DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3390#0016
REGISTRATION OF GRAVES
The use of copper tools seems more general earlier;
but as they would be among the main objects to
be robbed from the graves, these numbers may be
affected by the part of the grave in which they were
placed.
S.D. T7 3 tools
78 6
79 1
80 1
81 2
82 o
Summary
13. From these various classes of remains, which
are so numerous that they can give statistical results,
we can now draw some conclusions.
In general, there was no progressive change in
the direction of burial, head to north or to south, but
the excess to the south were males. There was no
change in the attitude, all were contracted ; and the
same proportion, of about 1 on the right side to 8 on
the left, continued throughout.
Two periods of maxima may be seen. In S.D. 78,
the age of Narmer (Mena) and his immediate prede-
cessors, the sizes of the graves and of the coffins were
greatest, and diminished as time went on. Copper
tools were then more often buried. We may call
this the maximum application of labour and reality.
In S.D. 80, about the time of queen Merneit, the
number of wealthy female graves, and the number
of burials of beds, were greatest. We may call this
the maximum of luxury.
The decline at Tarkhan was probably hastened
by the rise of Memphis under Mena ; while Turah,
though much poorer, yet benefited by the political
change.
CHAPTER III
THE CONTENTS OF THE GRAVES
14. In giving account of so large a cemetery it is
desirable to publish a compact register of the groups
of objects found. To describe every grave separately
in detail means a callous disregard of students and
readers, as such a mass of undigested material cannot
be used without a long process of tabulating. That
tabulating is best done once for all by those who
know the material, and done at once while the
details are remembered. Such a tabulation compels
a proper mode of registering the pottery and stone
forms. It is a mere waste of the material to rely on
small scattered sketches which are not co-ordinated,
and which have no connection ; the details of form
cannot be seen safely in small figures, and the whole
business of comparative treatment and connection of
forms is shirked by the observer and thrown upon
the reader. It is useless to expect the reader to wade
through the connection of hundreds of small drawings
repeating the same forms many times; and such a
shape of publication would be the virtual death of
the material.
The only permanent system of registration is by
having a full corpus of all the forms arranged and
numbered ; and then to record every type of pottery
and stone by the corpus numbers. Such a system
was started in publishing the first known great pre-
historic cemetery, that of Naqadeh. It has been
carried on in the publications of El Amrah, Diospolis
Parva, the Predynastic Cemetery of El Mahasna, the
Labyrinth and Gerzeh, etc. To that prehistoric corpus
we need now to add a corpus of the early historic age
here, in order to deal with the new material.
A movement in this direction has been made in
the useful publication by Dr. Junker of his work at
Turah, and it might seem a pity to relay such a
foundation. Unfortunately his corpus only includes
a third of the required forms, its order is not in
uniform progression (from the most open to the most
closed types), and the photographs are not to any
uniform scale, and are indistinct in parts so that the
forms are uncertain. It seems needful therefore, in
view of future work, to lay out a uniform and full
corpus of drawings.
The register of Dr. Junker is so valuable for com-
parison with our results, that it is here extracted, with
the numbers all converted to the corpus numbers here
used, both for pottery and stone. Of course neither
in our own results, nor in his, is it of any use to
publish records which mean nothing; a single com-
mon pot in a grave is valueless as a record, or even
two very common contemporary forms if repeatedly
stated ; only groups are of use which serve to connect
the historical range of the forms, or to connect them
with other objects found in the same grave. Useless
records are a great evil; if published they waste the
time of every student and obscure the other records
with which they are mixed. When the material in
a group is insufficient to give any effective result, it
is only a detriment to encumber publication by such
useless records. In no science is the result of every
inconclusive experiment published, but only those
which can have some result.
The use of copper tools seems more general earlier;
but as they would be among the main objects to
be robbed from the graves, these numbers may be
affected by the part of the grave in which they were
placed.
S.D. T7 3 tools
78 6
79 1
80 1
81 2
82 o
Summary
13. From these various classes of remains, which
are so numerous that they can give statistical results,
we can now draw some conclusions.
In general, there was no progressive change in
the direction of burial, head to north or to south, but
the excess to the south were males. There was no
change in the attitude, all were contracted ; and the
same proportion, of about 1 on the right side to 8 on
the left, continued throughout.
Two periods of maxima may be seen. In S.D. 78,
the age of Narmer (Mena) and his immediate prede-
cessors, the sizes of the graves and of the coffins were
greatest, and diminished as time went on. Copper
tools were then more often buried. We may call
this the maximum application of labour and reality.
In S.D. 80, about the time of queen Merneit, the
number of wealthy female graves, and the number
of burials of beds, were greatest. We may call this
the maximum of luxury.
The decline at Tarkhan was probably hastened
by the rise of Memphis under Mena ; while Turah,
though much poorer, yet benefited by the political
change.
CHAPTER III
THE CONTENTS OF THE GRAVES
14. In giving account of so large a cemetery it is
desirable to publish a compact register of the groups
of objects found. To describe every grave separately
in detail means a callous disregard of students and
readers, as such a mass of undigested material cannot
be used without a long process of tabulating. That
tabulating is best done once for all by those who
know the material, and done at once while the
details are remembered. Such a tabulation compels
a proper mode of registering the pottery and stone
forms. It is a mere waste of the material to rely on
small scattered sketches which are not co-ordinated,
and which have no connection ; the details of form
cannot be seen safely in small figures, and the whole
business of comparative treatment and connection of
forms is shirked by the observer and thrown upon
the reader. It is useless to expect the reader to wade
through the connection of hundreds of small drawings
repeating the same forms many times; and such a
shape of publication would be the virtual death of
the material.
The only permanent system of registration is by
having a full corpus of all the forms arranged and
numbered ; and then to record every type of pottery
and stone by the corpus numbers. Such a system
was started in publishing the first known great pre-
historic cemetery, that of Naqadeh. It has been
carried on in the publications of El Amrah, Diospolis
Parva, the Predynastic Cemetery of El Mahasna, the
Labyrinth and Gerzeh, etc. To that prehistoric corpus
we need now to add a corpus of the early historic age
here, in order to deal with the new material.
A movement in this direction has been made in
the useful publication by Dr. Junker of his work at
Turah, and it might seem a pity to relay such a
foundation. Unfortunately his corpus only includes
a third of the required forms, its order is not in
uniform progression (from the most open to the most
closed types), and the photographs are not to any
uniform scale, and are indistinct in parts so that the
forms are uncertain. It seems needful therefore, in
view of future work, to lay out a uniform and full
corpus of drawings.
The register of Dr. Junker is so valuable for com-
parison with our results, that it is here extracted, with
the numbers all converted to the corpus numbers here
used, both for pottery and stone. Of course neither
in our own results, nor in his, is it of any use to
publish records which mean nothing; a single com-
mon pot in a grave is valueless as a record, or even
two very common contemporary forms if repeatedly
stated ; only groups are of use which serve to connect
the historical range of the forms, or to connect them
with other objects found in the same grave. Useless
records are a great evil; if published they waste the
time of every student and obscure the other records
with which they are mixed. When the material in
a group is insufficient to give any effective result, it
is only a detriment to encumber publication by such
useless records. In no science is the result of every
inconclusive experiment published, but only those
which can have some result.