Reisner, George Andrew: The development of the Egyptian tomb down to the accession of Cheops (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr. [u.a.], 1936)

56 TOMB TYPES OF DYNASTY I, FIRST PART (MENES TO ZET)
Pit: Chamber: Width

on west

N-S
E-W
Area
Depth
N-S
E-W
Drop
H.
shelf
Area
m.
m.
sq. m.
m.
m.
m.
m.
m.
m.
sq. m.
(54) B 126 .
• 2-5
rect.
!-3
3-25
1-4
i-5
oval
o-9
0’5
• •
i-i
1’3
(55) B 127 •
• I?
o-6
i-o5
1'05
i-5
o-6
0-2
0-63
(56) B 129 .
• 1-25
o-6
°-75
1-25
1-25
°-55
0-3
0-69

These 17 graves at Ballas were of the same type and the same archaeological group as the graves at
El-Ahaiwah.
Small graves of type i c have probably been found in other protodynastic cemeteries, but owing to
their lack of objects have escaped notice in the annual reports of the excavations.
This side-chamber grave is the earliest independent development taken by the small graves of the
poor. At the time when the open pits cut in the gravel and the open pits lined with c.b. were being
roofed with wooden branches or logs and c.b. or mud to gain security for the burial, the poorest men
sought to obtain an equal security by resorting to a chamber hollowed in the geological stratum in
which the roof was the hard stratum of gravel over the chamber. The side-chamber pit was the first
of a long series of small graves which continued into Dyn. III.