26. Painted Goat Skull

Animal skulls were shaped into a roughly triangular shape and then painted in Pan-Grave culture. This one, from a goat, was painted with red ochre, black and white pigments, using the fingertips to make dots and lines. Painted skulls were deposited in shallow circular ditches surrounding Pan-Grave tombs, usually in numbers and in an order that represented flocks. Presumably the animals had been slaughtered and consumed before the funeral in a different location as part of the funerary celebrations among the living. Accompanying both male and female adults, the skulls probably linked the deceased to communal identity and the shared heritage of pastoral ideology. Different ruminant species were used for this purpose: mostly goats (Capra hircus) and sheep (Ovis aries, an African variety with taller legs), but also domesticated gazelles (Gazella sp.). Animal skulls were also deposited in C-Group and Kerma tombs. In these other Nubian cultures, however, the skulls are only of cattle, complete and unpainted, with sheep and goat remains deposited complete or as cuts of meat. Scan the brown QR code below to see how these skulls were placed around the tombs.