Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1900-06-08
MODERN CAVE JEWELLERS.


Professor sterrett on HIS Recent Invs,ti-
CATION Among the Trogiodytcs.
Professor J. r. s. Sterrett OF Am
herst college, who has made some in.
tsresting Investigations among the
troglodyte dwellings in Cappadocia,
recently lectured upon the subject OF
these rock houses before the New
York society Of the Archaeological Iu-
stitute Of America Much of what he
said has asa basis personal explora-
ton. In brief his remarks were:
"The earliest men we have any
knowledge of dwelt In caves. They
lived together in families, poss essing
the women and children in common,
with the exception OF certain classes,
whose wives were inviolable. They
had no social intercourse with families
about them. Instead, they drew
dead line outside their dwellings,
which they forbade their neighbors to
cross Entrance was made up ladders
OF holes cut In the rock, which seem
difficult for the women and children
to climb. Herodotus says they lived
on serpents. Obadiah's account Of
Edam strangely parallels the descrip-
ton Of troylodyte regions OF Cappa-
docia today.
II you draw line north from Tar
sus and east from Smyrna the point Of
intersection will be In the land Of the
modern cave dwellers. Here the re-
gion is entirely volcanic--an overly
ing stratum of lava and an intermin-
able depth OF pumice stone. Here for
an arS6 40 miles in diameter there
are mighty stone cones several hun.
dred feet In height, aud 40 thlckly
stvsYp that II y as easy to By lost
among them as In a great forest.
Centuries Of erosions have worked out
this strange aIsbitsctnrA 80.
The soft stone Is easily sxcSvated,
for 4 family In thirty days have dug
out . chamber 80 feet long and
10 feet deep. In these cones are
dwellings, one above the other, some
times nln(au<eyics high, not fe!dom
\ many motA but EsuSiAytw or three.
The egfss'eis ofteas A9oA I'M. WITH boles
In tho stono Tor laddsrs. Many 66nS5
have mol Visible means OF entrance,
and sometimes the one doorway to.
tho many dwellings In . cliff Is long
distance away from the rooms. This
10 all for safety. Tn these COMMUNE
81 TIE to6SS, trying 70 cave tbS large
aoQrways deliberately aud making the
interior In imitation OF Byzantine ar
chitecturc, with columns and arches
and saints, nimbi and oil, cut In the
soft STONE. g
Stairwsys to upper stories are like
wells, and inches or shelves are cut in
the side OF the walls near the ceiling.
These they use for closets or store.
rooms. In many cases the external
walls hive yotted away,so that the in
terror can be seen from without Then
the residents make use OF the open
chambers to dry their fruit In, or they
turn them over to doves, whose eggs
form chief article OF diet. Many OF
the windows were bordered with paint,
but no one seems to know the origin
or purpose Of this ornamentation.
Weird and curious as the count try
is in general, Ii has Its local variations
aud contrasts. In front Of these cone
residences the Inhabitants raise their
vegetables In fertile soil, which, like
enough, may be but few feet from O
desert. In one place grape grover
lived In house beneath his own vine-
yard.
Graves are to be found below the
floors OF the chapels, and II Is clear
thu the people lived us the ancient
historians said Of them, In the same
room with their pigeons and dead.
There is another place in Cappa-
docia, further to the east, whore the
rock changes into the form OF cliffs.
In them the people make their homes.
They build sort OF facade In front Of
the face Of the rock and then excavata
as for inward as they please without
having to let their neighbors know
how large a residence they own.
II is hard to tell how far back these
dwellings date. But they
are doubtless contemporaneous with
the stone tombs OF the Phrygian
kings, built 800 b. G. Perhaps they
belong to the days of the Hittites OF
the Bible, 1000 years before the
Christian era Anyway. they offer
remarkable chance for wonder aud