CLASSICAL ARCHEOLOGY 2ig 



eigner to dig as Layard did in Assyria in 1845 and Schliemann at 

 Troy in 1870, and di Cesnola on Cyprus, also in 1870, without formal 

 permission from the Porte. The official eye is watchful of excava- 

 tions. The Turkish law no longer allows a general permission for 

 archeological excavations ; the firman is granted for only two years, 

 and may be withdrawn if the excavation is not begun within three 

 months ; it is for a single definite place, no more than ten square 

 kilometers in area ; and the Minister of Public Instruction may order 

 at any time the suspension of the excavations. Practically, however, 

 when a firman of this kind has once been granted, it is renewed with 

 little difficulty. Doubtless the Porte has been more ready to grant 

 special privileges to the Germans because of the intimate relations 

 at present of the two empires. 



Syria. — In Syria two towns near Tyre are reported to show indica- 

 tions of relations between the Carthaginians and later Ty rians or of old 

 Phoenician settlements. These might afford information greatly de- 

 sired just now. The discover)^ of a wealth}^ and arti.stic civilization in 

 Crete, of the second millennium B. C, which had close relations with 

 Egypt and yet was not dominated by it, rouses special interest in the 

 inquiry with regard to the relations between Crete and the western 

 shore of the Mediterranean. Did the Philistines go to their later 

 homes from Crete, as some have thought, or did they from Syria 

 influence the island ? The Rev. Dr. Eddy, who has spent his life 

 near Sidon and has kept in touch with archeological work, recom- 

 mends the towns referred to, and thinks also that $5,000 or $6,000 

 expended in excavations on the site of Dan would be very remunera- 

 tive in results. His opinion is the more valuable since he is perhaps 

 the chief adviser of the natives in their archeological finds. 



A much more magnificent undertaking in Syria would be the 

 exploration of the site of Antioch, on the Orontes, the most impor- 

 tant of the cities founded by Seleucus Nicator, 300 B. C, in honor 

 of the victory at Ipsus and named for his father, Antiochus — third 

 in importance of the cities of the Roman Empire, being next to 

 Rome and Alexandria, a city which played a great part in the his- 

 tory of Christendom, where ' ' the disciples were first called Chris- 

 tians," the patriarch of Antioch ranking with those of Rome and 

 Constantinople, a city about which fierce battles raged during the 

 Crusades. Antioch was the metropolis of the Orient, but it has 

 been shaken frequently by earthquakes since its early ages. Ten 

 times within the first six centuries it is said to have suffered greatly 

 from this cause. The shocks of 457-458 and 526-528 A. D. are 



