The San Francisco call., 1908-03-29
The NEWIN DISc0YEREo cnKMBF
OF. The LAST SUPPER
By Laura Farlow
Member OF the Egyptian and Palestine
Exploration Funds


Photographs by the author.
r. HE mediaeval chivalry of the
world, kings and knights, with
devout and devoted hosts. poured
out blood and treasure to wrest
the holy places from the Moslem: yet
today we find Turkish troops keeping
order On Easter morn in the holy sep
uicherl As 10 excavation or explora
ton, not spade can be put in mound
or citys site without mystic trades and
hrmans from the sublime porte, and
permits from mutesarrifs. kaimakans
and the whole hierarchy Of Turkish
ofhcialdom IN Palestine
A type apart is the biblical archae-
ologist. BE is explorer and hunter,
theologian and foreman of works; ge-
ologist and botanist and scholar;
cameleer and dsplomat-eSrS1sall dip
lomat, since tribal chiefs must be hu-
raored and picks and shovels put in the
hands Of childlike Arabs who never
worked before
Having resolved TO read the stones"
OF Syria and Egypt for bible testimony,
the learned OF all nations agreed this
must be done on scientific lines. that
each new. find might be welcomed with
the same enthusiastic acceptance given
70 work from physical laboratory.
And so military engineers We're bor-
rowed from the war Office and oriental
scholars from the museums. Sir
Charles Warren. Sir Charles Wilson.
Lord Kitchener and Captain Conder
represented England; NJ. Clermont Can
neau and the comte de Vogue, France;
Herr Conrad Schick and his colleagues,
Germany. and DIR. Clay Trumbull,
America At first $4,000 was raised,
and the Christians of all sects. with
Hebrews the world over. grew keenly
interested
fresh from marvellous Babyionian dis
coveries, spoke Of the light TO be
thrown on the ancient history. arts and
architecture OF the Jewish excavations
OF mounds and sites, rubbish heaps and
ruins such as dot the stony face Of
Palestine. Sir Roderick Murchison, a
great geographer. counseled a geo
logical survey. He wanted to knew
whether any volcanic changes had oc-
CURED about the Dead sea within his
tQric times. This. he said, might throw
new light on the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah.
The Germans were as keen as any to
turn loose the hosts of science in the
Holy Land, where the documents of our
faith were written and the momentous
events they describe enacted. Who
knows2" they argued. "A1I may be
made clear through some little inscrip-
tion, like the far famed Rosetta stone,
which gave US the key to all Egypts
hieroglyphics and threw back mans
history 10000 years beyond all previous
records"
And money. they pointed out had
been levisheo on Halicarnassus, Nine
veh and Carthage Then why not on
the land OF Moses and Christi Such a
little country, after all; its extreme
length might be traversed In five hours
by rail and its breadth in less than
two. Distance seemed so great In the
bible. When David fed farthest from
saul he was not yet 20 miles from
Bethlehem, nor more than so from
Gibeah, where Saul abode.
And remains were intact here which
would have wholly perished IN less ia
vored climes. The country should be
mapped, disputed points Of topography
settled the ancient towns of holy writ
identified with the modern villages,
built high on rubbish heaps above their
walls and temples. Ancient roads were
70 be traced; coins, Inscriptions and
other rehcs systematically collected and
collated for our greater knowledge of
the successive inhabitants of Syria
OcI4ddLltcs 1cIdci4les Roman.
The tombs OF the kings on Mount
Zion were awaiting excavation; so was
Berod's palace, the pool Of Bethesda
and the spring OF Hezekiah- Every foot
was to yield some treasure Of mighty
past.
And beyond the Holy City were many
sites-Mount Gerizm. thought TO be
the Morish OF Abraham's sacrifice, and
certainly the holy place of the Samart-
tans. containing stones which. they say,
Israel brought UP from Jordan's bed;
and Samaria. with John the Baptist's
tomb. the great remains OF Herodss
castles. and the splendid Roman cities
along the coast. Likewise the mounds
o. Sericho. and Jezreel, the capital of
Ahab and Jezebel
And Il was strange to see from what
unexpected quarters light was cast on
seemingly hopeless problems. Conder
discovered the long lost city Kadesh.
of the Hittites. through information
read in hieroglyphics on an Egyptian