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.² Ethnicity, they were identified in close connection with the Kushites. Their native homeland is the eastern deserts of Sudan and the Red Sea hills. There, they practiced nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyles. Archeologically, the culture is labeled Pan-Grave because they buried their deceased in pits that looked like frying pans.

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.

Their graves have been located in numerous sites, from Kerma in Sudan to Memphis in the north. Much of the Pan-Grave burials have not been well excavated especially those in Sudan. However, Pan-Graves excavated in Daraw, Abydos, Aniba, Toshka, Wadi Halfa, and other regions in Lower Nubia revealed elaborate information about the culture.³

They buried their deceased 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 findings was a unique type of pottery characterized with plain coloring.

• ^{1 K. K. Hirst, "Pan Grave Culture," About.com: Archaeology, Nov. 2008 <http://archaeology.about.com/od/pterms/g/pangrave.htm>.}
• ^{2 See The Medjay.}
• ^{3 For Daraw see: P. M. Crew, I. E. S. Eduards, J. B. Bury, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, and E. Sollberger, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History: C. 1800-1380 B. C., (Cambridge UP, 1973) 74-76, for Abydos see: D. Randall-MacIver, A. C. Mace, F. 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: D. N. Edwards, The Nubian Past, (Routledge, 2004) 97-101, for Toshka see: B. G. 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: R. Friedman, "Setting the Scene," InteractiveDig, Jan-May 2004, Archaeological Institute of America, Dec. 2008 <http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/nubians.html>.}