Science: Digging Again

Events in archeology and paleontology since the last summary in TIME (July 9) :

Egypt. Howard Carter, of the Metropolitan Museum staff, co-discoverer with the late Lord Carnarvon of the tomb of TutankhAmen, resumed exploration Oct. 1 in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor. Less than one-fourth of the relics in the tomb have been taken out. The program for this season contemplates the removal of the canopies and shrine surrounding the sarcophagus, and the opening of the coffin itself, which is expected to reveal the mummy in all his regal robes and jewels. The body will not be removed from its ancestral shrine, but will be examined ” to satisfy the claims of science.” X-ray photographs will be taken to help determine its age. Two other rooms, one walled up, are yet to be opened. The search for undiscovered tombs of other Pharaohs will be undertaken later. Automobile roads in the vicinity of Thebes and Luxor have been opened for tourists by the Egyptian Government and a motor car has been provided for the members of the expedition by George Blumenthal, Metropolitan trustee.

The Abbé Moreux, director of the Bourges Observatory, France, in a book, The Mysterious Science of the Pharaohs, revealed the fact that the Great Pyramid of Cheops was built by possessors of most profound mathematical, geographical and astronomical knowledge, and embodies many principles which have been rediscovered by modern scientists only in the comparatively recent past. It was probably used as an observatory by Egyptian astronomers, who knew how to measure the earth, the distance between earth and sun and the length of an ideal meridian. The perimeter of the pyramid, divided by its height, gives 3.1416, the geometrical π. The number of of days in the year is deducible from the dimensions of an inner chamber. One of the interior galleries is oriented toward the pole star. The pyramidal cubit (635.66 millimeters) is exactly one ten-millionth of the earth’s polar radius. Cheops is oriented to within five minutes of arc to modern latitude and longitude. Its meridian divides the Delta of the Nile and the habitable continents into two equal parts.

At Qua-el-Kebir, near Asyút, excavations of the British School of Archeology disclosed relics covering every period of Egyptian history and prehistory. The chief find was a papyrus manuscript of St. John’s Gospel in early Coptic, midway between the Vatican and Sinaitic codices (earliest Greek Biblical manuscripts). It was wrapped in linen rags in an earthen pot, much of it in perfect condition, and is now on exhibition at University College, London. It dates from the Fourth Century and differs in several ways from the orthodox text. An iron dagger, considered the oldest iron implement known (about 4,000 B. C.) and three human skulls, provisionally dated 50,000 B. C. by Professor Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie, great Egyptologist, were among the objects found.

Cases of treasures arrived in America from the Harvard-Boston Museum expedition, under Dr. George A. Reisner, throwing much light on the vague history of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopa (part of the modern Sudan). They include a decorated stone altar and a black granite coffin of King Aspalta.

Mesopotamia. Nineveh fell in 612 B. C. instead of 606, as the histories say, according to a Babylonian clay tablet translated by C. J. Gadd, of the British Museum. It is six inches long and has 75 lines of minute cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing on both sides. It chronicles the main events of the reign of Nabopolassar of Babylon, who, with his allies the Medes and Scythians, destroyed the Assyrian capital after a three years’ siege.

Palestine. The British school of Archeology at Jerusalem discovered the walls of a large Phoenecian city of the time of the Hyksos (Shepherd Kings of Egypt, about 1700 B. C.) at Tantura.

Tunis. The grave of a Christian priest of about 400 A. D., parts of a mosaic floor and baptistry and other survivals of Roman domination at Carthage were found near Bizerta by laborers.

Off the Tunisian coast, a French aviator observed the wreck of a Carthaginian galley in 120 ft. of water. Greek statuettes and heads of about 200 B. C. were recovered.

Crete. Sir Arthur Evans, after another season’s campaign at Knossos (conducted at intervals since 1900), reported further restoration of the great palace of the Minoan kings, the discovery of a late Neolithic house and of well built houses of prosperous merchants of the golden age of Knossos (about 1600 B. C.) revealing fresh glories of a civilization that is known to have been the highest of its time. One of these houses, singled out for special exploration, displayed magnificent frescoes, colorful and realistic, showing monkeys, exotic flowers and Negro mercenaries, indicating the close relations between Minos’ kingdom and Africa.

Italy. Professor M. Rostovtseff, Russian archeologist, described a house recently unearthed in the Strada dell’ Abbondanza, Pompeii. It belonged apparently to a Homeric enthusiast, being decorated with elaborate frescoed friezes and moldings depicting the Iliad and Odyssey, apparently copied from a Greek illuminated manuscript of the First Century.

Workmen laying drains in the Corso Umberto, Rome, found remains of an ancient field of Mars, a medieval church, a temple of Neptune, a palace and an archway of the Imperial period.

Spain. Exploring the ancient Phoenecian trading colony of Tartessus (believed to be the Scriptural Tarshish) on the Guadalquivir River, southern Spain, archeologists found a necropolis with human remains.

France. One of the most important paleontological finds of recent years was made at Solutre, a village on the Saone, about 50 miles north of Lyons, which has long been so rich a mine of Stone Age treasures as to give its name to an entire type of culture—the Solutrean. Three skeletons of Cro-Magnon hunters (the highest type of prehistoric man) were found carefully buried underneath cut stones placed vertically, with their heads toward the setting sun. They were men of great stature and powerful build between 20 and 30 years of age, with large skull capacity. They are about 15,000 years old.

In southwest France bones and crude flint implements of a race re-sembling the Neanderthal men were found by Dr. Henry U. Hall, of the University of Pennsylvania. They lived in the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age, probably 80,000 years ago.

Near Toulouse a French student found many-chambered subterranean galleries, the walls covered with images of bisons, bears, lions and tigers.

In the Department of Vaucluse, north of Avignon, ruins of a Roman village believed to be Aeria, mentioned by Strabo, were disclosed. They are situated on a rocky summit covering 1,000 square meters. A wall, houses, pottery, skeletons were found.

Central Europe. Skeletons of men and mammals of the Ice Age were found in caves of central Moravia, Szecho-Slovakia, by Professor Ales Hrdlicka, well known anthropologist of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington.

Primitive stone implements (the most ancient so far dug up in Austria) were discovered in the ” Tote Gebirge” (Dead Mountains) of Upper Austria, at a height of 4,000 ft. by Dr. Bayer, of the Natural History Museum of Vienna.

A bronze Mercury and Fourth Century sarcophagi were uncovered in the ancient Roman capital of Aquinum, near Budapest, by Hungarian workmen laying gas pipes.

Scandinavia. A prehistoric settlement of advanced culture was brought to light near Kristianstad, Sweden, revealing stone sepulchral chambers and sacrificial altars.

At Lackalaenga, Scania, the most southerly province of Sweden, a tomb and shrine built of stone slabs, estimated to be 4,000 years old, was discovered, containing 7,000 fragments of ornamented vases, believed to be connected with religious ceremonies.

England. The use of airplane photographs of ancient sites is urged by O. G. S. Crawford, archeologist with the British Ordnance Survey, to disclose features of Roman, Celtic, and Neolithic agricultural and military systems. From a height of 6,000 ft., markings not visible on the ground indicated field boundaries, fortifications, etc., and the new method is expected to develop great value. A Roman altar of white stone, 2000 years old, was identified near Ham Common, Surrey. It had long been used by children as a jumping block.