A STORY FROM THE TOMB

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2063, 25 April 1907, Page 4

A STORY FROM THE TOMB

Archaeology, it muse he confessed, is sometimes dull. .Mon whose energies are fully occupied with the liviiijr present find a diihculfcy in preuniting the interest ol arrowheads many hundreds ot .Years o , of ancient tumuli and my.sinuous monuments. But two branches ol archaeology arouse an interest not provoked by others: Roman, because rt lias so much to tell us ot a pouel and dominion not unlike our own, Egyptian, on account of the vividness with which it spoils out stories of one of the most picturesque ot civilisnEgyplology is a very human study. It presents Insinuating uliinpses which almost be cal led visions, and in the bones ot history—the history that is, ot the maimers and customs ol a, vanished people—it is rich. AVe have never however, in the whole record of Egyptian exploration, hit on a.inoic absorbing hit of history- than is recounted and recalled by the latest discovery of Tliebes. Tlic meaning of that‘discovery is explained in a column of tlie Times, and, if any intelligent man still believes that Egyptology is dull, we recommend him to study this account of the good fortune of Mr. Theodore M. Davis. ■Some time hack Mr. Davis discovered the tomb of the parents ot the Egyptian Queen Toie, and recently has come upon the tomb anil rninnmv of Queen Tcie herself. Great is therefore the reward granted to what is properly described as Ins costly ami persevering labors in clearing away- the rubbish m the \ alley of tho Tombs ol tho Kings and probing every inch of ground there. The tomb, we arc told, is a plain square sepulchre cut out of the rock and approached by a descent of 20 stops. Unfortunately it lay in the bed of a watercourse, and, owing to the percolation of tho water through the rock, such perishable objects as the wood and the royal mummy itself have suffered severely. “Apart from this, however, the tomb, when entered, was in the same condition as that in which it had been left by the priests amid the throes of u religious revolution that had spent its force before Moses was horn.” The coffin is a superb example of the jeweller’s art. There wore bracelets on the. arms of tho mummy, which was wrapped from head to foot ill sheets of gold; ami round the neck was a necklace of gold beads and ornaments of gold inlaid with precious stones; while the head was still encircled by an object “priceless and unique”—the imperial crown of the queens of ancient Egypt. But, curiously enough, the deepest human interest of the discovery lies not in what was found but in what liad disappeared. The tomb had been violated; the doorway of piled stones partially broken through, the wooden doors wrenched from their hinges, the great catafalque torn in pieces, and the mummy turned over. As the gold was left, this could not have been the work of thieves. Tho marks of destruction were very-, very old. AA’hat, then, was tho, object of the destroyer ? Close examination left no doubt on that point, and history aided in the elucidation. Tcie was the mother and inspircr of the famous “Heretic King,” Amcnhotep lA r ., who changed his name to Akli-en-Aten. He it was who broke away from the religious traditions of Egypt and endeavored to introduce a new and foreign creed. The worship of Anion was proscribed, and its devotees were persecuted. Akli-en-Aten tried hard, according to the methods which in after ages became so dolorously familiar to mail, to turn his people from the religious of their fathers to a Pantheistic monotheism, the visible symbol of which was the sun. Bit--ter was the struggle between him and the priesthood of Thebes, and the priests won. The Pharaoh was obliged to flee from the country-, and to found a new capital. When Teie was buried the effigy of her son was placed in various parts of the funeral furniture and tlie tomb, and it. was to destroy every- such trace of Akli-en-Aten that in the far remote past her resting-place was disturbed. The significant things which were missing were the vestiges of- her relationship to the Heretic. King. The mmnmv was turned over in order to erase the name of Akli-en-Aten; incised on the sheet of gold which laybonoath it. “AVlierever the name of the heretic was found it. was carefully destroyed, and the figure of the King, adoring the solar disc, which had been engraved on ono of tho gold plates of the catafalque, is chiselled out. The men, however, who thus violated the ttomb were no common robbers; the jewellery- of tho Queen and tho sheets of solid gold witli which the sepulchre is literally filled were left untouched ; the havoc, they wrought was the result of religious zeal, and even tho needs of ‘motherChurch’ were not sufficient to make them carry- away the gold that had hen polluted by lieresv. AVlierever tho excavators walked they trod upon fragments of gold plate and gold leaf.”—St. James’ Budget.