DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49516#0106
64
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
(2) Grave types
Ordinarily the graves of a cemetery may be divided for the consideration of the grave
types into two groups, one containing the tombs of more than average size and the other,
the smaller tombs. Above all these will stand the royal tombs of the same period. The
reason for this division has been fully explained in Naga- d-Der I,1 and is mainly based on
the fact that the line of technical development is to be sought in the chief tombs, as their
owners are the persons able to command the services of the best craftsmen of the district,
the class most intimately acquainted with the advances made by the royal craftsmen and
most tenacious of the best traditions of their crafts. The types of the smaller tombs follow
the changes of the time more slowly, often in an impractical, imitative way, and cling more
stubbornly to older forms especially when these are of little cost.
At Kerma, there are not only a number of large and small graves; but the small graves
are further divided into independent graves lying in a field by themselves, and subsidiary
graves which are grouped about the main burials of the great tombs.
t
(a) Large graves:
The large graves present one general type, the burial apartment or apartments for the
main burial, covered with a low dome-shaped tumulus of earth much larger than is neces-
sary to cover the main burial, a broad ring of dark stones outlining the tumulus and assist-
ing to maintain its form, a sprinkling of white pebbles over the tumulus inside the dark
ring, a crescent of ox-skulls around the southern sector, and a cone of white quartzite which
appears to have stood at the summit of the tumulus. Usually the extra space in the tumulus
is more or less filled with small graves of the same general period as the main burial. Five
of the largest tumuli contain such graves, which I call subsidiary graves, and even some of
the lesser tumuli like K XIII and K XXXV. This general type of large tomb prevails not
only through the Egyptian but also through the Nubian Cemetery; although in the latter
with great variations in the form of the main chamber and other details.
(b) Independent smaller graves:
The independent graves seem to fall into two divisions, the members of one of which
are replicas on a small scale of the larger tumuli — with one main chamber, a tumulus of
earth much larger than the chamber, a ring of dark stones, the sprinkling of white pebbles,
the quartzite cone (or a disc), but without subsidiary graves. The other division into which
the small graves appear to fall lies for the most part in denuded ground where even the
alluvium has been cut away by rain-water so that whatever superstructures they may have
had would have been in any case washed away. On Sheet F (Plan VII), where the inde-
pendent graves lie widely separated, each was probably of the same imitative type as the
adjoining graves with well-marked tumuli. In other places, certain small graves lie so close
together that the existence of tumuli, unless of very meager proportions indeed, may be
doubted.2
(c) Subsidiary graves:
The subsidiary graves were not marked in any instance by black rings when I first
visited the site and their presence was never suspected until we had actually found the
1 G. A. Reisner, Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der, Leipzig, 1908, I, p. 11.
2 See Plan IV, Sheet A, south of K XXXV, and Plan VII, Sheet F, in the Nubian Cemetery.
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
(2) Grave types
Ordinarily the graves of a cemetery may be divided for the consideration of the grave
types into two groups, one containing the tombs of more than average size and the other,
the smaller tombs. Above all these will stand the royal tombs of the same period. The
reason for this division has been fully explained in Naga- d-Der I,1 and is mainly based on
the fact that the line of technical development is to be sought in the chief tombs, as their
owners are the persons able to command the services of the best craftsmen of the district,
the class most intimately acquainted with the advances made by the royal craftsmen and
most tenacious of the best traditions of their crafts. The types of the smaller tombs follow
the changes of the time more slowly, often in an impractical, imitative way, and cling more
stubbornly to older forms especially when these are of little cost.
At Kerma, there are not only a number of large and small graves; but the small graves
are further divided into independent graves lying in a field by themselves, and subsidiary
graves which are grouped about the main burials of the great tombs.
t
(a) Large graves:
The large graves present one general type, the burial apartment or apartments for the
main burial, covered with a low dome-shaped tumulus of earth much larger than is neces-
sary to cover the main burial, a broad ring of dark stones outlining the tumulus and assist-
ing to maintain its form, a sprinkling of white pebbles over the tumulus inside the dark
ring, a crescent of ox-skulls around the southern sector, and a cone of white quartzite which
appears to have stood at the summit of the tumulus. Usually the extra space in the tumulus
is more or less filled with small graves of the same general period as the main burial. Five
of the largest tumuli contain such graves, which I call subsidiary graves, and even some of
the lesser tumuli like K XIII and K XXXV. This general type of large tomb prevails not
only through the Egyptian but also through the Nubian Cemetery; although in the latter
with great variations in the form of the main chamber and other details.
(b) Independent smaller graves:
The independent graves seem to fall into two divisions, the members of one of which
are replicas on a small scale of the larger tumuli — with one main chamber, a tumulus of
earth much larger than the chamber, a ring of dark stones, the sprinkling of white pebbles,
the quartzite cone (or a disc), but without subsidiary graves. The other division into which
the small graves appear to fall lies for the most part in denuded ground where even the
alluvium has been cut away by rain-water so that whatever superstructures they may have
had would have been in any case washed away. On Sheet F (Plan VII), where the inde-
pendent graves lie widely separated, each was probably of the same imitative type as the
adjoining graves with well-marked tumuli. In other places, certain small graves lie so close
together that the existence of tumuli, unless of very meager proportions indeed, may be
doubted.2
(c) Subsidiary graves:
The subsidiary graves were not marked in any instance by black rings when I first
visited the site and their presence was never suspected until we had actually found the
1 G. A. Reisner, Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der, Leipzig, 1908, I, p. 11.
2 See Plan IV, Sheet A, south of K XXXV, and Plan VII, Sheet F, in the Nubian Cemetery.