Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-04-29
The Egyptian part of the Berlin
Museum.

= now Cney married ana gave IN marriage:
who they worshiped, and their ceremo-
MES Of birth and death The more
interest attaches itself to this the far
ther back we can send light in the
night of history. Egypt is the oldest
established government Of which we
possess a record-older than Chalder
or India. The banks of the Nile is
undoubtedly one Of the primitive Seats
Of the human race-the reason for this
is that food was cheap and abundant.
The Date Palm and wheat are there
indigenous, that is they grow of their
own accord without planting. Again
the climate demands but little or no
clothing. From this productive, gifted
land, born of the River Nile come these
ancient objects seen in the museum.
What wonderful associations gather
round these hoary objects Of time, the
product of the human race in It's his
toric swaddling clothes, each object is
q sealed letter left for posterty to open
and read The directions of the letters
are written in a careless ugly method
called Ryeroglyphics which means
priestly writings Thanks to the priests
for carefully preserving the marks but
we bemoan such scrawly hand writing.
We will first enter the Burial rooms
called in German Gr@bersaal, where
three very note worthy objects meet
the eye. They are three grave cham
bers from the pyramid fields at Mem
phis, where they were carefully taken
down and brought here and rebuilt just
as they were found. The stone is
chalk or white limestone covered over
with peculiar marks called hyerogly-
phics. The walls Of the chambers are
sometimes three or four feet thick
enclosing s to Il square feet of space.
The roof is fat and ten feet high. The
door Of the chamber always opens from
the east-and blind door is found on
the west side; one blind door for every
person buried there The walls of one
chamber show the interesting fact that
the carver Of the hyeroglyphics or
priestly writing, did not quite finish
his lob. He had but few more
byeroglyphics to make on the chamber
wall when half completing one figure his
carving pen stopped--what happened to
this fellow writing on that wall almost
5000 years ago! Did he die suddenly;
was there q war or a calamity arising :?
Did he 90 to get drink or to a wed
ding ? We never will know what he
meant to make of that figure, but what
he did write we read as follows: 'sthe
inhabitant Of this chamber was named
Manofre. He was priest of the
ceremonies Of the dead under King
Asesa, who reigned in the ' dynastic
in the III thousand years. (Before
CHRISTI. He left mangled hyerogly-
phic or human figure but half made.
Then drops his troWel to US forever.
One grave chamber is of great inter-
est as it is the oldest in existence,
being nearly 5000 years old. 1t slants
toward the top like pyramid 1t
was made for two persons and there
fore has two blind doors in the west
end. It's walls are covered with in
scriptions and representations of
Egyptian characters. When the cham
Der was opened the paintings were as
fresh and bright as when completed,
5000 years ago. Thus, were they
accurately copied, published and tram
meIed by Prof. Lepsius, The chamber
is from the Catacombs in the pyramid
fields of Memphis. It was built for
Prince Merab probably a son of Cheops,
the builder Of the great pyramid, who
lived some $500 B. @. Prince Merab
is pictured many times inside and out
side on the walls of the chamber. The
hyeroglyphic8 read that he was an
officer of King Cheops that he was the
Kings prophet and architect over the
whole land. Near him is pictured his
mother whose name is Sedat. The
writer could count Prince Merab's
name seven times on the walls Of his
chamber. These grave chambers were
| built and adorned before the man was
dead. The coffin or sarcophagus was
not placed in the chambers themselves
but in deep rock grave under the
chamber, sometimes sixty feet deep.
A shaft was sunk, occasionally through
the chamber in the grave below for
communication, The grave chambers
Of any Importance have been generally
plundered for the hope of the jewels
and treasures. The great pyramid of
Chaops was plundered of its dead and
contents except large stone coffin or
sarcophagus. The whole plan Of
monuments, ornaments and art decora-
tions carries out the idea that the
Egyptians considered that the dead
were in state Of existance-living
and should be pleased and comforted
by Surroundings.
The contents Of these graves and
chambers give US the historic progress
of the Nile race. They are the books
of the ceremonies of the dead which
were vast volumes of rites. offerings,