HISTORIC EXCAVATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 May 1938, Page 10

HISTORIC EXCAVATIONS

ACTIVITIES IN TRIPOLI. It is announced from Tripoli that Air Marshal Italo Balbo, Governor of Libya, has ordered that excavation work on the buried city of Utolemais in Cyrenaica be resumed under the direction of the Italian explorer and .archaeologist, Guido Caputo. Ptolemais, now known as Tolmetta, is supposed to have been built by .Alexander the Great, and was, up to the fourth century, one of the most important Mediterranean ports, being destroyed about the year 562 A.D. by the King of Persia.

When in 1912 Italy occupied Cyrenaica, the ruins were entirely buried beneath the desert sands, and although excavations were begun, they were soon interrupted by the World War. Resumed later, a magnificent amphitheatre was unearthed, and also remains of Greek and Roman villas, marble and mosaic pavements, and a series of Greek stone coffins of the first century A.D. An immense primitive cistern capable of holding 20,000 cubic metres of water has also been unearthed, and some fine basreliefs representing mythological subjects. It is anticipated that further valuable discoveries will be made as the result of the fresh impetus now given by Marshal Balbo to the work.