A Riddle of History Read at Last

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 18

A Riddle of History Read at Last

Sir Flinders Pctrie, the archaeologist, has solved a riddle of history which has puzzled the world for thousands of years. He has established the identity of the people who founded the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties of Egypt. This is one of the biggest discoveries he has made at Gaza, the ancient city of South Palestine, from which ho roturncd after digging there for six months for the fourth season in succession, says tho "Manchester Gunrclian." Highly years old, but as alert and brisk as a young man, Sir Flinders is something of a Sherlock Holmes of archaeology. It was a bronze dagger and two gold pins which gave him the lost secret of Egyptian history. He showed them to a reporter who called on him in London. The dagger, wonderfully preserved though it is 5000 or more years old, has beautifully handworked raised veins running down the blade. The gold pins are an inch or two long, and they, too, have remarkable workmanship in their heads. They were used to fasten ladies' gowns. "This is really exciting," said Sir Flinders. "At last we can say where these foreigners to Egypt came from. We discovered the dagger and then the pins at Gaza when we uncovered the earliest of the five palaces there. I was struck by the raised veins on the dagger blade. It could not, I thought, be the Copper Age men, the people who Icame after Neolithic times, 3?hen a

report of a discovery in the Caspian region was shown to me, and in a flash I had hit upon the secret. "These people, one of the six races to conquer Egypt, came from the Casipian shores. The dagger and the I ladies' pins show their culture in arts. They were a powerful race, and they must have had much skill in building, as their palace which wo have uncovered shows. In it is a luxurious bathroom with its thickly stuccoed floor still more or less intact. "Wo have made, as a result of our discoveries, a consolidation of history. Wo can now dale back to Neolithic man in properly-tabulated form. That, I think, is a great achievement." Sir Flinders has a strong grievance, however. •■" We have spent £30,000 at Gaza, and have done for Palestinian history what was done for Egyptian history," he said. "The one lost link in the chain has been found. We have an unrivalled collection of discoveries which tell the earliest history of man on earth. "And where is this collection? "Roting away in boxes up to the ceiling in the cellars of the University collee-. tion. I have refused to bring back any .further treasures except a tew sniali things from Palestine. In the new University buildings they offered us one-hundredth of the whole building for what is ninety-ninths of human Mstorjr/'.