321 



DISCOVERY 



life and of their confidence." An archaeologist must 

 be able to organise, to manage men. He must be self- 

 reliant, for his job is an out-of-doors one, a practical 

 one in a foreign land. And in addition he must know 

 something of the technicalities of the job he is on, the 

 history of the country he is in, the language spoken in 

 it by the men who do the digging for him ; and, like 

 the explorer, the more he knows of photography, 

 survejing, chemistry, engineering, botany, account- 

 ing, and medicine, the better. So if he is to succeed 

 at all, in addition to being a real scholar, he must 

 combine many of the best quaUties of the soldier and 

 the diplomatist. Away, then, goes our old boy with 

 the dank hair, the offshore stoop, and the snuffy waist- 

 coat, with a spade on his bent shoulders and his eyes 

 upon the ground ! 



♦ * ♦ * * 



Mr. Woolley's book deals chiefly with the lighter 

 side of his work as an archaeologist, first with Dr. 

 Maclver in Southern Nubia (Mr. Woolley thinks 

 archaeologists should always commence in Egj^pt), 

 then at Teano, between Naples and Rome, and later, 

 during the years just before the war, with Mr. T. E. 

 Lawrence at Carchemish, the ancient capital of the 

 Hittite Empire, on the Euphrates. It is in the main 

 a straightforward personal account of his experiences, 

 containing anecdotes and sketches of individuals which 

 are of quite absorbing interest, not merely because 

 they deal with happenings and individuals of an un- 

 common type, but because of the plain and unaffected 

 way in which they are told. Most of the book deals 

 with the work at Carchemish, for it was there the 

 author spent most of his time. This town (mentioned 

 in Isaiah), near Jerablus in Northern Syria, has long 

 been a fortress in a troubled land. About four thou- 

 sand years ago it was the capital of the Hittite Empire, 

 and since then has been successively a seat of Assjxian, 

 Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Armenian, and Arab 

 civihsations. It is accordingly a fruitful, if somewhat 

 complicated, site in which excavation can be carried on. 



* * * « « 



Mr. Woolley found the Arab workmen who did the 

 <iigging for him great fellows. They were sportsmen 

 with a keen sense of humour, and most zealous and 

 honest excavators. Some of the more original of 

 them are described. Hamoudi, who celebrated the 

 finds, has already been mentioned. Haj Wahid was 

 another. He was employed as general factotum, and 

 at table was a model of gentlemanly deportment, 

 wluch behaviour altogether belied his past. At Aleppo, 

 his native town, he had had the distressing habit, 

 when drunk, of amusing himself by hiding on a fiat 

 house-roof and holding up all the traffic at the city 

 gate with rifle and revolver. On another occasion, as 



a consequence of a flirtation between himself and a 

 Mohammedan maiden, he was set upon by four of her 

 brethren and two of her kinsfolk. A Homeric conflict 

 took place. Four of the assailants lay dead on the 

 ground, one was badly wounded, and the sixth fled 

 for his life. Haj Wahid, the sole representative of the 

 other side, was made unconscious, being badly wounded 

 all over, but especially in the head ; but a man of his 

 vitality quickly recovered, and as four murders in one 

 night could not be overlooked, he received three years' 

 imprisonment, at the end of which he found congenial 

 change in the service of Mr. Woolley. 



* f * * * 



The reader may obtain a very good idea of the 

 difficulties an archa;ologist may have to deal \rith from 

 an account of an interview between Mr. Woolley and 

 the Turkish authority at Birijik, the headquarters of 

 the sub-province within which lies the site of Car- 

 chemish. Mr. Woolley had engaged a gang of work- 

 men to commence excavation at Jerablus, when orders 

 came from the Turkish authorities that, as he had no 

 official permit, he must not touch a stone. The time 

 is the year 1912. 



***** 



" I introduced myself poUtely, and after thanking 

 him again for the care taken of our site, explained 

 that there had been a misunderstanding about our 

 identity, and asked him to issue orders to his soldiers 

 for the work to start. He answered bluntly that he 

 would give no orders of the kind, as we had no right 

 to the place. 



" ' Oh yes, but I have,' said I ; ' here is the firman 

 from Constantinople granting permission ' ; and I 

 handed it to liim. 



" He looked at it for some time, then said, ' Pre- 

 cisely, this is all in order, but it is made out in the name 

 of Mr. Hogarth, whom I know, whereas your name, 

 you tell me, is Woolley.' 



" Now this was the weak point in my armour, for 

 although the authorities at Constantinople had been 

 officially informed that I was to take Hogarth's place, 

 and had raised no objection, yet the Turkish law dis- 

 tinctly states that permits for excavation are non- 

 transferable, and no written correction had been made 

 on the papers in my possession. So I determined to 

 avoid the issue, and agreeing that the permit was made 

 out in Hogarth's name, I pointed out that I was acting 

 as his wakil, or representative. 



" ' And how can you prove that ? ' demanded 

 the Kaimmakam [Governor], pressing on the false 

 scent. 



" ' Easily,' said I ; ' here is a letter from Mr. Hogarth 

 authorising me to act in his name, and here is an 

 ofScial communication from the British Museum, which, 

 as you probably know, is a Department of the British 



