The record-union., 1898-09-19
LIGHT ON EARLY EGYPT.
RECENT DISCOVERIES CARRY
ITS HISTORY TO 5OO4 B. G.
Osiris and the Founder Of the First
Dynasty May be Proved to Have
Been Real Personages.

| If recent excavations in Egypt have
the significance claimed for them, the
recorded history of that country ex-
| tends back for thousand years before
| the so-called ancient empire" TWO
dispatches Of great Importance have
| reached this country within the last
| month. The French Psychologist,
| Amelineau, believes he has discovered
| the head of the worshlped Osiris at
| Abydos, and DR.. Borehardt Of the Chi
zeh Museum announces that he has
found at Negadah the resting place OF
| Menes, the first King of the first dy-
| nasty, 5O04 B. c.. The name Of Menes
| was revered throughout the ancient
empire as that of the prince who made
| the canals Of Egypt and who united
| Upper and Lower Egypt. Until now
both Osiris and Menes have been re-
| garded as more mythical than his
| torical. They have been an Egyptian
Cadmus and Romulus, but are now
liEely to be placed on the pages of llv-
| ing history much sooner than the lat
ter more recent heroes.
| In the late archaeological researches
at Negadah, Abydos and Toukn-all
not far below the First Cataract-no
| one has worked more enthusiastically
than Jacques de Morgan, who until the
| last few months, has been Director
General of Antiquities in Egypt. The
probable meaning of his discoveries was
| first explained to a New York audi
ence on the evening of February lOth
when Henry de Morgan Of this city de-
| soribed his brothers work in lecture
before the Numismatic and Archaeo-
| logical Society.
In 1895 Flinders Petrie obtained
permission from Jacques de Morgan.
then Director General of Antiquities in
Egypt, to make excavations at Abydos
and although Mr.. Petrie followed the
old school Of archaeologists in ascrib-
| ing the ruins to the late empire, the
result of his work served only to con-
vince Mr.. de Morgan that it belonged
| to a much earlier date. The to1nbs
| themselves are archaic, and the in
| scriptions are hardly decipherable on
| account of the difference in language.
The implements found there were re-
markable for fineness, and made diff
ferently from those found in the tombs
| Of the later empire. Last of all, ira
| dition has always ascribed to Abydos
great antiquity and peculiar sacredness.
| The two great royal tombs at Mega
| dah have been known for a long time,
| but the European archaeologists had
avoided them until eleven months ago,
| when JasQues de Morgan, accompanied
| by Professor A. Wiedemann Of the Uni
Eersity of Bonn, gave careful study to
| the place. One tomb had been ran
sacked by natives, but the other was
intact, and became the special object
| of research. Here were found a guam
| tity of amphorae, unknown in the later
| imperial tombs. These amphorae were
| sealed and contained grain, grapes,
| figs, fat and incense, and, while the
grain and fruit had crumb1ed, the fat
| was still oily, and the incense had not
| lost it's resinous attribute. Decorative
| art had reached high point. A flock
| Of ducks in a fresco found at Negadah
| would not look strange in modern
| dining-room, and has nothing of the
| stiffness Of later Egyptian art. The
use of metal was practically unknown,
| but many ivory fish and ivory furni-
| ture legs carved in the shape of ami
mails show great skill. 1t is held by
| some Egyptologists that fine stone
! carving reached it's perfection in this
| period, having degenerated with the
| Introduction of metal work. The stone
vases Of Negadah show a marvellous
variety, and all kinds of stone were
used in their composition. Many vases
were made of obsidian glass, and this,
| it is said, must have been brought from
no nearer point than the lower ranges
of the Caucasus. The simple funeral
slabs Of Negadah and their cuneiform
| inscription indicate an early date, and
show a relationship to Babylon. Such
cuneiform inscription was almost un-
known in Egypt after the. early empire
The two ancient cities mentioned af-
ford an interesting illustration of the
| growth Of proper names. On the
earlier slabs at Negadah a man is
made known by his one banner
name" Slabs of a somewhat later
date give second title with the
banner name" and at Abydos the
title King Of Upper and Lower Egypt
was found added for the first time
But the feature that most distin-
guished these early people from those
Of the later empire was their religion.
This is proved by their treatment of
the dead. In place of the later Egyp-
tian religion, which preserved every
thing, theirs was an Asiatic religion,
which sought to destroy. The King
being divine. his body was cremated,
that the smoke might watt his soul to
heaven. Thus the ruins searched by
Jacques de Morgan at Negadah con-
sisted of a brick cellar filled, for the
most part, with charred remains that
fell with the burning upper structure
There were about twenty-five cham
bers surrounding the royal room, where
a few bones of the King were found.
NJ. Amelineau, in his anti Christian
spirit, supported the theory that these
burned tombs had been destroyed by
the spite Of early Christians, but the
recent discoveries disprove the suppo-
sition. Although common mortals
were not cremated like their King. the
disposal of their bodies shows the same
idea OF destruction. The corpses were
either twisted out Of shape or more
commonly groken in pieces and scatter
ed in their tombs. In the latter case
the bodies seem first to have been
buried in temporary graves, then the
bones taken out and scraped The head
alone was left intact, and this makes
clear the direction of an ancient ritual,
DO not cut off the head of the dead"
So long as mummifying was regarded
as the one Egyptian method Of sepul-
ture, this direction was blind to mod
ern scholars. Now it is thought that
the traditional cutting off of the head
of Osiris may have been only the Gus
tom Of his time. The discoveries at
Toukh have been corroborative of those
at Negadah and Abydos. One peculiar