HAGAR EL-BEIDA 1. EXCAVATIONS OF A LATE/POST-MEROITIC CEMETERY
HAGAR EL-BEIDA 1. EXCAVATIONS OF A LATE/POST-MEROITIC CEMETERY

Summary/Abstract: The site of Hagar el-Beida 1 (HB1) is a large tumulus cemetery located in the immediate vicinity of the Hagar el-Beida village. The site consists of 15 huge and medium-sized tumuli preserved on the surface, arranged in two distinct and easily recognizable groups. The site was discovered in 2003 during an archaeological reconnaissance of the Fourth Cataract area and then provisionally recorded in late 2004. At the time of the first prospection, archaeologists focused attention on the largest superstructure in the cemetery (HB1-T10), which they referred to as "royal" burial because of its size. It may very well be the most spectacular historical feature so far discovered within the area of the Polish concession. However, the sheer size of this burial, now estimated at c. 32 m in diameter and 6 m in height, did not allow anything but some standard initial surveying and measurements during the first season of excavation. Four other relatively well preserved tumuli, representing some prominent differences in size and shape, were explored. Although too few of the tumuli in this cemetery have been excavated so far to acknowledge them as a distinctly representative sample, some remarks on hypothetical variants and typology are put forward with all due caution.

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