El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-02-08
EGYPTIAN TOMB
|NCENTRALP PARK
Discovered, Unearthed and
Removed From Egypt
By Americans.

/
| across the sands OF the Egyptian desert,
! over the wide eXpanse Of the Medi-
] terranean and the Atlantic and at last
( set IN here Just as il stood near the
! famous step Pyramid for thousands
I OF years.
| The Metropolitan museum of art may
! now boast il has something the like Of
which cannot be seen anywhere in any
! other museum
/ The labor involved In transporting
! il and erecting it in New York would
/ have been impossible even for the
wealth of the Metropolitan, il il had
not been for the generosity of Edward
! S. Hardness.
Tomb Dug From Sand.
| The discovery of the tomb buried in
I the sand, it's excavation by the eXpedi-
, ton sent out by the museum began in
| April, 1913, and its trans-shipment by
| two steamers from Cairo five months
/ later, form a romance in itself Scores
! Of natives were engaged for the work.
Every evening from Sakkara a train
of twenty camels started for a railroad
across the valley each camel carrying
| a block Of stone packed in a box. From
there they reached Cairo, where they
were shipped for New York. Upon ar
rival at the museum the limestone
! blocks had to be treated chemically for
many months to enable them to resist
Courtyard in Tomb.
In the museum as the visitor enters.
through the guarding columns, the
little courtyard before the tomb he
sees a facade of smooth stone, eighteen
feet high, pierced by n great recessed
doorway and thanked by two wings. At
both sides of the entrance large painted
figures Of Perneb have been carved in
low relief in the stone. He is repre-
scented with one foot advanced, grasp
ing his staff. exactly as he must have
entered his own palace in Memphis.
From the distinctive archeq nose and
firm mouth, there can be little doubt
that it is a portrait Of the man him
self In one hand he carries the strip
Of folded linen that served the noble
Egyptian as a handkerchief, and as a
method of waving flies away from his
aristOcratic cOuntenance- The Intel
stone over the doorway bears on n
scroll his title and name, "Perneb. Sole
Companion OF the King and Lord Cham
berlain."
4 Real Convenient Tomb.
The wing on the right OF the court
yard has a portal opening into a small
! chamber deep in the midst Of the thick
stoneworl1. from which there is an exit
through a large cedar door, which for
merly led to one Of the sunken ave-
nues of the Sakkara cemetery In the
opposite wing is an offering chamber.
entered from the courtyard, but sealed
from the brilliantly decorated statue
room, which is the main chamber Of
the tomb The masonry between them |
has a small square hole high up toward
the roof. Through this opening the
spirit Of Perneb was supposed to smell !
the OdOrs of the food left by the priests
in the adjoining room whenever he left J
his sarcOphagus, hidden in closed !
chamber at the end of a stone-filled
shaft fifty-five feet underground.
At the end of the statue room there |
stood in ancient times painted cedar |
statues Of Perneb and his wife. the
Royal Acquaintance" The marauders ]
who broke into the tomb ages ago in !
search Of treasure must have used the !
sacred figures irreverently for fire. 1
wood for their camp. !, nee only n bat !
tered head and an arm and a foot of Z
carved wood have been found.
Painted Figures on Wall.
Row after row of painted figures OF !
men and birds and beasts encircle this |
apartment, which was dimly lighted |
by the Egyptian sun through a slit in !
the thick wall. At one time these walls 1
must have blazed with brilliant color. !
The male figures in red. the women in ,
yellow. the bright blue vases and green 3
plants-everything was wildly painted, /
and an astonishing amount Of color re- |
mains, in spite of the ravages Of forty
five centuries The scenes represent |
professions Of men and women bearing 1
gifts to the tombs. oxen and geese,
vegetables and great Jars. Another /
shows the priests washing the offer
ings and presenting them to the dead /
nObleman. A large figure Of Perneb /
occupies one wall. and kneeling at his
feet are his wife, son-in-law and his
son. very small in size. to represent
their relation to the head of the house 1
Finger Prints in Mortar.
Albert NJ LythgOe, the archaeOlOgist
in charge of the Egyptian collection.
pointed out some of the casual traces |
left by the Egyptian wOrkmen during
its construction. At the back Of the
walls, for example, the mortar bore th9
hardened imprints Of the fingers Of the
laborers as distinctly as on the day the
stones were places in position. North
of the tomb a mass of dried paint was
discovered buried where the painters
had thrown il.
The archaeologist also brought to
New York a part Of a pottery basin
marked with the workman's rough
tally. and a handful of nutshells found J
under the plaster and mud flooding OF
the offering chamber, the remains Of |
r wOrkman's lunch eaten on the day
he was laying the flor or mat part Of
the tomb.
Tomb Is PIundered.
Several generations after the tomb !
was put to use, according to Mr.. Lyth-
zoe, the tomb was visited by plunderers |
who cleared the burial shaft of the
stones and bOulders with which it had |
been choked and broke into the burial |
deep underground Smashing
open the sarcOphagus, they stripped the |
of its rich ornaments and scat
erred about the floor the pottery yes
sells containing food and drink and thu
HanOpic jars of limestone with which
he mummy usually set us houselIeep- |
ng in the cellar OF his tomb. |
When political disruption fell on the
1ingdom at the end Of the sixth dynasty {
he drifting desert sands covered it
until it was lost to view. Later great |
leaps Of rubbish were piled over it. 1t !
vas thus saved from the destruction |
hat fell to many others at the hands
# the kings and mobiles from the middle |
1ingdom on, who found them a con-
-enient quarry to obtain blocks for
heir own tombs, which were ravaged |
n turn by their descendants.
The Tomb Unearfhed.
In 1907 the expedition Of the Metro
,olitan Museum of Art attacked the
mound which hid Perneb's tomb. and
lfter cutting away one side of it, dis
covered the roof of the tomb.
Through a hole in the stones directly /
,ver the statue chamber the explorers
lropped into the room, which was
ound to be half filled with sand. AS
he walls Of the tomb seemed in such
condition that it could never be oDened
o the public Sir CASTOR Maspero. 'di-
ector- general of antiquities at Cairo. Z
rave consent to its purchase by the
Museum of Art
AUTHORITARIAN -o- &C.,