Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1922-04-07


ciety, Washington, D. c.
Stanley journeyed thousands of miles
to lay bare the secrets Of Africa to
the world; but in the northeastern
corner of the same continent even
more thrilling exploration has been in
progress during the past few decades
through a relatively few feet of sand.
The excavators who with pick and
shovel have been bringing to light the
details Of Egypt's ancient civilization
and the everyday life Of her people,
where before only the barest outline
Of the nations history was available,
are as truly discoveries of unknown
civilizations as far-faring Marco Polos
or Pizarros.
For long time Egypt was to the
rest Of the world little more than
sea Of sand with few dominant mon
uments-the pyramids, the Sphinx, the
colossi Of Mennonite point to her
past greatness. Relics Of various dy-
nasties existed side by side, their re-
lations often unknown.
The names Of many kings and some
Of their noblest exploits were known,
but there was general ignorance in re-
gard to the less exalted Egyptians, to
the activities that made up the life of
this mysterious nation beside the Nile
four and perhaps five and six or more
thousands of years ago. Grave rob-
bers, whose activities extend back into
the days long before the Ptolomies,
had rifled many tombs and so made
much Of the early scientific excava-
lions barren of results. And the early
excavation of Psychologists was itself
"a careless procedure aiming at the big
goals and destroying and burying
many small objects OF incalculable
value in the indications they might
have given of manners and customs.
Recent exploration in Egypt has
been a vastly different matter. Modern
efficiency methods have been adapted
to the delving for the buried secrets
of the ancients, and now every cubic
foot Of sand about promising site Is
combed or actually sifted that no
broken fragment of pottery, scrap OF
papyrus, or jeweled bauble may es-
cane detection. In early days the
most common method of disposing of
the removed sand and debris was by
means Of basket brigades which
dumped their loads nearby. Now light
tramways are used and care is taken
TO haul the discarded material to
point where 1t is definitely known that
nothing of value will be covered.
where formerly "find" was find"
and was assembled with all others,
now any object partially uncovered IS
photographed in place frequently as
fhe sand is removed, so that no pos
sible significance of its position or re-
lation to other objects will be over
looked: and before 1t Is stored 1t Is
carefully tagged, numbered and card
indexed.
Getting Real Picture OF Ancient Life.
These painstaking methods have
fully justified themselves. Instead OF
having confused mass of facts, many
of them most interesting in them
selves, but often perplexing, we are
getting by degrees complete, intel
ligible picture of Egyptian life over
period of thousands of years. Seem
.xngly unimportant things help greatly
Mil in the picture. One would hard
Make the mistake of picturing the
sgyptians scratching matches TO
he kitchen fire. but there was
no true picture to take the
ancy. None of the discovered
Ecs showed the making or
appeared to DE entirely
gious significance. In re-
however, one of the new
cavatcrs sifted from the
preserved fire-bow and
en- board with burnt
e problem was solved.
towns besides the sites
gineeriag projects are no
In the world. Cities for la
constructed for use while
the pyrsmids were under
On. One snch town has been
y uncovered and gives q
lion OF life under such condi-
lie than 1900 years ago. The