Archæology

The study of the ancient relics of human art. It may be divided into three branches, written, monumental, and traditional A., the first including writing in its ancient forms, inscriptions, and manuscripts; the second including works of art and industry in a vast variety of forms; the third embracing the oral literature of peoples, covering all the various forms of traditional thought and customs which are understood under the term folk-lore. The study of A. was long confined to the antiquities of the cla ic nations, Greece and Rome, but has been extended to embrace the antiquities of all peoples, savage and civilized alike. The reading of the Rosetta Stone inscription has led to remarkable progre in the study of Egyptian A., and the discovery of the cuneiform writing has been equally prolific in increasing our knowledge of A yrian and Babylonian antiquities; while the field of archeological research has been widened to embrace India and China, Africa and America, and has been extended backward through time to take in the relics of prehistoric man, now so abundantly collected. Despite this widening of the field, special interest still attends research in cla ic lands and in the regions of the earlier neighboring civilizations, and remarkable progre has been made in recent years in the investigation of the antique remains of Greece, Italy, Egypt, Syria, and Babylonia. In Italy, the excavations at Pompeii, Rome, and in ancient Etruria have been prolific in results; Cyprus yielded to Cesnola a remarkable series of relics of ancient art; and the investigation of the sites of Eleusis, Olympia, Delphi, and other localities in Greece have been rife with important additions to our knowledge. Schleimann, in his work on the site of ancient Troy and among the ruins of prehistoric Mycene, was admirably succe ful; while the explorers in Egypt, from Mariette to Petrie, have enormously added to our knowledge of the remote civilization of that land of wonders. Still more interesting are the recent researches in Babylonia, particularly those made on the site of the very old city of Nippur by the University of Pennsylvania Exploring Expedition. [See BABYLONIA.] In brief, the results of modern A. have gone far to unfold to us the conditions of the ancient world, from the most primitive period to that of cla ic civilization, while many museums of archæological relics now in existence have opened the study of human antiquities to the students of all lands. As regards the literature of the subject, it is enormous in volume, embracing a considerable library of works on the various branches of this multifarious theme.