The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-10-28
Ancient Warrior Uncovered.

The excavations undertaken by the
! Greek scientist Stamartakis upon the
battlefield of Cheronea have led to a
remarkable archaeological discovery.
According to the writings of Pausanias
and Plutarch, in the year 338 B. c., 3d.
600 Macedonians, under the command
of Philip and his son Alexander, then
but eighteen years of age, annihilated
the united forces of ihe Athenians and
Thebans ut Cheronea, which is situated
on the plain extending from the foot of
Mount Parnassus. The encounter was
so deadly and the slaughter so enormous
that the river which traVerseS the plain.
the bed of which river is now drv, re-
ceived therefrom the name of Hamon,
signifying the blood river. The "holy
band " of the Thebans, consisting of
300 heroic young men, which only took
part at the conclusion of the battle, was
entirely destroyed, the bodies being in
tered together on the battlefield. The
troop of 800 glorious dead have now,
after the lapse of two-and-twenty cen
turtles, been discovered and brought to
light by the exertions of M. Stamar-
talks, and, remarkable to add. exactly
in the form in which they were buried.
Five minutes walk from the village of
Cheronea, which is now named Capra-
ona, are scattered the limbs of colo> sal
monumental lion, destroyed by the stu
pidity and avariciousness of the inha it
ants, who believed that beneath It's
base hidden treasures would be disc9v-
cred. Thus. this gigantic block of mar
BILE, erected TO be an everlasting testi-
mony of the glorious deeds of the
mighty dead, had been undermined and
blown up. 1t is on this spot that for
some months passed excavations have
been carried on, the first discovery
being that of a wall, which, upon
being laid bare, was found to be twenty
five meters long, fifteen meters wide
and over two meters high, resting uoon
a foundation one and half meters in
depth. In the parallelogram formed by
this wall the eXcavators found at
depjh of four meters the remains of 1856
Thebans resting upon the clay soil, in
parallel rows of forty men, side by side
exactly in the position in which they
had expired. Several rows of these
glorious combatants have already been
uncovered, the heads of the lower rows
resting on the feet of the ones above.
All the corpses bear the traces of the
severe wounds from which they died.
The two thighs of one man have been
pierced by the point of lance; the jaw
bone of another has been smashed; the
skull of third terribly mutilated; while
a fourth, of whom the head is wonder
fully preserved, has his mouth opened,
seemingly in the act of breathing, and
this latter it is intended to remove to the
Museum of Antiquities at Athens. 1t
is especially remarkable that the whole
OF the remains of these heroes of the
town of hundred gates still retain
their teeth complete. No weapons were.
found, as these were usually taken
from the vanquished, but number of
bone buttons, pierced in the middle,
were discovered and two handled
earthenware pots. The excavations
will be continued in order to discover
the remaining 100 companions of the
Theban phalanX and the two memorial
stones on the right and left of the lion
of Cheronea, which was erected to pre-
serve to future generations the names
of the noble 800. M. Stamartakis is
preparing detailed report of this in
teresting historical discovery and a
series of drawings, which will be added
to the report, will give the position of
each combatant. Six of them will be
preserved in the Athens Museum and
the remainder will be restored to their
twenty-five century old funeral resting
place within the Halls of Time.-LOl1-
don Times.