The Spade and the Unknown World.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 February 1912, Page 4

The Spade and the Unknown World.

How the spado lias revived to <w an unknown world, wln\jh ih'jKgs our history books out of date, is' told by the Spectator in an art-icle on the twenty-fifth anniversary ot the Rri-tic-h School at Athens "dince Selltenuinn undcrtokliis excavations at Hissarilk in 1871 and at Myceiae in 187G, the spade lias la ; d hare to us a -hitherto unknown world. Homer no longer stands out against a background of pitchy night, an apparition eyually splendid and inexplicable. Behind him we now see at least the outlines of a long preceding civilisation, in the course of which somehow—we know not how, for all literary monuments have perished—was shaped and moulded that wondrous epic speech without whose aid even his genius must have remained for ever inglorious and mute. That very Troy, whose story was to him already half a fable, was itself, we know, reared on the ruins of other cities, the oldest of which may carry us hack for five milleniums. Centuries "before Agamemnon" princes not loss "brave" had drunk their wine in the palaces of Mycenae from cunningly wrought cups of gold, adorned their sword-blades with artistic images of tli'o cTiase, and buried their dead along with rich wealth of jewellery in stately sepulchres, while those- old-world tales about Minos and tho Lnbrvvinth which once seemed chiefly to prove that "the Cretans are always liars," are now seen to be based on indisputable fact: and the discoveries at Cnosww have wholly revolutionised out conceptions as to tho origin of that Greek civilisation from which, by a. direct lineage, wo derive much that is best and worthiest in our town. That the future lias in store fresh dracovorica which will equal those of the last forty years is doubtless beyond reasonable hope. There wias but one Troy and one Mycenae; nor can a second director of the British School look forward to the joy which was Mr Hogarth's when he discovered tho veritable " Dietaeen wave," and brought to light, if not the cymbals which were clashed to drown tho cries of the infant Zeus, at least hundreds of 'statuettes, implemonts, weapons, gems, objects of personal adornment,' and other votive offerings which attest the reality of the reverence which atached to the birthplace of the King of Heaven. But muoh assuredly remains still to be accomplished." The report of the British School tolls us, 'how a. cautious gentleman of Laconia, some 3500 ye>am ago, took care of a good vintage by first putting a little disc in the mouth of the winejar, then ia. few vine leaves on the top of the disc, then a clay stoppersomewhat like tho bend of a. champagne cork—on the top of tho leaves after which he stamped the olay no fewer than nine times with his private signet, and finally tied it safely down with string—little thinking that IKo was leaving io the Londoners of A.T). 1911 a convincing proof of Mycenaean civilisation."