Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1899-05-27
TOMB OF PHARAOH.
GREAT, ROYAL SEpULCAER IS
FOUND AT NAkADA.
Filled with objects whoss Makers Were
Persons of Culture-Construction of
tho Maasoleum Was In ChAlaeau
Style.

AoAA Inc lOuuOu SnTOulCle. III
the fascinating study of anthropology
there has arisen no more interesting
problem than that of the beginnings OF
civilization. Year by year patient
delving in the dust heaps of Chaldea
and OF the Nile valley has carried our
knowledge backward till to-day the
records of the first OF the Pharaohs
and the prodynastic age OF Egypt have
been rescued from the oblivion Of CEN
turtles.
Inc first triumph in this great field
was won by Prof. Petrie, who, guided
by the traditional antiquity of Koptos,
as one OF the early settlements in the
Nile valley. commenced explorations
on the site of that city. Koptos was
not, however, the only prehistoric set
tlement in middle Egypt, where the
early empire grew up. The discoveries
at Balas and Nakada, on the edge of
the Lybian desert. opposite Koptos,
ana at Abydos, together with those
made last year at Hierakonopolis by
Mr.. Quibell, show that we can assign
fairly definite area to the predynastic
settlements of the Nile valley. They
extend from the Fayum in the north to
humel-Abmar or Hierakonopo!is in the
south, and. with the exception of Kop-
tos, are chiefly found on the fringe of
the Lybian desert. The most impor-
tant discoveries in this field have been
those OF Mr.. De Morgan, the director
OF the Gizeh museum at Nakada, where
ne mas uncovered the great royal tomb,
with its buried treasures, which has
been identified by Mr.. Maspero and
most Egyptologists as the burial place
OF Mena, or Menes, 1.-The first of the
Pharaohs." 1t would seem that when
once this pre-Pharonic age had begun
10 yield up its secrets it did so in a
most ungrudging manner, for the work
OF Mr.. Amelineau at Abydos has re-
suited in the discovery OF several royal
tombs 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
Inc discovery of the great royal
tomb at Nakada marks now the thres-
mold OF Egyptian history, many CEN
turtles 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 can
not In reason be placed later than ne
NTH or sixth millennia 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
The tomb of Menes and its treasures
are not the work of a primitive race
or community just emerging from
dark ages OF savagery. It is the work
OF people long used to building con-
struction and to the employment of the
fine arts, and not by any means iso-
lated from the outer world. From an
anthropological point Of view the dis
covery cannot be too highly estimated
The building-for it is not a rock cut
or excavated, but royal dwelling place
or the dead-is parallelogram meas
uring "a by q meters, or exactly ion
subits by 30 Of Egyptian measurement
"a proportion we shall see OF consid-
cradle importance. The orientation ia
also remarkable, the angles. not the
sides, being turned to the cardinal
points. To the students Of Egyptian
archaeology the structure presents at
once a non-Egyptian character The |
outer walls are embattled at regular
Intervals by buttresses, the whole he |
ing constructed of crude brick. The |
resemblance to the massive brick |
buildings Of South Chaldea. as shown |
in the temples OF Tello and Nippur
Is most apparent. This Chaldean con-
nection is considerably confirmed when
we consider the proportions of the
which are those almost in
variable in Babylonia, while the orieu-
tation Is that OF the Chaldean builders.
and not that Of the Egyptians. az
shown by all buildings except the
stepped pyramid at Sakkara, which be-
longs probably to the predynastic age.
me interior arrangements are most