Let's continue to explore the ancient digs in Persia with Charles Breasted in Exploring the Secrets of Persepolis,National Geographic Magazine, October, 1933. One important 'find' was an aqueduct dating from 700 B.C., "But this is now proved to be the oldest surviving aqueduct of which we have knowledge," (p. 403).
The expedition had to employ dozens of local workers to help in the painstaking digging operations. "Workers at Persepolis are recruited from villages scattered through the valleys. . . These workers have no understanding of what all this digging is for, now do they realize that they are helping recover their own family and national history. . .Ordinary workers receive ten to twenty-five cents a day; the foremen sometimes get thirty cents. In Egypt little boys who carry the earth from our excavations to the dump cars receive sometimes two and a half to five cents a day. . . For most of these people this is regarded as prosperity, and so it is, for their wants are simple and they otherwise seldom see any money at all," (p. 403).
There are many photos of beautiful carvings in stone or adobe brick. These show how the people, kings, nobles, and peasants alike, lived. "Many carvings are as sharp and clear as though done yesterday," (photo caption, p. 404).
In addition the the grand palace grounds excavated, the leaders of the expedition noticed a nearby mound. "At a distance of only two miles from the palace terrace, he had observed in the plain a low mound some 600 feet long and half as wide. This little mound, when excavated, proved to be the oldest Stone Age village excavated in the Orient. It dates from about 4,000 B.C. Its walls, six or seven feet high, contain the earlier windows of which we have knowledge," (p. 409). They found beautifully painted pottery, the oldest painted pottery found thus far, in 1933. Their dinner dishes still had the bones of food in them!
Why was this particular area of the world being studied so intensely? It is believed that the original humans originated from this area. Thus civilization began there, in the now deserts of Arabia. "The Oriental Institute is a vast laboratory established for the study of how man rose from savagery to civilization," (p. 410). They worked from the northern part of Turkey to Egypt.
Personally, I think of these countries as mostly deserts filled sparsely with nomadic peoples, barely subsisting. In the cities are the wealthy, from world sales of oil. I had little knowledge of the former nobility, wealth, and learning of the peoples who had lived there before my time. An exhibit at the local Kentucky Horse Park, "A Gift From the Desert," in the summer of 2010, enlightened me. It displayed centuries of incredibly intricate metal work in brass, gold and silver, weavings, paintings, clothing, rugs, scientific discoveries. The desert culture centered around the Arabian horse. It was wonderful! I actually went to the exhibit twice.
Mr. Breasted concludes his account, "Here at Persepolis, guided with a vision and a courage which changed the whole course of history, Persian civilization, the heir to long ages of Oriental culture, rose to become the supreme manifestation of the finest things in oriental genius," (p. 420). With hundreds of mounds in the Arabian desert still unexplored in 1933, we are sure to again visit the area in the pages of the National Geographic Magazine.
Addition on 10-14-14: What is the value of digging up crumbled stone ruins, essentially digging up the garbage of the past? What is the value of the expensive archeology expeditions that result in museums full of really old objects that hardly anyone sees unless it is from Egypt? This morning, I was reading the beginning of the Bible Book of Zechariah: "In the second year of Darius, in the eighth month, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo. . . " Aha! Just last night I was reading about the finding of Darius' temple in the Middle East, built 2,500 years ago! There were lots of photos. This article and others have made our Judeo-Christian Bible so much more real to me! That is the personal value of archeology to me!
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