AN ANCIENT RELIC

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 239, 6 July 1931, Page 11

AN ANCIENT RELIC

City of Shepherd Kings LOST ORNAMENT APPEARS Two thousand years B.C. a woman lost a gold bird-shaped ornament in a muddy, cobbled street in Tel-el-Ajjul, the city of the Shepherd Kings. Sir Flinders Petrie, an eminent British archaelogist, ticked it up during his excavations of the site of the ancient city and is now exhibiting it in London. Sir Flinders explains that Tel-el-Ajjul proves that, the Shepherd Kings were not nomads living in tents, as supposed, but occupied a brick-built fortress-like city of 50 acres in extent, 20 times the size of ancient Troy. It stood on a hill dominating the estuary and harbourage and was the key city of the international road between Palestine and Egypt, along which Anzacs advanced during the Great War.

It included a sft. tunnel, 500 ft. long, running from the gateway and emerging on the plain, for use either to assist escape or for attack on besiegers. The excavations reveal that the master of the house was buried with his asses, sometimes four of them. The kings were proud of their huge horses. Some of these horses, whose skulls were 22 inches long, also received careful burial. When malaria destroyed Tel-el-Ajjul, the kings built a new city on the site of Gaza. Twenty fresh tombs, including those of Royal personages, have been unearthed near Gaza pyramids. Among the discoveries is the skull of a daughter of King Noserra, who reigned 4600 years ago. • •