ARCHEOLOGY. 



15 



Another essay in the interpretation of the 

 Hitiiie inscriptions has been published in Berlin 

 by Herr !'. !!. IVi>er, who lias sought the key to 

 tlieir (leci|ihennenl I iy comparing ihe Ilitlite 

 " mid by Mr. Layard at Koyunjik in 1N51 

 with an Kgyptian seal which \vas found with 

 them. In this way the author claims that he was 

 enabled to assign syllabic values to seven Ilit- 

 tite characters. ( 'oinparing these data with other 

 seals, he gained two other signs, with which 

 further steps could be taken. At the time of the 

 publication of his book," Die lletitischen Inschrif- 

 ten," he had advanced to the interpretation of an 

 inscription of twenty lines found at Jerablus. 

 Attempts to interpret the Hittite inscriptions 

 by regarding the characters as phonetic signs 

 are rejected by Mr. T. Tyler, who maintains 

 that the pictorial nature of the characters is 

 hardly to be doubted by any observer, and that 

 the inscriptions are in the main ideographic. 



Grecian. At the annual meeting of the Hel- 

 lenic Society, in June, especial mention was made 

 of the continuation of the explorations at Mega- 

 lopolis, of which a full report was shortly to be 

 published, and of the excavations of the Ameri- 

 can school on the site of the temple of Hera at 

 Argos. which had been very fruitful. Among 

 the objects recovered were three heads in the 

 best style of the fifth century B. c., which Dr. 

 Waldstein was disposed to ascribe to Polyklei- 

 tos. Other discoveries by the various institu- 

 tions engaged in the excavation of Grecian an- 

 tiquities include many interesting statues of 

 \vonien, of Athena, and of Amazons found by 

 the Herman school at Magnesia and Melandrum ; 

 additional inscriptions at Gortyna, in Crete ; re- 

 mains of temples at Vachlia and Voutza, in 

 A rcadia ; an ancient private house at the Piraeus ; 

 emblematic designs in relief at Athens and at 

 Tjauriiitn ; an altar of sacrifice at Kpidaurus; 

 and three metopes, additional to the two found 

 at Silenus, Sicily, adorned respectively with rep- 

 resentations of Hercules subduing the bull, Eu- 

 ropa and the bull, and a winged Sphinx. 



A st ud v of " The Phoenician Element in the 

 Homeric Poems" was presented to the Interna- 

 tional Oriental Congress in London by the Hon. 

 W. E. Gladstone. The immediate purpose of the 

 paper was to trace the derivation and meaning 

 of the term &/a avSpuv : it brought forward many 

 analogies illustrating the influence of Oriental 

 thought and customs upon the Grecian life de- 

 scribed by Homer. 



Zimbabye. Mr. Bent and Mrs. Bent, who so 

 ably helps him in this work, spent two months at 

 Zimbabye with satisfactory results. They then 

 went on to the Sabi river, along the course of 

 which they found four more sets of ruins, one of 

 which is nearly equal to the circular building at 

 Zimbabve. Tin's trip led them through some 

 very wild and deserted country. From Fort 

 Salisbury they visited the HliZDO valley, where 

 they examined the old workings, and found a 

 lit lie ruined fortress of the best Zimbabye work. 

 The party then went on into Matoko's country, 

 which was interesting mainly from an anthro- 

 pological point of view, and '011 account of the 

 connection of the present savages wit h the religion 

 and customs of the people of the old Monomotapa 

 "empire." They then visited Mangwendies, 

 Chipinza's, Makoni's, and Umtasa's countries, in 



each of which they found either ruins or other 

 objects of interest. Finally, the party came 

 down to the coast by the Pungne' route, and 

 reached Cape Town on Dec. 8. 



The excavations were carried on at Zimbabve 

 during June, July, and a part of August. The 

 first attempt was made on the large circular 

 building at the foot of the hill, which is a perfect 

 specimen of an ancient phallic temple; then- 

 was the solid round tower with its symbol marked 

 in stone, the encircling wall, and "the discii-." 

 also with its appurtenant symbols. Parallels to 

 this temple may be found in the round temples 

 of the Cabiri at Malta, the temples on Samothrace 

 and elsewhere, and the Phoenician coin of Byblos 

 gives a curiously apt illustration of this temple. 

 The excavations yielded but little beyond the 

 interior plan of the building and traces of the 

 Kafir habitation up to a recent date, a few 

 decorated phalli and small fragments of soap- 

 stone bowls being the only yield belonging to 

 the earlier periods. The results of the work on 

 the fortress were more satisfactory as regards 

 actual finds. The narrow approach from the 

 plain was laid bare through two tortuous walls, 

 protected by traverses, ambuscades, and other 

 forms of defense. It led up to a narrow gully 

 between the parts of a split granite bowlder, up 

 which a set of steps led on to a parapet above 

 the precipice of granite. On this summit an 

 elaborate system of fortification had been erected. 

 A wall 13 feet thick and 30 feet high runs along 

 the edge of a sheer precipice, itself 90 feet high. 

 This wall is surmounted by monoliths alter- 

 nating with small round towers, and is again 

 protected by an inner wall, allowing of only a 

 narrow passage through a redundancy of defense. 

 A fine barbed, copper spearhead and several im- 

 plements of war were found here. The upper 

 part of this fortress was adorned with huge 

 monoliths and decorated beams of soapstone, 

 one of which was 13 feet high, and bore patterns 

 chiefly of a geometrical character. Flights of 

 steps led up to the little plateau from either side, 

 and on clearing away, a most curious plan of 

 intricate labyrinthine confusion was disclosed. 

 The principal finds were in the ancient temple 

 of the fortress, which is now used as a cattle 

 kraal. It was supported by an elaborately con- 

 structed system of under walls, and was ap- 

 proached by a narrow passage and a staircase of 

 considerable architectural merit. The semicircu- 

 lar outer wall of this temple had been decorated 

 by 5 carved birds on the top of soapstone 

 pedestals from 5 to 6 feet in height, all which 

 were found. They were all different, and archaic 

 in design. One bore on its pedestal and wings a 

 well-known phallic symbol. The only one that 

 had its beak intact presented a resemblance to 

 a vulture or raven, which was curiously em- 

 phasized by the similar appearance of the living 

 vultures of the neighborhood when perched 

 on monoliths. Several iron bells were found, an 

 altar built of small granite blocks, and 40 or 

 more soapstone phalli of different forms and 

 shapes, some of them very realistic. In two caves 

 and in depressions between the bowlders were 

 found numerous fragments of soapstone bowls 

 adorned with hunting scenes, figures of animals, 

 a procession, etc., and some of them plain ; frag- 

 ments of pottery of excellent glaze and work- 



