DOI article:
Firth, C. M.: Archaeologcal report
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18106#0011
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About 200 metres to the east of the cemetery were the remains
of walls and floors covered with ashes, broken pottery, bone points and
ashes, which may mark the site of the kilns or hearths where the
funerary pottery was made. The small area covered by these ruins,
the abundance of ashes, and the distance from the river would seem
to indicate that the site was not that of a village.
Cemetery 102.
So numbered for convenience, but in reality the earlier part of the
Early Dynastic portion of Cemetery 101. The southern part of the
cemetery seems the oldest, a few of the graves being of the Late Pre-
dynastic period. Two ostrich eggs bearing engraved figures of
gazelles and human beings were recovered unbroken, and a fine
steatopygous figure was found with the burial of a child.
The human remains in the cemetery were unfortunately in a
very bad condition owing to the salts in the soil and to grave-pressure.
Cemetery 103.
The burial-place of a small community of the Middle Predynastic
period, possibly the pioneer settlement of Dakka. Here, for the first
time since Cemetery 17 (Khor Ambukol, season 1907-1908), the red-
polished black-topped Predynastic pottery was discovered in any
considerable quantity. But even in the earlier graves of this small
cemetery the black-topped pottery is mixed with the local red-
polished black-mouthed imitation. One grave, 103 : 15, furnishes a
good example of a typical oval Predynastic grave intruded on by a later
grave of the Early Dynastic side-chambered type, containing only
red-polished black-mouthed pottery and a pebble palette.
Graves 103 : 9, 103 : 11 and 103 : 12 contained fine examples of
single bird-form slate palettes.
Cemetery 104.
Ptolemaic-Roman graves of the pit and end-chamber type.
Cemetery 105.
New Empire graves of the following types :—
(i) Communal burial-places with central brick-lined pit and large
end-chambers.
About 200 metres to the east of the cemetery were the remains
of walls and floors covered with ashes, broken pottery, bone points and
ashes, which may mark the site of the kilns or hearths where the
funerary pottery was made. The small area covered by these ruins,
the abundance of ashes, and the distance from the river would seem
to indicate that the site was not that of a village.
Cemetery 102.
So numbered for convenience, but in reality the earlier part of the
Early Dynastic portion of Cemetery 101. The southern part of the
cemetery seems the oldest, a few of the graves being of the Late Pre-
dynastic period. Two ostrich eggs bearing engraved figures of
gazelles and human beings were recovered unbroken, and a fine
steatopygous figure was found with the burial of a child.
The human remains in the cemetery were unfortunately in a
very bad condition owing to the salts in the soil and to grave-pressure.
Cemetery 103.
The burial-place of a small community of the Middle Predynastic
period, possibly the pioneer settlement of Dakka. Here, for the first
time since Cemetery 17 (Khor Ambukol, season 1907-1908), the red-
polished black-topped Predynastic pottery was discovered in any
considerable quantity. But even in the earlier graves of this small
cemetery the black-topped pottery is mixed with the local red-
polished black-mouthed imitation. One grave, 103 : 15, furnishes a
good example of a typical oval Predynastic grave intruded on by a later
grave of the Early Dynastic side-chambered type, containing only
red-polished black-mouthed pottery and a pebble palette.
Graves 103 : 9, 103 : 11 and 103 : 12 contained fine examples of
single bird-form slate palettes.
Cemetery 104.
Ptolemaic-Roman graves of the pit and end-chamber type.
Cemetery 105.
New Empire graves of the following types :—
(i) Communal burial-places with central brick-lined pit and large
end-chambers.