The Forrest City times., 1905-03-10
STATUES OF ACCENTS
RICH ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND ON
 THE SITE OF OLD THEBEs.
Eight Thousand Stone Figures of Kings and Other Personages Who Lived in Those Days
 Are Unearthed.

All recent discoveries in the wonder ful valley of the Nile have been dwarfed by one just made during the course of the works desigred for the restoration of the great temple of Ammon at Karnak 2 in upper Egypt Karnak was one of the districts of "Thebes of the Hundred Gates" in it's day the most famous city on the earth. There were many temples in.the city: it was religious center to the ancient world and pilgrimages were made to it. not from Egypt only, but from Soudan, from Arabia, Syria, from Mesopotamia, the valleys of the TigriS and Euphrates. even from far-away Persia, India, and the northern shores of the Mediterranean came pilgrim bands to visit the temple of Ammon, as they now go to Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina and the holy cities of India.
 Over ten years ago the Egyptian gov ernment formed the plan of restoring the karnak temple and presenting to modern eyes the spectacle of an an cient Egyptian shrine in it's glory, as it was 5000 or 1000 years ago. when the
 
 not at once begun. and after some years delay when sufficient funds were avail able and an army of Arab laborers was assembled, it was discovered that an immense amount of preliminary work was necessary ere the restoration could be even commenced. The sands of the desert, borne by the winds of centuries, had covered the site of the temple and it's vicinity to depth of many feet. Its removal was a necessity ere the founda- tions of the structure could be reached, and 1t was in this process of clearing away hundreds of thousands of yards of sandy dust that the discovery just al- luded to was made
 The workmen have reached the ground floor of the temple, but to ex- anime the condition of the foundations an excavation on one side was necessary As is generally the case in Egypt, where the archaeologist may expect to find al- most anything anywhere, the discovery was accidental. The trench near the temple foundation yielded gilded bronze statuette; further search devel- oped another; an extension of the trench brought to light still further dis coveries; more and more came to view as the trench developed into long and broad pit, and up to the latest advices over 5000 statues, statuettes and busts had been recovered, With prospects that many others were still hidden beneath the surface of the sand.
 The excavations have been under the direction of M Le Grain. an eminent French archaeologist, who for nine years has been in charge of the preliminary work of restoring the temple of Aumop.
 Most of the statues are inscribed and through the inscriptions have been iden- tified and their originals placed in their proper positions in Egyptian history. Several of the statues are of kings whose names were until now uncertain. but the discoveries of NJ. Le Grain have placed these monarchs in their proper chronological stations and enabled the historians to fill gaps which made the annals of the earlier dynasties rather guesswork than authentic records.
 The statuettes are of every age before the third century B. C., and cover period estimated by some at nearly 900 years of human history. None, however, have been found of later date than the Ptolemaic age, about 300 years before Christ How they came to be thrown pellmell into the pit where they were found is one of the mysteries which may never be solved, like that of the hiding of the royal mummies in the hillside near Thebes. The most plausible con- lecture is that an invasion of foreign. perhaps savage, enemy was anticipated, perhaps from the direction of the Soudan, and the priests of Ammon. Knowing that inevitable destruction awaited the royal mummies and the statues of the temple, hastily removed the former by night to the hillside caves. and as the danger stfn threatened. hur- rledly cast statues and statuettes into the artificial lake or lavatory pool be- side the temple, perhaps, also, if time permitted, filling the latter with stand. The mummies and statues would thus be safe from the savage invaders and could be recovered and replaced when the danger was passed. But the time of recovery never came, the secret of the priests died with them, and only by ac- cident, 2,200 years later, was the hiding place of the royal mummies revealed and the burial spot of this greatest col lection of statues uncovered. The works are of bronze gilded granite, basalt, agate, beryl, marble, alabaster, even of limestone, and, thanks to the precau- tion of the priests, are uniformly in an excellent state of preservation.
 Her Opportunity.
 Most actors" remarked the talka- tive boarder, seem to think they can't