault
one on top of the other; and those in each vault came as a rule from
the same family or family group as was shown by Elliot Smith's
examination of the bodies.
The superstructure (PL.IV) consisted of a single chamber with one or
two niches in the wall, apparently for lamps. The walls were a brick or
a brick and a half thick, of usual Egyptian masonry, and roofed with a
(p.12) skew barrel-vault. The doorway was protected by a portico formed
by four square mud-brick pillars, usually facing north or to the
entrance to the khor, but sometimes facing the middle of the khor. The
top of the superstructure and the covering of the portico were not
preserved. The walls of the superstructure were usually founded on hard
mother earth or on the walls of the substructure. In some cases an
artificial rock platform had been built to support the superstructure
and extended out to form a flat rectangle around the tomb.
Type 2.—Type 2 had no substructure, but only a superstructure very
similar in form and construction to that of Type 1. Like Type 1, it
rested on a partially artificial platform consisting of retaining walls
of granite, filled with hard granite debris. The burials were made in
the floor of this superstructure and were then covered with small
superstructures, like the small graves in other parts of the cemetery.
In other cases, the burials were laid on the floor so that the tomb
became a veritable charnel house.
Plate 2: View of the south-western end of Cemetery 2 after excavation (rom the same point as Plate 1)
Type 3.—Type 3 consisted of a filled platform with retaining walls of
rough granite blocks similar to the foundation of Type 2 and the
burials were single burials in this platform. The graves of Type 3
appear, therefore, to be merely denuded graves of Type 2.
The small graves (Types 4 and 5) in the cemetery presented practically
the same appearance when finished, but structurally consisted in the
case of Type 4 of mud-brick superstructures, and in the case of Type 5
of rough granite superstructures over a long narrow burial pit. The
superstructure looked very much like modern Moslem superstructures and
consisted of a rectangular basis with a semicylindrical upper part and
a flat post at the western or head end.
Burials.
The bodies in all the graves in Cemetery No.2 were wrapped in a coarse
winding-sheet and tied on the outside with twisted cord or flat tape.
Inside, next to the skin, many of the bodies had more or less clothing
of fine linen or embroidered stuff, varying in individual cases. (p.13)
Some of the children had bracelets, necklaces of beads, and other
ornaments. On the feet of three bodies we found shoes of thin leather,
in one case accompanied by a strap with a bronze buckle. In another
bronze buckle alone was found; but no pottery or furniture appears to
have been buried with the body. The bodies were without exception
extended on the back, head west, with the hands at the side or on the
pelvis. The bodies were almost without exception prepared with salt,
resin, and seeds (or fruits) without removing the internal organs.
Plate 3: General view of Cemetery 2 after excavation, looking N.N.W.
This cemetery is of the greatest importance for the racial and other
anatomical questions, for the bodies are, in a great many cases,
perfectly preserved. (See p. 30).
The Date of the Cemetery.
Woven in the cloth of one body was found a red cross, and several of
the ornaments found were also in the form of a cross. We have,
therefore, certainly to deal with a cemetery part of which at least was
from a Christian population. Moreover, the pagan custom had ceased —
the custom of mutilating the corpse almost to destruction and building
up on the skin and bones a conventional simulacrum of the man for the
use of his spirit. This alone is sufficient to date the cemetery to the
post-Roman period—to a time when resurrection ideas were prevalent.
Plate 4: Superstructure, type 1, of tomb 1270 in Cemetery No. 2, looking W.S.W.
On
the other hand, the use of the Hathor head on a faience box and an
ivory ornament show the influence of the Pagan period. In the
surface-dirt and in the dirt-filling of the tombs were found a number
of potsherds, broken pottery dolls, two coins, and a large twenty-sided
faience seal (?) with a letter of the Greek alphabet on each face,
running from A to V. There were also found several mud seals of the
Christian period. These objects had, for the most part, evidently been
accidentally broken or lost in the cemetery during the cemetery
festival corresponding to the present-day Bairam, and swept into the
grave-fillings or mixed with the surface dirt. This fact affords us a
very interesting picture of the holiday customs of the period, such as
may be seen at the present day in any Moslem or Coptic cemetery at
festival time.
Considering (p.14)the whole material, we probably have to deal with a cemetery which is not far from the fifth century AD.
Cemetery No.3.
Cemetery No.3 (Pls.V-VII) contains 220 numbered graves, but about 50 of
these are a continuation of Cemetery No.2, and are not considered in
the following description.
The tombs in Cemetery No.3 were practically all of one type. They
consisted of a chamber hollowed out of the decayed granite rock on the
steep side of the khor and approached by a sloping passage. The doorway
to the chamber was formed of well-dressed sandstone blocks and was
closed by a single stone or by rough rubble walls smeared with mud.
Although the surface had been grievously torn to pieces by previous
digging and denuded by natural forces as well, traces of superstructure
consisting of mud-brick and rubble walls were found in a few cases,
showing that the superstructure was over the roof of the chamber
probably leaving the entrance to the chamber accessible from the
outside (Nos. 8 and 20).
This indication was borne out by Tomb No.8 in
Cemetery No.9, which had a nearly complete mud-brick superstructure
above the chamber. Moreover, a number of stelae and offering stones
were found in the sloping passage or in the plundered chambers, as if
they had fallen down from above. The larger tombs appear to have been
used as family burial places. The small tombs contained sometimes only
one burial. The bodies were enclosed in rough stone (PL.VII) or pottery
coffins, often with a semblance of a human face and a mummified form on
the lid. The bodies inside were elaborately wrapped and covered with
painted and gilded plaster or cartonnage.
Plate 5: View of eastern half of Cemetery No.3, looking south, previous to excavation.
About twenty-five of the tomb chambers were found intact with the
door-block in place, sealed with mud; and, in addition, eight sealed
stone coffins were found. Only one of the latter has been opened. The
pottery, coins, beads, and ornaments found in this cemetery were
entirely different in type from those in Cemetery No.2, and, taken with
the inscriptions, the whole can be dated to the Ptolemaic or Roman
period. The exact determination will appear when all the (p.15) sealed
chambers and coffins have been examined, the coins cleaned, and the
stelae more carefully considered. It is, however, already clear that
Cemetery No.3 is a cemetery of the priests of Philae.
Plate 6: View of eastern end of Cemetery 3 shown in Plate 5, after excavation.
Cemetery No.5.
Cemetery No.5, lying on a knoll just south of the temple of Biga,
(Pls.VIII-X) contains 170 numbered graves. As a great many of these are
family tombs, the number of bodies in the cemetery, amounting to 500
bodies, is very much larger than the number of tombs. The tombs in this
cemetery are -very similar to those in Cemetery No.2, with the addition
of two new types. Type 6 is a large tomb containing a number (5-8) of
bodies in a narrow skew-vault covered by a solid superstructure. The
form of this superstructure is a rectangular basis surmounted
apparently by a semi-cylindrical upper part. The entrance is as usual
in the west end of all the tombs. Type 7 is a small tomb with a solid
mud-brick superstructure like Type 6, but presents a curious little
rudimentary vaulted entrance which could have served only some
secondary purpose such as a receptacle for a light. Tomb No.117 was the
best preserved of these. If we may assume that these small tombs were
built in imitation of the large tombs, it becomes probable that the
entrance to the subterranean vault of the large tombs of Type 6, at any
rate, was covered by a similar vault. Another noticeable difference
between Cemetery No.2 and Cemetery No.5 is the fact that burnt bricks,
which occur only in one small grave in Cemetery No.2, are used
frequently in Cemetery No.5, even in the vaults of the large tombs.
Plate 8: General view of Cemetery 5, El Biga, looking south before excavation.
The bodies are laid on the back with the head west as in Cemetery No.2;
and they are likewise wrapped in coarse cloth with clothing underneath.
But, in some cases, they have been placed on wooden boards.
The pottery found scattered about is nearly the same as that found in
Cemetery No.2; but the tall, slender, two-handled, ribbed wine jars of
brown ware are much more common. The proximity of the modern village
which still covers a large part of the cemetery, and the obvious
disturbance of part of the cemetery by excavations for (p.16)
fertilizing material may have robbed us of the objects accidentally
left on the surface on festival days, such as we found in Cemetery
No.2. One stela with a Greek inscription was found, being the tombstone
of a monk named Marios and dated on the 5th of Athyr of the 6th
Indiction. The bodies have, nearly all of them, ornaments or designs in
the embroidery in the form of the Christian cross.
Plate 9: General view of Cemetery No. 5, El Biga, looking south, after excavation.
Moreover, the bodies
in a number of the family vaults show, according to Elliot Smith,
distinct non-Egyptian (perhaps Syrian or south-eastern European)
characteristics. The date is probably fourth to seventh century AD,
perhaps contemporaneous in part with Cemetery No.2; but the exact
determination must await the detailed examination of the mummy
wrappings and small objects.
On the southern slope of the wadi south of Cemetery No.5, there are a
number of rough rubble walls preserved to a height of 80-100 cm., which
may be the remains of ancient houses. The pottery and other objects
found in the debris in these remains are not essentially different from
those found in the cemetery.
Cemeteries Nos. 7, 8, and 9.
Cemetery No.7 (PL.XI) includes all the burials and other remains found
in the level plain lying south and south-east of the present Shellal
railway station. The alluvial bank just below this plain contains a
large Moslem cemetery still in use. Attention was first called to the
plain by the mass of Coptic potsherds on the surface along the valley
edge of the plain (the south-western edge). The examination proceeded
from this edge to the north-east, gradually exposing cemeteries of
various dates until we had reached on the east the high ground formed
by practically undisturbed desert, and, on the north-west, the railway
cut. The excavations made necessary by the railway line and other works
of public utility have deprived us of a large number of graves of
various periods; and the evident denudation of the plain by water
torrents previous to the New Empire has swept away a large part of the
older graves.
Plate 11:
General view of eastern part of Cemetery No. 7, looking N.W., showing
on the right the knolls containing graves, previous to excavation.
But it is clear from what remained that Cemetery No.7 was
an enormous necropolis covering an area of about 500 meters square, and
once containing many thousand graves from (p.17) many periods from the
prehistoric to the present day. The continuity of this necropolis is
greatly increased if we include Cemetery No.8, of the Coptic period,
and Cemetery No.9, of the Ptolemaic period, which are situated in bays
in the rocky wall bounding the plain. Taken as a whole, the material
yielded by this group of cemeteries is very important at this stage of
the survey, as it divides our Nubian material for us into broad
chronological divisions which will serve as a basis for the work
further south.
The alluvial bank just below the plain contains a large Moslem cemetery
still in use. The part of the plain just above this contains some
ancient Moslem graves, most of which have lost their superstructures
and been forgotten by the present population. On the knolls nearest the
cultivation, there are a few deep pits with chambers at each end
(numbered 1-5), which can be definitely dated to the eighteenth dynasty
(pit No.5) or to the nineteenth to twentieth dynasties (pits Nos. 1-4).
They all contained perfectly characteristic pottery and a number of
human bones, apparently from ten to fifteen bodies being buried in each
chamber. Pit No.5, furthermore, contained a pot impressed with the
cartouches of Hatshepsut and Thothmes III. These pits are surrounded on
all sides by Moslem graves. Only the mouths of the pits of these Moslem
graves were outlined by our workmen; the burial chambers were left
undisturbed.
Plate 7: View of interior rock cut tomb No.153 in Cemetery No.3, after opening one stone coffin.
The archaic graves in Cemetery No.7 were first found in an almost
imperceptible mound in the centre of the plain, about 60 meters east of
New Empire pit No.5. Here there were eight graves (PL.XII) containing
pottery, slate palettes, beads, bracelets, mats, malachite, and resin,
identical in material, form, and manufacture with objects found in
tombs of the late pre-dynastic period in Egypt. Only the bottoms of
these graves were preserved and in several cases the bones were showing
on the surface, although graves of this type and this period in Egypt
are 70-150 cm. deep. It appeared, therefore, that the alluvial deposit
forming this plain was originally 50-100 cm. higher than it is now, but
has been denuded by the water torrents coming down from the east and
laid over by from 10-50 cm. of granite gravel brought down by the
torrents. This denudation ceased when the torrents had worn out the
channel (p.18) on the north, marked on the map [1] as "Great Khor," and
it became clear that this fact could be used in separating the graves
in the cemetery into the pre-denudation period and the post-denudation
period.
Plate 12:
General view of eastern part of knoll 220-241 in Cemetery No. 7, after excavation.
There were no other graves in the immediate vicinity of this knoll,
but, in consideration of the fact that the plain had been denuded, a
search was made in the knolls, along the granite rocks, and across the
wadi to the east (Cemetery No.7, Nos. 110-275), and almost all these
knolls were found to contain burials (PL.XIII-XIV). A number of these
burials, however, are not of the same date as the first eight
discovered but are shown by their relative position to be later. The
older graves—group a—contained burials lying contracted on the left
side, usually with the head south, and accompanied by hand-made
pottery, stone mace-heads, stone axe-heads, slate, diorite, and granite
paint palettes, ivory figures, and other objects belonging to a
primitive culture. A second group—group b—are buried contracted
indiscriminately on the right or left side, and are not uniformly
oriented. One of the group b burials—No.190 (PL.XVI)—contains copper
weapons and implements and other objects which are identical with
objects found in the second to third dynasties in Egypt. Other graves
(Nos. 117, 121, 123, 141, 142, etc.) contain beads, a mirror, and other
small objects which in Egypt might be as early as the fourth to sixth
dynasties or as late as the ninth to eleventh. Moreover, in some cases
these burials have been dug through older burials and the older burials
turned out to one side to make room for them. For example, in tomb
No.202, a burial contracted on the left side with the head south and
containing a slate palette and black-topped red polished pottery has
been disturbed in order to make way for a burial contracted on the
right side, head north, and accompanied only by a number of beads.
A third group—group c—occurs only in the south-eastern knoll and
consists of circular graves containing bodies lying contracted on the
left side, head east. Some of these graves are quite deep and others
are manifestly denuded, so that it is difficult to determine (p.19)
whether they have been denuded by the small water torrents from the
south or by the large torrents from the east. These circular graves,
which seem to be of the same type as the so-called "pan graves,"
contain mother-of-pearl disc beads and rectangular pieces of
characteristic form in addition to some carnelian and glazed beads. In
the debris in and about these tombs were also found a certain number of
pottery fragments made of the black and red polished ware and of the
incised ware found by Petrie in the graves of the Nubian settlement at
Diospolis Parva (eighteenth dynasty), and by the Hearst expedition in
the ruins of houses of the thirteenth-eighteenth dynasties at
Deir-el-Ballas. Although none of these potsherds from group c are
identical in form or pattern with those of the Nubian pottery found in
Egypt, it is nevertheless clear that these pots are Nubian products,
either from a different district or from a different period to the
Nubian pottery of the thirteenth-eighteenth dynasties recorded in
Egypt. No piece of pottery, it is true, was found in position in a
grave; but this may be due to plundering, of which there was abundant
evidence, or to the fact that the pottery was placed on the grave in
accordance with the present-day Nubian custom.
The skeletons in the graves of b and c groups show a much stronger
negro (Nubian?) mixture than the graves of group a. It is probable,
therefore, that groups b and c represent the cemetery of a local
(Nubian ?) population, the date of which I am inclined at present to
put previous to the thirteenth-eighteenth Egyptian dynasties. It is
probable that the b group as well as the a group was originally very
much larger and may well have covered the period from No.190 (second or
third dynasty) to that of No.121 (sixth to eleventh dynasty). In this
case, group b would be chronologically a continuation of group a in a
cemetery running from the prehistoric period to the twelfth
dynasty.
Another group—group e,[2] see Plate XVII—of graves occurs at the
eastern extremity of this cemetery in which the bodies are partly
extended full length on the back in narrow graves, partly extended
(p.20) on the side with the knees slightly bent.
The bodies found in these graves, according to Drs. Elliot Smith and
Wood Jones, are all males, and either show pure negro characteristics
or else they show strong negro mixture. They are probably the bodies of
mercenaries or slaves. These graves are to one side of the watercourses
coming down from the east, and they are only exposed to the water
coming down from the small hill area to the south. Only those graves
which are high up are exposed to this water and only these have been
much denuded. It is therefore possible that group c may be later than
the period of the denudation of the plain; a few amulets and beads
found in grave No.181 would favour a dating as late or even later than
the New Empire pits Nos. 1-15.
One of the knolls east of knoll 141-160 has been taken since the
building of the Aswan Dam for a small Mohammedan cemetery. The further
examination of the plain east of Shellal Station disclosed another
group of archaic graves, belonging exclusively to group a. containing
pottery and other objects identical with those of the late predynastic
period in Egypt. This group is situated on both sides of the
easternmost railroad siding at the station. Fifty of these graves were
found in the street formed by the two rows of shopkeepers' shanties at
Shellal. These graves are all of group a; this confirms the supposition
that the archaic cemetery once covered the whole plain and has been
mostly carried away by denudation.
Just east of this knoll was found a series of knolls extending north
and south parallel to the shopkeepers' shanties at the station. These
knolls contain a series of ten New Empire pits, Nos. 6-15, two of which
at least have their superstructure still preserved. The adjacent
archaic tombs on the same level, Nos. 310-362, are, however, denuded.
It is therefore clear that the denudation in the plain has taken place
previous to the New Empire.
The western end of the plain, including the station itself, was
enclosed in Koman times by a mud-brick wall with a trench outside. The
trench, filled with bricks from the wall, was first struck near New
Empire pit No.5 and followed out in both directions to the points where
it had been destroyed by the excavations and other works connected with
the railway-fine and station. The date was shown [p.21] by the
pottery which, was found among the bricks in the trench, as was also an
amphora with a Roman impression. On the north side was a gateway
protected by a semicircular wall on the inside. At the southern corner
was a square building surrounded by a trench (a citadel). Just east of
this intrenched camp there is a more shallow trench without bricks,
forming a square about 100 meters across with four gateways, one on
each side. This trench is cut at the south-western corner by the larger
trench. It probably belongs to a more temporary camp which was occupied
before the better fortified camp was built.
Inside these trenches, we found no other buildings or traces of
buildings, but there were two large interments which appear to belong
to the same date. The first of these is in a shallow rectangular trench
dug in the mouth of New Empire pit No.11, and contained about sixty
bodies. The examination of these bodies by Dr. Wood Jones showed that
they were all males and had been executed. Most of them had cords about
the neck after the manner of prisoners led up for execution. One had a
noose of heavy rope about the neck, and a number showed a fracture of
the base of the skull which may have been due to hanging. Another had
the base of the skull sliced by an axe or sword, and had undoubtedly
been decapitated. The second interment of about forty male bodies was
in a similar shallow trench dug in the sand about six to eight meters
west of New Empire pits Nos. 14-15, and covered with loose bricks and
stones. These bodies also had cords about the neck, and showed marks of
execution, fractured skulls, spear wounds in the back, and in one case
a fracture due to a blow with a blunt instrument on the side of the
head (see p. 39). It is clear that we have here the results of the
executions following one of the revolts so frequent during the Roman or
Byzantine occupations of Egypt.
Surrounding the square building at the south-western corner of the
larger camp there are a number of graves, Moslem on the east and
Christian on the north and west. The Moslem graves are undisturbed, but
the Christian graves have, for the greater part, been dug into
scrapheaps by plunderers or sebbakhin.
In Cemetery No.9 there are rock-cut tombs similar to those in Cemetery
No.3 and probably of nearly the same date (Graeco-Roman [p.22] period).
Chronologically, this is, of course, previous to the Roman camp. After
that comes the Coptic building and cemetery in Cemetery No.8 and the
Coptic graves in the south-western part of Cemetery No.7. In the Moslem
period the plain was still used as a cemetery [3] and that Moslem
cemetery continues in use to the present day, extending now over the
arable land to the south.
The great fact which makes Cemetery No.7 of value is the denudation of
the plain by water-torrents coming down from the east, a process which
ceased previous to the New Empire owing perhaps to the formation of the
water channel in the ravine to the north (Great Khor on map). The
graves of group a and group b are denuded even in the immediate
neighbourhood of the New Empire pits. But the ground about the New
Empire pits is not denuded as the bases of the superstructures are
preserved; so also the Moslem superstructures, even in the low places
in the plain, are preserved. There can be no doubt, therefore, of the
relative antiquity of groups a and b on the one hand, and the New
Empire pits on the other.
We have then: —
PRE-DENUDATION PERIOD.
Group a.—Nos. 101-108, 149, 229, 230, 233, 231, 301-360. Burial
position.—Contracted on left side, head usually south. Laid on mats and
covered with mats.
Funeral furniture.—Products of primitive culture, hand-made pottery,
porphyry mace-heads, green stone celts, diorite and granite paint
palettes, malachite, ivory figures (one example), ivory needles and
bracelets, beads, pendants and scorpion-shaped amulets, which are
identical with those of the late pre-dynastic period in Egypt.
Race.—According to Professor Elliot Smith and Dr. Wood Jones, all the
skeletons are Egyptian without trace of negro.
Group fe.—Nos. 114, 115, 117, 121, 123, 126, 131, 132, 141, 142, 145,
150, 163, 190, 201-205, 207-209, 211, 213, 220-222, 224, 226, 235, 237,
238, 240, 241, 250, 253, 254, 257, 260, 263, 267, 270, 273, 276.
Burial Position (p.23).—Contracted usually on the left side, but not
uniformly in any one direction. Laid on mats and covered with kid skins
and matting (or grass).
Burial furniture.—Pottery is very rare. The few pieces found are either
Nubian or similar to Old Empire pottery in Egypt. In one grave, No.190,
there was a copper axe-head, a copper adze, and some gold and electron
beads exactly like objects found by the Hearst Expedition in early
dynastic graves in Egypt. In another grave, No.117, was a copper or
bronze mirror. In several other graves were bone (or shell) bracelets
and beads like Old Empire beads and bracelets in Egypt.
Race.—The skeletons, according to Professor Elliot Smith and Dr. Wood
Jones, are not pure Egyptian like group a, but show a strong negro (or
Nubian ?) mixture.
POST-DENUDATION PERIOD.
Middle and New Empire pits.—Dated by stamps and scarab cartouches.
Burial position.—The graves were all communal graves—large underground
chambers in which the extended bodies were placed in wooden coffins
with painted exteriors. The mass of coffins had decayed, letting the
skeletons down into an indistinguishable mass of bones. Cloth
wrappings.
Burial furniture.—Wheel-made pottery exactly like Egyptian pottery of
the Middle and New Empire with a few pieces of black-topped red
polished Nubian pottery. Scarabs, beads, kohl pots, ushebtis, exactly
like Egyptian objects. Pottery seal with cartouches of Hatshepsut and
Thothmes III. Scarab with cartouches of Thothmes III.
Race.—The skeletons show a mixture of Egyptian and negro (Nubian ?) traits, like group b.
All general conclusions at this stage must, of course, be provisional,
(p.24) and may be considerably modified later. To formulate these
provisional conclusions, however, it appears that here on the borders
of Egypt and Nubia the course of development was much the same both in
character and in time as in Egypt in passing from the primitive
pre-dynastic period through the effective copper period of the first
four dynasties to the New Empire. Graves are found in Nubia containing
groups of objects identical in material and manufacture with groups
found in Egypt, and such graves are practically of the same date in
each country; but it may be that fuller material will show a certain
retardation in Nubia in the introduction of new styles of objects or
products of new arts. There is, however, a type of pottery and of beads
which appears to be characteristic of Nubia. Excavations further south
will no doubt add an abundance of this characteristic Nubian material;
and the manifest interchange in objects between Nubia and Egypt will
enable us to arrange the Nubian pottery, for example, in a
chronological series correlated to the known Egypbian series. In this
way, the archaeology of Nubia will be put on a sound chronological
basis.
G. A. Reisner.
Footnotes:
1. A Map of the First or Aswan Cataract, scale 1: 10,000. Survey Department, Cairo, 1904.
2. Group d contains the New Empire tombs Nos. 1-15.
3. A few Kufic tombstones have been found, but their provenance is uncertain.
[Continue to Bulletin 2]
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