Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-05
HANDS OF TINE PUSHED BACK
Finds Of GravediggtrI Add Centuries to the
Age OF the Earth,
roMBS OF THE GODS REVEAL SECRETS
Men Lived 5000 Years before Chris,
An Antique Nursing Bottle
and n Plank Hoary
with Age.

How long has man been on earth? The
answer TO this question is being modified
by every turn OF the explorers spade IL was
formerly considered certain that the world
could not have been a habitable planet for
more than 5000 years Geology had shown
that millions OF years must have been con-
sumed In building it up before 1t became fit
for human life. But during the past few
years some Of the most orthodox believers
in this theory have been engaged upon ex-
caVations In Assyria and Egypt and what
they have actually seen has forced them to
set the date of human habitation of the earth
back several thousand years. The expedi-
tion sent out by the University of Pennsyl-
vania, which has been at work at NufIer,
has, through Prof. Hilprecht, it's Assyriolo-
gist, set the date of 5000 or 1000 b. C. on
some OF the monuments discovered
Now comes NJ. E. Amelineau to reinforce
these dates by similarly startling discoveries
in prehistoric Egypt. 1t should not be for
gotten that the evidences from which the
early history of Egypt has been deducted
are very fragmentary, and for a long time
1t has been questioned whether Menes the
earliest of the Pharaohs mentioned by Man
etho, had ever existed. The discovery of
his tomb has set that doubt at rest. But
NJ. Amelneau has added oil to the flame OF
sensational discoveries by finding what he
claims are the tombs of Osiris, Isis and
other Egyptian deities. These were sup
posed to have been mere imaginary personif-
cations Of nature. The full report of the dis
coveries has not yet been published, but this
revolutionary investigator has prepared the
way to it by issuing the first volume of his
account of the excavations at Abydos the
sacred residence OF Osiris. Here he has
found prehistoric tombs, some $50 in num-
ber the contents OF which are more than
astonishing when it Is considered that they
go back at least 5000 years. Fortunately for
us who are animated by an intense curiosity
as to the doings of those distant ages and the
men who lived then, the Egyptians had the
peculiar notion that death was but the
| bridge from this life to the next which
would resemble this one so closely that the
very food and furniture used here would
be useful there. On this account they fur
nished the tombs more as they would furnish
homes than one would expect resting
places for the dead to be furnished. There
| fore, in them have been found the very food
and the utensils which the men and women
of that time used while alive. 1t is to this
| fortunate accident that is due the eXactness
with which nineteenth century excavator
can say precisely how those who died 5000
years B. C. lived what they ate, how they
dressed and what was the range OF mind
and civilization in that ancient time.
Found Their Food.
In the jars and vases of these old tombe
Amelineau has found various cereals, like
wheat and rye, proving the agricultural
tastes of those people. Date stones are eX-
cellent evidence that the date palm was even
then appreciated for the food products Nor
were these prehistoric people vegetarians,
for II they were why should there be the
bones OF oxen and the horns Of the gazelle
in their tombs?
Amelineau haa actually taken us back to
tho stone-ago and the beginning of the use
OF cereals in Egypt, for he has found in
| Vulnerable arrowheads cunuingly chipped
| out Of flint, and knives, scrapers and saws
made of the same hard material. Tho dec
| orative instinct was already alive, or why
should these old workanen have spent days
| ou polishing and chipping stone bracelets?
1t IN almost impossible to trace the de-
velopment OF civilization step by step
through these remains, for here are earthen
plates SO rudely shaped as to prove that
| tions of primitive man the world over wac
not ye! known. Then come other plates
| and pots and jugs just as surely turned on
| that very useful machine, showing the next
step forward. The following evolution of
| inventive genius elbows itself in the more
elaborate pottery and the use of metals for
| making hard tcols Hard stone was now
| cut and shaped, diorite, onyx and rock
| crystal jars and vases were made with SO
| much art that their highly polished surfaces
astonsh the modern discoverer. 1t seems
| as il the use OF the diamond or come other
| hard substance must have been known by
| tho people who followed out some OF these
vases, on the inside of which are etill to lie
| seen the marks OF the cutting implements.
| Remember this was 5000 years ago. and few
would believe that the artistic inetincts of
| man had been SO early developed were not
| thu ocular proof forthcoming in tho artistic
| creations of these ancient artisans. II was
| found that some of the tombs were paved
| with q kind Of rose-colored marble, not
native in Egypt, and therefore this must
have been imported from some distant coun-
| try showing that the men of that time trav-
| eled and believed in imported goods" much
| as we do.
Carvings and Furniture.
From stage to stage the perfection of the
workmanship and the care displayed in
ornamentation increases constantly. The
primitive geometrical designs ON the earliest
pottery gvo way to drawings from life, and
there are representations Of ostriches 30
| life-lika as to be easily recognized; a carv-
Ing OF ducks head In hard schist in which
the shading of the plumage is brought out,
and carving OF a human hanl in the same
hard material, where the lines Of the finger
nails ara we'll defined. AS to wool carving
thess old artists were experts. They took
the ebony, which they had to import, and
carved perfect statuettes of lions or of
Nubau women, which can be identified as
| such by the low forehead. angular face,
small eyes, prominent check bones, large
mouth, thick lips and hair parted into a
number OF tresses. Here Is a frog carvei
! out OF diorto as perfect and unmistakable
as II 1t had been done yesterday by the be 81
| modern artist.
The men and women We're alike :ond OF
personal adornment for beads CT clay, COW
cred with blue enamel of cornellan, ame-
thyst, emerald and rock k-erystal, all pierced
TO, stringns, tho strings having louE since