How to Observe in Archaeology
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Title: How to Observe in Archaeology
Author: Various
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***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO OBSERVE IN ARCHAEOLOGY***
E-text prepared by Philip H. Hitchcock
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from that given in the main text.
HOW TO OBSERVE IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Suggestions for Travellers in the Near and Middle East
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
1920
CONTENTS
Preface. By Sir F. G. Keynon
PART I
Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY. By G. F. Hill
Chapter II. METHOD. By W. M. Flinders Petrie
LIST OF THE CHIEF BRITISH INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIETIES CONCERNED WITH
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST
LIST OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOINT COMMITTEE
PART II
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Chapter I. FLINT IMPLEMENTS.
Chapter II. GREECE PROPER. By T. P. Droop
Chapter III. ASIA MINOR. By J. G. C. Anderson and J. L. Myres
Chapter IV. CYPRUS. By J. L. Myres
Chapter V. CENTRAL AND NORTH SYRIA. By D. G. Hogarth
Chapter VI. PALESTINE. By R. A. S. Macalister
Chapter VII. EGYPT. By W. M. Flinders Petrie
Chapter VIII. MESOPOTAMIA. By H. R. Hall
APPENDIX
SUMMARIES OF LAWS OF ANTIQUITIES
INDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES
Some Hieroglyphic Signs liable to be confused with each other
Flint Implements
Types of Greek Pottery, &c.
Greek Alphabets
Asia Minor Pottery types
Hittite Inscriptions, &c.
Bilingual (Greek and Cypriote) Dedication to Demeter and
Persephone from Curium
Syrian Pottery.
Syrian Weapons, &c.
West Semitic Alphabets
West Semitic Numerals
Palestinian Pottery types
Egyptian Pottery types
Mesopotamian Pottery, Seals, &c.
Cuneiform and other Scripts
PREFACE
This Handbook is intended primarily for the use of travellers in the
Near and Middle East who are interested in antiquities without being
already trained archaeologists. It is the outcome of a recommendation
made by the Archaeological Joint Committee, a body recently
established, on the initiative of the British Academy and at the
request of the Foreign Office, to focus the knowledge and experience
of British scholars and archaeologists and to place it at the
disposal of the Government when advice or information is needed upon
matters connected with archaeological science. The Committee is
composed of representatives of the principal English societies
connected with Archaeology, and it is hoped that it may be recognized
as the natural body of reference, both for Government Departments and
for the public, on matters connected with archaeological research in
foreign lands. It represents no one institution and no one interest.
Its purpose is to protect the interests of archaeological science, to
secure a sane and enlightened administration of antiquities in the
lands which are now being more fully opened to research, and to
promote the advance of knowledge in the spheres to which its
competence extends.
One means of serving this cause is to provide information for the
guidance of travellers in the lands of antiquity. Much knowledge is
lost because it comes in the way of those who do not know how to
profit by it or to record it. Accordingly, just as the Natural
History Museum has issued a series of pamphlets of advice to the
collectors of natural history specimens, so it has been thought that
a handbook of elementary information and advice may be found of
service by travellers with archaeological tastes; and the Trustees of
the British Museum have undertaken the publication of it. The
handbook has been prepared by a number of persons, whose competence
is beyond dispute; and the thanks of all who find it useful are due
to Mr. G. F. Hill (who has acted as general editor as well as part
author), Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. D. G. Hogarth, Prof. J. L.
Myres, Mr. J. G. C. Anderson, Mr. J. P. Droop, Prof. R. A. S.
Macalister, Mr. H. R. Hall, Mr. A. J. B. Wace, Mr. 0. M. Dalton, Mr.
R. L. Hobson, Mr. E. J. Forsdyke, Mr. A. H. Smith, Mr. R. A. Smith,
Mr. A. B. Cook, and Prof. G. A. Cooke. Each contributor has been left
considerable latitude as to the method of treatment of the subject
allotted to him, and no attempt has been made to bring the various
sections into uniformity of pattern. Owing to Prof. Petrie's absence
in Egypt, it has not been possible to submit final proofs of his
contributions to him.
Suggestions for improvement in future editions will be welcomed, and
will no doubt be forthcoming as the result of experience. Meanwhile
it is hoped that this little book will accompany many travellers in
foreign lands, and that the labour expended on it will bear fruit in
the improved observation and record of archaeological data, in
establishing sound principles for the administration of antiquities,
and in enforcing proper methods of excavation and conservation. It
may also be found of service by those who study the results of
research as they appear in museums.
F. G. KENYON.
PART I
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
The hints which it is the object of this volume to convey are not
meant for experienced archaeologists. They are rather addressed to
those who, while anxious to observe and record the antiquities which
they may see on their travels, are likely, owing to lack of training,
to miss things that may be of importance, or, having observed them,
to bring home an imperfect record. It is hoped also that they may
catch the attention of some of those who are not interested in the
subject, but, coming into possession of antiquities, may unwittingly
do incalculable harm by allowing them to be destroyed or dispersed
before any record has been made.
Most, if not all, of the countries with which we are concerned, have
their Laws of Antiquities. It cannot be too strongly insisted that
those laws, even if they might be better than they are, should be
obeyed by the traveller. He should familiarize himself with their
main provisions, which are summarized in an Appendix. The traveller
who makes it his object to loot a country of its antiquities,
smuggling objects out of it and disguising the sources from which
they are obtained, does a distinct dis-service to archaeological
science. Although he may enrich collections, public or private, half
or more than half of the scientific value of his acquisitions is
destroyed by the fact that their provenance is kept secret or falsely
stated. Such action is equivalent to tearing out whole pages from a
history and destroying them for ever, for each antiquity, whatever it
may be, is in its way a part of history, whether of politics, arts,
or civilization. For the same reason anything like unauthorized
excavation, especially by unskilled hands, is gravely to be
deprecated. To dig an ancient site unskilfully or without keeping a
proper record is to obliterate part of a manuscript which no one else
will ever be able to read. The tendency of recent legislation is to
allow more generous terms in the matter of licences for export to
excavators and collectors, and the harsher provisions of some of the
existing laws are likely soon to be amended.
Before leaving home, the traveller will be well advised to make
inquiries at the museums or at the head-quarters of the
archaeological societies which concern themselves specially with
the places which he intends to visit. A list of these museums and
societies is appended to this section (p. 26). It is hardly necessary
to warn him that archaeological training cannot be acquired in a few
days, and that he will have to buy his experience in various ways;
but the more time he can devote to working through the collections in
this country, the more useful will be his observations abroad. He
will be able to learn what kind of antiquities it is especially
desirable to look for, not merely with the object of filling gaps in
the public collections, but for the advancement of archaeological
knowledge in general.
The object of archaeological travel and excavation is not to collect
antiquities so that they may be arranged according to the existing
catalogues of museums, but to collect fresh information to amplify
and correct what we now know, to make our knowledge of the past more
complete and useful.
On arrival in the country of his choice, he is recommended to
continue at the National Museum the study, which we suppose he has
already begun in the museums at home, of the kind of antiquities
which he is likely to come across. But he should also take an early
opportunity of getting into touch with the local British
Archaeological School or other similar institution, where he will
receive advice what to look for and where and how to look, and
assistance in procuring suitable equipment. Thus the traveller who
starts from Athens or Jerusalem should apply at the British School of
Archaeology. He may there, it he desires, receive instruction in any
of the methods described in Chapter II, in which a little practical
demonstration is worth pages of print, and will be given all possible
assistance in obtaining such articles of equipment as are available
on the spot. (Photographic supplies and all scientific instruments
should be brought out from England.) The best maps of the district
will also be accessible for examination (but the traveller is
recommended to make inquiries in this respect before leaving
England); the libraries will provide the literature dealing with the
routes he proposes to take; and such a collection as the type-series
of pottery and the Finlay collection of prehistoric antiquities at
the British School at Athens may be useful to supplement his previous
studies at museums, and enable him to observe with intelligence the
potsherds, &c., that he may find on an ancient site. In return, he
will be expected to report his results either to the School or to
some other scientific society or museum at home. It should be
unnecessary to remind him that the conditions of the law of the land
relating to the reporting of discoveries to the competent authorities
should be strictly observed. Such authorities should also be informed
of any destruction or removal of monuments which may be noticed.
Another matter which should not be neglected is the obtaining
of such licences as may be required by law for the acquisition in the
country or export therefrom of objects of antiquity. Advice on this
matter can be obtained at the local School or National Museum.
It is possible that the traveller will begin his journey at a point
other than the capital. Inquiries should be made at the London head-
quarters of the Schools concerning residents at such places who may
be able to give advice to intending travellers.
The traveller will doubtless bring back with him such antiquities as
he is permitted to export. A word of general advice on this matter
may not be out of place here. The essential value of antiquities,
apart from their purely artistic interest, lies in the circumstances
in which they are found. The inexperienced traveller is apt to pick
up a number of objects haphazard, without accurately noting their
find-spots, and even, getting tired of them, as a child of flowers
that he has picked, to discard them a mile or two away. If the first
act is a blunder, the second is a crime; it is better to leave them
lying in place. For the same reason, it is highly desirable that
objects found together (e.g. the contents of a tomb) should as far as
possible be kept together, or at least that accurate record of the
whole group should be made, since the archaeological value of a find
may depend on a single object, apparently of small importance.
Nothing, for instance, is more common, or more distressing to the
numismatist, than the division of a hoard of coins among various
persons before they have been examined by an expert. If they must be
divided, good impressions should at least be made by one of the
methods described in Chapter II, and, if the coins are of gold or
silver, the weights should be noted. This should be done even if the
coins, to the inexperienced eye, appear to be all alike. The
knowledge that any coin from a hoard may be of greater value than a
similar coin found singly may induce finders to report such finds
before dispersing them. What applies to coins is equally applicable,
in various ways, to all classes of antiquities.
It is assumed that the primary object of the traveller is not
speculation in the pecuniary value of the antiquities that he may
acquire, although he may be not unreasonably inclined to recover some
of his expenses by disposing of objects which do not appeal to him.
Should that be so, although the authorities of public museums
obviously cannot be agents or valuers in such transactions between
the owner and private collectors, they are as obviously willing to
consider offers which are made to their museums in the first instance
and, if the objects are not required by them, to advise the owner in
what quarter he may be likely to meet with a purchaser.
CHAPTER II
METHOD
1. Outfit.
Each traveller will require to provide for his special interests; but
for any archaeological work the following things are desirable. Note-
books of squared paper. Drawing-blocks of blue-squared paper. Paper
for wet squeezes, and for dry squeezes. Brush for wet squeezes (spoke
brush). One or two so-metre tapes. A few bamboo gardening canes for
markers in planning. Divide one in inches or centimetres for
measuring buildings. A steel rod, 3 ft. x 1 inch for probing. Field-
glass, or low-power telescope. Prismatic compass with card partly
black, to see at night. Large and small celluloid protractors for
plotting angles on plans. Plotting-scale, tenths of inches and
millimetres. Maps of the district, the best available. Aneroid
barometer, if collecting flints; small size; can be tested by
observing in a tall lift, or by putting in a tumbler and pressing the
hand air-tight over the mouth. The zero error, or absolute values,
are not wanted for levelling, only delicacy in small variations.
Magnifiers, a few pocket size; will also serve for presents.
Indelible pencils, pens, and ink in strong corked pocket bottle.
Reservoir pens dry up too much in some climates. China ink for
permanent marking. Strips of adhesive paper, about a inch and a
inches wide, to put round objects for labelling. Strong steel pliers,
wire-cutting. A few pocket-knives will serve for presents. It is best
to carry money in a little bag or screw of paper, loose in the jacket
pocket, it in a risky district. It can then be dropped on any alarm
and picked up afterwards.
Photographic.[1]
In the selection of a camera much will depend upon the nature of the
work to be undertaken, the conditions of travel, and the climate to
which the camera will be exposed. For accurate work a stand camera is
always to be preferred to one of the hand variety, and care should be
taken to choose an instrument that is strongly made and of simple
construction. The essentials of a good stand camera are that it shall
be rigid, possess a rising and falling front, a swing back, and
bellows which will be capable of extension to fully double the focal
length of the lens to be used with it.
[1]Prof. Petrie is not responsible for this section, which is due to
the kind assistance of some professional photographers.-ED.
The rising and falling front gives a power of modifying the field of
view in a vertical direction. The swing back preserves the
verticality of architectural subjects. In some cases, when used with
the pivots vertical, it is a help in focussing the subject. The
possible extension of the distance between the lens stop and the
ground glass to twice the focal length (which is as a rule the
distance between the same points, when a distant object is in focus)
enables a small subject to be reproduced in natural size.
For work abroad where extremes of temperature or excessive variations
have to be contended with, a special tropical camera is supplied by
most of the leading makers. Its well-seasoned hard wood and metal-
bound joints render it suitable for hard wear, and reduce the risk of
leakage through warping or shrinkage. The tripod stand should be of
the so-called threefold variety, with sliding legs which can be
adapted to broken ground. If a loose screw is used for attaching the
camera to the stand, a spare screw should be kept in reserve. It is
important that this stand should be strongly made, and light patterns
subject to undue vibrations in the wind should be discarded. For
photographing small objects in the studio, a small table is more
convenient than a tripod support. If the camera will not sit flat on
the table, a bed can easily be designed for it. Better work will be
done if this is prepared in advance than if an improvised support is
used. As regards the size of the outfit, quarter-plate (3 1/4 x 4 1/4
inches) will usually be found to be large enough for the traveller.
For anything in the nature of studio work in a museum or in connexion
with an excavation a half-plate camera (6 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches) is more
satisfactory. Where a hand camera is preferred it should be one
capable of adjustment of focus, and here again, strength and
simplicity should be looked for. It should be provided with effective
tripod legs, for studied exposures. Plates or flat films are
preferable to roll fills [2] which are difficult to manipulate away
from home. Flat films are less bulky and less breakable than glass,
and can be sent by post. They are supplied by the makers in packs of
12 for daylight loading into a film-pack adapter, which must be
provided to take the place of the ordinary dark slides for glass
plates. The lens should be a modern anastigmatic by a good maker. A
focal length of about six inches will be best for a quarter-plate
camera. A bad lens makes success impossible even by accident.
[2] Transcriber's note: 'fills' in the original text is possibly a
misprint for 'films'.
The stops will probably be of the Iris pattern, incorporated in the
lens and so not likely to be lost, as often happens with loose stops.
A few words on the theory and use of the stops and on the F-notation
may be of service. The speed of a photographic lens depends on the
ratio of the effective aperture to the focal length. Thus any two
lenses used at apertures of F/8, that is at apertures having
diameters one-eighth of their respective focal lengths, should be of
the same speed, though both lenses and apertures may be very
different. In a given lens, the speed varies directly with the area
of the aperture admitting the light, that is with the square of the
diameter of the aperture. The series of stops usually employed is
calculated so that each aperture is half the area of the preceding.
Stated in terms of the focal length they are known as F/5.6, F/8,
F/11.3, F/16, F/22.6, F/32, &c. Since the squares of those numbers,
31.4, 64, 127.7, 256, 510.7, 1024 are approximately each twice the
preceding number of the series, the apertures, F(ocal length),
divided by the successive numbers as denominators, are each half the
area of the preceding and require twice the exposure, F/16 requires
twice the 'exposure of F/11.3, and four times that of F/8, and so
throughout the scale.
Stops are used to regulate either 'depth of focus' or length of
exposure. The 'depth of focus' means the distance before and behind
the point in theoretically accurate focus, at which objects are
sufficiently focussed, for the purpose the photographer has in view.
This length is greatest when only the central portion of the lens is
in use. It is greatest with a pinhole, and least with a full
aperture. Hence a small stop is required if the picture is to include
near and far objects, while a large aperture may be used if all the
subject is far enough away to be in clear focus--say more than 25
feet--or if it is a flat surface. The small stop is also required when
the rising front or the swing back is in use. The power of regulating
the time of exposure is convenient for shortening long exposures in
dark interiors, or for lengthening inconveniently short exposures in
a bright light.
In practice it will be best to become familiar with the use of about
three stops, say the full aperture (perhaps F/5.6 or F/8), F/16, and
F/32.
For judging long exposures, the use of an actinometer (issued in many
inexpensive forms) is helpful.
A telephoto attachment increases the photographer's power of
rendering distant details on a large scale. The results are greatly
superior to enlargements of a small plate. It is, however, useless in
a wind, unless the camera is specially supported, and is otherwise
rather tricky to use. The traveller is strongly advised to master its
management at home. It should be adjusted by the maker to the camera
for which it is intended.
Unless a photographer's dark room can be had the developing of the
bulk is best left until the return home, but tests should be made to
see that the exposures are correct. A piece of ruby fabric or ruby
paper tied over an electric light will give a safe light after dark,
and 'Scalol' or some such one-solution developer which requires
merely the addition of water, will give all that is needed for
developing. For fixing use 4 oz. hypo to a pint of water.
In warm climates, use cold water. If it is not cool enough, the
gelatine of the negatives may give trouble. In that case, get colder
water, and use an alum bath. If water is precious, plates can be
sufficiently washed by moving them forward in succession, through
half-dozen soup plates filled with water.
If habitual use is not made of tabloid developers, &c., it is
advisable to have some in reserve, for use in the case of broken
bottles and spilt solutions.
Useful notes and maxims.
An over-exposed plate gives no dark shadows in the print.
An under-exposed plate gives no high lights. When in doubt, choose
the risk of over-exposure.
To test the safety of your camera--Half draw the shutter, and expose
part of the plate in the camera, in the sunshine, without uncapping
the lens, and develop.
To test the safety of your red light--Expose a plate, divide it into
two, develop half in the dark, and half for the same time, with the
same solution by the light you are testing, and compare the results.
This test is worth making, as photographers are apt to give
themselves much discomfort from exaggerated caution.
2. Itinerary.
Where there are efficient maps the only need is to mark in the
position of any antiquities, by cross-bearings to clear points, with
the compass, drawn in with a sharp pencil. Where the maps are too
small, or deficient, a continuous register of time should be made,
noting the minute of starting and of stopping; this over known
distances will serve to give the value over the unknown. Note whether
mounted or walking, and the compass bearing of the track; also the
bearings of known points around, whenever stopping. Without any known
bearings pacing and compass used carefully may go over the roughest
ground without five per cent. error in the day.
It is better when on unknown ground to plot a map as you go, so that
no misunderstanding of notes can arise after. If a squared block
cannot be used, at least draw the bearings and distances roughly,
writing in the amounts. This should be plotted up accurately in the
evening. A photograph may be unintelligible later in its detail. It
is best where known features, a temple, tombs, &c., are in a view, to
sketch the outline when photographing, and write in the details, so
as to give a key to the photograph. Inquire about antiquities
whenever stopping. When camping, villagers usually come up to see who
it is; then tell them the directions of the places around. They will
ask how you know; show them the map, and they are puzzled; talk over
all the names a few miles round, and then anything notable in the
district may be remarked, and inquiries made. Several men together
help each other to remember, and bring out more remarks. Sometimes an
intelligent man will describe all the antiquities he knows in the
district: this should be followed closely on the map, and
difficulties resolved at once, so as to get a clear record noted.
Of course, enormous exaggerations are met with, and not one report in
ten will prove to be anything. Tracking up the source of bought
antiquities is one of the best methods, and the one by which
Naukratis was found.
If travelling by camel, it is practicable to diverge widely on foot,
if objects are looked for well ahead. A foot track diverging 4.5
degrees, and then converging likewise, will easily keep in touch with
a baggage camel. Fix on the camping-place in the morning, and let
every one know of it, so that if accidentally parted all can rejoin
by night.
3. Recording.
Buildings or ruins.
Fix position by bearings to mapped points; also note bearings of any
prominent feature near by, which may serve for finding the position
again. Sketch a plan, always north up in the book, note bearing of
main wall, and then measure with bamboo rod all original dimensions,
with some diagonals to fix angles; do not forget the thickness of the
walls. It is best for a long length to stretch a tape, pegged down by
the ring, and pulled tight by hand: read off all positions of doors,
windows, cross-walls, &c., on one long length, and not as separate
short lengths. If possible plot the measures on squared paper as you
go, and then any errors or omissions will be checked at once. 'E. and
O.E.' has no place in a plan.
Town mounds.
Estimate height over bare land outside; eye height is a trifle over
five feet. At the foot of the mound see where the horizon cuts the
shoulder of it to find eye height; walk up to that point, and sight
another five feet; so on, till you see over the top. If there is any
section, by a stream side, or digging, or land-slip, look for strata,
stone or brick walls and floor levels, and for any distinctive
potsherds; observing levels as before. Look all over the top for
potsherds, to find the latest period of the town. Look around the
mound for any early potsherds. Sherds on the slopes are worth less;
as they have probably slipped down. Red burnt brick in Egypt is all
Roman or Arab; in Greece and Asia Minor, red brick and mortar is
Roman, Byzantine, or later.
Walk to the middle of the site or mound, and see its extent. Then
walk round the wall line, or circuit of it, pacing and compass
noting, to sketch the shape and size of the site: especially look for
any straight lines of wall showing. Sometimes a mud-brick wall may be
entirely denuded away, yet the position is shown by the sharp edge of
the strew of potsherds on the surface.
Look for any slag-heaps; these are the remains of lime burning, and
show where stone buildings existed; sometimes foundations still
remain. Look for any recent pits or trenches; these show where stone
or burnt brick has been dug out in modern times, and may give the
position and plan of a temple or church.
See if any rubbish mounds can be traced outside of the town site;
usually marked by a gentle walk-up slope, and a steep thrown-down
slope, and mainly consisting of pottery, e.g. Monte Testaccio at
Rome, and mounds east of Cairo.
Town sites rise in Egypt about forty inches a century, by the dust,
rubbish, and decay of mud-brick buildings. In Palestine the rise is
five feet a century, owing to the rains.
Cemeteries.
These have generally been more or less plundered; if recently, the
pits show; if anciently, there are scraps of pottery lying about. If
there are pebbles or marl thrown up from deep levels, there is
evidence of tombs, and they may be unplundered. Blown sand or grass
may hide all trace of tombs. Sometimes the whole masonry of a tomb
may have been removed, and the gravel filling-in have spread so
uniformly that there is no sign of building, although a course or two
of stone may yet remain under the surface. The surface of ground
should be closely looked over at sunrise or sunset to show up the
slight hollows or ridges by the shadows. After rain differences will
often appear in the drying of the ground. Ask any one near a site if
he knows of any one getting stones, or bronze, or plunder from tombs.
Anything found will probably be greatly exaggerated, and no clear
idea of the time of finding can be reached; yet any such detail may
be useful.
Any large town site must have a cemetery, which is near it in most
cases. In Egypt the towns being in the inundated land, the cemeteries
are at some miles distant on the desert. The prehistoric cemeteries
may be anywhere; the historic cemeteries are usually round the ends
of the dyke roads, which were thrown up in the early dynasties as
irrigation dams, and still serve as the roads of the country. In
Greek lands cemeteries are always outside a town, usually by the side
of the roads.
Caves should always be carefully explored; the roof and sides
searched for inscriptions or carvings; rock pockets in the sides
examined; and the floor dug over for potsherds and any small objects.
If there are different strata these should be each removed
separately, and the depth and positions of objects noted.
4. Methods of Planning.
Though we cannot here give full technical details of all the methods
for plans and surveys, it will be useful to state the scope of each
method, so that they may be kept in mind, and whichever is best
suited to the individual and his work may be provided for.
1. Plain pacing.
After pacing lengths of a few hundred feet, up and down hill and
flat, tape the distances, and learn true value of pace. Careful
pacing can be done to one or two per cent. of the whole; and properly
used, in triangles, may give a useful plan.
2. Pacing and compass.
This covers large spaces quickly, but the compass is less accurate
than the pace.
3. Tape.
Lines of taping must be well planned, with triangle ties to secure
the angles. Pulling up straight is difficult in a wind, especially on
broken ground, and one per cent. error is quite possible then. When
working alone peg the tape down by the ring, or round a stone.
4. Tapes and cross lines.
Stretch two strings crossing squarely on the ground: fix the square
by laying a squared drawing block below and looking at strings over
it. Two helpers each hold a tape, zero on a string, and the two tapes
are held together by the observer and read off, giving the distance
to each string; this is to be plotted at once on squared paper, and
the plan is completed in detail as it progresses, without any note-
book or later plotting. The helpers must be capable of holding the
tape square to the string. Good for sites up to two hundred or three
hundred feet.
5. Plane table.
Excellent for some ground, where objects are visible from a distance:
otherwise it requires a marker put up at every point to be fixed.
Cumbrous to carry, much slower than 4.
6. Box sextant, used as giving angular accuracy to any of the
foregoing; most useful with taping, and in following.
7. Sextant and three points.
The most rapid accurate method is to adopt three points visible all
over the ground (as trees or chimneys) or set up three markers. Find
shape and size of this triangle. Then at any point take two angles
visible between the points, and this fixes position of observer. A
large site may have forty points fixed in two hours thus to about 1
in 1000. For detail and plotting see Petrie, _Methods and Aims in
Archaeology_.
8. Theodolite.
For the most accurate work a theodolite is used, giving points to
about 1 in 5000. It is almost essential for any astronomical meridian
or latitude.
None of these methods necessitate any helper, except 4 which needs
two helpers. The observation is from the point to be fixed in 1, 2,
3, 4, and 7; but it is _to_ the point, needing signals or visible
features on the points, in 5, 6, and 8, and for those methods a large
stock of rods must be taken, and the whole ground gone over, before
the work of observation; such methods take far more time than the
others. The able surveyor will know by instinct how to use all the
inferior methods as supplements to the higher, whenever time demands
and accuracy allows.
When first searching a site, note the direction of any wall to the
horizon point, and so see if other walls are parallel.
In all cases a plumb line is wanted for alining foundations and
scattered blocks. Always carry six feet of thin string, and pick up
the nearest suitable stone for a weight, up to three or four pounds
in a wind.
5. Drawing and Copying.
Inscriptions.
If there is any chance of being interrupted by any claimant, or by
crowds, always make a hand copy at once, as quickly as possible.
After a squeeze or photograph is taken, yet the hand copy is often of
value to explain positions of squeeze slips or detail of photographs.
If there is no chance of interruption, then a carefully drawn copy
full size should be made. For this a dry squeeze is the ground work.
Lay a sheet of thin paper, such as thin wrapping or plain paper, on
the stone, and press all the letters over with the fingers, so as to
make a sharp bend; a break in the deep hollows does not matter. Then,
putting the paper on a drawing-board or sheet of millboard, cock it
up so that the shadow of the squeeze is seen, and draw over the lines
(starting at right base), referring to the stone whenever uncertain.
This is the only right way to copy hieroglyphics by hand. Note that
the edges are usually rather worn, and the drawn lines should be
inside the squeeze lines. If the stone is large, several lesser
sheets are best.
Where there is writing, or the relief is too faint to squeeze, put
the paper immediately below the first line, and draw it sign for
sign, so that the spacing is preserved and no omission is possible.
Fold back the paper as each line is copied, and so always keep the
copying close below the line of inscription.
If the signs are in an alphabet that is not familiar, refer to the
table of alphabets.
Sculpture
Sculpture in low relief can be copied best by dry squeeze. As the
connexion of the sheets used should be exact, put up the first sheet
truly vertical, and mark little pencil crosses at the corners on the
stone. Then the corners of successive sheets should be fitted into
the angles of the crosses. When inking in the pencil drawings, do not
carry the lines within two inches of the edges of the sheets. Then
place sheets edge to edge, adjust them to fit as best they may,
weight them heavily with books, turn back one edge and weight it, and
then slip a strip of wetted adhesive paper half-way under the edge
that is down; at once liberate the edge that is up, and dab (not rub)
both heavily down on the adhesive. This makes a joint free of
cockling, and when dry the inking can be completed across the joint.
Where there is any colour remaining on sculpture or inscription, only
dry squeezing is permissible.
Where signs are worn or decayed it is needful to try various
lighting. This can be done in the open air, by shading the part by
the hands placed around it as a sort of tube, the head blocking out
the light over the tube. Then quickly raise a hand alternately, so as
to reverse the oblique lighting, and watch the effect on the sign.
If the stone has not too tender a face, careful washing often brings
out an inscription; and in such cases it is usually far easier to
copy from a wet than from a dry stone.
If reliefs have been much weathered they can be made plain for
photographing by laying horizontal and covering with sand; on wiping
away the sand from the relief the ground will be left flat sand, so
hiding the confused hollows of weathering.
The safest way for drawings to travel is to post them at the nearest
post direct to where they will be worked up. The Postal Union takes
rolls of 21 cm. thick, 60 cm. long, up to 5 kilos as parcels, or
rolls of 10 cm. thick, 75 cm. long, up to 2 kilos by book post open
at ends. This is far better than carrying rolls by hand.
Wet squeezing. Where there is no colour, and the stone is strong and
not crumbling, a wet squeeze is the best copy. There are three
purposes for it, and the method differs for each; (1) thin single
sheet kept fresh on the outer face for photographing later; or (2)
single sheet well beaten in and patched, depending on pricking the
outlines and hand-copy from it, or blacking over the relief on the
inner side and photographing; or (3) double sheet hard beaten, and
patched in the hollows, for plaster casting afterwards.
For (1) there is no need to get an impression of the hollows to the
bottom, and the face of the paper should be smooth. A soft paper,
with little or no size, and a soft clothes-brush will do well for
this. The sheet should cover the whole inscription, or have as few
joints as may be. The stone should be dabbed with a wet brush so as
to saturate the face, the sheet of paper well soaked in water laid
upon it, taking care not to leave bubbles, and then dabbing firmly
with the brush will drive the paper into the hollows. If the stone is
polished or very smooth, it is needful to peel off the paper while
wet by holding two corners, and lay it reversed on a flat surface to
dry; if left on the stone the contraction will destroy the impress.
Out of doors the paper can be held down by pebbles around it, or by
sand on the edges, to prevent the wind catching it.
(2) The stronger squeeze should be of a tough paper with moderate
sizing. Cut the paper to the form of the stone. Thrust it into a pail
of water, knead it about vigorously, roll it into a ball and pummel
it, so as to break the grain and let the water well into it. Then wet
the stone, shake out the paper like a wet handkerchief, full of
creases, lay it on the stone and begin to beat it in with a hard,
long spoke-brush. A few strokes round the edge will catch it down so
that the wind does not disturb it. Then begin to beat it heavily
along the top edge; beat it to a pulp, and patch with strips left
soaking in the water wherever breaks occur. If the stone is porous
the paper may part from it, especially if expanded by beating; the
only course then is to slush more water on the face so that it will
go through the breaks and hold the paper down again. It may be
needful to slit the paper to let the water go below it. Beat down
again, enough to fix it.
(3) For casting purposes a final backing sheet, moderately beaten on,
is needed to hold the squeeze together and stiffen it. Either (2) or
(3) can be left on the face of the stone till quite dry, and then
carefully detached by lifting up from one corner, and slipping a
dinner-knife or a slip of wood under the paper to lift any part that
sticks.
Stiff squeezes as (3) must be packed flat; thin, as (1) and sometimes
(2), may be rolled in a large curve, but this always deteriorates a
squeeze.
For plaster casting, a squeeze should be heated on a stove and
brushed over with melted paraffin, or better wax, sufficient to cover
the face without choking the finer detail. Before each cast the face
should be lightly oiled with a tuft of wool.
Small objects.
These can be copied by a thin paper squeeze, and the squeeze may be
mounted by pasting a card and lightly pressing the squeeze back down
on it. This will take out all cockling and make it lie flat for
photographing.
Tin-foil is very handy for squeezes, and may be saved from chocolate
for this. Press it firmly on a coin or seal with a tuft of wool, or
beat it with a soft tooth-brush, being careful to avoid creases. The
foil should then be floated on water, hollow back up, and blazing
sealing-wax dropped into it to back it. The resulting positive can be
then stuck on card.
For plaster casts of coins the face should be dusted with French
chalk, as also a smooth bed of plasticine; the coin can then be
pressed in safely without any possible risk, and afterward plaster
cast in the mould. Sealing-wax is said to be sharper, but there is a
risk of its sticking to the coin. If it is used, breathe hard on the
coin, or wet it, before impressing; and when first set lift it
slightly to detach it, and then replace till cold. Or tin-foil may be
used, as in making positives; but, instead of floating on water,
press plasticine on the foil while it is still on the object.
For curved surfaces, as cylinders, any of these methods can be used;
the plasticine is the more successful.
In all casting of plaster on a small scale, use a soft camel-hair
brush. Mix the plaster in the palm of the hand with a knife, take up
some of the wettest to brush over the face of the moulds (a dozen
scarabs or small coins done at once); then put he brush in water, and
take up thicker plaster with a pocket-knife to drop on as a backing.
This avoids air bubbles without using too weak a plaster.
Copying hieroglyphic inscriptions.
Where possible a wet or a dry squeeze should be taken of any
inscription. When hand copying is necessary, the main matter is to
get the cartouches of king's names accurately, and the date at the
beginning, examining specially whether single strokes, I I I I, have
been connected above, n n, forming the ten sign. The main difficulty
for any one not knowing the 800 signs is to distinguish between those
that are alike, especially when damaged. For this purpose the
commonest signs that may be confused are here placed together, so
that the essential points of difference may be noticed. A small cross
is placed here by small points of distinction which might escape
notice.
[Illustration I: SOME HIEROGLYPHIC SIGNS LIABLE TO BE CONFUSED WITH
EACH OTHER]
6. Photography.
The camera and material have been described under outfit.
Lighting and preparation of objects is a main element of success.
When first looking over any ruins, make a list of every view wanted,
with the time of day when the sun will be right for it. Then follow
the time-table, and so get the best lighting all in one day.
For movable stones or figures place them in half-shade, as a doorway,
and then tilt every way until the best lighting is found, fix them in
that position, and then set up the camera square with them.
The camera should usually be fixed to look downward vertically, and
then variation up to 40 degrees can be got by the legs. Hold the
camera in the right position, keeping the legs off the ground, and
then drop the legs to find their own place; thus very skew positions
can be fixed quickly.
Small objects are best laid on black velvet, and taken vertically.
Scraps of charcoal are useful to prop them in exact positions. A
sheet of white paper stuck on a leg of the stand may be useful to
prevent shadows being too heavy. Where outline, and not flat detail,
is wanted, then a light ground is best; the most perfect is a sheet
of ground glass with white paper a foot or two below it. If the
ground glass cannot be had, a good substitute-also useful for a
camera glass-is plain glass with a sheet of tissue paper (or the
packing paper of films) stuck on with paraffin wax.
The dressing of objects to show up clearly is often needful. Incised
objects can be filled in with charcoal powder if light, or chalk if
dark; in any case a coarse powder, so as not to stain the object. For
faint cutting on glass or crystal go over the lines with 'China ink
in a pen, so as to cover them. Harden the ink in the sun, and then
gently wipe with a damp finger until all the excess is removed and
only the roughness of the lines remains black. On large objects light
dust or sand is often useful, to make relief clearer.
For objects in a bad light, or in the interior of tombs, reflected
light must be used. Lids of biscuit tins serve well; a lid in the sun
sixty feet off, and another lid reflecting the light on to a wall,
will suffice for a two minutes' exposure of a slow plate. Three or
four successive reflections into a totally dark chamber will suffice
in five or six minutes.
When an important subject cannot be revisited it is well to take
duplicates; the camera should be shifted laterally a few inches for a
near object, or a few feet for a distant view, and then the two films
will form a stereograph, if both succeed.
In arranging groups of small objects, put together what will go in a
three-inch circle, and minor pieces around, and then the best in the
middle can be printed direct on lantern slides.
7. Preservation and Packing.
While travelling little can be done for preserving objects. Papyrus
rolls should be wrapped at once in a damp handkerchief, to be
carried, and then wrapped in paper, packed in a tin box, and filled
round with cotton wool. Small papyri can be safely damped in a wet
cloth, and flattened out between the leaves of a book; secure one
edge straight in the hinge, and gradually press flat and secure by
advancing leaves over it. Glass, if perfect, should be packed in tins
with wool; old food or tobacco tins do well for tender things.
Flint implements and coins, though hardy, should be saved from
grinding by wrapping in waste paper.
Ivory, if it has been buried, is very liable to flake. The cure is to
soak it in paraffin wax; but temporarily it is secured by winding
cotton thread round it in many directions. Some anoint it with
vaseline, but if vaseline penetrates the ivory, it will not take up
paraffin or gelatine later. Tender wood may be likewise saved.
A much-cracked glazed jar was packed by winding string round it in
all directions, with tufts of wool under the string.
A whole mummy in most fragile condition, so that it could not be
lifted, was made up solid with 40 lb. of paraffin wax which was
melted out of it afterwards in England, making hardly any change. If
contracted burials should be preserved, dust carefully, splash on
about 5 lb. of paraffin wax heated to smoking-point. When cold,
detach from soil, turn over, paraffin the lower side, and build up
weak parts with a sludge of melted paraffin and sand, nearly chilled.
About 8 to 10 lb. of wax will do the whole. The skull should be
packed separately. Pad all hollows of the body with soft rag to
spread pressure in packing. Paraffin wax is the best preservative as
it is tough, and may be used as a coat over an object for safety.
When not needed it can be cut away, or melted away, and cleaned off
completely with benzol. It should be melted in an iron saucepan, as
solder will give way if it is superheated. As it melts at about 120
degrees F., and boils at about 600 degrees F., it can be greatly
superheated, and used when smoking, so as to penetrate deeply into
wood or porous material. It is perfect for strengthening skulls; most
rotten examples slopped with paraffin, and finally soused for a few
seconds so as entirely to cover the bone in and out, will travel
safely, if not crushed.
Boxes must always have corner posts, inside or out; see that the
sides are nailed up to the edges to the posts, or the lid or bottom
may part by the side splitting. See that all nails--except for the
lid--are driven slanting alternately one way and reversed, this
prevents sides or bottom drawing off. Nail the lid with many short
nails, so that it can be raised without splitting.
To secure heavy objects in a mixed box, an inverted rough stool is
the best, the cross piece on the object below, and the sides coming
up to the lid. If cross bars are nailed in a box, damage may be done
to an object in forcing the bars loose. It is often best to put heavy
and light things in the same box, to equalize weights in journeying;
if well secured, a mixed boxful travels well. Be very careful that a
wedge-shaped stone cannot force itself loose by repeated jolts, or it
may split a box.
Slabs of stone ire best packed in open shallow boxes face down on
straw or wool, secured by a few diagonal cross bars on the top, as
then they do not need to be opened for customs. All stones of regular
form should be supported at a fifth of the length from each end. No
bedding on a box is worth anything, as the box will bend more than
the stone, and the strain will all come on the middle. Very heavy
blocks are best with sacking on the face, and roped round in various
parts.
Pottery is most difficult to pack safely. For large jars, mark the
points of contact on the box, and nail on cushions of old cloth
stuffed hard with straw, so as to pad the jar on all sides; make sure
that it cannot twist about into a diagonal position off the pads.
Long boxes, five or six feet, with three or four cross divisions, are
best. Begin packing, say four pots with straw, at one end of the box,
press up a cross board tight on them, and nail through the sides:
then another batch likewise; about one inch thick of hard-pressed
straw is needful at each contact. Twist straw into rough bands, and
wind it round each pot. Fill up corners to prevent the bands shifting
loose. Empty small tins make good stuffing for blank spaces. Old
newspapers torn to bits and rolled into balls make good packing for
pots and hold them firmly, but this method is dangerous if the
packing becomes wetted. Pots should always be packed tight. Old
sacking or cotton stuff may be tied on over the mouth of large pots,
to prevent straw slipping in, and loosening the packing.
Bronzes and coins should not be cleaned in any way, till in a settled
work place.
8. Forgeries and. Buying.
Most travellers wish to buy some things of interest, and in remote
districts they may do good service in rescuing important objects
which may be wanted in museums. Forgeries are ubiquitous, even in
most obscure places in the hands of peasants, either supplied by
dealers, or casually obtained, often in good faith. It is best to
inquire of local collectors and museums as to the kinds of forgeries
met with. The following notes are to show the novice how far he may
go safely.
Bronze figures with a thick red patina, which scales off readily
sometimes, or with thick green patina cracked, or hard green or brown
patina, are safe. Thin green patina, or bare brown or black metal is
dubious.
Papyri in roll, flexible though fragile, in known Greek or Egyptian
writing, are fairly safe. Lumps stuck together, brown and scrappy,
are made up.
Coins cannot be safely bought unless patinated, copper or silver.
Only an expert can judge of gold or 'clean silver.
Jewellery of small size, as earrings and bracelets, is generally
safe, if the age of the design is known. Modern wire is always drawn,
ancient is irregular. Look for concretions of lime in the hollows,
and for the dull face of old gold. If once cleaned there is little to
distinguish old from modern gold.
Stone vases if turned are Roman or modern. The ancient irregularities
should be studied from specimens.
Scarabs with nacreous or decomposed glaze in the hollows (as in the
deep cuts at the side) are safe; also, if there are natural cracks by
age, which would prevent modern cutting. There is a large variety of
skilful forgeries.
Stone statuettes: a skilled forger may be paid up to 100 pounds for a
figure to order. Only an expert can judge.
Never buy in the dusk or in dark rooms. When buying never have any
one at hand who calls attention to things, nor let any attendant
interfere. Seem entirely unconcerned.
Get the reputation of never advancing on offers, or bargaining; let
taking or leaving things at once be the rule. Time and delays are
money to the traveller, and it is worth much to save time in
haggling. Your donkey-boy will soon spread your character.
When offering for single things to a peasant, put the money by the
side of the antiquity, and say that he must take one or the other:
fingering the cash is irresistible, and no time is lost.
If it is likely that the source of an object will not be truly
stated, the way is to make the best guess you can, and say it
dogmatically: the pleasure of setting you right will often bring out
the truth, or if you guessed right it will gain you credit and break
down reserve.
As a principle it is well to be looked on as a liberal buyer, so as
to encourage the offer of antiquities. A little more thus spent will
be a trifling extra on the whole journey, and may largely increase
the results in objects and information for future work.
Though prices can only be learned by practice, and they vary in time
and place, yet the following scale may be taken as fairly safe.
Bronze figures if good work, inches high squared = shillings: except
in bad state, or Osiris, or bad clumsy work, or votive animals.
Papyri or parchment, continuous text, 1 pound a square foot,
accounts, half or a third.
Jewellery, between weight in coin and double that, according to work.
Scarabs, common but fair 2s., names 2s.-5s.; up to 5 pounds or 10
pounds if beautiful. Engraved gems, small common Roman, 2s.-4s. in
London, more in East; for a fair Greek 1 pound-10 pounds.
Coins often higher in the East than in London. In Greek lands copper
coins may be bought by weight, and picked over at leisure, and the
worthless coins rejected. For single coins fix a price, say half a
franc, and offers of large numbers may come in, from which the best
can be chosen and the rest refused.
Glass vases, blown, inches high squared at 4d. or 6d. each. Coloured
glass double or triple.
Ushabtis, poor 1s.-4s., fair 5s.-10s., fine blue or engraved 1 pound-
10 pounds.
LIST OF THE CHIEF BRITISH INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIETIES CONCERNED WITH
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST.
LONDON.
BRITISH MUSEUM, Bloomsbury, W.C.1.
Director, Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B., P.B.A.
Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, Sir Ernest Wallis Budge,
Litt.D.
Keeper of British and Mediaeval Antiquities (including Prehistoric
Antiquities, Ethnology, and Oriental Antiquities) Sir Hercules Read,
F.B.A., P.S.A.
Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, A. H. Smith M.A.
Keeper of Coins, G. F. Hill, F.B.A.
Keeper of MSS., J. P. Gilson, M.A.
Keeper of Oriental MSS. and Printed Books. L. D. Barnett, Litt.D.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, S. Kensington, S.W.7.
Director, Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith, C.V.O.
Assistant Keeper of Architecture and Sculpture, E. R. D. Maclagan.
Assistant Keeper of Ceramics, C. H. Wylde.
Keeper of Metalwork, W. W. Watts.
Keeper of Textiles, A. F. Kendrick.
Keeper of Woodwork, E. F. Strange, C.B.E.
BRITISH ACADEMY, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W.1.
Secretary, Sir I. Gollancz, Litt.D.
BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS, 19 Bloomsbury Square, W.C.1,
Secretary, John Penoyre, C.B.E.
BRITISH SCHOOL IN JERUSALEM, c/o. Palestine Exploration Fund,
2 Hinde St., Manchester Square, W. 1. Secretary, Miss R. Woodley.
BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME, 19 Bloomsbury Square, W.C.1.
Secretary of the Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters,
E. J. Forsdyke.
PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND, 2 Hinde St., Manchester Square, W.1
Secretary, E. W. G. Masterman, M.D.
EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY, 13 Tavistock Square, W.C.1.
Secretary, Miss Jonas.
EGYPTIAN RESEARCH ACCOUNT AND BRITISH SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN EGYPT.
Hon. Director, Prof. W. M. F. Petrie, F.R.S., F.B.A., University
College, Gower St., W.C.1.
SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON, Burlington House, W.1.
Secretary, C. R. Peers, F.S.A.
ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 74 Grosvenor St., W. 1.
Secretary, Miss Eleanor Hull.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HELLENIC STUDIES, 19 Bloomsbury Square,
W.C.1. Secretary and Librarian, John Penoyre, C.B.E.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, 9 Conduit St., W.1.
Secretary, Ian MacAlister.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF ROMAN STUDIES, 19 Bloomsbury Square,
W.C.1. Secretary, Miss Margaret Ramsay.
ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 50 Gt. Russell St., W.C.1.
Secretaries, H. S. Harrison, T. A. Joyce, O.B.E.
ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY, 22 Russell Square, W.C.1.
Secretaries, J. Allan, Lt. Col. W. Morrieson.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, Lowther Lodge, Kensington Gore, S. W. 7.
Secretary, A. R. Hinks, F.R.S.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOINT COMMITTEE. Hon. Secretary, G. F. Hill, British
Museum, W.C.1.
CAMBRIDGE.
MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. Curator, Baron A. von Hugel.
FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM. Director, S. C. Cockerell, M.A.
OXFORD.
ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM. Keeper, D. G. Hogarth, C.M.G., F.B.A.
ATHENS.
BRITISH SCHOOL. Director, A. J. B. Wace.
JERUSALEM.
BRITISH SCHOOL. Director, Prof. J. Garstang.
ROME.
BRITISH SCHOOL, Valle Giulia. Director, Thomas Ashby, D.Litt.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOINT COMMITTEE
Society or other Body. Representatives.
British Academy Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B.
(Chairman of Committee).
Prof. Percy Gardner.
Sir W. M. Ramsay.
Royal Anthropological Institute Sir Everard Im Thurn.
Prof. Arthur Keith.
Society of Antiquaries Sir Arthur Evans.
Sir Hercules Read.
Royal Institute of British Architects Prof. W. R. Lethaby.
Prof. A. G. Dickie.
Royal Asiatic Society F. Legge.
R. Sewell.
British School at Athens J. P. Droop.
Byzantine Research Fund Sir Hercules Read.
Egypt Exploration Society Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B.
Dr. Alan Gardiner.
Egyptian Research Account Prof. Flinders Petrie.
Prof. Ernest Gardner.
Society for the Promotion A. H. Smith.
of Hellenic Studies G. F. Hill (Hon. Sec. of
Committee).
British School at Jerusalem Prof. Flinders Petrie.
D. G. Hogarth, C.M.G.
Royal Numismatic Society Prof. C. Oman, M.P.
G. F. Hill.
Palestine Exploration Fund Dr. G. Buchanan Gray.
Prof. A. G. Dickie
Society for the Promotion of Miss Gertrude Bell.
Roman Studies O. M. Dalton.
--------------------------------------------
British Museum Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B.
Victoria and Albert Museum Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith,
C.V.O.
PART II
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The aim of the special sections contained in Chapters III-VIII is to
describe, not the objects usually to be seen in Museums, but only
such things as will be found lying out on mounds and sites, and as
are more or less distinctive of a period. Thus certain comparatively
trivial objects are named, because they are peculiar to a period, and
likely to be found in a casual passage over a site, whereas other
objects, common to several periods, are ignored. Only the
distinctive, key objects are mentioned. The great features of Greek
Art, for instance, are not dealt with in Chapter II; nor are coins,
the probabilities of finding them being too slender, and the
possibilities too wide. Nevertheless, coins when found should be
carefully quoted. Pottery naturally takes the largest place, as it
was abundant, and its fragments are a good guide to period, and being
practically indestructible and of no intrinsic value are most likely
to be met with. The difference between pottery made with the use of
the wheel and that made without is important to be noted. The use of
the wheel can usually be detected through the slight inequalities of
the clay that make a series of parallel lines on the inner surface.
The diagrammatic representations of the pot-forms characteristic of
various periods or of other objects ranging through a civilization
the main features of which can be shown in outline will, it is hoped,
be found useful. Simplified tables of alphabets, intended to make it
possible roughly to identify the script, if not the date, of an
inscription, are also given.
CHAPTER I
FLINT IMPLEMENTS
See Diagrams, [Illustrations II: Flint Implements]
As the development of Flint Implements follows more or less the same
course in all the districts with which this volume deals, a general
description is given here, to avoid repetition in the special
sections.
The earlier periods of man are so remote that geological changes,
wet, and decay, have removed nearly all his works except the flint
tools. It is to these chiefly that we must look for our knowledge of
his abilities. Flints are nearly all that we have for the early
stages, to supply what arts, history, and literature give in later
stages. To preserve and educe all we possibly can obtain from their
situation, and purpose, is a main duty to history. To destroy or
confuse the evidence, by removing specimens without a record, or by
shifting them to a different place, is a crime in science. As there
is no temptation to ignorant peasants to move flints until they are
induced by collectors, so the whole fault of the wreckage that has
taken place in many sites lies on the plundering collector. No money
or reward should be given for any flints; a few fine specimens may be
lost, but vastly more harm would be done by encouraging mere raiding.
The periods and styles that are now recognized are shown on the
diagram--and their conditions were:
Style Climate Sea level
Eolithic (Pliocene) ?
Rostrocarinate (Crag) ?
Strepyan warmer lower
Chellean warm low
Acheulian cooler rising
Mousterian cold high
Aurignacian less cold lower
Solutrean warmer low
Magdalenian colder rising
Neolithic as present
Differences of heat may be 20 degrees or 30 degrees + or -
Differences of level may be 600-800 ft. + or -
The information required of all observers is the level and conditions
of all flint tools that they may see or collect.
Gravels
containing tools may be surface gravels on a plateau; note then the
level, and the relation of them to any cliffs; do they end abruptly
at a cliff edge, showing that the valley was filled up; or do they
fade away to the edge, showing that they are older than the valley
erosion? Gravels may be the filling up of a valley which was
previously eroded; note the highest level at which they can be
traced; often little pockets of deposit, or traces of sandy strata,
can be found clinging high up on cliffs; also note the depths in the
gravel at which any tools are found. Any shells or bones in the
gravels are of the greatest value; the depth at which they are found
should be written on them at once, with the locality.
Surface flints
should have levels noted on them. If sharp they show that probably
submergence has not reached that level since; if worn, then water has
been up to a higher level, from which they have been washed down.
Levelling
may be read from a contour map, if there is such available. In most
countries it must be done by reading feet on an aneroid barometer,
set with zero of level scale to 30 ins. or 760 mm. Then visit as soon
as possible some point where a level is marked on the map, as a hill
top, and read the barometer. This will give the correction to be made
to all the previous notes. If there is no level recorded, get down to
a stream bed (the larger the better) and read it there, recording the
exact place on the map. The level may then be worked out
approximately by points above and below on the stream, for accurate
reading, hold the aneroid face up, gently tap it, and read; then face
down similarly, and take the mean. Guard that the wind does not blow
against any keyhole in the case.
Pencil all levels and localities on flints as soon as found. Ink in
the notes on the least prominent parts of the flint, in small capital
letters, when in camp, with waterproof China ink.
Styles of flint work.
The Eoliths are worn pebbles, chipped as if for scraping. The Rostro-
carinate flints found at the base of the Crag are long bars with a
beak-end, suited for breaking up earth. The human origin of both of
these classes is contested. Flints of Strepy type are nodular and
partly trimmed into cutting edges, the smooth surface being left as a
handle. The Chelles types are remarkable for regularity and fine bold
flaking; the worn butt (though best for handling) was eventually
flaked away to obtain an artistic uniform finish. The St. Acheul
series has finer flaking, the crust being completely removed: there
is a tendency to ovate or almond shapes, and the edges are often
curved, the reverse S-curve being preferred, They diminish in size
towards the end of the period. The Chelles and St. Acheul series are
core implements, made by detaching flakes; and the succeeding (Le
Moustier) method is to use the flakes, generally for scraping. The
LA, EM the diagram is transitional from St. Acheul to Le Moustier.
The form marked M is the predecessor of the Solutrean form next below
it. The Aurignacian is a smaller flake industry, with many lumps more
or less conical, and often with careful parallel flaking or fluting.
The Solutre culture brought in a new style, particularly thin blades
with delicate surface flaking which seems to have reappeared in the
late Neolithic. The pointed borers, certain arrow-heads and minutely
chipped rods of flint are characteristic of the period, and flints of
this age are found on the Egyptian and Syrian deserts. Longer blades,
sometimes very coarse, with ends worn by scraping, mark the period of
La Madeleine. They are found in prehistoric Egyptian graves, along
with Neolithic knives and lances. As a technical advance on flaking
by blows or pressure, grinding and incidental polishing of flint
implements are regarded as characteristic of the Neolithic period;
and the practice may have started in areas devoid of flint, where it
was necessary to utilize local material that could not be flaked like
flint. In Europe generally, polished celts belong to the Megalithic
or latest division of the Neolithic, but this implement appeared much
earlier, and in a sense succeeded the Palaeolithic hand-axe. The
latter is not known to have been hafted, and its working edges were
at the pointed end; whereas in Neolithic times the implement had
become an axe in the modern sense, with the pointed end inserted in a
haft, and the cutting edge removed to the broader end. There are many
other Neolithic types, used with or without a haft, and only a small
proportion were finished by grinding on sandstone.
CHAPTER II
GREECE
[See the diagrams of flint implements, [Illustration II] of pottery,
[Illustration III]; and of alphabets, [Illustration IV]]
The Periods into which the subject must be divided are roughly as
follows:
I. Prehistoric down to about 1000 B.C.
II. Prehistoric Greek down to about 700 B.C.
III. Archaic Greek 700-500 B.C.
IV. Classical Greek 500-300 B.C.
V. Hellenistic after 300.
VI. Roman.
VII. Byzantine.
I. PREHISTORIC
A. NORTH GREECE.
NEOLITHIC.--Neolithic settlements on low mounds (_maghoules_) rising
from the plains.
Stone implements.
Axes, hammers, chisels, querns, &c. Flint chips, bone needles,
obsidian.
Pottery.
Hand-made burnished, yellow, brown, black or red. Handles rare. Holes
in rim, or lugs pierced for suspension, Earliest remains show painted
sherds. Long period of unpainted ware followed. Patterns irregular,
rectangular and curved. No naturalism. (Figs. 1 and 2.)
Ware differs slightly with locality. In Thessaly fine red ware
undecorated contemporary with red decoration on white. Chocolate
paint on deep buff follows. Incised ware, geometric patterns white
rubbed in.
Figurines.
Rude clay. Steatopygous.
This civilization extended from northern edge of Thessaly as far
south as Chaeronea. Use of bronze before end uncertain. Civilization
undisturbed by Aegean culture that spread over southern Greece until
just before both were swept away by iron-using people.
B. CRETE, AEGEAN, SOUTH GREECE.
CRETE.
NEOLITHIC.
Black or red burnished pottery.
BRONZE AGE.
Early Minoan.
Painted pottery, dark paint on light ground, geometric designs.
Unpainted, surface mottled red and black.
Middle Minoan.
circa. 3000 B.C.--White designs geometric on dark ground. Orange
and crimson added. Pottery very thin and fine (Kamares ware).
Patterns very various but not naturalistic except in rare instances.
(Figs. 3 and 4; hatched lines=red.)
Late Minoan.
circa. 1500 B.C.--Return to use of light ground. Brown lustrous
paint, fine surface to clay. Decoration naturalistic, flowers,
cuttle-fish, shells, spirals, ripple patterns, white and orange dots
and bands occasionally super-imposed on dark glaze (Figs. 7, 10, and
12).
White and orange disappear. Decoration stiffer and more conventional.
AEGEAN.
NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.
BRONZE AGE.
Contemporary with Early Minoan.
Pottery with geometric patterns normally dark on light buff or
reddish coarse clay. Sometimes red or white on black burnished clay.
Marble figurines 'fiddle-shaped' from Naxos and Paros (III, Fig. 6).
Contemporary with Middle Minoan.
Pottery with very pale sometimes greenish clay, and grey black
totally unlustrous paint. Patterns mainly geometric. Rather sparse
decoration. Later, with addition of red, decoration becomes fully
naturalistic. Lilies and birds in red and black (Melos) (III, Figs. 5 and
9; hatched lines=red). Beaked jugs (III, Fig. 5) most characteristic shape
of this period.
Cretan influence strong in Middle Minoan completely drowned local
efforts in first Late Minoan days. Thenceforward local ware
imitative.
SOUTH GREECE.
NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.
BRONZE AGE.
Geometric Ware with matt paint and pale clay corresponding to that of
islands found in Argolid and Boeotia.
'Urfirnis' Ware. Hand-made. Whole vase covered with thin semi-
lustrous wash varying from red-brown to black. Sometimes mere smears.
Mainly found in Boeotia, but extends north to valley of Spercheius
and south to Argolid. Date uncertain, but in Boeotia evidence that it
ended before rise of 'Minyan' ware.
'Minyan Ware.' Grey unpainted pottery, polished. No decoration except
(rarely) incised lines. Usually wheel-made. Characteristic shapes:
Goblet with tall ringed stem (III, Fig. 15); wide open cup with high
handles.
Appears to range Between Middle Minoan II and Late Minoan III.
Most frequent in Boeotia to which it owes its name. Found as far
north as Thessaly and as far south as Crete. Local imitations,
obvious but distinct, found with imported specimens (Melos).
Provenance unknown; connexion with Troy suspected.
'Mycenaean.' The Cretan civilization swept over South Greece in the
first Late Minoan period. Characterized by exuberance both in shape
and ornament (III, Figs. 11, 12, 13, 16, 17). Bulk of what is likely to be
found is of latest period when style has become conventionalized.
Compare Fig. 11 (Mycenaean) with III, Fig. 7 Late Minoan I. Characteristic
shapes high goblet and 'stirrup' vase (III, Figs. 17 and 16).
Female clay figurines common (III, Fig. 14), also animals, oxen.
Objects Characteristic of Aegean Civilization.
Seal Stones.
Round or bean-shaped, pierced for suspension, usually soft stone,
e.g. slate or steatite. Sometimes hard, as hematite or rock crystal.
Carved with naturalistic designs: lions, (III, Fig. 8), stags, bulls, cows
or hinds suckling their young, cuttle-fish, dolphins, &c. Two animals
ranged like heraldic supporters characteristic.
Obsidian.
Natural glass, volcanic, black. Source Melos. Used for knives
throughout Bronze Age.
Chips of Knife or razor blades, and sometimes the cores from which
these were flaked, may be picked up on any Bronze Age site, and even
on Thessalian neolithic settlements. Glistening black unmistakable.
Terra-cotta lamps.
The characteristic lamp of the Aegean civilization is open, as
opposed to the Greek and Roman lamp where the body is partly covered
in.
Walls.
Cyclopean walls of huge irregular stones. Also good square-cut
masonry.
'Corbelling' system for arches, each layer of stones projecting
inwards over the one below. Also used for the vaults of 'Beehive'
Tombs towards end of period.
[Illustration III: TYPES OF GREEK POTTERY, ETC.]
II. PREHISTORIC GREEK
Geometric or Dipylon Period.
Pottery.
Iron Age. circ. 1000 B.C.--Absolute break in continuity from what
preceded. No naturalism. Prevalence of geometric patterns (III, Figs. 18
and 19). Not much variety. Meanders, lozenges, and zigzags. Circles
joined by tangents replace Mycenaean spirals. Ornament crowded. Rows
or single specimens of long-legged water birds. Human figures rare,
rude angular silhouettes.
Local characteristics discernible (e.g. between ware of Thessaly,
Attica, Boeotia, Delphi, Argolid, Laconia, Thera, and Crete), but
strong family resemblance. (Lower specimen III, Fig. 19 characteristic of
Boeotia.) Dark paint on natural clay (sometimes lightened by a white
slip, e. g. Laconia) differs distinctly from Mycenaean. Shapes fewer
and curves less flowing. Amphorae, plates, bowls, and jugs. Trefoil
lip to jug first appears.
Terra-cotta loom weights from now onwards often pyramidal in form and
glazed.
Bronzes.
Figurines. Three types:--
Human, rare (as on vases).
Quadrupeds, mainly horses. Cylindrical muzzle and narrow
cylindrical belly (III, Fig. 23).
Birds. Long neck and legs, flat bill and body. Stands to above,
flat, square or round, with open-work snake or spiral.
Pins (to fasten dress at shoulder). Long head with small bosses
like strung beads sometimes separated by discs (III, Fig 21). Sometimes
larger flat disc at end of head (often missing) Pin itself usually
iron, rarely extant.
Brooches.
1. Spiral type. Of wire coiled into spirals. Made of one, two, or
three wires crossing with two, four, or six spirals respectively.
Boss at centre. Spectacle type (two spirals) common. In 'spectacle'
type (sometimes very large) spiral purely utilitarian, giving spring
to the pin. With four or more spirals the additions are ornament,
noteworthy in view of absence of spirals on pottery.
2. Bow type.
(a) High arched bow solid.
(b) Arched bow hollowed like boat inverted. This type often has
flat plate attached to one end, lower edge of which is bent to form
catch. Plate incised, crossed leaves, ships, horses, or men.
(c) Arched bow consisting of crescent-shaped plate, similar
incised decoration.
Paste Beads.
A type pyramidal, dark with yellow spirals round corners, much
resembling 'bull's eye' sweets, was common in Laconia (III, Fig.27).
Terra-cotta Figurines.
Series of rude horses sometimes with riders characteristic of end of
period. Chiefly from Boeotia. Painted like pottery, but chiefly in
lines.
III. ARCHAIC GREEK
A. Orientalising.
Pottery.
700 B.C.--Influence from Asia Minor. Recrudescence there of spirit of
Mycenaean art? Lions, stags, sphinxes, sirens, either in procession
or arranged in pairs like heraldic supporters.
Stylized plant motifs in decoration. Rays (or flower petals) rising
from foot most characteristic (III, Figs. 24, 26, and 28).
Use of purple paint to supplement black both for details of figures
and for band decoration.
Geometric ornament (though perhaps with a difference) survives to
fill blank spaces on backgrounds of scenes.
Varieties of style. Beasts drawn in silhouette, heads outlined, eyes,
&c., drawn in, early, and mainly in the islands (III, Fig. 29). Later
whole figures in silhouette with details incised, particularly
identified with Corinthian and Boeotian and Laconian styles (III, Fig.
26). Styles most likely to be found on the mainland are 'Proto-
Corinthian' and 'Corinthian'.
'Proto-Corinthian' (also called Argive Linear). Small vases, very
fine pale clay. Decoration chiefly horizontal lines very fine. Rays
from feet. Sometimes silhouette animals round shoulder.
Characteristic shapes: pear-shaped aryballoi, and lekythi with
conical body, long neck, and trefoil lip (III, Figs. 24 and 25).
'Corinthian'. Clay pale buff to warm biscuit colour. Rays round foot.
Purple bands. Rows of usual animals. Incisions. Details in purple.
Ground ornaments, incised rosettes more or less carefully drawn.
These in great profusion leaving very little bare space. (III, Fig. 26;
hatched lines=purple.) Throughout this period desire for a light
ground was felt, and where the natural colour of the clay did not
give sufficient contrast it was covered with a strip of cream-or
white clay (e.g. Rhodian, Naucratite, Laconian; see III, Fig. 28, Early
Laconian Vase).
Terra-cotta Figurines.
Series that culminates with Tanagra figures of fourth century begins.
May be said always to be a step in advance of contemporary sculpture
if any.
Statuettes rare at this date, but relief heads on flat plaques or on
vase handles common. Treatment of hair usually resembles Restoration
wig (III, Fig. 20). Rosette frequent on shoulders represents head of
bronze (rarely silver or gold) shoulder pin.
Bronzes.
Pins (to fasten dress at shoulder). Three large bosses increasing
in size as they near head replace many small equal bosses of
preceding period. Disc heavier (III, Fig. 22).
Brooches. Spiral type has disappeared. Couchant lion type with
snake tail has been found at Olympia and Sparta. In general brooches
cease to be common.
Plaques (doubtless affixed to wood). Relief patterns of guilloches
or rows of bosses. Figure scenes similar to those on pottery.
Characteristic of seventh century. Chance of picking up slight.
Inscriptions. Earliest extant examples of use of Greek script on
stone may date from this period. For developments, see tables of
alphabets, Illustration IV.
[Illustration IV: GREEK ALPHABETS]
B. Black Figured Period.
600 B.C.--Predominance of Attic pottery. Decay of local styles.
Introduction of red colouring into clay and of superlative Attic
black glaze.
Figure scenes (battle scenes and scenes from mythology) largely
predominate. Black silhouettes, details marked with fine incisions,
additions of purple and white (latter for linen and flesh of women).
Elaborate palmettos characteristic (III, Fig. 31).
IV. CLASSICAL GREEK
Red Figured Period.
525 B.C. Same clay and glaze, but whole vase covered with glaze and
figures reserved showing in colour of clay, details being added with
fine-drawn lines of glaze.
White Attic Vases. The older style of figures drawn in outline on a
light ground (e. g. Naucratite and Rhodian ware), the space within
outlines being filled more or less with wash of colour, survived in
Athens side by side with the more usual black glazed ware, and in the
fifth century was particularly affected for the class of funerary
lekythi, vases made for offering at a tomb (III, Fig. 30). Outlines at
first drawn in black, then golden brown, lastly a dull red.
Miscellaneous.
Walls. Sixth century. Characteristic type of polygonal wall, each
irregular stone very carefully fitted to its neighbours.
Fortifications usually built with square towers and bastions
projecting from the curtain.
Round watch towers here and there to be met with.
Bricks. Baked bricks rarely used till Roman days. Bricks stamped by
King Nabis (early second century) have been found at Sparta.
Terra-cotta roof tiles (sometimes with stamped inscriptions)
largely used.
Laconian Pottery Characteristics. Fragments of black glazed Attic
ware are the class of remains easiest to pick up on any Greek
inhabited site, except perhaps in Laconia, where perhaps for
political reasons the local style was never ousted and pursued its
natural process of decay until Hellenistic times. Use of white slip
over pink clay complete at end of seventh century, then partial;
abandoned by beginning of fifth century. Characteristic patterns,
squares, and dots (III, Fig. 28) seventh century; lotus and pomegranates
sixth century and fifth century.
500 B.C.--After the end of the fifth century, manufacture of vases at
Athens decayed. Supply chiefly from South Italy. Growing use of
additional white (rare in Attic red figure vases), sometimes addition
of detail in yellowish brown, and a general coarseness of execution,
mark the change.
Terra-cotta figurines (figures of everyday life, mostly female; head-
quarters Tanagra in Boeotia) prevalent.
V. HELLENISTIC
300 B.C. Side by side with decay of red-figure style appear two
classes of vase that became very prevalent.
(1) White designs, often floral, on totally black ground of inferior
dull glaze.
(2) Black ware decorated not by paint but by moulded figures and
patterns.
Also the handles of unpainted jars with stamped impressions (buff
clay) not uncommon. Provenance mainly Rhodes.
VI. ROMAN
Hellenistic ware (2) is forerunner of Samian or Aretine red pottery
with moulded designs. Very widespread in Greece in Imperial days.
VII. BYZANTINE AGE
Remains as far as the scope of this section is concerned are few.
Fragments of pottery may be found at Sparta. These bear strong
resemblance to the contemporary wares found in Egypt belonging to the
early Mohammedan period.
Transparent lustrous glaze. Ground usually pale yellow or cream,
sometimes pale green. Designs childish in character. Lions, birds,
human figures painted in brown under the glaze or incised through.
CHAPTER III
ASIA MINOR
[See the diagrams of pottery, Illustration V: ASIA MINOR POTTERY]
1. Introductory.
Travellers are more likely to make new discoveries elsewhere than on
the actual sites of ancient towns and villages. In many cases the
site is found to be entirely bare of all remains except sometimes
small fragments of pottery. In general, inscribed and other stones
have been carried away to serve as building material for mosques,
houses, fountains, bridges, &c., or as headstones for graves in
cemeteries or for other utilitarian purposes. It is, therefore, in
and near modern villages and towns that inscriptions are chiefly to
be found, as well as smaller antiquities, such as clay tablets, pots
or fragments of them, terra-cotta figures, coins, and so forth. The
smaller articles may sometimes be found in the bazaars, but they are
usually in the hands of individuals.
It should not be assumed that inscriptions which are exposed to
public view have all been copied; moreover, new stones are constantly
being turned up, especially where building is going on and where
there are old sites or cemeteries close at hand. Great numbers of
inscribed stones are hidden away in private dwellings, where they are
difficult of discovery and of access. Travellers should take
advantage of opportunities that may offer of examining antiquities in
private houses, and of visiting sites or monuments about which
information may be received, particularly if they are a little off
the beaten track. Reward will often come in the shape of valuable
discoveries, of which many remain to be made. Cilicia in particular
has been imperfectly explored, and interesting monuments and
inscriptions, particularly Hittite, may be found there.
2. Pottery Fabrics.
It is not yet possible to describe fully or accurately the succession
of styles, or even to assign all known fabrics to their proper
periods. For this reason, even the most fragmentary specimens are of
interest, provided only that:
(1) the outer surface is fairly well preserved,
(2) the place of discovery is known.
All fragments showing a rim or spout, handles or part of a base,
should be preserved until they can be compared with a more perfect
specimen.
The following fabrics, however, are widely distributed, and usually
seem to have flourished in the order in which they are here
described:
A.
Hand-made wares, rough within, but smooth or burnished surface, self-
coloured (drab or brown), or intentionally coloured black (by charred
matter in the clay, or by a smoky fire), or red (by a clear fire,
sometimes aided by a wash or 'slip' of more ferruginous clay).
Sometimes a black ware is 'overfired' to an ashy grey.
In such wares ornament is rare, and consists mainly of (a) incised
dots, dashes, or lines, in simple rectilinear patterns (chevrons,
zigzags, lozenges), often enhanced by a white chalky filling (V, Figs 5-
8); (b) ridges or bosses modelled in the clay surface, or adhering to
it. The forms are plump and globular, often round-bottomed or
standing on short feet. Rims are absent or ill-developed; necks
actually prolonged into trough-spouts or long beaks; handles are very
simple and short. Vases are sometimes modelled like animals, or have
human faces or breasts (V, Figs. 1-4).
These wares begin in the Stone Age, and seem to predominate in the
early and middle Bronze Age. Locally they may have lasted even later,
but the use of the potter's wheel spread rapidly in the early Bronze
Age.
B.
Hand-made wares of light-coloured clay, with painted decoration,
usually in black or reddish-brown. The paint is generally without
glaze, but sometimes is decayed and easily washes off.
The forms and ornaments resemble those of class A, but are less rude
and more varied. Distinct rims and standing-bases appear, and spouts
give place to a pinched lip.
C.
Hand-made wares of black or other dark clay, with painted decoration
in white or ochre. These fabrics are rather rare, and the paint is
easily washed off. The forms follow those of class B.
Classes B and C seem to begin early in the Bronze Age, and are
gradually replaced by the corresponding wheel-made fabrics of class
D.
D.
Wheel-made pottery begins in the Bronze Age, and is distinguished by
its symmetrical forms, and by the texture of the inner surface,
especially about the rim and base, where the potter's fingers have
grazed the whirling clay. Self-coloured wares still occur, and are
sometimes elegant ('bucchero' ware); but the improved furnaces now
permit general use of light-coloured clays, suited to painted
decoration. Glazed paint is still rare, and may be taken as probable
token of date not earlier than the end of the Bronze Age. The glaze-
painted wares of the Greek island-world occasionally wandered to the
mainland a little earlier than this, but not far from the coast. On
wheel-made pottery the ornament is either (a) applied while the pot
is on the wheel, and consequently limited to lines and bands
following the plane of rotation, or (b) added afterwards, free-hand,
usually between such bands, and especially on the neck and shoulder.
Simple rectilinear schemes are commonest (panels, lozenges, and
triangles, enriched with lattice and chequers) (V, Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12);
with these in the Early Iron Age appear little targets of concentric
circles drawn mechanically with compasses (V, Figs. 13-15); also, by
degrees, birds (V, Fig. 16), animals, and simple plant designs
(rosettes, lotus, palmette), and occasionally human figures. But as a
rule, the mainland pottery is very simply decorated, and insular
imports are rare, except within the area within Greek colonization.
In the Later Iron Age or Historic Period, from the seventh century
onward, the pot-fabrics of Asia Minor rapidly assimilate two main
classes of foreign fashions, Greek and Oriental.
E.
The Oriental types (mainly from Syria) are all plump and heavy
looking, usually in coarse buff or cream-coloured ware, almost
without paint. The Greek forms are more graceful, varied, and
specialized; light-coloured clays predominate, with simple bands of
black ill-glazed paint, absorbed by the inferior clays.
After Alexander's time the Greek and the Oriental forms became
confused; the general level of style and execution falls, painted
decoration almost disappears, and the outer surface is often ribbed
by uneven pressure of the fingers on the whirling clay. This fashion
is a sign of late Hellenistic or Graeco-Roman date.
F.
Meanwhile, the black-glazed Greek (mainly Athenian) wares spread
widely for table use, and were imitated locally from the fourth
century onwards. The clay is pale or reddish (genuine Greek fabrics
are usually quite red within) and the glaze thick, black, and of a
brilliant glassy smoothness. Imitations are of all degrees of
inferiority.
G.
Other late fabrics have smooth ill-glazed surfaces, of various red,
brown, or chocolate tints, over hard-baked dull-fractured paste not
unlike modern earthenware, but usually dark-coloured. These wares
begin in the Hellenistic period, and go on into the Roman and early
Byzantine Ages. They have sometimes a little ornament in a hard white
or cream 'slip' which stands up above the surface of the vase. These
fabrics are all for table use, or for tomb-furniture, and are usually
of small size.
H.
Pottery with vitreous glaze like modern earthenware only appears on
Byzantine and Turkish sites. There a few late Greek and Roman fabrics
of glazed ware, mostly of dark brown and olive-green tints; but they
are rare, and usually found in tombs. The earlier glazes are applied
directly to the clay; later a white or coloured slip is applied
first, and a clear siliceous glaze over this.
3. Inscriptions and Monuments.
A. Hittite Civilization. (See figures, Illustration VI: Hittite
Inscriptions, etc.)
(1) From 2000 B.C. onwards baked clay tablets with cuneiform (or
wedge-shaped) writing (Illustration VI, Fig. 1) to be found anywhere
in Eastern Asia Minor, within the Halys bend and south of it, in
Southern Cappadocia, in Cilicia, and in North Syria up to the
Euphrates.
(2) 1000-700 B.C. probably: inscriptions generally cut on stone, dark
and hard (black basalt), or on the living rock, in hieroglyphic
writing. The hieroglyphs are either cut in relief (VI, Fig. 4) or
incised (VI, Fig. 2). Found in the same region and sporadically west
of the Halys.
(3) From 1400 B.C. and 900 B.C. onwards monuments and sculpture.
Human figures are short and thick, generally wearing boots with toes
turned up (VI, Fig. 3.) Found in the same regions as the inscriptions
and also west of the Halys to the sea.
B. Lydian inscriptions.
From about 500 B.C. Letters mostly like Greek capitals (sometimes
reversed); (Illustration IV, at bottom).
C. Lycian inscriptions and monuments.
From about 500 B.C. inscriptions, sometimes with a Greek translation.
(IV, at bottom.)
Monuments, mostly with inscriptions, are generally tombs in stone,
built to imitate wood, with the ends of beams projecting or showing.
D. Greek antiquities.
(1) Early period to 323 B.C. the great Greek colonies on the seaboard
and in the coast valleys really formed an outlying part of Greece,
and for them the section on Greece should be consulted.
(2) Periods of Seleucid and Pergamene rule, 323-130 B.C.
Inscriptions of these periods to be found mostly in the coastal
region, rarely on the plateau. Chiefly royal ordinances, thank
offerings, municipal honorary inscriptions, decrees, covenants, and
the like.
(3) Graeco-Roman period, 130 B.C.-A.D. 400.
Language of inscriptions remains normally Greek, though the lettering
gradually assumes a different character from century to century,
steadily deteriorating. The Phrygian language, written in Greek
letters, survives for several centuries in epitaphs, part of the
inscription often being in Greek.
Latin inscriptions are not common except in Roman colonies during the
earlier centuries of their existence. Elsewhere they are chiefly
official documents of various kinds (e.g. imperial ordinances,
milestones usually of columnar shape with the Emperor's titles,
boundary stones, &c.), or expressions of homage to Emperors, honorary
inscriptions to governors and other officials, dedications, epitaphs,
&c. Sometimes a Greek version is added.
Latin inscriptions of the Republican period (recording decrees of the
Senate) are extremely rare.
[ILLUSTRATION VI: HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS, ETC.]
CHAPTER IV
CYPRUS
[The traveller will find the _Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum_, by J.
L. Myres and M. Ohnefalsch-Richter (Oxford, 1899) indispensable for
the study of Cypriote Antiquities. Reference may also be made to
Myres, _Catalogue of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from
Cyprus_ (New York, 1914). They contain numerous illustrations of
types, and make diagrams for the present section unnecessary.]
The principal classes of ancient remains are as follows:
Settlements.
These are usually much devastated by the removal of building
materials to more recent habitations; or are obscured by modern towns
and villages on the same site. All foundations in squared masonry, or
composed of unusually large stones, should be noted and protected as
far as possible. The frequent presence of large building stones, and
especially of architectural fragments, in recent house-walls probably
indicates the neighbourhood of an ancient building: and all
reconstructions and fresh foundation-trenches should be kept under
observation. The present Antiquity Law provides for the inspection
and custody of ancient remains so exposed: the Curator of Ancient
Monuments is charged with the supervision of all buildings and
monuments above ground; the Keeper of Antiquities for the custody of
movable objects, and for the registration of those already in private
possession. Taking into consideration the utility of good building
material to the present owners of such sites, active co-operation to
preserve ancient masonry is not to be expected, unless local
patriotism and expectation of traffic from tourists can be enlisted
in support of Government regulations. Architectural fragments found
in reconstruction are often best preserved by arranging that they
shall be built conspicuously into one of the new walls, well above
ground-level, or transferred to the nearest church or school-house.
Sanctuaries
usually consist of a walled enclosure containing numerous pedestals
and bases of votive statues and other monuments. Usually only the
foundation-walls are of stone, as the same sun-dried brick was
commonly used in ancient as in modern times for the superstructure.
Such sites are often vary shallow, and when they occur in the open
country are liable to be disturbed by ploughing, when the smaller
statuettes and terra-cotta figures may be turned up in considerable
numbers. As most of our knowledge of the sculpture, as well as of the
religious observances, of ancient Cyprus is derived from such sites,
all such indications should be reported at once to the Keeper of
Antiquities, and arrangements made for the site to be examined with a
view to excavation before it is cultivated further. The sculpture on
these sites begins usually in the seventh century B.C.; before that
period terra-cotta figures were in use as far back as the ninth or
tenth century. Figures of 'Mixed Oriental' style, resembling Assyrian
or Egyptian work, give place about 500 B.C. to a provincial Greek
style, which passes gradually into Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman. The
material is almost invariably the soft local limestone, and the
workmanship is often clumsy; but even the coarser examples should be
treated carefully, as they were sometimes completed in colours which
are easily destroyed by too vigorous washing. The first cleaning
should be with gently running water only.
Tombs
are of all periods, and are found not only around historical sites
and actual ruins, but also in localities where the settlement to
which they belonged has wholly disappeared. Though simple graves were
always in use among the poorest folk, the commonest form of tomb at
all periods is a rock-cut chamber entered by a door in one side, to
which access is given by a shaft or sloping passage (_dromos_) cut
likewise in the rock. The earliest are but a few feet from the
surface, just deep enough to ensure a firm roof to the chamber; later
the depth is as much as 12 or 15 feet. Occasionally the chamber, and
even the passage, is built of masonry and roofed with stone slabs or
a corbel vault, and the simple door-slab gives place to a stone door,
hinged, or sliding in a grooved frame. Cremation was occasionally
practised in the Hellenistic Age, but the regular custom was to bury
the body; during the Bronze Age in a sitting or a contracted posture,
in all later periods lying at full length. Stone coffins
(_sarcophagi_), with a lid, were used occasionally by the rich from
the sixth century onwards, and wooden coffins in the Graeco-Roman
period. There is always as rich a tomb-equipment as the mourners
could afford, of personal ornaments, wreaths, provisions, weapons,
and other gear, especially pottery; and terra-cotta figures of men,
animals, furniture, and other objects for the use of the deceased. In
Graeco-Roman tombs pottery is supplemented or replaced by glass
vessels, and coins are frequent, and are important evidence of date.
Most of our knowledge of Cypriote arts and industries comes from this
tomb-equipment, which should therefore if possible be preserved
entire and kept together, tomb by tomb; not neglecting the skeletons
themselves, which are of value to indicate changes in the island
population. The position of tombs was often marked by gravestones
above ground; these remain scattered in the surface soil, or
collected to block the entrances to later tombs. They are frequently
inscribed. A very common form in Greco-Roman times is the _cippus_, a
short column, like an altar.
Pottery and other objects
from tombs, and also from settlements, is classified as follows:
Stone Age: not clearly represented in Cyprus; but some of the
earliest tombs (with rude varieties of red hand-made ware) contain no
metallic objects, and may belong to the latest neolithic period.
Stone implements are very rare, and should be carefully recorded,
with a note of the spot where they were found.
Bronze Age, early period (before 2000 B.C.): polished red ware,
hand-made, sometimes with incised ornament filled with white powder.
Bronze Age, middle period (2000-1500 B.C.): polished red ware, and
also white hand-made ware with painted linear ornament in dull black
or brown.
Bronze Age, late period (1500-1200 B.C.): degenerate polished red
and painted white ware; wheel-made white ware with painted ornament
in glazed black or brown, of the 'Late Minoan' or 'Mycenaean' style
introduced from the Aegean; various hand-made wares of foreign
styles, probably from Syria or Asia Minor.
In these periods, weapons, implements, and ornaments are of copper
(with bronze in the 'late' period); gold occurs rarely; terra-cotta
figures are few and rude; engraved seals are cylindrical like those
of Babylonia.
Early Iron Age: wheel-made pottery, either white or bright red,
with painted geometrical ornament in black (supplemented on the white
ware with purple-red); there is also a black fabric imitating
metallic forms.
The early period (1200-1000 B.C.) marks the transition from bronze
to iron implements, with survival of Mycenaean decoration on the
pottery, and replacement of cylindrical by conical seals.
The middle period (1000-750 B.C.) has purely geometrical
decoration: terra-cotta figures are modelled rudely by hand, and
painted like the pottery.
The late period (750-500 B.C.) shows foreign influences from Greece
and from Phoenicia or Egypt, competing with and enriching the native
geometrical style. Scarab seals, blue-glaze beads, and other personal
ornaments, and silver objects, appear. Terra-cotta figures stamped in
a mould occur side by side with modelled.
Hellenic Age, with increasing influence of Greek arts and
industries.
Early or Hellenic period (500-300 B.C.): the native pottery
degenerates, and Greek vases and terra-cottas are imported and
imitated; jewellery of gold and silver is fairly common and of good
quality; with engraved seals set in signet rings: the bronze mirrors
are circular, with a handle-spike.
Middle or Hellenistic period (300-50 B.C.): the native pottery is
almost wholly replaced by imitations of forms from other parts of the
Greek world, especially from Syria and Asia Minor: large handled
wine-jars (_amphorae_) are common: terra-cottas and jewellery also
follow Greek styles: coloured stones are set in rings and ear-rings.
Late or Graeco-Roman period (50 B.C.-A.D. 400): pottery is partly
replaced by vessels of blown glass: clay lamps, red-glazed jugs, so
called 'tear-bottles' of spindle-shapes, ear-rings of beads strung on
wire, bronze rings and bracelets, circular mirrors without handles,
and bronze coins are characteristics.
Byzantine Age (after A.D. 400): Christian burial in surface graves
supersedes the use of rock-hewn tombs: funerary equipment goes out of
use, except a few personal ornaments, which are of mean appearance,
and may bear Christian symbols. Domestic pottery is coarse,
ungraceful, and frequently ribbed on the outside. Clay lamps have
long nozzles, and Christian symbols. Glass becomes clumsy and less
common; and glazed bowls and cups come into use. Occasional rich
finds of silver plate (salvers, cups, spoons, &c.) and personal
ornaments, have been made among Byzantine ruins.
On mediaeval and later sites, various glazed fabrics of pottery are
found, and occasionally examples of the glazed and painted jugs,
plates, and tiles known to collectors as 'Rhodian' or 'Damascus'
ware.
Inscriptions
occur on settlement-sites, in sanctuaries and associated with tombs:
usually cut on slabs or blocks of soft limestone, though marble and
other harder stones were used in Hellenistic and Roman times. Besides
the ordinary Greek (see Illustration IV), and Roman alphabets the
Phoenician alphabet (see Illustrations X and XI) was in use at Kition
(Larnaca), in the great sanctuaries at Idalion (Dali), and
occasionally elsewhere; and from early times until the fourth century
a syllabary peculiar to Cyprus, often very rudely hewn, in irregular
lines, on ill-shaped blocks. Such 'Cypriote inscriptions' (see
accompanying Illustration VII) are of great value and interest, and
have been often overlooked among building material drawn from old
sites. In all doubtful cases, a 'squeeze' should be made by one of
the methods described in the first part of this volume and submitted
to the Keeper of Antiquities. The stamped inscriptions on the handles
of wine-jars are worth preserving, as evidence for the course of
trade.
Coins
were issued in Cyprus from the sixth century onward; first in silver;
later (in the fourth century B.C.) occasionally in gold, and from the
fourth century commonly in copper. A Ptolemaic coinage succeeded in
the third century that of the local rulers; the Roman coinage, with
inscriptions sometimes in Greek, sometimes in Latin, lasts from
Augustus to the beginning of the third century. Coins of the
Byzantine Emperors and of the Lusignan Kings are common.
[ILLUSTRATION VII: BILINGUAL (GREEK AND CYPRIOTE) DEDICATION TO
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE FROM CURIUM.]
CHAPTER V
CENTRAL AND NORTH SYRIA
[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustration II; of pottery
and weapons, &c., VIII & IX; of alphabets, X & XI.]
The following notes are to be accepted as only a rough and imperfect
guide, since no part of Syria, north of Palestine, has been widely or
minutely explored, and the archaeology of the earliest period, in
Central Syria, for example, is almost unknown.
The periods into which the archaeological history of Syria should be
divided are roughly, as follows:
I. Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age, to about 2000 B.C.
II. Bronze Age or Early Hittite, to about 1100 B.C.
III. Iron Age or Late Hittite, to about 550 B.C.
IV. Persian Period, to about 330 B.C.
V. Hellenistic Period, to about 100 B.C.
VI. Roman Period.
VII. Byzantine Period.
I. Neolithic.
No purely Neolithic sites yet known, but lowest strata of remains at
Sakjegozu and Sinjerli, on the Carchemish citadel, and in certain
kilns at Yunus near by, and also pot-burials among house remains are
of this Age. (But see Chapter VIII, Mesopotamia, whose Neolithic
period is similar.)
Stone implements:
as in Greece, including obsidian of very clear texture, probably of
inner Asiatic, not Aegean production. Bone needles and other
implements.
Pottery.
Four varieties have been observed: (1) buff ground with simple linear
decoration applied direct on the gritty body-clay in lustreless
pigments, black, chocolate-brown, or red, according to the firing;
(2) greenish-buff face, hand-polished, with polychrome varnish
decoration of vandykes and other geometric motives; (3) monochrome,
black to grey, not burnished, but sometimes decorated with incised
linear patterns; (4) plain red or buff (e.g. large urns in which
Neolithic burials were found on the Carchemish citadel). All pottery
hand-made.
Figurines:
rude clay and stone figurines are likely to occur, but have as yet
been found very rarely in Neolithic strata.
Copper implements:
traces observed at Carchemish: to be looked for.
II. Bronze Age (Early Hittite).
(a) Early period to about 1500 B.C.
Cist-graves made of rough stone slabs, near crude brick houses.
Conjunction of such slabs with bricks would be an indication of an
early Bronze Age site. Rare pot-burials survive.
Implements.
Spear-heads of long tapering form rounded sharply at the base which
has long tang (IX, Fig. 5): poker-like butts (IX, Fig. 2): knives
with curved tangs: 'toggle' pins: all bronze (but a silver toggle-pin
has been found) (IX, Figs. 1,8).
Pottery.
All wheel-made but rough: light red or buff faced of reddish clay:
decoration rare and only in simple zigzags or waves in reddish-brown
pigment: long-stemmed vases of 'champagne-glass' form are common (VIII,
Fig. 4): rarely a creamy slip is applied to the red clay.
(b) Later period.
Cist-graves apart from houses, in cemeteries.
Implements.
Long narrow celts often riveted: spear-heads, leaf-shaped or
triangular (IX, Figs. 3, 6, 10): axe-heads with socket, swelling
blade and curved cutting edge: pins both 'toggle' and unpierced,
straight and bent over.
Pottery.
Wheel-made, well potted, and commonly _ring-burnished_, the process
beginning at the base of a vase and climbing spirally: little painted
decoration: face usually dusky brown over pinkish body clay, but red
and yellow-white faced wares also found: shapes, mostly bowls, open
and half closed: ring feet, but no handles to vases: only
occasionally lug-ears (IX, Figs. 1,2,3,5,6). Rims well turned over
belong to the latest period, in which elaborate ring-burnishing is
common.
Beads, &c.
Diamond-shaped, with incised decoration, in clay or stone, common.
Pendants, &c., of shell, lapis lazuli, cornelian, crystal. Cylinders,
of rude design like Babylonian First Dynasty, in stone and bone.
Spindle-whorls in steatite and clay.
[ILLUSTRATION VIII: SYRIAN POTTERY]
III. Iron Age (Late Hittite).
To this belong the mass of 'Hittite' remains in Syria. Graves are
unlined pits, with urn burials, the corpse having been cremated.
Cylinders, &c., showing traces of fire, will belong to this Age.
Implements and weapons.
Arrow-heads of bronze: spear-heads of bronze and iron: axes, knives,
and picks of iron (miniature models occur in graves): daggers of
iron. _Fibulae_, of bronze, semicircular and triangular (as in Asia
Minor) (IX, Figs. 4, 9, 11): plain armlets of bronze: pins, spatulae,
&c., of bronze: thin applique ornaments. Bronze bowls (gilt) with
gadroon or lotus ornament (moulded) in later period. Steatite
censers, in form of a cup held by a human hand, are not uncommon (IX,
Fig. 7).
Pottery.
Tall narrow-mouthed urns, bath-shaped vessels, and bell-kraters
common (VIII, Fig. 10): trefoil-mouth _oenochoae_ and _hydriae_; also
_amphorae_ (VIII, Fig. 7).
In earlier period, white or drab slipped surface with geometric
patterns (rarely rude birds) in black. In later period, pinkish glaze
with geometric patterns in black-brown, concentric circles being a
common motive. Tripod bowls in unslipped 'kitchen' ware (VIII, Fig.
8). Blue or greenish glazed albarelli, with white, brown, or yellow
bands, occur (as in Rhodes).
Figurines.
Drab clay, painted with red or black bands and details. Two types:
(a) Horsemen; (b) Goddesses of columnar shape, often with flower
headdresses, and sometimes carrying a child.
Seals, &c.
Scarabs with designs of Egyptian appearance: cylinders, steatite or
(more commonly) glazed paste, lightly and often scratchily engraved:
hard stone seals finely engraved: flattened spheroids in steatite
with Hittite symbols on both faces, inscriptions being often garbled.
Inscriptions.
Most of those in Hittite script, both relieved and incised, found in
Syria, are of this Age, but chiefly of the earlier part of it (cf.
Illustration VI). Those in Semitic characters begin in this Age; and
to its later part (8th-7th cents.) belong important Aramaic
inscriptions, e.g. the Bar-Rekub monuments of Sinjerli (Shamal). See
tables of letter-forms appended to Palestine section, Illustrations X
& XI.
IV. Persian Period.
Imported Egyptian and Egypto-Phoenician objects (bronze bowls as in
Age III: scarabs: figure-amulets), Rhodian (pottery), Attic (coins,
small black-figure vases, &c.).
Weapons and implements.
Iron. Long swords: spearheads, socketed, often with square or diamond
mid-rib: short double-edged daggers with round pommels: chapes
(bronze) with moulded or beaten relief-work: knives, small and
slightly curved: arrow-heads (usually bronze and triangular): horse-
bits (usually bronze) with heavy knobbed side-bars: ear-rings, wire
armlets and pins (generally plain) of bronze: _fibulae_ as in Age
III: circular mirrors, plain, of bronze: anklets of heavy bronze:
kohl-pots, bronze, of hollow cylindrical form, with plain sticks.
Pottery.
As in Age II, plain, polished, rarely ring-burnished, but of less
careful workmanship (VIII, Fig. 9.) Glazed albarelli, 'pilgrim-
bottles', aryballi, &c., (as in Age III) common. White-yellow slipped
ware with bands of black survives rarely from Age III.
Stone vessels.
Bowls on inverted cup-shaped feet not uncommon (VIII, Fig. 11).
Beads and seals.
Eye-beads in mosaic glass, and other glass beads (hard stone and
bronze more rarely): conoid seals in hard crystalline stones, usually
engraved with figure praying to the Moon-god: also soft stone, glass
and paste conoids. Scarabs and scaraboids in paste. Cylinders become
scarce.
V. Hellenistic. VI. Roman. VII. Byzantine.
Most of the characteristic Syrian products of all these Periods do
not differ materially from those found in other East Mediterranean
lands, e.g. Greece and Asia Minor. The change to Persian (Sassanian)
types comes in the late seventh century A.D.
Two classes of objects, examples of the first of which are mostly of
Age III, but may be Persian, Hellenistic, or even Roman, are very
commonly met with in Syria:
1. Figurines,
single or in pairs or threes, of bronze or terra-cotta, representing
cult-types. Most common is a standing god with peaked cap, short
tunic, and arm raised in act of smiting: a seated goddess also
common: figures of animals, especially a bull; and phallic objects
(these mainly Roman).
2. Glass
plain (iridescent from decay), ribbed, or moulded, in great variety
of forms-bowls, jugs, cups, &c. Mostly late Hellenistic, Roman, and
Byzantine, and especially common and of fine quality in the Orontes
valley.
Parti-coloured glass (with white or yellow bands and threads) is
earlier (Persian Period). Painted and enamelled glass with gilt or
polychrome designs is later (ninth to fifteenth century, Arab).
[ILLUSTRATION IX: SYRIAN WEAPONS, ETC.]
CHAPTER VI
PALESTINE
[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustrations II; pottery,
XII; alphabets, XIV & XV.]
I. General Principles.
1. Study of the pottery of the country, not merely from books but
from actual specimens, is an absolutely essential preliminary.
Without an acquaintance with this branch of Palestinian archaeology,
so thorough that any sherd presenting the least character can be
immediately assigned to its proper period, no field research of any
value can be carried out. (See further V below.)
2. A knowledge of the various Semitic alphabets is necessary for
copying inscriptions. Unless the traveller be also acquainted with
the languages he had better be cautious about copying Semitic
inscriptions; without such knowledge he runs the risk of confusing
different Semitic letters, which often closely resemble one another.
He should, however, be able to make squeezes and photographs.
The following are the languages and scripts which may be found in
Palestinian Epigraphy.
Egyptian, in Hieroglyphics. Greek.
Babylonian Cuneiform. Latin.
Assyrian Cuneiform. Arabic, in Cufic script.
Hebrew, in ancient script. Arabic, in modern script.
Hebrew, in square character. Armenian (in mosaic
Phoenician. pavements, also graffiti
Moabite. in Church of Holy
Aramaic. Sepulchre).
Tables of the chief alphabetic and numeral forms of the West Semitic
scripts are given in Illustrations X & XI; for the Greek, see
Illustration IV.
3. The traveller should have had practice in making measured drawings
of buildings.
4. For some branches of work a good knowledge of Arabic is
indispensable--not the miserable pidgin jargon usually spoken by
Europeans, nor yet the highly complex literary language, which is
unintelligible to the ordinary native, but the colloquial of the
country, spoken grammatically and properly pronounced. Work done
through dragomans is never entirely satisfactory, because it requires
the unattainable condition that the dragoman should be as much a
scientific student of anthropology and of archaeology as the
traveller himself.
5. The student for whom these pages are written should not attempt
any excavation, unless he has been trained under a practical
excavator, and has learnt how work, which is essentially and
inevitably destructive of evidence, can be made to yield profitable
fruit. There is plenty of work that can be done on the surface of the
ground without excavation.
[Illustrations X & XI: Table of West Semitic Alphabets & Numerals.]
II. Sites of Towns and Villages.
1. Nomenclature.
The sites of ancient towns and villages are usually conspicuous in
Palestine, and are recognized in the local nomenclature. They are
denoted by the words _tall_, plural _tulul_, meaning 'mound', and
_khirbah_, plural _khirab_ meaning 'ruin'. These words are commonly
spelt in English _tell_ and _khirbet_ (less correctly _khurbet_) and
we use these more familiar forms here. As a rule, though not
invariably, the sense of these terms is distinguished. A tell is a
site represented by a mound of stratified accumulation, the result of
occupation extending over many centuries, and easily recognizable
among natural hillocks by its regular shape, smooth sides, and flat
top. A khirbet is a field of ruins in which there is little or no
stratification. Nearly all the sites of the latter type are the
remains of villages not older than the Byzantine or Roman period.
2. Identification of ancient sites.
This is a task less easy than it appears to be, and many of the
current identifications of Biblical sites call for revision.
Similarity of name, on which most of these identifications depend, is
apt to be misleading; in many cases sites identified thus with Old
Testament places are not older than the Byzantine Period. [1] This
similarity of name may sometimes be a mere accident; it may also
sometimes be accounted for by a transference of site, the inhabitants
having for some special reason moved their town to a new situation.
In such cases the tell representing the older site may perhaps await
identification in the neighbourhood. In attempting to establish
identifications, the date of the site, as determined from the
potsherds, and its suitability to the recorded history of the ancient
site in question, are elements of equal importance with its name.
[1] An example is Khirbet Teku'a, long identified with the Biblical
Tekoa.
Note: The traveller should be cautioned against embarking on the
study of place-names, identification of scriptural sites, &c., before
mastering the principles of Arabic phonetics. Many of the attempts
made at rendering the names of Palestinian place-names in European
books are simply grotesque. The following are the chief pitfalls:
(1) Confusion of the vowels, the pronunciation of which is obscure.
(2) The consonant _'ain_, to which the untrained European ear is
deaf, and which in consequence is often omitted. Less frequently it
may be over-conscientiously inserted in a place where it does not
exist. Sometimes the _'ain_ and its associated vowel are transposed
(as _M'alula_ for _Ma'lula_) making unpronounceable combinations of
consonants.
(3) The letter _kaf_, often dropped in pronunciation, and therefore
often omitted.
(4) The letter _ghain_, which an unaccustomed ear confuses with
either _g_ or _r_.
(5) The reduplicated letters, which a European is apt to hear and to
write as single.
(6) The nuances between the different _d_, _h_, _k_, _t_, and _s_
sounds.
3. Surface-exploration of a tell.
The stratification can rarely be studied on the surface only:
superficial indications of this are obscured by the plough, weather,
vegetation, and the activities of modern natives who grub for
building-stone and for the chance of buried treasure. Only by
trenching can the strata be exposed. An exception to this rule is
afforded by _Tell el-Hesy_ (Lachish) explored by Dr. Petrie in 1890-
1: here the erosion of a stream had exposed enough of the strata for
a reconnaissance. In the majority of cases the most that a visitor
can hope to do is to pick up stray antiquities on the surface of the
ground, and ascertain therefrom the limits of date.
The chief clue is afforded by the pottery (see below, V), sherds of
which, large and small, are strewn in considerable numbers on every
ancient site. Scarabs, seals, bronze implements, iron fragments,
beads, bone ornaments, and the like may also be noticed. A trained
eye is essential even for such surface finds: one man may walk over a
mound and find nothing, another may walk in his steps and gather
quite an interesting harvest of small objects.
Surface indications of buried buildings (or rather foundations) may
be noted both on the top and on the sides of a tell. Lines of wall
may not infrequently be traced. Often the vegetation growing on the
surface indicates the presence of structures underneath (either by
burnt-up patches amid luxuriant growths, or vice versa).
4. Surface exploration of a khirbet.
The task here is, generally sneaking, simpler. In a khirbet there is
usually no great depth of accumulation; indeed, the bare rock
frequently crops up in the middle of such a site. There is,
therefore, as a rule only one historical period represented.
Potsherds, coins (Roman, Jewish, Byzantine, early Islamic, sometimes
Crusader), tesserae of mosaic pavements, fragments of iron nails,
beads, minute metal ornaments (as bronze wire finger-rings) are to be
picked up on khirbet sites.
The remains of walls are usually more easily traceable in khirbet
than in tell sites, though much damage has been done by quarrying for
modern buildings. These walls should be carefully examined: buildings
other than mere houses (churches, synagogues, baths) may sometimes be
detected. Cisterns should be noted. Some of these are not very
obvious and the traveller should be on his guard against falling into
them.
All stones should be examined, as there is a chance of finding
inscriptions.
5. In all work on ancient sites the investigator must make a point of
noting everything, irrespective of its apparent importance, and of
carefully training a critical judgement in interpreting his
observations. It is impossible to lay down general principles that
govern every case completely: every site presents its own individual
problems.
III. Rock-cut Tombs.
1. All Palestine is honeycombed with rock-cut tombs, which form a
fascinating and inexhaustible field of study. Unfortunately all that
are in the least degree visible have long ago been rifled, and in
recent years those pests, the curio-hunting tourists, have done
incalculable harm by stimulating the native tomb-robber and dealer.
2. The explorer of rock-cut tombs must be indifferent to mud, damp,
evil smells, noxious insects, and other discomforts, and he must be
prepared to squeeze through very narrow passages, much clogged with
earth. He is recommended to be on his guard against scorpions and
snakes.
3. A plan and vertical section of the tomb should be drawn. The
measurements should be taken carefully, not only for the sake of the
accuracy of the plan, but also for metrological purposes.
4. The rock outside the entrance of the tomb-chamber should be
examined. It often shows rebating or other cutting, designed to
receive the foundations of a masonry mausoleum (resembling in general
style the rock-hewn monuments in the Kedron Valley at Jerusalem). As
a rule such structures have been entirely destroyed for the sake of
their stones.
5. The tool-marks of the tomb-quarriers should be examined, as they
sometimes reveal interesting technical points.
6. Every inch of the surface of the excavation, inside and out, must
be examined for ornaments, symbols, or inscriptions. These may be
either cut or painted, and often are very inconspicuous. Ornaments
are usually floral in type, though in late tombs figure-subjects are
occasionally to be found. Symbols are either Jewish (the seven-
branched candlestick) or Christian (the cross, A-omega, or the like).
Inscriptions are not necessarily formally cut: they are sometimes
mere scratched graffiti, which would be sure to escape notice unless
carefully looked for (as in the so-called 'Tombs of the Prophets' on
the Mount of Olives).
7. Dating of tombs.
The savage rifling to which Palestinian tombs have been subjected has
much reduced the material available for dating them. The following
general principles apply to Southern Palestine: those in Northern
Palestine and Syria still await a more exact study:
The earliest tombs known in the country were mere natural caves, into
which the dead were cast, often very unceremoniously.
In the Second Semitic Period (circa 1800-1400 B.C.) hewn chambers
began to be used. These are in the form of cylindrical shafts with a
doorway at the bottom leading sideways into the burial-chamber.
Natural caves are still frequently used.
In the Third Semitic Period (circa 1400-1000 B.C.) the shaft: form
disappears and an artificial cave, rudely hewn out, takes its place.
The entrance is in the side of the chamber, though not necessarily at
the level of the floor. Rude shelves for the reception of the bodies
are sometimes, but not always, cut in the sides of the chamber.
In the Fourth Semitic Period (circa 1000-550 B.C.) the tomb-
chambers are of the same kind, but are as a rule smaller.
In Southern Palestine the well-made tomb-chambers, such as are to be
seen in great numbers around Jerusalem, are all post-exilic. There is
an immense variety in plan, some tombs being single chambers, others
complications of several chambers. The late excavation absurdly
called the 'Tombs of the Kings' at Jerusalem is quite a labyrinth of
rockcut chambers. In exploring such a structure a careful search
should be made for devices for deluding thieves: special precautions
are sometimes taken to conceal the entrance to inner groups of
chambers. There are some interesting examples of this in the cemetery
in the _Wadi er-Rababi_, south of Jerusalem. However, all tombs of
this period fall into two groups, _kok_ tombs and _arcosolium_ tombs.
In the former the receptacles for bodies are of the kind known by the
Hebrew name _kokim_--shafts, of a size to accommodate one body
(sometimes large enough for two or three) driven horizontally into
the wall of the chamber. In the normal _kok_ tomb-chamber there are
nine _kokim_, three in each wall except the wall containing the
entrance doorway. But there are many other arrangements. In the
'Tombs of the Judges' there is a double row of _kokim_ in the
entrance chamber. The explorer should not forget that a _kok_
sometimes contains a secret entrance to further chambers at its inner
end. In _arcosolium_ tombs the receptacles are benches cut in the
wall, like the berths in a steamer's cabin. These are sometimes sunk,
so as to resemble rock-cut sarcophagi.
The late tombs round Jerusalem are in the form of caves driven
horizontally into the hill-sides. Further south, e.g. in the region
round Beit Jibrin, they are more frequently sunk vertically, the
entrance being in the roof of the burial chamber, or approached by a
square shaft (a reversion to the Second Semitic form, except that
these latter have _round_ shafts).
IV. Caves.
The history of the artificial caves hewn in the soft limestone of
Palestine, is quite unknown. The caves of the neighbourhood of Beit
Jibrin provide ample material for several months' exploration.
Though the caves are labyrinthine there is little fear of an explorer
losing his way: he should, however, be well provided with lights, as
it would be extremely awkward to be left in the innermost recess of a
cave consisting of ten or a dozen chambers united by narrow creep-
passages, without adequate illumination. There are occasionally
unexpected and dangerous pitfalls: and hyenas and serpents often
shelter in the caves. The present writer has explored many of them
entirely alone, but this is, on the whole, not to be recommended.
Besides planning the cave, its walls should be searched for
inscriptions, &c. It should be remembered, however, that these may
have been added at any time and do not necessarily belong to the
original excavation. Symbols, apparently of a phallic nature, are
sometimes cut on the walls, as well as crosses and other Christian
devices, and Cufic inscriptions. Frequently the walls are pitted with
the loculi of a columbarium, which, however, appear to be too small
to receive cinerary urns and must be intended for some other purpose.
V. Pottery.
Owing to the importance of the subject a special section on Pottery
is given here, and the two accompanying plates (XII) show some of the
commonest types of vessels. But the student cannot learn all he will
need to know of Palestinian pottery from a few pages of print. A
representative series of specimens will be found in the Jerusalem
Museum: he may supplement his study of these by the perusal of
reports on excavations, such as Petrie, _Tell el-Hesy_ (pp. 40-50);
Bliss, _A Mound of Many Cities_ (passim); _Excavations in Palestine_
(pp. 71-141); Macalister, _Excavation of Gezer_ (vol. ii, pp.
128-239; and plates); Sellin, _Jericho_; Schumacher, _Tell
et-Mutasellim_.
Pre-Semitic Period (down to circa 2000 B.C.).
Ware hand-modelled, without wheel, coarse, gritty, and generally
soft-baked and very porous. The section of a clean fracture is
usually of a dirty yellowish colour, resembling in appearance coarse
oatmeal porridge. Bases usually flat, loop-handles or wavy handles on
the bodies of the vessels: mouths wide and lips curved outward. The
body of the vessel often decorated with drip lines or with a criss-
cross, in red paint.
First Semitic Period (circa 2000-1800 B.C.).
Similar to the last: but the potter's wheel is used, and horizontal
painted and moulded rope-like ornament also found. Combed ornament
and burnished lines frequent.
Second Semitic Period (circa 1800-1400 B.C.).
During this period imports from Egypt, Crete, the Aegean Sea, and
especially Cyprus were common, and potsherds originating in those
countries are frequently to be picked up: also local imitations of
these foreign wares. The ware of this period is on the whole well-
refined and well-modelled: the most graceful shapes, in jugs and
bowls, belong to it. Elaborate polychrome decoration, including
figures of birds. But little moulded ornament.
Third Semitic Period (circa 1400-1000 B.C.).
The same foreign influences are traceable, but rather as reminiscent
local imitations than as direct imports. Late Minoan [Mycenaean]
sherds are, however, frequent. The shapes of vessels are less
artistic than in the preceding period: the painted ornament is also
degenerated, being traced in wiry lines rather than in the bold wash
of the preceding period.
Fourth Semitic Period (circa 1000-550 B.C.).
Late Cypriote imports. The local ware very poor, coarse, gritty,
inartistic. No painted ornament except mere lines: clumsy moulded
ornament frequent.
Post-Exilic and Hellenistic Period (circa 550-100 B.C.).
Imports from Greece (sometimes fragments of black or red figured
vases, or lekythoi) and from the Aegean Islands (especially wine-jars
from Rhodes: stamped handles of such are frequent). The native ware
is easily recognizable by its smoothness and hardness; when struck
with a stick a sherd emits a musical clink. The vessels are very fair
imitations of classical models, occasionally with painted ornament,
but more frequently moulded.
Roman and Byzantine Period (circa 100 B.C.-A.D. 600).
The unmistakable character of the ware of this period is the ribbed
surface, with which nearly all vessels are decorated. Fragments of
ribbed pottery are strewn almost over all Palestine. Ornament
consisting of repeated impressions of stamps now begins to appear.
Lamps with decoration, inscriptions, Christian or Jewish symbols
common. Glass vessels also frequent.
Arab Period (circa A.D. 600 onwards).
The early Arab ware often bears painted decoration singularly like
that on Second and Third Semitic pottery, but a fatty soapy texture
characterizes the Arab ware, which is absent from the earlier sherds.
There is likewise a complete absence of representation of natural
forms (birds and the like). In or about the Crusader period the use
of ornamental glaze makes its appearance.
[Illustration XII: PALESTINIAN POTTERY TYPES]
VI. Sanctuaries.
The hill-top shrines, now consecrated to saints of Islam, are
doubtless in origin ancient Canaanite high places. There is here a
rich but a very difficult field for investigation. The difficulty
lies in (a) gaining the confidence of those to whom the sanctuaries
are holy, and (b) guarding against wilful or unconscious deception.
Only long residence and frequent intercourse, with the Muslim
population will make it possible for any one to obtain really
trustworthy information as to the traditions or the sites of these
ancient sanctuaries. A knowledge of Arabic is essential for a study
of the sites themselves, as there are frequently inscriptions cut or
painted on the walls which should be studied. The casual traveller
cannot hope to carry out researches of any value on these ancient
sites.
Sometimes the buildings are Crusaders' churches transformed. The one
really certain fact as to masonry dressing in Palestine may here
conveniently be noticed--that Crusader structures are built of well-
squared stones with a plane surface finished off with a dressing
consisting of very fine diagonal lines. Once seen, this masonry
dressing is absolutely unmistakable.
Buildings thus identified as Crusader should be examined for masons'
marks.
VII. Miscellaneous.
The following are some other types of ancient remains with which the
traveller may meet almost anywhere in Palestine:
(1) Prehistoric (Stone Age) sites. Marked by being strewn with flint
implements and chips: see a fine collection in the Museum of the
Assumptionists (Notre-Dame de France) at Jerusalem. Specimens should
be collected and the site mapped.
(2) Dolmens. Frequent east of Jordan; rare, though not unknown, in
Western Palestine. Should be measured, photographed, described, and
mapped.
(3) Rock-cuttings of various kinds, which should be measured,
planned, and mapped. Among these the commonest are:
(a) Cisterns (usually bottle-shaped, a narrow neck expanding below).
(b) Cup-markings, common everywhere. Often associated with cisterns.
(c) Wine and olive presses: there is a great variety in form, but
they generally consist of two essential parts--a shallow _pressing-
vat_ on which the fruit was crushed, and a deeper _receiving-vat_ in
which the expressed juice was collected. The vats are often lined
with cement containing datable potsherds, and are sometimes paved
with mosaic tesserae.
(d) Quarries.
(4) Sacred trees and bushes, recognized by the rags with which they
are festooned. Should be photographed and mapped, and their legends
ascertained, subject to the cautions given above under the head of
Sanctuaries.
(5) Castles and churches, usually of the Crusader period: early
Saracenic buildings. Should be recorded by means of plans,
photographs, measured drawings, and written descriptions.
(6) Mosaic pavements, usually belonging to Byzantine buildings;
should be recorded by means of coloured drawings.
CHAPTER VII
EGYPT
[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustration II; pottery,
Illustration XIII; and the table of hieroglyphic signs liable to be
confused with each other, Illustration I]
First Prehistoric Age, 8000?-7000? B.C.
Cemeteries of round or oval pits on the desert; no towns known. Red
faced pottery, often with lustrous black top, earliest with patterns
of white slip lines: all hand-made. Block figures of ivory or paste.
Combs with long teeth and animal tops.
Second Prehistoric Age, 7000?-5500 B.C.
Graves, square pits. Red faced, and much coarse brown pottery. Buff
with red painting of cordage, spirals, and ships. Pot forms copied
from stone. Some pots globular with wavy ledge handles, changing to
cylinders with wavy band. Slate palettes in all prehistoric periods.
Early Dynasties, 5500-4700 B.C.
Towns and cemeteries. Great mastabas of brick. Wooden coffins begin.
Great jars; hard, wheel-made pottery. Glazed tiles, &c. Stone bowls
common. Cylinder sealings on clay.
Pyramid Period, IV-Vl Dynasties, 4700-4000 B.C.
Sculptured stone tomb-chapels. Diorite bowls. Thick brown pot
offering bowls. Limestone statues, painted. Cornelian amulets in
strings.
Vl-XI Dynasties, 4200-3600 B.C.
Copper mirrors begin. Buttons, wide face, un-Egyptian work. Pottery
models of houses placed on grave edge.
Middle Kingdom, Xll-XIII Dynasties, 3600-2900 B.C.
Brick pyramids. Large rock tomb-chapels, painted. Hard drab pottery.
Alabaster kohl-pots, good forms. Globular beads, large; cornelian,
amethyst, and green glaze. Scroll pattern scarabs.
XIV-XVII Dynasties. 2900-1600 B.C.
Small flasks with handles, black with pricked patterns. Coarsely cut
scarabs. Shell beads.
New Kingdom XVIII-XXI Dynasties, 1587-952 B.C.
Small painted tombs. Pottery, red face black edge to 1500; buff, red
and black lines to 1400; blue bands 1400-1200. Hard polished drab,
about 1400-1350. Glass beads, &c., abundant 1400-1300. Glaze deep
blue 1500, brilliant blue 1400, poor blue 1300, green 1200: deep blue
ushabtis 1100, pale and rough 1000. Ushabtis, stone or wood engraved
1550-1450, pottery 1450 to very coarse 1250, wood very coarse by
1250; glazed fine 1300, decline to small rough lumps 800. Beads,
minute coloured glaze and stone to 1450, thin discs 1450-1350,
coloured pastes red and blue 1450 to 1300, yellow glass mainly 1300-
1200, poor glaze after 1200. Alabaster kohl-pots, clumsy forms to
1450; tubes of stone, glaze, wood, or reed 1450-1200.
Bubastites, XXII-XXV Dynasties, 950-664 B.C.
Clumsy large jars, widening to bottom, small handles. Green glazed
figures of cat-head goddess, cats, pigs, and sacred eyes; coarse
glass beads, yellow and black: copper wire bracelets. Glass beads
with blue spots in circles of brown and white. Scarabs coarse and
worst at 750. Fine work revived at 700 by Ethiopians. Glazes dull,
dirty, green. Glass unknown. Coffins very roughly painted.
Saites, XXVI-XXX Dynasties, 664-342 B.C.
Pottery clumsy, mostly rough: some thin, smooth red. Greek influence;
silver coins from 500 onward. Iron tools beginning. Glaze pale
greyish and olive: some fine blue at 350. No glass. Bronze figures
common. Ushabtis with back pier and beard; fine 650 to poor at 350.
Ptolemies, 332-30 B.C.
Pottery clumsy and small. Many Rhodian jars with Greek stamped
handles. Glazes, dark violet and yellow-green. Glass revived for
inlay figures in shrines: minute mosaic begins. Glazed beads scarce,
no scarabs. Large copper coins, silver tetradrachms, base in later
time, and concave on reverse.
Romans, 30 B.C.-A.D. 641. The earlier half, to A.D. 300.
Large brown amphorae, peg bottoms; ribbed after 180, wide ribbing at
first, then narrower. Glass blown; fine white and cut facets in 1st
cent.; hollow brims 2nd-4th; stems and pressed feet, 3rd-4th. Glass
mosaic 1st cent.; coarser wall mosaic 2nd cent. Glaze coarse blue, on
thick clumsy bowls and jugs. Red brick buildings as well as mud
brick, coins: billon tetradrachms in 1st cent., almost copper in 2nd,
small copper dumps in 3rd, leaden tokens from A.D. 180 to 260. Some
large copper in 1st and 2nd, thinner than the Ptolemaic. Potsherds
used for writing receipts and letters. Abundance of moulded terra-
cottas, and small lamps.
Roman, Second Period, A.D. 300-641.
The Constantinian Age brings in new styles. Much salmon-coloured hard
pottery, mainly platters and flat dishes. Brown amphorae soft and
smaller, with narrow ribbing. No glaze. Much very thin glass. Coins:
little thin flat copper, as in rest of Empire, ending about 450. No
Egyptian coinage, except a very few rough lumps from Justinian to
Heraclius, I+B on back. Letters written on potsherds and flakes of
limestone.
Red brick the material for all large buildings. Limestone capitals of
debased leafage. Rudely cut relief patterns in wood. Coarsely carved
and turned bone or ivory. Pottery in Byzantine Age with white facing
and rudely painted figures. Textiles, with embroidery in colours, and
especially purple discs with thread designs of the earlier Arab
period. A characteristic of late Roman and Arab mounds is the organic
smell.
Muhammadan Period. Seventh to fifteenth centuries.
Characterized by great amounts of glazed pottery. Smaller antiquities
found in cemeteries or on ruined sites, the earliest transitional,
and related to Coptic examples of the same kinds. Pottery: lamps at
first continue Christian forms and are unglazed; afterwards long
spouted lamps of dark green glaze. Fragments of vessels, &c., from
the rubbish heaps of old Cairo are glazed; a typical faience has a
soft sandy body of light colour with painted designs in blue or blue
and brown with transparent glaze. Those of the Mamluk period, and
probably some of earlier date, show a general resemblance to Western
Asiatic contemporary wares, due to importation of potters from Syria,
Asia Minor, and Persia (between twelfth and fifteenth centuries).
Other varieties have decoration in metallic lustre on an opaque white
tin glaze; others again have monochrome glazes imitating imported
Chinese wares. Inscriptions very rare. Glass: if found, is in
fragments; rich coloured enamel designs are seldom earlier than the
thirteenth century. Textiles: chiefly found in small pieces; the
colours rich; ornament consisting of geometrical designs and Cufic
inscriptions. Any silk, or printed patterns, should be secured.
No information about papyri is given here, for the reason that any
site containing them should not be touched except by a trained
excavator.
[ILLUSTRATION XIII: EGYPTIAN POTTERY TYPES]
CHAPTER VIII
MESOPOTAMIA
[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustration II; pottery and
brick-forms, Illustration XIV; cuneiform signs, and other scripts
Illustration XV].
Mesopotamian antiquities are nearly always found in Tells, or
artificial mounds, which are the sites of ancient towns or temples.
The surrounding plain for a distance of several hundred yards out,
whether steppe-desert or untilled land, will usually be found to be
productive of antiquities, either a few inches or few feet deep or,
in the case of the dessert, actually lying upon the surface. These
are usually the result of rainstorms washing out antiquities from the
tell itself. Each tell or ganglion of connected tells usually has a
number of small subsidiary tells round about it, the sites of small
isolated buildings or villages connected with the central settlement.
Originally the settlements were built upon natural rises of the
ground which stood up as islands in the fen-country.
Visitors should give the local names of tells in Arabic characters,
when possible, so that mistakes in transliteration into English may
be avoided. Antiquities bought in the neighbourhood of a tell should
be noted as coming from that neighbourhood. Depredations by Arabs (or
by others!) should be noted, and reported to the nearest Political
Officer or Inspector of Antiquities. The barbarous practice of
forcibly dislodging inscribed bricks from walls, as trophies and
'souvenirs', which has unhappily been common during the war, should
never be imitated and always discountenanced as much as possible.
Other good spots for antiquities than tells are rare. In the
mountainous and stony country of the North we may meet with rock-
sculptures, as at Bavian, and these should always be recorded by a
traveller, even if he is not certain that they have not been remarked
before: something new may turn up at any time. Antiquities acquired
in the neighbourhood of such monuments should be noted, and their
precise place of origin ascertained, if possible, as in this way the
site of some ancient settlement adjoining the monument may be
identified. The open ruin-fields, or _Khurbas_, characteristic of
Palestine are not usual, except in the case of Parthian or Sassanian
palace ruins such as Ctesiphon, Hatra, or Ukheidhir, which were often
abandoned almost as soon as they were built, so that no later
population could pile up rubbish-heaps or graves above them.
In order to aid the visitor to get some idea of the age of a tell or
other site from the antiquities found on its surface and its
neighbourhood, and so to be able to give some idea of what is likely
to be found in it, the following hints have been drawn up.
In the first place, most of the surface remains, are, as elsewhere,
pottery sherds. These should tell us their date by their appearance.
It must be said, however, that our experience on the subject of the
development of Mesopotamian pottery is limited. Owing to the
attention of Assyriologists having been so long focussed on the study
of the cuneiform records, to the neglect of general archaeology, we
have nothing like the knowledge of these things that we have in Egypt
or in Greece. Such minutiae of information as our common knowledge of
ceramic development in Egypt or in Greece gives us with regard to
these countries, enabling us to date sites with great accuracy, are
not vet available for Mesopotamia. And if for this reason all
possible information as to the objects found on archaeological sites
is desirable, it is also impossible yet to give the visitor any
absolute guide to the distinctive appearance of pottery at every
period. The main periods are known. The 'prehistoric', the Sumerian,
the late Babylonian, and the Parthian styles are easily
distinguishable. If a visitor is able to tell us that such-and-such a
mound is prehistoric or is Parthian, or that settlements of both
periods existed on it, this is what we want. One of the most general
of criteria with regard to pottery is whether it is glazed or not. If
glazed, it is, generally speaking, late. Other things besides pottery
are of course found, and the presence or the absence of metal, and
the occurrence of stone implements, are important. But it must be
remembered that stone was used long into the 'Bronze' Age, and
contemporaneously with copper. There is no sudden break between the
two periods. Fragments of shell and mother-of-pearl, often with
incised designs, are very characteristic of the earliest period.
Coins are of late date; a tell with coins on it is certain to contain
buildings as late as the fourth or third century B.C. (though it may
also contain far older buildings as well). One of the most useful
criteria of age is: Bricks. The form of the brick is a very good
guide to date. The Babylonians used both kiln-baked and crude bricks.
The oldest type, whether baked or crude, is plano-convex in form, and
uninscribed. The mortar is bitumen. Later on rectangular bricks,
often square, made in moulds, were introduced. These usually bore the
name of the royal builder. Later on bricks became generally oblong
and much like our own. In the sixth century the square shape was
revived. Both shapes were in use at the Nebuchadnezzar period. Glazed
bricks were then common. Under the Persians mortar took the place of
bitumen. Under the Parthians and Sassanians, bricks were yellow,
oblong, small, and very hard. Details will be found below, The names
of various excavated sites are given in brackets as the 'classical'
sources of information on certain points, and as the places from
which type-antiquities have come to our Museums. Ancient names are in
capitals; museums in italics.
I. PREHISTORIC (?) AGE: Chalcolithic (aeneolithic) period, before
3500 B.C.
Until quite recently no traces of the Stone Age had been discovered
in Babylonia other than a few possible palaeoliths lying on the
surface of the desert: all traces of a Neolithic Age were supposed to
have been buried beneath the alluvium of the valley. In Assyria,
however, neolithic traces in the shape of obsidian flakes had been
discovered by the late Prof. L. W. King in the course of his
excavation of the mound of Kuyunjik (NINEVEH), besides fragments of
painted pottery resembling those from the earliest deposits in Asia
Minor and those found by the American geologist Pumpelly in his
diggings in the _kurgans_ of Turkestan, (to which he assigned an
extremely remote date B.C.). In Persia, and about the head of the
Persian Gulf, somewhat similar pottery was discovered by de Morgan
and the other French excavators at Susa, Tepe Musyan, Bandar Bushir,
and other places: here again the dates were put at a very remote
period. With the exception of a few flint saw-blades from Warka [1],
Fara, Zurghul, and Babylon [2], no similar remains had been found in
Babylonia until, in 1918, Capt. R. Campbell Thompson, exploring on
behalf of the British Museum, discovered flint and obsidian flakes
and painted pottery lying on the surface of the desert at Tell Abu
Shahrein (ERIDU), and also at Tell Muqayyar (UR). The continued
excavations carried out by Mr. H. R. Hall for the Museum in 1919 have
produced more of the same evidence from both places, besides a new
'prehistoric' site at Tell el-Ma'abed or Tell el-'Obeid near Ur. It
seems that these antiquities date from the very end of the neolithic,
or rather to the succeeding 'chalcolithic', age; whether they are
really prehistoric, as regards Babylonian history, must until more
evidence from stratified deposits is found remain undecided. They
prove the occupation of the head of the Persian Gulf at the beginning
of history by a people whose primitive art was closely akin to that
of early Elam, and distinct from that of the Sumerians.
[1] Found by Loftus in 1854: their early date was not recognized at
the time.
[2] Koldewey, _Excavations at Babylon, E.T._, p. 261, fig. 182.
Koldewey curiously speaks of the saw-blades as 'palaeolithic.' They
are, of course, nothing of the sort.
Characteristics: flint, chert, obsidian, green and red jasper, and
quartz-crystal flakes, arrowheads, cores, and saw-blades. Chert and
limestone rough hoe-blades (easily mistaken for palaeolithic
implements; they are, however, much flatter); polished serpentine or
jasper celts; lentoid (lentil-shaped), amygdaloid (almond-shaped),
and discoid beads of cornelian, crystal, obsidian, &c., unpolished;
nails of translucent quartz and obsidian (obviously imitations of
metal types); hard grey pottery sickles, pottery cones of various
sizes, and pottery objects like gigantic nails bent up at the ends;
pottery painted with designs in black, usually geometrical (see
illustration XIV, Fig. 1), but sometimes showing plant-forms or even
animals. This ware is often very fine, so much so as to look as if
wheelmade. The shapes are chiefly bowls (often closely resembling
early Egyptian stone bowl types), pots with suspension-handles or
lugs, and spouted 'kettles'. All these objects are at Shahrein and
el-'Obeid found lying on the desert surface at the distance of 50 or
100 yards from the tell; they are supposed to have been washed out of
the lower strata of the latter by rains. Objects of this kind should
be recorded from any site, and the neighbourhood of a desert tell
should always be searched for them.
[ILLUSTRATION XIV MESOPOTAMIAN POTTERY, SEALS, ETC].
[ILLUSTRATION XV: CUNEIFORM AND OTHER SCRIPTS].
II. EARLY BRONZE (Copper) AGE: First Sumerian (pre-Sargonic) Period;
c. 3500-3000 B.C. Earliest Sumerian civilization.
Typical sites. Older strata at Telloh (LAGASH); Fara (SHURUPPAK);
Tell 'Obeid (ancient name as yet unknown); Shahrein (ERIDU).
Characteristics. Writing. First appearance of script, already
conventionalized from pictographs. Cut on stone and incised on clay
tablets and bricks of characteristic early style. Brick buildings,
with crenellated walls (until the discovery of Tell 'Obeid supposed
to date only from the later Sumerian period) of typical plano-convex
bricks, baked or crude, usually with thumb-mark down length of
convex side (Shahrein), or with two thumb-holes (for carrying the
brick when wet?), or vent-holes ('Obeid); at first uninscribed, later
with long inscriptions; measuring 10 x 6 x 2-2 1/4 ins. (Shahrein),
and 8 x 6 x 2-2 1/4 ins. ('Obeid); poorly shaped and baked (see XIV,
Fig. 3). Bitumen used for mortar; laid very thick. Hard white stucco
on internal faces of crude brick house walls, often decorated with
red, white, and black painted horizontal stripes (Shahrein.)
Pottery. Wheel and hand-made; drab, fine or coarse paste, unpainted
and usually undecorated. Typical shapes: (see XIV, Figs. 2 abc)
mostly handleless vases, and cups, and spouted 'kettles' (again often
resembling early Egyptian types).
Metals: Copper. Extensive use: large copper figures of animals,
heads cast, bodies of copper plates fastened by nails over a core of
clay with a mixture of bitumen and straw; the figures have eyes,
tongues, and teeth of red and white stone and nacre (Tell 'Obeid);
goat's head with inlaid eyes of nacre (Fara). Otherwise ordinary
treatment of eye shows a number of wrinkle lines round it, and it is
always disproportionately large (bull's heads, Tell 'Obeid and
Telloh). Small fragments of copper or bronze on the surface of a tell
should never be neglected, as there may be enough in any fragment to
give an idea of possible archaic remains within the tell.
Silver. Rare. Fine engraved vase of Entemena (Telloh, _Louvre_).
Gold. Not uncommon. Copper nails with gold-plated heads (Shahrein).
Stone. Portrait figures in round (Bismaya, Telloh, &c.), usually
representing men, with face and head shaven; very prominent large
curved nose; usually squatting with arms crossed, sometimes standing;
only garment a kilt apparently made of locks of natural wool. Usually
inscribed in archaic characters on back of shoulders. Material: a
grey or a white limestone most usual; tufa and dolerite also used.
Reliefs: large stelae (Stele of the Vultures; Telloh, _Louvre_,
fragment in _B. M._), completely inscribed; small relief plaques,
inscribed (Telloh, _Louvre_). Flint carved and engraved cylinder-
seals, of limestone, black basalt, jasper, diorite, &c. Vases, bowls,
and cups (usually fragmentary), of white and pink limestone and
breccia. Maceheads of breccia, granite, &c., of same type as the
early Egyptian (Shahrein).
Shell. Very largely used for decoration; small plaques of nacre
often engraved with scenes of men worshipping, &c. (Telloh);
tessellated pillars with nacre plaques ('Obeid). Seal-cylinders of
shell.
Wood. Rarely survives; small beams plated with copper ('Obeid).
Burials. Pottery coffins with lids, mat burials; bodies contracted;
funerary furniture, copper, stone or pottery drinking cups held near
mouth: copper weapons, fish-hooks, net weights; beads of agate,
lapis, shell (unpolished); colour-dishes, (Fara). (The idea that the
Babylonians ever burnt their dead is now discredited; the supposed
'fire-necropoles' at Zurghul, &c., are not substantiated.)
The burials are hard to distinguish from similar contracted
interments of later date, except that the furniture is more abundant
in early times and mat graves are unusual in later days Mounds of
this age may be known by the occurrence on the surface of scraps of
oxydized copper, nails, &c.; shell-fragments; undecorated light drab
sherds; and the typical small plano-convex bricks.
III. MIDDLE BRONZE AGE.
1. Early Semitic or Akkadian (Sargonid) period; c. 3000-2500 B.C.
Characteristics. Less crude style of art: development of writing (see
XIV, Fig. 1); first inscribed clay tablets of usual style; beginnings
of cuneiform, developed from the archaic semi-pictographic character.
Bricks still plano-convex; stamped inscriptions begin. Stone
maceheads of same type as earlier. Large and well-cut cylinder-seals
of fine limestone, lapis, diorite, granite, and shell are
characteristic of the period: they are generally of an easily
recognizable form (reel-shaped) with sides showing a marked concavity
(see XIV, Fig. 5). The great development of art is shown by the stele
of Naram-Sin (_Louvre_) found at Susa. Not many mounds of this period
have been dug.
2. Later Sumerian (Gudea) and early Semitic Babylonian (Hammurabi)
periods; c. 2500-1800 B.C.
Characteristics. Typical 'Gudea' style of sculpture, in round and
relief (Telloh, _Louvre_); materials hard diorite, dolerite and
basalt as well as limestone: characteristic treatment of eye with
heavily marked brows: elaborate tiaras and head-dresses of female
figures, &c. Very high development. Regular use of cuneiform on clay
tablets and cones (see XV, Figs. 13-15); non-cuneiform character (in
a developed form) still used in brick stamps (XV, Fig. 10) and on
stone monuments. Bricks (XIV, Fig. 4) now rectangular and well made,
either square (14 ins., usually, by 2 1/2 ins. thick) or oblong (11
1/2 x 8 x 2 1/2 ins., or 10 x 5 x 2 1/2 ins.) with stamps or incised
inscriptions of Ur-Engur, Dungi, Bur-Sin, Gudea and other kings (XV,
Fig. 10), from Ur, Shahrein, Telloh, Niffer, &c. Bricks of Bur-Sin
from Shahrein often have inscription-stamps also on the smaller sides
(thickness). Great buildings of crude and baked brick (Telloh, Ur);
temple-towers (ziggurats) of crude brick faced with burnt brick (Ur,
Shahrein, Niffer). Town ruins of Hammurabi's age (Babylon): crude
brick: plans always confused and haphazard. Bitumen still used for
mortar. Burials, contracted, often in double pots (mouth to mouth),
sealed with bitumen. With the bodies are found large numbers of agate
and cornelian beads, unpolished.
Mounds of this period may be recognized by the typical square or
oblong bricks (often with thumb-holes), with stamps of kings' names,
&c., in non-cuneiform characters, or with hand-incised inscriptions
in early cuneiform, made while the clay was wet; clay tablets or
cones inscribed in early cuneiform; copper nails (those with gold-
plated heads found at Shahrein may also date from this time); drab or
black pottery sherds with impressed or incised designs, generally
rough and evidently made with a piece of stick or the thumb-nail;
rough stone quern-slabs with rubbers, grinding and hammer-stones,
&c.; and the burials described above (these, however, also occur in
later times).
IV. LATER BRONZE AGE:
Kassite, Middle Babylonian, and Early Assyrian periods; c. 1800-
1000 B.C.
Characteristics. Stabilization of Babylonian art; typical 'Kassite'
cylinder-seals with straight sides (XIV, Fig. 6); disappearance of
old non-cuneiform character with gradual disuse of Sumerian; early
stone-cut inscriptions in cuneiform (see XV, Fig. 16; an Elamite
inscription). Occasional and rare appearance of glazed pottery
(imitation of Egyptian), and multi-coloured glass; early Assyrian
sculpture (those unversed in minutiae of Mesopotamian art will only
be able to tell this earlier work from the later by the earlier style
of the accompanying inscriptions). Not many mounds of this period
have been dug.
V. EARLY IRON AGE:
1. Late Babylonian and Assyrian periods; c. 1000-540 B.C.
Characteristics. Flourishing period of Assyrian art and writing (for
details see the archaeological books, which are very full on this
period). Mounds may be known by the occurrence of fragments of
granite or basalt bowl-querns, often with feet; pieces or whole vases
of the multi-coloured opaque glass usually called 'Phoenician' (which
are already found in the preceding period); alabaster pots; straight-
sided cylinder seals (see XIV, Fig. 6); Syrian conical seals of
steatite (XIV, Fig. 7); small and rude clay figures of deities, such
as Ishtar or Papsukal (the guardian of buildings), and animals, such
as horses, sheep, doves, ducks, &c.; bronze pins, often with birds on
the heads; baked clay tablets of the fine Kuyunjik type (see XV, Fig.
12; script, Fig. 17); pottery lamps with long protruding curved
nozzles; pottery vases simple and undecorated save by incised lines,
as for many centuries past (for types see XIV, Figs. 9 a b c d);
light-blue glazed ware introduced from Egypt towards end of period;
polychrome glazed ware with designs of rosettes, chevrons) &c.,
somewhat earlier; large pots without feet common for storage of grain
and oil, sometimes for tablets: mouth often closed with a brick.
Stone pithoi are also found. Vertical drains or sinks, made of a
number of pottery cylindrical drums, fitting on top of or into one
another, are found everywhere on town-mounds of this period; visitors
should avoid tumbling into them, as they are often open or only
covered by a very thin crust of earth. Usually they are perforated to
allow of soaking into the surrounding earth, and are, when excavated
whole, generally found capped by, a beehive-shaped perforated cover.
Sometimes these drains were made of old pots with their lower parts
broken off, and fitted into one another. Secular buildings were of
burnt brick; sacred buildings usually of crude brick, from religious
conservatism. Crude bricks nearly always oblong; burnt bricks square
(14 ins.) or oblong (9x6x3 ins.). The burnt brick of Nebuchadnezzar's
time is extraordinarily fine and hard, and the bitumen-mortar so
finely spread as to be almost invisible (Babylon). Walls of this
reign have a rock-like solidity and tenacity that should make them
easily recognizable. Those of immediately preceding reigns show the
bitumen far more clearly, and the bricks are usually not as finely
made as Nebuchadnezzar's; at Babylon the latter's work is thus at
once distinguishable from that of Nabopolassar. A typical brick-
inscription of Nebuchadnezzar is illustrated above, XV, Fig. 11. It
is in the revived archaic script, always used for this purpose by the
late Babylonian kings. Use of coloured glazed brick is characteristic
of period; often relief figures of animals are made up of glazed
bricks each specially moulded for its proper position and numbered
(Ishtar Gate, Babylon). Royal palaces were often decorated with
reliefs depicting conquests, &c., carved on slabs of alabastrine
marble placed along the brick walls, with great statues of human-
headed bulls (_Cherubim_), &c. (Nimrud [CALAH], Kuyunjik [NINEVEH],
Khorsabad. _Brit. Mus._ and _Louvre_.) Burials usually in drab clay
pot-coffins (larnakes) with covers; bodies still contracted; funerary
furniture scanty, consisting chiefly of pins, beads, an occasional
cylinder-seal, and a few pots (XIV, Figs. 9 a b c d). Ribbed pots
with blue (weathered green) glaze, often pitched both within and
without, were also employed towards the end of the period, inverted
over the bodies. Also anthropoid pottery sarcophagi, an idea imported
from Egypt. Child burials in bowls. Iron objects sometimes buried
with the dead; often found in palace-ruins (weapons, horse-furniture,
&c.). Bronze commonly used for gates, door, bolts, &c. (Gates of
Shalmaneser's palace; _Brit. Mus._).
2. Persian (Achaemenian) period: c. 540-330 B.C.
This period is distinguished from the former by the less frequent use
of bronze, the introduction of coinage, and the development of the
simplified Persian cuneiform writing (never on tablets, only on stone
monuments; see XV, Fig. 18). Bitumen ceased to be used as mortar in
buildings. Persian walls (e. g. the Apadana at Babylon) are easily
distinguished by the use of clay mortar, and the unusual thickness of
the mortar-courses between the bricks. Burials in shallow trough-like
pottery coffins, with the bodies at full length, but with the knees
slightly flexed (these continued during the next period).
VI. MIDDLE IRON AGE:
1. Greek and Parthian periods; c. 330 B.C.-220 A.D.
Characteristics. Sudden degeneration and disappearance of the ancient
native civilization and art; imitation of Greek culture, Greek
buildings (theatre at Babylon), and inscriptions; Greek legends on
Parthian coins; Parthian kings call themselves 'Philhellenes';
Graeco-Roman architecture imitated (Hatra). Graeco-Roman terra-
cottas, pottery lamps, pilgrim-flasks and bone-carvings; classical
seal gems; Roman glass; fragments of imitation of classical sculpture
in marble (the material being adopted as well as the style); and, of
course, coins--these are characteristic remains found on mounds of
this period. About l00 B.C. the use of cuneiform was given up; clay
tablets were no longer used. Aramaic became the usual form of
writing; ink used on sherds; wax tablets. Small bowls often found
with ink-written incantations in Judaeo-Aramaic (see XV, Fig. 19).
Mounds of this period are perhaps most easily recognized by the
quantities of deep-blue glazed sherds found lying about on them. The
glaze is rather thin, laid on a coarse drab ware, and is often
cracked. The blue is very fine, rivalling the old Egyptian. Burials
of this period are often found in (besides the shallow pottery
coffins mentioned above) rectangular oblong boxes of thin coarse ware
with light friable blue glaze (Babylon), or (later) in slipper-shaped
coffins (possibly Sassanian) of the same ware, rudely decorated with
human figures (warriors) in relief, on panels (Warka). The blue glaze
has often changed to a dark green, especially in the case of the
Warka slipper-coffins. The lids are cemented to the coffins.
Internments are now full length, the old custom of contraction having
been entirely abandoned [1]. Gold ornaments and pieces of gold leaf,
gold fillets, &c., are not unfrequently found with the bodies,
besides armlets, toe and finger rings, &c., of silver and bronze, the
finger-rings usually of ordinary Roman types; pottery, lamps, and
glass vessels. These coffins are often in brick vaults, usually
placed haphazard in the ground, as in earlier times. Bricks small,
hard, and yellow.
[1] The western custom of cremation was never adopted, in spite of
the Hellenization of culture. It offended both Babylonian and Iranian
sentiment, although the Parthians were never very orthodox followers
of Ahuramazda, and venerated (at least platonically) the most popular
deities of the Greek pantheon.
2. Sassanian Period; c. 220-650 A.D.
Characteristics. Reaction towards Oriental motives in art: a typical
_antika_ of the period is the Sassanian seal of cornelian,
chalcedony, or haematite, in shape sometimes a ring, more often a
flat sphere with one-third cut off to form a seal-base, perforated
for stringing (see XIV, Fig. 8), and inscribed in Pehlevi (see XV,
Fig. 20) a script that to the unitiated looks very like Cufie Arabic:
the language is Old-Persian, which was spoken by the court officials
at Ctesiphon, the language of the people being Aramaic. Sculpture
barbarized, but with a picturesque character of its own (Nakhsh-i-
Rustam, Tak-i-Bostan), sometimes reminiscent of Indian work.
Architecture: Parthian-Roman traditions (Ctesiphon). Pottery usually
glazed blue (thicker glaze). Unglazed bowls with Hebrew and Mandaitic
magical inscriptions. Bronze no longer used except for coins. Objects
from mounds very like those of preceding age, but less of Roman
origin. Not much known of burials; the Warka slipper-coffins usually
regarded as Parthian may possibly be of early Sassanian age.
VII. LATER IRON AGE:
Muhammadan Period; c. 650-1500 A.D.[1]
Characteristics. Development of art under Persian influence till
Tartar conquest in thirteenth century: the destruction and
depopulation of the country at that time brought all real artistic
development to an end. Flourishing period: the 'Abbasid Khalifate:
ninth century: Harun al-Rashid. Ruins of the ancient city and palaces
of Samarra: halls with modelled and painted plaster-decorations, not
only geometrical but also (Persian heterodox influence) representing
trees, birds, &c. No more sculpture in round or relief of human
figures or animals. The only survival of classical tradition would
appear to be to some extent in architecture: Greek architects.
Coins: thin gold, and silver, with Cufic inscriptions only (see XV,
Fig. 21). Mounds of this period may be known by fragments of marble-
carving with Cufic inscriptions, plasterwork, Arab and Persian vase
and tile fragments in thick blue, green, yellow, or brown glaze,
metallic lustre-glaze, &c., variegated glass bangles, and rings; bits
of cloudy white glass (from lamps); fragments of wood, carved and
inlaid with bone, nacre, &c., in geometrical patterns; textile
fragments, (which are naturally not commonly found in older mounds),
&c.
Nothing is said with regard to burials as these may not be touched.
[1] The limit of age which constitutes an 'antiquity' for legal
purposes is fixed in most antiquity-laws at 1500 A.D.
APPENDIX
LAWS OF ANTIQUITIES
The following brief notes on the Laws of Antiquities in force in the
various territories with which this book is concerned must not be
taken as absolving the traveller from the necessity of consulting the
full text of the laws. At the time of going to press, the Turkish Law
presumably prevails in such parts of the Turkish Empire as are not
occupied by the troops of the Entente; in the remainder, temporary
regulations are in force which will doubtless be modified when the
new governments are established; and it is possible that the Turkish
Law itself may be brought into greater harmony with modern ideas.
The Greek Law of Antiquities.
[Greek], 24 July 1899, Athens, [Greek] 1889.
All antiquities found are the property of the Government and are
controlled by an Archaeological Commission, consisting of the Ephor
General of Antiquities and the ephors of the archaeological
collections in Athens. Fixed antiquities must be reported by the
discoverer to the Ephor General or one of the ephors of antiquities
or other official. Damaging of ruins or remains of monuments is
forbidden. Owners of the land on which portable antiquities desirable
for the National Museums are found are compensated to the extent of
half their value. Any person who finds antiquities on his land must
report them within five days, on pain of confiscation. The same
applies to any one who finds antiquities on another person's land, or
in any other way comes into possession of antiquities. Informers
against breaches of the law are rewarded by the amount of the
compensation due to those who keep the law. Objects not considered
worth keeping by the Museums are returned to the owner of the land.
Excavations, even on private property, must be authorized by the
Ministry of Education. The Government has the right of expropriating
land for purposes of excavation. In Government excavations, the owner
of the land receives one-third of the value of the objects considered
worth keeping by the Museums. Secret excavation is punished by
confiscation of the finds, imprisonment and temporary loss of civil
rights. In authorized excavations by a landowner or his
representative the excavator receives half the value of the finds
taken by the Museums. Any one attempting to excavate on another man's
land is punished by imprisonment. Antiquities found in the country
may not be exported (on pain of imprisonment or fine and temporary
loss of civil rights) without permission, which is only granted for
objects not considered by the Archaeological Commission to be of use
to the Museums. Such objects on export are subject to a tax of 10
percent. _ad valorem_ unless declared entirely valueless by the
Commission. Antiquities imported into the country must be declared in
the Customs House and reported to the Ephor General of Antiquities, a
descriptive catalogue in duplicate being sent, and cannot be re-
exported without permission, which is obtained by producing the
articles with the original catalogue to the Ephor General; if not
reported they are regarded as having been found in the country.
The Turkish Law of Antiquities.
Loi sur les Antiquites promulguee le 29 Sefer 1324 (10 Avril 1322).
Extrait du _Levant Herald_ du 8, 9, 11 et 13 Juin 1906. Constantinople,
Imprimerie du _Levant Herald,_ Pera, 1906.
Antiquities are controlled by the Director-General of the Imperial
Museums and a Commission, the Directors of Public Instruction in the
provinces acting as agents. All ancient monuments and objects
(including those of Islamic date) are the property of the Government.
Any fixed antiquities discovered must be reported under pain of fine
within 15 days to the official in charge of antiquities, or in his
absence to the nearest civil or military official. Punishment by fine
and imprisonment is inflicted for destroying or injuring monuments,
measuring or making impressions without authorization.
Transportable antiquities found on a man's land must be reported by
him within a week. The landowner receives half the value of objects
thus reported and bought by the State; objects not reported are
confiscated, and the landowner fined. This clause applies to those
who find antiquities on land belonging to other private persons or to
the State. Excavation is the exclusive privilege of the Museums, but
firmans may be obtained by scientific societies and specialists.
Unauthorized excavation is punished by imprisonment and confiscation.
The State has the right of making preliminary soundings and of
expropriation. Applications for leave to excavate must be made to the
Minister of Public Instruction. All finds belong to the State.
Unauthorized dealing in antiquities is punishable by fine,
imprisonment, and confiscation. Exportation of antiquities found in
the Empire is forbidden. Antiquities imported must be reported to the
directorate of antiquities, and may not be sent from one part of the
Empire to another, or re-exported, without permission from the
Director-General.
The Cypriote Law of Antiquities.
To Consolidate and Amend the Law relating to Ancient Monuments and
Antiquities, and to provide Museums. Law no. IV of 1905. See Sir J.
T. Hutchinson and S. Fisher, _The Statute Laws of Cyprus,_ 1878-1906
(London, 1906), pp. 595-608.
Objects later than the Turkish conquest, and coins of Byzantine or
later times, are not deemed to be antiquities. All undiscovered
antiquities of movable character are the property of the Government;
all immovable antiquities are also the property of the Government,
unless some person shall be the owner of them. All antiquities must
be reported by the person in possession of them to the Museum
Committee, on pain of confiscation; antiquities found except in the
course of authorized excavations must be reported within five days to
the District Commissioner, One-third of such movable antiquities is
taken by the Government, one-third by the finder, and one-third by
the owner of the land. Damage to ancient monuments is punished by
fine or imprisonment or both. Unauthorized excavation, even on land
belonging to the excavator, and the purchasing of objects illegally
excavated, are punished by fine or imprisonment or both. Application
for leave to excavate must be made to the Chief Secretary for
Government. All antiquities found in excavation belong to the
Government; only duplicates, and objects not required by the Museum,
are given to the excavator. The Government has the right to
expropriate land for the purpose of excavations. The Museum Committee
may acquire the interests of any private person in an antiquity on
payment of compensation. If the sum agreed on is not paid within six
months, the Museum Committee loses all right to its acquisition.
Export of antiquities is forbidden except with the permission of the
High Commissioner, which is granted only for objects not required by
the Museum or for antiquities the interests in which the Museum
Committee has failed to acquire in the manner described.
The Egyptian Law of Antiquities.
La Nouvelle Loi sur les Antiquites de l'Egypte et ses annexes.
Service des Antiquites. Le Caire, Imprimerie de l'Institut francais
d'archeologie orientala. 1913.
All antiquities belong to the State. The State has the right of
expropriating ground containing antiquities. Transportable
antiquities when found must be reported to nearest administrative
authority or agents of the Service of Antiquities: the finder
receives half the objects thus reported or their value. Excavation,
dealing in antiquities, and exportation are forbidden unless under
authorization. Destruction of and damage to antiquities is punishable
by fine and imprisonment. Applications for leave to export or to
excavate should be made to the Director-General of Service of
Antiquities. A tax of 1 1/2 per cent. is levied on the declared value
of objects passed for export. Leave to excavate is granted only to
savants recommended by Governments or learned societies, or to
private persons presenting proper guarantees. The excavator pays the
cost of guarding the site. The Government takes half the portable
objects found.
General Principles of a Model Law of Antiquities for the Near and
Middle East.
The following statement of Principles which should form the
foundation of the Laws of Antiquities to be enacted for the various
Provinces formerly under Turkish rule was drawn up by an
International Committee in Paris and recommended to the Commission
for regulating the Mandates under the League of Nations. It follows
closely the Recommendations of the Archaeological Joint Committee on
the same subject. It was proposed at the same time that the Treaty
with Turkey should enjoin the adoption by that Power of a Law of
Antiquities on the same lines:
Principes du reglement devant etre adopte par chacune des Puissances
mandataires.
1. 'ANTIQUITY' signifie toute construction, tout produit de
l'activite humaine, anterieur a l'annee 1700.
2, Toute personne qui, ayant decouvert une antiquite, la signalera a
un employe du Departement des Antiquites du pays, sera recompensee
suivant la valeur de l'objet, le principe a adopter devant etre
d'agir par encouragement plutot que par menace.
3. Aucun objet antique ne pourra etre vendu sauf au Departement des
Antiquites du pays, mais si ce Departement renonce a l'acquerir la
vente en deviendra libre. Aucune antiquite ne pourra sortir du pays
sans un permis d'exportation dudit Departement.
4. Toute personne qui, expres ou par negligence, detruira ou
deteriorera un objet ou une construction antique, devra etre passible
d'une peine a fixer par l'autorite du pays.
5. Aucun deblaiement ni aucune fouille ayant pour objet la recherche
d'antiquites ne seront permis sous peine d'amendc, sauf aux personnes
autorisees par le Departement des Antiquites du pays.
6. Des conditions equitables devront etre fixees par chaque Puissance
mandataire pour l'expropriation temporaire ou permanente des terrains
qui pourraient offrir un interet historique ou archeologique.
7. Les autorisations pour les fouilles ne devront etre accordees
qu'aux personnes qui offrent des garanties suffisantes d'experience
archeologique. Aucune des Puissances mandataires ne devra, en
accordant ces autorisations, agir de facon a ecarter, sans motif
valable, les savants des autres nations.
8. Les produits des fouilles pourront etre divises entre le
fouilleur et le Departement des Antiquites de chaque pays dans une
proportion fixee par ce Departement. Si, pour des raisons
scientifiques, la division ne semble pas possible, le fouilleur devra
recevoir, au lieu d'une partie de la trouvaille, une juste indemnite.
INDEX
Abu Shahrein, 85, 88, 90.
Achaemenian period in Mesopotamia, 93.
Aegean, prehistoric age in the 36 f: pottery in Palestine, 73.
Aeneolithic; see Chalcolithic.
Akkadian period, 90.
Alphabets: see Inscriptions.
Aramaic inscriptions, 62, 66; in Mesopotamia, 93.
Archaeological Joint Committee, 38.
Arches, corbelled, 40.
Arcosolium tombs, 71 f.
Asia Minor, 47 ff.
Assyrian period, 91.
Attic pottery, 44 f.
Babylon. 85, 90, 92 f.
Babylonian period, 91.
Bandar Bushir, 85.
Barometer, 10, 33.
Bavian, 83.
Beads: Cypriote, 56: Egyptian, 78 f.; Greek, 41; Hittite, 60;
Mesopotamian, 88 ff.; Syrian, 64.
Belt Jibrin, 73.
Bitumen in Mesopotamia, 84, 88.
Black-figured Greek pottery, 44.
Bricks, 14 f.; in Egypt, 82; in Mesopotamia, 84-93.
Bronze Age: in Asia Minor, 48; in Cyprus, 56; in Greece, 36 f.; in
Mesopotamia, 88; in Syria, 60.
Bronze, forgeries in, 24.
Brooches (fibulae): Greek, 40, 44; in Syria, 61 f.
Bubastites, 79.
Buildings, recording of, 14.
Burials: see Tombs.
Buying, advice about. 24 f.
Calah, 92.
Camera, 10 f.
Casting in plaster, 19.
Caves, 15, 72.
Cemeteries, 15, 55, 70, 78: see also Tombs.
Chalcolithic period: in Mesopotamia, 85: in Syria, 59 f.
Cisterns in Palestine, 77.
Coins; in Cyprus, 58; in Egypt, 79; in Mesopotamia, 84, 92 ff.;
forgeries of, 24; making impressions of, 19 f; recording finds of, 9.
Combs, Egyptian, 78.
Committee, Archaeological Joint, 28.
Compass, prismatic, 10.
Copper: in Mesopotamia, 88 f.; in Syria, 60.
Copying, 17 ff.
Corbelled arches, 40.
'Corinthian' pottery, 41.
Crete, 36; pottery from, in Palestine, 73.
Crusaders' churches in Palestine, 76.
Ctesiphon, 84, 94.
Cuneiform inscriptions: in Asia Minor, 51; in Mesopotamia, 90 ff.
Cup-markings in Palestine, 77.
Cyclopean walls, 40
Cylinders and cylinder-sealings: in Cyprus, 56; in Egypt, 78;
Hittite, 60, 62, 64; in Mesopotamia, 89 ff.
Cyprus, 54 ff.; Law of Antiquities, 97; pottery from, in Palestine,
73.
Dipylon period, 40.
Dolmens in Palestine, 77.
Drawing and copying, 17 f.
Egypt, 78-82; Law of Antiquities, 98.
Egyptian hieroglyphics, 20; pottery in Palestine, 73; scarabs
imitated in Syria, 62; stone bowls, Mesopotamian pottery types
resembling, 88.
Eridu, 85, 88.
Excavations: laws controlling, 95 ff.; unauthorized, 7.
Fara, 85, 88 f.
Fibulae: see Brooches.
Figurines: Cypriote, 55; Greek, 35, 40 f., 44 f.; Syrian, 60, 62, 64.
Finds, importance of not breaking up, 9.
Flint implements, 29 ff.: see also Stone Age.
Forgeries, 24 f.
Geometric bronze age ware in Greece, 36; period, 40.
Glass; in Cyprus, 57; in Egypt, 78 ff.; in Mesopotamia, 91; in
Syria, 64.
Glaze, Egyptian, 78 f.; imitated in Babylonia, 91.
Greece, 35 ff., Law of Antiquities, 95.
Hatra, 84.
Hebrew alphabets, 66.
Hieroglyphics, copying of, 17, 20; Hittite, 51, 62.
Hill sanctuaries in Palestine, 76.
Hittite antiquities: in Asia Minor, 51; in Syria, 59 ff.
Inscriptions: copying of, 17, 20 f.; Aramaic, 63, 66, 93; cuneiform,
51, 87, in Cyprus, 57, Greek, 44, 51 f; Hittite, 51, 62; Latin, 53;
Lycian,51; Lydian, 51; in Palestinian tombs, 71; Semitic, 62, 66 f.,
87.
Institutions, archaeological, 26 f.
Iron Age: in Asia Minor, 50; in Cyprus, 56; in Greece, 40; in
Mesopotamia, 91-93; in Syria, 60, 62.
Itinerary, recording of, 13 f.
Jewellery, forged, 24.
Kassite period, 91.
Khirbet (khirbah), 68 ff.
Khorsabad, 92.
Kohl-pots, 62,78 f.
Kok tombs, 71 f.
Kuyunjik, 85, 92.
Laconian pottery, 45.
Lagash, 88.
Lamps, Aegean, 37.
Latin inscriptions in Asia Minor, 53.
Laws of Antiquities, 7, 95 ff.
Levelling, 33.
Licences for acquiring antiquities, 9.
Lycian inscriptions and monuments, 51.
Lydian inscriptions, 51.
Ma'abed, Tell el-, 85.
Mastabas, 78.
Mapping, 13.
Mesopotamia, 83 ff.
Minoan Age. 36; pottery in Palestine, 73.
'Minyan' ware, 37.
Mortar, bitumen, 84, 90, 92.
Mosaic, 77, 79.
Mounds, 14: see also Tell.
Muqayyar, Tell, 85.
Museums, use of, 7 f.
'Mycenaean' Age, 37; pottery in Palestine, 73.
Naksh-i-Rustam, 94.
Neolithic Age: see Stone Age.
Niffer, 90.
Nimrud, 92.
Nineveh, 85, 92.
Numerals, West Semitic, 67.
'Obeid, Tell el-, 85, 88 f.
Obsidian: Aegean, 37; Mesopotamian, 85, 88.
Olive-presses in Palestine, 77.
Orientalizing Greek antiquities, 41, 44.
Outfit, 10 f.
Packing of antiquities, 22 f.
Palestine, 65 ff.
Papyri, forged, 24.
Paraffin-wax, 22 f.
Parthian period in Mesopotamia, 93.
Pehlevi script, 93 f.
Persian period: in Mesopotamia, 92; in Syria, 62.
Photography, 10 f., 21 f.
Phrygian inscriptions, 55.
Pins: Greek, 40, 44; Hittite, 60, 62; Mesopotamian, 91.
Place-names, Eastern, 68 f., 83.
Planning, 14, 16 f.
Plaster casting, 19 f.
Pottery, _passim_; hand-made and wheel-made, 29, 49 f; importance of,
29. 84; packing of, 23.
Preservation of antiquities, 22 f.
'Proto-Corinthian' pottery, 41.
Ptolemaic period, 79.
Red-figured Greek pottery, 44.
Rhodian jar-handles: in Egypt, 79; in Palestine, 73.
Rock-cut tombs, 70 f.
Rock-sculptures in Mesopotamia, 83.
Saites, 79.
Samarra, 94.
Sanctuaries: in Cyprus, 54 f.; in Palestine, 76.
Sargonid period, 90.
Sassanian period, 93 f.
Scarabs: in Cyprus, 56; in Egypt, 78; in Syria, 62, 64; forged, 24.
Schools of archaeology, 8, 26 f.
Sculpture, squeezing of, 18.
Seals: Aegean, 37; Hittite, 62; Mesopotamian, 86, 89, 91; Sassanian,
93; Syrian, of Persian period, 64: see also Cylinders, Scarabs.
Semitic inscriptions, 62, 65-7, 87.
Shahrein, Tell Abu, 85, 88, 90.
Shuruppak, 88.
Sinjerli, 59, 62.
Sites, identification of, 68.
Societies, archaeological, 8, 26 f.
Squeezing, 17 ff.
Stone Age, 29 ff.; in Asia Minor, 48; in Cyprus, 56; in Greece, 35
f.; in Mesopotamia, 84 f., 88; in Palestine, 76; in Syria, 59 f.
Sumerian period, 88 ff.
Susa, 85.
Syria, Central and North, 59ff.
Tak-i-Bostan, 94.
Tall: see Tell.
Telephotography, 12.
Tell (mound), 68 f., 83.
Telloh, 88 ff.
Tepe Musyan, 85.
Terra-cottas; see Figurines.
Trees, sacred, 77.
Tombs and burials: in Cyprus, 55; in Mesopotamia. 89-94; 'of the
Kings', at Jerusalem, 71; rockcut, in Palestine, 70 f.; in Syria, 59
f: see also Cemeteries.
Turkish Law of Antiquities, 96.
Ukheidir, 84.
Ur, 85, 90.
'Urfirnis' ware, 37.
Ushabtis, 78 f.
Warka, 85, 93 f.
Wine-presses in Palestine, 77.
Zurghul, 85, 89.
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