The Bossier banner., 1877-08-16
, = :
Discovery OF the Site of an Ancient
Temple. ?

Long before the traditional period of
the Trojan war, Cyprus had cities and
commerce. The Phenician colony be-
came Egyptian for a while after the
fifteenth century B. C. Kurium had
probably been founded before the
Egyptian conquest in 1442 B. C. hence
the accumulation of the art of many
centuries in the treasures of her
temples. 80. FL. 49,.
General Cesnola found at Kurium only
vast heaps of ruin The city was built
on a bluff three hundred feet in per-
pendicular height on three sides. The
rock of the bluff was soft calcareous
stone, and around the city, in the sides
of the bluff, he found a terrace hun
dred feet wide, cut and followed deep
in the rock, in the sides of which were
tombs Among the ruins on the hill he
/ identified the site of q temple, and
here saw that explorers before him had
made excavations, and abandoned them.
He was induced to 60 deeper than they
had, under the mosaic floor of the
temple. Fl At the depth OF, twenty feet he
struck a, dark passageWay, which he
penetrated till stopped by low stone
| door, Bursting this, he found himself
at the entrance of series Of vaulted
rooms. in the rock. The rooms were
full of fi.e earth which had sifted
Through the rock walls. s@j'' '''} Z
The explorer did not know where he
was, but he was standing at the door
way which leads the student of art into
I the hitherto unknown fields of investi-
CATION among the early Greeks and their
Phenieian and Egyptian predecessors.
The General soon perceived that the
room which he was to enter was not a
4 tomb. Commencing to remove the
earth in the slow and careful manner
which. the experienced excavator always
practices, he began to find beautiful OBJ
jects in gold lying in heaps on the tlool
of the VAULT. Then came the evidence
that he had opened the treasure
chambers of the temple. Twenty five
!. hundred years ago the priests, in tht
: temple, were suddenly alarmed by tht
rush of besieging army over or through
| the lofty walls of Kurium. In the wilC
haste of the unexpected attack, they
: swept from alters and shrines, wher'
they were exposed, the votiye offering
of generations of worshipers, hastenet
= down the dark passage, and threw them
J heaps on heaps, into the treasury vault
; closed the stone door, and doubtless als'
: closed the secret entrance to the pas
5 sageway The enemy came in, ant
heWed down the priests before the altars
or carried them away captive to Asia
: None was left who knew the secret of tn
e vault. - The temple was desecrated
e robbed, destroyed, its walls and column
e hurled down in hideous ruin, and fo
/ twenty-five centuries the gold of the oil
e Phenician and Egyptian and Gree
g worshipers lay dark and unknown i
o the vaulted chamber. From the gol
! chamber a low doorway, two feet seve
J. inches high, opened into the next ,yault
+ which was the silver room. Black, col
: roded, unsighflyeas it is, this treasuf
d was notless important than the golt
For ancient silver objects are very rart
d especially cups and vases. There WEI
# piles of these corroded into masse.
it,. But q considerable number were pc
] feet, and are of the greatest archaolos
It ical Importance From this room opel
e ed another low door into Il third vaul
It in which were found objects in alabaste
o terra Gotta, etc. and beyond this vaul
t sand at. right angles with it, was a fourt
IL room, which contained objectsin bronz
,e many of which were in very fair pr
d servation. From this room d nilrro
n passageway descended iii the rocl
1T which the General explored for 130 fee
and then abandoned, because of the fo
" air and the difficulty of proceeding
S. William C. Prime, IN Harper for Angus
L. -
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