Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-05-11

! had been made, the last priest had fiona
away, and the great cemetery lay a
waste, much as 1t was the day We gave
the word to our gangs to dig.
I'm 1906-07 we turned our attention
10 excavating the upper or Pyramid
Temple OF Mycerinus. In this temple
we found, among other things, the love-
" alabaster statue of Mycerinus. The
head was outside the temple. but a few
inches under the surface, near a path
over which many travellers have trod.
a stick or a parasol might have RI.
vealed it-and yet there 1t lay unknown
through the centuries"
Professor Reisner paused, as though
to picture some bespectacled and
breathless Cooks tourist
with a middle west umbrella his most
precious treasure, and then continued:
In the meantime the Germans had
come upon the valley temple of a later
pyramid, n 1t was obvious that the
famous Sphinx Temple was the valley
temple Of the Second Pyramid, built bv
Cephren.
w began the search for the vallev
temple of the Third Pyramid in the
summer of 1908. Inside of a week we
building. Four exquisite slate triads
were disclosed. and as we investigated
room after room priceless treasures
were revealed.
THE bases OF %alabaster statues, and
the ruins of others scattered on the
turtles, were found. In other rooms
were unfinished statuettes, copper
weapons. and many vessels Of alabas-
ter, crystal, slate, and other stones.
by April, 1910. we had finished our
excavations of the valley temple, and
come upon the edge of q town in front
Of 1t. There we came upon the beauti-
full pair statue of Mycerinus and his
queen. In hard dark slate. This was
almost m~iraculously preserved, as a
glance at it proves, and it had lain
waiting through the years until one of
revealed the profile of a queen.
Il am often asked, How came it that
such beautiful objects were found i'm =
poor mud-brick temple?' AS a matter
OF fact. these great masterpieces were
not made for a mud-brick temple but
outdOne that of the Sphinx if it had
been finished. !,
Our work had disclosed three tenn
pies, n of magnificent granite begun
by Mycerinus and intended to hold the
treasures we discovered. But he did
KAT able to do so; and the latter placed
them i'm III second-the poor little tenn
pie of mud-brick-where we found
them. The third temple was quilt by
fepy IL, OF the sixth dynasty
inc professor showed an alabaster
head of little S~hepseskaf whose pyra-
mid building was so soon interrupted
by death.
Probably from the first he was har-
rassed by seditions and revolts. He
couldn't finish his fathers tomb. but
hastened on with his own-the pyramid
only begun. the foundation OF which
sun tands He didn't finish even
n but needed 1t long before it was
done. Probably he died a violent
death by the hand of his successor on
the throne.
The care with which the temples of
Mycerlnus were enabled us
10 unravel the history OF the construc-
t1on and the decay of different build
lngs on he site. The positive proof
was given that our statues were Of the
fourth dynasty M that in the fourth
dynasty pyramids had valley temples.
Thus the final proof was delivered that
the granite or Sphinx temple was the
valley temple Of the second pyramid.
the tomb of Cephren. -
AT the same time the dispute about
the date of h great diorita statue of
Cephren and OF the Sphinx itself was
finally laid to rest. Exactly those char
acteristtcs of the Cephren statue and of
the Sphinx which were supposed to be
of later date, were found in our stat
ues. and these arguments fell to the
ground. 1t was therefore necessary to
return to the priori probable view that
these monuments are of the time Of
Cephren himself"