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65-498: The Western Deffufa , located in pre historic city of Kerma , Sudan , is a temple dating back 4,000 years ago. It is considered the oldest man made structure in Sub-Saharan Africa . Rising about 65 feet (20 meters) high, it was built entirely from sun-dried mudbricks. Inside, the structure consists of a series of chambers and courtyards, thought to have been used for religious activities, rituals, and ceremonies central to

130-745: A bronze forge in the Kerma main city. "It is within the walls of the religious center that a bronze workshop was built. The workshop consisted of multiple forges and the artisans' techniques appear to have been quite elaborate. There is no comparable discovery in Egypt or in Sudan to help us interpret these remains." In 2003, black granite statues of pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt were discovered near Kerma by Charles Bonnet and his archaeological team. The statues are displayed on site in

195-400: A few burial goods. Sometimes multiple people and animals were placed in the same grave. Over time, graves became more complex. At one point, bodies were placed in a wicker basket and later on wooden or terracotta coffins became the preferred choice. The latest tombs Egyptians made were sarcophagi . These graves contained burial goods such as jewellery, food, games, and sharpened splint. From

260-468: A leg of beef, and a jar of beer for food offerings. Jewelry could be included but only rarely were objects of great value found in non-elite graves. Some burials continued to include the wooden models that were popular during the First Intermediate period . Wooden models of boats, scenes of food production, craftsmen and workshops, and professions such as scribes or soldiers have been found in

325-552: A lightly contracted or contracted position on their sides. Because of the arid desert climate, natural mummification is very common. Without the normal processes of decomposition to skeletonize the body, soft tissues, hairs, and organic grave goods are still often found (e.g., textiles, feathers, leather, fingernails). Grave goods include faience beads, cattle skulls, and pottery. Skeletal collections, like other archaeological evidence, continue to be re-examined and re-interpreted as new research questions arise. Two recent studies highlight

390-533: A result of minimal flow from the White Nile . Around 3000 BC, agriculture developed and a cultural tradition began around Kerma. Kerma later developed into a large urban center that was built around a large adobe temple known as the Western Deffufa, which was built after 1750 BC. A state society formed between 2550 BC and 1550 BC, with a significant decrease in cattle breeding being evidenced by

455-429: A simple, round grave with a pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a particular way as these aspects would change later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, except for the regular inclusion of a single pot in the grave, there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife during that period. Given later customs, the pot was probably intended to hold food for

520-453: Is fending off a blow from an attacker) are common. These do not necessarily result from assault, however, and Judd does acknowledge this. She does not use the same parsing strategy when considering Colles' fractures (of the wrist, usually occur when falling onto one's hands) may result from being pushed from a height rather than interpersonal violence, and this is not acknowledged. S.O.Y. Keita conducted an anthropological study which examined

585-634: Is growing evidence of rituals practiced by Egyptians of the Naqada ;II period (3650–3300  BCE ). At this point, bodies were regularly arranged in a crouched, compact position, with the face pointing toward either the east and the rising sun or the west that in this historical period was the land of the dead. Artists painted jars with funeral processions and perhaps images of ritual dancing. Figures of bare-breasted women with birdlike faces and their legs concealed under skirts also appeared. Some graves were much richer in goods than others, demonstrating

650-609: The Kerma Museum . Mortuary practice in Kerma varied over time, and this is visible in the archaeological record. The large cemetery, around the Upper/Eastern Deffufa is arranged with older graves in the north and more recent (and complex) graves and tombs in the southern part. "In the Early Kerma period, 2500-2050 BC, burials are marked by a low, circular superstructure of slabs of black sandstone, stuck into

715-737: The New Kingdom were rock-cut chambers. Kings were buried in multi-roomed, rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings and no longer in pyramids. Priests conducted funerary rituals for them in stone temples built on the west bank of the Nile opposite of Thebes. From the current evidence, the Eighteenth Dynasty appears to be the last period in which Egyptians regularly included multiple objects from their daily lives in their tombs; beginning in

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780-795: The Nineteenth Dynasty , tombs contained fewer items from daily life and included objects made especially for the next world. Thus, the change from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Dynasties formed a dividing line in burial traditions: the Eighteenth Dynasty more closely remembered the immediate past in its customs, whereas, the Nineteenth Dynasty anticipated the customs of the Late period . People of

845-519: The Ramesside period . In that period, artists decorated tombs belonging to the elite with more scenes of religious events, rather than the everyday scenes that had been popular since the Old Kingdom. The funeral ceremony, the funerary meal with multiple relatives, the worshipping of the deities, even figures in the underworld were subjects in elite tomb decorations. The majority of objects found in

910-457: The Silk Road . Egyptians believed that individuals were admitted into the afterlife on the basis of being able to serve a purpose there. For example, the king was thought to be allowed into the afterlife because of the role as a ruler of Ancient Egypt, which would be a purpose translated into qualification for admission to the afterlife. Human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce

975-572: The Twelfth Dynasty high officials served the kings of a new family now ruling from the north in Lisht ; these kings and their high officials preferred burial in a mastaba near the pyramids belonging to their masters. Moreover, the difference in topography between Thebes and Lisht led to a difference in tomb type: In the north, nobles built mastaba tombs on the flat desert plains, while in the south, local dignitaries continued to excavate tombs into

1040-526: The afterlife . The ancient burial process evolved over time as old customs were discarded and new ones adopted, but several important elements of the process persisted. Although specific details changed over time, the preparation of the body, the magic rituals, and grave goods were all essential parts of a proper Egyptian funeral. Although no writing survived from the Predynastic period in Egypt ( c.  6000 – 3150  BCE ), scholars believe

1105-452: The "sacrificial corridors" and interments outside of the large tumuli corridors. Accompanying individuals in the tumuli at Kerma are interpreted as wives sacrificed upon the death of the husband, but the bioarchaeological evidence does not support this archaeological conclusion. A prior study noted no difference in the frequency of traumatic injury. Traumatic injury is viewed through the lens of modern traumatic injury patterns. "Many aspects of

1170-550: The Kerma civilization. The word "Deffufa" comes from the Nubian language , referring to buildings made of mudbrick, which were common Kerma’s architectural style. The Western Deffufa has been the focus of significant archaeological interest since its discovery in the early 20th century. Excavations led by Charles Bonnet and his team have revealed much of the site's layout and have uncovered numerous artifacts, including pottery, religious icons, and tools, all of which offer insight into

1235-410: The Kerma injury pattern were comparable to clinical [modern] observations: males experienced a higher frequency of trauma, the middle-aged group exhibited the most trauma, the oldest age cohort revealed the least amount of accumulated injuries, a small group experienced multiple trauma and fractures occurred more frequently than dislocations or muscle pulls". Parry fractures (often occur when an individual

1300-508: The Kermans developed techniques to work with independently of Egypt, and by their work with glazed quartzite and architectural inlays. Kerma contains a cemetery with over 30,000 graves. The cemetery shows a general pattern of larger graves ringed by smaller ones, suggesting social stratification. The site includes at its southern boundary burial mounds, with four extending upwards of 90 metres (300 feet) in diameter. These are believed to be

1365-460: The Middle Kerma period. Because burial chambers can be easily entered, one could question the likelihood of the sacrifice of a wife and/or child when a man dies, without any ethnohistorical evidence to support this in this culture. In fact Buzon and Judd question this assumption by analyzing traumata and indicators of skeletal stress in these "sacrificial victims." Most remains are found in

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1430-538: The Predynastic period through the final Ptolemaic dynasty , there was a constant cultural focus on eternal life and the certainty of personal existence beyond death. This belief in an afterlife is reflected in the burial of grave goods in tombs. The Egyptian beliefs in an afterlife became known throughout the ancient world by way of trade and cultural transmission and had an influence on other civilizations and religions. Notably, this belief became well known by way of

1495-661: The Ramesside period tombs were made for the afterlife. Aside from the jewelry, which could have been used also during life, objects in Ramesside tombs were manufactured for the next world. Although the political structure of the New Kingdom collapsed at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty , the majority of burials in the Twenty-first Dynasty directly reflect developments from the earlier period. At

1560-449: The archaeological record around 1750 BC. Evidence for copper metallurgy appears from c. 2200–2000 BC. As a capital city and location of royal burials, Kerma sheds light on the complex social structure present in this society. By 1700 BC, Kerma was host to a population of at least 10,000 people. Different to those of ancient Egypt in theme and composition, Kerma's artefacts are characterized by extensive amounts of blue faience , which

1625-550: The beginning of that time, reliefs resembled those from the Ramesside period. Only at the very end of the Third Intermediate period did new funerary practices of the Late period begin to be seen. Little is known of tombs from that period. The very lack of decorations in tombs seems to have led to much more elaborate decoration of coffins. The remaining grave goods of the period show fairly cheaply made shabtis , even when

1690-552: The beginnings of social stratification. Gender differences in burials emerged with the inclusion of weapons in men's graves and cosmetic palettes in women's graves. By 3600  BCE , Egyptians had begun to mummify the dead, wrapping them in linen bandages with embalming oils (conifer resin and aromatic plant extracts). By the First Dynasty , some Egyptians were wealthy enough to build tombs over their burials rather than placing their bodies in simple pit graves dug into

1755-491: The country are thought to belong to Nubian soldiers. Such graves reflect very ancient customs and feature shallow, round pits, bodies contracted, and minimal food offerings in pots. The occasional inclusion of identifiable Egyptian materials from the Second Intermediate period provides the only marks distinguishing these burials from those of Predynastic and even earlier periods. The majority of elite tombs in

1820-790: The crania of groups in the North African region which included samples from Kerma, circa 2000 BC, the Maghreb region, circa 1500 BC, and First Dynasty crania from the royal tombs in Abydos, Egypt . The results of the study determined the predominant pattern of the 1st dynasty Egyptian crania was "Southern" or a “ tropical African variant” (though others were also observed), which had affinities with Kerma Kushites. The general results demonstrate greater affinity with Upper Nile Valley groups, but also suggest clear change from earlier craniometric trends. The gene flow and movement of northern officials to

1885-610: The daily and spiritual life of the Kerma civilization . This article about an African building or structure is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kerma The locale that is now Kerma was first settled by hunter-gatherers around 8350 BC, during the Mesolithic . Between 5550 BC and 5150 BC, the site was mostly abandoned, possibly due to decreased Nile flow during this time interval. A second hiatus in occupation occurred between 4050 BC and 3450 BC, likely as

1950-511: The deceased as a mummy seems to anticipate the use of shabti figurines (also called shawabti or an ushabti ) later in the Twelfth Dynasty. These early figurines do not have the text directing the figure to work in the place of the deceased that is found in later figurines. The richest people had stone figurines that seem to anticipate shabtis , though some scholars have seen them as mummy substitutes rather than servant figures. In

2015-461: The deceased's ba . Tools for the tomb's ritual called the " opening of the mouth " as well as "magical bricks" at the four compass points, could be included. Substances recovered from vessels at an embalming workshop in Saqqara dated back to the 26th Dynasty contained extracts from juniper bushes, cypress and cedar trees in the eastern Mediterranean region, in addition to bitumen from

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2080-527: The deceased. Funerary customs were developed during the Predynastic period from those of the Prehistoric period. At first, people excavated round graves with one pot in the Badarian period (4400–3800  BCE ), continuing the tradition of Omari and Maadi cultures. By the end of the Predynastic period, there were increasing numbers of objects deposited with the body in rectangular graves, and there

2145-475: The decoration of the chapels. At the end of the Old Kingdom, the burial chamber decorations depicted offerings, but not people. The political situation in the First Intermediate period , with its many centers of power, is reflected in the many local styles of art and burial at that time. The many regional styles for decorating coffins make their origins easy to distinguish from each other. For example, some coffins have one-line inscriptions and many styles include

2210-404: The depiction of Wadjet eyes (the human eye with the markings of a falcon). There are also regional variations in the hieroglyphs used to decorate coffins. Occasionally men had tools and weapons placed in their graves, while some women had jewelry and cosmetic objects, such as mirrors. Grindstones were sometimes included in women's tombs, perhaps to be considered a tool for food preparation in

2275-506: The earliest sites to be excavated in this region, Kerma and Reisner's contributions to the region's archaeology are fundamental. A basic chronology of Kerman culture was established based on the work of Reisner's Harvard-Boston expedition (1913–1916); this provided the scaffolding for all other findings in the region. Reisner's precise excavation techniques, site reports, and other publications made later reinterpretation of his results possible. The Lower/Western Deffufa (a massive tomb structure)

2340-495: The elite ranks in the Eighteenth Dynasty placed furniture as well as clothing and other items in their tombs, objects they undoubtedly used during life on earth. Beds, headrests, chairs, stools, leather sandals, jewelry, musical instruments, and wooden storage chests were present in these tombs. While all of the objects listed were for the elite, many poor people did not put anything beyond weapons and cosmetics into their tombs. No elite tombs are known to have survived unplundered from

2405-448: The end of the Old Kingdom, mummy masks in cartonnage (linen soaked in plaster, modeled, and painted) also appeared. Canopic jars became used to hold their internal organs. Amulets of gold, faience , and carnelian first appeared in various shapes to protect different parts of the body. There is also the first evidence of inscriptions inside the coffins of the elite during the Old Kingdom. Often, reliefs of everyday items were etched onto

2470-599: The foundations of numerous houses, workshops, and palaces, proving that as early as 2000 BC Kerma was a large urban center, presumably the capital city and a burial ground of the kings of Kush ". From 1977 to 2003, Bonnet and an international team of scholars excavated at Kerma. Bonnet's Swiss team has excavated the following types of sites at Kerma: ancient town, princely tomb, temple, residential/administrative buildings, Napatan buildlings, Napatan potter's workshop, Meroitic cemeteries, fortifications, and Neolithic grain pits and huts. Among many other unique finds, Bonnet uncovered

2535-583: The graves of the city's final kings, some of which contain motifs and artwork reflecting Egyptian deities such as Horus . Generally, influence from Egypt may be observed in numerous burials, especially with regards to material evidence such as pottery and grave goods. For example, Second Intermediate Egyptian ceramics from Avaris , such as Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware , have been discovered within Kerma burials. In addition, artifacts such as scarab seals and amulets are prolific, indicating extensive trade with ancient Egypt as well as an exchange of cultural ideas. After

2600-403: The ground in concentric circles. White quartz pebbles reinforce the structure". Smaller burials are found surrounding the larger tombs of important individuals. Tombs progress from simple mounds to Egyptian-inspired pyramid complexes. This transition does not begin until long after pyramids are out of fashion in Egypt. Bonnet notes that sacrificial victims appear and become increasingly common in

2665-430: The historical period, it is certain that the deceased was associated with the god of the dead, Osiris . Grave goods expanded to include furniture, jewelry, and games as well as the weapons, cosmetic palettes, and food supplies in decorated jars known earlier, in the Predynastic period. In the richest tombs, grave goods then numbered in the thousands. Only the newly invented coffins for the body were made specifically for

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2730-399: The idea of serving a purpose in the afterlife. Those sacrificed were probably meant to serve the king in the afterlife. Eventually, figurines and wall paintings begin to replace human victims. Some of these figurines may have been created to resemble certain people, so they could follow the king after their own lives ended. Not only did the lower classes rely on the king's favor, but also

2795-501: The importance of the physical body and its preservation originated during that time. This likely explains why people of that time did not follow the common practice of cremation among neighboring cultures, but rather buried the dead. Some of the scholars believe the Predynastic-era Egyptians may have feared the bodies would rise again if mistreated after death. Early burials were in simple, shallow oval pits, with

2860-484: The important southern city may explain the findings. Ancient Egyptian funerary practices B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body , casting magic spells , and burials with specific grave goods thought to be needed in

2925-521: The kinds of questions that bioarchaeologists are asking of the skeletal material excavated from Kerma. Kendall suggests that large tombs in the Upper Deffufa contained the bodies of dozens or hundreds of sacrificed victims. A later bioarchaeological examination of "sacrificed" individuals from these contexts showed no significant differences between the skeletal stress markers of sacrificed versus non-sacrificed individuals. They drew samples from

2990-457: The largest mound graves, not tombs themselves. He interpreted these based on his knowledge of ancient Egyptian funerary practices , and since many of the grave goods found were Egyptian, he had no reason to think otherwise. George A. Reisner fit this archaeology into his understanding of ancient life along the Nile, assuming that Kerma was a satellite city of the ancient Egyptians. It was not until

3055-561: The late twentieth century that excavations by Charles Bonnet and the University of Geneva confirmed that this was not the case. They instead uncovered a vast independent urban complex that ruled most of the Third Cataract for centuries. Decades after Reisner's excavations, Bonnet's refutation of the idea of the site as an Egyptian satellite city was accepted. "The patient and diligent work of Bonnet and his colleagues unearthed

3120-470: The later Twelfth Dynasty, significant changes occurred in burials, perhaps reflecting administrative changes enacted by King Senwosret III (1836–1818  BCE ). The body was now regularly placed on its back, rather than its side as had been traditional for thousands of years. Coffin texts and wooden models disappeared from new tombs of the period while heart scarabs and figurines shaped as mummies were now often included in burials, as they would be for

3185-590: The mountain. For those of ranks lower than royal courtiers during the Eleventh Dynasty, tombs were simpler. Coffins could be simple wooden boxes with the body either mummified and wrapped in linen or simply wrapped without mummification, and the addition of a cartonnage mummy mask, a custom that continued until the Graeco-Roman period. Some tombs included wooded shoes and a simple statue near the body. In one burial there were only twelve loaves of bread,

3250-633: The next world, just as the weapons in men's tombs imply men's assignment to a role in fighting. Burial customs in the Middle Kingdom reflect some of the political trends of that period. During the Eleventh Dynasty , tombs were cut into the mountains of Thebes surrounding the king's tomb or, in local cemeteries in Upper and Middle Egypt ; Thebes was the native city of the Eleventh Dynasty kings, and they preferred to be buried there. But

3315-436: The nobility. In the First Intermediate period , however, the importance of the king declined. Funerary texts, previously restricted to royal use, became more widely available. The kings no longer were god-kings in the sense that admission to the next life was allowed in the next life only due to the royal status, the role of kings changed, becoming merely the rulers of the population who upon death, would be leveled down toward

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3380-528: The noble classes. They believed that upon death, kings became deities who could bestow upon certain individuals the ability to have an afterlife. This belief existed from the predynastic period through the Old Kingdom . Although many spells from the earlier texts were carried over, the new Coffin Texts also had new spells added, along with slight changes made to make the new funerary text more relatable to

3445-483: The owner was a queen or a princess. Burials in the Late period could make use of large-scale, temple-like tombs built for the non-royal elite for the first time. But the majority of tombs in this period were in shafts sunk into the desert floor. In addition to fine statuary and reliefs reflecting the style of the Old Kingdom, the majority of grave goods were specially made for the tomb. Coffins continued to bear religious texts and scenes. Some shafts were personalized by

3510-523: The plane of the mortals. Some of the earliest burial sites in ancient Egypt are of the Merimde culture , which dates to 4800-4300 B.C. Located in the Nile delta, they are known for producing clay figurines, but did not bury their dead with grave goods or offerings. The first evidence of funerals in Egypt with grave goods are known from the villages of Omari and Maadi in the north, near present-day Cairo . The people of these villages buried their dead in

3575-434: The remainder of Egyptian history. Coffin decoration was simplified. The Thirteenth Dynasty saw another change in decoration. Different motifs were found in the north and south, a reflection of decentralized government power at the time. There was also a marked increase in the number of burials in one tomb, a rare occurrence in earlier periods. The reuse of one tomb by a family over generations seems to have occurred when wealth

3640-661: The sacking of Kerma, the cemetery was used to host the kings of the 25th or "Napatan" dynasty of the Kingdom of Kush from Upper (Southern) Nubia. Early archaeology at Kerma started with an Egyptian and Sudanese survey made by George A. Reisner , an American with joint appointments at Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston . Reisner later led these two institutions, in the so-called "Harvard-Boston" expedition, during three field seasons at Kerma (1913–1916). He worked in Egypt and Sudan for 25 years, 1907–1932. As one of

3705-535: The sand. The rectangular, mudbrick tomb with an underground burial chamber, termed a mastaba in modern archaeology, developed in the Early Dynastic period. These tombs had niched walls, a style of building called the palace-façade motif because the walls imitated those surrounding the palace of the king. Since commoners as well as kings, however, had such tombs, the architecture suggests that in death, some wealthy people did achieve an elevated status. Later in

3770-620: The tomb began in the First Dynasty, indicating a desire to individualize the tomb with the deceased's name. In the Old Kingdom , kings first built pyramids for their tombs surrounded by stone mastaba tombs for their high officials. The fact that most high officials were also royal relatives suggests another motivation for such placement: these complexes were also family cemeteries. Among the elite, bodies were mummified, wrapped in linen bandages, sometimes covered with molded plaster, and placed in stone sarcophagi or plain wooden coffins. At

3835-518: The tomb. Some inconclusive evidence exists for mummification. Other objects in the tombs that had been used during daily life suggest that in the First Dynasty Egyptians already anticipated needing such objects in the next life. Further continuity from this life into the next can be found in the positioning of tombs: those persons who served the king during their lifetimes chose burials close to their king. The use of stela in front of

3900-453: The tombs of this period. Some rectangular coffins of the Twelfth Dynasty have short inscriptions and representations of the most important offerings the deceased required. For men, the objects depicted were weapons and symbols of office as well as food. Women's coffins depicted mirrors, sandals, and jars containing food and drink. Some coffins included texts that were later versions of the royal Pyramid Texts . Another kind of faience model of

3965-525: The use of stela with personal prayers of and the name of the deceased on it. Shabtis in faience for all classes are known. Canopic jars, although often nonfunctional, continued to be included. Staves and scepters representing the deceased's office in life were often present as well. A wooden figure of either the god Osiris or of the composite deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris could be found, along with heart scarabs, both gold and faience examples of djed-columns , Eye of Horus amulets, figures of deities, and images of

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4030-475: The walls to supplement grave goods, which made them available through their representation. The new false door was a non-functioning stone sculpture of a door, found either inside the chapel or on the outside of the mastaba; it served as a place to make offerings and recite prayers for the deceased. Statues of the deceased were being included in tombs and used for ritual purposes. Burial chambers of some private people received their first decorations in addition to

4095-528: Was a fort. He did not conduct further excavations of the settlement suspected to surround the Lower Deffuffa. The Upper/Eastern Deffufa was located amidst thousands of low, round graves, with clear stylistic differences between the northern, middle, and southern parts of the cemetery. The most elaborate tombs were found in the southern part of the cemetery. Reisner assumed that the large, quadrangular deffufa structures were funerary chapels associated with

4160-508: Was found closer to the river (19°36'2"N, 30°24'37"E); the Upper/Eastern Deffufa is a few kilometers away from the river in a cemetery (19°36'15"N, 30°26'41"E). Most burials were slightly flexed, lying on their sides. Reisner saw many links to ancient Egyptian culture through architectural techniques and the dimensions of the base of the Lower/Western Deffufa (52.3 m × 26.7 m, or 150 × 100 Egyptian cubits). He assumed it

4225-563: Was more equitably spread. Known graves from the Second Intermediate period reveal the presence of non-Egyptians buried in the country. In the north, graves associated with the Hyksos , a western Semitic people ruling the north from the northeast delta, include small mudbrick structures containing the body, pottery vessels, a dagger in a men's graves, and often a nearby donkey burial. Simple pan-shaped graves in various parts of

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