Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-19
RELICS OF SINAI
ARCHAEOLOGY MAKES DIsCov.
ERIEs ABOUT THE EXODUS.
From the London Chronicle,

By series Of bold and brilliant discov-
cries. the reward Of arduous and sustained
labor, DR.. Flinders Petrie has remolded the
history OF the eastern Mediterranean dur
Ing the last ten years. Spelling out the
records Of broken stone and shattered pot
terry. he has given a new meaning to the
word ancient" Greeks and Romans are
now seen to have been mere moderns, al
most treading on our own heels, while far
back we look down a long vista Of culture
and civilization. lasting through many
thousand years and stretching round the
whole basin of the Inland sea. He and his
friends-for 1 take him simply as the
most prominent man OF group-have
given us new conception of history-a
new reading of the modern world-a new
idea Of human growth. They have literal
ly dug out from the bowels of the earth.
In the heat and solitude of exile. a new
history of man.
The Journey to Sinai.
Now they are extending their work fur
Their. Hitherto DR. Petrie's work has been
MAINLY think entirely-in Egypt. But.
like Moses, he had not always been on the
best terms with Pharaoh, and this year a
small difference as to state rights has led
to an exodus. Shaking the dust of Egypt
from off his feet-happily without insist
ing on any plagues-Mr. Petrie has gone
tents and his workmen off into the wilder
ness to dig there. Following closely in the
track of his precursor in exile, Mr.. Petrie
has gone to Sinai and the results of a sea-
sons work there are shown in small
crowded room within the building Of the
London University in Cover street. These
little broken bits Of stone well worth
visit. for If you look at them well you
will dimly see some light thrown on what
Is still one of the most mysterious cpl
sodes in the worlds history.
Briefly, these stones seem to explain why
Moses and his people wanted to go into the
wilderness. That speech which l give above
was more than a mere ruse for here, close
tc Sinai, Prof. Petrie and his workers have
found what is little less than a sort of Sc
mtiC Delphi-a great center of worship
prayer and sacrifice for the whole Semitic
world. 1t was Nievuhr who first discovered
tina. there was q temple near Sinai. But
it might have been just ordinary Egyp-
tan temple to Osiris. Isis or any of that
motley crowd who dog the days and haunt
the nights of the modern Egyptian tourist
1t has now been thoroughly dug up, and
has been discovered to be Semitic tenn
plea temple for the Jews and their kim
dred races. 1t contains a vast number OF
cubicles for pilgrims who went to dream
dreams after the manner of Jacob and Jo-
seph. and hundreds of little Bethel stones
which they erected, even as Jacob did, 20
celebrate a really fortunate dream. OF
course, DR.. Petrie is much too cautious a
student to suggest any connection between
lnlS temple ana the JEWISH fASOuuS- bul
may not the suggestion, at any rate, be
thrown out that it was to this spot that
Moses first wished to lead the Jewish eX-
lies? Pharaoh acting after his kind re-
fused to compromise; but are we quite sure
that if he had. the Jews might not have
gone to Sinai, sacrificed there and returned
to Egypt?
Interesting Finds.
We cannot tell, When all is said and
done the excavators in Egypt have come
across very few traces of the Jewish cap
tivity. That episode of Egyptian history
figured very small in the immense per
spective of dynasties. The Egyptians prob
ably regarded the Jews as a very little
people" and looked over their heads with
true imperialistst disdain. This" they
said, SIS the day of big empires. Thcy
had many such troubles with small nations
wandering desert tribes Philippians, vile
sons of Cush'' and what not.
The Psychologists have done their best
for the British public, jealous of the Old
Testament.
There were so many civilizations IN
Egypt-so many tracks have been covered
up-that we must not be surprised at find
ing few direct traces of the stay of the
Jews So many peoples We're carried cap
tive that, the memory of the Jews was losl
among them But that is what adds TO
the value of this Semitic temple at Sinai.
One most astonishing thing about the find
is the discovery of a great mass of burnt
ashes the remains Of many thousands or
burnt offerings by other Semitic visitors
! perhaps from Tyre or Sidon or other parts
of that great Semitic world which was
eclipsed by the rise of ASsyria. Some OF
the pilgrims who tried, through the gate
Of dreams. to foresee the future must have
died in that sterile valley; for DR.. Petrie
has discovered tornbs unlike any IL Egypt
| tombs built in the shape OF beehives and
containing curious bracelets of shell. Or
perhaps these were the lonely tombs of the
Egyptian miners far from the embalrners.
digging here for turquoises. Those miners
kept their food In jars, and when they went
home to Egypt they buried their jars for
safety in the soil below their huts. DR..
Petrie has found many of these jars just as
they were~feft. The miners who left them
never returned to dig them up. Who can
tell what happened? What chance of fate
or death befell them on the way?
A Voyage of Romance.
Delving in this under world of the past IS
a perpetual voyage of romance. 1t surpass-
es the Journeys of Columbus or Cortez In
that wonderful climate. where the sun and
air and sand combine to annihilate time,
the digger always feels if he might sud
denly enter a new lost world, where man
possessed all we are searching after with
endless travail of spirit There are times
when the explorer almost feels like an IN
truder. Suddenly the pick strikes against
something, ana ne sees IeFedIeu peIoie itiih
the toy horse of some long-dead Egyptian
child-the dice of some Egyptian gambler
who has long paid his reckonng-the mar
bles of some small boy-the comb and glass
of some fine lady-the distaff OF some poor
woman.
He feels like one who has broken I'M
awares into another mans house, and finds
himself alone with the sacred privacies of
intimate life.
There are many such objects In this little
exhihition-obiects found in the Graeco-
Roman settlements by Drs. Grenfell and
Hunt. There are beautiful bits of glass
and mosaic--scent and perfume bottles with
wax shoppers, left on some Roman ladys
toilet table-reed pens with sharp. split
points, to write on waX-ivory hairpins.
egg-whippers, all the small devices of lux
ury known to an advanced civilization.
These are vestiges of the last period of
Egypts long civilization-the eve before the
long night of Arab barbarism.