Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-16

the Aventine, under and in the middle OF
the more recent church of the ninth cen
fury, or such as that of the police parrach
of the Vigiles in the Trastevere region,
present ground surface. Still, the exca-
vations in the Forum Romanum trans
cend all others. and have given us tor the
first time a fairly complete and exact
knowledge of the various HISTORIC sites
within its crowded area. The Basilica
Aemilia has been entirely laid bare. The
Temple of julius Caesar, with the very
altar on which his body was burned; the
fountain of Juturna, the temple Of Vesta.
the Regia. the Black stone with the mys-
FERROUS cippus or small stone piiiar' Dear
ing an Inscription in letters, half Latin,
half Greek which have not vet been deci-
phered, and which must go back to very
remote age, have all been located and ex-
amined A coup of prehistoric sepulchres,
possibly older that the traditional foun-
da tion eof Rome herself, and considerably
beneath the level of the Forum OF
Caesars day. has been discovered ;,.; signof or
these latest diggings has lain, has SHOWN
great skill in conducting them SO as to
do the least possible damoge to the re-
mains uncovered, and sha shown no less
taste in putting in such structural sup
ports as were needed, and in planting
flowers and shrublets where there was
space for them. Another almost equally
the edge of the Forum, under the stupen-
dous pile of the buttresses of the early
| imperial buildings on the Palatine Hill. a
large Christian church of the seventh-and
eighth centuries, s. Maria Antigua, whose
walls are covered with remarkable fresco
paintings These discoveries have given
| a vertically new old Rome to the scholar
and the archaeolog1St.
| Much more remains to be done. Exca-
walton ought to be pushed further back
on the side of the Forum opposite to the
still in private hands has checked the
work The Palatine itself has been less
than half explored, and. though it will
yield no historic spots comparable to those
| fragments Of sculpture buried within the
masses of ruin. The same is true OF parts
of the Caelian and Esquiline Hills. 1t is
| the want of funds that checks the pro-
gress of the work. Italy, though her
financial position has sensibly improved
is not able to spend much money on what
is. after ALL a luxury. Under these cir,
cumstances, 1t may cause surprise tina,
| men of wealth and taste in other coun-
| tries, and especially Americans. do moi
come forward TO. help in a work Of such
Italians area little sensitive az to receiv,
ing the aid of foreigners. yet these. sus-
capabilities might easily be allayed. NJ
object outside their own country ought
more to appeal to Americans, for Roman
archaeology belongs to the whole world
and Americans have in the American
School in Rome an institution of which
the colleges that support it may be justly
proud, and in the head of that school al
accomplished and judicious scholar whose
Iadvice as to the wise employment of fund.
in archaeological research would inspire
the fullest confidence. When one con
sders what light is being thrown upor
Iprimaeval history by explorations such a:
those of Mr.. Arthur Evans in Crete ant
Mr.. w. M Ramsay in Asia Minor as wei
as by the recent explorations in Rome, i
seems extraordinary that, in an age whel
rich men find it hard to know how t.
spend their wealth, it should be found s,
l al.
searches of incompatible historical sig
nificance.