EXCAVATIONS IN UPPER EGYPT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5731, 28 October 1905, Page 9

EXCAVATIONS IN UPPER EGYPT

The following intorcstinK letter on t.io above subject from Mr John Garstrang, of the Liverpool appears in the columns of the “Timers”: “The expedition which left hero at Christmas time last year to mahe excavations between Edfu and Esna in L pper Egypt has returned, and the objects of antiquity discovered have arrived in England after a somewhat prolonged season. ‘Tlieraonpolis, the home of Egypt 6 earliest kings was the place selected for first investigations. The palace site is well-known, from the researches of former explorers, and consequently the present excavations were made rather in the outlying township, which proved to bo almost wholly of proto-dynastic age. Immediately below the rubbish of more recent times, strata ropresentating the third and earlier dynasties were come upon; it was even possible in some instances to trace the walls of houses and disposition of rooms and passages of that remote date, about 3000 B.C. Vaeofl of alabaster and granite, as well as flint knives of conspicuously delicate workmanship, and other smalLobjects, served to illustrate the archaeology of the time and locality. As the dry season came on, however, the ground in general proved too heard for the careful excavation demanded bv so important a site, and work therein was postponed until a more favourable season.

“Meanwhile within the great # fortress which stands immediately opposite upon the edge of the western desert, and seems to have been built in a • contemporary age for the protection of this palace, it was found hy experiment that previous excavators had not penetrated deeply enough to reach its lowest historical strata. At a depth which varied according to the accumulation of sand from two to three metres below the existing surface, a whole nccropolic of the prehistoric age was discovered and excavated ; ISB graves were registered and photographed in detail. They seem to range iu date from about the middle portion of the predynastic sequence until the beginning of the first dynasty. In themselves they have provided much that is of interest, and in relation to the walls of the fortress, associated with the tomb structures of later date upon the outside, have furnished reliable evidence that the fortress itself belongs to a dato lying between the first and third dynasties.

“At the completion of that excavation, after nearly two months of work, explorations were made throughout the whole region lying southward as far ns Hi&saycb. /.Tentative excavations' were made at several j’oints. At Eclfu the remains seem to bo of Ptolemaic times, while at Hissayoh some interesting funereal furniture and hieroglyphic papyri of pre-Pt>louiaic date were discovered in the debris of a/ former excavation. Plundering during very recent times had rendered these sites unsuitable for the continuous work of an organised expedition; consequcntlv. after tho third month, camp was fixed at Esna on tho northern limit of the concession. “As is often the case, rumours that tho place had been plundered had in some measure saved it for the excavators. The smaller tombs of the great necropolis at once gave evidence of their origin during the Ilyksos period: it seems probable (though the results of further excavation must bo awaited before a definite conclusion can bo established) that the sit© came into being during the pressure from tho north in those troublesome times upon the capital of Thebes. During the prosperous era of the Egyptian monarchy which followed —the ago of the Pharaohs of the 18th and 19th dynasties—-the site of Esna seems to have fallen into neglect; but from tho 20lh dynasty, which heralded the period of the decline of the Egyptian power, about 1900 8.C., Eena again came into prominence. “Two great niounds, conspicuous in tho desert from afar, proved to be tomb structures of this later date. These, cleared of their accumulated sand, disclosed great structures of brick in good preservation, which comprised a series of eight or ten chambers upon the ground floor with a stairway leading up to a similar series above. The arches and vaults were pointed ,in nearly every case. In a stone-lined chamber within the largest structure there was found the head of an apis carved in stone, of tho time of Ramses V. 1.; and numerous remains of animals sacrificed at that shrine were found within the chamber. These structures were In reality great tombs, built it would seem,, for the permanent use of some family. Unfortunately, a conflagration within the chambers, which seemed to have been deliberately brought about, had destroyed much archaeological evidence; but the architecture illustrated is of a new interest. The largest of these tombs stood upon a base 14.8 metros (nearly 50ftA square; and its height was half its length, measured from its lowest course, deep in the sand, to the existing summit, which seems to bo original. “The annual exhibition of antiquities discovered (which in previous years under the same auspices has been held in Burlington House) will bo held this year, owing to tho lateness of the season, in the premises of the Institute of Archaeology, of this University; it will be open for inspection towards the end of tho present month."