Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-06-16
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
RECENT plscovERlEs IN EGYPT.

Flinders Petre gave the first of a series
of six lectures on recent discoveries in
Egypt. Sir John Evans, president of
the Egyptian exploration fund, presided,
and expressed the conviction that they
would all be willing to pass by anticipa-
ton vote of thanks to the lecturer.
The subject of Professor Petrie's first
lecture was the discoveries made last
winter in the excavations for the Egypt
exploration fund on the edge of the
desert between Dendereh and Hou. In
that district Prof. Petrie, assisted by
Mr.. Mace and Mr.. MacIver, explored
many ancient cemeteries, and formed a
complete record of the contents of over
thousand graves. Three or four of
these graves were Of the pre-. historic
age, with contracted burials like those
first discovered by the lecturer at Ma
qada a few years ago. The same pot
terry and finely wrought flnts appeared
as before, but many new kinds of OBJ
iects were found, such as toys and
models of clay, engraved states, stone
maces with handles of ivory and of horn,
models of ostrich eggs. etc. From the
detailed record made of many hundreds
of these graves it was hoped that a
classification of the various periods of
the prehistoric age in Egypt would now
be practicable. There was no country
in which such complete registration
had been made of the earliest civilization.
Coming to the historical times the
professor said that two or three cem-
eteries of the sixth to the eleventh
dynasties have been also fully examined.
The buttons and seals found of that age
were of foreign origin, and had no con-
necton with ordinary Egyptian design.
4 great variety of vases In stone and
pottery had been obtained, which would
enable the derivation of the forms to be
traced from the prehistoric times down
to the twelfth or eighteenth dynasty.
The entirely new discovery of the year
was that of a foreign people who en-
tered Egypt about the twelfth dynasty.
Their graves frequently contained
mixture of Egyptian things of that age,
but their pottery and beads were entirely
foreign. The pottery was hand made,
and of red and black colors, like the
prehistoric pottery, but the forms of it
were peculiar to this age. 1t was all
decorated in imitation of basket work,
and often contained funeral offerings of
scented fat, like some prehistoric Jars.
The beads were of shell and of glazed
pottery. The graves were shallow cir
cular pan-shaped hollows, called by the
discoveries "pan-graves' for distinction.
A unique feature of the burals was
the depositing of vases in the loose dust
outside the grave hollow, and with them
often great numbers of skulls of goats
and cattle. These skulls were all cut
away at the back so as to hang on
WALL and ornamented with spots and
lines of red and black paint. Such
use of skulls for decoration was seen on
an ivory carving of about the second
dynasty, where OK skulls were shown
over the doors of a building-and the
Greek use of bucrania in architectural
ornament showed the same usage.
There would be little doubt that these
barbara invaders were branch of the
Libyans, the collateral descendants of
the same stock as the prehistoric Egyp-
tians. A magnificent bronze dagger,
found in a cemetery of rather later age,
bore the name of King Suazenra of the
fourteenth dynasty. This was the most
valuable object found and had, of
course, been kept at the Cairo museum.
OF much later age was a series of marks
placed on pottery by the Roman soldiers
stationed in the fortress of Diospolis
Parva. These were different from any
thing yet known in Egypt, and seemed
to belong to some DICTIONARIES from Asia
inc
potsherd was In an alphabet like that of
the Karians. OF the Roman age also
was modelled head in painted stucco,
which was the finest example of that
work yet known, a proof of the truth
of the pOrtraiture was shown by
photograph of the modelled head, and
another of the skull of the same man,
adjusted together. The difference was
exactly that due to the amount of f1eshy
covering on the skull which would be
natural. The effect of the modelled por-
trait over the skull was that of Roent-
gen ray portrait of a living persons,
showing the bones through the flesh.
London Times.
THE SPANISH CEsSON TO GERMANY.
With the transfer of the Caroline,
Palaos and Marianne islands to Ger
many Spain practically ends her career
as a ruler of colonies. At the begin
ming of the war with the United States
the Spanish colonial possessions in
America, Asia and Africa contained a
population of . ,695 ,567. All of these peo-
pie, with the exception of 10000 in
habiting the unlmportant Spanish pos
sessions in Africa, have now been
transferred to other allegiances, the
vast majority of them to the United
States. The entire population of the Car
olne, Palaos and Marianne islands
does not reach $4,000. The combined
land area of the groups passing to Ger
many is $50 square miles, or a little in
G..aGss Of f.,.stI.