EXCAVATIONS IN ANCIENT LANDS 2111 



EXCHANGE 



who lived from about 1800 B.C. to about 

 1000 B.C. 



Relics .found in the island of Crete, how- 

 ever, tell of a civilization which existed before 

 the Mycenaean. It is known as the Aegean 

 and probably existed as early as 4000 B. c. ; and 

 relics found still deeper in the earth show 

 that a race of people must have lived in that 

 country about 10,000 years before the birth 

 of Christ. 



More recent discoveries in England, Ger- 

 many, France and Spain have led scientists 

 to believe that human beings lived throughout 

 Europe as long as 100,000 years ago. 



Italy. Originally, excavations in Italy were 

 for the purpose of obtaining stone for build- 

 ing, but such diggings gave to the world 

 those wonderful art treasures, the Apollo Bel- 

 vedere and the Laocoon group, both of which 

 are described in these volumes. In 1736 exca- 

 vations were begun at Herculaneum and in 

 1748 at Pompeii, those two early victims of 

 the fire-spitting Vesuvius. Although discov- 

 eries in Italy have been slow, excavations at 

 Rome and in Southern Italy have revealed 

 many new facts about the history and civiliza- 

 tion of the Rome of long ago. 



Biblical Countries. -When Napoleon invaded 

 Egypt at the end of the eighteenth century 

 the book of the land of the Pyramids was 

 opened to European scholars. Tablets in- 

 scribed in the Babylonian language were dis- 

 covered, and when the key to the characters 

 became known many interesting facts were 

 brought before students of the Bible. Since 

 the middle of the nineteenth century Assyria, 

 Babylon and Palestine have been favorite fields 

 of extensive excavation. Statues, monuments 

 and tablets have been unearthed, some of 

 which record the stories of Creation and the 

 Flood; others tell about the reigns of ancient 

 kings, such as Sennacherib and Nebuchadnez- 

 zar; others throw light on the life and customs 

 of the ancient Canaanites and Israelites. Still 

 others reveal bits of information about a peo- 

 ple called the Hittites, and when more of the 

 links in this story are found the history of an 

 ancient and mighty people of Old Testament 

 times will be more clearly revealed. 



Recent Excavations. The work of piecing 

 together the fragments of the great motion 

 picture, so to speak, of the world and its 

 peoples, has been going on for centuries. The 

 discoveries of here an old coin, there a quaint 

 piece of jewelry; at another place the wall of 

 a city, or somewhere, perhaps, a burial place, 



have all added to the sum of human knowl- 

 edge. The work of the Germans in the Meso- 

 potamian valley, however, commenced in 1899, 

 has perhaps yielded, up to 1914, the most 

 important results. Among them the history 

 of Nebuchadnezzar and his people has been 

 revealed. Many objects of greatest historical 

 value have been discovered, such as five tombs 

 of other Assyrian kings and an old temple of 

 Astarte. 



In Egypt, in 1914, one of the oldest tombs 

 of the land was discovered, the mystic tomb 

 of Osiris. In that country valuable bits of 

 manuscript were discovered by the English, 

 among them about ten pages from the Idyls 

 of Theocritus. Two rolls of manuscript by 

 the poetess Sappho were also found. The dis- 

 covery of a burial ground about two hours 

 away from Cairo by rail revealed some 1,500 

 graves from which many interesting facts con- 

 cerning the life of the Egyptians were gleaned. 

 So, too, have many objects of value been dis- 

 covered in Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, 

 Italy and Northern Europe. Systematic work 

 in those lands will, no doubt, be continued in 

 future years, and so new pages will be added in 

 the stories of archaeology and anthropology 

 (which see). M . s . 



Related Subjects. While not all the refer- 

 ences below to articles in these volumes relate to 

 ancient lands, they are all of value to the student 

 or reader : 



Aztec 



Cave-Dwellers 

 Cliff-Dwellers 

 Herculaneum 

 Mound Builders 



Osiris 

 Pompeii 

 Pyramids 

 Rosetta Stone 

 Venus de Milo 



EXCHANGE'. If you live in New York or 

 Montreal and wish to pay a thousand dollars 

 to a merchant in London or Paris you do not 

 send him money. Instead, you buy at the 

 bank a bill of exchange, a letter instructing a 

 foreign banker to pay your creditor in English 

 or in French money. According to the amount 

 of gold in the national coins, fl is worth 

 $4.86%; one franc, 19% cents. These amounts 

 are known as the par of exchange, which means 

 the normal rate; if you pay more, exchange 

 is at a premium; if less, it is at a discount. 



The rate of exchange between two countries 

 is in general determined by the difference be- 

 tween the amounts which each is paying to 

 the other. Thus, if on a certain day New 

 York owes London 100,100, which at par is 

 $487,152, and London owes New York only 

 $486,665 (the equivalent of 100,000), the bank- 



