ADDRESS on AECH^IOLOG-Y. It Has Become a Practice of Late Years In
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ADDRESS ON AECH^IOLOG-Y. BY PROFESSO . SIMPSONY . RJ , M.D. It has become a practice of late years in this Society for one of the Vice-President reao t sAnnuan da l Addres somn o s e topi topicr co s con- nected with Archeology. I appear here to-night more in compliance with this custom, than withopy f beinan ho e g abl stato t e e augho t t you that is likel provo yt e eithe f adequato r e interes f adequato r o t e importance for such an occasion. makinn I g this admission fullm a y , I aware thadeficience th t y lien i s myself, and not in my subject. For truly there are few studies which offe mano s r y tempting field f observatioso commend nan Archaeologys ta . Indeed, the aim and the groundwork of the studies of the antiquary form a sufficient guarantee for the interest with which these studies are in- vested. For the leading object and intent of all his pursuits is—MAN, and man's wayworksd an s s habit ,hi thoughtsd an s , froe earliesmth t date finn t s tracewhicsa ca d hi track d e hsan w s upo e earthnth , onward and forwards along the journey of past time. During this long journey, man has everywhere left scattered behind and around him innumerable relics, formin o mangs y permanent impression d evidencean s s hi f o s march and progress. These impressions and evidences the antiquary searches for and studies—in the changes which have in successive eras taken plac s prove(a e theiy b d r existin d discoverablan g e remainsn )i the materials and forms of the implements and tools which man has froearliese mth t time n agriculturesi e chas th used an n e di th n i ; weapons which he has employed in battle; in the habitations which he has dwelt in during peace, and in the earth-works and stone-works which raises heha d durin ge dresse warth d ornamentn i ;an s ss whicha e h worn ; in the varying forms of religious faith which he has held, and the 6 PROCEEDING THF SO E SOCIETF YO deitie worshippeds s ha tha e h te sacre th n di ; temple faned an s s which he has reared; in the various modes in which he has disposed of the dead; in the laws and governments under which he has lived; in the arts which he has cultivated; in the sculptures which he has carved ; in coine medald th san s s struckwhicinscriptione ha th e hh n i ; s whice hh ha recorde s cutth n e i characte;s writtenth s whicn ha i d e d hh an r an ; languagee typth f eo e markings spokenwhicth n si ha l e d Al h .an s relics of man, in the dim and distant past, which industry and science can possihly extract from these and from other analogous sources, Archaeology carefully collects, arranges, and generalizes, stimulated by the fond hope that through such mean wile t graduallssh ye l y recover mor mord an e e earliee oth f r chronicle losd san t annale humath e f th o sf n o race d an , various individual communities and families of that race. objecte Th antiquariaf so n research embrace event periodsd san , many of whic placee har f writteo d a withier n e evidencenth t manbu ; y more are of a date long anterior to the epoch when man made that greatest of human discoveries—the discovery, namely powee th f f permanentlo ,ro y recording words, thoughts actd symbolican an ,si alphabetid an l c writing. To some minds it has seemed almost chimerical for the archaeologist to expect to regain to any extent a knowledge of the conditions and cir- cumstances of man, and of the different nations of men, before human cunning had learned to collect and inscribe them on stone or brass, or fashioned ha d them into writte traditionar no l records capabl f beino e g safely floated dow e streae moderth nth f timet mo nBu .histor f yo Archaeology, as well as the analogies of other allied pursuits, are totally agains sucy an th hopeless views. Almost withi lifetime nth stile ar som f l eo o amongs ewh , therus s t eha sprung up and been cultivated—and cultivated most successfully too— a science which has no written documents or legible inscriptions to guide paths it whosd n an ,o t ei researche r morfa e ancienar s thein i t r object tha researchee nth Archaeologyf so s subjec It antiquitn a . s i t y greatly older than human antiquity. It deals with the state of the earth and of the inhabitants of the earth in times immeasurably beyond the earliest times studie antiquarye th e courss investigationy it th db f n o eI . t i s has recovered many strange stories and marvellous chronicles of the ANTIQUARIE SCOTLANDF SO . 7. world and of its living occupants—long, long ages before human anti- quity even f Geologbegani t Bu s thu.y ha s successfully restores u o dt lon importand gan t chapter e pre-Adamitth n i s e annal f tho se world's history, need Archeology despait decipherinye f o r d reading—ingan - finitely more clearly than it has yet done—that far later episode in the drama of the past which opens with the appearance of man as a denizen of earth. The modes of investigating these two allied and almost con- tinuous sciences—Geology and Archaeology—are the same in principle, howeve scienceo r muctw e hsth themselve diffey f i detailn sma i d r An . Geology, in its efforts to regain the records of the past state of animal and vegetable life upo e surface earthth nth s attractionf o ha e, s which bind the votaries of it to its ardent study, surely Archaeology has equal, t strongeino f behoon re claimfavourd th ow an o s f T it urgo st . n i e human min stude dth thosf yo e relic whicy sb e archaeologishth t trieo st recover and reconstruct the history of the past races and nations of man, should naturally form as engrossing a topic, as the study of those relics by whic geologise hth t trie regaio st e histor e npasth th tf yo race d an s families of the fauna andyfora of the ancient world. Surely, as a mere matter of scientific pursuit, the ancient or fossil states of man should— for man himself—have attractions as great, at least, as the ancient or fossil state d Celtplantf so ol Pictr animals d o ,e r Saxonsan th o , d an ;, be as interesting a study as the old Lepidodendron or Ichthyosaurus. Formerly e pursuith , f Archaeologo t t unfrequentlno s ywa y regarded as a kind of romantic dilletanteism, as a collecting together of meaning- less antique relic odditiesd san greeda s a , y hoardin storind f go an p gu rubbis frivolitied han s tha curiositd ol t wern a t onl fi eyr yshopfo d an , that were valued merely because they were old;—whil e essayth e s writing antiquarand the of s y were looked down upo disquisitionas n s upon very profitless conjectures, and very solemn trivialities. Perhaps the objects and method in which antiquarian studies were formerly pur- sued afforded onl muco yto h groun sucr fo dh accusations l thial st Bu . is now, in a great measure, entirely changed. Archaeology, as tempered and directe philosophie th y db c spirit quickened an , d wit d e lifhth an e energnineteente th f yo h century vera s yi , different pursuit froe mth Archaeology of our forefathers, and has as little relation to their anti- quarianis s mmodera n Chemistr d moderyan n Astronomy hav o theiet r 8 PROCEEDINGS OP THE SOCIETY OP former prototypes—Alchem Astrologyd yan n prooy I .f this ma o f I , confidently appeae gooth do t l work which Archaeolog s doneyd ha an , the great advances which it has struck out in different directions within the last fifty years. Within this brief period it has made discoveries, perhap themselven si s momentoua f o s marvelloud an s charactea s s ra thos whicf e o othe y han r moderr no scienccito e e m tw boast n t eca Le . three instances in illustration of this remark. Dating, then, from the commencement of the present century, Archaeo- logy has—amids s otheit t r work—rediscovered, throug interpretae hth - Eosetta-stonee tioth f no long-lose th , t hieroglyphic languag f Egypteo , anthus whicbegun—bus dy ha s b ha founy t hi ke a d t begu onlye s ya n —to unloc rice kth h treasure-store ancienf so t knowledge which havr efo ages lain concealed amon e monumentgth recordd an s s scattered along the valley of the Nile. It has copied, by the aid of the telescope, the trilingual arrow-headed inscriptions written 300 feet high upon the face of the rocks of Behistun; and though the alphabets and the languages whicn i h these long inscriptions were " graven irof d o ,nan n wit pe ha lead upo rocke nth ever,r sfo bee d "ha n long dea unknownd dan , yety b , kina f philologicado l divination, Archaeolog exorcises yha resuscid dan - tated fro d botman h ; thes e dumb stones fro d analogoue man ,th s inscrip- tion Vanf so , Elwand, Persepolis evokes , &c.ha t i ,d official gazetted san royal contemporaneous annale deed th d dominion f an so s Dariusf o s , Xerxes, and other Persian kings.