Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-13

Here are the pieces Of furniture that met
the simpler needs Of an Oriental people. Here
are the tools of field and workshop the pots
and baskets and bottles Of the home the quaint
toys Of the play yard. The desert air is 20 dry
that they did not decay, as such perishable
stuff would have in a moister climate, and at
last the roofs and walls fell IN and the drifting
sands completed the burial.
The village of Karanis might almost be said
to have lived in an age of wood. Scores OF
objects that with us are made of metal are
found ingeniouSly whitfield out of timber.
Perhaps the most remarkable and complicated
mechanisms are the wooden door locks, opened
with wooden keys. These are, to be sure, much
larger affairs than the compact iron and brass
devices that guard our own front doors. The
wooden blocks that cover the sliding wooden
bolts are half the size of common brick, and
the keys are six or eight inches long. But
apparently they served their purpose.
More orthodox in appearance are wooden
hayforks, carding combs spindleS, door frames.
curious piece Of furniture is q wooden read
ing desk. This Is in the shape of wide but
shallow trough. The two boards that form its
top meet IN the middle to form wide "V,"
which prevented the rolls Of papyrus that were
the commonest books of that day from falling
Off The desk is only about inches high,
and must have been used by student cross
legged on the ground, position still much
used among Orientals.
H~
MOST Of the wooden articles are made of
ordinary varieties Of timber, but the car
penters showed the love they have always had
for good tools. Numbers Of malletS and wedges
have been found that are made Of mahogany,
But wooden things are not the most perish
able objects that have been held imperishable
by the kindly sands Of oblivion. Woven and
od nfv HfvAdr hot folk
to make a living long ago are turned up here
in quantities, each new object an added para
graph in the mute inglorious history of a for
gotten common people. There is a camel har-
ness, woven Of cords f1shnet.
1t is in household gear, however, that the
ruins are richest. The people of Karanis were
not rich, and they lived simply, but they had
their own standards Of comfort. Metal pots
and pans for the housewives kitchen work were
of course unknown, but earthenware pots she
had in abundance and In all conceivable sizes
ard shapes.
Great pottery jars for the household supply
Of water stood by the door, on stone stands.
Pttery lamps hung from the ceiling beams or
stood on wall brackets. The lamp makers seem
to have been an artistically inclined group Of
craftsmen for not less than $50 designs have
been found among the lamps of Karanis
ANYBODY who thinks that glassware for
table use is a modern invention win have
his eyes opened If he walks through the rooms
Of the museum at Ann Arbor. These Karanian
women liked nice things, too, and they could
set well shaped glass bowls, goblets and bottles
on the table when there was company for din.
ner. Most Of it is delicately tinted glass, too.
The blues and green's are especially attractive.
And when hostess of Karanis was getting
ready for her guests she had appropriate toilet
aids. Only fragments of these two-milennium.
old toilet sets can be assembled, but even the
pieces are eloquent. There are several combs
made OF hard wood accurately cut in a pattern
still followed by the more modern hard rubber
and pyralin products. There are pots for kohl,
that eye-darkening cosmetic so universally used
throughout the countries of the East, with
sticks and spoon for It's application.
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