The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1899-05-11
TOMB OF PHARAOH.
GREAT ROYAL SEPULcHER 10
FOUND AT NAKADA.
FILLED with objects whose Makers Were
Persons of culture-Construetion of
she Mausoleum Was In ChaIdeaa
style.

From the London Chronicle: In
the fascinating study of anthropology
there has arisen no more interesting
problem than that of the beginnings of
eiylllzatlon. 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 Kortos,
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
and at Abydos, together with those
made last year at interchangeable by
Mr.. Qulbell, 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
Kumel-Abmar or Hierakonopolis 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
he has uncovered the great royal tomb,
with its buried treasures, which has
been Identified by Mr.. Maspero and
most Psychologists 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
to yield up its secrets 1t 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
The discovery of the great royal
tomb at Nakada marks now the thres-
hold OF Egyptian history, many CEN
turtles prior to the age of Senefru. and
yet here we have numerous and forci-
Die indications Of 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 primitive race
or 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
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 1t is not a rock cut
or excavated, 'but royal dwelling place
of the dead-is parallelogram meas
uring 81 by u meters, or exactly 100
cubits by so of Egyptian measurement
"a proportion we shall see of consid-
cradle Importance. The orientation "a
also remarkable, the angles, not the
sides, being turned to the cardinal
points. To the students of Egyptian
archaeology the structure presents at
once non-Egyptian character. The
outer walls are embattled at regular
intervals by buttresses, the whole be-
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
building which are those almost in
variable in Babylonia, while the orien-
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.
The interior arrangements are most
curious The building may be divided
into two portions-the tomb and the
store chambers. Immediately adjoin-
ing the outer wall are a series of six
teen chambers forming gallery round
the inner chambers. These rooms, on
being explored, were found to be filled
with all kinds of provisions, furniture.
ETC., for the deceased. The inner por-
tion or tomb proper consisted of five
chambers, arranged again in corridor
form, with doors communicating from
the northwest entrance. The center
chamber of this group was the largest,
and evidently the royal burial chamber,
but no portion of this strange edifice
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