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THE SILENT PAST
Mysterious and Forgotten Cultures
of the World
BOOKS BY IVAR LISSNER
The Silent Past
Mysterious and Forgotten Cultures of the World
Man, God and Magic
The Caesars
Might and Madness
The Living Past
IVAR LISSNER
THE SILENT PAST
Mysterious and Forgotten Cultures of the World
Translated from the German by
J. MAXWELL BROWNJOHN, M.A. {Oxon.)
FOUNDED I8i8
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK
© 1962 BY G. P. Putnam's sons, new york, \
AND JONATHAN CAPE LIMITED, LONDON
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, must '"'^jXtioM
not be reproduced in any form without permission. f v
Published simultaneously in the Dominion of Canada
by Lojigmans Canada Limited, Toronto
Originally published in Gertnany under the title
Ratselhafte Kultiiren, © 1961 by Walter- Verlag Olten.
Library of Congress Catalog
Card Number: 62-18286
MANtJFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
VAN REES PRESS • NEW YORK
A WORD OF THANKS
I SHOULD like to extend my sincere thanks to the archaeologists,
scientists and scholars whose advice and suggestions have been of
such invaluable assistance to me and who have scrutinized individual
sections of this book or shown me over palaces, temples and ruined
sites:
Professor Antonio Blanco Freijeiro of Seville University, Director
of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, for checking the sections on
Tartessus.
Professor Carl W. Blegen, the eminent archaeologist who un-
earthed the stratum containing Homeric Troy, for taking me over
' the ruins of Nestor's palace at Pylos.
V' SoTiRis Dakaris, Ephoros Archeotiton at the Museum of Archaeol-
^ ogy, loannina, for explaining details of the temple precincts and
J ruins in the Valley of Dramissos and checking the sections dealing
i with the oracle of Dodona.
i Dr. Hans-Dietrich Disselhoff, authority on ancient American
- civilizations and Director of the Museum of Ethnology, Berlin, for
much invaluable advice and generous help.
William P. Fagg, Deputy Keeper of the Department of Ethnog-
raphy in the British Museum, for checking the section on Benin.
Professor Dr. Martin Gusinde of Vienna University, Nanzan
4 University, Nagoya, Universidad de Chile and CathoHc University,
Washington, D. C, ethnologist and expert on prehistoric civilizations,
'^ American Indian tribes, especially those of Tierra del Fuego, and
t' many other primitive peoples, who wilHngly answered all my
questions and enlightened me on a number of unsolved problems.
Professor Dr. Wilhelm Koppers 4*, the distinguished authority on
ethnology and prehistory to whom I shall always be indebted for his
.,^, encouragement and instructive comments.
5
6 A WORD OF THANKS
Dr. Gerdt Kutscher of the Ibero-American Library, Berlin, for
scrutinizing the sections on the Maya and oifering valuable sugges-
tions on the subject of Benin.
Professor Dr. Siegfried Lauffer of Munich University, for giving
me so many valuable hints and checking the sections on Mycenaean
civilization and Delphi.
Professor Giovanni Lilliu, Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, for
personally enlightening me on the culture of ancient Sardinia.
Dr. Karl J. Narr, Lecturer in Prehistory at Gottingen University,
for looking through the sections on the megalithic cultures.
Professor Dr. Adolf Schulten •!*, archaeologist and authority on
ancient history and geography, particularly that of the Iberian Pen-
insula, for his many verbal suggestions and interpretations.
Professor Dr. Ernest Sittig •^, who was the first to instruct me on
the subject of research into Linear B.
Dr. Herbert Tischner, Custodian and Director of the Indo-Oceanic
Department of the Museum of Ethnology and Prehistory, Hamburg,
for looking through the section on the Sepik culture.
Concepcion Blanco De Torrecillas, Director of the Museo Arqueo-
logico, Cadiz, for granting me access to rare relics of the Tartessus
civilization.
INTRODUCTION
JORDANIA
SYRIA
SYRIA
LEBANON
NORTH AFRICA
WESTERN EUROPE
WESTERN EUROPE
WESTERN EUROPE
SYRIA
SARDINIA
SARDINIA
GREECE
GREECE
GREECE
GREECE
GREECE
GREECE
GREECE
SPAIN
SPAIN
CONTENTS
Birds of Passage 9
The Walls of Jericho 15
Good Living in Ugarit 25
The World's First Alphabet .... 34
Tyre and Sidon 43
Queen of the Seas 52
The Silent Stones of Malta 58
Their Faith Moved Mountains . . 6^
The Megaliths of Morbihan ... 76
Mari, the Wonder City 80
Island of 8,000 Towers 89
A Pre-Christian Madonna 95
Linear B 102
— Life in the Mycenaean Age .... 1 1 1
' The Cult of Apollo 120
The Delphic Oracle 126
The Pythia Replies 133
Olympias, Zeus and Alexander. . 139
Latest News of Dodona 149
Atlantis, Fact or Fiction? 156
City Beneath the Sands 165
7
8
SPAIN
CANARY ISLANDS
CHINA
INDIA
INDIA
CENTRAL ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA
PERSIA
EURASIA
EURASIA
EURASIA
ARABIA
CONTENTS
The Civilization of Tartessus ... 173
The Guanches 182
The Mask of T'ao-t'ieh 194
A Man Named Siddhartha 203
— Gandhara and the Buddha Image 2 10
The Cave Temples of
Tun-huang 222
The Silk Road 230
The Treasure of the Oxus 243
The Scythians 253
Company for the King 260
Kings, Concubines and Horses . . 269
King Solomon's Furnaces 278
SOUTHERN RHODESIA In Quest of Ophir 287
NIGERIA
NEW GUINEA
GUATEA/IALA
GUATEMALA
GUATEMALA
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX
The Bronzes of Benin 294
River of a Thousand Eyes 301
Men of Maize 311
Cities in the Jungle 320
Tikal, the Enigma 327
"Behold, All Things Are
Become New" 336
Bibliography 345
Sources of Illustrations 359
Index 365
INTRODUCTION
Birds of Passage
HISTORY is imperishable. Unseen and unrecognized, the past lives
on in us in its quiet, imperceptible way. Whether lying dormant in
the unfathomable sea of the millennia or buried beneath the ground
and swathed in a vast winding sheet of earth and stone, "past"
civilizations are still with us even though their tangible remains lie
hidden and still undiscovered. One and all, the civilizations of the
past live on in us, for our lives are rooted deep in the remote, myste-
rious and ancient civilizations of the past. Once a civilization has
existed on earth, its effects are permanent. A memory, a new dis-
covery, a visit to an exhibition— any one of these may suddenly alert
us to their mute presence.
Civilization is a word of wide application. It is the sum total
of human achievement, of techniques, of methods of building and
transportation, of living conditions, of handicrafts and utensils, of
written characters, of sciences; it is the moral and religious order of
things; it is the behavior of each individual; it embraces all man's
spiritual endeavors, his art and morals, his sense of values and his
religion.
All human hopes and thoughts are directed toward the eternal and
transcendental, for it is man's nature to be more concerned with the
mind than the body.
When man made the transition from thinking only of visible
things— from "conditioned" thought— to abstract thought, the era of
true humanity had arrived. From that moment, no more than six
hundred thousand or a milhon years ago, spirituality has been man's
hallmark, his distinguishing feature and his cross. And it has been
man's pastime to fight against this cross, to disavow, deride or
attempt to destroy it during periods of cultural decline. But matter
is not only lifeless: it is not even real. Man alone can infuse it with
life and give it the sort of vitality which we shall observe in so many
examples of human handiwork— in works by the artists of Benin, for
instance. The real bane of our time is not the earth's burgeoning
population but the ever-increasing superabundance of inanimate
objects and the possessiveness that springs from a sense of personal
inadequacy. The greater the number of objects that surround us,
the fewer we can infuse with life. Man's intellect has been dulled by
9
lo INTRODUCTION
a superfluity of mass-produced articles devoid of any breath of life.
Only when the West has completely smothered the intellect will
it succumb, not before. That is why it is so important to recognize
that man's desire for spiritual sustenance will always be stronger
than his craving for material objects and to acknowledge that our
only means of preserving the world in which we live lies in that
realization. Since all spirituality is essentially religious in concep-
tion, everything that is good on earth must have its foundation in a
belief in God or gods. The same basic belief underlies all civilizations,
and to examine them is to receive fresh confirmation of this truth.
Our age yearns for a better knowledge of the buried past. People
sense that even the most alien and mysterious civilizations are part
of their present existence. It is immensely exciting to spot the truth
that lies behind a mystery, to delve beneath the ground and unearth
cities, to realize that this was how they did things, this was how
they thought, this was their intellectual contribution to our life—
to realize, in short, that during our brief sojourn on earth we are
merely birds of passage.
I believe that in every age man has devoted his greatest efforts to
the spiritual aspects of life and that he has always striven to reach
beyond sensory perception and grasp the supersensual and divine.
Strangely enough, no one has ever denied these attributes to the
advanced civilizations of the ancient world, even though the catas-
trophes that afflict us today are rooted in the shocking and erroneous
belief that scientific and technical achievements, social legislation and
governmental intervention are the only things that can ameliorate
human existence.
I believe that man ought to be alive to the truth contained in
the fourth chapter of St. Matthew, namely that he cannot live by
bread alone, and that he should insist on his sovereign right to live
with complete freedom, spiritually and in the spirit. As Friedrich
Schiller said: "Each individual man carries, according to his disposi-
tion and determination, a purely ideal man within him"— and the
realm of taste is a realm of freedom.
I believe in the self-delusion of the masses and in the spirituality
of the individual— even the so-called "savage" who never actually
existed at all. We should beware of branding as uncivilized primitive
races which in truth possessed a high degree of spiritual cultmx
which we either cannot grasp or do not share.
INTRODUCTION 1 1
I believe in the vital force of all civilizations and hold that their
life is determined by the untrammeled mind of man, not by nature.
I believe in the essential unity of political history and cultural history
because I do not recognize the existence anywhere in this world
of civilizations which stand alone like isolated trees, unseeded, root-
less and sprung from nothing. Either they must have taken seed
from some vanished people, some civilization unknown to us, per-
haps, but ever present, or their roots have become secretly and sub-
terraneously entwined with those of other civilizations.
I believe that culture springs neither from what we possess nor
from what we think but only from what we are. I believe that time
is indivisible and that all chronological subdivisions are the work
of man; that time is, in fact, an integral, cosmic and divine work of
art. I believe that mankind's conception of time is its greatest single
error, that in reality there is neither beginning nor end, and that
only God can have a truly correct— as it were, oblique— view of time.
Within the true span of our lifetime, therefore, we may have
walked the massive walls of Jericho or stood atop the world's oldest
tower, four thousand years older than the first Pyramid. We may
s.till remember Tyre, the famous Phoenician island city of twenty-
five thousand inhabitants whose man-created water supply helped
to make it the most impregnable fortress in the Mediterranean. We
may have stoked King Solomon's smelting ovens in the guise of
slaves, working in unendurable heat at the desert's edge. With a
past as limitless as ours, the eight thousand mysterious towers of the
Sardi may seem familiar to us, built though they were in the Bronze-
Age spirit of 800 B.C. We may carry within us the wisdom of the
Delphic oracle or the truth of Atlantis. A thousand legacies from the
distant past are embodied in us. To survey the mysterious caverns,
chambers and temples of men who walked the earth long before us
is to gain a glimpse of eternal life, because all their achievements, all
their art and beliefs are still within us today and are destined to
endure forever.
THE SILENT PAST
Mysterious a?id Forgotten Cultures
of the World
JORDANIA
THE WALLS OF JERICHO
We have now completed five seasons^ excavations. Each year
our trenches and squares have got deeper and deeper, and the
working levels have to be reached by ever-lengthening staircases
cut in the earth dow?i the edges of the area, hi several areas we
have now reached bedrock, at a depth of some fifty feet from the
surface.
—Kathleen Mary Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho,
p. 50, London, 1957
JERICHO was immensely ancient. It was so old that not even the
patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew its origins.
Roam the entire world in search of its oldest cities and you will
always come back to the Near East, for it was there that man, having
lived on earth for about 600,000 years as a nomad, food collector
and hunter, first began to set stone on stone and build dwellings and,
eventually, cities. Only when the biped Homo had once learned how
to sow and reap, capture wild animals and domesticate them, did fixed
settlements become practicable.
Very old advanced civilizations have been excavated near the
Hwang Ho, Indus and Nile and in the valleys of the Euphrates and
Tigris, but what archaeologists have recently unearthed below ground
near the Jordan derives immense significance from the fact that it
dates the building of fortresses, houses and temples almost as far
back as the close of the last Ice Age.
In 600,000 years man has survived four Ice Ages and three warmer
interglacial periods. The last Ice Age came to an end about 8000 b.c.
Even though the icy masses of the north never penetrated the Near
East, the city is still a miracle, for the Ice Age was also a Stone Age
in which technical aids were of the most rudimentary kind and man
was a nomad. For 600,000 years, the longest homogeneous epoch
in human history, tools and utensils were made exclusively of stone,
bone and wood. Next came the art of molding clay and loam, then
the discovery of casting copper and bronze, and finally the Iron Age.
Jericho was built at a time when man was still ignorant of clay
vessels. The people of Jericho lived in a powerful city, yet they were
people of the mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (10,000-7500 b.c),
which was followed by the neolithic or Late Stone Age (7500-
15
i6 THE SILENT PAST
4000 B.C.). Jericho is not merely the oldest fortress to be excavated
so far; at more than 800 feet below sea level it is also the lowest-
lying city in the world. The summers are extremely hot because the
area is surrounded by mountains reaching 3,500 feet.
Fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem and eight miles from where
the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea stands the hill of Tell Es-Sultan.
In it are buried the remains of many cities superimposed one upon
another, the result of a process lasting thousands of years in which
new life was forever springing up on the ruins of the past. The site
was excavated first by English archaeologists in 1865, then by an
Austro-German expedition between 1908 and 191 1, and finally by
Professor John Garstang of Liverpool University, whose examination
of some particularly deep layers convinced him that men had dwelt
in houses there in neolithic times. In 1956 further diggings by Kath-
leen Kenyon revealed the astonishing fact that Jericho had existed
as a true town in the pre-ceramic period, i.e. long before 5000 B.C.
It was earher supposed that men who had ceased to be nomads
soon began to make bowls, jugs and other vessels from clay, such
articles being much too fragile to be taken on long nomadic treks.
Jericho shed a new light on this theory, for men lived there in per-
manent abodes for thousands of years before they discovered ce-
ramics. Between the nomadic period and the time when clay vessels
were first manufactured came an epoch which saw the emergence of
thriving towns whose inhabitants made nothing but stone tools and
utensils of bone or wood. Jericho's pre-ceramic period goes back
some nine or ten thousand years and lasted from about 7800 B.C. to
about 5000 B.C. Its ruins lay heaped fifty feet high, each succeeding
generation having built upon the debris of its predecessors, but only
at the fifty-foot mark do traces of pottery come to light.
The earliest houses were circular in shape and probably re-
sembled beehives or, more precisely, halved eggs. The floors were
earthen while the walls were of oval bricks with flat bases and curved
sides which still display grooves made by the brickmakers' thumbs.
Since the streets of an old city acquire layers of debris and refuse in
the course of centuries, the floors of Jericho's houses eventually lay
below street level, and one can still make out the steps which led
down to them. The latter are known to have been faced with wood,
for remnants of charred beams were found everywhere.
The city's earliest period was followed by another period— still
Syria— Jordan
i8 THE SILENT PAST
long before 5000 b.c— which saw the construction of houses
with fairly large rectangular rooms whose corners were carefully
rounded as if to prevent their collecting dust, as in modern hos-
pitals. These dwellings possessed small store chambers and a number
of subsidiary rooms. Cooking was done on a hearth situated in an
interior courtyard, and the many layers of ash which were found
indicated that meals had been prepared in the same spot for decades
or centuries. The walls of the houses, which mav even have had two
floors, were built of sun-dried bricks which, Mrs. Kenyon tells us,
were fitted together with great accuracy. Even today, after eight or
nine thousand years, it is difficult to dismantle them or remove indi-
vidual bricks.
When archaeologists washed the "stuccoed" floors, much as the
women of Jericho must have done many thousands of years before,
they found to their surprise that these had been polished with great
care. The interior walls were also coated ^vith hard stucco and
polished to a mirrorlike smoothness. Apparently the people of
Jericho appreciated comfort, for their rooms were carpeted with
rush mats which, though destroyed by the passage of time, had left
their imprint on the floors. It was even possible to see where an ant
had once made its way through the carpet!
It is particularly interesting that the bowls, dishes and other re-
ceptacles used in the well-appointed houses of so advanced a civiliza-
tion seem to have been made only of stone. Wood and bone may also
have been employed, but nothing of these materials has survived.
The people of Jericho still made their tools, which included blades,
drills, scrapers and extremely handsome saws, out of flint or obsidian.
No large tools were found, yet the builders of such a city must have
possessed picks, axes and a range of heavy implements suitable for
dealing with balks of timber. Nothing of the sort was found, how-
ever, although diggers unearthed flint arrowheads which may have
been used in the city's defense as well as for hunting.
Another unsolved riddle is the purpose of some tiny coups de po'wg
of green stone which do not seem to be jewelry but may have been
used in some form of cult. One house, at any rate, contained a sort
of altar or shrine, or so it would appear from the discovery of a
small pillar of volcanic rock, a niche and a stone pedestal. The pillar
fits the pedestal and both would fit neatly into the niche. Even
though they were separated when found in the rubble of the
JORDANIA 19
ruined house, they seem to offer support for a theory that the people
of Jericho worshiped a god or gods.
The largest chamber to be excavated may also have been employed
for religious purposes. In the center of this templeHke building stood
a basin, and near it two tiny figurines which possibly represented
goddesses of fertility. Small female statuettes which served a fertility
cult or had some other directly religious significance are already
familiar to us from the Aurignacian period. These are the famous
"Venus" statuettes found at Willendorf, Lespugue, Brassempouy,
Gagarino on the Don, and Malta, northwest of Irkutsk. Some of the
European Venus statuettes date back as much as thirty or fifty
thousand years.
The city was originally encompassed by a stout wall some sixteen
feet high. When the wall collapsed it was rebuilt, and when it col-
lapsed again it was replaced by another, this one over twenty feet
high. Mystery surrounds the tower of Jericho, thirty feet in diameter
and so solidly built of undressed stone that it now stands there, after
excavation, like some massive medieval bastion. The oldest tower
in the world, it existed even before Jericho acquired its protective
walls. The men who planned and constructed it lived nine thousand
or more years ago, and it is about four thousand years older than
the oldest Pyramid. Inside the tower a flight of steps built of stone
slabs thirty inches long leads up through an opening to the upper
platform. Below is a passage faced with stone slabs three feet long,
and in this passage archaeologists found twelve skeletons lying close
together as though the bodies had been buried in extreme haste. The
tower is enclosed by two further rings of stone. Only the outer shell
touches the city wall, so the latter must have come into being at a
later stage.
The significance of this prehistoric building while it remained
unconnected with the wall and had no defensive role is uncertain,
but it was probably a cult site or perhaps a temple at whose summit
sacrifice was made in honor of gods unknown to us.
Kathleen Kenyon's theory is that the inhabitants of the earliest,
conical, houses were forced to defend themselves against people
who eventually captured the town and later erected the rectangular
houses with the finely polished stucco floors. The victorious new-
comers were certainly not nomads, for their well-planned methods
of housing construction belonged to a highly developed sedentary
20 THE SILENT PAST
culture and presupposed long experience. Miss Kenyon deduces that
these experienced architects hailed from existing towns, probably in
the neighborhood of Jericho, and brought their knowledge of
architecture from there. If this is so, other age-old stone citadels
must lie elsewhere, probably in the Jordan valley, still awaiting
discovery.
The most important finds made at Jericho were ten human skulls
which were dug up, one by one, from beneath some houses. They
represent an extraordinary discovery, for through them we are
suddenly made aware of man's quest for a higher spirituality, a
quest pursued with means and at a period which seem well-nigh
fantastic to us today. These skulls were skillfully coated with
plaster and their eye sockets had been inlaid with shells with the
apparent intention of reproducing the features of the dead as they
were in life. Traces can still be seen of the paint with which the
people of Jericho tried, with considerable artistic skill, to re-create
the complexion and facial expression of their dead. It is yet another
example of man's never-ending attempt to conquer death through art.
We are here confronted by the earliest human portraits in the
world, for the things that Stone-Age man carved on mammoth's
tusk and bone or painted on cave walls in southern France or north-
west Spain never aimed at achieving a true likeness. Skeletons with
skulls missing were found beneath almost all the houses in Jericho,
and the fact that the heads were buried immediately below the floor
may point to the existence of a cult devoted to ancestor worship.
It is quite certain that the people of Jericho believed in spiritual
powers and in the spiritual activity of their ancestors— perhaps, even,
in a life hereafter— for they would never have taken such pains had
they not been convinced that the dead and the unseen world of the
spirit could communicate with and intervene in the world of the
living.
The artistic quality, spiritual exaltation and desire for perpetuity
evident in these skulls reveal an almost bafflinCT decree of skill, and
the fact that such proficiency existed at a time when the world had
been thought to be devoid of towns makes it all the more incredible.
The ruins of Jericho tell a storv embracing many thousands of
years. The city was overwhelmed and occupied by a succession of
invaders, and ultimately newcomers arrived who had already mas-
tered the art of making pottery. They left behind no houses of any
JORDANIA 21
sort, so it is possible that the ancient city had fallen down and that
they settled in the ruins, but they arrived with a well-developed
knowledge of the potter's art. Mountains of broken clay vessels have
been dug up, yet no signs of community life are discernible from this
mysterious period. One discovery made by Professor Garstang was
of particular interest: the remains of three approximately life-sized
limestone statues representing a man, a woman and a child, of which
only the male figure was complete with head. Kathleen Kenyon has
suggested that these figures represent the earliest portrayal of a
"holy family." Carved long before the invention of writing and
thousands of years before the books of the Old Testament came into
being, they seem to offer a first, mute Messianic prophecy and an
indication that, even in the mists of prehistory, people embraced a
religion which may not have been so different from our own
experience.
The next invaders made finer and better-baked clay vessels with
engraved patterns, and for the first time we can distinguish a cultural
relationship between the Jericho people and others whose relics
have been excavated near Sha'ar ha Golan on the river Yarmuk, at
Byblos and in other places. It becomes apparent that by this stage
(about 4750 B.C.) inventions were being introduced into Jericho
from places outside.
Then silence. All signs of human activity disappear, for an interme-
diate period about which archaeologists can discover nothing. The
next message— a voice from the grave, as it were— does not arrive
until 3200 B.C. The pre-pottery neolithic town builders buried
their dead beneath the floors of their houses, and the potter folk
left virtually no traces of their existence apart from pottery, but the
post-3200 B.C. inhabitants left behind regular graves in the hills
around the city. Professor Kenyon calls this period, whose remains
she has excavated personally, the "proto-urban period." The graves
were usually circular shafts leading downward through the rock into
underground chambers which were sealed by one large stone or
several smaller ones.
In one chamber, which was larger than the rest, no less than 1 1 3
human skulls had been carefully arranged so that their empty eye
sockets stared sightlessly toward the center of the grave. The occu-
pants of this grave, which is known as A 94, had been supplied with
clay vessels, bowls, large pitchers and numerous winepots. Archaeo-
22 THE SILENT PAST
logical methods are now so highly developed that it is possible to
establish that when the heads were placed in the grave they were
already in a skeletal condition. The dead must therefore have been
stored somewhere until decomposition was complete and the skulls
could be severed from the trunks. The skeletons themselves were
carried into the grave and burned in the middle of the chamber, the
skulls being arranged around them so that they could "watch" the
burning of their own limbs. We know that the skulls were there
at the time because they show signs of scorching, whereas the
funerary vessels are unmarked by fire and must have been installed
subsequently. Two hundred and fifty-one vessels were recovered
from A 94. The radiocarbon method of dating, which has been
widely used in recent years, reveals that the grave was built about
3260 B.C. Archaeologists think that the occupants of these tombs
were nomads.
Eventually, the early Bronze Age arrived. It lasted in Jericho
from 2900 until about 2300 B.C. Once again massive walls were built,
once again sentries must have stood guard on them, once again the
city flourished, and once again the inhabitants of Jericho must, like
their forerunners in the very early days, have lived in fear of attack
by nomads.
Throughout the whole of recorded human history, culturally
advanced peoples who live in fertile, well-watered valleys have
always been menaced by parched and famished nomads like those
who provide the earliest figures in our Bible. History, as recorded
in the Old Testament, goes back to 1700 b.c, the time of the
Patriarchs. Archaeologists C. H. Gordon, E. A. Speiser and W. F.
Albright have demonstrated that Abraham came from the neighbor-
hood of Harran in northwest Mesopotamia. He left his native land
and trekked southward through Palestine and the land of Canaan
with his herds and tents. Isaac, Esau and Jacob lived in enmity after
Abraham died. In the next generation, Jacob and his twelve sons,
like his father and grandfather before him, led a nomad's life.
Jacob's son Joseph must have acquired a respected position at the
Egyptian court before he and his father and brothers were allowed
to settle in the province of Goshen, but under the succeeding
Pharaohs and after the fall of the Semitic Hyksos monarchy the
Israelites ultimately became serfs until Moses saved his people and
extricated the tribes of Jacob from Egypt. Palestine proper was
JORDANIA 23
gradually occupied by the Israelites, a process of annexation which
is partly attributed to Joshua, Moses' successor.
The Israelites were still seminomads, but they had developed a
taste for settled civilization. They marched through fertile plains
past towns which were still in the hands of the original Canaanite
inhabitants, until ultimately Joshua stood with his people before the
walls of Jericho. Once a day for six successive days the Ark of the
Covenant was borne around the city to the sound of trumpets.
Then, on the seventh day, seven priests circled the city seven times
and the walls "fell down flat" to the blaring of trumpets and a
"great shout" raised by the besiegers. According to research con-
ducted by the American archaeologist W. F. Albright, the events
described in the Book of Joshua took place between 1375 and 1300
B.C., although they were not committed to writing until about
620 B.C.
Jericho was the best-fortified city in the Jordan valley and a
place of great strategic importance, for it dominated the passes into
the central highlands. Anyone who proposed to capture it had to
have precise information about its walls, its military strength and
the hazards and difficulties involved. Accordingly, Joshua sent two
spies into the city to lodge at the house of the harlot Rahab. When
the King of Jericho learned of this and tried to have them arrested,
Rahab concealed their presence and swore that although two men
had visited her she had had no idea who they were and that, anyway,
they had left before the city gates were shut for the night. In reality,
she had hidden the spies and later helped them to escape, securing
in return a promise that she and her family would be spared if the
Israelites captured the city. Rahab was firmly convinced that Jericho
was doomed. Bored and irritated by her smug Canaanite compatriots
who lived so comfortably within the stout walls of their fortress, she
was ripe for treachery.
One more interesting detail emerges from the account in Joshua.
Rahab's house was built abutting the city wall. Excavations at Jericho
have brought to light just such houses, bounded on one side by the
city wall itself.
We do not know why Jericho's walls collapsed. Perhaps its in-
habitants were panic-stricken and opened the gates because reports
of the besiegers' strength and of Jehovah's support had preceded
them, spreading fear and despondency among the Canaanites. Ex-
24 THE SILENT PAST
cavations have indicated that houses and city walls were destroyed
by earthquakes at different periods. Perhaps one of these earthquakes
occurred on the seventh day!
All this happened when Jericho was already immensely old. In its
six or seven thousand years of existence it had already seen many
cities crumble within its walls, to be replaced by new cities.
If, in about 1300 b.c, the children of Israel chanced to hear of the
skulls which men had once tried to preserve for eternity with artis-
tically molded layers of plaster, they may well have assumed that it
all happened an unimaginably long time ago and dismissed it as no
more than a legend dating from a time when man was not yet man.
Yet the whole fabulous city and its skulls were dug up in our own
day. So real and so tangible that no one can doubt their existence,
they testify to the amazing spirituality of man in times beyond our
ken. Three thousand years separate us from Joshua and the children
of Israel who conquered Jericho, but five thousand years separated
Joshua from the men who made these first real attempts at human
portraiture.
SYRIA
GOOD LIVING IN UGARIT
From flow on it is possible to say that the palace of Ugarit is the
largest arid njost jnagnificent among royal residefices knoimi to
have existed in the Near East during the second millemiimn b.c.
—Claude F. A. Schaeffer, Le Palais Royal d'Ugarit,
Paris, 1955
THIRTY years ago a hill was opened up to reveal a civilization
which even today exercises a shadowy influence on our attitude
toward life and death, God and the world to come. Behind all our
religious beliefs there stands, latent and almost lost in the remote
reaches of history, a race that inhabited the Biblical lands long before
the Israelites.
Sometimes, like a faint glimmer of light in the gloom of evening,
we catch a glimpse of this mysterious race. At the time the follow-
ing events occurred the hour was already late and their civilization
had long since passed its prime. The Bible tells us that when Christ
visited the district of Tyre and Sidon he was confronted by an
unfortunate woman whose daughter was mentally ill. The unhappy
mother begged him to help her child, but Jesus remained silent. Still
she persisted, saying: "Lord, help me." It was like the elemental voice
of prayer, the cry from the heart to which the Psalms sometimes
give expression. It was an appeal for help from a heathen world, and
Jesus answered it with the words: "O woman, great is thy faith:
be it even as thou wilt."
This unique story and its moving climax contain a fundamental
truth. They illustrate how boundless a belief in God could and can
still inhabit the heathen breast, that it is age-old, and that a Canaanite
woman was quite capable of such faith.
The race whose civilization was unearthed thirty years ago was
that of the Canaanites, and the woman who confronted Christ in the
Gospels of Matthew and Mark was a latter-day descendant of those
much-maligned seekers after God who lived long before the first
figures in Biblical history. They were the people whom the Greeks
called Phoenicians, the people who ruled over the powerful maritime
cities of Tyre and Sidon. The greatest seafaring race in the ancient
world, they were responsible for founding the city of Carthage in
25
26 THE SILENT PAST
814 B.C. Their greatest son, Hannibal, almost succeeded in conquer-
ing Rome during the Punic Wars.
The Phoenicians, who began to roam the seas about 1250 b.c,
gained fame as mariners, manufacturers of purple dye, merchants,
city builders and, later, as a naval power to be reckoned with.
The extremely interesting culture of this ancient race did not
spring into clear focus until recent times. Resident in Syria and
Palestine since about 3000 b.c, the Canaanites built upon the ruins
of former cities and evolved a way of life and a social order which
seemed unbelievably refined to the Israelite herdsmen who followed
them. They enjoyed their highly developed culture and continued
to look down with contempt from their city walls at the new arrivals
from the desert, until they were eventually humbled by the Patriarchs.
That sedentary races in thriving cities should be continually sub-
jugated by invading nomads is the human tragedy and seed of
destruction inherent in almost all high cultures. Armed conquest
does not, however, always mean victory over a people's culture.
For instance, the tough race of hunters known as the Tunguses
conquered Peking and the whole of China down to the Yangtze in
the twelfth century a.d., yet the Manchu Dynasty founded by
their descendants was later vanquished by the insidious refinement
of Chinese culture. The Romans conquered Greece, yet in a thou-
sand aspects of cultural life the Greeks triumphed, and the spirit of
Greece was ultimately disseminated by the victorious Romans
throughout Europe and most of the Near East. In their material as
well as their spiritual culture the sedentary Canaanites were un-
doubtedly superior to the newcomers, and the victorious Israelites
were in constant danger— at least until the time of Solomon, who
lived circa 950 b.c— of being bewitched and seduced by the race
whom they had subjugated so long before.
Between 3000 and 1200 b.c the Canaanites' fortifications, domestic
architecture, street systems and town planning were true wonders
of the contemporary world. In addition, they devised extremely
practical sewerage systems, boasted skilled potters and artisans in
bronze. Their contribution to the history of ideas is almost in-
estimable. Greece, Rome and eventually all Europe and half the
world owed the Canaanites not only their alphabet but also ele-
ments of their religious observances, legends and myths, and the
basic principles of town construction.
SYRIA
27
Assur
Ugarit, by the shores of the eastern Mediterranean
28 THE SILENT PAST
The Canaanites built powerful fortresses such as Megiddo, Beth-
shean, Taanach, Gezer, Beth-shemesh and Hazor. In Beth-shean four
Canaanite temples dating from the period circa 1 300-1000 b.c. were
dug up. At Tanaach diggers unearthed the foundations of a Canaanite
royal palace. At Gezer, whose outer walls were more than thirteen
feet thick, the Canaanites had eliminated the possibility of a water
shortage during times of siege by building a tunnel to a spring
situated 130 feet below present ground level. During 1937 Gordon
Loud explored the palace at Megiddo and was rewarded by finding
beneath its foundation walls a cache of two hundred engraved ivory
tablets. One of these plaquettes depicts a prince of Megiddo driving
prisoners before his war chariot. The same tablet shows him seated
on a throne, drinking from a bowl and listening to a harpist, much
as Saul must have listened to David. Also at Megiddo, P. L. O. Guy
excavated stables capable of housing three hundred horses and war
chariots. These buildinCTs dated from the time of Kincr Solomon.
We are told in I Kings: ix, 19, that Solomon constructed "cities for
his chariots and cities for his horsemen" and also that he fortified
the city of Megiddo. Archaeology's recent habit of producing
tangible evidence of Old Testament accounts is positive compen-
sation for the more dangerous aspects of our overscientific era.
In 1929 Claude SchaefiFer made an exceedingly interesting dis-
covery. Digging at Ras Shamra on the northern coast of Syria
opposite the island of Cyprus, he unearthed the ancient citv of
Ugarit near the modern town of Latakia. The place had been in-
habited for many thousands of years by people whose traces went
back to paleolithic times. The lowest layer, in which flint tools were
found, lay at a depth of 60 feet. It yielded no pots or receptacles of
any kind. These had probably been made of wood or leather,
materials which had crumbled away to nothing in the course of
thousands of years. At a depth of between 52 and 55 feet Schaeffer
found some stone bowls. We do not know what sort of people lived
here so long ago, but they probably differed from us very little.
It is generally correct to say that the people of the whole world, who
have demonstrably belonged to Homo sapiens for at least thirty
thousand years and probably far, far longer, are more closely re-
lated physically and mentally than we tend to suppose. At Kan-
jera, northeast of Lake Victoria in East Africa, skulls belonging to
sapiens-like men have been found which are no less than three
Stratigraphic drawing of Ugarit. the
city excavated by Claude Schaeflfer.
This plan shows how the layers of
an ancient city are superimposed
one upon the other, (a) The most
recent layer of earth covering the
hill of Ugarit. (b) and (c) City
and house walls, (d) and (e) The
walls of the city between 141 5 and
1365 B.C., before it was destroyed
by an earthquake, (f), (g) and (h)
A burial chamber with funerary
gifts for the dead, dating from the
period between 1450 and 1365 b.c.
(j) Funerary gifts in the Minoan
style, imported from Crete between
1900 and 1750 B.C. or made in
Ugarit under the guidance of
Cretan craftsmen, (k) Layer of
earth. (1) Various pieces of jewelrv
of the period between 2900 and
1900 B.C. (I) and (m) Here, 26
feet beneath the surface of the hill,
were found the earliest examples
of painted vases in Ugarit.
Im.
\-i''^:-i
■K
0m
9«,
30 THE SILENT PAST
hundred thousand years old and indicate that neither Peking nor
Neanderthal man was the prototype of the human race.
Between 6000 and 5000 B.C. the inhabitants of Stone-Age Ras
Shamra and Jericho appear to have come into contact, or so similar-
ities between the earliest stone vessels found in both places seem
to indicate. Tools made of quartzite, obsidian and bone lie at depths
of 40 and 50 feet, but even as early as this, man was beginning to
produce painted pottery of amazingly high quality. King Sargon I,
ruler of the Akkadian empire, one of the greatest Semitic statesmen
in world history and the man responsible for uniting the Sumerians
and the Semitic Akkadians, probably passed through the district of
Ugarit about 2300 b.c. and may well have visited the city itself.
Many thousands of years of history and grandeur lie buried
beneath the hill of Ras Shamra, The French archaeologist A. Parrot,
who unearthed the city of Mari beneath Tell Hariri on the middle
reaches of the Euphrates, found a clay tablet among the royal
archives there. A letter from the celebrated lawgiver Hammurabi
( 1 728-1686 B.C.), who held sway over the whole of Babylonia,
Assyria and Mesopotamia, mentioned that the king of Ugarit had
informed him of his wish to visit the palace of Zimrilim, residence
of the last king of Mari.
We are now in a period whose remains lie some 25 feet below
ground level. Graves of this time yielded bracelets, sewing needles
complete with eyes, necklaces and other articles of adornment made
of bronze. These were traces of Europeans who had either come to
Ugarit from the Balkans, the Danube, the Rhine or the Caucasus or
had exported fine examples of their craftsmanship to the area.
Similar objects have been found throughout these regions.
The mighty land of Egypt established relations with Ugarit, and
it must have been a splendid moment when the stone statuette of
the Egyptian princess Shnumit was borne into the city. In Crete
this was the time of the golden age of Minoan culture. Once again
the soil yields information about the liistory of commercial relations
between Ugarit and the maritime kingdom of Crete, for fragments
of magnificent Cretan vases have come to light. One grave, for
instance, contained a tiny terracotta bowl no bigger than an eggshell,
undoubtedly imported from Crete between 1900 and 1750 b.c.
What happened after that is hard to tell, for some unidentified
power destroyed the Egyptian statues found in Ugarit. Judging by
SYRIA 31
their refined tastes and cosmopolitan attitude to life, Ugarit's Semitic
inhabitants would never have been responsible for such wanton
destruction. The city recovered, however, and the funerary gifts
found there display an astonishing variety of artistic styles. People
from the island of Cyprus, merchants from Egypt, scholars from
Mesopotamia and craftsmen from all over the contemporary world
must have congregated within the city's walls.
Ugarit eventually fell prey to the most powerful and competent
of Egypt's Pharaohs, Pharaoh Thutmosis III, perhaps the greatest
political genius in the pre-Christian Near East. The mummy of this
mighty ruler, which has survived, displays a truly royal countenance
with a fine aquiline nose, resolute mouth and long occiput. The
statue in the Temple of Karnak, too, conveys some measure of the
enormous energy which must have animated this man. Thutmosis III
needed bases for his campaigns and supply depots for his troops, and
his best harbor in the north was Ugarit. The people who lived there
about 1500 B.C., Cypriots, Aegeans, Cretans, Egyptians, as well as
the natives of Ugarit themselves, all derived benefits from the
Egyptian conquest, and under the "pax Aegyptia" the city enjoyed
a golden age which produced some truly amazing architecture.
Extensive residential areas were laced by straight streets intersect-
ing at right angles. There were multiroomed houses equipped with
baths and elaborate sanitary installations. Rainwater flowed into the
city along fine stone canals and there was an admirable drainage
system. Walled fountains installed in the courtyards were faced
with handsome stone tiles and their central access sheltered by small
roofs supported on four legs. Large stone tubs were placed by the
fountains to receive water. Living and sleeping quarters were prob-
ably situated on the second story, and were approached by stone
stairs of considerable width.
If the living lived in comfort, the dead were certainly not neg-
lected. Beneath each house was a burial chamber with a vaulted roof,
usually very neatly constructed of stone slabs. A passage led into
the interior, and there, beneath their ancestral home, the dead con-
tinued to share in the life of the family. They went into eternity
provided with costly articles of use and adornment. Indeed, the
people of Ugarit buried their dead in truly royal fashion, which is
why, unfortunately, almost all the graves have suffered from the
depredations of thieves. However, grave robbers normally took
32 THE SILENT PAST
only objects of gold and funerary gifts of obvious value, leaving
behind beautiful pieces of faience, ivory ornaments, alabaster vases
and superb Mycenaean ceramics, most of which originated in work-
shops on the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus. Many of the Minoan
vases with tapering bases and painted decoration are of unique
beauty. Claude Schaeffer, the discoverer of this amazing city, even
established that the dead were buried with vessels containing brewed
beverages. Great luxury was lavished on the dead in Ugarit, and we
shall later investigate why this implicit belief in an afterlife existed.
The harbor stood on the bay of Minet el Beida. Here, too, the
people of Ugarit had built houses equipped with every amenity, and
here, too, graves of artistic design were found, as well as warehouses
and storerooms of surprisingly modern appearance. In one such
store chamber Schaeffer counted more than eighty earthen jars
which must have contained oil or wine intended either for domestic
use or for export. Some indication of the harbor's large turnover
and commercial activity is provided by a building in which were
stored more than a thousand large jars with handles, mostly of
Cyprian origin and once used to hold perfumed oil which was
exported to Palestine and Egypt.
A highly developed cosmetics industry had grown up in Ugarit.
Fragile phials for scent, ivory rouge boxes, many in the form of
ducks with expressions of comical surprise, and tiny falcons in
bronze with inlaid feathers of gold prove that Egyptian art had
gained a foothold here. Not that the pampered inhabitants of Ugarit
despised Aegean and Minoan craftsmanship. Artists from Crete and
Greece, sculptors, goldsmiths and bronze casters must all have been
patronized in their workshops by the well-dressed, rouged and
powdered matrons of 3,500 years ago. One glazed clay cup found
in a grave in Minet el Beida bears a finely modeled female mask
exemplifying the well-groomed features of the Cretan ladies who
were emulated by the high society of Ugarit. Just over six inches
high, it reposes in the Louvre at Paris and is one of the showpieces
of what is the largest collection of art treasures in the world.
Schaeffer found in the course of his excavations that an earth-
quake had destroyed the city about the middle of the fourteenth
century b.c. Ruined houses, shattered walls, massive blocks of dis-
placed masonry and widespread evidence of fire can all be clearly
distinguished. Abimilki, King of Tyre, recounted the catastrophe
[ I ] Male head forming part of the remains of three roughly life-size limestone statues
of a man, woman and child excavated by Professor Garstang. In Kathleen Kenyon's
opinion, these figures represent the earliest known prehistoric portrayal of a "Holy
Family."
-C?^
[2] Skull sculpture from Jericho modeled around an actual skull. It is roughly
years old and was probably associated with ancestor worship.
10,000
[3] This building was erected in Jericho 7,800 years before Christ's birth. The circular
depressions are assumed to have held supporting beams. The people of Jericho were
already living in an advanced residential culture by about 2,000 years after the end of
the last Ice Age. Theirs is the only city of the period to have been excavated so far.
\„
[4] Among the most amazing discoveries made at Jericho were human skulls coated
with clay to preserve the features of the departed. The eye sockets were inlaid with
shells and the entire sculpture painted to reproduce the natural color of the human
face. (Profile and full-face views of the same head.)
[5] The oldest house so far excavated anywhere in the world (photographed from
above). It abuts on the city vvall (right) and was built between nine and ten thousand
years ago. When this house was erected the people of Jericho were still living in the
Stone Age. Although they made no pottery, they were already city builders.
[6] Excavated at Ugarit, this small ivory carving of a Canaanite goddess dates from
about 1350 B.C. and is now in the Louvre, Paris. The modeling of the face and the
artistic coiffure, headband and necklace all reveal that the sculptor either came from
Greece or was influenced by early Greek style.
[y] Copper statuette of a
deity found by the French
archaeologist Claude
Schaeffer at Ugarit in 1937.
It was made between 1800
and i6oo b.c. The pictures
show front and side view
of the same figure.
[8] The harbor of Ugarit
stood by the sea 4,000 years
ago, but in the course of
time the bay of Minet el
Beida has become silted up.
Roughly one half mile far-
ther inland from the port
stands the city-mound of
Ugarit proper, now called
Ras Shamra.
.^J^Sfww^^SaSWRfw^as^^ -.
# •
[g] Bronze statuette of the god Baal dating from the 15th or 14th century b.c. The
tall coiffure and head are covered with a layer of gold, the body with silver. This rare
piece was excavated at Minet el Beida, the ancient harbor of Ugarit, and is now in
the Louvre, Paris.
7 ^'f ^ f ''I'
[lol Clay tablet from the central archives of Ugarit. The text is written in the world's
oldest alphabet, evolved by the Canaanites about 3,400 years ago. The tablet bears the
seal of the royal dynasty.
[11] The clay vessel (top) was probably used for mixing wine with water in Ugarit,
1600-1450 B.C. The twin vases (below) date from the period 1450-1365 b.c. They too
were made out of clay and painted reddish-brown and black.
[12] This fragment from an ivory plaque set into the footboard of the royal bed is
one of the finest known examples of Canaanite art. It shows the king of Ugarit
menacing a foreign ruler with his sword.
'■^
[13] A figurine in reddish terra-cotta portraying a male Phoenician clad in an apron.
Just over 5I/2 inches tall, this very fine piece is more than 3,000 years old and was
excavated at Byblos by Maurice Dunand.
[ 14] Also in reddish terra-cotta, this head with tall hat and chin strap formed the neck
of a Phoenician vase. Byblos, where this unusually fine piece was found, was probably
inhabited by men with expressive features of this type.
SYRIA 33
to Pharaoh Amenophis IV in the following words: "The royal city
of Ugarit has been destroyed by fire. Half the city was burned;
the other half has simply ceased to exist." It is one of the unsolved
riddles of history why Ugarit, the Cretan city of Knossos, Troy and
other large cities should all have suffered widespread devastation
almost simultaneously during the fourteenth century B.C. It seems
strange that an earthquake should have struck down such widely
scattered places at almost the same time.
Once more Ugarit revived, once more houses and palaces were
built and once more the ladies wore splendid robes in the Egyptian
and Mycenaean style— more particularly the latter, since the Cretans
were by now Ugarit's wealthiest citizens and its arbiters of fashion.
Then, about 1200 B.C., final tragedy struck. Like a tornado,
invaders bore down on the fertile land of Syria from the north,
from Greece and Asia Minor. These "people from the sea" were
armed with unfamiliar weapons of iron, and Ugarit did not with-
stand their onslaught. The city died with the Bronze Age, and was
extinguished forever. The merchants ceased their busy calculations,
the scribes laid down their styluses, and their clay tablets were
scattered to the winds by the destroyers of their amazing city. The
elegant ladies laughed no more, and layer upon layer of earth arose
to form the hill which is still in the process of being explored at the
present day.
SYRIA
THE WORLD'S FIRST ALPHABET
And Hiram king of Tyre sejit his servants unto Solomon; for he
had heard that they anointed him king in the room of his father:
for Hiram was ever a lover of David. Ajid Solomon sent to Hira7ti,
saying, thou knowest how that David my father could not huild
an house unto the name of the Lord his God for the wars which
were about him. on every side, until the Lord put them under the
soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on
every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the
Lord viy God
—I Kings: v, 1-5
NO ARCHAEOLOGIST who proposes to dig up cities and civilizations
plies his spade at random. It is far better to delve into books before
delving into the ground.
What follows is a splendid example of the fact that ancient pre-
Christian literary sources often provide reliable information, that
we should not write off as mere fantasy everything that at first sight
appears incredible, and that even myths normally contain some
truth. We have still to learn that neither man's mental powers nor
his basic wisdom have increased appreciably in the course of thou-
sands of years. It is one of the misfortunes of our time that we give
complete credence to scientific research but tend to ignore those who
have communicated the greatest spiritual truths to mankind, men
like Buddha, Confucius, Euripides and Socrates— all of whom, inci-
dentally, lived at about the same period, some 2,500 years ago.
In 485 B.C. a child who was one day to be described as the father
of history was born into a respected family in Halicarnassus. Herod-
otus traveled throughout the contemporary Mediterranean world.
A scholar endowed with unusual powers of observation, he was also
a man of wide interests and unlimited curiosity. He took the stories
he passed on seriously, but was fond of indulging in gentle satire.
He paid homage to tradition but was fascinated by novelt)^. Al-
though he had no expert military knowledge he gave a brilliant
description of the great war in which Persia and Greece fought for
supremacy of the known world. He was prejudiced against no
people or race and beheved above all that a man endowed with
34
SYRIA 35
reason and some knowledge of the past is free to mold his history
and his future— that he is by no means merely the plaything of
natural forces and blind fate. That was why, unlike later-day
prophets of Western decline, Herodotus never attempted to fore-
cast the future of nations, on the principle that no man's future
behavior is predictable,
Herodotus tells us in the fifth book of his Histories where the
Greeks got their written script. The Phoenicians, he writes, came to
Greece with King Cadmus, bringing with them many branches of
knowledge, among them the art of writing, "which, so I believe,
the Hellenes did not possess before."
The world's first historian also believed the Phoenicians to be
the inventors of the alphabet from which the Greeks evolved their
own sequence of written characters and which has become the
alphabet of all European languages. Although his accounts have
often been questioned by modern historians, Herodotus has received
signal confirmation. What he wrote in the fifth century b.c. has been
vindicated in our own, for Claude Schaeffer's excavations between
1929 and the present day have produced concrete evidence of all
that Herodotus reported in such detail and with such accuracy
thousands of years ago.
While uncovering the city of Ugarit, which was buried beneath
the hill of Ras Shamra, Schaeffer identified five separate layers
representing five human civilizations ranging from the Stone Age
of many thousand years ago to 1 100 B.C., when Ugarit disappeared.
The fifth layer is the oldest and naturally lies lower than the rest.
The first or topmost layer contains the ruins of a city which
flourished between 1500 and iioo b.c. At that level Schaeffer dis-
covered the ruins of a large building with a courtyard at its center
surrounded by several sizable rooms and approached through a
massive door on the north side. A flight of stairs led upward to the
second floor. The palatial building must have been a veritable univer-
sity devoted to the art of calligraphy, for the scholars of this thriving
Canaanite city studied the Akkadian, Sumerian, Hurritic and, most
important of all, the proto-Phoenician script used by the ancestors
of the Phoenicians— the script, in fact, of the Canaanites. Writing,
or the engraving of written characters on clay tablets, was a greater
art in those days than it is now, and had to be carefully learned.
Like the archives of Nineveh and Babylon, the library at Ugarit
36 THE SILENT PAST
contained clay tablets inscribed on both sides with the characters
usually termed cuneiform or "wedge-shaped." One feature of the
newly discovered Ugarit script, however, sprang to the eye even
before it had been deciphered. The Mesopotamian scripts consisted
of several hundred symbols, each of which stood for a whole syllable
or word; the Ugarit texts were executed with only 29 or 30 charac-
ters. It was at once apparent that the earliest alphabet in the world
had been discovered.
In April 1930, one year after the first tablets had been unearthed
at Ugarit, the French scholar Virolleaud published texts written in
the mysterious script. A brilliant member of Halle University, Pro-
fessor Hans Bauer, was struck by the thought that a Semitic language
similar to Hebrew or Phoenician must be involved. Accordingly, he
tried to identify some Semitic words by comparing the juxtaposition
of different letters and actually succeeded in discovering the written
equivalents of the words "three" and "four" and of several religious
names such as Asherat, Ashtart, Baal, El, and Elah.
If this sounds simple, it should be remembered that in this, as in
all Semitic languages, vowels are almost always left to be supplied by
the reader, so inspired guesswork of this kind demands an extensive
knowledge of mythology. STRT stands for the name of the goddess
Ashtart or Astarte. Anyone who was not already familiar with this
goddess from Egyptian inscriptions would never have realized that
STRT meant Astarte. Similarly, the god Baal must be identified
from the two letters BL.
Bauer eventually deciphered fourteen out of twenty-eight letters.
In nine further cases he went astray, and the remaining five eluded
him. The French have done yeoman work in deciphering this script
and exploring Canaanite culture in general. After the French scholar
Dhorme had succeeded in identifying more of the doubtful letters,
Hans Bauer, this time aided by Dhorme's findings, set to work once
more and solved the whole mystery with the exception of one
letter. Professor Virolleaud began to study large numbers of Canaan-
ite tablets and in 1948 the complete series was at last identified.
It dates back to 1400 B.C. and is the world's most ancient alphabet.
We shall never know the name of the man who invented it, but he
was certainly a Phoenician. As Virolleaud points out, the race that
produced such a marvel merits our highest respect and must be
allotted a special place in the history of mankind.
SYRIA • 37
The ancient Canaanite alphabet of Ugarit consists of 28 separate
letters of which 26 are consonants. The Hebrew alphabet has 23 and
the later, classical Phoenician 22. Our own alphabet consists of 26
letters, the Russian of 33. Today, any text written in the Canaanite
cuneiform alphabet which has not been destroyed by time can be
read with accuracy.
Two kinds of clay tablets have been found, the larger containing
legends and myths and the smaller bearing letters, inventories,
accounts, instructions, hsts of merchandise such as oil, wine and
purple, and legal contracts such as of adoption, gift and sale.
It is fascinating to gain a glimpse of life in a city which bequeathed
us one of the most ingenious of all human devices but subsequently,
some three thousand years ago, was lost to view. For instance, a
man named Yasiranu had legally adopted a youth called Ilkuya in
A text written in mankind's oldest alphabet. Written symbols existed in Sumer
at an earlier date, but they expressed complete syllables or words. The Ca-
naanites were the first to devise an alphabet as such. The text illustrated here
deals with the legal relationship of Yasiranu to his adoptive son Ilkuya. The
hatching indicates where the tablets have been damaged.
38 THE SILENT PAST
the presence of the King of Ugarit. It was stipulated in writing that
neither party might sever the relationship without due notice.
Should the adoptive father ever wish to break the bond, he had
to give his adoptive son loo shekels of silver before sending him on
his way. Should the son take it into his head to leave the father,
on the other hand, he had to raise his hands above his head and walk
out into the street. This reveals the exemplary fashion in which
contracts were drawn up in those days. The raised hands are a
graphic indication that a disloyal son was not permitted to take
anything with him when he left the paternal abode.
We learn of royal gifts, of transactions by barter, sale and pur-
chase. Owners exchanged houses, olive plantations, cattle, donkeys
and sheep. Tlie entire inventory of Queen Ahatmilku's dowry has
survived. It includes four pairs of gold pendants set with precious
stones, gold rings and bracelets, golden cups, bowls and pitchers,
two gold belts, twenty robes of fine Hurritic material and an equal
number of Amurritic, numerous capes and cloaks, seat covers, three
beds inlaid with ivory, gold-plated chairs, basins, jugs, crucibles,
beakers and pitch-burning bronze torches, vessels "filled with sweet
oil," twenty small rouge boxes and a large number of other items.
Queen Ahatmilku appears to have been a wealthy, fastidious and
pampered woman f
Reading of the slave trade, we are told that slaves were some-
times repurchased. In one instance the purchaser could not raise
the necessary 400 silver shekels and arranged an advance of 140
shekels from his principal. However, the purchase price had to be
paid in full upon delivery of the slaves. Since a shekel weighed just
over half an ounce, the slaves cost about fifteen pounds of silver-
not very much by modern standards, although it must be remem-
bered that silver was much rarer and thus more valuable than it
is today. The charger which was sold to the King of Ugarit by the
King of Carchemish's master of horse was very expensive by com-
parison. The clay tablet classified as No. 16.180 tells us that this
horse, probably a fine thoroughbred, cost 200 shekels, or half as
much as the whole consignment of slaves.
We also read how Ulmi, a woman of the highest rank, begged
her daughter, who was Queen of Ugarit, for help: "May the gods
of Ugarit and the gods of Amurru preserve you in the best of
health. Is it well with the King of Ugarit and yourself? Answer!"
SYRIA 39
The writer of the letter went on to say that her house had been
burned down, that all her possessions had been destroyed and that
she was in urgent need of assistance. It seems apparent that the
Queen of Ugarit and her mother hailed from Amurru, hence the
latter's reference to the gods of that place. She was able to mention
them because of the tolerant and liberal atmosphere in Ugarit
(which perhaps explains why the Canaanites' own gods disappeared
in so far as they were not absorbed into later religions).
The deciphering of the clay tablets of Ras Shamra has meant that
for the past thirty years our knowledge of Canaanite mythology
has been steadily increasing. The French scholars Virolleaud,
Dussaud and Nougayrol have shed light on the hidden secrets of
this amazing people's religious faith. The main interest and im-
portance of their findings lie in the fact that although the writings
date from the fourteenth century B.C. their content is very much
older. This information must either have been passed on verbally
from generation to generation or transmitted through the medium
of a very ancient and as yet nonalphabetical system of written
characters. Since Canaanites and Israelites inhabited the same
country, led a similar life, were familiar with the same legends and
worshiped the same god, we are forced to assume that both peoples
had a common origin. Thus the Ugarit tablets take us back into the
earliest history of the Israelite people, and their discovery is one of
the most important events to have occurred in the field of Biblical
research.
The Canaanites' religion was anything but primitive. A tightly
organized priesthood served regular spells of duty in the temples,
which were numerous. The supreme deity was known as El, a
word which means "god" in the Phoenician as well as in all other
Semitic languages. The Canaanites' El is also the origin of Elohim,
the Old Testament's term for the Almighty.
El stood high above the dealings and activities of mere mortals
and was far removed from mundane affairs. He was the "father
of the years" and his hand was "as great as the sea." He did, however,
live on earth, somewhere on the coast "where the rivers flow into
the sea." The Canaanites probably regarded their supreme being
much as do many races surviving today, particularly those of the
circumpolar regions. The deeper we probe into early history and
prehistory the more clearly we recognize that the supreme being
40 THE SILENT PAST
was little concerned with the petty affairs of mankind and, more
especially, that he was not a distributor of punishment. An upright
stone or stele found in Ugarit marked the place where El sat
enthroned and where the kings of Ugarit made sacrifice to him.
El's female consort was Asherat, whom we rediscover many
centuries later as the Ashera of the Bible. There her symbol is
described as a sacred tree or pole— still an object of worship among
certain primitive peoples today and one with a tradition going far
back into the Stone Age.
The god who was most involved with the Canaanites' daily life
was Baal, the hero of a great mythological epic preserved for us
in the Ugarit tablets. We know that this Baal, against whom the
prophets of the Old Testament preached so stubbornly, represented
a great danger to the Israelites, who repeatedly threatened to defect
and embrace the Canaanite religion. Baal exercised such a hold over
the life of the Canaanites that he was still worshiped long after
their cities had been captured by the Israelites. The two largest
temples in Ugarit were dedicated to the god Baal and to his father,
Dagon. Final testimony to the Jewish religion's bitter struggle
against a slowly dying but tenacious adversary is their name for
the devil, Beelzebub. Bad means "owner," "husband" or "devouring"
and zebub is the Hebrew for "fly."
The age-old myths about this god were first disclosed by the
Ras Shamra-Ugarit finds, so our knowledge of the background
behind all Biblical references to Baal is only thirty years old.
The clay tablets tell us that the sister of the god Baal was called
Anat and that, as was so often the case in the East and in Egypt, in
particular, brother and sister were married. Virginity, fertility and
savagery were strangely combined in this goddess. From time im-
memorial, therefore, a close association existed between innocence,
sacred birth, perversion and devotion to orgiastic cults.
When men started to forget Baal and their religious zeal dwindled,
Anat instituted a great bloodbath among the apostates. In the north
of the country there was, we are told, a mountain of gold. Anat
made her way to this mountain and there recounted her victories.
She had slain an enormous snake called Litan or Lotan, the Leviathan
of our Bible. Ugarit is the only place where we find a reference to
the name Leviathan prior to its introduction into the Book of Job.
SYRIA 4(
This shows the great antiquity of the myths of a gold-guarding
dragon or treasure-guarding snake.
The famous cedars of Lebanon were also mentioned in the
Ugarit tablets long before the Old Testament's Books of Kings
came to be written. When Anat complained to the supreme god
El that her brother and husband Baal possessed no temple like other
gods, celestial architects were bidden to build a temple of brick
and wood from the cedars of Lebanon. I Kings: vi, 9 records that
Solomon, too, "covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.'"
The wise king's collaborator in building this temple was no less ai
person than the Canaanite king Hiram of Tyre. Hiram reigned
from 969 until 936 b.c. and Solomon from 972 to 932, but the clay
tablets of Ugarit tell of the building of a temple to Baal five
hundred years earlier, and the story is probably much older still.
The library of Ugarit also tells us of men's eternal wish to bring
their nearest and dearest back from the world of the dead. While
out hunting, Baal was lured into an ambush by his enemies and
killed, together with his son Aleyn. Anat descended into the under-
world and mourned her loved ones, sacrificing seventy oxen,
seventy buffalo, seventy sheep, seventy rams, seventy ibex and
seventy antelopes. This sacrifice was not only a funerary offering
but was intended to provide her son and husband with food in the
world hereafter. None of this, however, brought them back to life.
The person responsible for Baal's murder was Mot, or death
itself. Anat alone knew of Mot's abode, and with the aid of the
sun-goddess she slew him with a sickle. Only then did Baal and
Aleyn return to the light of day. The same theme recurs in Greek
myths of a later age, in which Heracles snatches Alcestis from
death.
Long before the first clay tablets of Ugarit were written, its
inhabitants— like the Christians long after them— had ceased to believe
in the finality of death. Charles ViroUeaud stresses that the Canaan-
ites were never quite sure whether spring would really follo^v
winter. Their uncertainty may have stemmed from an ancient
remembrance of the last Ice Age, which ended about 8000 b.c. At
all events, the Canaanites fell prey to a short spell of disquiet and
anxiety each year, especially when the first rains were late in
arriving, for each year might mean the end of the world. This was
42 THE SILENT PAST
why they held Anat responsible for the reappearance of spring and
the victory of life over death.
The souls of the dead, known in the Canaanite and Hebrew
tongues as rephaim, were invited to a feast prepared by the goddess
Anat. To quote the words of one clay tablet: "Today and tomorrow
eat ye, O Rephaim, and drink . . . and do the same until the seventh
day." The feast of the dead lasted for a week, after which the
supreme god El called the souls and said: "Go now, ye Rephaim,
into my house; enter ye the palace."
Who, then, was Anat, the goddess who rescued Baal, vanquished
the dragon and feasted the souls of the dead? She was the same
Astarte to whom Pharaoh Thutmosis III erected a temple at
Thebes in the fifteenth century b.c. She was the same goddess
Asterot whom the children of Israel worshiped from time to time
when their faith in Yahweh faltered.
The clay tablets of Ugarit were not deciphered until thirty years
ago, so we are much more familiar with the Greek version of the
name, Astarte, whereas the original name, Anat, lay buried for more
than three thousand years beneath the hill of Ras Shamra.
The Canaanite goddess Anat may well have affected the Greeks'
ideas about Aphrodite, their goddess of love. It is certainly note-
worthy that on the island of Cyprus, which was inhabited by
Canaanite seafarers and boasted the Phoenician city of Alasia, there
were two world-renowned temples dedicated to Aphrodite, those
of Paphos and Amathus. And also that to Homer, Aphrodite was
a Cyprian goddess. The Greeks' tradition undoubtedly shows symp-
toms of an eastern and Semitic origin, for to them Aphrodite was
the goddess of fertility and love just as Anat was to the Canaanites.
We can see, therefore, that a considerable number of mythological
and cultural ideas from the Canaanite-Phoenician world insinuated
themselves into ancient Greece and into our own religious concep-
tions. It is one of the world's great mysteries that a mutual rela-
tionsliip exists not only between all cultures but between all gods.
LEBANON
TYRE AND SIDON
The conquest of the sea is marHs most important feat. New
horizo?is, new stars have always held an irresistible attraction for
the imagination of man. The sea enabled unknown island races to
conquer immense areas and establish lasting sovereignty oji foreign
soil. In a remote time when no one had yet founded any proper
trading colonies or established a navy, a S7nall people living on the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean discovered the art of navigating
by the Vole Star aiid, over a period of about a thousaiid years,
built up a Tnaritime empire, a thalassocracy, which was safe from
the clutches of any land-based army. 1,200 years before the
Christian era, when the power of Egypt was wa?7ing, the Phoeni-
cians gradually debouched upon the Mediterranean scene, where
for many centuries they dictated the cozirse of other nations'"
economic activity in their capacity as veritable 7nerchant pri?2ces
and grands seigneurs. And all this happened while Italy was still
waiting for the dawn.
—A. PoiDEBARD AND J. Lauffray, Sidon,
Beirut, 195 1
PHARAOH Rameses II was a high-spirited king. No Egyptian ruler
made a stronger impact on posterity than this unusual man whose
insatiable lust for building devoured such huge sums of money.
He erected dozens of temples and obelisks, completed his father's
famous funerary temple at Thebes, and set aside the temple now
known as the Ramaseum for the use of his own death cult. At
Luxor he ordered the completion of the huge Hall of Pillars in the
Temple of Karnak. No Pharaoh erected larger statues, some of
them hewn from a single block of stone. His statue at Tanis was
nearly 90 feet high and had to be sculpted from a monolith weighing
900 tons. (A large modern truck can haul between 50 and 60 tons.)
Rameses II may have desired to immortalize his fame in stone, but
he also sought to enjoy his days on earth. Looking at his features
portrayed in the colossal relief at the great Temple of Abu Simbel
or in the granite statue in the Temple of Karnak, we can see a
subtle, vivacious smile playing about his mouth. We can also sense
that he was a pampered and pleasure-loving man. His numerous
marriages brought him 79 sons and 59 daughters whom he proudly
depicted in long reliefs on the walls of his temples. He ruled for
43
44 THE SILENT PAST
67 years, from 1290 until 1223 e.g., and died at the age of ninety.
Even death has failed to conquer his body, for his mummy still
survives today.
It is scarcely surprising that it was this Pharaoh who caused the
Israelites to perform such feats of forced labor in Egypt, and still
less surprising that Moses and Aaron one day presented themselves
before Rameses II and asked him to allow their people to set off into
the desert. Inquking ironically what god it was whose voice he was
supposed to obey, the Pharaoh dismissed them with the words: "I
know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Since his urge to
build was all-consuming and he knew that large numbers of Israelites
lived in Egypt, he refused to sacrifice such a valuable source of man-
power. On the contrary, he ordered them to step up their production
of bricks. With all the delights of the world at his fingertips, he was
still anxious to preserve his memory in stone for all eternity, so
he commanded them to redouble their efforts. "Let there be more
work laid upon the men . . . and let them not regard vain words."
The Israelite overseers, who were in turn appointed by Egyptian
taskmasters, were beaten and abused if they failed to produce their
daily quota. They protested, but the Pharaoh's reply to all en-
treaties was: "Ye are idle, ye are idle!"
We learn these historical facts from the fifth chapter of Exodus.
Not until his country had been ravaged by the ten plagues did the
Pharaoh reconsider his decision and leave the children of Israel free
to make their exodus from Egypt. This took place about 1300 e.g.,
or some 3,300 years ago. Later on in Exodus we read that Rameses II
regretted his decision to let the children of Israel go and sent six
hundred of his best chariots in pursuit of Moses and his people.
There is still extant a letter from a man called Hori, a senior
officer in Pharaoh's cavalry, to a colleague of his, Aman-appag, one
of the Egyptian army commanders. Its interest lies in the fact that
it dates from a time when Rameses was still seeking to set the stamp
of his mind and liis race upon the world, a time when Moses
was conducting one of the largest and most hazardous emigrations
in history. The document, which now reposes in the British Museum
under the name Papyrus Anastasi I, also mentions some of the
thriving Canaanite cities which were later captured by the Israelites.
The Pharaonic master of horse addresses his correspondent as
Alahir, a Canaanite word used to describe a skillful writer or gen-
LEBANON 45
erally erudite individual. Mahir has apparently traveled through
Syria and seen the Canaanite-Phoenician cities. Hori pokes fun at
him in his letter, and it is not uninteresting to read how friends
corresponded 3,300 years ago. "When you halt in the evening your
body is quite pulverized and your limbs in pieces. You have to
harness your horses by yourself because no one comes to help you.
Then people break into the camp and untie your horse, pilfering
and stealing your clothes. Your groom appropriates what is left and
goes off with the thieves. When you wake up you cannot find their
tracks. They have carried off your possessions. You tug at your
ear." What more graphic and striking description of a rueful gesture
could the Egyptian have given?
The letter goes on to imply that Mahir has been sadly un-
observant during his travels. "I wrote to you about a city, Byblos
by name. What does it look like? Did you not visit it? Tell me about
Berytos and Sidon and Sarepta. What does Uz look like? There is
talk of another city which stands in the sea, Tyre by name. Water
is brought to it by ship, and it is richer in fish than sand."
It is immensely informative to draw back the veil and look into
past millennia. Paul Claudel has said that the past is even more
unattainable than the future— but is not the past a part of the
present and the present a part of the future? The life of the world's
peoples, especially the unspoiled races who live much as their
ancestors did, the discoveries made by archaeology and the informa-
tion about advanced civilizations transmitted in their writing can
all teach us much about the past. Hori's sarcasm brings us close to
the Egyptian tourist in Syria. "Tremors seize you, and your hair
stands on end. Your heart is in your mouth. The chasm lies on
one side, the mountain on the other. You continue, you walk beside
your carriage and are afraid. Your heart thumps. You walk on foot.
The sky is open. You imagine that the enemy is behind you. You
tremble. . . ." Seldom has a lonely traveler's fear been more graphi-
cally portrayed.
"When you come to Joppa you find a field of verdure. You enter
an unwalled vineyard, where you find a lovely girl guarding the
grapes. She takes you as her companion and grants you delightful
tokens of her favor. You are caught, and confess. They upbraid you,
and you hastily surrender your apron of fine Upper Egyptian hnen.
Once more you sleep and do nothing. They steal your bow, your
46 THE SILENT PAST
dagger, your quiver. Your horse crosses boggy ground. The road
is long. Your carriage falls to pieces. You lose your weapons in
the sand. 'Give me food and water,' you say, 'for I have arrived.'
But they pretend to be deaf and do not listen."
Has there ever been a letter which described a disastrous journey
by a government official more vividly, more observantly or with
more delicate sarcasm? Men have changed little since Rameses, Moses
and the golden age of Syrian culture.
When Mahir roamed through the Phoenician cities, the maritime
fortresses already had a history of thousands of years behind them.
They had felt the influence of Asia, Egypt and Crete. That the
Egyptians maintained good relations with a city like Byblos is
proved by the excavations carried out by Montet (1921-1924) and
Dunand (1925-1957). It was at Byblos in 1923 that Pierre Montet
made one of the most interesting finds of the century by dis-
covering the sarcophagus of King Ahiram in a burial chamber there.
In its interior, among other funerary gifts, were two Rameses II
alabaster vases. King Ahiram was a contemporary of the great
builder and Byblos was at that time the most important city in
Phoenicia, although strongly under the influence of Egypt in
politics, trade and art. One side of the stone sarcophagus depicts a
bearded King Ahiram seated on a sphinx throne, his feet on a stool,
a lotus blossom in his left hand and a cup in his right. Seven men
stand before the king. The first is brushing flies from the sacrificial
table with a swat. Two others are carrying in dishes and cups,
while the other four are saluting the king with raised arms, palms
facing forward. The other side of the sarcophagus depicts eight
mourning figures: two women, two porters with pitchers on their
shoulders, a man leading a billy goat and, finally, three bearded
servants with their hands raised in greeting. The lid of the sar-
cophagus bears a life-size figure of the great king and— something
of inestimable importance— an engraved inscription running along
both its sides. It is the earliest Phoenician text in existence and
antedates the alphabetical mode of writing, proving that even in
1300 B.C. the Phoenicians were on the way to that most important
invention in human history: the alphabet. The find was important
because it solved a mystery which had been puzzling scholars. It
had long been assumed that the Greeks adopted their written
characters from a foreign people, probably as early as the tenth
LEBANON 47
century b.c. But unless it could be proved that the Phoenicians pos-
sessed written characters several centuries previously, the theory of
the take-over was open to doubt. Dussaud attributed Ahiram's
sarcophagus to the thirteenth century. If this is correct, the Phoeni-
cians already possessed the rudiments of written characters at that
time and the dead king has bequeathed us an immensely important
piece of information.
Thieves had removed the most valuable objects from the burial
chamber and the king's corpse was no longer there, but the sar-
cophagus itself now reposes in the National Museum at Beirut.
Because the coastal city of Byblos was renowned for processing
Egyptian papyrus, biblos became the Greek term for book, and
our Bible owes its name to the same source.
One of the most famous Phoenicians cities was Tyre, an island
fortress possessed of two harbors, the Sidonian in the north and
the Egyptian in the south. The Sidonian harbor is not only still in
existence today but is still in use. The Egyptian, however, has dis-
appeared. Since 1934 the French archaeologist Poidebard has been
conducting explorations on the site of the former Egyptian harbor
under the aegis of the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
of Paris.
Research in the past twenty years has shown that many vanished
cities, both on land and beneath the sea, are discernible only from
a great altitude where their general outlines emerge more clearly-
Poidebard exploited this knowledge by taking aerial photographs
before sending his divers down. When they reached the sea bed the
submerged walls of ancient Tyre unfolded before their astonished
eyes. On the southern side of the city they discovered a mole half
a mile long and some twenty-five feet wide with a well-fortified
entrance at its center. The Egyptian harbor had not been created
by nature but wrung from the sea by human endeavor, and was
complete with quays, breakwaters, loading sheds and every other
prerequisite of a thriving maritime metropolis.
The city stood on an island. According to information given by
the historian Arrian, who lived in the second century a.d., it had
walls more than 160 feet high and was built on rocky ground. Since
the surface area was small, the inhabitants lived in multistoried
houses. Opposite the city on the mainland stood Palaityros, a large
metropolis which stretched for eight miles along the coast. Today,
48 THE SILENT PAST
Tyre (now called Sur) forms the tip of a tongue of land projecting
into the sea, testimony to the fact that Alexander the Great not
only conquered the world but altered geography itself. While pre-
paring to capture Tyre in 332 b.c. he built a causeway out to the
island city, which lay 650 yards from the mainland. Using rubble
from the ruins of mainland Tyre, he pushed a wall of stone nearly
two hundred feet wide out into the sea. We can only guess how
:manv thousands of laborers must have worked to realize Alexander's
grand design. In the course of more than 2,000 years silt has
gradually increased the width of the dike until today one can only
imagine what the mightiest maritime fortress in human history must
have looked like when it was still an island. Only about 6,000 people
now live in Sur, whereas the former island was once the fulcrum of
a great sea power and accommodated 25,000 inhabitants within its
walls.
The coastal strip opposite the island belonged to the kings of
Tyre and supplied the seagirt city with grain, fruit and vegetables.
Fantastic as it sounds, the Phoenicians installed an excellent system
of water supply here over 3,000 years ago. On the mainland, nearly
five miles south of Tyre, was— and still is— the spring of Ras el-ain.
Leading its waters northward to a point almost opposite the island,
the Phoenicians used them to irrigate the fields that supplied them
with food. They also set up a regular ferry service to carry water
from the canal to the island and so provide a source of drinking
water for its 25,000 inhabitants. In time of siege, a water ration was
distributed from the city's storage cisterns, and the system's efficiency
is vouched for by the fact that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre in
vain for thirteen years, from 585 to 572 b.c.
In the coastal plain and the hilly country that rises to the north,
all of which once belonged to Tyre, modern archaelogists have
discovered widespread traces of habitation, among them graves,
sarcophagi, remnants of houses, oil presses, cisterns and stone reliefs.
The imagination boggles at the antiquity of Tyre. When Herodotus
visited the place about 450 b.c. he was told that the Temple of
Heracles Melkert was already 2,300 years old. But the city itself
was far older. Who knows when the god Melkert ordered the first
purple robe for his beloved, the nymph Tyro, from the purple
refiners of Tyre? Weaving, glass manufacture, metalwork and,
LEBANON 49
above all, purple dye— all these things contributed to the city's
wealth.
Tyre is a place where the beginnings of Christianity go back to the
time of Jesus' presence on earth. A Christian community existed
there in the middle of the first century a.d., and it was through the
narrow alleyways of Tyre that Paul passed on the way back from
his third missionary journey. Even earlier, the prophet Ezekiel, who
fought against the Phoenicians' gods, foresaw disaster: "How art
thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned
city, which wast strong in the sea. . . ." He even predicted that the
southern harbor was destined to collapse into the sea, for he went
on: "... I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall
cover thee." We can also read in Ezekiel's prophecies something of
the pride and arrogance that must have inspired the Phoenicians at
the height of their power. ". . . Thou [the prince of Tyre] hast said,
I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas."
This mysterious race survived many vicissitudes in the course of
its long history. At the beginning of the third millennium b.c. forty
ships arrived in Egypt laden with cedarwood from Lebanon, ex-
ported from Byblos. The walls of Pharaoh Sahure's funerary temple
at Abusir illustrate the items which his war fleet brought back from
Phoenicia in 2700 b.c: bears, numerous other beasts, prisoners and,
last but not least, slaves without number. While Pharaoh Thutmosis
III occupied the throne between 1504 and 1450 b.c. the Phoenicians'
great maritime cities played, as so often in their history, the role
of shrewd vassals. Tyre, Sidon, Berytos and Byblos sent the king
of Egypt corn, oil and incense and placed ships at his disposal. Then
the "sea peoples" invaded Syria, and between 1200 and 750 b.c. the
maritime cities fell upon hard times, Sidon being almost destroyed.
Later they were forced to pay huge tributes to the kings of Assyria.
In Tyre we see King Hiram— not to be confused with Ahiram of
Byblos— augmenting the surface of his island city by reclamation
work, building new temples to Melkert and Astarte and erecting
a golden pillar in the shrine of Baal. As we have already heard,
this king was a friend of King Solomon and had probably met
his father David in person.
The walls of Tyre witnessed dramatic scenes of hope, love and
hatred— not to mention numberless royal assassinations. Abdastartos,
who reigned from 918 to 910 b.c, was a victim of one such plot,
50 THE SILENT PAST
and it is symptomatic that the murderers were the four sons of his
own wet nurse.
The Phoenicians were descendants of the Canaanites and called
their country Canaan. This much we know, but we do not know
what instilled in them their unique yearning for travel. Perhaps
they had inherited it from their predecessors, the seafarers of Crete.
At all events, their questing, roving, restless love of the open sea
drove them to Spain, to the city of Tarshish (Tartessus) in the
estuary of the Guadalquivir; and the merchants of Tartessus. in
their turn, plied their trade as far afield as England and the Baltic
Sea. Tarshish was probably not a Phoenician city, but the Israelites
had learned the name from Phoenician sailors and so they called
any large galleys "ships of Tarshish." The ships which Solomon and
Hiram I of Tyre jointly sent to Ophir, the land of gold, were so
described, although they sailed nowhere near Tarshish. The Phoe-
nicians planted colonies everywhere: on the islands of Thasos,
Cythera, Melos, Rhodes, Malta and Sicily, and on the North African
coast. Their last colony, founded in 814 B.C., was Carthage, where
the Phoenician or "Punic" way of life survived long after the
mother cities had been submerged in the Graeco-Roman world.
The Phoenicians bequeathed the ancient world the invention of
purple. Small wide-meshed nets were baited with mussels to attract
the purple-bearing mollusks which preyed on them. Then, when
the snails had attached their long suckers firmly, the nets were raised
and the valuable harvest reaped. The mollusks, the largest of which
could weigh twelve pounds or more, were then smashed and their
purple glands extracted. These were salted down and left to stand
for three days, after which the mass was tipped into a leaden
caldron and diluted in the proportion of 4V2 gallons of water to 4
hundredweight of purple. The caldron was heated to an even
temperature by steam, which was introduced— 3,000 years ago, it
must be remembered— through a long pipe leading from the furnace.
When the caldron began to simmer, the fragments of flesh which
rose to the surface were skimmed off. After about ten days the
solution was clear and ready to be tested on wool which had
previously been steeped in lye. If the initial test proved satisfactory
the wool was immersed in purple for five hours.
Exposure to the rays of the sun enhanced the wool's glowing
color but also gave off a revolting stench. The Papyrus Sallier 2,
LEBANON 51
which was written in the time of Rameses II, gives us some idea
of the purple dyer's unpleasant working conditions. "The hands
of the dyer stink like rotten fish, and the man eventually comes to
detest any cloth."
Sunlight turned the dye first dark green and then violet or
sometimes mauve. Generally speaking, however, the purple of the
ancient world was almost always violet in shade. The Jews, who may
have learned the art of purple refining during their sojourn in
Egypt, became skilled in the technique of purple manufacture.
In later years the curtain which hung before their Holy of Holies
was purple, and purple came to be used in religious ceremonies—
hence the four liturgical colors: white, violet, crimson and scarlet.
Sacrificial tables and other sacred objects were draped in purple,
too. The Egyptians, who imported purple from nearby Phoenicia,
not only swathed the mummies of distinguished men in purple
bandages and robed their dead in purple shrouds but also used purple
on papyrus as a form of ink. In order to make clothes wear better,
the ancients mixed purple with honey. Among the Lydians, purple
was worth its weight in silver. Clement of Alexandria, who was born
in 150 B.C., tells us that a certain Egyptian courtesan paid 10,000
talents for a purple robe although she only charged 1,000 Attic
drachmas for her services. This meant, in modern terms, that her
dress cost her about $250 while her regular fee was only fifty cents.
However, nothing in life— not even purple— endures forever, and
the genuine purple of antiquity finally disappeared for good. When
the Mohammedans took Constantinople in 1453, purple refining was
discontinued.
Is man intended to unearth the past? Reading the inscription on
the sarcophagus of a Sidonian king, one is smitten by a strange
feeling: "I adjure every king and every man not to open this
resting place or search for jewels, for I have none with me. Let no
one take my couch away nor carry me off elsewhere. I adjure kings
and men not to uncover me nor lay me bare."
The sarcophagus, which anyone can inspect in the Louvre in
Paris, is empty.
NORTH AFRICA
QUEEN OF THE SEAS
/ shall describe the most notable of all wars, the war which the
Carthaginia7is waged against the Roman people imder HamiibaFs
command. Never did 7nore powerful states and nations engage in
arined conflict. The fortunes of war were so changeable and the
struggle so arduous that those who won were in the greater dan-
ger. Indeed, they fought with almost more embitterment than
strength: the Komans from displeasure that they, the victors, had
been attacked by the vanquished; the Punians because they believed
that Rome had often behaved toward them, the vanquished, like an
arrogant and covetous overlord.
—Titus Livius, History of Ro?ne, xxi, i
FEW cities in antiquity were as wealthy as Carthage, and few of
them met as tragic an end. Her inhabitants sat in their six-storied
houses drinking the best Greek wine while their ships sailed to every
quarter of the world.
Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians who from their base
at Tyre set sail for the west, founding colonies and establishing
trading posts and cities as far afield as Gibraltar and, beyond
Gibraltar, Gadir, known to the Romans as Gades and to us as the
Spanish town of Cadiz. In the Phoenician tongue Carthage was
called Kart-Hadasht, which meant "new city." Presumably the
Tyrians regarded Carthage as their most important daughter city
and, consequently, as a new Tyre (see map p. 54).
Carthage is reputed to have been founded in 814 b.c, 38 years
before the first Olympiad. The story of its founding is generally
regarded as a legend, but such legends usually contain a grain of
historical truth. Timaeus, who lived between 356 and 260 b.c. and
wrote a history in 38 volumes, gives us some details of the city's
founding. We glean further information from the foremost and
most celebrated poet of the Augustan age, Publius Virgilius Maro
(Virgil), who spent the eleven years before his death working on
his great poem the Aeneid, a national epic which chronicled the
wanderings of Aeneas.
Elissa was the daughter of the king of Tyre. Her husband
Sychaeus was murdered by his brother Pygmalion, who made him-
self king of Tyre and forced Elissa to flee the country, accom-
52
NORTH AFRICA 53
panied by a number of native Tyrians. The emigrants, whose first
port of call was Cyprus, included a high priest of the goddess
Astarte, who had stipulated that his family should supply the priest-
hood in any future colony. Also among the fugitives were eighty
virgins who were to be at the disposal of emigrants and foreigners
in the temples of Astarte. Eventually, at the point where the North
African coast juts closest to the island of Sicily, the Tyrian refugees
founded Carthage, having secured the land peacefully by paying
the indigenous population an agreed rent. The king of Libya tried
to force Elissa into marriage, but she built a pyre as though intend-
ing to do sacrifice and then leaped into the flames. Elissa's Carthaginian
name was Dido.
In Virgil's version of the story, Aeneas was wrecked on the
Libyan coast and brought to Dido's palace. She fell in love with
him and later, when he deserted her, committed suicide by leaping
onto a pyre.
Elissa's story is really the story of Carthage, for it follows the same
pattern and ends in the same manner.
The Carthaginians, known to the Romans as Poeni and to us as
Punians, forfeited their Mediterranean supremacy as a result of
the three Punic Wars which were fought between 264 and 146 b.c.
Although their city was ultimately annihilated, their greatest leader,
Hannibal, merits comparison with Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar
and Napoleon as one of the most brilliant military commanders in
history.
Carthage stood by the sea only about six miles from modern
Tunis. Slightly inland is the hill of Byrsa, and at its summit stood
a temple dedicated to the Punic god Eshmun. The Carthaginians had
built a wall around the sacred hill, turning it into a citadel. Today
the heights are occupied by the monastery of the White Fathers
and the Cathedral of St. Louis. It is no accident that the richest
place in the ancient world not only gave its name to some of the
world's most famous stock exchanges, notably the Paris Bourse, but
also to that humbler article of use, the purse.
Carthage had two harbors, one rectangular and the other round.
These harbors were linked, leaving only one egress to the sea. The
rectangular outer harbor was used for merchant ships and the
circular inner harbor served as a naval base. In the center of the
naval harbor lay an island on which was situated the headquarters
L'Ariana^
Tunis
La Marsa/
Sidi-Bou-SaVd^
"EAncie
Tunis— Carthage
NORTH AFRICA 55
of the fleet. Facilities included berths for 220 warships, arsenals,
wharfs, quays and warehouses. The only exit could, when necessary,
be barred with iron chains and the whole city was protected by walls
with a total length of over twenty miles.
From this secure base, Carthage dominated the North African
coast from Egypt to Gibraltar and sent forth her five-tiered galleys
to southern Spain, to the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, and to
Sicily, always maintaining contact with her erstwhile mother city
Tyre. Carthaginian ships sailed far into the Atlantic Ocean. It is
likely that they reached Britain via Cadiz, and they may well have
touched the Azores.
Carthage derived immense wealth from her worldwide trading
connections, for the shrewd merchant princes of Byrsa saw to it
that foreign countries traded only with them and never with their
colonies. Ships belonging to those who disregarded this rule were
ruthlessly captured or sunk.
The city did a thriving trade in foodstuffs from the rich African
hinterland. Valuable metals such as tin, copper and silver were
imported from Spain and England and reshipped. Astute Punic
businessmen sold textiles, African hides and thousands of slaves to
customers throughout the known world, thereby filling the coffers
of their countincrhouses and swelling the revenues of their miraculous
city which, like some New York of the ancient world, was a place
of tireless activity and ultramodern methods. Gold, pearls, Tyrian
purple, ivory, incense from Arabia, Egyptian linen, fine vases from
Greece— all these goods were displayed in the warehouses and
market places of Carthage. The world's first joint stock companies
originated there, and it was Carthage which floated the first gov-
ernment loans, built machines and invented the first artillery in
military history. The strongest Negro slaves and the loveliest dusky
slave girls in Rome, Athens, Spain and the Bosporus were all suppHed
by her. (Some Carthaginian aristocrats owned as many as 20,000
slaves.)
Carthage evolved a constitution which combined elements of
monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, a system which certainly
suited the contemporary world but may well have contributed to
the city's ultimate downfall. At the head of the city-state were two
men known in Latin as suffetes, from the Semitic shopet. (The word
is translated as "judges" in the Bible.) These two annually elected
56 THE SILENT PAST
officials ruled in conjunction with a parliament consisting of three
hundred of the wealthiest citizens, all of whom held office for life.
In addition to them there was the "council of the hundred judges."
In reality there were 104 of these men, who controlled the courts
and exercised considerable influence on general policy.
All military matters were entrusted to a supreme commander.
The moneyed aristocracy of this extraordinary city had devised a
solution to their military problems which looked effective but
contained latent dangers: the supreme commander had to win every
war. If things went awry he was called to account and, if necessary,
crucified. The sons of wealthy aristocrats would not deign to become
soldiers and Carthaginians in general prided themselves on never
having had to go to war in person, so the only answer was to main-
tain a large and potentially dangerous army of mercenaries recruited
from every land.
It is uncertain how many people lived in the Carthaginian metrop-
olis during its prime. The Greek geographer Strabo puts the
number at 700,000, which, allowing for foreign residents and slaves,
does not appear to be an exaggerated estimate. Conditions in the
city can be deduced from a thorough study of ancient sources.
Magnificent marble temples, gold and silver pillars, statues and
statuettes gleamed in the African sun. The goddess Tanit was wor-
shiped here in peculiarly lavish style, for archaeologists have found
thousands of urns containing the charred bones of children in the
ruins of her temple. It was the practice in Carthage to sacrifice
children, probably only those belonging to leading famiHes. Diodorus
tells us that one such sacrifice in the year 310 b.c. cost the lives
of no less than five hundred children. The goddess Tanit was con-
sidered to be more powerful than the god Baal, although the great
Carthaginian generals incorporated the latter's name in their own.
Hasdrubal, for instance, means "Baal is my help," and Hannibal
"favored of Baal."
Viewed in a contemporary light, the three Punic Wars, which
covered a period of 119 years, were world wars. When Hannibal
suffered his first defeat at Zama, when Carthage was forced to pay
Rome the fantastic sum of 10,000 talents and her aristocrats in their
tall houses swore never to make war again without Rome's per-
mission, the downfall of one of the most amazing sea powers in
history was already sealed. Rome waited another fifty years, and
NORTH AFRICA 57
then the city was burned, destroyed and smashed, house by house,
temple by temple and terrace by terrace. The walls were over-
thrown, the quays demolished, the lighthouses battered down and
any Carthaginians who still survived sold into slavery by the
Romans.
Were the Carthaginians cowardly? This Semitic race of Phoeni-
cian stock sailed the seas of the world more boldly than men had
ever done before. The objects of their voyages and explorations
were almost always unknown and unfamiliar lands, uncharted and
unfriendly waters. Only stout hearts could have overcome such per-
ils. The Carthaginians were not artists or poets. They were seduced
neither by Greek nor Roman culture, nor did they live in the
despotic style of the East. In the end, they defended their city and
their way of life to the last man.
They possessed something worth defending, for they lived in
their metropohs by the sea in a style unequaled by any other race
in the contemporary world.
WESTERN EUROPE
THE SILENT STONES OF MALTA
Although the artistic sense of the people is not always on a par
with their ?noral and civic attainments, it is very probable that the
neolithic population of the Maltese islands had, m addition to their
artistic achievements, elaborated a religious system of a type which
we usually attribute to much later generations.
—Sir Themistocles Zammit, Prehistoric Malta,
p. i6, London, 1930
THE island of Malta is small, and there are few other places in the
world where so many people live so closely packed together. Towns,
suburbs and villages almost melt into one another, and all are
seething with people. The peasants of Malta hate stones because
they interfere with their plows— and there are plenty of stones on
Malta, stones so big that they waste cultivable ground, stones that
provide the island with its greatest mystery.
Seventeen miles long and nine miles wide, Malta is inhabited by
the most persevering peasant farmers in the A/Iediterranean area, an
island of innumerable tiny fields surrounded by low stone walls,
an island breeding the finest and sturdiest goats and donkeys, an
island which supplies the finest honey in Europe. The fossilized
bones of long-extinct elephants and of rhinoceros and various types
of deer that have been found there suggest that the Maltese group,
which includes the islands of Malta, Gozo, Comino and Filfla, is
all that is left of a land bridge which once linked Africa with Italy.
Man was living in the area possibly as long ago as 100,000 years or
even more. Six miles from Valletta, the capital, in Ghar Dalam, "the
cavern of darkness," eight human teeth were discovered with fossils
belonging to the extinct dwarf rhinoceros. The anthropologist
Arthur Keith suggests that two of these teeth belong to the
Neanderthal people who roamed the world between 130,000 and
30,000 years ago. To ascribe them to the Neanderthalians is, how-
ever, a bold piece of conjecture, for Neanderthal traces have not
been definitely identified here.
Nevertheless, it is still possible that the inhabitants of the islands
lived through many of the paleolithic periods even though the
58
WESTERN EUROPE 59
available evidence would not take us back 30,000 years, let alone
130,000.
It was on Malta's shores that Paul the Apostle was wrecked while
on his way to Rome as a prisoner. "And when they were escaped,
then they knew that the island was called Melita," we are told in
Acts: xxviii. The anniversary of Paul's landing is still celebrated by
the inhabitants to this day.
Nowhere else in Europe can we see such an amazing number of
early buildings as on this small group of Mediterranean islands where,
over thousands of years, men developed an architectural technique
which bordered on the miraculous. In such a densely populated place
every square foot of ground is valuable, and A4altese peasants have
been clearing away the stones and stone buildings for thousands of
years. However, enough still remains to provide an almost inex-
haustible archaeological paradise. To catch a glimpse of this wonder-
land is to travel backward in time to a period which lies four or
five thousand years in the past and to speculate about people who
handled vast blocks of stone as though they were the legendary
Titans of old.
A megalith is a large stone, and megalithic buildings are buildings
composed of huge individual blocks of stone. We shall never know
exactly what prompted men to construct such immense megalithic
buildings here in prehistoric times. The builders are no longer with
us and we do not even know their precise race, although we can at
least try to gain an inkling of the mystery.
On July 20, 19 1 5, Themistocles Zammit began to excavate some
megahthic buildings near the village of Tarxien, about two miles
south of Valletta. Two years later, the ruins of the golden age of
these unknown builders had been unearthed. The superficial ob-
server will not immediately discern any plan in the immense jumble
of stones, yet each was laid with a deliberate intent. Semioval
chambers were built in pairs with their axes of length parallel to
one another and a central corridor connecting them. The ground
plan can be likened to two Ds set close together but facing outward
in this fashion: QD. The entrance leads into the corridor dividing
the two oval chambers, whose side walls and floors consist of huge
stone slabs, and the whole arrangement is surrounded by an enclosing
wall.
For decades it was thought that these oval buildings had been
6o
THE SILENT PAST
Ramta
Victoria ,' ^J9°"li° W
"'^SaniaVtrna Ib^^duf,
Paul's,' Cad/
Bay "
Migiarro ,''
'^ -Zebb^ug.,-. Hoi/Saf//en,;J Tarscien ^
Siggiewi^-ADebdiefco-C'Luqa ^Zejtun,-
• HarDa/oijgJ
--'Bur Mg/iez
Hnqiar Kim Zurr-eq '"^^ • p
;n Naduf
Malta
erected by the Phoenicians, but the megalithic buildings of Malta
date back to far more ancient times.
Archaeologists have debated whether the megalithic buildings
were dwelling places, palaces, enormous graves or temples. The
layout of the buildings indicates that they were used for a religious
purpose. The broad central corridor almost invariably leads to a
large niche at the rear wliich appears to have been the most im-
portant place in the whole complex, rather like the apse of a
cathedral. Other small niches, stone tables and storage places for
animal bones also point to the religious significance of the oval
buildings. Several monoliths may have been altars, and stone covers
have been found which probably served as water catchments or
fireplaces. Beneath a number of stone blocks diggers found frag-
ments of receptacles, tools of stone or bone, shells and pebbles, all
carefully placed there by human agency before the megaUths were
superimposed on them. This indicates that the oval buildings were
neither dwelling places nor palaces, but sanctuaries. Wherever in the
WESTERN EUROPE 6i
world man has erected his largest and finest buildings and wherever
he has excelled himself creatively and artistically, he has almost in-
variably been motivated by a religious impulse. These massive mega-
lithic buildings were likewise erected for purposes of divine worship.
In one chamber at Hal Tarxien the lower portion of a female
statue was excavated. The figure was seated on a block of stone
decorated in relief and was almost life-size. Various statuettes
in clay and stone were also discovered, mostly female figures which
probably had rehgious significance. One thing we do know is that
the prehistoric Stone-Age inhabitants of Malta worshiped a female
deity. The director of the Valletta Museum, Professor Sir Themis-
tocles Zammit, has also established by dint of exhaustive research
that oracles were bestowed in the sanctuaries of Malta. Such de-
ductions demand an extremely wide knowledge of other similar
places in all parts of the Mediterranean area.
In the interior of many of the temples, rectangular stone blocks
almost twelve feet square had been let into the ground. These were
surrounded by walls on three sides and bordered by a stone step.
Each block of stone had five holes in it, and in the right-hand corner
of the stone step was a sixth. Zammit has tried to interpret these
strange cavities. They may have been used for storing flour or
loaves for temple use, but it is also conceivable that the oddly
shaped blocks had something to do with the numerous small stone
marbles which were also found. Over a hundred little balls of
varying sizes were discovered some yards away. This would suggest
that we are dealing with an oracle. Perhaps the stone balls were
thrown at the stone from a distance and the purport of the oracle
depended on the particular hole in which they landed.
Peculiar stone chambers with niches and apertures unearthed not
only at Tarxien but at other sites such as Hagiar Kim, Mnaidra and
Gigantia, all suggest that a system of sacrificial rites was practiced
in the megalithic sanctuaries.
No human skeletons were found in the megalithic buildings, but
there were many bones belonging to domesticated animals, par-
ticularly oxen and sheep. Professor Zammit considers these bones
to be the remains of sacrificial beasts. Some of the stone blocks
portray whole rows of goats wliich were undoubtedly destined for
sacrifice.
62 THE SILENT PAST
The year 1902 saw the discovery of the Hypogeum at Hal
Saflieni in the neighborhood of the Tarxien ruins, and in 1907 it
was opened to the pubhc. Derived from the Greek hypogeion, the
word is used to describe a subterranean vault and consisted in this
case of recesses, passages and small chambers hewn out of the solid
rock, together with some external buildings. In order to clear the
Hypogeum a shaft thirty feet deep had to be driven into the ground.
Debris from the mysterious catacombs ^vas carried out through this
tunnel and electric lights were later installed so that the interior
could be inspected with ease.
In ancient times the Hypogeum must have been a sanctuary. It
seems safe to assume this because the roof of one of the vaults is
decorated with spirals in red ochre, a well-known feature of pre-
historic religious art. The Italian authority Luigi Ugolini considers
this chamber to be the seat of an oracle. If one speaks into one
of the artificial niches in a deep voice, the words re-echo from ^vall
to wall and chamber to chamber throughout the whole vault— yet
another feature of this astonishing place.
In Zammit's opinion, the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni and the
temples of Tarxien are older than any other known oracles: "Yet
they filled the visitor with reverence and directed his mind to the
mystery and power of unseen spirits. Perhaps the Hal Saflieni caves
and the Tarxien temples attracted people of distant lands who
believed in the power of the oracle which could be consulted there."
Toward the close of the Stone Age the Hypogeum served as a
huge burial vault. Chambers on each of its two levels were filled
with red earth and the skeletons of over seven thousand people
placed inside. The absence of large bones indicates most of them had
not been buried in this spot originally, but had presumably been
brought there from other burial places and then interred in the
Hypogeum. The practice of waiting for bodies to decompose and
then burying them elsewhere in a common grave is one which has
been identified in other places in the Mediterranean.
The Hypogeum contained potsherds and fragments of statuettes.
Two female clay figures wore strangely pleated bell-shaped skirts.
One of the women was lying on her belly on a couch and the other
was sleeping on her side. This dormant and amply proportioned
figure is one of the finest neolithic sculptures in existence. The
sculptors of Malta, who lived roughly four or five thousand years
WESTERN EUROPE 63
ago, probably excelled all the other artists of the western Mediter-
ranean, particularly where the human figure was concerned.
The whole complex, especially the hollowing out of the subter-
ranean vault, was an astonishing achievement. People who accom-
plished such things had undoubtedly formed highly organized com-
munities and were culturally very advanced, or they would never
have been capable of such feats.
We know that animals were sacrificed to a god or gods; we also
know that they were slaughtered before a sacred image and then
burned. Complicated oracular rituals and the interpretation of
god-sent dreams, too, have been inferred— and all from the silent
ruins, the echoing chambers and broken statuettes of the Hypogeum
at Hal Saflieni. What a high degree of intellectual attainment, what
an intricate system of religious observance it summons up! The
Maltese islands offer us what is probably the most interesting example
of man's quest for spirituality in pre-metallic times. In the Mnaidra
sanctuary, which consisted of two massive oval buildings, mountains
of neolithic vessels were found. Seen from the air, this veritable
miracle in stone looks like a half-finished game played by giants.
A similar impression is created by the Gigantia, which comprises
the ruins of two enormous temples on the neighboring island of
Gozo. Blocks and slabs of stone must have been brought there from
miles away, for heavy building materials were not available in the
immediate area. Many of the Gigantia's upright stones are over
sixteen feet high, and one is more than twenty-six feet long and
thirteen feet wide.
Equally astonishing is the size of several monolithic pillars and
slabs in the ruins of Hagiar Kim, which, incidentally, means "stand-
ing stones." One of the pillars there is over sixteen feet high, and
one of the slabs nearly two and a half feet thick, ten feet high and
twenty-three feet long. It would be impossible to load such a
weight onto a modern truck without using elaborate technical
equipment. Analyzing the remarkable engineering feats of five
thousand years ago, we can only assume that the immense stones
were moved over a period of months or even years by a whole
community employing levers, stone balls and wooden rollers.
The almost incredible amount of energy expended by the pre-
historic inhabitants of Malta in their timeless struggle with the huge
stones is manifested by deep tracks cut into the hard limestone.
64 THE SILENT PAST
These tracks, which occur throughout the islands and run in every
direction, are testimony to the exertions of a large population, to
the transportation of heavy materials, perhaps to the first stone
wheels or to the centuries-long rumbling of the big stone balls which
have come to light in all Malta's megalithic ruins and very probably
acted as rollers for transporting immense loads.
Megalithic culture was still at its prime in Malta long after other
places in the Mediterranean area had discovered metal. Eventually,
an entirely alien population took over the island and the huge
megalithic sanctuaries fell into decay. No writing, no verbal tradi-
tions, no portraits in stone or paint, were left behind by the people
who piled these mighty blocks of stone one upon the other, nor is
it possible to reconstruct their appearance or tell their race from the
formation of their bones and skulls.
The mute evidence is there. Once upon a time, with endless
perseverance and enormous effort, thousands upon thousands of
men reared the great rocks skyward. The people of Malta must
have devoted their whole energies to building these sanctuaries for
eternity, but what their motives were, what language they spoke
and what gods they served must forever remain a mystery.
Only the stones know the answer.
[15] A particularly fine Punic gravestone, now in the Bardo Museum at Tunis. Some
historians assert that the Carthaginians did not beHeve in an afterhfe, but it is difficult
to believe that the creator of this stone was not convinced of the existence of a life
after death.
irjlHISlv
'1
[ i6] Carthaginian sculptures are extraordinarily rare.
This gravestone depicts the face of a Carthaginian
noblewoman. It is now in the Aluseum of the White
Fathers at Carthage.
[17] [i] The Bardo Museum at Tunis displays a
number of these strange ceramic works from the
mysterious city that was one of the greatest com-
mercial centers in the ancient world.
[18] [2-4] These small heads in brightly colored
glass from the Museum of the White Fathers at
Carthage are only a few centimeters high and may
have served religious purposes.
[19] The Hypogeum, a two-floored, many-roomed subterranean building carved
into the rock. The spirals painted on the ceiling in red ocher indicate that the place
had religious associations.
[2o] The "Sleeping Woman of
Malta" was found in the Hy-
pogeum, and is A'lalta's finest
neolithic sculpture. Four or five
thousand years ago, the island's
sculptors were the finest artists
to be found in the western
Mediterranean.
[21] This terra-cotta head was
also found in Malta but appears
to belong to a later period.
[ii] The huge complex of Hal Tarxien, excavated by Professor Themistocles Zammit
between 191 5 and 1917. These blocks and slabs of stone were cut by human hand and
assembled into megalithic buildings, probably about 3,000 years before the birth of
Christ. Prehistorian Karl J. Narr, however, states that in his opinion the site is not
older than the iMiddle Minoan period, somewhere between 2100 and 1600 b.c.
[23] Overall plan of the temple at Hal
Tarxien, showing the characteristic dou-
ble-oval shape of its buildings. The dark
outlines indicate walls built of large ver-
tical slabs, and the darkest gray, shaded
portions represent the horizontal blocks
composing the perimeter walls. Filling
materials in the intervening spaces are
shown in lighter gray, while the lightest
tint indicates the position of large floor
slabs.
. -«s^
ntzjr'
[24] Thousands of bi-
zarre constructions like
this can still be seen on
the plains and hills of
Portugal. They are the
remains of megalithic
graves.
[25] "Tholos da Fari-
osa," a megalithic grave
discovered in the west
of the Iberian Peninsula.
The entrance {back-
gromid, center) can be
clearly distinguished.
[26] Stonehenge is the most celebrated and interesting megalithic complex to have
survived from the period between the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the
Bronze Age. It is generally assumed to have had religious associations.
[27] This passage grave, known as Vjalkinge 9, was found in the Swedish province of
Schonen. Folke Hansen discovered forty humeral bones there, together with the
remains of hand and foot bones. It is estimated that twenty-five persons were buried
in the grave during prehistoric times.
^Wm "^ UpDBw-
[28] The palace of Mari was decorated with splendid mural paintings. Here we see a
killer of sacrificial beasts painted on the wall of "Courtyard 106" in ocher, red, black
and white. This work of art is some 3,700 years old.
WESTERN EUROPE
THEIR FAITH MOVED MOUNTAINS
Avebury and Stonehe?ige are amo?ig the most astonishing pre-
historic monuments, not only in the British Isles but in the Old
World. Each might be fairly compared to a cathedral.
—V. Gordon Childe, Prehistoric Conmmnities of the
British Isles, p. loi, London, 1949
WHEN you wander across a hill overgrown with grass, undergrowth
or trees and get the feeling that there is something artificial about
the rising ground, pause a moment. What lies beneath your feet
may be a mass grave built by man in prehistoric times. Megas and
lithos are the Greek words for "large" and "stone," so a megalith
is a large stone. It was out of large stones like these that, between
roughly 3000 and 1500 b.c, man erected monuments whose existence
has always been known but whose purpose has in many respects
remained a mystery for thousands of years. Sometimes they were
only dolmens or cromlechs, a few massive stones topped by a
large slab; sometimes they took the form of large burial chambers
or rings or long avenues of stones; sometimes, again, the men of
about four thousand years ago placed a single stone upright and so
left us one of the famous menhirs. This term is derived from the
Celtic words 7Jiae7i and hir, meaning "stone" and "long." All these
things— the single stones, the rings and complexes, coupled with the
creative impulse and the ideas that gave birth to them— together go
to make up the great and almost worldwide phenomenon which
we call megalithic culture. There is a fascination in endeavoring to
divine what thoughts animated the men who sought eternity through
the medium of the monolith, or "single stone."
Extending in a huge arc from Norway, Denmark and southern
Sweden to northwest Germany, England and Ireland, and from
Brittany, Spain and Portugal to the islands of the western iMedi-
terranean, the relics of this mysterious culture include barrows,
cairns, tumuli, groups of monoliths, stone rings, tracks bordered by
vast blocks of sandstone and monuments constructed of unhewn
rock and built to withstand the ages. Western Europe alone has
between forty and fifty thousand megalithic graves.
People have wondered why all these monuments were built either
65
66 THE SILENT PAST
in coastal regions or, if inland, not too far from the sea. This may
have been because coastal areas have always held the lead in cultural
development. It is as if the sea and ships have been mankind's greatest
educators; as if sea travel enhanced man's capabilities, made him
inventive and stimulated his mind through an exchange of ideas with
foreign peoples. It should not be surprising, therefore, that some of
man's earliest advanced civilizations came into being around the shores
of the Mediterranean, that our alphabet was invented in the Near
East and that the Mediterranean was one of the principal cradles
of architecture and religion. Civilizations developed much more
slowly on the great continental land masses than in the maritime
regions of Central America, on the coasts of China, in Greece, Italy,
Spain and the Mediterranean islands. It was in the Aegean that man
first learned how to hew blocks of stone, fit them together in layers
and construct domed graves. In the remaining areas, in the western
Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coasts, blocks of crude stone
lying in the fields were merely piled up to form compartments, and
menhirs were still being erected there long after the people of
Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt had started to hew stone into
squared blocks.
What surprises one about the earliest stone monuments erected
by Europe's prehistoric inhabitants is the sheer size of the building
materials used. Near the township of Carnac and the village of
Locmariaquer, both in Brittany, lie the most interesting megalithic
areas in France and probably the entire world, for they contain the
finest stone monuments ever discovered.
The grouping of the megaliths, the three series {alignements) com-
prising 2,935 nienhirs and extending over two and a half miles, the
covered galleries (galeries convenes)— 'all these bear witness, in
their arrangement, planning and selection of stones, to a once-
advanced culture. Prehistorian Z. Le Rouzic believes that the
alignements were cult sites or open-air temples and that the cromlech
of Menec was the chief sanctuary. Cromlechs are megaliths arranged
in a circle or rectangle. The alignements may have been processional
routes used by a death cult. Certainly, the fact that the avenues of
stones usually lead to an open space surrounded by a ring of stones
and close to a megalithic grave suggests some connection with a
cult of that nature.
Research conducted by Commandant Devoir has revealed that
WESTERN EUROPE
67
The black dots indicate German menhirs.
68 THE SILENT PAST
the orientation of the rows in all the aligne?nents in Brittany corre-
sponds to the rising and setting of the sun at certain astronomically
determinate points in time. This would make them a sort of gigantic
calendar which indicated the dates of a sun cult's religious festivals
and had a connection with seedtime and harvest. A similar as-
tronomical orientation has been attributed to certain very ancient
roads in Brittany, but there is no scientific evidence for such a
theory and it would seem to be no more than a product of wishful
thinking.
The alignements of Menec extend for a distance of some 1,300
yards, are about 100 yards wide and contain 1,099 menhirs. They
form eleven parallel rows running in a west-southwesterly or north-
northwesterly direction.
The alignejnents of Kermario extend for some 1,250 yards at a
depth of just over 100 yards and consist of 1,029 menhirs ranged
in ten rows.
The aligneinents of Kerlescan are just under 1,000 yards long and
contain a total of 594 menhirs arranged in thirteen rows.
Whereas at Carnac it is the sheer mass of the megaliths that
impresses one, at Locmariaquer it is the vastness and dimensions of
the individual stones. The menhir which has been christened Mane
er H'rolk, or "fairy stone," must have measured over sixty-five feet
long when it was still intact. One day, we do not know when, it fell
and broke into four pieces. This monolith is between ten and thirteen
feet thick and its weight has been estimated at 350 tons. Five of our
largest modern trucks would be needed to transport such a load.
Not far away stands a magnificent dolmen called the Table des
Marchands. This enormous stone slab was part of a subterranean
chamber beneath a hill. A passage now leads into the chamber,
enabling the visitor to marvel at the elemental majesty of this simple
but breathtakingly impressive construction.
The mass and dimensions of the building materials used in many
different places are a constant source of amazement. The largest
stone at Stonehenge is almost thirty feet long. A stone in the Mount
Browne dolmen in County Carlo w, Ireland, weighs over a hundred
tons. The megalithic grave at Bagneux in the neighborhood of Sau-
mur, central France, boasts one stone which is just over sixty feet
long and about sixteen feet wide and a roof stone weighing some
ninety tons. It has never been fully explained how the men of 4,000
The extent of megalithic graves in the west of the Iberian Peninsula
70 THE SILENT PAST
years ago managed to shift such immense weights. In 1840 one of
the largest megaliths at Saumur was used to bridge a river. Thirty-
six yoked oxen and huge oaken rollers three feet in diameter had
to be employed to move it. It is certainly conceivable, therefore,
that even in early days a large number of men using primitive devices
such as wooden rollers and towropes could have transported and
erected such massive stones.
A few years ago, British archaeologists undertook a further thor-
ough examination of Stonehenge, which stands on Salisbury Plain
just over two miles from the Wiltshire village of Amesbury. Some
of the fallen stones were re-erected, and the Institute of Atomic
Research at Harwell ascertained the location of internal fissures by
using the latest scientific aids.
Stonehenge is one of the most interesting megalithic complexes
in the world. Stuart Piggott declared in 1954 that it was the unique
and individual creation of an architect whose sense of overall plan-
ning and proportion far surpassed the general ability of his con-
temporaries in the barbaric northwest regions of Europe. He went
on to say that anyone on the lookout for comparisons would have
to turn to the world of the Aegean. The way in which the stones
were fitted together, the ground plan and the technical mastery
displayed were things which could not be deduced merely from the
archaeological findings— but it was at least possible to elicit the
sequence in which the separate phases occurred and determine their
chronological boundaries.
In the center of the complex is a longish stone, the so-called altar
stone, whose exact significance cannot be gauged. Around it in a
horseshoe arc stand stones ranging from six and a half to eight feet
in height. Five massive triliths formed an outer horseshoe, and around
them stood a ring of thirty stones nearly fifteen feet high and linked
by horizontal slabs. The whole arrangement was enclosed by a
circular rampart measuring 130 yards in diameter and approached
by a broad avenue which ran straight through the altar stone. Also
on the path's axis but outside the whole circle and in front of the
entrance stands the so-called "heel stone," the astronomical stone,
surrounded by a small ditch. The slaughter or sacrificial stone may
also have been situated here at one time. It has been estimated that
the central axis is focused on the exact point on the horizon where,
in the second millennium b.c, the sun would have risen on June 2 ist,
WESTERN EUROPE 71
though even if this were true it would be wrong to conclude simply
that Stonehenge was a sun temple. Most of the world's holy places,
from prehistoric graves to modern cathedrals, face eastward because
birth, creation, God and the rising sun have always been symbolically
associated.
Piggott tells us that this edifice was built at the beginning of the
second millennium b.c. or, more precisely, that building was begun
early in the second millennium b.c. The remains and objects dis-
covered in the graves are, he says, typical of the so-called Secondary
Neolithic Culture of Britain. Radiocarbon tests conducted on
charred remains which were dug up here in 1950 dated them some-
where between 2123 and 1573 b.c.
Stonehenge is partly built of tertiary sandstone blocks which were
once available on Salisbury Plain itself and are known in England
as sarsens or Saracen stones. In addition, however, there are the so-
called "bluestones" which form the inner circle and the smaller
horseshoe. H. H. Thomas has ascertained that these bluestones came
from the eastern end of Prescelly in South Wales, some 130 miles
from Stonehenge as the crow flies. How were they transported to
Salisbury Plain from so far away? By sea the route would have
been roughly 400 miles long and overland they would have had
to cover a distance of more than 170 miles. As the British archaeol-
ogist Glyn Daniel rightly says, the transportation of the bluestones
was an amazing technical achievement and covered, so far as we
can ascertain, the longest route ever used by the builders of any
megalithic monument.
About two hundred stone rings have been discovered in the
British Isles, but they are all inferior to Stonehenge and Avebury
in grandeur of design and execution.
Avebury, an even larger megalithic complex than Stonehenge,
lies only a few miles away. Originally, more than 650 blocks of
stone were erected there in circles and rows, but many of the larger
boulders were removed at a later date, some by local builders in
search of materials and others by overzealous medieval Christians
who bore them off and piously buried them.
Avebury's general outlines are hard to distinguish today because
the village of that name nests immediately inside the ring of stones.
The level ground in the center was once crowned by a ring of
gigantic unhewn slabs. Each monolith measures about thirteen feet
72 THE SILENT PAST
both in height and width and is about two feet six inches thick. The
ring was encircled by a rampart and ditch, the latter running inside
the former. Inside the large ring were two nonconcentric smaller
rings whose edges almost touched. Of the stones which composed
them, five and four have survived respectively. In the center of the
southern inner ring stood a particularly tall stone, while the northern
ring contained three monoliths.
What was the object of these ancient and gargantuan creations?
Obscure as the history of the people of the time appears, two facts
are apparent. Having been a hunter and a collector of wild fruit for
a million or six hundred thousand years, man began, in the neolithic
and megalithic period, to domesticate animals, inhabit a fixed abode
and cultivate the soil. Concomitantly, there arose a desire to bury
the dead in a more elaborate and secure fashion. Throughout the
entire European and Mediterranean area there came into being
enormous stone burial places, with Egypt leading the field by a
considerable margin. The idea of building stone edifices for the dead
was one that became disseminated throughout the regions mentioned
above. Everywhere save in Egypt, provision was normally made for
the interment of a considerable number of dead— probably members
of one particular family or tribe. The forerunner of the chamber
constructed of boulders was probably the cave, and archaeologists
have, in fact, discovered worldwide evidence of cave burial going
back hundreds of thousands of years.
The infinite pains which men took with the construction of mega-
lithic graves indicate that they were concerned with preserving more
for eternity than the mere physical remains of their dead. The size
of the graves shows that they also served as cult sites and that there
was a belief in something which survived after death. Contact and
intercourse are practicable only with something that is alive, so it
must be assumed that one of the driving forces of the amazing mega-
lithic culture was a belief in the soul and its continued existence
after death.
Many of the later megalithic graves were sealed with stones
which had a round or oval hole cut into them. This "soul hole"
was intended as a means of communication between the souls of the
departed and the outside world, and may also have been used for
supplying the dead with food and drink. Even today, one can still
see "soul holes" in old French-Swiss houses on the upper reaches
Sites of megalithic buildings found in Skane Province, southern Sweden
74 THE SILENT PAST
of the Rhone, though the local inhabitants have no inkling of their
age-old significance.
Stonehenge, Avebury, and other megalithic buildings cannot have
been only graves. Had that been their sole function, their builders
would have been guilty of needless overelaboration. It is far more
likely that these immense constructions were holy places, sanctuaries
which had originated in and were bound up with the death cult and
other religious conceptions.
In the opinion of some authorities, the huge buildings on the
Maltese islands set the pattern for all subsequent megalithic edifices,
though whether they really represent such a point of departure
seems highly questionable. Nevertheless, since the buildings there
are clearly recognizable as temples they do lend support to the
assumption that tribal sanctuaries were planned and built through-
out western Europe.
How graves became cult sites and how cult sites— our own
churches included— came to include graves is the material counter-
part of a great spiritual mystery, for there is fundamental truth in
the assertion that all death comes from life and all life from death.
The secret of the menhirs, too, can only be elucidated in religio-
magical terms. Wherever these stones occur in Europe, people
living in their vicinity have believed that miraculous powers emanate
from or are associated with them. Professor Horst Kirchner of
Berlin University has collected many of these ancient traditions.
A Breton peasant woman declared that a year after touching the
Saint Cado menhir she gave birth to a fine healthy son, and a
number of other women who had visited the stone told the same
story. In Germany the Long Stone at Tiengen in Kreis Waldshut
was formerly called the Chindlistein ("little child stone") because
wet nurses were supposed to remove newborn children from it at
night. It is said of the Kindstein at Unterwiddersheim in Kreis
Biidingen that anyone who lays his ear against it can hear children
crying inside. The Langstein at Sulzmatt in Upper Alsace is sup-
posed to have revolved on its axis one Good Friday as the midday
bells were ringing, and the young girls who witnessed the phe-
nomenon were all married within the year. The German menliirs
known as Brautsteine ("betrothed" or "bride stones") are also said
to ensure a happy marriage. A4enhirs are often the object of
pilgrimages by the sick. Some of these stones once marked medieval
WESTERN EUROPE 75
execution places, as, for instance, the Long Stone at Tiengen im
Klettgau, the Long Stone near Ober-Saulheim in Rheinhessen and
the "Flitch of Bacon" near Aschersleben. It is to be assumed that
thousands of years ago people likewise believed that there was
some vital force imprisoned in these stones.
One or two burial chambers of the megalithic period were
found to contain a single upright stone. The late Sir Arthur Evans,
who unearthed the Minoan culture of Crete, suggested that the
Greek grave-pillar originally stood inside the burial chamber and
was not erected over the grave in the form of a stele until later
times. This indicates that it retained some magical significance from
its "burial-chamber days" because it was supposed to house the
spirits of the departed.
All this encourages one to assume that the menhirs, too, were not
only monuments but possessed a magical or religious significance as
well. When a dead man's soul left his body it went in search of
another abode, and this other abode was provided by the menhir.
It acted as a receptable for the soul of a person who was buried
nearby or at some distance away, which may be why some menhirs
were roughly hewn to represent the human form.
The stone giants of Sulzmatt and the Meisenthal Stone, incon-
gruously adorned with its cross from a later age, the menhir of
Alberschweiler and central Europe's largest upright megalith at
Blieskastel, the menhirs of Carnac and Locmariaquer, standing erect
like an army of silent dwellings for the human soul— all these are
an irresistible reminder that the people of the megalithic cultures
who set up these "soul stones" four or five thousand years ago
possessed a faith which almost literally moved mountains.
WESTERN EUROPE
THE MEGALITHS OF MORBIHAN
It is clear that, where the dolmen signs are concerned, we are
groping in the dark. We can only rely on our gift of observation
and draw certain conclusions from it. Our sole ai?n is our burning
thirst for hiowledge. Despite the imperfections of our 7?iethods,
we have attempted to probe the spiritual and mystical do?nains of
our oldest ancestors a?id grasp the thoughts that guided their hand.
— Marthe and Saint- Just Pequart and Zacharie Le ^
Rouzic, Corpus des Signes Graves des Monuments
Megalithiques du Morbihan, p. 92, Paris, 1927
THE greatest mystery surrounding megalithic monuments concerns
the strange symbols engraved on them. The massive stone slabs
and supporting stones of dolmens in the region of Morbihan on the
southern coast of Brittany have long aroused particular interest
among archaeologists the world over. Although there is no doubt
that the marks on them are genuine and actually date from the mega-
lithic period, they remained undiscovered for centuries simply be-
cause many of them are extremely hard to see.
Marthe and Saint- Just Pequart and Zacharie Le Rouzic have
spent forty years working in Morbihan, examining stones and
recording their observations, but not even they have managed to
catalogue all the symbols. The following story may serve to show
how easily they can escape the eye.
One year, the Pequarts and Le Rouzic discovered several signs
on a stone in the dolmen known as Kerham. Returning next year to
photograph their discovery they found to their great surprise that
the signs seemed to have disappeared. Undeterred, one of the party
spent many hours inspecting the monolith until, suddenly, the signs
sprang to view, seeming to become more and more distinct as he
watched. It seems that in the case of some stones special lighting con-
ditions are necessary before the signs will emerge. The celebrated
dolmen known as the Table des Marchands is adorned with a sun, but
its existence has been denied and disputed in many learned treatises
because it is clearly visible only between four and five o'clock in
the afternoon, being indistinguishable at any other time of day.
Many marks have disappeared in the course of time as a result
of wind and weather, changes in temperature and growths of moss
76
WESTERN EUROPE
77
The Table des Marchands is a
dolmen a galerie or passage
grave at Locmariaquer which
was first explored in 1814. The
supporting stone (i) and the
undersurface of the tablelike
slab (2) in the chamber bear
engraved symbols which were
discovered by Le Rouzic. This
sketch shows how such a
passage grave was laid out.
and lichen— and one day, no doubt, it will no longer be possible to
discern what people carved on these stones some four thousand
years ago.
These interesting signs appear on numerous menhirs as well as
on dolmens, but because menhirs stand in an isolated position and
are particularly exposed to the weather the signs carved on them
have often been entirely obHterated by wind and weather. The
menhir of Alanio, for instance, displays a pattern of fine serpentine
lines, but only where the earth has been dug away from around
its base. The portion which protruded from the ground exhibits
no marks that could have been made by human hand.
At Morbihan all the signs were pounded, not carved into the
rock as they were in the Magdalenian, the paleolithic cultural phase
of about 20,000 years ago. Hammer blows produced uneven furrows
in the granite which normally provided the material for these
stone monuments and the clarity of the lines suffered accordingly,
but it has been ascertained that decoration was usually applied
before the monoliths were placed in their allotted position.
78 THE SILENT PAST
The Franco-Cantabrian artists of the Magdalenian period in
southern France and northwest Spain took great pains to make
their mural paintings and sculptures naturalistic, so that they would
achieve the greatest possible identity between them and the
animals they portrayed. Only in this way, they reasoned, could
they gain a hold over their potential prey. The engravings on
megalithic monuments, by contrast, were left behind by people
who had succeeded in reducing their ideas to the simplest possible
terms. They had already abandoned art as a means of expressing
their ideas and begun to evolve symbols and emblemlike designs.
The pronounced schematization of these symbols in itself shrouds
them in mystery, and the meaning of the ideograms has largely
escaped our comprehension.
Nevertheless, the meaning of some signs is quite obvious. We can
recognize axes, suns and sizable boats with raised prows and sterns.
Snakes are often clearly identifiable in the granite, as are oxen,
geometrical figures and even insects. Archaeologists naturally diifer
over the interpretation of a number of signs. Cephalopods or
marine mollusks such as the calamary or inkfish are very often
depicted. I believe that I myself have identified the mollusk
rondeletiola minor or spirula spirula on one of the stones in the
''^Allee couverte du Lufang.^^ It is interesting to note that mollusks
occur only in covered galleries near the sea. But, if dolmens are
also found not far from the coast, we are led to wonder why the
people of the megalithic period never used them to depict cephalo-
pods. This question has never been resolved. No genuine portrayal
of a human form has ever been found except on the dolmen called
Petit Mont, where two feet are shown. Perhaps they represent the
feet of the man buried beneath the tumulus, for they are sur-
rounded by lines not unlike a megalithic ground plan. The Roch
Priol bears the outlines of six pairs of feet, but it is probably not
a monument of the dolmen type. The Dolmen de Mane Lud seems
to depict four standing figures, but it is not certain that the en-
gravings actually represent human beings because they consist merely
of crosses, some of them surmounted by round dots which may,
or may not, be heads.
We do not know what the people of the megalithic cultures
looked like, what race they belonged to or whether they were
blond or dark, light- or dark-skinned. Glyn Daniel surmises that
WESTERN EUROPE 79
they belonged not to an Indo-European but to one or more Medi-
terranean linguistic groups, but it is just as likely that they resembled
the present-day customers in the harbor cafes of Brest or the fisher-
men of Saint-Jean-de-Luz and San Sebastian. The men who drew
boats and cephalopods must have been skilled seafarers or they would
never have been able to spread their building methods and religious
ideas from coast to coast throughout western Europe. They must,
too, have had a firm belief in a life after death, or they would never
have summoned up the energy to handle gigantic boulders as
though they were playthings.
Is there any form of writing on megalithic monuments, do they
express language in symbolic terms and do they bear alphabetical
symbols?
In 1893 the French scholar Letourneau identified certain similar-
ities between megalithic symbols and the earliest alphabets known,
drawing for comparison on the neo-Punic, Phoenician, Etruscan and
Coptic scripts. The Pequarts and Le Rouzic, however, decisively
reject Letourneau's assumption of "Inscriptions on the Burial Monu-
ments of Morbihan."
By and large it is quite clear what the megalithic sculptors, if
so they can be termed, had in mind. Their drawings had a ritual
and religious significance and may have been instructions or notes
on religious observance. The details, however, remain obscure, and
thousands of symbols will fade away completely in the next few
thousand years without ever having been deciphered.
SYRIA
MARI, THE WONDER CITY
The story is told ?iot only by clay tablets but by walls which
have been devoured by fire and demolished by picks, by paving
stones which have been trodden by countless thousands of feet.
Never was ancient architecture so alive.
—Andre Parrot, Le Palais, p. 6, Paris, 1958
THE outstanding archaeological site found in the Near East during
the past thirty years owed its discovery to a headless statuette
picked up by wandering Bedouins. Tell Hariri had lain lonely and
undisturbed in its grave by the banks of the Euphrates for thousands
of years. No one guessed that a nondescript hill in eastern Syria,
five miles north of Abu Kemal and close to the Iraq border, con-
cealed one of the most famous cities of the third millennium b.c.
Excavations were organized at the instigation of the distinguished
orientalist Rene Dussaud and financed by grants from the French
National Museums and the Ministry of Education.
Work began on Tell Hariri on December 14, 1933. Only a few
minutes after the surface had been broken by the first strokes of
the pick, some statuettes came to light. On January 23, 1934, just
forty days after digging had started, small sculptures were un-
earthed which portrayed three important personalities: Lamgi-
Mari, the king; Ebih-il, the city's senior dignitary; and Idi-Narum,
the man who may have been responsible for supplying Mari with
grain. The statuettes bore written symbols which provided the key
to one of the great mysteries in the ancient history of the East. They
not only made it clear that the diggers had found a temple dedicated
to the goddess Ishtar, but revealed something of far greater import:
that beneath Tell Hariri lay the lost and almost legendary city of
Mari.
The discovery of the statuette of King Lamgi-Mari was par-
ticularly important because, in a sense, he carried the name of the
city on his person. Engraved on the right-hand side of the back
and the reverse of the right upper arm was the inscription: Laingi-
Mari, King of Mari, the great Patesi of Enlil, has dedicated his
statuette to Ishtar.
From 1934 to 1937 a large section of the Temple of Ishtar was
80
SYRIA
8i
Plan of Tell Hariri. Beneath the hill on the left (see arrow) lay the Temple
of Ishtar. Adjoining it can be seen residential quarters. The large rectangle
represents the palace, and the building adjoining its lower right-hand corner
was a temple for the god Dagan.
laid bare, an operation which entailed clearing an area of roughly
5,000 square yards to a depth of twenty feet. Excavation of ruins
as ancient as these has to be carried out very carefully. The ground
is painstakingly broken up, inch by inch, and much of the earth
sieved and taken away in baskets. Considering how laborious this
process of disinterment is, it seems amazing that within three years
82 THE SILENT PAST
more than 30,000 cubic yards of earth had been removed from
Tell Hariri. Andre Parrot, the brilliant French archaeologist, has
labeled the various layers of the miraculous city by different letters,
A, B, C, D and E, in descending order. It could be deduced from
layer E that the Temple of Ishtar had remained in existence for a
very long time. It was built of unbaked bricks and its floors were
laid with finely polished stucco. The temple's core consisted of a
"cella" in the form of a hearth house. On the short wall of the
chamber the altar was erected, while the exit was situated in one
of the long walls, as far as possible from the holy of hoKes. Adjoining
it were rooms for priests and temple administrators. The whole
sanctuary resembled the typical inward-facing Oriental house with
its central courtyard. In the temple courtyard itself Parrot found
a number of troughs, the so-called "longboats," two to the left of
the door and five to the right. These receptacles were used during
drink-offering rites.
The main chamber or cella must have occupied an exceedingly
important position in the temple and was obviously regarded with
great reverence. We know this to be so because Parrot found some
very peculiar objects there. Bronze wedges had been driven into
the ground, their apexes topped by handles set in bronze and
adorned with small rectangular plates of lapis lazuli, white stone or
silver. Just as we lay foundation stones today, so the architects of
Mari used to sink foundation wedges, anchoring them in the ground
for tutelary and religious reasons. Of the thirteen foundation wedges
found within the temple boundaries seven were in the cella, which
indicates the great sanctity of that room.
The citizens of Mari presented their deities with statuettes, small
figures of reddish stone, limestone or white alabaster which the
priests arranged on shelves. Most of them were only six or eight
inches high, but the largest measured about twenty inches.
Mari's inhabitants were evidently of a pious disposition, for they
commissioned these small statuettes as a means of worshiping their
particular god or goddess. The figurines stood in the sanctuary
where they would receive any blessings the deity might bestow,
their hands folded in prayer as befitted true believers.
Parrot has made some interesting observations on the nature of
these figures. The highborn and prosperous citizens of Mari were
not content to let themselves be personified by any old sculptures
fd
(d
<
"JUiw. ^
Mari
84 THE SILENT PAST
which could be interchanged at will. They demanded a likeness,
and it is quite certain that they sat as models for artists in the city's
studios. We are confronted, therefore, by the true features of many
citizens of Mari, men with long hair or cropped skulls, bearded or
clean-shaven cheeks, warriors and governors of the city-state in
truly magnificent robes, girls and women with extraordinarily viva-
cious expressions— the standing or seated figures of people who lived
at a time which now lies four or five thousand years in the past,
captured forever in the posture which they assumed before their
deity and stamped with the sincerity of their fervent belief. They
stare into eternity with great, dark-pupiled eyes. We see their
elegant coiffures, we admire their clothes, we notice their almost
invariably confident smiles, and before us is one of the greatest
treasures in the world: the crystallization of the life and artistry
of a Semitic people who evolved an amazingly refined culture on
the banks of the Euphrates in times beyond our ken. A man and
a woman sit close together, his hand almost tenderly holding her
forearm, just above the wrist. Although the heads are missing we
can tell from the living quality of the stone that a great love united
these two people— "lovers without face or name," Andre Parrot
calls them. The people of Mari were not without a sense of humor,
either. A clownlike pair of musicians laugh at us in the same time-
less way in which the pious citizens of Mari carried their reverence
and their faith in Astarte with them into eternity.
The fact that a Semitic people had so highly cultivated a way of
life and such a highly developed religion as early as 3000 b.c. is
remarkable in itself. During the first half of the third millennium
B.C. the whole of Mesopotamia was Sumerian territory, and the
Sumerians were not Semites. The beginnings of their culture go
back to the fourth millennium b.c. and their sphere of cultural in-
fluence embraced the whole of southern Mesopotamia. It is well
known what remarkable finds have been made in Sumerian cities
such as Ur, Eridu, Larsa, Uruk, Lagash, Suruppak, Kish, Es-nunna
and Upi— to name some of the most celebrated archaeological sites in
the area. Modern authorities call the first half of the third mil-
lennium the "early dynastic period" of Mesopotamian history. It
was not until the end of this epoch that the Semites emerged, and
even then Sumerian culture was far from finished. Spiritually and
culturally the Sumerians retained their dominance, but the Semites
SYRIA 85
possessed greater powers of resistance and a stronger temperament.
About 2600 B.C. the Semites seized power under the Akkadian
dynasty. The newly founded city became the center of the known
world, the Semites learned how to use cuneiform writing from the
Sumerians, and the two races became fused. The Semites con-
tributed their greater vitality, the Sumerians their artistry, their
brilliant craftsmanship and good taste. The whole of Babylonian-
Assyrian culture and the Semitic way of life were permeated by
old Sumerian elements. The Semitic city-kingdom of Mari had also
inherited much from Sumer but it evolved its own individual style
as well. Three thousand years before the birth of Christ, it was
already far advanced in its art and architecture, in its religion and
general way of life.
Mari's most remarkable feature was its palace, which is the
grandest example of Near Eastern architecture of its period, the
beginning of the second millennium B.C. Andre Parrot, who ex-
cavated this amazing building, unearthed a vast complex covering
two and a half acres and containing corridors, courtyards and three
hundred rooms.
The palace, which probably took many years to build, grew out
of various courtyard systems, for it seems obvious that the architects
of A4ari had no fixed plan in mind when they began their huge
undertaking. The palace was at once a royal residence, a fortress,
a granary, a seat of government, an administrative center and, above
all, a symbol of regal authority. We even know that it was King
Zimrilim who adorned the palace with its splendid murals. The
excavations of the past forty years have shown that mural painting
was a very ancient art in Mesopotamia, and that even in early times
artists had acquired a high degree of technical proficiency in this
field. Zimrilim's frescoes were based on this ancient Mesopotamian
tradition. Parrot emphasizes that beneath the relics of the mural
pictures in Zimrilim's palace there have survived fragments of
another mural depicting a religious procession composed of people
whose physiognomy and dress reveal alien. West Semitic char-
acteristics.
Five temples have so far been excavated beneath Tell Hariri,
together with a ziggurat or terraced tower of the Babylonian type.
Also found were vases and ritual jugs ornamented with lions,
massive earthenware vessels, a schoolroom with twenty-eight stone
86 THE SILENT PAST
benches and the little plates of shell which served the pupils as
slates. Small stone cylinders depict ships, a banquet, and scenes in
which men fight with animals and King Gilgamesh subdues some
rampant monsters. The courtyard of the palace yielded the figure
of a goddess inhaling the scent of a flower with evident delight.
One of the most beautiful statuettes is the water-pouring goddess
of fertility dating from 1800 b.c. Almost five feet high and sculpted
in white stone, this figure has eyes inlaid with precious stones,
plaited reddish hair, and six rows of necklaces.
Even if what was discovered beneath Tell Hariri had been con-
fined merely to the temple, the palace, the statuettes, the houses
and the city walls, our knowledge of the ancient East would still
have been immeasurably enriched. But Mari yielded up yet another
huge treasure which affords us a profusion of information about
the culture, daily life and history of these unique people and their
relations with other city-kingdoms in the contemporary world.
This hoard consists of the twenty thousand inscribed clay tablets
which were found in King Zimrilim's palace. They represent the
state archives of Mari and include the political and private corre-
spondence of the city's last king. Many of the letters come from
Shamsi-Adad of Assyria and contain instructions to his son Yasmah-
Adad, who ruled Mari for some time on Assyria's behalf and was
eventually succeeded by Zimrilim, the legal heir to the throne.
The tablets make it clear that rulers of the time were always
worried about war, that they besieged fortified towns, forged
defensive alliances and carried off people into slavery. If a city
resisted too stubbornly, the conqueror would sometimes enslave
the whole population. When the fortress of Sibat was taken the
victors acquired so many prisoners that even private soldiers received
an allotment of slaves to serve their personal requirements. On
capturing Mari, King Shamsi-Adad decreed that the young daughters
of Yahdunlim should be brought into his son's house. There he had
them trained as musicians, advising his son to make them play
wherever and whenever he had a mind to.
In another tablet Shamsi-Adad writes to his son Yasmah-Adad as
follows: "I had resolved that you should keep the sons of Vilanum
with you against the possibility of making a treaty with them later
on. Now that I know it will never come to a treaty with Vilanum,
have his sons arrested and execute them the same night. Let there
SYRIA 87
be no ceremony and no mourning. Prepare their graves, kill them
and bury them. Take away their head ornaments and their clothes,
their money and their gold, and send me their wives. Keep the two
musicians yourself, but have Sammetar's serving-women brought to
me. This tablet I send you in the month of Tirum, on the evening
of the fifteenth day."
God is often mentioned in the tablets. He was a single god,
perhaps Mari's senior deity, and was called Dagan. Also referred
to is a god called Itur-Mer and, in the neighboring city of Terqa,
another called Ikrub-Il. So Mari, too, was familiar with the Semitic
god II or El who later dominated the Old Testament. It was, how-
ever, the goddess Ishtar who bestowed war and peace and governed
the daily life of Mari's citizens. Since nothing could ever happen
without divine sanction, attempts were made to discover the will
of the gods by reading auguries in the entrails of sacrificial beasts.
The augurs were consulted on private matters and important govern-
ment decisions, and were also taken to war. As in all the world's
most ancient civilizations, the snake played a role here. On one
occasion the future could not be foretold until a particular species
of snake known as the zarzar had been obtained. King Shamsi-
Adad postponed a campaign because he wanted to sacrifice first
and because the "bath ritual" had to be performed before war could
begin. He also traveled to his home city of Terqa for the sake of a
funerary sacrifice.
All this we learn from the twenty thousand cuneiform documents
which have been found in the palace at Mari. We know that
building operations were not confined to houses, temples and palaces
but also embraced canals and river embankments. We read of sheep
and cattle breeding and the danger of predatory animals. Lions were
not to be killed because King Zimrilim had a special predilection
for them. Once, when a lion got into a neighboring town and took
up its abode on the roof of a house, the townsfolk had to feed the
beast until the king decided what was to be done. Even when it had
reduced the whole town to panic it was still not killed. Eventually
the garrison commander caught it in a cage and shipped it off
to Mari.
Zimrilim's game with the lions one day came to an abrupt end.
Hammurabi, the great king and lawgiver from Babylon who ruled
from 1728 to 1686 B.C. and whose empire ultimately included the
88 THE SILENT PAST
whole of Babylonia, Assyria and Mesopotamia, launched a fearful
assault by night. He defeated King Zimrilim and in the year
1695 B.C. devastated the city of Mari so completely that it never
recovered from the blow. The great artists of Mari ceased to sculpt,
paint and build. The Paris of the Euphrates forgot how to tailor
elegant clothes, and life, which had once held such infinite charm,
was finally extinguished, not to reappear until our own century.
Mari is such an inexhaustible site of civilization that its remains are
still being explored to this day.
SARDINIA
ISLAND OF 8,000 TOWERS
Numerous sifJiilarities between the Sardinia}! and Aegean cultures
ijidicate that the Aegean world left disti^ict traces on the island
many centuries before the Flooenicians'' arrival there.
—Christian Zervos, La Civilisation de la Sardaigne,
Paris, 1954
SARDINIA is a hot and barren island whose hills, mountains and
valleys are steeped in solitude. Parched aridity and silent grandeur
are the main features of this austere countryside, where one can
walk for miles without encountering a living soul.
At one time merged with Corsica in a single land mass, Sardinia
is geologically very ancient. Older than the Alps and the whole of
Italy, it protrudes from the sea as a reminder of a continent which
has largely sunk from view. This took place several hundred million
years ago, long before the Italian peninsula emerged. Indeed, geog-
raphers assume the existence of a land called Tyrrhenis which lay
where the Tyrrhenian Sea is now but was eventually engulfed by
water.
Sardinia, however, remained to form a fragment of land which
has survived from times immemorial. It is by no means a sunny
southern land, but a land pitilessly scorched in summer by the
southern sun, which beats down as though with malevolent intent.
The granite cliffs and basalt crags, the lonely magnificence of the
mountains and the all-pervasive melancholy which seems to clothe
the whole island grip the beholder and leave him with a sense of
being far from Europe.
The winds of Africa prevail there, for no protective belt of
land shields the island from the Sahara. The granite and gneiss cliffs
in the east of the island tower steeply into the sky, often with
vertiginous overhangs. Deep blue water pounds thunderously away
at gigantic natural walls so inhospitable to man that they often stretch
for miles without offering a foothold to the potential castaway. The
sea has eroded them at the base, leaving deep caves in which the
water booms and roars. Then, again, there are deserted beaches of
snow-white sand, squat watchtowers dating from the time of the
Arab occupation, cork woods, unfamiliar flowers, taciturn men with
90 THE SILENT PAST
smoldering tempers and an almost medieval code of chivalry, women
who combine a regal bearing with madonnalike humility, beautiful
pitchers apparently floating through the countryside on the queenly
heads of girls who still wear long skirts and white blouses and, on
Sundays, bright peasant costumes.
Many races have ruled here, but the only permanent feature of
the place is its prehistory, its stones and its age-old towers, the
nuraghi which are the island's greatest mystery.
Sardinia is shaped like a foot or a sandal, which is why the
Greeks called it Ichnousa ("footprint") or Sandahotis ("sandal").
The island was certainly uninhabited during the last Ice Age, which
lasted until about 8000 b.c, and no paleolithic sites yielding human
relics have ever been found there. Man did not arrive until the
neolithic period, which lasted here from 4000 until 2000 b.c. We
do not know where these early immigrants came from or what they
looked like, but we must assume that they were not Indo-Europeans.
The islands of the Aiediterranean had been gradually populated
from the fifth millennium b.c. onward by seafarers from the East
who had rowed or paddled their way westward. On Sardinia they
lived in caves, cavities in the rock or straw huts, mainly on level
ground and at first always in the vicinity of the sea or by lakes
and rivers. The island's many imposing caves have yielded relics
of these bold mariners and their tools.
A second influx, probably from Asia, peopled the island with
one of the most interesting races in the world and one which, after
their strange towers, we shall call Nuraghians. In complete contrast
to the neolithic inhabitants, these people possessed a considerable
knowledge of architecture and an advanced culture from the very
start. The Nuraghians landed on the east coast during the third
millennium b.c. and began to build the circular towers with sloping
walls of natural stone which are their principal legacy to us.
Finally, about 1400 b.c, a third race arrived, bringing an urban
culture with them. These Sardi or Shardena probably hailed from
Asia also and intermarried with the earlier arrivals.
Of the 8,000 nuraghi which once stood on the island about 6,500
still exist in a ruined and dilapidated state. Only a very small
proportion of these strange towers has survived in good condition.
We do not know what language the Nuraghians spoke. They
left behind no recorded history because they unfortunately had
SARDINIA
91
no form of writing. But megalithic towers of this design and in
this quantity are to be found only on Sardinia. The Sardinians
themselves call them niirakes, miraxis, niiragies and other variants
of the same name, according to the dialect spoken in the particular
part of the island. Professor Giovanni Lilliu, the leading authority on
ancient Sardinian architecture, thinks that the term derives from
a pre-Indo-European tongue. In the interior of the island 7mra or
7iurra means "mound" or "hollow," and nur-aghe means roughly
"high pillar" or "hollow tower."
The nuraghe consists of rough unhewn stones piled layer on
layer to form a tower with inward-sloping walls. Many of the
nuraghi are only a few feet high, but some soar more than sixty
feet into the blue Mediterranean sky. Their walls are between six
and sixteen feet thick. The low towers contain only one chamber,
but the tallest are divided into three stories.
What was the purpose of these towers, and from what part of
the world was their prototype imported? Did the idea for them
come from Spain, Africa or the East? We do not know.
y
y >--.,
This reconstruction of the Orrubiu nuraghe in Nuoro, Sardinia, shows the
ultimate development of this type of defensive tower. It is the fruit of research
carried out by Professor Lilliu into this remarkable building, which is more
than 2,000 years old.
92 THE SILENT PAST
They were neither sanctuaries nor burial places, but seem rather
to have been defensive positions used by people who were exposed
to continual attack. Sardinia was never politically united in its
entirety, and its regional groups or tribes were ruled by chieftains
who used these towers as houses and strongholds. In the course of
time, the towers were extended to form larger fortified systems
where several hundred people could take refuge in an emergency.
The island was repeatedly attacked by Ligurians, Phoenicians,
Carthaginians and, eventually, Romans, so the Sardinians were
obliged to fight and fight again, even though it was always a losing
battle.
Even if an enemy succeeded in penetrating a tower, he was still
in mortal danger. The buildings were provided with doors opening
on pitch-black cul-de-sacs and all manner of pitfalls and blind alleys
from which the lurking Nuraghians could pounce with spear and
sword to cut down the unwary intruder.
A flat roof installed at the summit of the tower for purposes of
observation and defense and surrounded by a parapet, probably of
wood, together with projecting attachments for the launching
of stones and missiles, made any assault a perilous undertaking. The
Sardinians' defensive bays were the first military installations of
their type in the Mediterranean.
Towers from the earliest period, which came into being about
1500 B.C., can be recognized by the pronounced incline of their
exterior walls. Later nuraghi were steeper, and between 1000 and
500 B.C., in the early Iron Age, nuraghe construction reached its
prime. In the end the Sardinians erected fortified citadels of massive
proportions to ward off coastal attacks by the Semitic Punians.
Professor LilHu remarks that the shepherds and warriors of the
island must have shed a great deal of blood in defense of their
political autonomy. A race of simple, hardy people, like their
modern counterparts, they were in daily peril of losing their
freedom, and defensive war must have become a sort of religion
to them. Being accustomed to an austere life, they learned to be
tough, unpretentious and mutually helpful in time of need. The
last of the nuraghi were built between 600 and 250 b.c. and
eventually served as hiding places, for by 231 the Romans had
succeeded in conquering the island. The Sardinian guerrillas crept
into the most remote towers in their wild countryside, but the
SARDINIA 93
Romans ruthlessly hunted them down with trained bloodhounds.
In the province of Cagliari, so named after the island's capital,
a hill has stood for more than 2,000 years which is known to the
Sardinians as Su Nuraxi. In 1940 a few test diggings were made
there, and in 195 1 Professor Lilliu started on the planned excavation
of one of the most interesting prehistoric sites in Europe.
I have stood in the plain of Barumini and seen this lonely, deserted
place for myself. All is silent, all lies open to the sky, a powerful
system of fortifications with an original central tower, four corner
towers built subsequently, massive external walls and, in front of
them, a whole village with ruined stone roundhouses.
I have also visited Professor Lilliu, who occupies the chair of
archaeology at the small but active university which stands on a
hill overlooking the rest of the capital. Lilliu told me that he had
spent five years, from 195 1 to 1956, excavating the place. He had
sent a fragment of wood from one of the supporting beams in
the lower chamber of the central tower to the laboratory of the
National Museum at Copenhagen. Using the radiocarbon method,
Danish scientists established the age of the wood at about 1270 b.c.
(A margin of error of two hundred years either way should always
be allowed in such cases.) During the second phase of construction
the four outer towers were built, and during the third all the towers
and the walls were reinforced. This was probably done in order to
withstand the battering rams used by the Carthaginians. Lilliu and
his associates have also found defensive bays, fireplaces, sacrificial
pits, large stone receptacles for kneading dough, stone balls which
could be launched at besiegers, millstones, troughlike receptacles
for ground corn, stone seats, bakery equipment and traces of various
handicrafts from the later stages in the stronghold's history.
When I suggested that the excavation of the citadel and settlement,
which were covered by stones, debris and thousands of cubic yards
of earth, must have made enormous physical demands on men
working in such high temperatures, Lilliu merely looked down
modestly at the papers in front of him and did not reply. However,
anyone who has seen Barumini lying there in the plain, ringed by
the desolate hills which are the sole surviving witnesses of the
life that once flourished there, and anyone who knows the iron-hard
ground, the parching sirocco, the arid, stubborn and unyielding
94 THE SILENT PAST
nature of this melancholy land will not underestimate the archaeolo-
gist's achievement.
In the sixth century b.c, after a long siege by the armies of
Carthage, Barumini was overwhelmed, the nuraghe fortifications
dismantled and the population driven from the burning village.
However, the tough and resilient Sardinians returned in later
centuries to settle once more amid the ruins and live on in the
same "way and with the same customs as in the golden age of their
culture and renown.
Because the Nuraghians had no script, scholars have attempted
to deduce the nature of their earliest language from such expressions
as have remained unaltered for hundreds if not thousands of years.
These are largely place names and names of animals, plants, moun-
tains and rivers. It has been suggested that the Nuraghians came
from Asia, since the island has certain expressions which could have
originated in the Altai Range, Mesopotamia, Azerbaidzhan, the
Caucasus, Nuristan (Kafiristan), Kazakhstan or even in Tibet and
Sinkiang.
Nevertheless, the towers' interiors bear a certain resemblance to
Aegean buildings and, more particularly, to those of Tiryns,
Mycenae and the Creto-Mycenaean civilization. And the spiritual
life and many aspects of the Sardinians' material culture also corre-
spond to the Aegean culture as exemplified in Crete, Cyprus and
Greece.
In addition to their towers, the Sardinians bequeathed us yet
another legacy. This unique and unrivaled cultural heritage is the
magnificent bronze art of gifted people who were not only warriors
but outstanding exponents of the sculptor's art.
The bronze statuettes of Sardinia still have the power to grip
and enthrall us today. They regard us with expressions of vitality
and taut attention, unique and incomparable figurines whose lonely
beauty is 2,800 years old, yet immediate in its appeal and, in a
mysterious and inexplicable way, almost uncannily modern.
SARDINIA
A PRE-CHRISTIAN MADONNA
At the head of the nuraghi pantheon stood the Great Goddess.
All figurative representations of her hark back to fertility and to
water. She is portrayed sometimes with a basket of fruit on her
head, sometirnes embracing a child; so7neti?iies, again, holding a
jug on her head, and someti7nes nursing the lifeless figure of a
young god, slain by some hostile power, on her lap. The goddess
reigns eternally over the birth and growth of all creatures, over
the fertility of the soil, the sanctity of water and the eternal
renewal of a lavish but inexhaustible Nature.
—Christian Zervos, La Civilisation de la Sardaigne,
Paris, 1954
THE mountain, the spring and the tree were the first natural features
to be associated with the holy places of the earth. Rehgion must
have played a very large part in the lives of the Sardinians as early
as 2000 B.C. or even earlier, for archaeologists have found the re-
mains of cult sites all over the island. These holy places, the great
majority of which were probably open to the sky, were situated
on cliffs or high ground, beside springs and in woods. The altars
stood on mountaintops, on hills or in caves, always close to a source
of running water, the symbol of fertility. The holy mountain, the
nearness to God, the "high places"— these are ideas which human
beings have brought with them from the earliest paleolithic times,
via hundreds of thousands of years of prehistory, into our own
historical epoch.
The "cosmic mountain" is an age-old Mesopotamian idea. The
Altaic peoples believed for many thousands of years that certain
trees and poles led upward to the supreme being, that they repre-
sented the center of the earth and that the Pole Star stood above
them. The Greeks rediscovered the cosmic mountain in Olympus,
the men of the Old Testament in their Mount Sinai. Tall mountains
whose summits pierced the clouds were held to be the abode of
the gods in ancient China, Japan, Finland, Crete, Phoenicia and the
entire Mediterranean area. The Tower of Babel and the ziggurats
of Mesopotamia were nothing other than symbols of the cosmic
mountain. The early inhabitants of Sardinia or paleo-Sardinians also
dwelled in a world of ideas which was dominated by the sanctity of
95
96 THE SILENT PAST
prominent natural features, and, believing in the religio-magical
power which emanated from high places, they sited their sanctuaries
on remote hills or mountains. The sanctuary of Alazzani stands
nearly 2,300 feet up in the Villacidro mountains, Santa Vittoria de
Serri at almost 2,000 feet, Santa Lulla d'Orune at 1,600. All these
sites have a fountain or spring close at hand, just as did the Acropolis
at Athens, whose spring has only recently been found. Christian
Zervos, the distinguished French authority on Sardinian culture,
does not think that the spring, fountain or pool played so important
a role on the island merely because of the scarcity and consequent
importance of fresh water. Resurrection via water, emergence from
water and water as a fructifying force are all ideas in which
humanity has believed from time immemorial, ideas which have
found their culmination in the baptism of the Christian religion.
Some springs on the island of Sardinia are said to cure eye diseases,
and in the region of Mongolia known as Barga, far away in east
Asia, I have personally visited a spring which, so the nomads believe,
can give sight to the blind and make cripples walk. Thousands of
pilgrims had stuck their crutches in the ground or hung their
spectacles on branches in token of their recovery.
It is certainly apparent that there were open-air temples in
Sardinia at a very early period. By the very beginning of the
nuraghi era, in the eleventh and tenth centuries b.c, the Sardinians
were already laying out sanctuaries whose central or focal point
was a healing spring or source of water. Examples of such places are
Sardara, Mazzani, Rebeccu, Lorana and Mills. The sacred water
was enclosed by stone walls or rings, and paths paved with blocks
of stone led to the inner sanctum. Standing on the heights of
Santa Vittoria de Serri and looking down from that mountain
fortress on the landscape beneath, one can sense the air of tranquillity
and of sanctity that pervades the place. Serri, which was excavated
by the archaeologist Taramelli between 1909 and 1929, gives us
some idea of the exalted significance which must have invested such
a spot in 600 b.c. At the center of the sanctuary one can see the
circular spring shaft and descend the ancient stone steps into its
cool depths. Above, one can still make out the stone blocks of the
enclosing walls. Everything is in ruins, but it is suddenly borne in
on one what great religious significance the water from such a
spring must once have possessed.
LoiM ad dale fid
Sardinia
98 THE SILENT PAST
Is there any chance of learning more about the religion of the
Old Sardinians? Their mythology will always remain a closed
book to us, but the nuraghe bronze statuettes, those enigmatic
manifestations of an extinct way of life, may yet reveal something.
They are, at all events, unusual testimony to a vanished religion.
The large, heavy-lidded eyes and delicate construction of these
little figures tell us of a people whose art is unique in the West.
Sardinian art is an unwritten book which discloses to us the whole
of the island's ancient religious hierarchy. This included senior
priests, male acolytes of the cult and even musicians. Senior priests
wore a close-fitting garment that fell to the thigh and a cloak thrown
over one shoulder. They carried a staff or emblem of office in the
left hand. Zervos conjectures that tribal chieftains of the nuraghe
period also acted as the highest earthly representatives of the nuraghe
religion.
Priestesses occupied a very important position. In this respect,
the island of Sardinia appears to be one link in a chain that goes
back thirty or forty thousand years. The earliest figurative por-
trayals in the world, the Venus statuettes of the paleolithic age
which have been found throughout Europe, are presumed to be
goddesses of fertility, and the portrayals of the goddesses and
priestesses of ancient Sardinia are their latter-day descendants. In
so far as we can understand the Nuraghians' religion and look back
into the mists of prehistory, the first idea we meet is always that
of the Magna Mater, or great mother, and her fertility cult. The
tall basalt statuettes of Macomer are mother-goddesses of this nature.
Marble idols which portray female symbols have been found at
Porto Ferro and in the environs of Senorbi. Rarely has the religious
conception of a female deity survived in a simpler, more consistent
or magnificent form than it has here. From the first wave of Asiatic
immigration to the centuries preceding the Christian era and the
period of Roman domination, this Stone-Age "Madonna idea"
retained its essential vitality. The Sardinians may have learned
the Romans' language (the inhabitants of central Sardinia are,
incidentally, the only people in the world to have preserved it to
this day) but they rejected their religion and their gods.
The islanders began to portray their deities at a very early date,
the earliest such portrayals being long stones three or four feet
high and half buried in the ground. As time passed, these stones were
SARDINIA 99
given human form, and the ancient Sardinians were already portray-
ing divine figures before the introduction of bronze casting. Three of
the Perdas Marmuradas of Tamuli, some vertical stones standing
near Macomer, betray female characteristics, but the remainder do
not. From this it can be deduced that the stones represent male and
female deities. That the Bronze-Age art which later drew on these
early religious ideas reached the remarkable heights it did, is
attributable to the fact that its exponents were constantly searching
for the mainsprings of life and faith. Unique examples of creative
artistry, Sardinia's bronze statuettes first appeared about looo B.C.
and reached a peak of perfection in the eighth century B.C., which
means that the men who made them were contemporaries of
Homer, the world's greatest epic poet. Bronzes are still found from
the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., but Phoenician conquest and
Punic colonization ultimately brought their manufacture to an end.
The statuettes portraying priestesses clearly show what their role
must have been. Shrouded in cloaks, they hold a bowl— probably
containing drink offerings or consecrated water— in their left hand.
The great significance of springwater in the Sardinians' religious
cult is reflected in the senior status of these priestesses. Solemn,
serious, distant and contemplative, the little figures stand in their
showcases in Cagliari Museum and gaze into eternity.
The bronze statuettes also tell us that sacrifice was performed
by male priests. One figure, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale at
Paris, represents a man carrying sacrificial animals in a satchel.
Cagliari Museum displays figures of other sacrificial priests, some
carrying goats or jugs on their backs or holding consecrated rope
in their hands. One priestly figure, only just over five inches high,
has its right hand raised to shoulder height in supplication. Indeed,
it seems to have been a general practice among the Nuraghians
to pray with the right hand raised and palm facing forward.
As in the Minoan culture of Crete and in other parts of the
eastern Mediterranean, religious festivals were accompanied by
games and dances performed to music. The musicians of ancient
Sardinia are portrayed with haunting realism, beating tambourines
and blowing horns in a state of orgiastic ecstasy. Religious festivals,
it should be remembered, were also fertility rites.
Like the inhabitants of Mari on the central Euphrates, the be-
lievers of 2,500 or 3,000 years ago used to set up statuettes of their
100 THE SILENT PAST
deities in the temples and pray to them, believing that these tangible
embodiments of the divine would receive their prayers with
benevolence. Had the incomparable Bronze-Age culture of the
Nuraghians not been sustained by these religious ideas it would
never have attained such an artistic zenith. The fruit of this transla-
tion of faith into bronze represents an expenditure of spiritual and
creative energy which would not otherwise have been possible.
Some statuettes were mounted on blocks of stone and others on
bronze spits or pins, the lower ends of which were stuck into
metal blocks or pierced stones. The supposition that these strange
attachments had a rehgious purpose is reinforced by their length,
their remarkable thinness and their fragility. Apart from that, many
pins were found on stone benches in the vicinity of altars, some-
times mounted in groups of three and possibly symbolizing a trinity
composed of the earth-mother and two male beings associated
with her.
The Nuraghians' bronzes attained a peak of perfection in their
portrayals of the goddess and her son. One such statuette reposes
in the National Archaeological Museum at Cagliari. The divine
mother's features express deep sorrow, and her son, whom she is
cradling in her left arm, is unmistakably dead. This bronze, which
was dug up in the neighborhood of Urzulei, is only four inches
tall. Another statuette of the mother-goddess and the young god
was found at Santa Vittoria de Serri and also stands four inches
high. The woman has her right hand raised as though in blessing.
Her lips are twisted with grief and her eyes swollen from weeping.
A third bronze, this time four and a half inches high, gives the
mother an expression of such sympathy and the son a face so
deathly calm that no one who sees the piece can escape its dramatic
impact. The same museum possesses a highly stylized mother-
goddess in marble dating from long before the Bronze Age. Over
sixteen inches tall, this figurine was dug up at Senorbi and takes
the shape of a simple cross, the cross of an age which lies well
over three thousand years in the past. It could well serve as an
example to many of our modern sculptors.
Evidence of many centuries of faith and suffering, conflict and
daily toil has been found on the island, captured forever in bronze.
Archaeologists have unearthed casting molds and discovered complete
treasuries. Some of these depots contained whole or fragmentary
SARDINIA loi
copper ingots, others double- or single-edged axes and still others
blocks of metal and various objects in bronze. Seven hundred and
fifty pieces were dug up at the Abini depot and no less than 1,976
pieces at that of Portotorres. Repositories of votive offerings and
religious objects were normally found near springs and pools which
were probably cult sites. Other smelters' and bronze workers' stores
contained no jewelry or bronze figures; only tools, weapons, casting
molds and fragments of objects which were obviously destined for
recasting.
Of particular interest are the copper ingots which were used
for bartering purposes. These copper plates were mad^ in the shape
of cowhides and stamped with ancient Cretan characters of the
Linear B type. Since pecus means "cattle" in Latin, and pecimia
was the Romans' word for "money," the Sardinians' hide-shaped
copper plates are far closer to the Latin expression than is the
thought that hide was once used as a medium of exchange in
ancient Rome. The Sardinians were a peaceful, hard-working,
domestic-minded people, as we can see from relics of their livestock,
their agriculture and the countless appurtenances of their many-
sided daily life.
A total of between four and five hundred bronze statuettes has
been found so far, and fresh treasures are being brought to light
every day. The value of a single nuraghe statuette is impossible to
assess because its irreplaceability renders it literally priceless. Such
pieces are the material expression of a race whose considerable pride,
high morality and deep religious faith are still mirrored today in
the faces of Sardinian women as they emerge from Sunday service
in their superb peasant costumes.
GREECE
LINEAR B
Among all the records known to us there is mention of only a
single royal family strong and rich enough to play the role re-
quired to fit into the palace that frames the scene at Englianos.
That is of course the family of the Neleids. Neleus, an invader from
Thessaly, was the founder of the dynasty Nestor, sole survivor
of Neleus^ twelve sons, inherited the throne and through ^^three
generations of me7i" he ruled over a realm of nine cities. It is most
likely that he, too, was a builder, adding perhaps the second of the
large units of the palace, if not more. As the intimate associate,
adviser and trusted friend of Agame?nnon he won fame and uni-
versal respect in the expedition against Troy. Nestor returned from
the war and continued to reign at Pylos where ten years later he
received the visit of Telemachus.
—Carl W. Blegen, ''The Palace of Nestor,"
American Journal of Archaeology,
April, i960, p. 159
THE ruins of the most famous citadel in ancient Greece lie only
900 feet above sea level, but the history of the place has provided
an inexhaustible source of material for the poets, dramatists and
artists of Western civilization as a whole. No family ever afforded
the tragedians and playwrights of Europe more themes than the
lords of the citadel of Mycenae. It was Agamemnon, king of this
city-state, who mustered the tribes of Greece and sailed against
Paris, the Trojan prince who had abducted Helen, the wife of his
brother Menelaus.
Mycenae stands on the Peloponnesian peninsula, which the earliest
Greeks looked upon as an island. The place was named after one
of Agamemnon's ancestors and means literally "Pelops-island." The
Iliad paints Agamemnon as the principal antagonist of Acliilles,
whose fury forms the basic theme of the poem. Homer sang this
epic in the eighth century b.c, but the golden age of Mycenae lasted
from 1400 to 1 150, and the battles that raged around Troy occurred
in the ten years between 1 194 and 1 184. It was these centuries which
saw the building of the great ramparts and Lion Gate of Mycenae,
the palace, the huge tomb and the Treasury of Atreus, who was
probably the king responsible for planning these architectural
marvels.
GREECE 103
As we all know, Heinrich Schliemann accepted the historical
authenticity of Homer's accounts and proceeded to find tangible
evidence of them by unearthing Troy not far from the entrance
to the Dardanelles in modern Turkey, as well as Tiryns and Mycenae
in the Peloponnesus. Beside the remains of seventeen bodies, Schlie-
mann found a hoard of golden objects which weighed nearly thirty
pounds and are now displayed in the National Museum at Athens.
His discovery unleashed a spate of archaeological research into
periods of Greek history which antedated Homer by many centuries.
Agamemnon's citadel has given its name to the whole Greek way
of life in the second millennium b.c. The most important sites of
this pre-Homeric "Mycenaean" culture so far discovered are the
fortresses of Mycenae and Tiryns, the ruins of Pylos and the palaces
on the island of Crete.
Arthur John Evans, later Sir Arthur Evans, was born at Nash
Mills in England in the year 185 1. He studied at Oxford and
Gottingen, traveled extensively in Finland, Lapland and the Balkans,
and was arrested by the Austrians in 1882 on suspicion of having
taken part in an uprising in Dalmatia. In 1893 Evans began to dig
on the island of Crete, and, by unearthing the palace of Knossos,
bequeathed us our knowledge of the splendid Minoan culture, which
represents the earliest advanced civilization on European soil. Evans
was knighted in 191 1 and died, an internationally respected figure,
at the age of ninety, in 1941, just in time to miss the news that
the Germans had landed on his beloved island and that the German
General Staff had chosen to take up its quarters in, of all places,
his Villa Ariadne near Knossos.
The palaces of Crete were built at two separate periods, and
each period ended in their almost total destruction. The first or
"great" palaces came into being in Knossos, Phaistos and Malia
about 2000 B.C. These famous buildings were destroyed after several
centuries, and it seems likely that the first golden age of Cretan
architecture ended in 1700 b.c. In about 1600 b.c. new palaces began
to go up, though the period is principally famous for the "mansions"
or personal residences of senior officials who probably performed
governmental and religious duties. Then, between 1525 and 1520 b.c,
a catastrophe occurred whose cause remains an enigma to this day.
The mansions and the newly built palaces were, to all appearances,
violently and suddenly destroyed. No one knows whether this
ro4 THE SILENT PAST
devastation was caused by foreign invaders or by some natural
agency. Archaeologists, historians and scientists have put forward
many theories to explain the mystery, but none of them has settled
the question beyond dispute.
Just over sixty miles north of Crete lies a small horseshoe-shaped
island known in the ancient world as Thera and in the Middle Ages
as Santorin, after its patron saint Santa Irini. About the middle of
the second millennium b.c. a major volcanic eruption destroyed all
organic life there. Basing his conclusions on the ceramics of Knossos
and the fresco styles and mirror imprints in the palace there, the
Greek archaeologist Marinatos dates this upheaval at somewhere
between 1550 and 1500 b.c. The eruption coated the slopes of the
Elias Range on Thera with a layer of lava two hundred feet thick
in places. Under a similar layer on the south coast of the small
neighboring island of Therasia were found the remains of a Minoan
settlement dating from between 1800 and 1500 b.c. The eruption
was so immense that the whole of the volcanic cone caved in and
seawater gushed into the crater.
Marinatos postulates that the eruption also produced enormous
tidal waves which caused widespread devastation along the coasts of
Crete. He believes that the outbreak on Thera was four times as
great as the one which killed 36,000 people on Krakatoa in the Dutch
East Indies in 1887, and calculates that there were "83 square kilo-
meters of devastated and sunken land on Thera as opposed to 23
square kilometers on Krakatoa."
The same period also saw the destruction of palaces built in the
Cretan interior during the second architectural phase. Marinatos
admits that places like Knossos, Phaistos, Hagia Triada, Tylissos
and Sklavocampos could not have been directly affected by the
tidal wave, but suggests that major earthquakes may have followed
the Thera eruption, causing fire and destruction among the build-
ings of Crete itself. Crete is, incidentally, severely shaken by three
or four earthquakes each century.
The third possibility is that the fire and devastation were caused
by some human agency, namely an invasion by mainland Greeks.
So much survived the holocaust that the island continued to throb
with life for another hundred years, until, about 1400 b.c, the
civilization began to wane and eventually all but disappeared.
The three types of writing that have been found in Crete include
GREECE
105-
a very ancient picture script as well as the two linear scripts which,
Evans christened Linear A and Linear B. The earliest or hieroglyphic
script was used between 2000 and 1750 b.c. and consisted of picto-
grams such as heads, hands, stars and arrows. Between 1750 and
1450 these pictorial symbols were simphfied into the linear script
which Evans called Linear A. This script has been found at many
places in the island of Crete, and one palace a few miles from.
Phaistos yielded no less than 150 clay tablets inscribed with it. The
site, whose ancient name is unknown, is now called Hagia Triada
after a chapel in the vicinity. It was early recognized, long before
anyone had deciphered Linear A, that these clay tablets were in-
scribed with lists of agricultural products.
Outside Crete, Linear A has been found on the island of Melos
and, in fragmentary texts, in Mycenae and Cyprus.
At some point in time— probably about 1400 B.C.— Linear A was
superseded by a new form of writing which Evans designated as
Linear B. It is noteworthy that in Crete itself Linear B was found on
A clay tablet inscribed
with Linear A characters
from the palace of Pylos.
Original tablets have been
photographed and traced
so as to produce accurate
line drawings like this
one. The fragment illus-
trated here is only one-
third smaller than the
original. Most tablets
were only inscribed on
one side, and fine lines
were drawn between the
separate rows of char-
acters. The writing runs
from left to right.
io6 THE SILENT PAST
only three or four thousand tablets in the palace at Knossos. The
explanation may be that clay tablets survive for thousands of years
only if they are baked hard. But the Minoans dried their tablets in
the sun, and sun- or air-dried tablets are not hard enough to with-
stand the effects of the passage of three thousand years or more.
Since the palace of Knossos suffered several great conflagrations the
clay tablets there were baked to the consistency of stone. None of
this, however, explains why Evans found such a quantity of Linear B
tablets only at Knossos. Other palaces also went up in flames and
any Linear B tablets which happened to be on the premises would
likewise have been hardened and preserved, so the burning of
Knossos does not alone account for the fact that the large majority
of Linear B tablets were found at this one spot.
Perhaps we shall come nearer the truth if, like the men who
eventually solved the problem, we ask ourselves whether there
could have been a special reason why the strange script was used
exclusively in the palace at Knossos. In order to answer that ques-
tion, it is essential to know what language Linear B was devised to
express. What was written on the clay tablets, and was there any
means of deciphering them?
Many scholars strove to solve the enigma, putting forward the
most audacious theories. Some attempted to find a solution in the
ancient scripts of Egypt, the Hittites or the Indus Valley, while
others compared the unintelligible symbols with Phoenician or
Etruscan texts. But still the tablets refused to yield their secret.
Then Professor Carl Blegen of Cincinnati University set out to
find and excavate the palace of Nestor, the ancient Greek warrior-
king whose advice is repeatedly sought by his fellow countrymen
in Homer's Iliad. Like Schliemann, Blegen proceeded on the assump-
tion that the Homeric figures must have been historical. Homer
tells us that Nestor lived in the citadel of Pylos, but no trace of the
palace could be found on the site of the present port of that name.
In 1939 Blegen began, in conjunction with the Greek archaeologist
Kourouniotis, to dig at a place called Epano Englianos in Messenia
on the southwest side of the Peloponnesus, nearly ten miles north of
modern Pylos. During his first year's work there he discovered six
hundred clay tablets bearing the same Linear B script which had
been found far away in the palace of Knossos on Crete. The Pylos
tablets date from a period later than 1300 B.C. Tablets with Linear B
GREECE
107
The Aegean area
inscriptions were also found in the citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns.
Of these the so-called "spice tablets" found by Wace in 1954 in
the House of the Wine Merchant at Mycenae are of especial in-
terest. These listed varying quantities of spices such as might have
been sold to individual customers, including red and white safflower,
caraway, sesame, coriander, mint, fennel and a medicinal plant
called polei.
io8 THE SILENT PAST
It was known, therefore, that a mysterious script already existed
in Greece about 1300 b.c, long before the Greeks adopted their
more familiar alphabet from the Phoenicians at about the time of
the first Olympic Games in 776 b.c. and began to record their own
history.
Since clay tablets inscribed with Linear B had been found at
three places in the Peloponnesus and since on Crete examples of
similarly inscribed tablets had been discovered only in the palace at
Knossos, it seemed natural to suppose that the script had been
brought to the Cretan palace from Greece, either by visiting
sailors or by invaders. This, however, was most improbable since
the Knossos tablets were a hundred years older than the first
examples of such tablets found in Greece.
Or are we so sure? Is it possible that Evans and his collaborator
Mackenzie dated the Knossos strata inaccurately and that Knossos
was destroyed a hundred years or more after 1400?
A third theory also seems possible. This holds that after the
widespread devastation of Crete, Knossos was occupied by Achaeans
—that is to say, Greeks of the second millennium e.g.— who ordered
the palace scribes to adapt the Cretan script to the Greek language.
If it seems odd that the Greeks should have gone to Crete for their
script when others were available, Ave must remember that the
cuneiform script of Mesopotamia required a knowledge of about
300 symbols and that anyone who wanted to read and write
Egyptian hieroglyphs had to master at least 350. Linear B, on the
other hand, comprised only 80 syllabic symbols and a few abbrevia-
tions. It was a kind of shorthand, and particularly suitable for com-
mercial transactions, bookkeeping and inventories.
So the palace scribes of Knossos modified Linear A into Linear B,
and it was then introduced into Greece, though only for the lords
and masters of great palaces and fortresses such as those at Pylos,
Mycenae, Tiryns and Thebes. Evans himself had noticed that
several cups in the Palace of Cadmus at Thebes bore similar pre-
Hellenic symbols and assumed that during the pre-Hellenic period
the same language was spoken there as in Crete— though precisely
what language no one yet knew.
Blegen's excavations at Pylos had yielded great scientific dividends.
So many clay tablets in Linear B were now available that there
were far more opportunities for comparative study than before.
GREECE 109
However, the characters had been scratched on the clay by many
different hands and exhibited countless slight variations. The de-
ciphering of a modern secret code would have presented less
difficulty because the expert at least knows what language it dis-
guises, whereas with Linear B neither script nor language was
known.
In 1952 Michael Ventris, an Englishman, succeeded in identifying
a number of the mysterious symbols and realized that the language
behind Linear B was Greek. Ventris was an architect, not a philol-
ogist, but he carefully established contact with all the scholars
who had studied the problem hitherto. He was one of the first to
gain access to the clay tablets of Pylos, he had complete command
of the Greek language, and he possessed imagination and ingenuity.
Above all, he found an experienced adviser in John Chadwick, the
Cambridge philologist who collaborated so effectively in the young
architect's publications and— a most important point— provided the
requisite scientific pull.
For years beforehand, Ventris had mistakenly assumed that the
language disguised by the mysterious symbols was that of the
Etruscans, and this had put him off the track. It was now known,
however, that what lay behind the clay tablets not only of Pylos,
Tiryns and Mycenae but also of Knossos was an ancient form of
Greek, and in the course of the intervening years all the characters
have been identified. It is a truly remarkable scientific achievement
and one, moreover, in which many scholars have collaborated,
notably the Americans Alice Kober and Emmett L. Bennett (the
leading authority on Linear B), A. Furumark of Sweden, Chantraine
and Lejeune of France, Ernst Sittig and Hans Stoltenberg of Ger-
many, Fritz Schachermeyr of Austria, B. R. Palmer, E. G. Turner
and A. P. Treweek of Great Britain, P. Meriggi, V. Pisani and
C. Cappovilla of Italy and K. Ktistopoulos of Greece.
Professor Fritz Schachermeyr, the Austrian authority on ancient
history, has recently explained in an extremely interesting paper
why Linear B texts are not easy to understand even now that the
script in which they are written has been deciphered. The tablets
of Knossos and Pylos contain virtually nothing but inventories and
book entries designed to help administrators keep their accounts.
Just as many a modern businessman's jottings can only be under-
stood by people with specialized commercial training, so the mean-
no THE SILENT PAST
ing of the clay tablets must remain partially obscure because they
were only an aide-?nemoire containing commercial terms which
would have seemed quite unexceptional to literate businessmen of
the time. Schachermeyr describes the Greek language of the Linear
B texts as a "language of bookkeepers and specialists." He assumes
not that Linear B was commissioned by the Greeks but that, as a
variant of Linear A, it was already used for an ancient Cretan lan-
guage and was subsequently adapted for Greek. As we have already
seen, the finds at Knossos do not permit us to date the origins of
Linear B with any accuracy.
The tablets contain particulars of herds of rams and ewes, he-
goats and she-goats, wild boar, bulls and cows. Bronzesmiths are
mentioned by name, together with the weight of the metal they
worked in. We find inventories of tableware, furniture, utensils of
all kinds, wine and many types of foodstuffs, memoranda on war
chariots, entries deaUng with sales and purchases of male and fe-
male slaves. The Pylos tablets even record the quantities of oil and
scent used by two groups of royal servingmen and serving-women.
History invariably begins with writing. The knowledge that the
Greek language could be recorded in writing as early as 1400 b.c.
has pushed back the frontiers of Greek history by six hundred years;
from Homer, as it were, to Nestor and the men who constructed
the fabulous fortresses and palaces at Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos.
And so there unfolds before us a remarkably colorful and lively
picture of people whose existence we could only guess at, until
recently, from the mute ruins of their buildings and the relics of
their art.
GREECE
LIFE IN THE MYCENAEAN AGE
/ should like to say that I believe Agamenmon to have been a
historical character who flourished at Mycenae about 1200 b.c.
—Alan J. B. Wage, Mycenae,
p. I, Princeton, N.J., 1949
IT IS always fascinating to explore a people's origins, even though
we can rarely see very far into the depths of prehistory.
The Greeks are an Indo-European race. Before their arrival,
Greece was inhabited by quite a different people, a pre-Indo-Euro-
pean population classified by ethnologists as Aegean. The Aegeans
were resident not only in Greece but in the islands of the eastern
Mediterranean, in Crete and southwest Asia Minor. The later Greeks
called the original population Leleges, Carians and Pelasgi.
We know that an Indo-European race migrated to the territories
and islands of the Aegean because there is evidence that the whole of
southern Europe was swept by an influx of Indo-Europeans. The
Greek language is the end product of a development in age-old
Indo-European tongues and originated in the great plains that
stretch between Poland and Turkestan. Greek also contains many
relics of pre-Greek language. For example, place names ending in
nthos and ssos are un-Indo-European and cannot be reconciled with
Greek linguistic conventions. Many names for plants, rivers, moun-
tains and islands were obviously adopted by the Greeks from the
aboriginal population.
Crete was a repository of "Aegeandom." The Minoan language
hails from the Aegean world and the texts written in the ancient
Cretan script known as Linear A seem to have been composed in that
tongue, although it is also possible a Semitic language was employed.
We also know from Homer's Odyssey that Crete was inhabited by
"true Cretans, Sidonians, Dorians and Pelasgians." It is almost cer-
tain that the Pelasgians spoke a "barbaric" or non-Greek language,
as we are told by Herodotus.
Towns and the concept of urban life were introduced into Greece
between 3200 and 2500 b.c, imported from the East by the Aegean
pioneering spirit, and because the idea of the city took root in the
Aegean domain, Crete became the first advanced civilization in
112 THE SILENT PAST
Europe. Fritz Schachermeyr has demonstrated that the Hellenic
polis or city-state, that foremost cultural and political achievement
of the ancient world, was based on the early penetration of Greece
by the Aegeans' city idea. The Greek talent for sculpture, the genre
portrayal which reached perfection on Greek vases, and many other
fundamental ideas— notably that of the heroine in Greek myth— all
these things sprang from sources that originated in the dawn of the
Aegean age.
Those who visit Greece should, therefore, remember that at the
back of Greek culture and the Greek people stands the ancient spirit
of Aegeandom.
The first Greek migration took place between 2000 and 1900 b.c.
and came from the north. It is interesting to examine the surviving
skulls of people who lived in the early dawn of Greek history.
Twenty-seven skulls found at Asine and dating from between 1900
and 1580 B.C. prove that the population there was a mixture of
Aegean and Indo-European. Twenty-one skulls were dug up at
Kalkani in a burial place almost 4,000 years old. The men belonged
to the Indo-European race, the women to the Aegean, so anthropol-
ogy, too, confirms that a mingHng of two racial groups was tak-
ing place. Presumably the Greek immigrants took native-born
wives, a common practice in eras of conquest.
We do not know if Agamemnon, Odysseus, Telemachus or Nestor
could read and write, but the clay tablets written in Linear B and
dating from between 1300 and iioo e.g. found by Professor Blegen
at Pylos and Professor Wace at Mycenae make it probable that
Nestor did, in fact, sit in his palace at Pylos and read his stewards'
reports. The same may go for Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. At all
events, the Homeric heroes were Greek in language, religion and
way of life, and it is becoming ever clearer that they were historical
figures who lived in a sort of Viking epoch distinguished for its
long voyages and seaborne raids, its love of adventure and thirst for
booty. By the time the great age of the Mycenaean heroes began and
the massive domed grave— the Treasury of Atreus— and the Lion
Gate were built at Mycenae, about 1350 e.g., the burgeoning strength
•of that seat of power had already made itself felt throughout the
eastern Mediterranean.
Shortly before this, about 1400 B.C., the palaces of Knossos col-
lapsed in ruins for the last time. This third and final destruction of
Crete
iVIinoan culture was, in the opinion of many scholars, the work of
Greeks. No nation senses the waning of its strength, of its intellectual
interests or of its art while it still survives, but in retrospect we
know that about 1400 b.c. Crete began to lose its vitahty and crea-
tive energy, whereas the Peloponnesus was witnessing the birth of
magnificent and richly appointed palaces destined for the rulers of
Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns and Orchomenos. The relationship between
the Greeks' Mycenaean culture and the Cretans' Minoan culture is
by no means as obvious as is generally supposed. The whole of the
pre-Homeric way of life has taken its name from the citadel of
Mycenae because Schliemann discovered six shaft graves there in
1876, royal graves unopened since the sixteenth century b.c. and
containing the now celebrated hoard of gold vessels and funerary
gifts. It is assumed that the nine men, eight women and two children
buried there were members of a great ruling dynasty, for five of
the men wore golden masks. Wace, who followed Schliemann's
example by unearthing large areas of Mycenae, inquires on page 1 14
of his book Mycenae, published in 1949, as to the real source of this
fortified city's wealth. Why was it so powerful, large and prosperous
that Homer himself extolled its wealth? The countryside around
Mycenae is not overabundantly endowed with agricultural products.
On the other hand, not far north of Mycenae, in the vicinity of
Nemea, an old copper mine has been discovered. Wace thinks that
the Argive Hills behind Mycenae have not yet been explored suffi-
ciently and that it is possible that they conceal other ancient copper
mines which were exploited by the lords of Mycenae. Copper, one
need hardly add, was an excellent basis for power and wealth during
114 THE SILENT PAST
the Bronze Age. The gold that was found at Mycenae undoubtedly
came from far away, for Argolis itself possessed none.
Did the Greeks carry their Mycenaean culture to Crete or did
they, as it were, import elements of culture from that island? There
is even a vague possibility that the Cretans themselves brought their
art and way of life to Greece.
Most authorities now assume that the Greeks adopted Minoan
culture as a result of raids, wars and commercial dealings with the
island. It is known that a refined way of life always held a con-
siderable attraction for Indo-Europeans and that, in general, a high
standard of living has always been the magic door at which races
with harder beds and ruder customs one day come knocking.
In the opinion of the late Sir Arthur Evans, the distinguished
British archaeologist who excavated Knossos, it was the Minoans
themselves who carried their cultural assets northward to Greece.
If, however, the Minoans had really crossed from Crete to the main-
land, colonized the Peloponnesus and introduced Minoan culture
into the peninsula, the palaces of the early Greeks would probably
have been more labyrinthine in character, like that of Knossos, and
would not have exhibited the clean-cut outlines of Pylos and Tiryns.
Many things are common to both the Minoan and Mycenaean
cultures: brightly painted murals and vases, the secondary role of
sculpture, ivory carvings, long sea voyages, and a pleasure-loving and
wealthy aristocracy.
It is probably nearer the truth to assume that, while Greece was
permeated by the culture of ancient Crete, the Greeks themselves
brought a great many things with them when they migrated from
the north. All these things differentiate their culture from that of
Crete. For example, they brought their mode of dress with them.
Warriors and hunters wore the short-sleeved chiton or brief shirt,
and women depicted driving a wagon in a wall painting at Tiryns
are similarly dressed. Cretan costumes, on the other hand, were
much more elaborate and much more finely and artistically made.
The fibula or safety pin did not exist in Crete, whereas the Greeks
used it widely, as witness the fact that fourteen examples of this
type of pin were found at Mycenae, four at Thebes, one at Tiryns
and several at various other pre-Homeric sites. Amber, too, was very
probably brought from the north by the Greeks: in Crete it was a
rarity. The horse was known in Greece far earlier than in Crete.
GREECE 115
A^ycenaean graves yielded numerous female statuettes, iMinoan
graves very few. Wars were conducted on the mainland, hence the
fortresses and citadels there, strongholds so stoutly built that only
starvation could reduce them; life in Crete was far more peaceable.
It was from the north that the Greeks brousfht the idea of the
megaron, the main hall found in large houses of the second millen-
nium B.C., a throne room heated by a fire burning in a central hearth.
(The term viegaron is derived from the Greek word ?negas, mean-
ing "large.")
Almost all the early Indo-European religions have the same su-
preme deity, a being known to Indians, Greeks, lUyrians and Romans
alike as Dyaus, Zeus, Jovis and similar variants. The Romans' Jupiter
was derived from the additional title "father" which both the In-
dians and Greeks appended in very early times to the original name,
making Dyaus pitar. This ancient tradition also gave rise to the idea
of the tribal father or patriarch, a feature of the social order among
all Indo-European peoples. Also associated with this was the cult of
the hearth, the sanctity of which was a conception hailing from pre-
Greek times. Anyone who inspects the fireplace in one of the
Mycenaean palaces will grasp the profound relationship between
paterfamilias, God and hearth, symbolized in these ruins by the
proximity of the throne to the large circular fireplace.
During their golden age— between, say, the building of the old
palaces about 2000 b.c. and the decline of their civilization about
1400 B.C.— the Cretans lived a life of almost unimaginable luxury.
The palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, Hagia Triada and Aiallia, the
family seats and villas, the amazing frescoes, the cups, bowls, jugs
and vessels with their splendid, inimitable colors, all bear witness
to what were probably the most cultivated tastes of the age.
It is also worthy of note that in ancient Cretan society the woman's
status equaled that of man and that her appearance was enhanced by
clothing, jewelry and various beauty treatments to a degree unrivaled
until the present day. It is no coincidence that a fragment from a
circa 1500 b.c. fresco in the six-pillared chamber of state in the
west wing of the palace at Knossos has been christened "the Pari-
sienne." It depicts the head of a woman with large dark eyes, long
braided hair falling to her shoulders, a red-tinted mouth and very
elegant clothes. Cretan women's dresses create such a modern
impression that they might well have originated in our own day.
ii6 THE SILENT PAST
Skirts varied according to the prevailing fashion. Sometimes bell-
shaped skirts were in vogue, sometimes crinolines, sometimes the
Cretan version of the "princess line." Waists were invariably slim
and tightly laced. Clothes were always sewn, never pinned, draped
or held by clasps as were those of Greek women. The Cretans of
3,500 years ago lived in an age of haute couture and must have kept
a veritable army of professional dressmakers fully occupied. They
also lived in an age which boasted fine cosmetics, perfumes and hair
preparations. On Mochlos archaeologists even found tweezers for
plucking out superfluous hair!
The subterranean treasure chambers in the central sanctum of the
palace at Knossos have yielded a female statuette in faience. This
small figure, which dates from between 1600 and 1580 b.c. and is
only eleven and a half inches tall, portrays a girl holding a snake
in either hand. A talented modern fashion designer might find it a
rich source of inspiration. Minoan tiaras, earrings, necklaces, brace-
lets, pendants and rings all display the most intricate workmanship.
One is continually struck by the white skin and lustrous dark eyes
and hair of the Cretan women. It is noteworthy that they left their
breasts uncovered, and that one of the frescoes at Tiryns also shows
a lady-in-waiting with her breasts exposed by a short jacket.
We can tell from murals, statuettes and the famous Poros sar-
cophagus, which was found in a burial chamber near the palace at
Hagia Triada, that Cretan women were extremely graceful in their
movements. The same conclusion can be drawn from our knowledge
of the acrobatic "bullfights"— probably a form of sacred cult—
in which young girls were obliged to participate. In these, female
acrobats used to seize a charging bull by the horns, vault onto its
back and then leap off. Slave girls were probably schooled from a
very early age in this technique, which presents so much danger and
difficulty that it has not since been imitated in any other country
or period.
Women set the tone in Minoan society. They attended religious
festivals and games unescorted. They were dancers, priestesses and
spectators. They played a predominant role at all religious functions,
and it seems likely that the fervent, indeed passionate, character of
Cretan religion stemmed from feminine influence.
We are ignorant of the true nature of the Cretan faith. We only
know that there were no temples in Crete and that holy places con-
GREECE 117
sisted of caves, sacred groves and mountains. Important religious
rites were conducted in the royal palace, as evidenced by the altars,
sacrificial tables, shelves, rhytons and sacrificial jugs which have
been found there. The king himself was also a priest. Sacred emblems
included the tree, the pillar and the snake, but the symbol of the
double-edged ax and the horns has never yet been explained satis-
factorily. Crete also had a Mistress of Animals, a goddess whose
origins lie deep in European prehistory.
Since the Linear B tablets of Knossos, Pylos, Mycenae and Tiryns
were deciphered, we have been able to catch glimpses of everyday
life in 1400 b.c. and after, reading between the lines of the Homeric
epics and glimpsing something of the remarkable administrative
organization of the time. The businesslike tone of the text of the
clay tablets almost savors of the East.
With the scientific publication of about three hundred of these
tablets. Dr. John Chadwick of Cambridge University and the late
Michael Ventris, who lost his life in an untimely automobile ac-
cident, opened up an almost unknown world. We know that
princes ruled at Knossos in Crete just as they did at Pylos in
the southeastern Peloponnesus. A tablet from Pylos may even have
supplied us with the name of one of these princes or kings:
Ekhelawon. There were princes and retainers, feudal lords, mayors
and slaves. There were also officials who governed towns on behalf
of Pylos and Knossos, and were called pa-si-re-ii, a title which we
rediscover in the Homeric basileiis and the Christian basilica.
Work was strictly apportioned among specialist craftsmen. Many
types of craftsmen are mentioned in the tablets, including wood
carvers, masons, carpenters, bronzesmiths, bowyers, cabinetmakers
and potters. Shepherds, goatherds and hunters are also listed, and
there seem to have been professional incense burners, too. Women
ground corn, made cloth, did the spinning, weaving and wool card-
ing, performed sundry duties in the palace and acted as bath
attendants. Cloth fulling was a male occupation, and clothes were
probably made by men as well as women. There is also an allusion
to a doctor.
Slavery undoubtedly existed. The children of unemancipated
parents became slaves by birth, a rule which applied even if only
one parent was a slave. The huge labor force needed to build palaces
was provided by prisoners taken in raids, and their womenfolk and
ii8 THE SILENT PAST
children were taught a trade. The majority of the Pylos slaves were
called slaves or slave women of the god or goddess, as the case might
be, but it is not known what their precise duties were.
It is interesting to note that by Mycenaean times, or about 1300
B.C., almost all the Greek gods figure in the clay tablets: Zeus, Hera,
Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Athene, Artemis, Dionysus and Hephaestus.
Ventris and Blegen meticulously give the scientific designation of
each tablet in which the name of a particular deity appears. Sacrifices
were probably confined to wheat, barley, flour, oil, wine, figs and
honey, and did not include human beings or animals. Tablet G 866
indicates that even wool was presented to the gods. The priest-king
was assisted by a large number of auxiliary priests.
The tablets have no direct historical or literary value and the
texts are brief and meager, it is true, but a great deal of information
can be derived from them if one is prepared to read between the
lines. One tablet, for instance, bears the note: ^8 girl-children, 55
girls, 16 boys. Another remarks: 8 women, 2 girls, 5 boys, and goes
on to list the foodstuffs that were evidently allotted to them: ^00
quarts of grain and ^00 quarts of figs. Yet another tablet runs: In
Pylos, 57 female bath attendants, i^ girls, /j boys; i,i']o quarts of
grain, 1,110 quarts of figs. Tablet Ad 686 reports: In Ke-re-za, Pylos,
/J prisoners^ sons; Alkawon did not appear or did not report. On
tablet Eo 02 we find a woman called E-ra-ta-ra and the description
slave woman of the priestess. Tablet Ae 04 tells us that Ke-ro-wo, the
herdsman in A-si-ja-ti-ja, tends the ox of Thalamatas. Tablet An 18
mentions: 16 fire makers, 10 me-ri-du-ma-te (?), 5 mi-ka-ta (?), 4
tackle makers, 5 weaponsmiths, 5 bakers. We do not know the
meaning of me-ri-du-ma-te and mi-ka-ta, but they were obviously
trades— perhaps of a kind which no longer exists today. Several tablets
list coast-guard commanders and their subordinates by name. There
are tablets containing notes on landed property and seed planting,
tablets listing tributes and sacrifices, tablets referring to textiles,
vessels and furniture. Tn 996 mentions: 5 tubs for bath water with
outlet, 5 water contai?iers, 5 cooking vessels, 2 amphorae, i hydria
and 7 bronze jugs. Tablet 7 1 3 refers to stone tables and ivory inlays,
ivory tables with feather patterns and small ebony tables, likewise
richly decorated.
The Dorian migration— or the return of Heracles' descendants to
the land of Argolis— set the seal on the flourishing Mycenaean culture
GREECE 119
and destroyed the old citadels and palaces. What remained was the
Cretans' great artistic contribution to Mycenaean culture and their
lasting influence on every aspect of the plastic and graphic arts
throughout the Greek world. What remained, too, was their almost
unrivaled proficiency in handicrafts, the idea of the fortified city (a
conception which survived until the Middle Ages), their sense of
style, their creative impetus, the many facets of their mythology and
religion, and their general quest for spirituality.
The effects of the Mycenaean way of life are still felt in our own
age, for it was not only the first but one of the strongest cultural
impulses that Europe ever received.
GREECE
THE CULT OF APOLLO
From its earliest beginnings, Delphi was always the world^s fore-
most seat of divinatio77. The god and adviser of inaiikiiid who came
to Delphi had of necessity to bestow oracles there or have them
bestowed in his name. He came there less in order to de?nand
and receive worship than to keep a personal watch over the
oracle. His spirit pervaded the oracle far more than the saiictuary.
. . . As lord of the place, Apollo chose to reveal his thoughts
neither through the ainbigiious rustlifig of leaves nor the hum of
swarming bees. He rejected the cojifused pictures which rufi
through dreams or mirror themselves in the surface of springs.
When speaking to mankind he used the speech of man.
—Pierre de La Coste-Messeliere, Delphes,
pp. 17 and 20, Paris, 1957
Ma7iy different things are related of Delphi itself and of the
oracle of Apollo. In earliest times, for instance, the seat of divi?ia-
tion is said to have belonged to Ge.
— Pausanias (circa a.d. 150)
Description of Greece, Book x
THE ultimate realization of the Hellenic world might be said to be
embodied in two words which express the summit of knowledge
attained by mankind in its struggle for wisdom. Preserved for us
in an inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, they read:
KNOW THYSELF.
There is an infinity of meaning in these two words. They mean
that God can be found only in the innermost recesses of the human
mind. They mean that man comes closest to the truth when he
barkens to his inner voice. They cry out for the thing most urgently
needed by a civilization sated with the marvels of science: modera-
tion. They warn man to know his limitations and acknowledge his
mortality, but they also demand that he give freely of what lies
within him and so fulfill his destiny.
"Know thyself" was one of the maxims attributed to the Seven
Sages, as the seven most prominent figures in the first half of the
sixth century b.c. were called. These were: the aristocrat Solon,
who gave his native city of Athens its first constitution; the tyrant
GREECE 121
Periander of Corinth, who founded cities, sponsored Delphi and
Olympia, ushered in a golden age in art, handicrafts and trade and
prohibited idleness and luxury; Bias of Priene in Ionia, who, when
forced to flee his native city empty-handed, remarked, "I am taking
with me all that is mine"; the statesman Pittacus of Mytilene, who
enacted a law by which any crime committed in a state of intoxica-
tion incurred a double penalty; Thales of A4iletus, who accurately
predicted the solar echpse of May 28, 585 b.c; Chilon, a Spartan
hero; and the poet Cleobulus of Lindus, who also composed riddles.
The distilled experience of these seven great minds was embodied
in aphorisms engraved on the Temple of Delphi.
Before anyone was permitted to approach the Delphic god or
question him, therefore, the god demanded the utmost that any
human being can undertake: a completely frank examination of his
own conscience. The admonition "Know thyself" serves to show
what sort of spirit ruled the place and to convey the unfathomable
wisdom, infinite truth and human understanding of the Greek god.
Delphi stands on the lower southern slopes of Parnassus, almost
two thousand feet above the Gulf of Corinth. Here in the lonely
splendor of the mountain scenery, the mind is impelled irresistibly
toward God, eternity and the supernatural.
The site is one of the great enigmas in human history. It is as
though the god who ruled there withdrew before the downfall of
ancient Greece and the victory of alien religions were complete, to
ensure that no one should degrade him, approach him or measure him
by petty, human standards for all eternity to come. Poets and
scholars, ancient historians, students of religion and archaeologists
have tried for two thousand years to discover the secret of the
Delphic god, but Delphi has never raised the veil of its exalted
sanctity. Despite all human endeavor, it has remained sealed and
silent in the face of research and excavation. It speaks no more, nor
will it ever give voice again.
The name Delphi conjures up before our eyes a nebulous and
impalpable vision of the Pythia. Actually Pythia was not a proper
name but a title or designation signifying roughly "priestess of the
Pythian cult." We tend to think of the oracle alone, but who was
the god that dwelt and spoke there? Delphi was a holy place, not
merely a source of opportune and practical advice. It was the largest
and most important sanctuary in the Greek world, and the god who
122 THE SILENT PAST
owned it was Apollo. Even though we are the spiritual descendants
of the Hellenes and so of their god, even though we still are in-
fluenced by the culture of Greece in all we do and think, we know
less about this god than about great religious figures of the East
such as Buddha, Zarathustra and Mohammed. Of all the gods of
mankind Apollo is the hardest to comprehend, yet from time im-
memorial his oracle provided an abundant source of religious energy.
Delphi was world-famous as early as i6oo B.C., although people
of that time knew it not as Delphi but Pytho, a name probably
derived from Python, a being that guarded the sacred place. Python
was a large male snake and was the son of Gaea or Ge, a goddess who
symbolized the earth, the abyss or subterranean realm. She and her
kinswoman Themis were the first and earliest prophetesses to utter
oracles on the slopes of Parnassus.
This is yet another version of the ancient myth of the snake that
represents God's eternal adversary. The snake symbolizes not only
the earth, demonic powers and dark forces but also healing, which
is why it has become the emblem of medicine. It is the monster
that, like the Midgard Serpent, embraces the earth and causes earth-
quakes. It is all-knowing as well, and thus responsible for introducing
sin into the world. Many races have regarded it as an oracular crea-
ture. Just as the snake in Genesis :iii brought about the Fall, so
Apollo became guilty of sin when he killed the Python. He then
went to Crete, where he underwent a form of purification or atone-
ment for the murder. Religious ceremonies of peculiar sanctity were
performed in ancient Crete while the embers of the once-great
Minoan religion still glowed.
Snakes were not only feared and respected for their omniscience:
the people of the ancient world kept them as domestic animals and
used them, like weasels, to keep down mice. Children played with
them and women used them to cool their necks and bosoms when
the weather was particularly hot.
At Delphi, however. Python the snake and Ge the earth formed
the origin of the world's most famous oracular site. It was there
that the spirit of the earth gave voice long ago, speaking to those
in need of help and divine guidance.
The French archaeologist de La Coste found traces of pre-Greek
sacrifices in Delphi. It is probable that the earliest form of divina-
tion involved casting lots, and that the future was interpreted from
GREECE 123
small stones lying in a basin supported on a tripod. Archaeologists
found the spout of a Minoan fountain in the shape of a lioness's
head among the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, a piece dating from
a period fourteen, fifteen or sixteen hundred years before Christ's
birth. At the spot where the altar once stood, the soil was found to
contain traces of many organic substances and ash from burnt bones
interspersed with fragments of Mycenaean pottery, ample proof that
sacrifice was made there in Mycenaean times, or in approximately
1500 B.C. A still more important find was a small Minoan terracotta
figure of a nude woman sitting in a three-legged chair. Since the
Pythia does not go back as far as that, one is led to wonder if it
portrays Themis or the earth-goddess Ge.
With the decipherment of Linear B, the relationship between
ancient Greece and Crete has become much clearer. It is probable
that the priesthood of the Delphic oracle was yet another importa-
tion from the world of Minoan culture— that is to say, from Crete.
The Homeric Hymn to Apollo dating from the seventh century b.c.
tells us that as the god was looking about him for priests he saw in
the distance a shipload of Cretans outward bound from Knossos.
Assuming the shape of a dolphin, Apollo lured the ship to Crissa,
where the sailors built an altar to Apollo Delphinios. And this, so
legend has it, was the origin of the name Delphi.
We cannot tell when Apollo became the god of Delphi, but the
oracle was undoubtedly in existence long before Apollo took up
his abode there. Apollo was the most "Greek" of all gods, wor-
shiped at many places in Greece and Asia Minor, but particularly
in Sparta and other Doric cities. He was the most radiant and
splendid figure in the Greek heavens and in the dwelhng place of
the gods that lay above Olympus, at 9,570 feet the highest peak in
the Greek peninsula and the massif whose isolated bulk separates
Macedonia from Thessaly. Apollo was the supreme ideal of young
masculine beauty.
We do not know what Apollo was originally, although most prob-
ably he was the sun-god. But we know what the Greeks made of
him. He was the guardian of herds and god of herdsmen, reminding
us that throughout Greece and the Near East and from Bethlehem
to Persia, herdsmen have always been close to God. Apollo was the
healer of the sick, the preserver of crops and the patron of music,
spiritual life and philosophy. He was the coordinator of measure-
124 THE SILENT PAST
ment and time, the friend of planned activity, the custodian of high
morality and, above all, the god of the oracle.
Apollo possessed oracles at many places in Greece and Asia Minor,
and the methods of obtaining an oracle were very varied. In Argos,
the priestess sought inspiration by drinking the blood of slaughtered
lambs. At Hysiae, Apollo's decision was ascertained by drinking from
a sacred spring. At Thebes, soothsayers read the future by inspecting
the entrails of sacrificial beasts. At Colophon, in the oracle of the
Apollo of Claros, soothsaying was performed not by a woman, as
in Delphi, but by a priest who was told only the name of the oracle
seeker. He would then descend into a cave and, having drunk water
from a sacred spring, give advice in verse form on the unspoken
problems of the applicant. This we learn in Tacitus's Amials, II, liv.
At Patara in Lycia the priestess was locked up in the temple at
night "whenever Apollo came," so Herodotus tells us in his His-
tories, II, clxxxii. Patara was, so to speak, Apollo's winter quarters.
He visited Delphi only in summertime.
It is hard to say where the name Apollo came from. It could have
come from the Doric word apella, meaning "herd," which would
suggest that he was originally a herdsmen's god. Wilamowitz asserts
that it came from the Lycian tongue, which would make him not
Greek but foreign. On the other hand, Ernst Sittig, the leading
authority on the Lycian language, has demonstrated that the god's
Lycian name was borrowed from the Greeks, and that Apollo must
therefore have been a Greek god in earlier times. But in Homer's
Iliad Apollo is always on the Trojan side, never on the Greeks'.
Since Troy stood not far from the Dardanelles in what is no\s"
Turkey, we can deduce that Apollo at one time belonged not to
Greece but to Asia Minor.
There are two more very interesting indications that Apollo was
Asiatic in origin. The Greeks got their lunisolar calendar from
Delphi, that is to say, from the Delphic Temple of Apollo, in the
second half of the seventh century b.c. The oldest and most renowned
center of astronomical study was Babylon, where a lunisolar calendar
had been astronomically determined long before that. The Swedish
historian and authority on Greek religion Martin P. Nilsson points
out that festivals of Apollo fell on the seventh day of the month.
The especial significance attributed to the seventh day or sibiitii
is purely Babylonian. (Our own Sunday has a similar origin.) The
GREECE 125
Greeks, however, divided their month into three spans of ten days,
each decade corresponding to our week. Thus the seventh day is a
totally alien element in such a decimal system, and the fact that
seven was Apollo's sacred number is yet another indication that
he originated in Asia Minor. His mother's name, too, is of similar
origin, for Leto was worshiped as a goddess in her own right prin-
cipally on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. Nilsson thinks that
Apollo came from the interior of Asia Minor, from the Kingdom
of the Hittites, which owed a great deal to Babylonian culture.
If this is so, we can only wonder at what the Greeks made of
their once foreign god. Thev based a great process of spiritual
evolution on him, developed his morality to encompass the limits
of human understanding and forgiveness, and made of him a god
who substituted purification by atonement for the traditional blood
feud, a god who demanded repentance and granted divine forgive-
ness even to the tormented murderer— once he had submitted to
purification and reconciliation. If Apollo came from the East, he
must once have been a god of vengeance. The Greeks turned him
into what Pindar described as "the most friendly of the gods," a
European god and a true healer of the soul.
But, whatever his origins, Apollo was endowed from the very
first with the power to interpret all manner of signs and occurrences.
Homer himself calls him "the seer." He was a god who not only
accepted prayer but answered it, although ecstatic prophecy became
one of his attributes only at a later stage. We do not know when
this form of soothsaying, which was performed in a state known as
"mantic ecstasy," was first ascribed to him, but it, too, probably
hailed from Asia Minor, an area famous for its oracles.
GREECE
THE DELPHIC ORACLE
After Theophile Homolle and Emile Bourgiiet, neither of ivho?n
is with us any longer, it was Pierre de La Coste-Messeliere, artist
and scholar, who devoted the better part of a lifetime's research
to the sa?7ctuary. He was forttmate in his digging and lived for a
long time on very close terms with the ancient stone ruins.
Charles Picard, Delphes, Paris, 1957
DELPHI, sanctuary of the god Apollo, was the religious fulcrum
and most important seat of divination in Greece. It was regarded as
the center of the earth or "navel of the world." The Greek word
for navel was omphalos, and in the holy of holies, the adyton or
cella of the temple of Apollo, near the golden statue of the god,
there was a stone which actually symbolized the navel of the world.
Apollo was more closely associated with the cult of stones than any
other god, and a kindly fate has preserved this particular stone for
us. Shaped like a small mound, the ancient design of heroic graves,
it is only 1 1 inches high and 1 5 inches in diameter. This ancient and
sacred object was found against the southern wall of the cella by
the French archaeologist F. Courby, who identified it as the famous
Omphalos. The stone not only represented the center of the world
but marked the grave of the murdered Python. Three letters from
an archaic alphabet have been deciphered on the Omphalos: the
letters GA, signifying the name of the earth-mother who gave birth
to the Python, and the mystic E of Delphi, whose meaning not even
Plutarch knew.
The Omphalos may once have stood over a crevice in the rock
which emitted steam, fumes or sweet-smelling vapors. These vapors,
which were assumed to emanate from the sacred snake or other
subterranean gods, were said to send the Pythia into prophetic
ecstasies. She used to wash herself at the Castalian Spring, burn a
little laurel and barley meal, and then ascend into the main chamber
or adyton of the temple. There, seating herself on a tripod in front
of the Omphalos, she drank water from the spring of Massotis, and
plunged into a divinely inspired state of "mantic ecstasy."
And here we come to Delphi's greatest enigma. The cleft in the
rock and the steam that issued from it are mentioned in many ancient
126
GREECE
127
\ 1
Amphlssa\ j
Delphi
texts, none of which, however, is really old. Do they prove that such
a thing existed— a subterraneous breath or pneiima which sent the
Pythia into ecstasies and rendered prophecy possible? It is extremely
interesting to study the tradition in the original texts rather than
hear them at second hand.
Writing between 60 and 30 B.C., Diodorus reported that the
Delphic oracle was discovered in ancient times by some goats. (The
herdsman who found Edessa, the ancient capital of Macedonia, was
likewise led to the spot by goats.) In the most sacred part of the
Delphic oracle, Diodorus continued, there once yawned a cleft in
the ground. Whenever one of the goats approached this cleft it
would leap miraculously and utter strange cries. Seeing this, the
goatherd went up to the cleft and, as he approached it, underwent
the same experience. He lost his senses, became "enraptured" and
128 THE SILENT PAST
began to have visions of the future. Reports of this natural phenom-
enon and its effects spread rapidly, and many people came to inspect
the place and experience the strange delirium. However, after the
ground had swallowed up a large number of those who ventured too
near the crevice, the inhabitants of the region decided to appoint a
virgin to be sole prophetess and distribute oracles on behalf of all,
building her a three-legged contrivance or tripod which she could
mount in order to prophesy in safety.
Justin tells us in Book xxiv of his Philippic Histories that roughly
in the middle of the heights of Parnassus there was a patch of level
ground with a deep hole running down into the earth. A cold vapor
rose from it as though borne upward by a strong wind. This vapor
from the interior of the earth roused the souls of female soothsayers
to frenzy and impelled them, inspired by the deity, to bestow an-
swers upon people who had consulted the oracle.
The famous geographer Strabo, who lived between 63 b.c. and
A.D. 19, is our earliest source of information on the opening in the
ground, but unfortunately Strabo never visited Delphi in person
and could only base his reports on hearsay. "They relate that the
sanctuary is an antron, a deep cavity with a narrow opening from
which the breath of inspiration ascends. Above the opening stands
the tall tripod which the Pythia mounts in order to inhale the vapor
and give the oracle in verse or prose."
One of our best witnesses is Plutarch (a.d. 46-120), who knew
the oracle well because he was himself a priest at Delphi for some
time. He wrote: "The Oikos or room in which those who consult
the god are seated becomes filled with a sweet-smelling vapor. This
happens neither often nor regularly, but at varying intervals. The
adyton allows this vapor to stream forth like a spring, comparable
with the sweetest and most costly of perfumes." Plutarch speaks of
a vapor, therefore, but does not mention any opening in the ground.
Lucan, a Roman author who lived between a.d. 39 and 6^ and
whose only surviving work is an epic poem about the civil war
between Pompey and Caesar, gives in it (v, 169-174) a dramatic
description of a Pythia who becomes crazed with excitement and
eventually falls prey to her divinely inspired frenzy.
Interesting though they are, all these accounts date from the post-
classical period. Justin's Philippic Histories did not appear until the
third century a.d., and even the earlier sources fall within a hundred
"^ *•
[29] A fertility goddess from the palace of Mari, found in several pieces and
later reconstructed. In her hands she holds a vessel from vi^hich flowed the
"water of life." The water was conveyed to the jug through a pipe ingeniously
situated inside the statue itself. Height: 34".
[30] Statue with folded hands por-
traying the city administrator of
Mari, Ebih-Il, and placed in the
temple at his behest. On his back
are engraved the words: Ebih-ll,
the administrator, dedicated to the
goddess Ishtar.
/y
• .' 1- ■' J
[31] Clay bathtubs still survive in
the palace bathroom at Mari. On
the left, the somewhat primitive
W.C. Waste water drained off into
a cesspool located over 50 feet
below ground.
'^'y^.^M^!%:
[32I Looking up through the interior of a nuraghe. These austere buildings provided
Sardinian chieftains with living quarters and their warriors with an almost impregnable
stronghold.
'%
«r 1^
*£A
[33] A typical nuraghe, a
massive circular tower with
inward-sloping walls, born
of a people's love for liberty
about 3,500 years ago.
[34] These ruins were once
inhabited by simple but
staunchly courageous people.
Each ring of stones repre-
sents one of the numerous
houses that were built close
together by the shelter of
the Barumini fortress about
1270 B.C.
[35] Weeping goddess with
her right hand raised in
prayer and her young son on
her lap— a pre-Christian "Ala-
donna" of 800-500 B.C.
-J
[36] A bronze statuette of
an archer, standing with
hand upraised as though in
prayer, dug up at Abini,
Sardinia. He wears a coat
of mail, greaves and a
horned helmet and carries
a quiver.
[37] The priestesses of the nu-
raghe culture, circa 800 b.c,
played an important role in the
religion of the ancient Sardinians.
This priestess is holding a drink
offering in her left hand. The
bronze statuette, which is only 4
inches tall, was found at S. Vit-
toria de Serri and is now in
Cagliari Museum.
mmf^
[38] We shall never know what
this strange bronze sculpture por-
trays, but it probably represents a
symbolic religious struggle. Six
inches long and 4 inches high,
it is one of the showpieces of
the Archaeological Museum at
Cagliari.
[39] Gold death mask of a Mycenaean prince, found by Schliemann in
Grave V in the citadel of Mycenae and designated as "Agamemnon." The
remains of the man whose face the mask had covered were also found.
GREECE 129
years either side of the beginning of our era. The Pythia, on the
other hand, had been soothsaying since about 700 b.c. and Delphi
was radiating its greatest spiritual influence in the sixth century,
a period when the treasuries of Corinth, Sicyon and Siphnos were
built and the kings of Lydia sent costly votive offerings.
Classical authors such as Herodotus (c. 468 b.c), Euripides
(c. 450 B.C.), Plato (c. 400 B.C.) and others tell us much about the
oracle, the Pythia, the priests and the questions and answers, it is
true, but they never mention the cleft in the rock. Was there a
crevice in the rock or the ground, and was there any prophetic
vapor, any mysterious pneuma, air or breath from the earth's interior?
Let us hear what modern science has to say. The French archaeol-
ogist Emil Bourguet, who participated in the excavation of Delphi,
tells us that he had expected the unearthed ruins to disclose the
oracle's inner construction, i.e. its mode of operation, but adds
resignedly that "what used to go on in the most important part of
the prophetic sanctuary remains a mystery to us, too." The archaeol-
ogists were constantly pursued by one thought as they worked:
"It seemed as though we were confronted by the products of
systematic destruction." What was responsible for it— heathendom
on the retreat, or a youthful Christianity anxious to wipe out the
heathen god once and for all? The last Pythia took the secret to her
grave.
If there ever were a fissure in the rock, signs of it should still be
apparent today, Delphi was not built on the limestone of the moun-
tain itself but stood on a sort of terrace composed of shale. This shale
could not, in the opinion of A. P. Oppe, have been eroded by water,
but he concedes that a cavity might have been formed at the place
where the shale reposed on the limestone and that this could have
been the source of rising vapors. Oppe himself believes that the
fabled cleft in the rock was really the Castalian Spring, which can
still be seen between two walls of rock quite close to the sacred
precincts of Delphi, and dismisses the vapor and the hole in the
ground beneath the Temple of Apollo as fabrications by the priests
and historians of antiquity.
In 19 1 3 another French archaeologist, F. Courby, conducted a
careful examination of the floor of the cella, where the stomioji or
cleft was assumed to have been. He reached the conclusion that the
ground beneath was undisturbed and declared that there had never
I30 THE SILENT PAST
been a fissure, natural or artificial, in the stone. He found no trace
of an opening and could not see signs of any former geological
subsidences.
Robert Flaceliere, on the other hand, thinks that the tradition is
so unambiguous that there are no grounds for doubting the existence
of the vapors and the cleft, and holds that landslides or earthquakes
could have effectively changed everything. It may be added that
Delphi is no stranger to earth tremors.
Massive fragments fell from the Phaidriades or Shining Rocks
and badly damaged the northern part of the temple terrace as long
ago as the sixth century. Flaceliere suggests that the opening in
the ground may already have ceased to play its role in the oracle
by Plutarch's time, or about a.d. ioo, and that this would account
for his silence on the subject. I would certainly agree that a biog-
rapher's or historian's silence is not always evidence for the non-
existence of a phenomenon. Herodotus visited the Pyramids at Gizeh
but did not mention the Sphinx— yet it was there. In fact, when
Herodotus was in the area the enormous lion couchant had already
been there for two thousand years! Plutarch may possibly have had
religious scruples about disclosing the mysteries of the pnezima,
since he was at one period a Delphic priest himself and, as such, had
to keep certain secrets.
Finally, E. Bourguet states flatly that there must have been a cleft
in the rock which emitted stimulating vapors, and that we should
not dismiss the phenomenon even if proof of it is no longer forth-
coming.
Two facts, neither of which has received sufficient attention
hitherto, seem to be of the utmost importance. In the year 373 b.c.
the entire Temple of Apollo at Delphi collapsed. The cause may
have been either an enormous conflagration or— as Homolle thinks—
an earthquake. The fact that apart from small quantities of ash no
traces of fire have been found supports the earthquake theory, espe-
cially as the whole Parnassus massif lies in a traditional earthquake
area. The effects of a violent earthquake might well have closed a
narrow fissure in such a way that no trace of the opening would be
visible after more than two thousand years.
One more thing: in the whole of the literature on Delphi I have
found not a single reference to research carried out by a trained
modern geologist who had a thorough acquaintanceship with the
GREECE 131
limestone and shale formation of Parnassus. To my knowledge, the
only geologist to ever work there was Professor Philippson. Admit-
tedly, he thought that the famous cleft was nonexistent and that
the whole tradition was a "priestly fraud," but his findings are too
old to carry weight today. Writing as long ago as 1938, Flaceliere
says that it would be interesting to consult a modern geologist. The
fact that no one has done so is one more mystery surrounding Delphi
—just as the history of mankind in general is more a story of omis-
sion than discovery.
Another interesting theory was put forward and argued with great
acumen by the American authority Leicester B. Holland in 1933.
The Omphalos or mound-shaped stone over which the Pythia's
tripod stood displayed one unusual feature: it had been pierced from
top to bottom, and thus had a small channel running through its
center. Since the stone pedestal on which it reposed was similarly
pierced, Holland thinks that this channel or pipelike aperture was
used to convey the vapor to the foot of the Pythia's tripod, and
that the sweet-smelling smoke was artificially produced somewhere
beneath the stone floor and the Omphalos.
The idea of a pipe is an enlightening one. Holland does not, how-
ever, explain why the vapor must have been an artificial device
rather than a natural phenomenon, but relies solely on statements
by other authorities that there was no natural opening in the rock.
But, even if he is right, Delphi was certainly not a place devoted
to trickery and witchcraft. However her ecstasy was induced, the
Pythia herself was no fraud. Plato calls her condition "mania," an
apt expression because it described a state of divine inspiration which
had no psychopathic element.
The Pythia's words were inspired by Apollo but recorded and
announced in verse form by priests, who molded and interpreted
them as it seemed politic to do. The Delphic god had many temple
slaves, some of them prisoners taken in holy wars and others gifts
from various cities and private citizens. It received a constant flow
of foreigners from every part of the known world, laden with
veritable fortunes in votive offerings, since the more they gave the
sooner they got a chance to consult the oracle.
The Panhellenic Pythian Games (founded circa 590 b.c.) trans-
formed Delphi into a seat of artistic activity and competitions
devoted to the Muses. The crowds of visitors from distant lands
132 THE SILENT PAST
also made it a scene of bustling commercial activity from which
the Hellenic language and way of thought spread throughout the
world. The priests plied their sacrificial knives diligently, and
Plutarch tells us that their victims had to tremble from head to tail
during sacrifice or no oracle could be pronounced. Sacrificial feasts
were not uncommon.
During the oracle's prime, three virgins took turns in performing
the duties of Pythia. Chosen from among girls of Delphi itself, they
had to live a life of absolute chastity and were held under strict
surveillance in a "house of the Pythia" inside the sanctuary of
Apollo, cut off from all human contact. Xenophon says that a
Pythia had to be completely inexperienced and must have seen
and heard nothing, so that she could confront her god with a truly
virginal soul. The office was not without its dangers, since the
vapors induced such an abnormal state of excitement and the Pythia
had to expose herself constantly to such abnormal forces that several
priestesses lost their lives in the course of their duties.
GREECE
THE PYTHIA REPLIES
Just as 171 ancient times there were people who complained of
the oracle's obscurity and equivocation, so now there are some
who criticize it for excessive clarity— an attitude which is extremely
unjust ofid stupid. People of this kind are like children who take
far ?nore delight iii rainbows, comets and mock suns than in the
sun mid moon themselves.
—Plutarch, De Pythiae oracidis
OF ALL the seats of religion in Greece, the Delphic oracle had the
greatest spiritual influence. There was no important occurrence, no
momentous undertaking, no war nor state of peace in which Delphi
did not play a part. Forms of prayer, sacrifice, atonement, dedica-
tion and divine service were all prescribed by Delphi. Each individual
Pythia was not only endowed with religious and civil power but
was the supreme authority on ethics and morality in general. Delphi's
influence radiated far into Asia. Even the Lydians consulted the
Delphic oracles as to whom they should choose as their king, Gyges
or a member of the former dynasty. The Pythia advised on Gyges,
who lived circa 670 B.C. and was the first ruler to be given the
name "tyrant"— probably a Lydian word. Naturally enough, the
rulers who succeeded this king were among the most devoted
adherents of Pythian Apollo.
The priest who recorded and passed on the Pythia's words was
known as the prophetes. This individual did not foretell the future
but was simply the god's mouthpiece or medium of communication.
The relationship between the prophetes and the Pythia is obscure.
If his sole function was to formulate the Pythia's answers in intel-
ligible terms, her wide knowledge of human, political and even
geographical questions bordered on the miraculous. Nilsson's view
is that the prophetes either elaborated the Pythia's utterances and
put them into plain speech or actually gave her guidance on her
answers. There is no full solution to the problem, but we know that
the oracular priests were anything but charlatans and frauds. They
were excellent judges of human nature and men of wide knowledge.
They were brilliant astronomers, as the Delphic calendar proves.
They knew the history of the various city-states, were well informed
133
134 THE SILENT PAST
on geography, had a working knowledge of commercial practice
and were acquainted with the burial places of all the heroes.
The priests found it easy to solve run-of-the-mill problems, but
if a question was vague or too skillfully framed the questioner
received a vague answer. Exceptionally difficult or ambiguous an-
swers could be laid before the exegetes, who examined them and
offered their considered and often valuable advice. The exegetes
remained in office for life, which was a measure of the importance
attached to their duties.
The original temple, a small and unpretentious building, was
destroyed by fire in 548 b.c. In 1939 archaeologists found several
works of art which had been saved from the fire and concealed
beneath a stone in the sacred path. The second temple was com-
pleted in the year 510, having been financed by voluntary contribu-
tions of which one of the biggest came from the Alcmaeonid familv,
who had been banished from Athens and lived at Delphi in exile.
Croesus and the Egyptian king Amasis also lent their support.
During the reign of King Amasis there lived in Thrace a girl
called Rhodopis, who was a slave belonging to a certain ladmon.
(Strangely enough, the celebrated fabulist Aesop was a fellow slave
of hers in ladmon's establishment.) Apparently, Rhodopis was pur-
chased from ladmon by a wealthy slave trader from Samos known
as Xantos. Being a shrewd salesman, he took the girl to the place
where she would fetch most, in this case the famous trading settle-
ment of Naucratis in Egypt. Before long a man from Adytilene called
Charaxos fell in love with the delectable piece of human merchandise
and bought her at a very high price. Having done so, Charaxos gave
her her freedom, thereby incurring the mockery of the famous
poetess Sappho, who happened to be his sister.
Rhodopis used her new-found freedom to become the talk of the
town not only in Naucratis, which lay between Alexandria and
present-day Cairo, but throughout the Hellenic world. Her grace
and charm became a byword on every coast and she earned a large
fortune for a girl of her sort— though nothing like enough to build
the Pyramid of Mycerinus at Gizeh, as the Hellenes loved to boast.
Herodotus tells us that although Rhodopis's fortune would not run
to a pyramid she was extremely ambitious and wanted to leave the
Greeks some souvenir which would always remind them of her.
She accordingly made the Delphic sanctuary a strange bequest com-
GREECE 135
prising a large number of spits, each so big that it could accommodate
a whole ox. The value of the gift represented a tenth of her entire
capital. Herodotus says that these spits could still be seen in his own
day (c. 450 B.C.), lying behind the altar dedicated to Apollo by the
inhabitants of Chios.
The significance of this bequest was not understood until the
German scholar Waldstein found a bundle of iron spits of equal
length, tightly bound by iron bands at either end, in the Heraeum at
Argos. This peculiar object found its way into the National A4useum
in Athens and remained there unnoticed for years, until the Greek
archaeologist Svoronos made a detailed examination of the dusty
relic. Thirty-two spits, each nearly four feet long, had survived
intact, but the original bundle had contained 180. It was a heavy
bundle of iron like this, weighing several hundredweight, which the
industrious Rhodopis had once sent from Naucratis to Delphi. Like
the 1,000 talents' worth of alum sent by King Amasis and the 20
minas sent by the Greeks of Egypt, this was a contribution toward
the building of the temple. Thus, the answer to the enigma is that
these spits were a very ancient form of money which the Delphians
found they could not use and so stacked away behind the altar.
In the year 373, as we have already heard, an earthquake caused
the temple to collapse, only to be replaced by yet another Temple
of Apollo, also financed by voluntary contributions. This temple
survived the coming of the Romans and was repaired by Emperor
Domitian, the bulk of the Delphic treasury having previously been
seized by Sulla. Emperor Hadrian tried to restore the sanctuary's
ancient status and Emperor Julian attempted to instill new life into
the place after his abandonment of Christianity. However, the
oracle's sole prediction to Julian was that its own end was nigh, and
in the year 390 Theodosius closed it down in the name of Christian-
ity. The Pythia spoke no more, and rubble and earth marked the
former site of a place whose fame had spread throughout Greece and
the contemporary world, a place to which kings, statesmen and
sages from every quarter of the earth had once made pilgrimage.
On the ruins of Delphi there arose a small and wretched village
called Kastri. The Greek government bought it up and demolished
the houses, and the French built the inhabitants new houses in a
different spot. Then, after years of work by the French School of
Archaeology at Athens under the direction of Professor Homolle,
136 THE SILENT PAST
Delphi re-emerged and its temples, treasure chambers, sculptures
and over five thousand inscriptions saw the light of day once more.
Why did the Greeks' most sacred place meet its downfall? The
waning of the ancient faith, the loss of former convictions, the
relaxation of traditional morahty, the growth of enUghtenment and
the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta— all these things
helped to undermine the oracle's reputation. During the latter con-
flict Delphi took the Peloponnesians' side and assisted Sparta with
grants of money, thereby winning the Athenians' distrust for the
first time— an attitude which Pericles did everything to foster. As
time passed, the oracle fell prey to the general disunity of the period,
the mockery of the comic dramatists who have always been quick
to seize their chance in any age— in short, skepticism. Here, as in
Egypt so long before, disbelief and doubt proved to be harbingers
of doom; for a civilization survives only for as long as its members
are still prepared to build pyramids, temples or cathedrals to the
god of that civilization.
The veneration accorded to the Delphic Apollo during the oracle's
prime can be assessed by the treasures assembled there by all the
tribes and cities of Greece— indeed, of the whole world. These
included vast numbers of the three-legged bronze caldrons which
were sacred to Apollo, and a multitude of sculptures erected in
Delphi by the various competing clans and states. Although the
Roman emperor Nero confiscated five hundred of them he left more
than three thousand behind.
Most of the questions addressed to the deity at Delphi were really
requests for advice. Very few of them concerned the future. The
Delphic oracle was consulted, for instance, as to when a new city
should be founded or a devastated city rebuilt. The Pythia was
questioned about the outcome of wars, about illnesses, physical
infirmities and dire disasters such as crop failures, famines, epidemics
and wartime defeats.
Above all, the Delphic Apollo was, through his mouthpiece the
Pythia, the divine authority and supreme arbiter in all religious
matters. People went to the god of Delphi and consulted the virgin
seated on her tripod at the center of the world to learn the will of
the gods on subjects such as the founding of temples, the offering of
sacrifice, dedicatory gifts to the dead, graves, cults, demons and
heroes.
GREECE 137
Thus there existed a single regulating and arbitrating authority
equipped to deal with all the crucial problems, disputes and emer-
gencies in the contemporary world: a god who did not remain dumb
in the face of every request and every entreaty but had a mouthpiece
through which he spoke directly to mankind.
The citizens of the wealthy gold- and silver-mining island of
Syphnos in the Cyclades once asked the oracle how long their good
fortune would last. The Pythia answered that they should "secure
themselves against the wooden horde and the red herald when their
council house and market glimmered white." The Syphnians had
decorated their market and council house with Persian marble, but
they did not understand the oracle until the day when the ships
of Samos (the wooden horde), painted with red lead, lay moored
off their coasts. When the Syphnians refused the Samian envoy
(the red herald) a loan, the Samians devastated the island.
In common with all the Greek oracles, Delphi predicted a victory
for Croesus, the fabulously rich and fortunate Lydian king who
reigned from 560 to 546 b.c. In the autumn of 546 both King Croesus
and his capital, Sardis, fell into the hands of Cyrus of Persia. The
downfall of this noble and philhellene ruler and his kingdom exer-
cised a decisive influence on the attitude adopted by every subsequent
generation of Greeks toward the fickleness of fortune, the impar-
tiality of fate and the envy of the gods. Having erred in the case of
Croesus, the Delphic oracle tried a hundred years later to reinterpret
history and so eradicate the poor impression made by its inaccurate
prediction. By then convinced that the Persians were invincible,
Delphi counseled the Greeks, through the Pythia, not to offer them
armed resistance. The oracle was guilty neither of timidity nor
pusillanimity nor Persian bias. As Nilsson so aptly puts it, this was
one case where the god knew a httle too much about the future!
Having been defeated by the Tegeans, the Spartans sent religious
emissaries to Delphi to ask what they had to do in order to conquer
them. The Pythia advised them to find the remains of Orestes. Not
knowing where Orestes' burial place was located, the Spartans asked
the god where Orestes lay buried. The Pythia answered: "At Tegea
in Arcadia there is a large fallow field where two winds rage. There
is blow and counterblow. That is where the earth harbors Agamem-
non's son Orestes." The Lacedaemonians failed to solve this riddle,
but Lichas eventually found the grave in a blacksmith's yard com-
138 THE SILENT PAST
plete with two bellows (the raging winds) and hammer and anvil
(blow and counterblow).
Perhaps the Pythia's most bewildering pronouncement was made
in response to a question from Chaerephon, a devoted pupil and
follower of Socrates who went to Delphi and asked the oracle if
any man were wiser than Socrates. The Pythia's unqualified reply
was: "No one is wiser." The man most amazed by this answer was
Socrates himself. Being fully aware how little he knew, he inferred
from the oracle that other men who seemed to be extremely clever
or erudite must know even less than he did. Accordingly, he exam-
ined the foremost of his contemporaries in the gymnasium, in the
academy, in the Lyceum, in the market place and craftsmen's work-
shops, and refuted their belief in their own infallibility. "God alone
is wise," said Socrates. "If the oracle declares that I, who know
nothing, am the wisest, it means that human knowledge is a cipher.
But the most fearful thing of all is to believe that one is learned in
things of which one understands nothing."
What sort of answer would Chaerephon receive today? No mod-
ern institution could name the wisest man alive— not because there
are no wise men left, but because it is virtually impossible for the
present to assess or truly apprehend the present and simultaneously
take the future into consideration.
The god who expressed himself so clearly on the subject of
Socrates sat enthroned high above all earthly standards and criteria.
He recognized Socrates for what he was, whereas men in their
pettiness forced Athens' greatest son to drink the poisoned cup.
GREECE
OLYMPIAS, ZEUS AND ALEXANDER
It is said that during his youthful years, wheji Philip was initiated
ii2to the Mysteries in SaTnothrace in co?npany with Olympias, he
fell in love with that princess, who was likewise still very yotmg
and an orphan, and took her, with her uncle Arymbas'' consent, as
his wife. The night before, when she was locked 7ip in the bridal
chaniber, the bride dreamed that a shaft of lightning pierced her
body during a storm, and that fro?fz the stroke there arose a
raging fire which burst into bright flames on every side and then
was suddenly quenched.
—Plutarch, Lives, Alexander, ii
THERE was once a woman who decisively affected the course of
human history not by taking a personal part in international affairs
but by exerting her influence in the secret and mysterious way that
is woman's alone.
This unique figure on the sidelines of world history was Olympias,
daughter of King Neoptolemus, wife of Phihp of Macedon and
mother of that brilliant and cometlike apparition, Alexander the
Great. Although Alexander's grand design, a political amalgamation
of Europe and Asia, was frustrated by his untimely death at the
age of thirty-three, Hellenism, the spirit of Greece, followed in
the train of his armies and found its way to the Far East. To this
day every image of Buddha betrays the influence of the Greek
artists of Gandhara.
In her girlhood, Olympias was known as Myrtale. She was born
in the Kingdom of Epirus, probably at Passaron, the ancient city
where the kings of the Molossians used to be crowned. It is set
in an imposing region of rugged mountain chains interspersed with
deep and narrow but partially fertile valleys. The Gulfs of Avlona,
Butrinto and Arta bite deep into the land there, and the mountains
are not far from the Albanian border. The wind that blows there
is quite different from the winds of Athens or the Peloponnesus.
I have seen the village of Gardiki, the district where Olympias
was born. There is an ineffable stillness about the place. Nothing
can be seen of the former royal city of the Epirotes save a circular
grass-grown hill which marks the spot where the citadel or acropolis
139
I40 THE SILENT PAST
of Passaron once dominated the surrounding countryside. Its ruins
still await the archaeologist's attentions.
The importance of Olympias is that her ardent soul and strong be-
lief in the supersensual world convinced her that her son Alexander
was the offspring of her association with Zeus, and therefore a son
of God. Olympias' belief in Alexander's divinity took root and
.lived on in him after her death.
So we are confronted, 350 years before Christ's birth, by another
man who claimed to be the son of God. His father Philip avoided
Olympias because of her association with the supreme being, and
this sense of immediate nearness to God filled and obsessed Alexander
throughout his life. If it is not generally known that Alexander was
obsessed by the belief that he was the son of God, it is because
history is written by historians and not psychologists!
There is no other possible explanation of the fact that a young
man who lived only thirty-three years should have transmitted the
spirit of Greece to the entire Orient, should first have subjugated
whole nations and empires and then made them thrive under the
impact of his genius for organization, should have blazed a trail to
the Indus and deep into the wastes of Africa, should have given
mankind a totally different conception of the world and, finally,
should have been indirectly responsible for the subsequent clothing
of Christ's teachings in the Greek language, on whose wings they
conquered the world.
To anyone who stands on the lonely hill above Passaron and
reflects that Alexander's mother Olympias grew up there, such
thoughts seem inconceivable. There is nothing to be seen but the
open sky, an expanse of grass and marshland, and an apparently
meaningless jumble of time-worn stones.
Have we any means of discovering how Olympias came to
believe in her son's divinity?
As a child Princess Myrtale was taken to the island of Samothrace,
which lies in the northeast corner of the Aegean Sea, there to
undergo religious instruction. Samothrace was well known for its
Mystery Cult, and the island was the site of a mysterious sanctuary
dedicated to the Cabiri, who were probably gods of Asiatic-
Phrygian origin. Mystic and orphic rites were performed there and
sacrifice was done in their honor.
Little is known about these secret cults because initiates were
GREECE 141
forbidden to speak of the sacred mysteries during their lifetime.
Men also took part in the religious ceremonies, which is how the
young Macedonian prince came to meet his princess. He im-
mediately fell head over heels in love with her. Myrtale was still
very young, but her eyes and lips seemed to have partaken of
the wild beauty and solitude of the countryside of Epirus, and
she devoted herself to the Mysteries and the gods of Samothrace
with passionate intensity.
There was much that was unusual about young Myrtale. She was
a hypersensitive girl who had the gift of finding her way to the
unseen gods and communing with them spiritually, as though in a
dream. It was a faculty which must have exercised a great fascination
over Philip, a gifted boy who had just come into contact with the
supernatural for the first time in his impressionable young life.
Myrtale's father Neoptolemus had died in 360 e.g., leaving her
in the care of her uncle Arrybas, who had meanwhile succeeded to
the throne of Epirus. Arrybas agreed without demur when Philip
asked for his niece's hand in marriage. He was pleased, for he saw
in Philip the future king of his large but chaotic neighbor, Macedon,
and probably recognized his statesmanlike qualities even at that
early stage.
On the night before her marriage, Myrtale was shut up in the
bridal chamber in accordance with Greek custom, and there she
had a dream which was to change her whole life. She saw a storm
and in it a shaft of lightning that struck her body and caused bright
flames to burst forth. Then, so Plutarch tells us, the fire was sud-
denly extinguished. What did the portent mean? To the Greeks
there could be only one answer: a storm, a flash of lightning and
peals of thunder signified the presence of no less a god than Zeus
himself.
Just under twenty miles south of Passaron lies the lovely valley
of Dramissos, site of the oracle of Dodona, a famous sanctuary
dedicated to the Greeks' supreme god and, so we are told in Homer,
Herodotus and Plato's Phaednis, the oldest oracle in Greece. It
was the abode of heathen Europe's most important deity, Zeus,
whom the Romans called Jupiter. Ju is Zeus, and piter or pater means
father. Zeus is the Greek equivalent of the Indo-European Dieus.
The Latin word for God, deus, and the French dieu are derived
from Dios, the genitival form of Zeus. Zeus was also the origin of
142
THE SILENT PAST
Dodona
the Latin word for day, dies. The Germanic god Ziu, the Lithuanian
Diewas, the Lettish Dews, the Gothic Tius and the Enghsh Tuesday
are all derived from the name of the Indo-Europeans' supreme god.
The question of Zeus's origins has never been settled beyond
dispute, but there is considerable evidence to suggest that the idea
of this god arrived from the north and became disseminated through-
out central Greece before finding its way to Dodona. It seems likely
that the god also touched the Mycenaean world during his travels,
for the Mycenaean double ax became one of his emblems.
Zeus never created any human or divine beings, but he was the
paterfamihas and patriarchal chieftain of all Olympus. His daughter
Athena and his son Apollo, the god of the Delphic oracle, were
GREECE 143
intimately associated with him, and most of the other gods were
children of his.
The oracle of Dodona was spreading the spirit of Zeus abroad
even in early heroic times, and was visited by some of the most
illustrious people in the ancient world despite the long and fatiguing
journey involved. The wealthy King Croesus consulted this oracle
as well as that of Delphi. Pindar composed a paean to Dodonaean
Zeus. Aeschylus and Sophocles spoke of the sanctuary with the
greatest veneration, and even the Spartans turned to Dodona in
cases of especial importance.
Those who travel from Passaron to Dodona and stand in the
valley of the oracle looking up at the summit of the Tomarus can
visualize what Olympias must have seen there as a child: the
throngs of pilgrims arriving from all over the world to consult the
oracle, the echoing caldrons on their tripods, the priests going about
their duties. As for Princess Myrtale, she must have watched all this
with wondering eyes and sensed the omnipresence of Zeus. The
god was no stranger to her. On the contrary, he was by her side
day and night. And her dream held an extraordinary significance
not only for the subsequent careers of Philip and Alexander but for
the history of mankind as a whole. Without it, Alexander might
never have become "the Great" nor his kingdom a far-flung empire.
Epirus is truly a land of kings and gods, a land where the
mountains still converse secretly with the sky. It was the proper
site for a place which, like Dodona, mediated between earth and
heaven.
Has everything really vanished, and is nothing left of Dodona?
Two such distinguished scholars as Ernst Kirsten and Wilhelm
Kraiker included the following note in a report on Dodona pub-
lished as recently as 1957: "No trace of temple or sacred oak grove."
Yet the oracle is a reality and can still be seen, even though Zeus
speaks no more and his cult is extinct, even though the god who
once dominated Europe has retreated forever into the past.
The correct location of Dodona was long ago predicted by the
Frenchman Gaultier de Claubry, and Christopher Wordsworth men-
tioned in 1868 that the ruins of Palaeokastrion were connected with
the former sanctuary of Dodonaean Zeus. Palaeokastrion, which
means "old citadel," was the name given in more recent times to
144 THE SILENT PAST
the walled city complete with acropolis which stood at the summit
of the hill overlooking the sanctuary of Zeus.
In 1876 the Greek archaeologist Constantin Carapanos began to
dig in the area of the Dodona sanctuary and unearthed various
objects, notably inscribed plaquettes of lead and bronze, which
indicated that he had probably found the actual site of the oracle.
When deciphered, the inscriptions on the small lead tablets proved to
be written questions addressed to the oracle by pilgrims. They
covered a wide range of subjects. One, put by a certain Lysanias,
inquired whether the child which his wife was expecting was really
his. Another man wanted to know whether the purchase of some
land was likely to be advantageous. Although the priests' answers
were mostly given orally, they were sometimes written on the
reverse of the tablets. Such tablets are of great value because they
give us an inkling of the actual nature of an oracular pronouncement.
Answers were given in a form of officialese. One tablet, for instance,
bore the words: Reference plot of land: the matter is profitable.
Someone who was obviously worried about his health received the
reply: Reference health: sacrifice to Zeus. Other sample questions
concerned missing articles and whether it was expedient to let
the upper floor of a house.
Although Carapanos had found the actual sanctuary, he did not
identify it correctly. The small finds made round about were im-
portant enough in themselves, but Carapanos had partially un-
earthed the ruins of a Christian basilica and, since he found votive
offerings dating from pre-Christian times in an annex belonging to
the church, concluded that he had found the Temple of Dodona
itself.
It was not until between 1929 and 1935 that the mystery of
Dodona moved closer to solution. Professor Evangelides unearthed
three small temples, two Roman buildings, a grave and numerous
votive pedestals. He also found copper statuettes, handmade pottery,
fragmentary copper vessels and other votive offerings, all of which
offered evidence that the origins of Dodona went back to the
second millennium B.C.
Digging was discontinued in 1935 and was not recommenced
until a short time ago. The man in charge was Sotiris Dakaris,
a young and talented archaeologist who was born in the district
GREECE 145
and has known every stone, every hill and valley of his native
district since childhood.
In order to gauge the significance of these ancient buildings we
must examine the relationship between Zeus and his sacred tree, the
oak. The cult of the oak hails from a very early period during
which the tree was sacred to many Indo-European peoples.
The Swedish authority on Greek religion, Martin Nilsson, in-
terprets the significance of the oak in religious history by suggesting
that its fruit provided mankind's first food. Edible acorns were
described by Hesiod circa 700 b.c. and by Ovid at the time of
Christ's birth as the food of the "Golden Age." They were no
doubt thinking of the sweet acorns that supplied the whole of the
northern hemisphere with its principal source of vegetable nourish-
ment before the age of grain cultivation. The oak was reputed to
be the world's first tree. Pliny, who lived from a.d. 23 to a.d. 79,
referred in his work on natural history to oaks that were as old as
the earth and mentioned the ancient tradition that human beings
sprang from oaks.
There are, however, far more intelligible grounds for this belief
in the sanctity of the oak tree. Oaks can attain a very advanced age.
One oak tree at Schwanheim, near Frankfurt, displayed 630 well-
defined annual circles. With a diameter over 9 feet, the oak of
Bischofswald, ten miles east of Helmstedt, is estimated to be 1,190
years old. When the colonists arrived in America they found ancient
oaks which had long been held in veneration by the Indians as land-
marks and meeting places. Two such oaks played a role in American
history— the famous Charter Oak at Hartford, Connecticut, and the
Wadsworth Oak near Genesee, New York, a venerable tree 27 feet
in circumference, under whose lofty branches Robert Morris and
the Seneca Indians signed a peace treaty.
Another thing: perhaps because of their greater height, oaks are
struck by lightning more frequently than other trees, and the
linking of sky and oak tree through that medium was recognized
very early. In one wood near Lippe-Detmold composed of 70
percent birch, 1 3 percent spruce, 1 1 percent oak, and 6 percent
pine, it is recorded that the numbers of trees struck by lightning
over a period of sixteen years were as follows: 310 oaks, 108 pines,
34 spruces and 33 birches. Subsequent inspection brought to light
a further 34 oaks struck by hghtning as compared with 12 other
146 THE SILENT PAST
deciduous trees, 9 coniferous trees and a single beech tree. The
oak's abnormal susceptibility to damage by lightning did not, how-
ever, detract from its reputation in prehistoric times, for trees struck
by lightning were regarded as sacred.
The most renowned of all sacred oaks stood in the grove at
Dodona in Epirus. Since we know that the cult of the oak was an
ancient Indo-European conception, we must assume that the first
Greeks to migrate to Epirus brought this cult with them from their
original home. Writing about 450 b.c, Herodotus mentioned that
Dodona was regarded as the oldest oracle of the Hellenes.
Religions are composed of many overlapping cultural strata and
often represent an amalgam of the very old and the more recent,
just as Christianity contains relics of many ancient heathen practices.
The oak tree is intimately associated with the earth. Since Gaea
or Ge, the earliest earth-goddess, was worshiped at Dodona, the
priests in the sanctuary there slept on the bare earth in order to
maintain the closest possible contact with her. Another strange
custom of theirs was never to remove dust or earth from their feet,
on the grounds that it would be desecration.
Thus, oak and earth formed the nucleus of the earliest cult at
Dodona, which lasted until about the thirteenth century b.c. Zeus did
not arrive there until after the oak, but he was the newer god and
stronger, greater and more powerful than the earth-goddess Gaea
and her sacred tree. His female consort Dione, who accompanied
him, became the new earth-goddess in place of Gaea. (Dione is
the feminine version of the name Dios.)
At Dodona the new god received the additional name Naios,
possibly an abbreviation for "he who lives in the oak tree." For
the idea that Zeus and his consort Dione dwelt in the tree was con-
stantly stressed, and it was held that the god manifested his will
through the tossing of its massive branches. Dodona must already
have been very ancient when Homer composed his epics about
750 B.C., for he mentions in Book XIV of the Odyssey that Odysseus
asked the sacred foliage of the great oak of Zeus Dodonaeus for
advice as to how he was to journey home to Ithaca.
But how did the holy place come into being in the first place?
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, ever an inquisitive student of early
Western history, visited Dodona in person and questioned the sooth-
GREECE
H7
Dodona
According to Herodotus, these
were the routes taken by the
black doves that flew from
Egyptian Thebes to Dodona
and Siwa.
saying priestesses about the origins of the oracle. They told him
that once upon a time two black doves had flown from Egyptian
Thebes, one to Libya and the other to Dodona. The latter, it was
said, had perched on an oak in Dodona and demanded in human
tones that an oracle sacred to Zeus be established there. The oracle
was duly founded and the branches of the oak became a favorite
haunt of the sacred doves of Zeus. The other bird, which had flown
to Libya, commanded the Libyans to found an oracle sacred to
Ammon, and the Libyans likewise complied. The oracle of Ammon
at the oasis of Siwa in northwest Egypt was also dedicated to Zeus,
as we read in Herodotus's Histories (II, Iv). It was no mere coin-
cidence that Alexander the Great had it in mind to bestow upon
the sanctuary of Dodona the enormous sum of 1,500 talents (the
equivalent of 9 million Attic drachmas or between fifteen and
sixteen million dollars), and that he undertook the perilous march
to the oasis of Siwa in order to visit his "father" Zeus-Ammon.
Alexander also planned to build a huge Temple of Zeus at Dodona,
but his premature death put an end to the project.
At Dodona, as in the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, one
forgets only too easily that this is a holy place and that one is
standing on holy ground. The ancient abode of the earth-goddess
148 THE SILENT PAST
Gaia and the oak became the abode of Zeus and Dione. Zeus held
sway there for twenty centuries until, about a.d. 350, he forfeited
his sovereignty. Yet even today an aura of sanctity permeates the
silent ruins in the bright and open valley, and even now they tell
the story of their strange and fascinating past.
GREECE
LATEST NEWS OF DODONA
At first, so I was told at Dodona, the Pelasgians used to offer all
sacrifice and prayer to the gods without giving any one of them a
7iame because they had not yet heard of one. . . . After a long
tiffie had elapsed they learned the naynes of the gods from Egypt.
. . . Then, after a further period, they sought a divine decision
about the na?jies at Dodona, for that oracle is held to be the oldest
oracle of the Hellenes and was at that time the only one. When,
therefore, the Felasgians sought a decision at Dodona as to whether
they should use the names which they had got from the barbarians,
the oracle gave voice: ''Use ye them!'" So from thenceforth they
used the names of the gods when sacrificing, and the Hellenes in
turn received them frofn the Pelasgians.
—Herodotus, Histories, I, Hi
soTiRis DAKARis, who has dcvotcd his life to a study of the
Greeks' most mysterious sanctuary, conducted me through the
whole district of Dodona. It is a place where life has long since
ebbed. It is one of mankind's earliest and most important sites of
religious activity, yet few people visit it.
Dodona boasts one of the finest and most imposing amphitheatres
in the world. Next to it is a building whose significance has not yet
been determined. Its perimeter walls have already been laid bare,
but only test diggings have been carried out so far. It may have been
an adyton or cult chamber corresponding to the holy of holies, or
it may, alternatively, have been the enkomitirion used by pilgrims
for the "temple sleep" in which they were visited by oracular dreams.
There is a pilgrimage site of this type at Epidaurus. Only a few yards
away from the building can be seen the foundation walls of the sanc-
tuary itself, the oracle of the Greeks' oldest god, around which are
scattered the ruins of several smaller temples together with the
remains of a much more recent Christian basilica.
It is a scene that effectively conveys the impermanence of human
handiwork and the remoteness of God from all human considera-
tions. At some stage, probably between a.d. 360 and 370, the
Christians dethroned Zeus, destroyed his temple and silenced the
sacred oak forever. Then they built the basilica to their own
god, only to see life in the valley extinguished for a second time
149
I50 THE SILENT PAST
by the constant depradations of warlike tribes. About 550 the
church was destroyed, although its walls continued to point at
the sky, lonely and neglected, until at long last even they collapsed.
Torrents gnawed at the stones, earth clothed the ruins, and ulti-
mately everything was blotted out.
The sacred oak, of course, was not enclosed in a temple. The
earliest rites of Zeus were performed in the open air around the
tree, which was surrounded by bronze tripods supporting caldrons.
When the caldrons brushed together or were struck by hand the
vibrations were taken up by each in turn, filling the air with sound.
The Greek expression dodona'wn chalkeion, meaning "Dodonaean
bronze," was used to describe loquacity because these caldrons
continued to reverberate for a long time after being struck. The
metal drums did not always make the same sound, however. Their
tone varied with the way they were struck, with the wind, and
with the temperature and humidity of the air, and it was from the
nature of the reverberations that priests and priestesses interpreted
the oracle and translated it into words.
This, at least, is how we think the oracle of Dodona functioned,
although we cannot be certain because Aristotle, writing between
335 and 323 B.C., declared that there were not as many tripods
in the sanctuary as one might suppose. Aristotle described
a votive offering from Corfu which consisted of two pillars. On
one of them stood a caldron and on the other a bronze statue of a
boy with a whip in his hand. The chains suspended from the whip
hung free, so that with every breath of wind they touched the
caldron, producing a sound which was interpreted as an oracle.
Korkyraion mast'ix or "whip of the Corcyrans" was yet another
idiomatic expression for loquacity.
Numerous fragments of bronze tripods were found during ex-
cavations at Dodona. These pieces of bronze date from the eighth
century b.c, and Dakaris infers from them that the sanctuary was
surrounded by bronze vessels at that period. This would correspond
with a report by the Athenian historian Demon (circa 330 e.g.),
who related that the sanctuary of Zeus originally had no walls but
was fenced in with tripods.
Homer's references to Dodona are based on conditions prevailing
in the thirteenth century b.c, the time of Mycenae. Once again,
archaeology confirms the truth of what used to be regarded as the
GREECE
151
Plan of Dodona
product of poetic imagination, for many of the objects dug up at
Dodona date from that period. They are principally votive offerings
such as pots, stone mattocks and Mycenaean weapons. But Dodona
goes back even further into the mists of prehistory. Excavation has
brought to light even older finds, and it is now recognized that the
sacred precincts were already the home of a religious cult as early
as 1900 or 2100 B.C.
All these finds are cult objects of varying sizes. Where archi-
152 THE SILENT PAST
tectural remains are concerned, on the other hand, nothing earlier
than the fourth century b.c. has been found. Nevertheless, what has
been discovered— and above all the holy of holies, the temple itself —
is breathtaking enough.
The oldest temple, built in the fourth century b.c, measured
only 2 1 feet by igYz- It consisted of a cella and a small projecting
structure without pillars. Between 350 and 325 b.c. a low wall of
uniform stones was built, forming a largish courtyard enclosing the
sacred precincts once occupied by the tripods. On its southeast
side a sensational discovery was made— perhaps the most sensational
of all the revelations of Dodona. Sotiris Dakaris came upon a deep
pit in the natural rock containing hewn stones which had evidently
belonged to an altar, and a few votive offerings. It was the cavity
that had once housed the mighty roots of the sacred oak! The oak
must, therefore, have existed, and the Christians were so anxious to
eradicate it that they removed the roots that represented the vital
link between the abode of Zeus and the earth itself. So Dakaris
has positively identified the exact location of the oak which was
until recently often dismissed as a fable, and we now possess, through
the medium of his published findings in the great Pyrsos Encyclo-
pedia, an idea of this mysterious cult site dedicated to the supreme
god of ancient Greece.
Pyrrhus of Epirus, the famous Molossian king who ruled from
297 to 272 B.C. and was the last Greek leader to resist the Romans
successfully, replaced the enclosure around the oak with a much
larger wall forming a rectangular courtyard measuring 68 feet by
62. This courtyard, whose eastern side was left free for the sacred
tree, incorporated a hall with Ionic pillars in its interior.
A small Doric temple with four pillars was erected at about the
same time, probably for the cult of Heracles, together with another,
Ionic temple with vestibule dedicated to the cult of Dione, wife of
Zeus Dodonaeus.
On a hill to the north of the sanctuary stood the old city, today
known as Palaeokastrion, crowned by an acropolis built of uniform
stones. This fortress was fortified by ten wall turrets and two corner
towers. The wall of the acropolis that faced the temples had only
one rectangular tower built into it to enhance its appearance when
seen from the sacred buildings in the valley 100 feet below.
Like the acropolis, the theatre also came into being during the
GREECE 153
reign of King Pyrrhus. It is a true architectural masterpiece, larger
than that of Epidaurus and the best-preserved edifice of its kind
in Greece.
The builders carved the enormous semicircle out of the solid
rock, displaying an almost frightening disregard of practical diffi-
culties. The theatre is divided by two precipitous gangways into
three levels containing 21, 16 and 21 tiers of stone seats respectively
—58 in all. The lowest semicircle in the theatre, known as the
proedria, was reserved for privileged spectators. Between the lowest
semicircle and the orchestra, or stage, was a narrow gangway 3 Yz
feet wide with a groove running along it. This was a channel for
the rainwater that accumulated there from all over the theatre, in-
cluding the orchestra, and unobtrusively drained away. Beneath
the gutter in the drainage cavity were found stalactites up to 8
inches long, evidence of 2,200 years' growth.
Ten steps led from the orchestra to the spectators' seats. The
theatre held 18,000 spectators, and if all its seats were placed side
by side they would stretch for nearly 4/2 miles. The audience
could gaze down at the orchestra or past it into the blue vistas
of one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. The stage itself
was backed by a wide hall supported by thirteen octagonal pillars.
A stone proscenium or antestage was added later, supported by
eighteen Ionic half pillars. In the center of the orchestra stood
the foundation stone of the altar or tymele, which still survives
today. It should be remembered that the twin origins of the
theatre were drama and religion, and that dances and songs used to
be performed around the altar. Choros was, in fact, the Greek word
for "dance."
During the reign of Augustus the Romans modified the theatre's
shape and turned it, typically enough, into a circus. They did not,
however, succeed in destroying the building's chiseled beauty and
strength. To increase the size of the orchestra they removed the
first five tiers of seats and built a nine-foot-high wall between the
orchestra and the crescent-shaped auditorium to protect the specta-
tors. This made it possible to stage duels, gladiatorial contests and
fights with wild animals. At the extremities of the arena one can
still make out the stone cells where trained or savage beasts were
kept in preparation for the slaughter to follow. Large quantities
of bones have been found there. In addition, the layer of chalk
154 THE SILENT PAST
beneath the orchestra was threaded with natural cavities, though
it is impossible to say for what they were used.
The huge semicircle of the theatre is bounded at either end by
massive buttresses and further strengthened by three monumental
towers. A flight of steps leads up through the first tower to the
middle and upper sections of the crescent, the latter being on the
same level as the acropolis. Acropolis, theatre and sanctuary thus
formed a unified and magnificent complex of buildings protected
by an immense exterior courtyard. It was a fortified area of vast
proportions and one that must have evoked the admiration and
envy of the entire ^vorld in the third century b.c.
I have looked down on the theatre from above and felt my head
swim with vertigo. I have also sat in the extreme corner of one
of the highest tiers. Wherever the eye turns, there is a harmony and
elegance about the theatre's lines and perspectives. Looking up from
the stage, one can see the seats towering up and away into the
brightness of the sky. It is a breathtakingly beautiful spectacle.
For some reason— probably a violent earthquake— the massive stone
blocks composing the spectators' benches had been thrown into
disorder. Dakaris has restored them to their original position, a very
laborious task even with the help of modern engineering equipment.
Dodona's amphitheatre fills the puny mortals who stand before
its massive bulk with a sense of wonder and admiration. It helps us
to understand why the dramatists of the West are still feeding on
the unquenchable source of inspiration provided by a small nation
which, two and a half thousand years ago, evolved all the basic
themes that are still in use today. Far from increasing in beauty
since then, stages and theatres have become no more than wretched
little huts in comparison with their grandiose predecessors.
When Pausanias, the Greek traveler and geographer, visited
Dodona about a.d. 150, the great oak was still standing, the oracle
was still giving voice and the Roman emperors had rebuilt all that
their own legions had destroyed during the conquest of Epirus.
Two hundred years later, the world's earliest place of pilgrimage
stood desolate and forlorn, and the people who lived on the hill
above the sanctuary had fled to loannina.
loannina stands dreaming by the lake a few miles northeast of
Dodona, a small and remote Balkan township with white walls and
gray roofs. Expert craftsmen, carpet knotters, weavers, embroiderers
GREECE 155
and probably the best silversmiths in Greece live in this rugged,
industrious, garrulous and congenial place. Anyone who ascends
the hill overlooking the town and visits the Asian Aga mosque, now
a museum, can discover in the relics displayed there the wonder
that was once Dodona.
If we could only look down on our little world in a godlike and
timeless fashion we should see that life crawls across it at an almost
imperceptible pace. Abandoning Dodona, it moved on to loannina
and soared to a splendid prime there. loannina became the capital
of Epirus and the seat of venerable archbishops. It was annexed to
Serbia, was conquered by sultans and witnessed desperate Christian
uprisings. Under Ali of Tepeleni it became a world-famous center
of learning whose schools taught Greek literature, Latin, French
and other branches of knowledge. Pressing onward, history left the
town in its wake. loannina struggled for mastery over the whole of
Greece. Emissaries from France, England and Russia met there and
shared Lord Byron's admiration for the place.
Growing apprehensive that one pasha should command so much
power, the Turkish government besieged Ali in the fortress above
the town. Finally he surrendered, and on February 22, 1822, was
treacherously assassinated on an island in the lake, ordering with
his last breath that his wife should be killed to prevent her falling
into the hands of his enemies. His severed head \\'as publicly dis-
played in loannina, and the inhabitants filed silently past their
former master. Ninety-one years later, on the anniversary of his
murder, loannina was recaptured by the Greeks.
loannina weaves the tapestry of its life from timeless threads,
but twelve miles away in the lonely valley of Dramissos the bare
brown mountains face the sky in mute inquiry. Who tore the
ancient oak from the bosom of its mother earth? Why was the
plaintive voice of the bronze caldrons stilled? Where did the priests
go, and how did the priestesses meet their end? And why did Zeus,
the god in whose language our New Testament was composed, leave
heaven and earth forever without hope of resurrection?
SPAIN
ATLANTIS, FACT OR FICTION?
Thus the muddy shallows and the estuary show that Plato
visualized his island of Atlantis on the coast of the Western Ocea^i,
and he is ki?id enough to satisfy our curiosity as to whether it
was the Libyan or the Iberian or the Celtic coast. He says that
PoseidoTj's second son Eiimelos was also called Gadeiros and that
Gadeiros's allotted (eastern) end of the island of Atlantis lay near
the Pillars of Heracles and extended into the region of Gades.
That is his sole fairly precise topographical allusion to Atlajitis, but
it is of inestimable value.
—Adolf Schulten, Tartessos,
p. 98, Hamburg, 1950
OF ALL the vanished civihzations of man, Atlantis is possibly the
most intriguing. The question of whether Atlantis is only a legend
or whether the story of the remote island is based on fact was a
bone of contention even in antiquity. Aristotle, for example, re-
garded all the accounts of Atlantis as pure fiction, whereas Posidonius
took it for granted that Atlantis actually existed at one time.
The fascination which Atlantis has always exercised over men's
minds originated in their yearning for a climatically mild, fertile
land of the unknown, in their escapist longing for a better world
untroubled by mundane cares. The Greek poet Hesiod, who lived
about 700 B.C., was the first to write of the Islands of the Blest.
Sickened by years of civil strife, the famous Roman poet Horace
counseled his fellow men to go in search of the arva beata or
"blessed fields." Sertorius, who served as a praetor in Spain in
83 B.C., heard master mariners from Gades, the present-day Cadiz,
tell of "fortunate isles" in the Atlantic Ocean— probably Madeira
and the Canary group. The Sicilian writer Diodorus went so far as
to give a glowing description of Madeira, probably based on reports
by the explorer Pytheas of Massiha (Marseilles), who toured
northern Europe about 325 B.C. and reached the Shetland and Orkney
islands. As the author of a book entitled The Ocean (unfortunately
not extant) Pytheas probably gave an account of Madeira's wonder-
fully mild and temperate climate and its extremely fertile soil. From
Homer to Daniel Defoe and Thor Heyerdahl, poets, explorers and
sailors have always dreamed— in company with their readers— of
faraway islands, perilous or paradisiac.
156
SPAIN 157
Was Atlantis an island, a distant continent, or a mainland region
that seemed like an island?
The world has had to wait until our own day before seeing a
ray of light shed on the mystery surrounding the country and its
inhabitants. Ever since Columbus discovered a new continent in
the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, there has been a tendency to equate
America with Atlantis. Despite the hundreds of volumes devoted to
solving the riddle of Atlantis, recent scientific research into the
subject justifies yet another attempt to define the Atlantides and
their culture geographically, for there is abundant evidence that
Atlantis existed. Troy, too, would have been an "Atlantis" had no
one dug it up!
The most celebrated reference to the city and island of Atlantis
is to be found in the writings of Plato, who was born in May of
the year 427 b.c. The son of an aristocratic Athenian family, he
received a first-rate and comprehensive education. He might well
have become a great statesman, but a study of political events in
Greece convinced him of a truth which was destined never to lose
its validity: that the social and political conditions of a country
will never improve until politicians become philosophers or the
destinies of a nation are controlled by philosophers with statesman-
like qualities. The word "philosopher" is not, of course, used here
in the strictly technical sense. We are dealing with the well-proved
fact that politics and statesmanship are not merely special branches
of knowledge but rooted in human wisdom.
Plato wrote poems, epigrams, dithyrambs and tragedies, but his
true immortality arose out of his friendship with Socrates, the unique
genius whose teachings he enriched with the fruits of a deeper and
more widely based education. After Socrates' execution in the year
399 B.C., Plato traveled to Megara, southern Italy and Syracuse,
where, at the court of the tyrant Dionysius I, he formed an intimate
friendship with that ruler which endured until the latter's death.
Plato was the originator of higher education in western Europe,
for with his Academy, a school of philosophy outside the gates of
Athens named after the hero Academos, he laid the foundations of
all future universities. He taught there without fee until his death
in the year 347 b.c, displaying true charity and self-sacrifice in his
constant quest for the truth. Plato was, to put it crudely, the in-
ventor of the "idea." He realized that human life and endeavor are
158 THE SILENT PAST
focused far more on the ideal than the material, and recognized the
existence of "ideals" as such. This was Plato's extremely simple but
grandiose discovery. He had faith in the immortality of the soul
and strove to find evidence for that faith. His assertion that virtue
was something real and imperishable was not a universally accepted
truism four hundred years before Christ's birth, but he realized
that material things perish while only what is intangible and ideal
survives. He also knew that eternal moral values are not determined
simply by the arbitrary whim of the individual but denote the
existence of a more perfect world divorced from the specious reality
of material objects. Thus Socrates and Plato must be numbered
with men like Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed and Paul among the
truly great geniuses of history, overshadowed only by the incom-
parable figure of Christ.
In addition to his passionate defense of Socrates, his Protagoras,
a book on the communicability of virtue, his works on piety, love
and immortality, Plato wrote two treatises which convey an idea
of the lost island, vanished city or country of Atlantis. They are
entitled Timaeiis and Critias.
The work was really intended to be a trilogy, but for reasons
unknown to us the philosopher never came to write the third or
concluding volume, and even the second, Critias, remained un-
completed. Plato wrote these essays while Athens was going through
a critical period, probably intending to console his fellow mortals
with the picture of a remote and better world. It was a bold under-
taking. He recounted the story of mankind's earliest beginnings
and described the nature of man and his physical and moral con-
stitution—a colossal and all-embracing design. Timaeiis and Critias
cannot be compared to his most brilliant works, as, for example, the
Symposiimi. They are not purely literary in conception and their
often dry and didactic flavor robs them of any element of drama.
All in all, there are few more difficult books to assess in the whole
of ancient literature, even though the knowledge and human insight
contained in them is beyond praise.
Generations of scholars have puzzled over the contents of this
unfinished work. Albert Rivaud, professor at the Sorbonne, declared
in 1956 that it embodied not only ancient traditions but also the
results of the latest contemporary research carried out during Plato's
lifetime. That a distinguished French scholar who had spent decades
SPAIN 159
studying the Platonic texts should reach this conclusion is most
significant because it invests the geographical and ethnological
allusions in the two books with greater weight.
It is possible that as an old man Plato wanted what was probably
the last literary work in his prolific life to transport him in advance,
as it were, to the Islands of the Blest.
Was Plato's Atlantis no more than poetic fiction? Was his account
of a happy island that ruled the world merely a sympathetic re-
furbishing of legends handed down from the dawn of prehistory?
Or did he have factual knowledge of a vanished city and empire,
of a vanished Atlantic civilization? The pupils who immediately
succeeded the great philosopher accepted the entire account of
Atlantis as fact rather than fiction. Grantor, who lived between 335
and 275 B.C. and taught philosophy at the Academy, was the first to
write a commentary on Plato's Timaeus. The philosopher, scientist
and historian Posidonius (circa 100 b.c.) also tells us that Plato
probably based his accounts on real knowledge and actual events.
In later times, scholars and adventurers of every nationality made
repeated attempts to ascertain the location of Atlantis. It has been
sought in every part of the world, from America to Australia, from
Spitsbergen to England, from Helgoland to the southern coasts of
Africa, from India to the Far East.
In 161 1 Thomas Campanella, an Italian Dominican, described a
"sun city" composed of seven circles divided by walls and ditches—
an arrangement strongly reminiscent of the capital of Plato's Atlantic
realm. Campanella later atoned for his "heretical theories" by
spending thirty years in the dungeons. Francis Bacon asserted that
Plato's Atlantis was none other than America, but died in 1628
before he could complete a book entitled Nova Insula Atla?Jtis. The
Swedish scholar Olf Rudbek wrote in 1675 that Plato's allusions
fitted no other place on earth so accurately as Sweden and, in
particular, Uppsala and its environs. (Rudbek was Rector of Uppsala
University.) Georg Caspar Kirchmaier suggested at Wittenberg in
1685 that Atlantis lay in South Africa, while Jean Sylvain Bailly
declared in London in 1779 that the Atlantis of antiquity was really
the Nordic island of Spitsbergen. Undeterred by the fact that
Plato's island sank beneath the waves, Bailly explained that Spits-
bergen had only been "frozen up," not engulfed by the sea. In the
same year Jean Baptiste Claude Delisle de Sales transposed Atlantis
i6o THE SILENT PAST
to the island of Sardinia. In 1762 F. C. Bar found it in Palestine,
Bartoli in Attica. In 1838 Gottfried Stallbaum, author of several
commentaries on Plato's works, declared that the Egyptians and
their Asian neighbors had an obscure tradition concerning a Western
continent, namely America, and that the latter was Atlantis. The
French scholar Cadet surmised that there were traces of the sunken
island in the Canary Islands or the Azores.
One of the wildest and most fantastic theories was put forward
by the American Augustus Le Plongeon, who declared that the
Maya race had recorded the downfall of Atlantis as early as 2500
B.C., and that it had taken place 11,500 years earlier. The famous
student of Africa, Leo Frobenius, concluded from the results of his
scientific work and numerous travels that the vanished city must
have stood somewhere in the neighborhood of Benin in Nigeria. Pro-
fessor Dr. H. H. Borchardt believed that Atlantis once existed in
Tunis. Professor Albert Herrmann conducted excavations in Shott
el Djerid in southern Tunisia and found remains of settlements
"which are peculiarly reminiscent of Plato's city of Atlantis."
Finally, mention must be made of two Germans, Professor
Hermann Wirth of Marburg, who identifies Atlantis with a Stone-
Age realm of Nordic civilization located near Iceland, and Pastor
Jiirgen Spanuth, who is convinced that Atlantis lies in the North
Sea near Helgoland. Spanuth believes that while diving in the
shallows northeast of the island he has seen ruined fortifications
belonging to the ancient citadel thirty or forty feet below the sur-
face. Twelve of the blocks of flint which Spanuth brought up,
under the impression that they revealed signs of human handiwork,
were examined by the Institute of Geology at Kiel University. The
Department of Marine Geology found, however, that the plate-
shaped stones had been split naturally and not by human agency.
Anyone attempting to solve the mystery would be well advised
to stick closely to Plato's text. While traveling in Egypt, he reported,
Solon learned to his astonishment how far back the Egyptians'
knowledge of history went. Apparently an Egyptian priest had
confided certain secrets to him. We read in Timaeus (25 and 26):
In those days one could sail through this sea. In front of the straits,
the Pillars of Heracles [Gibraltar], there was an island. This island was
larger than Libya and Asia combined. The travelers of those times
could voyage from this island to the other islands, and from the other
[40] No one will
ever know the iden-
tity of the man
buried in Shaft
Grave IV at My-
cenae, but he wore
this gold mask over
his face. Excavated
by Heinrich Schlie-
mann, it is now on
display in the Na-
tional Museum at
Athens.
[41] Solid gold
rhyton in the shape
of a lion's head.
This ritual vessel
was beaten out of
a single sheet of
metal and is a re-
markably fine work
of art. It was also
discovered in Shaft
Grave IV in the
citadel of Mycenae
and dates from the
i6th century B.C.
[42] Head of a bull vaulter in ivory, found in the
palace of Knossos (circa 1550 B.C.). This fragment is
part of a complete bull-vaulting group, but the re-
mainder of the sculpture is lost.
[43] Spouted jug and cup decorated with the double
ax, a sacred emblem in ancient Crete. These fine
pieces were found in the New Palace at Phaistos.
(Circa 1500 b.c.)
[44I This bronze statuette of a man praying from
Tylissos, Crete, was made around 1550 B.C. and shows
the stance customarily adopted during prayer. The
figurine is only 6 inches tall.
[45 1 Bull vaulting held a religious significance for the
people of ancient Crete, who trained girls and boys
in the technique from an early age. Since men were
always painted in red and women in white, we can
tell that two girls (left and right) and one boy (center)
were taking part in the dangerous maneuver illustrated
here. (Fresco in a small courtyard in the east wmg
of the palace of Knossos, circa 1500 b.c.)
I .III! i.-',i,'*\l**,»^< » IJsrr^
... i H ^v'^.¥ii:t<f?^m^ih\\\*Uu
'V.
tf
. u III I m 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 11 11 n .: - . . 1 1 1 i 1 1 i 1 1 1 i H 1 1 1 n H 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 lYiVi 11 1 ii 1 1 11 1 11 1 mi 1 1 s i^.* 1 1 n 1 m 1 1 1'
[46] The so-called temple grave at Knossos, beneath which lies a pillared vault.
Visible in the background are the forecourt and entrance hall.
[47] Throne room in the palace of Knossos. The throne and benches are of alabaster
and the frescoes painted in vivid colors. The chamber has been restored with
complete accuracy.
m.'
r
^.^^:^<^
^^^
^-^
[48] The stadium at Delphi, site of the Pythian Games. This view shows the
track and spectators' benches.
[49] On the right, the massive Temple of Apollo at Delphi; on the left, the amphi-
theatre. Built in the 2nd century B.C., it had thirty-five tiers of seats and could hold
5,000 spectators— not many compared with the 16,000 seats in the Theatre of
Dionysus at Athens.
[50] Caryatid composed of three young girls holding up their short robes as they
dance. They are wearing the polos, a hair style common to priestesses.
[51] Figure of an Amazon on the Athenian Treasury at Delphi, sculpted about 500 b.c.
[52] Portrayed on the frieze on the north face of the Siphnian Treasury are the god
Apollo, the goddess Artemis and a fleeing giant. The treasury was dedicated to the
Delphic sanctuary by the people of the island of Siphnos.
^^
[53] Fivefold enlargement of a remarkably fine seal dating from 420 b.c. (The original
is only i Vz inches in diameter.) It was found south of loannina in the neighborhood of
the Dodona oracle. The relief shows Orestes and his mother Clytemnestra, who has
been stabbed in the heart with a dagger and is seeking refuge on the altar. Orestes is
trying to drag her from it in order to complete the revenge of his father Agamemnon's
murder.
i^..
[54] These stone mattocks are over 3,500 years old. They were found in the oracle
of Dodona and offer evidence that the sanctuary came into existence before 2000 b.c.
[55] An example of the most durable pottery ever made in Greece, this Minyan bowl
of gray clay dates from the period 1900- 1700 b.c. The Minyans were the people who
built the domed graves at Orchomenos, and whose culture immediately pre-dated the
Mycenaean period. This vessel was found in the Dodona district and is now in the
Archaeological iMuseum at loannina.
• ,' 1- • ' • " / • ' . • ' » » " > * *^ »
[56! This Phoenician sculpture from circa 500 b.c. was discovered in San Fernando,
not far from Cadiz. The features are distinctly Phoenician with a Nubian admixture,
and the subject may have been brought to Spain by the Carthaginians.
SPAIN i6i
islands they could reach the whole continent on the far shores of the
sea which really merits its name [Atlantic]. On the one side, in the
interior of the straits of which we speak, there appears to be only a
harbor with a narrow entrance. On the other side, without, there lies
this real sea. The land which it encloses must be described as a continent
in the true sense of the term. On this island of Atlantis kings had founded
a large and wonderful empire which ruled the whole island and many
other islands and parts of the continent. It possessed in addition, on our
side, Libya [Africa west of Egypt] and Europe down to the Tyrrhenian
[western Italy]. In later times there were frightful earthquakes and
inundations in Atlantis, and during a single day and a single terrible
night the island of Atlantis sank beneath the sea and vanished. Because
of obstruction by deep silt, the submerged remnants of the vanished
island, the ocean there is difficult to navigate to this day and can hardly
be explored.
In Critias (114) Plato goes on to say that the island's earliest king
was called Atlas and that it was he who gave the island and the whole
ocean their names. His twin brother was given the extreme tip of
the island near the Pillars of Heracles and opposite the Gadeiran
region— hence Gadeiros, his name in the language of the country.
So Atlantis can only be located somewhere m jront of the
Pillars of Heracles, i.e. to the west of Gibraltar, not in the Medi-
terranean but on the Atlantic coast in the area of Gades, the present-
day town of Cadiz, and the "Gadeiran region" must therefore be
assumed to be somewhere north of it.
The writers of antiquity rarely gave entirely imaginary geo-
graphical details or ones which were completely at odds with the
facts because they had a highly developed sense of topography.
From the time Schliemann excavated Troy and Evans unearthed
Knossos, modern archaeology has repeatedly supplied proof that
the directions of ancient writers can be followed, and that even
poetically embellished topographical allusions were not entirely
fabricated. It is dangerous therefore to dismiss Plato's accounts as
pure fantasy, especially in an age when sensational archaeological dis-
coveries have been made on the basis of ancient sources. Apart
from that, well-known geographical details are rarely tacked onto
a purely imaginary location. The "Gadeiran region," the Pillars of
Heracles and the words "without, there lies this real sea" are rela-
tively precise directions, which is why German scholars as meticu-
1 62 THE SILENT PAST
lous as Richard Henning and Adolf Schulten have insisted that
Plato's description of Atlantis is based on concrete facts.
The late Professor Schulten devoted fifty years of his life to an
historical and archaeological study of Spain. In 1940, on his
seventieth birthday, the University of Barcelona bestowed an honor-
ary doctorate on him. He also received the highest Spanish decora-
tion for cultural services, the Grand Cross of the Order of
Alfonso X.
While reading Appian's Iberica one night in Gottingen during the
winter of 1901-02, Schulten was struck by the detailed description
of the siege of Numantia by Publius Cornelius Scipio in the year
133 B.C. As soon as an opportunity presented itself, Schulten set
off for the Douro, where he carefully scrutinized a hill near its
banks. At 2 p.m. on August 12, 1905, he and his six laborers began
to dig, and four hours later he had discovered Nurmantia, the lost
Iberian city which people had been vainly seeking for centuries.
By autumn 1908 Schulten had also excavated Scipio's seven camps.
He published his archaeological findings in five volumes, wrote a
geographical, ethnographical and historical survey of the Iberian
Peninsula and a study of Iberian customs, edited twelve volumes
of classical references to the peninsula complete with Spanish com-
mentary, and wrote a book about the Etruscan city of Tarragona.
He also identified Atlantis with the city of Tartessus.
In order to prove that Tartessus and Atlantis were identical, we
must first examine what is known of Tartessus and establish the
possible location of the city or country of that name.
All sources indicate that Tartessus should be sought in the south
or southwest of Spain; that is to say, in modern Andalusia. Andalusia
has always been and still is to this day the richest part of the Iberian
Peninsula. Indeed, classical authors regarded it as the richest country
in the world. Baetica, as Andalusia used to be called, was praised
for its fertility by Pliny about a.d. 100. Posidonius has left us a
description of Tartessus preserved in the first and second chapters
of Strabo's third book,
Posidonius tells us that the banks of the Baetis (the Guadalquivir's
original name) were densely populated, and that the river was
navigable for 1,200 stadia (135 miles), from the sea to Cordoba and
a little beyond. The land near the river was intensively cultivated.
Posidonius mentions olive groves and large plantations, and tells
SPAIN 163
us that "Turdetania" was extremely rich in exportable goods such
as wax, honey, pitch and ruddle. Ships were built of indigenous
wood, and there was an abundance of oysters, mussels and fish.
Turdetania and the adjoining regions were particularly rich in
metals; in very few places in the ancient world were gold, silver,
copper and iron available in such quantity or quality. Posidonius
goes on to describe the extraction of gold, silver, copper and tin.
Even though we read his reports at second hand in Strabo, the
latter's pages are illuminated by the lively style of the original. The
wealth of Tartessus lay principally in the mountains of Andalusia,
the Sierra Morena, whose mineral resources are still not exhausted
at the present day. Strabo gives some almost incredible details of the
Iberian El Dorado, a place where Phoenician sailors exchanged their
leaden anchors for anchors of silver, and whose precious metals
found their way into the treasuries at Olympia and Delphi. Southern
Spain is the home of one of the oldest mining industries in the
Western world. It was probably in the valley of the Baetis, near the
copper mines of Rio Tinto, that copper was first alloyed with tin
to make bronze. And Tartessus was a metropolis which stood bv the
sea somewhere in the estuary of the Guadalquivir. It was the prede-
cessor of Seville and an international seaport like Lisbon, Bordeaux,
Antwerp, Hamburg or London.
The city was founded about 1150 B.C. by seafarers from the
ancient Lydian city of Tursa, which, incidentally, is not to be
confused with Tyre, the famous Phoenician port on the Mediter-
ranean coast of what is now Syria. Gades, present-day Cadiz, was
established by the Phoenicians as a trading station on the southwest
coast of Spain.
Tursa, on the other hand, has vanished from the face of the
earth. This is a great misfortune, because if we could find and exca-
vate Tursa we miorht have a clearer idea of where the Etruscans came
from, for the Tyrseni or Tyrrheni, Strabo tells us, were the race
whom we know by the later, Roman, name Etruscans. Strabo adds
that the Tyrrhenians were of Lydian stock and came from Asia
Minor. Lydia occupied the center of modern Turkey's southern
coast and bordered the Aegean. Being a Tyrrhenian colony, Tartes-
sus thus belonged to the Etruscan world. One of the kings of Tartes-
sus was called Arganthonius, a name which in the late Professor
Schulten's opinion is connected with the Etruscan name arcnti.
1 64 THE SILENT PAST
Moreover, Andalusia has a number of Etruscan place names which
come from the Lydian home of the Tyrrhenians. We read in the
Old Testament of the kings of Tarshish and the ships of Tarshish,
noblest of harbors. "The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy
market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the
midst of the seas," writes Ezekiel: xxvii, 25.
The year a.d. 400 saw the appearance of an important work by
Rufus Festus Avienus, a Roman aristocrat and author who described,
for the benefit of a friend, the shores of the Mediterranean from
Spain to the Black Sea. Avienus was a student of ancient geography,
so his picture of these coasts, countries and islands was not a con-
temporary one but based as far as possible on ancient sources. Thus
for his description of the Spanish coast he used a report by a Greek
sailor from Massilia (Marseilles) who undertook a voyage from
Tartessus to Massilia in 530 B.C. His account is of inestimable value,
for he gives a description of the west coast of Europe, then regarded
as the edge of the world, from Gibraltar to the far north. In it we
find the first recorded mention of Albion (England) and references
to Oestrymnis (Brittany), the island of lerne (Ireland) and the
countries of the North Sea, renowned for their amber.
The Greek seaman from Massilia also described the legendary
city of Tartessus, which apparently stood on the west coast of
Spain somewhere near the place where the Guadalquivir joins the
sea. There is a description of the Tartessus River, i.e. the Guadal-
quivir, from its mouth to the "Mountain of Silver." Tartessus ruled
large tracts of the west coast of Spain and its influence extended
deep inland to the metal-rich Sierra Morena. The inhabitants of
Tartessus evolved what was probably the most advanced civilization
in the contemporary Western world.
Wandering through the Andalusian countryside today, one realizes
how magnificent a past the cities of southern Spain once enjoyed,
how rich the country still is, and with what uncanny clarity the
culture of Tartessus still emerges from the numerous objects on
show in museums there.
Did this ancient and still undiscovered city really stand at the
mouth of the Guadalquivir, or is Tartessus identical with modern
Seville? Was it, in any case, the fabulously wealthy metropolis
which Plato called Atlantis?
In the next chapter we shall endeavor to find out.
SPAIN
CITY BENEATH THE SANDS
And so, by assembling all manner of riches in their country, the
inhabitants of Atlantis built temples, palaces for kings, harbors and
dry docks, and in addition developed the whole of the rest of the
country. They built bridges across the curved inlets that enclosed
their native city and so opened up a road to the royal residence
and to the outside. Each king inherited the palace from his pred-
ecessor and enha?7ced what his predecessor had already invested
with such splendor.
—Plato, Critias, 115c
IN EARLIER times— and until about 500 b.c— there lay not far from
the estuary of the Guadalquivir a lake known in the ancient world
as the Lacus Ligustinus. In those days the river flowed from the
lake in three channels, forming several islands or one large island
in the estuary. We learn from Strabo and from Pausanias' works on
travel that later on, between 500 and 100 b.c, the river's outlets
were reduced to two in number because the central channel had
become silted up.
Today the old Lacus Ligustinus is a marsh and the northern outlet
of the Guadalquivir is also silted up and unrecognizable save as a
chain of lagoons. If the island formed by the channels in the estuary
of the Guadalquivir was the Atlantis described by Plato in Critias
and Tiinaeus, a number of things become clear: the floods mentioned
by Plato; the fact that Atlantis or part of Atlantis "vanished into
the sea"; the "deep mud" and the "submerged remnants of the
Island." We can also understand why people have been searching
vainly for the island for two thousand years. The Guadalquivir
leaves the marsh by only one channel now, so the island no longer
exists.
Professor Adolf Schulten hit upon the brilliant notion that the
lost city of Tartessus and ancient Atlantis were identical. He
suggested that the city lay on the island formerly delineated by the
channels of the Guadalquivir— not on the sea side but a mile or two
inland in the hunting grounds now known as the Goto de Dona Ana.
Schulten pointed to the existence of a number of parallels between
the city of Tartessus and the city described by Plato.
165
i66
THE SILENT PAST
^^s. M--jJ
E.v.H.
Tartessus
Plato's Atlantis extended as far as Gades, so Tartessus must have
been somewhere in the immediate vicinity of Cadiz.
According to Critias, the Atlantides' capital stood on an island
enclosed by a triple ring of water: Tartessus stood on an island
between the three mouths of the Baetis, the modern Guadalquivir.
Atlantis was not actually on the coast but stood on a connecting
channel or estuary nearly six miles inland: Tartessus stood on an
island just over six miles north of Sanlucar, a town in the estuary
of the Guadalquivir which serves as an export center for the famous
wine of A4anzanilla. The former island may have extended either
farther into the Atlantic or farther inland, but the vanished city
itself may be assumed to have stood about six miles from the coast
SPAIN
167
in an area which has been greatly altered by the formation of
marshes.
We read in Critias that there was a "moat" one stadium wide
(roughly 200 yards) which split into two arms enclosing a plain
longer than it was broad: the Guadalquivir, whose average width
at this point is 220 yards, flowed through a long plain, divided
at Tartessus, and then flowed into the sea.
Tartessus used to stand on an island.
We also read in Critias that the plain was threaded with canals,
and Strabo describes a similar system of oblique canals in the valley
of the Guadalquivir. Plato's account is extremely precise and for
that reason unlikely to be mere invention. The ancient river-mouth
cities of the Mediterranean seldom installed canal networks of this
kind, but many such canals have been found on the Atlantic coast.
The wealth of Atlantis was reputedly so great that it has never
been rivaled before or since: Tartessus was not only the wealthiest
city in the West but one of the richest cities in the whole of the
contemporary world, and its store of precious metals must have
been fabulous. Critias mentions that silver, gold, iron and copper
were the chief sources of the Atlantides' wealth, a description which
1 68 THE SILENT PAST
would have applied equally well to the city on the Spanish coast.
The sacred bulls mentioned by Plato are an equally consistent
feature, for the bull was a sacred animal in ancient Iberia. The cult
of the bull probably came to Spain from Crete and the Cretan art
of bull vaulting later became transformed into the bullfight.
Atlantis was a great maritime empire whose influence extended
to Egypt and Tyrrhenia, or western Italy: Tartessus must have
been the most powerful maritime power of its day, for the ships
of Tarshish penetrated deep into the Mediterranean and sailed as
far north as Scotland and perhaps even farther.
According to Critias the Atlantides used the river that linked
them with the sea as a harbor: the inhabitants of Tartessus lived
on the landward side of their island and used the Baetis as their
access to the sea, just as the city of Seville, some thirty-eight miles
up the Guadalquivir, does today.
The people of Atlantis were in contact with the "islands of the
ocean" and, via these islands, with the "mainland opposite"
(Timaeus). We do not know if Plato was referring to the islands
of Brittany or to England or even to the American continent, but
sea voyages to continents and islands must have been made by the
ships of Tarshish mentioned in the Old Testament.
The Atlantides' chief sanctuary was a temple by the sea dedicated
to Poseidon. In this temple stood a pillar of oreichalkos or brass
on which were engraved the laws of Poseidon and other official
records. The geographer Strabo tells us that Tartessus had prose
records, poems and laws which were six thousand years old. Both
Schulten and Niebuhr before him recognized the advanced nature
of Tartessus' civilization. Its inhabitants seem to have been among the
most intellectually active people in Europe between r loo and 500 b.c.
Atlantis was a kingdom, a great metropolis whose industries,
trade, bustling activity, docks, large-scale bronze industry, ware-
houses and temple of Poseidon made it a jewel in the crown of the
ancient world. The vanished city of Tartessus must also have been
ruled by kings, for we know two of their names: Geron and
Arganthonius. According to Avienus, Tartessus once possessed a
royal citadel known as the Arx Gerontis, and Plato tells us of a
similar fortress.
Finally, we know from Timaeus and Critias that the island of
Atlantis, having enjoyed a long prime, was suddenly engulfed
SPAIN 169
by the sea during an earthquake. There are two interpretations of
Plato's story. He may have been referring either to the destruction
of the mysterious city of Tartessus by the Carthaginians in 500 B.C.,
or to the fact that the whole area became waterlogged and two of
the three channels of the Guadalquivir dried up.
Adolf Schulten was convinced Atlantis should be equated with
Tartessus. When I visited the elderly scholar at Erlangen in 1956
he advised me to dig, or encourage someone else to dig, on the
former island in the Goto de Dona Ana. There was sadness in his
voice, for his own excavations there had been unsuccessful and
although he yearned for his beloved Spain, he felt too old at eighty-
six to travel and try again.
Between 1922 and 1926 Schulten explored the extensive Goto de
Dona Ana hunting preserves in company with General Lammerer.
At the close of their investigations, Lammerer wrote: "There is no
doubt that in early antiquity a sandy island some 1 8 kilometers long
lay obliquely in front of the estuary of the Guadalquivir, which was
then wider and more lakelike. The banks of the two arms through
which the waters of the Guadalquivir used to flow into the sea
could be distinguished from the surrounding countryside with con-
siderable accuracy."
Schulten, who was the first to explore this area for relics of
Tartessus, had already spent some time in 19 10 combing the shore.
In 1922 he discovered a Roman settlement at Cerro de Trigo, nearly
four miles north of Marismilla, where he unearthed walls and a
number of Roman amphorae. More extensive excavations carried out
between 1923 and 1926 revealed that the Roman settlement covered
an area measuring about 200 by 750 yards. On October 4, 1923,
Schulten found beneath a Roman house a stone on which lay a
copper ring with a Greek inscription on its inner and outer cir-
cumference. The inscription read, roughly: Owner, be -fortunate!
or Guard the ring ivell! Schulten concurred with Professor Rehm
in assuming that the inscription was extremely ancient and dated
from the sixth or even the seventh century B.C.— the days of Greek
voyages to Tartessus.
The Roman settlement dated from a.d. 200-400 and had been
inhabited by fishermen. The finds made there included about twenty
graves, late Roman pottery and amphorae for wine and oil. Indeed,
everything was of Roman origin except the ring. Since ground-
lyo THE SILENT PAST
water starts at five feet in this area, no deeper excavations could be
carried out. A few boreholes sunk to a depth of twenty feet yielded
no trace of any older ruins, but Schulten's view was that the stones
of the Roman fishing village were originally brought partly from
the district of Huelva and partly from Cadiz. Considering that the
town of Sanlucar "was already in existence when the Romans erected
their village, one is tempted to wonder why the fisherfolk did not
get their stones from there, and this leads one to infer that building
materials were available nearer at hand, namely in the ruins of
Tartessus. The people of Tartessus may have brought them by
ship from the area of Huelva and Cadiz, ultimately to be reused by
Roman fishermen 700 years after their city had collapsed in ruins!
Schulten believed that the fishing village was located on the very
site of ancient Tartessus, that it was built of materials taken from
the ruins of Tartessus, and that the latter have been at least partly
absorbed by the village. It is well known that many ancient cities
were built of rubble taken from even more ancient settlements. At
any rate, what Plato says about the location of his Atlantic city is
remarkably consistent with the site which Schulten excavated with-
out success.
Tartessus flourished for 600 years, from 1 100 B.C. until its destruc-
tion in 500 B.C., yet people have been searching for it for two
thousand years. Schulten told me that he thought borings made
fifteen feet or more beneath the Roman settlement could well
prove informative. Further excavations would have to be pursued
with the latest technical aids, although to clear an area of any size
would be a costly business and powerful pumps would be needed
to drain off the groundwater. Schulten insisted that Tartessus lay
buried somewhere beneath the dunes of the Marismilla. If these
dunes were already covering— and therefore protecting— the ruined
city in ancient times there was a distinct hope that sizable remnants
of Tartessus might some day be unearthed.
There is an eerie stillness about the place today. It is a wilderness
of pines, dunes and marshy tracts inhabited by deer, boar and rabbits,
a paradise for the successive owners of the hunting rights. Some-
where in the solitude of the Marismas, Tartessus has slept for 2,500
years. The broad ribbon of the Guadalquivir flows slowly down to
the Atlantic through an infinity of reddish dunes to mingle its
yellow waters with those of the vast ocean beyond
SPAIN 171
But Tartessus is not the only famous estuary city to have vanished.
Somewhere on the coast of Lucania, for example, Sybaris hes
buried beneath the alluvial deposits of the ancient river Crathis.
Digging is equally difficult there because groundwater begins at
a depth of six feet. Yet the city was so wealthy and its inhabitants
so pampered and fastidious that the "sybaritic life" has become
proverbial.
It was tragic that Schulten should have failed in his attempt to
wrest Tartessus from its millennial sleep. He was a true scholar,
not a visionary, as is shown by his discovery and excavation of
Numantia, Scipio's camps and numerous other Spanish sites.
But Tartessus was not just a city; it was also the capital of a
country whose culture is the greatest single archaeological discovery
of the past twenty years. The kingdom of Tartessus embraced the
whole of southern Spain, notably Andalusia, Granada and Murcia.
Professor Schulten was aware of this before he died, and described
the kingdom and its culture as "a marvelous historical phenomenon."
Tartessus was the earliest city-state in the pre-Roman West, and
ruled over towns inhabited by an Iberian, that is to say, pre-Phoeni-
cian and pre-Roman, population. The aristocrats of Tartessus referred
to their Iberian subjects as Turdetanians.
The men of Tartessus must have been lordly beings not unlike
the Spanish noblemen who live in the region today. They loved
hunting, wine and sailing, and owned serfs like their Italian cousins
the Etruscans. We learn from Justin that King Gargoris of Tartessus
was held to be the originator of beekeeping.
Traveling through the south of Spain, through Jerez, Cadiz,
Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Cartagena, one can still sense some-
thing of the spirit of this proud and ancient seafaring race. Iberians,
Etruscans, Phoenicians, Celts, Greeks and Romans all contributed to
the creation of a unique culture in Tartessus. Its works of art in-
variably betray the artistic influence of one or another of these
races to a greater or lesser degree, yet the characteristically "Tartes-
sian" quality nearly always predominates. The cultural heritage of
Tartessus still makes itself felt today. Life in the south has a brisk,
vital flavor born of nearness to the sea. Heir to Tartessus, Seville
boasts the hottest summers in Europe and the loveliest springs, warm
autumns and mild winters, subtropical palms and magnificent gar-
dens that still blaze with color in October, enchanting patios with
172 THE SILENT PAST
little fountains and drowsy nooks. Seville is dominated by one of
the largest and most elaborate Gothic cathedrals in existence. In
Seville one can see how a minaret in the principal Moorish mosque
has become transformed into a Christian campanile, the 305-foot-
high Giralda, and in Seville Cathedral one can stand before the tomb
of Europe's greatest explorer, the discoverer of the New World,
whose remains are said to lie in the sarcophagus which was brought
back to Seville from Cuba after the island's secession in 1898.
The narrow old streets of southern Spain are lined with shops
and craftsmen's establishments very like those of ancient Rome and
Carthage. The bodegas and halls of Jerez still serve dry wines like
those that were drunk there 3,000 years ago, and southern Spain
offers the finest lobsters, cuttlefish, mussels and other more exotic
varieties of seafood prepared much as the people of Tartessus must
have prepared them more than 2,500 years before.
The air is filled with the roar of the breakers as they pound at
the jutting rocks around Cadiz, erstwhile center of the tin and
copper trade, whose walls tower as much as fifty feet into the sky.
And if one listens, in the thunder of the waves, one can almost hear
the ocean singing the ancient song of vanished Atlantis.
SPAIN
THE CIVILIZATION OF TARTESSUS
Written sources define the greatest incentive for the long
voyages made by foreign traders to the Iberian Peninsula as the
riches of the city of Tartessus, gateway to the whole of Southern
Iberia from the Portuguese Algarve to the territories of the
Mastians, where the Punians later established the colony of Nova
Carthago. Tartessus was the center of an area rich in ?nines, cattle
and agriculture. The power of attraction which Tartessus must
once have exerted can be inferred from the location of the
Phoefiician colonies on the Andalusian coast and from the Greeks'
attempt to establish themselves at Mainake, near present-day
Malaga. The discoveries of the past few years— the Valdegamas jug,
the Carriazo bronze and others— present us with an enthralling
problem whose solution coidd well coTifirtn the picture of
Tartessus given by the authors of antiqidty. hi the people of
Tartessus and the TurdetaniaJis, their successors, they saw a people
with an old and major civilization which had expressed itself in
their literature, urban life and social order.
—Antonio Blanco Freijeiro, Madrid
WRITING in the year 1761, a Swedish scholar called Johan Podolyn
related a strange experience. While staying in Madrid he had met
a certain Father Florez, a distinguished numismatist with a thorough
knowledge of his subject. The priest showed Podolyn some rare coins
which had been found in the Azores and went so far as to present
him with a few. What Podolyn learned subsequently was to shed
an interesting light on sea travel in 400 b.c.
One day in November, 1749, a violent Atlantic storm was batter-
ing the coasts of the Azores. On the beaches of Corvo, a small island
only seven square miles in extent, the waves undermined a stone
building and demolished it, revealing a black clay vessel. It was
smashed to pieces, but among the fragments a quantity of coins was
found. Taken to Lisbon, they were later forwarded to Madrid,
where Father Florez had already made his name as a numismatist.
In those days, when archaeology was not as well-founded and
reputable a science as it is now, the majority of such finds were lost.
And, in fact, only nine pieces reached Madrid: two Carthaginian
gold coins and seven copper coins of which five were Carthaginian
and two Cyrenaican.
173
174 THE SILENT PAST
The Azores are generally supposed to have been discovered by
the Portuguese between 1430 and 1460, but the island group must
have been known earlier, since we find it sketched in on a few early
medieval maps. Certainly, sailors had landed in the Azores before
the reign of Alfonso the Magnanimous (14 16-1458). In fact, amaz-
ing as it seems, Punic ships from Carthage must have reached the
islands at the end of the fourth century b.c. It is well known that
the Phoenicians were the greatest navigators of the pre-Christian era.
Nevertheless, the Azores lie more than 1,100 miles out in the Atlantic
Ocean, west of Gibraltar, and the fact that the primitive ships of
the time could have made such a voyage casts an entirely new light
on the range of Phoenician sea travel.
Some authorities, notably Alexander von Humboldt, have sug-
gested that the coins were brought to Corvo in the Middle Ages by
Vikings or Arabs, but there is no evidence that Vikings or Arabs ever
put in at the Azores. Then, too, it is far more likely that the coins
were brought to the islands when they were still accepted currency,
or they would not have been so carefully hidden. Professor Richard
Hennig, who wrote an interesting work on the subject in 1927, con-
cluded that there was absolutely no doubt that the Azores were
visited by Carthaginians. One strange feature is that the Punic-
Phoenician mariners should have put in at the most remote, most
northwesterly, smallest and least fertile island in the whole group.
It is possible that they were cast up on the beach by a storm or were
heading for countries even farther west— North or South America,
perhaps. We do not know, but we can assume that they either meant
to return and collect their buried hoard or never left the island at all,
otherwise they would probably have taken the coins with them.
Since the prevailing current flows in the direction of the Strait of
Gibraltar, it is unlikely that a derelict would have been cast up from
the eastern quarter. The ship which carried the coins must, there-
fore, have been manned. Having sailed from Madeira, Porto Santo,
some port on the coast of southern Spain, or even from Carthage
itself, it had traversed an immense distance, perhaps 1,250 miles.
Such, at least, was the remarkable story told by the nine mute and
abandoned coins.
Mysterious inscriptions in an unknown tongue were said to have
been found with the coins, or so J. Mees reported at Ghent in 1901,
SPAIN
175
Southern Spain
but the engraved tablets have disappeared, whereas Podolyn's original
account at least contained illustrations of the coins.
In the year 1628 a work dealing with Portuguese discoveries in
the Azores was published at Madrid. The author, Manoel de Faria
e Sousa, reported that the Portuguese had discovered an equestrian
statue on a promontory on one of the islands. The mounted figure,
which was pointing westward, was thought to be an effigy of a
heathen deity, and the Portuguese promptly destroyed it in an
excess of religious zeal. Perhaps the Carthaginians had undertaken
a daring voyage farther westward and the statue, whose pedestal
bore an inscription, was intended to commemorate it.
We know that the Phoenician Tyrians founded the city of Gadir
(modern Cadiz) about iioo B.C., but no archaeological finds older
than circa 700 b.c. have been made in the area. We also know that
somewhat to the north of Cadiz was the metal-trading center of
Tartessus, a place which in those days enjoyed almost legendary
renown and was inhabited by people of great artistic ability. Here
again, our only relics of these people go back no farther than 700
or 800 B.C. What makes the location of these two mysterious cities
so interesting is that Cadiz was a Phoenician commercial center,
whereas the vanished city of Tartessus was an Etruscan-Tyrrhenian
metropolis. Thus, two centers of international trade belonging to
176 THE SILENT PAST
two very different cultures were situated quite close together. Only
sixty miles of coastline separates Cadiz from the estuary of the
Guadalquivir, where Tartessus is assumed to have stood.
Until the vanished city, market or harbor of Tartessus is actually
located we shall never know for certain whether Tartessus was only
a market place or harbor at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, whether
the real capital stood farther inland, or whether the name Tartessus
was applied to the whole kingdom. Nevertheless, the fact that our
only evidence of the antiquity of the great Tartessus civilization
consists of written traditions and that archaeological finds belonging
to that civilization are of more recent date does not disprove the
existence of the kingdom of Tartessus.
The Spanish authority Antonio Garcia y Bellido has emphasized
that written accounts given in ancient sources may deserve credence
even if no archaeological evidence is forthcoming, and that the
absence of such evidence is not sufficient reason to discount written
traditions. For instance, Odysseus' palace has never been discovered,
but this does not mean that Homer's assertion that it was in Ithaca
is incorrect. We have found no tangible evidence of the Spaniards'
march across the Andes, through Patagonia and the Amazon jungle
in the sixteenth century, yet we know that it took place. The daring
Spanish explorers Loaisa, Queiros, Mendaiia and Torres left nothing
behind on the islands of the Pacific, but we know that they visited
them. The Vikings who landed on the Atlantic coast of America
in the eleventh century left few archaeologically identifiable traces,
but we know that their voyages to the west are an historical fact.
Any settlement has to survive a number of storms, has to thrive
and eat its way into the ground if it is not eventually to be blotted
out by the passage of time. A myriad traces of human existence have
been swallowed up by the past, and where natural catastrophes,
floods, tidal waves and earthquakes have taken their toll the sites
of whole cities can easily become lost beyond all hope of rediscovery.
So it is a reasonable assumption that the Phoenicians were already
in the far west, in Spain and perhaps even in the Azores before the
eighth or ninth century b.c, and that the Tyrrhenians were living
in the city and kingdom of Tartessus at an even earlier date.
In this connection, mention should be made of some people who
were in contact with Tartessus and whose domain extended far into
the north, to Ireland and the fjords of Norway. These were the
SPAIN 177
Ostimians, principal trading partners (after the Phoenicians) of the
people of Tartessus and spiritual ancestors of the Frisians, Saxons,
Vikings, Dutch and English. Avienus tells us that the Ostimians were
a seafaring race renowned for their hardiness, daring and commercial
enterprise.
It is interesting to note that the Ostimians used large leather-
covered boats. This kind of vessel, which is possibly the earliest type
of boat in the world, appears to have been known along the entire
Atlantic coast from Portugal to the North Sea. The Celtologist
Julius Pokorny informed me that leather boats were also used by
the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland and that the aboriginal Irish
were known to the Celts as Fir-bolg, or "people of the hide-boats."
Dio Cassius, an historian of the imperial age of Rome, stated that the
coastal peoples of the Western Ocean were using leather boats in
his day (xlvii, 18). We do not know if the people of Tartessus used
leather boats of this kind because both wood and leather would
have disintegrated in the course of more than 2,500 years. Much
older boats have survived in Egypt, of course, but only because
they were funerary ships carefully preserved as cult objects in
massive stone chambers. The "ships of Tarshish," by contrast,
formed a commercial link between places hundreds if not thousands
of miles apart and have vanished into the void, either sunk at sea
or burned or destroyed in unidentified ports and harbors throughout
the ancient world. We are told that vessels like these could cover
1,200 stadia (about 135 miles) in twenty-four hours. This not only
indicates that the people of Tartessus possessed sailing ships but is
consistent with Avienus' reference to the fact that a ship entering
Tagus Bay needed first a westerly and then a southerly wind.
Such relics of the Tartessus culture as have been found in the past
few decades are interesting principally because they are a late reflec-
tion of a rich and glorious past. Anyone who sees them will realize
that they date from the evening of a splendid civilization.
On September 30, 1958, workmen on a building site on the hill of
El Carambolo near Seville came upon a priceless hoard consisting
of necklaces, armbands, pendants, breast ornaments and plates which
had once formed a crown or belt. These objects, all made of gold
and twenty-one in number, were evidently the product of a highly
developed goldsmith's technique. Professor Antonio Blanco has
suggested that some of the decorative motifs on these articles of
178 THE SILENT PAST
adornment correspond with those found on Mycenaean vases, ivory
gaming boards from Megiddo and mural paintings in the Assyrian
and Syrian palaces of Khorsabad, Arslan Tash and Tell Barsib. Yet
nowhere else in the world have pieces of jewelry quite like these
come to light!
Kukahn and Blanco believe that the gold plates are more likely
to have been components of a crown than a belt. Similar pieces
have been found in an ancient grave in Cyprus, so it is thought that
the idea of this type of ornamentation may have come from there.
The necklace bears a series of punched impressions reminiscent of
the Phoenician-Punian culture. Despite all these influences, however,
the El Carambolo cache is evidence of an independent and creative
goldsmith's art in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, evidence
of a Tartessus culture which, in the words of the eminent Spanish
scholar mentioned above, "is daily becoming more tangible." The
articles of adornment found at El Carambolo are attributed to the
sixth century b.c. and were deliberately hidden by someone who
scooped out a cavity in the side of the hill and buried them in a
vessel of some kind. Another who concurs with this view is the
Spanish professor J. Maluquer, who thinks that in pre-Christian
times a small house or hut stood on the site of the discovery and that
it was later destroyed by fire.
1953 saw the discovery near Don Benito of a bronze wine jug
which, once again in the words of Antonio Blanco, surpassed in
beauty all vessels of this type found in the Iberian Peninsula so far.
A farm laborer had turned up the jug while plowing a field on the
Valdegamas estate, which adjoins Don Benito. Having no conception
of the value of his find, the peasant threw the jug onto a pile of
firewood. However, after further plowing had revealed the remains
of a house with four rooms of varying sizes less than eighteen inches
beneath the soil, and after fragments of pottery had come to light
among the ruined walls, it was realized that the site had once been
a settlement. The Donoso Cortes family, who owns the Valdegamas
estate, took the bronze jug into safekeeping. Professor Blanco has
identified its style as part Greek, part Phoenician, and attributes it
with a fair degree of certainty to the sixth century b.c. But where
did it come from? Was it manufactured by the Phoenicians of Gadir
or imported from some center of bronze industry outside Spain,
or may the birthplace of such wine jugs have been Etruria in Italy?
SPAIN 179
By the Guadalquivir near Sanlucar de Barrameda lie the fields
of Evora. Some Spanish scholars believe this region to be the site
of the vanished city of Tartessus, and we have already heard that
Professor Schulten of Erlangen placed it only six miles or so to the
north on the Goto de Dona Ana. Be that as it may, the fields of
Evora probably conceal the Roman town of Ebora, which, like so
many thousands of buried settlements, remains unexcavated to this
day. An eight-year-old boy, Francisco Bejarano, found a number
of gold ornaments in freshly plowed soil there and took them to
his father. The articles were soon sold, but the owner of the field
alerted the pohce and the police confiscated the little hoard in the
interests of archaeology. Unfortunately, six of the priceless pieces
had already been melted down and beaten into wedding rings, while
the remainder had been acquired by a silver dealer for 2,565 pesetas.
The Spanish archaeologist Concepcion Blanco de Torrecillas reports
that the cache now consists of forty-seven pieces, richly ornamented
and all of pure gold. A few of them have been bent by the pressure
of the earth and most have lost their inset stones. All of them— arm-
bands, earrings, rings, diadem components, necklace and pendants-
appear to date from the fifth century b.c. Once again there is evi-
dence of part-Greek, part-Oriental-Phoenician influence, and once
again it is uncertain whether these fine pieces were imported or man-
ufactured by an indigenous goldsmith. They may even, so de Torre-
cillas believes, have originated at the court of King Arganthonius
of Tartessus.
In the words of de Torrecillas: "If one knew for certain that
Tartessus lay unrecognized in the heart of the Evora Estate one
would be able to make some extremely interesting excavations there.
But, even though the city still preserves its anonymity, the hoard
recently found there has brought fresh confirmation of earlier sup-
positions about the splendor and advanced culture of this legendary
metropolis, whose walls cannot be far to seek."
On February 29, 1920, laborers found a cache of jewelry in a jar
buried only three feet beneath the ground at La Aliseida on the
northern slopes of the San Pedro Range. They had evidently un-
covered the burial place of an Iberian noblewoman, for the presence
of 194 small dress ornaments implied that the dress itself was once
buried there. Among the fine examples of goldsmith's work in the
cache were a gold headband used for keeping a veil in place, a gold
i8o THE SILENT PAST
diadem, gold earrings, armbands, a 5 3 -piece necklace and a 62-
piece belt of very skilled workmanship— articles which would grace
the window of a modern jeweler.
De Torrecillas, who is a director of the Museum of Archaeology
at Cadiz, showed me a sarcophagus which has raised a number of
archaeological problems. It is a marble coffin shaped to fit the
human body, and contained the remains of a distinguished nobleman.
Coffins of this type are known as anthropoid sarcophagi and this
particular archaeological relic is known in Spain as the Sidonian
Sarcophagus. P. Bosch-Gimpera states that it is of genuine Phoeni-
cian workmanship but betrays the stylistic influences of Egypt and
ancient Greece. The bearded and majestic features of the prince
show him to have been a man of truly royal mien with certain
Semitic traits. The interior of the marble coffin still contained his
body. Was he brought posthumously from Phoenicia in one of the
famous ships of Tarshish? Was he a king of Gadir who wished to
be interred in his native soil? We may never know, but we can
at least see in this magnificent piece of fifth- or fourth-century b.c.
Phoenician workmanship the links that once bound the seagirt
fortress of Cadiz to the ancient Orient.
The most interesting archaeological discovery made in southern
Spain and probably the most valuable work of art found in the
whole Iberian Peninsula is still the so-called Lady of Elche. Elche
(the Ilici of ancient Iberia) is near Alicante and has an even warmer
climate than the latter town. The summers are unusually hot there,
even though the place is only ten miles from the Mediterranean
coast. It is also the site of Europe's largest palm grove. One hundred
and seventy thousand of these trees, many of them well over 100 feet
high, stand "foot in water, head in the fire of the sky," as an Arabic
proverb has it, artificially irrigated by water brought from over
three miles away.
The Lady of Elche was unearthed in 1897. It is a remarkably
beautiful bust sculpted in chalky limestone, and is twenty inches
high. Traces of color indicate that the figure was once painted all
over. The pupils of the eyes were probably filled with molten glass.
Since the figure was found in a burial ground, it was at first assumed
that the Lady of Elche (also known in Spain as the Reina Mora)
was an effigy of a dead woman decked out in her ceremonial finery.
However, Professor Blanco says that "her expression reflects an
SPAIN i8i
encounter between the human and the divine" and beUeves that the
unique figure may have been a goddess.
I have inspected the sculpture closely in the little room on the
lower floor of the Prado where it has reappeared after being bought
by the French and then returned to the Spaniards. The longer one
looks at this pre-Christian Madonna the more the beauty and
serenity of her features work their uncanny spell. The head orna-
ments and the heavy chains on her breast are, so it is believed,
intended to represent metals such as bronze, silver or gold. I went
to the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, a little-frequented museum
elsewhere in Madrid, in order to compare gold ear pendants and
jewelry in a showcase there with the sculpted ornaments on the
Lady of Elche. The similarity was so striking that I was left con-
vinced that the originals of the jewelry on the finest ancient sculpture
in Spain were gold.
Even though both Greek and Punic stylistic traits can be discerned
in the figure, it still remains a genuinely Spanish "Mona Lisa."
Sculpted some 2,500 years ago, it fits Strabo's descriptions of what
the women of ancient Spain wore in the way of jewelry. The cir-
cular ornaments on either side of the head are, in Blanco's opinion,
decorative disks of silver similar to fragments of other ornaments
from Estremadura which he found in the Museum of Archaeology
at Madrid. Since they were of a type worn in an artificially en-
hanced coiffure they may have been partially formed by the hair
itself. When the girls of Valencia turn out in their old native cos-
tumes today they wear a similarly elaborate hair style with so-called
"snails" on either side of the head. Twenty-five thousand years are
a mere drop in the ocean of human history and prehistory. Perhaps
the girls danced as passionately in the kingdom of Tartessus more
than two and a half millennia ago as they do in the south of Spain
today.
CANARY ISLANDS
THE GUANCHES
Since I wished to hioiv more about the Satyrs I talked of them
with many people. Euphenos of Caria told me that on the journey
to Italy he was blown off course by a storm and driven into the
outer sea, where no one ever ventures as a rule. There, he said,
are many desert islands and other islands inhabited by savage
people. They had not wanted to land because they had been there
and encojtntered the inhabitants on a?i earlier occasion, but once
again they were forced to put ashore. These islands were called
the ''''Saty rides'''' by the sailors. The inhabitants are fiery red and
have tails on their hind quarters as big as those of horses. They
came to the ship when they saw it, uttering not a sound but laying
hands on the ship^s wome7ifolk. hi their fear, the sailors eventually
marooned a barbarian woman, on who7n the Satyrs took their
pleasure.
— Pausanias, I, xxiii, 5 and 6
IN THE Atlantic, only fifty miles off the coast of the Spanish Sahara,
lie the Canaries, a group of islands formed by volcanic eruption,
blessed with pure air and healthy northwest sea winds, crowned by
mountains as high as 1 1,000 feet, richly endowed with an abundance
of geraniums, lilies, dahlias and roses, figs, olives, sugar cane and
bananas, bathed in radiant sunshine throughout most of the year
and well provided with pure springwater. The thirteen small islands
lie scattered across the ocean for a distance of more than 300 miles,
with Madeira another 300 miles farther away to the north.
The Canary group was known in ancient times as the Islands of
the Blest, and the islands and their fortunate inhabitants provided a
favorite theme for historians, geographers and poets. Plutarch may
have described them as the Atlantides but we do not know if he
was really referring to the Canary Islands. Gains Plinius Secundus
(Pliny the Elder), who was born in a.d. 23 and lost his life during
an eruption of Vesuvius in a.d. 79, mentioned the islands in his work
on natural history, which he entitled Naturalis Historia. Plinv had
gleaned his information about these distant islands from a certain
Statius Sebosus and the works of Juba, the Numidian king of Maure-
tania, who lived between 50 b.c. and a.d. 23. Juba was brought to
Rome as a boy in Caesar's triumphal procession after the latter's
campaigns in Africa, and received his education there. He wrote a
CANARY ISLANDS 183
large number of books in the Greek language dealing with Libya,
Arabia, Syria, philology, botanies and probably archaeology as well.
Pomponius Mela from Tingentera near Gibraltar, who wrote a
geography of the inhabited world in three volumes about a.d. 40,
Ukewise mentioned the Gorgonian Islands under the name Hespe-
rides. Homer may have visualized them as the site of the Elysian
Fields to which souls retire after the death of the body to receive
suitable recompense for their behavior during their lifetime. The
great poet saw the Elysian meadows as the end of the world, a
place where the hero Rhadamanthus dwelled, where people lived
in tranquillity and bliss, where there was no snow and where mild
breezes were forever wafted from the ocean to cool the inhabitants
with their gentle breath.
Why should the souls of the dead have traveled westward?
The Islands of the Blest were formerly the Islands of the Dead,
and all the world's oldest races visualized them at the western ex-
tremity of the inhabited world because the dead were thought to
follow the course of the sun as it sank to its evening abode in the
west. The people of the ancient world imagined the fields of para-
dise to be on geographically determinate islands: in the time of Hesiod
and Homer, somewhere to the north of Spanish West Africa, i.e. the
Rio de Oro; and toward the end of the Roman Republic and at the
beginning of the Imperial era, on Madeira and the Canary group.
Place names often have very ancient historical and ethnological
associations, and the word Canaria is no exception. Some authorities
trace the name back to Canaan. Pliny speaks in Book V, xv, of the
Canarii people in northern Rio de Oro, while the African writer
Arnobius, who died circa a.d. 330, extended the scope of the name
to embrace the whole group, calling them Canariae hisulae.
It is interesting to note that the commonest assumption is that the
Canary Islands derived their name from the Latin word cams, "dog,"
because the inhabitants used to fatten hairless dogs for eating just
as people did in certain of the advanced civilizations of Central
America.
Canna meant tube or reed, but it is quite certain that the name
has nothing to do with sugar cane, which was unknown in the ancient
world. Sugar cane was introduced into southern Spain by the Arabs
and did not find its way to the Canaries until later. But when the
islands were conquered, sugar cane became their most important
THE SILENT PAST
The Canary Islands
source of revenue. The conquistadors made vast fortunes from their
cane plantations and mills, and it was not until enterprising planters
introduced sugar cane into the West Indies from the Canaries that
Canary sugar was ousted from the world market by the competition
from that new source of supply.
There is probably no justification for the theory that anyone
reached America from Europe before the Vikings, but a passage in
CANARY ISLANDS 185
Pausanias does hint at the possibihty that someone may have been
driven ashore there by a storm. Pausanias, a Greek born in Asia
Minor, wrote a ten-volume Periegesis of Greece circa a.d. 175,
which was really a cultural history containing much valuable in-
formation about the life, religion, geography and art of the ancient
world. Where did Euphenos, the Carian mentioned by Pausanias
(I, xxiii, 5 and 6), actually land? A storm had driven him through
the Strait of Gibraltar and out into the Atlantic Ocean, to the
Satyrides, islands inhabited by fire-red savages. This sounds at first
as though they may have been American Indians, but it is more likely
that Euphenos had encountered the inhabitants of the Canary Islands.
The islanders apparently behaved in a very hostile fashion and
forced their attentions on the women in the stranded ship so that
the sailors got away unscathed only by leaving behind a barbarian
(i.e. non-Greek) woman, whom the natives shamefully maltreated.
Probably the first men to visit the islands in more recent times
were the Arabs. Putting ashore at Gando Bay, Grand Canary, in
the year 999, Admiral Ben Farroukh found the local inhabitants
willing to barter and trade. They told him that strangers had landed
there earlier, but we shall never know who they were, nor do we
know how the Arab sea captain managed to communicate with the
natives, although the Arab historian Ebu Fathymah reports that he
visited several of the other islands. The Arab geographer Edrisi, who
hved between 1099 and 11 64, tells us that observers on the African
coast saw plumes of smoke issuing from two mountain peaks, and
Alexander von Humboldt confirms the likehhood of this report.
The islands were also visited by other long-forgotten navigators
and explorers, among them the Genoese, whose fleet landed there
in 1 29 1 but never returned. Learning that a French sailing ship had
reached the islands in the year 1330, Alfonso IV of Portugal sent
ships there four years later, but their crews were driven back into
the sea by the natives of the island of Gomera.
The Portuguese visited the Canary Islands yet again in 1341 and
brought back a great deal of information. In 1344 Pope Clement VI,
who resided at Avignon, commissioned a French prince of Spanish
origin, Louis de la Cerda, to sail to the mysterious islands and con-
vert the natives there to Christianity as best he could. In 1360,
missionaries landed on Grand Canary, converted a few natives and
taught them one or two handicrafts, but most of the worthy men
1 86 THE SILENT PAST
of God died a martyr's death. In the year 1393 the Spaniards dis-
patched an expeditionary force which contented itself with plunder-
ing the island of Lanzarote and achieved little else of consequence.
The recent history of the Canaries really begins with a Norman
nobleman called Jean de Bethencourt, who sailed off into the Atlantic
in 1402 with the express intention of conquering the islands. Having
erected a fortress in the north of Fuerteventura, he found that his
crew was not numerically strong enough to subdue the whole island,
and so, leaving a small garrison behind, he sailed home to ask Henry
III of Castile for more money and sr.ilors. That was how the King
of Castile succeeded in bringing Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Gomera
and Hierro under his flag.
As so often in the history of foreign conquest, the natives wel-
comed the strangers with great hospitality and the best of intentions.
Only when they realized that the white man was chiefly interested
in plunder did they turn into "savages." Bethencourt was received
on the island of Gomera with the utmost friendliness, and when he
sailed away the Canary Islanders swam beside his ship for miles,
begging him not to leave them.
An old legend was still current on the island of Hierro according
to which, when the remains of King Yore fell to dust, white houses
would come from across the sea to save the people. When Bethen-
court's caravels approached the island for the first time, their sails
gleaming white in the distance, the archpriest hurried to the burial
place of King Yore. Seeing that his bones had crumbled to dust, he
at once declared that the redeemers from the sea had arrived. How-
ever, the friendly attitude of the Hierro natives soon turned to
hostility. In the neighborhood of the present capital, Valverde, there
stood a tree (later called El Garoe) from whose foliage water dripped
in sufficient quantity to supply the whole island with drinking water.
The tree may have stood by a spring. At all events, the natives
camouflaged the tree and probably the spring, too, with twigs and
dry grass to give the strangers the impression that there was no
fresh water on the island. Inevitably, one of the island girls fell in
love with a Spanish caballero and betrayed the secret. Fighting broke
out, many natives were carried ofl^ as slaves, and the girl was con-
demned to death by her own people.
The islanders of La Palma had an old tradition that the rock
known as Idafe would collapse if ever the island were conquered,
CANARY ISLANDS 187
and one of their prayers was: "Idafe spare us." When the Spaniards
were trying to storm the interior of the island, the islanders prayed
that Idafe would fall. The crag duly broke off and plunged to the
ground, crushing the last heroic defenders of the island and entomb-
ing them forever. The native prince Tanausu was captured alive
and taken to Spain, but died of self-imposed starvation.
After many bloody engagements, during which the inhabitants
of various islands helped the invaders to subdue their neighbors, the
entire Canary group was conquered by the Spaniards. The natives
were remarkably courageous fighters and put up some very stiff
resistance, but after sundry fluctuations in the tide of battle the
Spanish conquistadors, notably Diego de Herrera, Diego de Silva
and Don Alfonso Fernandez de Lugo, secured the Canary Islands
for the Spanish crown.
When a large English fleet commanded by Sir Francis Drake and
Sir John Hawkins attacked the new masters of the islands in 1595
they were repulsed off Las Palmas. Later Admiral Nelson himself
lost one arm to a cannon ball when his fleet tried to capture Santa
Cruz on Tenerife in 1797.
The natives of the Canary Islands represent one of the most fas-
cinating and puzzling problems in the field of anthropology and early
history, a problem which remains largely unsolved to this day.
It seems likely that the average Guanche was tall and well built.
The inhabitants of the more westerly islands had lighter hair than
the natives of the islands nearer Africa, who were dark-haired and
thick-lipped. However, stories that their womenfolk were distin-
guished for their beauty should probably be attributed to the wild
imaginings of sailors who would have found any girls attractive
after weeks at sea! The allegedly abnormal strength of the Guanches,
too, is probably one of the exaggerations so often indulged in by the
explorers of olden times.
Not all the Guanches were massacred. Most of them died a
natural death, but not until the women had fraternized with the in-
vaders and some of the Guanches had married Spanish or Portuguese
wives. As a result, although the islanders' racial characteristics
became submerged in those of their conquerors, the features of the
modern Spanish population often betray faint traces of aboriginal
blood.
The islanders' old way of life, with its primitive tools of wood,
1 88 THE SILENT PAST
bone and stone, survived until the sixteenth century, but evidence
of an advanced neolithic culture has also been found in the large
subterranean buildings on Grand Canary, which are reminiscent of
ancient Mediterranean cultures, in the ground plans of temples, in
ruined houses, former roads and elaborate burial practices.
Many Guanches lived in artificial caves carved into the mountain-
side and others lived in natural caves, but where cave life was not
practicable they built small circular houses and fortifications.
Their clothing was made of goatskin or vegetable fibers, materials
of which many traces have been discovered on Grand Canary.
Necklaces and other articles of adornment made of wood, bone and
mother-of-pearl were worn by men as well as women. The Guanches
painted their bodies in bright colors, using stamplike implements
made of baked clay. Clay vessels, either undecorated or with primi-
tive finger-impressed ornamentation, have been dug up together
with wooden spears, clubs, lances and shields. The Guanches were
unfamiliar with iron, the potter's wheel or the bow and arrow. Their
spear points were either fire-hardened or tipped with horn spikes.
One puzzling feature is that the Guanches never learned to sail.
They could often see across from their own island to the next,
but the Spaniards reported that they had no form of communication
with each other. It is probable, however, that the islanders were in
touch at lengthy intervals and that a raft or primitive boat occa-
sionally managed to make the crossing.
The Italian traveler Leonardo Torriani, a native of Cremona,
visited the Canary group in 1585 and in 1590 wrote a most interesting
book on the islands and their aboriginal population. His view was
that the Guanches possessed dugout boats with sails of matting and
palm leaves. He believed that these boats were an indigenous cul-
tural asset and that the islanders already knew how to sail before
the Spaniards arrived. If Torriani's suppositions are correct, it is
hard to understand why no remnants of such vessels have been
found. All in all, the problem remains unsolved.
It is a fact that the Guanches overcame the difKculties of verbal
communication over great distances by means of a type of birdcall,
passing messages from hill to hill in a "whistle language." Curiously
enough, a few modern islanders still command the art of transmitting
various signals and even names by whistling.
The Guanches' wealth was based on their herds of sheep, goats,
CANARY ISLANDS 189
dogs and rabbits, all of which animals were used as food. Plump
young dogs were considered an especial delicacy. All food was
boiled, the staple diet being fish caught in the shallow water around
the coasts. Like many primitive peoples, the Canary Islanders made
fire by drilling one stick with another or rubbing them together.
When a Guanche grew very old or had contracted an incurable
disease and was no longer fit for work, he could ask for death.
Relatives were not permitted to refuse such a request, but laid the
dying man to rest in a remote cave with a little food and left him
to die in solitude.
The islanders tried to preserve the remains of their dead for all
eternity, believing that the disintegration of the body would auto-
matically destroy the immortality of the soul. Numerous embalmed
mummies have been found, though mainly in a dilapidated condition.
It is an astonishing fact that none of them weighs more than six
or seven pounds.
The first stage in the embalming process was to gut the body of
the deceased, a despised occupation performed by social outcasts.
The actual embalmers, on the other hand, were normally priests
or priestesses who ranked high in public esteem. The dead were
embalmed by members of their own sex, who preserved the bodies
with the dark red resin of the dragon's-blood tree. Dragon's-blood
trees have always grown in these islands and can reach an age of
3,000 years. The few surviving examples are under official protec-
tion. Their gum does, in fact, make an excellent preservative, but
we shall never know who originally discovered its properties.
Mummies were swathed in straw mats and as many as six goatskins
or sheepskins, which were sewn together. Then, if the dead man was
a king, his corpse was hidden in an inaccessible cave shaft or hur-
riedly buried beneath a hill. No member of the public was admitted
to such a burial and the priests carefully guarded the position of the
grave.
Guanche kings went to eternity in a standing position, whereas
their wives were laid to rest lying on their side. A king often re-
mained unburied for years and was interred only on the death of
his successor. In this way there were always two kings, one living
and one dead, the latter acting as adviser to the former!
Ordinary mortals were embalmed and their mummies simply
placed one on top of the other in layers, men with their arms at
ipo THE SILENT PAST
their sides, women with arms folded. The departed were buried with
bowls and jugs of butter and milk, dried figs and other fruits.
It seems reasonable to suppose that the custom of embalming
hailed from Egypt, and some authorities have gone so far as to
deduce that the earhest inhabitants of the islands were Egyptians
who later intermarried with Nubians. However, the Egyptian proc-
ess of conservation was quite different from that of the Canary
Islands. Moreover, when the Spaniards landed in the archipelago
the islanders had no form of writing. If they had come from Egypt
they would presumably have brought a system of writing with them,
yet no linguistic similarities have been found either. On the other
hand, marriage between brother and sister was not only permissible
on the island of Hierro but customary, just as it was among the
royal families of ancient Egypt.
The natives must have been established on their islands for a very
long time, perhaps since 2000 B.C. or even earlier. Their name,
Guanches or Vanches, may be derived from Chinet, the hill on
Tenerife, and giiam or "man." Guam-Chinet would thus have meant
"people of Chinet," a name subsequently distorted by the Spaniards
into Guanche.
The islands were certainly known to the Semitic sailors of the
southern and southeastern Mediterranean— that is to say, the Phoeni-
cians and their Carthaginian cousins— long before the Romans
extended their sovereignty to Spain. The Carthaginian navigator
Hanno, who was dispatched t*^ "^^est Africa about 480 b.c, found
the archipelago seemingly uninnabited but discovered the ruins of
some large buildings. One cannot infer from the apparent absence
of human beings that the aboriginal population had become extinct
and that new immigrants had not yet found their way there. Hanno
may have landed on an island that happened to be uninhabited, or
perhaps he did not look farther than the beach. In any case, like
the Spaniards and Portuguese in the time of the conquistadors, the
Carthaginians kept the location of many islands and trading posts
to themselves in order to eliminate unwelcome competition. Thus
the world heard virtually nothing more of the Canaries for cen-
turies, and there was no further news of the natives until their
island home was rediscovered by the Arabs,
Anthropologically, the Canary Islanders belonged to the Cro-
Magnon type and were similar to the begetters of the Aurignacian
CANARY ISLANDS 191
culture in continental Europe and Asia, who made the celebrated
Venus statuettes of thirty or fifty thousand years ago. In much
later times they probably became interbred with Berbers from
North Africa.
The Spanish invaders reported that the Guanches were a people
of more than average height, that some of the men and women
had blue eyes and blond hair, and that they were endowed with
colossal physical strength. These romantic descriptions of "noble,
handsome, courageous but culturally primitive cave dwellers" were
energetically impugned by Dominik Josef Wolf el in 1939, and it is
hard to disagree with him. Many explorers, even those of the nine-
teenth century, had a penchant for sending back highly colored
reports about unknown countries.
The islanders believed in the immortality of the soul and in a
supreme and invisible being known on Grand Canary as Acoran, on
Tenerife as Achaman, on Hierro as Eraoranham, and on La Palma
as Abora. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of extensive
temples protected by strong exterior walls. Tradition had it that
there were also a male and a female deity who lived in the mountains
and came down to hear the prayers of the people. Belief in an evil
spirit was equally widespread. This demon, who was known on
Tenerife as Guayota, lived at the summit of the Teide, a 10,750-
foot peak. In times of extreme drought the Guanches used to drive
their herds to holy places where they separated the lambs from the
ewes in the hope that their melancholy bleating would melt the
heart of the supreme being. All personal feuds and wars had to be
postponed during religious festivals.
The islands evidently had a sort of caste system founded upon a
complicated mythology. There were many social strata, ranging
from serfs to priests and royalty. On some islands the king was an
absolute ruler, while on others the chieftains and nobility formed a
council which controlled the decisions of the head of state. Again,
one or two islands were inhabited by numerous small tribes who
owed allegiance to no single master. The title of king or prince
was handed down from father to son. The emblem of authority was
the armbone of a deceased king or, according to other sources, a
dead king's skull. Oaths were sworn on such relics at coronations,
and they were also used as scepters during councils of state.
Despite the existence of various dialects, the inhabitants of all the
192 THE SILENT PAST
seven islands formed a linguistic unity. Some expressions and names
corresponded to Berber words and some were common to all the
islands. Aemon meant "water" on Lanzarote, Hierro and probably
some of the other islands. Aho meant "milk" on Lanzarote, Grand
Canary and Tenerife.
On many of the islands the danger of overpopulation was so
great that men were punished with death if they so much as ap-
proached a strange woman or spoke to her in the road. It is
interesting to note that, small though the islands were, twin paths
were laid out in the mountains of Tenerife and Grand Canary for
just this reason, one for men and one for women. From time to time,
when the population reached a certain density, the people received
a general decree to kill all newborn babies, the only exceptions to
this inhuman measure being firstborn children. All this proves that
at the time of the Spanish conquest a considerable number of
Guanches lived on the islands and that in earlier times the islands
may well have been even more densely populated.
On Lanzarote there was a pit into which those who had been
condemned to death were lowered and given the choice of either
food or water. However, the death pit was abolished after one
prisoner chose milk and stayed alive so long that the penalty lost
its meaning.
The strange symbols which have been found on the rocks of La
Palma and Hierro remain an unsolved scientific mystery. Scholars
have been unable to recognize any form of writing in these inscrip-
tions, and, apart from that, they seem to have been made not bv
the Guanches but by an older race which had long been extinct
when the islands were taken by the Spaniards.
Only some 500 years have elapsed since we discovered the natives
of these lovely, lonely islands in the Atlantic, since we tried to turn
them into "civilized beings" and so exterminated them. How much
"foreign aid" primitive peoples can absorb without becoming extinct
is a vital but unanswered question. It is a symptom of primitive think-
ing when advanced nations imagine their own way of life to be the
only one worth imitating, and insist on exporting their machine-made
comforts at all costs. On the Canary Islands, so Leonardo Torriani
reported, people had been living "healthily for a long time without
serious illness or need of a doctor."
A whole people has vanished from the earth without our devoting
[57] The origin of this httle fig-
ure is still in doubt. It may have
been sculpted by a Greek artist
and brought to a port on the
Atlantic coast of southern Spain
or it may, on the other hand, be
a product of native Tartessus art.
[58] Roman amphorae exhibiting
Phoenician influence, salvaged
from the sea off Cadiz. The
bronze had been deeply eroded
as a result of 2,000 years' immer-
sion in seawater.
[59 and 60] One of the most interesting finds of
the Tartessus era. The stone-faced vaults and
burial pits discovered at Punta de la Vaca, Cadiz,
yielded this 5th century b.c. sarcophagus complete
with original occupant and closely fitting lid (left).
It is assumed that the sarcophagus was brought to
Cadiz from the Phoenician city of Sidon, but we
shall never know why the prince for whom this
handsome stone coffin was made should have
found his last resting place at Cadiz.
[61 1 This fine Greek bowl was transported to
Tartessus in one of the famous "ships of Tarshish"
which King Solomon knew so well, and is prob-
ably between 2,500 and 2,600 years old.
'^
V'4
[62] Unusual burial stele in the Aluseo Arqucologicu at Seville. The palm tree and
doe with calf are reminiscent of Tartessus art but probably hail from the later,
Roman period.
[63] A female mask, probably
of Greek origin but found in a
grave at Cadiz. This funeral of-
fering was placed in the grave
to drive away evil spirits, and
dates from the period 500-
300 B.C.
[64] This handsome children's
drinking vessel in the shape of
a cockerel belongs to the Tartes-
sus culture and probably dates
from the 7th or 6th century b.c.
It is now in the Museum of
Archaeology, Cadiz.
[65] Well designed jewelry of
this sort was made by the de-
scendants of the Tartessus peo-
ple in the 4th century b.c. These
pieces were photographed in
the Museum of Archaeology at
Cadiz. It is possible, though nor
probable, that they were im-
ported from Phoenicia.
[66] "The Lady of Elche,"
found at Elche on the east coast
of Spain. This Mona-Lisa-like
portrayal is a unique example
of the artistic skill of the 5th
century b.c. The head orna-
ments, coiffure, ear pendants
and chains are testimony to the
splendor of the vanished cul-
ture of Tartessus.
[67I The celebrated treasure of
El Carambolo, which was un-
earthed on September 30, 1958,
comprised twentv-one articles
of solid gold. In Professor
Blanco's opinion, the plates are
not components of a belt but
of a crown. This valuable find
bears witness to the remarkable
technique of Tartessus gold-
smiths.
' «* w. i *►
[681 The Guanches are extinct as a people, but this wooden bust of a Guanche girl
gives us some idea of their racial type, which mav have been related to that of the
Berbers of North Africa. The Spaniards described them as tall and strong-boned.
[69] This model of a stone building erected by the Guanches shows how far advanced
their culture was. The place was enclosed by a massive wall and probably served
religious purposes.
[70] Stone pestle and mortar used by the Guanches for grinding corn. Hand mills
of this type have been found on several of the Canary Islands. (House of Columbus,
Las Palmas.)
..a.^'!
[71] A tripod of this
type is known as a ting.
T'ao-t'ieh masks can be
seen on each of its three
sides. The probable age
of this sacrificial vessel
is 2,500 years.
[72] This Shang Dy-
nasty (1766-1123 B.C.)
bowl is 23 Yz inches high
and has a fine olive-
green patina. The cen-
ter of its girth is occu-
pied by a T'ao-t'ieh
mask in which the cres-
cent moons have be-
come modified into
horns. Top center, the
complete head of a
horned beast.
CANARY ISLANDS 193
sufRcient study to them. Gone are the Guanches' buildings in the
rock and beneath the ground, gone the work of their carpenters,
ropemakers and tanners, gone their secret recipe for brewing an
elixir of life from tree sap, gone the leather lines and goats' bones,
the nets made of grasses and palm leaves with which they once
fished so skillfully. Never again will the world's best stone-throwers
engage in mortal combat with the balls of clay which they used for
sport as well as war, dangerous missiles which only the agile could
avoid; never again will spears quiver in the clear air, hurled by the
hand of expert Guanche spearmen.
The people of these islands loved life and solitude and they be-
Heved in a supreme god. They made music and their songs drifted
out across the waters of the Atlantic.
Today only the thunder of the surf tells the story of their
vanished way of life.
CHINA
THE MASK OF T'AO-T'IEH
The study of ancient bronzes has been industriously pursued in
China by generations of scholars, who have the greatest veneration
for the written script and find it better preserved on bronze than
on stone, while the more perishable materials used in early times,
such as tablets of wood and rolls of silk, have long since dis-
appeared.
—Stephen W. Bushell, Chinese Art,
p. 6$, London, 19 14
ALL civilizations are related. In the six hundred thousand or more
years that have elapsed since mankind came into being, the creature
Homo has transmitted the intellectual and material fruits of civiliza-
tion from continent to continent and from one river valley to the
next. This was so even before man learned how to sail the seas, but
once he had invented boats and ships the exchange of cultural bless-
ings and evils became still more widespread.
One nation, however, has always felt itself to be the center of the
world and has thus remained more withdrawn and self-contained
than any other advanced civilization, namely the Chinese— though
the men who live in Sinkiang, the Gobi desert and Manchuria or by
the Hwang Ho, Yangtze and Canton rivers differ so widely in their
racial characteristics that they are less a people than a family of
peoples.
With its huge population of nearly seven hundred millions, China
has long ago passed the danger mark. A nation's strength and ca-
pabilities cannot be equated simply with its numerical strength but
are dependent on the foodstuffs available per head of population and
—above all— on what each such head contains. In our century a
country's technical progress can be likened to a ship, which goes
no better with a crew of four thousand men than with a complement
just large enough to supervise the efficient functioning of all its
equipment. Availability of food should never be a dominant factor
in the life of any nation. The equating of manpower with military
strength ceased to be valid after the end of the Second World War.
The astonishing feature of the Chinese population is not its
present size but the rapidity of its recent growth. In 166 1, the Chinese
194
CHINA 195
numbered only 105 millions; in 1766, 182 millions; in 1872, some
330 millions; and today, almost 700 millions.
This huge nation is endowed with certain attributes which West-
erners either consistently forget or simply refuse to take into ac-
count. For thousands of years, ideas and trade goods entered China
via endless caravan routes or by sea. The stratification of various
cultures throughout the world, and especially in China, is so fan-
tastically intricate that we shall have to dig and explore for cen-
turies to come before we succeed in identifying even a few of the
relationships in mankind's cultural history. Yet, despite this many-
layered complexity, it seems as though China has been permanently
enclosed by visible or invisible walls for the past four thousand
years. The reason may lie in China's abnormal creative vigor in
craftsmanship and the arts, a vitality that has inspired her people
since very early times and particularly during the Han and T'ang
periods, when their numbers stood far below the fifty-million mark.
The extraordinary national pride of the Chinese rests on their very
ancient and, despite outside influence, entirely individual cultural
strength, on the inward-facing attitude which prompted them to
concentrate more on their ancestors than on what lay beyond their
frontiers, and on an extremely refined culinary expertise which
required no alien importations.
The Chinese have always cherished the conviction that all the
races with whom they have to deal are inferior to themselves. Every
Chinese is fundamentally convinced, for instance, that Tibetans,
Turkestanis, the inhabitants of Outer Mongolia and the primitive
peoples of Siberia belong to his own nation. China has never
acknowledged another people or country as the center of the world.
In fact, she has scarcely been surpassed in culture by any country
in the world for five thousand years. China was the "Kingdom of
the Center," and the Chinese have always regarded other nations
as barbarians, an attitude which still persists today. Racially and
culturally, China has always swallowed her neighbors, conquerors
and defeated enemies, assimilated and absorbed them. The Chinese
thought of their country as the largest and most powerful in the
world and looked down on their Western conquerors with con-
tempt. They despised the English, the French, the Germans and,
above all, the Russians, who were always trying to infiltrate across
the Amur into Manchuria and to threaten Outer MongoUa and
196 THE SILENT PAST
Turkestan. They despised the Japanese, and they despised the ad-
joining peoples of the south.
Since the Chinese were not a great seafaring race and their rela-
tions with other advanced cultures were, in a sense, unconscious,
it was never in their nature to belong to a family of nations. This
fact, together with their ignorance of other peoples' cultural achieve-
ments, their thousands of years of practice in their own individual
way of life and their innate sense of superiority, has always made
them seem arrogant in foreign eyes. If it is arrogance, however, it
is an ancient arrogance unengendered by any sort of inferiority
complex.
It has always been difficult to conclude treaties with the Chinese
and quite useless to expect them to adhere to an agreement. Like
most river-valley peoples, the inhabitants of the Hwang Ho and
Yangtze plains have been astute businessmen for thousands of years.
They produced great poets, talented writers, incomparable painters
and some of the world's foremost sculptors. They were excellent
smiths, fine weavers and silk manufacturers, brilliant architects,
magnificent cooks— and appallingly bad cattlemen.
During the first five dynasties, or from 2205 B.C. until a.d. 220,
this unusual people evolved a Bronze-Age culture which ventured
to plumb the profoundest secrets of light and darkness, sun and
moon, beast, man and god. Under the Shang and Chou dynasties
(1766-256 B.C.) bronze was in general use and represented China's
most important metal.
Articles of bronze being as durable as they are, the Chinese have
contributed a vast literature to the study of this art. The Illustrated
Description of Antiques in the Hsiian-Ho Palace, compiled by
Wang Fu at the beginning of the twelfth century, comprised thirty
volumes. A study of antiques edited by Lii Ta-lin in 1092 contained
ten volumes. A magnificently illustrated catalogue of the imperial
bronze collections in the palace at Peking, published in 1751 by
Emperor Ch'ien Lung, occupied no less than forty-two volumes
and the supplementary catalogue was housed in a further fourteen.
Thus there is a veritable library of works by Chinese art historians
and archaeologists devoted to the rich and extensive subject of
bronze art, and modern students of this extraordinarily difficult field
are forced to refer repeatedly to Chinese descriptions and catalogues
for advice.
CHINA 197
The earlier Chinese dynasties
Hsia 2205 B.C-1767 B.C.
Shang 1766 B.c.-i 123 B.C.
Chou 1 122 B.C.- 256 B.C.
Ch'in 255 B.C.- 207 B.C.
Han 206 B.c.-A.D. 220
The "Six Dynasties" a.d. 220-A.D, 589
Sui A.D. 589-A.D. 618
T'ang A.D. 618-A.D. 906
Five Dynasties a.d. 907-A.D. 960
Sung A.D. 960-A.D. 1279
During the Chou dynasty (1122-256 b.c.) Chinese writers com-
piled a work on contemporary art, the celebrated K^ao kung chi.
This book lists the ratios to be used when alloying copper and tin
to make various bronze articles. Bells, gongs, large bowls and other
sacred vessels and objects consisted of five parts copper to one part
tin. Axes and mattocks required four parts copper to one of tin.
Double-edged swords and agricultural implements were cast from
two parts copper to one part tin. Yet another alloy was prescribed
for making arrowheads and small knives, and the famous Chinese
mirrors were made of the above two metals alloyed in equal pro-
portions.
Chinese bronzes do not, however, consist only of copper and tin,
but contain zinc, lead, nickel, antimony, silver and a little gold, a
combination of metals which produces a beautiful patina when an
object has lain in the ground and been subjected to chemical changes
over a period of hundreds or thousands of years. Being familiar with
the chemical properties of his country's soil, the Chinese antiquarian
knows how the lovely greens, turquoises and reds are conjured up
on bronze and can distinguish fake from genuine by patina alone.
Patina is often faked, but a spurious coating can usually be removed
with a knife blade or boiling water, whereas genuine patina pene-
trates deep into the metal.
Very large articles have been manufactured from copper. Each
of the five massive bells of Peking, which were cast on the orders
of Emperor Yung Lo between 1403 and 1424, weighs just short of
60 tons, is about 16 feet high, has a maximum circumference of 36
198 THE SILENT PAST
feet and is about i foot thick. The inner and outer surfaces of these
bells bear Chinese versions of Buddhist texts and prayers in Sanskrit.
Cast on the spot where they were destined to remain, they were
suspended on tree trunks mounted on massive wooden frames. Then,
when the earth had been dug away from beneath them, a swinging
wooden beam was hung inside to summon them to sonorous life.
The earliest bronzes, which served religious ends, were associated
with ancestor worship and certain rites performed at the imperial
court. Special vessels were used for offerings of meat, grain, fruit and
wine. Archaic inscriptions discovered in many vessels and subse-
quently deciphered reveal the development of Chinese script from
the earliest dynasties onward.
The discovery of an old bronze vessel was regarded as a great
stroke of good fortune by the Chinese because they thought that
the article's sanctity in some way transferred itself to the finder.
Thus it was a sacred duty to keep bronzes carefully and pass them
on from one generation to the next. In the fifth month of the year
ii6 B.C. a three-legged caldron of the sort known to the Chinese
as ting was unearthed on the southern bank of the river Fen in
Shansi Province. This happy event was regarded in such an im-
portant light that the reign of the emperor of the day, Wu Ti, was
thereafter known as Yuan Ting. In the year a.d. 722, during the
T'ang dynasty, a bronze caldron was discovered on the left bank
of the Yellow River in the city of Yung Ho. The name of the
place was forthwith changed to Pao Ting Hsien, or "City of the
Costly Tripod." Not until about a.d, 960, when the Sung dynasty
came to power, did bronzes lose their reputation for sanctity. From
then on they were systematically dug up and placed in imperial
palaces and museums, where they were catalogued and their in-
scriptions deciphered.
The first items to be mentioned in lists of old Chinese bronzes
were chiing (bells) and ting (bowls). Bells were often hung at
the entrances of banqueting halls and later in ancestral temples,
where their clangorous voices could summon the shades to funeral
banquets.
One very famous example of the tijig type of three-legged vessel
dates from the Chou dynasty (1122-256 b.c.) and now stands in
the Chiao-Shan Temple on the Yangtze. Its interior bears an
engraved inscription running from lip to base, of which the follow-
CHINA 199
ing is an extract: "I, Wu Chuan, ventured to utter my grateful
recognition of the great favor and honorable gifts of the Son of
Heaven, I have made vessels for wine and this bowl for the pres-
entation of sacrificial meat to my late deserving father. May I be
rewarded with a long life of many days, and may my sons and
grandsons continue to use this vessel and hold it in honor for ten
thousand years."
From the style of the text and a reference to the position of the
moon, Chinese scholars concluded that the vessel dated from 812
B.C. and that it and its inscription were the work of a privy
councillor of Emperor Hsiian Wang.
The inscriptions of the Shang dynasty (1766-1123 B.C.) are com-
posed in an archaic pictographic script and usually mention the
name of the dead man to whom the piece was dedicated. No en-
graved examples are known to have originated in the still earlier
Hsia dynasty (2205-1767 B.C.). By contrast, the interior of one
sacrificial bowl of the Chou dynasty (1122-256 b.c.) bears more
than five hundred engraved and gilded characters.
Bronze vessels used in the ritual worship of ancestors varied in
shape according to whether they were employed as winejars,
sacrificial cups or meat dishes. There were trumpet-shaped wine
vases of considerable beauty, wine vessels with lids, wine vessels
in animal form, and large flat bowls. All these forms originated
in very early times. The vessels are usually distinguished for their
simplicity and expressive power, and possess— if such a metaphor
is permissible— an abundance of personality. They appear cumber-
some at times, for they changed little in thousands of years, yet in
some strange and mysterious manner they convey their great age
and hallowed significance.
The decorative motifs are partly geometrical patterns and partly
stylized portrayals of natural phenomena. The latter themes shed
light on the earliest Chinese interpretation of nature. Human beings
are rarely depicted, but the surfaces of the vessels bear allusive
representations of hills, clouds, tigers, deer and other animals. They
also depict a staggering profusion of mythical creatures, dragons,
unicorns, phoenixes, toads, tortoises and fabulous beasts. The latter
presuppose an almost inconceivable degree of imagination and sur-
pass anything of their kind in the West. Fantastic monsters like
200 THE SILENT PAST
those conjured up by the Chinese mind were never imagined, let
alone portrayed, by any other people on earth.
Foremost among these mythical beasts is T'ao-t'ieh. The two
Chinese characters composing the name stress only one attribute
of this mysterious creature, their literal translation being "the
Voracious One." T'ao-t'ieh was either a deity or the embodiment
of various characteristics belonging to what was probably the
supreme deity, for the so-called mask of T'ao-t'ieh appears on so
many vessels that it must have been associated with an important
god of some kind. The design and juxtaposition of various masks of
this type and of other animals or beings were an age-old Chinese
tradition. Sacred representations of such antiquity that we shall
never plumb their origins, they may at one time have been carved
in a perishable medium such as wood long before the appearance
of the first bronze vessels.
The Greek word for effigy is eikon, the "icon" which we apply
to a sacred image. What we find on Chinese bronzes is an entire
iconography, the description of one of mankind's earliest worlds
of sacred ideas.
With its double-looped horns, the T'ao-t'ieh resembles a ram,
but a large fang often protrudes from the upper jaw of its gaping
mouth, so it must be some form of predatory beast, perhaps a wolf
or tiger. On the other hand, many T'ao-t'ieh masks suggest a
buffalo's head.
Careful scrutiny is essential to the discernment and interpretation
of the animals and mythical beings on the exterior surfaces of vessels
and bells. Probably the most eminent authority on early Chinese
bronzes and cult portrayals is Professor Carl Hentze, a distinguished
member of Ghent University, who has studied this enthralling field
of art closely, paying extraordinary attention to detail. All T'ao-t'ieh
masks have crescent-shaped horns, and the earliest examples in-
corporate half-moons. The upper pair of crescents grew into horns,
while the lower pair became the lower jaw of the mask. During the
early bronze period, however, most of the masks displayed four
distinct crescents. Hentze and Japanese scholars before him have
interpreted these crescents as a cult symbol of the moon. Night
and the moon go together, and owls are creatures of the night,
hence the stylized coalescence of owl and t'ao-t'ieh.
The central portion of the mask is particularly important, al-
CHINA 201
though its significance remained obscure until 1937, when Hentze
proved that it, too, corresponded to an iconographic formula. He
interpreted it as a grasshopper, and defined the role of this orna-
ment between the horns of the T'ao-t'ieh as a symbol of renewal
or rebirth. Fantastic as it may seem, this may point to an association
with the Indus culture of Mohenjo Daro. It, too, had a deity with
crescent horns, and these horns, too, were separated by an emblem.
On the T'ao-t'ieh mask it is an insect, in Mohenjo Daro a plant.
In both cases Hentze interprets the symbol as a renewal motif.
Hailing from the obscure past, the portrayals of the T'ao-t'ieh
masks are assumed to represent the manifestations, characteristics
and functions of an age-old supreme deity. Night and darkness are
symbolized by the crescent moons and the owl, light and rebirth
by sun symbols and grasshoppers. Out of darkness, so we are in-
formed by the remarkable bronzes of early China, come light and
life. T'ao-t'ieh, so familiar to the Chinese four thousand years ago
and so mysterious now, was a demon of darkness and a creature
of the moon. It was, as Professor Hentze has so brilliantly demon-
strated, a central deity during the Shang period of 1766-1123 b.c.
Where did the Shang people learn the art of bronze manufacture?
This question remains unanswered, despite the fact that for many
centuries magnificent works of art in bronze have been unearthed
in the An-yang district of central Honan, where the capital of the
Shang dynasty used to be.
There is some evidence that the bronze culture of the West
spread to China at an early date. The ancient motif of rams and
the tree of life, a feature of Sumerian culture, has been rediscovered
in China. Nevertheless, even if a bronze culture existed in the
countries of the eastern Mediterranean earlier than in China it does
not necessarily mean that China inherited its bronze art from that
quarter. Indeed, the unique characteristics of Chinese bronzes and
the extreme individuality of Shang religious culture are inconsistent
with the adoption of Western elements, and the predominance of
entirely uninfluenced Chinese pieces indicates that the Far East
underwent an artistic evolution of its very own.
There are apparent similarities between ancient Chinese and
Northwest American Indian art just as there are similarities between
Shang iconography and some Maya and Aztec symbols. But what
explanation can there be for the gap of two or three thousand
202 THE SILENT PAST
years separating the extremely ancient bronze art of China and the
Maya and Aztec civilizations of the fourth and fourteenth centuries
A.D. respectively?
It will never be possible to grasp the origin and content of the
Shang people's mysterious symbolism in its entirety. The most
remarkable feature of Chinese bronze culture is that, like Pallas
Athene, it appears to have sprung abruptly into being four thousand
years ago and to have attained a peak of perfection without passing
through any preliminary stages. W. C. White, a Canadian authority
on Shang culture who has lived in Honan for many years, states
that there is absolutely no indication of the origin or even the back-
ground of this art. The bronzes are superbly cast, carefully planned
with regard to strength and form, refined in their ornamentation
and unsurpassed by any other bronzes in the world.
We know that the Shang priests frequently made human sacrifice,
we guess at their cult animals and have a vague idea of their demons,
we study their fertility symbols and can handle the receptacles that
contained their food and drink offerings more than three thousand
years ago— but what did they hiozvF What did they know of the
whence and whither of mankind? What did they know of God,
and why did their thoughts revolve eternally around the mysteries
of nature?
If the mute bronzes refuse to yield up all their secrets, we must
remember that it is characteristic of the moon's pale crescent to
leave much in semidarkness.
INDIA
A MAN NAMED SIDDHARTHA
If Buddha is only an apocryphal -figure and the product of sym-
bolic specidation, if he never preached, if he never had disciples
who, united in a common belief, regarded one another as brothers,
there is no explanation for the sudden appearance of the com-
munity which modeled itself on him mentally and based itself on
his doctrines, which possessed a literature in which it preserved a
recollection of all his daily doings, a recollection of his earthly
pronounce7nents and of the people who surrounded him in his
lifetime.
— (Jean Filliozat) L. Rendu and J. Filliozat,
Ulnde Classique, Vol. Ill, p. 465, Paris, 1953
The venerable Sariputta spoke there to the monks: "This nirvana
is bliss, ye monks. This nirvafia is bliss, ye friends." And when the
venerable Sariptitta had thus spoken, the venerable Udayi spoke
to hi?n as follows: ''''But how, iny dear Sariputta, can there be bliss
in that condition if there is no sensation therein?'''' ''''The bliss of that
condition, 7ny friend, is precisely that there is no sensation therein."
—Maximilian Kern, Das Licht des Ostens,
p. no, Leipzig, 1922
ABOUT 500 B.C. a man was born whose teachings conquered the
whole of the Far East and who thus gave Asia's most widely dis-
seminated religion its name. Far fewer wars have been fought on
behalf of Buddhism than of Islam and Christendom, yet those who
embrace Buddha's ideas include Burmese, Siamese, Cambodians,
Laotians, Tibetans, Chinese and many millions of people in Mon-
golia, Manchuria and Japan.
Buddha never wished to be a monarch, never wished to found
or rule kingdoms, yet this genius who had no taste for earthly
power created a realm of the spirit in which hundreds of millions
of Asiatics still live today. Buddha begged his daily food in the
bazaars of central India. Today, the efRgy of the erstwhile beggar
stands in gilded and exalted tranquillity in hundreds of thousands
of temples. Clouds of incense wreathe his countenance, and for
twenty centuries men have prayed and performed their meditations
in his presence.
Asia is the great cradle of the world's religions. Within a period
203
204 THE SILENT PAST
of approximately two hundred years, it witnessed the appearance
of Zarathustra (circa 600 B.C.), Confucius (551-479 b.c.) and
Buddha, All the great sages, holy men and religious founders of the
world have one thing in common: the historical facts of their
existence are to some degree veiled in obscurity. This baffling half-
knowledge, this distrust of reality and quest for precise details about
people who were close to their god are natural and inevitable, for
their existence has been overwhelmed and obscured by their teach-
ings. Nothing is left of the great saints and sages except their
spirit. Details of their private life must remain lost to history
because it is a cipher, merely an earthly accessory of immortal
thoughts. Sanctification, deification and apotheosis need no bio-
graphical details.
Thus we have very little precise information about Buddha's life.
His followers saw in him such an intelligence and supernatural
moral force that he became in their eyes the divine embodiment
of everything spiritual and a symbol of liberation from a world of
suffering and confusion. They witnessed miracles and clothed his
life in legends, recognizing him as one of the saviors of mankind.
Only two hundred years after Buddha's death, reports of the man
and his wisdom had penetrated to every corner of India. The nucleus
of his doctrines— his words— was faithfully passed on with a zeal
born of religious sincerity. His truths conquered the whole of the
East, but ideas of him were so glamorized by bold flights of fancy,
by poetic imagination, glorification and prayer, that all details of
the real man were soon obscured by a dazzling aureole of legend.
We are told that he converted the envious and hostile, ascended
into heaven and returned to earth, was revered by beasts, worshiped
by human beings and urged by the gods to share his wisdom with
them. The gods themselves became his most ardent adherents and
kings humbled themselves before him and offered him their treasures.
And all this was accomplished by the spiritual and moral force of
a beggar, a starving ascetic! Huge libraries could be filled with
the erudite works that have been written about Buddha, but no
form of science or research can get to the heart of the matter. The
figure of Buddha remains in some degree incomprehensible and
shrouded in mystery.
Actually Buddha is not a proper name but an honorific title
meaning "the Enlightened One." He was the son of Suddhodana,
INDIA 205
a prince of the Sakya clan, and his wife Mahamaya, who died
seven days after giving him birth. Mahamaya reputedly did not
actually die in childbirth, but because she had achieved her highest
destiny and fulfilled her supreme purpose. Like so much in Buddha's
life, the death of his mother was at once an historical fact and a
religious necessity.
The Sakya lived at the foot of the Himalayas. In fact we even
know that Buddha's place of birth was Kapilavastu in modern
Nepal, 125 miles from Katmandu and 220 miles from Mount
Everest. The site is marked by a pillar bearing an inscription by
King Asoka.
Buddha was India's greatest philosopher, but "philosopher" is a
very European term, and it is perhaps better to call him India's
greatest sage. Buddha embodied the spirit of Asia, the multiplicity of
its philosophy and the profundity of its religious introspection. He
is at once the most human figure and the most remarkable phe-
nomenon which India has produced. No other Indian ever sur-
passed him in wisdom, depth of thought or spiritual radiance, yet
we have no precise idea of the actual content of the historical
Buddha's original doctrines. It certainly differed from the Buddhism
of today, and there are some authorities— C. A. F. Rhys Davies, for
example— who believe that Buddha's actual teachings differed but
little from the ethic of the old Indian Upanishads.
Buddha's adherents paint a very highly colored picture of his
life. Even if Buddha had never existed and Asia possessed no more
than this creatively fashioned life story, she would still be im-
mensely rich in the religious and spiritual sphere. Figures such as
Zarathustra, Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Christ are not, how-
ever, susceptible of invention.
We are told that Buddha's mother, Princess Mahamaya, was
transported in miraculous fashion to a lake in the Himalayas, where
she was bathed by heavenly attendants and dreamed that she saw
a large white elephant holding a lotus blossom in its trunk. (The
lotus blossom is one of Asia's most venerated symbols and is asso-
ciated with birth.) The next day, sages interpreted her dream as
signifying that she was destined to bear a son who would be a ruler
of the universe and a servant of God. The child was duly born, not
actually in Kapilavastu, the Sakya capital, but in its immediate
vicinity, just as Mahamaya was on her way to her parents' house.
2o6 THE SILENT PAST
At the great baptismal ceremony customarily held by families of
high rank, the newborn child received the name Siddhartha. His
"Gotra" name was Gautama. Soothsayers apparently predicted that
the child would be a teacher of mankind. His father, King Sud-
dhodana, was determined to isolate him from all the sorrows and
afflictions of the world, and we learn that he grew up and received
his education in a magnificent palace far removed from such things
as death, disease, sorrow and suffering. He married a cousin of his
and might well have lived happily if he had not had an inner
yearning for something more. Then he saw the four signs which
had figured in the soothsayers' predictions: a very old man in a
pitiable condition, a sick man covered in ulcers and shivering with
fever, a dead man being carried to his funeral pyre and, finally, a
pious beggar in a yellow robe. Only the fourth apparition gave any
appearance of serenity or contentment, and at the age of twenty-
nine Siddhartha decided to follow his example. Leaving home,
family, wife and child, he set off on horseback. In his rejection of the
world he abandoned his princely clothes and exchanged them for
the habit of a mendicant monk.
The future Buddha visited the schools of various celebrated
ascetics in his search for a solution to the questions which were
troubling him, but in vain. Then he withdrew into solitude.
Gautama Buddha arrived at his philosophy through meditation.
When he was forty-five years old he sat down beneath a pipal
tree and swore not to move from the spot until he had solved the
riddle of human suffering, even if his body decayed first.
For forty-nine days and nights he sat beneath the tree in motion-
less contemplation. By the end of that period, during which he
withstood numerous temptations, he had seen the truth and under-
stood the secret of pain and suffering. He realized why the world
was unhappy and how its unhappiness could be overcome. Having
become a Buddha, an "Enlightened One," he remained beneath the
Tree of Wisdom or Bodhitaru for another seven weeks.
It was not Siddhartha's immediate intention to communicate his
experience and knowledge to the world at large, but the god
Brahma came down from heaven and bade him propagate the
dharma or doctrine. His disciples numbered first five and then sixty,
and his name and teachings became renowned throughout the plain
of the Ganges. Returning to Kapilavastu, he converted his father,
INDIA 207
his wife, his son, large numbers of courtiers and even his wicked
cousin Devadatta.
Many miracles are attributed to Buddha, but the earliest accounts
of his life contain virtually no reference to any miraculous deeds.
For two-thirds of the year he roamed through the countryside with
his disciples, teaching as he went. The remaining months he spent in
one of the many groves which were bequeathed to the Buddhists by
wealthy patrons. Buddha wandered through the Ganges valley for
forty-five years, a beggar among beggars and the poorest of the
poor, but never unhappy.
Unhke Christ, Paul and Socrates, Buddha was never persecuted
on account of his teachings. When he was eighty he prepared his
followers for his death. Only his doctrine, the dhanna, was to sur-
vive. No new master was to step into his shoes. He probably died,
like Diogenes, from a type of paratyphus contracted after eating
pork. Dragging himself as far as the suburb of Kusinagara, he lay
down under a tree at nightfall and died. Buddha's death occurred by
Singhalese reckoning in the year 543 and according to European
research in 477 b.c. His body was burned on a pyre according to
Indian custom.
Buddha's doctrines and Christianity came into being quite in-
dependently, even though the Christian religion and Buddhist
philosophy both have their origin in a belief in a supreme god.
All attempts to correlate the Buddhist sutras with the Christian
Gospels are doomed to failure. There are superficial similarities
and very considerable divergences, but even the apparent similar-
ities vanish under careful comparative analysis. Christianity and
Buddhism are worlds apart in dogma and quite close in their
morality, as Professor A. Foucher of Paris University has so clearly
demonstrated. "Christian and Buddhist moral values are undoubtedly
homogeneous, but their doctrinal basis and mental and spiritual
atmosphere are entirely dissimilar."
The contrast between Buddhism and Christianity is immediately
apparent from their attitude toward the soul. According to Christian
theology the soul originates with the child and thereafter retains
its immortality. It has a beginning, therefore, but no end. To
Indian philosophers such a notion is absurd, for in their view any-
thing which comes into being at one point in time is susceptible
to destruction at another point in time. They hold that the soul
2o8 THE SILENT PAST
is immortal and travels from body to body during the process of
rebirth. Since it exists eternally it has no beginning and can have
an end only in exceptional cases when meritorious behavior and
good deeds have rendered it ripe for the supreme condition, nirvana,
from which there is no return to earth.
With only one life, the Christian can receive eternal bliss or
eternal damnation only once. "The Buddhist has traveled far, and
has all eternity before him. His life is only a transient moment in
the course of an eternal existence. He reaps the fruits of his previous
existences and sows the seeds of his future forms of existence. For
him, the death knell never heralds the advent of everlasting bliss
nor signals the hour of irreparable doom. He believes that his
approach to perfection is an infinitely slow process spanning thou-
sands upon thousands of successive lifetimes, for only thus can he
attain the supreme reward of eternal bliss. It is a salvation which
we, in our Occidental impatience, expect to receive after a single
lifetime.
"The peoples of the East have different conceptions of this
salvation from our own. The Westerner wants only to live. Should
he fail to reach heaven, his thirst for immortality is such that he is
prepared to accept the everlasting torments of purgatory and hell.
The man of the Far East already has an eternity behind him. After
so many existences he is infinitely weary, infinitely fatigued by the
endless succession of deaths which he has undergone. In short, the
ambition of the West is never to die again: the ambition of the East
is never to be reborn."
Like Christ and Socrates, the Enlightened One of India never
committed a word of his doctrine to writing. He was not really
a religious founder as such, nor did he have any intention of
founding a religion. His sole concern was to serve people with his
teachings and help them to escape from suffering. He was not in-
terested in solving theological questions such as the essential nature
of the gods, the soul and immortality. All these problems were
disposed of by his belief that it was better never to have been born
at all than to live and so to suffer.
Buddhism did not, however, remain merely a philosophy; it
became a world religion. Even though their originator's only real
concern had been to encourage wisdom and rectitude in human
behavior, the teachings of Buddha were being variously interpreted
INDIA 209
by no less than eighteen different sects only two hundred years
after his death. The two main forms of Buddhism, Mahayana and
Hinayana, have divided the Buddhist world into two separate camps.
Those who live in the spirit of Mahayana, "the great vehicle," in-
clude the Chinese, the Japanese and the Lamaists of Tibet, Bhutan,
Sikkim, Nepal and Mongolia. Ceylon and Indo-China follow the
Hinayana or "little vehicle."
Mahayana entails a perpetual striving, during life and through
life, to be reborn after death as a future Buddha or Bodhisattva. The
adherents of Mahayana accept rebirth out of sympathy for the
world and when it is for the salvation or happiness of the majority.
The adherents of the Hinayana seek only their personal salvation.
The most remarkable feature of Buddhism is that while its teach-
ings still survive in vast tracts of Asia they have all but disappeared
in the land of Buddha's birth. In India, Buddhism has been swamped
by the much more ancient Hindu religion, and the Indian people
have remained true to their traditional polytheism, their penchant
for miracles, their splendid myths and peculiar world of magic.
Nevertheless, Buddhism has adopted numerous legends and count-
less rituals and deities from Hinduism. The unadulterated doctrines
of Siddhartha and his world of ideas have not remained entirely
intact. Buddhism did not meet its end suddenly in India, it should be
added, but survived there for about a thousand years until its
eventual extinction circa a.d. 750. In every other country in the
Far East its doctrines still live on, unaffected by new masters, new
cure-all philosophies and new methods.
A third of mankind obeys the tenets of Buddhism. It may not obey
them as sincerely as Buddha's disciples once obeyed the words of
their master, but Buddhists are still Buddhists.
Buddhism has also bequeathed the world a great legacy, some-
thing impermanent, perhaps, but something engendered by faith and
therefore magnificent. This is the Buddhist art which has given
birth to statues, portraits and rehefs of Buddha throughout Asia.
INDIA
GANDHARA AND THE BUDDHA IMAGE
The purpose of these sculptures was to glorify the Buddha. This
they did by recounting episodes from the story of his life and of
his previous births, or sometimes, but only rarely, from the sub-
sequent history of the Buddhist Church. In the earliest monuments
the stories of his previous births, or Jatakas, as they were called,
greatly predominated. Later on, interest shifted to the events of his
last earthly life, and still later to his image, which was destined to
eclipse all else in Buddhist art.
—Sir John Marshall, The Buddhist Art of Gandhara,
p. 7, Cambridge, i960
THE ancient land of Gandhara was situated on the northwest
frontier of India, roughly between the Indus and its large northern
tributary, the Kabul. It occupied the northernmost tip of modern
Pakistan and the region of Afghanistan adjoining it in the Kabul
bend. Of great cultural interest and scenic beauty, this area was
conquered by Alexander the Great in the years 327 and 326 b.c.
Alexander led an army of 35,000 men into Gandhara from Sogdiana
and Bactria, which more or less corresponded with the area of
Uzbekistan (now in Soviet Russia) southeast of the Aral Sea. He
was searching for the eastern and southern boundaries of the in-
habited world. His army had long ago ceased to be solely Mace-
donian. A whole empire was on the march, an empire composed of
many nations and races, Macedonians with their wives and children,
scholars, exponents of all the sciences, doctors, geographers, engi-
neers, bridge builders, ballistics experts, historians, ethnologists, and
in addition a huge column of commissariat officials, ancillary troops,
seamen and even contingents lent by Indian princes— a total of about
120,000 souls.
Alexander pushed onward into the Kabul valley, fighting off bitter
attacks by tough mountain tribes. He stormed their strongholds and
battered their towns with his heavy catapult artillery until he
eventually reached the banks of the Indus. The Macedonian king
took strong exception to the Indian philosophers who berated, re-
viled and insulted the native princes who defected to him, and hanged
some of them. The Gandharan king of Takshashila (the modern
town of Taxila stands about 23 miles east of the Indus) paid homage
INDIA 211
to the foreign invader, accompanied by other tribal chieftains.
Alexander's army was progressively reinforced by renegade Indian
troops, and in the spring of 326 b.c. he crossed the Indus. We are
told that Prince Poros lay in wait for him on the eastern bank of
the Hydaspes, now the Jhelum, but that after his men had put up
a desperate struggle Poros was wounded, his army annihilated and
his two sons captured. When Alexander asked him how he thought
he should be treated, the royal captive replied: "Like a king!"
Typically, Alexander complied. Poros became Alexander's ally and
his possessions were considerably augmented.
It was not until the King of Magadha advanced on Alexander at
the head of 600,000 infantry, war elephants and cavalry that the
Macedonian army's courage wavered. For Alexander, the banks of
the Hyphasis represented the end of the world and the end of his
unique career of conquest. Considering the enormous distances and
the alien surroundings, there was nothing surprising about the
mutiny. Like Achilles, Alexander withdrew to his tent for three
days and waited for the army to regain its senses, but his men were
deathly tired of bold excursions to the end of the world. Alexander
turned to the gods. Erecting twelve altars, he ordered a general
retreat. Only a few years after Alexander's withdrawal the Indian
king Chandragupta made sacrifice on one of these altars, a sig-
nificant fact because it illustrates the spiritual contact between
Graeco-Hellenistic culture and the culture of India.
After the departure of the invading army and the great Mace-
donian's death, disorder broke out among the Greeks who were left
behind. Poros was treacherously assassinated by Eudemos, and
Alexander's successors, the Diadochi, quarreled among themselves
over the division of his empire. An Indian adventurer of inferior
caste who had won an evil reputation for his intrigues on the lower
Ganges now felt that the hour had struck for the fulfillment of his
ambitious hopes. Placing himself at the head of the Indian liberation
movement, Chandragupta took the field against the foreigners and
in 316 B.C. won supremacy over the Punjab. Before long he con-
trolled an area stretching from the estuary of the Indus to the
Ganges delta. Seleucus Nicator, master of Babylonia and of a vast
empire, gave him his daughter's hand in marriage and abandoned
his designs on India. Envoys were sent by the Indians to the court of
Babylon and by the Greeks to Pataliputra, now Patna. It is to one
THE SILENT PAST
Mghanistan '/
HaddojCT^Taxlla s^j^Nq /
^^-Peshav7ar >S ■ , \ p s^ -
'?''dh.a'r<» Rawalpindi \A. -p • y.
Lahore^
India
of these Greek diplomats, Megasthenes, that the West owes its first
detailed and eyewitness accounts of the country and people of India.
Megasthenes, who was an Ionian, wrote about Indian geography,
religion and customs. His accounts are not extant, but such details of
them as have survived in Arrian's Indica reflect the contemporary
way of life in India, then known as the Kingdom of Maghada.
INDIA 213
Megasthenes found the people sturdy, honest, sincere, temperate
and peaceable at heart but ready to fight when provoked.
Chandragupta's royal line was known as the Maurya dynasty,
after his mother, Mura. His grandson Asoka, who was the most
powerful ruler ancient India ever knew, controlled the greater
part of the subcontinent. He aroused emotions of such love, respect
and veneration that his name is still held in awe from the shores
of the Black Sea to the islands of Japan and from the borders of
the Polar region to the equator. Asoka was the Constantine of
India, a king who embraced the teachings of Gautama just as some
580 years later, on May 22, a.d. 337, Caesar Flavins Valerius Con-
stantinus became the first Roman emperor to receive Christian
baptism.
Once Asoka became an adherent of Buddhism, the people of
Gandhara also embraced the teachings of Buddha. Asoka's religious
zeal knew no bounds. In the thirteenth year of his reign he had
inscriptions of a religious nature engraved on rocks, cave walls and
pillars. They are the earliest surviving Indian texts of any historical
value. Asoka's ambition was to conquer the world with the Buddhist
rehgion, not by force of arms. A truly apostolic king, he brought
Indian Buddhism to its zenith and gained his worldwide reputation
not by means of conquest or political power but because of the
spiritual insight which prompted him to follow Buddha. Under
the Maurya dynasty ushered in by Chandragupta, Gandhara en-
joyed its only spell of autonomy. Before that time it had been
ruled by Achaemenides and Greeks, and it was subsequently to be
dominated by Bactrians, Saka and the notorious Kushan. The latter
infiltrated into Gandhara from East Asia, from the Chinese province
of Kansu, and were a race of Scythian horsemen identical with the
Yueh Chi of Chinese history. The most celebrated of the Kushan
rulers was a man called Kanishka, who controlled a huge empire
which extended from Margiana to Khotan and from the Aral Sea
to Afghanistan, and incorporated almost the whole of India.
Like the great Asoka, Kanishka was also a Buddhist. He founded
numerous monasteries, convened an assembly in Kashmir to re-
formulate the Buddhist doctrines and built some superb stupas.
These buildings existed in India at a very early date and were
originally burial mounds venerated by the local population. The
stupa cult was revitalized and expanded by Buddhism. Stupas were
214 THE SILENT PAST
like truncated cathedral domes containing a central chamber. The
inner shell was built of unbaked bricks and the exterior of baked
bricks coated with a thick layer of lime. The whole edifice was
capped by an umbrellalike construction of wood or stone and
enclosed by a wooden fence with massive gates, which was later
superseded in some cases by a stone wall. Of all the stupas erected
by King Asoka, the only one to have survived in its original form
is in Nepal. The three most interesting stupas are those of Bharhut
in Madhya Bharat, Sanchi in the state of Bhopal, and Amaravati at
the lower end of the Kistna Valley. The largest stupas, which are to
be found in Ceylon, sometimes exceed three hundred feet in di-
ameter. Ever since Asoka's time, the inner chamber of a stupa has
been used as a repository for relics of Buddha or Buddhist saints.
Chronological information has been handed down to us from this
period and we can date many events with considerable accuracy.
The Shaka chronology of India begins with the anointing of King
Kanishka, which is traditionally supposed to have taken place on
March 15, a.d. 78. This estimate is doubtful, however, and is dis-
puted by many scholars. Estimates given by various authorities
range between 57 b.c. and a.d. 278. Vincent A. Smith settled on
A.D. 120 as the year of Kanishka's accession. Harald Ingholt, who
bases his calculations on the Ghirshman chronology, puts it at
A.D. 144. As we shall see, the question of dates is of vital importance
to any examination of Gandhara art.
Kanishka ruled the Kushan Empire for twenty-seven years. The
last of his line, Vasudeva, was defeated by the Sassanian dynasty of
Persia, and in a.d. 241 Ardashir's son, Shapur I, captured Gandhara.
The Sassanides left the Kushan ruling class to govern the country
for most of the time, occasionally calling their deputies to order
when they grew too independent for safety.
The inhabitants of central Asia are by nature wanderers. Its
wide tracts of grassland and steppe and its vast, undulating hills and
highlands have always been the cradle of races of herdsmen and
horsemen. When the nomad left his own world and met lowland
civilizations entirely alien to him, his usual reaction was to reach for
his sword.
In the year a.d. 460 a great disaster occurred. The whole of
northwest India, including Gandhara, was overrun by the con-
temporary world's most dangerous adversaries, a branch of the
INDIA 215
Hun race known as "White Huns" or Hephthalites. The origins and
racial identity of these horsemen from central Asia have never been
established, but it was not until a.d. 562 that the Turks and Persians
finally annihilated the mounted hordes. The White Huns wrought
frightful havoc among the adherents of Buddhism and executed
those who espoused its doctrines in the most inhuman fashion.
We know when the art of Gandhara ended, but when did it
begin and when did men first venture to portray Buddha in stone?
The answer to this question owes its importance to the fact that
Gandhara is the birthplace of the Buddha effigy and the birthplace
of all such sculptures in Asia.
Buddhism first penetrated to Gandhara in the middle of the third
century B.C., from the time of Asoka onward, and the begin-
nings of Buddhist religious sculpture date from the period 247-232
B.C. It was evolved by Greek and Graeco-Persian sculptors working
in undoubted conjunction with Indian artists. However, the earhest
sculptures of Buddha himself did not come into being until much
later on, under the Kushan dynasty. Some scholars believe that
the first statues of Buddha were made in the time of Kanishka, the
most prominent of the Kushan rulers. Extant coins dating from the
Scythian king's reign show Kanishka standing before an altar on
one side and Buddha on the other. These coins are thought to be
the earliest portrayals of Buddha, but the likeness on the coins must
have been modeled on a statue of still earlier date. At all events,
we have at least an approximate idea of the date of when Buddha
was first portrayed. If we are correct in thinking that King Kanishka
ruled from a.d. 144 to 173, the earhest statues of Buddha must have
come into being a little earlier, perhaps between a.d. 50 and 100.
Gandhara submitted to a long series of alien rulers: Achaemenides,
Greeks, Bactrians, Saka and Kushan. One by one they came, gen-
erally bringing misery and distress in their wake, only to be eventu-
ally obliged to withdraw. The people of Gandhara, however, remained
rooted in their ancient culture, in their language and their faith
in the Buddhist doctrine, which welded them to one another and
to other peoples of India.
Gandhara had to endure foreign domination for almost a thousand
years, but as a cultural area it derived unique benefits from its
contact with foreign overlords. From the West, as a consequence
of Alexander's conquest and of Greek and Graeco-Roman influence,
2i6 THE SILENT PAST
the country received an artistic impetus which ultimately gave the
world the Buddha effigy. One of the most momentous events in the
artistic history of the world, it was something which sprang from
the religious faith of the Gandharans (and probably, too, from that
of the Indians in Mathura, nearly loo miles south of Delhi), from
the honest workmanship and stimulus of Western artists and, last
but not least, from the considerable creative energy and artistic
genius of the Indians themselves.
About six hundred years— roughly from the lifetime of Buddha
until a century after the birth of Christ— had to elapse before the
first portraits of Asia's greatest sage and saint came into being. No
hkenesses of Buddha, not even the most halfhearted attempt to
portray the philosopher from Kapilavastu, existed in India in pre-
Christian times. Asoka was, as we have heard, an adherent of Buddha,
but his stone monuments dating from about the middle of the
third century B.C. never venture to depict the object of his ven-
eration.
During the first period of Buddhist art, or about 250 years after
Buddha's death, only symbolic references were made to the great
teacher. One such symbol was the "wheel of the doctrine" which
the Buddhist scriptures envisaged as being turned by Buddha. In
fact, to regard the wheel as a symbol of moral teaching was not a
conception peculiar to Buddhism but dated from India's very
earliest cultural period and originated in the Vedic hymns of
fifteen hundred years before. During the Vedic era the wheel was
the religious symbol of the sun, whose rising and setting was asso-
ciated with the eternal mutability of all existence. Thus the earliest
examples of Buddhist art depict the sun but not Buddha himself.
Another symbol which occurs frequently is the lion. Buddha,
who came from the princely Sakya family, was sometimes known
as Sakyasimha or "Sakya Lion," and Buddhist scriptures often refer
to the simhanada or "lion's call" of Buddha.
At Sanchi in the State of Bhopal stands a large and celebrated
stupa erected during the second and first centuries b.c. One of the
most beautiful ancient monuments in India, it was intended to
represent the universe. The four gates in the wall enclosing the
shrine are engraved with scenes from Buddha's life, vet none of
these reliefs portrays Buddha's features or even his figure. The gates
date from the close of the first century b.c. On the central architrave
INDIA 217
can be seen the bodhi tree beneath which Gautama received en-
lightenment. At the foot of the tree, flanked on either side by
reverent figures, stands a throne. It is the throne of the Master
himself, but it is empty! The fact that Buddhism's sacred figure
was regarded with boundless awe and humility but not portrayed
makes an immediate impact on the beholder. Everywhere, in every
monastery, every shrine and every stupa dating from before the
beginning of our era, the figure and face of the founder of Buddhism
is reverently omitted.
What is the explanation? Why did India's most exalted religion
or, more properly, philosophy wait until the end of the first century
A.D. before producing an effigy of Buddha? Why was it left to
foreign artists to bequeath the Buddhist world an idealized picture
of its founder?
The answer is as old as the idea of God itself. No representation
of God existed in the paleolithic or neolithic era of mankind. In
fact man himself was never depicted in the Aurignacian culture of
the Cro-Magnids. The earliest human likenesses of that period are
the Venus statuettes dating from thirty, forty or fifty thousand
years ago, but these are probably only symbols of the beginning
and continuance of life and emblems of immortality. Divine effigies
are a relatively late— one might say heathen— invention which first
originated when the idea of the supreme being was adulterated
with polytheistic elements. Brahmanism, the Indians' oldest religion,
did not tolerate idols as cult objects, either, and likewise confined
itself to symbols. This is the principal reason why no effigies of
Buddha were made until about six hundred years after his death.
There is yet another important factor. Buddha was moved by
suffering, by the transience of the flesh and the unreality of existence.
Seeing the grief which everything transitory brings in its wake, he
realized the quantity of tears mankind has shed on its eternal
journey from birth to death. He saw the thirst for life, the lust for
existence and the human passions which have no right of way on
the paths of suffering. And so he sought to abolish suffering by
the annihilation and dulling of the lust for existence, and thus to
demonstrate a way to abolish all suffering. He had tried complete
mortification of the flesh on his own person in order to find release
from the evils of all that is worldly, but he felt that this over-
stringent method concealed latent dangers. As the son of a prince.
218 THE SILENT PAST
he knew the ways of the world only too well, so he advised a
middle way. The stages of the Noble Eightfold Path which he
recommended are: right views, right intention, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right
concentration. It was a philosophy, a moral doctrine and form of
guidance which Buddha did not intend as a religion because it did
not demand a belief either in a supreme being or in himself.
As long as the doctrine retained its original character it was not
a religion but a philosophical edifice. The Way and the Doctrine
were all that mattered to Buddha, which was why symbols were
best suited to represent his spiritual legacy. Symbols of the Master
himself were also appropriate in this context, but he would never
have wished his followers to make likenesses of him calculated to
foster a religious cult of personality, for he rejected anything which
did not pertain to the doctrine itself. It seems clear that Buddha's
adherents honored his memory by respecting this wish for a few
hundred years, until, in the first century a.d., the artists of Gandhara
evolved an idealized picture of him. With the appearance of a figure
which could be seen and worshiped, Buddha's philosophy became
transformed into a religion.
The religious art of Gandhara served the Buddhist faith. For
example, the plinth of a stupa from Sikri, now in Lahore Museum,
is encircled by thirteen reliefs, each illustrating an event in the life
of Buddha. They introduce us into the contemporary world of
ideas concerning Buddha's life and reproduce in stone what legend
relates of him.
These stone memorials were not, however, confined to his life
alone. Artists began to portray him sitting and standing, in relief
and in the round. Still other sculptors saw him as a Bodhisattva or
being who declined nirvana in order to act as a mediator on man-
kind's behalf.
The English archaeologist Sir John Marshall, who excavated the
ruins of three towns dating from between the seventh century B.C.
and the fifth century a.d. in West Pakistan, also contributed greatly
to research into the Buddhist art of Gandhara. He recognized an
early school of Gandhara art in the first and second centuries a.d.
and a later school which flourished between about a.d. 350 and 500.
Not only was the art of these two schools diff^erent in character,
but the media used by the sculptors of the two periods also differed.
INDIA 219
Stone was employed in the first Gandhara period, stucco in the
second. The artists of the early school worked in the Peshawar
valley and the countryside west of the Indus. The later art covered
a much wider area stretching from Taxila, east of the Indus, to
ancient Bactria and the Oxus, i.e. Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
The early school displays a certain crudeness and rigidity, whereas
in the finest pieces of the later school, matter has entirely given way
to mind.
Most pictures show Buddha meditating with his hands cupped
one inside the other. There are also some celebrated portrayals of
him teaching, hands held before his breast in meditation. The miidra
or hand positions of the so-called preaching Buddha later evolved
into a series of subtle and varied gestures symbolizing— among many
other things— concentration, instruction, encouragement, invocation
and fearlessness.
The Master's robe, which reaches almost to the ground, is
gathered at the waist and often leaves his right shoulder bare. It is
actually a Greek robe or, still better, a Hellenistic or even Roman
garment. One of the earliest known sculptures of Buddha, a stand-
ing figure in Peshawar Museum, portrays him wearing a toga like
that of the Roman emperor Augustus.
Mahayana Buddhism evolved during the early centuries of our
era, a period when the life of Alexander the Great was being
romantically embroidered in the Roman Empire and when the idea
of the Hellenistic god-kingdom had gained popularity throughout
the Mediterranean area and far beyond. The deification of Oriental
rulers who were so absolute, so wealthy and powerful that they
were regarded as superior beings, the Egyptian Pharaohs, who were
already gods and sons of Ammon during their sojourn on earth-
all these strongly influenced the ideas of the Hellenistic and Roman
world. Lysander, who delivered Greece from the twenty-seven
years of misery brought about by the Peloponnesian War, was
officially promoted to the status of divine hero during his lifetime.
Alexander the Great was recognized in Egypt as Pharaoh and
greeted with the title Son of Ammon by the priests of Siva. (To the
Greeks, Ammon was the equivalent of Zeus.) The Diadochi, too,
disseminated the idea of apotheosis throughout Asia Minor.
In the year 42 B.C., the Romans pronounced Caesar a god and
invested him with the title Divus Julius, or "divine Julius." Augustus
220 THE SILENT PAST
was worshiped as a god in the East and by the end of his life enjoyed
a status far superior to that of other mortals in the Roman Empire.
Under his successors there grew up an emperor cult which en-
couraged Caligula and Domitian to feel and act like gods. In the
third century Aurelian officially decreed that he should be addressed
as do?n'mus et dens, "lord and god." Virgil prophesied the birth
of a divine child in his Eclogues, written between 42 and 37 b.c.
Suetonius' glorification of Augustus and other Roman extravagances
of this nature all spoke in similar terms: a divine child, a divine
father, a particular astrological constellation present at the time of
the heavenly birth, mystic signs, miracles, a redeemer, an age of
peace and reconciliation. The British authority H. Buchthal com-
pares many of these phenomena with Mahayana Buddhism. The
life of Buddha, too, was tricked out with such a wealth of legendary
and miraculous occurrences that his divine origin and divine power
seemed to become ever more apparent. The resemblance to the
Hellenistic-Roman cult of royalty is most striking.
During the later phase of Gandhara sculptures the similarities
with those of early Christianity become so marked that the Christian
and Buddhist works must either have been derived from a common
source or, more probably, were directly linked. Certainly, Buchthal
has discovered some astonishing resemblances between devotional
sculptures of Buddha in Lahore Museum and early Christian sar-
cophagi in the Louvre in Paris and the Lateran Museum in Rome.
Some portrayals of Buddha are undeniably modeled on Christian
art and there are parallels between Gospel stories and some events
described in the Mahayana scriptures; for example, the feeding of
the five thousand and Peter walking on the water. As the American
scholar Alexander C. Soper wrote in "The Roman Style in Gan-
dhara," an article published by the American Journal of Archaeology
in 195 1, only one area in the Western world produced an art
comparable with the ideas and methods of Gandhara sculpture
during the century of its Kushan prime: the western Mediterranean
and its focal point, Rome. Links between West and East are dis-
cernible even more clearly in the sculptures of Hadda. Situated in
Afghanistan, five miles south of Jelalabad, Hadda was a famed place
of pilgrimage in Buddhist times. Digging there between 1923 and
1928, the French archaeologists Foucher, Godard and Barthoux
unearthed examples of Buddhist art dating from the third to eighth
INDIA 221
centuries a.d. which can still be seen in the monasteries of Hadda,
the Musee Guimet in Paris, and in Peshawar Museum. They include
some very fine— one might almost say European— heads of Buddha,
the head of Silenus, and horned monsters, demons and monks which
are all closely related to French and Italian art of the eighth
century. The famous demon of Hadda, a bent figure in cloak and
hood with features apparently contorted with pain, is a portrayal
of the Great Temptation and is reminiscent less of Gandhara than
of the finest products of our own medieval religious art.
The Gandhara sculptures include not only Buddhist gods and
Hindu gods such as Indra and Brahma, but also members of the
Greek pantheon, a Harpocrates, a Silenus, centaurs and satyrs. Apart
from these, Gandhara produced countless portrayals of patrons and
benefactors, monks and ascetics, wrestlers and warriors, elephants
and lions, fire altars and architectonic accessories.
Who were the foreign artists that gave the Indians their idealized
vision of Buddha? What masters taught in Gandhara and probably
Mathura as well? Who succeeded in giving visual expression to a
figure who had become the supreme ideal of millions? What men
were influential enough to set the pattern upon which gifted Indian
artists based the growing splendor of their statues, reliefs and paint-
ings—sacred works of art before which all the peoples of Asia were
one day destined to bow down in devotion?
Although we shall never know their names, the genius of Alex-
ander the Great, the spirit of Hellenism, the art of Greece and,
last but not least, the artistry of Rome all made themselves felt here
for centuries. That was how the picture of Gautama was first
preserved in stone and how all Asia came to revere his features as
a living reminder of the doctrine of compassion and of the road that
leads to nirvana.
CENTRAL ASIA
THE CAVE TEMPLES OF TUN-HUANG
One^s impression on entering a chapel for the first time is in-
describable, as though one had seen a vision. For a devout Bud-
dhist, attaining this experience after a long and trying journey, it
must be an experience of i?2tense exaltatiofi. Outside, one^s very
eyeballs have been scorched by the glare; the colors, though
ranging through many subtle gradations, are few; the golden
desert, green trees, the azure of the sky, an immense inverted
howl of porcelain over all. Within the shadow-filled chapel it was
cool. The eye was first caught by a large statue of Buddha opposite
the entry, which appeared to brood silently over little clay dishes
of incense left by recent worshipers. In the quiet of this sejni-dark-
ness, which seemed steadily to dissolve, the great figure with its
maroon robes might have meditated here through uncounted ages,
more than a mere statue of plaster with broken arms. As we be-
came accustofned to the subdued light, the scenes on the walls
came into focus.
—Irene Vongehr Vincent, The Sacred Oasis,
p. 67, London, 1953
SHiH HUANG Ti was One of the most powerful monarchs that ever
lived. He standardized weights and measures, systems of writing,
calendar and laws. He decreed the proper width of vehicles and
built long roads leading to his capital, Hsien Yang, near modern
Sian. He divided his empire into thirty-six provinces and put each
in charge of a military administrator. He divided court officials
into twenty grades of seniority. He conducted major wars, extended
his dominions southward as far as Canton and secured his northern
frontiers against the Hsiung-nu or Huns by building the most mas-
sive fortified system of all time, linking his northern forts by means
of earthen ramparts which later became the Great Wall of China.
Such was the drive and energy of this absolute ruler that he
diverted rivers, carried out vast irrigation projects, redirected the
Min River through the side of a mountain, constructed a network
of canals and built himself an enormous mausoleum patterned on
the universe, with rivers, oceans and moving planets. The emperor
decreed that peasants throughout the country could have land of
their own, but since the vast government building projects could be
implemented only by recourse to forced labor the peasants were
CENTRAL ASIA 223
obliged to abandon their small holdings and become little more than
slave laborers, a process which has occurred again and again in the
history of China.
When this mighty autocrat had given his orders and knew that
his flights of fancy had been realized by the blood, sweat and tears
of his subjects, he entered his litter and had himself carried through
the countryside. Tax collection, government administration and
military matters all came under his personal supervision. Shih Huang
Ti wanted to obliterate the past and create the impression that
nothing had existed before him. In his anxiety to be supreme
emperor of the world and founder of the Ch'in dynasty he com-
manded that all annals, records and books by sages of former times
should be destroyed. Wood, bamboo and parchment went up in
flames. All criticism of the Chinese peasants' benefactor was pro-
hibited, and swordsmen were kept busy severing dissenters' heads
from their bodies.
But Shih Huang Ti reigned for only twelve years, from 221
until 209 B.C., and the Ch'in dynasty soon met its end under Shih
Huang Ti's successors because the peasants rebelled under the
frightful hardships of the forced labor system and because, needless
to say, the emperor's own followers quarreled among themselves.
The Ch'in dynasty was succeeded by the famous Han dynasty,
which lasted from 206 e.g. until a.d. 220. It was a rich, great and
flourishing period during which the two most powerful empires in
the world were those of Rome and China. The Han spirit left such
an indelible mark on China that the Chinese still proudly call them-
selves Han Yen, or Men of Han.
Perhaps the most important feature of the Han dynasty was the
introduction of the Buddhist doctrine. The new world of ideas—
the divine world of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and ascetic monks,
the religious world of the Hinayana and iVIahayana— all arrived in
China from India at this time. The first Indian missionaries may
have reached China as early as 217 e.g., but our information is un-
rehable on this point and the tradition that Ming Ti, second emperor
of the eastern Han, sent envoys to India in a.d. 6 1 to fetch Buddhist
books and priests is likewise open to doubt. Nevertheless, the foreign
religion was certainly known in China and Buddhist monks were
already living in the Kingdom of the Center during Ming Ti's reign.
Before long, Buddhist pictures were imported into China along the
224 THE SILENT PAST
highroads of eastern Turkestan, Buddhist monastic settlements
sprang up beside the age-old caravan routes that linked western Asia
with the Far East, and here and there temples arose built of wood,
bricks and clay-
Tun-huang was China's gateway to the West. A rectangular
walled town in an oasis in the extreme west of Kansu, it received its
water from the Altyn Tagh mountains and was rich in fertile pasture
and herds of cattle. Kansu is a country of mountains, arid steppes
and fertile highland oases, oases spanned by the famous Silk Road
which linked the Far East with the Far West. The people who
lived, bartered and did business on this route became fabulously
wealthy. They saw caravans come and go, sold them provisions and
bought what they needed for themselves.
Ten miles north of the town of Tun-huang in the extreme west
of Kansu are the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, a true wonder
of the world and one which was made possible because it lay on
the caravan route from India, because prosperous travelers of the
Han dynasty halted there and because missionaries decided to
immortalize their vision of Buddha there in pictures and sculptures
of dreamlike beauty. With the advent of Buddhism in the extreme
west of China there arrived, too, the Indian idea of hewing temples
into the living rock so that travelers between the two worlds who
halted at this oasis could linger before Buddhist works of art in
devotion and meditation.
The first artificial grottoes probably appeared between a.d. 357
and 3 84. There are several such cave precincts in central Asia, among
them the caves of Yiin Kang, the caves of Lung Men near Loyang,
the caves of Lou Lan and the caves of Qyzyl, to name but a few.
At Tun-huang, access to the individual caves was usually gained
through a corridor leading into an entrance hall, behind which lay
one or more main halls. Caves on the same level were connected by
a form of balcony so that the visitor could pass from one shrine
to the next, and the walls of the caves were covered with beautiful
paintings.
The surface of the walls had to be painted with a layer of clay
followed by a layer of kaolin mixed with lime before color could
be applied. None of the cave murals of central Asia was properly
speaking a fresco, that is to say, painted directly on top of damp
and freshly applied plaster without supplementary binding agents.
[73] A Chou Dynasty wine jug or hu, just over 18 inches high. The ornamentation
consists of intertwined dragons. An inscription inside reads: 1 o be preserved forever
and with care by sons and grandsons.
[74] Two three-legged sacrificial wine cups of the Chou Dynasty, of the type
known as chio. These works of art also bear T'ao-t'ieh masks.
[75I A bronze stove from the Chou Dynasty (1122-256 b.c), only 5.7 inches high,
9.4 inches wide and 18.1 inches long. A shallow vessel stands on each of the two
circular apertures in its top. On the left is a vent to carry away smoke. Numerous
ancient clay ovens have been found, but this is perhaps the earliest known bronze stove.
[76] This fragment of a dog-headed demon was found at Hadda in Afghanistan. It
is a particularly valuable example of Late Gandhara sculpture and forms part of
the collection in the Musee Guimet, Paris
[77] Hadda, on the northwest Indian border near the Khyber Pass, was a famous
center for late Gandhara sculpture. The sculptors there perfected the Graeco-Roman-
Indian style in the 5th century a.d. Here a demon in a fur coat is depicted. One of the
most interesting pieces from the Hadda excavations, it is now in Musee Guimet, Paris.
[78] The head of Buddha, as conceived by Graeco-Roman artists in Gandhara during
the ist century a.d., was later "Indianized" by native sculptors, but the Gandhara
style is evident in portrayals of Buddha throughout Asia and even in the far south.
This splended stone head comes from Borobudur in Java and now reposes in the
Musee Guimet, Paris. The ruins of the Buddhist temple at Borobudur date from the
7th and 8th centuries and are the world's finest example of Buddhist architecture.
[79] This bust with flowers clearly reveals the links between Roman sculpture and
the Buddhist art of Hadda.
|8o] Mural painting of Paradise from Tun-huang, showing Amitabha enthroned on a
lotus blossom between Avalokitesvara and iMahasthame. To left and right are smaller
Bodhisattvas, and in the background a row of pupils. Extreme bottom left, a
woman kneeling on a mat in reverential devotion. The painting dates from circa a.d. 800.
[8i] Scene from the life of Buddha. Prince Gautama,
on horseback, encounters the three evils of earthly
life: old age, disease and death. He is riding away
from his father's palace, having renounced royal
life. Beneath sits the Sakyamuni addressing three
monks who kneel in an attitude of respectful
attention.
"■>
i
'^
[82] A very small section (the lower left-hand cor-
ner) of one of the finest paintings from Tun-huang.
Not painted on silk like the other pictures, it is a
piece of embroidery of the T'ang period, the golden
age of Chinese culture. Sir Aurel Stein estimated
that this remarkably fine piece of needlework dated
from about a.d. 800. Stitched in red, brown and dull
green, it depicts a group of pious women kneeling
on mats. A child can be seen sitting beside the
woman in the background, and the standing figure
on the extreme left is a female attendant.
^:
. ' ^T
[83] Deep in the heart of central Asia, in the Chinese province of Sinkiang, Sir
Aurel Stein's expedition came upon the ruined site of Miran. The ruins lie southwest
of the Lop Nor, between thirty and sixty miles from the Ansi-Khotan road, in a flat
region of a desert that stretches away in all directions as far as the eve can see. This
beautifully modeled head, which was found in an excavated temple there, is prob-
ably a Bodhisattva. Parts of the face still bear traces of the original paint. Note the
remarkably detailed treatment of eyes and hair.
[84] The ancient burial places of Astana were dug up at Kara-Khoja, nearly twenty
miles from the oasis of Turfan. This clay figure was a funeral offering. The horse is
painted light and dark brown and the saddle is red, yellow and green.
[85] Cave 58 of the Tun-huang sanctuaries contained this remarkably fine altar de-
picting youths in prayer and good and evil spirits watching a sleeping Buddha.
3
j-'i-.
Mr;
h\
[86] A Bodhisattva pro-
jects eerily from a cave
wall in the light of torches,
and hundreds of other
sacred figures gaze from
the adjoining wall. The
sculptures in the Tun-
huang caves owe their ex-
istence to artists and crafts-
men whose influence trav-
eled throughout Asia along
the Silk Road.
[87] Scenic setting of the
Tun-huang caves, artificial
grottoes hewn into the
rock. The Buddhist wall
paintings and sculptures
found in their interior are
among the finest art treas-
ures in the world. The
men principally responsible
for research into these
sacred places on the Silk
Road were Albert Griin-
wedel of Germany, Sir
Aurel Stein of England and
Paul Pelliot of France.
CENTRAL ASIA 225
(The Italian expression a fresco here means "onto the fresh.") In this
case the colors were blended with an adhesive binding medium and
applied on a dry ground.
The extreme durability of the work done by Central Asian artists
is vouched for by the fact that many paintings have survived for
more than fifteen hundred years. However, the lasting qualities of
so many of these splendid murals is also attributable to other factors.
The oasis dwellers and their priests were anxious to ensure that the
stream of pious pilgrims never ran dry, so they carefully protected
their religious art and restored any pictures which faded with the
passage of time or fell into decay. Renovations of this nature were
carried out at Tun-huang under the Mongolian Yiian dynasty
( 1 278-1 368). By no means all the walls were painted over, however.
The Mongols forbade the Chinese to learn the Mongol tongue or
marry Mongol women, persecuted Chinese who owned weapons
and horses, strangled China's trade and economy, abolished law and
order and issued so much paper money that galloping inflation
ensued, but they did not lay hands on the miraculous pictures of
Tun-huang. Instead, they left them in the care of priests and even
took steps to preserve their irreplaceable artistic value.
Nature itself can act as a preservative. Thousands upon thousands
of almost equally splendid paintings housed in the large and densely
populated cities of China vanished forever, but geographical loca-
tion, remoteness and, above all, climate have combined to preserve
the murals of Tun-huang until our own day. It is abnormally dry
there, and the narrowness of the apertures leading into the interior
of the caves helped to shield the pictures from the direct sunlight.
Many entrances had collapsed, cutting the pictures off from the
effects of weather, and still others had been blocked with sand by
the perpetual storms of central Asia. They have only been cleared
in the last forty years. Basil Gray, who visited Tun-huang in May
1957 and submitted the caves to further exhaustive scrutiny, relates
that thousands of pilgrims from all over the world had scratched
their names on the walls in many languages, among them Chinese,
Uigurian, Japanese and even Russian. The cave murals originated
in the dynasty of the later Wei (385-550) and painting ceased in the
time of the northern Sung (560-1127). Five hundred years of
superlative artistry, the chief legacy of Chinese painting as a whole,
gaze down at us from the walls of Tun-huang.
226 THE SILENT PAST
The caves were first explored by Sir Aurel Stein, the celebrated
British archaeologist and traveler. Stein was born in Budapest in 1862
and died at Kabul in the year 1943. While visiting the Tarim Basin
in Sinkiang Province in 1900-01, he explored the city of Khotan
on the Silk Road and unearthed the remains of a civilization that
had once thrived there at 4,600 feet above sea level. Having ex-
amined a number of other important sites on the edge of the great
desert, he reached China's western frontier and eventually came to
Tun-huang in the Chinese province of Kansu. Stein's expedition
left Kashmir in April 1906. He did not reach Tun-huang until
March 1907.
It was known that there were hundreds of sacred grottoes in the
vicinity of the oasis, and Stein was greatly intrigued by stories of
the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. On arriving in Tun-huang, he
learned from a Mohammedan merchant that the many hundreds
of shafts which honeycombed the cliffs north of the oasis contained
yet another hidden treasure. In one of the larger caves the Taoist
monk on duty there had discovered great quantities of manuscripts.
The monk had been trying to restore the shrine to its former
splendor, a laborious task since sand had drifted in and the entrance
had been blocked by fallen fragments of rock from the ceiling.
When the sand and rubble was removed a fissure became visible in
the painted inner wall leading from the antechamber to the temple.
Soon an opening was found which gave onto a side chamber
hollowed out of the rock behind the stucco wall, and this chamber
was filled from floor to roof with rolls of manuscript.
Stein found that access to the hoard had been cut off by a wooden
door, and by the time he returned a month later the monks had
gone to the lengths of erecting a stone wall in front of it. Patiently,
Stein persuaded the priest first to show him a few of the manuscripts
and then to hand over the remainder.
Having cautiously unrolled one of the bundles of manuscript, the
British archaeologist found that it contained paintings on silk, most
of them in a fragmentary condition. It seemed, he said later, as
though they had been hurriedly concealed during a sudden alarm-
perhaps a raid by plundering Tatars or Tibetans. The manuscripts
and pictures had certainly been deposited there shortly after the
close of the tenth century a.d.
A year later the French scholar Paul Pelliot arrived in Tun-huang,
CENTRAL ASIA 227
inspected the caves and took the rest of the pictures and a consider-
able number of manuscripts away with him. Tlius part of this cache,
whose value is incalculable, is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale
and the Louvre at Paris, and part in the British Museum in London.
In London each bundle was carefully opened. The brittle, dusty
silk had sometimes crumbled into hundreds of pieces, each of which
had to be cleaned and reconstructed, an incredibly laborious and
time-consuming job. The colors had lost some of their depth and
luster, the silk had taken on a greenish tinge and many figures were
discernible only in outline or had completely disappeared, yet no
restoration work of any kind was undertaken.
Votum was the Latin term for a sacred vow or votive offering,
and a votive picture is a gift presented in token of gratitude and
respect. After reconstruction, some of the votive paintings of Tun-
huang turned out to be six or seven feet high. The portraits of their
donors which can often be seen at the foot of these works enable
one to date them with some accuracy because their style of dress
provides valuable information as to period.
One picture even bears a date which, when translated into our
own chronology, becomes a.d. 864. This takes us back to China's
golden age of art, a period when Chinese culture attained a zenith,
the time of the poets Li Po and Tu Fu, the golden age of Chinese
sculpture and a period of painting that was destined to remain
unrivaled.
At first sight the pictures seem to be similar and almost monotonous
in their subject matter and execution, but closer study reveals their
great diversity and latent symbolism.
Before the art of Tun-huang was discovered, little was known
about Buddhist painting in Europe, which was familiar only with
the famous Indian wall paintings of Ajanta and the Buddhist pictures
by great Japanese masters in the Horyuji Temple at Nara. The
Tun-huang pictures included some in Indian and Nepalese style,
others which betrayed Tibetan influence, others painted in typically
Chinese style and still others in which Indian, Chinese and Tibetan
elements were all represented simultaneously.
It was common knowledge that Buddhism had come to China
from India, but until these astonishing discoveries were made noth-
ing had been known of the intermediate stages by way of which
Buddhist art journeyed eastward through Turkestan and Asia.
2 28 THE SILENT PAST
During his first expedition of 1900-01, Stein had found in the
desert town of Khotan the remains of a settlement which had been
abandoned in the third century a.d. and engulfed by the drifting
sands of the Takla Makan. He discovered a quantity of letters and
documents engraved in archaic Indian script on sealed and corded
wooden tablets. The seals were of Greek design and carried repre-
sentations of Athena, Heracles and other deities.
On his second expedition, Stein discovered Buddhist sanctuaries
with mural paintings in late Graeco-Roman style dating from the
fourth century a.d. at Miran, a ruined site near Lop Nor. These
evidences of Western influence in the middle of the Asian desert
constituted a major find. Hellenistic influence had not been the sole
formative element, however. The culture of the flourishing oases
that extended through the desert to the west of China found an
inexhaustible source of inspiration in Buddhism and Indian art.
Persian influence is also manifest, and some of the manuscripts at
Tun-huang were written in the Iranian dialect of Sogdiana.
The art of Turkestan is interesting because it represents a point
of contact between the great religions of East and West. There
was an amazing wealth of religious ideas both in Europe and Asia
in the first century of our era. Never before or since has mankind
wrestled so earnestly with the problems of salvation and immortality.
While Christianity and Mithraism were competing for supremacy
in the Roman Empire, Buddhism was making its way eastward.
The new doctrine from India had now assumed the shape of
Mahayana Buddhism, which sought salvation not merely for the
individual but for the whole world. That is why pride of place
among the paintings of Tun-huang went to the Bodhisattvas, who
had earned the right to become Buddhas but waived it for suffering
humanity's sake. Aiahayana Buddhism was thus a late development
of the original creed. Foremost among the Bodhisattvas was Avalo-
kitesvara, known to the Chinese as Kuan-yin and to the Japanese as
Kwannon. Curiously enough, Mahayana Buddhism's principal recip-
ients of devotion were portrayed in male as well as female guise.
Apart from Bodhisattvas, the paintings of Tun-huang depict
jatakas or scenes from the life of Buddha and visions of the "Western
Paradise." The latter, which are distinguished for their amazingly
intricate style and almost unrivaled sense of composition, include
CENTRAL ASIA 229
multitudes of figures, pavilions, terraces, oceans of lotus blossoms
and other flowers, and heavenly beings singing and dancing.
Manichaeism was a gnostic religion founded in eastern Turkestan
in the third century a.d. by a Persian named Mani. Born in the year
215 at Ctesiphon in Babylonia, then a Persian province, Mani
preached in Persia and undertook long missionary journeys to
Turkestan and India. He was ultimately persecuted as a heretic by
the Zoroastrian priesthood, arrested, crucified, cut into two pieces,
stuffed with straw and publicly exposed in the capital of the Jun-
disabur. Mani was a genuine Persian, but his religion was a blend
of Christian, Buddhist and Persian ideas compounded with ancient
Babylonian concepts and elements of gnosticism. Manichaeans could
profess membership of any religious sect they wished, according to
whether they lived under Christian or Buddhist rule. The basis of
Mani's doctrine was a contest between good and evil, light and
darkness. His inference was that light generally loses the battle and
that darkness— interspersed with a few patches of light in keeping
with the way of the world and its inhabitants— emerges victorious.
At the oasis of Turfan in East Turkestan, Manichaeans, Buddhists
and Christians lived together in amity. Mankind owes Sir Aurel
Stein a debt of gratitude for saving the silk paintings of Tun-huang,
for the examples that he and Pelliot brought back to Europe are all
that remain of an art that has been lost on the lonely roads of
central Asia, stolen by marauders or scattered to the winds.
CENTRAL ASIA
THE SILK ROAD
The silk roads via which China's goods were exchanged for
those of India, Persia and the Ro?nan East ran through the country-
side to north and south, and the cities were everywhere inhabited
by busy inerchants from all the lands of the East. This explains
why our second Turfan-Kara Khoja expedition brought back to
Berlin a total of seventeen different languages in twe7ity-four dif-
ferent kinds of script.
—Albert von Le Coq, Auf Hellas Spuren
in Ostturkistan, p. 29, Leipzig, 1926
IT WAS the longest road in the world, an artery of communication
between two vast empires, between people of many tongues, be-
tween the Mediterranean and the Pacific Ocean. It was a dream, a
fairy tale, mankind's boldest venture. It went back to extremely
ancient times but was destined to mold the future of the Asian
continent. It carried tidings of alien worlds and some of the most
sumptuous merchandise on earth, truly royal treasures endowed
with the everlasting allure of the unattainable.
The Silk Road, which ran from Sian, capital of the province of
Shensi in northwest China, to Palmyra and Antioch, measures about
4,700 miles as the crow flies. But the road is not a straight line. It
surmounts the highest mountains in the world and weaves its endless
way between East and West for more than 6,000 miles— a quarter of
the earth's circumference.
As a trade route, it was perhaps the most important channel of
communication in history, for it made possible some of the major
economic, cultural and religious contacts and upheavals of mankind.
The men who lived at one end of the world route had no idea
where the goods in which they traded had come from. In Sian and
Loyang, Kalgan and Peking, merchants all competed for the rare
merchandise which the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans had to
offer, and at the many staging posts on the route middlemen com-
puted the proceeds of international trade in the coins of many
nations: Tocharians, Bactrians, Parthians, Medes and Syrians.
Silk was the lifeblood of these interminable trade routes. Several
kinds of silk and an advanced weaving technique existed in China
as early as the Shang period. Finds made in graves dating from be-
230
CENTRAL ASIA 231
tween 1766 and 1123 b.c— the period of the Shang dynasty— show
that the Chinese used to write on ivory and bronze, that they
obtained oracles from the fissures created in bone and tortoiseshell
by the application of heat, that they were beginning to express
themselves on shavings of bamboo and, above all, that they bred
silkworms on mulberry trees.
Horses, glass vessels, precious stones, diamonds, ivory, tortoise-
shell, asbestos and fine garments of wool and linen all reached the
Kingdom of the Center by way of the most arduous thoroughfare
in the world. Silk traveled westward along the same interminably
winding road, across grassland, sandy wastes and desolate moun-
tains, until it reached the Roman Empire.
In the year a.d. 120 some Roman conjurers arrived in the city of
Loyang, accompanied on the last stage of their journey by a delega-
tion from the countries on China's southern border. The magicians
announced that they came from Ta Ch'ien, the region of the
Western Sea. In the year a.d. 166, more dust-stained travelers from
Ta Ch'ien arrived in Loyang, declaring that they were envoys of
their king. The king was no less a person than Marcus Aurelius, the
Roman Emperor. There are some indications that the Chinese in
their turn had reached the Roman Empire as early as the lifetime of
Christ.
Threads of silk are almost inextricably interwoven with the history
of China. Its use was prohibited to many classes, and at certain
periods even merchants were forbidden to deal in it. Certain pat-
terns and colors, too, were regulated by law because they were an
indication of official rank. Width, length and quality were all laid
down by imperial decree. Silk was often used in the course of
Chinese history as a medium of payment, and one of the country's
main forms of taxation was collected in bales of that material. The
collapse of Chinese silk manufacture and the invention of artificial
silk are partially to blame for the economic exigencies of modern
China. The quantity of silk paid in indemnities by China in the
course of her history is almost incredible. When the "Golden Tatars"
were expanding their Chin Kingdom to the south and had reached
Kaifeng, capital of the Sung emperors, they demanded not only
five million ounces of gold, five hundred million ounces of silver
and countless head of cattle and horses, but also a consignment of
five million bales of silk. China accepted these conditions. On Jan-
THE SILENT PAST
The Silk Road
uary 9, 1127, however, the Chin Tatars occupied Kaifeng and
carried Emperor Hui Tsung, the greatest painter who ever occupied
a throne, off with them into the inhospitable North. He was accom-
panied by senior officials and princes and princesses with pale oval
faces and delicate hands, all of whom were forced to undertake the
endless march into the remote wastes of Manchuria in bitter wmter
weather. .
For many centuries the technique of silk manufacture remamed
a well-guarded secret. There were silk spies, fashion pirates and
experimental laboratories throughout the Mediterranean area even
in pre-Christian times. Silk, the queen of materials, was for centuries
CENTRAL ASIA 233
the object of almost alchemistic attempts at imitation. Korea, Japan,
India, Indo-China and West Indonesia all learned the imperial secret
of silkworm breeding in due course.
The Silk Road survived every kind of human endeavor, greed and
vanity. Bales of raw and woven silk swayed westward on camelback
to be processed in Syria. In later times the Arabs became expert
tailors in silk, to be succeeded during their great Renaissance by the
Italians.
In Rome, silk became fashionable at court from the reign of
Emperor Augustus onward. Roman patricians and their elegant
wives and daughters selected the finest silks for their robes and
preened themselves in the mirrors which were another Chinese in-
vention. Silk (sericum) and silk cloth (serica) were in some mysteri-
ous way woven and exported by a distant people living somewhere
far to the east, but the ladies of Rome had no idea of that remote
and highly civilized people's identity.
The Macedonian merchant Maes Titanus must have had a com-
mercial agent in the Far East. At any rate, he received an extremely
accurate report of the eastern area of the Indian Ocean and the
seas bordering the Pacific from a certain Marinos of Tyre. In the
year a.d. 125, the geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus incorporated this
report in his map of the world. It mentions a mysterious harbor
called Cattigara, but we shall never know where it lay or whether
it corresponded to Nanking, Canton, Singapore or— as Albert Herr-
mann suggested— Ha Tinh in north Vietnam.
The price of silk was extraordinarily high. In the time of the
Roman emperor Aurelian (215-275), a pound of silk was worth a
pound of gold. This in itself accounted for silk's extremely fine
weave. The island of Cos in the Sporades group exported not only
excellent wine in splendid amphorae and the fine salves known as
aiiiaracimnn and melinwn but also silken robes celebrated for their
lightness and transparency, the Coae testes of Pliny. These garments
clearly revealed the contours of the body beneath and were con-
sequently much favored by rich and famous courtesans. The Louvre
in Paris displays a statue of Aphrodite dressed in a Coan robe, prob-
ably a classical copy of the celebrated "Aphrodite in the Garden"
by the Greek sculptor Alcamenes, a pupil of Phidias.
The clothing, coverlets, cushions and curtains of the wealthy were
all made of silk— an indescribable luxury. Emperors' wives wore
234
THE SILENT PAST
Asia
silken robes, but the fact that, despite a standing prohibition, vain
and effeminate men also swathed themselves in silk was frowned
upon. Emperor Elagabalus made a practice of bedding all the guests
at his orgiastic summer fetes on silken cushions.
Caravan after caravan, long files of tortured beasts and toiling
men, filled with a strange yearning for the unknown, journeyed
along the Silk Road in each direction of the compass— yet another
epoch-making Chinese device. Amber from the Baltic, Tyrian purple,
incense, spices and gold were carried to the Far East. Caravans of
this sort took four or five months to fight their way through the
Tarim Basin. Death by thirst lurked in the sandy wastes and brack-
ish marshes. In the high passes of the Pamirs the air was so thin that
CENTRAL ASIA 235
men fought for breath as they pressed onward. However, silk was
a universal loadstone. To possess it was the pride and joy of all
Europe. Silk rustled and gleamed from Persia to Constantinople,
from Athens to Rome and Cadiz on the Atlantic coast of Spain,
though thousands of priceless bales tumbled into the drifting sands
to form the funerary offering of caravans annihilated by thirst.
East Turkestan, a huge depression filled with drifting dunes, con-
sists partly of comfortless desert, large tracts of which are impassable
for lack of water. All central Asia knows the buran or death-dealing
sandstorm, an eruption of nature which is not only impressive to see
but extremely hazardous. Abruptly, with almost inconceivable speed,
the sky grows dark. The sun shines blood-red through a curtain of
dust. Then the dust becomes so thick that even the sun is extin-
guished. The buran howls across the plain, unleashed with a fury
that forces every caravan to halt and seek shelter on the ground.
Huge masses of sand and pebbles are sucked up by the storm to form
whirling funnels. The darkness grows ever deeper, the piercing roar
of the storm ever louder. The strange clatter mentioned in so many
travelers' tales is caused by stones rattling together in the storm-rent
sky— a demoniacal sound, even if one does not equate it with the
scream of the ghostly eagle which figures in Chinese legends.
No one has yet told the epic story of the men who lost their lives
in such storms. Religious pilgrims, missionaries, merchants, scholars,
even refugees from the Japanese and Communist reigns of terror
during and since the last World War, all met their end in the buran.
Needless to say, everyone knows the rules. Men, horses and camels
have to lie down and allow the storm to rage over them for hours
on end, but the buran is merciless. It whips them and lashes them
with pebbles, causing man and beast to lose their reason and plunge
wildly into the desert to die on trackless dunes. Many have been
found as mummified cadavers, but, as Le Coq always said, a sand-
storm generally likes to bury its victims.
East Turks, Dolans, West Mongols, Kalmucks and Kirghizes are
hospitable, likable, greathearted people, the sort of people that only
nomadic life and the country's untrammeled vastness could have
bred. Perhaps the only exceptions are the Chinese-speaking Moham-
medans known as Tungans. Nature is harsher and life cheaper than
in many other parts of the world, and numerous explorers have
perished there, most of them at the hands of the Chinese or of
236 THE SILENT PAST
wandering nomads. Adolph von Schlagintweit met his end in this
way at Kashgar in 1857. The Scotsman Dalgleish's thirst for knowl-
edge was rewarded with death. Hayward of England and Dutreuil
of France were also murdered, and in very recent times there have
been numerous men who bade farewell to civilization in Kalgan or
Paotou and set off westward, never to return.
The Silk Road was not merely a track. The little-known epic of
the imperial highway, as the Chinese called this international thor-
oughfare, was a tale of lonely hostelries built of unhewn stone and
clay, inns erected out of camel dung, small forts garrisoned to pro-
tect passing traffic, marching troops, mounted messengers, coura-
geous pilgrims. Consignments of water for convoys travehng through
the most arid stretches of desert, interpreters, customs posts and
tollgates— all these belonged to the saga of the Road. Oxcarts trundled
painfully through the sand. Traffic on the road included donkeys,
horses, camels, dispatch riders and mounted couriers. Mile after mile,
day after day, month after month, year after year, they passed by
at a pace and in an age far removed from the split-second timing of
our own.
The Silk Road was so long that people at one end of the world
scarcely knew what the places at the other end looked like. Who
can say whether the words of Paul and Barnabas did not travel from
Antioch to China along this road in the early centuries of our era?
The noble ruins of Palmyra, the Aramaic Tadmor and royal seat
of Queen Zenobia, who for a brief time ruled a world empire, still
reveal traces of Far Eastern influence. Farther on, the road led from
Ctesiphon, chief residence first of the Parthian kings and then of
the Sassanides, to Ecbatana, now called Hamadan. This was the
capital of Media, with a fortified citadel dominating the whole city
and pillared palaces with roofs of cedar and cypress wood on a hill
below it. The Achaemenides and Parthians who made it their sum-
mer residence were so rich that they faced the woodwork of their
buildings with gold and silver foil. Rhages, the Elamite town men-
tioned in the Book of Tobias, is now called Rei. Situated to the
south of Teheran, it enjoys magnificent weather in springtime, and
one can well understand why the Parthian kings chose to spend
the months of March, April and May there. Passing through Bactra,
caravans stopped to do business in gold, for gold from Bactra was
as much in demand in antiquity as silk from China. Eventually, they
CENTRAL ASIA 237
reached Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, situated nearly five thousand
feet above sea level in a loess oasis watered by the Red River, or
Qyzyl Su. From there it was only a few days' journey across the
13,000-foot Terek Pass to the legendary town of Ferghana. If
plenty of snow had accumulated in the mountains during winter,
the thaw provided sufficient water for irrigation purposes. On the
other hand, a cold summer high up in the Pamirs sometimes delayed
the thaw, and the blazing summer heat down in Kashgar brought
great hardships in its train.
Vast clouds of sand come racing westward from the wastes of
Takla Makan, obscuring the Kashgar oasis under a vast curtain of
dust for more than two hundred days in every year. Pan Chao, the
famous Chinese warrior of the first century a.d., lies buried in a
temple there. In the second century a.d. wine passed through the
oasis on its way to China. And it was via Kashgar that Buddhism
reached the Far East. The bearers of the new world religion, the
Yue Chi, also introduced China to the peach and pear. Genghis Khan,
conqueror of Asia, must have visited Kashgar in the year 12 19, and in
1275 Marco Polo gazed in wonder at the fertility and bustUng com-
mercial activity of the oasis. Earthquakes usually occur in maritime
regions, but reports of earthquakes here in the heart of Asia during
historical times have been handed down by word of mouth from
generation to generation. Passing Khotan, 4,600 feet above sea level
in the Tarim Basin, the caravans journey on to Tun-huang, the
oasis famous for its cave temples. A northern route leads through
Turfan, where numerous ruined sites have been excavated fifty feet
below sea level in the Uigurian district.
Digging in Chinese Turkestan between 1905 and 1907, Albert
Griinwedel, the celebrated German Indologist, brought to light
archaeological treasures which included Buddhist cave temples and
sculptures. Among his other discoveries were the remains of fine
and obviously very costly silken garments and silk-faced hats. Silk
was once an outward and visible sign of rank and splendor in the
monasteries of central Asia, more than fifteen hundred miles from
Pekingr.
At Turfan, Griinwedel reported, the blazing sun made any form
of activity extremely arduous between June and mid-August; at
Quarasahr there was the additional annoyance of mosquitoes; and
in Qyzyl there were storms and earthquakes. None of the mural
238 THE SILENT PAST
paintings in the cave temples had survived intact, sculpted figures
had been destroyed and inscriptions scratched out. With endless
patience, he removed many of the splendid old paintings from the
walls, listed the separate fragments, packed them up and sent them
off by caravan. Tracings and drawings had to be made so that the
pictures could be reassembled later. In winter severe cold froze
India ink to the brush, even when mixed with alcohol. Work was
made doubly laborious by flying sand, which got into brushes and
pens, decomposed ink and ruined paints. "Even when one had suc-
ceeded in mixing the main color a cloud of sand could fly in and
change everything." Goatherds had been using the cave temples as
overnight shelters for centuries, and their campfires had blackened
the walls. Other caves were blocked by drifting sand and had to
be cleared one by one. No one who saw the splendid pictures in,
say, the Museum of Ethnology at Berlin would guess how much
physical hardship and privation they had caused in far-off Turkestan,
but no one, equally, would fail to realize that the oases along the
Silk Road represent an impressive and awe-inspiring composite of
the great civilizations of Asia.
Berlin's Museum of Ethnology sent a total of four expeditions
to central Asia. The first, under the leadership of Professor Griin-
wedel, went to Turfan and worked there from November 1902
until March 1903. This venture produced forty-six cases, each weigh-
ing over eighty pounds and containing dismantled mural paintings,
sculptures and other objects. A second expedition under Albert von
Le Coq lasted from September 1904 until December 1905 and
carried out research at the oasis of Turfan and in the Momul district.
The material results were very substantial. A hundred and three
cases each weighing between 200 and 350 pounds were sent back to
Germany by slow and devious caravan routes. The third expedition
of 1905-07 was conducted jointly by Griinwedel and Le Coq and
worked in the oases of Kutsha, Karashahr, Turfan and Komul. A
hundred and twenty-eight cases weighing between 150 and 175
pounds were removed. The fourth and final expedition, which took
place between January 191 3 and the end of February 19 14, was
again led by Le Coq and produced 160 cases also weighing between
150 and 175 pounds.
Vast numbers of treasures were removed. (One cannot say stolen,
for the mural paintings, reliefs and sculptures were falling to pieces
CENTRAL ASIA 239
in their original abode.) The plaster walls with their Buddhist murals
were regarded as an abomination by Mohammedans, and whenever
a Moslem saw one of these pictures he did his best to obliterate
Buddha's features. Apart from that, the powdered loess that had
piled up in the ruins over the centuries and now covered the
smashed and trampled statues was a valuable manure, so the oasis
dwellers made a practice of digging it up and carrying it away.
Griinwedel complained bitterly about the Turks, who smashed
heads of Buddha, dug out the eyes with pickaxes and demolished
or defaced frescoes. "The peasants carry off the frescoes as manure,
knock down walls so that they can drive carts in and out more easily
and comb the ruins for firewood, scraps of leather, jewelry and
valuables. At Idikuchari, incidentally, the latter seem to have been
pretty well exhausted. The unfortunate thing is that one cannot
stop them from doing it, for the area is too large and accessible from
every direction, and control is impossible. The arrival of a European
sets them all scurrying off to find something they can sell. They go
on grubbing about for some time after the European leaves, but
treasure hunting on a grand scale eventually ceases and the peasants
once more set about their demolition work for utilitarian purposes."
We have already mentioned the successes of the French scholar
Paul Pelhot and the explorations undertaken on behalf of the Indian
Government by the British geographer and philologist Sir Aurel
Stein. Professor Albert von Le Coq, a director of the State Museum
of Ethnology in Berlin, wrote in 1926: "Since the exploration of
the ruins of Nineveh by Sir Austen Layard, no other enterprise has
been carried out whose results are comparable in importance with
these expeditions to central Asia." In fact, they revealed something
quite new. Instead of a "Turkish" country, as the name Turkestan
implies, explorers discovered that the Silk Road was occupied until
the middle of the eighth century by people of Indo-European origin
such as Iranians, Indians and even Europeans. Of the numerous
manuscripts found along the route some were in unfamiliar tongues
and had to be deciphered, translated and scientifically evaluated by
experts in London, Paris and Berlin. Authorities on Indo-European
and Turkish had to study and decipher no less than seventeen differ-
ent languages written in twenty-four different sorts of script. Many
of the Sanskrit manuscripts revealed new and important facts about
Buddhism. Quantities of liturgical works composed in Syrian for
240 THE SILENT PAST
the Nestorian-Syrian church were also found. Many other manu-
scripts of Nestorian-Christian content were written in the language
of Sogdiana.
Finally, in a waterless area near the Turfan oasis the German
expeditions discovered a major portion of the Manichaean literature,
which had hitherto been regarded as permanently lost. The texts,
which were beautifully handwritten on excellent paper in inks of
various colors, gave some entirely new details of this unique religion.
Also found were sheets from books which had belonged to the
Manichaean religious community. Composed in Middle Persian and
other Indian dialects, though mainly in the script of Sogdiana, and
adorned with miniatures of startling beauty, they were subsequently
translated by Professor F. W. K. Miiller of Germany. The principal
importance of these Manichaean texts lies in the fact that almost all
other examples of Manichaean literature fell prey to Christian hatred
or Mohammedan religious zeal.
Between Tun-huang and Sian, capital of the Chinese province of
Shensi, the Silk Road becomes a single track. Anyone who reached
that rectangular walled metropolis by way of it had, as the great
Swedish explorer Sven Hedin declared, a world of unforgettable
experiences behind him.
The imperial highway, as the Chinese used to call the Silk Road,
cut a gigantic cross section through the ancient world. It ran from
the seething plains of China, through the oases of the edge of the
Gobi desert, through the barren wastes between Tun-huang and Lou
Lan— still the desolate habitat of the wild camel— and through the
fairy-tale cities of the Medes until it came, finally, to the metropoli-
tan cities of the ancient civilizations of Babylon and Tyre. The Silk
Road has yielded up one secret after another. On March 28, 1900,
Sven Hedin found the ruined city of Lou Lan in the vicinity of the
former bed of Lake Lop Nor.
A year later, there came to light in a house built of mud bricks
a heap of rubble containing rags, sheep's bones, the remains of fish
and, among these, a few hundred sheets of manuscript and 42 wooden
sticks, all covered with Chinese characters. Sven Hedin's rubbish
dump was a veritable treasure trove. The fragmentary manuscripts,
some of which actually mentioned the name Lou Lan, had been
left behind by a Chinese garrison stationed there between a.d. 265
and 313. The results of research into Lou Lan by Hedin and his
CENTRAL ASIA 241
successors were not published until 1920, by which time Hedin was
dead. However, he had already recognized the value of these finds.
"The documentary fragments would set the seal on my painstaking
investigations. They would tell when the lake— the Lop Nor—
existed, what people lived there, what parts of central Asia they were
in contact with and what name their country bore. A country
which had been, as it were, swallowed up by the earth's surface, a
people "whose history long ago passed into oblivion and whose
destiny no chronicles relate— all these things would see the light
of day. I was confronted with a past which I was to bring to life
once more."
The carved woodwork of Lou Lan betrayed Hellenistic and
Gandharan influence and so testified to indirect links with west and
south. The paper documents, which had crumbled into small pieces,
displayed wonderfully clear and legible Chinese characters when
reassembled. While digging in the cemetery at Lou Lan, Aurel Stein
unearthed human bodies whose clothing and facial expression had
survived intact. The ruins of a Buddhist temple yielded some small
but superb wood carvings, figures, ornaments, models of a stupa,
spoons and a child's mattock. Other discoveries included coins
pierced with rectangular holes, a red ring stone portraying Hermes,
the remains of a woolen carpet with a marvelously lifelike head of
Buddha, and pieces of finely patterned silk.
Aurel Stein's excavation of another burial place at Astana, nearly
twenty miles southwest of the Turfan oasis, brought to light sculp-
tures of the eighth century which are among the finest extant pieces
dating from China's greatest artistic period, the T'ang dynasty.
These funerary gifts comprised small human figures, camels,
brightly painted horses, demons' heads, horsemen in gay clothing
and splendid figurative paintings on silk.
Throughout the length of the Silk Road, hundreds of textual frag-
ments were unearthed dealing with the Prajnaparamita, or Maha-
yana philosophy of the period. There were also tenth-century
Tibetan texts on military subjects, medical treatises, commercial
records and a surprising number of texts on horse doctoring.
In the golden days of the Silk Road, the only things that traveled
along it from one side of the world to the other were luxuries. Jade,
for instance, was not originally discovered in China but reached
the Far East by way of the Silk Road. Spiritual treasures such as
24J THE SILENT PAST
Buddhism and the Manichaeism of the West met in the oases along
the Silk Road and mutually enriched one another.
International trade in mass-produced articles and consumer goods
is a development of the nineteenth century, a manifestation of an
age which has forgotten the true meaning of luxury. In Asia, wealth
and objects of real value had an almost magical significance. The
Silk Road lived, worked, and made its influence felt. As they passed
along it, the great thoughts of mankind changed their complexion
and the Indian Buddha acquired the almond-shaped eyes of China.
Pilgrims reinterpreted the sacred texts and Christian ideas were
introduced into Buddhism by travelers from Europe. And all the
time the natural magic of the widest and most desolate landscape in
the world played its part.
Today the Silk Road has reached its nadir. Its pulsing life is
stilled, its trade a thing of the past. Uncertainty, the specter of
frontiers, appalling poverty and universal mistrust are doing their
best to wipe it from the face of the earth. And yet, stubbornly im-
pervious to change, it still winds its serpentine way through the
heart of Asia. Wars were always continuous in the countries and
empires through which the Silk Road passed, but they did not
prevent peaceful traffic in things of material and spiritual value
from flowing along it without interruption from East to West and
from West to East.
Has the sound of caravan bells been silenced forever? Personally,
I shall never forget the images conjured up by memories of my
travels in Asia: the shrill song of the sandstorm, the driving snow
of winter blizzards, the encounters with solitary men on foot or in
carts, the fur-clad Mongol horsemen, the soft-footed progress of
the camel caravans, their beasts' haughty profiles silhouetted starkly
against the bright infinity of the Asian sky, the tinkle of bell harness
on horses' necks, the remote, mud- walled, brown and yellow towns
and, sometimes, the breathless hush of the desert.
PERSIA
THE TREASURE OF THE OXUS
The discovery of any remarkable treasure or hoard Jtaturally
arouses speculation as to the persons ivho may have concealed it,
and the occasion on which the deposit was made. Archaeological
curiosity in such cases is rarely satisfied, and when atte?npts are
made to recoristruct the history, too great a strain is often placed
upon the imagination.
— O. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the Oxiis,
p. 17, London, 1926
THE world has produced large nations and empires which have
bequeathed us very few relics of their material culture. In some
cases they have been engulfed by sand, in others the civilizations
involved are so hard to define that we are frequently ignorant of
what does or does not belong to them, and in still others luxury
articles and objects of a utilitarian or religious nature lie scattered
over vast areas, either buried beneath the surface of steppes or
submerged by rivers and lakes. The things which have been dug up
are exceeded a milHonfold by those which are still harbored by the
soil.
About a century ago a hoard was discovered which shed signifi-
cant light on the intimate secrets of tribes whose religions and daily
life still present numerous problems. Archaeological research has
not concerned itself until recently with the valuable objects, some-
times of solid gold, which were once owned by tribes whose domain
extended from the Middle East, through the whole of Asia, to the
borders of China, and which were carried by them on their inter-
minable wanderings. Some of them remain unidentified and many
more have been scattered to the four winds. The equestrian civiliza-
tions of the Middle East, southern Russia and central Asia were for
a long time the neglected children of art-historical research, yet
their utensils and works of art are among the rarest, most fascinating
and least easily comprehended examples of early craftsmanship.
Since the "Treasure of the Oxus" was found in the former Persian
satrapy of Bactria and since it probably dates from the fifth and
fourth centuries B.C., a glance at the Achaemenian era of Persian
history would not be inappropriate.
243
244 THE SILENT PAST
The centuries before and after looo b.c. were a period of great
migrations. The West and East "Indo-European" speaking tribes dis-
persed the people of the pre-classical civilizations. Indo-European
tribes migrated into Greece and the territories of the Old Italians,
while the East Indo-European or Indo-Iranian Medes and Persians
dispersed the former inhabitants of the Near and Middle East and
gained supremacy there. The word Aryan is derived from the
Sanskrit arya and is a term originally appHed to the principal tribe of
the Indo-Iranian speaking branch of the Indo-European speaking
family. The use of this expression in the racial sense, combined with
the sort of value-judgments espoused by Houston S. Chamberlain
and preached with such catastrophic results by National Socialism,
is completely unscientific.
Repeated attempts have been made to determine the site of the
Indo-Iranians' original home. They may have come from the great
steppes of central Asia, or from the wide plains of southern Russia,
or even from the shores of the Baltic. Old legends tell of a land
called Aryanem-Vaejo and of interminable migrations by nomadic
tribes into Persia and India by way of Bokhara and Samarkand.
The Persian empire, one of the great political edifices in world
history, was built upon the ruins of the supremacy of the Indo-
Iranian people whom we call the Medes. Ecbatana, now the oasis
of Hamadan, was the seat of Cyaxares, most prominent of the
A4edian kings. Not a single written sentence, not a stone memorial
or work of art supplies us with information about the ancient Medes,
but we know that in company with their Persian cousins they
occupied the southwestern portion of modern Iran north of the
Persian Gulf. The Persians' capital was Susa and their royal house
that of the Achaemenides, named after Achaemenes, who ruled
circa 700-675 B.C.
The Persian empire literally owed its existence to a dream. In the
year 585 b.c. the Median king Astyages succeeded to the throne
of his father Cyaxares. Because interpreters of dreams predicted at
Ecbatana that the child of his daughter Mandane would one day
rule the whole of A4edia, Astyages devised what he believed to be
an extremely cunning plan. Unfortunately, overingenious plans of
this sort usually go awry. Astyages was determined at all costs to
keep a future ruler of the world under his thumb. Any Mede of
noble birth was a potential usurper, so instead of giving his daughter
PERSIA 245
to a Mede, who might prove dangerous, Astyages decide to offer
Mandane's hand to a prince from a vassal state, reflecting that he
would be able to get rid of the potentially dangerous offspring of
such a marriage without undue difficulty.
The A4edes of this period did not have a very high opinion of
the Persians, who were a small tribe, so Astyages selected the Persian
prince Cambyses as his daughter's consort. When Mandane pre-
sented the Persian with a son named Cyrus, Astyages bade his
chancellor Harpagus to kill the child without delay. The commands
of such implacable tyrants as Astyages were always carried oiit—
though not necessarily to the letter. Harpagus carried off young
Cyrus to the highlands, but instead of killing him he handed him
over to a cowherd. We shall not relate in detail how the whole of
Media fell into the hands of the boy who was brought up in the
wind-swept highlands by a herdsman, or how the Median empire
became a Persian empire. Suffice it to say that Cyrus was a prince
of the Achaemenian clan and that the world supremacy of that great
and renowned dynasty began with him.
Susa now became the Persian capital, but Cyrus built a second
and equally important stronghold at Parsagarda, or "Camp of the
Persians." This fortress, which was known to the Greeks as Pasar-
gadae, is the site of Cyrus' tomb. The great king conquered first
Ecbatana, then the whole of Media, then Lydia and its famous capital
Sardis, and finally Caria, Lycia and Ionia. Cyrus' principal foes were
the courageous Saka tribes or Scythians, a mysterious and still
largely unidentified people of whom we shall hear more. Bactria,
Aiargiana and Sogdiana became Persian provinces. In the year 539
B.C. Cyrus marched into Babylon, acclaimed by the whole of the
East, and by so doing transformed Persia into the largest political
structure in pre-Roman antiquity.
Cyrus died in battle. Under pressure from Scythian tribes, the
related tribe of the Massagetae had moved westward and was pouring
down from the steppes of southern Russia. It was while combating
this menace that the great Achaemenid fell in battle in the summer
of 530 B.C.
Under Cyrus' son Cambyses the Persian empire was extended to
the Nile. Then, after a period of revolution and counterrevolution,
the throne passed to Darius, the king who was defeated by the
Greeks at Marathon in 490 b.c. Being bred in the spirit of classical
This frieze from a corridor in the Hall of Xerxes at Persepolis shows Syrians,
Bactrians and Scythians presenting gifts to the Great King. The royal seat of
Persepolis lies northeast of Shiraz in Persia.
PERSIA 247
antiquity, we only know Darius in the hour of defeat and have
never given him due credit for his enduring achievements in the
East. Darius did great things for the Persian empire. He, too, fought
against the Scythians far north of the Danube. He founded the
city of PersepoHs and died during preparations for a vast expedition
against Greece which he hoped would wipe out the Persian defeat
at Marathon. In 520 b.c. he had a record of his achievements carved
into the rock face at Behistun, high above the road and thus beyond
the reach of would-be desecrators. The mighty Achaemenid also
built himself an eternal resting place in the steep rock face at Naksh-
i-Rustam, not far from Persepolis, where the burial chambers of
Darius the Great and his successors can still be seen to this day.
Darius' successor, Xerxes, was the Ahasuerus of the Book of
Esther in the Old Testament, the king who ruled at Susa and made
Queen Esther his consort. Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks at
Salamis and Plataea, and his armies were finally crushed on the
Mycale Peninsula. As a result, Persia was banished to Asia for all
time and never became a European power. Under Xerxes' successors,
internal feuds and dissensions reduced the immense Persian empire to
political impotence and laid it low in a welter of blood and misery.
Seen from the West, Alexander's victories over the Persians were
a gigantic spectacle, but in reality they were only the final demoli-
tion of what had already collapsed.
The southern shores of the Aral Sea are broken by the estuary
of the Amu Darya, which rises in the southern Pamirs, threads its
way through the mountainous country south of Bokhara and de-
bouches into the Turanian plain, where it becomes a river of steppe
and desert. For some hundreds of miles it forms the frontier between
Afghanistan and southern Russia and divides Turkmenistan from
Uzbekistan. The river's course runs through the former sites of
age-old civilizations such as the vanished realm of Chorasmia and
the ancient land of Bactria. Since the Amu Darya is identical with
the renowned Oxus of ancient history, it is obvious that its waters
still conceal thousands of undisclosed secrets. Modern research has
indicated that in ancient times the Oxus flowed from the Aral Sea,
along a watercourse now completely choked with silt, into the
Caspian.
One evening in May 1880 a British political officer named F. C.
Burton, who also acted as Resident in Seh Baba, three days' journey
248 THE SILENT PAST
from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, was sitting in his police
station in the Tezin Valley. It was nine o'clock, and Captain Burton
was just resigning himself to a night as uneventful as all the other
lonely nights when a Moslem burst into his camp and raised the
alarm.
Apparently, three Mohammedan merchants from Bokhara had
been traveling along the road from Kabul to Peshawar. They were
in high spirits and, suspecting no danger, had unwisely left their
caravans and ridden on ahead. The three worthy Moslems plied
their trade between Khiva, Samarkand and India, sometimes taking
their caravans as far as Amritsar. Their intention had been, as usual, to
buy up large quantities of tea, silk and other goods in northwest
India and dispose of them in the bazaars along the route between
Afghanistan and southern Russia. On this occasion, however, they
had taken no money with them on their journey to Peshawar, for
the very good reason that Abd-er-Rahman, later Amir of Afghanis-
tan, used to station himself at Kunduz in order to search passing
caravans and confiscate the large sums of money needed to maintain
his army. Instead of money, therefore, the three Moslems had been
carrying articles of value unobtrusively sewn into leather wallets.
Suddenly they were attacked by bandits, who carried them, their
servants and merchandise off into the hills. Crossing the Tesinka
Kothal, the brigands and their prisoners made for the Karkatcha
Range, where they halted in some lonely caves to examine their
booty at leisure and divide it.
The man who had stumbled into Captain Burton's camp was one
of the Mohammedans' retainers, who had escaped from his guards.
Taking only two soldiers with him, Burton at once set off in the
darkness. When, toward midnight, he came upon the bandits and
took them by surprise, he found they had quarreled among them-
selves and four of them lay wounded on the ground. The merchants
sat huddled together, not daring to move, and remnants of their
valuables lay scattered about the cave.
Burton negotiated with the bandits and persuaded them to hand
over the major part of their loot, but he had scarcely left when he
was warned that they were planning to ambush him and recover it.
Hearing this, he lay low and did not return to his little police sta-
tion until six o'clock the following morning. He then sent someone
to inform the bandits that he would muster a force and go after
PERSIA 249
them if they did not surrender the rest of their spoils, and was
rewarded by the return of a further batch. Having recovered three-
quarters of their property, the merchants continued their journey to
Peshawar. The three Moslems told Burton that they had acquired
most of the contents of their leather wallets at Kabadian. Kabadian
or Kahndian may have been one of the ancient townships which
were buried by the Oxus. It appeared that the local inhabitants used
to go digging for hidden treasure and that they sometimes found
gold and valuables in the ruins of the vanished town, but the exact
site of Kabadian could not be ehcited. It may conceivably have been
the place known as Kuad, a small town situated not on the Oxus
but on its tributary the Kafirnigan.
Be that as it may, the Mohammedan merchants had certainly in-
vested in some buried treasure and taken it to India with them as
a medium of payment instead of money. The total value of the
original treasure was 80,000 rupees, an enormous sum of money in
1880, of which 52,000 rupees were recovered when the remaining
pieces were sold in Rawalpindi.
We lose sight of the Oxus hoard for a time, but it eventually
came into the hands of General Sir Alexander Cunningham, whose
collections were later acquired by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks.
Today, its adventurous career at an end, the treasure reposes in the
British Museum.
The traders of northwest India who specialized in antiquities
of this type sometimes commissioned reproductions of ancient
bracelets, bowls, cylinders and animal figures in gold because
they knew that Western archaeologists were interested in them.
Franks immediately recognized that several original pieces had been
imitated in gold, but he managed to acquire the originals as well,
and it at once became apparent how much finer the authentic pieces
were than the imitations. For all their skill, the goldsmiths of Rawal-
pindi had been unequal to the task of imitating silver and bronze
antiques in gold with sufficient perfection to disguise the fraud.
It should, however, be mentioned that the hoard did include some
magnificent originals in gold.
Among other items in the Treasure of the Oxus were 1,500 coins
from the Persian satrapies, tetradrachmas from Athens, pieces from
Acanthus and Macedon, about two hundred gold pieces bearing the
name of Alexander the Great and coins struck by Seleucus Nicator,
250 THE SILENT PAST
Antiochus I, II and III, Diodotus and Euthydemus. These coins
ranged in period between the fifth and second centuries B.C., but
since it was not known if they were originally found with the other
articles and were unearthed at the same spot and in the same layer,
they were no help in determining the date of the entire hoard.
Comparative research has indicated that the Treasure of the Oxus
belongs to the Achaemenian period in Persian history, that is to say,
that it dates from the sixth to fifth centuries e.g., when the Persian
throne was occupied by King Cyrus II, Darius I, Xerxes I and their
successors.
There is still no clue as to who actually concealed the treasure.
General Cunningham suggested that 2,000 years ago the valuables
had belonged to an old Bactrian family and that they were hastily
buried by a member of that family when Bactria was threatened
by internal unrest or foreign aggression. As the sole party to the
secret, he may have meant to return and retrieve his cache, but this
was destined never to be. If the coins actually formed part of the
hoard, the last owner must have been alive in 209 e.g., for the most
recent coins date from the reign of Euthydemus.
We know that Alexander the Great captured the royal treasuries
at Susa, Persepolis and Pasargadae, together with their immensely
valuable contents, and that these treasures were later dispersed
among his successors. It is quite possible, therefore, that a Bactrian
family may have acquired a valuable nest egg of this sort.
The Treasure of the Oxus contains many objects which are related
to early Scythian finds made in western Siberia, so the Scytho-
Siberian works of art in the Oxus hoard represent a link between
the goldsmith's art of Persia under the Achaemenides and the arts
and crafts of western Siberia.
Most of the items in the hoard are of religious significance. Among
these are gold bowls and jugs, cult statuettes of gold and silver,
dishes portraying Ahura-Mazda, signet rings engraved with god-
desses, lotus blossoms and birds, Persian kings at sacrifice, a fish
beaten out of gold leaf (an ancient embodiment of magical or reli-
gious ideas), chariot horses, sun symbols, gold plaquettes bearing
the figures of bearded men wearing cloaks, crowns and earrings,
and others depicting a Median invention: the first long trousers in
world history!
The religion to which most of these articles were dedicated was
PERSIA 251
founded by Zarathustra, who lived circa 600 B.C. Zarathustra, known
to the Greeks as Zoroaster and to the Persians as Zardusht, was prob-
ably born in Bactria, that is to say in the eastern region of Persia
where the Treasure of the Oxus was discovered. Latest research puts
the year of Zarathustra's birth at 630 b.c. His disciples incorporated
doctrines and commandments in the "sacred book" which came to
be called the Zend-Avesta, meaning roughly "Interpretation and
Texts." The original work was unfortunately burned when Alex-
ander the Great destroyed the palace at Persepolis, and only one
volume and a few fragments are still extant. However, the surviving
gathas of the Avesta preserve the hymns and meditations of the
prophet in their original purity.
The deeper we probe, the more clearly Zarathustra emerges as one
of the greatest preachers of divine truth and religious perception.
Zarathustra believed implicitly in a single supreme god. It is true that
the old gods of the Indo-Europeans were also invisible and that the
Indo-Europeans of ancient India probably made no images in human
or animal shape, but when Zarathustra started to teach he railed
against the fact that men were worshiping not only large numbers
of gods but animals as well. His wrath did not confine itself to these
"heathen" practices but extended to the Alagi, the priests who con-
trolled the sacrifice, liturgy and half the daily life of Media from
their religious center at Raga, not far from modern Teheran.
Zarathustra alone was responsible for introducing the Persians to
the idea of a single, all-embracing, invisible god. He attacked the cult
of Mithras and the sanguinary hecatombs associated with it. For
Zarathustra, the universe was divided into two hostile camps ruled
by two hostile, elemental beings, Ahura-Mazda the good spmt and
Ahriman the spirit of evil, forces that have been competing for
mastery of the world since all eternity. Ahriman, the Indo-European
Devil, was endowed with creative power, which showed that Zara-
thustra was well aware of the perilous ambiguity and diversity of
evil and of the highly active and sometimes, even, creative nature of
the powers of darkness.
Man is, however, free to support the side of his choice, and it was
in order to help him and set him on the right path that Ahura-
Mazda made his teachings known through Zarathustra. Three days
after his death a man comes before the supreme tribunal, which con-
demns the evil and godless to perpetual torment and grants im-
252 THE SILENT PAST
mortality of the soul to the righteous. Zarathustra's doctrine is funda-
mentally hopeful because it implies that the spirit of goodness will
some day triumph and that mankind will be redeemed.
The teachings of Zarathustra had been in circulation for some two
hundred years before they were embraced by Darius I. But,
although the latter proclaimed the Zoroastrian faith as the national
religion of Persia, the common people still clung to their ancient
beliefs and the Magi stubbornly resisted extinction.
Persia's art was fructified partly by Zoroastrianism and partly by
the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Hittites, the Egyptians
and the Greeks. The British curator O. M. Dalton, who wrote an
important work on the Treasure of the Oxus, pointed out that
Persian art served no apprenticeship but sprang abruptly into being
when the Achaemenides seized power.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the architects and sculptors
of Naksh-i-Rustam, Persepolis and Susa and the artists of this often
savage world of horsemen also achieved something imperishable on
a smaller scale; nor can it be asserted that their art, sometimes
strangely close to us and animated by the perpetual inspiration of
a great religion, is doomed to oblivion.
EURASIA
THE SCYTHIANS
It is only within the last himdred years or so that Southern
Russia has been definitely added to Europe. Before that time
Asiatic tribes have been more at home in it than European.
—Ellis H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks,
p. I, Cambridge, 1913
"taking into account all the characteristics of man, the Scythians
occupy first place only in one respect. Though I admire nothing
else in them, they surpass all other peoples in the single fact that
none who attacks them escapes, and if they do not wish to be found
no one can lay hands on them."
Herodotus had with his own eyes seen the Scythian homeland,
which lay by the Black Sea in what is now the Ukraine. The famous
pre-Christian traveler and "father of history," who was born in
485 B.C., had visited the ancient Greek colony of Olbia, now the
town of Nikolaev in the Black Sea estuary of the river Bug, and had
even traveled up the Borysthenes. The Borysthenes of antiquity was
the Dnieper of modern times, and ran through the heart of the
Scythian domain. Seldom has an eyewitness explored and described
anything of comparable importance, for the Scythians were a
mysterious people who first emerged as a recognizable force in
world history about 700 B.C. and made their final exit about 200 b.c.
What sort of people the Scythians were, where they came from
and what relationship they bore to other races are all questions
that still remain in doubt. The Scythians had no writing of their own
and left behind no written documents of any kind. It is seldom
realized how quickly people without written traditions lapse into
oblivion and to what extent their real importance is overshadowed by
much smaller races with a more substantial literature to bequeath.
By about a.d. 400 the life, deeds and renown of the Scythians had
faded so completely that they became lost to contemporary view
and lay in their graves until only a century ago before being brought
to life once more. Not until the present has it dawned on us that
the Scythians' customs, material culture and whole way of life
made them one of the more fascinating peoples to have walked the
earth.
253
254 THE SILENT PAST
The great speculation surrounding the Scythians is due partly to
the fact that the ancient term "Scythian" was not a racial designa-
tion and had no purely ethnological meaning. Herodotus saw the
Scythians as a fluctuating political force. There is, however, a second
early source of information about the Scythians. This was no less
a person than Hippocrates of Cos, a contemporary of Socrates
and the most celebrated of all Greek physicians, who was more
interested in the Scythians' geographical location and the way in
which they were affected by their natural environment.
The Greeks called the Scythians Scythae, a name first mentioned
by the poet Hesiod in the eighth century b.c. The Scythians' own
name for themselves was Scoloti, and the Persians referred to them
as Sacae. The origin of the name is unknown, but it may have been
derived from the Indo-European word sequ, meaning "pursue."
Again, the Greeks' Scythae may have been a modification of the
Hebrew name Ashkenaz. Genesis: x, 3, tells us that Ashkenaz was a
grandson of Noah, and according to Jeremiah the people that bore
this name lived somewhere in the region of Armenia. The difficulty
of interpreting even the Scythians' name and the manifold problems
raised by it are illustrated by the fact that the Jews of later times
used Ashkenaz as a name for what is today Germany.
The Scythians were at once many nations and one nation, visible
and invisible. They appeared, only to vanish once more. All refer-
ences to them sound typically Asiatic, but the writers of classical
antiquity used the term Scythian to cover all the barbarian in-
habitants of what is now Russia, and in the fifth century b.c. it was
employed as a generic term for the peoples of European Russia.
When Alexander the Great brought back news of similar tribes in
Asia the term was extended to Asiatic tribes as well. It is clear from
a sentence in his Histories (IV, Ixxxi) that Herodotus distinguished
between genuine Scythians and the various Scythian tribes: "I found
it impossible to determine the Scythians' numbers. I was given
very diverse estimates of the size of their population, being told
sometimes that it was very large and then again that there were
very few genuine Scythians."
One approach to the problem may be to concentrate on Hippoc-
rates' description of what the Scythians looked hke. In his work
on Airs, Waters and Places he reported that they were plump and
fleshy, sluggish and flabby, with fat bellies and no visible joints.
EURASIA 255
The Greek physician attributed this to their not being swaddled
as babies and to their habit of not walking if they could ride. They
had a reddish complexion "because of the great cold in their
country" and their obesity rendered them unprolific.
This description does not match the very precise details given by
Herodotus. Why could no one attack these fat men unscathed?
Besides, Herodotus paints the Scythians as tent-dwelling nomads
and mounted archers. If they really were the most skillful horsemen
in ancient history, as many accounts would have us believe, they
could hardly have been plump and flabby.
Hippocrates ascribes their physical condition to their uniform
way of life. The men always traveled on horseback, the women in
carts. The country was perpetually cold and misty. The Scythians'
reddish or reddish-brown complexion might well have applied to
the Tatars. We know, for instance, that Kublai Khan, who ruled
the Mongol empire in 1260, had a red and white complexion. Marco
Polo tells us that Genghis Khan, who brought the whole of central
Asia from China to the Oxus under Mongol domination, was a
source of surprise to himself because he was brown-complexioned
whereas most members of his family had reddish hair and blue eyes.
The Mongol prince Batu, who subjugated Russia and devastated
Poland, Silesia and Hungary between 1235 and 1246, was said to
have had a reddish face. The Flemish Franciscan traveler de Ruys-
broeck, who undertook a mission to the Mongol emperor's court
at Karakorum between 1253 and 1255 at the behest of Pope Innocent
IV and Louis IX of France, mentioned the reddish complexion of
Batu Khan in his report, which was written in Latin. It is probable,
however, that the vital sentence should be translated as follows:
"His face was entirely covered with red patches." I myself have
seen Tatars in the Volga estuary whose complexion appeared gray
or olive-green, though it should be remembered that complexion
and pigmentation can change in the course of centuries and that
continuous interbreeding must have taken place in the past seven
hundred years.
Hippocrates tells us that Scythians were very easygoing, and
once more attributes this to the time they spent on horseback. His
remarks are limited to the ruling class, however, for the lower
orders were evidently not so devoid of temperament. In his Natural
History Pliny includes the Massagetae among the tribes of Asiatic
256
THE SILENT PAST
The Black Sea
Russia. He tells us that each man had a woman of his own but
shared her with his fellow tribesmen. This was a practice among
the Massagetae, however, not the Scythians, Marco Polo reports
that the Tatars, who were often identified with the Scythians, re-
garded marital infidelity as a vice and thought it thoroughly repre-
hensible (I, xlvii). We do not know whether the Scythians were
monogamous or polygamous. In most Scythian graves the women
who were obliged to keep men company in death were buried in
the same pit, but some distance apart. The only instances where
women who had shared death with their menfolk were buried in
the same coffin are the Scythian graves of Pazyryk, east of the
upper reaches of the Ob. Tamara Talbot Rice takes this as an indica-
tion that wives and not concubines were involved. Although women
occupied a very subordinate position among the Scythians, the kill-
ing of women after their husbands' death should be regarded not
as a mark of humiliation but as a signal honor.
Among the Nile-Hamitic tribes of East Africa, and notably the
EURASIA 257
Nandi, it was customary for a man who retired to his hut with
another man's wife to stick his spear into the ground in front of
the entrance. Herodotus describes a similar custom among the
Massagetae, who used to hang their quivers up outside their covered
wagons when they wanted to spend an undisturbed siesta with
another woman.
For all that, it seems doubtful that such tent-to-tent dalliance took
place among the Scythians. The polygamous Asiatic tribes who keep
their womenfolk in subjection insist that they remain in purdah
with the other women and make themselves available to their own
husbands and no one else.
Many similarities have been reported between the ancient Scyth-
ians and the Russians, probably because the Russians adopted a num-
ber of cultural assets from the Tatars and because intermarriage
between Tatars and Russians went on for centuries. The apparent
resemblance between Russians and Scythians probably depends,
therefore, on Tatar intermediaries. The Russians borrowed a great
deal from the nomadic tribes of their vast territories, notably via
the Cossacks. The latter, in particular, borrowed extensively from
their traditional foes in matters of horsemanship and dress. Many
Russian expressions for articles of clothing are of Tatar origin. When
Herodotus records that the Argippaei, who wore Scythian clothing,
had flat noses and large chins (IV, xxiii), he corroborates informa-
tion about central Asia given by travelers of the seventeenth century,
who say much the same about the Tatars. Many of the Crimean
Tatars, too, are squat men with broad faces, small eyes and a tend-
ency toward plumpness.
Like the Tatars, the nomadic Scythians never planted crops, tilled
the soil or built houses, but carried their dwellings with them on
horse-drawn carts. These abodes were rectangular constructions
like large boxes, woven out of osiers and covered with black felt
rubbed with tallow or sheep's milk as a protection against rain.
Marco Polo reports the same thing of the Tatars and supplies the
additional information that they lived exclusively on meat and
milk and never stayed long in any one place because they were
always on the move in search of fresh pasturage.
Linguistic research has done little to solve the problem of the
Scythians' origin. Many authorities assume that they were of Mongol
extraction, others that they were of Iranian or generally Indo-
258 THE SILENT PAST
European stock. Speaking in Moscow in 1887, Professor V. T. Miller
suggested that the Scythic language was related to Iranian but
strongly influenced by the Uralo-Altaic tongues. Professor T. I.
Mishenko, the Russian translator of Herodotus, espoused a similar
theory, and the British scholar Ellis H. Minns, who wrote an ex-
tremely useful work on the Scythians and Greeks in 191 3, also
recognized the presence in Scythic of Iranian elements and Mongol
influence.
Since we are unable to distinguish the Scythians from the other
ancient peoples of southern Russia either from historical sources,
linguistic attributes or ethnological characteristics, our sole re-
maining hope of identifying them lies in anthropology. In fact, the
famous burial mounds or kurgans of southern Russia, eastern Europe
and western Siberia have yielded human remains which indubitably
belonged to Scythians. Were the skulls all wide or all narrow,
anthropologists would be able to form conclusions about their racial
identity, but we are unfortunately confronted by yet another
riddle. For instance, five skulls dating from the fourth century B.C.
were found in the famous grave at Chertomlyk in the valley of the
Dnieper. Describing the find, K. E. von Baer stated that two were
wide, two narrow, and one average. It is well known that at every
stage in history there have been nations whose ruling class belonged
to one racial type while the lower orders belonged to another, but
in this case archaeologists were unable to tell which were the masters
and which the servants. After years of research, the Russian
authority Prince Bobrinskoy wrote that some of the skeletal remains
found in Scythian graves revealed Mongol characteristics while
others were purely European. It is now generally accepted that the
Scythians were of Iranian stock and, as such, belonged to the
Indo-European race. It is also clear that they all spoke the same
language, probably an Iranian dialect.
Even though there is no more scientifically reliable method of
defining the Scythians' racial type, one avenue of approach still
remains open to us: their culture. When General Melgunov opened
the first Scythian graves in southern Russia in 1763, and men like
Clarke, Pallas, Dubois de Montpereux, Sumarokov and many others
followed his example by uncovering more and more of these
mysterious burial mounds of 2,500 years ago, the outlines of
Scythian culture began to re-emerge in the wide steppes of southern
EURASIA 259
Russia, One extraordinarily fortunate discovery was made in the
year 1865 by Wilhelm Radloff at Katanda in the southern Altai,
where the largest grave of all was found in an enormous cemetery.
Born at Berlin in 1837, Radloff was a student of Turkology and had
been traveling in Russia since 1858 in his capacity as Inspector of
Tatar Schools, His discoveries made it clear that Scythian graves
were also be to found in the southern Altai, over 1,600 miles from
the sites on the Dnieper, Don and Kuban. Radloff had chanced upon
some graves that were so well protected by a thick layer of ice
that both occupants and clothing had remained well preserved for
more than 2,000 years. Radloff gazed in wonder at the funerary gifts,
the fine pieces of bronze, the strangely garbed bodies and the color-
ful Scythian way of life to which they had belonged, once con-
signed to oblivion but now recalled from the dead. Sadly enough,
when the ice melted and nature's most efficient preservative flowed
away, part of the find disintegrated before it could be saved.
Finally, in the Pazyryk Valley in the Altai, the Russian archaeol-
ogist S. I. Rudenko came upon about forty graves which had also
been so well protected by the layers of ice which clothe the soil
of Siberia that the art, life and history of the people of the Eurasian
steppes appeared in an entirely new light.
The Scythian race has been resurrected from the many burial
mounds that have, been laid bare. Let us watch their mounted
archers ride by once more, enter the presence of their kings and
tribal chieftains, peer into the graves where they were buried with
horses and huge retinues, examine their superbly ornamented gold-
smith's work, learn to know their gods, beasts and sacrifices, hear
of the dangerous life their soothsayers led so long ago.
EURASIA
COMPANY FOR THE KING
Having rubbed and washed their heads, they deal with their
bodies as follows. Leaning three poles together, they pull sheets of
felt over them, tie them up tightly and throw red-hot stones into
a tub within the poles and sheets. Now hemp grows in their
country. The Scythians take the seeds of this heinp, slip beneath
the felt sheets and scatter the seeds on the glowing stones, thus
producing smoke and diffusing steam better than in any Hellenic
steam-bath. And the Scythians roar with pleasure in their sweat-
house.
—Herodotus, IV, Ixxiii and Ixxv
ABOUT 1 200 B.C. Russia was invaded by a strange people known
as the Cimmerians, who were described by the earliest Greek
writers as "a people by the ocean in the extreme west, wrapped
in darkness and mist." We do not know the true identity of
Homer's "ne'er sunlit neighbors of Okeanos close to the entrance
of Hades." At all events, they were not a Scythian people, nor
under any circumstances should they be confused with the Cimbri
of Germany. In about 1000 b.c. the historical Cimmerians lived
around the Strait of Kerch, known in the ancient world as the
Cimmerian Bosporus. Because Europe and Asia are always treated
as two distinct entities by Western historians, the long but coherent
chain of events that stretches from the Pacific and across the whole
of Asia and Europe does not enter into our calculations. One event
has always given rise to the next, a reciprocal action not confined
to the Balkans and central Europe but also embracing the widely
separated areas of China, central Asia, Russia, Greece and Rome.
Enough has been dug up in recent years between the Dnieper and
Yenisey, the Urals and the Ordos desert to justify the compiling
of a general history of Eurasia. History must continually be re-
written because the present explains and reveals so much about
the past. Sometimes an interval of many hundreds of years has to
elapse before the effects and, consequently, the true significance
of an historical event can be assessed.
The interaction of Asiatic peoples and the migrations into Europe
caused by their mutual impingement have promoted a new attitude
toward history. What happened in China did, in fact, have very
260
EURASIA 261
considerable effects on central Europe. This form of reciprocal
action is destined to exercise a profound influence on the future
course of European history, too. One has only to think of China's
unresolved relationship with Outer Mongolia!
The decline of the Roman Empire, the eruption of Germanic
tribes into western Europe, the migration of Slavic tribes into central
and southern Europe, the Renaissance, the revival of western
Europe's interest in classical antiquity and, finally, the voyages that
led to the discovery of the New World— behind all these gigantic
upheavals lurked the hordes of central Asia, as the American Sinol-
ogist Montgomery McGovern so rightly pointed out in 1939.
Emperor Hsiian Wang, who ruled China between 827 and 781
B.C., in this sense "made" European history. During the time of the
Chou dynasty to which he belonged, the north and northwest of
China was invaded by the seminomadic Hsiung-nu. The Chinese
emperor marched against the invading Hsiung-nu, defeated them in
the region of the modern provinces of Shansi and northern Shensi,
and pursued his dangerous adversaries into the mountains from which
they had been making their mounted forays into the fertile plains
of China.
By withdrawing to more westerly grazing lands the Hsiung-nu
exerted pressure on other nomads and so sparked off a series of mi-
grations which ran through central Asia until they impinged on the
Massagetae, who lived in the area between the Caspian and the
Aral Sea. In their quest for fresh grazing land for their horses,
these powerful nomads, who according to Strabo used to kill off the
old men of their tribe in order to preserve their mobility, attacked
the Scythians. The Scythians, who may originally have roamed
east Turkestan, turned on the East Cimmerians. The tribes of the
endless Asiatic steppes may also have been set in motion in this
way, as Ellsworth Huntington and Tamara Talbot Rice suggest,
due to a sfreat drought about 800 B.C. In the ensuing wars between
DO O
the Cimmerians and the Scythians the latter proved victorious.
The secret of the Scythian success lay in the way their hordes
charged, hit the enemy hard and then withdrew at lightning speed.
The Scythians pushed on farther westward, migrated into southern
Russia and settled there between 722 and 705 b.c, partly as nomads
and partly as sedentary communities.
This was when the true history of the Scythians began. They
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fi^.^i. Plan of Lowest- Cha>i
The Russian archaeologist Weselowski dug up an extremely interesting burial
mound at Kostromskaya in the Kuban region. This diagrammatic illustration
of it shows how a kurgan was arranged. In the lowest chamber lay the dead
chieftain, and above him were buried the thirteen or more people who ac-
companied him into death. Around the rectangle of the actual grave were
found the skeletons of twenty-two horses. The famous golden stag on the iron
shield was also discovered in this grave.
EURASIA 263
must have been genuinely dangerous opponents in war, because in
the year 512 b.c. they succeeded in repelling an invasion by the
Persian king Darius and in 325 b.c. they annihilated an expeditionary
force under the command of Alexander's general Zopyrion. They
were not driven out of the Balkans and the eastern half of central
Europe by the up-and-coming Celts until after 300 b.c, but were
eventually crushed in southern Russia by the Sarmatians. Perhaps
their once tough and battle-hardened way of life had been vitiated
by a superabundance of slaves, spoils and riches.
Their downfall may, on the other hand, have been due to their
womenfolk, who were completely subordinate to their husbands.
During the long treks on which thousands of slave girls accom-
panied the Scythian columns, the Scythians were obviously unable
to treat their own wives any differently from their concubines.
Thus, both wives and slave girls rode in carts the whole time, with
the result that in the long run their health suffered in the way
mentioned by Hippocrates.
The people who ultimately defeated the Scythians, the Sarmatians,
had womenfolk of quite another caliber. Sarmatian women took
part in war, rode about freely and won such a reputation for strength
and independence that they supphed a basis and pattern for the
Amazon stories of antiquity. According to legend, the Amazons
were warlike women whose name was derived from the Greek ex-
pression "breastless," because, if we are to believe Hippocrates,
they amputated their right breast to help them string bows more
easily. This derivation is probably erroneous, and it is more likely
that the name is related to jnaza, which is the Circassian expression
for "moon" and would denote an association with a moon cult. The
Scythians called the Sarmatian Amazons "Oiorpata," from oior
(man) and pata (kill). Amazons are said to have lived on the
eastern and southern shores of the Black Sea and in the Caucasus,
notably in the area of Trebizond, now the port of Trabzon in north-
east Anatolia.
When referring to Scythians, the Greeks always meant nomads.
According to Herodotus there were also "agricultural Scythians,"
"royal Scythians" and "plow Scythians" in the Ukraine, but these
were probably tribes who merely plundered the earlier residents
of the black-earth district and disposed of their surplus production
of grain to the Greeks on the Black Sea coast, bartering it for
264 THE SILENT PAST
vessels and metalwork of Greek manufacture. Herodotus himself
tells us that, having always been tent nomads and mounted archers,
the Scythians generally supported themselves bv cattle breeding
rather than agriculture and that they owned horse-drawn dwellings
rather than towns and fortresses. Their homeland, a vast area of
plains, was rich in grass and well irrigated by the many wide rivers
that flowed through it. The Scythians had inexhaustible reserves
of pasturage for their cattle, although, as the knowledgeable
Herodotus added darkly, grass was a sovereign cause of galls.
We learn of gods with strange names, of the supreme god
Pappaeus and his consort Apia, of their son Oetosyrus, of a
Scythian Aphrodite named Artimpasa and a Scythian Neptune
called Thamiasadas. The Scythians had no idols, altars or temples,
and Herodotus stated that the only altars and efRgies they had
ever possessed were dedicated to one particular god who was the
equivalent of Ares.
The Scythians did, however, sacrifice to their gods. Having tied
the forelegs of the sacrificial beast together, the man in charge
tugged at the rope so that the animal fell over. Then, calling upon
his god, he threw a noose around its neck and garroted it by insert-
ing a stick in the noose and twisting it to form a tourniquet. The
meat was cooked on the spot. Since the nomadic Scythians in-
habited plains which were "dreadfully deficient in wood," they
are reported to have devised an interesting expedient. Having
skinned the sacrificial beast and removed the bones, they boiled
the meat in a caldron— if they owned one— apparently using the
bones as fuel for their fire. If they had no caldron they threw all
the meat into the animal's stomach, added water, and lit a fire of
bones beneath it. "Bones burn wonderfully," writes Herodotus,
"and the animal's stomach can hold the meat cut off the bones
tolerably well. Thus the ox has to cook itself, as does every
sacrificial beast." Horses were an especially favored form of sacrifice
among the Scythians, who used to throw out the first cuts from
meat and entrails to the accompaniment of special rites.
Sacrifice varied only in the case of Ares. Wherever the Scythians
pitched camp they built a shrine to him out of bundles of brush-
wood heaped up to form a tall tower. At its summit, in front of the
sacred image of Ares, they placed an ancient iron sword to which
EURASIA 265
they sacrificed horses and other grazing animals. They did not
stop there, however. Of all the prisoners taken during the Scythians'
never-ending wars, one in every hundred was sacrijficed. Pouring
wine on their heads, the Scythians slaughtered them over a vessel
and poured the blood on the sword. Then they cut off their victims'
right arms and hurled them into the air, leaving them to lie where
they fell. Herodotus stresses that pigs were never sacrificed and
that the Scythians neither kept them nor ate their meat.
The Scythians' warlike customs tended to be extremely gruesome.
When a Scythian had killed a man he drank his blood and brought
his enemy's head to the king; only then could he share in the
spoils of war. The victor hung his opponent's scalp on the reins of
his charger "as a towel" and "flaunted it," as Herodotus puts it. The
man who had most scalps enjoyed the highest reputation. The
Scythians also made capes out of their victims' skin or stuffed them
and led them about on horseback. Many of the customs of these
savage tribesmen are too disgusting to mention here, but there is
no doubt that they used to cover their deadliest enemies' skulls
with leather or, if they were wealthy enough, gold leaf, and use
them as drinking vessels.
Family disputes were apparently settled in just as gruesome a
manner. When the king had delivered judgment on the case, the
victor treated the skulls of his kinsmen "according to ancient
custom." Then, inviting guests to join him, he placed the "drinking
vessels" before them and related how he had got even with his
kinsmen for insulting him. "And that is what they call heroic
virtue," adds Herodotus.
Once a year each chieftain filled a large mixing bowl with wine.
Any Scythian who had slain at least one enemy was permitted to
drink from it, but the "inglorious ones" were not even allowed to
watch. Not to own a scalp was a mark of disgrace, but those who
had scalped a large number of enemies were always poured two
cups of wine.
The Scythians evidently had shamans, though it is not clear
whether their necromancers were only soothsayers or had wider
functions. They used to collect large bundles of osiers, lay them
on the ground and jumble them together. Then, picking up each
twig in turn, they interpreted its meaning and returned it to the
266 THE SILENT PAST
pile. When one bout of soothsaying was completed the whole
process began again. Herodotus also mentions the Scythian clair-
voyants or enares. The latter expression was the Greek equivalent
of an unknown Scythic word meaning men whose virility was on
the wane. These effeminate individuals used to forecast the future
from pieces of lime bark.
The wise men or magicians played an important role in the
community, especially if the king fell sick, for on such occasions
the most eminent of them were summoned to give their advice.
They announced that such and such a Scythian had committed
perjury before the king's hearth, and gave the guilty party's name.
Important oaths were always taken standing before the royal
hearth. Even though the Scythians were a nomadic people, the
picture of their kings seated on the throne before the circular
fireplace is strangely reminiscent of the Mycenaean culture and
of Nestor in his palace at Pylos.
A man who had been charged with perjury was seized and
dragged before the assembly. The soothsayers then explained how the
signs had convinced them that the accused had forsworn himself
before the royal hearth. When the accused had denied the charge
and protested violently— as he usually did— the king called in another
three magicians. If they also came to the conclusion that the
prisoner was guilty of perjury, the unfortunate man was summarily
decapitated and the first three soothsayers shared his personal effects
between them.
The process was not devoid of danger even for the Scythian
sages. If the second committee of three pronounced the accused
man innocent, a succession of soothsayers was called in. Unlike
modern courts, the Scythians did not rely on the judgment of one
or two experts alone. If the majority found the accused not guilty
the first three soothsayers were themselves executed in a far from
pleasant manner. Bound hand and foot and gagged, they were placed
in carts loaded with brushwood and harnessed to oxen. The brush-
wood was set on fire, the oxen galloped off, and the carts raced
eerily across the plain like huge flaring torches. "Many oxen are
burned with the soothsayers," Herodotus remarks cheerfully, "but
many of them escape with a singeing when the shaft burns through."
(By "them" he means, of course, the oxen.) When the king con-
EURASIA 267
demned a man to death all the male members of his extensive clan
suffered a like fate, only girls and women being exempt.
Since Herodotus personally visited the Borysthenes and traveled
through the countryside around the Dnieper where the Scythians
used to live, his account of the burial of Scythian kings is worthy
of credence. An enormous rectangular pit was dug, and the king's
corpse was embalmed by removing his entrails and stuffing him with
shredded spices, frankincense, celery and dill.
The Scythians cut off a piece of their ear as a small token of
loyalty, shaved their skull, slashed their arms, scratched their brow
and nose and drove an arrow through their left hand. Thus pre-
pared, they transported their dead king on a cart to a neighboring
clan and demanded the same visible manifestations of loyalty. When
these were forthcoming, the horrid procession moved on to the
next tribe, and so on until all the dead king's subjects had
demonstrated their fidelity to him in this simple but heartfelt
manner. On reaching the burial place, the mourners placed the
corpse on a mat and stuck spears into the ground on either side.
Poles were laid across these and covered with wickerwork. At
least one of the king's wives was strangled as a funerary offering,
as were his cupbearer, cook, stable master, body servant and herald.
A suitably impressive number of horses was also placed in the
king's grave. All these sacrifices were "buried in the ample space
remaining in the grave," together with votive offerings and gold
bowls. Then, when the tomb was ready to be closed, everyone
joined in building a mound above it, competing with one another
in their efforts to make it as tall and massive as possible.
Even that did not end the respects paid to the dead king. After
a year had elapsed the rest of his most favored young retainers
had the great honor and good fortune to be strangled and so
follow their former master into death. These privileged persons
were not, however, allowed to exceed fifty in number. Fifty of the
finest horses were eviscerated, cleaned, stuffed with chaff and sewn
together again. Peculiar catafalques were then erected. The dead
horses were suspended on poles complete with bridle, bit and reins.
Each of the fifty slaughtered youths was placed upon a horse and
the gruesome cortege took up its station around the tumulus. Only
then did the Scythians leave their king in peace, consoling themselves
268 THE SILENT PAST
with the thought that they had to some extent alleviated his
loneliness.
Anyone who thinks that the Greek historian's descriptions of a
period already three hundred years in the past were invented or
fabricated by a fertile imagination can be disabused by archaeology.
The Scythian graves of Russia and the finds made in those amazing
cemeteries have confirmed much of what Herodotus wrote.
EURASIA
KINGS, CONCUBINES AND HORSES
The account of Scythian fimerals given by Herodotus agrees so
■ well with the archaeological data, as siiirrmarized in the survey of
the prijicipal Scythian tombs of South Russia, that the two sources
of iijformation may be used to supple?nent one another.
—Ellis H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks,
p. 87, Cambridge, 191 3
DESCRIBING the funcrals of Turko-Tatar chieftains in the year
1300, Marco Polo said that they were carried to a mountain and
there buried. "Listen to this strange story," wrote the Venetian
explorer. "When they carry the corpse of a ruler to its burial
they kill all the people who pass the funeral procession on the way,
crying 'Go and serve your master in the next world!' The same
applies to horses, for when their ruler dies they slaughter all his
best chargers so that they shall be at his disposal in the world
hereafter. I tell you this as a true fact: that when Alangu Khan died
more than twenty thousand people who chanced to meet his funeral
procession were slain." At the death of Genghis Khan, twoscore
pretty girls had to accompany the emperor into his tomb. In 1260,
after visiting the court of the Mongol prince at Karakorum, Wilhelm
de Ruysbroeck reported: "They erect a large burial mound over
their dead and on it place an effigy of the dead man with a
drinking cup in its hand and its face toward the east. I saw the
freshly dug grave of a prince for whom they had hung sixteen
horsehides on tall scaffolds, four for each quarter of the earth. They
had also placed meat and drink in his grave, yet they declared that
he had been baptized a Christian."
The Arab author Ibn Batuta, who traveled widely in western and
central Asia, as well as in India, China, Sumatra and North and
East Africa in the middle of the fourteenth century, described the
obsequies of a khan who had fallen in battle. The dead man was
laid on a handsome couch in a large grave. All his weapons and all
his gold and silver household utensils were buried with him, as were
four female slaves and six of his favorite mamelukes bearing a
number of drinking vessels. They were entombed, and the earth was
269
270 THE SILENT PAST
heaped above them to form a tall mound. Then four horses were
slaughtered and hung on the mound in precisely the manner de-
scribed by Herodotus i,8oo years earlier. The kinsmen of the khan
were likewise killed and buried with their gold and silver vessels.
Three horsehides were hung on the doors of ten of his relatives'
tombs and one each on the remainder. This happened in the Chinese
province of Shensi.
An inscription found at Orkhon and dated August i, 732, is
extremely informative. It is the earliest written tradition in the
Turkish language and was composed by Jolygh Tigin as a memorial
to Bilga or Pitkia, Khan of the Turks. The inscription runs:
My father, the Khan, died on the thirty-sLxth day of the tenth month
of the Year of the Dog. On the thirty-seventh day of the fifth month
of the Year of the Pig I decreed his obsequies. Lisiin tai Sangiin came to
me at the head of five hundred men. They brought a huge quantity of
perfume, gold and silver. They brought musk for the funeral and sandal-
wood. All these mourners had cut off their hair and clipped their ears.
They gave up their best horses, their black sables and blue squirrels
without number.
We also know that the Huns mutilated themselves at the death
of Attila, and that this custom persisted among the Turkish tribes
of central Asia until the nineteenth century. The practice of sacri-
ficing horses to a dead man as funerary gifts is recorded among the
Avars, the Magyars, the ancient Bulgarians and the Cumans, an
extinct Turkish people who became completely Magyarized during
the eighteenth century. Stuffed horses were also presented to the
dead by the Yakuts, the Voguls, the Ostyaks and the Chuvashes.
Among the Kirghizes a horse is dedicated to the dead man at his
funeral but not sacrificed until the first anniversary of his death.
It is also known that the Chinese give their dead a horse of wood,
cardboard or paper which is carried in the funeral procession and
burned at the burial.
Archaeological finds, too, have supplied astonishing confirmation
of what Herodotus wrote about the Scythians. For the last seventy
years or so, the Russians have taken the lead in unearthing kurgans,
a Tatar expression for a burial mound which has been adopted into
the Russian language. The Scythian kurgan graves cover a huge
EURASIA 271
area. Tombs of this nature have been found as far afield as the
Black Sea coast, the Kuban district, the lower reaches of the Volga,
the Urals, the Don, the Dnieper, the Bug, Rumania, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Vettersfelde in Brandenburg, the Altai Range and Minu-
sinsk, on the river Yenisey in West Siberia. All these Scythian
graves came into being between the sixth and third centuries B.C.
The contents of such a tomb were published in 19 12 and 19 13
by the Russian archaeologist N. J. Weselowski, who excavated the
Solocha kurgan in the valley of the Dnieper. In an undisturbed side
grave there, he found the Scythian prince, his head pointing east-
ward, complete with all his weapons and finery. At his feet lay an
iron dagger with a bone handle, together with three hundred pieces
of sheet gold beaten into different shapes and bearing punched
decoration. The grave also yielded a gold neckband, five gold
bracelets and an eighteen-inch iron sword with a gold-plated hilt
and scabbard. To the right of the dead man's head lay a coat of
iron mail. His helmet and a golden comb illustrating Scythians in
battle had fallen off during his stay in the tomb. The comb is one
of the finest pieces of antique goldsmith's work to have been found
in south Russia. There were also a second sword, six silver vessels
adorned with Scythian scenes, a wooden vessel plated with gold, a
gold bowl, and on it a goryt containing 180 arrows. This piece of
equipment, a case designed to hold both bow and arrows, was used
by Scythians, Saka and Persians. Near the north wall of the burial
chamber lay the skeleton of a man who had been given to the dead
prince as a servant. He, too, was equipped for the next world with a
short sword, iron mail, three spears and some arrows. Only the
iron spear points and bronze arrowheads were found, the wooden
shafts having completely disintegrated. Close by was a burial cham-
ber containing five horses.
Excellent reviews of the fascinating discoveries made in the
kurgans of Russia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria were compiled
by the late Professor M. Rostovzev of Yale in 193 1 and by Ellis H.
Minns in the year 1913-
Russian archaeologists have classified the kurgan finds under the
following headings: the Kuban group, the Taman group (named
after the Taman Peninsula), the Crimean group, the Dnieper steppe
group, and the kurgans of the Kiev area, Poltava, the Don. the
Central Asia
EURASIA 273
Volga and the Urals. Hundreds if not thousands of such kurgans
have been unearthed.
From these graves have emerged a people who can properly be
described as Scythians, together with a culture whose Scythian
elements can easily be distinguished from the Persian, Greek,
Mesopotamian and other influences which are also in evidence. A
great and unique cultural domain extending to the borders of China
has been discovered, and Eurasia's diverse but individual style of
animal portrayal has become an accepted feature of cultural history.
The sites of Scythian culture disclose an art richer in gold than
that of almost anywhere else on the globe. Even Mycenae, "rich in
gold," as Homer described it, was surpassed by the Scythians. Gold
could only have been amassed in such quantities by regular and
systematic prospecting and mining. In fact, the principal sources
of the precious metal were the Urals and the Altai.
We shall never know how many undiscovered treasures lie
beneath the Siberian steppes and the black earth of the Ukraine.
Thousands of graves were rifled by the Russians in the eighteenth
century, but the treasures on display in The Hermitage at Leningrad
are impressive enough in themselves.
The custom of burying horses with the dead and of stationing
a prince's chargers protectively around the four sides of his tent-
shaped tomb of wood or stone was first devised by the Scythians
and died out— on this scale, at least— when they themselves became
extinct.
For a long time Scythian art remained incomprehensible. It is
so rich, so personal, so "modern," so "impressionistic," that it
defies any form of classification. Taking its themes almost invariably
from life, it shows us complete animals, separate limbs, animals'
heads, animals' feet, stylized animal figures with subtle modifications,
gaping jaws, a kneeling stag, horses, mythical beasts, animals fight-
ing—all depicted with a wealth of ornamentation. It is a very ex-
pressive art, yet there is always an element of naivete in it. Wherever
we look, we are confronted by the ornamental contortions and
convolutions of animals in gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and even
stone.
In 1903, near the river Kelermes in the Kuban area, D. Schulz
excavated a kurgan which had been partially looted by thieves
but still contained the untouched body of the prince. He wore a
274 THE SILENT PAST
bronze helmet adorned with a gold band and a diadem of rosettes,
flowers and hawks. The grave contained a large number of other
valuable finds.
In 1904 Schulz opened up another mound in which a man and
a woman were buried together. Both had been interred with a
veritable treasure trove of gold and silver, diadems, mirrors and
other works of art.
In two other kurgans the Russian archaeologist Weselowski
found the bones of human beings and horses, and in one west wall
the skeletons of ten more horses. In another spot in the same grave
twelve horses' skeletons were unearthed complete with harness. The
harness of one of these beasts was decorated in solid gold and com-
prised a headpiece, cheekpieces, gold-plated girths and a whip with a
handle wound around with spiral strips of the same metal. 1898
saw the exploration of a cemetery in the Kuban group of kurgans
near the Ulskiy Aul. One of the kurgans there was fifty feet high.
It is uncertain whether the horses were slaughtered or buried alive,
but a platform discovered at the summit of the kurgan carried the
remains of more than fifty beasts. The complexity of the wooden
structure indicated that sacrifice was accompanied by equally com-
plex rituals. A total of more than 360 horses was found in this
kurgan.
An amazingly wide range of harness was found in the Kuban
group of kurgans. Ironwork trappings ended in massive birds' and
griffins' heads, and other ornamentation included lions, rams, stags,
hares, a mountain antelope and a female elk. Bronze bridlepieces
ornamented with expressive animal figures, collars adorned with
bulls' heads, superbly encrusted headpieces— all these were found
buried with Scythian princes. Archaeologists have even found
bells and fragments of iron that belonged to the original hearses.
In one grave in the Yelizavetovskaya and Marinskaya Stanziya group
of kurgans a corridor which must once have been revetted with
wood was found to contain two hearses, each harnessed to six
beasts. One of them has survived almost intact. The front of the
wooden bodywork was adorned with bone knobs, the four wheels
were faced with iron, the shaft was of wood, and the horses were
wearing full harness, including iron bridles and copper trappings.
One kurgan with walls more than fifty feet long contained a
EURASIA 275
group of five female skeletons wearing bracelets, rings and ear
pendants. These women were facing eastward, but two more were
found facing to the west. Although no human sacrifice on the scale
of the graves of Ur has been discovered, almost all Scythian
chieftains were accompanied into death by their wives, slave women
or concubines.
Probably the richest grave of all is situated at Chertomlyk in the
Dnieper area, where the ground told a dramatic story. Having dug a
shaft into the interior of the huge and complex kurgan, thieves
had piled their loot in the corners of one of its burial chambers,
ready for removal, when the roof collapsed at the point where the
shaft entered the chamber. One of the grave robbers was trapped
and entombed, surrounded by priceless treasures, in the grave
where archaeologists eventually found him.
It is fortunate that this tomb was never stripped completely, for
it contained the finest known examples of Scythian art, among them
the remains of spears, iron knives, traces of a carpet, gold plates
and gold bands once used to adorn clothing. The garments had been
hung on iron hooks set into the roof and walls of the tomb so that
the dead could don them in the world hereafter. Although the
clothes had disintegrated, the ornaments were still there.
The people in this grave were richly decked with gold and silver,
finely ornamented plaquettes, rings and earrings, bracelets and
spiral gold necklaces. On either side of one woman's skull were
found heavy earrings, and on her head twenty-nine gold plates
shaped like flowers, twenty rosettes and seven buds. The head and
upper part of the body had been draped in a purple veil decorated
with fifty-seven rectangular pieces of gold on which could be seen
the figures of a seated woman with a mirror and a male Scythian
standing before her. Lavishly buried queens were also discovered
in the graves of Kul Oba in the Crimea and of Karagodinashk,
south of the Kuban estuary. Lying near one of the Chertomlyk
ladies was a bronze mirror with an ivory handle on which traces
of a blue material could be discerned. Beside her lay a man with
bangles of iron and bronze and a knife with an ivory hilt, and not
far away were some spear points. (Knives were always placed near
the left hand.) This warrior had probably been buried with his
queen to guard her in the world to come.
276 THE SILENT PAST
The same burial chamber yielded the famous Chertomlyk vase, a
masterpiece of the first rank, even when compared with the finest
vessels produced by any other civilization. Professor Adolf Furt-
wangler, the archaeologist from Freiburg, attributed it to the end of
the fifth century, but it is probably of more recent date. The vase is
27V2 inches high. Beneath its neck is an interesting frieze depicting a
young filly being broken in. The reins and the men's lassos were made
of silver wire which originally protruded from the relief but had
fallen off in the course of centuries, leaving only the ends visible in
the figures' hands. The horses depicted are of two different breeds,
and the Scythian horsebreakers are modeled with such masterly tech-
nique that every article of their clothing can be clearly discerned.
Another vase, found four miles west of Kerch at Kul Oba, was
made of electrum, or gold and silver alloy. Its wide band of relief
depicts, among other things, a Scythian dentist at work and a man
removing the bandages from an obviously broken leg. Here, too,
the Scythian mode of dress is discernible in detail.
The most recent finds come from the Altai Range, from the
sources of the Ob and from the Pazyryk kurgans in the valley of
the Ulagan, which is 5,200 feet high at that point. Some of the
kurgans unearthed there between 1927 and 1949 were as much as
200 feet in diameter, and were built of rocks and boulders, some of
which weighed two or three tons. Franz Hancar, who has studied
the Russian discoveries made there, tells of enormous shafts, of
buried horses, of a huge larchwood sarcophagus sixteen feet long
and three feet high, and of well preserved bodies with virtually un-
damaged skin which bore artistic and clearly visible designs tattooed
on their arms, legs, backs and chests. The frozen ground had
preserved wood, leather, felt, furs, silk and even human bodies in
a remarkably good condition, though whether the lords of Pazyryk
were genuine Scythians or belonged to a related tribe is not entirely
clear.
In 1959 I. M. Zamatorin attempted to date the Pazyryk kurgans
by comparing the annual rings in pieces of wood found in the
various burial chambers, but came to no definite conclusion. On the
other hand, the finds made in some of the Pazyryk tombs made it
possible to verify certain passages in Herodotus whose accuracy
had previously been in doubt because his reports had not hitherto
been confirmed by archaeology. Rarely has archaeology supplied
EURASIA 277
so detailed an attestation of the truth and reliability of a 2,400-year-
old account.
The kurgans have revealed the Scythians' whole colorful, hazard-
ous, barbarous but artistic way of life just as Herodotus described it.
After lying buried for 1,700 years, a civilization has re-emerged
which may well lead us back to the earliest roots of the Slavic race.
ARABIA
KING SOLOMON'S FURNACES
We find it significant that at the very end of the account in
1 Kings 9 of Solomon's manifold building activities throughout
Falestine, there is narrated in some detail the story of the construc-
tion of a fieet of ships for him at Ezio?i-geber, which, manned by
Phoenician sailors, sailed to Ophir for gold. For some reason or
other, the author of this account failed to viention that Solomon
exported copper and iron ingots arid finished products on these
ships in exchange for the gold and other products obtainable in
Ophir, and also failed to mention that shortly before, or shortly
after, or at the same time as the ships were being constructed, the
port-city and industrial town of Ezion-geber I was being built.
—Nelson Glueck, The Second Campaign
at Tell el-Kheleifeh, Bulletin of the
American School of Oriental Research,
No. 75, 1939, pp. 16 and 17
HISTORIANS a hundred or two hundred years hence will under-
stand far better than we do the mysterious interrelationship of all
historical occurrences, for research is constantly disclosing new
links in the infinite chain of events that not only binds nation to
nation and continent to continent but appears to encircle the entire
globe.
Israel's greatest king, David, who ruled circa 1000-960 b.c. and
was renowned as a singer, psalmist and musician, also found time
to destroy Philistine supremacy, install the Ark of the Covenant in
Jerusalem and usher in a golden age in Jewish history. He was
a gifted politician and statesman, and it seems probable that he
modeled the internal organization of his realm on that of Egypt.
After winning a succession of victories, David found himself king
of Jerusalem, king of the lands of Israel and Judah, king of Ammon,
ruler of the provinces of Aram (Damascus) and Edom and lord of
the vassal kingdom of A4oab. But only David's forceful personality
held this intricate political structure together. Finding a worthy
successor to a genius is always a problem, and in this respect David
failed, just as Augustus was to do later when he abandoned the
Roman Empire to the not-so-tender mercies of Tiberius.
David's firstborn son Amnon was murdered by Absolom, who
278
ARABIA 279
tried, even during his father's lifetime, to usurp the throne by force.
The aging king was forced to give ground before his son's army
and withdraw to Mahanaim in the east of Jordan. Somewhere there,
"in the wood of Ephraim," the decisive battle took place, and
Absolom was defeated and killed while escaping. Adonia was now
David's eldest son, but a clique of hostile courtiers succeeded in
alienating the elderly king from his new heir. Foremost among the
women in David's life was the celebrated Bathsheba, whose beauty
so captivated him that he took her for himself and arranged that
her husband, Uriah the Hittite, should be killed. As the mother of
Solomon, Bathsheba began to play an important part in court
intrigues. Working in concert with the court prophet, Nathan, she
managed to persuade David to make her son heir to the throne.
Solomon was, in fact, publicly proclaimed king at Jerusalem.
Like David, Solomon was one of the most interesting figures in
world history, though his genius lay perhaps more in the intellectual
and creative sphere than in the realm of statesmanship. He retained
the respect of his subjects but did not augment it, perhaps because
he was not fond of war. No one could have hoped to surpass David,
and Solomon's reign heralded the eventual downfall of the empire
built by his father. Nevertheless, Bathsheba and the palace intrigues
did give mankind the Wise King, the king of the Proverbs and the
author of the Song of Solomon. Oriental tradition saw in Solomon
the ideal picture of a wise and powerful ruler whose very name,
Shelemoh, meant "man of peace" in Hebrew.
King Solomon extended his frontier defenses, maintained far-
ranging diplomatic relations, tried to guarantee the continued ex-
istence of his empire by shrewd marriages, and encouraged royal
pomp and splendor. His harem included many foreign women,
among them an Egyptian princess who was probably the daughter
of one of the Pharaohs of the 21st Dynasty. All this entailed heavy
expenditure which could not be met from the scanty natural
resources of his own dominions. That was the sole reason why such
an uncanny judge of human nature, such a connoisseur of human
weakness, such a seeker after wisdom, should have gone to such
lengths in his quest for wealth. His bold and profitable business
ventures did, in fact, amass him incalculable riches.
The king's staggeringly luxurious way of life is described in I
Kings: X, which tells how the Queen of Sheba journeyed to
28o THE SILENT PAST
Jerusalem with a huge retinue because she had heard of Solomon's
wisdom and his fabulous wealth. She herself had brought camel
caravans laden with a great quantity of gold, precious stones and
spices. In an attempt to find out if Solomon really was the wise man
of whom the whole world was talking, she set him a number of
riddles which she had rehearsed beforehand. The record is un-
ambiguous: "And Solomon told her all her questions: there was
not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not." The queen
was overwhelmed by Solomon's splendor, his mien and intelligence.
The palace, the tableware, the residences of his courtiers and
servants, their manners and dress, the magnificent burnt offerings-
all these filled her with amazement. "Howbeit I believed not the
words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the
half was not told unto me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I had heard. . . . And she gave the king an hundred
and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and
precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as
these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon."
The queen was not, however, the first person to introduce gold
into Jerusalem, for the Bible relates that the city had long been a
repository of immense wealth. Where did King Solomon acquire his
vast treasures and his gold?
Two passages in the Old Testament shed light on this. I Kings:
ix-x and II Chronicles :viii-ix both mention that Solomon used
Phoenician sailors or Phoenician ships to reach Ophir via the Red
Sea and bring back immense quantities of gold. The round trip
apparently took three years. Solomon was backed in these ventures
by Hiram, the Phoenician king of Tyre, with whom he maintained
friendly relations as his father David had done before him. The only
difference between the two accounts is that in I Kings Hiram only
supplied Solomon with sailors whereas in II Chronicles he dis-
patched the whole fleet on its voyage to Ophir.
The expedition's point of departure is clearly stated in the Bible.
The voyage began "in Ezion-geber, which is beside Elath, on the
shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom." Ezion-geber was a
seaport at the erstwhile northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, now
twenty-eight miles from the sea.
Are these accounts legend or reality? We received the answer
to that question a few years ago.
ARABIA 281
Between the months of March and May, 1938, the American
School of Oriental Research at Jerusalem began to excavate Tell
el-Kheleifeh. The reports of this undertaking which the leader of
the party, Nelson Glueck, was soon able to publish exceeded every-
one's wildest imaginings. The Americans proved virtually beyond
question that they had discovered the Ezion-geber of the Bible.
The ruins of a whole town were brought to light from beneath the
desert sand. King Solomon's harbor had been found.
The shore had always been flat and sandy, but the small barks
of 3,000 years ago required such a coastline because they were
drawn up onto the beach. The Americans made a further discovery:
a whole system of smelting furnaces. Occupying the most im-
portant quarter of the town, the skillfully constructed smelting
works revealed how high a standard Solomon's architects and
technicians had attained. Taking advantage of the winds that blow
incessantly from the direction of the gulf, the builders had erected
their furnaces so that the air passed through vents and fanned the
flames to produce great heat.
In the course of time, structural alterations were carried out.
The air channels were sealed and hand bellows installed in their
place. Copper fumes and intense heat had turned the furnace walls
green, and the stone had become so hard that even after thirty
centuries and the effects of excavation many of the walls still
stood intact. The furnaces were fed with charcoal obtained from the
palm forests in the neighborhood.
Three years of digging made it increasingly clear to the Americans
that only slaves could have worked in this fiery hell. The smoke and
dangerous vapors combined with the local climate would have
precluded anyone's spending a substantial length of time in the
vicinity of the furnaces voluntarily. Slaves must have died like
flies there. As an illustration of the local conditions, Nelson Glueck
reported that by the end of the third year the members of his party
had reached the limit of their physical endurance. On one occasion
such severe sandstorms raged over Tell el-Kheleifeh that for ten
solid days visibility never exceeded thirty yards. The rooms on the
northern side of the site, which had taken three years to clear, were
once more choked with sand.
Officers of the guard and merchants presumably lived some
distance from the furnaces and smelting works, while the slaves
282 THE SILENT PAST
who had to bear the brunt of the work were lodged inside a
stoutly built brick wall between three and four feet thick, where
they were kept under surveillance by relays of guards and soldiers.
Because of the risk of an insurrection in the heart of the inferno and
also because of possible outside attack, Ezion-geber had been trans-
formed into a strong fortress and dominated the intersection of
the land and sea routes between Arabia, Sinai and Greater Palestine.
This function is fulfilled today by the Jordanian fortress of Aqaba,
a far less important place.
Diggings have revealed that ore was transported to Ezion-geber
to be smelted and processed, and that it was a thriving center of
metalwork. Ships, too, were built at Ezion-geber and dispatched to
all parts of the known world. Caravans visited the town from Sinai,
Egypt, Judah and Arabia. The town's most active period was the
tenth century b.c, which included the reign of Solomon (965-926).
Having worked for years on this fascinating Biblical site with a
distinguished team of collaborators, Glueck asserted cautiously that,
as far as he knew, there was only one man with the energy, wealth
and farsightedness to plan and carry out the construction of an
industrial center like Ezion-geber, which in its' first and greatest
period was a highly complex and specialized installation. That man
was King Solomon. He alone of his contemporaries would have
had the ability, vision and drive to build such an important industrial
town and seaport so far from Jerusalem. At Ezion-geber, Solomon
was able to smelt, refine and process the ore which he obtained from
his large copper and iron mines in the Arabah Valley. He exported
finished products by sea and land and bartered them for the spices,
ivory, precious woods and gold of Arabia and Africa. As Glueck
pointed out, the wise ruler of Israel was a copper baron, a shipping
magnate, a merchant prince and a great architect all in one. Yet
he was at once the bane and blessing of his country, for with the
growth of his might and wealth he developed an autocratic attitude
and ruthlessly rode roughshod over his people's democratic tradi-
tions. Solomon's great network of enterprises stretched from the
Phoenician ports of Spain to Arabia, Syria and the east coast of
Africa, but the town of Ezion-geber was one of the greatest of all
his achievements.
We know the port from which Solomon's fleets set sail in their
quest for gold, but what was their destination?
ARABIA 283
The location of Ophir has stimulated the imagination of many
generations, and a huge literature has been devoted to the subject.
The legendary region or city has been sought— and found in the
imagination— on all five continents.
Augustus Keane suggested in The Gold of Ophir, a book pub-
lished in London in 1901, that Ophir was situated in the Arabian
district of Dofar. R. F. Burton assumed that Ophir was identical with
the Land of Midian on the Gulf of Aqaba, though if it was so close
at hand one wonders why there should have been any need for a
fleet. In 1 844 Christian Lassen wrote in Germany that Ophir was to
be found in the Indus area because a tribe called the Abhira lived
there. Ophir has also been identified with Africa, but this must be
a fallacy because Africa first got its name in Roman times from the
Afri, a North African tribe. R. Mewes suggested Ophir was to be
found in Peru because II Chronicles: iii speaks of the "gold of
Parvaim." The Jewish historian Flavins Josephus suggested in the
first century a.d. that Ophir lay somewhere in India, while Alexander
von Humboldt regards Ophir as a general geographical term, not
a particular place or region. The man who pioneered the decipher-
ment of Babylonian cuneiform script, Jules Oppert, espoused a
similar theory.
Because the Old Testament informs us that ships came back from
Ophir laden with gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks, people have
tried to identify its location from these animate and inanimate articles
of merchandise. Richard Hennig points out that the Hebrew word
for apes, kophim, was borrowed from the Sanskrit kapi and that
peacocks, too, could only have been of Indian origin. On the other
hand, the Hebrew word thukkiyim was interpreted as parrots or
guinea fowl by the French scholar Quatremere and by Karl Mauch
as ostriches. The Coptic name for India, Sophir, is another etymo-
logical pointer in the direction of India.
There has been commercial activity between India and the east
coast of Africa since time immemorial, so it is not surprising that
ancient Indian names sometimes reappear on the other side of the
Indian Ocean. For example, there is a Sofala Coast in West Malabar
and a Sofala Coast in Mozambique. It is an interesting fact that
Columbus, too, was preoccupied with the discovery of Ophir and
that he intended to reach it on his voyage to the west. "The
splendor and power of the gold of Ophir are incalculable. Whoever
284 THE SILENT PAST
possesses that gold achieves on earth whatsoever he desires," said
the Genoese explorer.
In approaching this problem we should reflect that gold is
produced in only two areas in the western half of the Indian Ocean:
India, and the country behind Mozambique, i.e. Southern Rhodesia.
India has gold mines at Mysore, Madras and Hyderabad, but in
India Solomon would have had to fight for his gold because no
native prince would have surrendered it without a struggle. Besides,
Richard Hennig has rightly pointed out that throughout history
India has always used much more gold than she could produce
herself— hence her traditional nickname "the Grave of Gold."
We are left with the hinterland of the Sofala Coast in southeast
Africa. There in Southern Rhodesia, west of Mozambique and more
than six hundred miles from the sea, lie the richest goldfields in the
southern half of Africa. The theory that Ophir should be sought
in south Africa was first broached by Karl Mauch and Karl
Peters. There is no need to assume that the Israelites maintained
mines of their own so far from home or that the Phoenicians ever
penetrated into the richest gold areas. The natives would un-
doubtedly have transported sufficient gold from the interior to the
coast if it had been worth their while.
This does not, however, explain how Solomon came into posses-
sion of the gold. Professor Hennig believed that the Israelites ob-
tained gold from the southeast regions of Africa not by trade or
from colonial mines but, as so often in the history of gold, by war
and piracy. He added that one need only think of the Spaniards'
infiltration into Mexico under Cortez and into Peru under Pizarro,
This would explain why the Phoenicians voluntarily took members
of another race, the Israelites, with them on their expeditions. The
Phoenicians had never been efficient soldiers, Hennig asserted, and
would not have fought successfully on their own. Thus, in order to
carry out their projected raids, they sought help from a battle-
seasoned and militarily powerful race like the Israelites.
This theory seems artificial. In the first place, one cannot assume
that King Solomon only undertook one gold expedition to Ophir.
The Bible implies that several voyages were made and that each
of them lasted three years. One raid every three years? History
provides scarcely any instance where a distant people was attacked
on such a long-term basis, and the hypothetical raids undertaken
ARABIA
285
Zimbabwe, Southern Rhodesia
in collaboration with the Phoenicians would certainly not have gone
according to plan each time. Hennig's assertion that the Phoenicians
were inefficient soldiers and never represented a political force is
flatly contradicted by the historical fact of the Punic Wars, Han-
nibal's heroic feats and the defense of Carthage. The Semitic
Carthaginians defended their metropolis with a bravery unsurpassed
by any race before or since. We know that the Phoenicians were
not only first-rate seamen, brilliant diplomats and shrewd business-
men, but also excellent fighters.
286 THE SILENT PAST
No, the collaboration between Hiram of Tyre and Solomon was
founded on something other than war and piracy. The Phoe-
nicians were experienced navigators, they possessed the best ships
in the contemporary world, and they invariably knew the best
routes through little-known waters, navigational secrets which they
guarded jealously. Their contribution to the great enterprise was
experience of the sea, ships and crews. King Solomon provided
something quite different; namely, trade goods. Since the American
excavations have shown us that Ezion-geber boasted what were
probably the largest smelting works in the ancient world and since
King Solomon had built up a thriving metalwork industry there, he
had something to export. Ships set sail from Ezion-geber laden with
iron and, perhaps, copper, and on reaching Ophir exchanged these
much-prized commodities for gold, slaves, apes, ivory, peacocks and
other rare merchandise.
We are indebted to Nelson Glueck for finding this solution in
the course of his excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh.
SOUTHERN RHODESIA
IN QUEST OF OPHIR
The ruins of the Great Zimbabwe, as it is sometimes called to
distinguish it from any others, are very imposing. They are not
so extensive as those north of Inyanga, nor so beautiful as those
of the Insiza district, but it is mideniable that they have a massive
grandeur all their ovm. There are three distinct, though connected,
groups of buildings, viz. the ''Elliptical Te?nple," the ''Valley
Ruins," and the "Acropolis.'"
—David Randall-MacIver, Medieval Rhodesia,
p. 6i, London, 1906
WE NOW come to one of the most mysterious chapters in the
history of Black Africa. Etienne Marc Quatremere, A. H. Heeren
and the German geologist Karl Mauch have all ascribed the gold-
fields of Ophir to this area and assumed that the source of Solomon's
gold was Mashonaland in Southern Rhodesia.
The theory of a "Southern Rhodesian Ophir" has not yet been
proved, but it is noteworthy that the Arab traveler Ibn Batuta, who
was born at Tangier in 1304, referred to the country behind the
Sofala Coast under the name Youfi. Professor Richard Hennig, a
German who devoted a lifetime to the study of geography and
natural science, pointed out that Youfi sounds very much like Ophir.
The passage of Ibn Batuta runs: "From Youfi they bring gold dust
to Sofala."
The ruins of Zimbabwe were discovered by Adam Renders in
the year 1868. Being a hunter, Renders did not attach any great
importance to his find, and it soon relapsed into oblivion. On
September 5, 187 1, the German geologist Karl Mauch examined the
ruins more thoroughly, and at once realized that these strange stone
buildings in the southern part of Southern Rhodesia were not merely
the remains of African kraals of fairly recent date. His discovery
came to be associated with Ophir, and when, at the turn of the
century, a belief sprang up that Zimbabwe was the original site of
King Solomon's Mines, Mashonaland and Matabeleland became the
scene of a sort of gold rush. People began to mine gold from places
which had been worked in ancient times and where relics of smelting
equipment still survived. It was thought that a "Phoenician gold-
287
THE SILENT PAST
Zimbabwe
mining town" had been found in the Zimbabwe ruins, and gold-
hungry adventurers rifled and destroyed many of the precious old
ruins and mining installations.
Zimbabwe is a Bantu name, probably compounded of zimba
("houses") and mabgi ("stones"). By about the turn of the century,
Zimbabwe had become well known through the work of the
English traveler and archaeologist J. T. Bent, but the theory that
its ruins were the remains of an ancient Phoenician colony or that
they had been erected in pre-Christian times by members of an
advanced Mediterranean civilization was not exactly beneficial to
renewed archaeological attempts to determine their true origin and
i] Buddhist altar in Cave iiia at Tun-huang, excavated by Paul Pelliot, the
celebrated French archaeologist and authority on central Asia.
[89] Silver rhyton, evolved
from the simple drinking
horn. The vessel was held
above the drinker's head
and tilted so that the wine
spurted into his mouth
from the beak of the
mythical beast without
touching his lips. Present-
day Georgians have inher-
ited this custom from
Persia of the ancient steppe
culture of southern Russia.
[90] This solid gold jug,
which formed part of the
so-called Oxus Hoard,
dates from the 5th century
B.C. and is only 5 inches
high. It is an example of
the great metallic culture
that once extended from
Persia to the south of
Russia.
[91] A golden armband from the hoard
found in the dried-up bed of the river
Oxus. The winged monsters betray As-
syrian and Babylonian influence, but in
this particular form are genuinely Per-
sian. The beauty of this piece of jewelry
and the uncommonly delicate work-
manship suggest that it was once worn
by a woman of the royal household.
[92] This racing chariot drawn by a
team of four horses is one of the finest
pieces in the Oxus Hoard. Made of
solid gold, it reproduces details of har-
ness, wheels and even the clothing of
the drivers. Vehicles like this were used
by the Persian king Darius, defeated by
the Greeks at Marathon in 490 b.c.
[93 1 This bronze stag (6'/: inches high) is a typical example of the kurgan art of
Minusinsk, which is situated in the forest-steppe region in the upper reaches of the
Yenisey. The beast is standing on a bell-shaped rattle with a ring on which cords
could be hung.
•* •«».
[94] Scythian art traveled as far east as Mongolia. This piece of woven carpet, which
had remained miraculously preserved, was found in the grave of a Mongol prince at
Noin Ula in Mongolia and dates from the ist centurv a.d. The portrayal of the
griffin attacking the elk is a fine example of later Siberian-Scythian art.
[95] This wooden coffin was dug up at Basadur, Siberia, in 1950, complete with its
original occupant. The manner in which the tiger was carved into the wood, as well
as the presence in the grave of eighteen horses and other finds, indicate that the
dead man was the chieftain of a Scythian-like people.
•^^~^^^^'' «,
!^^^^^m
[96 and 97] This vase of silver-bearing gold ore is 5.5 inches high and reposes in the
Hermitage Museum at Leningrad. It was found in Kul Oba. The frieze depicts a
Scythian "dentist" at work on a tooth and treatment being administered to a man with
a broken leg. It is noticeable that the Scythians resembled early Russians both in
physiognomy and dress.
[98I A monolith on the "acropohs" of Zimbabwe. These unhewn stone buildings
were probably erected during the Middle Ages by an as yet unidentified African
people, perhaps a Bantu tribe.
[99] The "acropolis" was approached by a steep and narrow flight of steps running
between towering crags. The unknown designers of this fortress built their citadel
into the living rock.
[loo] The famous soapstone bird discovered
in the Zimbabwe ruins by R. N. Hall on
July 27, 1903. It has since become the na-
tional emblem of Southern Rhodesia. This
supreme example of Zimbabwe art is now in
Bulawayo Museum, Southern Rhodesia.
[loi] The so-called "acropolis" of Zimbabwe
was virtually impregnable. This is the west
wall of the massive fortress.
SOUTHERN RHODESIA 289
precise date. The British archaeologist R. N. Hall defended the
Phoenician theory with sound and detailed scientific arguments. He
had personally carried out diggings in Zimbabwe and several other
ruined sites in Southern Rhodesia with good results. It is still hard
to resist the cogency and descriptive power of the works which he
published in 1902 and 1907, but when the Egyptologist David
Randall-Maclver subjected the ruins of Southern Rhodesia to
further scrutiny he formed new conclusions which were completely
at odds with all the arguments and "evidence" previously adduced.
In Maclver's opinion, Zimbabwe was purely African in origin and
built far later than had been supposed hitherto. It came into being
toward the close of the Middle Ages and continued to flourish until
about the fifteenth century. Having examined seven sites, Maclver
reported he had nowhere found any object dating from earlier
than the fourteenth or fifteenth century a.d. He was equally unable
to discover any non-African features in the architecture of Zim-
babwe or any trace of European or Oriental style. The famous
"Elliptical Building," the "Acropolis," the "Valley Ruins," the forti-
fications, cult sites and living quarters— indeed, the whole metropolis
—were completely African in character. Unfortunately, there are no
inscriptions of any kind at Zimbabwe, whose master builders were
evidently unfamiliar with the art of writing. In addition, however, to
articles of African make, Maclver found works of art and utensils
which had been imported from India and the Far East. In fact,
it was because these articles were embedded in layers of rubble and
their date of manufacture was known from other sources that
Maclver was able to attribute the building of the entire city to the
medieval centuries.
If Maclver did not succeed in solving the riddle of Zimbabwe in
every detail, he did at least write finis to the supposition that it
belonged to a pre-Christian Mediterranean culture.
In the year 1929 the British archaeologist Dr. Gertrude Caton-
Thompson carried out further excavations at Zimbabwe and other
ruined sites. She confirmed Maclver's findings and established even
more precise dates for the miraculous buildings of Southern
Rhodesia.
No less than five hundred ruined sites lie scattered between the
rivers Zambezi and Limpopo. It is both interesting and important
to note that in general these buildings were not situated in the
290 THE SILENT PAST
direct vicinity of goldfields. Caton-Thompson inferred from this
that they were not associated with the exploitation of mineral
deposits. In her opinion, the massive ruins were not mining towns
but relics of urban development carried out by the advanced Bantu
tribes of central Africa. Nevertheless, there seems to be a strong
possibility that Zimbabwe itself was an important distribution center
for gold, for on what else could the power and wealth of this
Southern Rhodesian metropolis have been founded?
Al-Masudi, an Arab writer who visited Africa in a.d. 916 or 917,
declared that Zimbabwe had been founded by a people from
Abyssinia, that it had been in existence for some generations and was
already a powerful kingdom in his day. To quote his actual words:
"It is a land that produces gold in quantity and other marvels as
well." It thus seems that the modern Ba Roswi and Ba Venda tribes
may be regarded as the direct descendants of the builders of Zim-
babwe. The numerous necklaces of Indian and Malayan manufac-
ture found there enabled the fantastic buildings to be dated with
even greater accuracy. Caton-Thompson thinks that Zimbabwe and
certain other towns flourished between the eighth and tenth centuries
A.D. and may even have done so since the beginning of the Middle
Ages.
The district is extremely rich in granite, a material which lies
readily available in the immediate vicinity of the numerous build-
ing sites. This natural granite could be removed in slabs and needed
scarcely any dressing.
The diggings undertaken by Hall, Randall-Maclver and Caton-
Thompson have not yielded a very rich harvest from the quantita-
tive aspect, but they include iron arrowheads and spear points, axes,
large quantities of bronze wire, principally in the form of ankle
rings, gold wire, soapstone bowls, rings, necklaces, soapstone and
earthenware flywheels for spinning contrivances, battle-axes, iron
swords, phalli, bone tubes and jugs for water or beer. The celebrated
pillars surmounted by a soapstone bird are of particular interest,
and a likeness of the bird has since become the national emblem of
Southern Rhodesia.
This British archaeologist's ground plan of Zimbabwe shows {top right) an
elliptical building presumed to be a temple and {top left) the acropolis hill
surmounted by its citadel.
292 THE SILENT PAST
The place is still shrouded in mystery. Even the purpose of the
large "elliptical building" is unknown, though many scholars regard
is as a temple. The monoliths in this co-called Temple of Zimbabwe,
which are about thirteen feet high and taper roughly to a point,
were probably connected with the phallus cult which is still such
a feature of the area.
It is likely that the mysterious culture of Zimbabwe did not
originate from one source but was the outcome of many varied
influences. G. A. Wainwright thinks that a people from southern
Abyssinia, perhaps the Galla, migrated to Southern Rhodesia long
before a.d. 900 and that it was they who were responsible for the
megaliths of the Zimbabwe civilization. The racial identity of the
Galla aristocracy probably became submerged in the neighboring
Bantu population. Since the phallus cult happens to play an im-
portant role in southern Abyssinia and the abundance of phallus
finds in Southern Rhodesia indicates that the phallus cult was equally
important in the Zimbabwe culture, we cannot overlook this
obvious link.
When the first Europeans made their way into the southern
half of Africa 450 years ago, they found themselves in a living
museum representing many different cultural epochs. Post-Stone-
Age cultures are, as we know, divided into the Bronze Age and Iron
Age. The bushmen were still living in the Stone Age. The Hottentots
were already using bronze and copper but were unfamiliar with
iron. The Bantu of the east coast, on the other hand, manufactured
implements out of iron and had already entered the Iron Age.
Indeed, iron was already known in Southern Rhodesia before the
buildings of the Zimbabwe culture came into being. We are thus
confronted by a unique cultural transition from stone to iron.
Africa south of the Sahara was isolated from the ancient world
during the fourth, third and second millennia b.c. Only this can
explain why many tribes in the southern part of Africa never passed
through a Bronze Age. In Rhodesia the Iron Age followed directly
on the heels of the Stone Age without, as in North Africa and almost
everywhere else in the ancient world, going through the inter-
mediate phases of development known as the Copper and Bronze
Ages.
Iron probably reached the regions of Africa south of the Sahara
from the countries of the Mediterranean as early as the tenth
SOUTHERN RHODESIA 293
century, but by what routes? The Zimbabwe culture, in so far as
it has been excavated, belongs to the Iron Age but has also yielded
articles of bronze. Why has nothing earlier been found? Why are
there no traces of Solomon's ore consignments? These questions
have not as yet been answered.
Although there has been a tendency to stress the purely African
features of the ruins in Southern Rhodesia ever since 1906, when
reaction set in against the first wild assumptions about mysterious
Phoenician colonists, traces of former cultural contact between the
Mediterranean world and South Africa are now being brought to
light. G. Mathew, for instance, has cited archaeological evidence in-
dicating that there were very ancient pre-Islamic links between
southern Arabia and the east coast of South Africa. It is not
beyond the bounds of possibility that the people of Sheba landed
there and penetrated into Southern Rhodesia, which transports the
theory of a sea route from Tell el-Kheleifeh (formerly Ezion-geber)
through the Red Sea, via the land of Sheba and down to the Sofala
coast, from the realm of legend to that of reality. Roger Summers,
a distinguished student of South African archaeology and culture,
says in this connection that small pieces of evidence are coming to
light here and there which link Africa with the fringe of the
ancient world.
Research into the Zimbabwe culture has not yet produced a
definite answer to the Ophir enigma, but everything indicates that,
manned by Phoenician crews, King Solomon's ships did, in fact,
explore the coasts of southeast Africa, We know now that Solomon's
fleet came back from Ophir laden with vast quantities of gold. We
know, too, from the American excavations of Ezion-geber at Tell
el-Kheleifeh, that King Solomon refined iron and copper in the
smelting furnaces unearthed there, commodities which possessed
great value as trade goods throughout the contemporary world and
particularly in the southern half of Africa.
Nevertheless, the secret of Ophir remains unsolved, perhaps be-
cause ships leave no perceptible traces of their passage.
NIGERIA
THE BRONZES OF BENIN
The ivory carvings and, above all, the bronzes of Benin surpass
anything that Black Africa has produced in the realm of art. The
purpose of many of these objects remains a mystery, though
leading authorities on the cidture of Yoruba and Benin have solved
many of the secrets of those unusual civilizations by hard vcork
and exhaustive digging. The finest pieces from Benin novo repose
in the Museu?n of Ethnology, Berlin, in the British Museum, and
at Lagos.
ON THE west coast of Africa at the point where its waist is pinched
in by the Gulf of Guinea, hes Nigeria, melting pot of many African
tribes and races and a country of some forty million inhabitants.
Among them are the Ibo, the Hausa, the Fulbe and the Yoruba, each
numbering about four millions.
Nigeria is not known to the world for its political history or eco-
nomic resources, yet its culture is far more interesting to the modern
world than that of many other far more important nations. The city
and culture of Benin have occupied a prominent place in the history
of art ever since 1897, when the British opened up the kingdom of
the same name in the marshes of the Niger delta by force of arms,
and especially since the ethnologist and explorer Leo Frobenius
virtually revolutionized our knowledge of the Negro civilizations in
191 1. Benin is not only a city but a region that includes the lands
west of the Niger delta and around the Benin River, a country in-
habited by Negroes of Sudanese stock who founded Great Benin, a
once powerful and greatly feared kingdom and one of the most
culturally advanced districts in West Africa. Leo Frobenius even
thought that in Benin he had found the heirs and descendants of the
lost continent of Atlantis.
The Benin coast was first explored by the Portugese in 1472, and
during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries became one of
the chief centers of the slave trade. Between the time of its discovery
by the Portuguese and the British expedition of 1897, Europe almost
lost sight of the Negro kingdom, and for four centuries no precise
details of its ancient civilization emerged. In 1897, however, an event
occurred which was to destroy Benin's autonomy. The British Act-
294
NIGERIA 295
ing Consul-General for the Niger Coast Protectorate, J. R. Phillips,
set out on an expedition to Benin and was unwise enough to approach
the capital just as a memorial service, complete with ancestor-cult
sacrifice, was being held in honor of the reigning king's late father.
Phillips was murdered in the bush before he could enter the city.
The British immediately dispatched a punitive force, and the
already tottering monarchy was completely destroyed. With that,
Europe gained its first glimpse of the cultural history and the blood-
thirsty but far from primitive religious practices of the mysterious
kingdom of Benin. The British caused a sensation by bringing back
bronzes of such artistic merit that experts racked their brains as to
which European, Egyptian or Islamic artists could have been respon-
sible for them.
The bronzes of Benin attracted the attention they did because they
represented a unique exception among the sculptures produced by
other African Negro races. To those endowed with a Western sense
of form they appeared more intelligible and less alien than the Negro
art of the rest of the Dark Continent.
We now know that the Yoruba, a tribal group of Sudanese stock
who live northwest of Benin, had cities of more than 100,000 in-
habitants before the first European colonizers arrived on the scene,
and that they were not only skilled hoe-farmers and breeders of
small livestock but also traders on an extensive scale. Their highly
developed handicrafts, cotton weaving, dyeing, pottery, and bronze-
and brass-founding techniques spread beyond the borders of their
own territory.
Ancient Yoruba colonies still exist in Dahomey and Togo, and the
ruling class of Dahomey, the Fon, inherited great artistic gifts from
sources that are hard to ascertain. Yoruba was, in fact, the mother
country of the kingdom of Benin, and Benin not only owed its
existence to Yoruba colonists but inherited from them rudiments
of its remarkable art.
Africa was for thousands of years the principal center of the
slave trade, and the Yoruba colonies of which Benin was one were
founded due to the desire to establish loading points for human
merchandise. Between the years i486 and 1641, it is recorded that
1,389,000 slaves were exported from Angola alone. On the average,
Brazil received shipments of 10,000 slaves each year from 1580 to
1680. Between 1783 and 1793, no less than 900 trips were made from
296 THE SILENT PAST
Liverpool by vessels carrying 300,000 slaves to a value of 15 million
pounds sterling.
In an Africa accustomed to the idea of slavery this was no more
than a natural development, for, as Basil Davidson recently em-
phasized, it is only a small step from the ownership of slaves to their
exportation.
The chief center of Yoruba art was Ile-Ife, rehgious capital, cul-
tural center and seat of the spiritual head of all the Yoruba. Ile-Ife,
which lies about fifty miles from Ibadan in Nigeria, means "land of
the origin" and has a present population of 50,000. The only surviv-
ing works of art of the "Ife period" are made either of stone, quartz,
granite, bronze or baked clay, because wood carvings have fallen
prey to the climate in the course of centuries. Yoruba sculptures
found during the past twenty years occupy a unique position in the
art of Africa as a whole. In 1938 and 1939 some splendid works of
art were unearthed in the palace precincts of the Oni of Ife,
most of them sculptures in brass. Brass varies from red to pale gold
in color according to the proportion of copper employed. In this
case the alloy was 20 percent zinc. So amazingly hfelike in every
detail is one bronze male figure from Tada on the Niger and so subtle
and expressive are the Negroid faces of the Ife finds that experts are
continually searching for signs of extraneous influence.
Foreign artists may well have taught in the foundries at the court
of the Benin kings, and the Yoruba pantheon of 40 1 deities is reminis-
cent of the angelic communities of early Christianity, but it is hard
to say whether the Graeco-Christian art of late antiquity or the art
of the Middle Ages played any part there. Eckart von Sydow, an
outstanding student of primitive art, and especially of African sculp-
ture, believes that Benin's works of art were in some way influenced
during the Middle Ages by the traffic that passed along the long
caravan routes running through the Sudan from north to south and
from east to west. From the purely technical aspect, the brassworks
of ancient Benin will stand comparison with the finest European
examples, for the works of art in bronze and brass that came from
the hands of these native artists were nothing short of masterpieces.
Yet the inexplicable, incomprehensible problem of interrelationship
remains. None of the numerous metal plaques or other surviving
works in bronze came from the hand of a European artist. They are
all completely African in style and composition, even though they
NIGERIA 297
far surpass all other African examples of plastic art. This opinion
was shared by the distinguished German ethnologist Felix von
Luschan and by Professor Josef Marquart of Berlin, whose compre-
hensive work on the Benin collections was published at Leyden in
19 1 3. The art as a whole is characterized by the unusual proportions
of the statues, the short legs, the schematic treatment of physiog-
nomy, the partial neglect of hands and feet, the painstaking emphasis
on details of jewelry, clothing and weapons and, last but not least, the
predilection for full-face portrayals.
It is very difficult to divide Benin art into periods because its
inhabitants had no form of writing and used sculpture to express all
their vital impulses, all their desires and aspirations, all their religious
ideas. Bernhard Struck of Heidelberg has, however, distinguished
five periods in the cultural history of Benin. They range from 1 140
to 1887 and cover the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which
represented the golden age of Benin art. Certain clues are afforded
by the strange bronze plaques, some of which depict Europeans
whose clothing, hats and weapons belong to the years between 1530
and 1585. Except in this respect, the bronze plaques have defied all
attempts at interpretation. They are bet^veen twelve and twenty
inches long. Even the most fragile and prominent portions of the
figures are hollow. The natives have no recollection of their original-
purpose, but at one time they were affixed to the posts that supported
the roof of the royal palace, as the nail holes in them indicate. Al-
though this does not explain why such infinite pains were taken with
their manufacture, they have preserved the rich and varied life of
the people of Benin in so grandiose a manner that they compensate
to some extent for our lack of written records.
We have been left a description of Benin by a Dutchman who
painted a vivid picture of the splendor of its royal court in the
seventeenth century. He reported that the city was a very large
place with broad streets and neat houses whose verandas were
swept clean by slaves. Inside the royal palace were rectangular court-
yards surrounded by galleries. The king kept horses in well-appointed
stables, and the warriors and nobility were devoted to him.
The king has very many slaves and slave women. One often sees the
slave women carrying water and yams, also palm oil. This is said to be
for the king's wives. The king has many wives and holds two processions
298 THE SILENT PAST
a year, on each of which occasions he parades his power and wealth and
finery, accompanied by all his wives— more than six hundred in number.
The noblemen also have numerous wives, some of them eighty and
others ninety or more. No man of rank is so poor as to own less than
ten or twelve wives. Thus, more women are to be found here than men.
According to native tradition, King Overami Eduboa, who was
deposed by the British in 1897, "^^^ the twenty-second member of
his line. The tenth king, whose name was Esige Osawe, prided him-
self on having been born a "white man." Before he died he sent
emissaries across the "great water" to the land of the whites, bearing
gifts and an invitation to the whites to visit him in Africa, but in
vain. They settled in Gwatto and carried on trade there. Apparently,
they were accompanied by a man called Ahammangiwa or Moham-
mangiwa ( "Elephant- A4ohammed"). This A-Ioslem was a brass
founder, perhaps a member of the Hausa tribe. He traveled to Benin
and brought the artists there fresh inspiration with his portrayals of
Europeans and new styles of ornamentation. He stayed with the
king for a long time and had "many wives but no children." The
king apprenticed numerous young men to him. "We can still
produce metalwork," the Benin people said later, "but we cannot
make it as he made it because he and all his pupils are dead." Pro-
fessor Josef Marquart of Berlin, who tried to solve the riddle of
Benin's artistic origins, thought that the story of Ahammangiwa
could have stemmed from an obscure recollection of the first
attempts at conversion by the Portuguese, and that the "many wives"
may have been nuns belonging to a mission led by Ahammangiwa
himself. There is in existence a fine ivory cup made by an ivory
carver from Sierra Leone which may point to the presence of a
Catholic mission in West Africa as early as this. The cup, together
with elephant tusks bearing skillfully carved reliefs, is now in the
National Museum of Ethnology in Holland.
We do not know if the plaques and their figurative reliefs derived
any inspiration from European brass-founding technique, but we do
know that Mohammangiwa was alive during the reign of the oba
(king) named Esige Osawe; that is to say, at the time when the
Portuguese navigator Joao Afonso de Aveiro first discovered Benin.
It is hard to ascertain whether the Yoruba art of Ife, which rep-
resented the cultural progenitor of Benin, was very much more
NIGERIA 299
ancient than the art of Benin itself. Sculpture and foundry technique
probably reached their prime at Ife between the twelfth and four-
teenth centuries. Under the last autonomous ruler of Benin, Oba
Overami, brass founding was prohibited for some unknown reason,
which was why the British were surprised to see such magnificent
bronzes nailed up in huts. After the conquest of 1897, when the king
was deposed and Benin City went up in flames, talented native artists
began to ply their craft once more. Their artistic impulses and
abilities live on today, although their art itself has dechned under
the impact of industrialization.
The British scholar Bernard Fagg has demonstrated the existence
of an interesting relationship between the ancient Nok culture,
which produced tools of iron as well as stone, and the art of later
Nigerian tribes. In 1956 Fagg published details of a life-size terra-
cotta head dug up in the south of Zaria Province (northern Nigeria)
in 1954. This find owes its importance to the fact that it dates from
pre-Christian times and that its finely detailed hair, superbly modeled
eyes and animated, expressive mouth are reminiscent of the finest
pieces from Ife and Benin. The Nok culture has not yet been dated
precisely, but it probably flourished in the first century B.C. Fagg
points out that the sculpture's hair resembles the hair styles affected
by the modern Kachichiri and Numana tribes who live about thirty
miles from Nok, so the first beginnings of Benin art may well be
rooted far more deeply in the past than we have hitherto supposed.
What lay behind the expressive busts of queens, the figures, heads
and countless other objects? The chief impetus and source of Benin's
art was the ancestor cult. That was the soil in which the bronze art
of Benin thrived and the foundation on which its royal families built
their religion. Altars to fathers and forefathers, groups of kings and
their retinues, groups dominated by queen mothers, bronze heads,
cockerels, carved elephants' tusks— all these belonged to the ancestor
cult.
For all that, ancestor worship was not as highly spiritualized here
as in many of the civilizations of the Far East. The relationship
between living and dead was intended to bring practical advantages.
The head of the family shook rattles, pounded the floor, rang bells
and called loudly upon the spirits of his ancestors, who entered the
central head on the altar and gave ear to the family's prayers. During
prayer, pieces of cola nut were crumbled. Taking these in his mouth,
300 THE SILENT PAST
the priest chewed them and spat them onto the rattles, thereby giving
the signal for sacrifice. The main sacrificial beast was the panther,
which was dedicated to the soul of the king of Benin during his life-
time. Sacrifice was heralded by a sword ritual performed by head-
men. After a cockerel, a goat and a cow had been slaughtered, food
was placed before the rattles and the altar, and the proceedings were
consummated by a feast in which the whole family shared.
With the advent of Western civilization the old spirit of Negro
art declined, the tribes' links with their ancestors fell asunder, ancient
tribal traditions waned and native artists began to manufacture curios
for the benefit of foreign collectors. The missing element in these
new arts and crafts has been neatly defined by William B. Fagg,
who says that a comparison between the traditional art of a tribe
and the art produced for tourists discloses something much more
important than mere external changes in form. To him, the missing
element is the vital force that once provided tribal life with its basis
of existence and philosophical world of ideas.
That this vital force existed, that it breathed life into inanimate
bronze and gave birth to sculpture of such unique beauty and
astounding naturalism was due alone to the spirit and faith of the
people of Benin.
NEW GUINEA
RIVER OF A THOUSAND EYES
The civilizations of the Sepik district, whose ?nagnifice?ice is
due in particular to their religio?i and art, are regrettably on the
verge of extinction, hi an outwardly almost imtoiiched-seeining
country the natives' anciejit and traditional way of life has largely
disappeared or is rapidly disintegrating. . . . All these changes are
attributable to contact with modern civilization. Confronted by
the superiority manifest in it, the 77atives lost their inward and
often their outward stability as well. That is why their cultures are
dying.
—Alfred Buhler, Sepik, p. 23,
Stuttgart-Berne- Vienna, 1958
LARGER than all the five continents put together, the Pacific Ocean
is encircled by a chain of volcanoes, both active and extinct. It is the
most recently formed portion of the globe, and its birth pangs and
the concomitant appearance and disappearance, advance and with-
drawal of its islands and shores are far from complete. Between
Hawaii and New Zealand, New Guinea and Easter Island, thirty
thousand islets project from the gleaming, glittering waters of the
South Seas.
The present inhabitants of the South Pacific migrated to their
oceanic world from Asiatic countries and islands in times beyond
our ken. Wave after wave of migrant peoples sailed across the sea
to find a watery grave in the blue depths of the Pacific or land on
some hospitable shore and make their home there.
The vast expanse of the Pacific contains three worlds, the Poly-
nesian, the Micronesian and the Melanesian, each of wliich is very
different in character. Their common features are illiteracy, lack of
metals and the other raw materials, and the creeping death which
has been continuously eroding the native population of all three areas
—the Maoris of New Zealand and a few other tribes excepted— ever
since the advent of the European.
Polynesia is a Greek word formation meaning "place of many
islands." The enormous triangle bounded by Hawaii, New Zealand
and Easter Island could contain whole continents— Australia four
times over, the United States and Canada three times over— yet the
302 THE SILENT PAST
thousands of islands within that area are inhabited by only 1,100,000
people, of which only 100,000 are genuine Polynesians.
The Polynesians have preserved a remembrance of their east-
ward migrations from Hawaiki, the legendary land of their fore-
fathers. Samoa and Tonga were their first main settlements, and they
reached the Society Islands about the eighth century a.d. From their
base at Raiatea, the political and religious center of Polynesia, they
then populated the eastern Pacific as far as Easter Island. The first
Polynesians sailed off into the Pacific at about the time of Christ's
birth or three or four centuries earlier. According to the latest radio-
carbon tests, the Polynesians settled in Hawaii during the early cen-
turies of our era, perhaps between a.d. 100 and 200.
Where did the Polynesians come from?
We do not know exactly, but we must assume that they came
from Indonesia. While the Polynesian language is more closely re-
lated to Malay, it shows evidence of the influence of the Indonesian
tongue. Since Sanskrit arrived in Indonesia from India circa a.d. 350
and since the Polynesian languages contain no Sanskrit, the Poly-
nesians must have left their Indonesian home sometime before a.d.
350. However, their main migrations took place in the eleventh,
twelfth and thirteenth centuries a.d.. New Zealand being populated
by migrants from the Society and Cook islands about 1350. These
voyages across the world's largest sheet of water in frail outriggers
and catamarans with triangular woven sails were among history's
greatest feats of daring, even though our only record of them is
preserved in the traditions, myths and songs of the island peoples.
Bold hypotheses and venturesome theories exercising the fascina-
tion over modern humanity that they do, people have been asserting
for decades that the Polynesians came from South America. This
pet fable has not yet gained favor with most scientists, however,
because ancient traditions, ethnological facts and anthropological
characteristics all tend to prove that the Polynesian migrations orig-
inated in the west. "It is one of the best established findings of
ethnological research that this island world was populated from the
west, from Asia. An eastern origin, i.e., from the American continent,
is out of the question." So says Herbert Tischner, a leading authority
on the tribes of the South Seas, and modern science in general shares
his view.
Micronesia, the "place of small islands," comprises 1,458 islands,
NEW GUINEA 305
most of them minute, and is inhabited by a total population of
170,000. The islands are composed mainly of calcareous coral and
the great majority are atolls. Only 97,000 Micronesians still live in
the Alarianas, the Palau Islands, the Carolines, the Marshall Group,
Nauru and the Gilbert Islands. These Alicronesians with their pecu-
liar Old Mongol admixture are doomed, like so many primitive
peoples, to become extinct without ever having been adequately
studied. We have only to remember the Tasmanians, the Fuegian
Indians and others.
The name Melanesia is compounded of the Greek words melas
("black") and nesos ("island"). Structurally speaking, the region
belongs to Australia and used in very ancient times, before the inter-
vening land masses sank beneath the sea, to form the outer rim of
Australia. Situated in the southwest Pacific, Melanesia includes the
world's second largest island. New Guinea, the Bismarck Archi-
pelago, the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, the New Hebrides and New
Caledonia.
Anyone familiar with the islands of the Pacific and their inhabitants
knows that the Polynesians are distinguished by their tall and sturdy
build, their pale brown complexion and the long, smooth black hair
which they share with their Japanese cousins and the Chinese. The
Polynesians do not have naturally curly hair, and this immediately
sets them apart from the crinkly-headed Melanesians. The Micro-
nesians include both very light-skinned and dark-skinned people,
though they are not so dark as many Melanesians, some of whom are
completely black. The Solomon Islanders are examples of the latter
type of Melanesian.
Melanesia was the first group to be inhabited, which is why it is
the site of the most rudimentary cultures. Parts of the island of
New Guinea, for instance, form one of the last great open-air
cultural and ethnological museums in the world. New Guinea is a
fascinating place, and the district around the river Sepik has produced
what are probably the finest works of art in the entire Pacific area.
The riddle of New Guinea begins with its population. There are
tall, dolichocephalic people, there are short, pygmoid people, there
are some other groups related to the aboriginals of Australia and
Tasmania, and there are natives who either resemble the Melanesian
type or are genuine Melanesians. Almost all the coastal tribes of
New Guinea are Melanesian, as opposed to the shorter, Papuan-speak-
304
THE SILENT PAST
a , N o r
ing tribes of the interior. The people are largely Negroid, dark-
skinned and curly-headed, but there are also some tribes in New
Guinea who appear to be related to the Mongoloid races. Linguisti-
cally, the oldest tribes belong to the Papuan group.
These dark-skinned but heterogeneous tribes speak an extra-
ordinary number of languages. The central mountain range forming
the island's backbone is about 1,250 miles long and includes peaks
of up to 16,000 feet, some of which carry glaciers despite their
proximity to the equator. The whole island is segmented by a maze
of mountain ranges and isolated mountainous features, which is why
its inhabitants, separated as they are by huge forests, rivers and
escarpments, have retained their confusion of languages. It is the
same with their culture. When white men first landed on New
Guinea the natives had no metal of any kind. This situation persists
NEW GUINEA 305
in many parts of the island, so some of the inhabitants of New
Guinea are still, in fact, living in the Stone Age.
Culturally, on the other hand, they are amazingly advanced, as we
at once realize if only we succeed in divesting ourselves of the
standards accepted in Europe and the West. This is, of course, ex-
ceedingly difficult. We are so firmly rooted in our Christian notions
of morality that we regard cannibalism, for example, as the ne plus
ultra of savagery. Yet in New Guinea and other Melanesian islands
it was the focal point of magical rites, possessed the most exalted
spiritual significance, and was, viewed in terms of the Melanesian
world, a symptom of advanced culture.
The island's principal river, the Sepik, rises in the central moun-
tain chain. It is about as long as the Rhine but its volume is infinitely
greater because of the torrential tropical downpours that feed it.
The gateway to the island's interior, it weaves its serpentine way
through the northern plains to the sea in a series of wide curves and
intricate convolutions. When the German astronomer Carl Schrader
traveled upstream in 1886 and 1887, ^^^ natives greeted him with
such hostility that he had to abandon his expedition before reaching
the river's highest navigable point. He was followed by the ethnol-
ogists Poech, Dorsay and Friederici and, finally, in 1908, by the
Hamburg South Seas Expedition, which brought back an extremely
valuable collection of ethnological data.
Even at that time, the Western world was amazed at the artistic
sense of the "savages" of the Sepik. Their superb clay vessels, beauti-
ful carvings and magnificent domestic architecture all aroused great
admiration. But New Guinea was and still is an explorer's nightmare.
This is due to the very nature of the country, to its swamps and
tropical rain forests, to its warm and humid climate, to the difficulty
of obtaining food supplies in the interior, to the natives' determina-
tion to persevere in their own way of life rather than adopt that
of the West (a resistance which has been slow to yield), and to a
thousand other obstacles which have for decades worn down the
morale, endurance and physique of so many scientists and their
companions.
To see the splendid utensils and cult objects of the Sepik culture
in a museum is to recognize the strength of the spiritual impetus that
engendered them.
This spiritual force stemmed from the idea that the world of the
3o6 THE SILENT PAST
supernatural, the spirit world, is more important and exercises a
more decisive influence on mankind than the mundane aspect of
existence. Like almost all primitive peoples, the tribes of New
Guinea are unable to account for occurrences such as natural disas-
ters, sickness, death or bad harvests in scientific terms. Instead, they
seek the cause of these events in the supernatural, thus securing a
means of intervening in nature, of warding off mischief and disaster
and, perhaps, even of erecting a prophylactic barrier against them.
To the New Guineans, everything in their natural environment is
animate. There is no thing, no living creature, which is not instinct
with soul or vital force. This belief in the ubiquity of souls or
animism, so called from anima, the Latin word for "soul," implies
that animals, human beings, plants and lifeless objects are all in-
vested with a power that must be contacted and utilized, never
offended or provoked. It is a deeply religious faith because it senses
the divine, sacred and supersensual element in all natural phenomena.
Life-force and souls are at their strongest in human beingrs. "When
a man dies, this magical force only becomes intensified, so the dead
are not only held in awe but offered sacrifice as a token of love and
respect.
Thus, the Papuan world is filled with ancestral spirits— material
objects included— because all that man owns or makes owes its
existence to his ancestors. Articles of daily use, material objects of
every kind, customs and cults all derive from our ancestors, and
every thing and every contrivance inherits something of its creator's
soul. If a man's ancestors are ill-disposed toward him, for instance,
they can ensure that he is never blessed with offspring.
In order to gain the favor of the dead, the living must provide their
souls with a dwelling place. The best abode for the soul of a dead
man is, of course, his own head. Since the skull is endowed with
magic powers and is the least perishable part of the human body,
the dead are exhumed after a certain length of time, their skulls
cleaned and their original features reproduced in clay.
Nowhere in the entire South Pacific area is this done with such
artistry as in the valley of the Sepik. Clay is skillfully molded over
the skull, the eye sockets inlaid with cowrie shells, and human hair
affixed. One more thing: because the most important events in the
Hfe of the deceased were the cult ceremonies which he attended and
NEW GUINEA 307
the battles he fought, the face is painted exactly as it was on those
occasions. This done, the soul's abode is complete.
Ancestral skulls are arranged on finely carved and decorated
boards and placed in the large "spirit houses" where tribesmen meet
to conduct memorial ceremonies for their ancestors. If the skulls of
the departed are not available their place is taken by wooden figures
designed to accommodate their souls.
It was this belief in a spiritual force residing in the human head
which fostered cannibalism and head-hunting, because it implied that
if life-force really dwells in a skull it can be acquired from people
outside the family circle. All one needs is a head. Hence the New
Guineans' raids on neighboring tribes and their villages, a practice
unknown in any part of the Pacific area except Melanesia.
Anyone who acquires a man's head acquires his name as well,
and it is essential to know the name of one's victim because of the
power inherent in it. A name obtained in this way can be given
to a child, thereby endowing it with the positive spiritual strength
of its original owner. That is why head-hunters try to trick their
victim into revealing his name before killing him.
Paul Wirz, who collected some very interesting material during
his lengthy explorations of the Indian Archipelago and New Guinea,
has given us a verbatim account of his conversation with a head-
hunter.
"In the middle of the night we surrounded the settlement which we
had reconnoitered the previous day and challenged the sleeping in-
habitants to fight. Five of them fell into our hands. I killed this one,"
said the man, proffering an armbone with flesh still adhering to it.
"Rawi was his name. He was still a young man. My brother Monai held
him fast while I asked what his name was. He screamed as though
spitted, but it did him no good. I cut off his head with my bamboo
knife. The man poked his tongue out like this," continued the narrator
with a dreadful grimace, and then hurried off to his hut. After a while
he reappeared and laid the freshly painted trophy with its long, plaited
hair-extensions at my feet. "You can have it for your child, if it has
no name yet, as long as you give me two axes, ten knives and ten packets
of tobacco. Take note of his name," he screeched at me. "Rawi! Rawi!
That was what the man was called."
The powers and forces inherent in every human being are de-
scribed in Melanesian as mana. Codrington first identified this term
3o8 THE SILENT PAST
among the Solomon Islanders, but it is an idea prevalent throughout
the Pacific area that the magical power inherent in animals, human
beings and material objects can be exploited by certain behavior. The
more important a man is, the more vital force or mana he contains.
In the view of many tribes in the Melanesian area, mana can be
obtained by eating human flesh. And since the flesh of a chieftain
possesses more spiritual energy than that of a common mortal, people
of superior rank have for centuries been hunted down with particular
zeal.
Far from being a cultural nadir, cannibalism is scarcely ever
present in the rudimentary stages of a civilization. On the contrary,
it is at its strongest and most widespread in Polynesia, whose oceanic
culture is of a peculiarly high standard. In Polynesia, as in Melanesia,
both men and women were numbered among its victims, and in the
former area the victims might include members of a man's own tribe
and family. The chieftain was the first and sometimes the only per-
son to partake of human flesh. Prisoners were occasionally fattened
before being devoured.
A chieftain's illness, the consecration of a spirit house, the launch-
ing of a boat, the termination of a war, an initiation ceremony— any
one of these things could occasion the eating of human flesh. Tischner
says that the old Viti Islanders of the Fiji group were reputed to be
the most inveterate cannibals in the South Seas. While some of their
chiefs abhorred the practice, many prominent headmen disposed of
a large number of victims in their time. The hero Ra Unreundre, for
instance, was supposed to have devoured nine hundred men, and in
Viti there were even special forks and plates for use at cannibalistic
repasts.
Waiter Behrmann, former Professor of Geography at Berlin
University and one of the first to explore the Sepik area, stressed
that any assessment of the natives' way of life should be based on
how they imagine the world, not on our own conception of it. New
Guinea is badly off for meat, he pointed out, and has no large mam-
mals apart from pigs and dogs. "Imagine, therefore, that someone
has slain in battle an opponent who, in the eyes of the islanders, is
indistinguishable from an animal. Seen in this light, it seems almost
natural to devour one's enemy, for human beings are not vegetarians
and need meat to eat. This is how cannibalism should be regarded—
though not, of course, condoned." Behrmann's theory that human
NEW GUINEA 309
beings were killed in New Guinea for lack of meat does not,
however, accord with the general view. The motives underlying
cannibalism seem in every case to be of a religious rather than carniv-
orous nature, as can be inferred from the fact that at one feast in
New Guinea, cannibalism prevailed even though between four and
five hundred pigs were slaughtered for the occasion.
Thus we discover in the interior of New Guinea a secluded culture
characterized by head-hunting and cannibalism, by the most beau-
tiful masks in the South Seas, by colorful and skillfully composed
articles of adornment and by carvings and paintings unexcelled in
any other part of the Pacific. Spirit-crocodiles, tapering masks, figure-
heads for the prows of dugout canoes, amazingly impressive spirit
or tambaran houses— all these have a spiritual, indeed a religious,
significance.
The island's art— and particularly that of the Sepik people— invari-
ably emphasizes the eyes, whether framed by the painting on skulls,
or staring from a white or black ground on masks, or peering from
shields, or looking down from the gables or houses, or set into the
prows of dugouts. Wherever a surface has to be filled, the eye motif
almost always predominates. If one pair of eyes is not enough for
the purpose, additional pairs are painted in. One reason why these
eyes impress themselves on the beholder is that all curves and orna-
mentation serve to frame and stress them. Even the tall gable of the
spirit house becomes transformed into a face. In the assembly hall
within lives the tambaran or spirit. It is his eyes that peer watchfully
from beneath the overhanging eaves of the palm-leaf roof, protecting
the tribe and shielding it against evil influences.
It seems possible, even probable, that there are hnks between the
T'ao-t'ieh of the Shang people of ancient China and the eye motif
of New Guinea. The bronze vessels with their T'ao-t'ieh masks were
used in ancestor-worship rituals. Perhaps the T'ao-t'ieh of China
evolved from some ancient skull cult (compare the skulls found at
Chou-k'ou-tien near Peking), just as the eye motif of New Guinea
is associated with the painting of ancestral skulls.
No Western exponent of abstract art can compete with the color
sense of the people of the Sepik culture. The ineffably beautiful color
compositions embodied by the natives of the central Sepik area in
their masks, painted spirit houses, cult figures and carvings have
formed a vast and inexhaustible reservoir of inspiration for the
3IO THE SILENT PAST
abstract artists of the West. The people of the Sepik used colors of
astonishing delicacy and almost disconcerting loveliness in their
miraculous works of art.
The Sepik River area and the highland regions of Washkuk and
Maprik are, as Alfred Biihler, the eminent authority on New Guinea,
declared, true centers of advanced art. But although the inhabitants
of New Guinea defended themselves against European colonization
more staunchly than other primitive peoples, cultural infiltration by
the West spelled the downfall of their religious centers and forced
the mana. which they had transformed into reality to give way before
the ruthless god known as Western technique.
All art springs from religion. In New Guinea, art was never more
than a handmaiden of spiritual ideas and a purveyor of spiritual
strength. Here, even more clearly than in other ancient civilizations,
we can see how genuine art is derived from the supersensual and
how, as soon as modern civilization topples the sublime edifice of the
mind, the soul and spiritual energy, the people that built it are
doomed to extinction.
GUATEMALA
MEN OF MAIZE
The purpose of research in every field, as Lawrence Housman
said, is to set back the frontier of darkness. With so many frontiers
of darkness, even in the study of vian, why choose Maya civiliza-
tion? To that, I think, the answer mtist be that Maya civilization
not only produced geniuses, but produced them in an atmosphere
which to us seems incredible. One can never assume the obvious
when dealing with the Maya, who excelled in the iinpractical but
failed in the practical.
—J. E. S. Thompson, The Rise and Fall of
Maya Civilization, p. 13, Norman, 1954
THE Polynesians must be ranked among the great seafaring peoples
of the world, rivaled in ancient times only by the Phoenicians. The
island-studded waters of the Indo-Pacific area tempted venturesome
spirits to undertake ocean voyages far earlier there than in the
Atlantic. The Melanesians, too, made some notable journeys by sea.
We know, for instance, that the natives of iVIanokwari, just below
the equator, sailed from west New Guinea to Ternate in the Moluc-
cas, a distance of five hundred miles. The inhabitants of New Guinea
used to navigate their largest river, the Sepik, in dugouts more than
ninety feet long, but they also made extensive trips along the coast.
The Polynesians explored the watery wastes of the Pacific on rafts
and in outriggers, journeying across the ocean in their puny craft
for as long as five months on a single voyage, during which time thev
survived on a sparse diet of fish and rainwater. If a storm proved
too much for a boat it was deliberately swamped to ease the strain
on the lashings, and the crew had to survive in the angry sea.
The Polynesians did not confine themselves to island-hopping, but
traversed deep-sea areas where no land was visible in any direction
for weeks at a time. It has been proved that they frequently made
journeys of up to 5,000 nautical miles— roughly the distance between
Tahiti and Hawaii. They had a wide knowledge of reefs, shallows,
currents, swells and winds, and their knowledge of astronomy was
so highly developed that they could calculate how far currents had
carried them off course. The Marshall Islanders were probably the
first to devise charts containing precise navigational instructions.
Their well-constructed outriggers were so swift and maneuverable
311
312 THE SILENT PAST
that Tischner described European explorers' ships as "clumsy, slow
and awkward" by comparison.
The inhabitants of the lonely Chatham Islands in the South Pacific
probably reached New Zealand on rafts. It should be noted that
these Moriori only had rafts constructed of bundles of New Zealand
flax held together by a boxlike wooden frame. Although New Zea-
land is only 250 miles from the Chatham group, it was quite an
achievement to cover the distance in such frail craft. On the other
hand, the Polynesians' catamarans or double canoes were often
90 to 120 feet long and could carry two or three hundred men. The
Melanesians and Micronesians were also building large ocean-going
vessels of this sort long before the discoveries of Fernao de Magal-
haes, Francis Drake and Captain Cook. Nearly all the seaborne
migrations undertaken by these island peoples followed an eastward
course. No American tribe ever migrated into the Pacific. The tribes
of South America certainly possessed rafts with sails and center-
boards, but these were used exclusively for coastal work. Alexander
von Humboldt saw vessels of this type on the Ecuadorian coast.
They were rafts constructed of balsa, the lightest wood in the world,
and were equipped with primitive sails and bamboo huts.
It was Adalbert von Chamisso, once a page to the Queen of Prussia
and later an author and scientist, who first theorized that the lan-
guages of the Micronesians and Polynesians were related to the
Malay languages (as opposed to the American). Chamisso, who sailed
around the world in the Russian brig Rurig between 1 8 1 5 and 1 8 1 8
and made a special study of the languages of Malaya and the South
Pacific, identified twenty-two grammatical systems in the Philippines
alone. Recent comparisons between the sculptures of Tiahuanaco
on the southern shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and the stone
figures on Easter Island will not withstand serious scientific scrutiny.
There are huge monoliths in both places which resemble each other
to a considerable degree, but that is about all. The Polynesian dialect
of Easter Island originated in the Malayan Archipelago, not in the
Americas. An Easter Islander can communicate quite adequately
with a Maori from New Zealand or a Polynesian from Mangareva,
but the language and culture of the American Indians are entirely
ahen to him, Hans Plischke wrote in 1957, "The origin of Polynesian
culture is to be found only in southeast Asia, not in America."
Abundant evidence supports the west-east theory. Countless
GUATEMALA
313
groups of tribes continued to migrate for thousands of years across
the Bering Strait from northeast Asia to America. But these earliest
inhabitants did not belong to the Mongol race but were Europeo-
Caucasian in type. They were followed at about the close of the
Ice Age by the Lagoa Santa race, first identified by the Danish
archaeologist Lund. Mongol migrations did not take place until
much later, perhaps not before 2000 b.c. Even so, the Mongoloid
tribes may not all have come by way of Siberia, and may, even at
that date, have been capable of traversing the Pacific. These Mongol
latecomers were responsible for the hint of Mongol blood perceptible
314 THE SILENT PAST
in so many North and South American Indian tribes, but this does
not mean that the Indians can be classified in the Mongol race, for
the Europeo-Caucasian element is stronger and considerably older.
The early inhabitants of America remained pure-blooded descendants
of the Old World for several millennia, whereas the Mongol in them
only goes back four thousand years. Migrations by tribes from Asia
occurred and continued to occur in remote periods of prehistory.
As research progresses, so the date of man's first arrival in America
retreats step by step into the past, so that we can now assume with
some confidence that man first set foot on American soil at least
100,000 years ago, as I tried to demonstrate in my book Ma?i, God
and Magic.
There is evidence, albeit it is controversial and by no means widely
accepted, of contact between China and Central America during the
period circa 2000 b.c.-a.d. iooo. Certain symbols on bronze cult ves-
sels of the Shang dynasty of the second millennium b.c. are reminis-
cent of the religious symbolism of pre-Columbian Central America.
There are similar echoes in painted Peruvian pottery and cloth de-
signs. The Viennese scholar Robert Heine-Geldern has for years
been trying to unearth pre-Christian associations between China and
Central America, and cites the step pyramid, the parasol as a mark
of rank, the significance of the figure 4 and many other things as
evidence. Nevertheless, when the Spaniards arrived in America its
inhabitants were ignorant of the wheel, the plow, any form of
vehicle, the potter's wheel, glass, stringed instruments, wheat, barley
and rice. If late influences of the sort envisaged really did exist, it is
hard to explain the absence of such important cultural assets.
Before the Spaniards' arrival there were no beasts of burden of
any kind save the llama in Peru and no domestic animals except the
dog. The theory that plow, wheel and cart were not adopted in
America because its inhabitants owned no draft animals will not,
however, hold water. The Americanist Hans Dietrich Disselhoff
retorts with some logic that human beings would have expended less
energy by pulling carts than by carrying heavy loads on their backs.
On the other hand, Disselhoff does mention a relief from Yucatan in
Mexico and a similar one from Amaravati in southern India whose
iconographic resemblance is astounding. The numerous features
common to the world of religious ideas on both sides of the Pacific,
GUATEMALA 315
in the Asiatic and the ancient American civilizations, can hardly be
mere accident.
The Mayas' Adam was "made of maize," a grain which they re-
garded as a gift of the gods and held in religious awe. We do not
know for certain if maize and gourds originated in the Peruvian
highlands or in the Mayas' homeland, although it is attested in Central
America some eight hundred years before it is in Peru, but maize,
beans and gourds were staple items of nourishment in Central Amer-
ica and were grown there by its culturally advanced peoples. During
his Tamaulipas expedition, R. S. MacNeish discovered Mexican maize
4,500 years old in the La Perra Cave. Sylvanus G. Morley of the
Carnegie Foundation stated that years of intimate contact with the
modern Mayas had convinced him that even today 75 percent of
their thoughts revolved around the subject of maize.
The English word for gourds, "squash," is of Indian origin. Cotton,
too, was developed in the advanced civilizations of Central America.
America has fifty species of agave, the plant from which most of
the Mexicans' national drinks are manufactured, e.g. their highly
intoxicating pulque, which is fermented in gourds. The agave was
widely used by the Mayas, who were the first people to manufacture
sisal from it. The Mayas were probably also the discoverers of
cocoa. The words cocoa and chocolate come from Aztec, it is true,
but their origin is the iMayan name chacau haa.
Cocoa beans were used throughout Central America as money,
and J. E. S. Thompson hit upon the interesting notion that it was
the Mayas' habit of using large quantities of beans as a medium of
exchange which accustomed them to thinking in huge numbers.
Of all the peoples in the world, the Mayas probably evolved the
most remarkable civilization, much of which seems baffling, contra-
dictory and inexplicable, and almost all of which strikes one as
alien. The Mayas produced geniuses whose names we shall never
know but whose astute brains exploited intelligence, energy and
physical exertion in the service of extraordinary projects. Yet
obvious and essential things, things which people in every other part
of the world discovered at an early date, remained a closed book to
them. They hauled and carried loads like animals, harnessed to them
by a headband, because the idea of the wheel never occurred to
them. They constructed the most magnificent buildings in Central
America, buildings for priests and gods, architectural creations
3i6 THE SILENT PAST
which necessitated an enormous expenditure of effort but had no
bearing on daily life. They could calculate in miUions, yet they were
incapable of weighing a few pounds of fruit.
The Mayan area is divided into three zones. The northern zone
embraces the Yucatan Peninsula, the major part of Campeche and
the district of Quintana Roo. The heart of the central zone is the
Peten district of Guatemala and includes adjoining areas of Mexico
and British Honduras. The southern zone comprises the Guatemalan
highlands and parts of El Salvador.
It is strange, as is almost everything in the Mayas' vanished way
of life, that it was the central zone which evolved the most advanced
civilization. The lowlands are swathed in vast tropical forests con-
taining giant trees which reach a height of over 150 feet, towering
mahogany trees, Spanish cedars, ceiba or God trees (once sacred to
the Mayas), innumerable species of palms, and the sapodilla, which
during the rainy season supplies the thick milky juice that forms
the basis of chewing gum. The hundreds of chicleros who roam the
tropical forests collecting chicle sap have very often been responsible
for directing archaeologists' attention to ruined sites. Today, the
area is almost uninhabited, and Flores, the capital of the Peten
Department, is a small township of only 4,000 inhabitants lost in the
vastness of the surrounding forest.
It was in the central zone that the oldest and most important Mayan
cities such as Tikal, Uaxactun, Copan, Palenque and Piedras Negras
once flourished. Many other former towns could be listed, and
others still remain to be wrested from the embrace of a forest which
twines its giant fingers around palaces, pyramids and terraces, runs
riot across open ground and erodes the stones of former cities, hid-
ing them forever from view.
Mayan civilization and the Mayas' way of life depended princi-
pally on agriculture. When they needed land they burned down a
patch of forest, harvested two or three crops and abandoned their
fields as soon as they became unproductive, leaving the forest to
reclaim it once more. It is incomprehensible that Mayan culture
should have attained its zenith in an area which is not only con-
spicuously lacking in natural resources but possesses only a thin
layer of cultivable soil. The Mayas' sole implements were made of
wood and stone, and their only additional aid was fire. Year after
year they waged a laborious battle against the all-devouring forest,
GUATEMALA 317
yet it was here that they built their cities, evolved their complex
religious cults and wrested their food from the reluctant soil. In
his Study of History, Arnold Toynbee claims to supply an explana-
tion of their behavior by suggesting that the conditions under which
the most advanced cultures evolve must be neither too difficult nor
too favorable. This explanation does not tell us much, for the highest
cultures generally grew up in fertile river valleys, i.e. under extremely
favorable conditions. But, even if harsh conditions are regarded as
a prerequisite of cultural development, Thompson demurs that living
conditions in the lowland jungle were so arduous that it is scarcely
conceivable that Mayan civilization evolved there at all.
In the Guatemalan highlands south of the central zone the climate
is much kinder and never displays extremes of heat or cold. Wheat,
sugar cane and beans flourish there today, just as the main crops of
the Mayan period were maize, melons, sweet potatoes and cocoa.
The area also yielded obsidian for stone knives and spear points, and
toward the close of the Mayan period gold was washed from the
rivers. Above all, the northwest highlands of Guatemala formed
the great hunting grounds where the Mayas trapped quetzals, the
trogons from whose long tail feathers and red or yellow belly
feathers they made their celebrated articles of adornment. The
quetzal ultimately became the national emblem of Guatemala.
Despite the wealth of the Mayas' southern territories, the high-
land never gave birth to such remarkable cultural achievements as
the central lowlands. On the contrary, sculpture and architecture
were far inferior in what was materially the richest area. Why this
should have been so, and whether the frequent earthquakes exercised
a prejudicial effect, we do not know, but it is a remarkable fact that
not a single pillar bearing hieroglyphic inscriptions has so far been
discovered in the highland regions of the south.
Pillars or steles played a very important role in Mayan culture.
These monoliths with their surfeit of inscriptions can be regarded as
chronological records, for they were used to define sections of the
calendar. In addition, the steles carried rows of sacred symbols,
reliefs depicting priest-princes, scenes portraying prisoners and
slaves (especially at Tikal) and, later, whole groups of figures. The
Mayas attempted to heighten the effect of their reliefs by painting
them, so the steles must once have glowed with color. Figures are
3i8 THE SILENT PAST
normally carved in profile, and the pillars vary between six and
twelve feet in height.
One stele in Quirigua, dating from the year a.d. 73 i, is over thirty-
two feet high. One hundred and three steles have been counted at
Calakmul. Tikal boasts 86 steles of which 65 bear no hieroglyphs,
though the tropical rains may have washed them off. In the year
A.D. 790, during the period when Mayan culture was at its zenith,
nineteen steles of this type were erected at various places in the
Mayas' domain. Steles were probably dedicated at fixed intervals,
and the stele cult must have enjoyed great significance in a culture
which combined astronomy with religion in such a unique manner.
The Mayan cities served as cult centers for religious ceremonies,
but they were also administrative and commercial centers. Not much,
however, is discernible of the everyday life of the townsmen and
peasants who once walked their streets.
At the summit of the pyramids in Mayan cities were temples with
exceedingly thick walls. No one could have lived in these stone
buildings. They had no doors, no windows, no smoke vents, and
they were damp and ill-lit. The only light came from narrow door-
ways, so the priests must have performed their rites either in semi-
darkness or complete gloom.
Unlike those of Egypt, Mayan pyramids were not burial places but
cult buildings. The traces of burial which have been found beneath
the floors of many of them are probably the remains of human
sacrifices or chieftains' famihes.
The very fact that Mayan pyramids were not tombs added to the
sensational nature of a discovery made in 1952, In 1950, a grave
had been found inside the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque in
Chiapas State, Mexico. A hidden flight of stairs led down through
the floor of the temple, which stood on the upper platform of the
pyramid, into the heart of the substructure. Archaeologists cleared
first forty-six steps, then two horizontal air shafts which emerged
into the open air, and finally a second flight of thirteen steps. These
led into a tunnel whose builders had rendered it impassable with
clay and stones. Alberto Ruz, an archaeologist employed by Mexico's
National Institute of Anthropology and History, uncovered eight
further steps during the 1952 digging season and came upon a passage
whose central section had been blocked by a thick wall. Near the
end of the vault Ruz found a stone kist containing sacrificial offer-
GUATEMALA 319
ings such as pottery, shells and jade pearls. At about the middle of
the pyramid's foundations lay another stone kist together with the
skeletons of five young men and a woman. These six people were
probably members of a prince's retinue who had been killed so that
they could serve their master in the world hereafter. Removing
another stone slab, Ruz found himself in a vaulted chamber 75 feet
beneath the floor of the temple at the pyramid's summit. On the
walls were nine stucco reliefs of gods, probably the nine gods of
the underworld. The vault contained a massive stone sarcophagus
with a superbly ornamented lid weighing five tons. Hieroglyphs on
the sarcophagus revealed that the burial had taken place about a.d.
700, and inside lay the skeleton of a Mayan prince, richly adorned
with jade and other jewelry. One pear-shaped pearl was almost one
and a quarter inches long!
In 1953, when the pyramid had not yet surrendered its secret.
Professor E. Noguera wrote: "Perhaps the foundation on which the
relief-covered slab rests will prove to be a large stone kist in which
a person of superior rank lies buried." The Mexican scholar was
right. For the first time, archaeologists discovered a Central American
pyramid which had also served as a royal tomb.
However, there is no doubt that the burial chamber was built
before the pyramid and probably during the prince's lifetime, so
even this remarkable discovery has done nothing to shake the theory
that Mayan pyramids are temples rather than tombs.
GUATEMALA
CITIES IN THE JUNGLE
The Maya monuments are the Sphinxes of America. While I
was in Copdn I was irresistibly drawn each day to these great
sculptures, which exercise an almost hypnotic effect. Contejnplat-
ing them, one becovies absorbed without knowing why or comifjg
any closer to a solution.
— E. P. DiESELDORFF, Art and Religion
of the Maya Peoples, Vol. II, p. i,
Berlin, 193 1
THE Mayas, especially those of Yucatan, are among the broadest-
featured people in the world. They augment their bullet-headedness
by deliberately distorting the shape of their skulls, an artificial proc-
ess which the inhabitants of ancient Teotihuacan also regarded as
enhancing physical beauty and effected by fitting a wooden frame
around the heads of young children. The Mayas' descendants in
Yucatan and Guatemala resemble portrayals of the ancient Mayas
so strongly that we can form a good idea of their ancestors' original
appearance. They were generally shorter than Europeans and broader
in the shoulders and chest. They had longer arms and smaller hands
and feet. Their teeth must always have been good, but they filed
their eyeteeth to a point. The modern Mayas also have good teeth.
Morley mentions that 50 percent of them remain completely free of
dental decay until the age of twenty, whereas in the United States
90 percent of all children require dental treatment before the age of
fourteen. Smooth hair ranging in color from dark brown to black,
dark brown eyes and, often, decidedly hooked noses are the main
characteristics of this copper-colored and far from unattractive
race.
In addition, the Mayas retain the so-called Mongol patch, a dis-
coloration in the region of the sacrum common to all Mongoloid
peoples until the age of ten. It is much the same with the Japanese.
Ninety-nine percent of all one-year-old Japanese children have a
distinct blue patch on the sacrum which completely disappears bv
the time they reach ten. A similar sacral patch is found among
Malays, Eskimos and most American Indians.
On the average, Mayan girls marry at sixteen and young men at
twenty-one. Diego de Landa (1524-1579), the celebrated church-
320
[i02] A particularly fine example of Benin art, this bronze depicts a native— perhaps
the king— on horseback. The plaque is now in the Museum of Ethnology, Berlin.
[103] One of the famous bronze plaques of Benin. The inhabitants
of Nigeria have long since forgotten what their original sig-
nificance was— let alone whom or what they portray. There is a
possibility that they were used in religious ceremonies.
[104] This wooden figure from Cokwe in Angola shows how
African artists used to modify the proportions of limbs to lend
emphasis to weapons and head ornaments. In this particular case
it is evident that the artist wished to stress the frontal view of
his subject.
[105] The people of Benin used to wear hunting masks while
stalking game. This wood and leather mask comes from Loko,
Nigeria.
[106] The Hausa are a race of mixed Arab and Negro blood
numbering about 4 million, of which 3 'Z: million live in northern
Nigeria. This leather flask effectively kept liquids cold.
[loyl Wooden drum from Calabar, a provincial town situated on
the estuary of the Cross River in southern Nigeria. It is a par-
ticularly fine example of the Benin wood-carver"s art.
,/•//»,'
[io8] A mask from Balumbo in.
Gabon. Like Nigeria, the coast
of Gabon lies on the Gulf
of Guinea. African artists no
longer produce masks as hand-
some and impressive as this.
[109! In order to preserve a
relative's life-force after death,
the natives of New Guinea cut
his head off and coat it with a
layer of clay which they model
so as to re-create the dead man's
facial expression. The head is
then painted in the style tra-
ditionally adopted by ancestors
for cult purposes of war, and
the eye sockets are inlaid with
cowrie shells.
[no] The Alayan city of Chichen-Itza was founded in the sixth century a.d. Here one
can see a step-pyramid capped by a massive temple.
[ml The ruins of this once mighty temple are to be found at Uxmal in Yucatan.
This so-called "nunnery," dating from the tenth century a.d., is here photograplied
from a pyramid.
112] This sculpture of a god was found behind a pyramid ar Copan. The step
at the god's feet is carved with iMayan hieroglyphics.
[113] A sacrificial Mayan altar at
Copan. The relief shows a group
of sitting priests, identifiable by
their headdress.
[114] A handsome stele at Copan. Round altars are to be seen on each side of the
stele. Copan, the "Athens of the New World," was the center of Mayan astronomy.
[115I The "Temple of the Giant Jaguar" at Tikal, Guatemala, was discovered in
the jungle by an American expedition from the University of Pennsylvania. This
temple is one of the finest examples of Mayan architecture; the interior has to a large
extent been restored.
GUATEMALA 321
man whose history of Yucatan, published in 1560, is a veritable
treasury of ancient Mayan customs, related that girls used to marry
at the age of twenty but now (in his day) married between the ages
of twelve and fourteen, A Franciscan monk, Landa arrived in
Yucatan a few years after the Spanish conquest. We owe much of
our information about the Mayas to the fact that he was subsequently
brought to trial in Spain for having exceeded his authority in the
New World and defended himself against the allegation by writing
an apologia while in prison.
Human beings are complex creatures. Even the sketchiest descrip-
tion of them must include a long list of items. The Mayas are strong
family men. They are equable, not particularly inventive, and un-
perturbed by the idea of death. Their keen powers of observation
and retentive memory are such that one can properly describe them
as intelhgent. Several authorities have called the Mayas superstitious,
and the same applies to their latter-day descendants, though people
who devote the majority of their thoughts and actions to a god
or gods might equally be called religious. The Mayas certainly were
religious, but their character exhibits a marked streak of fatalism,
probably inherited from remote epochs when, in order to provide
the gods with sacrifice, human beings had their hearts torn out or
were drowned— men, women and children alike— in sacred pools, or,
later still, were crucified.
The Mayas are a thrifty but remarkably honest people. There are
no thieves in a land where doors and windows are unknown. Like all
American Indian tribes, they have a regrettable tendency toward
drunkenness, but their womenfolk keep their houses extremely tidy,
they are generous and hospitable, and murderers and beggars do not
exist. One conspicuous trait is their extraordinary personal clean-
liness. Like the Japanese, they bathe each night and morning.
Landa, who is painted sometimes as a saint and sometimes as a
ruthless persecutor of the Indians, declared that the women of
Yucatan were generally better-looking than the women of Spain.
They were not white but had a yellowish-brown complexion occa-
sioned by exposure to the sun and their habit of bathing frequently
in the open air. Their breasts were bare and their bodies tattooed
above the waistline with finer and more elegant designs than those
of their menfolk. They perfumed and anointed themselves with red
resin and wore their hair long or built it into elaborate coiffures.
322 THE SILENT PAST
Mothers took great care to see that their daughters looked after their
hair. Little girls wore three or four spiky plaits like small horns, a
style which Landa found extremely charming. Women usually
dressed in the manta, a sacklike garment open at each side. Landa
noted with resignation that they were good-natured and proud—
and rightly so, "for before they became acquainted with our nation,
a circumstance bewailed by their old men, they were wondrously
chaste." Captain Alonso Lopez de Avila, he wrote, once captured
a Mayan girl of great beauty and charm, but his blandishments were
in vain. The young woman had sworn to be faithful to her husband
and preferred to die rather than yield, so the Spaniards had her
torn to pieces by dogs.
Mayan girls carried chastity to extremes. They always turned
their backs on men, even when they were offering them something
to drink. Encountering a man on a path, they stepped aside to let
him pass. Their ambition was to have many children, to which end
they prayed fervently to the gods and made sacrifice. Landa de-
scribed the women as sensible, courteous, very friendly to those that
understood them, and extraordinarily generous. They were pious,
too, and sacrificed cloth, food and drink in token of their devotion
to the gods.
The Aiayas believed in the immortality of the soul. In fact, said
Landa, "They believed in it more firmly than many other races."
They also knew that the soul was destined to another and better
life once it had left the body.
The ancestors of the Mayas reached their new home sometime
between 2000 and 1000 B.C. J. E. Thompson thinks that they wrested
supremacy from the indigenous inhabitants of the area and so con-
stituted a superior caste. After about five hundred years new tribes
arrived who were numerically stronger than the existing inhabitants.
They probably came from Asia, bringing with them a knowledge of
pottery, spinning and weaving, and probably a vague knowledge of
agriculture as well, although they did not introduce any seeds from
the old continent. The last migrants, who arrived at about the time of
Christ's birth, may have transmitted certain religious ideas from their
Asiatic home, e.g. the celestial dragon and the four corners of the
world. These are only suppositions, however, for the iVIayas' actual
place of origin remains shrouded in mystery.
Mayan history is divided into three periods: the formative period
GUATEMALA 32 j
(circa 500 b.c.-a.d. 325), the classical period (325-800) which
reached its zenith between 625 and 800, and the period of decline
(800-925). After that came the Mexican conquests of 975-1200 and
finally a period during which Mayan culture enjoyed a brief renais-
sance.
Important inventions are attributed to the peoples of Central
America. Although it is not always known precisely which American
tribe first implemented this or that new idea, many inventions
undoubtedly stem from the Mayas, as, for instance, the manufacture
of rubber, rubber balls, rubber soles for sandals, impregnated rain-
proof capes, "Maya blue" (extracted from the mineral clay known as
beidellite), indigo, a purple obtained from shellfish, a type of me-
chanical artillery catapult and "live wasps' nests" for use as ammuni-
tion against the enemy. The Mayas also cultivated a very large num-
ber of wild plants and were accomplished naturalists. They were
excellent road builders, too, even though the Incas surpassed them in
that respect. For example, one of their roads ran for over sixty miles
from the town of Coba in Quintana Roo to Yaxuna, a few miles
from Chichen Itza. The road, which is about thirty feet wide, was
enclosed on either side by primitive stone walls and had a well-laid
foundation of mortar. In marshy areas it ran along a raised embank-
ment, and just outside Coba it was supported by a platform. One
very interesting discovery made on the Coba-Yaxuna road was a
limestone roller about fifteen feet wide and five tons in weight. The
roller, which had broken into two pieces, must have required a team
of fifteen men to propel it. We even know that the road was built
from east to west, i.e. from Coba to Yaxuna. Mayan roads, which
were mainly designed to carry processions, must have made enor-
mous demands on a people who had no carts or beasts of burden.
They also presupposed considerable engineering skill. How the
Mayan engineers managed to cut their way through the dense rain
forest so unerringly that they arrived directly at their intended
destination is a still unsolved mystery.
Architecturally, the Mayas probably excelled all other ancient
American civilizations, Aztec and Inca included. Copan in Honduras
was the Mayas' main scientific center. This was where their finest
astronomers worked and probably where the 200-day calendar was
first introduced. It was also the place where a temple was dedicated
to the planet Venus, where the dates of solar eclipses were calculated,
324 THE SILENT PAST
and where, on the steps of Temple 26, the longest extant Mayan
inscription was found, a series of approximately one thousand
hieroglyphs. The "Athens of the New World," as Copan has justly
been called, boasted a so-called acropolis, numerous pyramids,
terraces, temples, altars and steles, a large open square and a court
for the ball games which the Mayas regarded as a form of religious
ceremony. The ball-game court at Copan, with its crenellations, stone
parrots and sunbirds, was one of the handsomest in the whole Mayan
area.
Chichen Itza, a sort of Mecca, first reached its prime under the
Mexican rulers of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The pyramid temples there "were resplendent with pillars portraying
the famous feathered serpents of Central America. There, as at
Piedras Negras, a finely appointed steam bath was discovered.
Chichen Itza had seven ball-game courts. The natural rubber ball
had to pass through one or other of the stone rings set into the
walls of the court, the main difficulty being that the critical stroke
could not be delivered except with the elbow, wrist or hip. The
trick came off so seldom that legend has it that when it did, all the
spectators had to hand over their clothes and jewelry to the winner.
To evade this obligation, witnesses of a successful attempt hurriedly
left the scene, usually followed by the winner's friends, who ran
after them to exact payment.
Thrones were found in the great colonnades of Chichen Itza.
These colonnades enclosed the so-called "courtyard of a thousand
pillars," a huge open plaza which may have been the ancient city's
market place. The large circular building known as the Observatory
or, because of its snail-like shape, the Caracol, is over fifty feet
his^h and towers above two massive rectangular terraces. The
numerous sacrificial oflFerings found in the sacred springs of Chichen
Itza included jewelry, jade, incense, and the remains of about fifty
victims of drowning, eight of them women.
The cities of Palenque, Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras likewise
represent a peak of achitecture unequaled elsewhere in ancient
America. As Morley rightly says, the stucco works of Palenque
are unsurpassed by any other examples in the Mayan area. The
limestone reliefs there are so finely carved and so wonderfully com-
posed that they merit comparison with the finest reliefs of ancient
Egypt. The splendid terraces and pyramids, the temples, stairways,
GUATEMALA 325
corridors, subterranean galleries and altars, the remarkable artistic
ability, wealth and power of Palenque have overwhelmed not only
the Spaniards, whose first glimpse it was of the ancient Mayan
empire, but every visitor since the year 1553. Frans Blom, the
Danish archaeologist, wrote in 1923 that "one's first visit to Palenque
is immeasurably impressive, and when one has spent a while there
the ruined city becomes a sort of obsession."
The four superb and richly ornamented temples at Yaxchilan are
renowned for their twelve carved lintels, two of which bear sculpted
reliefs of outstanding beauty. The wall sculptures of Piedras Negras,
dating from a.d. 761 and chiseled in limestone, are among America's
finest pre-Columbian works of art.
At Piedras Negras the Mayas observed and celebrated the end of
their hotims or i, 800-day periods with particular reverence. Each
of the twenty-two hotun periods between a.d. 608 and 810 was
solemnly commemorated by the erection of a monument adorned
with pictures in reUef, and all twenty-two of these have survived.
Mayan astronomy was not only a science but also a means of
influencing the future. Inconceivable as it may sound, Mayan
priests working with no more equipment than the naked eye suc-
ceeded in determining the orbital period of Venus. The astronomers
of Copan tried to reconcile the calendar year of 365 days with the
true tropical year of 365.24 days and established the duration of
the solar year as early as a.d. 700. The Mayas invented and used the
figure nought two hundred years before any nation in Europe.
Instead of arranging their numbers with the smallest units on the
right, they inscribed them vertically. They had calculated the
mythical beginning of their calendar to be 3 113 e.g., but their
chronological system did not come into use until the fourth or
third century b.c.
It is interesting to pursue an idea expounded by Sylvanus G.
Morley, a man who devoted his life to a study of the Mayas. On
his long journey through prehistory and history, Morley argued,
man has surmounted five obstacles: first he mastered fire, then he
discovered agriculture, then he domesticated wild animals, then
he devised tools of metal, and finally he discovered the principle
of the wheel.
The Mayas had mastered fire and learned how to sow and reap
in an area inimical to agriculture. They had, it is true, domesticated
326 THE SILENT PAST
the wild turkey and knew how to keep bees, but apart from the
dog they possessed not a single domestic, farm or draft animal of
any kind. They owned no metal implements and the principle of
the wheel was unknown to them. Of the five obstacles, therefore,
they had surmounted only two, whereas the Egyptians, Chaldeans,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Chinese, Phoenicians, Etruscans,
Greeks and Romans were endowed with all five prerequisites of
civilization.
In order to assess the status of A4ayan culture correctly and draw
the appropriate conclusions we must go far back into the history of
mankind, to the neolithic age in which the Mayas, with their stone
tools, really lived. Comparing the Mayas' many achievements with
the prehistoric civilizations of the Old World, we can say without
hesitation that no Stone-Age people attained such cultural heights
as the ancient Mayas of Central America.
GUATEMALA
TIKAL, THE ENIGMA
Day after day we work among the bared temples and monu-
ments, extending trenches, tuTinels, and pits through floors and
stairways, recording in notebooks and on film the often perplexing
intricacies of construction, de?nolition, and rebuilding. The tens
of thousands of potsherds and other objects recovered each season
beco7ne laboratory objects, to be catalogued and studied. All of
this work contii2ues with the expectation that the time-sequence
of related construe tio?J, artifacts, sculpture, and iiiscriptions, as well
as site ?napping and important studies of e7ivironment, will col-
lectively produce answers.
—William R. Coe, Tikal 19S9, Expedition 19^9,
Vol. I, No. 4, p. 7
THE British expert J. E. S. Thompson estimates that in a.d. 800
the total population of the Mayan area was between two and three
million. In contrast to so many extinct or slowly dying primitive
races, the descendants of the Mayas still survive in considerable
numbers and are in no danger of dying out. Fifty years ago Karl
Sapper put the Mayan-speaking population at about 1,250,000.
In all, fifteen Mayan languages and dialects are still in use, and
two more became defunct a relatively short time ago. These
languages are divided into two groups, highland and lowland, all
the remainder being classified as dialects of one group or the other.
Oddly enough, Mayan is not related to any other language in Mexico
or Central America as a whole.
Of all American peoples, only the Mayas devised a form of
writing and used it. Their hieroglyphs can be seen on steles, on
altars, on the walls of ball-game courts, on steps, on wall facings,
on posts of wood and stone, on door frames. They are scratched on
stucco and jade jewelry, painted on vessels and inscribed in books.
There are two types, one head-shaped and the other symbolic. Most
Mayan glyphs are still undeciphered because no "Rosetta stone"
has been found in the Mayan area and obviously no Mayan text
exists beside a parallel translation in another language. Yet we know
the Mayas' hieroglyphic script was used to record the passage of
time, list the names and attributes of reigning gods and note down
the findings and observations of priest-astronomers.
327
328
THE SILENT PAST
The Mayas left behind whole books, the "paper" for which was
provided by a species of wild fig whose fiber was steeped in rubber
and coated with a layer of chalk. The Mayas' volumes were folding
books rather like early Chinese manuscripts. However, so many
Mayan texts were destroyed because of the religious fanaticism of
the Spaniards that only three are still in existence: the oldest and
rtiost valuable, the Codex Dresden, devoted principally to astro-
CHICCHAN
Mayan hieroglyphs symbolizing twenty days. It is noticeable that some days
were expressed by symbols of similar shape.
GUATEMALA 329
nomical notes; the Codex Madrid, a horoscopic catalogue used for
priestly prophecies; and the Codex Paris, listing rites associated
with individual dates of the calendar. The books contain colored
pictures of gods and mythical occurrences, series of numerals, and
hieroglyphs, all executed with a very fine brush.
About a third of the hieroglyphs can now be read. Everything so
far deciphered relates to the calendar, the cardinal points of the
compass, astronomical events, deities and religious rites. Fortunately,
all the numerals have been identified. The study of Mayan glyphs is
far from simple, however, because one glyph often possesses several
meanings. The Mayan numerals from o to 19 are simply heads in
profile, each with a different face. This strange arithmetical system
is unique, but the hieroglyphs representing the nineteen Mayan
months are just as unusual. A figure seen in profile with its knees
drawn up presumably denotes a dead body. The symbols expressing
the nominal forms of gods are normally human heads. Other
hieroglyphs take the form of hands, snails, birds' heads, lizards and
sacrificial offerings of many kinds. It was a very considerable task
to decipher these enigmatic symbols, and the men who accomplished
it deserve the highest praise. They include the Germans Paul
Schellhas, Ernst Forstemann, Eduard Seler and, more recently,
Thomas Barthel and Giinter Zimmermann, the Americans J. T.
Goodman, C. P. Bowditch and Cyrus Thomas, and in very recent
years Morley and the British scholars Spinden and Thompson. Alto-
gether they have succeeded in deciphering a third of the hieroglyphs
—at least in general purport. Morley's five-volume work on the in-
scriptions of Peten is a scientific achievement of the first order.
What is the earliest authenticated date in Mayan culture? For a
long time, the oldest datable object bearing Mayan hieroglyphs was
the famous Passion Plate, a piece of jade measuring 21.59 by 7.62
centimeters and found in 1864 near the Caribbean port of Puerto
Barrios in Guatemala. When deciphered, its date proved to be
A.D. 320. This plaque so greatly resembled pictures of prisoners on
monuments in the Mayan city of Tikal that Morley came to the
conclusion that the piece was originally made there. Tikal stands
in the north of central Peten and is the largest of all the Mayas'
sacred temple precincts.
Another date identified by Morley came to light on May 5, 19 16,
330
THE SILENT PAST
on a stele in Uaxactiin known to archaeologists as 9. (Numbers
like these are based on the sequence in which steles were found at
the various archaeological sites.) Uaxactun, which is only ten miles
north of Tikal, was founded by people from that great cultural
center, and must, therefore, have existed at least since the year
A.D. 328.
Tikal, the largest and probably the most interesting of all Mayan
cities, is currently being excavated by archaeologists from the
KAYAB
UAYEB
Mayan hieroglyphs for months. The year was divided into the
nineteen periods whose names are given here.
GUATEMALA 331
University of Pennsylvania. It is now generally accepted that Tikal
originated in the early phase of Mayan civilization.
As a religious center, Tikal was not only the largest Mayan city.
It also boasted the tallest pyramids, fascinating edifices of which
all are over 125 feet high and the largest reaches a height of 230
feet. Their massive proportions are emphasized by their slim lines
and steeply sloping sides. Two large step pyramids of this type
rise on either side of the rectangular ceremonial courtyard, their
numerous terraces crowned by temples with very thick walls.
These sacred shrines contain the gloomy cult chambers typical
of the whole Mayan area, as well as some walled-up platforms
which may have been altars used by Mayan priests.
The priests performed their duties garbed in great splendor.
Their jade jewelry, the quetzal feathers in their headdresses, the
comings and goings through doorless entrances surmounted by
superbly carved wooden lintels, the clouds of incense and the
atmosphere of intense religious fervor— all this must have made a
deep impression on the people assembled in the courtyard below or
on the terraces of the pyramid itself. It should be remembered that
Mayan festivals were preceded by long periods of fasting. Priests,
novices and perhaps officials, too, gathered in the twilight of the
narrow stone chambers to fast in preparation for the feast day.
Water was brought to them by servants, and perhaps also by their
wives and mothers, none of whom was permitted to enter the temple
itself. They merely put down the priests' scanty rations and with-
drew, leaving the inmates to watch and wait in solitude.
The Mayas' religious life was compounded of endless hours and
days of fasting, of sacred fires, of blood drawn from tongue and
ears, of sacrifice and the burning of copal incense. They were
searching for God, as men have always done throughout the history
of civilization. All material considerations were subordinated to
their spiritual endeavors, to their building, their suffering, their
fasting, their yearning and their quest for the divine. Anyone who
stands at dusk among the ruins of these splendid buildings will
sense something of their sanctity and nearness to God.
On the south side of Tikal's main plaza are some multichambered
buildings whose purpose, though often debated, has not yet been
ascertained. Were they palaces? Were they monasteries? Were
332 THE SILENT PAST
they merely assembly rooms? Tikal is still a book with many uncut
pages.
Tikal has water reservoirs, paved streets, pyramids with and with-
out buildings on their platforms, sixteen temples on the northern
acropolis, and innumerable steles. Under the leadership of Edwin M.
Shook, who has already dug successfully at Uaxactun, Kaminaljuyu
and Mayapan, excavations sponsored jointly by the University of
Pennsylvania and the Guatemalan Government have been revealing
the Mayas' most important city in ever greater detail. In 1959
William R. Coe, one of the outstanding authorities on the Mayas,
declared that Tikal was a unique manifestation of Mayan culture,
a summit of achievement unequaled elsewhere in the New World.
Largely cut off by the hot and steamy rain forest, Tikal constituted
a vast study in human development. Some might yearn to reach
Mars and discover what has evolved outside the earth, Coe wrote,
but he and his colleagues preferred to remain in Tikal and discover
how and why the American Indians had met the challenge of their
environment, how they built their tall temples, how they managed
to think in terms of five million Mayan years, how they survived
for perhaps two thousand years and then fell silent, leaving behind
the tangible legacy of sculptures, hieroglyphs, potsherds and build-
ing layers which are now providing material for the endless tasks
of compilation and measurement.
During the diggings of 1958, a temple was uncovered. This
consisted of three chambers, each with one central doorway. When
American archaeologists gave orders to clear the six feet of rubble
in the innermost chamber, workmen came upon Stele 26. Because
the stele still bore traces of red paint, the whole building was
christened the Temple of the Red Stele. A fine example of early
classical Mayan architecture, it had been deliberately and violently
destroyed at some undetermined point in time, after which priests
had apparently tried to appease the gods with sacrificial offerings,
for their cult fires had blackened the plaster of the altar. How long
the temple survived after that we do not know, but it was eventually
subjected to fresh devastation. The altar was partially ripped out
and the finely chiseled, red-painted portrayals of marine sacrifices
and pieces of coral and stone were destroyed. In the floor of the
chambers the Americans found circular cavities filled with huge
quantities of sponges, coral, seaweed, fishbones and other strange
GUATEMALA 333
objects of marine origin, together with some finely carved pieces
of obsidian. It is hard to account for these peculiar sacrificial gifts.
Many of the finds came from the far-off Pacific coast, while others
came from the Atlantic. It remains incomprehensible that products
of the sea should have been sacrificed at all, for sacrificial offerings
of this type have been found nowhere else in the Mayan area.
Probably the most important discovery of all was made by the
University of Pennsylvania archaeologists in 1959. Just over two
hundred yards from the great plaza of Tikal there was found a
broken stele which represented the earliest datable Mayan monu-
ment so far discovered in the lowland jungle of Guatemala. Linton
Satterthwaite, Mary Ricketson and Benedicta Levine identified the
date of this stele, which bears the number 29, as July 6, 292.
Although this is our earliest authenticated date, Mayan culture
naturally goes back much farther into the past, and there we are
groping in the dark.
Another unsolved mystery is when and why Mayan culture met
its end. Why should cult places which evidently made such enor-
mous demands on the Mayas' material and human resources have
been abandoned.^ What storm had broken over their heads?
All authorities on the Mayas have tried to fathom whv they dis-
appeared so suddenly at the height of their powers and why all
building, scientific research and religious observance came to such
an abrupt halt. It was long thought that the Mayas relinquished
their cities in the central region and migrated, some to Yucatan in
the north and some to the Guatemalan highlands in the south, but
this cannot be correct because during the classical period all three
zones flourished concurrently, not one after the other. Many
theories have been put forward to explain the abandonment of the
Mayan cities. Perhaps their particular kind of plowless agriculture
eventually proved too much of a drain on the population's energy.
Their method of burning down patches of forest, cultivating the
soil for a year or two and then giving up their fields and moving
to a neighboring area to begin all over again may, in the long run,
have struck them as too laborious and wasteful.
Malaria, yellow fever and hookworm have all been held re-
sponsible for the abandonment of the Mayan cities, but marsh
fever and jungle fever, a virus disease, seem to have been bequeathed
to the New World by the Spaniards and probably did not exist
334 THE SILENT PAST
there before their arrival. The same applies to hookworm, reputed
to have caused the deaths of so many Egyptian Pharaohs.
Everything would be explained if the Mayas had abandoned
their holy places gradually and if their culture had declined by easy
stages. We know, however, that many Mayan cities were abandoned
virtually overnight. The city of Uaxactun, for instance, was abruptly
depopulated before many of its buildings could be completed.
Copan ceased to erect hieroglyphic monuments in a.d. 800. At
Quirigua, Piedras Negras and Etzna, life faded in 810. Tila fell
silent in 830, and the last steles were erected at Tikal and Seibal
in 869. Uaxactun, Xultun, Xamantun and Chichen Itza flourished
only until 889. Probably the last date recorded by the Mayas is on a
stele found at San Lorenzo in the vicinity of La Muneca. It corre-
sponds to our year a.d. 928.
Life died away in the great religious centers like the fading tones
of a bell, leaving them silent and deserted, but we know that many
of them showed renewed signs of life in the sixteenth century and
thnt the Copan area became quite densely populated. People were
still living in the central region at the time of the Spanish con-
quistadors, though far fewer of them than eight hundred years pre-
viously. The rain-forest civilization dechned so abruptly that even
war cannot be held responsible for it. Furthermore, except in Tikal,
v<;ry few traces of wanton destruction have been found.
Thompson thinks that the Mayan territories fell prey not to
foreign domination but to something far more dangerous; namely,
foreign ideas. It is possible that there were widespread insurrections
by the peasants against the priestly caste. For once the religious
faith of the Mayan people waned, their culture, like every culture
that forfeits its faith, was doomed to perish. Without faith the
peasants would have been reluctant to contribute their labor or
make material sacrifices. Egypt and the Renaissance bear testimony
that the largest and most sublime works of man were the fruit not of
coercion but religious faith. The priestly ruling class may have been
massacred or hounded from one city to the next, leaving peasant
cliieftains and shamans to take its place. Building, the erection of
steles and architecture in general came to a standstill, and the tropical
forest crept into courtyards, up steps, across terraces and onto the
roofs of buildings.
The sudden abandonment of a residential area measuring 375 by
GUATEMALA 335
125 miles and containing dozens of large, thriving religious centers
would seem to defy any form of explanation, especially as it
occurred at a period when Mayan culture showed few if any signs
of debility. The German Americanist Franz Termer has, however,
pointed to one possibility which is at least worthy of consideration.
In a religious state, spontaneous abandonment of the homeland might
have taken place at the behest of the gods. Seen in this light, an
exodus instigated by the gods and supervised by the priests who
implemented their will becomes conceivable.
The great exodus of the ninth century is probably the most out-
standing of the many mysteries surrounding this mysterious people.
Yet wherever we probe the civilization of the rain forest we find
ourselves confronted by unanswered questions. We do not know
what secrets lie hidden behind the Mayan inscriptions that have not
yet been deciphered; we have little inkling of the Mayas' political
system; we are ignorant of whether the rain-forest region was
welded into a unified kingdom or consisted of city-states; we have
only a minimum of information on the Mayas' daily life, despite
the magnificent work done by Thompson, Morley, Shook and so
many others; we cannot plumb the basic concepts of the Mayan
religion; we know virtually nothing of the Aiayas' origins or ultimate
destiny; and we can find nothing truly comparable with their
language.
Mutely, the massive buildings of these highly gifted people return
the beholder's gaze; mutely, their holy places molder and decay
beneath the onslaught of the all-devouring jungle.
CONCLUSION
"BEHOLD, ALL THINGS
ARE BECOME NEW"
(II Corinthians: v, 17)
It is very doubtful whether mail's artistic capabilities are actually
any higher today than they were in late prehistoric times, though
the nimiber of motifs, techniques, and media available to him
now is, of course, immeasurably greater.
—William Foxwell Albright, From the Stone Age
to Christianity, pp. 127-8, Baltimore, 1946
WHAT does the twilight, the deliquescence, the often tragic finale
of all civilizations, mean?
It is never more than an apparent withdrawal, an ebbing of some-
thing which, at another time and often in another place, is destined
in some mysterious and unfathomable way to flare up once more.
Nothing in the world vanishes forever. The downfall of a civilization
is not a natural phenomenon. No form of life ever dies without the
acquiescence of man and without a voluntarily engendered cause.
All theories which allege that the course of events is determined by
laws of nature or history, all "cyclical fluctuations" and "wave"
theories of history ultimately break down because the future is
molded bv the ideas, decisions and actions of living men, by their
works and achievements both past and present. The existence of
human freedom is one of the most difficult things in the world to
understand. All great civilizations have spiritually enriched one
another since time immemorial, but the longer a civilization remains
isolated and the longer it lives exclusively in its own individual way,
the more specialized it becomes and the less easily reconciled with
another. It is always the most highly specialized civilizations that
run the greatest risk of extinction. The principle is borne out in
reverse by man, who has a good chance of outliving the animals
of the world because he is the least specialized of all creatures.
Civilizations which have become unadaptable, isolated and im-
prisoned in a strait] acket of rigid formulas and habits, are as
susceptible to external or internal shocks as a delicate piece of
machinery. External occurrences such as natural catastrophes, epi-
demics, economic fluctuations and invasions do not necessarily spell
336
CONCLUSION 337
the doom of a civilization. It will not die until it abandons its faith
and ideals.
A grandiose picture of this process is given in Genesis. First
comes the "corruption" of the earth, and then a vast inundation
that wipes out men and the works of their hands. Something must
have happened to the faith of the antediluvian inhabitants of the
world, because for some reason they abandoned their god or gods.
It is no accident that natural catastrophe as a consequence of the
abandonment of exalted ideals is a theme common to the traditions
of many different races. The legend of the Great Flood recurs in
Babylonia, Assyria and Syria, in Egypt and Greece, in Australia and
China, in the South Pacific and among the tribes all over America.
The story of the Flood has itself been seized upon as evidence that
cultural assets are interchangeable and that ideas which originate
in one place are borrowed by others and disseminated throughout
the world. If the cataclysm has any basis in fact— as we must infer
from the frequency and precision with which details recur in
different descriptions of it— the ubiquitous nature of the tradition
must be attributable to its basic truth. To account for the existence
of parallel and identical thoughts by citing the homogeneity of the
human mind throughout the world— in fact, to espouse the theory
of "basic ideas"— is a pastime too often indulged in. The Flood does
not fit into this theory, its only universal characteristic being a
realization of the fundamental truth embodied in it.
As we have seen when reviewing various civilizations, foreign
invasion can often be equated with the overwhelming of a weaker
faith by a stronger. So it was with Jericho, whose Biblical walls
collapsed between 1375 and 1300 B.C., a city built 8,000 years before
the birth of Christ at a time when man was ignorant of pottery, the
earliest fortress ever to be unearthed.
The realization that the strength of every civilization and its
greatest art were each born of a marriage between the nararal and
the supernatural is perhaps the ultimate realization reached by any
sensitive person who stands before the ruins of ancient temples, or
gazes at tablets thousands of years old, or responds to the entreaty
crystallized in stone by the world's most compelling works of art.
All that is enduring, great and artistic has been engendered by the
strongest of all man's impulses, not by his craving for house and
hearth, food and clothing, but by his far more imperious urge for
338 THE SILENT PAST
the things of the spirit and thus for eternal Hfe. A. V. Kidder, an
American scholar who devoted his life to a study of the Mayas and
to archaeological research in the southwestern areas of the United
States, asserted with justification that at every stage in its history the
human race has sacrificed almost everything for the sake of culture.
Wherever human strength has proved unequal to the task in
hand it has been supplemented by faith, religion and ideals of the
most exalted kind. One can feel this almost tangibly in the hallowed
precincts of Nara in Japan, in the Chinese rock temples of Lung
Men, Yiin Kang and Tun-huang, in the caves of Lu Lan and Qyzil,
on the "spirit road" near Nanking with its gigantic beasts and
tutelary figures, in the celestial temples of Peking. One can sense
it in the great stupas of India, in the frescoes of Ajanta, in the
reliefs at Borobudur in Java, in the sphinxes and roval tombs of
Egypt and the pyramids of the Mayas. It is not mere chance that the
period at which Greece attained its greatest prime, 470-400 b.c,
coincided with the lifetime of Socrates, spiritual father of Western
philosophy as a whole.
The less well-known, more obscure civilizations also provide us
with instances where the motivating force behind achievements of
great magnitude has been man's quest for something beyond the
limits of his experience. What, for example, was the Hypogeum at
Hal Saflieni in Aialta? This immense subterranean vault bears witness
to a faith that literally moved mountains in its endeavor to realize
the highest of human ideals. Aveburv, Stonehengre and the other
vast buildings of the megalithic period were also holy places. Even
the riddle of the menhirs must be solved in religious terms because
they were invested with religio-magical significance. The statuettes
commissioned by the citizens of Mari, who lived on the middle
reaches of the Euphrates in 3000 b.c, also served as a link with the
gods, as, hands folded in prayer, they watched and waited for
tokens of divine favor. The unique figurines produced by the
bronze culture of Sardinia between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago were
also born of religious faith and destined for the service of the gods,
as were the bronze figures of the Benin culture, whose purpose was
to grace altars and serve God and ancestral spirits. Only the fervent
belief of the Gandharans and the Indians of Mathura, w^ho col-
laborated with Flellenistic sculptors, could have bequeathed the
effigy of Buddha to central Asia and the whole of the Far East.
CONCLUSION 339
The Silk Road, that gigantic cross section of all the religions of
Asia, owed its existence in no small measure to the missionary spirit,
for its endless expanse was worn by the sandals and caravans
of .Manichaeans, Buddhists, Mohammedans and Christians.
The bell tolls for an advanced civilization as soon as images are
removed from altars and works of art find their way into museums
and the drawing rooms of worthy but unbelieving citizens. Such is
the funeral procession of all the world's civilizations.
There is something inexphcable about products of human handi-
work in which the author of the original motivating force is no
longer identifiable. That is why we have attempted to explore some
of these problems, even though so many must necessarily remain
obscure. For instance, we do not know why the Bronze-iVge culture
of China sprang into being about 4,000 years ago and immediately
reached a peak of perfection without revealing a hint of its origins
or background. We have no idea what the people of the megalithic
civilizations of western Europe actually looked like; or how long
the Mayas took to evolve their system of chronology and their
hieroglyphs; or why the palace of Knossos in Crete, testimony to
an extremely high degree of culture, collapsed in ruins in 1400 b.c;
or whether Nestor, Agamemnon, Odysseus and Telemachus could
read; or who were the Indo-European inhabitants of Troy; or what
was the real secret of the Delphic Omphalos; or why the bronze
caldrons of Dodone fell silent; or exactly where on the coast of
southwest Spain the city of Tartessus once stood; or exactly who
the Cimmerians were; or who was the chief deity of the Shang
period; or how the moon-being known as T'ao-t'ieh originated; or
what the marks on the rocks of Las Palmas and Hierro in the
Canary Islands mean; or who inhabited the islands before the
Guanches arrived.
Races die out, towns and villages lie buried, and many written
traditions elude interpretation. All that remain are stones and layers
of rubble, ruined buildings, myths and legends. Yet the times that
produced them were not necessarily poor and devoid of culture.
Where information is plentiful it throws a period into sharp relief,
but the study of less well-known and intelligible civilizations is of
particular importance because it sheds light on obscure intermediate
periods which are just as much a part of us and our past and have
played an equal part in making us what we are.
340 THE SILENT PAST
Inaccessible and mysterous civilizations arouse especial interest
because all history, both visible and invisible, and all civilizations,
both buried and unearthed, live on in us. Our restless urge to lay
bare the hidden, strange and baffling features of the past is born of
a feeling that all civilizations are part of us and that we should like
—quite instinctively— to track down an unknown quantity in our-
selves.
It is because the future lends itself so imperfectly to accurate
prediction that historians, archaeologists and ethnologists attempt
to cull information from the past and project it into the future.
Equally, it is because all theories, all hypothetical cultural cycles
and all assumptions of historical recurrence are based on natural
laws and not on the human spirit that they fail so dismally. Despite
all our research and accumulated knowledge, the past has become
a bloodless thing. Not to re-examine it continually is to lose sight
of the glowing embers of former civilizations and thus fall like
scorched moths from an ever-burning flame that escapes our com-
prehension.
But forebodings about the future are born of fear, and this fear
springs from the seldom-voiced but dawning realization that purely
material progress, in so far as it bears no relation to life as a whole
and ceases to serve any ends but those of destruction, lies like a
deathtrap in the path of all living civilizations. It is because our era
senses this that there is so much skepticism, so much pessimism, so
much insecurity and so much heedless abuse of time.
Where superficial control of nature is concerned, man presses
forward indefatigably and without pause, yet his character, morals
and intelligence show no perceptible signs of improvement. Belief
in intellectual progress and the idea of spiritual evolution are merely
naive offspring of the technical and scientific marvels of our age.
Outward progress is counterbalanced by a lack of inward develop-
ment, for the spritual life of modern man, his relationship to his
fellows and the spiritual and moral qualities of the individual are all
in a process of retrogression. Our age is epitomized not by atomic
science but by the fact that religious values are losing their force,
that modern man is afilicted by a strange sense of guilt, and that
the spiritual basis essential to works of art simply does not exist.
Gone are the days of hospitality in the grand manner, the sort
of hospitality practiced by all the world's so-called primitive peoples
CONCLUSION 341
and by the advanced civilizations of the past; silent are the voices
that once saluted the passing stranger; forgotten is the obligation to
help those in need, shelter travelers and show magnanimity to the
vanquished. The great days of divine sacrifice, oracles, religious
architecture, preservation of the dead and a belief in resurrection
seem gone beyond recall. We are no better than we were.
In A.D. 58, Paul foresaw a different kind of world. He regarded
judgment according to material and fleshly standards as a thing of
the past, and thought that henceforth the victory of man's spiritual
side was assured. Addressed to the Corinthians from Macedonia,
the most personal of all his letters included the words: "Behold, all
things are become new."
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SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Male head from Jericho. Photo: Garstang
2 Skull sculpture from Jericho. Photo: Kathleen Kenyon
3 Building in Jericho. Photo: Kathleen Kenyon
4 Human skulls, Jericho. Photo: British Museum
5 The oldest house in the world, Jericho. Photo: Kathleen Kenyon
6 Canaanite goddess, Ugarit. Photo: Musee du Louvre
7 Copper statuette, Ugarit. Photo: Service des Antiquites, Paris
8 The harbor of Ugarit. Photo: 39e Escadr. aer. du Levant
9 Bronze statuette of the god Baal, Ugarit. Photo: Musee du Louvre
10 Clay tablet from the central archives of Ugarit. Photo: Service des An-
tiquites, Paris
11 Clay vessels, Ugarit. Photo: Service des Antiquites, Paris
12 Fragment from an ivory plaque. Photo: Service des Antiquites, Paris
13 Phoenician man, terra-cotta figurine from Byblos. Photo: Maurice Dunand
14 Neck of a Phoenician vase, Byblos. Photo: Maurice Dunand
15 Punic gravestone. Photo: Rauchwetter
16 Statue of a Carthaginian noblewoman. Photo: Rauchwetter
17 Ceramic head from Carthage. Photo: Rauchwetter
18 Three heads sculptured in glass, Carthage. Photo: Rauchwetter
19 The Hypogeum, Malta. Photo: Luigi Ugolini
20 The "Sleeping Woman of Malta." Photo: Luigi Ugolini
21 Terra-cotta head, Malta. Photo: Luigi Ugolini
22 Excavations at Hal Tarxien. Photo: Luigi Ugolini
23 Overall plan of the temple at Hal Tarxien. Sketch: Luigi Ugolini
24 Remains of megalithic graves in Portugal. Photo: Archives
25 "Tholos da Fariosa," Portugal. Photo: Archives
26 Stonehenge. Photo: Camera Press, London
27 Passage grave, Schonen. Photo: Archives
28 Mural painting in the palace of Mari. Photo: Mission Archeologique de
Mari
29 A fertility goddess, Mari. Photo: Mission Archeologique de Mari
30 City administrator of Mari. Photo: Mission Archeologique de Mari
31 Clay bathtubs, Mari. Photo: Mission Archeologique de Mari
32 The interior of a nuraghe, Sardinia. Photo: Christian Zervos
33 A typical nuraghe, Sardinia. Photo: Enit, Roma
34 Ruins of houses of the Barumini fortress. Photo: Enit, Roma
35 Weeping goddess, Sardinia. Photo: Christian Zervos
36 Bronze statuette of an archer. Photo: Christian Zervos
37 Priestess of the nuraghe culture. Photo: Christian Zervos
38 Nuraghe bronze sculpture. Photo: Christian Zervos
39 Gold death mask, Aiycenae. Photo: Professor Hirmer
40 Gold mask from Shaft Grave IV, Mycenae. Photo: Professor Hirmer
41 Gold rhyton in the shape of a lion's head, Mycenae. Photo: Professor
Hirmer
42 Head of a bull vaulter, Knossos. Photo: Professor Hirmer
359
36o SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
43 Spouted jug and cup, Phaistos. Photo: Professor Hirmer
44 Cretan bronze statuette of a man praying. Photo: Professor Hirmer
45 Bull vaulting, fresco at Knossos. Photo: Professor Hirmer
46 Temple grave at Knossos. Photo: Professor Hirmer
47 Throne room in the palace of Knossos. Photo: Professor Hirmer
48 The stadium at Delphi. Photo: Bildarchiv Foto A4arburg
49 Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Photo: Professor Hirmer
50 Dancing girls. Caryatids, Delphi. Photo: Bildarchiv Foto Marburg
51 Figure of an Amazon on the Athenian Treasury, Delphi. Photo: Bildarchiv
Foto Marburg
52 Frieze on the Siphnian Treasury, Delphi. Photo: Professor Hirmer
53 Seal from Dodona. Photo: Professor Dakaris
54 Stone mattocks from Dodona. Photo: Dr. Ivar Lissner
55 Minyan bowl from Dodona. Photo: Dr. Ivar Lissner
56 Phoenician sculpture, Cadiz. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
57 Figure of a woman, Atlantic Coast. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
58 Roman amphorae, Cadiz. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
59 Sarcophagus, Cadiz. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
60 Lid of the sarcophagus. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
61 Greek bowl transported in one of the "ships of Tarshish." Photo: Paul
Swiridoff
62 Burial stele, Seville. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
63 Female mask found in a grave at Cadiz. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
64 Children's drinking vessel in the shape of a cockerel, Cadiz. Photo: Paul
Swiridoff
65 Jewelry, Cadiz. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
(36 "The Lady of Elche." Photo: Museo del Prado
67 The treasure of El Carambolo. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
68 Guanche girl. Photo: Rauchwetter
69 Model of a Guanche building, Canaria Museum, Las Palmas
70 Stone pestle and mortar, Canary Islands. Photo: Rauchwetter
71 Chinese tripod
72 Shang Dynasty bowl
73 Chou Dynasty wine jug
74 Sacrificial wine cups of the Chou Dynasty
75 Bronze stove from the Chou Dynasty
76 Fragment of a dog-headed demon, Hadda. Photo: Musee Guimet, Paris
77 Demon in fur coat, Hadda. Photo: Musee Guimet, Paris
78 Head of Buddha, Borobudur. Photo: Musee Guimet, Paris
79 Bust with flowers, Hadda. Photo: Sir Aurel Stein
80 Mural painting of Paradise from Tun-huang. Photo: Sir Aurel Stein
81 Scene from the life of Buddha, Tun-huang. Photo: Sir Aurel Stein
82 Embroidery, Tun-huang. Photo: Sir Aurel Stein
83 Bodhisattva, Miran. Photo: Sir Aurel Stein, hmermost Asia
84 Clay figure of a horse, Astana. Photo: Sir Aurel Stein, Imierinost Asia
85 Altar with sleeping Buddha, Tun-huang. Photo: Mission Pellot
86 Bodhisattva on a cave wall, Tun-huang. Photo: Mission Pellot
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 361
87 Scenic setting of the Tun-huang caves. Photo: Mission Pellot
88 Buddhist altar, Tun-huang. Photo: Mission Pellot
89 Silver rhyton. Photo: British Museum
90 Gold jug from the Oxus Hoard. Photo: British Museum
91 Golden armband from the Oxus Hoard. Photo: British Museum
92 Racing chariot, Oxus Hoard. Photo: British Museum
93 Bronze stag typical of Kurgan art. Photo: from Alfred Salmony, Sino-
Siberian Art
94 Carpet from Noin Ula. Photo: Hermitage, Leningrad
95 Wooden coffin found at Basadur. Photo: Hermitage, Leningrad
96 Scythian vase from Kul Oba. Photo: Hermitage, Leningrad, and Ellis H.
iVIinns, Scythians and Greeks
97 Relief on the vase. Photo: Hermitage, Leningrad, and Ellis H. Minns,
Scythians and Greeks
98 Monolith on the "acropolis" of Zimbabwe. Photo: Patellani
99 Steps leading to the "acropolis." Photo: Patellani
100 Soapstone bird, Zimbabwe art. Photo: Patellani
loi "Acropolis" of Zimbabwe. Photo: Patellani
102 Bronze relief of the Benin art, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul
Swiridoff
103 Bronze plaque of Benin, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
104 Wooden figure from Cokwe, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul
Swiridoff
105 Hunting mask from Loko, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul Swiri-
doff
106 Leather flask of the Hausa, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul Swi-
ridoff
107 Wooden drum from Calabar, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul
Swiridoff
108 Mask from Balumbo, Volkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
109 Clay-coated head. New Guinea. Photo: Paul Swiridoff
no Mayan city of Chichen-Itza. Photo: Deutsche Presse Agentur Miinchcn
111 Ruins of temple at Uxmal, Yucatan. Photo: Deutsche Presse Agentur
Miinchen
112 Sculpture of a God, Copan. Photo: Deutsche Presse Agentur Miinchen
113 Sacrificial Mayan altar, Copan. Photo: Deutsche Presse Agentur Miinchen
114 Stele at Copan. Photo: Deutsche Presse Agentur Miinchen
115 The "Temple of the Giant Jaguar" at Tikal. Photo: University of Penn-
sylvania
INDEX
INDEX
Aaron, 44
Adbastartos, 48
Abimilki, King, of Tyre, 32
Abraham, 15, 22
Absolom, 278-79
Achaemenes, 244
Achilles, 102
Acropolis, 154
Aeneas, 53
Aeschylus, 143
Aesop, 134
Agamemnon, 102, 112
Ahatmilku, Queen, 38
Ahiram, King, 46-47
Akkadian, 35
Alasia, 42
Alberschweiler, 75
Albright, William Foxwell, 22, 23,
336
Alexander the Great, 48, 139, 140,
147, 210-11, 215, 219, 247, 249,
250, 254
Alfonso IV, of Portugal, 185
Alfonso the Magnanimous, 174
Ali of Tepeleni, 155
Al-Masudi, 290
Alphabet, 34-42
Amasis, King, 134, 135
Amazons, 263
Amenophis IV, Pharaoh, 33
Andalusia, 162, 163, 164
Antiochus I, II and III, 250
Aphrodite, 42
Apollo, the cult of, 120-25, 126-32,
136
Arabia, 278-86
Arganthonius, King, of Tartessus,
179
Aristotle, 150, 156
Arnobius, 183
Arrian, 47
365
Asoka, King, 213, 214, 216
Assyria, 30
Astarte, 36, 42, 49, 53
Astyages, 244
Atlantis, 11, 156-64, 165-72, 294
Attila, 270
Augustus, Emperor, 153, 219-20,
233_
Aurelian, Emperor, 233
Aurelius, Marcus, 231
Aurignacian period, 19
Avebury, 71-72, 74
Aveiro, Joao Alfonse de, 298
Avienus, Rufus Festus, 164, 168,
177
Avila, Alonso Lopez de, 322
Azores, 55, 173-75, 176
Baal, 36, 40, 49
Babylonia, 30, 35
Bacon, Francis, 159
Baer, K. E. von, 258
Bagneux, 68
Baillv, Jean Sylvain, 159
Bantu, 292
Bar, F. C, 160
Barnabas, 236
Barthel, Thomas, 329
Barthoux, 220
Bartoli, 160
Bathsheba, 279
Batu Khan, 255
Bauer, Hans, 36
Behrmann, Walter, 308
Bejarano, Francisco, 179
Ben Farroukh, Admiral, 185
Benin, 9, 294-300
Bennett, Emmett, L., 109
Bent, J. T., 288
Berytos, 45, 49
366
INDEX
Bethcncourt, Jean, i86
Bethshean, 28
Beth-shemesh, 28
Bias of Priene, 121
Blanco, Freijeiro Antonio, 173, 177,
178, 180
Blegen, Carl W., 102, 106, 108,
112
Blom, Frans, 325
Bobrinskoy, Prince, 258
Borchardt, H. H., 160
Bosch-Gimpera, P., 180
Bourguet, Emile, 126, 129, 130
Bowditch, C. P., 329
Brahmanism, 217
Brassempouy, 19
Bronze Age, 11, 22, 33, 114, 196
Buchthal, H., 220
Buddha, 34, 122, 203-09, 216;
image of, 217-21
Buddhism, 208-09, 213-214, 215-21,
223-24, 227, 228, 237, 239, 242
Biihler, Alfred, 301
Burton, F. C, 247-49
Burton, R. F., 283
Bushell, Stephen W., 194
Byblos, 21, 45, 46, 47, 49
Byron, Lord, 155
Cadet, 160
Cadiz, 172, 175
Cadmus, King, 35
Caesar, Julius, 219
Caligula, Emperor, 220
Cambyses, 245
Campanella, Thomas, 159
Canaan and the Canaanites, 22, 23,
25, 26, 28, 35, 37, 39, 41, 44, 50
Canary Islands, 182-93
Cannibalism, 308-09
Cappovilla, C, 109
Carapanos, Constantin, 144
Carnac, 66, 68, 75
Carthage, 25-26, 52-57, 174
Cassius, Dio, 177
Caton-Thompson, Gertrude, 289,
290
Central Asia, 222-29, 230-42
Cerda, Louis de la, 185
Chad wick, John, 109, 117
Chaerephon, 138
Chamberlain, Houston S., 244
Chamisso, Adalbert von, 312
Chandragupta, 211
Charaxos, 134
Chichen Itza, 324, 334
Ch'ien Lung, Emperor, 196
Childe, Gordon V., 61^
Chilon, 121
China, 194-202
Ch'in dynasty, 223
Chinese dynasties, 197
Chou dynasty, 197, 198, 199, 261
Cimmerians, 260, 261
Clarke, 258
Claudel, Paul, 45
Cleobulus of Lindus, 121
Codrington, 307
Coe, William R., 327, 332
Colophon, 124
Confucius, 34, 204, 205
Constantinus, Caesar Flavins
Valerius, 213
Cook, Captain James, 312
Copan, 323-24, 334
"Cosmic mountain," 95
Courby, F., 126, 129
Crantor, 159
Crete, 102-10, 111-19, 122
Croesus, 134, 137, 143
Cunningham, Sir Alexander, 249,
250
Cyaxares, 244
Cyprus, 31, 42, 53, 105, 178
Cyrus II, 250
INDEX
367
Cyrus the Persian, 137, 245
Cythera, 50
Dakaris, 150, 152, 154
Dakaris, Sotiris, 144, 149
Dalgleish, 236
Dalton, O. M., 243, 252
Daniel, Glyn, 71, 78
Darius I, 245-46, 250, 252, 263
David, King, 28, 278-79
Davidson, Basil, 296
Dead Sea, 16
Delphi, 120-25, 126-32
Delphic oracle, 11, 126-32, 133
Demon, 150
Devoir, Commandant, 66
Dhorme, 36
Dido, 53
Didorus, 56
Dieseldorff, E. P., 320
Diodorus, 127, 156
Diodotus, 250
Diogenes, 207
Dione, 146; cult of, 152
Disselhoff, Hans Dietrich, 314
Dodona, 149-55; oracle of,
143-48
Domitian, Emperor, 135, 220
Dorsay, 305
Drake, Sir Francis, 187, 312
Dramissos, 155
Dubois de Montpereux, 258
Dussaud, Rene, 39, 47, 80
Dutreuil, 236
Easter Island, 312
Ebu Fathymah, 185
Edrisi, 185
Egypt, 22, 31
Ekhelawon, 117
Elagabalus, Emperor, 234
-38
141,
Epirus, 143, 146, 154, 155
Esau, 22
Esther, Queen, 247
Etruscans, 109, 162, 163, 164
Eurasia, 253-59, 260-68, 269-77
Euripides, 34, 129
Euthydemus, 250
Evangelides, Professor, 144
Evans, Sir Arthur, 75, 103, 105, 106,
108, 144, 161
Exodus, the, 44
Ezekiel, 49, 164
Ezion-geber, 280, 281-82, 286, 293
Fagg, William Bernard, 299, 300
Faria e Sousa, Manoel de, 175
FilHozat, J., 203
Flaceliere, Robert, 130, 131
Florez, Father, 173
Forstmann, Ernst, 329
Foucher, A., 207, 220
Franks, Sir Augustus WoUaston,
249
Friederici, 305
Frobenius, Leo, 160, 294
Furtwangler, Adolf, 276
Furumark, A., 109
Gadeiros, 161
Cades (Cadiz), 19, 161
Gaea or Ge, 122, 146
Gagarino, 19
Gandhara, 139, 210-21
Garcia y Bellido, Antonio, 1 76
Gargoris, King, of Tartessus, 1 7 1
Garstang, John, 16, 21
Genghis Kahn, 237, 255, 269
Gigantia, 61, 63
Gilgamesh, King, 86
Glueck, Nelson, 278, 281, 282, 286
Godard, 220
368
INDEX
Goodman, J. T., 329
Gordon, C. H. 22
Goshen, 22
Gozo, 63
Gray, Basil, 225
Great Wall of China, 222
Greece, 102-10, 111-19, 120-25, ^^^~
32, 133-38, 139-48, 149-55
Griinwedel, Albert, 237, 238, 239
Guanche, 187-93
Guatemala, 317-19, 320-26, 327-35
Guy, P. L. O., 28
Hadrian, Emperor, 135
Hagiar Kim, 61, 63
Halicarnassus, 34
Hall, R. N., 288, 290
Hal Saflieni, 62
Hal Tarxien, 61
Hamburg South Seas Expedition,
305
Hammurabi, 30, 87
Hancar, Franz, 276
Han dynasty, 223
Hannibal, 26, 53
Hanno, 190
Harran, 22
Hawkins, Sir John, 187
Hay ward, 236
Hazor, 28
Hedin, Sven, 240-41
Heeren, A. H., 287
Heine-Geldern, Robert, 314
Hennig, Richard, 162, 174, 283,
284, 285, 287
Henry III, of Castile, 186
Hentze, Carl, 200, 201
Heracles Melkert, 48
Herodotus, 34-35, 48, 124, 129, 130,
135' 14I' 146, 147' 149' 253' ^54'
255, 257, 260, 264, 265, 266, 267,
268, 270, 276, 277
Herrera, Diego de, 187
Herrmann, Albert, 160, 233
Hesiod, 145, 156, 183, 254
Hippocrates of Cos, 254-55, 263
Hiram, King of Tyre, 41, 49, 50,
280, 286
Holland, Leicester B., 131
Homer, 42, 99, 102, 103, 106, iii,
113, 124, 125, 141, 146, 150, 176,
183, 260, 273
Homolle, Theophile, 126, 130, 135
Horace, 156
Hottentots, 292
Housman, Lawrence, 3 1 1
Hsia dynasty, 199
Hsiung-nu, 222, 261
Hsiian Wang, Emperor, 199, 261
Hui Tsung, Emperor, 232
Humboldt, Alexander von, 174,
185, 283, 312
Huntington, Ellsworth, 261
Hurritic, 35
Hypogeum, 62-63
Hysiae, 124
Ibn Batuta, 269, 287
Ice Age, 15, 41, 90
Ile-Ife, 296
Incas, 323
India, 203-09, 210-21, 284
Ingholt, Harald, 214
Innocent IV, Pope, 255
loannina, 154-55
Irkutsk, 19
Iron Age, 15
Isaac, 15, 22
Ishtar, 80-81
Israelites, 22-23, 39' 44' 5^
Jacob, 15, 22
Jehovah, 23
INDEX
369
Jerez, 172
Jericho, 15-24, 30
Jerusalem, 16
Jesus the Christ, 25, 49, 205, 208
Jordan, 15, 20, 23
Jordania, 15-24
Joseph, 22
Josephus, Flavius, 283
Joshua, 23
Juba, King of Mauretania, 182
JuHan, Emperor, 135
Justin, 128, 171
Kanishka, King, 213, 214, 215
Kanjera, 28
Kamak, 31
Kastri, 135
Keane, Augustus, 283
Keith, Arthur, 58
Kenyon, Kathleen, 16, 18, 19-20,
Kerlescan, 68
Kermario, 68
Kern, Maximilian, 203
Kidder, A. V., 338
Kirchmaier, Georg Caspar, 159
Kirchner, Horst, 74
Kirsten, Ernst, 143
Knossos, 103, 106, 108, 109, I
112, 1 14, 1 16, 117
Kober, Alice, 109
Kraiker, Wilhelm, 143
Ktistopoulos, K., 109
Kublai Khan, 255
Kukahn, 178
La Coste-Messeliere, Pierre de, i
122, 126
Lacus Ligustinus, 165
Landa, Diego de, 320-21, 322
Lammerer, General, 169
Lassen, Christian, 283
Late Stone Age, 15-16
Lauffray, J., 43
Layard, Sir Austen, 239
Lebanon, 43-51
Le Coq, Albert von, 230, 235, 238,
239
Lejeune, Chantraine, 109
Le Plongeon, Augustus, 160
Le Rouzie, Zacharie, 66, 76, 79
Lespugue, 19
Letourneau, 79
Levine, Benedicta, 333
Lichas, 137
Lilliu, Giovanni, 91, 92, 93
Linear A., 105-10, in
Linear B., 105-10, 112, 117, 123
Li Po, 227
Livius, Titus, 52
Locmariaquer, 66, 68, 75
Loud, Gordon, 28
21 Louis IX, 255
Lou Lan, 240-41
Lucan, 128
Lugo, Alfonso Fernandez de, 187
Lund, 313
Luschan, Felix von, 297
Lii Ta-lin, 196
Lydians, 51
10, Lysander, 219
Mackenzie, 108
MacNeish, R. S., 315
Madeira, 156
Magalhaes, Fernao de, 312
Magna Mater, 98-101
Mahamaya, Princess, 205
20, Malia, 103
Malta, 19, 50, 58-64
Maluquer, J., 178
Manchu Dynasty, 26
Mangu Khan, 269
Mani, 229
370
INDEX
Manichaeism, 229, 242
Mari, 30, 80-88
Marinates, 104
A4arquart, Josef, 297, 298
Marshall, Sir John, 210, 218
Massilia (Marseilles), 156, 164
Mathew, G., 293
Mauch, Karl, 283, 284, 287
Maurya dynasty, 213
Mayas, 315-19, 320-26, 327-35
McGovern, Montgomery, 261
Mees, J., 174
Megaliths and monoliths, 63-64, 65-
75, 76-79, 292, 312
Megasthenes, 212-13
Megiddo, 28
Mela, Pomponius, 183
Melanesia, 303
Melgunov, General, 258
Melkert, 49
Melos, 50, 105
Menec, 68
Meriggi, P., 109
Mesopotamia, 22, 30, 31
Mewes, R., 283
Micronesia, 312
Middle Stone Age, 15
Miller, V. T., 258
Miner el Beida, 32
Ming Ti, Emperor, 223
Minns, Ellis H., 253, 258, 269, 271
Minoan, 30
Mishenko, T. I., 258
Mnaidra, 61
Mochlos, 116
Mohammed, 122
Mongols, 225, 255, 258, 313-14
Montet, 46
Morbihan, 76, 77
Morley, Sylvanus G., 315, 320, 324,
325. 329' 335
Morris, Robert, 145
Moses, 22, 44, 46
Miiller, F. W. K., 240
Mycenae, 102, 105, 107, 111-19, 273
Mycenaean Age, life in the, 111-19
Neanderthal man, 30, 58
Nebuchadnezzar, 48
Neleus, 102
Nelson, Admiral Horatio, 187
Neoptolemus, King, 139
Nero, Emperor, 136
Nestor, 102, 106, 112
New Guinea, 301-10
New Zealand, 312
Nicator, Seleucus, 211, 249
Niebuhr, 168
Nigeria, 294-300
Nilsson, Martin P., 124, 125, 131,
137. 145
Nineveh, 35
Noguera, E., 319
Nougayrol, 39
Numantia, 162, 171
Nuraghians, 90-94, 99-101
Odysseus, 112
Olympias, 139-41
Omphalos, 126, 131
Ophir, 50, 283-84, 286, 287-93
Oppe, A. P., 129
Oppert, Jules, 283
Orestes, 137
Ostimians, 177
Ovid, 145
Oxus, treasure of the, 243-52
Palenque, 324-25
Palestine, 22-23
Pallas, 258
Palmer, B. R., 109
Pan Chao, 237
Panhellenic Pythian Games, 1 3 1
INDEX 371
Parrot, Andre, 30, 80, 82, 84 Poseidon, 168
Patara, 124 Posidonius, 156, 159, 162-63
Paul the Apostle, 49, 59, 236, 340 Ptolemaeus, Claudius, 233
Pausanias, 120, 154, 165, 182, 185 Punic Wars, 53, $6
Peking man, 30 Pylos, 106, 108, 109, no, 112, 117
Pelliot, Paul, 226, 229, 239 Pyrrhus, King, 152
Pequart, Marthe and Saint- Just, 76, Pyrsos Encyclopedia, 152
79 Pytheas, 156
Periander of Corinth, 121 Pythia, 126-32, 133-38
Pericles, 136 Python, 122, 126
Persepolis, 247
Persia, 243-52
Peters, Karl, 284 Quatremere, Etienne Marc, 283,
Phaistos, 103 287
Philip of Macedon, 139, 140, 141,
143
Philippson, Professor, 131 Radloff, Wilhelm, 259
Phillips, J. R., 295 Radiocarbon dating, 22, 71, 93
Phoenicians, 25-26, 35, 46, 47, 48, Rahab, 23
49, 50, 60, 174, 176, 284, 285, 286 Rameses II, 43-44, 46
Picard, Charles, 126 Randall-Maclver, David, 287, 289,
Piedras Negras, 325 290
Piggott, Stuart, 70-71 Ras el-ain, 48
Pillars of Heracles, 156, 160, 161; Ras Shamra, 28, 30, 35, 39, 40
see also Gibraltar Rehm, Professor, 169
Pilos, 114 Renders, Adam, 287
Pindar, 125, 143 Renou, L., 203
Pisani, V., 109 Rhodes, 50
Pittacus of Mytilene, 121 Rhodopis, 134-35
Plato, 129, 131, 141, 156, 157, 158, Rhys Davies, C. A. F., 205
165, 167, 168, 169, 170 Rice, Tamara Talbot, 256, 261
Pliny the Elder, 145, 162, 182, 255 Ricketson, Mary, 333
Plischke, Hans, 312 Rivard, Albert, 158
Plutarch, 126, 128, 130, 132, 133, Rostovzev, M., 271
139, 141, 182 Rudbek, Olf, 159
Podolyn, Johan, 173, 175 Rudenko, S. I., 259
Poech, 305 Ruysbroeck, Wilhelm de, 255, 269
Poidebard, A., 43, 47 Ruz, Alberto, 318-19
Pokorny, Julius, 177
Polo, Marco, 237, 255, 256, 257, 269
Polynesia and the Polynesians, 301- Sahure, Pharaoh, 49
02, 311-12 Sales, Jean Baptiste Claude Delisle
Poros, Prince, 211 de, 159
372
INDEX
Samothrace, 140
Sapper, Karl, 327
Sappho, 1 34
Sarepta, 45
Sardi, 11
Sardinia, 89-94, 95-^01
Sardis, 137
Sargon I, 30
Sarmatians, 263
Satterthwaite, Linton, 333
Saul, King, 28
Saumur, 70
Schachermeyr, F,, 109, no, 112
Schaeffer, Claude F. A., 25, 28, 29,
32, 35
Schellhas, Paul, 329
Schiller, Friedrich, 10
Schlagintweit, Adolph von, 236
Schliemann, Heinrich, 102, 106,
113, 161
Schrader, Carl, 305
Schulten, Adolf, 156, 162, 165, 168,
169, 170, 171, 178
Schulz, D., 273, 274
Scipio, Publius Cornelius, 162
Scythians, 253-59, 261-68, 269-77
Seler, Eduard, 329
Semites, 85
Semitic Akkadians, 30
Semitic Hyksos, 22
Sepik culture, 305-10
Serri, 96
Sertorius, 156
Seven Sages, 120-21
Seville, 172
Sha'ar ha Golan, 2 1
Shamsi-Adad, King, 86, 87
Shang dynasty, 199, 201, 231
Shapur I., 214
Sheba, Queen of, 279-80
Shih Huang-hi, Emperor, 222-23
Shnumit, Princess, 30
Shook, Edwin M., 332, 335
Sicily, 50
Sidon, 25, 45, 49
Sidonian, 47
Silk, 231-35
Silk Road, 224, 230-42
Silva, Diego de, 187
Sittig, Ernst, 109, 124
Smith, Vincent A., 214
Socrates, 34, 138, 157, 158, 205, 208
Solomon, King, 11, 26, 28, 41, 50,
278-86, 293
Solon, 120, 160
Soper, Alexander C, 220
Sophocles, 143
Southern Rhodesia, 284, 287-93
Spain, 156-64, 165-72, 173-81
Spanuth, Jiirgen, 160
Speiser, E. A., 22
Spinden, 329
Stallbaum, Gottfried, 160
Stein, Sir Aurel, 226, 228, 229, 239,
241
Stoltenberg, Hans, 109
Stone Age, 15, 62, 304
Stonehenge, 68, 70-71, 74
Strabo, §6, 128, 162, 163, 165, 167,
181, 261
Struck, Bernhard, 297
Suetonius, 220
Sulla, 135
Sumarokov, 258
Sumerians, 30, 35, 85
Summers, Roger, 293
Sung dynasty, 225
Svoronos, 135
Sybaris, 171
Sydow, Eckart von, 296
Syria, 25-33, 34-42
Taanach, 28
Table des Marchands, 68, 76, 77
Tacitus, 124
INDEX
373
T'ang dynasty, 241
Tank, ^6
T'ao-t'ieh, mask of, 200-02
Taramelli, 96
Tarragona, 162
Tarshish, 50, 164
Tartessus, 162, 163, 164, 165-72,
173-81
Tarxien, 61, 62
Telemachus, 112
Tell Es-Sultan, 16
Tell Hariri, 30, 80-88
Termer, Franz, 335
Thales of Miletus, 121
Thasos, 50
Thebes, 124
Themis, 122
Theodosius, Emperor, 135
Thera, 104
Thomas, Cyrus, 329
Thomas, H. H., 71
Thompson, J. E. S., 311, 315, 317,
322, 327, 329, 334, 335
Thutmosis III, Pharaoh, 31, 42, 49
Tigin, Jolygh, 270
Tikal, 327-35
Timaeus, 52
Tiryns, 107, 114
Tischner, Herbert, 302, 308, 312
Titanus, Maes, 233
Torrecillas, Concepcion Blanco de,
179, 180
Torriani, Leonardo, 188, 192
Toynbee, Arnold, 317
Treweek, A. P., 109
Troy, 103
Tyre, 11, 25, 45, 47, 48-49
Tyrrhenis, 89, 163-64
Tu Fu, 227
Tun-huang, cave temples of, 224-
29
Tursa, 163
"Turdetania," 163
Turner, E. G., 109
Tunguses, 26
Uaxactun, 330, 334
Ugarit, 25, 27, 29, 30, 35-36, 37, 40,
Ugolini, Luigi, 62
Uz, 45
Vasudeva, 214
Ventris, Michael, 109, 117
"Venus" statuettes, 19, 98, 191
Virgil, 52, 53, 220
ViroUeaud, Charles, 36, 39, 41
Wace, Alan J. B., 107, in, 112, 113
Wainwright, G. A., 292
Waldstein, 135
Wang Fu, 196
Wei dynasty, 225
Weselowski, N. J., 262, 271, 274
White, W. C, 202
Wilamowitz, 124
Willendorf, 19
Wirth, Hermann, 160
Wirz, Paul, 307
Wolf el, Dominik Josef, 191
Wu Ti, Emperor, 198
Xenophon, 132
Xerxes, 247, 250
Yaxchilan, 325
Yoruba, 295-96
Yiian dynasty, 225
Yucatan, 320, 321, 333
Yung Lo, Emperor, 197
374
INDEX
Zama, ^6
Zamatorin, I. M., 276
Zammit, Sir Themistocles, 58, 59,
61
Zarathustra, 122, 204, 251-52
Zenobia, Queen, 236
Zervos, Christian, 89, 95, 96, 98
Zeus, 140, 141-43, 146-48, 150, 152,
Zeus, Dodonaeus, 152
Zimbabwe, 285, 287-93
Zimmermann, Giinter, 329
Zimrilim, King, 85, 86, 87, 88
Zopyrion, General, 263
Date Due
COLLEGE LIBRARY
Due Returned Due Returned
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