DAUGHTERS OF EVE.

Shannon News, 26 September 1924, Page 4

DAUGHTERS OF EVE.

LIPS OF LONG (AGO, One hundred and sixty ancient Greek tombs- of striking design and rare archaeological interest have been unearthed in the dead city of Olyva, near Odessa; by Professor Semenov Zusser, distinguished Russian archaeologist. Among the articles found in the tombs was a small linen bag containing a lady's mirror, and believed to be the forerunner of the present-day vanity case. In the bag tihere also were a rouge stick for the lips and a charcoal for the eyes. The bag was found in a woman's grave, together with tufts of false Lair and a number of silver bracelets, earrings, beads, and other jewels. In other tombs were discoveredpottery of exquisite workmanship, multi-coloured vases, amulets, knives and various articles of bronze and copper, all in a perfect state of preservation. The excavations,, which, have been., in progress for many months, thus far have yielded more than 1700 articles of • surpassing antiquarian interest. Olyva, which means "merry/' was once a centre of Greek learning, culture and trade, and it flourished about 500 B.C. Later, it, became known , among Kussians as the "Pompeii of the Black Sea." Greek emigrants, of Asia Minor selected Olyva, Herodotus records, because "it is free from malaria and its air is pure and transparent as crystals." From a thriving, prosperous port for the rich goods of the East, it became in the course of centuries a pauper l colony, existing solely on the revenue from occasional trade;s. Originally, the population of the city worshipped the -Greek gods, in whose: honour they erected temples'. To-day, th c city is a mass of .ruins' and the tombs excavated by Semenov Zusser are the only witnesses to its past greatness.