Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-25
PALESTINE RUINS
BEING EXCAVATED
Work Conducted at Megiddo,
! Commanding Great Plain
! of Armageddon.
BY JOHN GUNTHER.

BY Cable to The Star and Chicago Daily News
MEGIDDO. Palestine, June %
For the first time in $500 years. a
permanent structure has been built
and inhabited on the mound at
Megiddo, commanding the great plain
of Armageddon. 1t is a field house
of the University of Chicago. Al
ready highly interesting discoveries
have been made by eXcavators who
are working straight through the
hot Summer under the direction of
DIR. Clarence S Fisher of Philadel-
phia. assisted by several Chicagoans,
including DIR. ID. II. Higgins and DR..
Edward DeLoch. One discovery is
of "A series of caves unearthed on the
east slope of the mound, one OF
which contained the remains OF a
heather temple with headstones. urns
and pillars, as well as the graves OF
victims of human sacrifices.
WOman's Skeleton Found.
The skeleton of a woman was found
in one large grave with two chill
Gren'S skeletons in tiny graves, and
the adjacent altar is supposed to
date from the Philistine period, about
100 Be. Another lind of illuminate
ing importance is section OF huge
''Stela." a memorial stone on which
Is inscribed the name of SheShonk,
ON Egyptian pharaoh of the tenth
century BIC. This is a valuable cor
roboratiOn of the truth of the Bible.
Sheshonk is called Shishak in Kings
and Numbers and is mentioned as
visitor to Armageddon at that period,
50 that the present discoveries prove
, beyond doubt that the Hebrew
cnroniclers had their names and
dates right.
An enormous amount of important
paterial so far has been dug out
from 3S rock tombs which DR.. Fisher
already has eXcavated on the east
slope. vet the work to date is only
preliminary bite into the top crust.
1'his material ranges in date from
the paleolithiC flint are to the Byzan-
tine glassware age and may be said
t. cover a whole range of history
which can be estimated at any
where from 10 to 10000 years. Much
of this material will probably reach
the Haskell Museum in Chicago as
soon as the Palestine authorities take
their lawful share for the Jerusalem
National Museum.
DIR. Fisher guided the writer across
the mound through tombs.
We are sure to be swamped
later" he said. we have an enor-
nous amount of stuff now after
less than three months work closely
restricted to one section of one slope.
II is only a flea bite so far. Our
method is to cut a transverse slice
into the mound, eXCavating as we
proceed so that successfully we may
reach 10 or a dozen distinct strata
which compose the mound, working
each independently without running
the others. which is a ticklish and
difficult process"
How long will the work take?" he
was asked
"Oh, about IS years" was the
reply.
It's Historical Significance.
The signal Importance Of the
Armageddon excavations lies in the
fact that the Megiddo mound com
mands the plain which is a great
historic highway between Africa and
Asia. Arrnageddon thus has been
the site of battles from the time of
the Neanderthalers 10 that of -Napo
icon and Allenby, and Megiddo has
been the site of a successive series of
cities from very earliest times down