November 1G, ISSi.] 



SCIENCE. 



649 



retaining-wall. The larger represented Victories car- 

 rying votive ofiferings towards tripods, with a seller 

 of love-gods as centre-piece; the other was boi-dered 

 with geometrical figures, enclosing couching griffins, 



— the coat of arms of Assos. At the east of the agora 

 was the beiua, the stand-point of the orator in ad- 

 dressing a crowd; the level of the place being there 

 raised above the market, and flagged, while the re- 

 mainder, like all Greek streets before the Christian 

 era, was unp;ived. 



Of the other buildings of the lower town, I may 

 say that the theatre is now as well recovered as any 

 theatre in Asia Minor. Because of certain peculiar- 

 ities of the stage, its recovery is jieculiarly valuable 

 to the history of the Greek theatre. The gymnasium, 

 at the west of the town, is equal in preservation and 

 interest to the building of that character at Olympia, 



— the only one hitherto known. Noticeable, also, is a 

 great atrium, of late date, but showing the preserva- 

 tion of Greek forms far into the Roman period, tlie 

 arch appearing with purely Hellenic details. In the 

 lower town of Assos there were no less than seven 

 Christian churches. The street of lonibs is perhaps 

 tlie most interesting burial-ground of the ancients 

 as yet thoroughly investigated. It presents monu- 

 ments of every period. One, notably, cannot be later 

 tlian the seventh century B.C., and many are as recent 

 as the eleventh or twelfth Christian centuries. In 

 this necropolis is a mausoleum which presents a per- 

 fect parallel to the tombs of the kings at Jerusalem. 

 We opened a hundred and twenty-four sarcophagi 

 for the first time, and found many burial-urns. There 

 seems to have been a mi.\ed system of inhumation 

 and cremation, according to the temporary fashion. 

 We also found great numbers of figurini, small vases 

 and glasses, among them some beautiful specimens of 

 thin tr.Tusparent glass, and several thousand coins. 

 Many other smaller articles of more or less viilne 

 were found in the tombs; but the inhabitants of 

 Assos, though they must have been wealthy, did not 

 conuuonly place their best ornaments with the bodies 

 of their dead. 



It is my duty, as well as pleasure, to speak of the 

 most creditable part taken by the members of the expe- 

 dition not present here this evening. Of Mr. Bacon's 

 really extraordinary ability as a draughtsman I liavo 

 no need to speak. His unremitting labors secured 

 the success of the expedition. The liighest praise is 

 due also to Mr. Koldewey, an architect from Ham- 

 burg, who worked with us for a year and a Iialf from 

 pure love of science, and was of the greatest possible 

 assistance. My learned friend. Dr. Sterrett, has edited 

 seventy-five or eighty inscriptions found by us, study- 

 ing tliem upon the spot. Thanks, too, are due to our 

 photographer, Mr. Ilaynes, and to Mr. Diller tlie 

 geologist, who li.as already made known his work in 

 valuable publications. Other members of the expe- 

 dition, who were with us on comparatively short 

 visits, worked as well and conscientiously, with results 

 commensurate to the time they spent at Behram. 



Archeology, up to within a recent date, hardly 

 deserved the name of science, having been a merely 

 empirical recital of facts, witliout connection or true 



historic method. To-day it has conquered a foremost 

 place among the exact sciences of determination; 

 and we trust that tlxe study of the best methods of 

 all previous investigations lias enabled the expedition 

 to Assos to be in every respect creditable to the 

 American name. An instance of this special percep- 

 tion and direct search for materials bearing upon our 

 knowledge of the development of various phases of 

 ancient art may perhaps be seen in the fact, that two 

 of the most interesting links that could be desired for 

 Greek architectural history have been found, — a 

 proto-Ionic capital, which st.ands between the orna- 

 mental spirals of Mesopotamia and the perfected 

 Ionic capitals of the erechtheion; and a proto-Doric 

 shaft with a base, which proves with equal certainty 

 tlie derivation of that column from the tombs of Beni- 

 hassan. 



Tlie work of the institute at Assos labors under 

 one signal disadvantage: its results must be long 

 awaited by those high-minded furtherers of science 

 to whose munificence its execution is due. This dis- 

 advantage is indeed inseparable from all such under- 

 takings of great extent; but on the other side of the 

 Atlantic, where archeological investigations are car- 

 ried on in greater part by the various governments, 

 it is much less felt than liere, where a large body of 

 private individuals has maintained the work. There, 

 the verdict of a commission of experts is entirely 

 sufficient to the minister of public instruction, who 

 has supplied the funds, and placed the diplomatic 

 influeiico of the nation at the disposal of the work; 

 and after this is given, a ilelay of ten or fifteen years 

 in the publication of the results is not looked upon as 

 a drawback. Here, however, the circumstances are 

 different in every respect ; and as it has naturally been 

 impossible to give in half an hour any adequate ac- 

 count of the hard work of two long years, it only 

 remains for me to bog for a further extension of 

 credit. The debt shall be paid as soon as it is pos- 

 sible to write the proposed reports; and it will not 

 have escaped your observation, that one object of the 

 present meeting is to so interest you in the work of 

 the institute, and convince you of its value, that the 

 trifling sum required for these publications may be 

 forthcoming. 



At the conclusion of Mr. Clarke's address, Prof. 

 W. R. W.VRK of New York was called upon, as one 

 who had visited .Vssos for the express purpose of 

 seeing what had been accomplished by the expedi- 

 tion. Professor Ware spoke as follows: — 



It was, as you m.ay believe, with special pleasure, 

 that I found myself, in [.May of this year, passing 

 through the Pillars of Hercules, my face towards the 

 east, with the Troad as my objective point. But it w.as 

 not until the third week in July, that, like St. Paul 

 leaving Alexandria Troas, we came to Assos. though 

 we were not, like St. Paul, ' minded to go afoot.' 

 Perhaps it would have been better if we had been; for 

 the modern Trojan horse is a small, ill-tempered, not 

 always sure-footed, beast, who requires, indeed, often 

 as much urging and pushing as did his Homeric 

 namesake. 



