DOI Artikel:
Reisner, George Andrew: The archaeological survey of Nubia
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18104#0013
I
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SUKYEY OF NUBIA.
By Dr. G. A. REISNER.
KOSHTAMNA (North).
The great bay on the west bank at the northern end of Koshtamna
presents all those physical characteristics which the Nubian Survey
has shown repeatedly to presuppose a continuous population from
predynastic times and a nearly complete series of cemeteries. A
choke in the river, due to the sandstone cliffs to the north, appears
to have caused the deposition of a series of high mud banks along
the edge of the low sandstone stratum on the west. Between these
and the river is a series of broad low alluvial mounds, made into
flat terraces cultivable by saqias at high Nile.* Some sand drifts
continually over this plain ; but, except where held up by trees or
other obstacles, it seems to cause little inconvenience.
As usual, the high mud banks have been used for a long time for
digging sebakh for the fields below. All the cemeteries have been
denuded and cut about by this process, except the two Christian
cemeteries and the C-group cemetery (No. 87), all three of which
have stone superstructures. These constructions held up the sand,
making the digging of sebakh difficult. Just south of Cemetery 87,
between it and No. 89, there is a stretch of bare sandstone, about
80-100 metres long, covered with heaps of debris from sebakh sieves.
In this debris we picked up six or seven stone axes, and a number of
palettes and rubbing pebbles, and noted many potsherds of early
dynastic types. It was clear that a whole mound of mud, containing
an ancient cemetery (or town site ?) had been entirely cut away by
sebbakhin down to the bed-rock, f In Cemetery 89, the Ptolemaic-
* Since the tilling of the reservoir, this land yields two crops : a high Nile (or summer) crop
and a Reservoir (or winter) crop.
t A similar destruction of a cemetery by gebbakhin Iws been recorded by Quibell at Kom el
Ahmar : see Hierahonpolit II, p. 26 a (below).
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SUKYEY OF NUBIA.
By Dr. G. A. REISNER.
KOSHTAMNA (North).
The great bay on the west bank at the northern end of Koshtamna
presents all those physical characteristics which the Nubian Survey
has shown repeatedly to presuppose a continuous population from
predynastic times and a nearly complete series of cemeteries. A
choke in the river, due to the sandstone cliffs to the north, appears
to have caused the deposition of a series of high mud banks along
the edge of the low sandstone stratum on the west. Between these
and the river is a series of broad low alluvial mounds, made into
flat terraces cultivable by saqias at high Nile.* Some sand drifts
continually over this plain ; but, except where held up by trees or
other obstacles, it seems to cause little inconvenience.
As usual, the high mud banks have been used for a long time for
digging sebakh for the fields below. All the cemeteries have been
denuded and cut about by this process, except the two Christian
cemeteries and the C-group cemetery (No. 87), all three of which
have stone superstructures. These constructions held up the sand,
making the digging of sebakh difficult. Just south of Cemetery 87,
between it and No. 89, there is a stretch of bare sandstone, about
80-100 metres long, covered with heaps of debris from sebakh sieves.
In this debris we picked up six or seven stone axes, and a number of
palettes and rubbing pebbles, and noted many potsherds of early
dynastic types. It was clear that a whole mound of mud, containing
an ancient cemetery (or town site ?) had been entirely cut away by
sebbakhin down to the bed-rock, f In Cemetery 89, the Ptolemaic-
* Since the tilling of the reservoir, this land yields two crops : a high Nile (or summer) crop
and a Reservoir (or winter) crop.
t A similar destruction of a cemetery by gebbakhin Iws been recorded by Quibell at Kom el
Ahmar : see Hierahonpolit II, p. 26 a (below).