DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49516#0471
376
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
Thus far the facts show a simple numerical progression from the burial types of K III
through K IV to KX; but a further modification of the burial type was presented by
five of the graves in K X. This type, which I will call Type 3, is a combined bed- and coffin-
burial in which it is difficult to determine whether the chief body was in the coffin or on the
bed. All of these were large graves desperately plundered and one of them had contained
a bed the feet of which were encased in gold. The groups are in what may be called prefer-
able positions in the tumulus and were without doubt the graves of important persons
buried rather early in the history of the subsidiary cemetery — K 1035, K 1046, K 1050,
K 1059, and K 1000B. The coffin was sunk in a narrow pit in the floor, in the middle, or a
little north or a little south of the middle, while the bed stood between the coffin and the
southern wall of the grave. This is manifestly a new fashion brought in by the burial in
K X A where the coffin-pit is the distinctive feature of the main burial-place. In K X A
there is no room for a bed on the south of the coffin-pit, and if there was a bed in that
chamber, of which I have no doubt, it must have stood either over the coffin or to the north
of it. Admitting that there was a bed, the question as to who was on it raises a fresh diffi-
culty. Is it conceivable that the chief wife of the great man, herself perhaps a king’s daugh-
ter, would have been walled up alive in that chamber? It seems to me nearly impossible.
The smothering by the close packed debris of the sacrificial corridor and the subsidiary
graves was a comparatively quick process, a question of only a few minutes of conscious
suffering. The other meant for the lady days of slow starvation, with the certainty that,
when reduced to an irresponsible condition, she might seriously damage the funeral furni-
ture and perhaps the body of the chief. I take it then that the chief wife was not on a bed
in the main chamber. But it seems equally difficult to assume that she was in the coffin.
The use of the coffin was the Egyptian custom and the presence of coffins in Egyptian
graves at Kerma implies the application of the Egyptian custom. By all analogy, remem-
bering that by the other known facts the man buried in K X A was at least an Egyptian
governor of the Sudan, the coffin in K X A contained the body of that man; and I would
suggest that his chief wife was either not called on to make the personal sacrifice or had
taken her place outside the chamber. By analogy with K X A, the coffin in the subsidiary
grave contained the body of the dead chief, while the bed, probably empty, was set in its
traditional place on the south of the grave. The sacrifices then took their places on the
north, and perhaps also over the coffin.
This new type of burial, Type 3, is a curious mixture of the Egyptian and the Ethi-
opian burial customs and is the only type which exhibits clearly Egyptian influence at
Kerma.
The terms applied to the types of graves and burials are as follows:
Grave Types:
I. Rectangular, with retaining walls. III. Oval.
II. Rectangular, without retaining walls. IV. Circular.
Burial Types:
1. With chief body on bed, bed-burial.
la. With both chief body and principal sacrifice or sacrifices on beds, multiple bed-burial.
2. With chief body on ground.
3. With chief body in a wooden coffin; bed (empty?) also in grave.
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
Thus far the facts show a simple numerical progression from the burial types of K III
through K IV to KX; but a further modification of the burial type was presented by
five of the graves in K X. This type, which I will call Type 3, is a combined bed- and coffin-
burial in which it is difficult to determine whether the chief body was in the coffin or on the
bed. All of these were large graves desperately plundered and one of them had contained
a bed the feet of which were encased in gold. The groups are in what may be called prefer-
able positions in the tumulus and were without doubt the graves of important persons
buried rather early in the history of the subsidiary cemetery — K 1035, K 1046, K 1050,
K 1059, and K 1000B. The coffin was sunk in a narrow pit in the floor, in the middle, or a
little north or a little south of the middle, while the bed stood between the coffin and the
southern wall of the grave. This is manifestly a new fashion brought in by the burial in
K X A where the coffin-pit is the distinctive feature of the main burial-place. In K X A
there is no room for a bed on the south of the coffin-pit, and if there was a bed in that
chamber, of which I have no doubt, it must have stood either over the coffin or to the north
of it. Admitting that there was a bed, the question as to who was on it raises a fresh diffi-
culty. Is it conceivable that the chief wife of the great man, herself perhaps a king’s daugh-
ter, would have been walled up alive in that chamber? It seems to me nearly impossible.
The smothering by the close packed debris of the sacrificial corridor and the subsidiary
graves was a comparatively quick process, a question of only a few minutes of conscious
suffering. The other meant for the lady days of slow starvation, with the certainty that,
when reduced to an irresponsible condition, she might seriously damage the funeral furni-
ture and perhaps the body of the chief. I take it then that the chief wife was not on a bed
in the main chamber. But it seems equally difficult to assume that she was in the coffin.
The use of the coffin was the Egyptian custom and the presence of coffins in Egyptian
graves at Kerma implies the application of the Egyptian custom. By all analogy, remem-
bering that by the other known facts the man buried in K X A was at least an Egyptian
governor of the Sudan, the coffin in K X A contained the body of that man; and I would
suggest that his chief wife was either not called on to make the personal sacrifice or had
taken her place outside the chamber. By analogy with K X A, the coffin in the subsidiary
grave contained the body of the dead chief, while the bed, probably empty, was set in its
traditional place on the south of the grave. The sacrifices then took their places on the
north, and perhaps also over the coffin.
This new type of burial, Type 3, is a curious mixture of the Egyptian and the Ethi-
opian burial customs and is the only type which exhibits clearly Egyptian influence at
Kerma.
The terms applied to the types of graves and burials are as follows:
Grave Types:
I. Rectangular, with retaining walls. III. Oval.
II. Rectangular, without retaining walls. IV. Circular.
Burial Types:
1. With chief body on bed, bed-burial.
la. With both chief body and principal sacrifice or sacrifices on beds, multiple bed-burial.
2. With chief body on ground.
3. With chief body in a wooden coffin; bed (empty?) also in grave.