Burials

Kerma

©John Tylo, Backwood. Deffufa, Kerma.

The Kerma culture (2500-1500 BC) once flourished in Sudan, in the city of Kerma (modern-day the city of Kareema). The Kerma culture developed a centralized society composed of social classes and of royal families, priests, and commoners.

Although the site at Kerma has not been well excavated yet, few American and European excavations, in collaboration with archeologists from the Khartoum University, came up with good information about the culture. The excavations revealed an elaborate cemetery, a royal city, temples, royal palaces, and an audience hall. In a 1993-1994 campaign, Charles Bonnet uncovered the main town of Kerma with a fortification wall 10 meters in height and 1300 meters in length.¹

Bovine shaped foot of Angaraib from Kerma. Source: Wildung, Dietrich. Sudan Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile.

Photograph: C. Bonnet. Tomb of an archer at ancient Kerma 2200 B.C. Source: Wildung, Dietrich. Sudan Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile.

The people of Kerma people buried their dead in simple niche cut pits. A tumulus or a mound superstructure of sand and gravel, sometimes reaching 90 meters in diameter, was built over the graves of royal persons. The size of the mound superstructure indicated the social rank of the deceased person when alive; the larger the tumulus, the higher in rank the owner was; and the smaller it is, the lower in rank the owner was.

A distinctive element of the Kerma culture was bed burials were the deceased was placed on top of an Angaraib (bed) which in turn was placed in the middle of the tomb chamber.

On some cases, mummification was restricted to kings and royal persons. The deceased was usually laid in a contracted body position with the head towards the east.

Flag staffs and square shaped steles were uncovered near tumuli structures and were probably related to mortuary rituals. Pottery is perhaps the most common find in Kerma. Large amounts of imported pottery from Egypt and the Near East and seashells brought from the Red Sea indicated extensive practice of trade in the ancient city of Kerma. Weapons dating to this period were usually consisted of bronze swords and daggers, some of which were found in children graves. Most astonishingly were the archer burials in Kerma where the individuals were buried with bows and arrows next to their bodies. Other goods included sandals, leather caps, ostrich feathers, and loincloths and cotton kilts.

Large numbers of sacrificed humans and animals were found in royal graves. In 1923 George Reisner, the first archeologist to excavate at Kerma, uncovered a tumulus containing sacrificed human bodies.² The scarified bodies were placed in opened roof mud brick corridors that ran along the middle of the tumulus structures before the latter were filled with earth. The sacrificed individuals are likely to have been servants and slaves to the burials' original owners. The Nubians believed in an afterlife, where the gods would sometimes require the deceased to do hard labor. Thus, sacrificing servants and slaves was considered a way for helping the deceased do this hard labor.

• ^{1 For information on the measures of the- 1300 meters long- fortification wall that enclosed the center of Kerma see: C. Bonnet, "Archaeological Excavations at Kerma (Soudan): Preliminary report for 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 campaigns, " Arkamani: Review of Archaeological & Anthropological Current Research in the Sudan, Comp. O. A. Elnur, Aug. 2001, Jan. 2005 <http://www.arkamani.org/arkamani-library/pre-kerma-and-kerma/prelim_report1.htm#Ch.Bonnet (ed.)>, and for information on the measures of the- 10 meters high- fortification wall that enclosed the center of Kerma see: D. O'Connor, Ancient Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa (University of Pennsylvania P, 1994) 50.}
• ^{2 W. H. Rockett, "The Nubians in Brooklyn," Saudi Aramco World (July/Aug. 1979): 36-40, and G. A. Reisner, Excavations at Kerma, part I-III (Cambridge, 1923).}