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

lament and the New.
The sanctity attaching to most Of the
localities in Palestine, while it has at
tracted much attention to those sites, has
also TO some extent prevented more
accurate and scientific investigation of
their antiquities. The country is equally
sacred to Moslem, Jew and Christian.
All have traditions as TO the Identification
of variou sites. There has been ten
dency on the part of Christians since the
time of Constantine rather to endeavor
to confirm the Bible narrative or to sup
port traditional identifcations of holy
sites than to ascertain the actual facts
The Jews have had no scientific interest
of any sort in the investigation of the
antiquities Of the country and the same
is true of the Moslems. Owing to the
sanctity of the country, the latter have
interposed more obstacles in the way OF
scientific research in Palestine than else
where There are, however, at the pres
ent time in the field societies represent
ing different countries, which are con-
Quoting excavations and explorations on
a strictly scientific basis. The oldest of
these is the Palestine Exploration Fund
q
mapping of the country already men
toned and which has conducted for
some years a series of excavations at
Jerusalem and at various sites in the
Shephelah. Next in point of date is
the German Palest inc Verein, having
the same object as the English society
but younger. This society has conducted
surveys east of the Jordan. with view
to completing the geographical survey
of the country. and is now about to COM
mence excavations at what is supposed
to be the site of the ancient Megiddo on
het plain of Esdraelon.
There was an American Palestine Elk
pIoration Fund. organized about the same
time as the English. which was TO have
done for the east side of the Jordan what
the English did for the west. Unfortu-
nately this organization went to pieces,
leaving very little in the way of results.
But within the last few years there has
been started in Palestine a school of ORR
entail Research under the auspices Of the
American Institute of Archaeology. SIM
liar 10 the American schools at Athens
and Rome, which have done such good
work in scientific exploration and in the
training Of Greek and Latin teachers and
professors for our schools and colleges.
The Germans are about establishing a
similar school. but with strong religious
bias. There is also in Jerusalem Bibli-
cal School, already mentioned. establish
ed by the French Dominican monks at
st. Etienne. little north of the Damas-
Gus gate. These monks, while they have
done valuable work in training students
and in the publication of Biblical jour
nal. perhaps the best of its kind In the
world.
l need not speak of individual efforts
and of the various small archaeological
and Biblical collections which one finds
in Jerusa lem. Almost every resident of
Falestine-English, American. French.
and German-has some interest in and
knowledge of or theory about the antiqui-
ties. the ancient history. and the ideEtifi-
cation of sites in Palestine. So. for ex-
ample. as l am walking down the Bethle-
hem road west of the walls of Jerusalem.
a man accosts me in English and ex-
pounds to me his theory OF the topog
raphy of Jerusalem, and the actual site
of the hill of Zion. | call on a lady, the
head of an English school, and am shown
interesting Graeco- Phoenician glass and
a small piece of gold leaf with an in
scription in Greek letters: God luck to
the newly married" The holes in the
gold leaf showed that it had been sewn
on the garment OF corpse, and the ref
erence of the inscription was to the mar
riage of the dead with .Persephone 1t
had come from a tomb excavated by the
natives in the neighborhood of the an
cient Mareshah in the Shephelah. l am
the guest of the Franciscan monks in
Tyre. and the abbot holds a discourse on
the antiquities of the country He had
been in Jerusalem when DR.. Bliss was
eXcavating there and had followed his
work closely and intelligently ] meet
an American missionary at the Jewish
town of Safed in GaIilee. and he tells me
of monuments which he has discovered
in northern Galilee in missionary and
hunting tours, which are as yet on no
map, OF a cave fun of flint fragments
remains of the period of the stone work
ers. and much more.
In Jerusalem. at the hospice of the As
sumptiOnists. there is a scientific colIec-
ton Of antiquities. with catalogue in
French. To be sure, the collection is
small, but it is well arranged At the
monastery of the White Brothers. BY
the supposed pool of bethesda. where a
fresco of an angel stirring the waters
was found some years ago. is also a
Biblical Museum, bat here there is more
zeal to illustrate the Bible than scien-
Moslem high school is a collection of pot1
terry gathered and arranged ny DIR. Bliss.
from objects found by him in his excava-
tons for the Palestine Exploration Fund
Unfortunately. ii is difficult for the
stranger to visit this collection. nor is
the collection itself kept up OF late IL
Is whispered. also. articles which were
in that collection have been offered for
sale by dealers; for there are dealers in
antiquities in Jerusalem whose agents
through the country are causing an enor-
nous destruction OF antiquities
In the Shephehah. near Beit-Jibrin. in
Gililee. in the neighborhood of NazaIeth.
in The neishborhood of Beisan. the an
cieut Scythopolis. and across the Sea of
Galilee at Fix countless tonlbs have been
opened by the natives in the last few
years and riaed their contents The an
tiauities which have not been destroyed
through ignorance have been sold to deal-
ers in Jerusalem and through them re-
sold to private collections in MUSEUMS
all over the world
One OF the most interesting discoveries
made in Palestine recently was due TO
these native excavations. DR.. Bliss. on
behalf Of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
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