, 1892-11-23
MIR. FLINDERS PETRIE'S RECENT
EXCAVATIONS.
From tile Times J.

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The results of Mr.. Flinders Petrie's last
seasons labours in Egypt, which are being
displayed for about a month at 4, Oxford
mansion, Oxford circus, are of exceptional
interest and value, not only to the protested
Psychologist, but to every scholar and anti
quarry. They represent a period in the his
tory of Egyptian art and civilization which
appears to stand apart from the successive
epochs of historic development. The speci-
mems include fragments Of pavement and Of
pillars, copies Of the great painted p%avements
in the Kings palace, pieces Of sculpture of
exquisite finish, vases Of the most graceful
shapes, glazed tiles, In which the colours are
still as fresh and beautiful a. when they
were laid s, 900 year ~ ago, cuneiform tablets.
pottery moulds, and many other objects of
domestic use or The site upon
which these relics of a high antiquity were
found was the ancient city Of kbuenaten,
known 10 Europeans under the conventional
name of Tel ell Amarna, which lies in a wide
plain on the east side Of the Nile about $50
miles south Of Cairo, or half way between the
coast and the First Cataract. 1t was entirely
built, as iii his suggestive catalogue Mr.. Pc
trie informs us, about ! 400 B C by. khuena-
ten, otherwise Amenhotep ", and it is asto-
nishing to find how much Of the character and
achievements of that Monarch can be deciph-
cred, or inferred, from the excavations made
by Mr.. Flinders Petrie. Khuenaten succeed
ed his father Amenhotep III, at about the age
of II, and reigned for some years as a minor
underline regency Of his mother Thii. lie mar
rird Nefertiti as it is conjectured, when he was
about 16, and soon after adopted the name of
khuenaten, "the glory of the sun, . ths queen
adding TO her own name so that it became Ma
ferneferuaten, "the goodly excellency of the
sun" These names are found recorded on q
cup in this collection, and various articles
have inscribed on them the successive years
of the Kings reign up to the 18th. in
the course of which it is inferred that he
died, at the age of 80. Thus in the compass
of a short reign of II years he built a city, he
reconstructed o civilization, and he effected
such a revolution in art as is hardly paTalleled
in history. But the instructive conservatism
of Egypt was too strong to permit the contin-
uance or development of the conception of
this remarkable man. Within a generation
or two of his death the city was destroyed,
and the remarkable artistic products of q
brilliant reign were left buried for more than
5000 years until the learning and industry of
an Englishman of our own time have again
brought them to light. By singular good
fortune we are able not only to reconstruct
in some detail the life and the governing ideals
of an Egyptian City in 400 B. c., but We
have preserved for us the very lineaments
of this Royal author of an Egyptian renais-
sance as he appeared in the flesh. A plaster
cast was found of the Kings head exhibiting SO
much Of the face and one ear as could be ia
ken by the application Of wax or other SINH
lar material. Save that the eye has some
thing Of that extreme prominence SO charac-
t~eristic of Egyptian sculpture, the face is by.
no means of he prevalent type. The end Of