Evening star., 1938-08-04
OF STARS,
MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress
in Field, Laboratory
and Study.
By THOMAS r, HENRY.

in Field, Laboratory
and Study.
By THOMAS r. HENRY.
Back in World War days the biblical
"Armageddon" became q stereotyped
word.
The whole war was "Armageddon," the
great struggle between the forces Of
good and evil. The place itself, strategi-
cally located, was one of the principal
battlefields of the ancient world.
Archeologists Of the University OF
Chicago for some years have been un-
covering the ruins of the actual Arma-
geddon. or Megiddo. They find, ac-
cording to Gordon Loud, field director
Of this years operations. that 1t was
walled city as early as 5000 BIC. During
the season just closed the expedition
excavated about $50 feet Of great stone
wall IS feet high and a feet wide. It
probably encircled the entire city. for
1t parallels the sides of the mound which
has been built up from the debris of
some 20 periods Of civilization. At least
this number of times cities have -four
ished on the site Of the battlefield which
has become symbolic OF all battlefields.
Some have prospered for centuries be-
fore being wiped out. either by war or
natural decay. After each episode of
civilization the, site was abandoned for
a time and debris allowed to gather over
its ruins.
The wall Is characteristic Of early
Bronze Period construction, and con-
siderable skill at masonry is displayed
in the joints of the rough limestone
blocks. The two faces of the wall are
much more carefully constructed than
the inner part. which was Allied with
stone and rubble. Apparently the orig
inal thickness of 18 feet was inadequate.
for the construction shows that this
width later was doubled.
The excavations this year reached bed
rock-a soft. chalky limestone which
slopes away from the site. This is i'm.
mediately below the Goth level of cul-
ture represented in the mound. The
city wall was found at the 18th level
The cut exposed one cave in the soft
limestone which may have been the
home of the first inhabitants of the
famous site. New Stone Age flints and
bones were found in this cave. The ex-
pedition also found small storage bins
which had been cut in the rock. The
period represented is probably before
$500 BIC.
Parts OF large, ornamented paving
stones were found at the 10Th culture
level. Outline drawings of horned
animals. out of proportion when COM
pared to any known. creatures, and of
human figures were found incised in the
stone. Some Of the animals are pictured
with enormous tails twice as large as
their bodies. The stones of the paving
are irregular pieces, about Is by IL
inches each in size. No clue was found
as to the purpose of the paving. 1t leads
up to a large mud-brick building con-
tanning room with an altar, presum-
ably some primitive chapel.
Two levels above the excavators found
a circular structure which may have
been a sacrificial altar. The exposed
section is about "a feet in diameter. One
side continues into an unexcavated area
which will be explored next year.
X 4
The North American aboriginal was
a clever inventor of the kinds of devices
needed to meet the problems Of his way
of lfe-traps for mammals. birds and
nsh. The ingenuity displayed by the
Crees of Northern Canada long has ex-
cited the admiration of Dr. John M.
Cooper, professor of anthropology at
the Catholic University Of America, who
for more than 10 summers has made
ao1I hoc hoen
interested especially in traps and has
just published complete descriptive
catalogue Of the various types developed
through the Far Northern woodlands.
The ideas Of such traps, of which Father
Cooper has made considerable collec-
ton, are passed down from father to
son and. once it has been demonstrated
that they serve their purpose, the de-
signs tend to become stereotyped. The
Indian always was inclined to let well
enough alone, and only to meet sudden
emergencies was he apt to have the
inspiration for new invention. For
this reason also various designs tended
to become restricted to certain tribes
and certain neighborhoods. Because OF
this, the distribution of particular kind
of trap may afford clues as to the past
history of its users.
Father Cooper himself has been much
impressed with the capabilities Of the
Northern Indians when faced with a
problem which none of their ancestors
have solved for them. For example,
man who depended largely for his living
on spearing fish through the ice ac-
cidentally dropped his spear into the
water. It sank about 30 feet to the
bottom. The man had no other. He
was faced with the loss of his means of
nvlihood for the rest of the winter.
He solved the problem by tying
weight and a live fish to line and
throwing it into the hole. He reasoned
that the spear had probably remained
upright on the bottom and that the fish
would swim around in circles until the
line was twisted all around the pole.
Then he could pull it up. This was pre-
cisely what happened.
The apparent backwardness of primi-
tive peoples, Dr. Cooper says, hardly can
be attributed to low intelligence in the
face of examples like this. 1t is as
sociated rather with restricted pattern
of life.