ANCIENT EPHESIAN BASILICA.

Shannon News, 25 January 1929, Page 3

ANCIENT EPHESIAN BASILICA.

EXCAVATION NOW eroMPLETB,

VIKNBTA, Dec. 8. News has been recoiw*u here of successful excavations »*•» who Austrian Archaeological Socievw- m conjunction with the Smyrna Muwiom authorities during the last two mnsssijß at Ephesus, Asia Minor. A large •urimnung batn with an exquisite momac floor and marble statues has bees* miearthed, to? gether with a marble oust of the founder, a rich Ephesian cir.iwm named Publius Bedius Antonius, ana a well- planned system of central neating. Of special significance to the history of early Christian arc.miecture is tha , completion of the excavation of the world-famous basilica Saint John, tuilt by the Emperor jstatmian Seven years ago Professor fcjarwms, an Athenian archaeologist, start*** mis work and now the whole area o* length of 33tf yards, cast to west, a*>«* « depth of Id ' yards, lias been conuuswtely clearcL, showing the wonderiu* attarble pillars and rooms, with intereEwsu; monograms of the Emperor Justim*** «nd the Empress Theodora. It is now declared xiuaniole, as a result of these excavations, to reconstruct this wonderful numument of ec--elesiastical art in Anatmia. Remains of an even earlier eburen. of the time of the Emperor Constantine, have also been discovered on the same sice. Near by has been excavaloa «urge Byzantine well, with beautitm sculptures of the third century A.**.. Hiso a grave containing a letter from * Roman lady > of high rank to her brnmur, probably a Roman official. Ther** =-*w very many small finds —three runway wagonfulj having been sent to ***** Smyrna Museum. Dr. Josef Keu- Vienna, Dr. Adolf Deissmann, of wvifiin, together with the Turkish Govwrwroent and the Smyrna Museum offiem*** arc iu charge of the work. Remarkable Find ss Palestine.

What is claimed w» oe the finest monument yet uneartnea m Palestine ' has just been diseoveren oy the University of Pennsylvania Palestine expedition at Beisan. Alan Jtowe, the director, has arrived in Cam* with a photograph of the discovery, wnich consists of a basalt panal, thn** feet high, representing a lion attacaaa ny a hunting dbg in the upper portion, the lower showing tho lion fleet**:*. The sculpture snn«« consummate .* craftsmanship and is «•*»« important as * showing definite prow** of Babylonia influences, since the m«-« of the dog a* , a temple guardian drv*ia«r olKthe liou, which may represent J»antaf, the Babylonian deity, has no* *wen found in Palestine previously. date of the sculpture is estimator to be tho fifteenth century, B.fc~