FORTY-FIVE CENTURIES AGO,

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 71

FORTY-FIVE CENTURIES AGO,

WONDERFUL RELICS OF ANCIENT

EGYPT.

A display has been recently held af King's College, London, of the chief ra suits achieved by the officers of the Egyptian Exploration Fund at Thebes dur< ing the past season. Apoounts have already appeared _of the discovery made by- M!< TSfaville, at" Deir el-Babari, of the soum sanctuary of the -great x monarch Mentubetep, who "lived 4-500 years ago. Fran* this, as well as from the tombs of kings and queens and princesses, which abound! in this sacred valley,, there have been' brought away an amazing wealth of sculpture, some of it representing the %enrth oE early Egyptian art," as well as >«. great <masa[ of other material. Here, upon one wallv a king is depicted in the' act of iioldinff the band of his queen; there is a princes^ bending over a flower whose fragrance sha inhales with placid delight. Above tb« portraits of a galaxy .of queens there it poised a frescoed heaven of deepest bluejj bespangled with golden stars. Here is $ scene pjortraying _the king bolding 1 an in^ vestiture, and bestowing his royal favou* upon a trusty chamberlain; close. by yon will note the keeper of the privy puree mate ing an official round of the temple Pre< einefcs. Among the funerary models majt be found the . cowhide shields of tbe house* hold troops, the -crews of the "royal yachtev symbolic ears, prescribed by- the royal artists for the Clare of dca.fn«ss, -fcHe a.rti», ficial flowers made of rushes in the manner; of modern cripples. And here are some) slabs'' from the pavement of a shrine t<£' which touring pilgrims were wont to resort^ leaving beMnd ' them the rude outlines. oßtheir sandals, inscribed within with' them names.

Another exhibition was held' in the roomß of the Society of Antiquaries a.t Burlingbonl House. It contained 'the objects unearthed! by Professor Garetang at Abydos, on*' be* half of the Univeisit^ of liiyerpool, "anaj during hie "absence in Asia Minor" the dis< play has been arranged by his zealous young assistants, Mr Harold Jones and M$ Trefusis, who are to be congratulated uponj 1 ' a season of singular, interest and fascin«« tion. No pilgrim (remarks a London- con% temporary) in quest of' new sensations should miss the opportunity of seeing these? exhibits before they are distributed -among* private collections. They are less technical, flian most of the other results of the year'fl( explorations,* apd their glamour and oharna( may be appreciated apart from their special value to the student. It was a Joyou^ world, the Egypt into which AbramJ 1 led the comely Sarah' 40 centuries ago-. Their earrings were of solid gold; thejj mounted their smetibyst and' garneu beads into necklets with silver mounts, the handles of their toilet mirrors were; choicely carved in stone; when theyaskedl in the mart for a spoon they were shown* novelties fashioned in the shape of a' hand holding a. shell. 'The art china in Sell* ©ate shades of blue wMoh they' placecf , about the -;house inoluded toy hedgehocß/ bristling 1 with a. panoply of spines, t<pjf baboons, a hippopotamus, a inonkejrs playing a lute, a .pair of wrestlers, 81 monkey in v a cage. One "of the most/ exquisite pieces of modelling is a vase ofl blue marble, wrought- into the form of 6? pair .of trussed geese, and there is a-tinjij ivory .seal, surmounted by a figure of a/ child lifting hie hand to his head in an attitude of pensive- grace. All these "may be' roughly attributed' to a period about 2000 B.C. Ot a latexj time, extending into the earliest Christian! centuries, -although there k no trace <a&, yet of Christian influence, .may be seen. 1 the .contents of a cemetery which appear*' to have been used before the rise of thff Ptolemies . as_ -the last, resting-place qi myriads-~of eacred birds. The mummied! remains were interred in huge xed jars, a. hundred -at a time, and they consist forf the most part of tiny hawks, although* here and there were found the remains oJe vultures, each in a jar of its own". Ini the midst of one of the tombs of the hawkfiC there were placed effigies of wMte mice tcJ serve as the ghostly nutriment of the saored) birds in the spirit world. _ Elsewhere / there was unearthed a box with a sliding lid, upon which were moulded the forml) of a pair of mice, while, within .were, preserved the bones -of the victims destined as food for the birds of prey. In after years this hawk cemetery tvaS used over and over again for the interment of human remains. So poor were some of the felaheen who brought the dust of their loved ones to Abydos that" they could not afford to purchase even the simplest of funerary figures, those "answerers " whose destiny it was to respond on behalf of the departed when^ on "tJief threshold of the hereafter, their spirits came fate to face with the thread judge to ■whom they must account. Nothing could be more pathetic than a rudely-fa6hione3 mud bowl, filled with, tiny bits of olayi each pinched by untrained fingers into the merest caricature of human form. What' a tale it tells of tender regard in the midst of unutterable penury. _ Tie same cemetery furnished a wonderful series of sculptured tombstones, which are destined to hold an important place in the history, of art. For they offer. £, means of bridg* ing over the transition period between; tbe beautiful memorials' of pre-Christian; Greece and the art' whieb we call Byzan/ line. Here you may see the bearded^ short-robed figures of the catacombs stand* ing between .debased effigies of Amib'*4 and Osiris, and surmounted by serpents and other .symbols, of the ancient paganisms of the Nile Valley. s -They Kelp us lo understand that the ungainly etylS of ths earliest; art did not arise from a neglect of beauty by the youthful CSrarcli, bu£ . was influenced" by the general decay -of the artistic impulse -fiirbugaout the civil* jsed world.

' -, "Worn-out billiard balls ate usually 4jf UP. into disSi "