The Archaeology of Late Antique Sudan: Aesthetics and Identity i ...

of UNESCO, a cooperative effort was launched involving many international teams who surveyed and excavated much of Lower Nubia along the Nile itself (Adams 1977, 4).

Although a number of travellers and archaeologists had noted the tumuli of Qustul and Ballana, they were not recognised as monuments of any archaeological importance until Emery and Kirwan's journey to Lower Nubia in 1931. Consequently, their discovery came as a surprise, since Weigall's account of the area, published in 1907, stated that “there are no ancient sites here” (142). Accompanying Emery and Kirwan were a number of Egyptian professionals from Cairo University, whilst 150 workmen from Guft (Quft), whose numbers eventually swelled to 400, were brought in as general labourers rather than supervisors. Emery held the opinion that “the Nubian is quite useless for work of this kind” (Emery 1948, 2). Alongside the expertise of the main excavators, Alfred Lucas advised on the identification of the small number of textile finds, Professor El-Batrawi analysed the human remains, Mohammed Husni Effendi was the surveyor, and Mohammed Hassenein Effendi was the clerk of works. In October 1931, the expedition arrived at the cemetery of Ballana, where they were then informed by the local people of a similar site at Qustul across the Nile on the east bank. The excavators entered tomb 3 at Qustul via a robber passage in order to make a preliminary investigation of what might be contained under the mounds (ibid.). Excavations at Qustul began in November, and on uncovering the remains of horses still dressed in their silver tack in the entrance ramp to tomb 3, the excavators began to realise “the true value of the discovery” (Emery and Kirwan 1938a, 2). The excavation of the two sites, even with a large team of workers, lasted a total of thirteen months between November 1931 and February 1934. The mounds were excavated by cutting large V-shaped sections through the tumuli, in order to remove the earth in successive slices, in a manner similar to the cutting of a cake. The gradual removal of the tumuli enabled the excavators to ascertain whether any objects had been buried in the fill of the mounds themselves. The removal of the earth was also necessary to enable the measurement and drawing of the substructures.