Archaeology Magazine - June 1949 - 50

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Khalid Bey Darwish, who is the west corner of the fortress was uncovengineer-architect in charge of resto- ered and its southern wall has been
rations being done at the Ramasseum, traced for a length of some 140
uncovered in the region of the great metres.
seated Colossi of Memnon, but back
"A trial pit along this wall showed
of them, nearer the desert Gebel,
that at one point the lower part of
two great statues over ten metres in
the wall was constructed of sandstone
height, standing figures, with inscribed
of at least
a
bases. They were of the same Pha- masonry reaching height
3.60
metres
and
that
foundation
this
raoh as the Colossi, Amenhotep III.
was surmounted by a well made mudWhen found, they were only about
brick wall not less than five metres
six metres below the surface, lying
In the short stretch of the
high.
on their sides facing north. One of
western
wall that has been uncovered,
them was badly broken with the head
there
appeared a postern gate with a
a wreck, but the other was intact ( ex'false'
pointed arch, which Griffo
cept for the feet) and the head and
to the arches of the Greek
compares
features in perfect condition. It was
fortifications
of Acarnania. Future
a great find ! Also Zakaria Goneim,
indicate whether the
campaigns
may
who is Chief Inspector of Antiquities
new
was
structure
a separate fort
for the Luxor district, found a numor was joined to
the
shore
guarding
ber of Sphinxes, in front of the great
the defensive system of the city of
pylons at the entrance to Luxor Gela. Dr. Griffo
suggests a date
Temple, which showed this end of in the fifth or the fourth
century B.c.
the Avenue of Sphinxes that in ancient times was known to have con"While it is generally thought that
nected Karnak and Luxor Temples. mud brick was extensively used in
Joe and I interested Max Boyd, head ancient Greece and in ancient Italy,
of the A.P., to see Zakaria and get a surviving examples of mud-brick walls
story from him about the Sphinxes and from these countries are very rare.
also Khalid Bey about his statues. The 'mixed' technique of the strucI hope both news items reached the ture throws an entirely new light on
American press to inform our Ameri- Greek experiments with structural
can doubting Thomases that the techniques. Both the substructures
Egyptians are doing many worth- of sandstone and the superstructures
while things. And it's time that some of mud-brick are handled with great
credit be allocated for same."
precision and competence. In view of
the long tradition of mud-brick building in Phoenicia, the question of CarGreek Fortress at Gela
thaginian influence will have to be
considered. The excavator is to be
congratulated upon the care employed
"A discovery of great interest for in the excavation and the
prompt
the history of Classical Greek archi- measures taken for the
of
protection
tecture and for the history of the the
mud-brick
walls.
perishable
Greeks in Sicily is reported by Dr.
"The
Pietro Griffo, Soprintendente alle
discovery will undoubtedly
an
lead
to
d'Ercole
Sala
in
,
interesting discussion of
Antichità, Agrigento,
2.7-8 (January-February 1949), pages the historical events which led to the
19 and following. In 1948, farmers construction of this imposing fortress.
struck an ancient stone wall in Con- It is tempting to assume that it was
trada Caposoprano west of modern erected during the great period of
Gela. Excavations undertaken by Dr. Gela, between 466 b.c., when her
Griffo revealed, hidden under the exiles returned from Syracuse, and
sand dunes of the shore, an imposing 405 b.c., when Gela was sacked by
rectangular fortification built in an the Carthaginians. It was in this
unusual mixed technique of ashlar period that Gela was visited by Aesmasonry and mud bricks. The south- chylus, who died there in 456 b.c.

ARCHAEOLOGY
Subsequently, the Geloans helped
Syracuse defeat the ill-fated Athenian expedition to Sicily in 415 B.c.
"Dr. Griffo expresses the hope
that means may be found to continue
the excavation, a hope in which all
archaeologists and historians interested in Classical Greece will concur."
- George M. A. Hanfmann
Hebrew

Scrolls

We have reported (in Archaeological Newsletter No. 9, June 7, 1948,
page 64) the discovery, by Beduin
smugglers, of a number of Hebrew
scrolls in a cave in the Judaean
desert, near the Dead Sea. Four of
these came into the possession of the
Syrian Orthodox Convent of St.
Mark in Jerusalem, whose Metropolitan entrusted them to scholars of the
American School of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, for publication.
Others (seven?) had been acquired
by Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Ranking Biblical experts in this
country have declared that the scrolls
were written about 100 b.c. or earlier, ,
which would make them, by a thousand years, the earliest of all Hebrew
manuscripts known.
Several students have now attacked
this evaluation of the scrolls; Professor Solomon Zeitlin
of Dropsie
College, Philadelphia, writing in the
Jewish Quarterly Review for January, suggested that they were mediaeval in date, and other scholars have
declared them a hoax.
However, excavations by Gerald
Harding at the cave
Lankester
where the find is alleged to have been
made, near Ain Fashka, yielded fragments of late Hellenistic pottery and
numerous torn scraps of vellum and
papyrus manuscripts, indicating that
some find of the sort had certainly
L.
been made there ; Eleazar
Palestinian
of
Professor
Sukenik,
Archaeology and Director of the
Museum of Jewish Antiquities at
Hebrew University, who recently
brought five of the manuscripts to
this country for laboratory examina-

Archaeology Magazine - June 1949

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1949