THE GRAND OPPORTUNITY FOR ARCHAEOLOGY.
IT is sincerely to be hoped that in the consideration of Peace terms our statesmen are not losing sight, of the enormous possibilities for archaeological research which are introduced by the reconstruction of nations everywhere, When men's minds are besieged by vast and confusing political problems, they are only too apt to overlook what seems a little matter like._ archaeology. But in truth the study of ancient stones in order to trace into the remote past the self- education of the human race is one of the most humane and civilizing of intellectual pursuits. Co-operation in this great work would be one of the best bonds of international union under the new order. If proper provision is not made in the Peace Treaties for carrying on excavation in an appropriate manner, and if ancient monuments are not to be protected by common guarantees, the greatest opportunity in history will be missed. The discussions of the Imperial Cabinet about Peace terms will soon merge into those of all the Allies, and ultimately the decisions of the Allies will be discussed in the great Peace Congress ; at no point in these graded discus- sions ought the interests of archa eology to be forgotten. The bridling or removing of Turkish power alone will bring under the survey of archa eologists for the first time a huge field of research. In the past the work of archaeologists in Turkish lands has been performed under every kind of disad- vantage. The scholar, instead of working in circumstances of dignity, serenity, and reasonable comfort, was often flouted by officials and fleeced into the bargain. It will be said that. there is much to place on record against archaeologists them- selves, who have sometimes postponed public to private interests. But indeed archaeology has been the victim of circumstances rather than the willing author of crimes against art and comity. The abusers of Lord Elgin, the transporter of the Athenian Marbles who undoubtedly saved a great deal that would have been destroyed by the Turks, forgot the very strong nature of Elgin's defence. Byron in his indigna- tion simply caricatured Elgin's motives :- " Be ever hailed with equal honour here,
The Gothic monarch and the Pictish peer : - Arms gave the first his right, the last had none, But basely stole what less barbarians won."
But the times have changed, and it is for the nations to 'guarantee, as they easily can, that consideration shall accompany the scholar's charter of freedom.
Under whatever arrangements may be made there ought to be ample scope for co-operation. The last -thing there is room for is the jealousy of scholars. - It may be taken for certain that the Americans will be in the van. Englishmen have much to learn from their methods. The patience and deliberation with which American excavators have been accustomed to work, revealing the results of their labours to the public only when they have considerable and definite results to display, are in rather marked contrast with our own methods. Public opinion here, or rather—since that phrase is to flatter ourselves too much—the opinion of those who give financial support to excavating missions, exacts too frequent exhibitions, to show what is being got for the money. It is further to be hoped that lands which have been nominally secured to research for a long time past, and in which monu- ments have been theoretically protected, will be brought into a general scheme. Egypt is a lurid example of what we mean. The protection has been a fiction. " The brick buildings throughout Egypt," says Dr. Flinders Petrie, " are sold as materials by the Department of Antiquities for a trifling fee from the destroyers so perishes early Christian Egypt." Dr. Flinders Petrie discovered in Egypt the largest fresco pavement known, almost perfect and more than three thousand years old. No arrangements were made for proper access to this gem by visitors, and the end came when the native culti- vators of the surrounding soil smashed the pavement to pieces in order to avoid being troubled by tourists. That fine soldier, the late Sir Stanley Maude, has not been sufficiently praised for the spirit of the Proclamation he issued in Mesopotamia about the preservation of antiquities. He required that in- formation about the discovery of antiquities should be given within a month under penalty, and he laid it down that any one appropriating things discovered was to be fined up to ten times the value. He also provided penalties for malicious damage and for trafficking in antiquities without a licence. We wish we had space even to suggest the possibilities which await excavation in Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia now that a Turkish firman for the excavator will no longer be necessary. In North Syria there are still some beautiful churches to be protected, though the Circassians have not allowed many to remain. In Galilee there are the great synagogues of Capernaum and Chorazin. There are the relics of Syrian civilization in the valley of Jezreel. These are but instances among hundreds. Above all, there is the fascinating problem of the Temple of Jerusalem. As Dr. Flinders Petrie says in his valuable little book, Eastern Ex- ploration, Past and Future (Constable and Co., 2s. 6d. net) : It is the rocky ridge under the dome of the rock and the slopes of that, east and west, dipping down into the arched spaces, which would yield the emplacement of Solomon's Temple." In Mesopotamia the chief Hittite cemeteries were recently wrecked by the natives after they had been exposed in cutting away for the Baghdad Railway. If the framers of the Peace terms do not act promptly, the private interests which are at this moment asserting themselves in every direction will stand in the way of proper research. Much will still be ruined ; much else will be rendered inaccessible. The grand monumental fields of human history must be made safe for the world.
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