The Second Afghan Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History has reported the discovery of a lost city in the Seistan Basin on the Afghan-Iraq border. Walter A. Fairservis, jr., leader of the exploring group, explains that the site seems to have been unoccupied for 5,000 years. The area yielded examples of pottery bearing designs never used today. Yet these markings are sophisticated and give evidence of an advanced stage of culture. The abandoned town unquestionably had been a settlement of considerable importance in its prime. It was a permanent, not a transient community. This was demonstrated by the durable character of the tombs which it had raised.
ANCIENT FLUTE: Dr. E. Wyllys Andrews, leader of the National Geographic Society’s Dzibilchaltun Expedition, examines an ancient Mayan clay flute, found in a deep natural well In Yucatan.—National Geographic Society Photo.
A lost city of the Maya Indians, which existed from prehistoric times until after the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, is being excavated in a thorny wilderness area by the National Geographic Society and Tulane University.
The city is Dzibilchaltun, a metropolis from which the Mayas vanished after becoming the most civilized peoples of pre-Columbian America.
Dzibilchaltun’s gray ruins cover an area of 20 square miles north of the Yucatan capital, Merida. The excavation project in Mexico is headed by Dr. E. Wyllys Andrews, an archeologist affiliated with Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute. Luis Marden of the Geographical Society’s foreign editorial staff, leads an underwater team that is exploring a huge cenote, or natural well, in the center of the city.
Largest in New World
The city apparently became the largest in the New World after its founding between 2000 and 1000 B. C., Dr. Andrews reports in the January issue of the magazine. He says it kept growing and thriving uninterruptedly through the crises of Mayan history and into Spanish colonial times.
In its heydey, Dzibilchaltun bristled with pyramidal temples, palaces and buildings of vaulted stone. The city’s size is significant because most Mayan cities formerly were thought to be only ceremonial centers.
Until now, the lost city has been overshadowed by other well-known Mayan centers, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Among the city’s most striking features are a great white causeway paved with limestone and a rambling complex of buildings called the Palace. This covers a dozen acres and could hold most of the principal buildings at Chichen Itza.
Vast Palace, Five Temples and Art Objects Convince Tulane Exploring Party.
By the Associated Press.
NEW ORLEANS, April 25.—Ruins of ancient Maya Indian temples, pyramids, human effigies and other discoveries show that the City of Comalcalco ranks among the greatest cities of the long dead Maya empire. This was announced here today by Tulane University in a brief cablegram from its expedition, which has been exploring in Tehauntepec, Mexico.
The Pyramids of Sakkara may easily be visited front Gizeh by donkey, but having deferred this visit for another day, we took the train for Bedrashen and from there went over the desert. This little village was formerly the centre of Old Memphis, the famous capital of ancient times, built of sun-dried bricks, made out of Nile mud, Memphis stood on the borders of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, and was founded by Menes, the head of the First Dynasty, about four thousand years before Christ. The narrow streets of this large city were a half a day’s journey long and extended as far as Gizeh, its several quarters being known as the “South Wall,” the “White Wall,” and the “House of the Spirit of Ptah.”
But as Thebes rose Memphis declined. It was a shining mark for Cambyses, who took it by storm, and it competed for a season with Alexandria; and, at the time of Augustus, though many of its buildings were laid low, it was still a populous city. The Mohammedans appropriated a large part of its ruins when they built their mosques and dwellings on the right side of the Nile, but its vastness could not be used up in a moment and up to the 12th century it is said to have been a wonderland; finally, however, every stone was taken to make Cairo the beautiful city it is today.
KARAGATCH, Bulgaria, Aug, 9 (AP)—A peasant plowing near this village turned up one of the most interesting archeological finds made in recent years, When the plow struck an obstruction the peasant found it was a slab of marble. Lifting this a marble tomb was disclosed and within lay a suit of bronze armor of a Roman knight, together with shield, sword, spear and several utensils, including an exquisite vase.
Director Velkoff, of the National Museum, and Mr. Popoff, an expert on Greek antiquities, estimate that the find dates back to the pre-Alexandine period. They surmise that he may have been a dweller of a Hellenic colony on the Black Sea coast.
The fabrication of forged antiquities has become one of the most profitable industries of modern Egypt. Every year more and more wealthy American and European tourists go to the sunny and salubrious land of the Pharaohs. Practically every one of these tourists wishes to take away some relic of the ancient Pharaohs as a souvenir. To supply this demand the modern Egyptians are working night and day making very attractive articles in the ancient style. The Egyptian law now requires that every person finding antiquities shall report the fact to the government, which reserves the right to purchase them. This law really favors the antiquity forgers, for they represent to their customers that they are offering them contraband goods, which offer usually has the effect of whetting the appetite to buy.
LONDON, October 3.—Howard Carter, the American Egyptologist, left for Luxor and the Valley of the Kings today to resume his excavations at the tomb of Tutankhamen. The scientist said he had not the slightest belief that any occult influence was responsible for the death of Earl Carnarvon, who succumbed to fever after discovering the tomb, and that he had no fears for himself in that direction.
“It is rather too much to ask me to believe that some spook is keeping watch and ward over the dead Pharaoh, ready to wreak vengeance on any one who goes too near,” Carter said.
Cairo — Belief in “curses’’ attached to certain antiquities is ridiculed by Mr, R. Engelbach, keeper of the Cairo museum and one of the world’s greatest authorities on ancient Egypt.
Latest of the ‘‘accursed” remains to be returned to Egypt is a piece of bone, claimed to be part of Pharaoh’s skeleton which has been blamed for a series of accidents which have befallen Sir Alexander and Lady Seton, of Edinburgh.
M. LENORMANT, who has for for years been rummaging, excavating and searching in the various hiding places of Greece and Syria, has succeeded in finding and securing very many beautiful…
Yale University Expedition to Peru Will Try to Find Bones of the Ancients
New Haven, Conn.—The next expedition to Peru, which will be made this year under the direction of Prof. Hiram Bingham of Yale, will not be geographical as in the case of the last expedition, It was announced at Yale, recently, but will concentrate its work largely in that region where the human bones were found under a glacial deposit which indicated a minimum age of 2,000 years.
