THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS OPPORTUNITY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 149, 19 March 1919, Page 5

THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS OPPORTUNITY

NEW FIELDS OPENED BY BRITISH

VICTORIES

LOST CIVILISATIONS

The victories in Palestine and the future possibilities there and m Mesopotamia constitute, in the opinion ot archaeologists, the heaviest i esponsibriity for historical study that has ever fallen on any nation. "Wo may have in our hands," Professor Flinders Petrie tells us. "the development of the sites ot the greatest ancient civilisations, the parents of our own knowledge, learning, and religion, and it will rest upon us to settle whether we will preserve and understand the past, or whether we will deliberately let it be destroyed "you have not only to preserve that which vou know," Professor Petrie said rocenliv in an interview with a sentative of the London "Observer, but to reserve the sites which are nt present quite ignored, on which there is probably nothing visible to the unskilled eye. Peopie understand, perhaps, the necessity of protecting ancient buildings, but they have never realised sufficiently how necessary it is to preserve the things that aro at present invisible-buildings m the soil which are liable to bo wiped out by people working for stone for building, or digging for the sake of plunder. "The special need for calling attention tD the matter at this moment is that the results of our occupation <"/'Bnrt and' Cyprus have been disastrous for the antiuuife. No one in England has been placed in authority who knows anything of the subject, and the action of the French staff in Egypt has been crippled by want of co-operation ot the police and the authorities. "There are half a dozen temple sites in Egvpt, any one of which could have been excavated fifty years ago without difttcultv. But there has been nothing bit land-grabbing, and they have all been seized, and have become private property, without any benefit to anyone. In Mesopotamia the loss has been very serious. Tt is notorious that most of the excavations have been scandalous for the wasts of tho history of .civilisation, everything being sacrificed to getting out inscribed tablets and nothing else. "What can we now hope to fand t the professor was asked. "The whole historv of humanity mtho East." was the reply, "from the four or five, civilisations before the Jewish occupation which we know of. We may hope to recover what, we only at present have seen very little of—the civilisation of Ehm which underlies the early civilisation of Egypt. That is really the important end for the question, and tor the origin of civilisation. "Jt can only bo done by the presence of trained archaeologists who can distinguish the various places most likely to 1m of importance. This visitation should be begun this very day, it possible, because it is perfectly certain tnat private rights in Palestine and Mesopotamia will arise now like mushrooms. I have seen it in Egypt and know- what it means. AVhat is required is a civilian staff for the management of the wholo question of antiquities, and llus stall ou«ht to bo under a board of skilled au-thoritics-preferably, for Palestine, Jewish archaeologists. „ Right Lines of Administration. "The right lines of administration are excellently laid down in the lato Sir Stanley Maude's proclamation in Mesopotamia, by which: 1 The rights of the Ottoman Government in all antiquities are transferred to the new administration. 2. Antiquities mean everything before A.n. 1500. ... ,1. Information of discovery of antiquities must be given within thirty days, under penalty. ~ 4. Anyone appropriating things discovered may bo fined up to ten times the value. . 5. Any negligent or malicious damage of any kind may be heavily fined. 6. No traffic in antiquities is allowed without; license, under heavy fine.

7. All forgery, or salo.of forgeries, is linblo to heavy fine and confiscation of stock.

8. On reporting discoveries, the owner shall be duly compensated for the valuo if the. objects are taken; if not .required liy the Administration, a certificate will be given that it may behold. 9. The chief political officer is the authority for this Administration. "Wo want immediately some such proclamation in Palestine, though it is not tho final condition under which the civil administration would best work* There should bo three or four civilian inspectors appointed at once with full powers to proclaim all buildings and sites that they may consider necessary. There are many of the younger archn°olo»isfcs who havo been trained in the last twenty years iif Egypt who would be woll fitted to undertake this preliminary work. It is Almost useless for a man who has not had some rears' acciuaintance with the character <£ ancient 6ites to .undertake it.

"The Palestine Exploration Fund and the British Academy have formed a joint committee for a British School of Archftcoloey in Palestine, and this should be the national basis for public interest in the question; it may well form an intermediary for Government action, if the Government would only give them power to go ahead. A New Jerusalem. "For Jerusalem particularly the control must he in Jewish hands, as tho management of tho city lias to be handed to them. But there aro many kinds of Jewish interests in Palestine, and we must tnko care that it is not the business and exploiting interest that determines the future of Jerusalem. "By far the most satisfactory thing would 1 be to establish a new business town a mile or two out, and gradually clear the historic city. Thus the whole of. tho medieval Jerusalem oould be re- ■ moved in the future, and the Jewish condition of the town brought to light and restored. This, of course, would not interfere with any of the historic buildings which havo been erected since tho Jewish time. "The wholo of Jerusalem is only a quarter of a nquare mil*, and the city is totally unfit for a business city. It lias a bad acoess and bad water, and is soaked with sewage. The first thing to be done is to get it .as clear as we can of human habitation, and preserve it as a sanotuary for the three faiths—Jewish, Christian, and Moslem."