McGill University, Quebec, Canada

The tomb group A 71S is one of the tomb groups with the largest number of ceramics due to the large size of the tomb itself. The A 71S tomb itself was heavily silted, due to the fact that no blocking stone was found at the entrance of the tomb. Its roof had also collapsed. In the silt-filled tomb, many artifacts were recovered such as 46 pots, a stone macehead and human remains.^[2]Thomas R. Schaub and Walter E. Rast,Bâb Edh-Dhra: Excavation in the Cemetery Directed by Paul W. Lapp (Winona Lake: American School of Oriental Research, 1989) (p.110-113)

Tomb Group A 71S was purchased by McGill University, located in Montreal, Québec, in 1978 for $874.^[3]Correspondence from Nancy Lapp to ASOR Corporation Representatives 1977, 058 Lapp-ASOR December 1977, ASOR Archives, Department of Anthropology, DePaul University, Chicago IL   Donna Runnalls, who was a member of the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill was the one who contacted Nancy Lapp about the acquisition of the tomb group. In a letter to Nancy Lapp, Runnalls expressed interest in obtaining one of the larger tomb groups for McGill’s Redpath Museum, as the McGill staff wanted to “upgrade” the museum through the purchase of a large collection of bronze age pottery.

The tomb group has been on display throughout the years at the Redpath Museum. Runnalls wrote to Lapp in a 1981 letter that the pots were permanently housed in the Redpath Museum as part of the Divinity Hall collection of near eastern materials. At that time of the letter, the Redpath Museum was under financial stress and was only a research and teaching museum that was only open to the public on specific occasions. Runnalls’ letter explained to Lapp that tomb group A 71S had been on display on different occasions including one time during an open house event when thousands of Montrealers visited the campus. At the time when the letter was written, part of the collection was being exhibited in the building of the Faculty of Religious Studies as well.^[4]Correspondence from Donna R. Runnalls to Nancy Lapp, 11 February 1981. 5 “World Cultures.” McGill Redpath Museum, 1 May 2018, mcgill.ca/redpath/research/collections/ethnology.

The A 71S tomb group currently resides in collections at the Redpath Museum. It is part of the World Cultures collections which includes items from Africa, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mediterranean, Oceania, Paleolithic Europe & Near East, South America, and Sri Lanka5. An online collection search on the Artefacts Canada database run by the Canadian Government results in a total of 48 different items at the Redpath museum from Bab adh-Dhra’. These items listed are bowls, jugs, and a few fragmented pots, showing that the Canadian Government has a strong record of these artifacts being kept at the Redpath Museum6.