Tomb

Stimulated to historical introspection by the curiosity of nations that are, comparatively, mere children, Egypt is jealously digging herself up these days, under European leadership. Last week, led by Digger Cecil Firth, archaeologists of the Antiquities Department of the Egyptian government climbed up a stairway of 100 steps out of the rocky bowels of their land, at

Sakkara near where ancient Memphis stood, and said they thought they had found the tomb of Architect Im-Hotep, the Christopher Wren of 5,000 years ago. Besides building King Zoser's famed Step Pyramid at Memphis and other monuments, Im-Hotep founded the sciences of law and medicine along the Nile. By the time of Publicist Tutankhamen (enthroned about 1358 B. C.) his legend was almost as old as Christianity now is to the modern world. In Ptolemaic times (Fourth to First Centuries, B. C.) he was deified.

Perhaps, admitted the diggers, the tomb had been a temporary one for King Zoser, used pending Im-Hotep's completion of the nearby Step Pyramid, under the wall of which it lay. Or perhaps it was Zoser's queen's tomb. The sarcophagus, still hidden, would tell. Meantime the diggers marveled at a maze of deep tunnels, at remains of blue tiling, at a dozen alabaster wine jars.