Karanòg : the Romano-Nubian Cemetery
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NYU IFA LIBRARY 3 1162 04538654 8 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA EGYPTIAN DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM ECKLEY B. COXE JUNIOR EXPEDITION TO NUBIA: VOL. Ill KARANOG THE ROMANO-NUBIAN CEMETERY BY C. LEONARD WOOLLEY AND D. RANDALL-MACIVER TEXT PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM PHILADELPHIA MCMX ^ The in Lihnin of Ancient Ai-t NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA EGYPTIAN DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM ECKLEY B. COXE JUNIOR EXPEDITION TO NUBIA: VOL. Ill KARANOG THE ROMANO-NUBIAN CEMETERY BY C. LEONARD WOOLLEY AND D. RANDALL-MACIVER TEXT PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM PHILADELPHIA MCMX I 3 5 V.3 letter Press and Printing l)y The Joh.v C. Winston Co. Philadelphia, Pa., V. S. .\. Collotypes and Process Blocks by Horace IIabt Clarendon Press, Oxford, Kngland. (ivj In the Same Series Vol. r AREIKA BY D. Randall-MacIver and C. Leonard Woolley Price $5 Vol. II CHURCHES IN LOWER NUBIA BY G. S. Mileham Edited by D. Randall-MacIver Price S 3- To be obtained at the University Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, \J. S. A. Agent for Europe: Henry Frowde, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London. (V) PREFACE These volumet: are the third and fourth of a series that will record the results of explorations in Egypt planned and financed by Mr. Eckley B. Coxe, Junior, of Philadelphia. By an agreement made with the University of Pennsylvania in January, 1907, the expeditions are to be conducted on behalf of the University, and the antiquities obtained will be presented to the University Museum ; the present authors as curator and assistant curator of the Egyptian Department of the Museum were charged with the duty of conducting the excavations and publishing their results. At the end of December, 1907, after finishing up some work that remained to be done at Shabliil and Areika, we brought our dahabiyeh to anchor a little north of the village of Anibeh. Here upon the west bank the cultivation is reduced to very narrow limits. On the steep slope of the bank itself the crops of durra and lentil form a green ribbon that widens a little as week by week the river sinks and leaves a lower ledge of mud whereon the villagers can plant another row of seed. A single line of blue-green castor-oil plants fringes the ridge above, and behind these, in a shallow trough-like dip that follows the line of river-bank, there is crowded in between tilled land and desert a grove of gnarled mimosa trees. In January these were in full blossom, and the fallen yellow flowers that carpeted the ground beneath seemed to us, who were newly come from the unrelieved sandy stretches of Areika, to have all the freshness and beauty of an English primrose-wood in spring. The whole grove was not more than some forty feet across, and close behind it lies the desert. Here during the previous season we had noticed two or three low mounds of crumbling brick and, where the wind had swept the top sand away, the outlines of square brick structures that marked the ground out like a chess-board. Scattered fragments of pottery showed the place to be of Romano-Nubian date and the wish to investigate further that civilization of which Shablul had given us a foretaste had induced us to fix upon this spot as the main site for the season's work. The evening of our landing brought an encouraging discovery. Between the mimosa trees and the ancient graves lies the modem cemetery of Anibeh village; on the tomb of some small sheikh lay (PI. no) five sculptured stone offering-tables, three bearing inscriptions in Meroitic. The modern grave-diggers had unearthed these stones in the course of their work and used them to adorn the resting-place of the local magnate; we of course could not remove them, but they gave a good omen which the season's results did not belie. It was indeed quite earlv in the year that we came upon tomb G 45 with its fine casket of wood and ivon,' (Pll. 24, 25), but by that time it was clear that the cemetery was far more extensive than we had at first supposed and would certainly give work for the whole season. Our party therefore divided for a time, and while, some continued the work upon the graves the rest took the dahabiyeh up streani with the object of reconnoitring for future sites and of giving our architect, Mr. G. S. Mileham, an opportunity for studying the Christian churches along the Nile bank. Owing to the underground construction of the tombs and their small dimensions, it was scarcely ever possible to photograph the bodies and the objects in situ; there would, however, have (vii) VUl PREFACE been in anv case but little point in doing so, owing to the extent to which the richer graves had been plundered and to the fact that the objects in the tombs had never a significant order.* More unfortunate was the necessity of destroying the superstructure before the tomb- chamber could be opened. Unwillingness to do this too early in the day led us to postpone to the end of the season the opening of the largest tombs, which being generally empty could well be worked underpressure. The result was that what proved to be the richest tomb in the whole calculations but gave cemetery, G 187 (Pll. 26-30), was the very last to he excavated ; it upset our a satisfactory conclusion to our work. In the division of objects the Egyptian Government selected a representative series of painted pottery and bronzes, including the 'royal' bowl from G 187, and the bulk of the inscribed stones; these are now exhibited together as a special collection in the Museum at Cairo. The remainder, including the greater number of painted vases, beads, rings and smaller objects, the wood and ivory caskets and most of the bronzes are in the University Museum at Philadelphia. The authors must express their indebtedness to Mr. F. LI. Griffith for various notes and much advice, to Professor W. Gowland for the analysis of metal objects, and to Mr. G. L. Cheesman of New College, Oxford, for the Appendix on the Roman garrison in Egypt. Finally in presenting this volume to the public they must gratefully acknowledge the services which Mr. Coxe by his generosity has rendered to archaeological science and the help and encouragement which congratulate him on his warm personal interest has been to them in their work ; and they must having given to the University Museum an unique collection and to the history of Southern Egvpt a new chapter. I). R. M. C. L. \V. *The photograph on PI. 114 was only obtained by filling the grave with wood wool, boarding it in above, and cutting away the roof of solid mud some five feet thick. 1I CONTENTS PAGE Preface ......... ..... vii CHAPTER I KaRAMOG AMD THE CEMETERY NEAR AnIBEII . ..... I CHAPTER 11 The To.mp. Structures ............. 7 .\. The Superstructures ........... 7 R. Ihe Tomb Chambers ............ 17 CHAPTER III Classification' of Tomb Types. ......... 22 CHAPTER IV The Conte.nts of the To.mb Chambers ......... 26 CHAPTER V Detailed Description of Certain Important Tombs ...... 32 CHAPTER VI The Sculptures and Inscribed Stones ......... 46 CHAPTER VI The Pottery .............. 51 CHAPTER VI 1 The Metal Objects ............ 59 Appendix: Analysis of Metals. By Professor \V. Gowland .... 67 CHAPTER IX A. Objects of Wood and Ivory .......... 69 B. The Glass Vessels ............ 72 C. The Beads. ............ 74 CHAPTER X A. The Graffiti ............ !< B. The Jar-sealings . ... .79 CHAPTER XI Chronology .... ....... 81 (ix) X CONTENTS CHAPTER XII PAGE The Blemyes and the Roman Frontier ........ 85 Appendix I. Historical Passages from Classical Authors ..... 99 Appendix II. The Roman Garrison in Egypt. By Mr. G. Iv. Cheesman . 106 CHAPTER XIII Tabular Analysis of the Tombs and their Contents . • us CHAPTER XIV Catalogue of the Objects from the Cemetery at Anibeh now in the University Museum, Philadelphia .......... 238 INDEX 283 Figure A ............. 287 Figure B ............. 289 Figure C ......... ... 291 Figure D. ............ 293 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT Pyramids at Gebel Barkal and Behen CHAPTER I KARANOG AND THE CEMETERY NEAR ANIBEH The most important result of our first expedition to Nubia, of which a record has been pub- Geography oj the " lished in the volume called Areika," was the discovery of the Romano-Nubian settlement and District. cemetery at Shablul. The town, which was of comparatively small area and unwalled, lay on the west bank some three miles upstream from Korosko in the great bend of the river between Korosko and Dirr. The remains of ancient buildings and cemeteries that could be traced between Shablul and Amadeh were mostly of an earlier period, but the existence of one or two ruined houses close to the site of the ruined eighteenth dynasty castle described in "Areika" showed that at that place also a few stragglers of the Romano-Nubian people had settled down, attracted probably by the patch of fertile land just to the north where today ,two or three families continue to find a livelihood. Exploring upstream from Amadeh we found about a mile beyond the well-known temple of Thothmes III ruins of a more considerable settlement of the same character, but judged that it would scarcely repay excavation; and for several miles south of this point, strag- gling along the bank that fronts on the small but fertile Island of Tomas, there are remains of houses which the fragments of painted potter}- strewn upon the surface show to belong to the same period and civilization.