Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1896-10-29
EXCAVATIONS At JERUAslru
4 Gateway Found with Stills Bslon>i,.
to Four Different Perioda

4 Gateway Found with Stills Bslonrlu.
to Fonr Different Periods.
At the general meeting Of the Palas.
tine Exploration fund this year Lieut..
Col. Watson read the annual report
which stated that the excavations a,
Jerusalem, for which a firmau wac
granted by the porte, have been carried
on by DR.. Bliss with success, says the
London Standard. An interesting
rockscarp has been traced for some
distance along the side of an old wal,
of the city, south Of the present wal,
ard followed for over 1000 feet. In this
line Of wall the remains of several an
cient towers and a gateway were dis
covered and no less than four stills Of
this ancient gateway, belonging to four
different periods were found in stu. one
above the other. DR.. Bliss wrote say.
ing that he knew of no more interest,".
ing example Of place where four dis
tinct periods might be studied In the
short, perpendicular space of four feet
Subsequently, on following the wall
toward Sloan there was found near the
bottom OF the hill another gateway, al.
SO representing four distinct periods.
A retaining wall across the mouth of the
the Tyropeean valley was examined, II
was still too early to know the full sig
nificance of these discoveries. DR.
Bliss, in a summary Of the results OF
the excavations. stated that near 81.
loan, outside the city wall interest
ing Roman baths were discovered.
Their work, he added, had gone very
smoothly. A buried wall was no re-
specter Of persons, and ran through the
lands Of a Greek patriarch, a Moslem
pasta, = Latin father or a Sloan
fellah, with all of whom the excavators
must come to some understanding,
financial or otherwise. But he was
glad to say that this understanding had
always been friendly. Unfortunately
most of their work had been covered
up. A barley field had revealed its
secrets and once again was in super
fetal appearance mere barley field.
The excavations were not the only
work which has been carried on at
Jerusalem under the auspices Of the
fund. The veteran explorer, Herr Won
Schick. has pursued investigations Of
a very interesting character within the
city. His examinations of medieval
churches and converts in Jerusalem
threw flood of light on the conditions
of the holy city during the period COW
cred by the crusaders occupation of it.
Since the last meeting 227 annual SUBJ
scribers had been added and 131 had
been taken off through death and
other causes. The total receipts for
the past year amounted to f2,492, 10
shillings. pence, and they had a small
balance in the bank. The executive
committee, in concluding it's report,
stated that in order to carry out the
objects of the fund effectively con-
siderable increase in it's volume was
absolutely and essentially necessary,
otherwise the excavations at Jerusalem
would have to be suspended. Having
SO lately obtained the firman from the
sultan for continuing these operations,
which had been prosecuted to the pres
ent time with such unequalled success,
their cessation or delay would be mat
ter to be most deeply deplored.
Sir Charles Wilson, the chairman,
moved the adoption of the report and
said that the most interesting point
they wished to solve next was the
course of the wall in the Tyropean val
ley and which was the gate through
which the last King of Jerusalem fled.
He considered that DR.. Bliss had car
ried out the work in remarkably sue
cessful manner and at very cheap
rate. Future experiments he was
afraid. would be more expensive, but
he believed that the results would b
worth the money laid out.