Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1914 — FOUND IN A PLUNDERED PYRAMID [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FOUND IN A PLUNDERED PYRAMID

-w TALL gray pile of brickjfl work stands high on the A /■ d e6er t edge at the entry l/Kf ■ to the Fayum, some sixty miles south of Cairo. Was Juried a great sovereign of the land ZkMr/X with all his family. Two /rClx bun< * re d generations of /OJwSZXx the descendants of his subjects have come and gone since then. Nearly &7/\ all the tombs of Egypt v y were ransacked in early times, probably within fifty or a hundred years of the burial. This King Senusert 11, had no immunity; his pyramid was entered, his sarcophagus broken open; no trace of his burial remained. Likewise the tombs of his family—all were attacked. Five empty tombs stand along the south side of the pyramid, without a bone left in place. When the British School of Archaeology in Egypt began work there last December, a complete clearance was planned out, to lay bare every inch of the site, and clean the rock, so that no passages or tombs ■ could remain unsearched. In that clearance the five tombs just named were reopened, and entirely -leaned out Two of these had not even a coffin left. The H others had sar- H cophaghi totally bare; everything seemed to nmgS have vanished. In one tomb the wide pit descended by steps the rock to a depth / ? of about twen- vS| ty-elght feet, and ™ at the end stood a granite sar- ■FXigSt' &CXRBB J cophagus, the

Ud pushed back as far as it could go, and then crushed and broken away so K that a boy could crawl in and destroy the burial. Not a chip of the mummy or its wrappings was left behind. Hours, perhaps days, of work had been spent on thus ransacking the grave. Yet all the time, close by the plunderers’ side, was a recess in the tomb which they disregarded. There, so close by that a tall man might have touched the crown with one hand, the sarcophagus with the other, the treasure lay Quite undisturbed and unnoticed. After the tomb was opened it stood a yawning pit, gradually filled up by occasional storms once in a few years washing down mud. Slowly the caskets rotted, the vases fell over, the thread decayed, the beads rolled apart, and in perhaps fifty or a hundred years the whole pit was filled with mud and dust, and lost to sight. How such a treasure can possibly have escaped the notice of men who were zealously searching for it is one of the mysteries of the inexplicable past. In the midst of the rececs lay the crown: the tall plumes of gold and the three double streamers of gold all lay down flat, with the crown between them. They had evidently been carefully deposited and never disturbed. The cfftwn is a broad band of brilliantly burnished gold, with 15 beautiful inlaid rosettes of gold around it, and in front of it the royal cobra of gold inlaid, the head of lazuli. This head was missing when the crown first appeared; some days afterwards, in washing the earth from the recess the head was found. Then one eye was missing. I washed and searched minutely, preserving the smallest specks of precious stone. Soon a tiny ball of garnet appeared at the bottom of the basinful, of mud; this —no larger than a pin’s head — was the missing eye. Yet the gold socket of the eye was missing. I 1 remembered having washed out a bead of gold which differed from thousands of others; looking, I found it again, and there was the setting of the eye complete. Above the crown at the back of it stood up double plumes of gold, fitting into a golden flower. At the sides and back hung down broad ties of gold. The whole crown is too large for a modem head, being made to go over the very full Egyptian wig/, it is altogether over eighteen inches high. The next most striking objects are the great collars of gold cowries and .gold lion heads. These are ingeniously fastened with one piece in-two halves, joining together by a slider, so that the collar has to be much contracted before it can open. Two

beautifully wrought pectorals are of gold inlaid with minute pieces of carnelian, turquoise, and lazuli. In the pectoral of Senusert there are 372 separate stones inlaid. The harmonious outline of these designs, and the exquisite work, make these the most charming examples of Egyptian gold work. A great necklace of long drop-beads must have been worn hanging below the other jewelry. The pendants are of gold, carnelian, lazuli, and. amazon stone. From the middle hangs the most splendid scarab known, cut with perfect sharpness in the richest lapis lazuli. A larger figure of it is put in the middle. Yet another necklace was of amethyst of the darkest, fullest color, with gold lion-claws as pendants. , Armlets were worn of gold bars with minute beads of turquoise and carnelian. They were fastened on the arm by sliding a strip of gold,

covered with inlays of carnellan and bearing the I name and title of Amen- | emhat 111. / Bracelets were of much / the same style, only with- / out a loose slider, the / edges sliding one into the / other. Five little mottoa| pendants were worn by strings of gold beads “ round the arm; each 1 . "" *” pendant has a sliding clasp at the back, to fastI==" en the string of beads. Four wristlets each have a pair of gold lions, face to face, upon strings of beads of gold, carnelian and turquoise. The toilet was provided for by a large silver mirror, with a handle of obsidian, and gold head of ttMRRQR tbe goddess Hat-hor; a pair of razors with gold handles; and three jars for ointment made of black obsidian with gold mounting round the base, the brim, and the lids. The funeral outfit of the sacred oils and unguents was in eight alabaster jars with lids. Besides this great group of jewelry, there were many curious things found in the wide excavation pyramid. Here we may groups of ducks, the one lying dead on an altar with the eyes closed, the other being carried and all alert. These show how minutely the sculptures of the temple wrought The first lamps that can be proved to be such by their wicks, were found In the pyramid; they are of limestone with pierced disks of pottery in the central cup, to hold up the wick. Around the cup is a trough to hold water, in order to keep the stone damp so that the oil should not soak away. Of the workmen’s tools, 1 tere were many mason’s mallets, wooden rollers for moving the stones, and a wooden hoe. A large quantity of amethyst and carnelian beads, gold amulets, and other offerings, were found in a cemetery In the same district