The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-12-22
THE ANCIENT WORLD REVEALED.
Great Discoveries In Greece by DIR.
Schliemann. t'


Great Discoveries In Greece by DIR
schliemann.
ro--l- [From the New York SUM- o ~
While we are trying to save from per
version or destruction the republic,
which has now lasted out only its first
century. an enthusiastic scholar, forget
full of the present, is unearthing the re-
mains of civilization which existed
5000 years ago.
During this century, and especially
during the last twenty five years, we
have revised our conceptions Of the his
tory of the peoples who, before the days
of what has been regarded al authentic
secular record, dwelt in the western part
of Asia, and gave birth to material
prosperity and perfected language, which
long anticipated those Of the nations we
now know as civilized. The excavations
on the Tigris, at Ilium, at Mycene, and
at Cyprus attest the substantial founda-
ton and even minute accuracy of the
stories of scripture, Homer and Pau
sanias, which had gained credence
through faith only, or were questioned
as almost fabulous traditions. We find
that Sardanapalus did indeed burn, with
all his possessions and his luxurious
court, in the manner the ancient nara
tors described /; that his city was as they
pictured it that Babylon was actual in
its extent and grandeur, and that it fell
as depicted /; that Priam and Achilles,
Agamemnon and Menelaus, Clytem-
nestra, Kneas and Paris were real peo-
pile, and that as Homer describes them
and their deaths and misfortunes they
really were.
The latest of these contributions to
this most interesting study of antiquity
is that of DIR. Henri Schliemann, the en-
thusiastic German antiquary, who is now
prosecuting, under the favor of his own
and the Greek Governments, important
excavations on the site of the ancient
city of Mycene, in the Peloponnesus of
Greece. His discoveries there, brief
telegraphic account of which we pub
lished this morning, are among the most
remarkable in the history of antiquarian
exploration. On the 28th of November
last, DIR. Schliemann, with unbounded
joy" informed the King of Greece of
the surprising success of his labors. He
thinks he has discovered the monuments
of the Grecian heroes, of whom the ira
ditions preserved by Pausanias make
mention, and the palpable evidence sus-
tains the truth of the stories 80 familiar
to schoolboys. He has unearthed the
tombs of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Fury
medon, and their companions, who were
killed while banqueting at Mycene, by
Clytemnestra, the faithless wife of Aga
memnon, and her paramour and his
cousin, Egisthus. Agamemnon had just
returned from his successful siege of
Troy, whittier he had gone to assist his
brother Menelaus in rescuing his alb
Quoted wife, Helen, the sister of the cor
rupt and murderous Clytemnestra, when
he met his predicted fate.
DR.. Schliemann believes that he has
not only found these tombs as Pausanias
described them, but that he has also I'M
earthed in them, to use his own words,
immense archaeological treasures, and
numbers of articles of pure gold, suffi-
cient to fill large museum, and the
most splendid in the world" All these
treasures, in the true spirit of an anti
quarian, who desires no personal emolu-
ment, he turns over to Greece, and, as
he says, they will become new incen-
tive to pilgrimages to that land so fruit
full in interest to scholars and all who
enjoy studying the developments of one
earth has ever known.
DIR. Schliemann's achievements will
long make this year memorable.