Archaeological Adventures in the 1920s...

On Christmas Day 1919, William Arthur Shelton sailed from New York bound for Naples, Italy. He would not return home again until September 1920, after a journey that would take him to Egypt, through modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, and back again to Egypt before returning to Atlanta via Paris, London, and New York. His modes of travel were as diverse as the sites he saw -- steamship, train, donkey and horseback...

Shelton, Professor at Emory University, joined four other American scholars in what came to be known as The American Scientific Mission. Shelton's job was to buy ancient artifacts for Emory University. It was often the goal of early archaeological expeditions to return home with ancient treasures. These objects could be studied by experts and were fascinating to people who couldn't travel to these exotic places.

Shelton tells us about his experiences in a travel diary that gives us a glimpse of the wondrous remains of ancient Near Eastern civilization as he saw them. Here's a piece of a game called "Journey to the Middle East" that you can try out. You'll need a Macintosh computer and the shockwave plug-in to view it.

The full version of the game is coming soon!