Witness this article, cited above! Thirty-five hundred years have come and gone since these things transpired, but the mind of man has not been able to escape from the demonstration of God’s power that He gave in that far-off day. And all we can say about this latest attempt to explain the victory of God in the land of Egypt by attributing it all to the smartness and genius of a learned man, is, it just will not stand up! For the God who smashed the pantheon of Egypt evidently knew that this attempt was due, and He raised from the dead, in an archeological resurrection, the witnesses to the facts at issue. And we have done nothing in this simple reply but review their evidence! But in so doing, we note again that modern science, whenever her voice may be heard, establishes the Scripture and vindicates its claim, that “holy men of old spake as they were moved by the spirit of God.”
CHAPTER V
Sources
One of the many questions that are frequently asked of the archeologist, and one that is most difficult to answer in a few brief words, concerns the source of his material. There is a sort of mystery that hovers over this modern calling which intrigues the fancy of the average layman. When an archeologist begins to dig in some barren waste of sand and comes upon a buried city that has been missing from the history of men for multiplied centuries, it impresses the casual observer as magic of the blackest kind. There is, however, nothing supernatural or uncommon about these discoveries, although the element of chance does enter in to a minor extent. Some of the greatest and most prolific fields we personally have investigated were brought to our attention when the plow of a farmer cast up a human skull and focussed attention upon that particular field. Generally, however, the sources of archeology are uncovered by hard, patient, painstaking labor.
When an able prospector starts out in his search for gold, he is guided by certain known factors that have been derived from the experience of generations. Panning his way up a stream-bed, the keen-eyed hunter of fortune tests every spot that previous experience had taught him might be profitable. He may labor at one thousand barren sites before he strikes gold. If he is in a mountainous country and the placer deposits are not rich enough to pay him to tarry on the spot where the first discovery was made, he will work his way on up the stream, testing site after site for increasing values. If the show of color in his pan suddenly ceases, he knows that he has passed the sources of these wandering fragments. He then goes back to the last point where he found traces of gold and then begins to search the side canyons and branch streams that lead into the main channel. In this way he traces his path step by step to the ledge from which the gold originally came. After laboring weary months, or even years, with heart-breaking disappointment and grim, hard work, if he is fortunate he announces a discovery. The thoughtless immediately credit his good fortune to the goddess of luck and wonder why they also could not be blessed that way.
This illustration is an exact picture of the manner in which archeologists go about their business. There are certain sites that experience has taught us should be profitable to investigate. The region is carefully combed for surface indications. These may be such things as shards of pottery, arrowheads, fragmentary bones, or any of the ordinary debris that indicates a site of human habitation or burial. When the surface indications suggest the probability of a real find, then the digging commences. Most of our great discoveries are made only after months, and even years, of painstaking survey. These surveys must be made by men who are expert in the interpretation of surface indications and fragmentary evidences. Thus it is at once apparent that there is really nothing supernatural or magical about this sober craft; it is scientific in its procedure. There is no “doodle-bug” for archeology such as is sometimes used by those who are found around the fringe of geology.
It must be remembered that the orientals differed greatly in their building methods from the occidentals. It is customary among us to excavate to bed rock before we lay the foundation for a building. The orientals, however, began to build right on the surface of any site that suited their fancy. For instance, a wandering tribe of nomads desiring to settle either temporarily or permanently, would pick out a hill that was more easily defended than a level site would be. Upon its crest, they built their houses and generally fenced the scene for the purposes of defense. Within these fortifying walls they dwelt in more or less security until they became rich enough to be robbed. It would not be long, however, under the brutal law of might that prevailed in those ancient days, before some marauding band would overrun that site with fire and sword. The walls would be breached or cast down and the inhabitants put to sword or carried away into slavery. Usually fire would sweep the homes of this once contented people and their memory would soon be forgotten.
To one who has seen the sand storms of the East, the rest of the story is self-evident. Even in our own times and in our own land, we have seen what can happen when drought and wind begin to move the surface of a country and make the efforts of man fruitless and unavailing. When men lived in these sites of antiquity and kept the encroaching sands swept and shoveled out, they were able to maintain their position of security. As soon, however, as the site was deserted, the sand would begin to drift over the deserted ruins. In a very few years the remains of the ruined city would be lost from the sight of men. Perhaps a century or two would pass by, during which this abandoned region would be devoid of habitation.
Plate 6
Mace-head in British Museum