Kozan And Mosque

Towards Kozan

Known in the historical sources as Sis, Kozan was one of the leading towns of the middle Ages. It is possible to see the vestiges of scores of churches and early period Turkish Islamic mosques in this town, which prospered thanks to its proximity to the trade routes.

Cilicia Monastery

Aka Sis Monastery, this building at Kozan was one of the region’s leading centers of Christianity between the 13th and the early 20th century. Believed to be the source of a number of legends and rituals in the area and rumored to boast over three hundred chambers, the monastery today consists only of its outer walls.

Hoskadem Mosque

Hoskadem Mosque is a fine example of Mamluk architecture, few examples of which are found in Anatolia but which enhanced the region’s architectural richness. It was built in the 15th century by the Emir Abdullah Hoskadem, one of the administrators in Anatolia of the Egypt-centered Mamluk State. Thanks to a series of repairs over time, it has managed to survive to our day. Like most of the early period Anatolian mosques, Hoskadem is also built on a rectangular plan.

Sabanci Central Mosque

Adana is among the places in Anatolia first reached by Islam. One of the main points of passage for the Syria based Arab armies, Adana and its mosques have a past going back very far. And Sabanci Central Mosque, completed and opened for worship in 1998, is of a splendor befitting the city today. Capable of accommodating some 28,000 worshipers in its interior and exterior spaces, it is an outstanding example of classical Ottoman architecture built in our day, illustrating the fine points of the Islamic religion in the number of its minarets, windows, domes and semi-domes.

Koreken Church

This building is one of a relative few among the scores of church ruins large and small that have managed to resist time at Kozan, also known down the ages as Sis. Twenty minutes by car from Kozan center, it is also known among the locals as the ‘Kirkkapi’ or ‘Forty-Door’. Church.

Source: https://balkan.tourhints.info/kozan/

This Sounded Promising

It seemed to me that his Majesty was a very long time at his toilet; but at last we were rewarded. Abruptly from the glass porch he appeared in Euro-pean dress, with very baggy trousers much too long in the leg and a voluminous black frock coat. He stood for a moment holding the frock-coat with both hands, as if wishing to wrap himself up in it.

 Then, still grasping it, he walked quickly down the steps, his legs seeming almost to ripple beneath the weight of his body, and stepped heavily into the brougham, which swung upon its springs. The horses moved, the carriage passed close to me, and again I gazed at this mighty sovereign, while the Eastern pilgrims salaamed to the ground. Mechanically he saluted.

His large face was still unnaturally blank, and yet somehow it looked kind. And I felt that this old man was weary and sad, that his long years of imprisonment had robbed him of all vitality, of all power to enjoy; that he was unable to appreciate the pageant of life in which now, by the irony of fate, he was called to play the central part. All alone he sat in the bright-colored brougham, carrying a flaccid hand to his fez and gazing blankly before him. The carriage passed out of the courtyard, but it did not go up the hill to the palace.

“The sultan/’ said a voice, “is going out

into the country to rest and to divert himself.”

To rest, perhaps; but to divert himself!

After that day I often saw before me a large

white envelop, and the most expressive people in the world were salaaming

before it.

STAMBOUL, THE CITY OF MOSQUES

MOSQUE OF THE YENI-VALIDE-JAMISSI, CONSTANTINOPLE 

STAMBOUL, THE CITY OF MOSQUES

STAMBOUL is wonderfully various. Compressed

between two seas, it contains sharp, even brutal contrasts: of beauty and

ugliness, grandeur and squalor, purity and filth, silence and uproar, the most

delicate fascination and a fierceness that is barbaric. It can give you peace

or a sword. The sword is sharp and cruel; the peace is profound and exquisite.

Every day early I escaped from the uproar

of Pera and sought in Stamboul a place of forgetfulness. There are many such

places in the city and on its outskirts: the mosques, the little courts and

gardens of historic tombs; the strange and forgotten Byzan-tine churches, lost

in the maze of wooden houses; the cemeteries vast and melancholy, where the

dead sleep in the midst of dust and confusion, guarded by giant cypresses; the

lonely and shadowed ways by the walls and the towers; the poetic glades and the

sun-kissed terraces of Seraglio Point.

Which his feelings underwent

This, along with a few other secret re-medies which I shall apply, will surely compel the spirit to depart.” These preparations were accordingly made by the royal command; and when the day, being Sunday morning, arrived, the stage was seen crowded with people of rank and the square with the people. Mass was celebrated, and the possessed princess conducted between two bishops, with a train of nobles, to the spot. Now, when Roderigo beheld so vast a concourse of people, together with all this awful preparation, he was almost struck dumb with astonishment, and said to himself, “I wonder what that cowardly wretch is thinking of doing now?

Does he imagine I have never seen finer things than these in the regions above —ay! and more horrid things below? However, I will soon make him repent it, at all events.” Matteo then approaching him, besought him to come out; but Roderigo replied, “Oh, you think you have done a fine thing now! What do you mean to do with all this trumpery? Can you escape my power, think you, in this way, or elude the vengeance of the king? Thou poltroon villain, I will have thee hanged for this!” And as Matteo continued the more to entreat him, his adversary still vilified him in the same strain.

Roderigo pricked up

So Matteo, believing there was no time to be lost, made the sign with his hat, when all the musicians who had been stationed there for the purpose suddenly struck up a hideous din, and ringing a thousand peals, approached the spot. Roderigo pricked up his ears at the sound, quite at a loss what to think, and rather in a perturbed tone of voice he asked Matteo what it meant. To this the latter returned, apparently much alarmed: “Alas, dear Roderigo, it is your wife; she is coming for you!” It is impossible to give an idea of the anguish of Roderigo’s mind and the strange alteration which his feelings underwent at that name.

The moment the name of “wife” was pronounced, he had no longer presence of mind to consider whether it were probable, or even possible, that it could be she. Without replying a single word, he leaped out and fled in the utmost terror, leaving the lady to herself, and preferring rather to return to his infernal abode and render an account of his adventures than run the risk of any further sufferings and vexations under the matrimonial yoke.

And thus Belphagor again made his appearance in the infernal domains, bearing ample testimony to the evils introduced into a household by a wife; while Matteo, on his part, who knew more of the matter than the devil, returned triumphantly home, not a little proud of the victory he had achieved.

Source: https://travel.doturkey.com/belphagor-part-9/

Participation within the debates is fairly nicely confined

Participation within the debates is fairly nicely confined to the Ministers and ex-Ministers. There can hardly be stated to be any organised Parliamentary opposition; within the current Sobranje the variety of avowed opponents of the late Authorities didn’t exceed a dozen.

The Ministers suggest their measures and clarify their coverage at any time when they assume correct, and if they’re met by any critical objections on the a part of the deputies, these objections are usually eliminated at personal interviews between the Ministers and the malcontent deputies, as a substitute of by dialogue in public debate. The deputies, as a physique, are, in accordance with the nationwide character, not hooked on speaking for speaking’s sake.

Their conception of Parliamentary responsibility is to attract their salaries of sixteen shillings a day and to vote with the Ministry to whom, in the principle, they owe their election. There are, as I’ve already said, sure limits past which the assist of the deputies can’t be counted upon with confidence. However inside these limits they contemplate their responsibility fulfilled in the event that they vote steadily and solidly because the Ministry direct. Save below very distinctive circumstances, it’s only upon questions of finance that there’s something approaching to Parliamentary criticism and dialogue.

Hardly be thought to be a

consultant meeting

Based on our English concepts a Chamber, primarily nominated by the Authorities in workplace, can hardly be thought to be a consultant meeting. I can’t doubt, from all I heard on each aspect, that the elections are continually, if not habitually, manipulated within the curiosity of the celebration in energy. Using the phrase celebration is, I could add, calculated to convey an faulty impression. In our sense of the phrase, there aren’t any events in Bulgaria, Events there imply the partisans of I politician or one other. Within the nice majority of cases the electors is not going to take the difficulty to vote; and the elections, if left to care for themselves, would most likely outcome within the return of a Chamber representing an insignificant minority of the nation. This hazard is obviated by the truth that the elections will not be left to care for them-selves.

For instance my which means let me cite one case out of a rating of comparable circumstances reported to me. My informant on this explicit occasion was an outdated English resident, who had handed most of a protracted life within the nation, and who, although very pleasant to the brand new order of issues, is ready that renders him completely detached to the favour or disfavour of the Authorities.

This gentleman assured me that not very way back, on the event of the election in his city of a consultant to the Sobranje, he took the difficulty of counting the variety of electors who introduced themselves on the polling sales space. Based on his remark, some 200 electors out of a complete of 10,000 recorded their votes. On the ballot being declared, it was introduced that the numbers for the Ministerial and opposition candidate had been respectively 3500 and 3000. On commenting afterwards on this discrepancy to the returning officer, who was a private good friend of his personal, he remarked that he himself had solely seen 200 electors current themselves on the ballot.

The reply, given in excellent good religion, was to this impact: “You certainly have to be mistaken in your counting, for there have been actually 500 real votes recorded.” In like vogue it appears to be admitted that on numerous events, when opposition candidates have been returned by small votes, the elections have been annulled on one presence or one other by the order of the administration, and recent elections have been held, at which care was taken to keep away from the recurrence of the same mishap. I imagine that practices of this type have been widespread below each Bulgarian administration.

Filmekimi

A special development for its 10th year In its 10th year, Filmekimi goes beyond Istanbul’s city limits and takes the best and most current examples of cinema to five more cities in Turkey. The special selection comprised of films in the Filmekimi and Istanbul Film Festival programme will be shown in Izmir on 13-16 October, in Bursa and Konya on 20-23 October and in Trabzon and Diyarbakir on 27-30 October.

This year’s prominent films include the Dardenne Brothers’ ‘The Kid with a Bike’ which shared the Cannes Grand Jury Award with Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘Once Upon A Time in Anatolia’, the latest film by Lars von Trier ‘Melancholia’, the latest film by Jaffar Panahi ‘This Is Not a Film’ and ‘This Must Be the Place’ directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring Sean Penn.

The festival will also showcase the latest works of prominent directors

Pirates on the Caribbean:

On Stranger tides

We had captain Jack Sparrow once again. He runs from adventure to adventure in the fourth of Pirates of the Caribbean series that swept the world, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean:

On Stranger Tides’, instead of the stars of the first films in the series, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly, it is Peneiope Cruz who accompanies Johnny Depp.

Bestsellers in movies

1- Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides 

Rob Marshall

2- Rio / Carlos Saldanha

3- incir Regeli Aytag /Murat Agirlar

4- Cars /John Lasseter

5- Limitless / Neil Burger

6- Biutiful Alejandro/Gonzalez Inarritu

7- Kaybedenler Kulubu / Tolga Ornek

8- Ask Tesadufleri Sever/Omer Faruk Sorak

9- Pirates of the Caribbean Quadrilogy

10- The King’s Speech 

Tom Hooper

Gulben Ergen

Gulben Ergen, who had been away from the music scene for a long time, has reunited with her fans. Two years on from her 2009 album. ‘Uzun Yol sarkilarf, Gulben Ergen has instantly achieved success with ‘Hayat Bi Gun…’ The album contains 10 songs. Yart Qiptak composed by Serdar Ortac has not taken long to be the most frequently requested and played song on the radio.

Source: https://private.ensartourguide.com/filmekimi/

Wartime Austerity

The Jabur tribe, who were our neighbors, had the most liberal ideas about private ownership and there was usually a good deal of shooting during the night. It was a period of wartime austerity: so the tires of our car for instance were worth something over a hundred pounds apiece in the market, and anything else valuable had to be kept chained to our beds.

In addition, there were curious weather

conditions. One night there was a freak storm of wind, of the sort for which

the district is well known; and the next morning the whole contents of our

kitchen, including heavy cooking pots, were recovered from a corn field almost

a quarter of a mile away. It can be imagined that these conditions were not

ideal for patient and methodical work. However, this was certainly, what was

required.

The conformation of the Hassuna mound was

an extraordinarily interesting one, since it perfectly illustrated the

phenomenon, which we have previously described as a “shift in the focus of

occupation.” It was possible to understand this before starting to excavate.

Judging from the preponderance of “Ninevite I” pottery on the surface, the

earliest occupation of the site was on the east side at the apex of the

triangle formed by the convergence of the two little river beds, and it

extended from there up to the summit of the mound.

Latest inhabitants

However, the lower slopes of the mound on the west side were covered with polychrome sherds of Tell Halaf ware, which one assumed to be considerably later in date. One could see therefore that, restricted by the enclosing banks of the two streams, the village had in later times expanded westwards and that traces of its latest inhabitants would be found low down on the western flank. Moreover, this was in fact exactly how it proved when we came to excavate.

The “Ninevite I” occupation had first

created a tiny mound at the apex of the triangle: but the Tell Halaf village,

which was bigger, had spread westwards down onto the level ground behind. On

the west side therefore, the earliest remains were deeply buried: but to the

east, they lay directly beneath the surface.

Therefore, it was to the east that we began

excavating: and here we ran straight into some of the most difficult wall

tracing that we had ever experienced. There was a cluster of small primitive

houses, but they were built of pies clay, without plastering, and the material

of which the walls were made proved almost indistinguishable from the fallen

debris, which filled the rooms. It needed all the ingenuity of our best wall

tracers to recover the plan.

Temple at Telpuqair

We have already mentioned, for instance in connection with the smaller temple at Telpuqair, the mosaic cones which were made of baked clay with their ends dipped in various colored paints. However, here at Eridu, the cones were of colored stone, every one laboriously chipped into shape and polished at the end. These were the normal sized cones about six to eight inches long.

But there were also others up to a foot

long, cast in gypsum; and these had their projecting ends sheathed in what must

have been polished copper. There were also other kinds of inlay ornament as

rich as the much later decoration of the AL ‘Ubaid temple.

Logically, the place to look for the

temple, we thought, would be at the northwestern end of the platform where the

later ziggurat stood. Even Campbell Thompson’s report encouraged one in this

view. For, of a trench, which he dug in this area, he said “So much puddled

clay, the remains of dissolved mud brick, appeared just beneath the surface in

this trench that it was early abandoned.”

Sure enough, examining the surface at the

base of the ziggurat ruins, we found the usual promising area of solid mud

brickwork. In this case, it could be seen to extend as much as thirty yards on

either side of the ziggurat, and two weeks had to be spent in articulating

every brick over this entire area. The result was extra ordinarily puzzling.

Ziggurat ruins

Projecting from beneath the southern corner of the ziggurat ruins, one could recognize the plan of a rather unexpectedly small building of the temple type. However, this was surrounded by no less than five concentric rectangles of brickwork, each constructed of a different type and size of brick, while the outermost casing was faced with a sloping revetment of stone.

Much thought and discussion were necessary

before we came to understand that each of these casings represented an extension

and enlargement of the brick emplacement on which successive presynaptic

temples had stood. All had been levelled to the ground when the foundations of

the ziggurat were laid including the last and most pretentious of all; a

building whose platform was faced with stone and, as we now discovered,

ornamented with panels of burnished bronze mosaic.

This was of course a great disappointment.

Now, at least we could turn with heightened curiosity to the small temple whose

ruins had survived, nested as it were in the center of the encircling later

platforms. In addition, our first and most satisfactory discovery was that it

contained rich deposits of pottery not the dull monochrome of the Proto

literate or Uruk periods, but the painted ceramic of AL ‘Ubaid itself.

BOSPHORUS IN ISTANBUL

Trip to Bosphorus

The visitors must absolutely take a trip to Bosphorus by ferry. The ferry passes below the two bridges, visits the landings of neighbor hoods as beautiful as paintings, and creeps away from one continent to the other, one shore to another during the whole afternoon.

The commercial ships, generally with Russian flag that want to get in touch with the world through Bosphorus pass nearby you. A marvellous panorama that changes in every kilometer is awiting for you, once you pass below the Bosphorus Bridge. “Yah”s, the wooden waterside residences began to be built at the Bosphorus shores beginning from the 17th century. The best ones are between Cengelkoy and Kanlica, on the Asian side. Most of them were restorated. Especially ‘Ostrorog Yalisi’ at Kandilli and ‘Amcazade Most of the yalis remained until today are from the 19th century. The yalis lived their golden age during the Tulip Age, the period of Sultan Ahmet UI, interested in art, in the 18™ century.

The yalis are built in harmony with the environment so that to meet the demands of the dwellers that wish to sit and rest, the warm weather and the flow of the water reinforces this pleasure. It is possible to understand this from the scenes, reflecting a kind of Ottoman ‘summer ambience’, depicted to the walls and ceilings of the rooms. Unfortunately, these pictures give a feeling of nostalgia today. The wooden structure of the buildings is completely suitable for this land of life. The wooden framework and railings carved artistically, prevents the hot weather coming in. The interior of the buildings are also full of ornaments and wooden carvings decorated with gold. Rooms are generally furnished with low divans (sofas) and carpets. In the middle is a brazier, ready for the colder days. Besides, the landscape gardening is very important.

The gardens are full of palm trees, pines, cedars due to the appropriate weather conditions; oleanders, tulips, magnolias are the main adornments of the gardens; the walls of the small arbours are covered with ivy, and the smell of honeysuckles surrounds everywhere. Departure from Bogazici Iskelesi at Eminonu; everday 10.35 AM, 12.00 PM and 13.35 PM;

Besiktas everday 10.50 AM-12.15 PM and 13.50 PM Moda Saturday-Sunday 10.40 AM Kadikoy 11.00 AM

Strolling through Istanbul

Begin the days you will spend Istanbul by visiting Galata Tower.

Enjoy the dreamlike panorama of this giant city, whose not only showy but also clearly spread topography is below your feet, while leaning against the handrails: The mosques and minarets of the Topkapi palace is rising above the hills of thr old city, right across you. In front of it is the natural bay formed by Golden I born, embracing with the Sea of Marmara; and in the horizon, The Princes’ Isles hardly visible in the must.

On the left, across the Bosphorus in Istanbul Kadikoy and Uskudarcan be recognized, if you look to the a bit more to the north, you can see the bridge that connects Europe and Asia. The distant whistles of the ferries mix into each other. You will begin to notice how unique Istanbul is due to the calming view of Galata Tower. There is probably no visitor who wouldn’t be eager to know about this extraordinary city, to feel it and to see the secret comers of its life.

Source: https://ensaristanbul.com/bosphorus-istanbul/

Royal Tombs

And it is these other attainments which now

particularly concern us, if we are to recall the success of his many

excavations. Readers interested in archaeology all over the world know that, in

the Royal Tombs

at Ur, Woolley found a treasure almost as rich and splendid

as that of Tut ankh amen’s tomb in Egypt. Students without number have seen

pictures of the great “death pits” with their retinues of ornamentally dressed

attendants and the precious objects buried in the tombs themselves.

But how many outside the archaeological

profession know that the Royal Cemetery alone revealed more than two thousand

ordinary graves and that the contents and particulars of every one of these

were scrupulously recorded and afterwards published by Woolley himself?

And how many know that the royal graves

were actually discovered during his very first season’s work; but that Woolley

did not feel technically competent to excavate them until four years later. In

his excavation catalogue, the first hoard of objects from one of the “death

pits” is dated 1922 and the entry is significantly headed jewellery in gold,

lapis lazuli and camelian; seventh century the date of course being

approximately two thousand years too late. Having once seen this material,

Woolley sealed off that part of his excavation and temporarily transferred his

activities elsewhere.

Reckless and dishonest

He realised that his workmen were still

ignorant, reckless and dishonest. And besides, as he said himself,

“The archaeology of Mesopotamia was then in its infancy and there was no means

of dating the small objects that came out of the graves. Our object was to get

history, not to fill museum cases with miscellaneous curios, and history could

not be got until both we and our men were duly trained.” It was four years

before Woolley felt that his proficiency in the technique of Mesopotamian

excavation and the training of his men justified a new approach to the great

cemetery.

Furthermore, this fine example of

professional restraint was shown by Woolley in the face of an everpresent need

for publicity. For he worked at a period when the acquisition of funds for

excavating depended very largely on the munificence of private individuals and

the interest of wealthy newspapers.

Under these circumstances it was essential for

him to publicise his finds and his lively imagination invested him with a

natural faculty for publicity. And so, through the pages of the daily press

came the exciting and stimulating story of how, in his deep sounding beneath

the Sumerian cemetery at Ur he had found traces of the Biblical Flood and of a

race of people living before the Flood.

Bulgaria Vacations

Khans, Tzars, Orpheus, Spartacus, Thracians, Levski, Botev … All of them start with capital ‘B’ for Bulgaria. These are also the places that you can see on your Bulgaria vacations.

Bulgaria is the Thracians – great warriors and horsemen that were feared and outsiders respected them. It is also the country of accomplished artists and farmers who grew wealthy from trading jewelry, copper and gold. Their fierce weaponry is in archaeological museums around the country. Anyone who likes to see it, can do it there. Many tombs, discovered mainly in central Bulgaria – the region of Kazanlak and Shipka, reveal the Thracians’ rituals, their beliefs. A gold mask and a bronze head of a Thracian King have been found there.

Interesting Bulgaria; Places to see and things to do on Bulgaria vacations are waiting you to discover them. These are Rila Mountain that gave home to the Rila Monastery, the magnificent holy cloister, unity of spirituality, culture and nature. Then Rupite – a source of energy. Also the medieval archaeological complex Perperikon – the ancient monumental megalithic structures. Certainly the ‘Kukeri’ Festival – costumed men who perform rituals intending to scare the evil away and to announce the coming of spring. Another one is Nestinarstvo – a fire ritual that barefoot men and women (nestinari) perform on zharava (smouldering embers)… Visit Bulgaria and experience these places and take more mystical Bulgaria tours!

Bulgaria vacations in the sea of events, Golden times Bulgaria Vacations
Yes, good foundations had been laid. Time for the invaders and conquerors. First the Greeks, followed by the Scythians. Then the Romans, Byzantines and the Turks. (Istanbul guided tours) Nobody had ever spared Bulgaria. All of them left their indelible marks on the lands of that country. For us, the successors, to see, learn and know our Bulgaria travel experience.

The above text has been copied from www.enmarbg.com. ; For the rest of the story you can visit link Bulgaria Vacations.

Megiddo in Palestine

A photograph taken while this operation was in progress has some technical interest, because it was taken with a camera suspended from an ordinary kite. I had at the time recently visited the Oriental Institute excavations at Megiddo in Palestine, and watched the process of taking air photographs from a stationary kite balloon.

But it seemed to me, both that the

apparatus involved in this experiment must be extremely expensive and that a

lot of unnecessary time was wasted on the operation. My own attempt to simplify

the process was surprisingly successful. I used two six foot naval kites,

flying in tandem, and suspended beneath them a cheap camera with an automatic

release and swivels for retaining it in a vertical position. Admittedly this

was no more than a rough and ready way of getting low air verticals; but out of

some scores of pictures which were taken in this way, a dozen or so proved

extremely revealing and useful.

One could, for instance, recover quite

large sections of the ancient town plan, by photographing the unexcavated

surface of the mound after rain; for the tops of the walls were found to dry

and change colour much more rapidly than the filling in between, (PL. IS)

But, while still engaged in recording the

Abu Temple at Tell Asmar, I had at the same time become involved in what proved

to be a much more frustrating operation. Eshnunna, which is the ancient name of

Tell Asmar, had been an important city state during the Isin Larsa dynasty at

the beginning of the second millennium B.C; and we were also excavating a

complex of public buildings belonging to that period, known by the name of its

original founder, Gimil Sin.

Here, as so often happens in Mesopotamia,

the chronology of the stratified remains presented very little difficulty,

because the buildings at successive structural periods were constructed partly

of kiln baked bricks stamped with apictograph inscription bearing the name of

the prince who had rebuilt it.

Not only was his name given, but very often

also that of his father and son; so that a genealogical table was comparatively

easy to establish. But another element in these texts proved more puzzling. It

wTas the repeated references to another and evidently much larger temple

dedicated to Tishpak, the patron god of

Eshnunna. This seemed, (like the Marduk

Temple at Babylon, for instance), to have been the most important building in

the city.

Secondary and subsidiary purpose

This then accounts for the primary theme of

the book. However, it has a secondary and subsidiary purpose, which I am also

most anxious to make effective. For, in the category already mentioned, of

handbooks dealing with the subject of archaeological method and sometimes with

the history of its evolution.

Due to the writers’ efforts to draw an

effective contrast between the orderly progress of efficiency in Europe and the

misguided vandalism in the past of untrained diggers in other parts of the

world, less than justice has been done to some of the great figures in Near

Eastern archaeology during our own time.

A secondary purpose of the book then, is to

recall that, in the Near East also, there have been great and methodically

brilliant archaeologists since the time of General Pitt Rivers. 

Mound Formation and Excavation

In the Near East, even a peasant mentality

sees in the familiar aspect of its mounds some dim relationship to the

elementary principles of life and death. Alternatively, their summits may accommodate

the activities of village life or provide dignified isolation for a graveyard.

For more sophisticated western travelers on

the other hand, their silhouettes become the emblems of prolonged human

survival. If their character is to be properly understood, it will be necessary

first to consider how they come to exist at all; and secondly why they are to

be found only in this particular part of the world. For this purpose it is

momentarily essential to adapt one’s mind to the peculiar conditions of life in

these antique lands.

It is of course in the nature of human

habitations that their prolonged occupation results in the accumulation of

debris, and that, particularly if they are repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, an

elevation is gradually created which did not previously exist.

However, the speed and degree of this

process seems to be governed by two regionally distinctive factors. One is the

habits and traditions of the inhabitants and the other the form of building

material which they habitually employ.

Here in England for instance, many dwelling

houses have been occupied without interruption for a score or so of

generations. A large part of my own home was built of stone in the fourteenth

century and remained unchanged for more than four hundred years. But when, in

about eighteen hundred, it was added to and largely rebuilt, as much care was

taken to remove the resulting debris as has been taken ever since to dispose of

domestic refuse.

Planned and photographed

As for the all-important section of the filling, from which the history of the building is to be reconstructed, this will already have been recorded by leaving a clean vertical face to the “dumpling” and occasionally linking it to the wall face. The process just described is continued from room to room until the whole building is exposed. It must then itself be planned and photographed.

It is well to remember that a building may

have been more than once re paved, and that several rises in floor level may

have occurred during a prolonged occupation. It is not unusual therefore, to

find a number of superimposed pavements of brick or tamped earth, at intervals

of a few inches. Each of these must of course be removed in turn and the finds

as sedated with it carefully segregated.

At the base of the wall a trial pit is

sometimes sunk, in order to ascertain the depth and character of the

foundations. If, as is so often the case with mound architecture, this leads to

the discovery that an earlier “version” of the building exists beneath, the

next step will repeat the whole procedure at a deeper building level, (PL.

For this purpose, after a full recording, a

process of demolition takes place: and it is often necessary to restrain the

enthusiasm with which workers who have long been subjected to caution and

restraint approach this task: otherwise, much may be lost.

Before concluding this much simplified

summary of technical procedure, it may be well to mention various phenomena

which are at first likely to be puzzling. They are illustrated diagrammatically

in Fig. 2.

Destruction or abandonment

First then, at the base of this diagram, the plastered walls and pavements of a building appear in section. After the destruction or abandonment of this building, the site has been levelled preparatory to rebuilding: and when this came to be done, it was found that the stump of one old wall could conveniently be used as seating for the foundation of a new one.

During the lifetime of this second

building, rises in the floor level of the building twice necessitated the

plastering of the pavement. The occupation is therefore divided into three sub

phases, which are numbered accordingly. In addition, it can be seen that,

during the third and final sub phase, it became necessary, first to relater the

walls and later actually to reface them with brickwork. This reading naturally

does not descend beneath the third pavement level. This building, then, itself

is eventually destroyed and a third is constructed with walls on a slightly

different alignment.

Certain rich man

I heard of a certain rich man, who was as

notorious for parsimony as Hatim Tai for liberality. His external form was

adorned with wealth, but the meanness of his disposition was so radiated, that

he never gave even a loaf of bread to any one: he would not have bestowed a

scrap on the cat of Abu Horiera, nor thrown a bone to the dog of companions of

the cave. In short, no one ever saw his door open nor his table spread. A

Durwesh never knew his victuals, excepting by the smell; no bird ever picked up

any crumbs that fell from his table. I heard that he was sailing on the

Mediterranean Sea towards Egypt, with all the pride of Pharaoh in his

imagination, according to the word of God, ‘Until the time that he was

drowned.’ Suddenly a contrary wind assailed the ship, in the manner as they

have said, ‘What can the heart do that it may not record with your sorrowful disposition;

the north wind is not always favourable for the ship.’ He lifted up the hands

of imploration, and uttered ineffectual lamentations. God hath said, ‘“When you

embark on ships offer up your prayers unto the Lord.’

Of what benefit will it be to the servant

in the time of need, to lift up his hands in imploration, which are extended

during prayers, but when any favour is wanted are folded under his arms?

‘Bestow comfort on others with silver and gold, and from thence derive also

benefit yourself. Know thou, that this edifice of yours will remain, use

therefore bricks of gold and bricks of silver.’

They have related, that he had poor

relations in Egypt, who were enriched with the remainder of his wealth. At his

death they rent their old garments and made up silks and damask. In that same

week I saw one of them riding a fleet horse, with an angelic youth running

after him. I said, “Alas if the dead man should return amongst his tribe and

relations, the heirs would feel more sorrow in restoring him his estate than

they suffered on account of his death.” On the strength of the acquaintance

which had formerly subsisted between us, I pulled his sleeve, and said, “Enjoy

thou, 0 good man of happy endowments, that wealth which the late possessor

accumulated to no purpose.”

Debilitated fisherman

A powerful fish fell into the net of a debilitated

fisherman, who not being able to hold it, the fish got the

better of him, snatched the net out of his hand, and escaped. A boy went to

fetch water from the river: the flood tide came in and carried him away. The

net had hitherto always taken the fish, but this time the fish escaped and

carried away the net. The other fisherman grieved at the loss, and reproached

him, that having such a fish in his net, he had not been able to hold it. He

replied, “Alas, my brethren what could be done, seeing it was not my lucky day,

and the fish had yet a day remaining? A fisherman without luck cachet not fish

in the Tigris, neither will the fish without fate expire on the dry ground.

Killed a millipede

One who had neither hands nor feet having killed

a millipede, a pious man passing by said, “Holy God, although

this had a thousand feet, yet when fate overtook him he could not escape from

one destitute of hands and feet. When the enemy who seizes the soul comes

behind, fate ties the feet of the swift man. At that moment when the enemy

attacks us behind, it is needless to draw the Ivianyan bow.”

Fat blockhead clad

I saw a fat blockhead clad in

a rich dress and mounted on an Arab horse, with fine Egyptian linen round his

head. Someone said, “0 Sady, what is your opinion of this notable dress on this

ignorant brute?” I replied, “It is like bad writing executed in water-gold. In

truth, amongst men he is an ass with the form and bleating of a calf. You

cannot say this brute resembles a man excepting in his garment, his turban, and

external form: of all his property, estate, and bodily faculties, it is not

lawful to take anything but his blood. If a man oi noble birth should happen to

be poor, imagine not that his dignity will be thereby lessened; but should a

Jew be so rich as to drive a gold nail into his silver threshold, do not on

that account esteem him noble.”

Obtain a grain of silver

A thief said to a mendicant, “Are you not

ashamed to hold out your hand to every sordid wretch to obtain a grain of silver?”

He replied, “It is better to stretch out the hand for a grain of silver than to

have it cut off for having stolen a dang and a half.”

Certain rich man

I heard of a certain rich man, who was as

notorious for parsimony as Hatim Tai for liberality. His external form was

adorned with wealth, but the meanness of his disposition was so radiated, that

he never gave even a loaf of bread to any one: he would not have bestowed a

scrap on the cat of Abu Horiera, nor thrown a bone to the dog of companions of

the cave. In short, no one ever saw his door open nor his table spread. A

Durwesh never knew his victuals, excepting by the smell; no bird ever picked up

any crumbs that fell from his table. I heard that he was sailing on the

Mediterranean Sea towards Egypt, with all the pride of Pharaoh in his

imagination, according to the word of God, ‘Until the time that he was

drowned.’ Suddenly a contrary wind assailed the ship, in the manner as they

have said, ‘What can the heart do that it may not record with your sorrowful disposition;

the north wind is not always favourable for the ship.’ He lifted up the hands

of imploration, and uttered ineffectual lamentations. God hath said, ‘“When you

embark on ships offer up your prayers unto the Lord.’

Of what benefit will it be to the servant

in the time of need, to lift up his hands in imploration, which are extended

during prayers, but when any favour is wanted are folded under his arms?

‘Bestow comfort on others with silver and gold, and from thence derive also

benefit yourself. Know thou, that this edifice of yours will remain, use

therefore bricks of gold and bricks of silver.’

They have related, that he had poor

relations in Egypt, who were enriched with the remainder of his wealth. At his

death they rent their old garments and made up silks and damask. In that same

week I saw one of them riding a fleet horse, with an angelic youth running

after him. I said, “Alas if the dead man should return amongst his tribe and

relations, the heirs would feel more sorrow in restoring him his estate than

they suffered on account of his death.” On the strength of the acquaintance

which had formerly subsisted between us, I pulled his sleeve, and said, “Enjoy

thou, 0 good man of happy endowments, that wealth which the late possessor

accumulated to no purpose.”

Romania Clayton

Thomas J. Clayton who visited many

countries passed through Bulgaria also. Going from Varna to Ruse and then on to

Romania

Clayton was “surprised” to discover that both Bulgaria and

Romania were “such fertile countries.” He wrote that he “never saw better

pasture lands or wheat fields” anywhere else in the world. These lands reminded

him of the prairie lands of Illinois. He was also surprised to find that there

were no farm houses like in America. The lands, he stated, were “tilled by

peasants who live in miserable little huts, or in villagesOur route lay through

a spur of the Balkan Mountains and was very picturesque very beautiful and

entertainingThe scenery of these mountains is soft and has a soothing rather

than a stirring influence upon the beholder.” The author believed that if peace

prevailed in these parts of the world, Bulgaria and Romania “will soon become

rich and prosperous.”

There are few more accounts by Americans on

Bulgaria. However, they are not much more different than those presented. Many

a time what Americans said about the Bulgarians or for that matter about other

peoples, reflected on their own personal character or how they valued American

culture and way of life. The descriptions presented by these travelers on a

variety of topics, like national character and even the history of Bulgaria are

hardly scientific or correct accounts.

Bulgarian personality

Almost all of these travelers present

nothing but clichés. They did not have the necessary expertise to carefully

analyze the Bulgarian

personality, their ethnic typicalness in terms of common

national cultural values. The frame of reference these travelers used was

founded on their perspective of American history and culture as the

repositories of values of liberty, freedom, democracy, justice, religion,

discipline, industry and progress.

Almost all of the authors sympathized with

the plight of the Bulgarian people under Ottoman domination. They all condemned

the alien system of despotism and many a time showed their preference for

republicanism. The Ottoman system did not permit the development of the

individual, the arts and crafts as well as agriculture and industry. The

authors were aware that the Ottoman state was in its stages of disintegration.

Those who visited Bulgaria before 1878 believed that the Bulgarians would

become free and those who travelled after the liberation of the country praised

the attempts of the Bulgarians to preserve their independence.

Process Mesopotamia

We must now consider more closely the

manner in which these artificial hills come to be created. Any of the mounds

which we have mentioned in the preceding paragraphs would probably serve to

illustrate the broad lines of this process: but those in Mesopotamia will

perhaps serve our purpose best, since they are uncomplicated by the presence of

large stone buildings and at the same time provide examples of some anatomical

eccentricities seldom found elsewhere. This process, then, by which in

antiquity the repeated rebuilding’s of human habitations on a single site

created a perpetually increasing elevation, is by no means difficult to

understand.

The average life of a mud brick building

today seldom exceeds the span of a single generation: and in earlier times,

military conquest or localized raiding on a smaller scale would certainly have

accounted for demolitions that are more frequent. Roofs would be burnt or

collapse and the upper parts of the walls subside, filling the rooms to about a

third of their height with brick debris. Before rebuilding, the site would

usually be systematically levelled, the stumps of the old walls being used as

foundations for the new.

Prehistoric fortresses at Mersin

Thus, after a time, the town or village

would find itself occupying the summit of a rising eminence; a situation, which

had the double advantage of being easily defensible and of affording an

expansive view of the surrounding countryside. One remembers in a connection

how the walls of the little prehistoric fortresses at Mersin in Cilicia were

lined with identical small dwellings for the garrison; and each was provided

with a pair of slit openings from which a watch could be kept on the approaches

to the mound.

What, then, an excavator is concerned with

is the stratified accumulation of archaeological remains, unconsciously created

by the activities of these early builders. By reversing the process and

examining each successive phase of occupation, from the latest (and therefore

uppermost) downwards, he obtains a chronological cross section of the mound’s history,

and can, if circumstances are favorable, reconstruct a remarkably clear picture

of the cultural and political vicissitudes through which its occupants have

passed.

However, it must be remembered that the

procedure, which he adopts, itself involves a new form of demolition. For as

the architectural remains associated with each phase of occupation are cleared,

examined and recorded, they must in turn be removed in order to attend to the

phase beneath. In a Near Eastern mound, the product of an operation of this

sort is often a deep hole in the ground and very little else that could

interest a subsequent visitor to the site of the excavation.

Museum of Pennsylvania

This road of course prolonged itself

through the Taurus passes, where the mounds are rare. However, once the

Anatolian plateau is reached, they start again and increase in size at the

approach to the great cities of Phrygia. The crossing of the Sangarius River is

marked by a colossal mound representing the remains of the old Phrygian

capital, Gordion, and a wide area around it is studded with tumuli covering the

graves of the Phrygian kings.

Excavations by the University Museum of

Pennsylvania in the side of the hill have revealed a gigantic stone gateway,

from which travelers on the Royal Road must have set out on their journey

northward. Half a mile further on, a stretch of the road itself is exposed,

where it passes between the tumuli; and its fifteen foot width of stone

pavement is still perfectly preserved.

(1) A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains.

(2) Published in “Iraq”,

(3) Happening to visit the excavations when

this section of the road had just been located. I found the pavement newly

cleared and, standing in the center of it, the American director, a volume of

Herodotus in his hand, from which he was declaiming the passage in praise of

the Persian couriers who carried the royal dispatches from Sardis to Susa.

Anatolia or Kurdistan

However, it is not only on great highways

of this sort that the purpose of mounds can be identified. In every major

highland valley of Anatolia or Kurdistan, there, probably at a river crossing

or road junction, is a substantial mound; the market town or administrative center

of an agricultural district, which may still be crowned by the ruined castle of

a feudal landlord—the “derebey” of Ottoman times. Scattered elsewhere over the

face of the valley are smaller mounds, which were mere villages or farmsteads.

There are mounds making obvious frontier

posts, and lines of mounds sketching in the communications, which served

military defense systems of the remote past: and there are skeins of more

recent defenses, like the fortresses of Diocletian’s Hines.1 and finally, there

are tiny, insignificant looking mounds standing no more than a few feet above

the level of the plain. In addition, sometimes these prove to be the most

important of all: for they have not been occupied for many thousands of years,

and the relics of their prehistoric occupants lie directly beneath the surface.

Future of Bulgaria

The majority of Americans who wrote on

Bulgaria or visited the country showed energy, curiosity, sense of wonder, and

faith in the future of Bulgaria and mankind even when they

were disappointed in some particular aspect of their travel experience. They considered

knowledge, and their travel experiences important, their individual responses

and reactions significant and worth preserving. Although they were usually

unfamiliar with the Bulgarian language, history and customs, their comments on

the Bulgarian character were generally positive.

It was difficult for the American traveler,

who knew little about the country, to come to terms with the complex cultural

milieu of Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, etc. and to resolve the difference

sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant between the Balkan mind cushioned on a

multi-layered rich past and a modern American mind formed in the New World free

from the burden of the past.  The

Bulgarians, busy with their struggle to free themselves and maintain their

independence, thought little about and did even less to attract tourists.

For the American tourists the Balkans were

on the periphery of their travel plans. Most of those who visited the country

went there as passers-by and caught only a glimpse of Bulgaria. Bulgaria in the

view of the American traveler was either a peasant society or a society in

transition with many Oriental traits still present. The Bulgarians were

described as simple, natural, methodological, disciplined, and diligent. There

were, of course, some descriptions which were tendentious and even misleading.

The Orthodox Church was criticized, in part, in the belief that this would make

Americans come to the support of the American missionaries working in Bulgaria.

However, the commentaries of these pioneer

American travelers are not without merit. Through sharing their travel

experiences with their countrymen, the American travelers contributed toward

making Bulgaria known to Americans. Although most of the descriptions were

brief, they nonetheless were good enough to create an image of a country with a

long history, a relatively heroic past and a people struggling to free itself,

and modernize its country.

Fourteenth century caravanserai

As a result, the actual level of occupation

remains precisely where it was six centuries ago. Seeking a full contrast in

regional conditions, my mind turns to mediaeval Baghdad. There, in 19411 was

concerned with the repair and restoration of a magnificent fourteenth century

caravanserai in the center of the town. Inside the building, occupational

debris had accumulated until only the tops of the main arches were any longer

visible; and this had to be removed before it could again be put into use.

When the task was finished the fine

proportions of the vaulted hall became apparent; but the pavement upon which

one stood was now found to be exactly nine feet beneath the level of the street

outside, and a stairway had to be built in order to reach it.

In a town built largely of mud brick and

subjected during the past centuries to a series of appalling political and

natural disasters, the level of habitation had risen at the rate of eighteen

inches per hundred years. So here at once is a first clue to the regional

character of mound formation; two central factors which have been conducive to

their creation in the countries of the Near East.

One is the almost universal employment in

those countries of sun-dried brick as a building material; the other,

historical insecurity, coupled with the extraordinary conservatism, which makes

eastern peoples, cling tenaciously to a site once occupied by their ancestors

and obstinately return to it however often they are ejected.

Visit to Egypt

It is interesting to recollect that even

Herodotus, during his visit to Egypt, was already able to observe a

phenomen22on caused by the accumulation of occupational debris in an Egyptian

city, though his conclusion regarding its explanation was understandably at

fault. In his description of Bubastis he says—“The temple stands in the middle

of the city, and is visible on all sides as one walks round it; for as the city

has been raised up by embankment, while the temple has been left untouched in

its original condition, you look down upon it whosesoever you are.

“I In fact, as one sees today at Luxor and

elsewhere, the temples, with their massive stone walls and pillars, have mostly

survived at the original level of their foundation. while the surrounding

dwelling houses and other buildings of the city, whose mud and reed walls have

continually been demolished and renewed, rose gradually above them, leaving

them in a deep hollow, like the Forum of Trajan at Rome.

Country west of Mosul

To confirm this, it may be interesting to

quote at random the reactions of a nineteenth century traveler to the

appearance of the country west of Mosul, during a journey in the spring 1840.

Sir Henry Layard had reached the market town called Tell Afar on his way to the

Sin jar Hills, and he describes his surroundings as follows “Towards evening I

ascended the mound and visited the castle….

From the walls, I had an uninterrupted view

of a vast plain, stretching westward towards the Euphrates, and losing itself

in the hazy distance. The ruins of ancient towns and villages arose on all

sides; and as the sun went down, I counted above one hundred mounds, throwing

their dark and lengthening shadows across the plain. These were the ruins of

Assyrian civilization and prosperity. Centuries have elapsed since a settled

population dwelt in this district of Mesopotamia.

Now, not even the tent of a Bedouin could

be seen. “I Layard was of course wrong in thinking only of the Assyrian nation;

for many of the mounds he was looking at were in fact occupied as early as the

sixth millennium B.C. However, he did not exaggerate their number. During a

survey in 1937, I myself recorded the surface pottery from seventy-five mounds

in that area, and these were only a few selected sites, which I could easily

reach by car during a short three weeks reconnaissance.2

However, apart from the close concentration

of mounds in certain areas of this sort, the pattern, which they make, is often

worth observing. AH over Iraq, and for that matter in neighboring countries, a

glance at the disposal of mounds in a landscape will often reveal to one in the

lividest possible manner some aspect of historical geography, whether political

or economic.

Royal Road

The city of Erbil, for instance, (PL. I)

stands within its fortress walls on a mound whose height almost justifies its

local reputation as the “oldest city in the world”: and from its rooftops, over

the undulating plain to the Zaab river crossings.

Which led to Nineveh and the north, one

sees a line of smaller mounds, pointing the exact direction of the age old

caravan route, which the Achaemenian Persians, coming from Susa, prolonged as

far as their new capital at Sardis. They called it the Royal Road, though it

had existed for several thousand years before their time. Wherever it crossed a

wade and there was a source of water, there also, today, there is a mound; and

villages, which make convenient stopping places on the modem motoring road,

crown many of them.

Certain characteristics

Interesting as this illustration is of how

strati graphical formations can be created, this early mention of Egypt must

serve as an occasion to introduce certain reservations regarding that country,

in relation to the subject under discussion. For it should be said at once that

Egypt has certain characteristics which make it less suitable than others do

for the study of mounds.

This is perhaps partly to be attributed to

the abundant supply and general use of building stone, which greatly prolonged

the survival of Egyptian buildings. But it is also partly due to the fact that,

in the narrow valley of Upper Egypt, land is too valuable to allow large ruin

fields of brick buildings to remain derelict; and the fellahin have long since

discovered that the occupational debris with which such ruins are Hide, when

spread over their fields, makes the finest fertilizer available.

Burin any case, those who have approached

the subject of Egyptology will know that archaeology in Egypt, when it took the

form of actual excavation, has always been concerned almost exclusively with

stone temples, tombs and cemeteries. Mounds in Egypt are confined for the most

part to the Delta of the Nile; and, with so much else to attend to, their

excavation has till now been very considerably neglected.

So let us glance once again at the pattern

of countries in which mounds are everywhere found and have been more generally

excavated. From Egypt they spread northward through the Levant and westward

through Anatolia to the Balkans. Eastward they follow the curve of Breasted’s

“crescent” through the rich farmlands in the foothills of the Armenian

mountains to Iraq and Persia and so, southward of the Elburz range, to

Afghanistan and the Indus valley.

Mesopotamia

But the focal point of the whole area,

where mounds are so plentiful that they become the most characteristic feature

of the landscape, is the twin river valley of Mesopotamia which is in fact not

a valley at all but a vast province of partially irrigated alluvial desert. It

is a habit of thought to apply the name Mesopotamia to this basin of alluvium,

which represents half of modem Iraq. But it has come to be known to our own

generation that the first human settlers in this province, the ancestors of the

later Sumerians, were themselves comparative latecomers, and that the

undulating hill country of northern Iraq had a much earlier record of Neolithic

farming communities.

This may help to explain the impression,

which has grown upon one, after long periods of travel in those parts, that the

Assyrian uplands around Mosul and their westward extension through the valleys

of the Khabur and Balik rivers into North Syria must have been the most thickly

populated area of the completely ancient world. Certainly today, they are more

thickly studded with ancient mounds than any other part of the Near East.

Bulgarian Language

The majority of Americans who wrote on

Bulgaria or visited the country showed energy, curiosity, sense of wonder, and

faith in the future of Bulgaria and mankind even when they were disappointed in

some particular aspect of their travel experience. They considered knowledge,

and their travel experiences important, their individual responses and

reactions significant and worth preserving. Although they were usually

unfamiliar with the Bulgarian language, history and customs, their

comments on the Bulgarian character were generally positive.

It was difficult for the American traveler,

who knew little about the country, to come to terms with the complex cultural

milieu of Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, etc. and to resolve the difference

sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant between the Balkan mind cushioned on a

multi-layered rich past and a modern American mind formed in the New World free

from the burden of the past.  The

Bulgarians, busy with their struggle to free themselves and maintain their

independence, thought little about and did even less to attract tourists.

American tourists in Balkans

For the American tourists the Balkans were

on the periphery of their travel plans. Most of those who visited the country

went there as passers-by and caught only a glimpse of Bulgaria. Bulgaria in the

view of the American traveler was either a peasant society or a society in

transition with many Oriental traits still present.

The Bulgarians were described as simple,

natural, methodological, disciplined, and diligent. There were, of course, some

descriptions which were tendentious and even misleading. The Orthodox Church

was criticized, in part, in the belief that this would make Americans come to

the support of the American missionaries working in Bulgaria.

However, the commentaries of these pioneer

American travelers are not without merit. Through sharing their travel

experiences with their countrymen, the American travelers contributed toward

making Bulgaria known to Americans. Although most of the descriptions were brief,

they nonetheless were good enough to create an image of a country with a long

history, a relatively heroic past and a people struggling to free itself, and

modernize its country.

Archaeological monument

An alternative situation arises, when an

important building or civic lay out is encountered, of the sort which may

afterwards need to be preserved as an archaeological monument. In this case,

the excavation will merely be extended to cover as much as is required of the

stratum concerned, and if a strati graphical sounding to a greater depth is

required, it will be made elsewhere.

However, to return to the creation and

development of mounds themselves, it would be a mistake to think that the

process is always as simple and straightforward as that already described. A

wide variety of circumstances may serve to disrupt their symmetry and

complicate their stratification.

For instance, the diminishing living space

at the summit or a sudden increase in the settlement’s population may cause the

focus of occupation to move away from its original center. In order to make

this clear, we may at this point enumerate some of the principal variations of

the theme of anatomical development, which are to be found, particularly in

Mesopotamian mounds.

Orthodox sequence

As a point of departure then, let us take

the orthodox sequence of developments illustrated in the upper part of Fig. 1.

This diagram represents the habitation of a village community with a static

population. The superimposed remains of five principal occupations have

gradually created a small artificial hill: but as the site of the village rose

in level, the building space on the summit became more and more restricted by

the sloping sides of the mound.

It may well have been for this reason that

the place was eventually abandoned. In any case, after the inhabitants of the

fifth settlement had departed, the ruins of their houses were molded by the

weather to form the peak of a symmetrical tumulus. Vegetation started to grow

upon it, and soon all traces of occupation had disappeared beneath a shallow

mantle of humus soil.

The second and third diagrams in Fig. I

both illustrate cases where the focus of occupation has shifted. The former

represents a phenomenon, which we shall later have an opportunity of studying

in detail at a particular site tell Hassuna in northern Iraq, which will

provide a perfect example.

I in the diagram, after five principal

periods of occupation, a small mound has been formed in a maimed exactly

similar to that in the previous instance. However, from this point onwards,

occupation has continued, not on the summit of the mound, since that had become

inadequate, but terraced into its sloping flank and spreading over an extended

area of new ground beneath.

Anti Russian and pro German

He was surprised to see in the Eiffel

Restaurant the waiters “puffed tobacco smoke as they took the guests’ orders,

and reclined at full length on a bench in the lull of business.” He tried to

explain this by making a sarcastic comment that democracy seemed to have made

some headway since the liberation of the country. However, the author liked the

friendliness and great hospitality of the Bulgarian people he met along the

Danube.

Bigelow was anti-Russian and pro-German.

He was very critical of Russia’s policy in Bulgaria and thought that Germany

ought to have the final say in Southeastern Europe. He attempted to explain

Bulgarian politics by quoting an unnamed Bulgarian diplomat critical of Russian

policy toward his country, and hoping that not the Russian Tsar but the German

Emperor would become the “Protector of the Danube.”

James M. Buckley travelled through Bulgaria

in 1888. He believed that each traveler saw “what he took with him,” and for

this reason he thought that his experiences were worth recording because

“several views are more illuminating than one.” In his books Travels in Three

Continents: Europe, Africa, Asia he described his trip through Eastern Rumelia

and Bulgaria.

 “The

view as we rode along was wonderfully beautiful. Villages and towns are far

apart, and one might easily have fancied himself travelling through a

succession of parks connected with some ancestral estate, his only perplexity

that he saw no house or castle, and few persons.” He was impressed by the

“immense masses of granite” that surround and underlie Plovdiv. He praised the

political “independent existence” of Eastern Rumelia which gave “it much more

interest to Western travelers than would have if still a province of Turkey.”

Bulgarian Orthodox Church

He took part in a convention in Sofia of

the Bulgarian Protestants and was impressed with their work. However, like

Mutchmore, he was very critical of the Bulgarian Orthodox

Church. In his view the Bulgarian Church “was a very low form of

Christianity,” for which the principles of the Gospel were “concealed under the

mask of superstitions; no intelligible instruction is given; pomp, ceremony,

priest craft, support the religion, which exerts little influence over the

daily lives of the people, and can afford little or no comfort in their

experience of privation and toil.”

Sofia, the capital city, did not impress

him much. Were it not for the palace, one or two elaborate hotels of an Eastern

style, and the Bulgarian letters on the signs, he wrote, it would be easy to

“mistake the place for an American prairie town already endeavoring to put on

the airs of a city.” He was more impressed by the fertility of the land, the

number of rivers which flew into the Danube and with the herds of cattle and

flocks of sheep. Many Bulgarians, he wrote, were very “striking-looking men.”

However, the general aspect of the country was “not one of prosperity, and a

primitive scene was that of buffaloes drawing carts.”

State of the Matharas

The most important of them is the state of

the Matharas, who are also called Pitribhaktas. At the peak of their power they

dominated the area between the Mahanadi and the Krishna. Their contemporaries

and neighbors were the Vasisthas, the Nalas and the Manas.

The Vasisthas ruled on the borders of

Andhra m south Kalmga, the Nalas in the forest area of Mahakantara, and the

Manas in the coastal area m the north beyond the Mahanadi. Each state developed

its system of taxation, administration and military organization.

 The

Nalas, and probably the Manas, also evolved their system of coinage. Each

kingdom favored the brahmanas with land grants and even invited them from

outside, and most kings performed Vedic sacrifices not only for spiritual merit

but also for power, prestige and legitimacy.

Elements of advanced culture

In this period elements of advanced culture

were not confined to the coastal belt known as Kalmga, but appeared in the

other parts of Orissa. The find of the Nala gold coins in the tribal Bastar

area in Madhya Pradesh is significant. It presupposes an economic system in

which gold money was used in large transactions and served as medium of payment

to high functionaries. Similarly the Manas seemed to have issued copper coins,

which implies the use of metallic money even by artisans and peasants.

The various states added to their income by

forming new fiscal units in rural areas. The Matharas created a district called

Mahendrabhoga in the area of the Mahendra Mountains. They also ruled over a

district called Dantayavagubhoga, which apparently supplied ivory and no gruel

to its administrators and had thus been created in a backward area.

The Matharas made endowments called

agroharas, which consisted of land and income from villages and were meant for

supporting religious and educational activities of the brahmanas. Some

agraharas had to pay taxes although elsewhere in the, country they were tax-free.

The induction of the brahmanas through land grants in tribal, forest and red

soil areas brought new lands under cultivation and introduced better methods of

agriculture, based on improved knowledge of weather conditions.

Formerly the year was divided into three

units, each consisting of four months, and time was reckoned on the basis of

three seasons. Under the Matharas, in the middle of the fifth century began the

practice of dividing the year into twelve lunar months. This implied a detailed

idea of weather conditions, which was useful for agricultural operations.

Spread of Civilization in Eastern India

Signs of Civilization

A region is considered to be civilized if

its people know the .art of writing, have a system for collecting taxes and

maintaining order, and possess social classes and specialists for performing

priestly, administrative and producing functions. Above all a civilized society

should be able to produce enough to support not only the actual producers

consisting of artisans and peasants but also consumers who are not engaged in

production. All these elements make for civilization. But they appear in a

large part of eastern India on a recognizable scale very late. Practically no

written records are found in the greater portions of eastern Madhya.

Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Orissa,

of West Bengal, of Bangladesh and of Assam till the middle of the fourth century

A.D The period from the fourth to the seventh century is remarkable for the

diffusion of an advanced rural economy, formation of state systems and

delineation of social classes in eastern Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, eastern Bengal

and southeast Bengal, and Assam, This is indicated by the distribution of a

good number of inscriptions in these areas in Gupta times Many inscriptions

dated in the Gupta era are found in these areas.

They are generally in the form of land

grants made by feudatory princes and others for religious purposes to Buddhists

and brahmanas and also to Vaishnavite temples and Buddhist monasteries. These

beneficiaries played an important role in spreading and strengthening elements

of danced culture the process can be understood by attempting a region wise

survey.

Orissa and Eastern and Southern Madhya Pradesh

Kalinga or the coastal Orissa, south of the

Mahanadi, leapt into importance under Asoka, but a strong state was founded in

that area only m the first century B. C. Its ruler Kharavela advanced as far as

Magadha. In the first and second centuries AD the ports of Orissa carried on

brisk trade m pearls, ivory and muslin.

Excavations at Sisupalgarh, the site of

Kalinganagari which was the capital of Kharavela at a distance of 60 km from Bhubaneswar,

have yielded several Roman objects indicating trade contacts with the Roman Empire.

But the greater part of Orissa, particularly northern, Orissa, neither

experienced state formation nor witnessed much commercial activity. In the

fourth century Kosala and Mahakantara figure in the list of conquests made by

Samudragupta. They covered parts of northern and western Orissa. From .the

second half of the fourth century to the sixth century several states were

formed in Orissa, and at least five of them can be clearly identified.

Religious purposes

For a century from A D 432-33 we notice a

series of land sale documents recorded on copperplates Pundravardhanabhukti,

which covered almost the whole of north Bengal, now mostly in Bangladesh, Most

land grants indicate that land was purchased with gold coins called dinara. But

once land was given for religious purposes, the dunes did

not have to pay any tax. The land transactions show the involvement of leading

scribes, merchants, artisans landed classes, etc.’., in local administration,

which was manned by the governors appointed by the Gupta emperors.

The land sale documents not only .indicate

the existence of different’ social groups and local functionaries but also shed

valuable light on the expansion of agriculture Mostly land purchased for

religious endowments is described as fallow, uncultivated, and therefore imitated

Without doubt the effect of the grants was to bring plots of land within the

purview of cultivation and settlement.

The deltaic portion of Bengal formed by the

Brahmaputra and called Samatata was made to acknowledge the authority of

Samudragupta It covered southeast Bengal. A portion of this territory may have

been populated and important enough to attract the attention of the Gupta

conqueror.

But possibly it was not ruled by brahmamsed

princes, and consequently it neither used Sanskrit nor adopted the varna

system, as was the case in north Bengal. From about A D. 525 the area came to

have a fairly organized state covering Samatata and a portion of Vanga which

lay on the western boundary of Samatata. It issued a good number of gold coins

in the second half of the sixth century.

Dacca area

In addition to this state, m the seventh

century we come across the state of the Khadgas, literally swordsmen, in the Dacca

area. We also notice the kingdom of a brahmana feudatory

called Lokanatha and that of the Rates, both in the Comilla area all these

princes of southeast and central Bengal issued land grants in the sixth and

seventh centuries.

Like the Orissa n kings they also created

agraharas. The land charters show cultivation of Sanskrit, leading to the use

of some sophisticated meters in the second half of the seventh century. At the

same time they attest the expansion of cultivation and rural settlements. A

fiscal and administrative unit called Daudabhukti was formed in the border

areas lying between Bengal and Orissa. Danda means punishment, and bhakti enjoyment.

Apparently the unit was created for taming and punishing the tribal inhabitants

of that region. It may have promoted Sanskrit and other elements of culture in

tribal areas.

Finally compiled in Gupta

The Puranas follow the lines of the epics,

and the earlier ones were finally compiled in Gupta times. They are full of

myths, legends, sermons, etc., which were meant for the education and

edification of the common people. The period also saw the compilation of

various Smritis or the law books written in verse. The phase of writing

commentaries on the Smritis begins after the Gupta period.

The Gupta period also saw the development

of Sanskrit grammar based on Panini and Patanjali. This period is particularly

memorable for the compilation of the Amarakosa by Amara Sinha, who was a

luminary in the court of Chandragupta II. This lexicon is learnt by heart by

students taught Sanskrit in the traditional fashion.

On the whole the Gupta period was a bright

phase in the history of classical literature. It developed an ornate style,

which was different from the old simple Sanskrit. From this period onwards we

find greater emphasis on verse than on prose. We also come across a few corner tarries.

There is no doubt that Sanskrit was the court language of the Guptas. Although

we get a good deal of brahmanical religious literature, the period’ also

produced some of the earliest pieces of secular literature.

Science and Technology

In the field of mathematics we come across

during this period a work; called Aryabhatiya written by Aryabhata, who

belonged to Patali porta It seems that this mathematician was | well versed in

various kinds of calculations. A Gupta inscription of 448 from Allahabad

district suggests that the decimal system was known in India at the beginning

of the fifth century AD In the fields of astronomy a book called Romaka

Sidhanta was compiled It was influenced by Greek ideas, as can be inferred from

its name.

The Gupta craftsmen distinguished

themselves by their work in iron and bronze. We know of several bronze images

of the Buddha, which began to be produced on a considerable scale because of

the knowledge of advanced iron technology In the case of iron objects the best

example is the iron pillar found at Delhi near Mehraub.

Manufactured m the fourth century A.D., the

pillar1 has not gathered any ’ rust m the subsequent 15 centuries, which is a

great tribute to the technological skill of the craftsmen It was impossible to

produce such a pillar in any iron foundry m the West Until about a century ago.

It is a pity that the later craftsmen could not develop this knowledge further

Appeared in Prakrit

In the coastal Orissa writing was certainly

known from the third century B C., and inscriptions up to the middle of the

fourth century A. D. appeared in Prakrit. But from about A.D. 350 Sanskrit

began to be used. What is more significant, charters in this language appear

outside the coastal belt beyond the Mahanadi in the north.

Thus the art of writing and Sanskrit

language spread over a good portion of Orissa, and some of the finest Sanskrit

verses are found in the epigraphs of the period. Sanskrit served as the vehicle

of not only brahmanical religion and culture but also of property laws and

social regulations in new areas. Verses from the Puranas and Dharmasastras are

quoted in Sanskrit charters, and kings claim to be the preservers of the Varna

system. The affiliation of the people to the culture of the Gangetic basin is

emphasized. A dip in the Ganga at Prying at the confluence of the Ganga and the

Yamuna is considered holy, and victorious kings visit Pitaya

Bengal

As regards Bengal, portions of north Bengal,

now in Bogra district, give evidence of the prevalence of writing in the time

of Asoka. An inscription indicates several settlements maintaining a storehouse

filled with coins and food grains for the upkeep of Buddhist monks. Clearly the

local peasants were m a position to spare a part of their produce for paying

taxes and making gifts.

Further, people of this area knew Prakrit

and professed Buddhism, Similarly an inscription found in the coastal district

of Noakhali in southeast Bengal shows that people knew Prakrit and Brahmi

script in that area in the second century B.C. But for the greater part of

Bengal we do not hear anything till we come to the fourth .century A.D In about

the middle of the fourth century a king with the title of maharaja ruled in

Pokharna on the Damodara in Bankura district. He knew Sanskrit and was a

devotee of Vishnu, to whom he possibly granted a village.

The area lying between the Ganga and the

Brahmaputra now covering Bangladesh emerged as a settled and fairly Sanskrit educated

area in the fifth and sixth centuries The Gupta governors seem to have become

independent after about A.D. 550, and occupied north Bengal, a portion may have

been seized by the rulers of Kamarupa Local vassal princes called Samantha

maharajas had created their own administrative apparatus and built their

military organization consisting of horses, elephants and foot soldiers and

boats to fight their rivals and collect taxes from the local peasantry. By A.D.

600 the area came to be known as Gaudi with its independent state ruled by

Sasanka, the adversary of Harsha

Turkish girls attend foreign schools in Constantinople

But after all, these changes are

interesting chiefly as indications of the fact that the spirit of Turkish women

has come, to some degree, under the influence of new ideas. Polygamy is on the

decline. Greater attention is now paid to the education of girls among all

classes of the community.

In wealthy families it is common for the

daughters to have English or French or German governesses, and to be instructed

in the ordinary branches of education, even to the extent of doing something so

foreign as to learn to ride. In a few instances, Turkish girls attend foreign schools,

and it is a most significant sign of the times to see the female relatives of

such girls present at the public proceedings of these institutions. Periodicals

providing special literature for ladies have appeared, and there are Turkish

authoresses, some of whom enjoy a great reputation among their countrywomen.

As might be expected, this upward movement

meets with opposition, as upward movements always meet wherever they occur.

Such a thing has been known as an imperial irade, commanding all foreign

governesses to be dismissed from Turkish homes, because teachers of pernicious

ideas. On the eve of Ramadan it is usual to issue strict orders for Turkish

ladies to keep their veils down.

Upon gentleman

A Turkish lady once attended, with her

husband, an “At Home” in a foreign house. Shortly thereafter, the police called

upon the

gentleman, late in the evening, as the custom is in this part

of the world, and informed him that he was wanted at the police-court next

morning on important business.

What that business was the police did not

condescend to say, preferring to make night uncomfortable for the couple, by

keeping them in suspense. Upon appearing at the court, the husband learned that

the visit of his wife to a foreign house, on the occasion referred to, had been

noticed and duly reported to the authorities, and he was warned (under threat

of severe penalty) not to allow the offence to be repeated.

At public gatherings at the Sweet Waters of

Europe and Asia, the police watch the behavior of Turkish ladies as though so

many naughty or helpless children were abroad. One has seen a policeman order a

lady to put up the window of her carriage, because she attracted too much

admiration. At another time, one has seen a company of respectable Turkish

ladies, who were enjoying a moonlight row on the Bosporus, packed home by the

police. The life of educated Turkish women is rendered hard and humiliating by

such restrictions.

Suburbs on the Bosporus

The time-tables of the steamers which ply

between the city and the suburbs on the Bosporus and

the Sea of Marmora, adopt “Turkish time,” and require you to convert the hour

indicated into the corresponding hour from the European or “Frank” standpoint;

and the same two-fold way of thinking on the subject is imposed upon all

persons having dealings with the Government and the native population in

general A similar diversity exists in regard to the length of the year. The

Turkish year consists of twelve lunar months, a thirteenth being added from

time to time to settle accounts with the sun. The question when Ramadan, the

month of fasting by day and of feasting at night begins, or when the festival

of Bagram commences is determined, at least formally, by the appearance of the

new moon, upon the testimony of two Moslem witnesses before a judge in any part

of the Empire.

Different localities

Thus these religious seasons might commence

on different days in different localities, the

moon not being visible in some places, on account of the state of the weather.

The formula in which the approach of these seasons is now announced to the

public, since the increase of astronomical knowledge in Turkish circles, is a

curious compromise between former uncertainty and actual assurance on that

point “Ramadan begins (say) on Tuesday next, provided the new moon is visible.

If not, the Fast will date from Wednesday.” Alongside the

Turkish mode of measuring the year, there

is the method introduced into the Roman world by Julius Caesar, the “Old

Style,” followed by Greeks and Armenians, and also the “New Style,” the mode of

reckoning inaugurated by Pope Gregory XIII., now thirteen days in advance of

the Julian calendar. Accordingly, to prevent mistakes in regard to a date,

letters and newspapers are often dated according to both styles.

With some the year begins in March, with

the advent of spring; with others it commences in September, when autumn

gathers in the fruits of the earth; others make January, in midwinter, their

starting- point The difference between the “Old Style” and the “New Style”

involves two celebrations, as a rule, of Easter, two observances of New Year’s Day,

while Christmas is celebrated three times, the Armenian Church having combined

the commemoration of that festival with the more ancient festival of the

Epiphany. For one section of the community, moreover, the day of rest is

Sunday, for another Saturday, for yet another the day of special religious

services is Friday.

Rule of Constantine

The very geography of the place offers a

wide outlook. As a part of his everyday experience, a resident of

Constantinople lives within sight of Europe and Asia. Every day of his life, he

sees the waterway that runs between the two great continents thronged with

vessels of every nation, hurrying to and fro to bring the ends of the earth

together. Then, how much human power has been enthroned here the dominion of

Byzantium for one thousand years; the rule of Constantine and his successors for

eleven centuries; the sway of the Ottoman Sultans through four hundred and

fifty years. If what we see ought to do with what we are, here is a mound in

which to fashion a large life. But Europe and Asia are present in more than

their physical aspects, or in long periods of their history. Their

civilizations also meet here.

On every side there is the pressure of a

dominant Oriental society and polity, with its theocratic government,

autocracy, the creed of Islam, polygamy, slavery, eunuchs, secluded and veiled

womanhood, men in long robes and turbans, sluggishness, repose, the speech of

Central Asia softened by the accents of Persia and Arabia, minarets, domes

surmounted by the Crescent, graceful but strange salutations, festivals which

celebrate events in a course of history not your own, and express joys which

have never gladdened your soul And mingling, but not blended, with this world

of Asiatic thought and sentiment and manner, is a European world, partly

native, partly foreign, with ideas of freedom, science, education, bustle,

various languages, railroads, tramways, ladies in the latest Parisian fashions,

church bells, the banner of the Cross, newspapers and periodicals from every

European and American capital, knitting scattered children to the life of their

fatherland.

Foreign communities in Istanbul

The members of the foreign communities in the

City of the Sultan do not forget the lands of their birth, or of their race and

allegiance. Though circumstances have carried them far from their native shores

and skies, physical separation does not sever them from the spirit of their

peoples. Nay, as if to make patriotic sentiment easier, foreigners are placed

under the peculiar arrangements embodied in what are termed the Capitulations,

whereby, in virtue of old treaties, they enjoy the privilege of living to a

great extent under the laws of their respective countries, with little

interference on the part of the Ottoman Government.

When your house is your castle, in the

sense that no Turkish policeman dares enter it without the authorization of

your Consulate or Embassy, when legal differences between yourself and your

fellow-countrymen are submitted to judges, and argued by barristers, bred in

the law which rules in your own land, when your church and school can be what

they are at home, and when you can forward your letters, not only to foreign

countries but even to some parts of the Turkish Empire, with a stamp bearing

the badge of your own Government, it is natural that European residents in

Constantinople should be able to preserve their special character, both after

living here for many years, and also from generation to generation.

Istanbul - European world

A Mohammedan polity is opposed to the

assimilation of strangers, unless the aliens become converts to Islam. Whatever

process of assimilation goes on in Constantinople appears in the slow changes

of the East towards some likeness to the West Otherwise, the European

world is as present to the view as the Asiatic, and together

they spread a wide vista before the mind.

Furthermore, what a broad outlook does the

heterogeneous population afford! Whether you walk the streets or stay at home,

on the mart of business, at all large social gatherings, in all public

enterprises, you deal with diverse nationalities and races. Everywhere and

always a cosmopolitan atmosphere pervades your life. One servant in your

household will be a Greek, another an Armenian, a third a German or an

Englishman. Your gardener is a Croat, as tender to flowers as he is fierce

against his foes. The boatmen of your cacique are Turks.

In building a house, the foundations are

excavated by Lazes; the quarrymen must be Croats; the masons and carpenters are

Greeks and Armenians; the hodmen, Kurds; the hamals, Turks; the plumbers,

Italians; the architect is an Englishman, American, or a foreigner of some

other kind; the glaziers must be Jews. Fourteen nationalities are represented

by the students and professors of an international college.

Pilgrimages comes round

When the season of pilgrimages comes round,

the streets are thronged by Tartars, Circassia’s, Persians, Turcoman, on their

way to Mecca and Medina, wild-looking fellows in rough but picturesque garb,

staring with the wonder and simplicity of children at the novelties they see,

purchasing trifles as though treasures, yet stopping to give altos to a beggar,

and groping for the higher life.

Nor is it only in great matters that this wideness of human life comes home to the mind in Constantinople. It is pressed upon the attention by the diversity that prevails, likewise, in matters of comparatively slight importance; in such an affair, for example, as the calculation of time. For some, the pivotal event of history is the birth of Christ; for others, it is the Flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina, and accordingly, two systems of the world’s chronology are in vogue.

One large part of the populations still adheres to the primitive idea that a new day commences at sunset, while another part of the community defers that event until the moment after midnight. Hence in your move-mints and engagements you have constantly to calculate the precise time of day according to both views upon the subject.