ANCIENT GOLD MINING IN THE SUDAN 215 



view to mutual protection and defence, but if, as Diodorus informs us, the Ptolemaic mines 

 were worked by slaves, some form of supervision would be necessary in the camp no less 

 than in the mine, and it would be obviously impossible to exercise this in a widely 

 scattered camp. The suggested inference is that these rectangular walls and close 

 encampments may mark the scene of Ptolemaic and earlier work, whilst the scattered huts 

 and isolated mills date from the period of Arabian occupation. 



Ancient wells probably exist at many of the mining sites, for it is difficult to believe 

 that the workers brought their water from such great distances as most of the present 

 wells are removed from the mines. These wells would naturally be situated in low-lying 

 ground, thus facilitating their obliteration by blown sand and occasional rainstorms. 

 The burying places pertaining to the mines are usually situated in a wadi-bed, in close Burying 

 proximity to the scene of work. The graves are irregularly scattered but have almost ''''"^^^ 

 invariably a general orientation north and south. They are from four to five feet deep 

 and the body lies, with the feet towards the north, between two narrow ledges which 

 support a bridge of stone protecting it from the superincumbent earth. At the top 

 there is usually a ring of stones encircling the grave with an upright stone at the head 

 and at the foot. The space within the ring is often covered with small stones, which 

 are sometimes selected white quartz or rounded pebbles from the wadi-bed. The form 

 of sepulture and the fact that where human remains have been found the skull is invariably 

 of a Semitic type, and not negroid, points to these being Mohammedan. The unfortunate 

 workers of earlier days were probably so carelessly buried that nothing now marks 

 their graves. 



A great number of potsherds of various shapes are found in the neighbourhood of 

 the mines ; all are of common unglazed earthenware and usually of a brick-red colour. 

 Various other articles have been found, but nearly all are remnants of the Arab occupation. 

 They include : a short x^ointed iron tool, pierced for a haft, and corresponding to the 

 modern single-pointed pick ; a broad hoe with the eye attached by rivets ; iron wedges ; 

 packing needles ; a pair of scissors ; brass scale-pans pierced with holes for cord supports ; 

 some small copper ingots which may have been weights ; portions of large bronze vessels, 

 probably cooking pots, but extremely thin and bearing evidence of skilful manufacture ; 

 fragments of coarsely woven cloth ; fragments of sea-shells and ostrich eggs, probably used 

 for the reception of gold dust ; some beads and small articles of personal adornment ; a 

 small stone tablet inscribed with the emblem of the sun god Horus ; and numerous 

 fragments of broken glass commonly of a bright greenish-blue colour. Unlike the mines of 

 the Eastern Desert of Upi^er Egypt, hieroglyphic inscriptions appear to be entirely absent ; 

 so far as I am aware the only inscriptions discovered in the vicinity of the Sudan mines are 

 Cufic, dating from the ninth and tenth centuries a.d. 



