WONDERS OF TOMB.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 7

WONDERS OF TOMB.

In the course of a communique from the Egyptian Ministry of Public Instruction, .issued in Cairo recently (says a Press Association foreign special message), describing the excavations made at Sakkara from November, 1926, to March, 1927, by Mr Cecil Firth, on behalf of the Antiquities Department of the Egyptian Government, some interesting details of the latest discoveries are given. The communique describes the Vienna Academy’s work during the last month at the Pyramids at Ghiza. Many tombs of the fourth dynasty within an area of 14,000 square metres have been found, also tombs of the period following, mostly constructed of sun-dried bricks or broken stone plastered with Nile mud. A connected group of mastabas also came to light, built of good hewn stone, one of which possesses quite peculiar interest. The entrance to its chambers is formed by a quadrangular room, built of broken stone, roofed over by a wellpreserved brick dome with serbels. No other dome of this sort has been discovered prior to the Eomau period, and definite proof has now been obtained that they were known to the Egyptians as early as 3,000 B.C. The tomb contained a closed stone coffer, in which was a magnificent group of painted limestone, representing the owner of the tomb, Scnab by name, with his wife Seutites and their two children. The value of the sculpture is heightened by the remarkable appearance of Scnab as a dwarf. On his sunken body rests a large head with a very expressive face. His little arms lie against his breast and his short legs arc tucked under him. Beside him sits his wife, whose slim form is in striking contrast to her husband’s squat aspect. This physical contrast corresponds to the marked social difference between the couple, Sentites being a princess, while Senab’s principal office was supperintendent to the dwarfs who looked after the Koval wardrobe. This strange marriage is perhaps explained by the supposition that Seutites belonged to an impoverished branch of thp former Eoyal family, while Senab was richly blessed with worldly goods. He boasts of possessing 1,015 oxen, 10,000 cows, 12,017 asses, 10,200 she asses, 10,205 goats and 10,205 sheep. Though the figures may be decidedly exaggerated, nevertheless it is certain that, merely for funerary salt, he set apart six estates bearing his name, for example, “Granary of Senab,” “Field of Senab, ’ ’ etc.