DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49517#0035
ARTS AND CRAFTS AT KERMA
7
in the families of the well-to-do as a household industry and in one or more poor families as
f' craft. I cannot see that the distinction has any value for archaeological purposes; cer-
tainly it is quite impossible to distinguish with any exactness between the objects at Kerma
which were made in shops and those which were the products of household industries.
In the great houses in Egypt, as depicted on the walls of the tombs of the princes of
Beni Hasan, a most strict division of labor appears, so that the enormous family seems to be
a self-sufficient industrial and agricultural group producing not merely all its own food but
all the other necessities and luxuries of daily life. We find there not only sowing and reap-
ing, hunting and fishing, dancing and feasting, but also the manufacture of cloth, sandals,
pottery, stone vessels, wooden furniture, bows and arrows, metal objects, and practically
everything known to have been used. Now if this deduction be correct (and it is supported
in the strongest manner by the models of the various handicrafts which were placed in the
burial chambers), then Prince Hepzefa of Assiut must have had just such a retinue, just
such a self-contained group of all the craftsmen completely sufficient for the needs of the
household. Is it to be conceived that, when the Prince was sent to Kerma to administer
the Ethiopian province, he left this household behind him in Assiut? Rather is it to be
assumed that he took this whole group with him with all their wives and encumbrances, as
was the custom of the viceroys of the New Kingdom and is still the custom of oriental offi-
cials of the present day. I am clear in my own mind that this was the case, that the house-
hold of Hepzefa formed the great industrial nucleus of the Egyptian colony at Kerma, that
his craftsmen developed the remarkable series of Egypto-Nubian handicrafts represented
in the tombs of the colony. When Hepzefa died, it is improbable that many of his crafts-
men were sacrificed at his funeral, as most of the bodies in the corridor were females. The
others, after his death, must have remained at Kerma for a time at any rate and introduced
the crafts they had developed to the craftsmen who came with the new governor. One
must assume that a body of unattached workmen gradually grew up, whose work carried
on the traditions of the time of Hepzefa in an ever changing form.
3. LIST OF THE ARTS AND
CRAFTS AT KERMA
Craftsman Product
A. Workers in hard stone:
1. Sculptors:
(a) Statues and statuettes
Model boat
Stela
(b) Bed
Figures (lion, ram, scorpion,
etc.)
2. Bead-makers
(c) Scarabs, amulets
Scarabs, amulets
Material
Granites, ferricretes, slates,
speckled serpentine, alabaster,
etc.
Tombos granite
Tomb os granite
Slate
Blue-glazed quartzite
Blue-glazed quartzite
Blue-glazed quartzite
Blue- and green-glazed steatite
Scarabs, amulets
Jasper, crystal, amethyst
Period
HI, IV, X, XVI.
IV.
IH-IV.
IV.
HI.
HI.
HI, X, XVI.
HI, IV, X, XVI,
XVIII, XX.
IV, X.
7
in the families of the well-to-do as a household industry and in one or more poor families as
f' craft. I cannot see that the distinction has any value for archaeological purposes; cer-
tainly it is quite impossible to distinguish with any exactness between the objects at Kerma
which were made in shops and those which were the products of household industries.
In the great houses in Egypt, as depicted on the walls of the tombs of the princes of
Beni Hasan, a most strict division of labor appears, so that the enormous family seems to be
a self-sufficient industrial and agricultural group producing not merely all its own food but
all the other necessities and luxuries of daily life. We find there not only sowing and reap-
ing, hunting and fishing, dancing and feasting, but also the manufacture of cloth, sandals,
pottery, stone vessels, wooden furniture, bows and arrows, metal objects, and practically
everything known to have been used. Now if this deduction be correct (and it is supported
in the strongest manner by the models of the various handicrafts which were placed in the
burial chambers), then Prince Hepzefa of Assiut must have had just such a retinue, just
such a self-contained group of all the craftsmen completely sufficient for the needs of the
household. Is it to be conceived that, when the Prince was sent to Kerma to administer
the Ethiopian province, he left this household behind him in Assiut? Rather is it to be
assumed that he took this whole group with him with all their wives and encumbrances, as
was the custom of the viceroys of the New Kingdom and is still the custom of oriental offi-
cials of the present day. I am clear in my own mind that this was the case, that the house-
hold of Hepzefa formed the great industrial nucleus of the Egyptian colony at Kerma, that
his craftsmen developed the remarkable series of Egypto-Nubian handicrafts represented
in the tombs of the colony. When Hepzefa died, it is improbable that many of his crafts-
men were sacrificed at his funeral, as most of the bodies in the corridor were females. The
others, after his death, must have remained at Kerma for a time at any rate and introduced
the crafts they had developed to the craftsmen who came with the new governor. One
must assume that a body of unattached workmen gradually grew up, whose work carried
on the traditions of the time of Hepzefa in an ever changing form.
3. LIST OF THE ARTS AND
CRAFTS AT KERMA
Craftsman Product
A. Workers in hard stone:
1. Sculptors:
(a) Statues and statuettes
Model boat
Stela
(b) Bed
Figures (lion, ram, scorpion,
etc.)
2. Bead-makers
(c) Scarabs, amulets
Scarabs, amulets
Material
Granites, ferricretes, slates,
speckled serpentine, alabaster,
etc.
Tombos granite
Tomb os granite
Slate
Blue-glazed quartzite
Blue-glazed quartzite
Blue-glazed quartzite
Blue- and green-glazed steatite
Scarabs, amulets
Jasper, crystal, amethyst
Period
HI, IV, X, XVI.
IV.
IH-IV.
IV.
HI.
HI.
HI, X, XVI.
HI, IV, X, XVI,
XVIII, XX.
IV, X.