Evening star., 1923-10-17
Secret of Old Jerusalem, Lost
In Babylon Exile, Avidly Sought
Hundreds of Undecipherable Documents,
Found in Past Excavations, Esist, But
Keys to Translation Are Lacking.

carried on at night and surrounded
with the greatest secrecy. Some in
teresting archaeological discoveries
Were made. but so far as ever was
known. no treasure was found.
1t was only a short time before the
story of the mysterious excavations
in the sacred precincts of the mosque
got abroad. 1t inf1amed the Moham-
medan population to high pitch. In
their fanatical rage they included all
the Christians in Jerusalem as inn
plicated in the desecration of their
temple
For time, it was feared that a
general attack upon and massacre
Of the Christians would take place.
Prompt civic action and common
sense at last prevailed.
Capt. Parker. however. was com
PEELED to fee by night and the hunt
for the treasures of the temple came
to sudden end. The lost treasure
stin remains undiscovered.
Permanent Good Results.
Parker's fiasco resulted in Ger
tain amount of permanent good, new
ertheless, to the cause of Palestinian
lish adventurer disclosed numerous
ancient wells. tunnels and under
ground chambers that were not
known before to have been in exist
enre.
In these were found samples Of
pottery and ceramics of different
epochs. Subterranean waterways un-
dreamed Of were discovered dating
back TO Davidic times
Baron dc Rothschild of the French
branch of that famous Jewish family,
became so interested in these reVela-
tionS that for several years. or until
the beginning of the war he financed
the work of the Psychologist WE'LL,
in underground Jersuleum disclosed
by the treasure hunters
WE'LL found that the city had been
established about 5000 years before
Christ and had always been center
of great Importance. Certain caves,
or great cavernS. found by WE'LL. led
him to believe he had discovered the
tombs of the king of Judah. who,
the Bible says, were buried with their
fathers in the city of Jerusalem.
Today. work on this. the oldest por-
ton of Jerusalem. the ancient city
known as the city of David. Is being
prosecuted by the psychologists of
the Palestine excavation fund
Hundreds of Documents Available.
Though there are hundreds of in
scriptions in Hittite characters al the
disposal of the archeoligiStS, no KEY
TO their Interpretation has been
found" said Acting Director Guy Of
the Palestine Museum of ANTIQUITIES
when ] asked him about this greatest
linguistic mystery of the east
The HittiteS domain was one Of
the great empires of the ancient
world UP to 1900 before Christ" he
continued. They smashed Babylon
and treated on equal terms with the
kings of Egypt They are mentioned
in the Bible and traces of them arc
found in Palestine.
AT Carchenush. about seventy-two
miles northeast of Aleppo. eXcava-
tions have been carried on by the
British Museum. The work has been
under the direction of c. l.. woolley,
who is now in charge OF the explora-
ttons at Ur for the University Of
Pennsylvania museum"
The only clue III the way of key
to the Hittite inscriptions is what is
known as the Disc of Tarkondemos.
And even it has been lost" said Mr.
Guy.
So great Hittite mystery must re-
main mystery until the kindly rub
bish of some ancient community or
temple surrenders the key in a hi or
trilingual postherd or stele