ANCIENT RELICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20898, 13 June 1931, Page 9

ANCIENT RELICS.

INTERESTING DISCOVERIES. CITY OF SHEPHERD KINGS. ' LONDON, June 4. Two thousand years B.C. a woman lost a gold bird-shaped ornament in a muddy, cobbled street in Tel-el-Ajjul, tho city of the Shepherd Kings. Sir Flinders Petrio, an eminent British archaeologist, picked it up during his excavations <jf tho site of tho ancient city and is now exhibiting it in London. Sir Flinders explains that Tel-el-Ajjul proves that tho Shepherd Kings were not nomads living in tents, as supposed, but occupied a brick-built fortress-liko city of 50 acres in extent, 20 times the size of ancient Troy. It stood on a hill dominating tho estucry and harbourago and was tho key city of the international road between Palestine and Egypt, along which Anzacs advanced during tho Great War. It included a sft. tunnel, 500 ft. long, running from tho gateway and emerging on the plain, for use either to assist escape or for attack on besiegers. Tho excavations reveal that tlio master of tho hquse 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, tho kings built a new city on the sito 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 Nosorra, who reigned 4600 years ago.