The sun., 1901-08-11
ARMENIAN EXPLORATION.
Important Discoveries In That COuntr,
by the German Missions.

LONDON, Aug. 3-The interest Of the
German Government In the Bagdad Railway
has led them to despatch important missions
TO Armenia for the purpose OF making
archaeological explorations. The first Of
these expeditions was entrusted TO DR. =.
W. Beck alone, and in 1893 and 1899 he was
accompanied by the Assyriologist. DR.. c.
F. Lehman The report Of these expe-
ditions has Just been issued. and the results
TO science are most important.
The first indications OF civilization In
the mountain lands bordering on Lake Van
we're made known by the French traveller,
DR.. Schultz. who copied a number Of in
scriptions on the rocky walls OF the fortress
OF the city OF Van. Schultz, unfortunately,
was killed by the Kuros. but his diaries
and copies Of inscriptions were recovered
and published by the French Government
In the Journal Asiahque. Layard. who
visited Armenia in ls49 copied a number
Of inscriptions, and Rassam. who made
several visits to the country and excavated
at Toprak Kalek, the ancient palace OF the
yannic kings. copied or took casts Of several
more; but the work OF the German eSpe-
ditions has greatly increased our knowledge
Of the country.
The members collated all inscriptions
previously copied and increased the material
for the study Of ancient Armenian history
by nearly 1000 lines-including the dis
covery OF most important and fairly
lengthy bilngual inscription In Assyrian
and Vannic.
The most important result Of the ex-
pedition has been to define clearly the
extent Of this empire. which had almost
entirely disappeared from the field of his
tory. The capital city was Van on the
lake Of that name. called Dhuspas-The
Tosps Of the classics but the royal resi-
dence seems to have been at Toprak kaleh,
called at a later period -Rusas town" The
northern boundaries of tho empire ara
uncertain, but several inscriptions were
found in Russian Armenia. On tho east
the inscriptions were found as far as Lake
Urumiyeh and one on the rocky heights
near Rowandiz, on the summit of the Pass
Of kel-shin II 900 feet above sea level
This inscription was first discovered by
Sir Henry Rawlinson and was set UP during
tho Joint reigns Of the Kings Ispuns an d
Menuas, about b. c. 800. Westward, on
the rocks at Palu. on the Euphrates. near
Malatiyeh, the Inscriptions OF Menuas are
also found
The recovered inscriptions record wars
against the Hittites, the Assyrians, and
later against the Barsuas, who appear not
TO be the Persians, but possibly some of
the Aryan vanguard The earliest inscrp-
tions are those of Sardur and Ispunis, and
are written in Assyrian. the Vannio scribes
not having adapted the cuneiform sya-
barry. which they borrowed, to their own
language. This. however, they soon accom-
plished, and during the joint reign Of Men
uas and his father the inscriptions are all
In the Alarodian language. One Of the
- al
has been to settle the name Of the people
They are called Khaldians, from the name
OF the national god Khaldi, and are to be
identified with the Chaldaioi Of the Greek
writer's, who figure prominently in Xeno-
phon.
Among the objects Of art obtained. and
now In the museum at Berlin. are several
bronze bulls, shields, 40. from Toprak
Ksleh. The museum also possesses some
inscribed with tho names OF Argistis and
Rusas, kings who were contemporary with
Sargon Of Assyria (B. c. 72D. These monu-
ments show the source from which the
Persians derived the artistic forms with
which they decorated the palaces at Per-
sepolis. Tho resemblance of the Persian
sculptures to those Of Nineveh is indis-
putabe The difficulty was TO account for
this, since the Assyrian palaces had been
destroyed long before tho time of Darius
The Armenian artists got their art inspira-
tons, AZ they had their writing, from
Assyria but they reproduced the bulls,
throne Of the god Khaldi found at Toprak
Kaleh is evidently copied from one of Sar-
gon or Sennacherib and In the work Of the
Persian artist we sec all those forms exactly
reproduced, and the throne Of Darius IL all
exact copy Of that Of Khaldi. and so Of the
Assyrian original
These few notes will show how important
have been the results OF these two expedi-
tions which havo been working quietly
among the mountains of Armenia.