Finding information on the burial practices of non-elites was actually quite frustrating. It didn't seem to be a topic that any anthropologists or archaeologists were interested in researching. Finally I came across a half decent thesis paper for a Master's project. It is an article by Ruth Humphreys on the Matmar site in Egypt from the Third Intermediate Period. It was a site originally excavated by Guy Brunton between 1928 and 1931 containing almost 1000 burials of non-elites. The individuals were generally buried flat on their back with their arms crossed over their chest oriented East to West (heads facing West). Most of them were buried wrapped in some kind of bandage or cloth, but no evidence of mummification. The graves of the non-elite were buried quite shallow. The deepest grave being 200cm deep with no stone or brick walls to give it structure. This shows that there was no construction of these graves before the death of the occupant. Only 25% contained precious metals of any kind within a particular time period, 6.5% contained pottery, and 41% contained amulets of some kind. Humphreys noticed that Brunton didn't even bother to record the burials at Matmar that contained no grave goods at all. This shows how insignificant non-elites are viewed in the archaeological record.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Iu5nCYh0SZwJ:etheses.bham.ac.uk/963/1/Humprheys_10_MPhil.pdf+research+on+non-elites,+funerary+practices&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=safari&source=www.google.ca
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