EGYPTIAN RELICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16761, 30 January 1918, Page 6

EGYPTIAN RELICS.

AN AUCKLAND COLLECTION.

ADDITIONS. TO MUSEUM,

The first portion of the Egyptian collection, for which arrangements were made by the curator of the Auckland Museum, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, under the direction of the governing body of the museum, about two years ago, came to hand recently, and is now on exhibition in the museum. Tho articles all have been neatly arranged and labelled. Through the assistance of Dr. A. C. Purchas, of Auckland, who, at that time was engaged in medical war servico in Egypt, Mr. Oheeseman was placed in communication with Dr. Quibell, of the Cairo Museum, and arrangements were thus made for the first portion of the collection, consisting of about 100 articles, They include an interesting series of vases, bowls, libation vessels, etc., discovered by Dr. Quibell in an eleventh dynasty tomb at Sakkarah, near Memphis, the date ot which is estimated at from 2200 to 2600 B.C. As in all early tombs, most of the articles have been broken by robbeis of ancient date in their search for gold, jewels, and other valuables; but in many cases Dr. Quibell was able to recover the fragments. There are bowls of polished marble, quite as regularly and evenly finished as those made at -tho present time. Large plaques of the same material,' probably used as tho removable lids of j J largo vases, aro also included. Libation j vessels, resembling flower pots in shape, j and made of polished limestone or ala-1 baster, aro also represented, as are: straight upright., vases of solid limestone, | inside which can be seen the circular: marks made by the lathe used in construct-1 ing them. All the above, being found in a tomb, were doubtless intended to hold j the customary supplies of food and liquids intended for the use of the departed. _ Another feature in the collection is a number of Ushabti figures. An ushabti is a little statuette of stone, wood, or enamelled porcelain, representing a " respondent" or "follower" of its deceased master. Such figures were often placed in great numbers in the tomb of important personages, in readiness to perform duties for them in tho next world. Sometimes coffins of burnt clay were provided for the ushabtis. One of these is shown containing an ushabti, in blue-glazed porcelain, of the Princess Nesitaiiebasher, a lady of the twenty-first dynasty, approximate date, 1040 B.C. There is likewise an excellent specimen of a Canopic Jar. In an Egyptian tomb the dead body, or mummy, was placed upon a bier, near which stood four of these jars. They contained the internal organs of the body, which were alwayß separately embalmed. Each jar was dedicated to one of the four sons of tho god Horns. That exhibited, which has a lid representing the head of a jackal, is the typo used to contain the heart and lungs. A set of Egyptian weights, as used for the purposes of trade 2000 years before Christ, are also in the collection.