The San Francisco call., 1904-07-13
Great Find of antiques.

CAIRO. June 14.-Unnoticed and COM
paratively unknown. there now are ly-
ing at the new Museum of Antiquities
here over a hundred recently unearthed
statues and statuettes, the results of
one Of the richest discoveries yet made
of ancient Egyptian works of art. The
specimens range from the fifth
dynasty to the Graeco-R Roman period
and their value is greatly enhanced by
the fact that they are all in an ex-
cellent state of preservation. Fresh
accessions to the collection are con-
stantly arriving.
They come from Thebes, that city
whose temples and monuments, even in
their ruin and desolation, reveal as
nothing else does the glories of ancient
Egyptian civilization. When Ptolemy
Softer II, about so B. c., decreed the de-
struction of the city, the priests of the
great Temple of Anon, in their despair,
collected all their most precious works
of art and buried them underground.
Mr.. Legrain, who has for a long time
been engaged in the restoration of the
fallen columns of the Hypostyle Hall
of Karnak, found two years ago some
fine statues lying under the Nile sand
and mud in q stretch of ground about
100 yards square which had no build
ings upon 1t. 1t was just such spot
as the priests would have been likely
TO choose for concealing their treasures.
The extensive excavations begun on
this same spot in the latter half of
December, 1903, seem to fully justify
this supposition. Since that date some
thing like 140 statues or statuettes have
been here recovered. For over 1000
years the waters of the Nile have
risen over them with each recurring
season, but though this has destroyed
the paint and loosened the gold leaf,
no injury has been done to the beauti-
full carving on diorite, granite, alabas-
ter, green basalt or blue slate. Sir Will
liam Garstin, Under Secretary of State
for Public Works in, Egypt, chanced to
be at Karnak when some of the best of
them We're brought to light. and or
dered their immediate removal to Cairo
lest some willy dealer, aware of their
great value. might tempt the workmen
to purloin them. The work of arrang-
ing and labelling these precious acquisi-
tions has been postponed until the re-
turn to Egypt of Mr.. Quibell, one Of
the curators of the Museum, who is
now at ST. Louis looking after some
specimens of Egyptian art that were
sent to the Worlds Fair.
Meanwhile, at Karnak, workmen are
making fresh discoveries daily. From
the black waters of the Nile recently
one of them fshed up a beautiful
statuette of Isis nursing Horus.
superb specimen of the finest eight
eenth dynasty art. Another interest
ing find was a seated statue of a scribe
of the twenty-second dynasty, carved
in alabaster and as clear as wax. On
the back of this figure is a list of
kings, which Mr.. Legrain says will
clear up much that is mysterious in
this period of Egyptian history. An
other unique discovery. made about
the same time, was that of the orig
inal model of the famous statue of
Rameses II, now in the museum at
Turin. It is half life size, exquisitely
carved in green basalt, and in perfect
condition. 1t is a matter of congratu-
lation that all these relics of ancient
Egypt, instead of being scattered far
and wide, will be deposited in the
museum at Cairo. Spacious and airy
and admirably arranged as the new
building is, it will soon need to be en-
larged if treasures continue to pour in
as they have during the last twelve
months.
Nile tourists will be delighted with
the results of Mr.. Legrain's labors at
Karnak. It is real restoration on
which he is engaged. He has with
him an army Of fellahs, who, under
his direction work as the ancients did,
without mechanical appliances, lifting
enormous blocks on inclined planes of
sand. In a short period he will have
finished his task of replacing the
columns Of the Hypostyle Hall.