EGYPTIAN EXPLORATION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LII, Issue 9188, 7 September 1906, Page 6

EGYPTIAN EXPLORATION.

RECENT NOTABLE DISCOVERIES. LONDON, July 13.— Every year the explorers reopen some fnesh pages of Egypt's wonderful history. It is remarkable that amidst all the discoveries of modern times so little has been found concerning the bondage of Israel. The reason lies largely in the fact that the land of Goshen has been very insufficiently explored. Yet there are some discoveries which undoubtedly throw light on the Biblical record; and, as Mr Flinders Petrie's Archaeological Society proceeds with its systematic work in the country where the Israelites were settled we may expect further confirmation of the Bible story. The chief i .difficulty of exploring this re£fion arises from much of the country being buried in old Nile mud. and under cultivation. It is not desert, like most of the places where the past fifty years' discoveries | 'relating to ancient Egypt have been made. ,Mr Petrie's principal discoveries of tihe [ past season related to the city mentioned in the Bible as Raamse^ and the finding of the temple of Raamses 11., in the building of which the Jews were possibly em ployed. ■ But more interesting was the discovery of the temple of the Jewish high priest, * Onias, about twenty miles from Cairo, which belongs to a much later period than Raamses. We read in Josephus that Onias fled from Jerusalem to avoid the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphaxies, taking with him a remnant of Jews, and that he founded a new temple in Egypt, about 150 B.C. Mr Petirie has discovered the remains of that temple. It stood within a walled area, embracing . a town, covering about six acres. The highest part was reserved for the temple and its courts; and the temple was on the same plan as the temple of Zerubabel, at Jerusalem. The remains of the burnt sacrifices were heaped on the north side of the town, and some rams' horns were ~i found at x the side of the ruins. Tho masonry was of the style of that at Jeru- [ salem, and not Egyptian. A piece of the ! builder's account was unearthed, showing I that a Jew named Abram delivered some 'of the bricks. The place was a. copy of the temple, hill at Jerusalem ; and the details -correspond with all the statements of Josephus. Immediately; adjoining were the remains of the Hyksos camp, or capital of Avaris. Onias built his temple under the shadow of the. immense wall* of Avaris. This building of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, was totally unlike any Egyptian work. The walls were three and a half miles square. Originally' they were a mere slope of sand, but were subsequently faced with stone, and still later were built 50ft high, and I contain 80,000 tons. Ancient records state that, the place was a defence' on the eastern frontier of 'Egypt J aWd was garrisoned by 240,000 men. There wier<& many graves inside and outside Avaris, all 1 of. the Hyksos age, or. over 2500 B.C: , The graves contained scarabs of two dozen [ Hyksos. kings, ' enabling one to give an ' approximate history of . these Etyksos mii vaders. Hitherto, the names of only ' three of these kings have been known. I The'HyksoslAield itihat part of Egypt when I Joseph was sold there as a slave. And it I was & "Pharoah who knew not Joseph," that' is, a ruler of the restored Egyptian line, who-' expelled the Hyksoa, after they had held lower Egypt 500 years. 1 [ The Egyptian Exploration Society is tihe i oldest of all archaeological organisations ! for Egyptian research, and its work during ( the past year under M. E. Navilled amd j Mr 5 C. T. Ourreliy has been unusually mii teresting. For several yeans explorations : have been in progress at Queen Hatshepi au's great temple at Deir-el-Bahari (156111431 8.C.), of the XVHI. Dynasty The world has marvelled at the wonderful things brought to light in that place, most of which are already known to the public. , In the coarse of the diggings traces were j discovered of a much earlier temple, which •M. Naville fcas quite recently explored. It was found to be the XI. Dynasty (nearly . 300P 8.C.). and belonged to Neb-hapet-Mentuhetep. The building was on a large , scale, and is the only piece of Eleventh I Dynasty (architecture that has been discovered. A barge load of stone carvings and sculptures from this place are now on view at King's College, London. They show much more refined art than in later , years. The sculptures, in low relief, are ! exquisitely cut. Among the more interest- ' ing discoveries at this place were tihe ' tombs of the priestesses of Hatho?, the j cow goddess, some of thorn containing un- ' disturbed sarcophagi. But the richest dis- ! covery of ail and of many yeaa*s was the j shrine of, the goddess herself, containing a ' magnificent life-size figure of the cow. It 1 is tho first time a goddess has been found I uodssturbed in her sanctuary. No Italian • artist of to-day, could have produced a finer work. The image is of limestone, like marble, painted reddush brown, with black spots, like some of the cattle to be s«en in Egypt to-day. The goddess is suckling a little boy, and the same person stands a man under her head. The cow wears the 'special insignia of the goddess, ATound the walls of the slhrine, which waa 10ft by 6ft, were many sculptured scenes. The shrine and its contents had been preserved by a fall of soil and rock • down the mountain side, into which the •shrine oavehad been pierced. The shrine and- its contents are now being reconstructed in the Cairo Museum. Among the minor treasures discovered at Neb-hapet-Ra's temple were ro>-nds of black bread, and lying by the side of one was the skeleton of a quail — the genesis of the • modern chefs bonne-boudie, quaii on toast! The Greco-Roman branch of the Exploration Society is also showing, at ( King's College, the results of its explorations at FJ. Hibeh. These include same '! papyri B.C. 300-230. • Among them is a j post-office register of valuable letters, one -to King Ptolemy. There are notifications of- the existence of a workman's strike. 1 foere are 'also- objects from Oxyrhynohras ; j coins of the Roman period, and tihe j moulds of a coin forger. There are the bracelets and brooch of some Goth, who •I died in Egypt, a thousand miles from his i native' land. I ■

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