Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-03-20
A Cinerarv Urn.

In recent Lecture upon Egypt, DR..
Merrill said among the relics which
brought from the East Is a pottery jar
which would hold about a quart. 1t is
globed shaped, with one handle and a
small neck, and when found was half
full of ashes that were almost as fine as
dust. | stopped the mouth of the vessel
but good deal of the dust sifted out
and was lost on the way. A very large
handful remains, however, and portions
of this have been subjected to a careful
examination. The analysis shows that
the powder is of an animal and vege-
table origin. The vessel is of such
great age that it is decomposing in our
atmosphere, suspect that this jar is
"cinerary urn" and contains the ashes
of some person who was cremated in
ancient times. The real nature or i'm
portance of the article did not occur to
me when l found it. 1 do not think
that regard it now with anything like
sacred feelings, yet my imagination Is
strangely busy when l reflect upon
what these silent ashes may have been.
The jar stands quietly In my cabinet,
and l consider myself the owner of the
mysterious dust which it contains, and
hope that no ghost will ever appear to
dispute my claim.
found the jar in Egypt. In 1919
a short piece Of railroad was built con-
Meeting the one leading from Alexandria
to Cairo with that leading to Ramleh,
believe. Near Alexandria a cutting
had been made through a hill which
was from forty to fifty feet high. On
the top were some ruined, military
earth works. At depth of about thirty
feet from the top of the hill an old grave
yard had been struck and cut through
so that the level of the road was twenty
feet below it. The collins were all of
terra-cotta. There were six, and at
one point as many as eight tiers of cof-
fins. One tier would be crOssways of
the one below it, and they were all laid
without any regard, apparently, to the
points of the compass. Multitudes of
the cofins had been broken, and the
debris was abundant. Great numbers
projected from the banks and were still
perfect. A good many of these broke
open, but found in most of them no re-
mains except little fine dust. l found
good many small pottery objects,
vases, bottles, etc., some of them placed
about where the hands of the dead body
would lie. These objects were unmis-
takably Egyptian in their ornamental
ton. The coffins themselves, L ought
to say, had no ornamentation so far as
observed. In the coffins found the re-
mains of what were doubtless personal
ornaments, bracelets, rings, ETC., mostly
of copper.
When the cutting was first made
through this graveyard number of
valuable objects were found which went
Immediately into the collections of pri-
vate individuals, English, French, or
others. Just beyond these beds Of
coffins, near the foot eff the present hill,
and about on level with the road bed,
there were the remains of what had
been several furnaces. These, being
found so near the coffins, were much
more interesting than the coffins them
selves. So far as | could judge of their
original form, they were six feet deep,
four feet in diameter, and shaped at the
base like the big end Of an egg. The
form of the top l do not know. They
were built of large bricks, and glance
revealed the unmistakable fact that they
had heen subjected to very great heat.
By the heat and age, perhaps, the bricks
forming the walls of these furnaces
had been concreted into solid mass.
These furnaces, if they were such, were
considerably below the present surface
of the hill. and also considerably
below the level Of the lowest tier of cof-
fins. They may originally have been
on plain, or at the foot of small hill,
ON the top of which would be the grave
yarl. How the graveyard came to be
buried thirty or more feet below the
present surface of the ground is some
thing which do not attempt to explain.
The fact, however, is we'll known to
explorers in the East, that one must
penetrate far beneath the surface if one
would find the genuine remains of
remote antiquity. The excavations
that have been made at Mycene,
Ephesus, Troy, in the Euphrates Valley
in Egypt, and in Palestine as well,
all prove the statement just made. 1t is
well known that at Jerusalem excava-
tons extended to depth of sixty feet
in one case and eighty feet in another
before the original ground work was
struck.