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THE FINDING OF THE TOMB OF ARISTOTLE.1

SHALL never forget two aphorisms given me by an old grave-digger in Greece. He was one of a class that corresponds very much to the old-fashioned poacher in England and on the Continent, in whom the illegitimate pursuit is not only followed for gain, but has become an exciting sport, a wild instinct with a touch of the romance that hovered round the gentleman of the road and the bandit. He had followed his favorite pursuit in all parts of Attica, in Bootia, and in Euboea, and had sold many a beautiful object of ancient art and craft to the Athenian dealer, which objects, no doubt, are now ornamenting some museum of a great European metropolis. As such excavation is forbidden by law, and as the exportation of all objects of antiquity found in Greece is also forbidden, he had twice suffered confinement in prison for a considerable period; and this in spite of all his shrewdness and caution, for he did nearly all his digging at night. He had now turned his hand to honest work, and had become a workman in our corps of excavation, in both Boeotia and Euboea. Though he was invaluable in cautiously clearing away the soil that had been massed in a tomb, and thus extracting without a breakage a delicate vase, or a piece of goldwork, or a bronze mirror, it was just as well always to keep a strict watch over his every movement; for, having extracted securely from its hiding-place in the earth some valuable object of antiquity, he might also return it to some hiding-place of which we knew not, which would be even more secure than was the accumulated soil, so far as any chance of our getting it again was concerned. But I shall always be grateful to him for the two epigrams which he gave me one day, and which are, in a way, fundamental and most important lessons for any archæologist who intends to excavate.

I was maintaining to some colleagues that there was sure to be a wall under a certain configuration of the soil, to which opinion I was led by a series of arguments archæological and practical, and to strengthen my own position I appealed to old Barba Spiro for a confirmation of my view. He looked at the spot for a long time; then gave a side glance at me; then scratched his head, and, fixing his eyes on one button of my waistcoat, he enunciated two short phrases: "O zaτepos àpya 1 The pictures in this article are made from photographs taken by Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Oswald.

ολόγος εἶναι ὁ κασμὰς,” and “ Σκάψε ἕως τὸ στερεό,” the first meaning, "The best archæologist is the spade," and the second," Go down to the native soil."

I believe it was chiefly owing to my remembering these two aphorisms, and acting upon them, that I succeeded in discovering what we may now call the Tomb of Aristotle. Though a considerable amount of archeological study and reasoning, a careful working through of all the ancient and modern authorities on topography, a collection of all the passages in ancient authors dealing with the works of art which once existed in a certain district, and innumerable other considerations of a more theoretical nature, must precede the choice of any site of excavation, and must continually be present in the mind of the excavator, it is, after all, the act of digging itself, and the unbiased examination of what the spade and pick may turn up, upon which the archæologist must chiefly rely. And if the naturalist in examining any object in nature, or any member of an organic body, whether with the naked eye or under the microscope, must guard against the "personal equation," the archæologist must be equally careful not to allow his preconceptions and his own desires to warp his vision and examination of the objects which his excavations lay bare. The second advice is almost still more important. He must never be satisfied with what he has found, nor cease from working when he has not found anything, until he has reached the virgin, the unworked, soil. It requires considerable experience to distinguish between worked and unworked soil, and it is important that every archæologist should inform himself of this difference, and practise the art of distinguishing between them with eye and hand. When there are small fragments of pottery or building-material to be found mixed in the earth, it is plain sailing; but when these indexes are wanting, it becomes much more difficult, for the characteristics of virgin soil vary with the actual nature of the earth in different parts, and the workmen are often more easily discouraged through unsuccess than is the morally and intellectually superior archæologist, and are prone to cry out, "tepeó!" ("Virgin soil!") long before they have really reached it.

However full of moments of thrilling excitement-moments that in their intensity have no equal in any other department of scientific work or of sport - the practice of excavation may be, there are days and even weeks of

discouraging ill success, which sorely try the patience of even the most sanguine and persevering. Thus perseverance is one of the qualities most needed by him who would dig for antiquities. But often there may be a call upon more active qualities, physical and intellectual, than perseverance, in order to withstand the serious hardships to which excavation in some parts of Greece must necessarily expose the digger. The excavations of the American School of Archæology of Athens at Eretria in Euboea during the months of February and March of last year, one of the results of which was the discovery of this interesting tomb, certainly were accompanied with severe hardships to all who took part in them. My colleague, Professor Richardson, who joined me in the second visit, during which we suffered most,-owing to the unusual inclemency of the weather, assured us that during his winter campaign in our own civil war he had not encountered such discomfort.

My first trip to Eretria, leaving Athens on February 1, was comparatively an easy one. It consisted of a two-days' ride across Attica, till we reached the harbor of the ancient Oropos, on the narrow strait, called Euripus, which separates Euboea from the mainland, and immediately opposite Eretria. Our sail across the Euripus, which ought to have occupied but an an hour and a quarter, took six hours, during which we had to rely upon the clumsy rowing of the fishermen who owned the heavy boat which carried us across. Dusk was just beginning to set in, and with it came rain, as we landed in the picturesque harbor of the small deserted village which now occupies the site of the proud city of Eretria, at one time the rival of Athens in prosperity and power. Situated on this narrow strip of sea, which looks like an inland lake, this plain, once so fertile, is bounded on the west by a range of mountains, beautiful in outline, while across the strait rise the classical hills and mountains of Attica and Boeotia, with Parnassos looming dimly in the far distance. This spot is at all times one of the most strikingly beautiful in Europe. Yet even the surpassing beauty of the site could not dispel the disappointment and annoyance which gained on us as we proceeded to make arrangements for a prolonged stay.

Mr. Fossum of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, a student of the School, who labored with enthusiasm and skill during the whole period of the excavation, had preceded us by a day, and was at the harbor to meet us. He was accompanied by a black-bearded man of western European appearance, who wore a gray ulster and a shooting-cap. At first sight he looked more like an Italian than like a Greek. I soon found that he was thoroughly Europeanized, and at

one time had been Greek vice-consul at some Italian port. He spoke Italian fairly well. He had proved hospitable to Mr. Fossum, and was very affable and effusive in his greeting to us. I at once asked for the demarch, or mayor, of the town, and was told that I should presently be taken to his house. I knew it was an important matter at once to gain the friendly coöperation and assistance of this the chief functionary in the district. Mr. Fossum, aided by his host, had already explored all the resources of the town, and had found them worse than scanty. Unlike all other villages, even in the remotest parts of Greece, it appeared impossible to find any peasant or inhabitant who for good pay would migrate to some kinsman's house, or allow himself to be relegated to the ground-floor of his hut, leaving to us the upper room, which is approached by wooden steps from without, to clean and to furnish with our camp-beds. The reason for this was that there were but few thrifty and working inhabitants, and most of the houses had been deserted. We looked at two of these deserted houses, but with the rain that had fallen, with no window-panes, with a broken-down fireplace and a rotting floor, they presented so miserable an aspect, and looked so unwholesome, that we could not think of making either of them our headquarters. We were not much comforted when we learned that the cause of this desertion was the unwholesomeness of this fever district.

It was one of the great, but equally unpracticable ideas of the late King Otho of Greece to transplant to this site of the ancient Eretria the brave inhabitants of the island of Psara (when, after the war of independence, this Greek island was not added to the Hellenic kingdom), granting to each a large piece of land, and laying out a city by the ancient harbor. In keeping with his generous though visionary character, the king undertook the work on a large scale. Engineers were called in, and laid out the city with broad streets and open squares, which, even at present, though there are only ruined houses and but few inhabitants, bear the names of University street, Marine Square, etc. He even proceeded to build there a large nautical school, which was meant to rear future mariners and admirals, and which now, without a roof, and with crumbling walls, stares with tragic irony at the deserted houses, a monument of noble quixotism. The energetic and vigorous members of this new Psara soon left, and are scattered over Greece and in distant parts of the globe, and have, many of them, amassed great wealth, retaining considerable pride in the patriotic traditions of their Psariot ancestors. The few hundred that have remained, chiefly women and children and old men, are unthrifty in character, with health

impaired by continuous fevers, and with faces that have malaria written upon them. Winter, in spite of the inclemency, was thus the safest season for the work of excavation.

The cause of all this unwholesomeness, from which, it must be known, Greece is comparatively free, are the swamps, close to the village, running down to the sea. Up to the present, whether from want of actual means or of energy, the proper steps for draining these swamps have not been taken. It is interesting to know that more than two thousand years ago, during the flourishing period of ancient Eretria, there appeared to be similar difficulties, with which the ancients coped successfully. Some twenty years ago an inscription was found at Chalcis which recites that a certain Chairephanes proposes to the Eretrians to drain the marsh. He himself will bear all the expense, on condition that he is allowed to cultivate the reclaimed land for ten years at a rental of thirty talents, to be paid to the city. The work is to be completed in four years. The citizens are to swear in the Temple of Apollo Daphnephoros that they will observe these terms, which terms and undertakings are to be inscribed and set up in the same temple. In case of war the ten years are to be lengthened by a period equivalent to its duration. Provisions follow for compensation to private persons whose land is taken, and for the making of a reservoir and sluices for irrigation. The concession is to be continued to his heirs in case of his death. Penalties are fixed for persons interfering with the execution of the work. Chairephanes, on his part, is also to furnish sureties for the execution of what he undertakes. The recital of the terms is followed by the decrees and oaths necessary to give effect to them, and then follows a long list of names, perhaps of persons who took the oaths. The date of this inscription has been settled as between the years 340 and 278 B. C.

But the knowledge of the difficulties with which the ancients had to contend did not lessen those which stood before us. I felt that the demarch-who has more or less absolute authority, acting as judge, and often as tyrant, in this district—was the only person who could help us, and I was astonished that he had not come down to the harbor to meet me. As a rule, the arrival of a stranger, especially one engaged in official work, is a matter of considerable excitement, and there is a formal reception by the local authorities, who act with most unbounded hospitality, and, if treated in the proper way, are of great service. I felt that our guide was not too eager to take us to the demarch, and it was only upon my emphatic demand that I was brought to his house. After the customary cup of coffee and spoonful of

jam had been offered us, I at once noticed the exceptional coldness of the demarch, who looked like a venerable and kindly man, and I realized that some mistake had been made. It was not long before I fathomed it, and further acquaintance with circumstances and personalities made it all clear.

I do not think there is any other country where political feeling, both local and central, runs so high as in Greece. This warmth of political passion is still more intensified by the fact that, in the choice of all candidates in this representative government, the family and its relations of kinship form the essential guide. And when it is borne in mind that nearly all the offices, local and central, down to the postmen and the attendants at museums, depend upon the success of each party, and that the family will at once run to their own member of parliament to help them in releasing one of their kinsmen who has been convicted of a crime, it will be understood how, in a small community where there are no industries but precarious agriculture and fishing, the political differences permeate every nook and cranny of daily life. This fact the foreigner who would excavate in Greece must always bear in mind. In dealing with it he must, from the very outset, manifest kindness, fairness, and firmness; and he must succeed in impressing these three qualities upon the people with whom he is dealing, so that they at once feel and are drawn out by the kindness, gain absolute faith in the fairness, and learn to realize and depend upon the firmness. The excavations of a sister institution in Greece have on several occasions been retarded, and almost completely suspended, owing to the charge (of course, unjustified) brought by the local authorities against the excavators that in the choice of their workmen they had been partial to that one of the two political parties which was not then in power. To mend matters, they made a further mistake in agreeing to see that half the workmen were chosen by a representative of one party and half by a delegate from the other, which of course led to further quarrels.

Now it soon became clear that Mr. Fossum's host, who had proved so affable and kind to him, was the brother-in-law of the previous mayor, and was himself aspiring to the mayoralty, and that there was an intense feud between the mayor in power and the party of his predecessor. When the mayor had been partly roused out of his mistrust and sulkiness he confessed that if we desired help and workmen we should go to the others, who, he informed us, were using us to gain popularity among the inhabitants. The difficulty was increased by the fact that, so far as practical help was concerned,

DRAWN BY EMIL CARSEN.
ENGRAVED BY R. C. COLLINS.
THE SITE OF THE TOMB OF ARISTOTLE BEFORE EXCAVATION.

the mayor's enemy, with his influence over the greater number of the workingmen, and the greater practical readiness which he had acquired abroad, could not be dispensed with. It was, then, our aim, while acquiring the friendship of both parties, to turn their animosity into rivalry as to who could help us the more. We brought both parties together, and made them a simple speech, in which we told them that we had not come from America to practise Greek politics, and could assure them that we had enough of that kind of thing in our own home; that we were friends of both parties, and came to confer a boon upon the place, as many years ago our fathers had actively helped the Greeks in their struggle for independence. I may say that an appeal to these memories always strikes on fertile soil among the Greek people. They can never forget the ship-loads of provisions and clothing that were sent from America during their war for independence. We further assured them that they would always find us fair, and that what we wanted were good workmen of whatever party. If they worked well they would be retained; if they worked badly they would be rejected. If they suspected our foremen of unfairness they could always appeal to us, where they would meet with justice; but that dig we would, and that without delay, and we counted upon their help, and felt sure they would not belie the hospitality for which they were noted. That evening Mr. Fossum dined and slept with the anti-mayor party, and I dined and slept with the mayor, who, after a frugal dinner, with an ample provision of resinated wine, waxed more and more cordial, and gave us reminiscences of his former life as captain of a brig. All his ancestors had been seamen, and his father's brig was the first Greek sailing vessel to enter an American harbor.

The next day we found our workmen, and even two horses with carts, and at once began our excavations at the theater, which have since proved so strikingly successful in disclosing remains that have a most important bearing upon the much-debated question of the arrangement of the Greek stage. The work having fairly started, I soon returned to the School business at Athens, leaving Mr. Fossum in charge. Nearly a fortnight elapsed before I was able to return to Eretria, and it was then that our hardships really reached their extreme point.

On this occasion I was joined by my colleague at the School, Professor Richardson of VOL. XLIV. 55.

[graphic]

Dartmouth College, and by Mr. Brownson of Yale University, one of the students of the School. We sailed out of the Peiræus on the evening of Wednesday, February 18. The weather had been somewhat stormy during the day, but seemed fairly settled when we set sail. Now the voyage from the Peiræus to Chalcis usually occupies from nine to ten hours. Although, during the night, we had every reason to be aware of the inclemency of the weather, upon awaking early in the morning we expected to be very near Chalcis. But we were much astonished to find the vessel rolling and pitching in a very violent manner, which we knew was quite impossible in the sheltered Euripus. It was by no means pleasant to be informed that we had not got further than Cape Sunium,-a few miles from the Peiræus,-and that, in fact, we were then engaged in an apparently futile effort to round that point. It was blowing a hurricane, and we were trying to sail right in the teeth of the wind. Our captain seemed somewhat uneasy, and for the present was confining his ambition to an attempt at reaching the harbor of Laurium, which is only a few miles by rail from Athens, there to await better weather, as it was impossible for the ship to cope with such a storm. With full steam on, and with much puffing and staggering of the vessel, which was fairly seaworthy, we succeeded, at ten o'clock in the morning, in reaching the harbor of Laurium. But even in this harbor we were not completely sheltered from the storm. It was impossible to send a boat ashore, or in fact to have any communication with the mainland, and we lay there tossing about, with some English and other coaling vessels close to us, in constant danger

of drifting into one another by the dragging of anchors. The whole of that day and night and the next day we remained in the harbor, and I really believe that we would have remained there for another day and night if our provisions had not given out, and we had not all joined in urging the captain to make a bold attempt at weathering the point, which would bring us into the Euripus. At one o'clock in the morning of the third day we steamed out of the harbor, and in six or seven hours suc

DRAWN BY W. H. DRAKE.

GOLD EAR-RINGS.

ceeded in reaching the Euripus, landing at Chalcis in the rain and wind at about eleven o'clock in the forenoon.

With a number of boys and men carrying our baggage, we walked through the rain and mud to a small cook-shop, where we proceeded to take what we then considered a very sumptuous meal. We were eager to push on, and at once began to seek for horses in order to continue our journey to Eretria, but we were informed that the roads were thick with mud, and that the stream at Vasilico, half-way between Chalcis and Eretria, was so swollen by the rain and snow that to ford it would be impossible—in short, we met with flat refusals wherever we asked for horse, mule, or donkey. At last the owner of a carriage told us that he would take us as far as the river of Vasilico, and assured us that there he would find for us horses or a cart which could carry us across, and thence to Eretria.

Having made our bargain, and acceded to his unusually high demand, we started on our drive about two o'clock in the afternoon. All went well until, after an hour and a half, the coachman pulled up in the middle of a muddy field, and blandly informed us that we had arrived at our destination. I had noticed that as we were nearing this point he had asked a rapid question of a stray shepherd, or of a peasant lounging in front of his hut, and when I asked him where the horses were which would take us across the river, and where the river was, he told us that the river was some five hundred yards further on, and that we must see whether we could get horses or not; that he

had fulfilled his part of the contract, and had taken us to the river of Vasilico; that now he wished to be paid, and that we must clear out. This, after much wrangling and exciting talk on his part, ended in our meeting him with MacMahon's words, "J'y suis et j'y reste" ("Here I am and here I remain"). We refused to leave the carriage until he had provided the horses. The other alternative was that he should take us back to Chalcis and make proper arrangements the next day. He angrily gave in, but assured us that we should have to pay the same large sum for each journey. We told him that this would be decided by the magistrate of Chalcis, and so we all drove back in the rain and at once proceeded to the police station. With some difficulty the judge, who was smoking his narghile in the adjoining café, was found, and, coming into the dingy court-room, proceeded to make and to offer us some coffee. We then sent for the irate coachman, who appeared on the scene, and seated about a small brazier, with several lounging and interfering Greeks standing about us, the legal proceedings began. We mustered up our best Greek, throwing in here and there a touch. of Demosthenes and Æschines, which, I fear, was lost upon the unclassical Greeks; and, after allowing the coachman to lay his charge before the court with much gesture and vehemence, we opened our case, turning the defense into an accusation. We claimed that, owing to the breach of contract in not providing, as had been promised, means for the continuance of our journey at Vasilico, we had lost our day, and had suffered much discomfort; had to defray the expenses of a night's lodging at Chalcis, and had caused our friends at Eretria considerable anxiety. We were therefore justified in claiming heavy damages from the false coachman, who had dealt with us not as a Greek but as a Turkish brigand. But, considering his youth, and recollecting the friendly relations which subsisted between the American republic and the kingdom of Greece, and swayed by the affection which we felt for the whole Greek people, especially the inhabitants of Euboea, we should not press our suit, and should only demand that on the next day we be put in a position to continue our journey. We were prepared not only to waive our claim that any money should be paid to us, but we might even give the handsome remuneration which we had promised to allow for one journey as covering the two. When we had finished, the judge gave a long pull at his pipe, blew the smoke through his nostrils, and declared that there was much justice in what we had said, but that he knew the lad (who was over thirty years of age) well; that he knew his father and mother, and that he was a good lad; that we

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