SEEKING LOST CITY

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1931, Page 7

SEEKING LOST CITY

WORK OF BRITISH EXPLORER

A FASCINATING SEARCH

Students of Egyptian archaeology were kept deeply interested when Sir Flinders Petrie, the eminent Egyptologist, gave a lecture recently on “,The City of the Shepherd Kings,” at University College, London.

The lecture was a summarised description of the work already done hy Sir Flinders and the students of the British School of Archaeology in then efforts to explore the lost city of Ajjul, Palestine,' and was illustrated by slid-

“The excavations we have carried out in South Palestine' so far,” said Sir Flinders, “have now brought us to the actual site of Ajjul, the home of the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings. It is twenty times larger than Troy, and lies on the ancient international road between Palestine and Egypt. It was strongly fortified originally, and with its rampart and defences covered a wide area. As it was a key city in* those days, its harbours must have played an important part in the trade between Asia and Africa. “Our discoveries deairly controvert the popular notion that the Shepherd Kings were merely wandering nomads living in their tents. There is evidence of centuries of settlement with brick fortresses, harbourage, and a system of weights and measures that shows established commerce with Egypt and other countries.

“Ajjul was abandoned about 2000 8.C., probably owing to malaria. A new settlement was then made at Gaza, five miles to the north. The city gate of Ajjul stood at the north-east corner over a rising cobbled road. Below this was the older gates, with a complex of walls and trenches, overlooking a wide fosse 150 feet from edge to edge.” Sir Flinders described the finding of a secret tunnel, extending to a distance of 500 feet, under the olain. Tim inner end of the tunnel, which had evidently been an avenue of escape from the town, was completely washed away. Ifcecenft digging operations; in this tunnel had been nesessarilv slow; progress, in fact, was only about six or seven feet a day. At another point of their excavations they went down through three stories of buildings and found rooms full oi debris. The walls, Bft high, and the doorways are still intact, and it was possible to walk through them as at Pompeii. Altogether eighty of these chambers were excavated. “Among the ornaments we found,” add Sir Flinders, “was the replica ol a bird in graduated gold work, with spread wings—an ornament which had evidently been lost hv some lady o 2000 8.0. in fhe broad street of Ajjgul. 'We also found a Hyksos spoon, the duly one of its kind still ill existence. “In nil. the tombs we have visited w ( j found human beings, horses, and asses buried together, “Among the skeletons of horses were those of the type known as the 'great horse,’ which was specially imported by the Hyksos for riding. These horses had been buried most carefully. Also in the tombs were stone iars for the dead, bronze daggers, a' rapier, and a quantity of flat-bottomed pottery of a shape entirely non-Egyptian. “There is still work for the next fifty years at Ajjul, but financial support is urgently required.”