Burials

The Pan Grave

Contemporary with the C-Group, is the Pan-Grave culture (2000-1600 BC)¹. The people of this culture were referred to as the Medjay-Nubians (Beja) who originally inhabit the eastern deserts of Nubia and who practiced nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyles. They are labeled "Pan-Grave" since they buried their diseased in pits that had plans similar to frying pans. Their graves have been located in numerous sites, from Memphis in Egypt and south to Kerma in Sudan. Much of the Pan-Grave burials have not been well excavated especially those in Upper Nubia and Sudan.

Vessel, goat horn, and a bowl from Aniba. Courtesy of the Von Bissing collection and the Staatliche Sammlung Ägyptischer Kunst, Munich. Source: Wildung, Dietrich. *Sudan: Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile*.

However, Pan-graves excavated in Daraw, Abydos, Aniba, Toshka, Wadi Halfa, and other regions in Lower Nubia have revealed to us some elaborate information about this culture².

The Pan-Grave people buried their diseased in contracted positions, however; with various body orientations. The bodies there were usually wrapped in raw leather hides, and accompanied with cow skulls that were often painted with various colors. Among the Pan-Grave findings was a unique type of pottery characterized with plain coloring.

Jewelry was among the common finds, usually made of raw materials like ostrich-eggshells, faience, and stones. Weapons were the most frequent findings on the pan-graves and were usually consisted of daggers, bows and arrows.

^{1 K. Kris Hirst, "Pan Grave Culture," About.com: Archaeology,
Nov. 2008 <http://archaeology.about.com/od/pterms/g/pangrave.htm>.}
^{2 For Daraw see: P. Mack Crew, I. E. S. Eduards, J. B.
Bury, Cyril John Gadd, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond,
and E. Sollberger, (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History: C.
1800-1380 B. C., (Cambridge UP, 1973) 74-76, for Abydos see:
David Randall-MacIver, Arthur C. Mace, Francis Ll. Griffith, and
F. Ll Griffith. El Amrah and Abydos, 1899-1901, Sold at
the offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, (1902) 67, for Aniba
see:}^{David N. Edwards, The Nubian Past, (Routledge,
2004) 97-101, for Toshka see:}^{Bruce Trigger, and B.
J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: An Archaeology of the Sudan, (Cambridge
UP, 1983) 170-1, and for general information on Lower Nubia see:
Renée Friedman, "Setting the Scene," InteractiveDig,
Jan-May 2004, Archaeological Institute of America, Dec. 2008 <http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/nubians.html>.}
^.

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