DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0061
CONNEXIONS: LIBYAN AND EGYPTIAN FACTORS 37
It can be shown that not only has this general type of beehive chamber
used for common sepulture a wide distribution throughout a large African
region occupied in ancient times by tribes of Libyan stock, but that there are
traces, in a rudimentary form, of a similar original disposition of the entrance.
The remains of several tholoi of this kind were observed by Oric Bates,1 Those of
who first put together the Libyan evidence about such monuments, at Seal Isl^nd'.
Island in the Gulf of Bombah, immediately opposite the Southern promontory
of Crete, and which, under its older name of Plataea, was noteworthy as
the first stepping-off station of the Greek colonists from Thera on their way
to Cyrene.2 In this case the vaults were clearly family graves and contained
numerous cists with contracted burials, while the doorway, which was blocked
by a slab on its inner side, seems to have been used as a separate ritual
compartment (see Fig. 17, b, c).z The base of a somewhat analogous tholos other
was found in the desert East of Hierakonpolis,4 where, as in some other cases, fU^
the outer line of the circle was formed of orthostatic slabs. Still farther up the
Nile, amongst the Middle Nubians, or ' C group',—recognized by Bates as
Libyan5—in cemeteries dating from the Sixth to the Eighteenth Dynasty we
find an interesting differentiation of the same root type (Fig. 17,«).6 The actual
doorway has here disappeared, but the entrance enclosure survives as a
1 The Eastern Libyans (Macmillans, 1914), resort of seals, recalls the tradition of the
p. 248 and note 2 : from notes made during island where Proteus fed his herds, though in
a brief visit in 1909. He had no oppor- the Odyssey (iv. 354, 35 5) that was 'over against
tunity of making even exploratory excavations. Egypt'. The next harbour E. on the Libyan
Bates's scholarly monograph on the Eastern coast mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 169) was
Libyans published at the beginning of the indeed the ' harbour of Menelaos'. As Dr.
Great War is a treasury of all that concerns R. W. Macan justly remarks {Herodotus, vol. i,
the subject. His recent death is an irreparable p. 122, n. 2), ' the name Menelaos suggests a
loss, and I can only here express my great in- tradition that would carry the acquaintance of
debtedness to his work. the Hellenes with Libya back into Heroic
2 Herodotus, iv. 157. Burdah or Bombah, times'. See below, p. 89.
sometimes identified with Plataea, is, as Bates 3 Bates, op. cit., p. 248, Fig. 93. The outer
points out {op. cit., p. 5 and p. 229, n. 8), wall slopes inwards from its base as in the
an uninhabitable rock. He notes that Seal case of the Mesara tholoi.
Island is still a favourite resort of Greek * J. de Morgan, Recherches sur les origines
sponge-fishers. It is low and flat 'and suit- de FEgypte (1896), p. 239, Fig. 598. At
able to some extent for human occupation'. Gebel-Genamish, E. of Edfu. The sketch of
Since, however, this part of the Libyan coast, this by E. Legrain (misrepresented by the
like the opposite coasts of Central Crete, has engraver) shows a circle of orthostats and an
sunk considerably since the date of the Greek entrance niche apparently closed by an ex-
colonization, it may have possessed an appre- terior slab,
ciably larger area at that time. The English 6 Op. cit., p. 245 seqq.
name for the island, marking it as a special 6 Bates, op. cit., p. 246, Fig. 90.
It can be shown that not only has this general type of beehive chamber
used for common sepulture a wide distribution throughout a large African
region occupied in ancient times by tribes of Libyan stock, but that there are
traces, in a rudimentary form, of a similar original disposition of the entrance.
The remains of several tholoi of this kind were observed by Oric Bates,1 Those of
who first put together the Libyan evidence about such monuments, at Seal Isl^nd'.
Island in the Gulf of Bombah, immediately opposite the Southern promontory
of Crete, and which, under its older name of Plataea, was noteworthy as
the first stepping-off station of the Greek colonists from Thera on their way
to Cyrene.2 In this case the vaults were clearly family graves and contained
numerous cists with contracted burials, while the doorway, which was blocked
by a slab on its inner side, seems to have been used as a separate ritual
compartment (see Fig. 17, b, c).z The base of a somewhat analogous tholos other
was found in the desert East of Hierakonpolis,4 where, as in some other cases, fU^
the outer line of the circle was formed of orthostatic slabs. Still farther up the
Nile, amongst the Middle Nubians, or ' C group',—recognized by Bates as
Libyan5—in cemeteries dating from the Sixth to the Eighteenth Dynasty we
find an interesting differentiation of the same root type (Fig. 17,«).6 The actual
doorway has here disappeared, but the entrance enclosure survives as a
1 The Eastern Libyans (Macmillans, 1914), resort of seals, recalls the tradition of the
p. 248 and note 2 : from notes made during island where Proteus fed his herds, though in
a brief visit in 1909. He had no oppor- the Odyssey (iv. 354, 35 5) that was 'over against
tunity of making even exploratory excavations. Egypt'. The next harbour E. on the Libyan
Bates's scholarly monograph on the Eastern coast mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 169) was
Libyans published at the beginning of the indeed the ' harbour of Menelaos'. As Dr.
Great War is a treasury of all that concerns R. W. Macan justly remarks {Herodotus, vol. i,
the subject. His recent death is an irreparable p. 122, n. 2), ' the name Menelaos suggests a
loss, and I can only here express my great in- tradition that would carry the acquaintance of
debtedness to his work. the Hellenes with Libya back into Heroic
2 Herodotus, iv. 157. Burdah or Bombah, times'. See below, p. 89.
sometimes identified with Plataea, is, as Bates 3 Bates, op. cit., p. 248, Fig. 93. The outer
points out {op. cit., p. 5 and p. 229, n. 8), wall slopes inwards from its base as in the
an uninhabitable rock. He notes that Seal case of the Mesara tholoi.
Island is still a favourite resort of Greek * J. de Morgan, Recherches sur les origines
sponge-fishers. It is low and flat 'and suit- de FEgypte (1896), p. 239, Fig. 598. At
able to some extent for human occupation'. Gebel-Genamish, E. of Edfu. The sketch of
Since, however, this part of the Libyan coast, this by E. Legrain (misrepresented by the
like the opposite coasts of Central Crete, has engraver) shows a circle of orthostats and an
sunk considerably since the date of the Greek entrance niche apparently closed by an ex-
colonization, it may have possessed an appre- terior slab,
ciably larger area at that time. The English 6 Op. cit., p. 245 seqq.
name for the island, marking it as a special 6 Bates, op. cit., p. 246, Fig. 90.