ANCIENT PROBLEMS.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18855, 27 January 1933, Page 4

ANCIENT PROBLEMS.

PRESENT-DAY PARALLELS. ROMAN CONDITIONS. VETERAN ARCHAEOLOGIST’S VIEWS. Sir Flinders Petrie, the veteran of British archaeologists, lias left England once more for a season’s excavation la the Near East. With the exception of the war period, he has excavated every year for more than half a century, and his present expedition to Old Gaza, made in his eightieth year, continues the work of the British School of Egytian Archaeology, of which he was Hie founder and is still the leader. In an interview given in the Observer, London, recently, he made two announcements. The first Is that he intends to retire in June from the position of Edwards Professor of Egyptology at University College, which he has held for the past 40 years, and to take up permanent residence in Palestine, the scene of his recent excavations. “For four months of the year,’’ he said, “I shall continue to excavate; the spring and autumn I intend to spend in Jerusalem writing and studying. But I hope to visit England for three months each year, and to 'continue working in an honorary capacity at University College. arranging the collections.” The second announcement is that Sir Flinders (who has, since ids marriage, always been assisted on ids expeditions by Lady Petrie) lias this year taken as a his 23-year-oid-daughler, Ann. Past and Present Problems. The Interviewer asked Sir Flinders what he considered the main importance of archaeology to the present generation. Even if one took for granted the attra'clion to many persons of this form of research (as of other forms) and the special attraction of research in Holds which bore upon Biblical history, still might it not be said that time, money and effort ought not to he diverted towards the past and away from the problems of the present? “I should answer,” said Sir Flind-

ers, “that no one could really understand die newspapers without some knowledge of ancient history, and that no one could understand anoient history wilhout tho modern newspaper. They mutually explain one another, and it is almost impossible to look at the affairs of the modern world critically without seeing these in the context from which they arose. History is, as it were, the scientific background of politics and social life, and archaeology is the scientific background of history.” “Would you agree with what (I think) Gentile, the Italian philosopher, says—that, all history is present history?” asked the interviewer. "Yes. Twenty-live years ago I published a hook called ‘Janus in Modern Life,’ which was a criticism of modern social tendencies, partly written in view of what had happened in the past. I wrote in the preface: ‘People forget that- it is only a fiction to speak of the present, an infinitely thin division between what lias been and that which will be. “Every step of the past has been a present living, urgent, Imperative, to the whole world; every such present 'has been entirely conditioned by its past, Just as the future for us is conditioned by our present. If any race now cares to learn somewhat from its own past, and that of others, it may bc-ncflt Its own future: if it prefers a blind selfishness, a better race will be welcomed in its place.”

The Ancient World. “You would not, however, say that archaeology was normally conducted with a view to direct ‘lessons from history’ ?” “Certainly not. Scientific research by the chemist and the physicist seldom has a practical motive, and adapting a discovery may take ten times the amount of work that tho discovery itself lias taken. The same is true of archaeology. It has si ill not told us sufficient about the ancient world for us to he able to reconstruct the social life in many periods and make deductions. “Deductions from the Roman Empire are not uncommon, because we know more about it than about more remote periods. “It is difficult, however, to draw modern economic lessons specifically from Egypt, which was never a great trading country; factories hardly existed there, and craftsmen worked to order for the private buyer, much as they did in mediaeval Europe. “If we are 'considering a return to

mediaeval social devices, Egypt, ancient and modern, may yet provide useful comparative examples. On the other hand, the slave-labour of Rome was responsible for something of the same kind of mass production and the same problems of unemployment as have been set" the modern world by machine-production. “The particularly pressing problem of debt was illustrated at various periods of the Empire. It was the Romans who introduced the first Credit system into Britain, and men like Seneca lent vast sums to the unfrugal Britons, and then began to call in heavily upon their loans. Lawyers and bailiffs abounded, and you will remember that one of the most striking acts of Boadicea in her rebellion was to seize every lawyer she could find, sew up his mouth, and kick him adrift!” “Is’ there any historical parallel for war debts?” “No; the old way of settling the matter was to seize half another 'country’s territory or property. Often tills was not entirely unwelcome to an over-taxed population; the Goths,-for instance, were welcomed in Gaul, as they threw out the tax-gatherers. I have often wondered whether it was worth while combating Napoleon, since his rule was of the kind which, could have lasted only as long as the man himself lasted. But it was certainly worth while combating the military power of Germany; AssyrianIsm, a system of ideals and politics which makes force a virtue, might 'be lasting.

No Menace In Communism. “Compared with such a menace, the danger of Communism, which many people now fear, is comparatively negligible. A Communistic system might, lie harmful, but no Communistic system-has ever lasted; it has always broken up. Assyrianism !s a far more dangerous thing to the human spirit.” “Is the archaeologist, bound to consider such general problems as these in modern as well as in ancient terms?” “I think he is forced to do so if ho goes far enough. T-he old abtiquaries irotlected statues for their gardens, but they were not interested in trying to live themselves among remote and vanished peoples. The modern archaeologist aims at placing 'himself in the earlier periods, living among these ancient peoples, and adapting his life to theirs. He is bound to bring back something rather different from ornaments for his garden."