DOI Artikel:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology: archaeology, hieroglyphic studies, etc.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12421#0030
18
Progress of Egyptology.
From the Editor, as Director of the Oxford Expedition:—
" The site chosen for the first season's work of the ' Oxford Excavations
in Nubia' was Faras, on the west bank of the Nile, about 25 miles north
of the Second Cataract and 15 miles south of Abu Simbel. Erom the
Nile it is marked by its conspicuous fortress-monastery of brick. This
stands in the middle of a Meroitic enclosure wall of stone and brick, the
best preserved part of which is still 30 feet high. Within the enclosure
lie blocks of Tethmosis and Eamesses II. There is evidence of a large
population having existed here in Meroitic and Christian times : numerous
churches, some of which were carefully examined by Mr. Mileham of the
Philadephia expedition in 1908, are dotted around in the desert on both
sides of the river. On the north of the enclosure, in ground sometimes
cultivated, is a great cemetery of Meroitic age, already recognised as such
by the Philadelphia expedition.
" Eor the winter's work, Dr. Bandall-MacIvee lent us his excavators
and some equipment, in addition to our own; a good native house was
secured as headquarters, and we (Mr. and Mrs. Griffith and Mr. Black-
man) installed ourselves there at the end of November. The work was
confined to the cemetery. When we left, in the middle of March, we had
full photographic and other records of about 2,000 graves. As in the Shablul
and Aniba (Karanog) cemeteries of the same age, worked by the Phila-
delphia expedition, practically every grave had been plundered for precious
metal so effectually that none remained. On the other hand pottery,
beads, and bronze vessels were abundant. Most of the glass, iron, and
bone (including skeletons) had become disintegrated, and all more
perishable objects had been destroyed by damp salt and white ants;
most of the stonework too had been carried off for re-use, and the stelae,
altars, Sat-statues, etc., that we found had generally been removed from
their original sites. But we obtained materials for settling the succession
of burial types. The earliest were cave-graves, often with extraordinarily
heavy bronze anklets and rarely with bronze vessels approaching the
types of the New Kingdom. The other graves, including mastabas,
contained pottery ranging from African black-incised ware to Hellenistic
amphorae and Meroitic cups, etc., often very finely made and decorated.
In neaily all cases the bodies were extended, not contracted. The graves
were crowded on each other, and their intersections afforded good evidence
of relative age. In the centre of this necropolis we found the scanty
remains of the temple called Sehetep-netru, built by Hui for Tutankhamon.
Mr. Deummond kindly made a plan of this, and many blocks from it were
found built into the graves both early and late. Meroitic and Coptic
Progress of Egyptology.
From the Editor, as Director of the Oxford Expedition:—
" The site chosen for the first season's work of the ' Oxford Excavations
in Nubia' was Faras, on the west bank of the Nile, about 25 miles north
of the Second Cataract and 15 miles south of Abu Simbel. Erom the
Nile it is marked by its conspicuous fortress-monastery of brick. This
stands in the middle of a Meroitic enclosure wall of stone and brick, the
best preserved part of which is still 30 feet high. Within the enclosure
lie blocks of Tethmosis and Eamesses II. There is evidence of a large
population having existed here in Meroitic and Christian times : numerous
churches, some of which were carefully examined by Mr. Mileham of the
Philadephia expedition in 1908, are dotted around in the desert on both
sides of the river. On the north of the enclosure, in ground sometimes
cultivated, is a great cemetery of Meroitic age, already recognised as such
by the Philadelphia expedition.
" Eor the winter's work, Dr. Bandall-MacIvee lent us his excavators
and some equipment, in addition to our own; a good native house was
secured as headquarters, and we (Mr. and Mrs. Griffith and Mr. Black-
man) installed ourselves there at the end of November. The work was
confined to the cemetery. When we left, in the middle of March, we had
full photographic and other records of about 2,000 graves. As in the Shablul
and Aniba (Karanog) cemeteries of the same age, worked by the Phila-
delphia expedition, practically every grave had been plundered for precious
metal so effectually that none remained. On the other hand pottery,
beads, and bronze vessels were abundant. Most of the glass, iron, and
bone (including skeletons) had become disintegrated, and all more
perishable objects had been destroyed by damp salt and white ants;
most of the stonework too had been carried off for re-use, and the stelae,
altars, Sat-statues, etc., that we found had generally been removed from
their original sites. But we obtained materials for settling the succession
of burial types. The earliest were cave-graves, often with extraordinarily
heavy bronze anklets and rarely with bronze vessels approaching the
types of the New Kingdom. The other graves, including mastabas,
contained pottery ranging from African black-incised ware to Hellenistic
amphorae and Meroitic cups, etc., often very finely made and decorated.
In neaily all cases the bodies were extended, not contracted. The graves
were crowded on each other, and their intersections afforded good evidence
of relative age. In the centre of this necropolis we found the scanty
remains of the temple called Sehetep-netru, built by Hui for Tutankhamon.
Mr. Deummond kindly made a plan of this, and many blocks from it were
found built into the graves both early and late. Meroitic and Coptic