MODERN BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP. 



231 



It is not probable that the discoveries of the arcbcTologist carry 

 lis back into antediluvian times, though it is not improbable 

 that the break which the geologist finds between palseolithic 

 and neolithic man may enable us to locate it in the history 

 of the race. But ArcluTology has certainly dispelled the illusion 

 that the traditional belie 's of every nation concerning its origin 

 and early history are untrue or even untrustworthy. It is forty 

 years since this illusion received a severe shock by Dr.Schliemann's 

 excavations at Hissarlik. That some indeterminate substratum of 

 truth might underlie Homer's story of Troy was thought to be 

 remotely possible, but for the most part that story was regarded 

 as imaginary and legendary. The spade revealed what the 

 wildest literalist never dreamed of, viz., that no less than nine 

 successive strata of civilized settlements, of which Homer's Troy 

 was the sixth, had been left upon the site. The earliest goes 

 back to about 2500 B.C., almost to the time of Sargon of Akkad. 

 Another surprise has lately come to us. Excavations in the 

 Island of Crete have verified the old Greek tradition that 

 Greece derived her civilization from that island. Mr. Arthur 

 Evans at Knossos, Professor Halbherr at Phaestos, Mr. and Mrs. 

 Hawes at Gournia, and others in other places have opened up 

 historical remains which go back into neolithic times, and show 

 us thkt the neolithic men were not all savage, cave-dwelling 

 huntsmen. Even the truth about the famous Labyrinth and 

 the man — and maiden — eating Minotaur has been brought to 

 light, and the Scripture statement confirmed that Caphtor is 

 Crete and the original home of the Philistines. 



By the earlier achievements of Archaeology the settlement of 

 post-diluvian man in the plain of Shinar was established as an 

 incontestable fact. That the Kengi-Urite (Sumero-Akkadian) 

 culture which flourished there was indigenous no one believes, 

 but that it was brought there from some mountainous region, 

 according to Genesis xi, no one doubts. Excavations initiated 

 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in 1903-4, con- 

 ducted by Mr. Raphael Pumpelly, in the plains which lie 

 around and beyond the Caspian Sea, and others conducted by 

 Mr. Stein on behalf of the Indian Government as far away as 

 Chinese Turkestan, have brought to light the remains of a long- 

 forgotten civilization in the form of ruins of many ancient 

 cities. Tlie hope has thus been revived that we may yet find 

 the original home of the Kengi-Urite race. At various times 

 the populations of these regions have been driven out, and 

 the excavators believe that their discoveries have thrown 

 some light upon the causes of these excursions. Important 



