DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49516#0139
CHARACTERISTICS AND DATE OF THE EASTERN CEMETERY 87
identity of that official is given by a scarab found in the sacrificial corridor. In many cases
a seal was entrusted by a man to certain members of his family, and as a fact seals are more
often found with the females and subordinate persons than with the chief person. This
means that taking the ordinary rule in Egyptian graves, a certain seal with the name of a
high official, which was found with a person who suffered sait-burial in KXB, gives us the
name of the acting viceroy buried in K X A. That seal is in the name of “the chancellor,
the overseer of sealers, Ha’ar.” Twelve seals of the chancellor Ha’ar have already been
found in Egypt — a fact which is in conformity with the nature of his office. With these
titles, Ha’ar may well have held the additional titles of “hereditary prince and nomarch.”
In any case, his Egyptian office was of sufficient importance to qualify him for the post of
governor of Ethiopia. But, as is seen, the evidence is slight. Thus, the great tumuli K III,
KIV, and K X are clearly marked by their unusual size and importance and by what
evidence we have of their owners, as the tombs of a series of acting viceroys of Ethiopia.
By that very fact they are necessarily successive in date. Taking the characteristics of
those three tumuli as guides, K XVI, K XVIII, K XIX, and K XX must be included with
them as the graves of persons of similar position. The minor tumuli K X, K V, K VIII,
K XV, K XIV, K XIII, and so forth, would then appear to be the graves of other Egyp-
tian officials who did not occupy this exalted rank but were great enough to receive inde-
pendent tumuli. They form a series contemporary with the large tumuli, and as none of
the larger tumuli are quite full of subsidiary graves, the choice of a separate burial for these
high officials who were subordinate to the acting viceroy must have been deliberately
made.
(2) The progressive character of the development of the crafts and
CUSTOMS CONTAINED IN THE GREAT TUMULI
If, as has been shown above, the great tumuli are the tombs of a succession of the high-
est officials in Ethiopia during the Egyptian occupation of Kerma, then the cause of the
subdivision of the general archaeological group is clear. The great officials of the tumuli
died at intervals which, judging by the records of the later viceroys of Ethiopia, would
have been from twenty to fifty years, provided that every viceroy of the Middle Kingdom
had died and been buried at Kerma. But it is more probable that some governors were
removed or retired to Egypt before their death and that the great tumuli are separated
by more than one generation. However that may be, they are successive, and the sub-
sidiary graves in each began only after the death of the man buried in the tumulus. They
continued, then, until another acting viceroy had been buried at Kerma, when the sub-
sidiary cemetery was transferred to the more recent tumulus. So only is it possible to ex-
plain the great similarity between the objects and customs of each separate tumulus and
its subsidiary graves.
Under these circumstances, each tumulus with its cemetery represents a definite period
of time and was separated from the chronologically adjacent tumuli by the burial of an
Egyptian viceroy. In these separated intervals of time, the population was of course con-
tinually changing by death and birth, by emigration and immigration. The artisans who
worked in the beginning of the period of K III would certainly be a different set of men from
those working during the period of K IV. But there could have been little difference be-
tween the personnel of the crafts at the end of one period and the beginning of another.
Thus the archaeological groups of the great tumuli might be represented geometrically as
identity of that official is given by a scarab found in the sacrificial corridor. In many cases
a seal was entrusted by a man to certain members of his family, and as a fact seals are more
often found with the females and subordinate persons than with the chief person. This
means that taking the ordinary rule in Egyptian graves, a certain seal with the name of a
high official, which was found with a person who suffered sait-burial in KXB, gives us the
name of the acting viceroy buried in K X A. That seal is in the name of “the chancellor,
the overseer of sealers, Ha’ar.” Twelve seals of the chancellor Ha’ar have already been
found in Egypt — a fact which is in conformity with the nature of his office. With these
titles, Ha’ar may well have held the additional titles of “hereditary prince and nomarch.”
In any case, his Egyptian office was of sufficient importance to qualify him for the post of
governor of Ethiopia. But, as is seen, the evidence is slight. Thus, the great tumuli K III,
KIV, and K X are clearly marked by their unusual size and importance and by what
evidence we have of their owners, as the tombs of a series of acting viceroys of Ethiopia.
By that very fact they are necessarily successive in date. Taking the characteristics of
those three tumuli as guides, K XVI, K XVIII, K XIX, and K XX must be included with
them as the graves of persons of similar position. The minor tumuli K X, K V, K VIII,
K XV, K XIV, K XIII, and so forth, would then appear to be the graves of other Egyp-
tian officials who did not occupy this exalted rank but were great enough to receive inde-
pendent tumuli. They form a series contemporary with the large tumuli, and as none of
the larger tumuli are quite full of subsidiary graves, the choice of a separate burial for these
high officials who were subordinate to the acting viceroy must have been deliberately
made.
(2) The progressive character of the development of the crafts and
CUSTOMS CONTAINED IN THE GREAT TUMULI
If, as has been shown above, the great tumuli are the tombs of a succession of the high-
est officials in Ethiopia during the Egyptian occupation of Kerma, then the cause of the
subdivision of the general archaeological group is clear. The great officials of the tumuli
died at intervals which, judging by the records of the later viceroys of Ethiopia, would
have been from twenty to fifty years, provided that every viceroy of the Middle Kingdom
had died and been buried at Kerma. But it is more probable that some governors were
removed or retired to Egypt before their death and that the great tumuli are separated
by more than one generation. However that may be, they are successive, and the sub-
sidiary graves in each began only after the death of the man buried in the tumulus. They
continued, then, until another acting viceroy had been buried at Kerma, when the sub-
sidiary cemetery was transferred to the more recent tumulus. So only is it possible to ex-
plain the great similarity between the objects and customs of each separate tumulus and
its subsidiary graves.
Under these circumstances, each tumulus with its cemetery represents a definite period
of time and was separated from the chronologically adjacent tumuli by the burial of an
Egyptian viceroy. In these separated intervals of time, the population was of course con-
tinually changing by death and birth, by emigration and immigration. The artisans who
worked in the beginning of the period of K III would certainly be a different set of men from
those working during the period of K IV. But there could have been little difference be-
tween the personnel of the crafts at the end of one period and the beginning of another.
Thus the archaeological groups of the great tumuli might be represented geometrically as