Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1915 — EGYPT’S TREASURE TOMBS LOOTED [ARTICLE]

EGYPT’S TREASURE TOMBS LOOTED

Priceless Relics Now Shown in London Escaped Plunderers for Fire Thousand Years. THE NOST VALUABLE EVER SEEN Jewels Which Once Adorned Queens and Princesses of Dynasties Recovered at Last The many tombs of the rulers of ancient Egypt continue to give up their priceless stores of wonders which five thousand years ago decked the arms and necks of queens and princesses of fabulous dynasties. And for five thousand years and more burglars and body snatchers have been secretly plying their grim trade among the Pyramids and the quarries of Old Nile, pillaging the sarcophagi of the mighty dead until it is a wonder there is-any-thing of value left for the modem eye to feast on. In spite of all illuminating discoveries are still being made, and some of these are strikingly exemplified in the fascinating exhibition of the latest excavation work of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, which has just opened at University College, Gower Street. There are many interesting things to see and ponder over, but the most engaging is the treasure of Lahun, which has been triumphantly looted from the mysterious Pyramid by Prof. Flinders Petrie and his energetic little band of workers of the Fayum province. Many years ago Prof. Petrie cleared part of the temple of the Pyramid, fixing it to Senusert 11. of the twelfth dynasty (about 3400 B. C.), and found the entrance. Last year it was determined to make a thorough clearance of this site. It was done. Five tombs of the royal family were found, and all of them had been But in one of them the burglars missed, by some extraordinary mischance, the chief glory of the royal treasure. Prof. Petrie, who is a cracksman of greater craft than any brown-skinned Raffles that ever crept across the Saharan sand, found that glory, and the result is that the most valuable group of jewelry that has ever reached Europe is now to be seen here, under a glass case in Gower Street. Though it dates back to nearly 4000 years B. C., it is shining and so fresh that it might have been made yesterday.

The wonderful collection includes a beautiful collar of gold cowries spaced by beads of gold, two bracelets of small beads of gold turquoise and carnelian, four wristlets each ornamented with a pair of lions face to face, a rope of gold, a pair of armlets us 37 rows of turquoise and carnelian beads spaced in gold, and a great necklace of pendants of gold, lazuli, carnelian and blue-greeu felspar. Attached to this is a pendant scarab of Amen-emhat 111., which Prof. Petrie declares to be the finest known for color of the lazuli and for workmanship. These treasures were found buried —to quote Prof. Petrie’s own words — “in an almost incredible position.” On the southern side of the pyramid of Lahun are four pits sunk in the rock, leading to chambers which contained burials of the royal family. In one of these chambers the granite sarcophagus had the lid pushed back as far as it would go, hnd then partly broken away. “Not a chip of the burial remained.” The tomb had then been deserted and left open. Meanwhile, in a recess about three feet wide and five feet deep, close to the sarcophagus, there stood two ivory caskets of jewels and vases and large gold crown, all untouched and absolutely perfect. It is marvelous that the plunderers who broke the granite sarcophagus open and destroyed the burial could have overlooked this pile of treasure within a yard of them. From the canopic jars which accompany the jewels in this fine show those who can read these mysteries may learn that this burial was of a royal daughter, Sat Hather-And, the daughter of Hat-hor of Denderch, add the jewelry shpws that she was probably a queen of Amen-emhat 111.