A WOMAN EXPLORER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20172, 5 February 1929, Page 5

A WOMAN EXPLORER.

Miss Gertrude Caton-Thompson, explorer and archaeologist, lefi London recently to embark on a journey of exploration in a part of Rhodesia 1 , with which is associated the site of the legendary King Solomon's mines. Miss Caton-Thompson goes first to Egypt, where she will collect kit and implements which have lain there since her previous exploration work for the Royal Anthropological Institute. Miss Caton-Thompson's objects—supported by the British Association —are "to undertake an examination of the ruins of Zimbabwe or any monuments in Rhodesia which seem most likely to reveal the character, date, and source of the culture of their builders."

Operations will commence in March, when Miss Caton-Thompson will have the assistance of Miss None, a professional architect, and Miss K. Kenyon, daughter of Sir Frederic Kenyon, director of the British Museum.

It is possible that an aeroplane will be used in a preliminary survey of the ruins, which consist of so-called fortresses and temples, granite walls and terraces, archways and roadways. " These ruins have never been fully worked out," an official of the British Association stated. " The original occupation of the site is not known. " Miss Caton-Thompson's discoveries may take the form of pottery, implements and so forth, and these things may belong to the Stone Age for all that is known at present. " The original rumour about King Solomon's mines, I have no doubt, was based upon a vague knowledge of the interior and the existence of these ruins.

" To the best of my belief, there is a suspicion of a very biph civilisation having existed on this site —a civilisaton as high as in the time of Tutankhamen, for instance."