Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-05-10
REMNANTS OF PAST GREATNESS.
DIR. SchHemann's Excavations on the
Site of the Ancient City of MOtye, In
Cartha ginia-The American Explora
ton of Palestine

ton OF PALESTINE.
DIR. Schliemann sends to the London
Athene1,,o his first report of his excava-
tions on the site of the old Cartha gilman
city of Motye, on a little island now
called San Pactaleo, off the port Of Mar
sala, on the western coast of Sicily.
The island, which is small and flat and
about two miles from the shore, is only
one and one-half miles in circumfer-
ence. DR.. Schliemann thus describes it:
cit is covered with vineyards, Gel
ebrated for their delicious wine, and in
habited by 10 families of peasants,
which, by continual intermarriages,
have all become closely related, and
constitute now, SO to speak, only one
large family. This island is the site of
the once powerful Carthaginian city
Motye, which was famous for the beau
ty of it's edifces and the wealth of it's
inhabitants. But fragments of pottery,
! the ruins of two gates, and the remains
of the circuitwall, are now the only
monuments of this mighty emporium.
Motye was, in 367 B. c., besieged by
the tyrant of Syracuse, the elder Dion
sius, who attacked it with an army of
$4,000 men and a powerful fleet. In
this siege the fearful catapult" was
used for the first time which was des-
tined to produce in ancient warfare the
same revolution as l, 70Oyears later was
produced in modern warfare by the in
vention of gunpowder. This gigantic
engine Of destruction SO frightened the
Carthaginian general, Himilcon, who
had come with large fleet to the as
sistance Of Motye, that he returned to
Carthage and left the doomed city to
it's fate. The inhabitants, nevertheless,
continued to make a heroic defense,
and for long time baffled all the eff
forts Of the tyrant, who became so ex-
asperated that, when at last he succeed
ed In storming the place, he put to
death the whole population without
difference of sex or age, and crucifed
all the Greeks who were found in the
pay of the Carthaginians Not a year
elapsed before Motye fell again into
the hands of the Carthaginians; but it
appears that it was only partly rebuilt,
and soon after entirely abandoned, it's
new inhabitants having been trans
ferred to the new city of Lilybeaum, Of
which Marsala marks the Site
By the desire Of S. Bonghi, the learn
ed minister Of public instruction, and
in the interest OF science, / have made
archaeological researches IN Motye for
one week with nineteen workmen, the
result being to prove that the houses
were built Of sun-dried bricks joined
with cement. l found, however, on the
southeast shore the ruins of large
house, the walls of which consisted
partly of bricks, partly of stones joined
with cement, and 1ntersected by square
columns six and half feet high, most
of which were monoliths, and showed
remnants of the stucco with which they
had once been covered. I also found
there and elsewhere fragments of much
decayed Doric columns of porous stone,
but none of them IN stu. All the house
floors consist of layer of stones joined
with cement and covered with thick
layer of chalk.
The fragments of pottery are of two
kinds, rough implanted Phenician and
painted Greek, which latter are
splendidly made, and seem to belong to
the best epoch of the ceramic art. All
are made on the potter's wheel. The
entire absence of any trace of archaic
pottery leaves no doubt that Motye did
not exist for a long time. This is also
confirmed by the small accumulation
of household remains. If the town
had but existed for a century, the depth
of these ruins would show different
proportions I may remind the reader
that the depth of the artificial rubbish
at Troy amounts to So feet.
&C found no uoctIro Of iro,, Rror1o
arroW-heads are found here in great
abundance; they are of two kinds
Some are in the form Of small, very
pointed pyramids, with three very
sharp edges, and have three barbs, so
as to make extraction from the wounds
impossible; the others are in the form
of miniature lances. The former are
justly attributed to the Hyracusans,
Identical arroW-heads being constantly
found at Syracuse; the latter are as
cribed to the Carthaginians. [ found
besides lot of copper or bronze nails,
and number of copper coins, of
which, however, only three or four are
in tolerable state of preservation"
DR.. Schliemann, in conclusion, denies
staten ent which is repeated by Mr.
Wendell Phillips, in his lecture on ''The
Lost Arts"
"I may add that Polyenus' state
| ment that the Carthaginian's commu-
nicated from this western coast of
Sicily were Carthage by means of sort
of Geographic signal and kind of tel
escope, called by him 'diopra,' is phys
ical mpossibility, for the distance is
15O miles, and, on account of the curve
of the globe, neither the African coast
can be discerned from here nor the
.Sicilian coast from Africa. It would
be different it both Motye and Carthage
were 1000 feet high"
The Athen8,tn, prints also the follow
ing relative to the Palestine explora-
tons:
"The constantly recurring attacks of
fever under which Lieut.. Gender has
suffered during the winter have ne
cessitated a postponement of the re-
turn to the Palestine survey expedition
till autumn. In order, however, that
time may not be lost, an Office has been
taken at the Royal Albert Hall, where
+lo Y,o ,tu ara of rrncoy,t onroro6 ~,