CEMETERY C IN NAQLUN: PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE EXCAVATION IN 2006
CEMETERY C IN NAQLUN: PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE EXCAVATION IN 2006

Summary/Abstract: The location of cemetery C has been known since the first survey of the site in 1986 and the first salvage excavations in 2004 which had the purpose of verifying the dating and character of the necropolis. In 2006 a trench 10 m by 7 m was opened, the premise being to uncover a continuous surface of the necropolis in order to search for possible remnants of superstructures and to study the spatial organization of the tombs. Two kinds of tombs were identified: simple grave pits and chamber tombs with entrance shafts. The cemetery was evidently not the burial place of the Nekloni monks, but was used in the 6th and 7th centuries by the inhabitants of the nearby oasis. No signs of any superstructures were discovered. One of the chamber tombs was found intact with the original sealing still in place. It had been used twice for the successive burial of two individuals in mummy cartonnages. The grave pits contained the disturbed remains of other burials, sufficiently well preserved, however, to permit conclusions on burial practices in early medieval Naqlun.

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