Science: Other Quests

Other important expeditions which are daily revealing new archaeological wonders include:

1) The ancient capitals of Ethiopia, on the upper Nile, excavated by Dr. George A. Reisner for Harvard University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Here have been found a temple of Ammon, and tombs and relics of Piankhy the Great and other Ethiopian rulers dating from 900-600 B.C.

2) Under A. M. Lythgoe, scientists from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (which supports the Carter-Carnarvon researches), are excavating in the area of Thebes, on the opposite side of the Nile from the Valley of the Kings (Luxor).

3) The University of Pennsylvania (a great center of Orientalist learning) has four expeditions in the Near East, principally at Memphis and in Babylonia.

4) A British expedition under C. L. Wooley has unearthed brick walls and a temple of the moon god, dating from 3,600 B. C., at Ur of the Chaldees.

5) Fifty cases of antiquities have been received by the Metropolitan Museum, excavated by the American Society for the Excavation of Sardis, under the leadership of Dr. Howard Crosby Butler. Sardis was the ancient capital of Croesus and other Lydian kings. The relics include the earliest known gold coins.

6) The Biblical towns of Bethany, Shiloh and Jeshanah have been identified by British, Danish and American investigators, according to a report of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

7) The ruins of ancient Carthage are being investigated by a Franco-American expedition under the direction of Count Byron Kuhn de Prorok. Buildings and art objects of a type contemporaneous with the Roman Republic have been discovered. Urns containing charred bones of infants dedicated to “the pale goddess Tanit” give clear evidence that the Carthaginians practiced human sacrifice.

8) Near Gothenburg, Sweden, the ruins of two Viking seaports, Gamle Lodose and Nya Lodose, have been found. In the 12th century these cities played important rôles. A church as large as a cathedral and other monuments were discovered.