46 ELLIOT Smith, DisU'ibution of Mummification. 



which we know from Egyptian literature, no less than 

 that of the Jews, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans to have 

 been actually observed — only one Egyptian cemetery, so 

 far as I am aware — a proto-dynastic site, excavated by 

 Flinders Petrie (54) at Tarkhan — has revealed corpses 

 lying upon beds. But in a cemetery, some sixteen cen- 

 turies later, excavated by Reisner in the Soudan (62), a 

 similar practice was demonstrated. Garstang has recorded 

 the observance of a similar custom further South (Meroe) 

 at a later date. 



These form useful connecting links with the region 

 around the head -waters of the Nile, where even in modern 

 times this practice has survived, and the mummified 

 corpse of the king is placed upon a rough bier. I shall 

 have occasion to point out later on that this curious 

 practice spread from East Africa along the Asiatic littoral 

 to Indonesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, thence to the 

 American continent ; and in most places was definitely 

 associated with attempts at preservation of the corpse. 



In many places along the whole course of the same 

 great track, instead of a bed, a boat of some sort, usually 

 a rough dug-out, was used. This practice also was 

 observed in Egypt, where its symbolic purpose is clearly 

 apparent. 



Another distinctive feature of the burial customs in 

 the same area was the idea that the grave represented the 

 house in which the deceased was sleeping. How defi- 

 nitely this view was held by the proto-Egyptians is seen 

 in their coffins, subterranean burial chambers, and the 

 superstructures of their tombs, all three of which v/ere 

 originally represented as dwelling houses (see my memoir, 



94)- 



The Pyramid texts clearly explain the precise signifi- 

 cance and origin of the hitherto mysterious and wide- 



