Chapter I: Foreword

Now and again the world is stirred by a discovery such as that of the Tomb of Tutankhamen by Mr. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. In the following pages I have sought to reveal some of the romance of excavation, to tell the fascinating story of the men who have gone out into the desert places and dug up long-lost cities and the fabled treasure of ancient kings. Brilliant men, who have played their part in unearthing the glories of the past, have written many volumes on the subject which is nearest their hearts, and if, after closing this book, the reader and student feel a desire to seek them out, I shall be content. In conclusion, I wish to thank Major Kenneth Mason, M.C., R.E., The British School at Athens, and The Trustees of the British Museum, for their kindness in allowing me to use various illustrations in this volume.

DAVID MASTERS.

1923.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE

The Story of the Rosetta Stone—How it was found by
the French and passed into possession of Great
Britain—The puzzling picture writing of the ancient
Egyptians which no one could read—The English
medical man, Dr. T. Young, who began to tear the
secret from the Rosetta Stone, and the astounding
work of François Champollion, who built up the
first hieroglyphic dictionary 1

CHAPTER II

The Ruins of Egypt—Men who are using their eyes to
bring back to us the glories of the past—Papyrus, the
paper of olden times, and how it was made—Bits of
pottery worth their weight in gold; how they act as
calendars—The cleverness of native thieves 12

CHAPTER III

Shifting 70,000 tons of rubble to find the tomb of Tutankhamen—The
dreadful monotony of digging in vain—A
lucky decision which led to the discovery of
Tutankhamen’s dazzling treasure—The genius of
Professor Flinders Petrie, and his great finds at
Abydos which the French overlooked—The mystery
of a Cretan pot 22

CHAPTER IV

Signs which tell men where to dig—Egypt’s wonderful
climate, which preserves things almost for ever—Why
the Nile was worshipped—The annual floods and how
they were watched by the people of old—The strange
adventures of Cleopatra’s Needle—Pagans who
anticipated Christian teachings 32

CHAPTER V

Graves which make history—The great age of Egyptian
civilization—Mud that tells a story—The first king
of Egypt—The romance of the tombs—The Book of
the Dead which contains some Christian commandments—The
sleight of hand of ancient scribes 42

CHAPTER VI

Wonders of the Pyramids—The mystery surrounding
them and a simple explanation—How the Pyramids
were built—Amazing accuracy of architects who lived
6000 years ago—The secret entrance found at last by
thieves—Why the Pyramids were one of the plagues
of Egypt—The problem of the Great Sphinx—The
Colossi of Memnon that guard a vanished temple 54

CHAPTER VII

Thebes, the one-time capital of Egypt, then and now—Armies
to transport stones—Handling the gigantic
obelisks—Controlling the floods thousands of years
ago—An endless battle of wits between the Pharaohs
and the tomb robbers—The greatest discovery of
Royal mummies ever made—Romantic lives of two
famous men—The appalling desolation of the Valley
of the Tombs of the Kings 71

CHAPTER VIII

A despised statue that realised £10,000—Some American
discoveries—Finding treasure valued at £3,000,000—How
chance led Professor Flinders Petrie to a long-lost
city—His weird adventure with a mummy—The
tablets of Tell-el-Amarna—Dramatic moments at the
opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb—The mummy that
vanished—How relics are preserved—Ancient ladies
who painted their faces in modern fashion—A marvellous
knife made of stone 91

CHAPTER IX

The mystery of cuneiform writing—A young English
soldier who solved an age-old puzzle—Rawlinson’s
work on the Rock at Behistun—Perched on the
verge of a precipice—His thrilling escape from death—How
he read the unknown Persian writing that
revealed the civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria 105

CHAPTER X

Hills which are buried cities—Romance of Sir Austin
Henry Layard—The young English lawyer who went
into the desert and dug up Nineveh of old—The
Arab who laughed at the men who hunted broken
bricks, and the remarkable result 119

CHAPTER XI

How Layard, with £60, uncovered a lost civilization—A
wild boar hunt which was not quite what it seemed—Finding
the great winged bull—Deserts that were
once the Garden of Eden—Hardships and adventures
among the Arabs—Mining a way into Nineveh—Difficulty
of transporting the mighty Assyrian
statues—Ancient letters like modern puppy biscuits—The
clever Sumerian canal builders—Rise and fall of
Babylon, and the doom of Nineveh 129

CHAPTER XII

A mussel shell which proved that scientists were wrong—The
forerunner of modern Manchester in the heart
of ancient Mesopotamia—Finding the treasure of
the Moon God at Ur—The Tower of Babel—When
Nebuchadnezzar reigned in Babylon and Daniel saw
the writing on the wall—The Code of Hammurabi
and the Ten Commandments 149

CHAPTER XIII

Discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann—His amazing
life—The grocer’s boy who wept over Homer, starved
himself to buy books, and eventually made a fortune
to carry out his boyish dream of finding the city of
which Homer sang—How scientists laughed at him—The
astounding treasure of Troy and the wealth of
Mycenæ 161

CHAPTER XIV

Schliemann vindicated and honoured—His 100,000 relics
from Troy—The Greek sculpture of Apollo—Glories
of ancient Greece—When Phidias, the world’s greatest
sculptor, carved the most beautiful statues ever seen—Turks
who smashed them for sport—Romance
of the Elgin Marbles—Lord Elgin’s fight for the
matchless relics 176