Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-03-15
Archaeology and the Scriptures.

There never was time Wnen arcn9O-
logical research was more active THAI
it is at present. Hardly a month
passes that we do not hear OF some
important find in Greece, Italy, Egypt,
BABYLON, Palestine, or elsewhere. Nor was
there ever q time when the work OF the
archnologlst was followed with more intel
ligent interest. This is especially true IN
respect Of the results OF excavations IN
Babylon and Palestine, and the reason of
il IS that the pulpit is becoming powerful
factor in populsrizing the contemporaneous
literature of discoveries in these places.
MANY of the more recent finds in Babylon
and Palestine and contiguous localities have
furnished most important and indlsputaoie
testimony to the truth of Biblical history
and have completely annihilatcd what
were erstwhile the strongholds OF the un-
believer and pseudo-scientist. Not only
have many disputed sites been identified
and chronological questions been settled
in conformity with the sacred annals. but
the rays from Egyptian as well as from
Babylonian revelations indicate an origi-
nal light 80 far as the creation and mono
theism are concerned, and that that light
was IN its passage through the prism OF
time preserved in its purity in the Mosaic
account only. The parallelisms between
the ORIENTAL traditions and the Mosaic re-
cord have been most Interestingly set
forth by SAYcE and others. Educated min
listers of the Gospel have taken hold OF
these facts-have taken the stone, the
cylinder, the monument, and the papyrus-
and are building around the Mosaic ac-
count an impregnable rampant against the
assaults of the skeptics.
And still the scientific and learned exca-
vator has only touched the borders of the
archaeological field in the east. What
Arabia and East Africa hold is sealed, and
these regions have long been regarded with
tempting curiosity by the arch@ologist.
Interest in geographical exploration in
Africa dates back to SASKHARA, of the
eleventh THEBAN dynasty. Again, we hear
of it in the circumnavigation attributed
by HERoDoTUs TO NEcHo-620 b. g. Then
| came the revival of the fifteenth century.
and all readers of newspapers and books OF
travel know what this century has de-
veloped in that respect. Interest in
African archaeology, however, has received
unusual stimulation from recent visits to
the Zimbabye ruins in Mashonaland,
| which confirm the statements Of the early
Portuguese, voyagers and from rumors of
the existence Of other ruins picked up by
the latest explorers. So far the Zimbabye
ruins afford no architectural link with
the Asiatic continent, but it Is accepted
that they prove the occupancy of
| the territory at one time by O
race superior to the present natives, Just as
the mounds and other remains IN this
country show that the American Indian
| was preceded by superior race and civil
cation. That in remote ages there was
migration from Asia through Arabia to
Africa of races that had no chronological
or linguistic connection with the negroes
and negroids is recognized by advanced
anthropologists and philologists. These
also fail to connect the Hamites with the
negroes. Abyssinia, the very Chronology
of which (Habesch) means mixed, and
Somaliland were. it is contended, the dis
tributing points of the immigration tide
Arabia, which is practically ircognito in
respect of its monuments, and the course
of the Himyaritio migration would, there
fore, seem the starting points in tracing the
significance of any African ruins that may
be unearthed and their bearing upon thu
origin of man and the authenticity o.
Asiatic tradition regarding the Dark Con
tinent. Light out of the Dark Continen
upon the Biblical record, and especially
upon the Abrahamic era. would be no NOR
wonderful than light upon it which ha
been released by the spade of the excaya
tor elsewhere. The proximity of Ur Il
Arabia. the Arabian traditions regarding
ABRAHAM, the theories touching OPmR ant
the Queen of Sheba. and the marked eth
biological similarity between the more an
Gent inhabitants of Abyssinia and the an
Gent Hebrews all seem to promise valuabl
revelations to the archaeological world an,
the champions Of Scriptural truth.