The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-18
PALESTINE
IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES BIZ
THE EXPLORATION

Fund seRrchers as 10 the Original In-
habitants OF the Country-Tombs
Found With FresoOss OF Egyptian
Workmanship Belonging TO the Pto-
Iemic Age-Bones and Pottery I'm
earthed Belonging to Members of
| One of the Prc-semIttc Races
The quarterly statement of the Pal
estine exploration fund, just issued,
contains more than one paper of unu-
sual interest. such as further research
es by Professor Sellin, at Taanach,
where he has discovered other Jewish
and Canaanite fcrtresses similar to
those described last August in these
columns; an account of excavations in
the metropolis Of Mareshah, the home
of the prophet Micah, where many
tombs with frescoes and antiquities
have been found, the older Egyptian
work of Ptolmaic age; and, lastly, of
| excavations on the site Of a cemetery
| outside the Damascus Gate, part of
which may go back to the fifth or sixth
century of the present era. But one
paper, by Mr.. r. A S. Macalister
marks almost new departure in Pas
estine archaeology. 1t describes eXca-
vations at Tell-ej-Jezari, near Abu-
Shuseh, to the right of the road from
Jaffa to Jerusalem, a site which has
been for come time past identified with
~ I'M
and the people of which were slain by
Joshua.
This occupied an elongated mound
over six hundred yards In length, ris-
ing at each end into knobs, which
probably are the tops Of low natural
hills, with an intervening depression,
now filled up with debris, that has al
most everywhere covered the natural
rock. Circumstances obliged Mr.. Ma
calister to restrict his excavations to
the eastern half, but he found that the
whole had been surrounded by a wall.
On that hill surface he cut trenches
into the thicker debris to a depth some
times of nearly twenty feet. Here he
discovered three well marked series of
ancient walls. besides one less perfect
of rough stones, with not more than a
simple hammer dressing. They vary
greatly in size, ranging from small peb-
bles to large boulders. Sun dried brick
also is sometimes found especially in
the third series of walls besides floors
of beaten mud and limestone, and pit
ovens. Putting aside buildings Of later
date, Mr.. Macalister has discovered a
stratification in the ruins, four layers
in all, but the earliest cannot always be
distinguished.
The outer and larger of the city
walls. has an average thickness of four
teen feet, and remnants of 1t in places
are a dozen feet in height, with towers
on the outer and inner sides. Practi-
cally parallel to it, is an older one, not
so thick. This, like number of paved
causeways, belongs to the first or sec
ond city; the other wall, in which the
stones are better dressed, to the third
or fourth. A remarkable four-sided
stone enclosure within the walls
cleared belongs to the earlier group.
Its western half is subdivided by walls,
and it's eastern contains a circle of
stones, about half yard long, erected
on a platform of beaten mud, and ce-
mented together by the same material.
A similar enclosur has been found at
Tell-es-saf, but there the stones are
much larger. Rounded pillar stones,
probably for memorial or sacred pur-
poses. like those which Jacob more
than once set up, were found at differ
ent levels. But there are a few larger
monolths-all unhewn-the first found
being about seven and one-half feet
high. Three others are about fourteen
feet high, with smaller ones between,
and under an adjoining pavement jars
were dug up containing infants bones,
some charred. Though occasionally
these standing stones have a monu-
mental character it Is far more proba-
BILE that the remains indicate sacrifice,
and that these children passed
through the fire" in honor Of some pre-
decessor of Molech.
Not less interesting has been the dis
covery of two caves. The first of these
was undoubtedly earlier than the third
city wall, which has been built across
it. 1t had been artistically excavated,
was approached by steps, and had a
circular shaft at the opposite end.
This was evidently an undisturbed
burial place of great antiquity, so Mr..
Macalister cleared 1t out with scrupu-
lous care. About half of the area Qt
is rather over ten yards long and about
eight wide) was covered with a layer,
sometimes a foot deep, of the ashes of
human bodies. The bones were often
imperfectIy consumed, and Mr.. Macal-
lister believes the cave itself to have
been the crematory Another race, per-
haps that of the third city, used it for
inhumation. Then the bodies were de-
posted, apparently in crouching po-
sition, all over the floor; but series
of stone-built enclosures, ranged along
the cave wall, evidently were reserved
for more distinguished occupants.
The other cave, the excavation of
which was barely completed, is bell
shaped, and had been used as a cistern
: by the occupants of the fourth, or la
e test, city; but it contained six skele-
tons, five of which, from their crouch
ing position, had clearly been buried;
the sixth, representing only the upper
half of girl, had previously been
sawn in two. This also may, perhaps,
- indicate another human sacrifice, and
the idea receives confirmation from the
fact that the decapitated heads Of two