5000 YEARS B.C.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 117, 13 November 1931, Page 13

5000 YEARS B.C.

FASHIONS AND HOUSES

Diseuveiies illustrating the life of a people that existed 5000 years before the coming of Christ aro described by Dr. Hermann Junker, of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, in a report on his recent excavations in tho neolithic settlement of Merimda, near Beni Salama, on the western delta of the Nile, about 30 miles north-west oi" Cairo, states an exchange.' The" furniture of the Merimda people was extremely varied, and their ceramic art was tolerably well developed. Undamaged vases have baen found and new forms recorded, notably largo water jais with handles, accompanied by pottery ladles with which the liquid was baled out. The tools were all of Hint, copper not having been used. It is not certain how the inhabitants were clothed, but it can be gathered that they were not so fond of dress as their Upper Egyptian neighbours, since little has been found in the way of ornaments, except some pendants of shell with serrated edges, fragments of a necklace of bone and stonej and an ivory bracelet. Tho presence of palettes shows, that the practice of painting round tho eye& existed at Merimda as well at> in Upper Egypt and tho Fayyum. Entirely different from the customs hitherto known were the methods of dealing with the dead. There were no special cemeteries, but the dead were buried, in contracted attitude, among the buildings of tho settlement; especially near hcartbs. Corn was thrown on tho body to serve a& food, especially near the head, and sometimes in the hands, which were placed over the mouth. It seems that the bodies were buried near human habitations so that they could share the food of tho living.