Harvard Man’s Discoveries in Egypt Include Lovely Household Articles
CAIRO, November 10.—Dr. George A. Reisner, assistant professor of Egyptology of Harvard University, has issued a report describing the work he has done on the tomb of Queen Netepheres, mother of King Cheops and wife of Senefru, first sovereign of the fourth dynasty. The report says that identification of the tomb is based on two inscriptions in gold hieroglyphics on the back of a carrying chair.
Dr. Reisner asserted that he found evidence that Netepheres died some. time after Cheops came to the throne and was buried at Dashur, on the west bank of the Nile and directly south of the great pyramids. The tomb was rifled by thieves, and when the violation was discovered Cheops’ secretary transferred the body to a new tomb at the entrance of the Pyramid Ghiza. This tomb is a vertical shaft cut 100 feet through the limestone with the chamber opening from the bottom. Everything in the former tomb was brought out, even the things the thieves had smashed.
The discoveries included a bed and three chairs, still intact: 50 implements and tools, 6 of which are solid gold, 15 of copper and the remainder of flint; a dozen wooden panels with inlaid floral designs in faience, framed in gold; household vessels, including three gold cups, a copper basin, a ewer, 28 alabaster vessels and 5 boxes of linen, almost entirely disentegrated.
Many of the vessels found represent the traditional types of the third dynasty. Perhaps the most impressive discovery was a gold-cased jewel box bearing the Queen’s name and containing 20 silver anklets, graduated to fit the leg upward. Each anklet is ornamented with four conventionalized dragon flies inlaid with calachite, lapis lazuli and carnelian.
Dr. Reisner has now begun to remove the canopy on the alabaster sarcophagus, together with the panels bearing the name of Senefru. The canopy’s framework is an astonishing piece of work. All the tenons and mortices are sheathed with copper. It has copper attachments for curtains, or doors. The sarcophagus will probably be opened in December.
The Evening Star, Washington, DC, November 10, 1926
