THE HITTITES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 126, 21 February 1919, Page 5

THE HITTITES

NEW HOPE TOR BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. Sir Frederick Ivenyon, of the British Museum, who presided at the first Schweich lecture of the season in Burlington House, mado an important statement, as to the future-of Biblical-archae-ology. .- The . British Academy recognises that the war, in opening up Macedonia, Syria, ■ Palestine, and ■ Mesopotamia, to more thorough research of this kind, has introduced a new era with- great opportunities, Hitherto such research has been spasmodic, largely unintelligent, and at the mercy of corrupt . Governments. . Now there is n chonco of organising it on 60und lines, and'the Aoairemy has resolved to appToach the British Government to secure this, and to make certain that the work falls into expert hands. The. funds at the. disposal of the Schweich trustees for 6uch a purpose had not been used for the last four years, but now there was ■ a real chance of their profitable employment, and eolid results might be anticipated in .fields nd longer closed or imperfectly cultivated.. Dr. Arthur ■ Cowley, of Magdalen College, Oxford, who has chosen "Tho Hittites" as the theme of the Schweich lectures for this year, showed himself anything but a dry-as-dust exponent of the 'subject. He gave a masterly sketch of Hittite history,, dwelling specially on tho excavations -of the mounds at Boghazkeui made so recently as 1906. More discoveries . of' this nature may be looked for under the new archaeological pro. gramme foreshadowed by Sir F. Kenyon. Lantern slides illustrated the wide, -extent of the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor and Northern Syria.

Nearly 3,000,0001b. of venison has passed into the markets' from the Scottish' . deer forests, and the Ministry of Food is-arranging- for-easy transport of further supplies,,