THE VANDALISM OF THE ORIENTALS.
It seems to be quite providential that the calamities of cities and the burial of treasures of art and knowledge should result in their preservation, and contribute to the education of the world. It is remarkable also that the explorers of the buried cities of the East should be the Christian nations of the West, and that such a wealth of discovery should enrich this nineteenth century. Through the catastrophe which overwhelmed Pompeii, and preserved it under volcanic ashes for 1700 years, we have become better acquainted with the private life of the Romans than would have been possible by any other means. The fugitive from Pompeii, in the hurry of escape, abandoned articles of intrinsic value, and could not pause or stoop to pick them up; yet they were saved from the hand of the robber that they might give instruction to the world many centuries afterwards. The golden diadems, ear-rings, and bracelets which Dr Schliemann found in a great silver vase on the supposed site of Troy had been packed in the greatest haste, and the fair owner, unable to return to them, no doubt gave them up for lost; but she was an instrument in the hand of Providence, and knew not what she did. By the recovery of the Assyrian royal library, we are being informed concerning the religion and mythology, as well as the history, of early nations, about whom we knew too little through the ordinary channels of history. Think of Assurbanipal’s librarian at Nineveh speculating on the ultimate destiny of the records under his care! How could he guess that when the empire was passed away, its kings forgotten, its gods put aside as mythical inventions, there would come scholars from beyond the pillars of Hercules and learn to decipher its records?
How disappointing is it, then, to all lovers of knowledge, as well as to all students of Bible antiquities, to know that, now, when the existence of these treasures is known, there is too little enterprise in our people to go and reap the harvest of them; and while we wait they are being carelessly or wantonly destroyed! One explorer tells of an Arab who found an entire black statue, and because it was too heavy to carry away bodily, broke off its head and carried that away first. Palaces and temples, when unearthed, are used as quarries for the building stone. Limestone slabs, covered with precious sculptures and inscriptions, are burnt for the sake of the lime. Decaying mounds of bricks, because they contain nitre, are carted off as manure for the fields! The following are a few instances of the vandalism which seems to be defeating the apparent intention of Providence.
The beautiful sanctuaries “erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at the end of the last century, were destroyed by the Turkish governor of Assouan in 1822.”—Professor Maspero.
The great Sphinx at Gizeh.—“The nose and beard have been broken off by fanatics.”—Professor Maspero.
Sebakh diggers ply their occupation in the midst of the mounds of the ancient city of Thebes. “Sebakh, signifying ‘salt,’ or ‘saltpetre,’ is the general term for that saline dust which accumulates wherever there are mounds of brick or limestone ruins. This dust is much valued as a manure or ‘top-dressing,’ and is so constantly dug out and carried away by the natives, that the mounds of ancient towns and villages are rapidly undergoing destruction in all parts of Egypt.”—Miss Amelia B. Edwards.
“Prisse d’Avennes relates that when he visited, in 1836, Behbeit el Hagar, the site of the old Heb, in the Sebennyte nome, near the present city of Mansoorah, he went away disgusted, seeing the regular trade that was carried on in the most beautiful sculptures of the ruined temple, which was besides used as a quarry by the inhabitants of the spot.”—M. Naville.
“When the sheikh on whose land I was excavating became reassured as to the object of my researches, he told me that some twenty years ago a great number of inscribed stones were unearthed on that spot [site of Goshen]; but since that time they had disappeared, most of them having been used for building purposes. The great number of broken pieces which are built into the walls of the houses prove that the sheikh spoke the truth.”—M. Naville.
“At Babel there are four wells scientifically built. When Mr Rassam cleared one of them of debris he came to water at the bottom. Each stone is 3 feet in thickness, is bored, and made to fit the one below it so exactly that you would imagine the whole well was hewn out of the solid rock. Yet the Arabs break up these stones for the sake of making lime.”—Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, viii. 185.
“In 1815 Lady Hester Stanhope conducted excavations at Ascalon, and found a colossal statue of a Roman emperor, thought possibly to have been that of Augustus, erected by Herod. It was unfortunately broken up by the workmen in search of treasure supposed to be concealed within.”—Conder’s “Syrian Stone-lore.”
“At Cæsarea a broad street has been laid out (by the recent immigrants from Bosnia) which passes directly over the remains of the Roman temple built by Herod in honour of Cæsar and of Rome (the finely dressed white stone being turned to good account by the colonists), and over the Crusaders’ Cathedral, the foundations and walls of which also furnish splendid building material.”—“Quarterly Statement of Palestine Exploration Fund,” July 1884.
“I pointed out that while the objects underground would keep a few years longer, the march of civilisation was rapidly erasing all records of the past above ground. The ancient ruins were being burnt into lime, the old names were giving way to modern appellations, and the records of the past were disappearing.”—Colonel Sir Charles Warren.
“Of Memphis there is at present hardly a trace left; and other great cities known to ancient travellers have disappeared with their monuments. Mummy cases and coffins with most interesting inscriptions have for centuries been used as fuel. And innumerable manuscripts have suffered the same fate.... The tombs are convenient abodes for Arab families, who destroy the paintings and inscriptions either by the dense smoke of their fires or by actually pulling down walls. I was taken to see the ‘Lay of the Harper,’ one of the most interesting remains of Egyptian poetry, which was published a few years ago by Dr Dumichen, but we found the walls on which the poem was written a mere heap of ruins. But the vandalism of European and American travellers is most fatal to the monuments. There is, or rather was, a famous picture at Beni-hassan, which was formerly thought to represent Joseph presenting his brethren to Pharaoh. An English lady has been heard to request her guide to cut out for her the face of Joseph!”—P. Le Page Renouf.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.