WONDERFUL RELICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21360, 13 June 1931, Page 11

WONDERFUL RELICS

' UNK WITH'EARLY. AGES , ' ( LONDON, June 4. Two thousand years 8.C., a lady lost a gold bird-shaped ornament in a muddy cobbled street in Tel-el-Ajjul, the city of the Shepherd Kings. Sir Flinders Petrie, the eminent British archeologist, picked it up during his excavations of the site of the ancient, city, and is now exhibiting it in Loltdoh. Sir Flinders‘ Petrie explains that Tel- . el-Ajjul proves that the Shepherd Kings were not nomads living in tents, as supposed, but occupied a brick-built fortresslike city 50 acres in extent, 20 times the size of ancient Troy. It stood on a hill, dominating the estuary _ and harbourage, and was the key city of the international road between Palestine and Egypt, along which Anzacs advanced during the Great War. i i It included a sft tunnel, 600 feet long, running from the gateway and emerging on the plain, for use either to assist escape or for attack on besiegers. The excavations reveal that the master of the house 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, the kings built a new city on the site of Gaza. Twenty fresh tombs, including those of royalties, have been unearthed near GAza pyramids. Among the discoveries is the ekull of a daughter of King Noserra, who reigned 4600 years ago. \