Since 2005, the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project (AKAP)[1], co-directed by Dr Maria Carmela Gatto and Prof Antonio Curci, has been working in selected areas north of the First Nile Cataract with the aim of reconstructing the long history of the region, focusing on the dynamics of cultural contact. The project has discovered and recorded a variety of archaeological sites ranging in date from the Early Palaeolithic to the Coptic Period and belonging to both the Egyptian and Nubian traditions. To the latter, and more specifically to the Pan-Grave culture, belong several sites, all situated on west bank Aswan, in a 15 km stretch of land between Wadi el-Tawil and Qubbet el-Hawa (Fig. 1). They comprise three cemeteries (WT1, WK11 and SM14), the campsites associated with them (WT2, WK14 and WF19 respectively), two watch stations (WK39 and NH11) one rock art locale (SM13), and are among the earliest attestations of the Pan-Grave culture in the Nile Valley. Because of their vicinity to large Egyptian settlements, they represent a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of these elusive Nubian nomadic communities and their interactions with the local Egyptian population.
All Pan-Grave sites in the AKAP concession are threatened by human encroachment, and cemetery WK11 in Nag el-Qarmila, which AKAP partially excavated in 2008, was destroyed soon after by urban development. In 2017, under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and with the financial backing of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the “Endangered Nomads” project was launched with Gatto, Curci and Dr Carla Gallorini as principal investigators. The aims of this new project are the full documentation and rescue excavation of the two cemeteries, SM14 and WT1, and the analysis of the finds from all Pan Grave sites in the AKAP concession, culminating in the publication of an open access monograph. Phase I of the project started in September 2018 with the partial excavation of cemetery SM14. An interview for L.I.S.A. with Dr Maria Gatto on the most important findings from this cemetery can be found here. The Covid pandemic put a halt to the fieldwork, but Endangered Nomads was finally able to resume work in January 2020 with a study season focussed on the analysis of the human remains found in SM14, and then, in the autumn of 2022, with the excavation of cemetery WT1 in Wadi el-Tawil. This was followed by a prolonged study season during which specialists in different field recorded and analysed the finds from previous and current excavations (Phase II). This contribution gives a brief overview of the work carried out by Endangered Nomads during Phase II of the project.
The Pan-Grave were pastoral nomads attested along the Nile valley and the surrounding deserts, both in Egypt and Nubia, from the end of the Middle Kingdom to the beginning of the New Kingdom (ca. 1800-1500 BCE). Their material culture is quite distinctive and mostly known through funerary evidence. Pan-Grave cemeteries are typically small and isolated, the graves usually circular (Fig. 2), relatively shallow and lined with reed matting and animal hide; the superstructure, when present, consists of a flat stones circle. The deceased is usually laid to rest in a contracted position (Fig. 2), although oval and rectangular graves with the body in a supine position are also found (Fig. 3).
Typical burial goods are the characteristic Pan-Grave pottery (Fig. 9), small rectangular mother-of-pearl beads (known as spacers, see Fig. 4 centre) and nerite shells. Egyptian pottery is also a common find, both as grave good and funerary offering (Fig. 2 and Fig. 8). Occasionally, the frontal bones of sheep, goats and more rarely cattle are placed around the tomb or in separate offering pits (Fig. 4, right).
The full excavation of WT1 was undertaken with the aim to establish the extent and composition of the cemetery, and to ascertain its chronology. Field supervisors of the excavation, under the direction of Maria Carmela Gatto, were Nick Ray and Sara Roma. The team included Sara Facciani and Veronica Bertoncello, who were in charge of the topographical work together with Alberto Urcia and Alessia Brucato; Serena Nicolini and Oren Siegel were the excavators in charge of Egyptian workmen. Carla Gallorini and Aaron de Souza were in charge of the analysis of the Egyptian and Pan-Grave pottery respectively.
Cemetery WT1 occupies a slightly raised area of ground between two occasional water channels (on the north and south sides) draining from the gebel, and gently sloping down to the east (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6). Unfortunately, the site was already significantly damaged, and all the tombs had been thoroughly robbed, leaving almost nothing in situ. In total, 19 tombs were identified together with 32 archaeological features and 5 Offering Places (Fig. 6).
The core of the cemetery (Fig. 6) comprised three large tombs (T6–T8) with stone rings surrounding a central, roughly-circular burial cist. Several features were directly associated with T8, serving as offering places or pot emplacements. In addition to these, there were fourteen archaeological features in the northwest region, most of which appear to have been associated with T6, T7 and T8.
To the southeast of these large tombs were a series of burials (T11–T16) that appear to have been a later phase, comprising simpler pit burials. To the west and northwest of these tombs are nine features that appear to be associated with them, including a large burnt area (Offering place δ), surrounded by a series of small pits (F27–F29) of uncertain function. All of these features provide evidence of the intense funerary activity that occurred at the site, both at the time of interment and during later visits and indicates not tomb-specific offering areas. Before any cleaning or excavation took place, the westernmost area of the site had no clearly distinguishable burials visible on the surface and there were no superstructures, although several roughly circular depressions were suggestive of features. Ten of these possible features were investigated, with four proving to be shallow, unmarked burials (T1–T3, T19), three were identified as features (F14, F15, F37), and three were ascertained to be natural depressions and not given numbers.
Skeletal remains were very fragmentary and dispersed across the burial area, as were the pottery, beads, and mother-of-pearl spacers. Organic remains were scarce (Fig. 7) and only two tombs provided evidence for the presence of textiles (T1 and T19), only one provided evidence for matting (T6), and only T10 provided evidence for possible leather.
The preservation of the pottery is also very poor and vessels were reconstructed from sherds found scattered across large areas of the site. The dispersal pattern of the sherds is also very different from what has been recorded for cemeteries WK11 and SM14, where looting and modern disturbance were the main causes of destruction. In the latter cemetery, for example, joins between non-contiguous squares are not attested and sherds from small and medium-sized pots did not stray far from the place where the vessel they belonged to was broken, and were usually found in the fills of tombs and the spoil heaps from looting. At WT1, sherds belonging to the same vessel were moved long distances, both downhill W-E and also across the N-S axis of the cemetery, in a pattern of dispersal that is more likely the result of natural forces, possibly flooding from the wadi, than human intervention.
The Egyptian pottery from WT1 (Fig. 8) shows a clear progression from the middle of the 12th to the 13th Dynasty and its distribution suggests that the cemetery developed from west to east, with the south-eastern corner of the site, centred around T11-T16, associated with later types, such as the small jar with flat base Fig. 8.601. A surprising find was the juglet illustrated in Fig. 8.608. It is made of a non-Egyptian clay and petrographic analysis by Mary Ownby suggests an origin in the coastal area of modern Lebanon. These juglets are uncommon outside the Delta region and the presence of one example at WT1 raises interesting questions regarding the procurement of such a rare object. The presence of a Predynastic jar (Fig. 8.614 and 552) is less surprising as the occurrence of Black Topped and Decorated predynastic wares has been recorded in other Pan-Grave cemeteries in Egypt, including WK11.
Just like the rest of the material from WT1, Middle Nubian sherds were in a very fragmentary state and found scattered across the cemetery, but the vast majority were collected from the eastern end of the site. 24 individual vessels were recorder, and, although the majority are morphologically consistent with the Pan-Grave tradition (Fig. 9), five can be attributed to the C-Group. This is highly unusual, especially in such a small cemetery. The only comparable instances are at Aniba Cemetery N and Adindan Cemetery T, but in both of those cases, a small cluster of Pan-Grave burials occurs on the fringe of a much larger C-Group cemetery. Considering the relative proportion of Pan-Grave and C-Group pottery at WT1, if something similar were to have happened at our site, a larger Pan-Grave cemetery would have added itself to a small cluster of pre-existing C-group burials.
According to the new C-Group chronology proposed by Schröder, the C-Group does not continue beyond the end of the 12th dynasty and thus predates the Pan-Grave culture with no chronological overlap. However, there are some attestations of Pan-Grave material culture that may date to the late 12th Dynasty, around the reign of Amenemhat III, for example at Hierakonpolis HK47, and the Egyptian pottery at WT1 suggests that at least part of the cemetery might date to the mid to late 12th Dynasty. The absence of later features such as defined black-tops in the Pan-Grave style pottery also supports a date for the cemetery to the late Middle Kingdom. Such a date would also correspond with the nearby C-Group cemetery at Kubbaniyeh North and may also be connected with the presence of both C-Group and Pan-Grave style pottery on Elephantine. Taken collectively, the presence of both cultures in the local area might explain how ceramics from both traditions are simultaneously present at WT1.
The wealth of evidence gathered by the Endangered Nomads Project, although from fragmentary and disturbed contexts, suggests a widespread and prolonged presence of Pan-Grave groups in the Aswan region, with at least three different family groups living and sharing the resources of a relatively limited area. The recurring pattern in the choice of location for the cemeteries and the associated campsites implies that these extended family groups used the surrounding land and its resources in similar ways. At this stage of the investigation, cemeteries WT1 and SM14 show signs of an extended period of use, with the latter still in use well into the Second Intermediate Period. The close proximity with Elephantine and Syene could explain its longevity as the presence of the nearby urban centers must have provided better means of support for this Pan-Grave group. Although the temporary nature of the Pan-Grave campsites has left little archaeological traces, the burial grounds have been carefully prepared through a labour-intensive process and were places where people came back not only to bury their dead but also to regularly bring offerings. These are sites in which time, effort and resources have been invested and they suggest that these communities were well-rooted in the landscape and prospered for a time span of more than one generation.
Further reading
M. C. Gatto, Peripatetic nomads along the Nile. Unfolding the Nubian Pan-Grave culture of the Second Intermediate Period, in: Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 6.1, 2014, pp. 11–28.
M. C. Gatto, C. Gallorini, Experiencing Elephantine from the hinterland at the end of the Middle Kingdom/early Second Intermediate Period, in: J. Sigl (ed.), Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Settlements, SDAIK 47, Wiesbaden 2022, pp. 107-118.
M. C. Gatto, C. Gallorini, S. Roma, Pan-grave pottery from Nag el-Qarmila and Sheikh Mohamed cemeteries in Gharb Aswan, in: I. Forstner-Müller, P. Rose (eds.), Nubian pottery from Egyptian cultural contexts of the Middle and early New Kingdom. Proceedings of a workshop held at the Austrian Archaeological Institute at Cairo, 1–12 December 2010, Wien 2012, pp. 83–102.
M. Mant, M. C. Pitre, S. Dancer, M. C. Gatto, A case of rheumatoid arthritis in a Nubian woman from the site of Sheikh Mohamed, near Aswan, Egypt, in: International Journal of Paleopathology, vol. 44, 2024, pp. 78-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2023.12.003