Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1933-03-23
EXPEDITION FINDS
STONE AGE VILLAGE
Persia Yields Two Most Re-
markable Discoveries.

ChicagO.-TwO chapters in the epic
Of human advance over span of near.
ly four thousand years from the re-
mote Stone age to the magnificence
of Cyrus the Great have been dramat-
ically revealed by discoveries of the
Persian expedition of the Oriental in
stitute of the University of Chicago,
which have just been reported to Di-
rector James Henry Breasted by DR..
Ernst Herzfeld, field director of the
expedition.
At PersepOlis, the Versailles of an
cient Persia, the institute expedition
has discovered some of the most mag
nificent sculptures ever uncovered by
archaeology. Within two miles of the
ruins of the ancient palaces to which
Alexander the Great in $50 B. c.. set
the torch during drunken debauch,
Doctor Herzfeld has found Stone age
village of approximately 1000 B. G. in
a state Of preservation surprising any
such discovery heretofore made.
"The discovery at Persepolis is one
of the greatest and most important in
the history of archaeological research,
Doctor Breasted said. 1T not only
far surpasses any archaeological dis
closure ever made in the history of
such research in Persia, but there has
never been any discovery like it any.
where in western Asia since archeOlOg-
ical excavation began there almost q
century ago."
Wall Sculptures.
Doctor Herzfeld has uncovered q
series of wall sculptures which, if SET
together, would form a vast panel OF
reliefs five or six feet in height, and
almost a thousand feet in length. The
carvings include series of historical
inscriptions of the greatest historical
Importance.
The walls of magnificent palaces
which stood on the gigantic terrace
Of PersepOlis, overlooking a mighty
plain encircled by mountains. were OF
sun-dried brick. But the colonnadeG
halls, the windows and the great doors
were done in black stone which was
polished like ebony.
The sculptures were done here anG
there on this black stone. Those dis
covered by Doctor Herzfeld depict 6
magnificent durbar. or cOnclave. of &
great group of Persian and Median of
ficials standing with the brilliantly
uniformed palace guards of the Persi
an emperor drawn up at one side t
receive the ambassadors of twenty
two subject nations who approach
from the other side bearing their trb
ute to Persia.
The execution of the scenes. Doctor
HerZfeld reports. displays unparalleled
beauty and refinement of detail.
1t was the disintegration and fall o.
the great mud-brick walls that pre-
served the newly discovered sculp
lures, and protected them from tn,
ravages of weather and vandalism
through the nearly two thousand fiv,
hundred years since they were created
The carvings are as fresh as the da,
when the sculptors' chisels touche,
them for the last time. No Othe
works of old Persian art have eve
been found in such perfect preserva
ton.
Stone Age Village.
Doctor Herzfeld found the Stone ag
village beneath a small mound SOM
three hundred by six hundred feet il
area and only ten or twelve feet Il
height. within two miles of the ruin
of the great palaces.
The walls of the adobe houses ar
preserved in places to height of 81,
or seven feet. There is a marrow
street or alley extending the length o
the little settlement. and a modern
visitor walking along it can look owe
into the houses. Through the door
and the earliest known windows eve
found. he can see mural decoration
Of red Ochre water color still discern
ible on the walls.
Standing about on the floors ar
household utensils of pottery, fire
places with burned clay fire-dogs stil
in position, and pottery vessels sti
containing the remains of food, espe
cially the bones of probably domest
Gated animals. In some of the dishe
lay the flint knives with which the ar
cient people had last eaten some 81
| thousand years ago.
"Such remains" Doctor Breaste
said, disclose to us the earliest pre-
historic ancestry Of the civilizatiO
which reached its elimination in tn
palaces of PersepOlis. The evidence
of the intervening evolution are pler
tifully preserved all-around Persep(
lis"