The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-06

some centuries B. c., have been copied.
but there, also. excavation Is impossible.
The main new light from Syria has been
on the Hittite power. Burckhardt. in
1872, had noticed a new kind OF hieroglyph
at Klamath. After several ineffective cop
ies. Wright made casts OF the stones in
1872. Several other such inscriptions have
been found. and from these and the
Egyptian and Assyrian references to the
Hittites We now realize that they were
northern people, with a great capital on
the Euphrates at Karkhemish. and ruling
over nearly all Syria and Asia Minor.
Little has yet been fixed about the writ
ing; a few signs are read. and some have
passed into the Cyprote alphabet.
striking proof of the spread of Baby
lonian culture is seen in the tablets found
in Egypt at Tell ell Amarma in 1887, which
show that all the correspondence between
Egypt and Syria in the fifteenth century
d. c. was carried on in cuneiform. These
hundreds of letters give vivid picture OF
life in Syria at that early date.
GREECE.
The revival Of interest in Greek civil
ization was at first purely literary, and
remained so during two or three centu-
ries But during the last century various
travellers and residents abroad made col
lections which awoke an interest in the
art; and though most of these collectors
were content with merely snowy sculp-
ture. greatly restored and falsifed for the
market yet some-such as Hamilton
took a real archaeological interest in the
unsarthing and collecting of ancient art.
The condition OF study at the end OF the
last century was that many private men
OF wealth had bought large quantities Of
sculpture. which was but little under
stood, and looked on more from a deco
rative than a scientific point OF view,
while there were the beginnings OF Sc
rious appreciation of it which had been
just laid down by Winckelmann-
The century opened with a grand work
of publishing the principal treasures of
classical art in England. which was finally
issued In 1909 by Payne. knight & Town
ley; this marks the highest point OF the
dilettante collecting spirit, which was
soon eclipsed by truer knowledge. H!th-
erto the best sculpture had hardly been
known but at secondhand through Ro-
man copies; a closer acquaintance began
with the travels of Dodwell, Cell, and
Leake, all in the first decade of the cen
fury. The free opening of the British
Museum in 1905 and the accumulation
there of all the hest collections within
the first quarter of the century also served
to educate public taste. The first strug-
| gle OF scientific and artistic knowledge
against the dilettante spirit was over
the Elgin marbles: by 1916 they were &C
cepted as the masterpieces which all later
criticism has proved them to be. The
Aeginetan and Phigaleian sculptures,
brought to Munich and London, helped
also to show the nobility OF early Greek
art, SO that the last two generations have
had a canon of taste to rely upon, the
value OF which cannot be overestimated.
Following on this noble foundation
other collectors worked in Greece and
Asia Minor and the British Museum
profted by the labors of Burgon. Fellows.
and Woodhouse between 1880 nd 1850.
The automatically supported work Of
Newton On the Mausoleum (1857-S), and
Wood at Ephesus (1S63-75), filed out our
knowledge of the middle period OF Greek
art $50 B. C. Comparatively little has
been done since then by England. but the
activity of the Germans at Olympia has
given US the only original masterpiece
that is known-the Hegmes OF Praxiteles
(350 B. c., and their work at Pergamon
revealed the great altar belonging to the
later age QS0 B. c.. The excavations at
Athens Gin 1856 have produced the i'm
} pressive statues dedicated to Athene
| ABOUT oZU Is. u, WHICH reveal the uODle
rise of Attic sculpture. But attention
during the last quarter century has been
largely fixed upon the earlier ages. TIE
| discoveries of Scbliemann at Hissariik
! Troy, 1S70-S2), Mykenae 1885, Orcho-
menos (1SS0-1) and Tiryus Q884), opened
new world OF thought and research.
Though at first bitterly attacked, it is
now agreed that these discoveries show
us the civilization of Greece between
| p000 and l0C0 lastly during ten
years past, Egypt has provided the solid
chronology for prehistoric Greece. by dis
coveries of trade between the two coun-
tries.
We can now very briefly estimate the
present position OF our knowledge as
gained during this century. Setting aside
the early foreign pottery found in Egypt,
which belongs probably to Greece or I;aly
at 5000 and 5000 B. c., we first touch a civ
| ilized city in the lowest town OF Troy.
where metal was scarcely yet in use, and
which is certainly before 1000 and proba-
bly, about 5000 b. C. in date. Succeeding
that is the finely built second Troy, rich
, In gold vases and ornaments. which
though mistaken by Schliemann for the
Homeric Troy-must yet be long before
that, probably before 1000 D. C. After the
burning OF that come three other rebuild
ings before we reach the town of the age
of Mykenae, about 1900 B. c. OF this.
! which was in Greece the climax or the
prehistoric civilization, there are the
splendid treasures found at Mykenae, the
. + magnificent domed tOmbs, the abundance
. OF fine jewelry and metal work. of beauti-
full pottery and glazed ornament. To this
, age belong the great palaces OF Mykenae,
; Tiryus. Athens, and other hill fortresses.
OF which hardly more than the plans can
now be traced And It is this civilization
which traded eagerly with Egypt, ex-
changing the valued manufactures OF
each country. This period was at It's full
bloom from 150O-1200 B. c.. and began to
decay by 100 p. C., this dating being
given by the contact with Egypt.
. This natural decadence of art in Greece
was FASTENED by the invasion of the bar
barous Dorians about 1000 B. C.. Art.
however. was by no means extlnguished.
but only repressed by the troubles of the
age, and Athens, which was not conquered
by the Dorians, was the main centre Of
the revival of the arts. Other examples
OF such history are familiar in Egypt
(after the Hyksos invasion) and in Italy
latter the Lombards), where earlier abii-
ties revive and bloom afresh when vigor-
/ Gus invaders become united to an artistic
I stock. After the centuries of warfare a
I quieter age allowed the growth of fine
arts again in the seventh century B. c..
Z largely influenced by Egyptian and Assy-
rian work at second hand. through the
Greek settlements in Cyprus and Egypt.
/ were started and a course was begun
which only ended in the fall of classical
civilization. The century before the Per
T sian Invasion in $50 b. c. was one OF rapid
development. and IN sculpture and vase
. painting We see that this century carried