The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-16
DIGGING OUT ALOST
KING AND ALOST SONG
The Hing Was Buried 45oo Years Ago--The Song Was
Placed in the Tomb Of Singer 800 Years Ago.

I tie wooden statue representing him.
According to Egyptian belief this
statue was to do the dead mans work
for him in the underworld.
A handsome coffin in another cham
Der contained the mummy of a man
who must have been exceptionally rich
for around his neck was a string of
real pearls, while others, even high Off
Gals, had to be content with painted
ones. The gifts that had been placed by
his side made a little history of that
age in themselves. In a niche at the
head of the coffin were stone vessels,
bound with leather, that had contained
salveS and precious ointmentS. There
was a bed resting on carved lions
claws. Under it stood waxen vessel
and two bags filled with what appar-
emily were face paints. A whole set of
carpenters tools was found in the rear
of this chamber. There were saws
drills. augers, axes, avis and polishing
stones.
History of the Post.
I When the coffin was dragged out a
new surprise waited in a cavity be-
| hind it. There were beautiful models
of Ships of the Dead. One was shown
with bellying SAIL another with low
cred mast, was being moved by row.
erS.
|
| a miniature model. A butcher is in it,
cutting the throat of steer. Another
| is catching the blood. The aprons of
| both are bright red with it. Alongside
! of them squats another cook broiling a
| goose on a spit. The model has many
| figures of female servants. Some are
| grinding corn, others are baking bread.
| Another model was that of the gran
| airy. In the courtyard is shown the
I 10 in re-
seen carrying it upstairs where it is
poured into the bins in the upper story.
A woman was found next. She was
! a Sat-Nofer, the favorite of the King.
In that gorgeous life of $500 years ago,
4, no doubt she had been beautiful and
| clothed with rich apparel and sur
| rounded with loneliness and luxury,
But in death she was not to lie as lay
the true Queen or her master. Placed
in a rude coffin of thin wood she was
put away in bare chamber far from
| the habitations of the royal dead.
Hardly any gifts were laid with her.
| Instead, as if in irony-a grim joke
that was to wait for inconceivable
| time, to make its point-they laid by
the coffin CT the poor, forgotten court
| esan bronze mirror without a handle
| and little stone used for grinding
rouge.
AS the digging progressed from this
point, the history of decline became
| uncovered. When the explorers
| reached the remnants of the period
| 1000 before Christ, they found habi-
tations of priests, showing that the
temple had votaries. But they were
| poor and meagre, like the ruined
| graves of the Khalifs. And when the
| workers reached the remains of 1900
years before Christ, sthey found that
| dust and sand had even then buried
the glorious dynasty and over them
were hundreds of mean graves. The
| wood of the collins of these inter-
lopers had been SO thin that it had
| disintegrated almost entirely The
| mummifying had been so badly done
that it was possibly only to tell that
once they had been painted gaudily.
The masks over the faces of these
poor Egyptians were made of Nile
| mud instead of carved woods Some
had not even had collins, but were
laid out simply on mats. made of the
| ribs of palm leaves.
Human Vanity 5000 Years Ago.
Imperial Caesar. dead and turned
to clay had a counterpart here. A
fine coffin was found in the midst of
the poor graves. Its inscription told
| that it contained the body of Abhem,
the son of Cert, who had come from
Asia and who was very rich and
famous. But when the coffin was
| opened there lay in it a withered
mummy, evidently that of a very low
~ person. Before long. other cof-
fins were found with the same pc
culiarity. So it became apparent that
the poor used to evict the noble corp
SEES of the past and clothe themselves
in death in the pomp which they
had missed in life-a strange picture
of human vanity preserved by faith
full time.
Others apparently could not afford
to buy old collins; but still demanding
burial of pride and circumstance, they
| were incased in curious earthen cylin-
ders looking grotesquely like the wa
ter pipes of to-day.
A poor Egyptian mother of the past
has left the token of her love in one
tomb. Two children were found there
| coffined in the slender, double handled
| wine jugs of the period.
The Poem of Timotheos.
When the party reached the Greek
period, the great discovery was made
| of the poem by Timotheos. 1t was
found in a mighty wooden coffin. A
| Greek had been buried there long be-
fore the time of the Man of Galilee.
| With him had been inferred a roll of
| paDyrus. Unrolled, it proved to be
| about four feet long, containing five
columns of Greek verse written in
ancient runcial characters. The ex-
cavators at once sent for DR.. Ruben
sohn, who was in Cairo at the time
seeking Greek manuscripts for the
Berlin Museum, and he declared that
it was probably the oldest Greek book
ever discovered.
Later, Ulrich Won Wilamowitz-M Noel
lendorff, the great European authority,
confirmed this. He says
1T is the oldest Greek book, un-
doubtedly older than the time of the
beginning of bookmaking as originated
by the founding of the Alexandrian Lii
brary. The man in whose coffin it was
found was certainly buried early in the
fourth century before Christ"
TT is a lyrical text, not that of a
dilettante like Isyllos, but of true
poet, one in whom the men of his day
hailed the greatest poet of the world.
1t is intended to be sung. 1t takes the
place of the epic song of previous
| times.
1T chants the tale of the sea fight in
Marathon. The ships ride at each
other. They take the shock, rebound
| y-fI In nd hs1rf