Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-05-13
The Egyptian Part of the Berlin
Museum.

to know how his forcfathers lived !;
where withal they earned their
bread, how they married and gave
II marriage; who they worshipped,
and their ceremonies Of birth and
death. The more interest attaches
itself TO this the farther back we
can send light into the night of
history. Egypt is the Oldest estab.
lished government of which we
! possess 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-tha is,
they grow of their own accord with
out 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 around these hoary objects
Of time, the product of the human
race in its historic swaddliug clothes.
Each object is a seated letter left
for posterity to open aud read. The
directions of the letters are written
in a careless, ugly method called
| hyeroglyphlcs, which means priestly
writings. Thanks to the priests for
carefully preserving the marks, but
we bemoau such scrawly handwrit-
ing. We will first enter the burial
rooms, called in German Grnbersaal,
where three very noteworthy objects
meet the eye. They are three grave
chambers from the pyramid fields at
3 Memphis, where they were carefully
taken down aud brought here and
rebuilt just as they were found.
The stone is chalk or white lime
stone covered over with peculiar
marks called hyeroglyphics. The
walls Of the chambers are sometimes
three or four feet thick, enclosing
eight to ten square feet of space.
The roof is fiat 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
Il show the interesting fact that the
d carver Of the hyeroglyphics ol
e priestly writing, did not quite I'm
lsh bis job. He had but few more
! hye eroglypbios TO make on the cham
ber wall, when half completing one
J figure, his carving pen stopped.
What happend to this fellow writing
on that wall almost 5000 years ago!
, Did he die suddenly? Was there a
war or calamity arising? Did he
, 90 to get drink, or to a weddlugf
q We never will know what he meant
r TO make OF that figure, but what he
did write we read as follows: "The
inhabitant of this chamber was
named Manofre. He VAS a priest
: Of the ceremonies of the dead uu
!, der King Asesa, who reigned in the
V dynasty IN the III thousand years
= (before Christi. He left mauuled
: hyeroglyphlc or human figua but
h half made Then drops his trowel
d to Us, forever
b One gray9 chamber is Of great
q, interest as it is the oldest in exist
). ence, being nearly 5000 years old
e 1t slants toward the top like pyra
s mid. IL was made for two persons
and therefore has two blind doors in
a the west end IT'S walls are covered
j. with inscriptions and representa-
j. tions Of Egyptian characters When
j the chamber was opened the paint
r lngs were as fresh and bright al
{ when completed 5000 years ago
I, Thus, were they accurately copied
G published and trammeled by Prof
e Lepslus. The chamber is from th,
Catacombs IN the pyramids fields o
t Memphis. 1t was built for Prince
Merab, probably son of Cheopi
the builder Of the great pyramid
who lived some $500 b c. Prince
AltIdD ~ plJAultd many bllA0e ihAiNN
and outside on the walls Of th'
! chamber The hyerogIyphics reac
that he was ar officer Of king
Cheops; that be was the king
y prophet and architect over the whole
= land. Near him is pictured hil
4 mother whose name is Sedat. Th'
Is writer could count Prince Merab'
r name seven times on the walls o
D his chamber.
!. These grave chambers were bull
G and adorned before the mac was
% dead. The coffin or sarcophagui
was not placed in the chamber
{ themselves, but in a deep rock cave
under the chamber, sometimes sixty
feet deep. A shaft was sunk, oc
casionally, through the chamber il
3. the grave below for communication
The grave chambers Of any import
T ance have been generally plundereC