St. Landry democrat., 1883-02-17
Historical Egyptian Mounds.

It is'a fact that no Egyptian mound
has ever been Systematically excavated
-excavated, that is to say, in the careful,
thorough. scientific way in which the
Germans have gene to work at Olympia
and DR.. ,Schi;smann at Hissarlik. Yet
well-chosen Egyptian m und would
yield results more varied and more uni
versally interesting than any Greek, or
Trojan, or even Assyrian site. Not
many of even those who are. in q gen.
eral way acquainted with Egyptian an
tiquity have probably any clear idea Of
strata. So to speak-ofs the typical
Egyptian mound. Yet that mound. as
we will endeayor to sketch it. isin itse i
an epitome OF 1.-The Egypt OF the past;
We may suppose it to be situate in the
Delta possibly in the old land OF 60.
shen, where there are many such--and
to have been founded about the time OF
the Twelfth Dynasty. Some natural
elevation having been chosen for its
site, temple would first be erected to
the local divinity: and round the enclos-
inc wall OF this temple the houses OF
the first inhabitants would spring up.
Like the houses of the modern Egyp-
.tians, these were constructe mud
bricks dried IN the sun; but the temple
was of enduring stone. Easily built
and easily replaced, the crude brick
dwellings were constantly falling out Of
repair, being leveled TO the ground,
trodden upon, and rebuilt with the same
material; whereby 4 higher elevation
was each time obtained for the new
foundations. s In a country subject to
annual inundation. this would be re-
garded as an advantage. Thus, in the
course Of ages, what was originally a
rising ground was converted into a lofty
hill; and the houses of the toWnsfolk-
,uplifted, as it were, upon coral reef
made by human hands -rose SO high
that. the temple stood in a hollow
lin the middle of the city, as if built in
the crater of an extinct volcano.
Such was the condition OF Bubastis
when visited by Herodotus in the fifth
century B. G. AS time went on, and
the last native dynasties expired, and
the period of Greek rule arrived, our
town still increased as to size and
height, and threw out new suburbs.
The Ptolemies probably added to the
temple, and perhaps built two or three
subsidiary chapels. Then came the
Roman period, and the intro pction OF
Christianity; and, by and by, When the
old national religion was fnally,pro-
scribed, the Coptic priests. then called
mono hysites.r converted the Iortico OF
the temple into a Christian church. Fhe
town. now quickly overi1owed into the
old sacerdotal pre- eincts. Mud huts
were plastered against sculptured walls,
and between painted columns; and the
ground began to rise in and about the
temple, just it had previously risen
outside the enclosure. Ere long the
priests. tired of living in pit, decided
TO build a dayr. or convent, with a
many-domed church, in one of the
suburbs. So the temple was partly
pulled down to provide materials for
this dayr, and its ruins (now the poor
est and most crowded quarter Of the
town. became gradually choked within
and without. At last il was altogether
buried, and its very site forgotten. A
few centuries later the town is de-
vastated by some calamity of plague or
war, and after an existence of, perhaps,
3,5O0years, is deserted. In course of
time even the crude brick ruins OF its
latest habitations Ecrumble away. 81 are
demolished for .'top.d dressing by the
husbandmen round about. So the town
ends by becoming mere congeries OF
brown mounds, desolate, unsightly, and
strewn with innumerable potsherds.
Suchlbeing the histoTyof onr mound.
nothing is easier than to predict. what
may be found in it. i The excayator
sinks vertical trench in the kehest
Ilpart,of the mass, and this trench cuts
through the relics 81 120 generations Of
men 1t is not one town that's thus laid
opens bdtaEan immense succession of
towns IN superimp osed strata "a Coptic
4 town at The top, q townsoF the'GTWelfth
Dynasty (that is, Of tie time Of Abra-
4 ham orr hereabout) atthe bottom. =
sLofasdoa laa'l.eess.sstss4 il NJ .sassi5 s9s1
Fashion Notes.