DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Zych, Iwona: Cemetery C in Naqlun: preliminary report on the excavation in 2006
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42092#0248
NAQLUN
EGYPT
a discarded plaited basket of the kind
commonly used to carry sand at various
excavations in Egypt.
The fill in the upper parts of all of the
simple grave pits was disturbed and con-
tained torn and crumpled tunics, shrouds,
some broken amphorae and a few other
sherds, bundles of packing and padding
coming from the destroyed mummy-
cartonnages [cf. Fig. 12]. Moreover, the fill
contained human remains, bits and pieces of
dismembered mummies and loose bones,
apparently pulled out from their graves and
thrown back into a handy empty pit once
the search for treasures had been completed
{Fig. 13, also 14 bottom right]. Considering
the illicit character of this excavation, it
cannot be said for certain which graves these
remains could have originated from. One
possibility is that the deeper grave pits had
two tiers of burials, the lower one at the
bottom, at a depth of c. 1.20-1.30 m, and
the upper one at a depth of about 0.80 m,
which is the depth of the shallower grave
pits where single burials have been found.
This would explain why the upper parts of
the fill of these graves were found in
complete turmoil and the burials mangled
and destroyed, while the lower burials had
been only spot-searched in crucial areas
without even bothering to dig out all the
fill.
Fig. 13. Fxample of disturbed fill with loose human bones and other objects in the upper part of a grave
pit (C.T.7) (Photo l.Zych)
245
EGYPT
a discarded plaited basket of the kind
commonly used to carry sand at various
excavations in Egypt.
The fill in the upper parts of all of the
simple grave pits was disturbed and con-
tained torn and crumpled tunics, shrouds,
some broken amphorae and a few other
sherds, bundles of packing and padding
coming from the destroyed mummy-
cartonnages [cf. Fig. 12]. Moreover, the fill
contained human remains, bits and pieces of
dismembered mummies and loose bones,
apparently pulled out from their graves and
thrown back into a handy empty pit once
the search for treasures had been completed
{Fig. 13, also 14 bottom right]. Considering
the illicit character of this excavation, it
cannot be said for certain which graves these
remains could have originated from. One
possibility is that the deeper grave pits had
two tiers of burials, the lower one at the
bottom, at a depth of c. 1.20-1.30 m, and
the upper one at a depth of about 0.80 m,
which is the depth of the shallower grave
pits where single burials have been found.
This would explain why the upper parts of
the fill of these graves were found in
complete turmoil and the burials mangled
and destroyed, while the lower burials had
been only spot-searched in crucial areas
without even bothering to dig out all the
fill.
Fig. 13. Fxample of disturbed fill with loose human bones and other objects in the upper part of a grave
pit (C.T.7) (Photo l.Zych)
245