11,600 Years Old.

Southland Times, Issue 19197, 7 November 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

11,600 Years Old.

There are very few substances in the wovld that would last that length of time. Neither gold, sUvor, iron., nor any other metal would last anything like that period. But it is admitted that if kept safe from breakages pottery is impervious to every other danger. The action of the atmosphere, which in time affects all metals, is absolutely powerless to injure glazed pottery. In digging out tho colossal statuo of Rauieses ll.,. nine feet four iuohes of Nile mud had to be removed bofore the platform on which it stood was reached. It is known that tho platform was laid in the year 1301 H.c, when Hameses was still living. Therefore three and a half inches of accumulated mud represented the lapse of a century, it being known that 8200 years havo passed since the platform wns constructed. Under that platform was found thirty feet more of Nile mud. and. then the original sandy soil wis reached. It is therefore an easy matter to calculate tho exact number of years that must have elapsed from the time of the deposit of the first layer of mqd (caused by the first ovrrHow of tho Nile) to tho time of Itoineses 11. Now the wonderful part of the story is this :. Pottery whole and in fragments was found in the original sandy soil thirty feet under the base of the statue. This indicates that the Egyptians understood the . art of pottery at & very early fot«.