Two Marvellous Coffins 100 The Cuneiform Inscriptions at Behistun 105 The Sculptures of Darius the Great 117 Nineveh in Desolation 124 Excavating at Knossos 124 A Winged Lion from an Assyrian Palace 134 A Quaint Spelling Book of Clay 146 A Clay Letter and Envelope 146 Babylon To-day 156 Ruins of Troy 170 Where the Treasure of Mycenæ was found 174 A Digger’s Camp in Crete 183 The Palace of Knossos 184 Giant Store Jars of Minoa 189 THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION THE ROMANCE OF EXCAVATION CHAPTER I A scientist stood in the British Museum gazing at a piece of rock. Many people passed to and fro, but never one halted to see what held his attention, never one save a little boy, who wondered what the grown-up was looking at. Those who glanced in that direction merely saw a shattered stone, and passed on unheeding. Had the fragment of stone been the Cullinan diamond or a glowing ruby, everybody would have clustered round to gaze at it. As it was neither one nor the other, everybody walked on. Yet that fragment of stone was, and is, much more wonderful than the finest diamond or ruby ever dug out of the earth. The fragment over which the scientist dreamed was the Rosetta Stone. It is merely a piece of black basalt 28½ inches wide and 45 inches in length. The top left corner has disappeared in the dust of centuries, and both corners on the right side have been smashed off. The remainder is one of the world’s greatest treasures, for it has given us the clue to the past, unfolded for us the romance of ancient Egypt, and enabled us to glimpse the Pharaohs in all their glory. The Rosetta Stone is divided into three sections, each of which is covered with writing cut into the surface. The top section is composed of hieroglyphics, the curious picture-writing of ancient Egypt, the middle section is in the everyday writing of the ordinary people of ancient Egypt, known as demotic characters, and the bottom section is in Greek.