DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49512#0035
PROTOTYPES OF EGYPTIAN TOMBS AND FACTORS AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT
3
grave. After a time the loose broken original filling packed down (especially after rain) and the mound
also settled. After the decay of the body a further settlement took place. The mound over the grave
became lower, and unless protected in some way the remains of the mound would disappear by denuda-
tion. Every predynastic cemetery which I have seen myself has been denuded below the original desert
surface, although sometimes a layer of drift sand or rain-washed debris had been deposited over the
denuded surface. It has therefore not been possible to recover the means used to support the grave
MN
cemetery 17
NUB. ARCH. SUR, 1906-7
Grave 77-86.
Fig. 5
CEMETERY 17.
NUB. ARCH. SUR, 1906'7
Grave 77- 89.
Fig. 6
Fig. 8
2
0 10 cm
mounds of this period. They must have been of an unsubstantial or easily disarranged character. The
use of pebbles, small boulders, and rough flakes of stone laid over and around the mound is known
in other periods and may have been in use in the predynastic graves; see fig. 9. Such a protection is
usually disarranged by denudation. Another possibility is a wattle or wooden wall around the grave.
Examples are known of the use of wattle-work and wooden constructions by the predynastic Egyptians
in the graves, and I believe that this type of grave protection was used in the larger and better graves
of the Predynastic period; see Fig. 10. A form of retaining wall combining wood and wattle-work
is suggested by the early wooden yrs'Z-coflins of Dyn. II—III; see Figs, n—12. The domed mound of
stones plastered with mud or gypsum, which appears in Dyn. I and II, seems to me not to have been
3
grave. After a time the loose broken original filling packed down (especially after rain) and the mound
also settled. After the decay of the body a further settlement took place. The mound over the grave
became lower, and unless protected in some way the remains of the mound would disappear by denuda-
tion. Every predynastic cemetery which I have seen myself has been denuded below the original desert
surface, although sometimes a layer of drift sand or rain-washed debris had been deposited over the
denuded surface. It has therefore not been possible to recover the means used to support the grave
MN
cemetery 17
NUB. ARCH. SUR, 1906-7
Grave 77-86.
Fig. 5
CEMETERY 17.
NUB. ARCH. SUR, 1906'7
Grave 77- 89.
Fig. 6
Fig. 8
2
0 10 cm
mounds of this period. They must have been of an unsubstantial or easily disarranged character. The
use of pebbles, small boulders, and rough flakes of stone laid over and around the mound is known
in other periods and may have been in use in the predynastic graves; see fig. 9. Such a protection is
usually disarranged by denudation. Another possibility is a wattle or wooden wall around the grave.
Examples are known of the use of wattle-work and wooden constructions by the predynastic Egyptians
in the graves, and I believe that this type of grave protection was used in the larger and better graves
of the Predynastic period; see Fig. 10. A form of retaining wall combining wood and wattle-work
is suggested by the early wooden yrs'Z-coflins of Dyn. II—III; see Figs, n—12. The domed mound of
stones plastered with mud or gypsum, which appears in Dyn. I and II, seems to me not to have been