DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49517#0362
282 HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
The gold supply of Egypt came from Nubia, and the ancient workings can be traced
through the eastern desert from about the latitude of Luxor to beyond that of Kerma. But
there are other deposits of gold both in the mountains and in the alluvial fields as far south
as Abyssinia, and it is clear that all the southern sources of supply were utilized, either
directly or indirectly, by the Egyptians. One of the objects of the kings of Egypt in hold-
ing Ethiopia was to secure the roads to these gold fields. It must therefore be assumed that
gold at Kerma was abundant; and the consideration of the few objects found proves that
it must have been plentiful to have served the various uses for which it was employed at
Kerma. The wearing of thin gold bracelets by minor persons sacrificed among the four
hundred of K X may have little significance, but when wooden bed-legs are found cased
in heavy gold plate, a bronze bowl with a heavy gold rim, and even a pottery cup with a
gold rim — when such amazing uses of gold are found in mere subsidiary graves, the con-
clusion becomes inevitable that gold was more abundant at Kerma than in Egypt.
The common purposes to which gold was put at Kerma, and the absence of fine objects
such as might be presumed for the burials of the viceroys, leaves a doubt as to the degree
of merit attained by the goldsmiths of the colony. The list of gold objects is small — two
cases from bed-legs, two gold-headed electrum flies, two head-cases on ivory flies, a number
of thin armlets, a few rings, five gold-plated earrings, a wire necklet, gold beads of simple
forms, two simple pendants, about seventeen small amulets, a fragment of gold plate
marked like a leaf, and a few bronze rivets (on daggers and mirrors) with gold-plated heads.
Of electrum, there are only the two gold-headed flies mentioned above and two handle-
cases in the Nubian Cemetery. The silver objects were less numerous than the gold — a
silver cap or cap-ornament, three concave discs (parts of large beads?) inlaid with paste,
a number of plain beads and several handle-cases. All these are of the simplest possible
workmanship, and the only things which show even a hint of skill are the badly preserved
silver discs inlaid with paste. Possibly the goldsmiths of Kerma made jewelry of the excel-
lence in design and with the same technique as those of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.
Certainly the objects preserved to us show a great familiarity with the common processes.
The basic forms of the gold objects made at Kerma were wire, bar, and plate, and all
these forms of gold seem to have been worked by hammering. Probably the bar was the
starting point both for the wire and the plate. The cases for the bed-legs were made of
four pieces of gold plate, one fitting around the leg above the hock, and three pieces (two
sides and a back-piece) around the hoof and hock. These were modelled by pressure to
fit the carving of the wood and fastened by small gold tacks passing through the over-
lapping edges of the plates into the wood. The thin armlets had no joint, and appeared
to have been begun by cutting a circular band in a gold plate and then hammering it into a
concavo-convex form with the hollow on the inside and filled with paste (?). But in one
set (24, below) the hollow was on the outside and may not have been filled. The gold
rings were made of a short bar with rectangular section which was bent into a circle until
the ends met but were not welded. The cylindrical and the ring-beads were made of small
rectangular pieces of plate, bent into a circle after the manner of the rings, but sometimes
with the ends fused together by heat. It is possible that some of these beads may have
been made by rolling a long strip of gold about a solid core (or axis) of metal or wood,
and then dividing the long tube thus formed into small sections. The big double-cone
beads were made in two pieces, each cut as a circle from a thickish plate and then formed
The gold supply of Egypt came from Nubia, and the ancient workings can be traced
through the eastern desert from about the latitude of Luxor to beyond that of Kerma. But
there are other deposits of gold both in the mountains and in the alluvial fields as far south
as Abyssinia, and it is clear that all the southern sources of supply were utilized, either
directly or indirectly, by the Egyptians. One of the objects of the kings of Egypt in hold-
ing Ethiopia was to secure the roads to these gold fields. It must therefore be assumed that
gold at Kerma was abundant; and the consideration of the few objects found proves that
it must have been plentiful to have served the various uses for which it was employed at
Kerma. The wearing of thin gold bracelets by minor persons sacrificed among the four
hundred of K X may have little significance, but when wooden bed-legs are found cased
in heavy gold plate, a bronze bowl with a heavy gold rim, and even a pottery cup with a
gold rim — when such amazing uses of gold are found in mere subsidiary graves, the con-
clusion becomes inevitable that gold was more abundant at Kerma than in Egypt.
The common purposes to which gold was put at Kerma, and the absence of fine objects
such as might be presumed for the burials of the viceroys, leaves a doubt as to the degree
of merit attained by the goldsmiths of the colony. The list of gold objects is small — two
cases from bed-legs, two gold-headed electrum flies, two head-cases on ivory flies, a number
of thin armlets, a few rings, five gold-plated earrings, a wire necklet, gold beads of simple
forms, two simple pendants, about seventeen small amulets, a fragment of gold plate
marked like a leaf, and a few bronze rivets (on daggers and mirrors) with gold-plated heads.
Of electrum, there are only the two gold-headed flies mentioned above and two handle-
cases in the Nubian Cemetery. The silver objects were less numerous than the gold — a
silver cap or cap-ornament, three concave discs (parts of large beads?) inlaid with paste,
a number of plain beads and several handle-cases. All these are of the simplest possible
workmanship, and the only things which show even a hint of skill are the badly preserved
silver discs inlaid with paste. Possibly the goldsmiths of Kerma made jewelry of the excel-
lence in design and with the same technique as those of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.
Certainly the objects preserved to us show a great familiarity with the common processes.
The basic forms of the gold objects made at Kerma were wire, bar, and plate, and all
these forms of gold seem to have been worked by hammering. Probably the bar was the
starting point both for the wire and the plate. The cases for the bed-legs were made of
four pieces of gold plate, one fitting around the leg above the hock, and three pieces (two
sides and a back-piece) around the hoof and hock. These were modelled by pressure to
fit the carving of the wood and fastened by small gold tacks passing through the over-
lapping edges of the plates into the wood. The thin armlets had no joint, and appeared
to have been begun by cutting a circular band in a gold plate and then hammering it into a
concavo-convex form with the hollow on the inside and filled with paste (?). But in one
set (24, below) the hollow was on the outside and may not have been filled. The gold
rings were made of a short bar with rectangular section which was bent into a circle until
the ends met but were not welded. The cylindrical and the ring-beads were made of small
rectangular pieces of plate, bent into a circle after the manner of the rings, but sometimes
with the ends fused together by heat. It is possible that some of these beads may have
been made by rolling a long strip of gold about a solid core (or axis) of metal or wood,
and then dividing the long tube thus formed into small sections. The big double-cone
beads were made in two pieces, each cut as a circle from a thickish plate and then formed