Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-22
ARCHAEOLOGY'S WARNING
BY Il. Addington Bruce

! By many people archaeology is accounted
the duIlest and least useful of all sciences.
! For archaeologists such people entertain
mixed sentiments of pity and contempt, it be-
| ing incomprehensible to them that any man
can enthusiastically devote his life to delying
| amid the ruins and vestiges of bygone ma
tions.
whats the good of it all?" is the unspok-
en- question: "The present gives us problems
! enough. Why not try to help solve these in
stead of wasting time and effort on the
past?"
Yet every once in a while the archaeoo-
gists make discoveries forcing from even
their most caustic critics grudging &C
acknowledgement that they have justification
for their activities. And occasionally they I'M
eXpectedly and convincingly demonstrate that
the past, however remote, has direct and
significant bearing on problems of the pres
ent.
Conspicuously to the point is the recent
unearthing Of the tomb of the Egyptian King
Tutankhamen, with it's wealth of buried
treasure, the mere enumeration of which sent
a wave of amaZement through the world of
today. In fact, as one writer has remarked:
THE inventory of the riches uncovered
reads like pages from Rider Haggard-goId
alabaster, carneian and turQuoise-eXcept
that no novelist could have ina gned such
extrnsic wealth as that which has been res
cued from the royal metropolis of the Theban
empire"
Most extraordinary of all, though, is the
contrast emphasized by the Tutankhamen dis
interment between the glory of the Egypt
that used to be and the low estate of the
Egypt of the modern world. Now Egypt is
a mere minor principally, sadly fallen from
its proud place as chief center Of civilization
and arbiter of the destnies of mankind.
And in revelations like that made by the
archaeologists spade at Thebes we have a
clue to the passing of Egypts power.
Clearly there came a time when the pro.
duction of wealth was succeeded by a passion
for its enjoyment. SO far as creative actiy-
ity continued, it was turned to the elabora-
ton of the refnemehts of luxury rather than
| to providing for essential needs of the nation.
Rulers gave more thought to pomp and dis
play-aye, and to the perpetuatiOn Of pOmp
and display after their deaths-than to ques-
lions of craftsmanship. Yielding to a mania
for monument-building, they set their people
to tasks which, so far from adding to the
resources of Egypt, steadily drained the
country.
And we may be sure that the virus of lux
uriOusneSS spread from the rulers to their
underlings, with the inevitable result of an
| ever-decreasing ability to meet present de-
mands, much less plan successfully for the
| future. AS inevitably, too, came increasingly
| heavier taxes to maintain rulers and under
! lings in the luxury which to them had be-
! come necessity.
Hence, with a growing inertia of ease at
| one end of the social scale and a growing
| misery and discomfort at the other. Egypt
| gradually ripened for conquest by any more
| virile invader.
| In time more virile invaders appeared
| and the pyramids and tombs with their hid
| den boards Of gold, silver, precious stones,
! and works Of art, were all that remained to
| let later generations know that Egypt once
had been mighty.
Surely in this there is a lesson a warning,
| for the great nations of the civilization that
| now is Are there not some among them
! in whom appear signs of luxury craving, of
! willingness to turn from the production of
wealth to its mere enjoyment? Can it be
doubted that if they follow EgYpt's example
| in yielding to luxuriousness their ultimate
| fate will be the fate that befell Egypt?
(CODVriCht. 1921