The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-03-17
Early Tombs Great Structures.

ruled, So
Early Tombs Great Structures.
] ''The kings of the earliest dynasties
reared no pyramids. Their tombs
were great structures mainly under
ground-that Of Aha (who is possibly
Mena, the first king of Egypt, at Ma
! qada measures It's feet by 88, and
contains twenty-one chambers-built
sometimes of brick. with . lining OF
wood, and sometimes fooreds with
stone, as in the case o. the tomb of
King Den at Ahydos, whose granite
floor furnishes the earliest known ex-
ample of the use of stone in building.
"The furniture of the tombs reveals
an amazing proficiency in the arts and
crafts. Ebony chests inlaid with iv-
ory, stools with ivory feet carved in
the shape OF Bulls legs, vessels cut
and ground to translucent thhness,
not only out of soft aiabaster. but out
iof an iron-hard stone like diorite, fine
ly wrought copper ewers, all tell us
that the Egyptian of the earlier dynas-
tic period was no rude barbarian, but
q highly civilized craftsman.
Perhaps the daintiest and most
convincing evidence of his skill is CIV
en- by the bracelets which were. found
encircling the skeleton arms Of the
queen of King Ter, of the first dynas-
ty, which alike for the grace of their
design and for the skill with which
the gold is wrought and soldered. are
admirable.
THE civilization. of the Nile valley
no longer challenges US with the Great
pyramid as the first essay of it's de-
velopment or seems to spring full
grown like Athene from the head of
Zeus. Petrie places the beginning of
the first dynasty at $50 B. c., wn1ie
another school brings them down to
340O B. C.
Like many of these ancient kings,
Jeser was not content with a single
tomb. He had another at Saqqara
near Memphis, where the chambers
Of the interior were lined with fine
blue and green glazed tiles.
"a king who could rear such
structure had evidently at command
the resources Of a very well organized
state and capable architects
Accuracy, equal to optician' 8 work,
but on scale of acres instead of in
ches, is scarcely what one expects In
~s'AStAAo1 iSot GU uCdIIJ C,uUU years
ago. But the huge blocks OF the
Weighing on an average of 21h tons
apiece, while some run 40 and SO tons,
are squared, fitted and 1eveled with
an accuracy which puts to shame our
best modern work, and compels our
respect not only for the strength, but
for the skill Of these mighty builders
before the Lord.
"The question of how the Egyptians
made fire was one that often exer-
cised archaeologsts. No representa-
ton OF the process existed on the
nor does the nation ap-
pear to have attached any religious
to the origin of fire. The
question was settled by the discovery
1T Kahun Of regular bow-drill for
fire, together with several
sticks showing the burnt holes caused
BY fire drilling.
Tomb's Contents Still Perfect.
I'm February, 1905, an American ex-
'lorer, T. M. Davis, discovered the
omb of Yuaa and Thuaa, father and
mother Of that Queen Tyi, whose in
luence played so great a part in Ak
lenaten's religious information
The tomb was intact and the OBJ !
ects 1t contained were as perfectly \
preserved as if they had been shut up
My few weeks. One of the arch. |
biologists described his sensations on /
ntering the place as being very much !,
ike those of a man who enters town 4
louise which has been shut up for the
ummer. Arm chairs stood about, I,
BEAUTIFULLY carved and decorated with
old, the cushions on one of them, Z
tuffed with down, and covered with ;,
men so perfectly preserved that they
night have been sat upon or tossed |,
bout without injury. Two beds OF |,
ne design, decorated with gold, oc-
upied another part Of the chamber