DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard: Egypt Exploration Fund, [1]: excavations at Abydos
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12422#0021
Excavations at Abydos.
7
native stock. The aborigines when they made use of tlie Egyptian tombs
adopted more or less the Egyptian customs ; they had no fixed rule ;
therefore there is a great variety in thèse usurped burials, and a mixture of
différent Systems, as we see from the following examples :—
23. Eectangular shaft, open chamber containing the contracted body of
a child in a wooden box. It is évident that it was not for this burial that
a large shaft with a side chamber bas been eut in the rock.
24. Shaft, open chamber with half-contracted body.
27. Shaft, open chamber, extended body in a wooden box ; rov of
pots outside. Cut through 28, surface tomb with reed cofflns, the bones
and vases, which were over 27, gathered together in the untouched
part of 28.
122. Shaft, open chamber, contracted body in a thick box, cuts through
125, a surface tomb where the legs only bave been preserved with two pots
and a palette.
15. Surface burials. Body extended of a man, with reed eoffin, a second
across, and a third with a red pot with black rim on the stomach ; near
bis legs a pair of shoes.
101. Shaft, open chamber, box containing the extended body of a
woman. Near the heacï, vases of diorite, alabaster and limestone ; on the
box a bronze mirror. Thèse objects of various epochs must bave been
collected there at the secondary burial.
Among the shafts, ail over the place were a great number of régulai'
so-called predynastic tombs, with contracted bodies (pl. IL 2), pots of the
chanicteristic types, a few palettes or flint implements. Also graves of
children, the bodies extended, witli stone amulets the date of which is
uncertain (pl. II. 3). It is undoubtedly very difïicult to fix the time
when this Egyptian eemetery was first occupied by the aborigines, and
how long the occupation lasted. I do not believe that any certain
chronological data can be derived from the position of the bodies. What
adds to the confusion is the fact that very late constructions or burials,
even of Koman time, are built on the top of the other ones.
I hope this short description of last winter's work may prove the
importance of going on with what we began. There are plenty of other
spots to be excavated at Abydos ; for instance, the Osireion which was
discovered and only begun by Prof. Pétrie. But the two sites which we
attacked last year both raise questions which it is highly désirable to
solve : in the Eoyal Tombs the reconstitution of the séries of kings of the
first two Dynasties, and in the eemetery the share of the culture which
belongs to each of the two component éléments of the population of Egypt,
7
native stock. The aborigines when they made use of tlie Egyptian tombs
adopted more or less the Egyptian customs ; they had no fixed rule ;
therefore there is a great variety in thèse usurped burials, and a mixture of
différent Systems, as we see from the following examples :—
23. Eectangular shaft, open chamber containing the contracted body of
a child in a wooden box. It is évident that it was not for this burial that
a large shaft with a side chamber bas been eut in the rock.
24. Shaft, open chamber with half-contracted body.
27. Shaft, open chamber, extended body in a wooden box ; rov of
pots outside. Cut through 28, surface tomb with reed cofflns, the bones
and vases, which were over 27, gathered together in the untouched
part of 28.
122. Shaft, open chamber, contracted body in a thick box, cuts through
125, a surface tomb where the legs only bave been preserved with two pots
and a palette.
15. Surface burials. Body extended of a man, with reed eoffin, a second
across, and a third with a red pot with black rim on the stomach ; near
bis legs a pair of shoes.
101. Shaft, open chamber, box containing the extended body of a
woman. Near the heacï, vases of diorite, alabaster and limestone ; on the
box a bronze mirror. Thèse objects of various epochs must bave been
collected there at the secondary burial.
Among the shafts, ail over the place were a great number of régulai'
so-called predynastic tombs, with contracted bodies (pl. IL 2), pots of the
chanicteristic types, a few palettes or flint implements. Also graves of
children, the bodies extended, witli stone amulets the date of which is
uncertain (pl. II. 3). It is undoubtedly very difïicult to fix the time
when this Egyptian eemetery was first occupied by the aborigines, and
how long the occupation lasted. I do not believe that any certain
chronological data can be derived from the position of the bodies. What
adds to the confusion is the fact that very late constructions or burials,
even of Koman time, are built on the top of the other ones.
I hope this short description of last winter's work may prove the
importance of going on with what we began. There are plenty of other
spots to be excavated at Abydos ; for instance, the Osireion which was
discovered and only begun by Prof. Pétrie. But the two sites which we
attacked last year both raise questions which it is highly désirable to
solve : in the Eoyal Tombs the reconstitution of the séries of kings of the
first two Dynasties, and in the eemetery the share of the culture which
belongs to each of the two component éléments of the population of Egypt,