The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1914-06-24
Actual Funeral Chamber
Penetrated.
WISE AND BENEf|CEM1 KING
Who Reclaimed the Egyptians
From Savagery and Was
Buried Alive.
TOMB OLDER THAN PYRAMIDS

Paris. France, June. 2O.-Profes
sor Edward Naville. the Egyptolo
gist who has been directing coo
men and boys in excavations to un.
earth the temple and tomb of Osiris
has returned to his chair at the Uni
versity of Geneva, elated with the
belief that he has penetrated to the
actual funeral chamber of the an
cient Egyptian king-god. and that
another winters work, which al
ready is assured under auspices of
the Apglo-American Egyptian Ex-
ploration Company, will bring to
light important details bearing upon
the history of Osiris.
g. The legend is that Osiris, a wise
and beneficent king who reclaimed
the Egyptians from savagery, met a
sudden and premature death by the
scheming of his wicked brother
Seth. who. with seventy-two fellow
conspirators, invited Osiris to a ban
quet and induced him to enter
cunningly-wrught coffin. They
shut down the lid and cast the chest
and its body into the Nile. Isis,
faithful wife of the beloved king, re-
covered the body.
The legend continues that Seth
and his fellow conspirators then cut
the body into fourteen pieces and
scattered the parts all over Egypt
each piece being entOmbed by wor-
shippers of Osiris-which accounts
for the numerous tombs to him. The
faithful Isis, however, regathered
the pieces and brought them back
to the temple of Abydos.
This temple, where Professor Ma
Vile has been conducting the exca.
vations. is, he is sure, the true bur-
ial place of Osiris. The place is
about equidistant between Cairo and
Assouan in the desert, about eight
miles westward from the Nile
Professor Naville believes this
temple is older even than the Pyra-
mids. Relating some details of his
work, he said:
we worked from Dec "a, 1913. |
to March II, 1914, and during the |
eleven weeks We experienced some
anxiety and excitement. At nine
yards under the soil we found a
large building constructed of gran
lite and very hard, red sandstone.
This ediiice is divided into three sec
tions, which are surrounded by six
teen large cells, all idential in size
and shape. They have no inscrip-
proves that the building is very an
cient, as the walls of more modern
edifices in Egypt are covered with
inscriptions.
I'm front of the cells is stone
platform supported by ten huge
blocks of granite. Skirting this plat.
form we came upon the reservoir. or
we'll of Osiris, which undoubtedly is
that mentioned by the Roman his
torian, Strabo. While the reservoir
has not yet been explored. it is prob
able that its waters had been popu-
lar at one time for their supposed
curative virtues.
ION the opposite side of the tenn
pie to that where We entered We
found the burial place of Osiris. as
the Book of the Dead and the in
scription on the wallis of the funeral
chamber, twenty yards by five, prov
ed to us beyond all doubt. You can
imagine that we were greatly de-
lighted at the discovery.
I'VE found also that In some re-
mote past Egyptian thieves had been
at work there. They had entered
the funeral chamber by piercing a
hole in the wall. but of course 1t will ,
never be known what the thieves
,arried away. Did they take the :
'arcophagus of Osiris? All Egyptolo- /
yists In the course of their research 1
IS in the ruins of Egypt have come I
across traces OF thieves who We're G
to be the cleverest in the [
hen known world. They formed
themselves into associations and