The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-15
AN ALABASTER SPHINX
Ninety Ton Statue Unearthed on the
 Plains of Memphis

From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
 Another sphinx, weighing 90 tons ard carved from single block of alabaster. has been unearthed at point between the word famed coossi on the waterogged plains of Memphis in Egypt. For hundreds of years it has lain in recumbent posi- tion, buried beneath the sands of the road to Sakkareh. Today it Is half exposed to view, and next year it is to be raised to vertical position above the water line
 This newly found sphinx was betrayed in it's hiding place by it's tafl, which Mir. Mackay. one of the students of the British school In Egypt, discovered about year ago. This year when the water on tre plain subsided the complete figure was excavated and was found to measure some IA feet high and 26 feet in length. Alabaster being rock foreign to the neighborhood, says the London Standard. the new sphinx ranks as the largest that has ever been transported. The figure bears no inscription but is considered ty Prof Flinders Petrie, the director of the British school in Egypt. to have been saved about 1900 B. C.
 Many other remarkable discoveries talk ing the mind back as far as $500 B. c. and lifting the veil of centuries from Egypts romantic story, have also been made by the same school and with the exception of red granite group of INdihtScS H., anu tle BOu fldu WHICH VIII be sent direct to the Carlsberg museum at Copenhagen. and a few other details are now on exhibition at University college. Cover street. They include many objects quite new to Psychologists.
 Among these are conffins made of basket-work. reeds or withes, sandal trays, an axe handle in whlcn ,he grip is composed of delicately knotted string, pot of unburnt incense for a fire offering Of 4000 B. C., and numerous pieces of timber, showing by their formation tle principles of building construction that were in vogue early 5000 years F. c. Most of the relics come from Tarkhan, an ex- tensive cemetery about B miles south of Cairo, which dates from the earliest his- toric age down to the pyramid period
 The site is the most northarly upon which Professor Petrie has conducted ex- cavations. and the results have been most gratifying. In spite of the great antiquity of the graves the objects found are In remarkable state of preservation. There are bedsteads with hooflike feet, which o!- though nearly 6000 years old look capable of sustaining fair weight .oday, and long rolls but as tough and pliable as any modern texture straight from the loom.
 One of the withy hampers now in the Cairo museum, although of tho same age had the small leaf buds of the whites still showing when it was found. Some of the bedsteads even retain the rush webbing and plaited palm fibre.
 The graves of the early Egyptians were always well provided with such neces- sares as were thought essential for the spirit of the departed when it again ma terialzed Consequently the relics from Tarkhan include head rests (some of them carved out of trees trained specially into peculiar shapes). sandals, large jars of food and various vessels of gypsum and semi-transparo alabaster
 Some of the vases bear the name of Mena, the earliest known Egyptian King They are considered by some experts to be tribute corresponding .o the modern floral wreath.