The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-09


Assyrian and hieroglyphic writing.
As to the discoveries of DR.. Petrie and
his new race finds and their light on the
question. DIR. Breasted has some interest
ing information not yet made known TO
even scientific circles.
Those finds of Petrie's which recently
aroused the scientific world said he,
"'haVe been the center of discussion for
some time, but 1 have just received word
from Berlin that there is now proof that
these people were not invaders, but the
long wished-for subjects of the tabled ear
ly kings.
This is a startling statement but 1t is
well founded, and there seems to be no
doubt of the truth of it, in spite of Dr.
Petrie's assertion that they must have
been Of Libyan origin. The only publish
ed authority is that of Quibell in his Bal
las and Negada,' in which he says that
he suspects them TO be ancient Egyptians
The finds to which DR.. Breasted alludes
were made by DR.. Petrie, the chief exca-
Vator of the Egypt exploration fund and
consisted of flint and stone implements
of very primitive form, pottery, beads and
utensils. These were found near Negada,
in the upper Nile valley, in tombs in
which the bodies were not embalmed ac-
cording to the late Egyptian ideals, but
were buried without the flesh. This was
the great stumbling-block of the arch
biologists, and it seemed at first an in
surmountable objection to the theory that
these people were Egyptian. The impe-
ments found were also entirely stone tools
and of form uncommon in most Egyp-
tian sites. These two considerations turn
ed the psychologists to theories of for
eign, non-Egyptian people.
This question of embalmment was the
main difficulty" said DR.. Breasted, but
Quibell has now shown that embalmment
was really the exception, and not as has
hoe SIR al t1a ra41n he reafH
die classes. 1t was only in the new en-
pire that 1t became a universal custom.
There are two more facts of impor-
lance. Petrie found at Deshasheh, in the
fifth dynasty excavations, bodies with the
flesh removed, which were inclosed in
Egyptian sarcophagi One of these is now
on exhibition at our museum. This, of
course, removed the difficulty of consider
ing such bodies Egyptian.
''The second is that at two places they
have recently been found remains of the
pottery of the new race with hieroglyphic
Inscriptions Amelineau found them at
Abydos and De Morgan found them at Ne
gada, but nothing has yet been published,
though they are now expected
de Morgan found on the site Of Pet
ries excavations an enormous royal tomb,
of which little is yet known, but which
contained sarcophagi utensils and vast
quantities of important archaeological ma
terial. This find is the one about which
interest now centers. De Morgan has gone
to Paris, and nothing can be learned from
his successor, Loret.
"This is how we stand, then, waiting for
the announcement of these rich finds.
have already, however, received very
trustworthy information from Setbe of
Berlin, a pupil of Erman who has read
some of the fragmentary inscriptions
found by De Morgan. He says that the
tomb is undoubtedly that of one of the
prehistoric Egyptian kings and that the
new race is no other than the Egyptians
of the early dynasties.
"This must have been ond of those ia
bled kings of whom we have known moth
ing except from such lists as that of Ma
netho a Abydos, and from the later stories
to the effect that in the reign of such and
such a king the barbarians were over
thrown. and in the glorious reign of his
successor the Nile ran honey for many
days.
Nov, we are face to face with one OF
the tabled kings who held their court be-
fore the earliest historic period in Egypt.
1.-THE question then remains undecided
how the later ideas of the preservation Of
the body shall be reconciled with this
early destruction. What could have been
the motive for this removal of the flesh
from the bones of these early Egyptians?
1t must have been the common motive Of
early cannibalism-that is, the assimilation
of the qualities of the deceased. The orig
inal motive for cannibalism among all
these peoples was this sympathetic magic
by which 1t was sought by eating the
flesh of the deceased to gain his proves
in battle or his other desirable qualities.
1t is only in later Ames that cannibalism
becomes degraded to the mere eating of
flesh for the sake of the flesh. My own
eXcaVators in Egypt told me a short time
ago to make a decoction of the hair of
black cat to prevent my own hair from be-
coming gray and this is quite inn accord
with Egyptian ideas.
LAS to the culture gap between flint and
bronze, which De Morgan claims to find,
do not think that it exists. Flint instru-
ments continue down to the twelfth dy-
nasty and bronze to the beginning of the
fourth dynasty. We have in Haskell mu-
scum some fifty dynasty whetstones with
the mark of bronze tools still upon them,
and it is probable that the new race had
bronze.
1T is possible that there is q gap be-
tween early and lat ints, but this is dan
geroEs ground. Prof Holmes who is the
best authority in the world upon this ques-
ton of flint implements, says that it is
impossible to distinguish early from late
fints by anything except the deposits in
which they are found.
81 should say that all of these state
ments of De Morgan as to the Asiatic orr
gin of the Egyptian civilization are mere
guess work ana pure speculation. 1t is very
interesting to note that the dates in Ba-
bylonia have been recently pushed back
many years and that Egyptian dates arc
now closely following them
This king whose tomb was found by
De Morgan, has many appellations, as all
these Egyptian kings had. and his name
cannot now be made certain. But one Of
these was Yssa, and his date was proba-
bly, in the neighborhood Of 1900 years be-
fore Christ"
--Seifedden Bey, charge d'affaires of the
Turkish legation, las left Washington for
his new post as first secretary of the Tur-
lish embassy at st. Petersburg. He Is
the youngest diplomat who has ever had