EXCAVATIONS AT JERUSALEM.
By Frederick Jones Bliss, M.A.
As we have completed only our second week of work, a detailed report cannot be expected. Readers of the Statement, however, will be glad to know that a beginning has been made, and that the long-talked-of excavations at Jerusalem have even thus early yielded some interesting results. An ancient tower of large, drafted masonry has been unearthed, the counter-scarp of a ditch has been followed for a long distance, and a pretty Mosaic pavement, with a curious rock-hewn path attached, has been discovered. Many other shafts have been sunk with valuable results, as the rock has been reached in every case.
I have been in Jerusalem since the last of February, awaiting the granting of the permit and helping in this as best I might. The time, however, has been profitably spent in studying the topography of the city, and in endeavouring to sift the undoubted facts from the mass of theory in which discussion has buried them. In this sense I have been steadily excavating! I was much struck by the attention paid to the subject by the inhabitants of the city, especially by the foreign colonies, although the natives are far from indifferent to the matter. The site of the Holy Sepulchre, the direction of the Second Wall, the date of this and that bit of masonry, these, rather than society gossip, form the subjects of chit-chat at afternoon teas and picnics. Especially enthusiastic are the members of the Jerusalem Association of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Among the French ecclesiastics are several earnest and serious scholars, notably Père Cié, professor of the Greek Catholic Seminary of St. Anne; Père Gelmer Durand, of the Augustinians; Père Lagrange and Père Sejourné, the Dominicans, all of whom are contributors to the quarterly "Revue Biblique,"[1] published under the direction of the professors of the Practical School of Biblical Studies at the Dominican Convent of St. Stephen. This school, which includes a good number of students, has many admirable features, among which I may mention systematic walks about the city with the professors, and two extended tours a year, which include the most interesting places between Gaza and the Lebanon, on both sides of the Jordan. This work goes on quietly and earnestly, and the English public ought to know more of it. I feel that the work in Palestine is one, and I am grateful to these learned fathers for the cordial interest they have already shown in the beginnings of our excavations.
On Wednesday, April 25th, while engaged in my room at the hotel on my Jericho plans, I received the joyful news from the Consul, Mr. Dickson, that the permit had arrived. To feel it actually in my hands was a sensation of satisfaction. On Thursday we took it to the Pasha for
- ↑ Paris, P. Lethielleux, Libraire Editeur, 10, Rue Cassette. 15 francs a year.
