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PREFACE

PERHAPS the subject-matter of this volume is too diversified to be completely expressed by its title; but between that and the explanatory note which follows it on the title-page an attempt is made to express, more or less satisfactorily, what the author would be at. The aim of the book is to take certain selected sites of the Ancient East, to recount with reasonable fulness of detail the story of modern excavation on these sites, and to attempt to show, not only what has been accomplished in the actual revelation of relics of antiquity, but also something which is of far more importance, and without which the mere disclosure of ancient buildings, works of art, or weapons and utensils is of little account, the new knowledge which has come to us by way of excavation of how the great pioneer peoples of the Ancient East lived, thought, believed, and died. After all, this is the true aim of all archæology which really understands its business, to make the life of the dead past live again before the eyes of the present generation, and for its interest and instruction.

Unless the excavator can do this for us, or, at all events, provide us with the materials which will enable others to do it, his work is merely vanity and vexation of spirit, though wealth and artistry beyond all dreaming should reward his pains; if he can do it, he is a benefactor, though

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he may have nothing to show for all his labour but a load of broken potsherds. And if these chapters convey to the minds of their readers even a little of the amazing work which modern excavation and the interpretation of its results have accomplished in this direction, they will have fulfilled the purpose for which they were written.

The sites chosen for study have not been taken at random, as might appear on a casual glance. Each one finds its place here because of some special contribution which it made in bygone days to human knowledge and culture, or else because of some special advance of our knowledge of the past which has resulted from its excavation. Thus, to take instances, Babylon has its place, not only because of its ancient greatness, but because of the inestimable value to the human race of its venerable system of law, revealed by the discovery of the Code of Hammurabi; Abydos, not only because it was the chief seat of that form of faith which expressed the Egyptian's invincible yearning for immortality, but also because its excavation has given back to us the centuries which went before the dawn of History in Egypt; and Gezer, because its very obscurity has enabled it to preserve for us, almost unbroken, the evidence of the strange sequence of races which strove for dominion in the most interesting land on earth.

Doubtless the choice might have been infinitely varied or extended; but books, and still more the patience of their readers, must have a limit, and I can only hope that in the main the selection made will justify itself.

The illustrations have been chosen with the view of ex

hibiting, on the one hand, some of the most notable buildings on the sites dealt with, and, on the other, some of the most interesting finds which have resulted from excavation. For the kindness which has enabled me to use some of them, I am indebted to the Societies and gentlemen who have given permission, and their names are recorded on the plates in question.

Torphichen,

July, 1923.

JAMES BAIKIE.

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