The New Student's Reference Work/Archæology

Archæology (är' kḗ-ŏl' ṓ-jy̆) the science which deduces knowledge of past times in the history of the human race from the relics of bygone ages and the study of existing remains. Exploration in the seats of ancient civilization in the old world and the new has greatly enriched our knowledge of past modes of living and the artistic habits of nations and peoples. In this work the researches and published records of the various archæological societies have been very helpful and instructive, particularly in Mycenæ, Athens, Corinth and Rome, in Assyria, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine, as well as in notable places in ancient Britain, and on this continent in New Mexico, Arizona, Yucatan and Peru. Nor is it only in these regions that antiquities have been recovered; almost every state in the American Union has contributed of its ancient treasure, and not alone from the sites where abode ancient cave dwellers and mound builders, but from the seats of early civilization in North, South and Central America, as well as from almost every region in the old world, where at periods there was a more or less prevalent high art, despite the current estimate of what is deemed a primitive age. The recovered treasure revealing to our modern gaze the cunning handicraft and artistic taste of these early peoples embraces a wide and curious variety, including not only remarkable specimens of the sculptor's and metal-worker's activities, beautiful marbles, mural paintings and costly decorations from Greek and East Indian mausoleums and temples, rare ceramics, mosaics, vases, gems, bas-reliefs, statuary, bronzes and coin mintings, but a vast array of personal ornaments, together with unique household utensils and the more homely, but often elaborate figured pottery and relief ware. Our art galleries, museums and archæological institutes today are full of the spoil of early days, drawn from the recovered art treasures of the Græco-Roman world, from ancient Babylonia, Assvria, Phœnicia, Persia, Egypt, Ceylon, India, China and Japan, together with specimens of Anglo-Saxon art and of the tools, implements, weapons and mural remains from our own continent. For details of this interesting subject of archæology, see the many works (chiefly English and German) treating of the science, and the archæological records of the various lands, nations and peoples, with an account of their early ethnological eras.