RECENT EXCAVATIONS AND INTERESTING FINDS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11692, 19 September 1903, Page 6

RECENT EXCAVATIONS AND INTERESTING FINDS.

Several highly important finds have been made of late by the agents of the societies engaged in exploring ancient ruins in Palestine and Egypt. In Palestine the most important discoveries have been made on the site of Gezer, which was captured by Joshua (x., 33), and ages latter fell into the hands of Pharaoh of Egypt, and, was given to Solomon as a dowry with his Egyptian wife, and strongly fortified by him (I. Kings, ix., 17). The site is a mound or Telabout half a mile long.' Seven strata, mark at least as many towns. The lowest belongs to the Neolithic age, preceding the use of metals. The inhabitants were not Semites. They were small-boned people, dwelling in caves and mud huts, and cremating their dead in a cave. Two strata higher the earliest Semites, or people related to the Hebrews, are found. They are bigger'in bone, superior in houses, and use bronze weapons. They cremate their dead, and place food vessels with them. They were idolaters, and some Egyptian inscriptions found at this level go back as far as 2500 8.C., or more than 1000 years before Moses. The most striking discovery is what is called in Scripture a "High Place." It consists of a raised stone platform, on which stand eight monoliths, set up as Jacob set up his pillar. They are smooth with anointing and kissing. Under the foundations were found large earthenware jars, each containing the remains of a newly-born infant. This reminds us of Hiel (I. Kings, xvi., 34), who rebuilt Jericho, and laid the foundation in his first-born, arid set up the gates in his youngest son. The fifth stratum shows a break in the continuity of occupation, and probably corresponds to the destruction by Joshua. Iron appears for the first time at this level. In the sixth stratum are some articles bearing a royal stamp, "To the King," in old Hebrew characters. This and the fortifications indicate the age of Solomon. There, of course, remains a vast amount of the mound to be explored, and much will doubtless be added to our knowledge of the ancient Semites and of early Israel. In Egypt Mr. Flinders Petrie has pursued his work at Abydos. Here he cleared several acres to a depth of 20ft, and found that ten successive temples had stood there between SCOO and 500 B.C. Herodotus reported that Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid, had closed the temples, and forbidden sacrifices. This is borne out by the discovery that in the Fourth dynasty—that of Cheops—the temple was abolished, and a great hearth of burnt offerings took its place. It is full of votive clay substitutes for sacrifices. An ivory statuette of Cheops himself was found—a fine piece of work, revealing for | the first time to the modem world the face of the great builder and organiser. The discovery of relics of the First dynasty has revolutionised former conceptions of a rude age. Of Menes, the founder of the First dynasty, a large globular vase of green glaze, with his name inlaid in purple, takes the art of produciug this glaze back at least a thousand years. It was even Ui*d in tiles to line walls. Several ivory

carvings, particularly one of an aged King, stand in the very first rank of such work, and are comparable with the finest carvings of Greece and Italy. It is truly amazing to find that the Firxtdntasty,soQOor6oCQ years 8.C., was already equal in technical and fine art to any of its successors. How far back must we go for the emergence from barbarism? At Oxyrhynchus also, where a most extensive find of papyri was made several years ago, further discoveries have been made. The excavators have come upon the debris of whole libraries of classical and Christian writings, the latter belonging to the first four centuries of our era. A hasty investigation has revealed further "Logia," or sayings of Christ, the Kpistla to the Hebrews, the septuagint version of Genesis—probably a century older than an.y other copy—a great number of fragments' of lost classics in Greek, and, what is very rare, a Latin papyrus, which contains an epitome of ten books of Livy's history. These books are lost, though an epitome o! them exists. The new epitome, howmr, mentions many additional incidents. ' ■