New-York tribune., 1900-12-23
EGYPT'S OLDEST NAN.
NEW MUMMY AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM
PRESERVED FROM PREHISTORIC TINE.

PRESERVED FROM PREHISTORIC TIME.
From The Sphere
The Egyptian Gallery at the British Museum
mas Just come into possession of the mummy Of
man which may well be the oldest known
body Of any human being. The facts concern
ing II are briefly summed up in the following in
scrlption reproduced from the case containing
the mummy:
Body of a man who was buried in a shallow
oval grave followed out of sandstone on the
west bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Bef re
burial the body was treated with a preparation
or bitumen and arranged in the posture in
which it now lies, it's left side, with the hands
before the face and the knees drawn up nearly
on level With the chin The grave (Which has
been roughly initiated by the model here ex-
hibited) was covered with slabs of unwOrked
stone. and in il beside the body were disposed
flint knives and number of vases parity filed
with the remains and dust of funeral offerings.
Ihe man probably belonged to a fair skinned.
Hght haired race, which may be regarded one
of the aboriginal stocks of Egypt, whose settle
ments usually found on the west bank of the
Nile The style of the flint implements found
in the grave indicates that the man lived in the
later neolithic period of Egypt that is, in re-
mote ages long before the rule OF Menes, the
first historical King of Egypt"
The grave was first seen by a wandering Arab;
he reported his discovery. to a British official
who Immediately sent couple of Egyptian sol
diers TO guard it day and night until it could be
safely removed. The body is not mummy of
the ordinary historic Egyptian period such as
that Of Rameses II, the father of the Pharaoh of
the Exodus. II was never bound up in linen
eased in any painted coffin, but was merely
word for which is mumia; hence our word
mummy. To reach the period when this
hunted along the banks of the Nile ii is neces-
sary to travel backward in time through the
modern period since Elizabeth through Medieval
Europe through the whole history of Rome and
Greece, past the time of the earliest mummied
king the museum possesses, past even Menes
the earliest king TO which Egyptian
ords make reference, who, according to Ma
riette, ruled about 1904 B. c. Then
arc among two prehistoric races, one the
eoHquerors and the other the conquered
out of which sprang the Egyptian race
remote stocks that this man is connected. Con-
sidering the conditions in which he was found
1t is evident that ne was associated with late
period of the new Stone Age of Egypt He is
buried in a characteFistically neOlithic grave
(the graves of this period are covered with rude
slabs of stOne), and has neOlithic pots and flint
implements beside him. They like other
neolithic pots and chipped flint weapons and
knives found in other parts of the world. The
fine, thin flint knives were perhaps placed in the
grave as part CT funeral ritual. They should
be- compared with the Egyptian flints in the pre-
historic section of the museum; they almost
identical with those found in the grave. There
is, of course no inscription of any kind the
pots. knives or grave, all having been made long
before the invention of a written language. 1t
is curious TO note that certain ancient Egyptian
documents mention traditions of race called
the Trehennu, who had red hair and blue eyes.
This man has distinctly auburn hair. He
buried on the western shore. In later times
every Egyptian buried that side of the
river, and Egyptian models of the death boats
on which the bodies were ferried over the stream
may be seen in the Egyptian Gallery.