WALLS OF MIZPAH

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3718, 9 November 1926, Page 7

WALLS OF MIZPAH

RELICS FROM BRONZE AGE SHOT OF THE BABYLONIANS The interesting discoveries made by Mr William Frederick Bade, the wellknown arclneologist, and Dean of the Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley, California, who has unearthed the walls of Mizpah, the famous Biblical city, were related in an interview iceentlv at Southampton.

Mr Bade said: “Shortly after J began digging f found an ancient fits buried, presumably ‘ Mizpah of Beniamin. I .struck a portion of the south-eastern wall, which ranks as the finest city wall of the Bronze Agee\ei unearthed in the Orient. It dates back to I.oUO years before Christ, its thickness led me to believe that the city of Mizpah must have been rc markably rich, as the ancient people were not in the habit ol building walls of that tvpe unless they had -somethiim- to protect by them. From the length of the wall, which I judged to be about three-quarters ot a mile, 1 sliould tliink the city of Mizpah was probably seven and a-balf acres m extent. which is very large when it is considered that Jerusalem was only eleven acres.

At the south-east corner 1 found a citadel built for defensive purposes. Inside was a pile of what seemed to be cannon balls, made Loin hammered flint, and used by tlie famous Babylonian slingers with such deadly effect. There wore also copper arrow heads, spears, and daggers. inside the wall I found two cave tombs, width were more than 1,000 years older-than the wail itself, and these contained a large amount of pottery of the period during the transition from the Stone to the Bronze Age. ’file specimens, winch included a number of drinking vessels, were all painted, and were quite finely finished. These tombs had been used as burial places for one or two families lor centuries, for I hey contained upwards ol 100 skeletons.

Buried with the hones were gold beads, a gold ring, and beads ol semiprecious stones, all earefnlU giouml and threaded on gut. In readiness to meet the emergencies of siege eight water cisterns were also lon ml, dug from tlie living: rock, and one ol these was large enough to hold fifty people, and had live holes at the top Irom which water might he drawn. Another discovery ol considerable interest was the finding ol the head ol a Babylonian Venus, called “ The Queen of Heaven,’’ and sometimes worshipped lie the Israelites. It: was mailo ol terra cotta clay, and the head has bobbed hair wit’ll a fringe. Mr Bade, who lias sent some specimens borne to the I niversil\ oi taliI'ornia for examination by experts, will return to continue bis work next spring, and in succeeding years, as a result of which many interesting discoveries are expected to he made.