EXPLORATION IN EGYPT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1387, 13 March 1912, Page 8

EXPLORATION IN EGYPT.

INTERESTING FINDS. The "Banffshire Journal" gives an interesting account of the Egypt Exploration Fund, which is this year continuing its work at Abydos for the fourth season. Excavations have now been in progress under the direction of 31 r. T. E. I'eet for three weeks in the great cemeteries for which Abydos was famous in ancient Egyptian days. Tombs of all periods have been opened, beginning with those which date from the very earliest days of the first dynasty and ending with those of the Roman period. Of the latter a magnificent example was found. It consisted of a vaulted chamber, some 20 feet in length, built of mud bricks, and originally almost hidden in the sand. The building of another similar tomb over it at a slightly later date had eared it. from the nlunde'ror. On its floor lay twelve heavy coffins of limestone, each with its carefully sealed cover. Within lay the mummy, carefully and laboriously wrapped in its linen bandages, the blue and gold of its painted coverings as fresh as when laid in the tomb two thousand years ago. At another spot in the great cemetery was found the skeleton of a woman buried deen in the sand. She had evidently been buried decked in all her jewellery, for on her wrists were bracelets of cowries and beads of carnelian, while on her finger was a ring of five fine scarabs, one of which bears the cartouche of Slicshonk. a Shishak, the Egyptian King of the XXIInd Dynasty, who packed Jerusalem in the time of liehoboam. Under her head, which still preserved the long dark hair, was a veritable mass of ornaments, scarabs, shells, pebbles, copper and iron rings, and beads of every kind. lastly on the nose still lay tho small nose-ring of silver. Not far from her was unearthed a more ancient burial, probablv of the Xllth Dynasty. The ike'lcton" was that of a woman. Near the liead was t\y.o alabaster .vases, which still hold the kohl with which she used to paint her eves. Hound her neck was a Ion" necklace of beads, and at her left hand three scarabs, one being of fine amethyst, a stone not usually met with, used for scarabs, after the time of the Middle Kingdom. A scarab is a gem nsuallv engraved and fashioned in tho ima»e'of a beetle. These beetles were sacral to the Egyptians, and were venerated during their life and often embalmed after death.