Ballana was a cemetery in Lower Nubia. It was excavated by Walter Bryan Emery between 1928 and 1931 as a rescue project before the construction of a high dam at Aswan. A total of 122 tombs were found under huge artificial mounds. They date to the time after the collapse of the Meroitic state but before the founding of the Christian Nubian kingdoms, around AD 350 to 600. They usually featured one or several underground chambers, with one main burial chamber.