Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

practiced under it, the Government of Greece has enacted a new law, which differs from the old one chiefly in that all objects of antiquity are declared to be exclusively the property of the state. Compensation is, however, provided for the owner of the land on which the object is found equivalent to one half of its value as determined by a committee of three persons, in which both parties are represented. Notice of all finds must be given to the ephor general within five days, under penalty of forfeiture of the compensation and a liability to fine and imprisonment. The new law further provides for a process of condemnation of property on which excavations are authorized by the state, and, in a second statute, for the organization of a graded archæological service under the direction of the Minister of Education.

The Agora of Corinth.-Excavations at Corinth were begun in 1896, under the auspices of the American school at Athens, by Mr. Rufus B. Richardson, and resulted in the discovery of the theater. They were then suspended, on account of the war between Greece and Turkey, but were resumed in 1898, when the famous fountain of Pirene was found, with the architecture of its two-story façade almost intact, except for the loss of its marble front. Other results of the excavations of 1898 were the recovery of the synagogue in which St. Paul preached, and of a broad marble staircase leading from a broad pavement at the foot up the valley lengthwise, 30 steps of which were laid bare. The work was resumed in 1899, when at the top of this staircase were found the foundations of the propylæa mentioned by Pausanias, through which the street to the harbor of Lechæon led from the agora, occupying a position of the magnificence of which the mention by Pausanias gives no idea. Other results of the explorations of 1899 were the identification of the Temple of Apollo and the discovery of the fountain of Glauke. By the aid of these discoveries and of the descriptions given by Pausanias the identification of other points in the city will become comparatively easy.

Antiquities of Melos and Crete. The annual report of the (British) Hellenic Society, June 29, mentioned important excavations in the island of Melos, with some research at Naucratis, as having constituted the principal work of the society for the year. Prof. Jebb, chairman of the meeting, spoke of the explorations that had been made, now for the third season, on the site of a prehistoric city near the village of Phylákopi, in the northwest of Melos, representing the earliest capital of the island, and said that the prehistoric deposit found there belonged to the interval between the earliest culture traceable on Greek soil and the later Mycenæan age. The earliest pottery found there was primitive unpainted ware, hand made and hand polished, such as was found in the earliest cyst tombs of the Cyclades. Next in age to this came a series of vase fragments with painted geometric designs; and to this again succeeded in chronological order a series of fragments known as 66 Therean -that is, belonging to the class found in the island of Thera (Santorin). The work of these three periods was, of course, all pre-Mycenaean. A circumstance of peculiar interest in connection with these excavations was the discovery that the ancient town at Phylákopi must have been a prehistoric center for the manufacture and export of implements made of obsidian-a mineral which occurred in this island, and seemingly nowhere else in the Levant, in a peculiar highly vitreous state. An appeal was made for

[ocr errors]

the support of excavations in Crete, where, by an understanding with the High Commissioner of the powers, certain sites of historical importance and representative character had been reserved for British exploration. One of these was Cnosos, the city of Minos and Dedalus, the center of the ancient sea power and the earliest home of Cretan art, where a promising mound was awaiting examination. Another site was Præsos, a seat of Cretan life at a very remote period, where an archaic inscription had been discovered in a dialect the key to which had yet to be found. A third site was Lyttos, where fragments of ancient laws had been unearthed in the acropolis; and another was the cave of Psychro, on Mount Dikte, the legendary birthplace of Zeus. The great interest of prehistoric Crete consisted in its character as the first Ægean station of the earliest civilization which passed westward from Egypt. Among the results of recent research to which Crete bore witness was the existence of a system of sign writing older than the use of the Phoenician alphabet, and pointing to an intercourse with Egypt which might date from 3,000 or possibly 4,000 years B. C.

Archæological Interest in Crete.-As soon as tranquillity was restored to Crete and a European government was organized for the island the people began to show interest in its archæology by founding local museums, and an active society was formed at Heracleum for the conservation of Cretan treasures of antiquity. The Government published a decree June 21 (July 3, new style), signed by Prince George, for the protection of all remains of the past from the earliest times to the Venetian conquest, as well as of later works of historical or artistic value. The law provides compensation over and above the archæological value of the discovery to private owners, but not to communities, monasteries, and scientific bodies. It requires that the discovery of immovable antiquities be at once reported to the authorities, and that the finder leave his discovery untouched for two months after the day of giving notice, while the authorities may decide upon its disposition. Every disturbance, damage, or alteration of ancient monuments without special permission is forbidden, as also is the carrying of stones or other material from ancient ruins. Every find of movable antiquities upon his own property must be reported by the discoverer within five days, and he is given one third of its value in each case, while the finder of such articles on another man's ground shares the remuneration with the owner thereof. The right of eminent domain may be exercised when necessary, and the Government will pay indemnities for damages to property. The results of excavations belong to the Government, and will be placed in public museums, of which two have been established. The trade in antiquities is permitted only within the island, and is confined to objects that are unsuitable for the museums, those discovered before the publication of the law, and those that have been brought from abroad, after they have been duly reported and catalogued.

Temple of Esculapius at Paros.-The excavators of the German archæological school at Athens working in the island of Paros have uncovered the celebrated Temple of Esculapius which is described by several Greek authors. It had been pillaged, and no objects of art were found in it. Not far from the temple a fountain was discovered, which dates from the fifth or sixth century B. C., and near this the vestiges of very ancient walls.

Winners of Olympic Games.-Among the papyri recovered from Behneseh, Egypt, and deciphered by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt, is one giving a list of the winners in all the 13 events which formed the Olympian games for a series of about seven years. It is the first record that has been found of all the events of even a single Olympiad. It covers a part of the time when Pindar and Bacchylides were composing odes, yet extant, in honor of the Olympian victors, and affords upon independent testimony, accurate dates for these famous compositions. It further throws light upon the history of Greek plastic art of the period by fixing the year of a victory, and consequently of the sculptor whose work commemorated it. Thus Polycleitus is shown to have been living in the middle of the fifth century B. C., and to have flourished only a little later than Phidias, while the sculptor Pythagoras can be shown to have continued his work down to about the same period in that century.

Palestine. Presumed Site of Gath.-At Tell-es-Saffi, the supposed site of ancient Gath, the boundary wall of the former city has been discovered in the excavations of Dr. Bliss and Mr. Macalister by tracing a massive rampart that inclosed it. The walls were 12 feet thick, and rose in some places to the height of 33 feet. Shafts have been sunk within the area, and have revealed four strata of débris-two pre-Israelite strata, a stratum coinciding with Jewish times, and a stratum of the age of the crusades. The testimony of the pottery would make it appear that the place has had a continuous history from the eighteenth century B. C. to the fourth century B. C., that it was founded long before the conquest of the land by Joshua, and was inhabited continuously till a late Jewish period, when it was deserted till the time of the crusaders. The tablets or stele have not, however, yet been found which would definitely identify Tell-esSaffi with Gath. "Our excavations," says Dr. Bliss, "have proved the existence of a city quite as ancient as Gath on a site where Gath may reasonably be looked for, fortified at about a period when Gath was made a city of defense." The explorers have also been working at the neighboring site of Tell Zakariya, which has been identified with the Azekah of Scripture, where the remains of a large fortress have been found.

A Canaanitish "High Place."-The report of the excavation at Tel-es-San by Dr. Bliss, published in the quarterly journal of the Palestine Exploration Fund, relates the discovery of a structure which is supposed to be the remains of a Canaanitish temple, or one of the " 'high places" mentioned in the Bible. Three upright monoliths are supposed to represent the pillars spoken of in the Scripture.

Persia. Ruins of Apadana.-Prof. J. De Morgan, digging beneath the excavations made by M. Dieulafay in 1885 on the site of the Apadana of Darius and Artaxerxes at Susa, has found inscriptions and monuments of the Anzanite period which seem to throw light on Assurbanipal's account of having taken Susa and destroyed it. Many of the monuments bore traces of fire, which the explorer referred to Assurbanipal's conflagration. A large stela, 61 feet high and 40 inches wide at the base, bore three representations of the sun at the top. Below these stands the king, wearing his helmet and having a bow in his left hand and an arrow in his right, dressed in Assyrian costume, treading enemies under his feet, and having a wounded enemy (a supplicant) and dead around him. Soldiers

led by three standard bearers are pursuing the enemy, some of whom have turned toward them, beneath three trees, with a supplicating air. The scene is in the mountains. An abrupt cliff which the king and his pursuing force have reached bears a long inscription. The whole has suffered much from fire. The composition and its details are well spoken of as works of art. A bronze table or altar discovered in the same trench-an irregular slab about 5 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 10 inches thick-was borne by four human figures at one end, while the other end was mortised into the wall, was pierced by four holes at the sides, and had a border of two enormous serpents. Only the upper parts of the bodies of the human figures remain, the heads and lower parts being gone; the arms were slightly extended from the body, and crossed over the abdomen. All projecting parts of the monument had been broken off, and the marks of hammers were visible. A granite obelisk was found, covered on all four of its sides with an inscription deeply cut into the stone, consisting of 25 horizontal lines, divided into more than 1,500 small columns, and containing almost 10,000 characters. It is the longest inscription ever discovered in Mesopotamia, and is almost complete. A white stone. roughly hewn, had four faces bearing pictures and inscriptions; at the top a coiled serpent, with two panels beneath it running round the block, and containing, the upper one two suns, the moon, two houses with conical roofs, and a scorpion; the lower one, some fantastic animals and squares interlapping. The lower part of this stone had once contained 23 lines of inscriptions, a part of which had been rubbed out by the use of the stone for sharpening tools. Another similar stone, but black, has a coiled serpent at the top, with pictures and inscriptions on the four faces below it: a star, moon, and sun, below which is a seated figure, supposed to be the king, with hands raised in adoration of a scorpion in front of him; a lion lies at his feet, under which are five lines of inscriptions. The second face of this stone is divided into five panels, containing a square building with conical roof, four standards or religious emblems, and a hawk perched next to a bull. The other two sides are filled with inscriptions. The inscriptions are being studied by Père Schell.

Egypt. Fall of Columns in the Temple of Karnak.-On Oct. 9 a number of columns (making 11 columns in all) in the fourth and fifth rows north of the axis of the Temple of Karnak fell, in consequence, it is supposed, of a slight shock of earthquake. They all fell in a straight line, from east to west. The columns can be set up again, but the architraves above them are utterly broken and destroyed. The work of repairing and strengthening the ruins of the temple has been going on for three years, under the direction of M. Segrain. None of the columns that had been repaired were injured.

Tomb of Dhuti.-In the excavations prosecuted in January, 1899, by Dr. W. Spiegelberg, of Strasburg, in the necropolis of Drah-Abu-lNeggah, many tombs were found, but, they having all been plundered in early times, only the less valuable things remained. Yet many objects were found of importance for archæology. Dr. Spiegelberg believes that the tombs belong to the obscure period of which we have very few monuments-between the thirteenth and seventeenth dynasties. With this fact in view, Prof. W. Max Müller says, in the Independent of New York: Even the discovery of numerous crude ushebti'-figures of wood with the well-known

66

chapter of the Book of the Dead written on them with ink-is of importance. Many of these figures were inclosed in a small sarcophagus of earthenware. Once such a sarcophagus had a small imitation of a tomb over itself, made from a few bricks. Four conic vessels stood at the corners of the sarcophagus. The theory that these figures did not represent slaves of the dead (as, indeed, did different statuettes of the earlier periods), but were proxies of the deceased which were expected to take his place when Osiris called him to the daily work in the heavenly fields, finds by the new observations a brilliant confirmation. This becomes the plainer if we consider that many of these proxies were wrapped in linen bandages, exactly like mummies." The time when these pits were plundered seems to be near the end of the Thebaic kingdom, when, Dr. Spiegelberg thinks, a general clearing up of the old tombs for reuse was going on. Some of the old pits were used as collective burial places for ibises and other sacred birds. One of the tombs, which had suffered this fate, belonged to a certain Here, the inspector of granaries of Queen Aahhotep, of the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty. Near this was a tomb belonging to the chief of the silver and gold house, Dhuti. Of two stela standing in the court at the entrance to the tomb, one contained a hymn addressed to Amon Re, while the other contained in 42 lines an account of the official acts of the deceased-among other facts, that he was appointed to superintend the manufacture of works in precious metals under the reigns of Queen Hatasu and King Thothmes III. Apposite to this is the collection of magnificent gold and silver plates of curious style preserved in the Louvre, and bearing the same name of Dhuti. Dhuti, too, is described in a tale in a papyrus in London as the hero who took by surprise the hostile city of Yapu, or Jaffa, in Palestine. He also claims to have registered the spoils brought back by the expedition which Queen Hatasu sent to the incense country of Punt, on the Red Sea. Seek ing more light on this passage, Dr. Spiegelberg, Mr. Percy Newberry, and Mr. Howard Carter together examined anew the pictures relating to the expedition in the temple of Hatasu at Deirel-Bahari, and found in the section representing the piling up of the products traces of a figure, before unperceived, of a man making entries, over which was the name of Dhuti, half obliterated, an effort having evidently been made to scratch out this part of the scene. Hence it is inferred that Dhuti eventually fell into disfavor.

Predynastic Relics. In a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries, June 15, Mr. F. G. Hilton Price, director, described a number of very ancient antiquities in his collection which had come from Negada, Abydos, Gebelen, and other archaic sites. Many of these objects had been known to Egyptologists for several years, but it was not until systematic excavations had been carried on by Prof. Flinders Petrie at Negada and Ballas, in 1894-95, that their period could be ascertained. It has been found that they belong to a predynastic people, who lived in the Nile valley previous to or about the time of the first dynasty. Among these objects were a remarkably fine and perfect amulet, made out of the end of the tusk of an elephant, having a human head of Asiatic type, with pointed beard, carved out on the point; an amulet made of a thin, flat piece of gold, apparently representing the former done in the flat instead of the round; a wand or baton in ivory, shaped like a boomerang, and engraved with fantastic figures; cone-shaped stone disks,

hitherto supposed to be mace heads, but which might be whorls or guards for the hand fire drill; and palettes of slate, which the author agreed with Prof. Petrie in considering had been largely used for grinding malachite or hematite for face paint, in some of which traces of the colors remained. These palettes might possibly have been employed primarily as amulets. Other objects described were bangles in shell, articles in bone, called "manikins," spoons, beads, a small stone lion, pots or vases of diorite, and other ornamental stones; pottery, of which specimens are mentioned of the red ware with black tops and of the decorative class; and a series of finely chipped implements in cherty flint.

Relics of the Earlier Dynasties.-An exhibition made by Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie at University College, London, in July, included some of the results obtained by Prof. Petrie and his company during the previous season for the Egypt Exploration Fund and a prehistoric collection lent by Mr. Randolph Berens. The work of the Exploration Fund had been on cemeteries of various early periods, and in part at Deir-elBahari. The principal discovery of the year was that of the Libyan settlements in Egypt at the close of the middle kingdom, about 2400 B. C. The graves of these people are shallow, circular pits, about 2 feet deep and 4 feet across, which the excavators called from their form pan graves, and into which the bodies were placed in a contracted position, as in the prehistoric graves, but not all in the same direction. The pottery was like that of the twelfth dynasty and later, and all the Egyptian pottery, kohl pots, and beads found with these burials are of corresponding age. From this circumstance it becomes possible to fix approximately the period of the Libyan invasion. A peculiar feature illustrated in the exhibition is the burial of skulls of domestic animals. The backs of these skulls are cut away, so that they can be hung up, like the Greek bucrania. The facial bones are decorated with spots and lines of red paint, put on with the finger-a custom which belongs also to the prehistoric Egyptians, who are supposed to have been mainly Libyans. From the prehistoric period-still unrelated-were shown flint knives, forked lance heads, ivory knobs, clay toys and models, pottery, stone vases, beads, and other objects. The collection also included—of later periods-stone vases and kohl pots of alabaster, basalt, serpentine, and blue marble; statuettes of a lady Tasegt, a man Ranseut, and a youth whose name is lost; and several bronze weapons. A dagger is shown in photograph-the original having been detained in Cairo-with ivory handle and silver rosettes, inscribed with the name of King Snazenra, of the fourteenth dynasty. Articles of pottery of the thirteenth to the seventeenth dynasties furnish a set of forms intermediate between those of the middle kingdom and of the empire, which completes. Mr. Petrie says, our view of Egyptian pottery, which we now know from prehistoric times down to the nineteenth dynasty." The loan collection contains some of the finest specimens known of the stone vases made in the best period of the prehistoric age, among them three large vases of shelly breccia; another of diorite, of later prehistoric time; an alabaster cup with seven spouts, assigned to the third or fourth dynasty; and a number of prehistoric flints from both the high desert plateau and the lower level near the Nile, from which the inference is drawn that Palæolithic man continued in Egypt until the Nile was as low as its present level.

66

Summary of Results.-Of the latest results of the explorations of the ancient tombs Mr. Petrie said, in his report to the Egypt Exploration Fund at its annual meeting, Nov. 10, after describing a system he had adopted of classifying and dating the relics found: "Thus we have a system just as convenient as a scale of years, and every kind of object can be relatively dated in it. From the order of the graves as found by the pottery, I have obtained the history of the development of stone vases, ivories, and the working of flint and metal, for even the earliest of these tombs contain copper. And having done that, a new piece of history becomes apparent in the great change that passed over every kind of work at one point of the scale about a quarter through the prehistoric age that we are studying. A new tribe seems to have come in with very different notions. One of the most curious differences is that the older people largely used signs, which are the forerunners of the Mediterranean alphabets, while the later people ignored such signs. The earlier people used no amulets; the later used amulets, several of which came down to the historic times. The use of a forehead pendant and face veil seems also to belong only to the later people. The characteristic pottery of the earlier people is closely like the Kabyle pottery of the present; the later people had some pottery almost identical with that of south Palestine in historic times. All these indications point to the earlier being a Libyan population, overlaid later on by an eastern migration. These results we have only reached in the last few weeks. I hope now it is clear what a great step we have made historically in the mode of reducing the prehistoric chaos into orderly sequence, and in tracing changes in the civilization of such ages. . . . In other lines we have also reaped a good harvest. The cemeteries of the sixth to the twelfth dynasties have given us the history of alabaster vases and of heads. The cemeteries of the thirteenth to the seventeenth dynasties have shown the development of pottery, as yet unknown, and splendid dated examples of fourteenth dynasty copper work, which fix the forms of daggers and axes. An entirely fresh invasion of Egypt by Libyans at the close of the twelfth dynasty has been traced; several kinds of subjects known before, but without dates, have taken their historical position, and we have a sample of the civilization of the Libyan tribes at about 2000 B. C. And coming down to Roman times, we have found the continuance of a longer and fuller alphabet of Asia Minor in an inscription scratched by a Roman legionary at the camp of Diospolis."

Africa. Prehistoric Tombs of Carthage.The excavations of M. Gauckler at Carthage have been carried on in a tract near the cisterns of Bordj Djedid, between the great trench where Vernay first discovered Carthaginian tombs in 1885 and the Punic necropolis of Douimès, which was successfully explored by Père Delatre. This district is one of the most important in Carthage, containing as it does traces of former civilizations in successive strata to the depth of 7 or 8 metres. In the superficial explorations relics brought to the surface by the plow were observed, consisting of tiles, lamps, coins, articles of pottery, etc. At the depth of a metre and a half Byzantine tombs were found with rude mosaics. Beneath these were various constructions of the corresponding epoch, among others a Roman house apparently of the period of Constantine, together with remains of a more ancient epoch, notably a colossal head of Marcus Aurelius in

white marble. This house of Constantine's time is very interesting. In the center was a fountain; farther on were two rooms paved with mosaics, one representing a seashore scene, comprising a pavilion with towers, persons fishing or boating, and mythological scenes in the lower part. Another mosaic is less important, representing a hunt of wild animals, and apparently, from the style and design, not older than the fourth century A. D. Still another mosaic is marked by pagan traits, and is therefore probably more ancient. A narrow passage was discovered, with steps, descending which a chamber was found, the floor of which was covered with fragments of painted and molded plaster. The apartment had been divided by a wall, on the other side of which the débris was of a different character, and consisted of lamps in the Christian designs of the fish, the palm, and the cross, and fragments of pillars and plaster painted in bright colors, of a style quite Pompeiian. One of these fragments represents a young woman or priestess dressed in white, with a lotus flower over her forehead, holding a staff terminating in a cross. Other figures in marble were of pagan divinities, bearing ancient fractures and signs of deterioration, indicating that they had suffered at the hands of iconoclasts. Among them were a pudic Venus on a dolphin, a Jupiter seated with his eagle, a Bacchus giving a drink to a panther, a young man seated dressed in the chlamys, a mask of Silenus, a lion's-head waterspout, two statues of Mithra in terra cotta (one of which was trampling on the head of a bull), articles of pottery, the lower part of a statuette with the bust of the Carthaginian horse, a mask of a goddess wearing a diadem, and a portrait of a woman. In a far corner of the chamber,

[graphic][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

was a second dedication. At the foot of this double dedication was a white marble head of a votive bull, bearing between its horns a crescent with an inscription dedicated to Saturn; then 20 betyles in granite and balls of stone, often crossed by a bronze wire, and disks or ovoid balls of terra cotta. This find of balls derives importance from the fact that, while large numbers of such objects had been found at Carthage, their purposes were not known. The present finding and the objects with which the balls are associated indicate that they were votive offerings. In the extreme back of this dark corner of the chamber was a sort of secret place, where were found four almost intact statues of white marble. The three larger ones formed a triad similar to that constituted by the colossal statues found in the Sebka de Kheredine, now preserved in the Museum of Bardo. The latter statues represent the Carthaginian Isis, but those now found are of the Greek Demeter, the Roman Ceres africana, who superseded the Phoenician Tanit, accompanied by the slender Canephora Oneistophora, and a young woman clothed in transparent drapery. These statues are very graceful, chiseled in a marble of golden tone and very fine grain. A few light touches with the pencil serve to bring out the characteristic features of the sculpture and give the illusion of life. The figures had been concealed in the bottom of the crypt, which had afterward been carefully covered up and walled, and then covered with a mosaic, which effectually concealed it. They were probably thus hidden away to prevent injury by Christian enemies. The necropolis beneath the level of these chambers contains tombs down to the Roman epoch, and also very ancient Punic tombs, which carry us back to the sixth century B. C. The burial places were respected so long as Carthage remained independent, and were gradually extended out to greater distances from the city. The tombs farthest away date from about the third century B. C., while the more ancient tombs were nearer to the old town. They were excavated out of the rock of the plateau of tufa that extends beyond Bordj Djedid. The first tombs

opened by M. Gauckler were simple graves dug in the virgin sand, and are generally poor, containing nothing more than the scarabeus of carnelian or paste, which might answer as a kind of card of identity for the deceased, a bronze disk, an ostrich egg, a painted figure to serve as a protecting amulet, some pearl beads, and pottery, but never coins. Other graves are covered with a simple slab. In one of these last was found a large Punic terra-cotta mask, intact, the hideously distorted expression of which was expected to frighten sacrilegious violators of the tomb. Another grave contained an Assyrian cylinder of jade, bearing a figure of the god Marduck throttling a winged monster. As the explorers advanced toward the hill the tombs were closer together and richer. Some were arranged like troughs paved with slabs. Silver jewels, necklaces, numerous pearls of vitreous paste, and hard stones, amethyst, agate, carnelian, rock crystal, ear pendants, and a few gold rings were collected from them. In February, 1899, M. Gauckler discovered two large tombs built like the tomb of Iadamelek, which was found in 1894, at the same depth of 7 metres. The mortuary chamber was closed by a monolith door. The flat roof was protected against the earth above by a series of monoliths, disposed saddle-back fashion, while the interior of the roof was ceiled with cedar, which is now decayed, and the remains of which crumble into dust under pressure of the finger. The walls are covered with a clear white stucco. In the back of the chamber was a little broken pitcher. The niche was empty in the first tomb; in the second it was occupied by two pieces of pottery. The deceased was extended directly on the floor, without a coffin, clothed in his jewels. Numerous large jars were in a corner. The first tomb contained two skeletons-a husband and wife. The man had a silver ring with a carnelian scarabeus and seal on his finger. The woman had an ear pendant, a necklace pendant, a ring with a bezel representing a winged uræus and two doves, all in massive gold. The second tomb contained only a man's body, with a place left by its side, but not many

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »