ENTERING A PRINCE'S HOUSE AFTER 3000 YEARS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 181, 4 September 1909, Page 4

ENTERING A PRINCE'S HOUSE AFTER 3000 YEARS.

•>! A WEIRD AND WONDERFUL SCENE it: 5 The annual exhibition of Egyptiar '! antiquities founded by Professor Flin ! " ders Petrie and his students during tin past winter is now open at University 1 College, London. The site of operation; : was at Qurneh, the cemetery at Theb.-s, 1 and afterwards at Memphis. d PROFESSOR PETKIE'S DISCOVERS The principal finds at Qurneh rouged , in date from 3500 B.C. to 700 8.C., and ; at Memphis from «00 B.C. to 500 B.C. 1 At Qurneh "only one burial was found, but that is unusually complete, and is [ probably the richest entire burial that • has been brought from Egypt. . . . , Every detail was recorded, and tlio . whole of the remains are here complete. It is .probably of the seventeenth , dynasty—i.e., eirc. 1800 8.C." The great discovery of the year, how- : ever, was that of the palace of King Apries—the Pharaoh Hophra of the Bible, who was contemporary with Jeremiah. "The Romance and Realities of Trea-sure-hunting in Egypt" formed the subI ject of a fascinating article in a recent it'umber of the Pall Mall Magazine. It I was by Arthur E. P. Weigall, a Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt. He described, among other things, the "finding of the ! tomb of Yuan and Tuau, which was o;ie| of the most interesting archaeological events of recent times, and one which camo somewhere near to the standard of romance set by the novelists. Soon after breakfast the wall at the mouth of the tomb was pulled down, and the party passed into the low passage which sloped down to the burial-cham-ber. HOW A PRINCE LIVED 30 CENTURIES AGO. _ "Imagine," says, the narrator, "entering a town house which has been closed for the summer; imagine the stuffy room, the stiff, silent appearance of the furniture, the feeling that some ghostly occupants of the vacant chairs have just been disturbed, the desire tn throw open the windows to let life into the room once more. That was perhaps the first sensation as we stood, really dumbfounded, and stared around at the relics of the life of over three thousand years ago, all of which were as new almost as when they graced the palace of Prince Yuaa. Three armchairs were, perhaps, the first objects to attract the attention: beautiful carved woolen chairs decorated with gold. Belonging to one of these was a pillow made of down and covered with linen. Now the eye was directed to a wicker trunk fitted with trays and partitions, and ventilated with little apertures, for the scents were doubtless strong. Two nio>-t eoiufortiihle beds were to be" observed, fitted with springy string mattresses, nn 1 decorated with ch:'rn;injr designs in gold. There, in n far <-orn"r, placed upon the top of a number of lnrvel white jars, stood the light chariot which Yuia had owned in hN lifetime. "In all directions stood objects gleaming with gold nndnllcil by a speck of dust, and one looked from one article to another with the feeling that the entire 'human conception of time was wrong. These were the things of yesterday—of a year or so ago. Why, he -c . were meats prepared for the feasts ill the Underworld; here were Yuaa's favorite joint*, -each neatly placed in a wooden box as though for a journey. Here was his stall, and here were his «andals—a new pair and an old. In another corner there stood the magical 1 figures by the power of which the prince 1 was to make his way through Hades. . The words of the mystical 'Chapter of the Flame' and of the 'Chapter of the Magical.Figure of the North Wall' wore ! inscribed upon them; and upon a gnat roll of papyrus twenty-two yards in length other efficacious prayers were written. "Mut, though the eyes passed from object to object, thev ever returned to I. the two gilded coffins in which Hie <.wners of this room of the dead lay as (hough peacefully sleeping. First nimvo Yuaa and then above his wife the electric lamps were held, and as one looked down into their quiet faces there was almost the feeling that they would prosentlv open their eves and blink at the light" The stern features of the old man commanded one's attention, and again and again our gaze was turned from this mass of wealth to this sleeping ii'.'iire in whose honor it had been plate.l here."