THE RESURRECTION OE ANCIENT EGYPT 



985 



where some of the princesses of the 

 royal house had been buried in a series 

 of tombs opening out of a subterranean 

 gallery. Here were found the wonder- 

 ful jewels of the princesses Sit-hathor 

 and Merit, which have given us a new 

 conception of the skill and taste of the 

 Egyptian goldsmith. 



Egyptian jewelry, which has been fa- 

 miliar enough in specimens of the work 

 of later periods, has often been open to 

 the reproach of being somewhat heavy 

 and overloaded in design, though ad- 

 mirable in execution ; but the diadems of 

 these royal ladies are of the most exqui- 

 site lightness and grace, combined with 

 a skill in workmanship which would do 

 honor to the most cunning craftsman of 

 the present day. Worthy to stand be- 

 side them are the great pectorals, or 

 breast ornaments, bearing the names of 

 Senusert II, Senusert III, and Amenem- 

 hat III, with their brilliant designs in 

 cloisonne, where beautiful colored stones, 

 lapis-lazuli, carnelian, and green feldspar 

 take the place of enamels (compare page 



981). 



THE RESURRECTION OE AN ANCIENT 

 COUNTRY TOWN 



Totally devoid of beauty, but more 

 valuable to us than the most beautiful 

 works of art, was the discovery made 

 by Petrie in 1889- 1890 of the remains of 

 the town of Kahun, close to the pyramid 

 of Senusert II at Illahun. It was known 

 that Senusert had established a town for 

 the builders of his pyramid, naming it 

 "Ha-hetep-Senusert," "Senusert is con- 

 tent." 



Petrie's excavations revealed the be- 

 ginnings of the town wall close to the 

 north side of the pyramid, and street by 

 street the whole was cleared, until the 

 practically unchanged plan of an Egyp- 

 tian working-class town of the twelfth 

 dynasty was revealed. The workmen of 

 those days were poorly lodged. Their 

 low mud-brick thatched houses were 

 crowded into congested groups, sepa- 

 rated by narrow alleys, while there were 

 great ranges of barrack-like structures 

 with a multitude of small chambers un- 

 der one roof, open passages affording ac- 

 cess to the various rooms. 



Even in these congested quarters, how- 

 ever, evidences were not wanting that the 

 life of the inhabitants was on a higher 

 plane than we should have imagined 

 from the character of their homes. Vari- 

 ous papyri, included among which were 

 two wills, the earliest known instances of 

 such documents, a hymn of praise to 

 Senusert HI, and some pages of a med- 

 ical treatise, showed that letters were not 

 unknown. Toys of various kinds — whip- 

 tops, model boats, dolls and draught- 

 boards — suggested that child life has 

 varied but little in its tastes through all 

 the centuries. 



HOW THE EGYPTIANS MADE EIRE 



The question of how the Egyptians 

 made fire was one that had often exer- 

 cised archeologists. No representation 

 of the process existed on the monuments, 

 nor does the nation appear to have at- 

 tached any religious significance to the 

 origin of fire. The question was settled 

 by the discovery at Kahun of a regular 

 bow-drill for making fire, together with 

 several sticks showing the burnt holes 

 caused by fire-drilling. 



Mixed with remains of twelfth dynasty 

 Egyptian pottery were fragments of ves- 

 sels which we now know to be of unmis- 

 takably ^gean fabric. Thus, more than 

 eleven years before the treasures of 

 Knossos were brought to light, evidence 

 was revealed of intercourse between the 

 Egypt of the Middle Kingdom and the 

 great sister civilization of Crete. 



ANOTHER PERIOD OE DARKNESS 



The close of the twelfth dynasty, which 

 seems to have been' a period of great and 

 solid prosperity, is followed by the sec- 

 ond of the great dark gaps in Egyptian 

 history. Of the dynasties from the thir- 

 teenth to the sixteenth and the great 

 catastrophe known as the Hyksos domi- 

 nation, which falls within this period, 

 little is known save from the fanciful 

 and conflicting stories which have been 

 preserved for us in Josephus and other 

 more or less untrustworthy historical 

 writers. 



Nor can it be said that modern ex- 

 ploration has done much to lighten the 



