DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49516#0147
CHARACTERISTICS AND DATE OF THE EASTERN CEMETERY
95
stage. It is difficult to understand why the secondary stripe should have been painted in
the examples of the pottery in K XX unless there had been a period when the stripe was
produced as a more permanent feature of the beakers and bowls. In the second place, if
the fine vessels in K III represent the end of the series, what was the fate of the craft after
that date? Did the whole Egypto-Nubian culture come to an end within a few genera-
tions after Hepzefa? The poorest and apparently the latest graves in K III have still the
distinctive pottery of the tumulus. The community continued prosperous and the graves
are in many ways the richest at Kerma; yet if the order is taken as K X, K IV, K III, then
while the size of the burial chambers and the number of sacrifices were decreasing, the
prosperity and wealth of the community were increasing. The only hypothesis which
plausibly explains the facts presented by the progression of the pottery is that K III was
the first of the tumuli and presents to us the crafts of Kerma practically at their climax,
and that the other tumuli K IV, K X, K XVI—XX follow in that order and show the
decline of the potter’s craft to the point where its product is in the main of a cheap cere-
monial-traditional character.
(b) Size and structure of the great tumuli:
The progression of the tumuli as presented in their size and structure is not so obvious.
The size of the tumulus remains nearly the same throughout K III, K IV, and K X, and
then declines through K XVIII—XX. The structure of the tumulus shows a certain
amount of variation. In K III, the complex was a complete circle, built within a low wall.
In K IV, the original tumulus was only a mound of earth, but the later complex was erected
as a complete circle like K III, after most of the subsidiary burials had been made, pre-
sumably as the pious act of some later official, perhaps by the same hands that built the
similar tumulus for the minor grave K VIII. In K X, on the other hand, the mud-brick
skeleton supported only about one-third of the tumulus. The other tumuli, indeed all other
tumuli at Kerma, were earth tumuli without supporting walls.
It may be said that there is a steady deterioration in the structure of the tumuli from
K III through KIV and K X to K XVI; that after K X there is a steady decrease in size.
(c) Burial apartments in the great tumuli:
The areas of the burial apartments and the numbers of the human sacrifices increase
from K III to K X, and decrease thereafter. The arrangement of the chambers of each
tumulus is sui generis. K III and K IV have this in common, that the chamber of the main
burial is entered from the south side of the corridor and lies outside that apartment, and
that the sacrificial corridor is one long apartment, while in K X the main chamber is actu-
ally in the sacrificial corridor, against the south side, while the corridor itself is accidentally
divided into two very wide apartments by an older wall, only partially destroyed. This
accidental feature of K X, the division of the sacrificial apartment into two chambers,
appears to have been intentionally copied in K XVI which has three chambers, two of
which were certainly used for human sacrifices. K XVIII, which is reduced to two cham-
bers, appears to have followed the orientation and arrangement of the main chamber and
the first sacrificial chamber of K XVI, omitting the long southern chamber. In K XIX,
there are two nearly equal chambers as in K XVIII, but these are turned at an angle of
90°, so that instead of following the orientation of K XVI and K XVIII, they run east and
west. Of course, in all these the burial orientation was east and west, as may be seen by
95
stage. It is difficult to understand why the secondary stripe should have been painted in
the examples of the pottery in K XX unless there had been a period when the stripe was
produced as a more permanent feature of the beakers and bowls. In the second place, if
the fine vessels in K III represent the end of the series, what was the fate of the craft after
that date? Did the whole Egypto-Nubian culture come to an end within a few genera-
tions after Hepzefa? The poorest and apparently the latest graves in K III have still the
distinctive pottery of the tumulus. The community continued prosperous and the graves
are in many ways the richest at Kerma; yet if the order is taken as K X, K IV, K III, then
while the size of the burial chambers and the number of sacrifices were decreasing, the
prosperity and wealth of the community were increasing. The only hypothesis which
plausibly explains the facts presented by the progression of the pottery is that K III was
the first of the tumuli and presents to us the crafts of Kerma practically at their climax,
and that the other tumuli K IV, K X, K XVI—XX follow in that order and show the
decline of the potter’s craft to the point where its product is in the main of a cheap cere-
monial-traditional character.
(b) Size and structure of the great tumuli:
The progression of the tumuli as presented in their size and structure is not so obvious.
The size of the tumulus remains nearly the same throughout K III, K IV, and K X, and
then declines through K XVIII—XX. The structure of the tumulus shows a certain
amount of variation. In K III, the complex was a complete circle, built within a low wall.
In K IV, the original tumulus was only a mound of earth, but the later complex was erected
as a complete circle like K III, after most of the subsidiary burials had been made, pre-
sumably as the pious act of some later official, perhaps by the same hands that built the
similar tumulus for the minor grave K VIII. In K X, on the other hand, the mud-brick
skeleton supported only about one-third of the tumulus. The other tumuli, indeed all other
tumuli at Kerma, were earth tumuli without supporting walls.
It may be said that there is a steady deterioration in the structure of the tumuli from
K III through KIV and K X to K XVI; that after K X there is a steady decrease in size.
(c) Burial apartments in the great tumuli:
The areas of the burial apartments and the numbers of the human sacrifices increase
from K III to K X, and decrease thereafter. The arrangement of the chambers of each
tumulus is sui generis. K III and K IV have this in common, that the chamber of the main
burial is entered from the south side of the corridor and lies outside that apartment, and
that the sacrificial corridor is one long apartment, while in K X the main chamber is actu-
ally in the sacrificial corridor, against the south side, while the corridor itself is accidentally
divided into two very wide apartments by an older wall, only partially destroyed. This
accidental feature of K X, the division of the sacrificial apartment into two chambers,
appears to have been intentionally copied in K XVI which has three chambers, two of
which were certainly used for human sacrifices. K XVIII, which is reduced to two cham-
bers, appears to have followed the orientation and arrangement of the main chamber and
the first sacrificial chamber of K XVI, omitting the long southern chamber. In K XIX,
there are two nearly equal chambers as in K XVIII, but these are turned at an angle of
90°, so that instead of following the orientation of K XVI and K XVIII, they run east and
west. Of course, in all these the burial orientation was east and west, as may be seen by