KING SOLOMON

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 676, 30 May 1929, Page 16

KING SOLOMON

Quest for Legendary African Mines AIRPLANE TRIP Exploration by airplane is to be one of the thrills of Miss Gertrude CatonThompson, whom the cablegrams announced recently as ready to leave London on a trip to Southern Rhodesia, to visit King Solomon’s mines. Miss Caton-Thompson will be accompanied by Miss KTorie, a professional architect, and K. Kenyon, daughter of Sir Frederick Kenyon, director of the British Museum. The scene of their future work is the legendary site of King Solomon’s mines. On this site stands the Zimbabwe ruins, consisting of large circular walls with fortified gateways, which are commonly supposed to be fortresses and temples. Local legends say that King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba were associated with an older civilisation there, and the late Sir Rider Haggard has perpetuated these legends in his books. An airplane will probably be used by Miss Caton-Thompson in her preliminary survey of the ruins. She considers the airplane of the greatest value in exploration work, and hopes to obtain a machine from Bulawayo, the nearest town of importance. Wants to Get Busy “I shall be glad when I can get to grips with my job,” Miss CatonThompson declared. “It is a long journey, and the preliminary work is very tedious.” % A cool, self-possessed young woman, she is of medium height. Her face is still slightly tanned by the hpt sun of Egypt, where she did brilliant work for the Royal Anthropological Institute. “On the outward journey I shall spend some time in Egypt,” she stated. “I am going up-country to collect equipment. “I selected Miss Norie because, as i view the problem before us, 1 think it will be extremely valuable to have thorough architectural records of the ruins,” said Miss Caton-Thompson. Describing the objects of her expedition. Miss Caton-Thompson said that there were conflicting opinions in the archaeological world as to the probable date of the ruins. There is a strong feeling in favour of their being remote, prehistoric. There is, on the other hand, an equally strong and wellauthenticated view that they are not earlier than mediaeval. "The advocates of both points of

view have made out quite a good ease, j but the evidence on neither side is conclusive. In my opinion, the solu- ■ tion of the problem will be found only • by prolonged and careful excavation and observation, carried out over L probably a number of years, in different parts of Rhodesia. It is not my ■ job to hold preconceived theories as to which is correct. Nature of Ruins , “I£ the ruins are mediaeval, they are conceivably native work executed with a certain infiltration of outside ideas—probably borrowed from min- , ir >S prospectors. The other school . would see in them a definite foreign , civilisation, entering purely for the ’ purpose of mining. Miss Caton-Thompson would not commit herself on the question of ’ whether King Solomon and the Queen E of Sheba were ever associated with the . district. It is an old legend,” she stated. “We know that the Queen of [ Sheba and King Solomon had very . large dealings in gold, and that Rho- - desia is a gold mining country, but there is no other literary or archaeo--5 logical evidence for that view. One : doesn’t rule out the possibility of Asia- , tie influence, of course. ; It is conceivable that you might get peopie from the direction of Asia • Minor, but it is pure speculation. There t is not a fragment of evidence that it ! was so.” Miss Caton-Thompson and her i party will be armed, but they do not : anticipate any occasion for using their s weapons. “I shall report the result of ’ my “ rst season's investigations to the . meeting of the British Association, which lanes place in South Africa next ’ August,” she added.