ANCIENT PALESTINE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 July 1931, Page 7

ANCIENT PALESTINE

CITY OF SHEPHERD KINGS. RECENT DISCOVERIES. Lost property ldft behind by a woman 40U0 years ago; the ancient home of the Pharaohs of Egypt, twenty times larger than Troy, and with houses into which cue can still walk; a tunnel that is probably Tile o.dest in the world—these are some of the marvels that have suddenly been revealed by Sir Flinders Petrie and Lady Petrie while excavating in Palestine. The world-famous archaeologist, who is celebrating the jubilee year of bis life-long researches, recently, with his wife, returned to London from the Holy Land atfter five years spent in careful exploitation and excavation. The cellars at University College are full of their remarkable finds. More are on the way, and it is expected that a special museum will be set up in London shortly to be. devoted to exhibits from Palestine. Tutankhamen and his Egvplnm regalia may have to take a back seat for a time when the first Pharaohs from Palestine arrive on the scene and begin to harden their hearts where rivals are concerned. They have dropped not only a brick but a whole brick city on an ifnsuspecting world, and excavation is corroborating the Old Testament story of Abraham and the Shepherd Kings. “My husband and I,’* said Lady Petrie the most celebrated living woman Egyptologist, to a “Daily Expres” representative, “hayp been lucky enough to discover for the first time at Toboj-Azzid, near Gaza, n complete brick city of the nomad Shepherd Kings, This i.s the first proof that they lived in fixed towns at all. It is an astonishing ILC. mound, untouched and unaltered by the passage of centuries. ‘Nothing in it is later than 2000 ILC. Here we have been able not only to step straight back to the Bronze Age, but to find relics and evidence that illuminate some of the earliest Bible passages that have eluded and ha fi led scholars for centuries. “We have unearthed,” continued Lady Petrie, “more than eighty rooms, complete with landlord’s fixtures besides habitable houses, streets, and a public square that were peopled with life and activity more than 4000 years ago. “Tel-el-Azzul is a hill, covered with potsherds, near the sea, and overlooking a river. It was evidently a key town, of great strategic importance in prehistoric dayg. It was from here that the Shepherd Kings went on ultimately to conquer Egypt, and to hold the Tsarelites in bondage. “The extraordinary thing is that the whole city was suddenly bag and baggage- in 2000- 8.C,. .This hurried exodus provides one of the strange riddles of history. 1 think that the answer can bo put down to the incursion of a plague of mosquitoes from the surrounding swamps, Wo found the neighbourhood most malarious, am! the proud Pharaohs were clearly vanquished by the petty mosquito.” Lady Petrie found that Bedawy Arabs more excellent workers. The woman and children, besides the men, took their share in the labours. Most of the girls wore veils and some of them had beautfiully embroidered dresses. The treasures of the Old Testament mound will he exhibited this month at University College, London. Sir Flinders Petrie hopes to return to Palestine in the autumn.