The Ely miner., 1912-04-12
VERYONE who cares at all about
L. classical antiquity is glad to
hear that the Austrian Arch
geological institute is resuming

L. classical antiquity is glad to
hear that the Austrian Arch
L. geological institute is resuming
its exploration of the city of the
great Diana. 1t is, fortunately, rare
for politics to interfere with science,
but at Ephesus las recently at Cy-
rene) the exception occurred. The
right under which the Austrians be-
gan work in 1899 was based on a per
sonal permission from Sultan Abdul
Hamid; and with the new order,
which was established in 1908, 1t not
only lapsed, but could not be renewed
stitution. Almost Immediately followed
the annexation Of Bosnia. The diff
| culties of Austrian would-be conces-
sionaries in the Ottoman empire were
redoubled; the institute had to shut
up its house in Ayasoluk, stack its
rails and cars, and leave the scene CT
ten seasons operations to be reoccu-
pied by the rank vegetation which a
marshy site on the hot west coast Of
Anatolia is only too ready to send up,
writes d. G. Hogarth, in Illustrated
London News. l walked over the field
of ruin in the autumn Of 1910, and
found 1t fast becoming ~ thicket Of
reeds and brushwood; aut what 1t
must have looked like last spring, aft
er the heavy SHOWS and rains of the
severest winter ever known in the Le-
want. can only guess. ..
Four years ago the site gave me the
best idea that l have ever been able to
get of the splendid appearance which
great Graeco-Roman city, built in a
land of marble, must have made.
True that even here the imagination
had a great deal to do. Hardly any
building except the theater had more
than course or two Of its external
walls, or more than foot or two of
Its column-shafts outstanding. The
least-destroyed structure, the Library
of CELSIUS, is not preserved above the
height Of man; the larger agora was
still unclaared of the deposit of ages,
and the streets were Uttered with
chaotic ruin. But still there ran the
paved streets, plain to see; there were
the monuments which had lined them,
in their original places, or as near as
might be; there were the market
places, and here. there, and every
where, the gate-posts, lintels, archi-
traves and columns which had made
the splendor of the facades. 1t
seemed that no building in this quar-
ter of Ephesus had not been fronted
with marble and carved richly. Truly
this had been no mean city!
How Germans Excavate.
German excavators are very fond of
such superficial clearance Of an an
cient site, and, with that object the
authorities usually place an architect
at the head of their expeditions. There
is much to be said for their policy.
The evidence for one period of an
tiouity is made visible as a whole and
on the spot; and the German diggers.
having more to show the visitor than
another digger has who burrows to
the bottom of all things, removing
what lies above as soon as he has re-
corded it, probably educate more peo-
pie in archaeology ESQ far as tourist
spending two or three hours on a site
can pick up archaeology than any
other. The lesson of a cleared site iS
so obvious and 20 easily read. The
other kind of digger, whose results
are hardly to be seen and appreciated
until they appear in the cases OF some
distant museum, appeals only to those
who already know much of antiquity,
and have studied elsewhere the les
son which he does but illustrate.
When / dug at Ephesus myself for
the British museum some years ago
(though not in the city area), / made
for the bottom of things at once, re-
gardless of overlying things, once
these had been recorded. That I did
SO, however, is neither to my credit
nor to my discredit, for really / had
no choice, If / was to get any results
worth mentioning. / was commits
stoned to dive once more. and for
the last time Tin all likelihood) into
the noisome pit which Wood had
made thirty-five years before in order
of Ephesian Artemis. What little the
Byzantine builders of churches and
the moslem builders of mosques had
left of the great shrine, as 1t had been
| in Roman and Hellenistfc times, he
carried almost entirely away. Below
that stratum something had survived
Of the earlier temple which Croesus
helped to build. OF this also Wood
removed all except some patches of
pavement, drums of columns. and
bits of walling and foundations. Un-
less there were still earlier temples
below this-and below. as 1t hap
osnad. the snying water-Ieyel to boot