Evening star., 1934-07-08
TALE
TOLD IN TINY AREA
US. ExCavators Find Stone
Age Village at Perse.
polls Site.
BY EEUBEN FRODIN,
Associated Press STAFF Writer.

CHICAGO, July THE drama Of
archaeology finds a spectacular climax
at Persepolis.
Not only because this Versailles of
ancient Persia attains an acme Of
splendor unrivaled in the Orient, but
particularly because adjacent to 1t lies
Stone Age village-millennium
older-in excellent state Of preserva-
ton.
A sweep of 5000 years in mans
early development is thus encompassed
in a single neighborhood.
The twin discovery represents one
of the red letter chapters the Univer-
sity of Chicago Oriental Institute has
written in the yet-to-be completed
story of the lost history of man.
Between the two ends of this story
the struggling village of 1000 BIC.
and the great palace at Persepolis-
there lies the rise Of the great Persian
empire After Persepolis was burned
by Alexander the Great in the fourth
century B. c. there was a further
Towering Of Persia for another thou
sand years, another story to be told by
Istakhr, the Paris of old Persia, not
yet fully excavated.
Harem Palace Restored.
The first building to be restored by
the Oriental institute at Persepolis was
the harem palace of Darius and
Xerxes, a truly magnificent building
approximately $50 feet long. The pal
ace houses expedition headquarters
and will be used as national museum
by the Persian government. The
stairways and inscriptions on walls
which were not destroyed have proved
the most valuable historically in West
ern Asia.
Prof Ernest Herzfeld. leader of
the work in Persia, reported to DR..
James Henry Breasted. director of
the institute, that Persepolis repre-
sents the last and highest synthesis
of the achievements of the ancient
Orient, marking the height of long
age"
Placed over against Persepolis,"
he said. 'the Acropolis of Athens
appears as the symbol of a new age to
which the future belonged.
Discoveries Epochal.
I'VE may expect" he continued, "the
story of the everyday world of the
Persian capital-of which Persepolis
was the suburb-will be told by Is
takhr, where test plots revealed
epoch-making discoveries. The re-
mains there represent the period
from 1000 BIC. to 1000 AID, the
climax and the anti-climax of the
imperial empire extinguished par
TALLY by Alexander"
The nearby stone village, in con-
trast to still imperial Persepolis, to-
day is a series of adobe walls flank
ing a crooked alley. Through the
doorways crude mural decorations in
red are visible and standing about
the floors are crude household uten-
sils and burned clay andirons Of this
little village of 5000 years ago.
Another striking comparison with
this culture sequence in Persia was
afforded by discoveries at AliShar.
Anatolia, a thousand miles away.
Alishar, less than a hundred miles
from Ankara, capital Of modern
L 1uTkey, WdS OIle VI Lie COWILS OCCu-
pied by the Hittites Q350 B.C).
once the most powerful people in
Western Asia and a rival with Egypt
for world supremacy.
At Alishar. single excavation 100
feeet deep revealed another 5000
year culture sequence, this time in
stratifed or layer form. Stone Age
remains were found at the full depth,
a Neolithic house at IS feet. with
evidences Of copper. bronze and iron
ages from Stone Age to Christian
mound terrace at the top. a Byzan-
tine church was uncovered.
DR.. Breasted believes this sequence
is the only known single site which
displays stratif1ed remains from all
ages from stone age to Christian
times still lying undisturbed.
The realist and the impreSsioniSt
were rivals as far back as art goes,
the expedition has found.
A study of the oldest known sculp-
ture found in Asia reveals the Su-
merians of ancient Babylonian times