DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49516#0190
134
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
(ii) Each room was nearly square with a doorway in the middle of the southern side. K XV D,
K XXXIIIA, K XXXVIIA, and K LV A had each a single stone basis in the middle
which must have borne a single wooden column to support the roof. From this fact
and from the thickness of the walls, it may be concluded that the rooms had been roofed
with wood (or reeds).
(iii) The walls had been denuded to the floor in K XV A and B, K XVI A and B, and
in K XXXIIIA. In none of them were any objects found in situ on the floor; but in
K XV D, and in K XIX A and B, a number of objects were found lying in confusion in
the debris just above the floor and on the ground around these chapels. These objects
were of exactly the same classes as those in the surrounding graves and had clearly
been thrown out from the graves by the plunderers.
(iv) The chapel K XV D had been built partly over the chapel K XV C, and was certainly
later in date. It may be inferred from this that the chapels XV A-D, were not all stand-
ing at one time, but built in succession for the same identical purpose. Similarly, K XIV
A and B may be held to have been successive, and also K XVI A and B.
(v) Single-chamber chapels (one without a roof) were found in cemeteries nos. 87 and 101 in
Nubia,1 sometimes built directly against a rubble tumulus and sometimes detached, but
always closer to the tumulus than are these chambers. It is, however, noteworthy that
while only a very small proportion of the tumuli in these Nubian cemeteries were pro-
vided with an exterior chapel, very many had groups of pottery placed beside the tumulus
on the spot where a chapel might have been expected. It may be that the offering places
at most of these tombs were of some more perishable material, wood or reeds, which has
disappeared.
With these meagre facts, the purpose of the single-chamber structures must remain in
doubt. The most probable explanation and the most obvious is that they also were funerary
chapels, but reserved for the special use of certain of the more important of the minor
tumuli. K XV, K XIV, and K XVI, and indeed K LV, were important tombs such as in
Egypt might have had endowments of their own of sufficient permanency and size to
permit the rebuilding of the small chapel each time it was partially ruined by the weather.
1 Nub. Arch. Sur. Report, 1908-9, Plan XVIII: Report, 1909-10, Plan 3.
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
(ii) Each room was nearly square with a doorway in the middle of the southern side. K XV D,
K XXXIIIA, K XXXVIIA, and K LV A had each a single stone basis in the middle
which must have borne a single wooden column to support the roof. From this fact
and from the thickness of the walls, it may be concluded that the rooms had been roofed
with wood (or reeds).
(iii) The walls had been denuded to the floor in K XV A and B, K XVI A and B, and
in K XXXIIIA. In none of them were any objects found in situ on the floor; but in
K XV D, and in K XIX A and B, a number of objects were found lying in confusion in
the debris just above the floor and on the ground around these chapels. These objects
were of exactly the same classes as those in the surrounding graves and had clearly
been thrown out from the graves by the plunderers.
(iv) The chapel K XV D had been built partly over the chapel K XV C, and was certainly
later in date. It may be inferred from this that the chapels XV A-D, were not all stand-
ing at one time, but built in succession for the same identical purpose. Similarly, K XIV
A and B may be held to have been successive, and also K XVI A and B.
(v) Single-chamber chapels (one without a roof) were found in cemeteries nos. 87 and 101 in
Nubia,1 sometimes built directly against a rubble tumulus and sometimes detached, but
always closer to the tumulus than are these chambers. It is, however, noteworthy that
while only a very small proportion of the tumuli in these Nubian cemeteries were pro-
vided with an exterior chapel, very many had groups of pottery placed beside the tumulus
on the spot where a chapel might have been expected. It may be that the offering places
at most of these tombs were of some more perishable material, wood or reeds, which has
disappeared.
With these meagre facts, the purpose of the single-chamber structures must remain in
doubt. The most probable explanation and the most obvious is that they also were funerary
chapels, but reserved for the special use of certain of the more important of the minor
tumuli. K XV, K XIV, and K XVI, and indeed K LV, were important tombs such as in
Egypt might have had endowments of their own of sufficient permanency and size to
permit the rebuilding of the small chapel each time it was partially ruined by the weather.
1 Nub. Arch. Sur. Report, 1908-9, Plan XVIII: Report, 1909-10, Plan 3.