Science: Diggers

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Uncovering forgotten things in refound places, assiduous men have recently seen, done the following:

Grecian Main Street. In 160 A.D., Corinth, classic city, throve lustily. Pausanias was its Baedeker. He described a street running from the market place to the theatre. In 396 A.D., Alaric the Goth devastated the city. Ancient Corinth disappeared under tons of debris and earth. Little by little the old town is being unearthed. Theodore Leslie Shear, one of Princeton's archaeologists, has returned to the U. S. after four years of digging there. He announced the discovery of the Pausanias-chronicled street, the theatre with seats for 20,000.

Hiram of Tyre. At Jebeil, Phoenicia, industrious Germans unearthed a statue of heroic proportions. After much learned controversy, the diggers agreed that the statue must be that of King Hiram I of Tyre, who reigned as a contemporary of Solomon, 480 years after Moses had led the children of Israel from the wilderness and a diet of manna. King Hiram was something of an entrepreneur for his time: Solomon needed aid for the building of his temple, the mighty House of the Lord; Hiram had certain supplies and many artisans. They bargained. The outcome was that Hiram sent Solomon hewed cedars of Lebanon, gold and many an artisan. In return Solomon paid Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat and 20 measures of pure oil per year. (Seven years were required for the building of the Temple.) The subjects of Hiram were evidently gratified at the business acumen of their king, for they built him this new-found statue.

Grecian Restoration. In 1687, Turkish Janizaries, conquerors of southeastern Europe, were besieged at Athens by the Venetians. During the battle a great store of powder blew up inside the Parthenon, scattering columns, frieze and architraves. Townsfolk used blocks of Parthenon marble for doorsteps and pigpens. A hundred years ago Lord Elgin stole great masses of the sculpture for the British Museum in London, to save them from "local vandalism." Byron berated him. The Greek Government, belatedly renascent, is now reconstructing the torn Parthenon in the semblance of its periclean perfection.

Egyptian Brooders. Although the dynastic Egyptians lacked artificial light with which modern poulterers perform fake sunrises to make their hens lay overtime, they used incubators to hatch out eggs. The old time hatcheries were cone-shaped mud huts heated by burning chaff. An attendant always sat within to warn against temperature too hot or too cold. Of a clutch 95% hatched successfully. William D. Mann, U. S. assistant commercial attache at Cairo, found out about the ancient Egyptian brooders when he was seeking an Egyptian market for the latest type of U. S.-made incubators.

Etruscan Hero's Tomb. Princess Luciano Bonaparte owns land at Vulci, Etruscan community near Rome. Etruscan tombs underlie the whole vicinity. Recently, watching her peasants plowing, she saw a yoke of oxen sprawl into the ground. After extricating the animals, searchers found a series of unknown, unrifled tombs. Chief among them was that of an Etruscan hero, shrouded in blue and white gauze, with his little possessions around him, even a branch of laurel, still green. A coin in the tomb dated it about the 3rd century B.C.