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Title: How to Observe in Archaeology

Author: Various

Release Date: October 1, 2004  [eBook #13575]

Language: English

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HOW TO OBSERVE IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Suggestions for Travellers in the Near and Middle East

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

1920







CONTENTS


Preface.  By Sir F. G. Keynon


PART I

Chapter  I.   INTRODUCTORY. By G. F. Hill
Chapter II.   METHOD. By W. M. Flinders Petrie

LIST OF THE CHIEF BRITISH INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIETIES CONCERNED WITH
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

LIST OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOINT COMMITTEE


PART II

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Chapter    I. FLINT IMPLEMENTS.
Chapter   II. GREECE PROPER. By T. P. Droop
Chapter  III. ASIA  MINOR. By J. G. C. Anderson and J. L. Myres
Chapter   IV. CYPRUS. By J. L. Myres
Chapter    V. CENTRAL AND NORTH SYRIA. By D. G. Hogarth
Chapter   VI. PALESTINE. By R. A. S. Macalister
Chapter  VII. EGYPT. By W. M. Flinders Petrie
Chapter VIII. MESOPOTAMIA. By H. R. Hall


APPENDIX

SUMMARIES OF LAWS OF ANTIQUITIES

INDEX




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES

Some Hieroglyphic Signs liable to be confused with each other
Flint Implements
Types of Greek Pottery, &c.
Greek Alphabets
Asia Minor Pottery types
Hittite Inscriptions, &c.
Bilingual (Greek and Cypriote) Dedication to Demeter and
    Persephone from Curium
Syrian Pottery.
Syrian Weapons, &c.
West Semitic Alphabets
West Semitic Numerals
Palestinian Pottery types
Egyptian Pottery types
Mesopotamian Pottery, Seals, &c.
Cuneiform and other Scripts




PREFACE


This Handbook is intended primarily for the use of travellers in the
Near and Middle East who are interested in antiquities without being
already trained archaeologists. It is the outcome of a recommendation
made by the Archaeological Joint Committee, a body recently
established, on the initiative of the British Academy and at the
request of the Foreign Office, to focus the knowledge and experience
of British scholars and archaeologists and to place it at the
disposal of the Government when advice or information is needed upon
matters connected with archaeological science. The Committee is
composed of representatives of the principal English societies
connected with Archaeology, and it is hoped that it may be recognized
as the natural body of reference, both for Government Departments and
for the public, on matters connected with archaeological research in
foreign lands. It represents no one institution and no one interest.
Its purpose is to protect the interests of archaeological science, to
secure a sane and enlightened administration of antiquities in the
lands which are now being more fully opened to research, and to
promote the advance of knowledge in the spheres to which its
competence extends.

One means of serving this cause is to provide information for the
guidance of travellers in the lands of antiquity. Much knowledge is
lost because it comes in the way of those who do not know how to
profit by it or to record it. Accordingly, just as the Natural
History Museum has issued a series of pamphlets of advice to the
collectors of natural history specimens, so it has been thought that
a handbook of elementary information and advice may be found of
service by travellers with archaeological tastes; and the Trustees of
the British Museum have undertaken the publication of it. The
handbook has been prepared by a number of persons, whose competence
is beyond dispute; and the thanks of all who find it useful are due
to Mr. G. F. Hill (who has acted as general editor as well as part
author), Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. D. G. Hogarth, Prof. J. L.
Myres, Mr. J. G. C. Anderson, Mr. J. P. Droop, Prof. R. A. S.
Macalister, Mr. H. R. Hall, Mr. A. J. B. Wace, Mr. 0. M. Dalton, Mr.
R. L. Hobson, Mr. E. J. Forsdyke, Mr. A. H. Smith, Mr. R. A. Smith,
Mr. A. B. Cook, and Prof. G. A. Cooke. Each contributor has been left
considerable latitude as to the method of treatment of the subject
allotted to him, and no attempt has been made to bring the various
sections into uniformity of pattern. Owing to Prof. Petrie's absence
in Egypt, it has not been possible to submit final proofs of his
contributions to him.

Suggestions for improvement in future editions will be welcomed, and
will no doubt be forthcoming as the result of experience. Meanwhile
it is hoped that this little book will accompany many travellers in
foreign lands, and that the labour expended on it will bear fruit in
the improved observation and record of archaeological data, in
establishing sound principles for the administration of antiquities,
and in enforcing proper methods of excavation and conservation. It
may also be found of service by those who study the results of
research as they appear in museums.

F. G. KENYON.




PART I

CHAPTER I


INTRODUCTORY


The hints which it is the object of this volume to convey are not
meant for experienced archaeologists. They are rather addressed to
those who, while anxious to observe and record the antiquities which
they may see on their travels, are likely, owing to lack of training,
to miss things that may be of importance, or, having observed them,
to bring home an imperfect record. It is hoped also that they may
catch the attention of some of those who are not interested in the
subject, but, coming into possession of antiquities, may unwittingly
do incalculable harm by allowing them to be destroyed or dispersed
before any record has been made.

Most, if not all, of the countries with which we are concerned, have
their Laws of Antiquities. It cannot be too strongly insisted that
those laws, even if they might be better than they are, should be
obeyed by the traveller. He should familiarize himself with their
main provisions, which are summarized in an Appendix. The traveller
who makes it his object to loot a country of its antiquities,
smuggling objects out of it and disguising the sources from which
they are obtained, does a distinct dis-service to archaeological
science. Although he may enrich collections, public or private, half
or more than half of the scientific value of his acquisitions is
destroyed by the fact that their provenance is kept secret or falsely
stated. Such action is equivalent to tearing out whole pages from a
history and destroying them for ever, for each antiquity, whatever it
may be, is in its way a part of history, whether of politics, arts,
or civilization. For the same reason anything like unauthorized
excavation, especially by unskilled hands, is gravely to be
deprecated. To dig an ancient site unskilfully or without keeping a
proper record is to obliterate part of a manuscript which no one else
will ever be able to read. The tendency of recent legislation is to
allow more generous terms in the matter of licences for export to
excavators and collectors, and the harsher provisions of some of the
existing laws are likely soon to be amended.

Before leaving home, the traveller will be well advised to make
inquiries at the museums or at the head-quarters of the
archaeological societies which concern themselves specially with
the places which he intends to visit. A list of these museums and
societies is appended to this section (p. 26). It is hardly necessary
to warn him that archaeological training cannot be acquired in a few
days, and that he will have to buy his experience in various ways;
but the more time he can devote to working through the collections in
this country, the more useful will be his observations abroad. He
will be able to learn what kind of antiquities it is especially
desirable to look for, not merely with the object of filling gaps in
the public collections, but for the advancement of archaeological
knowledge in general.

The object of archaeological travel and excavation is not to collect
antiquities so that they may be arranged according to the existing
catalogues of museums, but to collect fresh information to amplify
and correct what we now know, to make our knowledge of the past more
complete and useful.

On arrival in the country of his choice, he is recommended to
continue at the National Museum the study, which we suppose he has
already begun in the museums at home, of the kind of antiquities
which he is likely to come across. But he should also take an early
opportunity of getting into touch with the local British
Archaeological School or other similar institution, where he will
receive advice what to look for and where and how to look, and
assistance in procuring suitable equipment. Thus the traveller who
starts from Athens or Jerusalem should apply at the British School of
Archaeology. He may there, it he desires, receive instruction in any
of the methods described in Chapter II, in which a little practical
demonstration is worth pages of print, and will be given all possible
assistance in obtaining such articles of equipment as are available
on the spot. (Photographic supplies and all scientific instruments
should be brought out from England.) The best maps of the district
will also be accessible for examination (but the traveller is
recommended to make inquiries in this respect before leaving
England); the libraries will provide the literature dealing with the
routes he proposes to take; and such a collection as the type-series
of pottery and the Finlay collection of prehistoric antiquities at
the British School at Athens may be useful to supplement his previous
studies at museums, and enable him to observe with intelligence the
potsherds, &c., that he may find on an ancient site. In return, he
will be expected to report his results either to the School or to
some other scientific society or museum at home. It should be
unnecessary to remind him that the conditions of the law of the land
relating to the reporting of discoveries to the competent authorities
should be strictly observed. Such authorities should also be informed
of any destruction or removal of monuments which may be noticed.

Another matter which should not be neglected is the obtaining
of such licences as may be required by law for the acquisition in the
country or export therefrom of objects of antiquity. Advice on this
matter can be obtained at the local School or National Museum.

It is possible that the traveller will begin his journey at a point
other than the capital. Inquiries should be made at the London head-
quarters of the Schools concerning residents at such places who may
be able to give advice to intending travellers.

The traveller will doubtless bring back with him such antiquities as
he is permitted to export. A word of general advice on this matter
may not be out of place here. The essential value of antiquities,
apart from their purely artistic interest, lies in the circumstances
in which they are found. The inexperienced traveller is apt to pick
up a number of objects haphazard, without accurately noting their
find-spots, and even, getting tired of them, as a child of flowers
that he has picked, to discard them a mile or two away. If the first
act is a blunder, the second is a crime; it is better to leave them
lying in place. For the same reason, it is highly desirable that
objects found together (e.g. the contents of a tomb) should as far as
possible be kept together, or at least that accurate record of the
whole group should be made, since the archaeological value of a find
may depend on a single object, apparently of small importance.
Nothing, for instance, is more common, or more distressing to the
numismatist, than the division of a hoard of coins among various
persons before they have been examined by an expert. If they must be
divided, good impressions should at least be made by one of the
methods described in Chapter II, and, if the coins are of gold or
silver, the weights should be noted. This should be done even if the
coins, to the inexperienced eye, appear to be all alike. The
knowledge that any coin from a hoard may be of greater value than a
similar coin found singly may induce finders to report such finds
before dispersing them. What applies to coins is equally applicable,
in various ways, to all classes of antiquities.

It is assumed that the primary object of the traveller is not
speculation in the pecuniary value of the antiquities that he may
acquire, although he may be not unreasonably inclined to recover some
of his expenses by disposing of objects which do not appeal to him.
Should that be so, although the authorities of public museums
obviously cannot be agents or valuers in such transactions between
the owner and private collectors, they are as obviously willing to
consider offers which are made to their museums in the first instance
and, if the objects are not required by them, to advise the owner in
what quarter he may be likely to meet with a purchaser.




CHAPTER II


METHOD


1. Outfit.

Each traveller will require to provide for his special interests; but
for any archaeological work the following things are desirable. Note-
books of squared paper. Drawing-blocks of blue-squared paper. Paper
for wet squeezes, and for dry squeezes. Brush for wet squeezes (spoke
brush). One or two so-metre tapes. A few bamboo gardening canes for
markers in planning. Divide one in inches or centimetres for
measuring buildings. A steel rod, 3 ft. x 1 inch for probing. Field-
glass, or low-power telescope. Prismatic compass with card partly
black, to see at night. Large and small celluloid protractors for
plotting angles on plans. Plotting-scale, tenths of inches and
millimetres. Maps of the district, the best available. Aneroid
barometer, if collecting flints; small size; can be tested by
observing in a tall lift, or by putting in a tumbler and pressing the
hand air-tight over the mouth. The zero error, or absolute values,
are not wanted for levelling, only delicacy in small variations.
Magnifiers, a few pocket size; will also serve for presents.
Indelible pencils, pens, and ink in strong corked pocket bottle.
Reservoir pens dry up too much in some climates. China ink for
permanent marking. Strips of adhesive paper, about a inch and a
inches wide, to put round objects for labelling. Strong steel pliers,
wire-cutting. A few pocket-knives will serve for presents. It is best
to carry money in a little bag or screw of paper, loose in the jacket
pocket, it in a risky district. It can then be dropped on any alarm
and picked up afterwards.

Photographic.[1]
In the selection of a camera much will depend upon the nature of the
work to be undertaken, the conditions of travel, and the climate to
which the camera will be exposed. For accurate work a stand camera is
always to be preferred to one of the hand variety, and care should be
taken to choose an instrument that is strongly made and of simple
construction. The essentials of a good stand camera are that it shall
be rigid, possess a rising and falling front, a swing back, and
bellows which will be capable of extension to fully double the focal
length of the lens to be used with it.

[1]Prof. Petrie is not responsible for this section, which is due to
the kind assistance of some professional photographers.-ED.

The rising and falling front gives a power of modifying the field of
view in a vertical direction. The swing back preserves the
verticality of architectural subjects. In some cases, when used with
the pivots vertical, it is a help in focussing the subject. The
possible extension of the distance between the lens stop and the
ground glass to twice the focal length (which is as a rule the
distance between the same points, when a distant object is in focus)
enables a small subject to be reproduced in natural size.

For work abroad where extremes of temperature or excessive variations
have to be contended with, a special tropical camera is supplied by
most of the leading makers. Its well-seasoned hard wood and metal-
bound joints render it suitable for hard wear, and reduce the risk of
leakage through warping or shrinkage. The tripod stand should be of
the so-called threefold variety, with sliding legs which can be
adapted to broken ground. If a loose screw is used for attaching the
camera to the stand, a spare screw should be kept in reserve. It is
important that this stand should be strongly made, and light patterns
subject to undue vibrations in the wind should be discarded. For
photographing small objects in the studio, a small table is more
convenient than a tripod support. If the camera will not sit flat on
the table, a bed can easily be designed for it. Better work will be
done if this is prepared in advance than if an improvised support is
used. As regards the size of the outfit, quarter-plate (3 1/4 x 4 1/4
inches) will usually be found to be large enough for the traveller.
For anything in the nature of studio work in a museum or in connexion
with an excavation a half-plate camera (6 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches) is more
satisfactory. Where a hand camera is preferred it should be one
capable of adjustment of focus, and here again, strength and
simplicity should be looked for. It should be provided with effective
tripod legs, for studied exposures. Plates or flat films are
preferable to roll fills [2] which are difficult to manipulate away
from home. Flat films are less bulky and less breakable than glass,
and can be sent by post. They are supplied by the makers in packs of
12 for daylight loading into a film-pack adapter, which must be
provided to take the place of the ordinary dark slides for glass
plates. The lens should be a modern anastigmatic by a good maker. A
focal length of about six inches will be best for a quarter-plate
camera. A bad lens makes success impossible even by accident.

[2] Transcriber's note: 'fills' in the original text is possibly a
misprint for 'films'.

The stops will probably be of the Iris pattern, incorporated in the
lens and so not likely to be lost, as often happens with loose stops.

A few words on the theory and use of the stops and on the F-notation
may be of service. The speed of a photographic lens depends on the
ratio of the effective aperture to the focal length. Thus any two
lenses used at apertures of F/8, that is at apertures having
diameters one-eighth of their respective focal lengths, should be of
the same speed, though both lenses and apertures may be very
different. In a given lens, the speed varies directly with the area
of the aperture admitting the light, that is with the square of the
diameter of the aperture. The series of stops usually employed is
calculated so that each aperture is half the area of the preceding.
Stated in terms of the focal length they are known as F/5.6, F/8,
F/11.3, F/16, F/22.6, F/32, &c. Since the squares of those numbers,
31.4, 64, 127.7, 256, 510.7, 1024 are approximately each twice the
preceding number of the series, the apertures, F(ocal length),
divided by the successive numbers as denominators, are each half the
area of the preceding and require twice the exposure, F/16 requires
twice the 'exposure of F/11.3, and four times that of F/8, and so
throughout the scale.

Stops are used to regulate either 'depth of focus' or length of
exposure. The 'depth of focus' means the distance before and behind
the point in theoretically accurate focus, at which objects are
sufficiently focussed, for the purpose the photographer has in view.
This length is greatest when only the central portion of the lens is
in use. It is greatest with a pinhole, and least with a full
aperture. Hence a small stop is required if the picture is to include
near and far objects, while a large aperture may be used if all the
subject is far enough away to be in clear focus--say more than 25
feet--or if it is a flat surface. The small stop is also required when
the rising front or the swing back is in use. The power of regulating
the time of exposure is convenient for shortening long exposures in
dark interiors, or for lengthening inconveniently short exposures in
a bright light.

In practice it will be best to become familiar with the use of about
three stops, say the full aperture (perhaps F/5.6 or F/8), F/16, and
F/32.

For judging long exposures, the use of an actinometer (issued in many
inexpensive forms) is helpful.

A telephoto attachment increases the photographer's power of
rendering distant details on a large scale. The results are greatly
superior to enlargements of a small plate. It is, however, useless in
a wind, unless the camera is specially supported, and is otherwise
rather tricky to use. The traveller is strongly advised to master its
management at home. It should be adjusted by the maker to the camera
for which it is intended.

Unless a photographer's dark room can be had the developing of the
bulk is best left until the return home, but tests should be made to
see that the exposures are correct. A piece of ruby fabric or ruby
paper tied over an electric light will give a safe light after dark,
and 'Scalol' or some such one-solution developer which requires
merely the addition of water, will give all that is needed for
developing. For fixing use 4 oz. hypo to a pint of water.

In warm climates, use cold water. If it is not cool enough, the
gelatine of the negatives may give trouble. In that case, get colder
water, and use an alum bath. If water is precious, plates can be
sufficiently washed by moving them forward in succession, through
half-dozen soup plates filled with water.

If habitual use is not made of tabloid developers, &c., it is
advisable to have some in reserve, for use in the case of broken
bottles and spilt solutions.

 Useful notes and maxims.

An over-exposed plate gives no dark shadows in the print.

An under-exposed plate gives no high lights. When in doubt, choose
the risk of over-exposure.

To test the safety of your camera--Half draw the shutter, and expose
part of the plate in the camera, in the sunshine, without uncapping
the lens, and develop.

To test the safety of your red light--Expose a plate, divide it into
two, develop half in the dark, and half for the same time, with the
same solution by the light you are testing, and compare the results.
This test is worth making, as photographers are apt to give
themselves much discomfort from exaggerated caution.

 2. Itinerary.

Where there are efficient maps the only need is to mark in the
position of any antiquities, by cross-bearings to clear points, with
the compass, drawn in with a sharp pencil. Where the maps are too
small, or deficient, a continuous register of time should be made,
noting the minute of starting and of stopping; this over known
distances will serve to give the value over the unknown. Note whether
mounted or walking, and the compass bearing of the track; also the
bearings of known points around, whenever stopping. Without any known
bearings pacing and compass used carefully may go over the roughest
ground without five per cent. error in the day.

It is better when on unknown ground to plot a map as you go, so that
no misunderstanding of notes can arise after. If a squared block
cannot be used, at least draw the bearings and distances roughly,
writing in the amounts. This should be plotted up accurately in the
evening. A photograph may be unintelligible later in its detail. It
is best where known features, a temple, tombs, &c., are in a view, to
sketch the outline when photographing, and write in the details, so
as to give a key to the photograph. Inquire about antiquities
whenever stopping. When camping, villagers usually come up to see who
it is; then tell them the directions of the places around. They will
ask how you know; show them the map, and they are puzzled; talk over
all the names a few miles round, and then anything notable in the
district may be remarked, and inquiries made. Several men together
help each other to remember, and bring out more remarks. Sometimes an
intelligent man will describe all the antiquities he knows in the
district: this should be followed closely on the map, and
difficulties resolved at once, so as to get a clear record noted.

Of course, enormous exaggerations are met with, and not one report in
ten will prove to be anything. Tracking up the source of bought
antiquities is one of the best methods, and the one by which
Naukratis was found.

If travelling by camel, it is practicable to diverge widely on foot,
if objects are looked for well ahead. A foot track diverging 4.5
degrees, and then converging likewise, will easily keep in touch with
a baggage camel. Fix on the camping-place in the morning, and let
every one know of it, so that if accidentally parted all can rejoin
by night.

 3. Recording.

Buildings or ruins.
Fix position by bearings to mapped points; also note bearings of any
prominent feature near by, which may serve for finding the position
again. Sketch a plan, always north up in the book, note bearing of
main wall, and then measure with bamboo rod all original dimensions,
with some diagonals to fix angles; do not forget the thickness of the
walls. It is best for a long length to stretch a tape, pegged down by
the ring, and pulled tight by hand: read off all positions of doors,
windows, cross-walls, &c., on one long length, and not as separate
short lengths. If possible plot the measures on squared paper as you
go, and then any errors or omissions will be checked at once. 'E. and
O.E.' has no place in a plan.

Town mounds.
Estimate height over bare land outside; eye height is a trifle over
five feet. At the foot of the mound see where the horizon cuts the
shoulder of it to find eye height; walk up to that point, and sight
another five feet; so on, till you see over the top. If there is any
section, by a stream side, or digging, or land-slip, look for strata,
stone or brick walls and floor levels, and for any distinctive
potsherds; observing levels as before. Look all over the top for
potsherds, to find the latest period of the town. Look around the
mound for any early potsherds. Sherds on the slopes are worth less;
as they have probably slipped down. Red burnt brick in Egypt is all
Roman or Arab; in Greece and Asia Minor, red brick and mortar is
Roman, Byzantine, or later.

Walk to the middle of the site or mound, and see its extent. Then
walk round the wall line, or circuit of it, pacing and compass
noting, to sketch the shape and size of the site: especially look for
any straight lines of wall showing. Sometimes a mud-brick wall may be
entirely denuded away, yet the position is shown by the sharp edge of
the strew of potsherds on the surface.

Look for any slag-heaps; these are the remains of lime burning, and
show where stone buildings existed; sometimes foundations still
remain. Look for any recent pits or trenches; these show where stone
or burnt brick has been dug out in modern times, and may give the
position and plan of a temple or church.

See if any rubbish mounds can be traced outside of the town site;
usually marked by a gentle walk-up slope, and a steep thrown-down
slope, and mainly consisting of pottery, e.g. Monte Testaccio at
Rome, and mounds east of Cairo.

Town sites rise in Egypt about forty inches a century, by the dust,
rubbish, and decay of mud-brick buildings. In Palestine the rise is
five feet a century, owing to the rains.

Cemeteries.
These have generally been more or less plundered; if recently, the
pits show; if anciently, there are scraps of pottery lying about. If
there are pebbles or marl thrown up from deep levels, there is
evidence of tombs, and they may be unplundered. Blown sand or grass
may hide all trace of tombs. Sometimes the whole masonry of a tomb
may have been removed, and the gravel filling-in have spread so
uniformly that there is no sign of building, although a course or two
of stone may yet remain under the surface. The surface of ground
should be closely looked over at sunrise or sunset to show up the
slight hollows or ridges by the shadows. After rain differences will
often appear in the drying of the ground. Ask any one near a site if
he knows of any one getting stones, or bronze, or plunder from tombs.
Anything found will probably be greatly exaggerated, and no clear
idea of the time of finding can be reached; yet any such detail may
be useful.

Any large town site must have a cemetery, which is near it in most
cases. In Egypt the towns being in the inundated land, the cemeteries
are at some miles distant on the desert. The prehistoric cemeteries
may be anywhere; the historic cemeteries are usually round the ends
of the dyke roads, which were thrown up in the early dynasties as
irrigation dams, and still serve as the roads of the country. In
Greek lands cemeteries are always outside a town, usually by the side
of the roads.

Caves should always be carefully explored; the roof and sides
searched for inscriptions or carvings; rock pockets in the sides
examined; and the floor dug over for potsherds and any small objects.
If there are different strata these should be each removed
separately, and the depth and positions of objects noted.

 4. Methods of Planning.

Though we cannot here give full technical details of all the methods
for plans and surveys, it will be useful to state the scope of each
method, so that they may be kept in mind, and whichever is best
suited to the individual and his work may be provided for.

 1. Plain pacing.
After pacing lengths of a few hundred feet, up and down hill and
flat, tape the distances, and learn true value of pace. Careful
pacing can be done to one or two per cent. of the whole; and properly
used, in triangles, may give a useful plan.

 2. Pacing and compass.
This covers large spaces quickly, but the compass is less accurate
than the pace.

 3. Tape.
Lines of taping must be well planned, with triangle ties to secure
the angles. Pulling up straight is difficult in a wind, especially on
broken ground, and one per cent. error is quite possible then. When
working alone peg the tape down by the ring, or round a stone.

 4. Tapes and cross lines.
Stretch two strings crossing squarely on the ground: fix the square
by laying a squared drawing block below and looking at strings over
it. Two helpers each hold a tape, zero on a string, and the two tapes
are held together by the observer and read off, giving the distance
to each string; this is to be plotted at once on squared paper, and
the plan is completed in detail as it progresses, without any note-
book or later plotting. The helpers must be capable of holding the
tape square to the string. Good for sites up to two hundred or three
hundred feet.

 5. Plane table.
Excellent for some ground, where objects are visible from a distance:
otherwise it requires a marker put up at every point to be fixed.
Cumbrous to carry, much slower than 4.

 6. Box sextant, used as giving angular accuracy to any of the
foregoing; most useful with taping, and in following.

 7. Sextant and three points.
The most rapid accurate method is to adopt three points visible all
over the ground (as trees or chimneys) or set up three markers. Find
shape and size of this triangle. Then at any point take two angles
visible between the points, and this fixes position of observer. A
large site may have forty points fixed in two hours thus to about 1
in 1000. For detail and plotting see Petrie, _Methods and Aims in
Archaeology_.

 8. Theodolite.
For the most accurate work a theodolite is used, giving points to
about 1 in 5000. It is almost essential for any astronomical meridian
or latitude.

None of these methods necessitate any helper, except 4 which needs
two helpers. The observation is from the point to be fixed in 1, 2,
3, 4, and 7; but it is _to_ the point, needing signals or visible
features on the points, in 5, 6, and 8, and for those methods a large
stock of rods must be taken, and the whole ground gone over, before
the work of observation; such methods take far more time than the
others. The able surveyor will know by instinct how to use all the
inferior methods as supplements to the higher, whenever time demands
and accuracy allows.

When first searching a site, note the direction of any wall to the
horizon point, and so see if other walls are parallel.

In all cases a plumb line is wanted for alining foundations and
scattered blocks. Always carry six feet of thin string, and pick up
the nearest suitable stone for a weight, up to three or four pounds
in a wind.

 5. Drawing and Copying.




Inscriptions.
If there is any chance of being interrupted by any claimant, or by
crowds, always make a hand copy at once, as quickly as possible.
After a squeeze or photograph is taken, yet the hand copy is often of
value to explain positions of squeeze slips or detail of photographs.

If there is no chance of interruption, then a carefully drawn copy
full size should be made. For this a dry squeeze is the ground work.
Lay a sheet of thin paper, such as thin wrapping or plain paper, on
the stone, and press all the letters over with the fingers, so as to
make a sharp bend; a break in the deep hollows does not matter. Then,
putting the paper on a drawing-board or sheet of millboard, cock it
up so that the shadow of the squeeze is seen, and draw over the lines
(starting at right base), referring to the stone whenever uncertain.
This is the only right way to copy hieroglyphics by hand. Note that
the edges are usually rather worn, and the drawn lines should be
inside the squeeze lines. If the stone is large, several lesser
sheets are best.

Where there is writing, or the relief is too faint to squeeze, put
the paper immediately below the first line, and draw it sign for
sign, so that the spacing is preserved and no omission is possible.
Fold back the paper as each line is copied, and so always keep the
copying close below the line of inscription.

If the signs are in an alphabet that is not familiar, refer to the
table of alphabets.

Sculpture
Sculpture in low relief can be copied best by dry squeeze. As the
connexion of the sheets used should be exact, put up the first sheet
truly vertical, and mark little pencil crosses at the corners on the
stone. Then the corners of successive sheets should be fitted into
the angles of the crosses. When inking in the pencil drawings, do not
carry the lines within two inches of the edges of the sheets. Then
place sheets edge to edge, adjust them to fit as best they may,
weight them heavily with books, turn back one edge and weight it, and
then slip a strip of wetted adhesive paper half-way under the edge
that is down; at once liberate the edge that is up, and dab (not rub)
both heavily down on the adhesive. This makes a joint free of
cockling, and when dry the inking can be completed across the joint.
Where there is any colour remaining on sculpture or inscription, only
dry squeezing is permissible.

Where signs are worn or decayed it is needful to try various
lighting. This can be done in the open air, by shading the part by
the hands placed around it as a sort of tube, the head blocking out
the light over the tube. Then quickly raise a hand alternately, so as
to reverse the oblique lighting, and watch the effect on the sign.

If the stone has not too tender a face, careful washing often brings
out an inscription; and in such cases it is usually far easier to
copy from a wet than from a dry stone.

If reliefs have been much weathered they can be made plain for
photographing by laying horizontal and covering with sand; on wiping
away the sand from the relief the ground will be left flat sand, so
hiding the confused hollows of weathering.

The safest way for drawings to travel is to post them at the nearest
post direct to where they will be worked up. The Postal Union takes
rolls of 21 cm. thick, 60 cm. long, up to 5 kilos as parcels, or
rolls of 10 cm. thick, 75 cm. long, up to 2 kilos by book post open
at ends. This is far better than carrying rolls by hand.

Wet squeezing. Where there is no colour, and the stone is strong and
not crumbling, a wet squeeze is the best copy. There are three
purposes for it, and the method differs for each; (1) thin single
sheet kept fresh on the outer face for photographing later; or (2)
single sheet well beaten in and patched, depending on pricking the
outlines and hand-copy from it, or blacking over the relief on the
inner side and photographing; or (3) double sheet hard beaten, and
patched in the hollows, for plaster casting afterwards.

For (1) there is no need to get an impression of the hollows to the
bottom, and the face of the paper should be smooth. A soft paper,
with little or no size, and a soft clothes-brush will do well for
this. The sheet should cover the whole inscription, or have as few
joints as may be. The stone should be dabbed with a wet brush so as
to saturate the face, the sheet of paper well soaked in water laid
upon it, taking care not to leave bubbles, and then dabbing firmly
with the brush will drive the paper into the hollows. If the stone is
polished or very smooth, it is needful to peel off the paper while
wet by holding two corners, and lay it reversed on a flat surface to
dry; if left on the stone the contraction will destroy the impress.
Out of doors the paper can be held down by pebbles around it, or by
sand on the edges, to prevent the wind catching it.

(2) The stronger squeeze should be of a tough paper with moderate
sizing. Cut the paper to the form of the stone. Thrust it into a pail
of water, knead it about vigorously, roll it into a ball and pummel
it, so as to break the grain and let the water well into it. Then wet
the stone, shake out the paper like a wet handkerchief, full of
creases, lay it on the stone and begin to beat it in with a hard,
long spoke-brush. A few strokes round the edge will catch it down so
that the wind does not disturb it. Then begin to beat it heavily
along the top edge; beat it to a pulp, and patch with strips left
soaking in the water wherever breaks occur. If the stone is porous
the paper may part from it, especially if expanded by beating; the
only course then is to slush more water on the face so that it will
go through the breaks and hold the paper down again. It may be
needful to slit the paper to let the water go below it. Beat down
again, enough to fix it.

(3) For casting purposes a final backing sheet, moderately beaten on,
is needed to hold the squeeze together and stiffen it. Either (2) or
(3) can be left on the face of the stone till quite dry, and then
carefully detached by lifting up from one corner, and slipping a
dinner-knife or a slip of wood under the paper to lift any part that
sticks.

Stiff squeezes as (3) must be packed flat; thin, as (1) and sometimes
(2), may be rolled in a large curve, but this always deteriorates a
squeeze.

For plaster casting, a squeeze should be heated on a stove and
brushed over with melted paraffin, or better wax, sufficient to cover
the face without choking the finer detail. Before each cast the face
should be lightly oiled with a tuft of wool.

Small objects.
These can be copied by a thin paper squeeze, and the squeeze may be
mounted by pasting a card and lightly pressing the squeeze back down
on it. This will take out all cockling and make it lie flat for
photographing.

Tin-foil is very handy for squeezes, and may be saved from chocolate
for this. Press it firmly on a coin or seal with a tuft of wool, or
beat it with a soft tooth-brush, being careful to avoid creases. The
foil should then be floated on water, hollow back up, and blazing
sealing-wax dropped into it to back it. The resulting positive can be
then stuck on card.

For plaster casts of coins the face should be dusted with French
chalk, as also a smooth bed of plasticine; the coin can then be
pressed in safely without any possible risk, and afterward plaster
cast in the mould. Sealing-wax is said to be sharper, but there is a
risk of its sticking to the coin. If it is used, breathe hard on the
coin, or wet it, before impressing; and when first set lift it
slightly to detach it, and then replace till cold. Or tin-foil may be
used, as in making positives; but, instead of floating on water,
press plasticine on the foil while it is still on the object.

For curved surfaces, as cylinders, any of these methods can be used;
the plasticine is the more successful.

In all casting of plaster on a small scale, use a soft camel-hair
brush. Mix the plaster in the palm of the hand with a knife, take up
some of the wettest to brush over the face of the moulds (a dozen
scarabs or small coins done at once); then put he brush in water, and
take up thicker plaster with a pocket-knife to drop on as a backing.
This avoids air bubbles without using too weak a plaster.



Copying hieroglyphic inscriptions.
Where possible a wet or a dry squeeze should be taken of any
inscription. When hand copying is necessary, the main matter is to
get the cartouches of king's names accurately, and the date at the
beginning, examining specially whether single strokes, I I I I, have
been connected above, n n, forming the ten sign. The main difficulty
for any one not knowing the 800 signs is to distinguish between those
that are alike, especially when damaged. For this purpose the
commonest signs that may be confused are here placed together, so
that the essential points of difference may be noticed. A small cross
is placed here by small points of distinction which might escape
notice.

[Illustration I: SOME HIEROGLYPHIC SIGNS LIABLE TO BE CONFUSED WITH
EACH OTHER]

 6. Photography.

The camera and material have been described under outfit.

Lighting and preparation of objects is a main element of success.
When first looking over any ruins, make a list of every view wanted,
with the time of day when the sun will be right for it. Then follow
the time-table, and so get the best lighting all in one day.

For movable stones or figures place them in half-shade, as a doorway,
and then tilt every way until the best lighting is found, fix them in
that position, and then set up the camera square with them.

The camera should usually be fixed to look downward vertically, and
then variation up to 40 degrees can be got by the legs. Hold the
camera in the right position, keeping the legs off the ground, and
then drop the legs to find their own place; thus very skew positions
can be fixed quickly.

Small objects are best laid on black velvet, and taken vertically.
Scraps of charcoal are useful to prop them in exact positions. A
sheet of white paper stuck on a leg of the stand may be useful to
prevent shadows being too heavy. Where outline, and not flat detail,
is wanted, then a light ground is best; the most perfect is a sheet
of ground glass with white paper a foot or two below it. If the
ground glass cannot be had, a good substitute-also useful for a
camera glass-is plain glass with a sheet of tissue paper (or the
packing paper of films) stuck on with paraffin wax.

The dressing of objects to show up clearly is often needful. Incised
objects can be filled in with charcoal powder if light, or chalk if
dark; in any case a coarse powder, so as not to stain the object. For
faint cutting on glass or crystal go over the lines with 'China ink
in a pen, so as to cover them. Harden the ink in the sun, and then
gently wipe with a damp finger until all the excess is removed and
only the roughness of the lines remains black. On large objects light
dust or sand is often useful, to make relief clearer.

For objects in a bad light, or in the interior of tombs, reflected
light must be used. Lids of biscuit tins serve well; a lid in the sun
sixty feet off, and another lid reflecting the light on to a wall,
will suffice for a two minutes' exposure of a slow plate. Three or
four successive reflections into a totally dark chamber will suffice
in five or six minutes.

When an important subject cannot be revisited it is well to take
duplicates; the camera should be shifted laterally a few inches for a
near object, or a few feet for a distant view, and then the two films
will form a stereograph, if both succeed.

In arranging groups of small objects, put together what will go in a
three-inch circle, and minor pieces around, and then the best in the
middle can be printed direct on lantern slides.

 7. Preservation and Packing.

While travelling little can be done for preserving objects. Papyrus
rolls should be wrapped at once in a damp handkerchief, to be
carried, and then wrapped in paper, packed in a tin box, and filled
round with cotton wool. Small papyri can be safely damped in a wet
cloth, and flattened out between the leaves of a book; secure one
edge straight in the hinge, and gradually press flat and secure by
advancing leaves over it. Glass, if perfect, should be packed in tins
with wool; old food or tobacco tins do well for tender things.

Flint implements and coins, though hardy, should be saved from
grinding by wrapping in waste paper.

Ivory, if it has been buried, is very liable to flake. The cure is to
soak it in paraffin wax; but temporarily it is secured by winding
cotton thread round it in many directions. Some anoint it with
vaseline, but if vaseline penetrates the ivory, it will not take up
paraffin or gelatine later. Tender wood may be likewise saved.

A much-cracked glazed jar was packed by winding string round it in
all directions, with tufts of wool under the string.

A whole mummy in most fragile condition, so that it could not be
lifted, was made up solid with 40 lb. of paraffin wax which was
melted out of it afterwards in England, making hardly any change. If
contracted burials should be preserved, dust carefully, splash on
about 5 lb. of paraffin wax heated to smoking-point. When cold,
detach from soil, turn over, paraffin the lower side, and build up
weak parts with a sludge of melted paraffin and sand, nearly chilled.
About 8 to 10 lb. of wax will do the whole. The skull should be
packed separately. Pad all hollows of the body with soft rag to
spread pressure in packing. Paraffin wax is the best preservative as
it is tough, and may be used as a coat over an object for safety.
When not needed it can be cut away, or melted away, and cleaned off
completely with benzol. It should be melted in an iron saucepan, as
solder will give way if it is superheated. As it melts at about 120
degrees F., and boils at about 600 degrees F., it can be greatly
superheated, and used when smoking, so as to penetrate deeply into
wood or porous material. It is perfect for strengthening skulls; most
rotten examples slopped with paraffin, and finally soused for a few
seconds so as entirely to cover the bone in and out, will travel
safely, if not crushed.

Boxes must always have corner posts, inside or out; see that the
sides are nailed up to the edges to the posts, or the lid or bottom
may part by the side splitting. See that all nails--except for the
lid--are driven slanting alternately one way and reversed, this
prevents sides or bottom drawing off. Nail the lid with many short
nails, so that it can be raised without splitting.

To secure heavy objects in a mixed box, an inverted rough stool is
the best, the cross piece on the object below, and the sides coming
up to the lid. If cross bars are nailed in a box, damage may be done
to an object in forcing the bars loose. It is often best to put heavy
and light things in the same box, to equalize weights in journeying;
if well secured, a mixed boxful travels well. Be very careful that a
wedge-shaped stone cannot force itself loose by repeated jolts, or it
may split a box.

Slabs of stone ire best packed in open shallow boxes face down on
straw or wool, secured by a few diagonal cross bars on the top, as
then they do not need to be opened for customs. All stones of regular
form should be supported at a fifth of the length from each end. No
bedding on a box is worth anything, as the box will bend more than
the stone, and the strain will all come on the middle. Very heavy
blocks are best with sacking on the face, and roped round in various
parts.

Pottery is most difficult to pack safely. For large jars, mark the
points of contact on the box, and nail on cushions of old cloth
stuffed hard with straw, so as to pad the jar on all sides; make sure
that it cannot twist about into a diagonal position off the pads.
Long boxes, five or six feet, with three or four cross divisions, are
best. Begin packing, say four pots with straw, at one end of the box,
press up a cross board tight on them, and nail through the sides:
then another batch likewise; about one inch thick of hard-pressed
straw is needful at each contact. Twist straw into rough bands, and
wind it round each pot. Fill up corners to prevent the bands shifting
loose. Empty small tins make good stuffing for blank spaces. Old
newspapers torn to bits and rolled into balls make good packing for
pots and hold them firmly, but this method is dangerous if the
packing becomes wetted. Pots should always be packed tight. Old
sacking or cotton stuff may be tied on over the mouth of large pots,
to prevent straw slipping in, and loosening the packing.

Bronzes and coins should not be cleaned in any way, till in a settled
work place.

 8. Forgeries and. Buying.

Most travellers wish to buy some things of interest, and in remote
districts they may do good service in rescuing important objects
which may be wanted in museums. Forgeries are ubiquitous, even in
most obscure places in the hands of peasants, either supplied by
dealers, or casually obtained, often in good faith. It is best to
inquire of local collectors and museums as to the kinds of forgeries
met with. The following notes are to show the novice how far he may
go safely.

Bronze figures with a thick red patina, which scales off readily
sometimes, or with thick green patina cracked, or hard green or brown
patina, are safe. Thin green patina, or bare brown or black metal is
dubious.

Papyri in roll, flexible though fragile, in known Greek or Egyptian
writing, are fairly safe. Lumps stuck together, brown and scrappy,
are made up.

Coins cannot be safely bought unless patinated, copper or silver.
Only an expert can judge of gold or 'clean silver.

Jewellery of small size, as earrings and bracelets, is generally
safe, if the age of the design is known. Modern wire is always drawn,
ancient is irregular. Look for concretions of lime in the hollows,
and for the dull face of old gold. If once cleaned there is little to
distinguish old from modern gold.

Stone vases if turned are Roman or modern. The ancient irregularities
should be studied from specimens.

Scarabs with nacreous or decomposed glaze in the hollows (as in the
deep cuts at the side) are safe; also, if there are natural cracks by
age, which would prevent modern cutting. There is a large variety of
skilful forgeries.

Stone statuettes: a skilled forger may be paid up to 100 pounds for a
figure to order. Only an expert can judge.

Never buy in the dusk or in dark rooms. When buying never have any
one at hand who calls attention to things, nor let any attendant
interfere. Seem entirely unconcerned.

Get the reputation of never advancing on offers, or bargaining; let
taking or leaving things at once be the rule. Time and delays are
money to the traveller, and it is worth much to save time in
haggling. Your donkey-boy will soon spread your character.

When offering for single things to a peasant, put the money by the
side of the antiquity, and say that he must take one or the other:
fingering the cash is irresistible, and no time is lost.

If it is likely that the source of an object will not be truly
stated, the way is to make the best guess you can, and say it
dogmatically: the pleasure of setting you right will often bring out
the truth, or if you guessed right it will gain you credit and break
down reserve.

As a principle it is well to be looked on as a liberal buyer, so as
to encourage the offer of antiquities. A little more thus spent will
be a trifling extra on the whole journey, and may largely increase
the results in objects and information for future work.

Though prices can only be learned by practice, and they vary in time
and place, yet the following scale may be taken as fairly safe.

Bronze figures if good work, inches high squared = shillings: except
in bad state, or Osiris, or bad clumsy work, or votive animals.

Papyri or parchment, continuous text, 1 pound a square foot,
accounts, half or a third.

Jewellery, between weight in coin and double that, according to work.

Scarabs, common but fair 2s., names 2s.-5s.; up to 5 pounds or 10
pounds if beautiful. Engraved gems, small common Roman, 2s.-4s. in
London, more in East; for a fair Greek 1 pound-10 pounds.

Coins often higher in the East than in London. In Greek lands copper
coins may be bought by weight, and picked over at leisure, and the
worthless coins rejected. For single coins fix a price, say half a
franc, and offers of large numbers may come in, from which the best
can be chosen and the rest refused.

Glass vases, blown, inches high squared at 4d. or 6d. each. Coloured
glass double or triple.

Ushabtis, poor 1s.-4s., fair 5s.-10s., fine blue or engraved 1 pound-
10 pounds.




LIST OF THE CHIEF BRITISH INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIETIES CONCERNED WITH
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST.

LONDON.

BRITISH MUSEUM, Bloomsbury, W.C.1.
Director, Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B., P.B.A.
Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, Sir Ernest Wallis Budge,
Litt.D.
Keeper of British and Mediaeval Antiquities (including Prehistoric
Antiquities, Ethnology, and Oriental Antiquities) Sir Hercules Read,
F.B.A., P.S.A.
Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, A. H. Smith M.A.
Keeper of Coins, G. F. Hill, F.B.A.
Keeper of MSS., J. P. Gilson, M.A.
Keeper of Oriental MSS. and Printed Books. L. D. Barnett, Litt.D.

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, S. Kensington, S.W.7.
Director, Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith, C.V.O.
Assistant Keeper of Architecture and Sculpture, E. R. D. Maclagan.
Assistant Keeper of Ceramics, C. H. Wylde.
Keeper of Metalwork, W. W. Watts.
Keeper of Textiles, A. F. Kendrick.
Keeper of Woodwork, E. F. Strange, C.B.E.

BRITISH ACADEMY, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W.1.
Secretary, Sir I. Gollancz, Litt.D.

BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS, 19 Bloomsbury Square, W.C.1,
Secretary, John Penoyre, C.B.E.

BRITISH SCHOOL IN JERUSALEM, c/o. Palestine Exploration Fund,
2 Hinde St., Manchester Square, W. 1. Secretary, Miss R. Woodley.

BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME, 19 Bloomsbury Square, W.C.1.
Secretary of the Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters,
E. J. Forsdyke.

PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND, 2 Hinde St., Manchester Square, W.1
Secretary, E. W. G. Masterman, M.D.

EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY, 13 Tavistock Square, W.C.1.
Secretary, Miss Jonas.

EGYPTIAN RESEARCH ACCOUNT AND BRITISH SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN EGYPT.
Hon. Director, Prof. W. M. F. Petrie, F.R.S., F.B.A., University
College, Gower St., W.C.1.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON, Burlington House, W.1.
Secretary, C. R. Peers, F.S.A.

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 74 Grosvenor St., W. 1.
Secretary, Miss Eleanor Hull.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HELLENIC STUDIES, 19 Bloomsbury Square,
W.C.1. Secretary and Librarian, John Penoyre, C.B.E.

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, 9 Conduit St., W.1.
Secretary, Ian MacAlister.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF ROMAN STUDIES, 19 Bloomsbury Square,
W.C.1. Secretary, Miss Margaret Ramsay.

ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 50 Gt. Russell St., W.C.1.
Secretaries, H. S. Harrison, T. A. Joyce, O.B.E.

ROYAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY, 22 Russell Square, W.C.1.
Secretaries, J. Allan, Lt. Col. W. Morrieson.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, Lowther Lodge, Kensington Gore, S. W. 7.
Secretary, A. R. Hinks, F.R.S.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOINT COMMITTEE. Hon. Secretary, G. F. Hill, British
Museum, W.C.1.


CAMBRIDGE.

MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. Curator, Baron A. von Hugel.

FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM. Director, S. C. Cockerell, M.A.


OXFORD.

ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM. Keeper, D. G. Hogarth, C.M.G., F.B.A.


ATHENS.

BRITISH SCHOOL. Director, A. J. B. Wace.


JERUSALEM.

BRITISH SCHOOL. Director, Prof. J. Garstang.


ROME.

BRITISH SCHOOL, Valle Giulia. Director, Thomas Ashby, D.Litt.



THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOINT COMMITTEE

Society or other Body.                     Representatives.


British Academy                            Sir F. G. Kenyon,  K.C.B.
                                           (Chairman of Committee).
                                           Prof. Percy Gardner.
                                           Sir W. M. Ramsay.

Royal Anthropological Institute            Sir Everard Im Thurn.
                                           Prof. Arthur Keith.

Society of Antiquaries                     Sir Arthur Evans.
                                           Sir Hercules Read.

Royal Institute of British Architects      Prof. W. R. Lethaby.
                                           Prof. A. G. Dickie.

Royal Asiatic Society                      F. Legge.
                                           R. Sewell.

British School at Athens                   J. P. Droop.


Byzantine Research Fund                    Sir Hercules Read.

Egypt Exploration Society                  Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B.
                                           Dr. Alan Gardiner.

Egyptian Research Account                  Prof. Flinders Petrie.
                                           Prof. Ernest Gardner.

Society for the Promotion                  A. H. Smith.
of Hellenic Studies                        G. F. Hill (Hon. Sec. of
                                           Committee).

British School at Jerusalem                Prof. Flinders Petrie.
                                           D. G. Hogarth, C.M.G.

Royal Numismatic Society                   Prof. C. Oman, M.P.
                                           G. F. Hill.

Palestine Exploration Fund                 Dr. G. Buchanan Gray.
                                           Prof. A. G. Dickie

Society for the Promotion of               Miss Gertrude Bell.
Roman Studies                              O. M. Dalton.

    --------------------------------------------

British Museum                             Sir F. G. Kenyon, K.C.B.

Victoria and Albert Museum                 Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith,
                                           C.V.O.



PART II

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The aim of the special sections contained in Chapters III-VIII is to
describe, not the objects usually to be seen in Museums, but only
such things as will be found lying out on mounds and sites, and as
are more or less distinctive of a period. Thus certain comparatively
trivial objects are named, because they are peculiar to a period, and
likely to be found in a casual passage over a site, whereas other
objects, common to several periods, are ignored. Only the
distinctive, key objects are mentioned. The great features of Greek
Art, for instance, are not dealt with in Chapter II; nor are coins,
the probabilities of finding them being too slender, and the
possibilities too wide. Nevertheless, coins when found should be
carefully quoted. Pottery naturally takes the largest place, as it
was abundant, and its fragments are a good guide to period, and being
practically indestructible and of no intrinsic value are most likely
to be met with. The difference between pottery made with the use of
the wheel and that made without is important to be noted. The use of
the wheel can usually be detected through the slight inequalities of
the clay that make a series of parallel lines on the inner surface.
The diagrammatic representations of the pot-forms characteristic of
various periods or of other objects ranging through a civilization
the main features of which can be shown in outline will, it is hoped,
be found useful. Simplified tables of alphabets, intended to make it
possible roughly to identify the script, if not the date, of an
inscription, are also given.




CHAPTER I


FLINT IMPLEMENTS

See Diagrams, [Illustrations II: Flint Implements]

As the development of Flint Implements follows more or less the same
course in all the districts with which this volume deals, a general
description is given here, to avoid repetition in the special
sections.

The earlier periods of man are so remote that geological changes,
wet, and decay, have removed nearly all his works except the flint
tools. It is to these chiefly that we must look for our knowledge of
his abilities. Flints are nearly all that we have for the early
stages, to supply what arts, history, and literature give in later
stages. To preserve and educe all we possibly can obtain from their
situation, and purpose, is a main duty to history. To destroy or
confuse the evidence, by removing specimens without a record, or by
shifting them to a different place, is a crime in science. As there
is no temptation to ignorant peasants to move flints until they are
induced by collectors, so the whole fault of the wreckage that has
taken place in many sites lies on the plundering collector. No money
or reward should be given for any flints; a few fine specimens may be
lost, but vastly more harm would be done by encouraging mere raiding.

The periods and styles that are now recognized are shown on the
diagram--and their conditions were:

      Style              Climate                 Sea level

Eolithic (Pliocene)      ?
Rostrocarinate (Crag)    ?
Strepyan                 warmer                  lower
Chellean                 warm                    low
Acheulian                cooler                  rising
Mousterian               cold                    high
Aurignacian              less cold               lower
Solutrean                warmer                  low
Magdalenian              colder                  rising
Neolithic                            as present


Differences of heat may be 20 degrees or 30 degrees + or -
Differences of level may be 600-800 ft. + or -

The information required of all observers is the level and conditions
of all flint tools that they may see or collect.

Gravels
containing tools may be surface gravels on a plateau; note then the
level, and the relation of them to any cliffs; do they end abruptly
at a cliff edge, showing that the valley was filled up; or do they
fade away to the edge, showing that they are older than the valley
erosion? Gravels may be the filling up of a valley which was
previously eroded; note the highest level at which they can be
traced; often little pockets of deposit, or traces of sandy strata,
can be found clinging high up on cliffs; also note the depths in the
gravel at which any tools are found. Any shells or bones in the
gravels are of the greatest value; the depth at which they are found
should be written on them at once, with the locality.

Surface flints
should have levels noted on them. If sharp they show that probably
submergence has not reached that level since; if worn, then water has
been up to a higher level, from which they have been washed down.

Levelling
may be read from a contour map, if there is such available. In most
countries it must be done by reading feet on an aneroid barometer,
set with zero of level scale to 30 ins. or 760 mm. Then visit as soon
as possible some point where a level is marked on the map, as a hill
top, and read the barometer. This will give the correction to be made
to all the previous notes. If there is no level recorded, get down to
a stream bed (the larger the better) and read it there, recording the
exact place on the map. The level may then be worked out
approximately by points above and below on the stream, for accurate
reading, hold the aneroid face up, gently tap it, and read; then face
down similarly, and take the mean. Guard that the wind does not blow
against any keyhole in the case.

Pencil all levels and localities on flints as soon as found. Ink in
the notes on the least prominent parts of the flint, in small capital
letters, when in camp, with waterproof China ink.

Styles of flint work.
The Eoliths are worn pebbles, chipped as if for scraping. The Rostro-
carinate flints found at the base of the Crag are long bars with a
beak-end, suited for breaking up earth. The human origin of both of
these classes is contested. Flints of Strepy type are nodular and
partly trimmed into cutting edges, the smooth surface being left as a
handle. The Chelles types are remarkable for regularity and fine bold
flaking; the worn butt (though best for handling) was eventually
flaked away to obtain an artistic uniform finish. The St. Acheul
series has finer flaking, the crust being completely removed: there
is a tendency to ovate or almond shapes, and the edges are often
curved, the reverse S-curve being preferred, They diminish in size
towards the end of the period. The Chelles and St. Acheul series are
core implements, made by detaching flakes; and the succeeding (Le
Moustier) method is to use the flakes, generally for scraping. The
LA, EM the diagram is transitional from St. Acheul to Le Moustier.
The form marked M is the predecessor of the Solutrean form next below
it. The Aurignacian is a smaller flake industry, with many lumps more
or less conical, and often with careful parallel flaking or fluting.
The Solutre culture brought in a new style, particularly thin blades
with delicate surface flaking which seems to have reappeared in the
late Neolithic. The pointed borers, certain arrow-heads and minutely
chipped rods of flint are characteristic of the period, and flints of
this age are found on the Egyptian and Syrian deserts. Longer blades,
sometimes very coarse, with ends worn by scraping, mark the period of
La Madeleine. They are found in prehistoric Egyptian graves, along
with Neolithic knives and lances. As a technical advance on flaking
by blows or pressure, grinding and incidental polishing of flint
implements are regarded as characteristic of the Neolithic period;
and the practice may have started in areas devoid of flint, where it
was necessary to utilize local material that could not be flaked like
flint. In Europe generally, polished celts belong to the Megalithic
or latest division of the Neolithic, but this implement appeared much
earlier, and in a sense succeeded the Palaeolithic hand-axe. The
latter is not known to have been hafted, and its working edges were
at the pointed end; whereas in Neolithic times the implement had
become an axe in the modern sense, with the pointed end inserted in a
haft, and the cutting edge removed to the broader end. There are many
other Neolithic types, used with or without a haft, and only a small
proportion were finished by grinding on sandstone.




CHAPTER II


GREECE

[See the diagrams of flint implements, [Illustration II] of pottery,
[Illustration III]; and of alphabets, [Illustration IV]]

The Periods into which the subject must be divided are roughly as
follows:
     I.  Prehistoric down to about 1000 B.C.
    II.  Prehistoric Greek down to about 700 B.C.
   III.  Archaic Greek 700-500 B.C.
    IV.  Classical Greek 500-300 B.C.
     V.  Hellenistic after 300.
    VI.  Roman.
   VII.  Byzantine.


I. PREHISTORIC


A. NORTH GREECE.

NEOLITHIC.--Neolithic settlements on low mounds (_maghoules_) rising
from the plains.

Stone implements.
Axes, hammers, chisels, querns, &c. Flint chips, bone needles,
obsidian.

Pottery.
Hand-made burnished, yellow, brown, black or red. Handles rare. Holes
in rim, or lugs pierced for suspension, Earliest remains show painted
sherds. Long period of unpainted ware followed. Patterns irregular,
rectangular and curved. No naturalism. (Figs. 1 and 2.)

Ware differs slightly with locality. In Thessaly fine red ware
undecorated contemporary with red decoration on white. Chocolate
paint on deep buff follows. Incised ware, geometric patterns white
rubbed in.

Figurines.
Rude clay. Steatopygous.

This civilization extended from northern edge of Thessaly as far
south as Chaeronea. Use of bronze before end uncertain. Civilization
undisturbed by Aegean culture that spread over southern Greece until
just before both were swept away by iron-using people.


B. CRETE, AEGEAN, SOUTH GREECE.

CRETE.

NEOLITHIC.
Black or red burnished pottery.
BRONZE AGE.

Early Minoan.
Painted pottery, dark paint on light ground, geometric designs.
Unpainted, surface mottled red and black.

Middle Minoan.
circa. 3000 B.C.--White designs geometric on dark ground. Orange
and crimson added. Pottery very thin and fine (Kamares ware).
Patterns very various but not naturalistic except in rare instances.
(Figs. 3 and 4; hatched lines=red.)

Late Minoan.
circa. 1500 B.C.--Return to use of light ground. Brown lustrous
paint, fine surface to clay. Decoration naturalistic, flowers,
cuttle-fish, shells, spirals, ripple patterns, white and orange dots
and bands occasionally super-imposed on dark glaze (Figs. 7, 10, and
12).

White and orange disappear. Decoration stiffer and more conventional.


AEGEAN.

NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.

BRONZE AGE.

Contemporary with Early Minoan.

Pottery with geometric patterns normally dark on light buff or
reddish coarse clay. Sometimes red or white on black burnished clay.

Marble figurines 'fiddle-shaped' from Naxos and Paros (III, Fig. 6).

Contemporary with Middle Minoan.

Pottery with very pale sometimes greenish clay, and grey black
totally unlustrous paint. Patterns mainly geometric. Rather sparse
decoration. Later, with addition of red, decoration becomes fully
naturalistic. Lilies and birds in red and black (Melos) (III, Figs. 5 and
9; hatched lines=red). Beaked jugs (III, Fig. 5) most characteristic shape
of this period.

Cretan influence strong in Middle Minoan completely drowned local
efforts in first Late Minoan days. Thenceforward local ware
imitative.

SOUTH GREECE.

NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.

BRONZE AGE.
Geometric Ware with matt paint and pale clay corresponding to that of
islands found in Argolid and Boeotia.

'Urfirnis' Ware. Hand-made. Whole vase covered with thin semi-
lustrous wash varying from red-brown to black. Sometimes mere smears.
Mainly found in Boeotia, but extends north to valley of Spercheius
and south to Argolid. Date uncertain, but in Boeotia evidence that it
ended before rise of 'Minyan' ware.

'Minyan Ware.' Grey unpainted pottery, polished. No decoration except
(rarely) incised lines. Usually wheel-made. Characteristic shapes:
Goblet with tall ringed stem (III, Fig. 15); wide open cup with high
handles.

Appears to range Between Middle Minoan II and Late Minoan III.

Most frequent in Boeotia to which it owes its name. Found as far
north as Thessaly and as far south as Crete. Local imitations,
obvious but distinct, found with imported specimens (Melos).
Provenance unknown; connexion with Troy suspected.

'Mycenaean.' The Cretan civilization swept over South Greece in the
first Late Minoan period. Characterized by exuberance both in shape
and ornament (III, Figs. 11, 12, 13, 16, 17). Bulk of what is likely to be
found is of latest period when style has become conventionalized.
Compare Fig. 11 (Mycenaean) with III, Fig. 7 Late Minoan I. Characteristic
shapes high goblet and 'stirrup' vase (III, Figs. 17 and 16).

Female clay figurines common (III, Fig. 14), also animals, oxen.

Objects Characteristic of Aegean Civilization.

Seal Stones.
Round or bean-shaped, pierced for suspension, usually soft stone,
e.g. slate or steatite. Sometimes hard, as hematite or rock crystal.
Carved with naturalistic designs: lions, (III, Fig. 8), stags, bulls, cows
or hinds suckling their young, cuttle-fish, dolphins, &c. Two animals
ranged like heraldic supporters characteristic.

Obsidian.
Natural glass, volcanic, black. Source Melos. Used for knives
throughout Bronze Age.

Chips of Knife or razor blades, and sometimes the cores from which
these were flaked, may be picked up on any Bronze Age site, and even
on Thessalian neolithic settlements. Glistening black unmistakable.

Terra-cotta lamps.
The characteristic lamp of the Aegean civilization is open, as
opposed to the Greek and Roman lamp where the body is partly covered
in.

Walls.
Cyclopean walls of huge irregular stones. Also good square-cut
masonry.

'Corbelling' system for arches, each layer of stones projecting
inwards over the one below. Also used for the vaults of 'Beehive'
Tombs towards end of period.

[Illustration III: TYPES OF GREEK POTTERY, ETC.]


II. PREHISTORIC GREEK


Geometric or Dipylon Period.

Pottery.
Iron Age. circ. 1000 B.C.--Absolute break in continuity from what
preceded. No naturalism. Prevalence of geometric patterns (III, Figs. 18
and 19). Not much variety. Meanders, lozenges, and zigzags. Circles
joined by tangents replace Mycenaean spirals. Ornament crowded. Rows
or single specimens of long-legged water birds. Human figures rare,
rude angular silhouettes.

Local characteristics discernible (e.g. between ware of Thessaly,
Attica, Boeotia, Delphi, Argolid, Laconia, Thera, and Crete), but
strong family resemblance. (Lower specimen III, Fig. 19 characteristic of
Boeotia.) Dark paint on natural clay (sometimes lightened by a white
slip, e. g. Laconia) differs distinctly from Mycenaean. Shapes fewer
and curves less flowing. Amphorae, plates, bowls, and jugs. Trefoil
lip to jug first appears.

Terra-cotta loom weights from now onwards often pyramidal in form and
glazed.

Bronzes.
Figurines. Three types:--
   Human, rare (as on vases).
   Quadrupeds, mainly horses. Cylindrical muzzle and narrow
   cylindrical belly (III, Fig. 23).
   Birds. Long neck and legs, flat bill and body. Stands to above,
   flat, square or round, with open-work snake or spiral.

Pins (to fasten dress at shoulder). Long head with small bosses
like strung beads sometimes separated by discs (III, Fig 21). Sometimes
larger flat disc at end of head (often missing) Pin itself usually
iron, rarely extant.

Brooches.
  1. Spiral type. Of wire coiled into spirals. Made of one, two, or
three wires crossing with two, four, or six spirals respectively.
Boss at centre. Spectacle type (two spirals) common. In 'spectacle'
type (sometimes very large) spiral purely utilitarian, giving spring
to the pin. With four or more spirals the additions are ornament,
noteworthy in view of absence of spirals on pottery.
  2. Bow type.
   (a) High arched bow solid.
   (b) Arched bow hollowed like boat inverted. This type often has
flat plate attached to one end, lower edge of which is bent to form
catch. Plate incised, crossed leaves, ships, horses, or men.
   (c) Arched bow consisting of crescent-shaped plate, similar
incised decoration.

Paste Beads.
A type pyramidal, dark with yellow spirals round corners, much
resembling 'bull's eye' sweets, was common in Laconia (III, Fig.27).

Terra-cotta Figurines.
Series of rude horses sometimes with riders characteristic of end of
period. Chiefly from Boeotia. Painted like pottery, but chiefly in
lines.


III. ARCHAIC GREEK

A. Orientalising.

Pottery.
700 B.C.--Influence from Asia Minor. Recrudescence there of spirit of
Mycenaean art? Lions, stags, sphinxes, sirens, either in procession
or arranged in pairs like heraldic supporters.

Stylized plant motifs in decoration. Rays (or flower petals) rising
from foot most characteristic (III, Figs. 24, 26, and 28).

Use of purple paint to supplement black both for details of figures
and for band decoration.

Geometric ornament (though perhaps with a difference) survives to
fill blank spaces on backgrounds of scenes.

Varieties of style. Beasts drawn in silhouette, heads outlined, eyes,
&c., drawn in, early, and mainly in the islands (III, Fig. 29). Later
whole figures in silhouette with details incised, particularly
identified with Corinthian and Boeotian and Laconian styles (III, Fig.
26). Styles most likely to be found on the mainland are 'Proto-
Corinthian' and 'Corinthian'.

'Proto-Corinthian' (also called Argive Linear). Small vases, very
fine pale clay. Decoration chiefly horizontal lines very fine. Rays
from feet. Sometimes silhouette animals round shoulder.

Characteristic shapes: pear-shaped aryballoi, and lekythi with
conical body, long neck, and trefoil lip (III, Figs. 24 and 25).

'Corinthian'. Clay pale buff to warm biscuit colour. Rays round foot.
Purple bands. Rows of usual animals. Incisions. Details in purple.
Ground ornaments, incised rosettes more or less carefully drawn.
These in great profusion leaving very little bare space. (III, Fig. 26;
hatched lines=purple.) Throughout this period desire for a light
ground was felt, and where the natural colour of the clay did not
give sufficient contrast it was covered with a strip of cream-or
white clay (e.g. Rhodian, Naucratite, Laconian; see III, Fig. 28, Early
Laconian Vase).

Terra-cotta Figurines.
Series that culminates with Tanagra figures of fourth century begins.
May be said always to be a step in advance of contemporary sculpture
if any.

Statuettes rare at this date, but relief heads on flat plaques or on
vase handles common. Treatment of hair usually resembles Restoration
wig (III, Fig. 20). Rosette frequent on shoulders represents head of
bronze (rarely silver or gold) shoulder pin.

Bronzes.
Pins (to fasten dress at shoulder). Three large bosses increasing
in size as they near head replace many small equal bosses of
preceding period. Disc heavier (III, Fig. 22).

Brooches. Spiral type has disappeared. Couchant lion type with
snake tail has been found at Olympia and Sparta. In general brooches
cease to be common.

Plaques (doubtless affixed to wood). Relief patterns of guilloches
or rows of bosses. Figure scenes similar to those on pottery.
Characteristic of seventh century. Chance of picking up slight.

Inscriptions. Earliest extant examples of use of Greek script on
stone may date from this period. For developments, see tables of
alphabets, Illustration IV.


[Illustration IV: GREEK ALPHABETS]


B. Black Figured Period.

600 B.C.--Predominance of Attic pottery. Decay of local styles.
Introduction of red colouring into clay and of superlative Attic
black glaze.

Figure scenes (battle scenes and scenes from mythology) largely
predominate. Black silhouettes, details marked with fine incisions,
additions of purple and white (latter for linen and flesh of women).
Elaborate palmettos characteristic (III, Fig. 31).


IV. CLASSICAL GREEK

Red Figured Period.
525 B.C. Same clay and glaze, but whole vase covered with glaze and
figures reserved showing in colour of clay, details being added with
fine-drawn lines of glaze.

White Attic Vases. The older style of figures drawn in outline on a
light ground (e. g. Naucratite and Rhodian ware), the space within
outlines being filled more or less with wash of colour, survived in
Athens side by side with the more usual black glazed ware, and in the
fifth century was particularly affected for the class of funerary
lekythi, vases made for offering at a tomb (III, Fig. 30). Outlines at
first drawn in black, then golden brown, lastly a dull red.

Miscellaneous.
Walls. Sixth century. Characteristic type of polygonal wall, each
irregular stone very carefully fitted to its neighbours.

Fortifications usually built with square towers and bastions
projecting from the curtain.

Round watch towers here and there to be met with.

Bricks. Baked bricks rarely used till Roman days. Bricks stamped by
King Nabis (early second century) have been found at Sparta.

Terra-cotta roof tiles (sometimes with stamped inscriptions)
largely used.

Laconian Pottery Characteristics. Fragments of black glazed Attic
ware are the class of remains easiest to pick up on any Greek
inhabited site, except perhaps in Laconia, where perhaps for
political reasons the local style was never ousted and pursued its
natural process of decay until Hellenistic times. Use of white slip
over pink clay complete at end of seventh century, then partial;
abandoned by beginning of fifth century. Characteristic patterns,
squares, and dots (III, Fig. 28) seventh century; lotus and pomegranates
sixth century and fifth century.

500 B.C.--After the end of the fifth century, manufacture of vases at
Athens decayed. Supply chiefly from South Italy. Growing use of
additional white (rare in Attic red figure vases), sometimes addition
of detail in yellowish brown, and a general coarseness of execution,
mark the change.

Terra-cotta figurines (figures of everyday life, mostly female; head-
quarters Tanagra in Boeotia) prevalent.


V. HELLENISTIC

300 B.C. Side by side with decay of red-figure style appear two
classes of vase that became very prevalent.
(1) White designs, often floral, on totally black ground of inferior
dull glaze.
(2) Black ware decorated not by paint but by moulded figures and
patterns.
Also the handles of unpainted jars with stamped impressions (buff
clay) not uncommon. Provenance mainly Rhodes.


VI. ROMAN

Hellenistic ware (2) is forerunner of Samian or Aretine red pottery
with moulded designs. Very widespread in Greece in Imperial days.


VII. BYZANTINE AGE

Remains as far as the scope of this section is concerned are few.
Fragments of pottery may be found at Sparta. These bear strong
resemblance to the contemporary wares found in Egypt belonging to the
early Mohammedan period.

Transparent lustrous glaze. Ground usually pale yellow or cream,
sometimes pale green. Designs childish in character. Lions, birds,
human figures painted in brown under the glaze or incised through.




CHAPTER III


ASIA MINOR

[See the diagrams of pottery, Illustration V: ASIA MINOR POTTERY]

1. Introductory.

Travellers are more likely to make new discoveries elsewhere than on
the actual sites of ancient towns and villages. In many cases the
site is found to be entirely bare of all remains except sometimes
small fragments of pottery. In general, inscribed and other stones
have been carried away to serve as building material for mosques,
houses, fountains, bridges, &c., or as headstones for graves in
cemeteries or for other utilitarian purposes. It is, therefore, in
and near modern villages and towns that inscriptions are chiefly to
be found, as well as smaller antiquities, such as clay tablets, pots
or fragments of them, terra-cotta figures, coins, and so forth. The
smaller articles may sometimes be found in the bazaars, but they are
usually in the hands of individuals.

It should not be assumed that inscriptions which are exposed to
public view have all been copied; moreover, new stones are constantly
being turned up, especially where building is going on and where
there are old sites or cemeteries close at hand. Great numbers of
inscribed stones are hidden away in private dwellings, where they are
difficult of discovery and of access. Travellers should take
advantage of opportunities that may offer of examining antiquities in
private houses, and of visiting sites or monuments about which
information may be received, particularly if they are a little off
the beaten track. Reward will often come in the shape of valuable
discoveries, of which many remain to be made. Cilicia in particular
has been imperfectly explored, and interesting monuments and
inscriptions, particularly Hittite, may be found there.


2. Pottery Fabrics.

It is not yet possible to describe fully or accurately the succession
of styles, or even to assign all known fabrics to their proper
periods. For this reason, even the most fragmentary specimens are of
interest, provided only that:
   (1) the outer surface is fairly well preserved,
   (2) the place of discovery is known.

All fragments showing a rim or spout, handles or part of a base,
should be preserved until they can be compared with a more perfect
specimen.

The following fabrics, however, are widely distributed, and usually
seem to have flourished in the order in which they are here
described:

A.
Hand-made wares, rough within, but smooth or burnished surface, self-
coloured (drab or brown), or intentionally coloured black (by charred
matter in the clay, or by a smoky fire), or red (by a clear fire,
sometimes aided by a wash or 'slip' of more ferruginous clay).
Sometimes a black ware is 'overfired' to an ashy grey.

In such wares ornament is rare, and consists mainly of (a) incised
dots, dashes, or lines, in simple rectilinear patterns (chevrons,
zigzags, lozenges), often enhanced by a white chalky filling (V, Figs 5-
8); (b) ridges or bosses modelled in the clay surface, or adhering to
it. The forms are plump and globular, often round-bottomed or
standing on short feet. Rims are absent or ill-developed; necks
actually prolonged into trough-spouts or long beaks; handles are very
simple and short. Vases are sometimes modelled like animals, or have
human faces or breasts (V, Figs. 1-4).

These wares begin in the Stone Age, and seem to predominate in the
early and middle Bronze Age. Locally they may have lasted even later,
but the use of the potter's wheel spread rapidly in the early Bronze
Age.

B.
Hand-made wares of light-coloured clay, with painted decoration,
usually in black or reddish-brown. The paint is generally without
glaze, but sometimes is decayed and easily washes off.

The forms and ornaments resemble those of class A, but are less rude
and more varied. Distinct rims and standing-bases appear, and spouts
give place to a pinched lip.

C.
Hand-made wares of black or other dark clay, with painted decoration
in white or ochre. These fabrics are rather rare, and the paint is
easily washed off. The forms follow those of class B.

Classes B and C seem to begin early in the Bronze Age, and are
gradually replaced by the corresponding wheel-made fabrics of class
D.

D.
Wheel-made pottery begins in the Bronze Age, and is distinguished by
its symmetrical forms, and by the texture of the inner surface,
especially about the rim and base, where the potter's fingers have
grazed the whirling clay. Self-coloured wares still occur, and are
sometimes elegant ('bucchero' ware); but the improved furnaces now
permit general use of light-coloured clays, suited to painted
decoration. Glazed paint is still rare, and may be taken as probable
token of date not earlier than the end of the Bronze Age. The glaze-
painted wares of the Greek island-world occasionally wandered to the
mainland a little earlier than this, but not far from the coast. On
wheel-made pottery the ornament is either (a) applied while the pot
is on the wheel, and consequently limited to lines and bands
following the plane of rotation, or (b) added afterwards, free-hand,
usually between such bands, and especially on the neck and shoulder.

Simple rectilinear schemes are commonest (panels, lozenges, and
triangles, enriched with lattice and chequers) (V, Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12);
with these in the Early Iron Age appear little targets of concentric
circles drawn mechanically with compasses (V, Figs. 13-15); also, by
degrees, birds (V, Fig. 16), animals, and simple plant designs
(rosettes, lotus, palmette), and occasionally human figures. But as a
rule, the mainland pottery is very simply decorated, and insular
imports are rare, except within the area within Greek colonization.

In the Later Iron Age or Historic Period, from the seventh century
onward, the pot-fabrics of Asia Minor rapidly assimilate two main
classes of foreign fashions, Greek and Oriental.

E.
The Oriental types (mainly from Syria) are all plump and heavy
looking, usually in coarse buff or cream-coloured ware, almost
without paint. The Greek forms are more graceful, varied, and
specialized; light-coloured clays predominate, with simple bands of
black ill-glazed paint, absorbed by the inferior clays.

After Alexander's time the Greek and the Oriental forms became
confused; the general level of style and execution falls, painted
decoration almost disappears, and the outer surface is often ribbed
by uneven pressure of the fingers on the whirling clay. This fashion
is a sign of late Hellenistic or Graeco-Roman date.

F.
Meanwhile, the black-glazed Greek (mainly Athenian) wares spread
widely for table use, and were imitated locally from the fourth
century onwards. The clay is pale or reddish (genuine Greek fabrics
are usually quite red within) and the glaze thick, black, and of a
brilliant glassy smoothness. Imitations are of all degrees of
inferiority.

G.
Other late fabrics have smooth ill-glazed surfaces, of various red,
brown, or chocolate tints, over hard-baked dull-fractured paste not
unlike modern earthenware, but usually dark-coloured. These wares
begin in the Hellenistic period, and go on into the Roman and early
Byzantine Ages. They have sometimes a little ornament in a hard white
or cream 'slip' which stands up above the surface of the vase. These
fabrics are all for table use, or for tomb-furniture, and are usually
of small size.

H.
Pottery with vitreous glaze like modern earthenware only appears on
Byzantine and Turkish sites. There a few late Greek and Roman fabrics
of glazed ware, mostly of dark brown and olive-green tints; but they
are rare, and usually found in tombs. The earlier glazes are applied
directly to the clay; later a white or coloured slip is applied
first, and a clear siliceous glaze over this.

3. Inscriptions and Monuments.

A. Hittite Civilization. (See figures, Illustration VI: Hittite
Inscriptions, etc.)

(1) From 2000 B.C. onwards baked clay tablets with cuneiform (or
wedge-shaped) writing (Illustration VI, Fig. 1) to be found anywhere
in Eastern Asia Minor, within the Halys bend and south of it, in
Southern Cappadocia, in Cilicia, and in North Syria up to the
Euphrates.

(2) 1000-700 B.C. probably: inscriptions generally cut on stone, dark
and hard (black basalt), or on the living rock, in hieroglyphic
writing. The hieroglyphs are either cut in relief (VI, Fig. 4) or
incised (VI, Fig. 2). Found in the same region and sporadically west
of the Halys.

(3) From 1400 B.C. and 900 B.C. onwards monuments and sculpture.
Human figures are short and thick, generally wearing boots with toes
turned up (VI, Fig. 3.) Found in the same regions as the inscriptions
and also west of the Halys to the sea.

B. Lydian inscriptions.

From about 500 B.C. Letters mostly like Greek capitals (sometimes
reversed); (Illustration IV, at bottom).

C. Lycian inscriptions and monuments.

From about 500 B.C. inscriptions, sometimes with a Greek translation.
(IV, at bottom.)

Monuments, mostly with inscriptions, are generally tombs in stone,
built to imitate wood, with the ends of beams projecting or showing.

D. Greek antiquities.

(1) Early period to 323 B.C. the great Greek colonies on the seaboard
and in the coast valleys really formed an outlying part of Greece,
and for them the section on Greece should be consulted.

(2) Periods of Seleucid and Pergamene rule, 323-130 B.C.
Inscriptions of these periods to be found mostly in the coastal
region, rarely on the plateau. Chiefly royal ordinances, thank
offerings, municipal honorary inscriptions, decrees, covenants, and
the like.

(3) Graeco-Roman period, 130 B.C.-A.D. 400.
Language of inscriptions remains normally Greek, though the lettering
gradually assumes a different character from century to century,
steadily deteriorating. The Phrygian language, written in Greek
letters, survives for several centuries in epitaphs, part of the
inscription often being in Greek.

Latin inscriptions are not common except in Roman colonies during the
earlier centuries of their existence. Elsewhere they are chiefly
official documents of various kinds (e.g. imperial ordinances,
milestones usually of columnar shape with the Emperor's titles,
boundary stones, &c.), or expressions of homage to Emperors, honorary
inscriptions to governors and other officials, dedications, epitaphs,
&c. Sometimes a Greek version is added.

Latin inscriptions of the Republican period (recording decrees of the
Senate) are extremely rare.


[ILLUSTRATION VI: HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS, ETC.]




CHAPTER IV


CYPRUS

[The traveller will find the _Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum_, by J.
L. Myres and M. Ohnefalsch-Richter (Oxford, 1899) indispensable for
the study of Cypriote Antiquities. Reference may also be made to
Myres, _Catalogue of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from
Cyprus_ (New York, 1914). They contain numerous illustrations of
types, and make diagrams for the present section unnecessary.]

The principal classes of ancient remains are as follows:

Settlements.
These are usually much devastated by the removal of building
materials to more recent habitations; or are obscured by modern towns
and villages on the same site. All foundations in squared masonry, or
composed of unusually large stones, should be noted and protected as
far as possible. The frequent presence of large building stones, and
especially of architectural fragments, in recent house-walls probably
indicates the neighbourhood of an ancient building: and all
reconstructions and fresh foundation-trenches should be kept under
observation. The present Antiquity Law provides for the inspection
and custody of ancient remains so exposed: the Curator of Ancient
Monuments is charged with the supervision of all buildings and
monuments above ground; the Keeper of Antiquities for the custody of
movable objects, and for the registration of those already in private
possession. Taking into consideration the utility of good building
material to the present owners of such sites, active co-operation to
preserve ancient masonry is not to be expected, unless local
patriotism and expectation of traffic from tourists can be enlisted
in support of Government regulations. Architectural fragments found
in reconstruction are often best preserved by arranging that they
shall be built conspicuously into one of the new walls, well above
ground-level, or transferred to the nearest church or school-house.

Sanctuaries
usually consist of a walled enclosure containing numerous pedestals
and bases of votive statues and other monuments. Usually only the
foundation-walls are of stone, as the same sun-dried brick was
commonly used in ancient as in modern times for the superstructure.
Such sites are often vary shallow, and when they occur in the open
country are liable to be disturbed by ploughing, when the smaller
statuettes and terra-cotta figures may be turned up in considerable
numbers. As most of our knowledge of the sculpture, as well as of the
religious observances, of ancient Cyprus is derived from such sites,
all such indications should be reported at once to the Keeper of
Antiquities, and arrangements made for the site to be examined with a
view to excavation before it is cultivated further. The sculpture on
these sites begins usually in the seventh century B.C.; before that
period terra-cotta figures were in use as far back as the ninth or
tenth century. Figures of 'Mixed Oriental' style, resembling Assyrian
or Egyptian work, give place about 500 B.C. to a provincial Greek
style, which passes gradually into Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman. The
material is almost invariably the soft local limestone, and the
workmanship is often clumsy; but even the coarser examples should be
treated carefully, as they were sometimes completed in colours which
are easily destroyed by too vigorous washing. The first cleaning
should be with gently running water only.

Tombs
are of all periods, and are found not only around historical sites
and actual ruins, but also in localities where the settlement to
which they belonged has wholly disappeared. Though simple graves were
always in use among the poorest folk, the commonest form of tomb at
all periods is a rock-cut chamber entered by a door in one side, to
which access is given by a shaft or sloping passage (_dromos_) cut
likewise in the rock. The earliest are but a few feet from the
surface, just deep enough to ensure a firm roof to the chamber; later
the depth is as much as 12 or 15 feet. Occasionally the chamber, and
even the passage, is built of masonry and roofed with stone slabs or
a corbel vault, and the simple door-slab gives place to a stone door,
hinged, or sliding in a grooved frame. Cremation was occasionally
practised in the Hellenistic Age, but the regular custom was to bury
the body; during the Bronze Age in a sitting or a contracted posture,
in all later periods lying at full length. Stone coffins
(_sarcophagi_), with a lid, were used occasionally by the rich from
the sixth century onwards, and wooden coffins in the Graeco-Roman
period. There is always as rich a tomb-equipment as the mourners
could afford, of personal ornaments, wreaths, provisions, weapons,
and other gear, especially pottery; and terra-cotta figures of men,
animals, furniture, and other objects for the use of the deceased. In
Graeco-Roman tombs pottery is supplemented or replaced by glass
vessels, and coins are frequent, and are important evidence of date.
Most of our knowledge of Cypriote arts and industries comes from this
tomb-equipment, which should therefore if possible be preserved
entire and kept together, tomb by tomb; not neglecting the skeletons
themselves, which are of value to indicate changes in the island
population. The position of tombs was often marked by gravestones
above ground; these remain scattered in the surface soil, or
collected to block the entrances to later tombs. They are frequently
inscribed. A very common form in Greco-Roman times is the _cippus_, a
short column, like an altar.

Pottery and other objects
from tombs, and also from settlements, is classified as follows:

Stone Age: not clearly represented in Cyprus; but some of the
earliest tombs (with rude varieties of red hand-made ware) contain no
metallic objects, and may belong to the latest neolithic period.
Stone implements are very rare, and should be carefully recorded,
with a note of the spot where they were found.

Bronze Age, early period (before 2000 B.C.): polished red ware,
hand-made, sometimes with incised ornament filled with white powder.

Bronze Age, middle period (2000-1500 B.C.): polished red ware, and
also white hand-made ware with painted linear ornament in dull black
or brown.

Bronze Age, late period (1500-1200 B.C.): degenerate polished red
and painted white ware; wheel-made white ware with painted ornament
in glazed black or brown, of the 'Late Minoan' or 'Mycenaean' style
introduced from the Aegean; various hand-made wares of foreign
styles, probably from Syria or Asia Minor.

In these periods, weapons, implements, and ornaments are of copper
(with bronze in the 'late' period); gold occurs rarely; terra-cotta
figures are few and rude; engraved seals are cylindrical like those
of Babylonia.

Early Iron Age: wheel-made pottery, either white or bright red,
with painted geometrical ornament in black (supplemented on the white
ware with purple-red); there is also a black fabric imitating
metallic forms.

The early period (1200-1000 B.C.) marks the transition from bronze
to iron implements, with survival of Mycenaean decoration on the
pottery, and replacement of cylindrical by conical seals.

The middle period (1000-750 B.C.) has purely geometrical
decoration: terra-cotta figures are modelled rudely by hand, and
painted like the pottery.

The late period (750-500 B.C.) shows foreign influences from Greece
and from Phoenicia or Egypt, competing with and enriching the native
geometrical style. Scarab seals, blue-glaze beads, and other personal
ornaments, and silver objects, appear. Terra-cotta figures stamped in
a mould occur side by side with modelled.

Hellenic Age, with increasing influence of Greek arts and
industries.

Early or Hellenic period (500-300 B.C.): the native pottery
degenerates, and Greek vases and terra-cottas are imported and
imitated; jewellery of gold and silver is fairly common and of good
quality; with engraved seals set in signet rings: the bronze mirrors
are circular, with a handle-spike.

Middle or Hellenistic period (300-50 B.C.): the native pottery is
almost wholly replaced by imitations of forms from other parts of the
Greek world, especially from Syria and Asia Minor: large handled
wine-jars (_amphorae_) are common: terra-cottas and jewellery also
follow Greek styles: coloured stones are set in rings and ear-rings.

Late or Graeco-Roman period (50 B.C.-A.D. 400): pottery is partly
replaced by vessels of blown glass: clay lamps, red-glazed jugs, so
called 'tear-bottles' of spindle-shapes, ear-rings of beads strung on
wire, bronze rings and bracelets, circular mirrors without handles,
and bronze coins are characteristics.

Byzantine Age (after A.D. 400): Christian burial in surface graves
supersedes the use of rock-hewn tombs: funerary equipment goes out of
use, except a few personal ornaments, which are of mean appearance,
and may bear Christian symbols. Domestic pottery is coarse,
ungraceful, and frequently ribbed on the outside. Clay lamps have
long nozzles, and Christian symbols. Glass becomes clumsy and less
common; and glazed bowls and cups come into use. Occasional rich
finds of silver plate (salvers, cups, spoons, &c.) and personal
ornaments, have been made among Byzantine ruins.

On mediaeval and later sites, various glazed fabrics of pottery are
found, and occasionally examples of the glazed and painted jugs,
plates, and tiles known to collectors as 'Rhodian' or 'Damascus'
ware.

Inscriptions
occur on settlement-sites, in sanctuaries and associated with tombs:
usually cut on slabs or blocks of soft limestone, though marble and
other harder stones were used in Hellenistic and Roman times. Besides
the ordinary Greek (see Illustration IV), and Roman alphabets the
Phoenician alphabet (see Illustrations X and XI) was in use at Kition
(Larnaca), in the great sanctuaries at Idalion (Dali), and
occasionally elsewhere; and from early times until the fourth century
a syllabary peculiar to Cyprus, often very rudely hewn, in irregular
lines, on ill-shaped blocks. Such 'Cypriote inscriptions' (see
accompanying Illustration VII) are of great value and interest, and
have been often overlooked among building material drawn from old
sites. In all doubtful cases, a 'squeeze' should be made by one of
the methods described in the first part of this volume and submitted
to the Keeper of Antiquities. The stamped inscriptions on the handles
of wine-jars are worth preserving, as evidence for the course of
trade.

Coins
were issued in Cyprus from the sixth century onward; first in silver;
later (in the fourth century B.C.) occasionally in gold, and from the
fourth century commonly in copper. A Ptolemaic coinage succeeded in
the third century that of the local rulers; the Roman coinage, with
inscriptions sometimes in Greek, sometimes in Latin, lasts from
Augustus to the beginning of the third century. Coins of the
Byzantine Emperors and of the Lusignan Kings are common.

[ILLUSTRATION VII: BILINGUAL (GREEK AND CYPRIOTE) DEDICATION TO
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE FROM CURIUM.]




 CHAPTER V


 CENTRAL AND NORTH SYRIA

[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustration II; of pottery
and weapons, &c., VIII & IX; of alphabets, X & XI.]

The following notes are to be accepted as only a rough and imperfect
guide, since no part of Syria, north of Palestine, has been widely or
minutely explored, and the archaeology of the earliest period, in
Central Syria, for example, is almost unknown.

The periods into which the archaeological history of Syria should be
divided are roughly, as follows:

    I. Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age, to about 2000 B.C.
   II. Bronze Age or Early Hittite, to about 1100 B.C.
  III. Iron Age or Late Hittite, to about 550 B.C.
   IV. Persian Period, to about 330 B.C.
    V. Hellenistic Period, to about 100 B.C.
   VI. Roman Period.
  VII. Byzantine Period.


I. Neolithic.

No purely Neolithic sites yet known, but lowest strata of remains at
Sakjegozu and Sinjerli, on the Carchemish citadel, and in certain
kilns at Yunus near by, and also pot-burials among house remains are
of this Age. (But see Chapter VIII, Mesopotamia, whose Neolithic
period is similar.)

Stone implements:
as in Greece, including obsidian of very clear texture, probably of
inner Asiatic, not Aegean production. Bone needles and other
implements.

Pottery.
Four varieties have been observed: (1) buff ground with simple linear
decoration applied direct on the gritty body-clay in lustreless
pigments, black, chocolate-brown, or red, according to the firing;
(2) greenish-buff face, hand-polished, with polychrome varnish
decoration of vandykes and other geometric motives; (3) monochrome,
black to grey, not burnished, but sometimes decorated with incised
linear patterns; (4) plain red or buff (e.g. large urns in which
Neolithic burials were found on the Carchemish citadel). All pottery
hand-made.

Figurines:
rude clay and stone figurines are likely to occur, but have as yet
been found very rarely in Neolithic strata.

Copper implements:
traces observed at Carchemish: to be looked for.


II. Bronze Age (Early Hittite).

(a) Early period to about 1500 B.C.
Cist-graves made of rough stone slabs, near crude brick houses.
Conjunction of such slabs with bricks would be an indication of an
early Bronze Age site. Rare pot-burials survive.

Implements.
Spear-heads of long tapering form rounded sharply at the base which
has long tang (IX, Fig. 5): poker-like butts (IX, Fig. 2): knives
with curved tangs: 'toggle' pins: all bronze (but a silver toggle-pin
has been found) (IX, Figs. 1,8).

Pottery.
All wheel-made but rough: light red or buff faced of reddish clay:
decoration rare and only in simple zigzags or waves in reddish-brown
pigment: long-stemmed vases of 'champagne-glass' form are common (VIII,
Fig. 4): rarely a creamy slip is applied to the red clay.

(b) Later period.
Cist-graves apart from houses, in cemeteries.

Implements.
Long narrow celts often riveted: spear-heads, leaf-shaped or
triangular (IX, Figs. 3, 6, 10): axe-heads with socket, swelling
blade and curved cutting edge: pins both 'toggle' and unpierced,
straight and bent over.

Pottery.
Wheel-made, well potted, and commonly _ring-burnished_, the process
beginning at the base of a vase and climbing spirally: little painted
decoration: face usually dusky brown over pinkish body clay, but red
and yellow-white faced wares also found: shapes, mostly bowls, open
and half closed: ring feet, but no handles to vases: only
occasionally lug-ears (IX, Figs. 1,2,3,5,6). Rims well turned over
belong to the latest period, in which elaborate ring-burnishing is
common.

Beads, &c.
Diamond-shaped, with incised decoration, in clay or stone, common.
Pendants, &c., of shell, lapis lazuli, cornelian, crystal. Cylinders,
of rude design like Babylonian First Dynasty, in stone and bone.
Spindle-whorls in steatite and clay.

[ILLUSTRATION VIII: SYRIAN POTTERY]


III. Iron Age (Late Hittite).

To this belong the mass of 'Hittite' remains in Syria. Graves are
unlined pits, with urn burials, the corpse having been cremated.
Cylinders, &c., showing traces of fire, will belong to this Age.

Implements and weapons.
Arrow-heads of bronze: spear-heads of bronze and iron: axes, knives,
and picks of iron (miniature models occur in graves): daggers of
iron. _Fibulae_, of bronze, semicircular and triangular (as in Asia
Minor) (IX, Figs. 4, 9, 11): plain armlets of bronze: pins, spatulae,
&c., of bronze: thin applique ornaments. Bronze bowls (gilt) with
gadroon or lotus ornament (moulded) in later period. Steatite
censers, in form of a cup held by a human hand, are not uncommon (IX,
Fig. 7).

Pottery.
Tall narrow-mouthed urns, bath-shaped vessels, and bell-kraters
common (VIII, Fig. 10): trefoil-mouth _oenochoae_ and _hydriae_; also
_amphorae_ (VIII, Fig. 7).

In earlier period, white or drab slipped surface with geometric
patterns (rarely rude birds) in black. In later period, pinkish glaze
with geometric patterns in black-brown, concentric circles being a
common motive. Tripod bowls in unslipped 'kitchen' ware (VIII, Fig.
8). Blue or greenish glazed albarelli, with white, brown, or yellow
bands, occur (as in Rhodes).

Figurines.
Drab clay, painted with red or black bands and details. Two types:
(a) Horsemen; (b) Goddesses of columnar shape, often with flower
headdresses, and sometimes carrying a child.

Seals, &c.
Scarabs with designs of Egyptian appearance: cylinders, steatite or
(more commonly) glazed paste, lightly and often scratchily engraved:
hard stone seals finely engraved: flattened spheroids in steatite
with Hittite symbols on both faces, inscriptions being often garbled.

Inscriptions.
Most of those in Hittite script, both relieved and incised, found in
Syria, are of this Age, but chiefly of the earlier part of it (cf.
Illustration VI). Those in Semitic characters begin in this Age; and
to its later part (8th-7th cents.) belong important Aramaic
inscriptions, e.g. the Bar-Rekub monuments of Sinjerli (Shamal). See
tables of letter-forms appended to Palestine section, Illustrations X
& XI.


IV. Persian Period.

 Imported Egyptian and Egypto-Phoenician objects (bronze bowls as in
Age III: scarabs: figure-amulets), Rhodian (pottery), Attic (coins,
small black-figure vases, &c.).

Weapons and implements.
Iron. Long swords: spearheads, socketed, often with square or diamond
mid-rib: short double-edged daggers with round pommels: chapes
(bronze) with moulded or beaten relief-work: knives, small and
slightly curved: arrow-heads (usually bronze and triangular): horse-
bits (usually bronze) with heavy knobbed side-bars: ear-rings, wire
armlets and pins (generally plain) of bronze: _fibulae_ as in Age
III: circular mirrors, plain, of bronze: anklets of heavy bronze:
kohl-pots, bronze, of hollow cylindrical form, with plain sticks.

Pottery.
As in Age II, plain, polished, rarely ring-burnished, but of less
careful workmanship (VIII, Fig. 9.) Glazed albarelli, 'pilgrim-
bottles', aryballi, &c., (as in Age III) common. White-yellow slipped
ware with bands of black survives rarely from Age III.

Stone vessels.
Bowls on inverted cup-shaped feet not uncommon (VIII, Fig. 11).

Beads and seals.
Eye-beads in mosaic glass, and other glass beads (hard stone and
bronze more rarely): conoid seals in hard crystalline stones, usually
engraved with figure praying to the Moon-god: also soft stone, glass
and paste conoids. Scarabs and scaraboids in paste. Cylinders become
scarce.


V. Hellenistic. VI. Roman. VII. Byzantine.

Most of the characteristic Syrian products of all these Periods do
not differ materially from those found in other East Mediterranean
lands, e.g. Greece and Asia Minor. The change to Persian (Sassanian)
types comes in the late seventh century A.D.

Two classes of objects, examples of the first of which are mostly of
Age III, but may be Persian, Hellenistic, or even Roman, are very
commonly met with in Syria:

1. Figurines,
single or in pairs or threes, of bronze or terra-cotta, representing
cult-types. Most common is a standing god with peaked cap, short
tunic, and arm raised in act of smiting: a seated goddess also
common: figures of animals, especially a bull; and phallic objects
(these mainly Roman).

2. Glass
plain (iridescent from decay), ribbed, or moulded, in great variety
of forms-bowls, jugs, cups, &c. Mostly late Hellenistic, Roman, and
Byzantine, and especially common and of fine quality in the Orontes
valley.

Parti-coloured glass (with white or yellow bands and threads) is
earlier (Persian Period). Painted and enamelled glass with gilt or
polychrome designs is later (ninth to fifteenth century, Arab).

[ILLUSTRATION IX: SYRIAN WEAPONS, ETC.]




CHAPTER VI


PALESTINE

[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustrations II; pottery,
XII; alphabets, XIV & XV.]


I. General Principles.

1. Study of the pottery of the country, not merely from books but
from actual specimens, is an absolutely essential preliminary.
Without an acquaintance with this branch of Palestinian archaeology,
so thorough that any sherd presenting the least character can be
immediately assigned to its proper period, no field research of any
value can be carried out. (See further V below.)

2. A knowledge of the various Semitic alphabets is necessary for
copying inscriptions. Unless the traveller be also acquainted with
the languages he had better be cautious about copying Semitic
inscriptions; without such knowledge he runs the risk of confusing
different Semitic letters, which often closely resemble one another.
He should, however, be able to make squeezes and photographs.

The following are the languages and scripts which may be found in
Palestinian Epigraphy.

Egyptian, in Hieroglyphics.              Greek.
Babylonian Cuneiform.                    Latin.
Assyrian Cuneiform.                      Arabic, in Cufic script.
Hebrew, in ancient script.               Arabic, in modern script.
Hebrew, in square character.             Armenian (in mosaic
Phoenician.                                pavements, also graffiti
Moabite.                                   in Church of Holy
Aramaic.                                   Sepulchre).

Tables of the chief alphabetic and numeral forms of the West Semitic
scripts are given in Illustrations X & XI; for the Greek, see
Illustration IV.

3. The traveller should have had practice in making measured drawings
of buildings.

4. For some branches of work a good knowledge of Arabic is
indispensable--not the miserable pidgin jargon usually spoken by
Europeans, nor yet the highly complex literary language, which is
unintelligible to the ordinary native, but the colloquial of the
country, spoken grammatically and properly pronounced. Work done
through dragomans is never entirely satisfactory, because it requires
the unattainable condition that the dragoman should be as much a
scientific student of anthropology and of archaeology as the
traveller himself.

5. The student for whom these pages are written should not attempt
any excavation, unless he has been trained under a practical
excavator, and has learnt how work, which is essentially and
inevitably destructive of evidence, can be made to yield profitable
fruit. There is plenty of work that can be done on the surface of the
ground without excavation.

[Illustrations X & XI: Table of West Semitic Alphabets & Numerals.]

II. Sites of Towns and Villages.

1. Nomenclature.
The sites of ancient towns and villages are usually conspicuous in
Palestine, and are recognized in the local nomenclature. They are
denoted by the words _tall_, plural _tulul_, meaning 'mound', and
_khirbah_, plural _khirab_ meaning 'ruin'. These words are commonly
spelt in English _tell_ and _khirbet_ (less correctly _khurbet_) and
we use these more familiar forms here. As a rule, though not
invariably, the sense of these terms is distinguished. A tell is a
site represented by a mound of stratified accumulation, the result of
occupation extending over many centuries, and easily recognizable
among natural hillocks by its regular shape, smooth sides, and flat
top. A khirbet is a field of ruins in which there is little or no
stratification. Nearly all the sites of the latter type are the
remains of villages not older than the Byzantine or Roman period.

2. Identification of ancient sites.
This is a task less easy than it appears to be, and many of the
current identifications of Biblical sites call for revision.
Similarity of name, on which most of these identifications depend, is
apt to be misleading; in many cases sites identified thus with Old
Testament places are not older than the Byzantine Period. [1] This
similarity of name may sometimes be a mere accident; it may also
sometimes be accounted for by a transference of site, the inhabitants
having for some special reason moved their town to a new situation.
In such cases the tell representing the older site may perhaps await
identification in the neighbourhood. In attempting to establish
identifications, the date of the site, as determined from the
potsherds, and its suitability to the recorded history of the ancient
site in question, are elements of equal importance with its name.

[1] An example is Khirbet Teku'a, long identified with the Biblical
Tekoa.

Note: The traveller should be cautioned against embarking on the
study of place-names, identification of scriptural sites, &c., before
mastering the principles of Arabic phonetics. Many of the attempts
made at rendering the names of Palestinian place-names in European
books are simply grotesque. The following are the chief pitfalls:

 (1) Confusion of the vowels, the pronunciation of which is obscure.
 (2) The consonant _'ain_, to which the untrained European ear is
deaf, and which in consequence is often omitted. Less frequently it
may be over-conscientiously inserted in a place where it does not
exist. Sometimes the _'ain_ and its associated vowel are transposed
(as _M'alula_ for _Ma'lula_) making unpronounceable combinations of
consonants.
 (3) The letter _kaf_, often dropped in pronunciation, and therefore
often omitted.
 (4) The letter _ghain_, which an unaccustomed ear confuses with
either _g_ or _r_.
 (5) The reduplicated letters, which a European is apt to hear and to
write as single.
 (6) The nuances between the different _d_, _h_, _k_, _t_, and _s_
sounds.

3. Surface-exploration of a tell.
The stratification can rarely be studied on the surface only:
superficial indications of this are obscured by the plough, weather,
vegetation, and the activities of modern natives who grub for
building-stone and for the chance of buried treasure. Only by
trenching can the strata be exposed. An exception to this rule is
afforded by _Tell el-Hesy_ (Lachish) explored by Dr. Petrie in 1890-
1: here the erosion of a stream had exposed enough of the strata for
a reconnaissance. In the majority of cases the most that a visitor
can hope to do is to pick up stray antiquities on the surface of the
ground, and ascertain therefrom the limits of date.

The chief clue is afforded by the pottery (see below, V), sherds of
which, large and small, are strewn in considerable numbers on every
ancient site. Scarabs, seals, bronze implements, iron fragments,
beads, bone ornaments, and the like may also be noticed. A trained
eye is essential even for such surface finds: one man may walk over a
mound and find nothing, another may walk in his steps and gather
quite an interesting harvest of small objects.

Surface indications of buried buildings (or rather foundations) may
be noted both on the top and on the sides of a tell. Lines of wall
may not infrequently be traced. Often the vegetation growing on the
surface indicates the presence of structures underneath (either by
burnt-up patches amid luxuriant growths, or vice versa).

4. Surface exploration of a khirbet.
The task here is, generally sneaking, simpler. In a khirbet there is
usually no great depth of accumulation; indeed, the bare rock
frequently crops up in the middle of such a site. There is,
therefore, as a rule only one historical period represented.
Potsherds, coins (Roman, Jewish, Byzantine, early Islamic, sometimes
Crusader), tesserae of mosaic pavements, fragments of iron nails,
beads, minute metal ornaments (as bronze wire finger-rings) are to be
picked up on khirbet sites.

The remains of walls are usually more easily traceable in khirbet
than in tell sites, though much damage has been done by quarrying for
modern buildings. These walls should be carefully examined: buildings
other than mere houses (churches, synagogues, baths) may sometimes be
detected. Cisterns should be noted. Some of these are not very
obvious and the traveller should be on his guard against falling into
them.

All stones should be examined, as there is a chance of finding
inscriptions.

5. In all work on ancient sites the investigator must make a point of
noting everything, irrespective of its apparent importance, and of
carefully training a critical judgement in interpreting his
observations. It is impossible to lay down general principles that
govern every case completely: every site presents its own individual
problems.


III. Rock-cut Tombs.

1. All Palestine is honeycombed with rock-cut tombs, which form a
fascinating and inexhaustible field of study. Unfortunately all that
are in the least degree visible have long ago been rifled, and in
recent years those pests, the curio-hunting tourists, have done
incalculable harm by stimulating the native tomb-robber and dealer.

2. The explorer of rock-cut tombs must be indifferent to mud, damp,
evil smells, noxious insects, and other discomforts, and he must be
prepared to squeeze through very narrow passages, much clogged with
earth. He is recommended to be on his guard against scorpions and
snakes.

3. A plan and vertical section of the tomb should be drawn. The
measurements should be taken carefully, not only for the sake of the
accuracy of the plan, but also for metrological purposes.

4. The rock outside the entrance of the tomb-chamber should be
examined. It often shows rebating or other cutting, designed to
receive the foundations of a masonry mausoleum (resembling in general
style the rock-hewn monuments in the Kedron Valley at Jerusalem). As
a rule such structures have been entirely destroyed for the sake of
their stones.

5. The tool-marks of the tomb-quarriers should be examined, as they
sometimes reveal interesting technical points.

6. Every inch of the surface of the excavation, inside and out, must
be examined for ornaments, symbols, or inscriptions. These may be
either cut or painted, and often are very inconspicuous. Ornaments
are usually floral in type, though in late tombs figure-subjects are
occasionally to be found. Symbols are either Jewish (the seven-
branched candlestick) or Christian (the cross, A-omega, or the like).
Inscriptions are not necessarily formally cut: they are sometimes
mere scratched graffiti, which would be sure to escape notice unless
carefully looked for (as in the so-called 'Tombs of the Prophets' on
the Mount of Olives).

7. Dating of tombs.
The savage rifling to which Palestinian tombs have been subjected has
much reduced the material available for dating them. The following
general principles apply to Southern Palestine: those in Northern
Palestine and Syria still await a more exact study:

The earliest tombs known in the country were mere natural caves, into
which the dead were cast, often very unceremoniously.

In the Second Semitic Period (circa 1800-1400 B.C.) hewn chambers
began to be used. These are in the form of cylindrical shafts with a
doorway at the bottom leading sideways into the burial-chamber.
Natural caves are still frequently used.

In the Third Semitic Period (circa 1400-1000 B.C.) the shaft: form
disappears and an artificial cave, rudely hewn out, takes its place.
The entrance is in the side of the chamber, though not necessarily at
the level of the floor. Rude shelves for the reception of the bodies
are sometimes, but not always, cut in the sides of the chamber.

In the Fourth Semitic Period (circa 1000-550 B.C.) the tomb-
chambers are of the same kind, but are as a rule smaller.

In Southern Palestine the well-made tomb-chambers, such as are to be
seen in great numbers around Jerusalem, are all post-exilic. There is
an immense variety in plan, some tombs being single chambers, others
complications of several chambers. The late excavation absurdly
called the 'Tombs of the Kings' at Jerusalem is quite a labyrinth of
rockcut chambers. In exploring such a structure a careful search
should be made for devices for deluding thieves: special precautions
are sometimes taken to conceal the entrance to inner groups of
chambers. There are some interesting examples of this in the cemetery
in the _Wadi er-Rababi_, south of Jerusalem. However, all tombs of
this period fall into two groups, _kok_ tombs and _arcosolium_ tombs.
In the former the receptacles for bodies are of the kind known by the
Hebrew name _kokim_--shafts, of a size to accommodate one body
(sometimes large enough for two or three) driven horizontally into
the wall of the chamber. In the normal _kok_ tomb-chamber there are
nine _kokim_, three in each wall except the wall containing the
entrance doorway. But there are many other arrangements. In the
'Tombs of the Judges' there is a double row of _kokim_ in the
entrance chamber. The explorer should not forget that a _kok_
sometimes contains a secret entrance to further chambers at its inner
end. In _arcosolium_ tombs the receptacles are benches cut in the
wall, like the berths in a steamer's cabin. These are sometimes sunk,
so as to resemble rock-cut sarcophagi.

The late tombs round Jerusalem are in the form of caves driven
horizontally into the hill-sides. Further south, e.g. in the region
round Beit Jibrin, they are more frequently sunk vertically, the
entrance being in the roof of the burial chamber, or approached by a
square shaft (a reversion to the Second Semitic form, except that
these latter have _round_ shafts).


IV. Caves.
The history of the artificial caves hewn in the soft limestone of
Palestine, is quite unknown. The caves of the neighbourhood of Beit
Jibrin provide ample material for several months' exploration.

Though the caves are labyrinthine there is little fear of an explorer
losing his way: he should, however, be well provided with lights, as
it would be extremely awkward to be left in the innermost recess of a
cave consisting of ten or a dozen chambers united by narrow creep-
passages, without adequate illumination. There are occasionally
unexpected and dangerous pitfalls: and hyenas and serpents often
shelter in the caves. The present writer has explored many of them
entirely alone, but this is, on the whole, not to be recommended.

Besides planning the cave, its walls should be searched for
inscriptions, &c. It should be remembered, however, that these may
have been added at any time and do not necessarily belong to the
original excavation. Symbols, apparently of a phallic nature, are
sometimes cut on the walls, as well as crosses and other Christian
devices, and Cufic inscriptions. Frequently the walls are pitted with
the loculi of a columbarium, which, however, appear to be too small
to receive cinerary urns and must be intended for some other purpose.


V. Pottery.

 Owing to the importance of the subject a special section on Pottery
is given here, and the two accompanying plates (XII) show some of the
commonest types of vessels. But the student cannot learn all he will
need to know of Palestinian pottery from a few pages of print. A
representative series of specimens will be found in the Jerusalem
Museum: he may supplement his study of these by the perusal of
reports on excavations, such as Petrie, _Tell el-Hesy_ (pp. 40-50);
Bliss, _A Mound of Many Cities_ (passim); _Excavations in Palestine_
(pp. 71-141); Macalister, _Excavation of Gezer_ (vol. ii, pp.
128-239; and plates); Sellin, _Jericho_; Schumacher, _Tell
et-Mutasellim_.

Pre-Semitic Period (down to circa 2000 B.C.).
Ware hand-modelled, without wheel, coarse, gritty, and generally
soft-baked and very porous. The section of a clean fracture is
usually of a dirty yellowish colour, resembling in appearance coarse
oatmeal porridge. Bases usually flat, loop-handles or wavy handles on
the bodies of the vessels: mouths wide and lips curved outward. The
body of the vessel often decorated with drip lines or with a criss-
cross, in red paint.

First Semitic Period (circa 2000-1800 B.C.).
Similar to the last: but the potter's wheel is used, and horizontal
painted and moulded rope-like ornament also found. Combed ornament
and burnished lines frequent.

Second Semitic Period (circa 1800-1400 B.C.).
During this period imports from Egypt, Crete, the Aegean Sea, and
especially Cyp