SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 11, 1893. 



ARCHEOLOGY 1880-1893. 



BY MRS, S. Y. STEVENSON, MUSEUM OF ARCHEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OP 

 PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA. 



Egypt— Mr. W. M. Flinders-Petrie. 



In the last few years practical archeology has made rapid 

 strides; and — thanks to the increasing number of well-qualified 

 scholars who to-day fill its ranks, as well as to the consequent pre- 

 cision of its improved methods — it not only may now be numbered 

 among the natural sciences, but a general knowledge of its results 

 has become a necessary part of the intellectual outfit of every 

 man who would lay a claim to keeping abreast of the times. 



Scarcely a year passes without bringing some new and startling 

 discovery that sheds a vivid flash of light upon some hitherto 

 obscure corner of the remote past. Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia. 

 Syria, the Mediterranean islands, Asia Minor, the palaeolithic and 

 neolithic human strata of pre-historic Europe — all of which, fifty 

 years ago, appeared to the student as isolated reefs, here and there 

 cropping up out of the dark surrounding abyss of time, apparently 

 unconnected with one another, and having but little if any bear- 

 ing upon our own civilization — are now assuming a new interest. 

 Each is gradually taking its proper place in the great scheme of 

 history ; and, in so doing, many of the human fossils, whose dis- 

 membered forms, viewed singly, seemed abnormal and fantastic, 

 are resuming their natural aspect. The so-called giants of the 

 past, examined in the light of modern criticism, are shrinking to 

 a normal size ; the mythical races have lost their fabulous char- 

 acter; the wild savage has given place in scientific literature to 

 the non-civilized man; the barbarian to the man of low culture; 

 and aU have become well-connected links in the long chain of 

 classified human development. 



Civilization, in the earliest times as at the present day, has been 

 found to be a sliding scale; and we now know that, in the fourth 

 millennium B.C., as in the nineteenth century A.D., there might 

 be found upon the surface of the globe every grade of culture 

 from the highest, which found expression in the inscribed monu- 

 ments of Egypt and Chaldea, to that whose remains might be 

 sought among the shell heaps of the far-north. 



The pre-Homeric Greeks and the other inhabitants of pre-historic 

 Europe and northern Africa are no longer ignored as little better 

 than savages. As they take their proper place in the history of 

 humanity. Egypt ceases to be spoken of as a " Miracle in Stone; " 

 and — if it still stands pre-eminent among the nations of the 

 ancient world — for the modern scholar it now only represents 

 the crest of the irresistable onward wave that, at a given time, 

 carried human thought to the point where the advancing genius 

 of the Mediterranean races took it up and idealized it, before 

 receding in its turn and leaving its future progress to the peoples 

 of the north. 



The recent researches of anthropologists, interpreting the facts 

 furnished by the pre-historic burials ot Europe, have everywhere 

 strengthened the view which connects its former inhabitants with 

 the populations of the historical period. Types that once seemed 

 widely different are found to be connected by intermediate ones ; 

 and a continuous line, reaching back through ages, has in many 

 instances been formed by the recovery of missing or of hitherto 

 misinterpreted evidence. 



As the question now stands, those who would still cling to the 

 hypothesis of Indo-Germanic migrations pouring down into 

 Europe from the plateau of central Asia, must be prepared to face 

 an immense body of facts which they will find equally difficult 

 to get over or to disregard. The theory of the Asiatic " cradle of 



the Aryans " was originally accepted upon the authority ot such 

 eminent philologists as Pott, Lassen, and others; and, despite the 

 early protests of a few scholars (see Dr. D. G. Brinton in Science, 

 June 34, 1892), its hypothetical nature was lost sight of and it 

 soon found its way as an undisputed fact into our hand-books and 

 primers. Even today — although the word "Aryan," divested 

 of its former meaning, has mainly become a term of philological 

 classification for those who are familiar with the subject, 

 and notwithstanding the arguments to which the use or 

 the misuse of the word has publicly given rise — this curious 

 myth of the nineteenth century still holds the position of an 

 orthodox belief, and is still taught as an article of faith in our 

 schools ! 



In the face of such facts, and as the results of archaeology have 

 a recognized and direct bearing upon many branches of scholar- 

 ship, it is of serious moment that these results should be published, 

 not only as speedily as possible, but in such a form as to make 

 them available to all. 



At present this is rarely the case. As a rule, the labors of 

 archaeologists working in different fields are published either in 

 large works, the technical details of which are well calculated to 

 frighten all but specialists, or in some one of the many scientific 

 journals edited in all parts of the world. The number of these, 

 however, is inci-easing yearly ; and this fact considerably dimin- 

 ishes the chance of each to reach all those interested, again except- 

 ing the specialist, who of course makes it a point to see all that is 

 written in reference to his own line of research. 



Owing to this, much that is of vital consequence to the intel- 

 lectual world at large is passed by or often remains long unno- 

 ticed by an important portion of the community. 



It is therefore greatly to be desired that archseologists who wish 

 their labors to be of as much use as possible, should follow the 

 example given them by Mr. W. M. Flinders-Petrie. This inde- 

 fatigable scholar — with whom to drop the spade is but to take up 

 the pen— has found the time, in the midst of his more serious 

 scientific work, to publish a resume of his recent explorations, un- 

 der the title of "Ten Years' Digging in Egypt." 



This little book will not only be useful to students, but must 

 prove delightful reading to all who are interested in the progress 

 of scientific discovery. Moreover, although condensed, as it 

 necessarily must be in order to carry out the intention of the 

 author, it is extremely suggestive, and opens to the mind possi- 

 bilities most stimulating to every thoughtful student of the past. 



In ten chapters the explorer lays before his readers the well- 

 sifted residuum of new facts acquired to science through his ex- 

 cavations atGizeh. Tanis, Naukratis, Daphnse, Nebesheh. Haivara, 

 Illahun, Kahun, Gurob, and Medtim. dwelling only upon such 

 " finds" as distinctly bear upon the life, the history, the arts, and 

 industries of man in the valley of the Nile, at the various periods 

 represented by those sites. 



It would be difficult to discriminate with regard to the relative 

 value of these discoveries, each of which has elucidated some 

 obscure point of science Much light has been throivn upon the 

 geology and the formation of the Nile valley as v^ell as upon the 

 climatic and topographical changes that have taken place since 

 pre-historic times. 



Valuable information has also been gaine 1 with regard to the 

 tools and the devices employed by the Egvptians in the can-ying- 

 out of their artistic and architectural works, ind upon the techni- 

 cal details of their earlie-^t monuments. 



The careful examination of the pyramid of Me'tflm — the tomb 

 of King Seneferu (third dvnasiy). has esiablished the evolution 

 of the pyramid from the mastaba; and the discovery of its tem- 

 ple has placed before us, intact, the oldest-dated edifice in the 

 world. 



