DOI Artikel:
Firth, C. M.: Archaeological report: the destruction of the cemeteries in the neighbourhood of Dakka
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18105#0016
The above brief account covers the work of the Survey only up
to the end of November. The month of December has been entirely
taken up with the clearing of the very large and important C-group
cemetery (No. 101), of which the more detailed account must be held
over for the sixth Bulletin.
It may, however, be mentioned that it is a large cemetery of six
hundred graves with stone superstructures of the same type as those
of Cemetery 87 (Bulletin 4).
The cemetery is, in part, somewhat later than No. 87, and many
of the graves are closed with well-constructed mud-brick leaning
vaults. The superstructures are provided with chapels of mud-brick
containing the funerary pottery which was more often simply deposited
at the foot of the superstructure.
The stone superstructures have held up an enormous quantity
of blown sand, the removal of which alone has already necessitated
a month's work with a railway and. trucks. The thorough clearing
of the site down to the original surface of ancient Nile mud and com-
pact sand has disclosed the existence of an earlier cemetery of the
Early Dynastic and Predynastic periods, the graves of which are still
closed with the original sandstone slabs. The C-group superstruc-
tures are in some cases built right over these covering stones.
The general impression given by the archaeological remains of
the plain of Dakka is that a large population has, in all periods, been
attracted to this fertile locality, securely situated on the west bank
of the Nile, and further protected by the great fortress of Kubban,
built as early as the Middle Kingdom to guard the desert road to the
copper mines of the Eastern Desert and the gold workings of the Wadi
Alagi.
to the end of November. The month of December has been entirely
taken up with the clearing of the very large and important C-group
cemetery (No. 101), of which the more detailed account must be held
over for the sixth Bulletin.
It may, however, be mentioned that it is a large cemetery of six
hundred graves with stone superstructures of the same type as those
of Cemetery 87 (Bulletin 4).
The cemetery is, in part, somewhat later than No. 87, and many
of the graves are closed with well-constructed mud-brick leaning
vaults. The superstructures are provided with chapels of mud-brick
containing the funerary pottery which was more often simply deposited
at the foot of the superstructure.
The stone superstructures have held up an enormous quantity
of blown sand, the removal of which alone has already necessitated
a month's work with a railway and. trucks. The thorough clearing
of the site down to the original surface of ancient Nile mud and com-
pact sand has disclosed the existence of an earlier cemetery of the
Early Dynastic and Predynastic periods, the graves of which are still
closed with the original sandstone slabs. The C-group superstruc-
tures are in some cases built right over these covering stones.
The general impression given by the archaeological remains of
the plain of Dakka is that a large population has, in all periods, been
attracted to this fertile locality, securely situated on the west bank
of the Nile, and further protected by the great fortress of Kubban,
built as early as the Middle Kingdom to guard the desert road to the
copper mines of the Eastern Desert and the gold workings of the Wadi
Alagi.