DOI article:
Smith, Grafton Elliot; Jones, Frederic Wood: Anatomical report
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18102#0043
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Long before we left the Shellal site we found that it was quite
impossible to keep pace with the archaeologists, especially in the case of
such cemeteries as No. 2, where there was comparatively little of
archaeological interest, but an overwhelming mass of anthropological
material. Since then Mr. H. W. Beckett's services have been placed
at our disposal : he has kept all the field-notes and made all the
computations for this report. With his help we have just been able
to accomplish the share of the work that fell to our lot.
Cemetery No. 14.
This cemetery is situated on the east bank at Khor Ambukol. It
contained a series of bodies lying flexed in shallow graves, some of
which were placed by Dr. Reisner in the b group and others in
the c group. There were also a few fully extended bodies in single
graves,* and there were five Ptolemaic tombs, cut into the mud-banks,
in which we found 15 mummies.
The whole cemetery contained the remains of 50 persons, of whom
41 were adults, 20 of each sex, and one in such a fragmentary condition
that the determination of sex was impossible.
The flexed bodies were placed so near the surface that they were
badly damaged, and measurements of the total height could be obtained
only in four instances, all women, the average being 1-481 metres
The extended men's skeletons yielded only two total heights, 1-669
metres and 1-630 metres; the only two women's skeletons in this
extended group were too fragmentary to permit measurements to be
taken.
The mummy of a Ptolemaic man measured 1-505 metres in height
and a woman's mummy was 1-595 metres : but the latter figure is
probably valueless, because the body had been " restored " by the
embalmers, who had employed parts of the skeletons of two other
bodies for this purpose. There were two right legs, the right leg-bones
of a man of much bigger stature having been put in place of the left
leg of this woman.
* Dr. Reisner puts these into the t group : but the bodies bear little or no resemblance to the
tall Negroes to which the designation c was applied at Shellal (Cemetery No. 7 a.) In other words,
the expression " e group " refers merely to the date (" late period " of p. 23) and not to a parti-
cular kind of people.
Long before we left the Shellal site we found that it was quite
impossible to keep pace with the archaeologists, especially in the case of
such cemeteries as No. 2, where there was comparatively little of
archaeological interest, but an overwhelming mass of anthropological
material. Since then Mr. H. W. Beckett's services have been placed
at our disposal : he has kept all the field-notes and made all the
computations for this report. With his help we have just been able
to accomplish the share of the work that fell to our lot.
Cemetery No. 14.
This cemetery is situated on the east bank at Khor Ambukol. It
contained a series of bodies lying flexed in shallow graves, some of
which were placed by Dr. Reisner in the b group and others in
the c group. There were also a few fully extended bodies in single
graves,* and there were five Ptolemaic tombs, cut into the mud-banks,
in which we found 15 mummies.
The whole cemetery contained the remains of 50 persons, of whom
41 were adults, 20 of each sex, and one in such a fragmentary condition
that the determination of sex was impossible.
The flexed bodies were placed so near the surface that they were
badly damaged, and measurements of the total height could be obtained
only in four instances, all women, the average being 1-481 metres
The extended men's skeletons yielded only two total heights, 1-669
metres and 1-630 metres; the only two women's skeletons in this
extended group were too fragmentary to permit measurements to be
taken.
The mummy of a Ptolemaic man measured 1-505 metres in height
and a woman's mummy was 1-595 metres : but the latter figure is
probably valueless, because the body had been " restored " by the
embalmers, who had employed parts of the skeletons of two other
bodies for this purpose. There were two right legs, the right leg-bones
of a man of much bigger stature having been put in place of the left
leg of this woman.
* Dr. Reisner puts these into the t group : but the bodies bear little or no resemblance to the
tall Negroes to which the designation c was applied at Shellal (Cemetery No. 7 a.) In other words,
the expression " e group " refers merely to the date (" late period " of p. 23) and not to a parti-
cular kind of people.