A NEW ERA IN PALESTINE EXPLORATION. 



By Elihu Gbant, 

 Haverford College. 



[With 7 plates.] 



Every indication points to the beginning of new opportunities and 

 new interest in the subject of Oriental research in Western Asia and 

 adjacent lands. It is impossible, of course, to forecast the disturb- 

 ances which may yet arise but the general disposition of the prov- 

 inces of the old Turkish Empire bids fair to affect favorably the 

 problems of archeology so far as field-work goes. Exploration in 

 Bible lands leads usually to an increase in our knowledge of all the 

 lands and peoples between Persia and Italy. The study of the sub- 

 ject has always been an aid to an understanding of the civilizations 

 which account for more than half of human history. Language, law, 

 philosophy, geography, ethnology, and sociology have often profited 

 by enquiries which were set on foot, in the first instance, for the 

 sake of a better understanding of the Old and New Testaments. 



The earlier ages of travel and exploration in Palestine culminated 

 in the excellent publications of Robinson in the middle of the Nine- 

 teenth Century. A second period, of the greater excavations, be- 

 gan shortly after that time and now a third seems to have opened 

 under more favorable governmental conditions in the Holy Land. 



What heartbreaking difficulties were met in that second, or heroic 

 period ! The groaning complaints of those scientific venturers who 

 attempted to explore lands held by the Turks may be read in many 

 a volume and article. Besides the complaints rose the wails of ob- 

 servers who saw the native digger evade the law and bring in his 

 illicit finds from rifled tomb and mound to sell to the curious buyer 

 of " antikies." It still remains true, however, that not a tithe of the 

 ruin heaps of ancient cities and villages have been scratched. The 

 chances are so good that when the opportunity opens, one eagerly 

 scans a dozen possibilities, wondering which place will be most re- 

 warding. 



One blessing which followed from the old system of things, or 

 lack of it, was that in spite of the secret digging of the ignorant 

 vender, most of the precious archives in the dirt were spared until 



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