|- |-- . |- - - - - - - - - - - |- - |- - - - ！ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |-- - - - - -- - |-.- - -|- . | 1 │ │ │ . . |- |-|--- |- .|- º .” *-woº, (33- * EASTERN EXPLORATION PAST AND FUTURE A : E A ST E R N E X PLO R AT I O N PAST AND FUTURE LECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION BY W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE HoN. D.C.L., LL.D. ; F.R.S., F.B.A. NEW YORK ROBERT M. McBRIDE AND COMPANY - 1918 Printed in Great Britain - Os S (- , Pl ſºlº CONTENTS - PAGE PALESTINE - - - - - - I CHRISTIAN, PERIOD - - - - 3 HERODIAN AND GREEK AGE - - - - 5 JEWISH AGE - - - - - - 9 EGYPTIAN in FLUENCE - - - - 18 THE PHILISTINES - - | - - - 21 AMORITE CIVILIZATION - . - - - 24 THE CANAANITES/ - - - - - 30 MESOPOTAMIA - - - - - - 39 SASSANIANS AND PARTHIANS - - - 40 PERSIA AND BABYLON . . . - - - 44 THE HITTITES AND KASSITES - - - 49 HAMMURABI AND HIS DATE - - - - 54 SARGON AND NARAM-SIN - - - - 66 SUMERIAN Civilization - - - - 68 ELAM THE SOURCE - - - - • 73 THE FUTURE - - - - - - 81 A. MONUMENTS - - - - - 84 B. SITeS - - - - - - 88 C. ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES - - - 9o D. THE BOARD FOR ANTIQUITIES - - - 91 E. DIRECTION OF RESEARCH - - - 93 F. MUSEUM ADMINISTRATION - - - 96 G. GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY - - - 99 H. TERMS FOR SCIENTIFIC ExCAVATION - - Io9 J. FINANCE - - - - - - Ioff K. JERUSALEM PROBLEMS - - - - IoS LETTERS OF REFERENCE USED IN THE TEXT - - II.4 INDEX - - - - - - - I 15 SOME WORKS BY PROF. FLINDERS PETRIE Religion of Ancient Egypt. 1s. Constable. Religion and Conscience in Egypt. 2s. 6d. Methuen. Syria and Egypt. 2s. 6d. Methuen. Personal Religion in Egypt. 2s. 6d. Harper. Revolutions of Civilisation. 2s. 6d. Harper. Arts and Crafts in Ancient Egypt. 45 plates. 5s. Foulis. The Growth of the Gospels. 2s. 6d. Murray. Egypt and Israel. 54 figs. 2s. 6d. S.P.C.K. \ PHOTOGRAPHIC CATALOGUES. Amulets. 1,700 figs. 21s. Constable. Scarabs. 2,900 figs. 32s. Constable. Tools and Weapons. 3,200 figs. 35s. Constable. |- |- ~ ,- PALESTINE THE political situation in the East as now de- veloped, and the future possibilities before us, constitute, perhaps, the heaviest responsibility for historical study that has ever fallen on any nation. We may have in our hands the develop- ment of the sites of the greatest ancient civiliza- tions, the parents of our own knowledge, learning, and religion; and it will rest upon us to settle whether we will preserve and understand that past, or whether we will deliberately let it be destroyed. There are no ifs and buts in the question; unless we take long-sighted and effective measures at once—this year—we promote the destruction of the history of past ages of civiliza- tion. When once the security of life and pro- duce, without extortion, is assured, the rapid development of unworked lands is certain in the present age. We must not have repeated in Mesopotamia and Palestine the ghastly re- sults of our inefficiency, which we have exhibited in Cyprus and in Egypt. Of the irremediable mischief and loss under British management in I CHRISTIAN PERIOD 3 economics: how much a nation produced, how the material was apportioned between different classes, what were the facilities of life, how far conditions depended on the energy of ability. There is the extent of knowledge: how science was developed, what power men had over the products and forces of nature. And, most nearly touching us, there is our inheritance of all this endeavour, how it has affected our own lives and surroundings. All this we demand to know, especially of those lands and races to whom our debt is the greatest. Babylonia is the mother of our commerce and our science, Palestine is the mother of our religious percep- tions. It is these countries for which we require now a just stewardship of their past. It will perhaps be the more intelligible plan if we begin our review of the situation by looking at the later and better-known ages to begin with, and then deal with the more distant past. The Christian period in Syria has left many beautiful buildings, in an astonishing state of preservation. The insecurity of the nomad raids on the empire of Justinian, culminating in the Arab conquest, drove out the population which bordered on the desert, and their houses and churches were left almost complete. The American University ex- peditions of 1900 and 1910 have recorded a large region full of buildings in Northern Syria; 4. PALESTINE south of Hebron I have walked through a town, still inhabited, where the houses were obviously Roman, and have seen a large hall with the stone roof still perfect over it. It will be said, if these things thus remain, they will continue without our help. They will not. The beautiful churches of North Syria discovered and pub- lished by de Vogüé half a century ago have been largely wiped out of existence by Circassian colonists, who quarried them to pieces. And are we less barbarous, when an Englishman boasts that in exploiting the Mareotis district he only needs to pull to pieces a Roman settlement to get enough material to build his new house 7 . Are all these splendid remains of the early Christian period to be left as quarries for every squatter that takes to exploiting a free and civilized Syria P - In Galilee there are the great synagogues of Capernaum and Chorazin, built of marbly lime- stone, finely carved with figures of animals and fruits. Are these—the very buildings, probably, in which Christ taught—to be left to the mercy of the next needy settler P Another class of remains, which seems to belong specially to the south of Palestine, is that of the mosaic pavements. There was a great development of these in the age of Justinian. The most important is the great mosaic map of HERODIAN AGE 5 Palestine at Medeba, east of the Dead Sea, some- what injured in the finding, but still almost com- plete (J.). Other fine pavements were lately found near Mount Nebo and at Bittir, near Jerusalem, the latter with each panel of the pattern bearing the name of a donor, like the pavement of the Cathedral of Grado (R. B., vii.). Other pavements with Christian signs and in- scriptions have been found on the Mount of Olives, and near Hebron; others, again, on the road from Egypt, and near Beersheba. The latter was turned up by Australian soldiers when trench-digging. Nobly they did their unexpected duty, and spent nine days, continually bombed by aeroplane, while they carefully raised it, and despatched it safely to Cairo, to await their triumphal return to Australia. This is a most hopeful sign of the interest that intelligent men will take in preservation; those who will risk their lives over such work will not grudge a halfpenny in the pound on their taxes to save things from destruction. An important work of the Herodian age is the Temple and Basilica at Samaria, recently dis- covered (H. T.). The temple was erected in honour of Augustus and the Roman State, with a statue for the worship of the Emperor. A long colonnade wound round the side of the hill to the Forum, showing that the taste for such civic 6 PALESTINE decoration—well known at Palmyra—was al- ready at work. A hippodrome also marks the essentially Hellenistic nature of this resettle- ment; probably it was encouraged by Herod to choke the orthodox Samaritan worship, and to render that city the more distasteful to the Jew. The excavation by Dr. Reisner is an example of what should be done, in clearing every floor-level of buildings separately, such as three successive floorings in the basilica, each dated by coins, inscriptions, and pottery. The thorough clear- ing stratum by stratum was very fully carried out by Bliss and Macalister in the excavations of Lachish, Gezer, and other cities. Such is the only method by which the historical results can be secured. The opposite pole is the trenching through mounds, regardless of the direction of buildings, as has been generally the fate of Meso- potamian and Persian sites. Further south a fine record of the rock tombs of Petra, the Roman camps and roads in Moab, the stone cities of Bosra and those of the Hauran, has been made in Brunnow and Domaszewski's three volumes of Provincia Arabia, 1904. The fulness of plans and photographs in this survey is final as to the general subject. They included a set of photographs of the marvellous carvings of the Palace of Meshetta in Moab–of the seventh or ninth century A.D.—which have since been rem oved to Berlin. GREEK PERIOD 7 Regarding future prospects in Syria, we may still hope for a great deal from buried inscriptions, especially in the region of the Christian towns and churches which have not yet been despoiled. Nothing has been done in clearing up these buildings. Papyri and MSS. we cannot hope for, except where a building has remained roofed; but in a country where stone takes the place of wood, even for doors, there should be much to seek for amid the ruins. The whole South country should be sounded carefully in all sites to find mosaic pavements, so as to order their preservation, as they are very liable to be destroyed in erecting new buildings. Nothing has yet been done in excavating Petra or Pal- myra ; the work would be light, as there is no depth of earth to remove, and much might be learned of the Semites under Roman rule. Of the Greek period a good deal has been re- covered. Perhaps the most striking objects are the painted tombs of Mareshah, of the Alex- andrian type (P. M.). The decoration with figures of animals, each with the name over it, shows evident connection with the animals and names in the mosaic of Palestrina. There must have been some common source, of a portable nature, for this painting in the Judaean hills and a mosaic in Italy. Perhaps the source was the illustration of Aristotle's Natural History; 8 PALESTINE no other such work is known before this date. These tombs were found in the extensive plunder- ing and wreckage of the cemetery at Beit Jibrin by the natives. No check was put on this de- struction; but, at least, no wreckage like this should be tolerated in future. The ancient city of Mareshah (Tell Sandahannah), excavated by Macalister (B.M.), has provided a complete plan of a Seleucidan town of about six acres. At Tell Zakariyeh a town of the same age, on the top of earlier towns, yielded a curious mermaid-like figure of the fish-goddess Derketo or Atargatis. She was worshipped at Hierapolis in Northern Syria and at Askelon, where there were sacred fish-ponds. A curious reference to that lately appeared in a papyrus list of temples in the Fayum, where one was to Atargatis Bethen- nunis; this refers to the fish-ponds of Askelon which were near the modern Beit Hanun, which place has evidently kept the ancient name. This would be an interesting site to examine, as we thus know closely where the temple of this Syrian goddess was placed. In the ruins of Samaria a Greek town has been identified, with an inscription of King Demetrios. At Jericho Greek pottery has also been found (E.); and this flourishing age of the ancient world has doubtless left traces in most places of im- portance. At Gezer a group of tombs of the * IO PALESTINE of building, which are well identified as of Omri, of Ahab, and of Jehu and Jeroboam II. (H. T.). Several courses of stone building remained from each period, one over the other. The earliest masonry—that of Omri-was massive, but not finely finished. Over it that of Ahab was of finer work, and was much extended down the western and southern slopes of the hill; it was well dated by an Egyptian vase of Usarken II., and with this were many ostraka written in a free cursive hand. This free writing shows the source of the cursive forms of the rock inscription of the Siloam tunnel. The general type of the palace was that of a single great building with large courts sur- rounded by rooms; this is much like the palace of Apries, which I found at Memphis. This great stone fortress and massive wall around the whole city made the place impregnable to ancient warfare, and only starvation could reduce such cities. After the capture of Samaria there followed an age of poor brick buildings in Babylonian style, and a city wall of stone facings filled in with mud, course by course. Such clumsy and poor work seems evidently that of the colonists planted there by Sargon, 720 to 670 B.C. The other palace is that of Megiddo, Tell Mutesellim (S.M.). The walls were from three to five feet thick; not much was found except a fine seal with a lion, inscribed “for Shema HEBREW CITIES f f servant of Jeroboam ”; this is, perhaps, the earliest Hebrew inscription. Over the level of this palace was a great temple built of massive blocks; in it were some of the vessels of the temple service. Above this, again, was a mass of houses of the age just before the Greek occu- pation. Many Egyptian scarabs of the eigh- teenth to the twenty-third dynasties were found here. Close to Megiddo is Ta'anak. Of this a small part has been cleared (S.T.). The striking thing here was a hollow altar of pottery about three feet high, with air-holes up the front and sides, and with five figures of quadrupeds in relief on each side; the style of it is almost Mexican in its crudelity. It is assigned to probably 700 B.C., and may be due to some of the barbarous oriental colonists brought by the Assyrians. w The most complete clearance of a Hebrew town was at Gezer (M.). It is marked by the old Canaanite high place being disused, and built over with houses. The arrangement of the town was crowded and unwholesome, and its effect on the people is shown by the prevalence of diseases, as seen on the skeletons. The Jews entering Palestine from desert life do not seem to have understood town life better than the Arabs of later ages. Iron came into common use early in the times of the kings; and the growth JEW AND GENTILE I3 praised by the orthodox, did not suppress the local worships; and these are noticed in the special plaint of Elijah: “I have been very jealous for the LoRD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken thy cove- nant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets” (1 Kings xix. Io). Thus the particu- larity of the later Jew about ignoring other gods and other centres of worship outside Jerusalem was a growth later than the golden age of the monarchy. Other excavations of importance (S. M.) have been at Tell Zakariyeh, when an irregular for- tress, about 1oo by 200 feet in size, has six towers around it; also at Beth Shemesh, where a great city wall and bastions remain up to twelve or fifteen feet high. At Jericho it is remarkable that in the Israelite town the pottery was of the Cypriote style rather than the native Jewish (P. F., 1910). This seems to point to the Jordan Valley being more accessible commercially down the valley from Lake Merom and Tyre than it was across the mountains of Judaea and the wilderness east of that. Little has been found of actual documents in this age. Two cuneiform tablets at Gezer (M.) only refer to business, in 649 B.C. One is a bill of sale, the other the sale of a field. The J main monument of the royal period is the tunnel NATIVE STATES I5 throne with an open window behind him, letting in the cool seabreeze, and “ the waves of the great sea broke behind him.” The chief stated that there were twenty boats from Tanis in his port, and many from Sidon, showing considerable trade going on there. The chief demanded in return for the cedars six boats of Egyptian goods to be sold at the native dealers.’ To check the assertions of the envoy about past transactions, the chief ordered the journals of his ancestors to be brought out, and found that £400 worth of silver (equal to many thousands in ancient values) had been paid by the Egyptians. This shows that full annals were kept at this Syrian port. Annoyed at the cedars lying on the shore, the chief gave permission for the envoy to take them if a present is brought. The envoy then went to Egypt, and returned in the next year with presents of gold and silver vases, leather, stuffs, and dried fish. Then 300 men and 300 oxen were supplied to drag the cedars down to the coast. Pirates came to the port to seize the envoy; he escaped to a queen ruling on the Orontes, and later travelled down to Tyre and Byblos. This papyrus gives an insight on the condition of Syria: the long-standing civilization of the coast towns, with regular annals, the respect for law, and the government rights- over the forests. 16 PALESTINE Of this Israelite age there is a great deal still to be learned: we have as yet only a few samples. There was evidently much business going on, probably written on clay tablets, which might be recovered. There were also evidently annals of the petty states, which we may hope some day to read. On the Jewish history there may be much more underground than all we now have in written record. But we shall never recover it if digging is left to natives and treasure- hunters, such as the mischievous and futile expedition of six years ago. So far, what has been done about Jerusalem is almost entirely topographical. Fixing the positions of walls and drains and cisterns has been about all that is practicable. This is valuable work as leading to the right ground for thorough research. Whenever it may be possible to bare large spaces in Jerusalem, through the great depth of ruins of all ages—the 80 feet of ground piled against the outer wall of the Temple area, or the deep mass filling up the Tyropoean valley —when that is clear we shall be able to recon- struct part of the city of the kings. The tops of the hills, Moriah and others, have been so repeatedly stripped of their buildings that prob- ably very little can be found there, except lines of rock-drafting for foundations. The masses of material overthrown from the hills into the DESTRUCTION OF TEMPLES 17 valleys are the natural reservoirs of history. The houses below would be buried almost in- tact, the sculpture and masonry of the buildings overthrown should exist in fair condition in the rubbish. When Nebuchadnezzar and Titus wiped out the first and third temple they could not annihilate the stones; and they were too urgent in removing them to wait for the future builders who could use them up. The blocks were probably dragged along and heaved over the nearest wall into a sea of dust and chips below. There they would pile up too deep for future quarriers, and the materials of most of those walls are probably still lying in the valleys. We must always remember that the present Haram area is a Herodian production. All the South and east parts of it are built out on a system of arches, like the great platform of the Palatine at Rome. This arched space, supported by high pillars of masonry, is now known as Solomon's stables. The earlier form of the hill is shown by the rock as a long narrow ridge running southward; and this is corroborated by the artificial hill, copying the temple site, which Oniah erected in Egypt when the original Moriah was entirely desecrated by the Hellenists. Therefore, while the Haram area may show the outlines of Herod's Temple, it is the rocky ridge under the Dome of the Rock, and the slopes of 2 18 PALESTINE that east and west dipping down into the arched spaces, which would yield the emplacement of Solomon's Temple. It is a disputed question whether the rock under the Dome is the site of the Holy of Holies, or of the altars of burnt- offering which stood in the court of the Temple. It is hardly profitable in so short a sketch to deal. with more of the debates about Jerusalem sites. As Professor Hayter Lewis remarked, when appealed to about some site, “There is nothing certain in Jerusalem.” Whenever free excava- tion is possible, we may begin really to under- stand the history of the city in detail. This will never be done if the problem is neglected, and if Jerusalem is now left to grow on as a commer- cial modern town. The site is most unsuitable for business purposes; and much the best course, for practical and for historical reasons, would be to start a modern suburb and then clear ancient Jerusalem down to the Solomonic town, and keep it as the Jewel of the Past, visited by all, but appropriated by none. The problems of modern management will be considered further in the third lecture. The next section of our subject is rather on influences than on a period. The products and effects of the AEgean and Egyptian civilizations in Palestine are of the greatest value historically; they are the means of dating the different EGYPTIAN connections to periods, and the proofs of connection of the civilizations. The absence of royal names in Palestine, and the paucity of inscriptions, makes the help of Egypt essential. The profusion of scarabs, beads, and other small objects; the precision with which these, and also pottery, can be now dated in Egypt; the facility with which they can be studied in publications and in collections at home—all these aids are of the greatest help in dealing with vague masses of ruin which carry nothing of local dating. No one should be thought competent to excavate in Syria who has not acquired a thorough know- ledge of the historical alphabet of his subject. It is natural at Gezer, on the road down into Egypt, much should be found from the south. A dozen tombs there (M.) contained duplicates of things well known in Egypt, dating from the Hyksos age to the early Greek time, but mostly of the period of Egyptian occupation in the eighteenth dynasty. The styles of pottery and objects found associated in these tomb- groups are exactly what we already know to be contemporaneous by our Egyptian material. The black pottery with pricked patterns is asso- ciated with alabaster vases like those of the twelfth to fifteenth dynasties, with a knife of a Hyksos form, and a scarab of the Hyksos King * Pepa. The pottery known to be of the Thothmes 20 PALESTINE age all goes together with Cretan pottery of the same age. The so-called “Philistine '' tombs— which have nothing to do with those people— are exactly in accord with Egyptian material of the seventh century B.C., and correspond piece by piece with the contents of a North Syrian cemetery near Aleppo. If we were to give them any ethnic name, Scythian would be as likely as any other; but these tombs probably represent the cosmopolitan usage of all Syria under the mixture of Egyptian, Greek, and Assyrian in- fluences. We must beware of taking objects as implying a residence of the makers. A cavern tomb at Gezer has been called Egyptian, because of the source of the objects; but as it is of the period when the Hyksos were thrusting the Egyptians southward out of the Delta, it is very unlikely that any Egyptians then actually penetrated into Syria against the northern stream. Objects from Egypt were naturally prized by the Hyksos, who adopted Egyptian civilization as superior to their own, and hence they traded the scarabs, beads, and jewellery back into their own country. In the eighteenth dynasty period a large quan- tity of pottery, imitating leather work in its forms or decorations, came into use in Palestine and Egypt. It is almost certainly Syrian in origin, and brought back into Egypt by the plundering ORIGIN OF PHILISTINES 2I expeditions which were then so frequent. Wher- ever it is found it serves to mark this period, just as the black pottery marks the age of the Hyksos. Besides these types there was a con- tinual infiltration of certain Mykenaean decorated pottery, which shows the prevalence of Mediter- ranean trades (V.). How far a closer connection may be due to a Cretan origin of the Philistines is a matter of much controversy. In favour of that origin it is asserted that Cherethi and Pelethi are Cretans and Philisti; that Caphtor, the home of the Philistines, is the land of Kefti of the Egyptian records, which is assumed to be Crete, although the fullest and most careful study of all the material indicates Kefti to be Eastern Cilicia; and a figure of the Cretan frescoes is placed side by side with a Kefti man, to which there is no resemblance in any detail. Certainly the Caphtor-Kefti has nothing to do with Crete, though it may be linked with Philistines. Another line of argument is that Philistines are unknown in the Pentateuchal lists of the tribes of Canaan, and therefore came into the land some- time in the age of the Judges, which would agree to their being the Cretans expelled by the northern races breaking into Crete, and ruining the palace at the close of the Late Minoan II. age. The feather head-dress of the Philisti on Egyptian sculptures is like that of a head on the Phaestos disc, 22 PALESTINE On the other hand, it is warmly asserted that the Philistines were Semites. They spoke Semi- tic, as Hebrew and Philistine conversed freely; and their names are mostly Semitic. They were not merely foreign dwellers on the coast, but dedicated Saul's armour in the temple of the Semitic goddess Ashtoreth, and hung his body on the wall of Beth Shan, apparently Beth Shean in the Jordan Valley. The derivation of Cherethi and Pelethi is ex- plained away as meaning “smiters ” and “pur- Suers,” perhaps native Hebrew names for heavy and light troops. The Semitic speech is explained away as an adoption of the language of the new land by the Cretan settlers. The view which would, however, combine the greatest amount of > evidence, would be to suppose the Philistines to be Semites from Kefti or Cilicia, who de- scended at the time of the attack of the Amorites on Rameses III., down the Orontes and Libanus trough into the head of the Jordan Valley to Beth Shean (just as the Scythians did later), —and thence spread out over the rich coast-land, left devastated and defenceless by the Egyptian destructions. The Pelethi might thus be Philis- tines, and the only point dropped out would be the supposed relation of Cherethi to Cretans. But it cannot be said that any of the reasons are entirely exclusive or convincing. SYRIAN POTTERY 23 A subject which, by its complexity, still needs clearing up is the painted pottery of Syrian origin. There was certainly an indigen- ous style of painting of animals and patterns before the Cretan influence; later this is modified by Crete, it appears borrowed on Greek vases at Defeneh and in Cyprus, and it continues in much the same style in modern times. The colouring is usually brown on buff. The most characteris- tic detail is the diagonal chequers, or an oblong divided diagonally into alternate light and dark triangles. Such patterns are entirely unknown in Egypt, except under direct foreign use; they seem to belong to Northern Syria; and much the same style appears in the first period pottery of the necropolis of Susa. Far more material is needed, with accurate dating, before this large section of the history of pottery can be dis- entangled. The whole subject of the relations of Crete, the AEgean, and Egypt, to the civiliza- tions of Syria is one of the most pressing for future research, as on it rests the relative dating of all Syrian archaeology, and the tracing of the connections of this group of countries. Before the above period there are certainly two great divisions of history: (1) The bronze- using, artistic, high civilization which was prized by the Egyptians on their conquest of Syria under Tehutmes III.; and (2) the earlier neolithic cave- I4 PALESTINE * \ and inscription of Siloam, probably due to Heze- kiah. The account of the tunnel was only an unofficial graffito scratched on the wall, without any name or date; yet is it the main document of the kingly age. Its fate is a lesson to us. So soon as it became well known and much noticed, it was attacked and broken up in an attempt to cut it from the rock. The lack of any proper custody exposed it to destruction from which only fragments have been rescued, and pieced together in Constantinople. So will perish every- thing of value that is not safeguarded. A most interesting picture of this age in the north of Palestine is preserved by the account of an FSyptian envoy sent to get cedar from lobau on, lu i too s.c., the midst of the age of the Judses, the Theban king was sending an evoy to Syria to get cedar trunks for making the boat of Amen. The envoy, Unuamen, was helped on his way by the King of Tanis, who \\led hu with a boat and sailors. At Dir, ww vºt the Syrian ports, he was robbed of his \\ by a sailor; and the chief of the town w \\\d responsibility if the thief was of \\ \\ º\, showins a large regard for inter- wwwal law, ter waiting some months trying \ \\ the thief, the envoy tried to return, \\ \w \w before the chief. The interview \"\\ vastle by the sea; the chief sat on a 25 Age was ºn that of magnifi- ghteenth he artists order to d of the ºn ability who took ly under s found in spondence the same secretary he corre- All this been civi- led round early were ºar about ºld his son me of the *abylonian n-dagin of eir nameS, have come ja. Hence tion as the 24 PALESTINE dwellers who occupied most of the important sites to begin with. The Bronze Age people were Semites, and it is agreed that they were the Amurru of Babylonian records (K. B.). Simi- larly the Amorite is used in the Book of Genesis as the typical name of the native occupier; “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full " (xv. 16); in Judges “fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell ” (vi. Io); in 1 Samuel, after getting the Philistine cities, – “there was peace between Israel and the Amor- ites '' (vii. 14). This use of the name Amorite collectively for the headship of the Syrians, in- cluding all the aboriginal and sub-tribes that they ruled, is what is seen also in Egyptian records, where only two great Syrian peoples are figured on the monuments, the Amorites and the more northern Hittites. The same usage is seen among us: the general name English in- cludes all the divisions of the Heptarchy, the Jutes, Saxons, and Danes, as well as the earlier Cornish and Cambrian Britons. So in the same manner we cannot do better than keep the Babylonian, Hebrew, and Egyptian usage, and term the pre-Israelite Semites all together as Amorites. The Canaanite who is named as a leading people along with the Amorite is a term best reserved for the neolithic troglodytes, the aborigines of Canaan, AMORITE CIVILIZATION 25 This great civilization of the Amorite Age was in many respects at a higher level than that of Egypt. The Egyptians brought much magnifi- cent spoil from Syria in the wars of the eighteenth dynasty, and they also brought away the artists who made the gold and silver work, in order to command their skill in Egypt. The record of the plunder from Syria appears to show an ability quite equal to that of the Egyptians who took the spoil. This civilization was largely under Babylonian influence, all the documents found in Syria are in cuneiform, and the correspondence with Egypt had to be conducted in the same complex character, with a Babylonian secretary at the Egyptian Court to translate the corre- spondence and write the replies. All this strongly shows that the Amorite had been civil- lized in Mesopotamia before he trekked round the north of Arabia into Syria. How early were these Amurru in power P They appear about 21oo B.C., defeated by Hammurabi and his son Samsu-iluna (K. B.); and the name of the Amorite Dagon is compounded in Babylonian names as early as 2300 B.C., in Idin-dagin of Nisin. - - Now the Hyksos, according to their names, were Semites; and they appear to have come down Syria from upper Mesopotamia. Hence they were in the same line of migration as the 26 - PALESTINE Amurru. According to Egyptian history, they pushed into Egypt about 2500 B.C. Hence it would seem that they were the front of that Semitic migration of which the Amorite was the rear. If this be so, then in the Amorite por- traits we have the nearest representation of the Hyksos, for not a single head of those people has been preserved to us. The actual remains of the Amorite period do not come up to the high level of the representa- tions of their works; and naturally so, considering how little has yet been excavated. Even in Egypt, after an immense amount of clearance, very little has been found of the rarest class— gold or silver work. Hence we must not judge of the ability of the people by the residue left after the country was thoroughly plundered for generations. The fortification of the cities is best shown by Jericho (E.), where the wall is still 26 feet high and I 13 feet thick, based on great blocks a couple of yards long and a yard high. Other city walling is found at Megiddo, Gezer, Tell es Safy, Lachish, and other sites. The distinctive differences from the neolithic people are that the Amorites used bronze, and also full-length burial in place of the earlier burning (V.). In the cave under the sanctuary of Gezer the lower or Canaanite burials are all AMORITE SANCTUARIES 27 burnt; the upper or Amorite burials are carefully interred. This custom of interment in caves under the sanctuaries probably gave rise to the idea of the dead being called up by enchant- ment out of the earth, as in Samuel's appearance to Saul; and this was done by a woman who professionally had a familiar spirit, probably the priestess of such a sanctuary. The main objects in a sanctuary were the masseboth pillars of unhewn stone (V.), placed always in a straight line, or very nearly So, never in a circle. The number varies from three to eight; the direction of the line is north and south in two Sanctuaries at Gezer, and one at Megiddo; it is east and west at Beth Shemesh and in the three stones of Tell es Safy. Such a type of sanc- tuary, is known elsewhere. On a relief from Susa (Louvre) a holy place is figured as having two high altars with steps, a flat altar, two rows of four cup hollows (like those in Palestine), two oblong lavers (like those at Serabit), and a row of three lopped trunks of trees and a stone pillar all in a line, parallel to the length of the Sanctuary, as in Palestine (V.). This would stamp the masseboth as Amorite rather than neolithic Canaanite. In the West such rows of unhewn monoliths are frequently found, as in England at Boroughbridge (Isurium), and Rollright stones. Some link with the East is not impossible; the FOUNDATION SACRIFICES 29 walls and under the thresholds; the skeleton of an old woman was found in one corner of a building; elsewhere the upper part of a youth was found deposited. At Megiddo there was the sacrifice of a girl at the foundation corner of a large tower (P. F., 1906). Similarly at the Labyrinth in Egypt, in a sand-bed on which a building had been erected, there was the skeleton of a woman, between thirty and forty years of age, the spine divided in the middle, and one vertebra turned round, and the skull separated 17 inches from the body and turned round. Under another corner of the same building lay the leg and foot of an old arthritic man. Again, under the corner of a fort at Retabeh in the Wady Tumilat (Rameses) was a brick grave containing the body of a small child. Such burial in a foundation is well known in the West, as in the legend of Merlin and a curious refer- ence in the life of St. Columba. The later sub- stitute for the human sacrifice was the extinction of a lighted lamp, which is found covered over by a bowl beneath doorsills and foundations. , - One of the most promising prospects in Pales- tine is the finding of a library, or archives, on clay tablets. Since the series of the cuneiform letters at Tell Amarna, there have been great hopes of recovering the other correspondence on the other side. Clay tablets will last for 3O PALESTINE ever if not crushed, and no one will steal them; hence it seems certain that there must be a large amount to be found in all the rich and flourish- ing cities of the Amorite Age. So far, however, the prizes have eluded the search; one letter of Zimrida, the governor of Lachish, and a dozen letters in a jar at Ta'anak, are about all yet found of this literary age. There seems no reason why hundreds of documents of the greatest historic interest should not be found in any large town. We need complete clearances on a wide scale, with well-instructed workmen and large reward for objects, to make sure of not losing the most precious results. A weakly managed excavation is much worse than leaving the ground undisturbed for future exploration. Of this greatest period of art and civilization in Palestine, never exceeded on a native basis, we need to recover all that can be found. Each of the great city sites should be thoroughly- cleared, and managed by directors who can fully discriminate the ages of everything that they find, and can thus read the history disclosed as the work proceeds. We go back now to the earliest civilization, that of the neolithic people, who are best termed Canaanites, as inhabiting the land of Canaan. Kan'ana is the name of the country in Egyptian; 32 PALESTINE f block of stone with a little tank cut in it, and a drain from that to the ground, is the regular place for offering at any tomb of importance. Even under Islam the Egyptians always bury in an artificial cave, and sometimes a small opening leads down to the cave, where the living may come and talk to the dead. Cup hollows are well known in Western lands, but how far they are connected with offerings to the dead has not been traced. That several cup hollows should be cut close together, up to as many as three dozen (Tell es Safy), is quite to be expected, as the members of one family would not wish that their offering should be appropriated by that of another family being poured over it. Each family that offered would desire a separate cup, which could be pounded in the soft limestone without much labour. Where cups are connected by channels they probably represent the families of de- pendants, the surplus of the master passing on to his servants’ offerings. Thus the cup hollows in the sacred place may be taken as the earliest form of census of the heads of families. In the sepulchral cave it appears that the burn- ing of the body was performed in place, as it was often reduced to ashes of bone or a mere white powder, which could not have been well brought in from a crematorium. The classical burning in the open air left bones sufficiently distinct CANAANITE LIFE 33 for them to be gathered up and placed in a jar; but the burning in a cave kept the heat in, so that complete calcination resulted if the fuel sufficed. These neolithic Canaanites made a rough pottery, which is found placed for food vessels with the burials. Simple and ugly jars with two small handles, plain basins, and cups, do not show any resemblance to Egyptian styles, and are probably entirely native in origin. The people were agricultural, and not merely pastoral, as is shown by the number of stone grinders for corn. Cooking was probably done by hot stones, as piles of pebbles, many burnt, are found in the settlements. A people using skin and wood vessels, as has also been the case in the Jewish Age, would naturally need to cook by hot stones, an easy and cleanly method. The artistic attempts of this age were much on a level with those of neolithic people in the West, like the Spanish and French figures associated with rude stone monuments. It was a great decline from the fine carving of the late palaeolithic cave men. Thus the interest of the Canaanite period is partly as a crude basis for the later Semitic Amorite civilization, and partly as a stratum of life very similar in many ways to the Neolithic Age of the West. To uncover and connect this similar culture in different lands, to trace its 3 34 PALESTINE lineage with the earlier and later works of man, and to ascertain how far it was contemporary in different places, is one of the main tasks of archaeology. At present we see vaguely this crude style of life occupying Syria, Anatolia, Northern Greece, and Western Europe, over- come by the brilliant Mediterranean culture of Crete and Egypt, and the Elamite and Meso- potamian in the East. What were the fluctua- tions of the great conflict between barbaric weight and comfortable decadence, the sack and burning of accumulated well-being, the conquests over barbarous hordes brought into the brighter circle of life, how the battle of ages swayed to and fro, it is the work of history to trace out. In this research certainly the neolithic Canaanite, wedged between Egypt and Elam, is a figure as interesting as any that we know. There yet remains another large field of ob- servation in the geologic history of man in Syria. The successive ages of cold and rain, or ice, alternating with warm and favourable periods, and the changes of level, are as marked in Syria as in Europe or Egypt. The high mountain masses, the deep valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea, give a favourable region for preserving traces of these changes and studying them. The subject has scarcely been touched yet in a com- prehensive manner, and on such an excellent MESOPOTAMIA MESOPOTAMIA MEsopotAMIA, like other fertile valleys, has always been the prey of the more hardy peoples around it. The Turk has been the last holder, the Arab before him, the Roman, the Parthian, the Greek, the Persian, the Assyrian, the Kas- site, the Semite, and remotely the Sumerian, each descended in turn on the Babylonian plain. With a kind of Chinese persistency the civiliza- tion of that plain dominated each of its con- querors; the art and the literature of the Sumerian was adopted by all his early successors, the science and business which grew up there is the foundation of the science and business of the whole world now. Even down to the Middle Ages the most scientific work on the balance was written by a Mesopotamian archbishop. The old Sumerians were the main traders in Memphis in the Greek period. It follows that when we consider Mesopotamia we must take into account the foreign influences which were poured into it on all sides. In most periods it is the eastern highlands of Persia that have had the main effect. Before 39 * 40 MESOPOTAMIA the domination of Islam it was the long struggle of centuries between Persia and Rome that writes the history of the great plain that parted them—the rich prize that both coveted. That struggle was with two successive races ruling in Persia, the Iranian Sassanians for four centuries from A.D. 226 and the Scythian Par- thians for five centuries before that from 250 B.C. Our view of the greatness of Persia and its splen- did civilization has been unfortunately clouded by our dependance on the accounts of its enemies, Rome and Greece. If we could have as full a record on the Persian side, we should learn to feel that Mesopotamia was the natural appanage of the mountains that towered on its eastern border; and that the intruders from Italy, nearly two thousand miles away, had no place on the Euphrates, however much they might claim in the Mediterranean. Of the Sassanian empire our estimate must be mainly from its political power and its artistic work. When, in the third-century collapse of Rome, Shapur I. entered Antioch and appointed a Roman, Cyriades, to rule the Roman border as . a satrap of his, he was doing his best for the country. The attack by the Emperor Valerian, who capitulated at Edessa, and lived a captive ever after, did not mend matters. Persia took possession of all the East, and even the Taurus in SASSANIAN ART , 4i Anatolia, though finally Shapur was worried back by the Arabs of Palmyra. Their defensive service to the Roman world was basely repaid by Aurelian's destruction of Palmyra, and cap- ture of the heroic Zenobia. The huge rock-cut monuments (D.) which show the greatness of Shapur are of excellent work, equal to good Hellenistic carving, and above what Rome could do in that age. The coinage of the Sassanians is quite equal to that of Rome in the third cen- tury. We want to know much more of this age, in order to trace the effect of Persian art on the West. In small work there is part of a splendid cameo, much finer than anything that the West was then doing. The clearance of the palace ruins of this age, especially the search for the . rubbish-heaps, would bring to light much to explain the later Roman period. The style of the rock-cut monuments is evidently inherited from the early Persian Age, but it has much affinity with the Buddhist sculptures of further Asia. Which was the controlling influence, Persia or India P Persia continued as a great world-power, warring with India as well as the West, defeating Julian, beating back the Ephtha- lite Huns, conquering Syria, until at last, when weakened by guarding civilization in the East, it was conquered by Heraclius, and the fatal struggle of the two powers of civilization left both * 42 MESOPOTAMIA of them a prey to the barbarous Arabians of Islam. Dieulafoy traces the whole of Western dome and vaulting architecture to the Persian building, which was carried westward by the Arab conquerors. However this may be, it is certain that we shall never understand Western art until we can clear up the filiation of the various principles of construction and of decora- tion, which started in the East. The great ruins of palaces and of towns remaining in Mesopotamia provide the best ground for such research, as at Meshetta, Rabbath Ammon, or Arak el Emyr. Only the standing buildings have yet been studied; the whole soil should be carefully turned over, and everything preserved. Such places have the great advantage of having been founded de novo by a king, and deserted soon after, hence everything in them will probably be dated within half a century. The other important sites of Nisibis, Dara, Ctesiphon, Firuzabad, and Nishapur all require full excavation. We step back a stage to the Parthian dominion. When those Scythian warriors broke in on the feeble Hellenism of the distant Seleucid province of Persia, in 250 B.C., they were hardy barbarians. They kept up their power by the Turkish system of janizaries, the army being the bondmen of the ruling caste. The empire was on the basis of a federation of tributary kings, who were heredi- 44 MESOPOTAMIA thian palace; it lasted down to the third century, but seems to have perished with the Parthian rule, as it was deserted by the middle of the fourth century. Hence its ruins will provide a full view of the Parthian art unmixed with earlier or later work. - The first great Aryan dominion was that of Persia, as widespread as the empire of Rome, from the heart of Macedonia to beyond the Indus. In the civilized world there was the Peace of the Great King from end to end; this was the largest organization that the world had yet seen, and it has hardly ever been surpassed. In the fields of thought—justice and religion—it gave a higher ideal than that of any previous rule. There was the least possible interference with the various countries. The twenty satrapies each administered their affairs, very often by the old hereditary, ruling families. The principles of management and of control alone were the busi- ness of the autocrat; and when that autocrat was by consent of his enemies the noblest of men, the result was a general welfare of the world which has perhaps only been equalled under the Antonines. So long as tribute and an army were maintained, no further interference was imposed; and in such a vast union these necessary burdens would be far lighter than the losses by THE PERSIAN AGE 45 insecurity and war in any other condition. Like the Roman Empire later, the great means of control and unity was the road system, with its posting-houses and state couriers. The spread of a uniform coinage throughout the empire, giving a fixed standard of exchange, was another help to intercourse. The main profit of this great unification fell naturally to the Babylonian, as being the most advanced people commercially, and seated at the heart of the empire. The opening up of the sea trade, by the voyage of discovery of Scylax from Babylonia to India, was another means of advance directly benefiting Mesopotamia. The civilization which Persia thus fostered was worthy of its position. The care for health was far advanced. At the time when the Greek reached the improvement of a ledge in his drink- ing-cup to keep back the grit, the Persian was boiling all the water-supply of the Court in silver cauldrons when on campaign. No modern sani- tary service could do better. In art also Persia led the way. No Greek had ever gone beyond the primitive smirk in his sculpture, until the Persian art, sane, noble, and complete, in its feeling and effect, showed him a higher road. The influence of Persia must have been im- mensely spread by the vast loot of artistic objects in the camp of Mardonius, which served 46 MESOPOTAMIA as models, and by the flood of Persian troops left behind as slaves in Greece. On the narrowest estimate Xerxes brought in 300,000 men; of these 60,000 left with Xerxes, and Arta- bazus rescued 40,000 more; but of the other 200,000 there must have been a great number who survived, and became slaves according to the universal rule of Greek warfare. These would be mainly drafted into mechanical arts, which were despised by the free-born, and were limited to the great slave majority of the Athenian population. We see here the reason for the sudden burst of advance which Greece made in the fifty years from the Persian war to the Peloponnesian war, including all the greatest architecture, sculpture, and philosophy. This was to Greece what the sack of Corinth was to Roman development. - The main field for further research on the Persian monarchy lies in Persia itself; little seems to have been erected in Babylonia. The surroundings of Persepolis have never been cleared; and from the burning and the waste heaps of the great palace, of the most flourishing • centuries of rule, there should be a large amount of artistic material waiting to be searched. We now reach back to the later days of Baby- lon as a capital, the neo-Babylonian period of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus. This was one BABYLON OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR 47 of the most flourishing ages as regards commerce and affairs; and in the last few years the palace and throne room of Nebuchadnezzar, and the great walls of his city, still remaining forty feet high in parts, have been cleared and studied. A striking feature are the figures of lions, bulls, and dragons in coloured glazed ware, let into the face of the wall, with bands of rosette between them; of these protective figures, built up of glazed bricks, there were over five hundred (K. B.). The temple, as in Egypt, seems to have been the house of the god, copied from a human house. There is always a central open court, and usually on the left hand, at entering, the shrine and its vestibule open out of the side of the court. Various store chambers for temple property are placed around the court. A curious feature in four temple plans is a long narrow corridor running along the sides. This has been assigned to a stairway, but there seem no traces of steps. Most probably it is protec- tive, to enable guards to watch the safety of the treasure rooms at night, and to prevent break- ing through the wall. Similarly at Tell Amarna a long, very narrow, passage ran in the thickness of the palace outer wall; by this four guards, with a light at each corner, could assure the safety of a large block of building. THE HITTITES 49 Looking farther back, the next large influence was that of the Hittites. Much has been gleaned about them from Egyptian and Babylonian sources, during a generation past. The latest and most important source is the great mass of many thousands of cuneiform tablets found by German work at the Hittite capital, Boghaz Keui. The question now most debated is whether various resemblances of Hittite words and grammar to the Western Aryan languages may show that Hittite is really akin to European Speech (J. E., 1917, 190). The names and some other words are distinctly non-European, and the physiognomy is classed as Mongolian. Yet we now know that various East Aryan gods, as Mithra, Indra, and Varuna, were being wor- shipped on the Hittite frontier in Mitanni. The more generally accepted position seems to be that the Hittite language had been modified and mixed with an Aryan tongue. Whenever it may be possible to work out the great mass of tablets, now in Constantinople, the position will be clearer. The source of the Hittites is not yet settled. While undoubtedly pushing southward, Eastern Anatolia has been suggested as their home. Yet the most definite evidence is the list of cities by whose gods they swear to the treaty with Egypt. These places are in Armenia, along the head waters of the Euphrates almost 4. 50 MESOPOTAMIA to its source—a region which would agree with all other indications, such as their coming from a cold climate and a rough country. As early as 1920 B.C. they made a push down the Euphrates into Babylonia. Their later fields were down Syria into contact with the Egyptians, and westward into Anatolia. This spread shows that we may recover their history in various directions. The excavations at Carchemish (H. C.) have only touched a fiftieth of the area, and that only in the top stratum; but they have brought to light a couple of dozen slabs of sculp- ture, showing many details of that Hittite civilization, and a dozen long inscriptions. This is but a beginning, and it should be actively continued, for much had been broken up and destroyed in the last thirty years, since the trivial holes dug in 1880. The Hittite sites, being mostly in the hill countries, are mainly built with stone; they will therefore need strict conservation to prevent their being all destroyed for modern building material. The search for the earlier settlements in Armenia should be thoroughly carried out before that country may be exploited; owing to its mountainous and difficult nature there is a good prospect of recovering the primitive Hittite style there, before it became so largely influenced by Assyria and other lands. * HISTORY OF THE HITTITES 51 The cemeteries of the Hittite region have been greatly wrecked by the natives, after they were exposed in cutting the Baghdad Railway. Strict conservation, therefore, is an immediate question. The general results, just north of Aleppo, so far show that before the Persian period there was an Iron Age from 1 Ioo to 600 B.C.; a Middle Hittite Bronze Age back to 1750 B.C., and an Early Hittite Bronze or Copper Age before that, with Sumerian cylinders (L. A., VI., 87). The still earlier Copper Age tombs are char- acterized by pottery incense burners like those of the sixth to twelfth dynasty in Egypt, with which they are probably contemporary. Globu- lar vases also belong to that age, and to the twelfth dynasty in Egypt. These resemblances suggest that the foreigners who broke up the Old Kingdom of Egypt were from the northern Euphrates, in accordance with the indications of the button patterns, alike in Aleppo and Bismiya as in Egypt. There is, however, no proof that the Hittite tribes were in the upper Euphrates Valley in so early a period. The whole of the cemeteries of this region need careful and thorough research, with full publication of the types, registers of all contents of the tombs, and plates of the most complete tomb groups entire. Contemporary with the earlier Hittite period 52 MESOPOTAMIA was the Kassite dominion in Babylon. This was the first appearance of an Aryan people as rulers, and therefore is of great interest historically, and as the forerunner of the European domina- tion. They were probably akin to the Mitanni people, who stretched across the north of the plain from river to river, above Aleppo. They appear as a simple people, of ruling capacity, who adopted readily the Babylonian civilization. They showed ability as successful rulers, and were adapters rather than originators. They arrived from a rather long migration, as they brought in the common use of the horse; had that animal been anywhere near Babylonia before, it would have arrived in the active mercantile business of the previous civilizations, instead of being known only as a great rarity. From their move- ment southward with the horse, about 1800 B.C., that animal reached Egypt a century or two later. se Historically our main knowledge of these people is by their long correspondence with the Egyptian kings about 1400 B.C. The mass of letters found at Tell Amarna in Upper Egypt has provided material for discussion for a generation past; it has given a clear view of the relations of kingdoms, of the commerce in progress, and of the activities of the different countries. It shows how the Euphrates region 54 MESOPOTAMIA in cities of this period, not only of Babylonia, but of the more northern region, where we may expect, to find tablets of correspondence between states, similar to the set found at Tell Amarna. Perhaps it may be thought that such tablets may be trusted to turn up if found by natives. But what was the history of the Amarna corre- spondence P Found by accident, some of it was bought by a dealer; he could not sell the tablets, they were sneered at as forgeries; at last the group was tumbled into a sack and jolted on donkey-back up to Thebes, with great loss. It was two or three years before they reached the hands of those who could appreciate what survived. This sort of martyrdom of history should be forestalled by active inspec- tion, good payment to attract discoveries, and careful excavation. Could we build up a clear view of the condition of the East, in the ages which laid the foundation of the early Classical period, we should understand the meaning of the turmoil of the Hellenic world far better. Looking farther back, we find firm historical ground in the grand age of Hammurabi of y- lon, 21 23 to 2081 B.C., and Gudea of Lagash, about 24.50 B.C. (K.B.). Here we are lighted by three different sources—the art, the correspond- ence, and the laws. From these we can realize a great deal of how life went on, and the con- f HAMMURABI'S RULE 55 ditions of mankind. The style of the sculpture is by no means primitive. On the contrary, it is conventional, settled in its character, not re- joicing in pomp like the Assyrian, or of individual vigour like the Sumerian. It fits the age as that of a civilization which was fully grown in material prosperity, having outlived the fer- ment of ideals. The correspondence of Ham- murabi shows us the king as supreme referee; any official difficulty was referred to him, any defeated litigant could appeal to him, in person if near, or to royal deputies if at a distance. The supervision of the details of a great kingdom to such an extent seems almost incredible, as . much so as Trajan's letters to Pliny, from which it appears that nothing could be done to a sewer or a cemetery in all the Roman Empire without the personal reply of the Emperor. To us this intense centralization is difficult to realize, we should feel it an intolerable bondage; but to a people who did not originate much, the personal direction saved their decision and ensured har- monious working. Hammurabi was mainly en- gaged in keeping his bureaucracy in order. Every case of bribery which reached his notice seems to have been rigorously investigated; such is the first duty of a ruler in most countries, both East and West, a duty which we have much neglected. In Egypt at the present time the 56 MESOPOTAMIA extent of incessant fraud by bribery is incredible till experienced. Another royal care was that of Food Director, equalizing supplies in case of local deficiency, a function of which we know the necessity in India. In another direction the king had a function which elsewhere is usually priestly—the regulation of the calendar. The astronomers, who were employed to observe the new moon in order to fix the month, reported directly to the king; and it was the decision of the king which settled the intercalation of an additional month to preserve the relation of the months to the seasons. This device of an addi- tional month, by people who use a natural lunar month, is familiar to us in modern usage in the Muhammadan Calendar. • The great glory of Hammurabi is his codifica- tion of laws, which has come down to us nearly entire, upon his monument that was afterwards carried away to Susa, where De Morgan found it in fragments. So much has been written upon this code, that I will rather notice some less familiar aspects of it. Like other codes, the range and detail of the laws give a precise view of the society of the age. The relative importance of different interests is shown by the number of laws con- cerning each. Broadly speaking, there is about equal attention to the four subjects of Agricul- ture, Trade, Women and the family, and Personal LAWS OF HAMMURABI 57 condition, while less than half of such importance is given to the law of Official position, and also to general property. The distinctive tone is that of town life, and of the country as contribu- tory to that. If we compare for a moment tribal law as in the Welsh codes, either the earlier of Moelmud or the later of Howel, it is the country life that pervades the whole of those, and town life is absent. If otherwise we com- pare the Babylonian with Roman law, it is entirely concrete and pragmatic, and knows nothing of the lengthy principles of status which were elaborated in the West. If in another direc- tion we compare Indian law as of Närada—town life in that is prominent, and there is less atten- tion to agriculture, but on the whole the relative attention to different subjects is much the same as in Babylon. What marks out the Indian law is that procedures and principles occupy as much space as the laws: whereas in Babylonia they are ignored, and it is assumed that the judge settles such matters. The general similarity of subjects makes it the more instructive to look at the contrasts of Indian and Babylonian law. In India “women's business transactions are null and void . . . women are not entitled to make a gift or sale " of real property. “Three persons, a wife, a slave, a son, have no property; whatever they acquire belongs to him whose ss MESOPOTAMIA \ they are.” In Babylon any property given to a wife was at her entire disposal within her family; and if a woman took a vow of a single life, she had entire disposal of any property which was given her on those terms, and of the property which she might accumulate by trade. In India marriages of relations were prohibited to the seventh degree of the father's side, the fifth degree of the mother's. In Babylonia there were no prohibitions beyond the direct descent, and the step-mother or daughter-in-law. Thus, both in women's property and in marriage Babylonia was much nearer to Egypt than to India. . On the other hand, adoption, which was so important in Roman law, was also prominent in Babylonia, and yet seems unknown in Egypt. It can hardly be attributed, therefore, to the importance of ancestral offerings, as such were more important in Egypt than in Rome. The wide field of com- parative law has gained much from this exten- sive code of nearly 250 laws, placed in classified order. Yet this must not be taken as a com- position of the lawgiver, any more than the codes of Theodosius or Justinian or Napoleon. The earlier Sumerian laws were also codified, and the work of Hammurabi was rather the com- | bination and reconciliation of Sumerian and | Semitic law. The former was the law of com- merce and agriculture; the latter was the law. ANCIENT PRICES 59 of theft, slavery, violence, and pastoral life, as is shown by the resemblances in these º to Hebrew law. Thus, even apart from the evi- dence of the earlier tablets of Sumerian laws, it would be possible to separate the two sources of the code with good reason. At the latter part of the code there are fifteen laws anticipating the great edict of prices by Diocletian. The rates of hire of animals and carts, and rates of labourers’ and artisans' pay, are all fixed, but there is no interference with prices of goods. The unexpected valuation is that an agricultural labourer was paid more than ! an artisan or a boatman. The hire of two cows was equal to that of a boatman, or of two plough oxen equal to that of a field-hand. The great scarcity of metals is surprising: a day's wages was only from 3 to 5 grains weight of silver, which was thus more than a hundred times its present value. Such was, however, the mediaeval wage in England. The limitation of wages sug- gests that, like our statute of labourers, it was ordained to meet a rise in wage, due to increased supply of metals and greater welfare. Such a change was probably the result of the security and prosperity of the good administration of Hammurabi; as, similarly, wages have doubled in Egypt in our generation, by the benefits of the \ ) British occupation, - w" 6o MESOPOTAMIA | While the Semites were fully open to adopting all the older civilization of the Sumerians whom they had conquered, and carried on the business and the literature into their own system of things, yet there was throughout the land the token of their supremacy, in the hereditary feodaries, who held estates on conditions of serv- ing the king when called on in peace or in war. They were originally soldiers, planted over the land to keep it in order; and they doubtless, like all such occupiers, gradually mixed with the earlier population, and transformed their control from being an alien to being a class rule. This did not at all imply that the Sumerians were “a dying race,” as has been said. They were far too tough for that; the civilization was theirs, the business habits were theirs, and they per- sisted just as the Egyptian has persisted, in spite of the Semitic conquest and mixture of the Arab. The proof of this is that in the fifth century B.C. the most usual type among the foreign traders in Memphis was the Sumerian, exactly as he appeared three thousand years before on his own monuments. I am told that the type is still prominent in Babylonia. The worst blow that the Sumerian ever had was the Hittite invasion in 1926 B.C. which broke up the dynasty of Hammurabi. This produced a destruction somewhat like the Mongol storms of a THE SUMERIAN AGE 61 later ages, and many of the old city-states— the homes of Sumerian culture—were devastated and never reoccupied. This is parallel to the ruin of some Etruscan cities by the Gothic and Lombard invasions, although they had lasted through the age of the Romans who ab- sorbed their civilization; or like the Greek cities afterwards Roman, which were desolated by the Saracens. Such sites are by far the most promis- ing for excavations. It was, however, the Semitized type of Sumerian civilization that survived, and rose again into prominence under the Kassite rulers. Hammurabi's dynasty had made its mark per- manently in establishing Babylon as the capital, and henceforward Babylon, or its local succes- sors, Ctesiphon, Seleucia, and Baghdad, have been the capitals of the Tigris and Euphrates. In looking back, a further stage, we pass be- yond all that was even slightly known in Classi- cal and Biblical history. We have to trust to piecing together the single morsels of one genera- tion or another, when we deal with the Sumerian history. - Some three centuries before the age of Ham- murabi we meet another considerable figure— that of Gudea, the Sumerian prince of Lagash or Tell Lo, whose works came to light in the ex- cavations of De Sarzec. This reign not only 62 MESOPOTAMIA claims notice by the life-size statues of black diorite, now in Paris, but still more because Gudea was an originator who gave much atten- tion to artistic works. He collected materials from the Syrian mountains and from Elam; he claimed a divine vision showing him the plan of his temple, which he describes; his seated figures have on the knees of one a drawing- board with a plan of a building, on another a board with a divided cubit feather-edge scale, and a graver; he further made special bricks ceremonially; and he claims to have started new features in building that were unknown before. All of this is the aspect of a rising art, extending its resources of material and of style. No other royal architect in any age seems to have taken so personal a part in architectural affairs. He was influenced by the Semitic theism, and ex- pelled the sorcerers who belonged to the older Sumerian animism. His rule was firm and pros- perous. If we were to excavate not only the temple but the city of his period, a rich reward of artistic work of his age might probably be obtained. Near this period is another Sumerian prince, Dungi of Ur. He specially favoured the city of Eridu, in which was one of the oldest shrines of the Sumerians, and this earlier popu- lation seems to have risen into predominance over the Semite. He does not show the same ARBITRARY DATING 63 artistic zeal as Gudea, but he asserted Sumerian Supremacy by extending his power from the shore on the Arabian side, up the Euphrates to Babylon, and across the Tigris to Susa and Elam. As a political figure he is of the first rank; and the finely engraved cylinders and exquisitely written tablets of his records show the high condition of work at that time. He unified the weights and established standards in the country, which were respectfully copied down to the time of Nebuchadnezzar. This last flower- ing of independent Sumerian culture demands much fuller examination. The city sites should be thoroughly searched, not merely tunnelled and scraped over for tablets, but thoroughly cleared in a systematic way, for the recovery of all the objects of daily life and the revealing of the whole civilization. Before we look back to still earlier ages we must notice the general question of the distance of time. Within the last generation a school has risen in Germany which claims to set aside the most positive statements of ancient records in , favour of its internal consciousness. As the most prominent exponent said to me, “I cannot be- lieve the time was so long.” That is sufficient for these theorists and their followers, to rewrite ancient history by their sense of probability, no matter what the documents may say. From the 66 MESOPOTAMIA accept what the Babylonians believed, as the least improbable statement, and take Naram- Sin as reigning 3750 B.C. This clears away what would otherwise be a great difficulty. If the date 2750 B.C. were adopted, and 2100 for Hammurabi, with Gudea between, it would imply a continuity of high art for 650 years. Such a continuity is—I be- lieve—unknown in any country; every land has seen the rise and the fall of art in such a space of time. When the ancient reckoning of 3750 B.C. is accepted the interval to Gudea is 1,300, to Hammurabi 1,600 years, and such is about the usual interval between successive civiliza- tions. - - The age of Sargon and Naram-Sin stands in relation to later Babylonian history much as the age of Pericles is to European history. It was the time of Supreme art, and of founding the standards of subsequent thought and action (K. S.). It is to us, therefore, the most interest- ing and important age of the whole Eastern world. That the position of Sargon was of the highest importance is stated in the Chronicle of the Kings: “Sargon of Agadé, through the royal gift of Ishtar, was exalted, and he had no foe nor rival. His glory over the world he poured out . . . and over the hosts of the world he reigned Supreme.” Though his old age was COPPER AGE OF SUMER 69 data the site of Babylon cannot be older than about fooo B.C., so it is useless to expect any- thing of the early neolithic or oldest population in the plain south of that. In the time of Naram- Sin Susa looked down on the Persian Gulf, and was therefore only accessible by a shore route from Babylonia. In the Sumerian civilization metals were fami- liar. The Copper Age goes back to the earliest cemeteries known, as it did also in Egypt; and it continued down to Gudea, and perhaps Ham- murabi, also in accord with its date in Egypt. The two different ideographs used for copper have been supposed to show the use of copper and bronze; but it is more likely that they refer to native copper hammered into shape, and smelted copper from ore cast into shape. Both sources of copper were used in early times, the native copper distinguished by the bulgy out- lines of the forms, the cast copper by flat planes or by relief ornament. The copper figures found beneath temples as a foundation deposit, were perhaps the permanent representatives of founda- tion sacrifices; an actual sacrifice would decay and disappear—the copper figure of it was per- manent, as the sculptured offerings of the Egyptian also were permanent. Copper was used extensively for arms; the spears and helmets of the troops of Eannatum (D. M.) show a free CONNECTIONS WITH EGYPT 7: manded. The triumph was—as in Egypt— recorded on a gigantic sculptured mace-head, which was dedicated in the temple of the vic- torious god. Another similarity to Egyptian usage lies in the indications of royal descent in the female line. On the large tablet of King Urnina, perhaps 4000 B.C., the principal figure is his daughter, followed by four of his sons. Later on, in an Elamite dynasty, kings are said to be “sons of the sister" of a predecessor; and whether this is literal, or only “used in the sense of a descendant ’’ as has been said, it shows a parallel to well-known cases elsewhere of rights going through a sister and not a direct descendant. Another Egyptian parallel is in the naming of each year from the principal event of the year. All of these resemblances—as we shall presently see—are most likely due to a common ancestry in Elam. - - The most permanent achievement of the Sumerian was the establishment of the commer- cial system and of sexagesimal division. The accounts, partnerships, loans, pledges, partition of profits, credit for goods, and other formulas of modern commerce, are all descended from the Sumerians. So far as we can see, the Semitic Jew showed no special trading capacity until after his captivity in Babylon, which produced such deep and permanent changes in his out- 72 MESOPOTAMIA look and life. It was the Babylonian trader who was the figurehead of commerce when our written history formed its stock-phrases. Syria became Babylonianized, as the cuneiform. correspondence shows; the Phoenician took up the system and became the teacher of Greece, Carthage, and Spain. The Roman, innocent of wealth when he began conquering, soon became the most ravenous of plunderers and usurious of lenders; and Europe has copied him since. Sumer is the home-land of the trading system. Every clock-face descends from the astronomy of the Sumerian, who divided the day by twelve, as the year is divided in twelve months. Every | compass card also shows the division by 360°, | copied from the days in the year. The Sumerian tradition could not even be broken up by the famatic decimalization under the French Re- public; and it will be a troublesome time for our oney system if we abandon a division by six and twelve, founded in Nature, in favour of the artificiality of pure decimals. The earliest Sumerian remains yet known seem to be in some cemeteries at Fara and Abu Hatab, about half-way between Basra and Bagh- dad. The bodies were always lying on the side, | contracted, as in prehistoric Egypt. They have weapons, tools, drinking-cups and food vessels, beads and ornaments. Cylinder Seals were used, ELAM THE SOURCE 73 and writing was already known, as a few tablets with an extremely early form of characters were found in the town. The whole of this civiliza- tion should be thoroughly examined, and com- pletely published with full registration of all the graves, as has been done by English work in Egypt. So far, only incomplete studies have been made at any Mesopotamian site. In most cases a ruinous system of trenching and pitting has wrecked the historical evidence, and hindered future work. Complete clearances, such as those made in Egypt, should be the rule in future, beginning at one edge of a site and turning over everything in it, layer by layer, till the diggers finish at the opposite edge. Only in this way can the whole material be secured, and recorded in its proper historical connection. Where there is not a great depth of Superimposed buildings, there is no difficulty in complete working. Lastly, we turn to the home whence this civilization seems to have arisen. Elam, border- ing the Tigris on the east, is best known by its capital Susa, keeping guard on the main entry into the mountainous region. We meet here with a civilization strongly linked with that of Sumer, but yet having various independent ele- ments. Though cuneiform writing was mainly used, there was a different and independent system before the Semitic conquest by Ham- 74 MESOPOTAMIA murabi, along with a decimal numeration, instead of the Babylonian sexagesimal. The best-known results from Susa are the monuments which were taken there from Baby- lonia as spoil of war, the code of laws of Ham- murabi, and the triumphal scene of Naram-Sin; but those are only adventitious, and the real im- portance of Susa itself lies in its earliest levels. The great mound consists of 80 feet depth of ruins, city piled on city. The topmost 26 feet contain the buildings of 4,000 years, 4500–500 B.C. Below that is double that thickness of ruins, and who can reasonably grant for that less ' than double the time? If so, we range back there from 4ooo to 12000 B.C. Altogether thirteen successive rebuildings can be traced in the whole depth of the mound, averaging, there- fore, about 90o years apart. At a depth of 65 feet, perhaps 8000 or Ioooo B.C., there is a stratum with roughly painted pottery, and rudely cut seals. But on reaching the bottom the great surprise is to find finely made thin wheel-turned pottery, painted with an abund- ance of geometrical patterns. Happily a ceme- tery of that same age has been found, and has supplied a great quantity of this fine pottery quite perfect. This shows that even Susa is by no means the beginning of civilization, that its oldest levels were in a high state of culture. ~ * GEOLOGY LINKED TO HISTORY 75 This age is further marked by flint working of characteristic Solutrean forms; and such would agree with the fact that the rather later age of prehistoric Egypt shows Magdalenian forms of flint working. In Egypt the Solutrean style is only found on the open desert, and has never in a single case been found in graves. The result from the archaeological position, therefore, would be to date roughly the Magdalenian to about 6000 to 9000 B.C., and the Solutrean to 9000 to 12000 B.C. Such dates would be probably halved by the German antiquaries, or doubled by the geologists. We may be well content, therefore, to leave them at this, as the least improbable statement for the present. - As Egypt only rose to pottery-making in the - Magdalenian stage, while Susa was making and painting fine pottery in the Solutrean stage, it is evident that Elam was a whole cycle ahead of Egypt in its development. . Now this agrees with one of the greatest recent discoveries. An ivory handle with a flint knife was found in Egypt, but of entirely non-Egyptian work (A. E., 1917, 26). The flint knife is known by its work to belong to the middle of the second prehistoric age, say about 6500 B.C.: but the Egyptians were at that stage far behind the style of this handle in their carving. The de- cisive point on the handle is the figure of a hero THE DUTY OF RESEARCH 77 need to step in at once, and secure, before it is too late, the grand field of human history which lies before us. It will take several generations of excavators before it is fully examined, and it is the great responsibility which has fallen upon us to resume the work so actively begun two generations ago, and securely to control private speculation and greed, in the interest of scientific work. Eighty years ago England began the exploration with two paddle-steamers; now we have the flotilla of Yarrow steamers on the Tigris, we should similarly expand our care for history as well as for political results. e THE FUTURE THE FUTURE IN the midst of enormous political uncertainties it may seem quite premature to discuss what our future course should be in peace. But we are already pledged to a definite course politically, if we can succeed in controlling it. The British Government is committed to the principle of a Jewish State in Palestine, and therefore the questions that must arise in such a course are by no means barred. It is also committed to the principle of an independent rule in Mesopotamia, and therefore the present Turkish law would be also superseded there. We may be asked why we should be in a hurry to consider administrative questions; let them arise in future, and be dealt with when they arise. We have already followed this course in Cyprus and in Egypt, with disastrous results. It is to prevent the recurrence of such disasters in the other centres of ancient civilization, for which we may be responsible, that we must consider the necessary conditions in good time. If we wait until the scandals of destruction are 8I 6 - 82 • CHANCE OR CARE P known to all, we shall wait until it is too late to do our duty. The importance of the questions of conserva- tion is even more urgent than it was in other countries. The custody of the Holy Places has been the most burning question of piety, of fanaticism, and of intrigue, among the Christian Powers, and is in most cases complicated by the Jewish and the Turkish claims. To leave this fermenting mixture to the mere chances of casual possession or action would be folly. To leave the destruction of the great centres of our early civilization to the mere chance of profitable exploitation would be behaving like the beasts that perish. As Epictetus says, the cattle at the market think of nothing but the fodder, and possessions and prosperity are the mere fodder of man; if he thinks of nothing but them, how is he better than the cattle P If we are to have no interests beyond those of animals, how can we justify our human existence P The growth of the mind of man, how he has achieved his present control of nature, how his knowledge and ability has fluctuated, is of obvious interest to every intelligence above mere fodder. It is this history which lies in our hands in the East, and which it is our duty to conserve. Real politik is the enemy of the human mind, as its concerns are only those of animals. PROCLAMATION ON ANTIQUITIES 83 The present position is a turning-point, where we have a clear field for reasoned action, and where those by whom the mistakes of the past have occurred are no more—I shall not name them. Moreover, owing to the war, their succes- sors have not yet shown their intentions, and thus we cannot contradict them. Perhaps the official mind may sometimes be typified by its action at Delhi in dropping the Koh-i-nur into the waistcoat pocket and forgetting all about it, until humbly asked if the stone is wanted. We may hope to see an efficient management established if the preliminary proclamation by the late Sir Stanley Maude in Mesopotamia is properly followed up, and not allowed by apathy to lapse, like so many good preliminaries started by able men. As that proclamation has been little—if at all—noticed in England, I may state its scope: (1) The rights of the Ottoman Government in all antiquities are transferred to the new Administration. (2) Antiquities mean everything before A.D. 1500. (3) Information of discovery of antiquities must be given within thirty days, under penalty. (4) Anyone appro- priating things discovered may be fined up to ten times the value. (5) Any negligent or mali- cious damage of any kind may be heavily fined. (6) No traffic in antiquities is allowed without license, under heavy fine (7) All forgery, or W DESTRUCTION IN EGYPT 85 soon after. The Roman houses in Mareotis are being used as quarries to build new farms. The brick buildings throughout Egypt are sold as materials by the Department of Antiquities, for a trifling fee from the destroyers; so perishes early Christian Egypt. Roman marble columns were in request by the late Khedive for garden rollers. Every piece of stone that is unearthed is used for building or burnt into lime. Another cause is the vicious demand for frag- ments of monuments, mainly by the tourist, but also fostered even by national museums. The sculptured rock halls of the tombs at Beni Hasan and Tell Amarna, that have stood un- harmed for thousands of years, were attacked, and the finest pieces cut out of them, with the collateral destruction of much more. The most beautifully sculptured tomb at Thebes had the best parts prized away—now in Berlin. Another, a painted tomb, was wrecked, and its fragments are in Florence. The most beautiful of the early sculptured tombs was ruined, and the broken fragment of the best part is in the British Museum. These pieces have all been obtained with open eyes, knowing quite well how they were stolen, and what damage was done for this filthy lucre. / Another cause of destruction is sheer thought- lessness of those responsible, The largest fresco 88 SITES such as the destruction of the monuments of the Latin kings of Jerusalem by the Greek Church a century ago, Nor can any of the sites be left to be appropriated by a sect, with rights of altera- tion and destruction. The best hope seems to be in a guard of mixed nationality, not ecclesiastical, appointed by the Board of Antiquities: this would give the greatest freedom of access by all religions, while preventing damage by the ex- clusive claims of any one party. B. SITES. Not only do visible monuments require pro- tection, but also the invisible. Beneath each of the innumerable mounds that dot the landscape in Syria and Mesopotamia there are buildings more or less perfect. Sometimes an entire building has become earthed over, twenty or fifty feet underground, by later houses. All of these buildings need preservation, and cannot be left to be quarried out as mere masonry. In Egypt most of the ancient sites have been claimed by land grabbers within living memory. One great town site of mounds has been appro- priated bit by bit, without being of the least use to the claimants. It cannot be cultivated, being too high and hilly; it has only been claimed as a matter of grab, each person wishing to fore- 90 ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES cemetery of Heliopolis, now swallowed in the sandy wastes round villas, which are called gardens. The only way to protect these rights of future working and discovery is to send round an Inspector who knows an ancient site when he sees it, and for him to proclaim all such sites which are now unoccupied, mark them on a plan given to the headman, and make it quite clear to the neighbourhood that anyone using such land may be turned out without any rights what- ever, by anyone else who likes to shift them. Rights are manufactured without hesitation in Egypt. A man claimed land as his of old, and pointed out a fine palm-tree to the Land In- spector as a proof of his long possession. On giving a push to the tree it fell over, for it was only a trunk which he had stuck in the ground the night before, to serve as evidence for inspection. C. AccIDENTAL DiscoverIES. The greater the activities in any country, the more discoveries will be made casually, in course of other work. Such discoveries should be en- couraged, but controlled. They often lead to work of great importance, and no sort of check should be put on them. At present there is a fear of Government causing hardship by expro- priation in Egypt, and a wish therefore to conceal BOARD FOR ANTIQUITIES 9I any ancient buildings that may be found. The course should be to induce all discoveries to be reported to the Inspector, by paying small re- wards for information, and paying a full value in case of expropriation. For small objects that are movable the Inspector should pay a full local value, and full weight or more for gold and silver. Only by being the best buyer will he secure what is found. Any kind of repression loses far more than it gains. The difficulties of Government monopoly we notice farther on. J D. THE BoARD For ANTIQUITIES. The management of the antiquities necessarily must be controlled by a department; and so many interests and considerations are involved that a Board of Trustees seems needful to direct the policy. Such a Board should enact the by-laws for the control of the subject, in harmony with the requirements of other departments. The museum management and Inspectors should be responsible to the Board directly; while the local guards would be managed by the Inspectors. Every agent of the Board should be in the police force, with full powers. The failure of protection in Egypt has been mainly due, not to the officials employed, but to the impossible condition of the laws and regu- 92 EFFICIENT PENALTIES NEEDED lations. When the head of the Department in- stituted seventy-five prosecutions for damage and theft, he only got three convictions. When the thief of a statue was tracked by his footprints, and full collateral evidence was obtained, he was acquitted at a cost of £40. It is useless to try any such cases like common thefts; the local court is not only corrupt in all its underlings, but it sympathizes with the thief, and will do nothing to hinder him. It is obviously undesirable that it should be needful to invite the judge to break- fast before a case comes on, in order to get a con- viction. Yet a prudent Inspector will have to do so. The remedy is to put the judging of all such cases in the nominees of the Board for Antiquities. All offences should be first assessed by the Inspector; if the delinquent elects to pay the amount to the tax collector, the matter is closed; if he prefers to go before the judge named by the Board, he can do so. The appointment of this Board should rest with the controlling Power or Powers. It need not be resident in the country, if there is a diffi- culty in finding fit persons who understand the subject. The functions being only to appoint agents and decide on policy, the knowledge of the members of the Board is the first consideration. For Palestine as a Jewish State the Board might consist largely of Jewish archaeologists. Cele- PRIVATE RESEARCH 93 brated names of such rise to mind at once, in France, England, and other lands; men who would be above sectarian prejudice, and help to control the large interests involved, in a sym- pathetie spirit. E. DIRECTION of RESEARCH. Unless a Government is ready for quite unpre- cedented expenditure, it is advisable to make use of the zeal and resources of archaeologists of other countries. Even in Egypt, where all nationalities may work, the Government reserva- tion would cost nearly a million to clear, and take several centuries at the present rate. Evidently long, before that would be finished, lapses of management must occur, and every- thing be plundered anyhow. The only course is firmly and carefully to regulate all work on proper lines. We have seen in Egypt, under Government permission, clearances by plunder- ing natives who mix up all they find and destroy its value, clearances by foreign museum agents to fill a museum without any record or publica- tion, clearances with a record kept entirely private and results refused publication for ten or twenty years, clearances by speculators who are entirely ignorant of the meaning or import- ance of what they find or destroy. The mere 94 KINDS OF EXCAVATORS making of an official inventory, like a list of a dealer's shop, is almost useless. It leaves out of account all that gives value to the discoveries —the position, date, relation to other things, and local meaning. * In Cyprus our management has yielded equally bad results. Of the main plunderer it is said, “So far as his statements can be checked, they are inaccurate and misleading.” Of another excavator there, “You never can be- lieve anything he says.” There was no check on the capability of the excavators, or on the permanence of their results. Doubtless the public—and often the official— view is that so long as things are dug up, it does not matter how. Does the public know any- thing about the detail of electrical or biological research, or even how it digests its dinner P Does the public understand the researches that have subdued plague, typhus, and yellow fever ? Just as little does the public understand the knowledge involved in scientific excavating: The familiarity with the minute variations of style and art, the sense of comparative art of all the regions in question; the memory of thousands of points of comparison; the chemical and mechanical care needed to preserve things; the incessant observation requisite for noting passing details on which the whole meaning may depend; REQUISITES FOR EXCAVATING 95 the necessity for understanding precisely the period and the meaning of everything as it is uncovered, of reading the results hour by hour, so as to know what next to look for, and what may be a critical detail, perhaps wiped out of existence in a few minutes of digging; the knowledge of the languages that may be met with; the incessant discipline of hundreds of workers, to ensure their care, attention, and fidelity, without which nothing can be done; the mapping of everything in detail—for in- stance, the temple foundations at Abydos re- quired over 5,000 measurements to disentangle nine superimposed plans. Is it, then, to be sup- posed that the first person who comes along with a desire to dig can be allowed to do so without destroying much more than he preserves 2 The first requisite to be demanded is that any- one managing excavations shall have already produced sound published work under the direc- tion of a skilled manager. Secondly, that he record fully, and publish in full and detailed manner within two years. Thirdly, that every- thing found shall go to public museums, except great numbers of duplicates. The independent help of Societies or wealthy men is to be welcomed if these conditions are observed. A uniform system of giving the full local value of antiqui- ties to the workmen is essential. Without that COSTLY IN EFFICIENCY 97 The local museum cannot work well unless it has an efficient curator, or at least a fixed share in the work of such. The mistake is usually made of spending money on architectural freaks, instead of on the proper housing and exhibiting of the contents of a museum. In Cairo a museum was to cost £80,000; by the incapacity of the architect £250,000 has been spent on it. The result is much worse for its purposes than might have been secured for £40,000 if spent legitimately in preserving collections. It is at present the grave of its contents, much of which can never be appreciated, or even seen, in the existing con- ditions. In almost all countries, even France and Italy, old buildings that are entirely un- suitable are used to house the National Collec- tions. In England, where we have special museum buildings, architects have not yet found out the first principles required. There should not—and need not—be a single point in a museum without direct lighting, and no cross- light should be allowed. Dead walls between lights prove the incapacity of the designer. When suitable museum space is required let it be devised by an experienced curator, a photo- grapher (for no one else understands lighting), and an engineer. If money suffices, an architect may then put a façade to the required building, 7 - 1oo GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIES without permission; or as in Britain, where gold and silver that has been hidden is treasure-trove to the Government, but not when it has been lost. It may be safely asserted that every Government loses by such restrictions. It is solely a question of money. Each Government could secure all it claims by payment instead of by force. Its claims serve to establish an ex- tensive and able secret service for export. And the prohibitions only serve to retain things which are not worth the expense of using this secret service. No prohibitory laws can retain the things which will pay to export. You may buy a full-sized bronze chariot in Rome, and con- tract to pay on delivery in Paris; and it comes as a matter of business. You may agree to buy a large picture, and it crosses the frontier in the roof of an omnibus. You may walk through the Greek customs with a priceless vase—if you put a plant in it and a pink paper round it. There is not a great museum that is not fed by illegal channels, which it knows and trusts. If the prohibitive laws do not retain the best things, they are worse than useless; for if there were a free supply of the second best, it would often check the foreign demand for the finest. The claims of a Government to seize upon dis- coveries are still more unworkable. In Italy a SCIENTIFIC ExCAVATION 103 tion. Let every Inspector be looked on as the best buyer, paying a full local price on the spot, and full weight of gold or silver. After selec- tion at the museum, sell off the common things to tourists, and the fine objects which are not required sell by auction in London or Paris. By open competition leave no commercial foot- ing for dealers; and the profit of sales would largely help the Department of Antiquities. H. TERMS FOR SCIENTIFIC ExCAVATION. If it is the best policy for Government not to claim the whole, or a part, of casual discoveries that cost nothing, it is indefensible to claim the whole (as in Greece and Turkey) or a part (as in Egypt) of the produce of scientific excavation, For (I) such work is very costly when well done; (2) the country gets the full value of the things found, in the wages paid, on an average; (3) the proper publication is expensive; (4) all the brunt of the law falls on the authorized preserver of things, while the unauthorized plunderer goes free. Often have I been checked from following up a discovery by the precise legal limits of a permis- sion, while the place has been wrecked at once by natives without any record, and the destruc- tion of much of the material. This puts a premium on allowing native wrecking to go on, WRECKING INFORMATION IO 5 which he is the source. He is fleeced because he is doing conscientious scientific work. Nothing could better destroy the value of the excavations which are properly conducted. It is heart-rending, after paying for the excava- tions, and paying the workmen full local value for all the things found, to have to leave them without history or use as mere toys for tourists, because the Government demands from the finder a third purchase at a fictitiously inflated value for them. This is where no private benefit or profit is involved, but where the only bene- ficiaries would be public museums, which urgently want precisely authenticated and dated speci- mens. A few hundred pounds of profit by pandering to the tourist outweighs in official view all the scientific value that has been created by most careful excavation. Such has been the course of British control in Egypt, and we have to try to avert such follies in fresh lands. Further, the confidence of excavators must be retained, if they are expected to act honourably. False reports should not be circulated by officials; and applications to excavate should not induce the authorities to send down ignorant natives to wreck sites before a scientific excavation is per- mitted, STAFF NEEDFUL Io? £ Director and 8 or Io staff e e ... 5,000 Ten Inspectors and personal staff ... 6,000 One hundred local guards e - . . 3,000 Preservation of monuments . . . ... 5,000 Excavating e - e - - - . . 2,000 Museum building e e - e. ... I O,OOO Libraries, of history and science . . 4,000 Science museums e - - - © - 5,000 Total .. 440,000 As development proceeded, less would be required for building, and more could go to work in the country. The teaching of science is a separate matter, but a museum must be provided quickly, as a refuge for what would otherwise be lost. The reckless destruction of Babylonian antiquities by incompetent excava- tion must be brought to an end. We read: “The excavations . . . have been for the most part destructive rather than scientific; such objects as were wanted by the Museum were alone sought after; little or no record has been kept of their discovery. . . . . The so-called excava- tions conducted by the Museum in 188o were simply a scandal.” We read of ancient maga- zines in Assyria full of coloured tiles, of iron tools and weapons, of pottery, of which hardly a specimen has reached Europe. Sixty-eight cases