Noos avons supprimé quelques phrases

ded. "I urged, in conséquence, that it was Ihe right and duty of Ihe Americans not to surrender lo Ihe Turks a single slab of Ihe epistyle, but lo insist on the application of the law. In fact, one of the gentlemen had been authorized to offer a large sum lo redeem the entire frieze and some other statues ; but the Turkish officiais would not listen to him, and thus it was that two slabs were given over to the mission, while seven others made their way to Gonstantinople. A partition the resuit of which is that a most remarkable work of archaic art is now lo be sought, partly in Paris, partly in Gonstantinople, and partly in America, may certainly be termed something worse than a failure — a real damage to civilization and learning.

Soon afler my article had appeared in the Revue ArckéoUigique, M. Ludlow, a member of the mission, wrote a brief letter to the same French periodical (1884, i., p. 52), stating that if the partition had been unfavorable to the excavators, the latter were notto be held responsible for it; that they had done ail in their powerto redeem the two-thirds of the discoveries claimed by the Turks, but had finally failed in présence of the obstinate reluctance shown by the Turkish ofûcials,**perhaps alarmed ", adds M. Ludlow, ** by the polemic of a récent article published in the Revue des Deux-Mondes. " This is a stono flung into my gardcn and an allusion to a paper I contributed in March, 1883, to the aforesaid Revue, under the titie, ** Le Vandalisme en Orient. " It bas several time^been asserted that my attacks against the Turkish laws regulaling antiquilies had induced the Turks, and in particular Hamdi Bey, the director of Tchinli-Kiosk Muséum, to enforce the severity of thèse laws and thus retaliate upon the civilized world. I take this opporlunity to state thaï there is no truth in thaï story, and that the new régulations, which I will mention below, were already decided upon long before my article went through the press. In February, 1882, living on familiar terms with Hamdi Bey at Gonstantinople — I was then working al the Gatalogue of Ihe Muséum — I soon understood Hamdi's intention to modify, in a draconic sensé, the laws on antiquities of 1874. Rightiy alarmed by the prospect of such a reform, I tried, but quite in vain, to stir up a movement in an opposite sensé ; my article was only the last and most energetical effort I made to awaken public interest on so important a question. Having foretold the storm and done my best to avert it, I shpuld not be accused now of having brought it about.

On the other hand, I wish expressly to assert that I never held the American scholars responsible for the disgraceful partition agreed upon at Assos. I know too well by my own expérience that an archœologist in Turkey, when not energetically upheld by his Ambassador, can do nothing but preach and cry in Ihe désert. In 1881 1 dug many tombs al Gyme, in iEolis, and made some very good discoveries. A dragoman of the United States Gonsulate in Smyrna» the name of whom I will charitably omit, thought he had some claims on the ground I was digging upon, and de-

nounced me lo the Turkish Governmcal as having injured his riglits. Afler Ihree months wasted in scribbling reports and counler-repoiis, the Turks sellled Ihe quairel by confiscating Ihe whole of Ibe discoveries and conveying Ihem lo Tchinli-Kiosk. The Frcnch Embassy was Ihen very busy with Tunisian matiers, and interfered only just enough to give Ihe Turks the pleasure of taking no heed of it. A couple of months later, M. Schliemann, exca^ating at Troy, experienced ail possible annoyance from the Turkish commissary appointed as his overseer. A telegram fron Ihe German Chargé d'Affaires, declining to give him further help, is said to hâve been intercepted at Dardanelles by a Turkish offlcial, w ho immediately informed Hamdi Bey thaï he could act as he chose toward Schliemann. Accordingly, the discoveries of the German scholar were seized upon in great part by the director of the Ottoman Muséum. It is somewhat strange thaï Dr. Schliemann , in his work just publîshed on his last compaign in the Troad, bas not a word about the partition of his discoveries ; his silence is ominous enough, and betrays the grievous annoyances which he could not manage lo escape.

If I give thèse particulars, il is because I wish your readers to understand that Turkish encroachments hâve been continually encouraged by the weakness or indifférence of foreign diplomatists. Hamdi Bey, who is the son of a Prime Minister, soon perceived that no one would check him in his altempt to exclude Western scholarship from Oriental archso- Jogy. Several reasons, the best of which are worth nothing, induced him and his friends to pursue that aim : Ûrstly, the dislike for civilized Europe, which is a prédominant instinct in the heart of every Turk, even if that Turk, as is the case with Hamdi, bas been educated in France; secondly, the somewhat childish désire of imitating Ihe external apparence of European civilization. A new régulation, drawn up by Hamdi, was subroitted to a Commission, and ûnally, on the 21st of February of the current year, the new law on antiquities was issued and made known to the public by a French translation and extracts in the Constantinople papers La Turquie and the Eastem Express . The new law is a servile copy of the Greek one enacted in 1832, and may be briefly resumed thus : No excavation can be underlaken without the leave of the Governement; no antiquUy whatever can be exported out of Turkey, Il is not even admitted that private individuals can possess colleclions of antiquities without immediately making them known to the Governement. If a foreign slate or an academy obtains the permission to dig, with archaeological purposes, ihe excavalors must pay the overseer appointed by the Government, but they wiU in no case be allowed to carry away anypart of their discoveries. Tbis is clear enough : the excavator must pay everything (in Greece the overseer is naturally paid by the Greek Government), and he will get nothing unless he is on good terms with Sultan BoAsAwA— that is to say, unless he succeeds in bribing the overseer and many others who will contrive to stand in his way.

I am sorry to stale that not a European paper as y et, not one archaeological rcview excepting the Revue Archéologique, hos prolested against thaï barbarous régulation, or, îndeed, seemed to be aware of ils existence. German philological reviews know orcare nothing aboul it. There was a rumor in Conslantinople, when the decree was ready to be issued, that some Ambassadors wished lo interfère; and they certainly had the right and the duty to do so, in the name of their respective national collections thus deprived of their main source of increase, and still more on behalf of ancient art and scientific research. Il is reported that the German Ambassador discouraged the altempl, saying thaï Germany would always conlrive lo oblain favorable terms for her own archsBological invesligalions. Unforlunately for Ihe Muséum in Berlin, thlngs hâve takcn a quite differenl lurn. When the statues discovered in the lasl campaign al Pergamon had to be divided Iwo monlhs ago— the old partition System being still admilted for excavations begun under the former régime— the Muséum of Tchinli-Kiosk claimed and oblained several beautiful fragments of the Giganlomachy and of the frieze of Telephus, the remainder of which had been previously secured by the Berlin Muséum. M. Dennis, H. M. Consul-General in Smyrna, who possessed a flrman for excavaling al Sardes, immedialely abandoned his plan, not caring lo work under the absurd and léonine conditions imposed by the Turkish law of 1884. Il is probable Iha! the Austrians, who hâve lately oblained a flrman to dig al Elœa and al Lagina, will do exaclly like M. Dennis. Truly, Hamdi Bey bas announced for the past Iwelvemonlh in the Turkish papers that he was aboul beginning large excavations al the expense of Ihe Ottoman Government; but who can be simple or foolish enough to suppose that the Turks will ever flnd money for archœological researches, in a counlry ullerlydestilute of schools, bridges, and means of intercourse?

I must add a few words more lo justify the severily of my censure respecting the new Turkish régulation and ils aulhors. Europe and her diplomatisls, by their benignant indifférence or silenl complicily, are pai*tly answerable for the injury thus infliclcd upon science, and il seems fit that every scholar in the Old and in the New World should understand the nature and extenl of the injury sustained and the far-reaching conséquences it involves. The law of 1874, enforced by that of 1884, forbids, under the penalty of confiscation and of a heavy fine, the exportation of Works of ancient art. Now the obvions result of that absurd prohibition being lo increase the price of antiquilies on the markels of Europe, and the Turkish Govemement being quite unable and unwilling to purchase any works accidenlally discovered in the counlry, the flrst conséquence of the law is that anliquities continue lo be exported in secret, but with ail the fatal inconveniences atlached lo archseological smuggling : Isl. The origin of the antiquilies exported lo Europe is systemalically altered by the dealers, who fear to allract the notice of the Turkish officiais, ad. Marble statues, sometimes ofhigh value, are daily being broken to pièces,

in order to be sold ofT in fragments by their owners, a head going to Paris and a foot lo Berlin. I can vouch for Ihe perfect cerlainty of my information witb regard to that scandalous practice, whicb is particularly fréquent in Asia Minor. As the Turkish Government confîscates without indemnily the antiquities found by tbe natives, tbe latter are almost corn* pelled to break what they find, to be able lo carry the pièces off and sell them secretly.

Such facts speak for themselves and sufficiently condemn the régulations and the ofûcials who are alone ans^erable for them. I wi:^h they €Ould excite some indignation among the libéral minded readers of this journal. They will perhaps think with me that if diplomacy dared to interfère colleclively in matters of such high interest for civilization, no intelligent man, to whatever nation he might belong, wouid accuse his ambassador or minister of wasting his time, paper, and ink in pleading the cause of learning againsl wantonness and vandalism.

Salomon Rkwa:h.

Paris, June lo, 1884.

(REVUE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE, 1884, t. II, p. 76-102 )

Nous avions promis à nos lecteurs de leur présenter un tableau d'ensemble des recherches et des découvertes faites dans le monde grec pendant les derniers mois de 1883 et la première moitié de Tannée courante. Un résumé de ce genre, pour être utile, ne doit pas viser à une trop grande concision; aussi espérons-nous qu'on nous pardonnera d'avoir donné à cette Chronique semestrielle une étendue qu'elle ne comporte pas à l'ordinaire. Si longue qu'elle soit, d'ailleurs, elle est encore bien incomplète \ tant les trouvailles archéologiques, souvent fort difficiles à décrire, se multiplient en Grèce et dans l'empire ottoman. Le nombre croissant des archéologues, le prix rémunérateur des antiquités, les progrès mêmes de l'agriculture et la transformation en vignobles d'immenses terrains de TAnatoIie et de la Grèce, sont autant de causes qui expliquent celte recrudescence de belles découvertes dont la mise en œuvre est réservée à l'avenir. 11 faudrait remonter jusqu'aux premiers temps qui suivirent la libération de la Grèce, ou même jusqu'à la glorieuse aurore de la renaissance italienne, pour trouver une époque aussi féconde que la nôtre en révélations de tout genre sur l'histoire et l'art de l'antiquité. Que serait-ce si la Grèce et la Turquie adoptaient des législations libérales et associaient sans réserves les étrangers à Texploration de leurs richesses souterraines! Nous pouvons, il est vrai, enregistrer en partie

1. Nous ne noas occupons dans ces articles ni des découvertes de Tégyptologie et de Tassyriologie, ni en général des publications dMnscriptions et d'œuvrcs d'art dans les recueils qui sont très répandus, comme le Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, les Mittheilungen des deulschen Insliluls, VArchaologische Zeitung, etc. Quand nous faisons exception à cette règle, c'est qu'il s*agit d'un document de premier ordre ou que nous avons quelque observation à présenter.

[4», 76-7] CHROiMQUE D'ORIENT (1884) 63

ce qu'on découvre; mais qui peut dire, qui saura jamais ce qui se perd, ce qu'on démarque et ce qu'on détruit?

Épidauhe. — Nos lecteurs connaissent déjà les fouilles de M. Cavvadias dans Tenceinte du temple d'Esculape'. Tout auprès du temple, il a découvert une grande maison de IL mètres de long séparée en deux parties suivant la longueur par une rangée de colonnes ioniques; on a supposé que c'était l'hôtellerie où habitaient les malades. C'est dans le voisinage de ce monument que l'heureux explorateur a trouvé les deux grandes stèles avec inscriptions indiquant les noms des malades traités dans TAsclépiéion et les merveilleuses guérisons opérées par le dieu. L'une de ces stèles a été publiée dans r'EçY;|xeptç ipx^^^" XôYtxT^, 1883 (p. 199 et suiv.)*. La pierre lithographique sur laquelle l'inscription est gravée paraît avoir été choisie à dessein pour que la conservation du texte n'eût rien à craindre des injures du temps : il se lit, en effet, avec une grande facilité et les fragments qui le composent ont pu être rajustés exactement. D'après l'orthographe et la forme des lettres, il ne paraît pas antérieur au iv« siècle avant J.-C. Nous ne pouvons, malheureusement, reproduire en entier un texte de 126 lignes; mais nos lecteurs nous sauront gré de leur en donner du moins quelques spécimens.

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