542 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



skillful readers of their story could open them. May this benefit con- 

 tinue ! From the mounds of Turkestan, Persia, Armenia, Asia Minor, 

 and Syria there is bound to come rich museum material if it can be 

 withdrawn under expert supervision. The shores and islands of the 

 Levant wait in large part for the same skill and conscience quite as 

 much as for funds. 



Palestine lies right in the center of this vast field of the ancient 

 orient. It is a little country, about the size and shape of the State 

 of New Hampshire. It is now under British control, administered 

 by a fair-minded representative of the enlightened colonial policy 

 of the Empire, Sir Herbert Samuel. The terms on which qualified 

 explorers may work in Palestine are plain and are construed so as 

 to forward the work. A Service of Antiquities for Palestine has been 

 organized and the antiquities ordinance of 1920 was published in 

 the Official Gazette. An Archeological Advisory Board has been con- 

 stituted with membership representing British, American, French, 

 Italian, Jewish, and Moslem interests. This board is consulted when 

 there are applications for permission to excavate, for the regulation 

 of any excavations in or about Jerusalem, for the care of any struc- 

 tures of historical significance and for the discussion of such prob- 

 lems of scientific undertakings as have international aspects. 



When Jerusalem was entered by the British Army there was found 

 packed in cases a large amount of antiquities which had been gathered 

 during the war. Some of this material seems to have been known of 

 old as museum treasure, while the rest of it is reported as the fruits 

 of recent effort. It is to be placed in a museum in Jerusalem, over 

 6,000 objects having been catalogued already with that destination 

 in view. Local museums are to be established if possible at other his- 

 toric places in the land, such as Tiberias, Acre, Askalon, &c. 



One keeper of museums is to be in supervisory control of all these 

 local collections. At Jerusalem discoveries of a large sculptural and 

 architectural kind will be housed in the Hippicus Tower of the 

 Citadel. 



Harvard University will continue its investigation of ancient 

 Samaria. Chicago University will have the privilege of digging 

 and examining the remains at Megiddo, while to the University of 

 Pennsylvania has been allotted the important site of old Bethshean. 

 The last mentioned institution began work in June, 1921, under the 

 capable charge of Dr. Clarence S. Fisher. It was reported in the 

 autumn of the year that Doctor Fisher had discovered a large stone 

 stela (pillar) with Egyptian hieroglyphic writing numbering more 

 than a score of parallel lines. Inscriptions have ever been one of 

 the most eagerly sought objects of explorers because of the first- 

 hand testimony which they afford to the life and thought of the 

 ancients as well as their high value for philologists. But inscribed 



