Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-10-24
PROGRESS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Valuable Results of Recent
Work.
Recent
The Cave DwclIers Of Ancient Pales.
estinc-AdditiOnal Light ON Prob
lem Of the Hittites-Research
in BnbylOnia and Egypt.

coveries In Egypt was passed. and that
,ney had better henceforth devote them
selves to the study OF the language Yet
within a year OF this pronouncement NJ.
Amelineau. working with funds supplied
him by small syndicate OF Partisan
curio- hunters, laid bare the royal tombs
OF the FIRST dynasty. and thereby not only
pushed our knowledge OF Egyptian his
tory n whole Millennium further back,
but materially altered our Views Of the
origin of the Egyptian language and cul-
ture. with such an example before us,
10 one would be so rash as to say that
no more startling discoveries In Mesopo-
| tamia or Egypt can be expected; but 1t
, may be conceded that archaeological re-
search In both countries has for the mo-
| nent run into "a kind of backwater, and
| that there Is no indication that we are on
! the eve Of anything epoch making. The
! German excavations on tho sites Of
Babylon and Borsippa have indeed added
! much to our knowledge of the architec-
/ ture OF these famous cities. and the plans
published by DR.. Robert KolGewey have
enabled Us in some sort to reconstruct
their ancient Glories. So, too, Or. Ma
villc's work FOR the Egypt exploration
he is on the track of a huge construction
| o: early date buried behind the temple Of
Setl l.. which may equal or overshadow
the great works unearthed by him some
years ago at DER el-Bahari. Neither
here nor in Babylonia. however. have any
inscriptions Of Importance come to light,
and up till now they have therefore
yielded nothing of the first Importance
| to archa eolosy.
While this has been the case with the
two countries to which the public are
most accustomed to look for sensational
discoveries. the stream of research fas,
| in fact, turned elsewhere, and has pro-
duced results every whit as important for
our knowledge of antiquity as those of
former years. The work of the Palestine
exploration fund in the Holy Land. I'M
grateful and barren of material rewards
as II must always be in so poor a cOun-
try, has yet shown us that Palestine was
inhabited. as far back as 31O b. c., by q
race OF cave jewellers In the neolithic or
polished stone age of culture. who were
gradually dspossessed by Semitic tribes
coming probably from Arabia. These
cave jewellers were capable of construc-
ing great subterranean waterworks for
their own protection during sieges or in
vasions. and there is some reason to con-
meet them with the megaithic or cyclic
pean remains first pointed out by Gender.
which their last explorer DR.. Duncan
Mackenzie. compares with reas to those
existing in Sardinia and the Balerc Isles
1t would seem, therefore. that even nj
this early date the coasts of Syria We're
subject to tn influences OF European as
we'll as Asiatic culture. and that expedi-
tons like crusades We're but repeti-
tons of phenomena going back to the
very dawn of history
This view is much strengthened by the
results Of Professor Macalisters eXcava-
tons at Gczcr in the land of the Philis-
tines during the last few years. These
leave little doubt that the theory held by
most scholars. which assigns a Cretar
origin to the Phillstlnes. is well founded
and that the settlement of the European
emigrants on the Syrian coast can be
fixed with fair probability as taking place
; Immediately after the sack of Cnossos
Would that We were any nearer to thu
identity of the authors of this catas
trophe, which seems to have brought witt
it the downfall Of the rich Aegean civil
cation revealed To lis by the work OF Sil
Arthur Evans. The solution t. the prob
, lem il, doubtless to be found in the man!
tablets in Photographic and linear scripts
stored in the palaces of Crete. Up to thu
Present, however. these have dened inter
probation, and even the publication of tn
first part of Sir Arthur Evans's grea
work, "Scrpta Minoa,' although 1t give
US abundant material for study, has no
Yet enabled us to say what these tablet
. contain, or in what tongue they ar
written. When We can do so-which will
probably be when bilinguai inscription
Of sufficient length to form key is dis
covered-we may now what sudden in
Cursion of barbarans 1t was which sen
these giants in brazen armour wander
ing from Europe to found a new home Of
; the Syrian plains.
That we need not despair OF so doing 1
= shown by the light cast by recent arch
: geological work on what once seemed t
\ be the insoluble problem OF the Hittite,
Professor Sayce long ago made us fami
liar with the idea OF vast Hittte EN-
? pire, consisting probably OF a federatio
+ Of loosely compacted tribes. stretchin
: over the greater part OF Asia Minor fror
. the Euxine to the Aegean. and able t
the Assyrian powers. That the Httite
I | Were like the Cretans. of Aryan ploo
, | has long been conjectured but thei
!. Photographic inscriptions have not bee
found capable of translation. and the IN
sight that Professor Sayce and other
. nave been able to give us into tnei
r. probable meaning seems to show tina
5 few, II any, of them can contain any his
, torical information. During the last fey
Y years. however the labors OF Professo
! Gfirstang at Saktjegeuzi in Cilcia. of MI
r iogarth at Jerablus. and OF the Germa
r excavators at Boghazkeui have brough
. TO light the ruins of palaces and cities G
q great importance for the study of Httit
I, history and culture, together with longe
n Inscriptions in Hittite script than any W
. available But an even more sensations
. discovery was made when Professo
Hugo Winckler found at Boghazkuei II
. King Of the Hittites and the king OF IN
y Mitannians an allied and kindred natio
or northern Mesopotamia, at a date som,
- thing like l400 B. C. In these treaties
, among the Mtannian gods invoked, ar
. year the Nedic deities Mira, Varuna, IN
ara, ana, probably, the Asvins or Heaven
ly Twins. Hence It would seem tina
. Aryan-or. to use a more modern phras,
, indo-Germanic-gods were worshpped
western Asia nearly a thousand year
earlier than has hitherto been suspected
and that all our ideas as to the relativ
ages OF the Indian and Iranlan culture