The Kellis Cemeteries

The town of Kellis (currently known as Ismant el-Kharab) was a major centre in the Dakhleh Oasis during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (circa 332 to 30 B.C.), and is located along the desert trade route through the Dakhleh Oasis (Wheeler 2012). There have been three primary burial areas associated with

Kellis – one in the town itself (the North Tomb), and two cemeteries respectively located to the northwest and northeast of the town, named Kellis 1 (K1) and Kellis 2 (K2) (see Figure 4.2) (Molto 2001). The North Tomb area represents a series of tombs along the northwestern edge of the town site. The North Tomb was

constructed during the Roman Period (A.D. 50-450) and then used for sequential burials after its initial construction. Exact dates for the North Tomb burials are not known, but it has been estimated that the burials date to the late fourth century A.D., which is temporally near the last phase of the Kellis occupation (Hope 2001). The North Tomb burials are believed to contain both pagan and Christian individuals based on the different burial practices observed at the site (Bowen 2003).

Figure 4.2 Location of Kellis 1, Kellis 2, and Ain Tirghi cemeteries (Molto 2002)

Kellis 1 (site 31/420-C5-1) consists of a large number of small chamber tombs (see Figure 4.3) (Birrell 1999). The cemetery is located predominantly in red Nubian clay which is capped by shales and sandstone in the higher levels of the cemetery (Birrell 1999). The tombs are divided into two groups – those cut entirely into the red clay, and those dug from the higher levels of sandstone (Birrell 1999). The majority of tombs are single-chambered, though some tombs do have more than one chamber (Dupras 1999). The individuals buried at Kellis 1 are not contained in coffins, and a number of individuals were mummified – 18 of 169 individuals excavated at Kellis 1, or 11% of individuals had been artificially mummified, and 27 of 169, or 18% of individuals had undergone spontaneous or natural mummification (Aufderheide et al. 1999). Analysis of the grave goods

associated with the burials in Tomb 13 at Kellis 1 along with radiocarbon dating suggests that the cemetery was in use from the Ptolemaic period into the early Roman period, circa 332 to 30 B.C. (Birrell 1999). It has been suggested that the mummification practices in place at Kellis 1 may be a result of the site being occupied by a high status population (Molto 2001). The Kellis 1 burials are believed to be associated with a pagan population because each chamber contains a number of individuals placed on the chamber floor in no particular alignment (as opposed to the Christian single interments and east-west

orientation) (Bowen 2003). There was a high degree of post-burial disturbance observed during the excavations of the Kellis 1 tombs, due in large part to site looting. The latter resulted in considerable commingling of remains and few complete skeletons from Kellis 1 were available for analysis. The individuals from Kellis 1 included in this project come from tombs 3, 13, 16 and 22, represent both mummified and non-mummified remains, and were complete enough for

osteobiographical analyses and nonmetric trait scoring to occur.

Kellis 2 (site 31/420-C5-2) is located approximately 1km east of the Kellis 1 cemetery, and northeast of the ancient town of Kellis (see Figure 4.4). Kellis 2 extends 150m in the east-west direction and 60m in the north-south direction, and is densely filled with rectangular pit graves (Wheeler et al. 2007). At Kellis 2, bodies are placed in an extended position with the head oriented to the west, their arms either at the sides or crossed over the pelvis and feet either side-by- side or crossed (Wheeler et al. 2007). All graves were found to be aligned on an east-west axis, except for minor variations attributed to be a result of winter or summer burials (Bowen 2003). The vast majority of burials at Kellis 2 are single interments (Molto 2001). There are some tomb superstructures present at Kellis 2, which tend to contain one to three primary adult burials and several juveniles below the floor, as well as numerous graves of fetuses, infants and young

children packed tightly around the outside walls (Wheeler 2012). The individuals buried at Kellis 2 were wrapped loosely in linen cloth, which does not tend to preserve beyond the presence of loose pieces near the feet of adult skeletons (Birrell 1999). The burial practices reflected at Kellis 2 seem to represent a shift from the pagan burials seen at Kellis 1 to a Christian burial style (Dupras 1999). The presence of infant burials dispersed with the adult burials in the cemetery in the east-west orientation in shallow pits equates with the Christian tradition, and it has been posited that the individuals buried at Kellis 2 belonged to the Christian community at Kellis (Bowen 2003).

Figure 4.4 Excavations at Kellis 2 through 2006 (courtesy of JE Molto)

Ceramic evidence indicates that the Kellis 2 site was in use during the fourth century CE (Birrell 1999), and a large battery of AMS radiocarbon dates shows

conclusively that the cemetery was in use during the Romano-Christian period, from 50 to 450 A.D. (Stewart, Molto, and Reimer 2003). It has been estimated that the entirety of the Kellis 2 cemetery may contain between 3000 and 4000 burials, only about a quarter of which have been excavated (see Figure 4.5) (Molto personal communication). To date, 701 individuals have been excavated at Kellis 2 as part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project (Wheeler 2012). Of the individuals excavated from Kellis 2, approximately 61% are juveniles (under the age of 15), 20% are adult females, 13% are adult males, and 6% are unknown age or sex (Wheeler 2012).

Figure 4.5 Excavations of Kellis 2 as of 1997 compared to suspected extent of site (Molto 2002)

Though ~50% of the burials have been disturbed post-mortem in most cases the disturbance has been minimal and often the skeletal elements (e.g. crania) were recovered. This degree of recovery, the extremely arid environment, and the alkalinity of the soil have combined to result in near-perfect preservation of the K2 remains (Wheeler 2012). The ideal preservation conditions facilitated the

recovery of young fetal remains (at an approximate gestational age of 20 weeks), as well as soft tissue structures including hair, skin, nails, and stomach content

(Wheeler 2012). In the case of nonmetric traits, preservation is of the utmost importance because the traits can be difficult to observe even under ideal conditions – if there is any damage to the region of the skull on which a trait is found, the trait is considered to be unobservable. Having such good preservation is vital to nonmetric trait studies.