ANTIQUITIES OF KEETON.*

The very handsome volume before us, published by subscription, supplies a detailed and extremely readable account of the archaeological researches carried on by British authority after the capture and sack of Kerteh, and the disgraceful destruction of the treasures in the Museum; a collection described on good authority as unique, and containing not only "beautiful specimens of the early and later Greek and Roman periods, but also some rare examples of the Scythian, such as never can be brought together again, for the tombs do not now exist." Summoned

* Antiquities of Iola, and ReseareJies in the Cimmerian Bosphorus ; with Remarks on the xmootoxical and Physical History of the Crimea_ By Duncan Wrnersen, M.D., of the Madras Army, Inspector-General of Hospitals to the late Turkish Contingent, his. Published by Smith, Elder, and Co, from the Medical department of the Indian Civil Service, and with Chinese as well as Indian experience, Dr. M'Pherson assumed, as Inspector

General of Hospitals to the Turkish Contingent, the chief medical post con nected with that body ; and when, after the destruction of the Museum, Lord Panmure issued orders for securing any relics of interest, he was appointed tea committee, jointly with Major Crease and Major West

macott, for the purpose of deciding upon their value. The father of the latter, the late Sir Richard Westmacott, and Mr. Vaux of the British

Museum, are entitled to the credit of having actively urged inquiry. The Doctor gives a list of forty-seven objects of antique sculpture which have been transmitted to the British Museum under Ms directions ; and

he prosecuted, with laudable zeal and a fair amount of success, further

reaeerches amid the extensive range of vast tumuli, or "barrows," in the neighbourhood of Kertch. His narrative comprises three main divisions, —an account of the ancient colonization of the Crimea the story. of his investigations ; and some illustrations of the ethnological and physical characteristics of the region. The aborigines of the Crimea, the Cimmerii, expelled by the Tauri, are said to have founded the ancient nations of the West, Gauls and Britons. The Crimea is identified with the scene of the Odyssey : after the capture of Troy, it was colonized by the Ionian Milesimas, while other Grecian settlements occupied the surrounding lands. Panticapaeum, dedicated to Pan and the site of the modern Kertch, was one of the earliest Milesian settlements, and became the royal city. The first prince occurring in authentic history was Spartacua, about 480 ac. Here reigned the potent Ifithridates, King of Pontes, famous in Roman history (whom Dr.

M'Pherson, by a strange oversight, confounds with the first Mithadates, dating as far back as the conquest of Persia by Alexander, B. c. 334).

The last King was a contemporary of Constantine the Great—the kingdom having endured for about a thousand years. Alms and Goths, and other hordes of barbaric tribes, devastated the country ; the invading Mogul

Tartars succeeded in 1226; a splendid commercial monopoly crowned

Genoese enterprise towards the close of the thirteenth century, lasting for about two hundred years. Then followed the Turkish conquest in 1473, and in 1771 the Russian. These last occupants have made sad havoc with the relics of antiquity ; but within the last forty years the spirit of investigation has been aroused among them, and many valuable discoveries have ensued. Kertch, now wholly Russiauized, is "the Brighton of the Crimea"—or was so until the Allied armies rendered it "a perfect ruin."

With such a history, and with its enormous number of tumuli of Scythian and Milesian origin, Kertch, as may well be supposed, offers a rich field for the antiquarian. Dr. M'Pherson gives a tempting account of some of the Russian "finds." His own researches, experimental in their nature and soon cut short by the evacuation of the Crimea, were less plenteously rewarded, yet they amply testified to the wealth of the ground. On one occasion, he finds a female Grecian bust delicately worked in pure gold, an inch in length; on the site of the old city, buried houses, with immense walls. A subterranean chamber or temple, and many tombs, prove to be empty : skeletons of men, women and horses, lamps, wine, walnuts, vessels in pottery and glass, coins busts, and figures, turn up in others ; while some of the most interesting objects in an archaeological point of view are fibulae exactly analogous to those of the Anglo-Saxons. Are these the relics of the Teutonic body-guard of the Greek Emperors, termed the Varangians ; or do they belong to a far remoter antiquity, indicating a relation between the old Scythian inhabitants and the far ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons ? The question engages the attention of antiquaries, and each alternative has its supporters.

Of course, the searchers were not without their difficulties and disappointments. Now it is the frequent incident of a fall of the earthen walls of the excavation, necessitating precipitate retreat—happily without any

serious mischance. The Tartar peculations are trying in the extreme, and the labourers are tempted with large offers for their discoveries.

Tarantulas, centipedes, and scorpions, make the tombs ticklish ground ;

and the previously explored vaults "seemed to be alive with a species of toad, which crawls up the perpendicular sides of the tombs. They are

very apt to spring upon one's; face, or creep up the trousers, and glue their clammy toes to one's skin. The reptile is smaller and more active than the common toad," but not so unsightly : "its smooth skin is covered with beautiful round spots."

Dr. M'Pherson has a horror of both Turks and Greeks. The first are "to all intents an effete race. To do anything with the higher orders of the Mussulman community is impossible. Instead, of being grateful for the exertions recently made to preserve their independence, the Turks boast of having been the means of setting the dogs to fight against each other on their account' ; these are the exact words which were addressed tea medical gentleman connected with the Sultan's harem, by some of the inmates." As for the Greeks, "there is not, I believe, a more vin dictive race." A litter of beautiful puppies was found in one tomb.

The Doctor wished to keep one of them, and confided it to his Greek servant. This man, dissatiedied with his bateksheesh, "revenged himself by dropping little Pluto into the sea, with a stone tied round his neck" ; and he would, under the same circumstances, "have as calmly consigned a child to the deep." But the Armenians are better; cheerful, willing, laborious, and simple-minded, only in commercial transactions. An other race in Kertch, distinguished many curious peculiarities, are the 'Ceram jeers ; a non-migratory ity of the chosen people, settled here from time immemorial, stationary in numbers, and with the Sadducee tenacity of Scripture authority, to the exclusion of all tradition. The old jaws, under-ground for centuries have something to tell us still : "I examined with much interest the different formations of cra nium, and the diseases which had affected the long bones; and perceived some united fractures which would do credit to the best surgeons of our own day. Toothache, to judge from the number of carious teeth, ap peared to have been a very common affliction; but in no case did I discover any attempt at stopping the teeth, a practice which is known to have existed among the Egyptians."

Dr. M‘Pherson's volume is illustrated with maps, explanatory views, wood-cuts, and coloured lithographs of the relics discovered; many of the latter especially, executed by Mr. C. F. Kell, being careful and effective.

London Printed by Josarn Carrrox, of 320 in the Strand, County of Middlesex. Printer, at the office of ;ours CIA1 IVA , Its, 10, Crane Court, in the Parish et at. Dunstan'a In the wmt, in the City of London; sod Published by the aforesaid Joarru 0.u-roe, at 9, 'Wellington Street, in the Precinct of the Savoy, Strand, in the County of Middlesex.— SASCHDAT. 4th Aron 1857.