The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-29


being found in the fresco work, the
stone carvings and the vast temples
which for forty centuries or more
have lain under a sandblown desert,
according to cablegrams received
from Prof. Thomas Whittemore, now
excavating at Abydos for the Egypt
exploration fund. Marie N. Buchanan,
secretary of the fund in the United
States, has received full details of
some of the most recent work, which
Indicates that modern America will
soon be in possession of a more COM
plete knowledge of Egypts religion
than was the ordinary, everyday
Egyptian of forty centuries gone
Prof. Whittemore's communication
says in part: Our camp is engag-
ed in excavating the Oseirion. The
details of the clearing are of absorb
ing interest. Just as at DER el-Ba-
hari Varieties operations left an
enormous heap of refuse forty-five
feet in depth dumped on the middle
platform, the birth terraces" as his
legacy to the fund, so at Abydos his
zeal in clearing the temple of Seti
led him to pile all the debris of his
excavation within the temenos at the
rear of the temple, thus burying the
most unique monument in Egypt un-
der tons of rubbish to the depth of
forty feet-a second burdensome leg
acy to the fund.-
Trained Men at Work.
"Our force of trained men is max
ing exhaustive efforts to free this
wonderful hypogeum from the wind
blown sand of the desert, the remains
of the Roman period and Varieties
archaeological additions.
1--WE have long known of the exist
ence Of the Oseirion. In 1902 Prof
Petrie made trial working. He To-
Gated a subterranean edifice with a
sloping passage 200 feet long, with
out determining it's examinations. He
found the sandstone pavement of the
the great hall forty-one feet below
the surface of the desert. This state
~ gallery measured thirty-four feet
in width, with a height of seventeen
feet. There were three doorways-
one leading to a south chamber, one
to the sloping passage on the east
and one to a north chamber. The
west wall is divided into three parts
vertically. The portion to the left
contains a colossal scene of the vivi-
fication of Osiris; the middle portion
registers the chapter Of Knowing the
Names of Osiris and the right-hand
portion is occupied with the figure
of Merenptah, the accepted Pharaoh OF
the Exodus, standing before a heap
ed-up table of offerings making an
Offering of incense. The Romans
quarried away the stone facing of
the east wall, so that any decorations
which may have been there have per-
ished.
prof. Petrie gave us one vanish
ing glimpse of rich sculptures, unique
inscriptions revealing records of the
mysteries of Osiris. He named the
wonder place the Oseirion; then re-
filled its chambers with the all-pro-
tecting sand to preserve their prec-
ious records.
in 1903, when Miss Murray and
Mrs Petrie arrived to undertake the
work of recovery by themselves, the
sloping passage looked a long trench.
They entered on their enterprise with
the certainty of long, inscribed pas
sage to be cleared and copied and
its examinations to be found. They
directed the work and governed the
camp of laborers and went about
with candles and matches in their
pockets, pluckily trying, through the
deep rubbish, to find roofing stones
over the main hall, and an opening
through which to squeeze into those
alluring depths below. We learned
from their observations that all the
roofing stones were gone; like the
wall facing, they had been quarried
away by the Romans. One cracked
Intel alone remained. That and Stra-
bos description show how the vault
ed passage existed, spanned by sim
gle stone beams, a truly imposing
structure.
Impressive Places of Worship.
On the search for the roofing
stones the sloping passage was found
to lie in the axis of the Temple Of
Seti and to lead to the rear wall Of
the temple itself Chambers and halls
were found to exist, impressive
places of worship.
"Such is the nresant seasons in.