DOI article:
Firth, C. M.: The archaeological survey of Nubia
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18107#0004
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NURLV.
BULLETIN No. 7.
In view of the somewhat shorter period of field-work during the
winter of 1910-1911, and the nature of the discoveries made, it has
been decided to issue a single Bulletin dealing with the whole season's
work. It was also found more practicable, as the anatomical material
was not measured this year in the field, to send the whole of it to
Dr. Elliot Smith in England for examination rather than to divide it
arbitrarily into two portions, which would lose rather than gain in
significance by being separately treated. It will be dealt with as a
whole in the anatomical portion of the final report of the Survey.
At the beginning of November, a greater length of the Nile
Valley remained still unexamined than it had been possible to deal
with in an}- one previous season. The southern limit of the Dodeka-
schoinos had not yet been reached, and little was known archasologically
of what lay between Dakka and Korosko. A rapid preliminary exam-
ination was therefore made, soon after starting work, of both banks
as far south as Mediq, and this was followed after the New Year by a
second reconnaissance, which was carried to a point just south of Wadi
Sebua. The first examination ascertained the probable position of the
ancient sites, while the second was undertaken to determine their nature,
and to enable a rough estimate to be formed of the probable time which
could be devoted to each place. In the interval, work was pushed on
in the districts of Qurtaand Alaqi, and in the fortress of Kubban (Baki),
the larger part of the time being taken up with the clearing of the great
New Empire cemetery of the last-mentioned place.
Before dealing with each site in greater detail, it may'be as well
to point out the main features and broad divisions of the season's
operations. The actual difficulty of the work was, perhaps, greater
than in previous years, owing to the much greater amount of modern
cemetery plundering on the east bank of the river, and to the deeper
accumulations of sand on the west bank.
South of the frontier of the land of the twelve schoinoi, the Nubian
language gradually gives place to the Arabic, and the character of the
BULLETIN No. 7.
In view of the somewhat shorter period of field-work during the
winter of 1910-1911, and the nature of the discoveries made, it has
been decided to issue a single Bulletin dealing with the whole season's
work. It was also found more practicable, as the anatomical material
was not measured this year in the field, to send the whole of it to
Dr. Elliot Smith in England for examination rather than to divide it
arbitrarily into two portions, which would lose rather than gain in
significance by being separately treated. It will be dealt with as a
whole in the anatomical portion of the final report of the Survey.
At the beginning of November, a greater length of the Nile
Valley remained still unexamined than it had been possible to deal
with in an}- one previous season. The southern limit of the Dodeka-
schoinos had not yet been reached, and little was known archasologically
of what lay between Dakka and Korosko. A rapid preliminary exam-
ination was therefore made, soon after starting work, of both banks
as far south as Mediq, and this was followed after the New Year by a
second reconnaissance, which was carried to a point just south of Wadi
Sebua. The first examination ascertained the probable position of the
ancient sites, while the second was undertaken to determine their nature,
and to enable a rough estimate to be formed of the probable time which
could be devoted to each place. In the interval, work was pushed on
in the districts of Qurtaand Alaqi, and in the fortress of Kubban (Baki),
the larger part of the time being taken up with the clearing of the great
New Empire cemetery of the last-mentioned place.
Before dealing with each site in greater detail, it may'be as well
to point out the main features and broad divisions of the season's
operations. The actual difficulty of the work was, perhaps, greater
than in previous years, owing to the much greater amount of modern
cemetery plundering on the east bank of the river, and to the deeper
accumulations of sand on the west bank.
South of the frontier of the land of the twelve schoinoi, the Nubian
language gradually gives place to the Arabic, and the character of the