The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-07-27
Cesnola's Discovery of the Site of an
Ancient Temple.

Long before the traditional period of
the Trojan war, Cyprus had cities and
commerce. Tho Phmnician colony be-
came. Egyptian for while after the IF
teenth century b. c. Kurium had prob
ably been founded before the Egyptian
conquest i'll l142 b. c.; hence the accu-
mutation oil the art of many centuries in
the treasures of her temples.
Gen. Ccsnola found at Kurinm only
vast heaps of ruins. The city was built
on bluff, three hundred feet in perpcn-
dicular hight on three sides. The rocl,
of the bluff was soft calcarcous stone,
and around the city, in the sides of the
blum, he found a terrace, hundred feet
wide, cut and followed deep in the
rock, in the sides of which were tombs.
Among the ruins on the hill, lie idcnti-
fled the site Of temple, and here saw
that explorers before him had made ex.
cavations, and abandoned them. lie
was induced TO go deeper than they had
under the mosaic floor of the temple
At the depth of twenty feet he struck n
dark passagcway, which he penetrated
till stopped by low stone door. Burst
ing this, he found himself al the en-.
trance of series of vaultcd rooms in
the rock. The rooms were full of fine
earth which had siftcd through the rock
walls.
The explorer did not know where he
was, but he was standing at the door,
way which leads the student of art into
the hitherto unknown fields of investi.
CATION among the early Greeks and their
PhGnician and Egyptian predecessors
Inc general soon perceived that the
room which he was to enter was not O
tomb. Commencing to remove the
earth in the slow and careful manner
which the experienced excavator al
ways practices, he began to find beanti.
iul objects in gold lying in heaps on the
floor of the vault. Then came the eyi
dence that he had opened the treasure
chambers of the temple. Twenty-Five
hundred years ago the priests in th,
temple were suddenly alarmed by tho
rush of besicging army over ol
through the lofty walls of Kurium. Ii
the wild haste of the unexpected attack
they swept from altars and shrines
where they were exposed, the votivt
offerings of generations of worshipers
fastened down the dark passage, ant
threw them, heaps on heaps, into the
treasury vault, closed the stone door
and doubtless also closed the secret en-
trance to the passagcway. The enemy
came in, and hewcd down the priest.
before the altars, or carried them ava,
captive to Asia. None was left whc
knew the secret of the vault. The tom
pie was desecratcd, robbed, DESTROYED
its walls and columns hurled down il
hideous ruin, and for twenty-five cen
turtles the gold of the old PhGnician ant
Egyptian and Greek worshipers lay
dark and unknown in the vaulted cham
ber. From the gold chamber a low
doorway, two feet seven inches high
opened into the next vault, which wa
the silver room. Black, corroded, un
slightly as it is, this treasure was no
less important than the gold. For an
clent silver objects are very rare, espec
Tally cups and vases. There were pile
Of these corroded into masses. But ,
considerable number were perfect, ant
are of the greatest archaeological impor
tance. From this room opened another
low door into third vault, in which
were found objects in alabaster, terri,
Gotta, etc. and beyond this vault, an(
at right angles with it, was q fourtl
room, which contained objects il
bronze, many of which were in YER,
fair preservation. From this room
narrow passageway descended in tn,
rock, which the General explored fol
one hundred and thirty feet, and thel
abandoned, because of the foul air ant
the difficulty of proceeding Harper
Magazine.