CLASSICAI, ARCHEOLOGY 235 



being no longer profitable. A movement has been set on foot lately 

 to forbid the export of any antiquities from Egypt, but this law is 

 thought unnecessary, since the present statute virtually allows the 

 Museum at Cairo to select what it wants from the objects found by 

 the explorers. 



One of the first acts of the new Cretan government was to enact a 

 law similar to that of Greece, but still more stringent in its provisions. 

 No antiquities may be exported from the island except those that are 

 registered as such, with many formalities, on their exportation. The 

 sentiment of the people on the subject is said to be good. Foreign 

 excavators there pledge their word of honor that they will not convey 

 from the island any of the objects which they find. 



In all lands, however, the right of first publication is reserved for 

 the excavator or finder. 



Thus all future excavations in classical lands are to be conducted 

 on the ideal basis — not for spoils, but for science. Twentj' five years 

 ago the Germans were called sentimentalists for undertaking the 

 excavations at Olympia for the Greeks with the agreement that they 

 should receive for themselves only duplicates and the right to make 

 casts and photographs, and it was thought that they would have but 

 few successors. Ten years later, however, the French proposed the 

 excavations at Delphi without asking even for duplicates, if there 

 should be any such. And the strictness of the Greek law has not 

 checked the desire of foreign nations to take part in this work of 

 uncovering the monuments of the past. 



The motive in archeological excavations today is in marked con- 

 trast to that which prevailed in former times. Men have always 

 been aware that objects of more or less value were often or generally 

 buried with the dead, frequently, no doubt, in the belief that the 

 spirit of the dead would be able to use or enjoy them in some way, 

 and again often merely as a tribute of affection, just as flowers are 

 laid upon a grave today. Men have been tempted from time imme- 

 morial to open tombs and to take whatever they could find there for 

 their own use, though the act and the occupation of a grave robber 

 were despised. Thus in some districts the majority of ancient tombs 

 were opened and plundered in early times — many centuries ago. Of 

 thousands of sarcophagi in Lycia, not one has been discovered in 

 modern times which had not been opened previously. In other lands 

 less of this work had been done in antiquity. A few years ago, 

 according to report, three thousand Boeotian tombs which had not 

 been robbed previously were opened by the country people before 



