DOI Artikel:
Postscripts
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12423#0087
77
POSTSCRIPTS.
The following important communication has heeu received from Dr. D.
Randall-MacIveii and Mr. G. L. Woolley too late for insertion in its
proper place:—
"A Nubian Cemetery at Anibeh.
The Eckley B. Coxe, Jnr., Expedition for the University of Philadelphia.)
" Daring the season of 1907-8 we excavated at Anibeh a cemetery
similar to but much greater and richer than that found in the previous
year at Shablul. The site lies on the west bank of tiie Nile, two or three
miles north of Kasr Ibrim, and about as much south of the Roman or
Nubian fortress of Garanok ; the XXtli Dynasty brick pyramids of Anibeh,
the rock tomb of Pennut and the mounds of the XXth Dyn. town are
about a mile and a half to the south and south-west of the cemetery.
About eight hundred graves, apparently the whole cemetery, were opened;
the majority had been robbed in antiquity and the more precious objects
taken; only a few of the poorer sort remained undisturbed, but their
contents were sufficiently rich to throw an entirely new light upon the
history of the Nubian civilization.
" The graves were, broadly speaking, of three sorts. For the poorest burials
a trench sufficed, either sunk straight in the soil and covered with rough
sandstone slabs, or with one side undercut, and the slabs sloped from the
trench-bottom to the side, so as to form a closed longitudinal recess. In
the second case a sloping dromos was cut down some six feet into the soil,
and led to a rude chamber, hollowed out in the hard Nile-mud deposit;
the entrance was closed by a door of mud bricks, the dromos being of
course subsequently filled up. In the third case, an open rectangular pit
was cut down to a depth of about six feet, the sides were partly lined
with walls of mud brick, and upon these was built a vault across the
tomb-chamber; except in two cases there was no doorway. The vault
must have been built when the body was already inside, and the whole was
then tilled up level with the ground. This last is the type of grave most
characteristic of the Shablul cemetery. The poorest graves had no super-
structure, properly speaking, though doubtless their position was duly
marked by some recognisable sign; in a few cases the end of a stake or
the presence of a round hole driven down into the side of the dromos
showed that either a rough pillar or, more probably, such a flag-staff as
POSTSCRIPTS.
The following important communication has heeu received from Dr. D.
Randall-MacIveii and Mr. G. L. Woolley too late for insertion in its
proper place:—
"A Nubian Cemetery at Anibeh.
The Eckley B. Coxe, Jnr., Expedition for the University of Philadelphia.)
" Daring the season of 1907-8 we excavated at Anibeh a cemetery
similar to but much greater and richer than that found in the previous
year at Shablul. The site lies on the west bank of tiie Nile, two or three
miles north of Kasr Ibrim, and about as much south of the Roman or
Nubian fortress of Garanok ; the XXtli Dynasty brick pyramids of Anibeh,
the rock tomb of Pennut and the mounds of the XXth Dyn. town are
about a mile and a half to the south and south-west of the cemetery.
About eight hundred graves, apparently the whole cemetery, were opened;
the majority had been robbed in antiquity and the more precious objects
taken; only a few of the poorer sort remained undisturbed, but their
contents were sufficiently rich to throw an entirely new light upon the
history of the Nubian civilization.
" The graves were, broadly speaking, of three sorts. For the poorest burials
a trench sufficed, either sunk straight in the soil and covered with rough
sandstone slabs, or with one side undercut, and the slabs sloped from the
trench-bottom to the side, so as to form a closed longitudinal recess. In
the second case a sloping dromos was cut down some six feet into the soil,
and led to a rude chamber, hollowed out in the hard Nile-mud deposit;
the entrance was closed by a door of mud bricks, the dromos being of
course subsequently filled up. In the third case, an open rectangular pit
was cut down to a depth of about six feet, the sides were partly lined
with walls of mud brick, and upon these was built a vault across the
tomb-chamber; except in two cases there was no doorway. The vault
must have been built when the body was already inside, and the whole was
then tilled up level with the ground. This last is the type of grave most
characteristic of the Shablul cemetery. The poorest graves had no super-
structure, properly speaking, though doubtless their position was duly
marked by some recognisable sign; in a few cases the end of a stake or
the presence of a round hole driven down into the side of the dromos
showed that either a rough pillar or, more probably, such a flag-staff as