The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-02
ANCIENT CITY UNCOVERED.
STRIKING DISCOVERY on THE
ROAD TO JERUSALEM.
believed 10 he the site Of Gezer-The
Ruins indicate That II Had Been
Occupied by Four Sets OF Inhabitants
The Place of Human sacrifice Located

Spsoidl tdde Despatch TO THE Sun.
LONDON, Nov. l.-Ihc quarterly stat
ment Of the Palestine Exploration Fund
has paper by Prof. MacAlister which
marks almost new departure in Palestine
archaeology. 1t describes excavations at
Teeljozar on the right Of the road from
Jafa 20 Jerusalem Tho site was iden-
titled a. Gczer. the Canaanite c ~. the King
and people Of which were slain by Joshua
The exc on revealed four series Of
ancient Wa md four layers Of strata
which, putri. side the bui ings of later
date. mark the site of the city as o occupied
by four different sets of inhabitants. The
first and second layers were not always dis
tinyuishabe There were three unhewn
monOliths fourteen feet high with smaller
one, between, and under an ad Joining pave
mcnt were jars containing tne charred
bones Of infants, which would seem to in
dicato that it was place of sacrifice, where
children passed through the fire.
Two caves We're discovered One dating
from the first or second city was 10 by 3
yards and was covered with layer, some
times a foot deep, of human ashes and
bones, which often had been imperfectly
consumed. Prof. Mac Alister believes that
the cave itself was a Crematory and that
a later race, probably that of the third
oty. used il for tn" inhumation of bodies,
which were deposited in "a crouching post ure
all over the floor.
The other cave, which was bell shaped
had b an used as n ci-t by the occupants
of the fourth and latest city, but it con-
tanned six skeletons Five persons had
been buried. The sixth was the upper
half of a girl who had been cut in two with
saw. indicating that she had been a human
sacrifice. This idea was confirmed by the
finding of the decapitated heads of two
girls Of about the same age at tho mouth
of the cave.
The bones and the pottery relics dis
covered make it possible to assign his
torical positions to the successive occupants
Of the city. The older race was slend CT
and short, none of them exceeding g. inches
and most of them only "a inches in height
The skulls were thick and heavy and re-
semhled those of the earliest occupants
of Europe in the neolithic age. They
We're certainly a prc-Scmitic race.
The uncremated remains of the inhabi-
tants of the third and perhaps the fourth
city show that they were taller, the average
height being Go inches, while some of them
built, their faces were longcg, their noses
more prominent and tleir skulls more
circular. They probably belonged to the
earliest wave of Semitic immigration.
The pottery Of the earlier race was coarse
aud rude. but that of the later was of better
shape Neither conforms TO the Egyptiar
or PhPnician designs. The jars were o.
wrought stone and Clipped flint tools wer,
found. The pre-Semitic people who burned
their dead were not acquainted with metal
Those who came later and who buriec
their dea d had good weapons Of copper
and bronze. This is remarkable. as crema
ton in western Europe came in with tn,
Bronze era.
The site of Gezer was therefore frs
inhabitated by an aboriginal race OF
Palestine, neolithic people who crematec
their dead. and next by primitive Semitic
race in the Copper age. both practising
human sacrifice. Then there were two
later Semitic occupations, the scarab.
indicating that the former was not less THAI
1000 years B. {.
Other relics proved that there was com
muncation with Egypt. and one ella,
cylinder indicates there was direct or in
direct trade with Babylon.