Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/840

ARCHÆOLOGY. better appreciation of the discoveries of the early Nineteenth Century.

Napoleon's invasion of Egj^pt opened the treas- ures of the Nile Valley to European scholars, and the discovery of the key to the hierogh'phio writing (q.v. ) threw new light on the early his- tory of the East. In Greece itself English schol- ars were at this time doing what could be done under the Turkish regime. The chief resiilt was the splendid work of Stuart and Revett, The An- tiquities of Athens (4 vols., 1702-1816). The expedition sent out by the .Society of Dilettanti to continue their work, accomplished but little. The true character of the art of the Fifth Century B.C. became clear when, in 1803-12, Lord Elgin brought the sculptures of the Parthenon to Lon- don. (See Elgin JIarbles.) These, together with the reliefs from the temple of Apollo Epicurius at BassiE, near Phigalia, in Arcadia, discovered in 1812, were subsequently acquired by the Brit- ish Government, and form a most important part of the arehieological treasures of the Brit- ish Museum. In 1811 the same English and Cier- nian explorers who subsequently brought to light the Phigalian inarl)les discovered the remains of the remarkable pedimental groups of the temple on the island of .-Egina. which were purchased by Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, and placed in the Glyptothek at Munich. (See .Egiketan Sculp- tures.) The successful termination of the Greek War of Independence ( 1821-2II) opened anew mine from which something was immediately realized by the French exploration of the ilorea (Pelo- ponnesus) in 1829, which brought to the Louvre the first specimens of the OlJ^npic sculptures. Soon after, the little temple of Athena Nike rose again on the Acropolis of Athens, rescued from the Turkish bastion which had been built of its stones. In Sicily the exploration of the many Greek sites led to the discovery of the early sculptures of Selinus, while the systematic ex- cavation of Pompeii (q.v.) brought to light the paintings and household ornaments of the First Century. At about the same time, the discovery of the great necropolises of Etruria, especially that of Vulci, in 1828, not only opened the whole field of Etruscan art, and especially of mural painting, to study, but also added thousands of vases, Greek and Etruscan, to the material for reconstructing the life and thought of the past. I'he importance of the vases, not for art alone, but for the study of daily life and mytliology, was at once recognized : but unfortunately the strict methods of scientific interpretation were not at first followed, and for many j'ears the wildest subjectivity sought to find a whole system of mystic symbolism in these gifts to the dead. Fortunately, this has now been generally super- seded by a careful study of the language and methods of the Greek potter. This growth of material made necessary some organization of the laborers in the new science, and the founda- tion of the "Istitnto di Corrispondenza Archeo- logica," by Bnnsen, C4erliard, the Duke of Luynes, and others, on December 9, 1828, was one of the most important steps in the history of archieo- logical progress. This institution, now the Im- perial (Jerman .rclueologieal Institute (Kaiser- lich-Deutsches Archiiologisches Institut), has, bj' its publications and by the training of young scholars, been of inestimable value. The French School of Archa-ology. established at Athens in 1846, as well as the activitv which began to be displayed by certain Greek savants under the Bavarian regime, had also an important influ- ence on the development of our science. An im- portant part in this development Avas played by the pupils of F. A. Wolf, especially by A. Boeckh, whose aim was a complete reconstruction of ancient life, and who were therefore ready to welcome light from other sources than the liter- ary monuments which had so long aljsorbed the attention of classical scholars. The discoveries of Layard at Nineveh (184.')-46), and the subse- quent decipherment of the cuneiform inscrip- tions, revealed the ancient civilization of Assyria and Babylonia, and gave new material for a more accurate estimate of the relative position of (ireek culture and art. We nuist not omit lo mention here the important addition made to the British :luseum by the discoveries of Sir Charles Fellows in Lyeia' ( 1840), of Wood at Ephesns (1867-74), and of Newton at Branchidse, Hali- carnassus (q.v. ), and Cnidtis (q.v.).

The study of Greek inscriptions (.see Inscrip- TIOK.S) under Boeckh and Franz, and of compara- tive linguistics under Bopj) and liis successors, contributed their share to the modern archaeolo- gist's equipment. ^'e have now brought the ac- count down to the last thirty years of the Nine- teenth Century, during which a series of discov- eries Acre made, whose full importance cannot yet be estimated.

The first place in this series must be given to the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann (q.v.) at Troy, Myeena>, and Tiryns, which brought to light the remains of pre-Homeric CJreece, and revolutionized our conceptions of the develop- ment of the early Jigean civilization. These dis- coveries have been supplemented and explained by the work of Flinders Petrie and others in Egypt, of the English on Melos, and especially by the most recent explorations in Crete. The peculiar Cj'priote civilization, which first at- tracted attention in the collections of Cesnola, has since been studied scientifically by Ohne- falsch-Richter and other German and English scholars. Of the greatest importance in the de- velopment of • archaeological study in Greece has been the establishment of other foreign schools besides the French Institute in Athens. The first of these was the Athenian liranch of the German Arch*ological Institute (1874), which was fol- lowed 1)V the American School of Classical Stud- ies (1882), the British School (1886), and a branch of the Austrian Archoeological Institute (1897). Italy, Russia, and Denmark have also made provision for their archa'ologists who de- sire to study in (ireek lands. Through the aid of foreign archseologists many of the most im- portant excavations in Greece and Asia Jlinor have been made possible. Thus, the Germans have e.cavated Olympia (1875-81), Pergamus, Priene. and Miletus; the French, Delos and Delphi; the Americans, Eretria, the temple of Hera, near Argos (1892-0.5), and Corinth; the British, Megalopolis and Melos, and the Austri- ans, Ephesus. Side by side with the foreign- ers, lias worked the Circek Arclueological Society ('EXXeHKr; A/)X 7 Eraipla, Hellrnike Archaio- lofiil,!' llctdiiiu), founded in 1830, and always one of the most active agencies in the e.xjjlora- tion of Greek soil. To it is due the excavation of the southern slope and the sununit of the Acropolis, the great sanctuaries of Elensis, E])i- daurus and Oropos, and the palace and many