EXCAVATORS' FIND.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18230, 14 November 1924, Page 11

EXCAVATORS' FIND.

OLDEST STONE BUILDINGS.

The Department of Antiquities, which; is' carrying out its programme for the. complete excavation of all the royal pyramids at Sakkara, having finished the excavation of the tombs round the Pyramid of Pepy, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty, turned its attention to a group of tombs hitherto unexplored round the step of the-Pyramid of Zoser, a Pharaoh of the Third-Dynasty. In the north-east corner of the pyra-' mid were two mounds which, on examination, were found to contain two small stepped pyramids of Most-aba.. The southern fac.es of these mounds were found to contain chapels of a style of architecture hitherto unknown in Egypt. The facades of the two chapels are decorated with fluted engaged columns, without traces of the usual. reliefs of hieroglyphics, and at first sight, it might be supposed that the chapels were of Hellenistic date or a restoration of the Ptolemaic period. The walls, however, wore numerous graffiti written in hieratic of records of visitors-as far back as 1500 B.C. Thus in these fluted shafts we have «n anticipation ot ioW years or more of the Doric columns o the Parthenon. The columns have leatshaped or papyrus formed capitals, ana are the earliest known in Egypt. As the excavations htive not yet been finished it is. uncertain yet as to whom these chapels may be attributed, but it is' believed that they probably belong to the Queens of King Zoser. Ahe gravestones of the royal pnneesses belonging to the third Dynasty—which dates from about 3966 B.C. found among the surface debris.. It is possible, therefore, that the complete clearance of the site will reveal tho tomb of Imhotep, the Vizier of King Zoser, who ,is the legendary wise- man or magician of the Third Dynasty. He was afterwards deified'. Having been a vizier, he was probably buried by his sovereign, who himself is buried, in' the step of the pyramid. ' The whole architecture of the chapels is in a completely developed style, and must have been the result of a' long previous knowledge of architecture. | The chapels are built of finely jointed j limestone masonry. It is curious to note,) however, that the dressing of the stones was carried out by means of flint drills or horers, a number of which have been found on the site. Only the fine surfaoe dressing w.as executed with copper chisels. \ sThe chapels are the earliest surviving stone buildings in Egypt, and therefore in the world, having been built at the very least 3000 B.C. according to the so-called short chronology, but many rtrchseologists axe prepared to give them 1500 years earlier. Stonehengo was •built early in the Bronze Age, about 800 to 1000 B.C. The neolithic period in Egypt ended about 4000 8.C., when copper tools were gradually introduced. -The chapels were therefore built when Britain was still in the neolithic state of culture. The importance of this discovery is not purely scientific, but will involve the rewriting of the first chapter of the history of arcbiI tecture.