The Philipsburg mail., 1899-05-19
TOMB OF PHARAOH.
GREAT ROYAL SEPULCHER IS
FOUND AT NAkADA.
ruled with Objects Whose Makers Were
Persons of CuIture--Constructlon of
the Mausoleum Was in Chaldean
Style.

FROM the London Chronicle: In
the fascinating study of anthropology
there has arisen no more interesting
problem than that of the beginnings of
civilization. Year by year patient
oelvlng IN the dust heaps of Chaldea
anu OF the Nile valley has carried our
hho"Ieoge backward till to-day the
records of the first of the Pharaohs
ana the prodynastic age of Egypt have
been rescued from the oblivion of cen
| turies.
Inc flrst triumph in this great field
was won by Prof. Petrie. who. guided
Dy the traditional antiquity of Koptos
as one or the early settlements in the
Nlle valley, commenced explorations
oh tne Site of that city. Koptos was
hot' however, the only prehistoric set
tleihent in middle Egypt, where the
early empire grew up. The discoveries
at Balas and Nakada, on the edge of
the Lybian desert, opposite Koptos,
and at Abydos, together with those
iiiaoe last year at Hierakonopolis by
Mr. QulDell, show that we can assign
Ialrly definite area to the predynastic
settlements of the Nile valley. They
extend from the Fayum in the north to
humel-Abmar or Hierakonopolis in the
SOUTH and, with the exception of Kop-
tos' are chiefly found on the fringe of
the Lyblan desert The most impor-
tant discoveries in this field have been
those OF Mr.. De Morgan, the director
OF the Glzeh museum at Nakada, where
ne mas uncovered the great royal tomb.
Win lts buried treasures which has
Deen identified by Mr.. Maspero and
most psychologists as the burial place
OF Mena, or Menes. "the first of the
fharaohs." 1t would seem that when
once this pre-Pharonic age had begun
10 yield up it's secrets it did so in a
"ost ungrudging manner, for the work
ol Mr. Amelineau at Abydos has re-
suited in the discovery of several royal
tonps OF members of the first and Sec
ond dynasties, and these of an age. at
the latest, of some 5000 years before
the Christian era.
The discovery of the great royal
tomb at Nakada marks now the thres-
mold OF Egyptian history, many CEN
turles prior to the age of Senefru and
yet here we have numerous and forci-
Die indications of a vast antiquity. be-
hind even this remote age, which cam
not IN reason be placed later than .Ae
hllh or sixth mlllennia before the |
christian era. Already the Nile valley
was populated by mixed races. and |
the northern and southern provinces !
gave to the Pharaohs the double crown.
lhe tomb of Menes and it's treasures
are not the work of a primitive race
or a community just emerging from
dark ages of savagery. 1T is the work
OF a people long used to building con-
struction and to the employment of the
hne arts, and not by any means iso-
lated from the outer world From an
anthropologlcal point of view the dis
covery cannot be too highly estimated.
Inc bulldlng-for it is not a rock cut
)r excavated, but royal dwelling place
u the dead-is parallelogram meas
lrlng "a by u meters, or exactly 100
tubits by so of Egyptian measurement
"a proportion we shall see of consid-
'rabe Importance. The orientation is
also remarkable, the angles, not the
sides, being turned to the cardinal
points. To the students of Egyptian
archaeology the structure presents at
'nce non-Egyptian character. The
'uter walls are embattled at regular
intervals by buttresses, the whole be-
ng constructed of crude brick. The
esemblance to the massive brick
uidings of South Chaldea, as shown
n the temples of Tello and Nippur.
5 most apparent. This Chaldean con-
ection is considerably confirmed when
re consider the proportions of the
uilding which are those almost in
ariable in Babylonia, while the orien-
alton is that Of the Chaldean builders,
nd not that of the Egyptians, as
hown by all buildings except the
topped pyramid at Sakkara, which be-
'ngs probably to the predynastic age. s
he interior arrangements are most