The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1904-01-06
ANCIENT EG3PT.


Abydos this year has given a wild
er view of the early civilizations,
of which the general lines had
been fixed by the previous work on
the royal tombs of the town, writes
Prof. Flinders Petrie, to the Lon
don Times. The clearance OF
the old temple site over several
acres has brought to light, in q
depth of about 20 feet, no less than
ten successive temples ranging in
age from 5000 to 500 B. G. For the
first time we can see on one spot
the changes frem age to age
through the whole of Egyptian
history. To separate these build
ings was an affair of anatomy
rather than spade work. The walls
of mud brick were so commingled
with the soil that incessant sec.
ton cutting with sharp knife
was the only way to discriminate
the brick work. Often only sin
gle course of bricks or thin bed
of foundation sand was all that
told of the great buildings which
and existed there for centuries.
Over 5000 measurements were
taken for the plans and Levels.
The main result as regards the
religion is that Osiris was not the
original god of Abydos; the jackal
god, Upuaut, and then the god of
the west, Khentamenti, we're hon
ored here down to the twelfth
dynasty. The most striking
chance is seen about the fourth
dynasty, when the temple was
abolished, and only greathearth
of burned offerings is found, full
of votive clay substitutes for sac
rifces. This exactly agrees with
the account of Herodotus that
Cheops had closed the temples and
forbidden sacrifices. This nate
rializing of history is made the
more real by finding an ivory
statuette of Cheops of the finest
work, which shows for the first
time the face and character of the
great builder and organizer who
made the Egyptian government
and civilization what it was for
thousands of years after. This
carving is now in the Cairo mu-
SCUM;
The discoveries of the civilixa-
ton of the first dynasty, the be-
ginning of the kingdom, expand
what we already had from my
work in the royal tombs. OF
Menes, the founder, we have part
of a large globular vase of green
glaze with his name inlaid in pur-
pie; thus polychrome glazing is
taken back thousands of years be-
fore it was previously known to
exist. The free use of great tiles
of glaze for wall coverings shows
how usual the art was then. In
the highest art of delicate ivory
carving there are several pieces
of this age; especially the figure
of an aged king, for its subtlety
and character stands in the front
rank OF such work, comparable 10
the finest carvings of Greece or
Italy. We must now reckon the
earliest monarchy as the equal of
any later age in such technical and
fine art.
Pottery of forms and material
quite unknown in Egypt also be-
long to this remote age; and il
proves to be Identical with that in
Crete of the late neolithic age,
This fresh connection illustrates
the trade and the chronology OF
that period. A head of a camel
modelled in pottery takes back its
relation to Egypt some 1900
years; hitherto no trace of it had
appeared before Greek times. An
ivory carving of a bear extends
also the fauna of early Egypt.
The great fort long known as
the Shunet ezZehibis now connect
ed with the remains of another
fort, which was discovered be
tween that and the COptic DER
which is in a third fort. ThesC
buildings prove now to have beer
the fortified residences of thu
kings of the second dynasty
whose sealings we have found il
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