The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-05-31

down TO us. 1hSSe latter gave eNluencS
of some rather peculiar ideas of natural
history In another~ tomb of about the
same period there was some graceful and
really beautiful figure painting on stuc-,
CO. In both tombs there were abundant
dates in connection with the Inscriptions.
fixing satisfactorily the period of use
of the tombs which extended over some
| six generations or more. Piety and van
dalism had wrought sad destruction in
| the tombs Human faces had been
scratched out by the sheikh of Beit-3ibrin
/ with his knife as haram-tnat is. forbid
den by Moslem law 4 small statue cut
! out of the rock had been broken In
pieces the various receptbcles for the
dead had been broken open, and every
thing which was not destroyed. From the
| point of view of the natives, all that had
| commercial value was the glass and, to
| less extent, the pottery in these graves.
! During my stay in Palestine excavations
| were being conducted by the Austrians at
! Ta'anuk, the ancient Taanach on the
plain of Esdraeion, and by the English
| Palestine Exploration Fund at Abu-Shu-
! sheh ancient Gezer. on the edge of the
| Philistine plain almost on the line of the
! carriage road from Jerusalem to Jaffa.
| The Austrian excavations at Ia anuk.
| conducted by Dr. SeIIin, were unfortu-
nately neither scientific nor thorough.
The results have not yet been published.
They were on the whole disappointing
like most of the results of excavations
in Palestine. The excavators discovered
| old walls and constructions the oldest
| of them going back to pre-Israelite
| PERIOD Babylonian and Egyptian objects
| showing commercial contact with both
those countries, as might be expected
| from the position of Tt'anuk on a close
| to the caravan route connecting them
both; a considerable amount of pottery
| and utensils, the pottery showing contact
| at an early period with the Aegean-My
cenaean civilization; most singular altar
of tiles. apparently Canaanitish and
! late Arabic construction dated by an
| inscription. The value of excavations
| of this description depends upon the ca
| pacity of the excavator to interpret his
! inscriptions and upon the thoroughness
| of the work done, both of which seem
to have been lacking in this case.
| In contrast with this are the excava-
| tons at Gezer. Gezer, like Ia anuk, was
| rather a Canaanite than Hebrew site,
| although both of them were included
from the time of David onward in the
| theoretical or actual land of David. At
Gezer the excavations, which 1 had the
good fortune to visit several times, spend
| ing number of most charming and most
instructive days with Mr.. MacaIister, the
excavator, were conducted with thor
| oughness and in a scientific manner For
~
| Fund has undertaken to explore a mound
| in Palestine from beginning to end. the
only course by which we can hope to Sc
cure full knowledge of the archaeological
possibilities of Palestine.
The most important discovery made up
to the present moment has been meaga-
| lithic shrine. There was a stone set on
| end, some three feet or more in height
OF a shape familiar in nature worship.
| This remained throughout the central
holy thing of this sanctuary The top
| of this stone Is smooth polished by the
handling, kissing and anoiting of many
| generations of worshippers. To this sa-
cred stone greater dignity was given later
| by the erection on either side of It of
| two great monoliths. some twelve feet or
| Whereabouts in height. Later still, from
| time TO time. other stones, some Of them
| rudely columnar, some of them having
| the same shape as the original sacred
| stone of the country. and also the skel-
| these stones there was cave which
was evidently in some way connected
with the sanctuary as is often the case
in Palestine and Syria In connection
with this ancient sanctuary were found
| inpurOara hla
the most part made out of the lime
stone of the country and also the skel-
etons of infants inferred in Jars From
what we know of Canaanite worship from
other sources, it seems probable that
there were the remains of children offer
| ed in sacrifice. 1t is worthy of notice.
90, that the same sore OF remains were
found in connection with rock-cut altar
| at Ta'anuk.
This meagalthic shrine Of Gezer the
first ever unearthed in any part of the
| world, appears from a careful examina-
ton of the strata and the objects found
! in those strata to have begun to be a
place OF worship earlier than 1000 3. c.,
and TO have continued to have been a
sacred place until after the exile. 1t
would seem that Gezer was occupied BY
| the Israelites before the exile: but as
we know, in the pre-exiic period the
! children Of Israel tolerated and them
! selves took part in what were later re-
| garded as heather rites and abomina-
| tons. 1t was only after the exile that
4 there was a thorough reform in this re-
| gard. Further excavations have enabled
Mr.. Mccalister, after a fashion. to restore
| the history of the town. and in restoring
it to give us an epitome of the history
| of the country. First of ali there is a
population OF cave jewellers non-Semitic.
burning their dead. not knowing the use
| Of copper using stone implements and
! manufacturing very rude pottery. These
are succeeded. somewhere probably be-
| tween 300 0and 20o0 B. c. by a Semitic
population, coming presumably from Ara
bia. burying instead of burning their
| dead, acquainted with the use OF copper.
but still using chiefly stone Implements
| These come into contact with Egypt and
| the Aegean Islands as early as the be-
ginning OF the second millennium B. c
There are scarabs and other objects
from Egypt. and pottery made in the
country. So we go on with an increasing
itself In domestic process The walls and
! houses are built OF stone the troglOdytic
dwellings and the burial caves Of an older
population are used for new purposes
some of them for burial, not burning
caves. others for cisterns storehouses.
I and the like Then comes in all the civ