part 1, pages 150-151

(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons)._

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia: Earlier explorations in.

For some account of the earlier archæological explorations in Babylonia and their results,

See (in volume 1) BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE; and (in volume 4) SEMITES.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia: American exploration of the ruins of ancient Nippur.

[Footnote: Quotations in this account from Professor Hilprecht's copyrighted reports in the "Sunday School Times" are used with permission from the publishers of that journal.]

"In the summer of 1888, the University of Pennsylvania fully equipped and sent out the first American expedition to the northern half of the plains of Babylonia to effect a thorough exploration of the ruins of Nippur—the modern Niffer, or, more correctly, Nuffar—on the border of the unwholesome swamps of the Affej, and to undertake extensive excavations. A few intelligent citizens of Philadelphia had met in the house of Ex-Provost Dr. William Pepper, and formed 'The Babylonian Exploration Fund,' a short time before this with the purpose of effecting a systematic exploration of ancient Babylonia. What science owes to this unselfish undertaking can be adequately estimated only by posterity. … Two professors, Peters and Hilprecht, were entrusted with the management of the expedition, Dr. Peters as director, and Dr. Hilprecht as Assyriologist."

_H. V. Hilprecht, editor, Recent Research in Bible Lands, page 47._

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Professor Hilprecht, who conducts for the "Sunday School Times" a most interesting and important department, in which the proceedings and principal results of archæological exploration in Bible Lands have been currently chronicled during several years past, gave, in that journal of December I, 1900, the following description of the scene and the historical importance of the ruins in which the excavations above mentioned have been carried on: "Nuffar is the modern Arabic name of an old Babylonian ruin situated about half-way between the Euphrates and Tigris, at the northeastern boundary of the great Affej swamps, which are formed by the regular annual inundations of the Euphrates. In a straight line, it is nearly eighty miles to the southeast from Baghdad. A large canal, now dry, and often for miles entirely filled with rubbish and sand, divides the ruins into two almost equal parts. On an average about fifty or sixty feet high, these ruins are torn up by frequent gulleys and furrows into a number of spurs and ridges, from the distance not unlike a rugged mountain range on the bank of the upper Tigris. In the Babylonian language, the city buried here was called Nippur. According to Jewish tradition, strongly supported by arguments drawn from cuneiform texts and archaeological objects found at the ruins themselves, Nippur was identical with the Biblical Calneh, mentioned in Genesis 10: 10, as one of the four great cities of the kingdom of Nimrod. It was therefore natural that the public in general should take a warm interest in our excavations at Nuffar. This interest grew considerably in religious circles when, a few years ago, I announced my discovery of the name of the 'river Chebar' in two cuneiform texts from the archives of Nippur. It became then evident that this 'river Chebar,' which hitherto could not be located, was one of the four or five large canals once bringing life and fertility to the fields of Nippur; that, furthermore, a large number of the Jewish captives carried away by Nebuchadrezzar after the destruction of Jerusalem were settled in the plains around this city; and that even Ezekiel himself, while admonishing and comforting his people, and holding out to them Jehovah's mercy and never-failing promise of a brighter future, stood in the very shadow of Babylonia's ancient national sanctuary, the crumbling walls of the great temple of Bêl at Nippur. The beginning and end of Old Testament history thus point to Nippur as the background and theater for the first and final acts in the great drama of divine selection and human rejection in which Israel played the leading role."

In the same article, Professor Hilprecht indicated in a few words what was done at Nuffar by the first three of the four expeditions sent out from Philadelphia since 1888. "It was comparatively easy," he said, "to get a clear idea of the extent of the city and the life in its streets during the last six centuries preceding our era. Each of the four expeditions to Nuffar contributed its peculiar share to a better knowledge of this latest period of Babylonian history, particularly, however, the third and the present campaigns. But it was of greater importance to follow up the traces of a very early civilization, which, accidentally, we had met during our first brief campaign in 1889. By means of a few deep trenches, the second expedition, in the following year, had brought to light new evidence that a considerable number of ancient monuments still existed in the lower strata of the temple mound. The third expedition showed that the monuments, while numerous, are mostly very fragmentary, thereby offering considerable difficulties to the decipherer and historian. But it also showed that a number of platforms running through the temple mound, and made of baked bricks, frequently bearing inscriptions, enable us to fix the age of the different strata of this mound with great accuracy. The two lowest of these platforms found were the work of kings and patesis (priest-kings) of 4000-3800 B. C., but, to our great astonishment, they did not represent the earliest trace of human life at Nippur. There were not less than about thirty feet of rubbish below them, revealing an even earlier civilization, the beginning and development of which lie considerably before the times of Sargon the Great (3800 B. C.) and Narâm-Sin, who had been generally regarded as half-mythical persons of the first chapter of Babylonian history."

Of the results of the work of those three expeditions of the University of Pennsylvania, and of the studies for which they furnished materials to Professor Hilprecht, Professor Sayce wrote with much enthusiasm in the "Contemporary Review" of January, 1897, as follows: "In my Hibbert Lectures on the 'Religion of the Ancient Babylonians' I had been led by a study of the religious texts of Babylonia to the conclusion that Nippur had been a centre from which Babylonian culture was disseminated in what we then regarded as prehistoric times. Thanks to the American excavations, what were prehistoric times when my Hibbert Lectures were written have now become historic, and my conclusion has proved to be correct. … For the first time in Babylonia they have systematically carried their shafts through the various strata of historical remains which occupy the site, carefully noting the objects found in each, and wherever possible clearing each stag away when once it had been thoroughly examined. The work began in 1888, about two hundred Arabs being employed as labourers. … The excavations at Nippur were carried deeply and widely enough not only to reveal the history of the city itself but also to open up a new vista in the forgotten history of civilised man. The history of civilisation has been taken back into ages which a short while since were still undreamed of. Professor Hilprecht, the historian of the expedition, upon whom has fallen the work of copying, publishing, and translating the multitudinous texts discovered in the course of it, declares that we can no longer 'hesitate to date the founding of the temple of Bel and the first settlements in Nippur somewhere between 6000 and 7000 B. C., possibly even earlier.' At any rate the oldest monuments which have been disinterred there belong to the fifth or sixth millennium before the Christian era. Hitherto we have been accustomed to regard Egypt as the land which has preserved for us the earliest written monuments of mankind, but Babylonia now bids fair to outrival Egypt. The earliest fixed date in Babylonian history is that of Sargon of Akkael and his son Naram-Sin. It has been fixed for us by Nabonidos, the royal antiquarian of Babylonia. In one of his inscriptions he describes the excavations he made in order to discover the memorial cylinders of Naram-Sin, who had lived '3200 years' before his own time. In my Hibbert Lectures I gave reasons for accepting this date as approximately correct. The recent discoveries at Niffer, Telloh, and other places have shown that my conclusion was justified. …

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"Assyriologists have long had in their possession a cuneiform text which contains the annals of the reign of Sargon, and of the first three years of the reign of his son. It is a late copy of the original text, and was made for the library of Nineveh. Our 'critical' friends have been particularly merry over the credulity of the Assyriologists in accepting these annals as authentic. … So far from being unhistorical, Sargon and Naram-Sin prove to have come at the end of a long-preceding historical period, and the annals themselves have been verified by contemporaneous documents. The empire of Sargon, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, was not even the first that had arisen in Western Asia. And the art that flourished under his rule, like the art which flourished in Egypt in the age of the Old Empire, was higher and more perfect than any that succeeded it in Babylonia. … Henceforward, Sargon and Naram-Sin, instead of belonging to 'the grey dawn of time,' must be regarded as representatives of 'the golden age of Babylonian history.' That they should have undertaken military expeditions to the distant West, and annexed Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula to the empire they created need no longer be a matter of astonishment. Such campaigns had already been undertaken by Babylonian kings long before; the way was well known which led from one extremity of Western Asia to the other. …

"It is Mr. Haynes [Director of the explorations from 1893] who tells us that we are henceforth to look upon Sargon of Akkad as a representative of 'the golden age of Babylonian history,' and his assertion is endorsed by Professor Hilprecht. In fact, the conclusion is forced upon both the excavator and the palæographist. Professor Hilprecht, who, thanks to the abundant materials at his disposal, has been able to found the science of Babylonian palæography, tracing the development of the cuneiform characters from one stage of development to another, and determining the age of each successive form of writing, has made it clear to all students of Assyriology that many of the inscriptions found at Niffer and Telloh belong to a much older period than those of the age of Sargon. The palæographic evidence has been supplemented by the results of excavation. … As far back as we can penetrate, we still find inscribed monuments and other evidences of civilisation. It is true that the characters are rude and hardly yet lifted above their pictorial forms. They have, however, ceased to be pictures, and have already become that cursive script which we call cuneiform. For the beginnings of Babylonian writing we have still to search among the relics of centuries that lie far behind the foundation of the temple of Nippur.

"The first king whom the excavations there have brought to light is a certain En-sag(sak)-ana who calls himself 'lord of Kengi' and conqueror of Kis 'the wicked.' Kengi—'the land of canals and reeds,' as Professor Hilprecht interprets the word—was the oldest name of Babylonia, given to it in days when it was still wholly occupied by its Sumerian population, and when as yet no Semitic stranger had ventured within it. The city of Kis (now El-Hy-mar) lay outside its borders to the north, and between Kis and Kengi there seems to have been constant war. … Nippur was the religious centre of Kengi, and Mul-lil, the god of Nippur, was the supreme object of Sumerian worship. … A king of Kis made himself master of Nippur and its sanctuary, and the old kingdom of Kengi passed away. The final blow was dealt by the son of the Sumerian high priest of the 'Land of the Bow.' Lugal-zaggi-si was the chieftain who descended from the north upon Babylonia and made it part of his empire. … Lugal-zaggi-si lived centuries before Sargon of Akkad in days which, only a year ago, we still believed to lie far beyond the horizon of history and culture. We little dreamed that in that hoar antiquity the great cities and sanctuaries of Babylonia were already old, and that the culture and script of Babylonia had already extended far beyond the boundaries of their motherland. The inscriptions of Lugal-zaggi-si are in the Sumerian language, and his name, like that of his father, is Sumerian also. … The empire of Lugal-zaggi-si seems to have passed away with his death, and at no long period subsequently a new dynasty arose at Ur. … According to Professor Hilprecht, this would have been about 4000 B. C. How long the first dynasty of Ur lasted we cannot tell. It had to keep up a perpetual warfare with the Semitic tribes of northern Arabia, Ki-sarra, 'the land of the hordes,' as it was termed by the Sumerians. Meanwhile a new state was growing up on the eastern side of the Euphrates in a small provincial city called Lagas, whose ruins are now known as Telloh. Its proximity to Eridu, the seaport and trading depot of early Babylonia, had doubtless much to do with its rise to power. At all events the kings of Telloh, whose monuments have been brought to light by M. de Sarzec, became continually stronger, and the dynasty of Lagas took the place of the dynasty of Ur. One of these kings, E-Anna-gin, at length defeated the Semitic oppressors of northern Chaldæa in a decisive battle and overthrew the 'people of the Land of the Bow.' …

"The kings of Lagas represent the closing days of Sumerian supremacy. With Sargon and his empire the Semitic age begins. The culture of Chaldæa is still Sumerian, the educated classes are for the most part of Sumerian origin, and the literature of the country is Sumerian also. But the king and his court are Semites, and the older culture which they borrow and adopt becomes Semitised in the process. … For many generations Sumerians and Semites lived side by side, each borrowing from the other, and mutually adapting and modifying their own forms of expression. … Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law—the two most conservative branches of human study—down to the age of Abraham. … The new facts that have been disinterred from the grave of the past furnish a striking confirmation of Professor Hommel's theory, which connects the culture of primitive Egypt with that of primitive Chaldæa, and derives the language of the Egyptians, at all events in part, from a mixed Babylonian language in which Semitic and Sumerian elements alike claimed a share. We now know that such a mixed language did once exist, and we also know that this language and the written characters by which it was expressed were brought to the shores of the Mediterranean and the frontiers of Egypt in the earliest age of Egyptian history."

_A. H. Sayce, Recent Discoveries in Babylonia (Contemporary Review, January, 1897)._

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The third of the Pennsylvania expeditions closed its work at Nippur in February, 1896. There was then an interval of three years before a fourth expedition resumed work at the ruins in February, 1899. In the "Sunday School Times" of April 29 and May 27, 1899, Professor Hilprecht (who did not go personally to Nuffar until later in the year) gave the following account of the friendly reception of the exploring party by the Arabs of the district, from whom there had been formerly much experience of trouble: "The Affej tribes, in whose territory the large mounds are situated, had carefully guarded the expedition's stronghold,—a mud castle half-way between the ruins and the marshes, which had been sealed and entrusted to their care before we quitted the field some years ago. They now gave to the expedition a hearty welcome, accompanied by shooting, shouting, dancing, and singing, and were evidently greatly delighted to have the Americans once more in their midst. In the presence of Haji Tarfa, their commander-in-chief, who was surrounded by his minor shaykhs and other dignitaries of the El-Hamza tribes, the former arrangements with the two shaykhs Hamid el-Birjud and Abud el-Hamid were ratified, and new pledges given for the security and welfare of the little party of explorers, the question of guards and water being especially emphasized. In accordance with the Oriental custom, the expedition showed its appreciation of the warm reception by preparing for their hosts in return a great feast, at which plenty of mutton and boiled rice were eaten by some fifty Arabs, and the old bond of friendship was cemented anew with 'bread and salt.'" …

"Doubtless all the advantages resulting for the Affej Bed'ween and their allies from the presence of the Americans were carefully calculated by them in the three years (February, 1896-1899) that we had withdrawn our expedition from their territory. They have apparently found out that the comparatively large amount of money brought into their country through the wages paid to many Arabs employed as workmen, and through the purchase of milk, eggs, chicken, mutton, and all the other material supplied by the surrounding tribes for our camp, with its about two hundred and fifty persons, has done much to improve their general condition. The conviction has been growing with them that we have not come to rob them of anything to which they attach great value themselves, nor to establish a new military station for the Turkish government in order to gather taxes and unpaid debts. Every Arab engaged by the Expedition has been fairly treated, and help and assistance have always been given cheerfully and gratis to the many sick people who apply daily for medicine, suffering more or less during the whole year from pulmonary diseases, typhoid and malarial fevers, easily contracted in the midst of the extended marshes which they inhabit."

In the "Sunday School Times" of August 5, in the same year, Professor Hilprecht reported: "The mounds of Nippur seem to conceal an almost inexhaustible treasure of inscribed cuneiform tablets, by means of which we are enabled to restore the chronology, history, religion, and the high degree of civilization, obtained at a very early date by the ancient inhabitants between the lower Euphrates and Tigris. More than 33,000 of these precious documents were found during the previous campaigns. Not less than 4,776 tablets have been rescued from February 6 to June 10 this year, averaging, therefore, nearly 1,200 'manuscripts in clay,' as we may style them, per month. About the fourth part of these tablets is in perfect condition, while a very large proportion of the remaining ones are good-sized fragments or tablets so fortunately broken that their general contents and many important details can be ascertained by the patient decipherer."

In November, 1899, Professor Hilprecht started for the field, to superintend the explorations in person, and on the way he wrote to the "S. S. Times" (published December 13): "The deeper the trenches of the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania descend into the lower strata of Nippur, the probable site of the biblical Calneh, the more important and interesting become the results obtained. The work of clearing the northeastern wall of the high-towering temple of Bel was continued with success during the summer months. Particularly numerous were the inscribed vase fragments brought to light, and almost exclusively belonging to the pre-Sargonic period,—3800 B. C. and before. As I showed in the second part of Volume I of our official University publication, this fragmentary condition of the vases is due to the wilful destruction of the temple property by the victorious Elamitic hordes, who, towards the end of the third pre-Christian millennium, ransacked the Babylonian cities, extending their conquest and devastation even as far as the shores of the Mediterranean Sea (comp. Gen. 14). From the earliest historical period down to about 2200 B. C., when this national calamity befell Babylonia, the large temple storehouse, with its precious statues, votive slabs and vases, memorial stones, bronze figures, and other gifts from powerful monarchs and governors, had practically remained intact. What, therefore, is left of the demolished and scattered contents of this ancient chamber as a rule is found above the platform of Ur-Ninib (about 2500 B. C.), in a layer several feet thick and about twenty-five feet wide, surrounding the front and the two side walls of the temple. The systematic clearing and examination of this layer, and of the huge mass of ruins lying above it, occupied the attention of the expedition considerably in the past years, and was continued with new energy during the past six months." At the end of January, 1900, Professor Hilprecht arrived in Babylonia, and wrote some weeks later to the "Sunday School Times" (May 3): "As early as eleven years ago, the present writer pointed out that the extensive group of hills to the southwest of the temple of Bel must be regarded as the probable site of the temple library of ancient Nippur. About twenty-five hundred tablets were rescued from the trenches in this hill during our first campaign. Later excavations increased the number of tablets taken from these mounds to about fifteen thousand. But it was only within the last six weeks that my old theory could be established beyond any reasonable doubt. {16} During this brief period a series of rooms was exposed which furnished not less than over sixteen thousand cuneiform documents, forming part of the temple library during the latter half of the third millennium B. C. In long rows the tablets were lying on ledges of unbaked clay, serving as shelves for these imperishable Old Babylonian records. The total number of tablets rescued from different parts of the ruins during the present campaign amounts even now to more than twenty-one thousand, and is rapidly increased by new finds every day. The contents of this extraordinary library are as varied as possible. Lists of Sumerian words and cuneiform signs, arranged according to different principles, and of fundamental value for our knowledge of the early non-Semitic language of the country, figure prominently in the new 'find.' As regards portable antiquities of every description, and their archeological value, the American expedition stands readily first among the three expeditions at present engaged in the exploration of Ancient Babylonia and the restoration of its past history."

Three weeks later he added: "The Temple Library, as indicated in the writer's last report, has been definitely located at the precise spot which, in 1889, the present writer pointed out as its most probable site. Nearly eighteen thousand cuneiform documents have been rescued this year from the shelves of a series of rooms in its southeastern and northwestern wings. The total number of tablets (mostly of a didactic character) obtained from the library up to date is from twenty-five thousand to twenty-six thousand tablets (whole and broken). In view, however, of more important other duties to be executed by this expedition before we can leave Nippur this year, and in consideration of the enormous amount of time and labor required for a methodical exploration of the whole mound in which it is concealed, I have recently ordered all the gangs of Arabic workmen to be withdrawn from this section of ancient Nippur, and to be set at work at the eastern fortification line of the city, close to the temple-complex proper. According to a fair estimate based upon actual finds, the unique history of the temple, and topographical indications, there must be hidden at least from a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand tablets more in this ancient library, which was destroyed by the invading Elamites about the time of Abraham's emigration from Ur of the Chaldees. Only about the twentieth part of this library (all of Dr. Haynes's previous work included) has so far been examined and excavated."

In the same letter the Professor described the uncovering of one façade of a large pre-Sargonic palace—"the chief discovery," in his opinion, "of this whole campaign." "A thorough excavation of this large palace," he wrote, "will form one of the chief tasks of a future expedition, after its character, age, and extent have been successfully determined by the present one. Important art treasures of the Tello type, and literary documents, may reasonably be expected to be unearthed from the floor-level of its many chambers. It has become evident, from the large number of pre-Sargonic buildings, walls, and other antiquities discovered on both sides of the Shatt-en-Nil, that the pre-Sargonic Nippur was of by far greater extent than had been anticipated. This discovery, however, is only in strict accord with what we know from the cuneiform documents as to the important historical rôle which the temple of Bel ('the father of the gods'), as the central national sanctuary of ancient Babylonia, played at the earliest period, long before Babylon, the capital of the later empire, achieved any prominence."

The work at Nippur was suspended for the season about the middle of May, 1900, and Professor Hilprecht, after his return to Philadelphia, wrote of the general fruits of the campaign, in the "Sunday School Times" of December 1: "As the task of the fourth and most recent expedition, just completed, I had mapped out, long before its organization, the following work. It was to determine the probable extent of the earliest pre-Sargonic settlement at ancient Nippur; to discover the precise form and character of the famous temple of Bêl at this earliest period; to define the exact boundaries of the city proper; if possible, to find one or more of the great city gates frequently mentioned in the inscriptions; to locate the great temple library and educational quarters of Nippur; to study the different modes of burial in use in ancient Babylonia; and to study all types and forms of pottery, with a view to finding laws for the classification and determination of the ages of vases, always excavated in large numbers at Nuffar. The work set before us has been accomplished. The task was great,—almost too great for the limited time at our disposal. … But the number of Arab workmen, busy with pickax, scraper, and basket in the trenches for ten to fourteen hours every day, gradually increased to the full force of four hundred. … In the course of time, when the nearly twenty-five thousand cuneiform texts which form one of the most conspicuous prizes of the present expedition have been fully deciphered and interpreted; when the still hidden larger mass of tablets from that great educational institution, the temple library of Calneh-Nippur, discovered at the very spot which I had marked for its site twelve years ago, has been brought to light,—a great civilization will loom up from past millenniums before our astonished eyes. For four thousand years the documents which contain this precious information have disappeared from sight, forgotten in the destroyed rooms of ancient Nippur. Abraham was about leaving his ancestral home at Ur when the great building in which so much learning had been stored up by previous generations collapsed under the ruthless acts of the Elamite hordes. But the light which begins to flash forth from the new trenches in this lonely mound in the desert of Iraq will soon illuminate the world again. And it will be no small satisfaction to know that it was rekindled by the hands of American explorers."

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ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia: German exploration of the ruins of Babylon.

An expedition to explore the ruins of Babylon was sent out by the German Orient Society, in 1899, under the direction of Dr. Koldewey, an eminent architect and archæologist, who had been connected with previous works of excavation done in Babylonia and northern Syria. In announcing the project, in the "Sunday School Times" of January 28, 1899, Professor Hilprecht remarked: "These extended ruins will require at least fifty years of labor if they are to be excavated as thoroughly and systematically as the work is done by the American expedition at Nippur, which has employed in its trenches never less than sixty, but frequently from two hundred to four hundred, Arabic workmen at the same time during the last ten years. Certain parts of the ruins of Babylon have been previously explored and excavated by Layard, Rawlinson, and the French expedition under Fresnel and Oppert, to which we owe the first accurate details of the topography of this ancient city." Writing somewhat more than a year later from Nippur, after having visited the German party at Babylon, Professor Hilprecht said of its work: "The chief work of the expedition during the past year was the exploration of the great ruin heap called El-Kasr, under which are hidden the remains of the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, where Alexander the Great died after his famous campaign against India. Among the few important antiquities so far obtained from this imposing mound of Ancient Babylon is a new Hittite inscription and a neo-Babylonian slab with an interesting cuneiform legend. Very recently, Dr. Koldewey, whose excellent topographical surveys form a conspicuous part of the results of the first year, has found the temple of the goddess Nin-Makh, so often mentioned in the building inscriptions of the neo-Babylonian rulers, and a little terra-cotta statue of the goddess. The systematic examination of the enormous mass of ruins covering Ancient Babylon will require several decenniums of continued hard labor. To facilitate this great task, a bill has been submitted to the German Reichstag requesting a yearly government appropriation of over fifteen thousand dollars, while at the same time application has been made by the German Orient Committee to the Ottoman Government for another firman to carry on excavations at Warka, the biblical Erech, whose temple archive was badly pillaged by the invading Elamites at about 2280 B. C."

Some account of results from the uncovering of the palace of Nebuchadrezzar are quoted from "Die Illustrirte Zeitung" in the "Scientific American Supplement," December 16, 1899, as follows: "According to early Babylonian records, Nebuchadnezzar completed the fortifications of the city, begun by his father Narbolpolassar, consisting of a double inclosure of strong walls, the inner called Imgur-Bel ('Bel is gracious'), the outer Nemitti-Bel ('foundation of Bel'). The circumference of the latter according to Herodotus was 480 stades (55 miles), its height 340 feet, and its thickness 85 feet. At the inner and outer peripheries, one-story houses were built, between which was room enough for a chariot drawn by four horses harnessed abreast. When Koldewey cut through the eastern front of Al Kasr, he came upon a wall which was undoubtedly that described by Herodotus. The outer eastern shell was composed of burnt brick and asphalt, 24 feet in thickness; then came a filling of sand and broken stone 70½ feet in thickness, which was followed by an inner western shell of 43 feet thickness. The total thickness was, therefore, 137.5 feet. By dint of hard work this wall was cut through and the entrance to Nebuchadnezzar's palace laid bare. Koldewey and his men were enabled to verify the description given by Diodorus of the polychromatic reliefs which graced the walls of the royal towers and palaces. It still remains to be seen how trustworthy are the statements of other ancient historians. The city itself, as previous investigators have found, was adorned with many temples, chief among them Esaglia ('the high towering house'), temple of the city, and the national god Marduk (Merodach) and his spouse Zirpanit. Sloping toward the river were the Hanging Gardens, one of the world's seven wonders, located in the northern mound of the ruins of Babel. The temple described by Herodotus is that of Nebo, in Borsippa, not far from Babylon, which Herodotus included under Babylon and which the cuneiform inscriptions term 'Babylon the Second.' This temple, which in the mound of Birs Nimrûd is the most imposing ruin of Babylon, is called the 'eternal house' in the inscriptions; it was restored by Nebuchadnezzar with great splendor. In form, it is a pyramid built in seven stages, for which reason it is sometimes referred to as the 'Temple of the Seven Spheres of Heaven and Earth.' The Tower of Babel, described in Genesis x., is perhaps the same structure. It remains for the German expedition to continue its excavations in Nebuchadnezzar's palace."

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia: Discovery of an inscription of Nabonidos, the last of the Babylonian kings.

"A discovery of the greatest importance has just been made by Father Scheil, who has for some time been exploring in Babylonia. In the Mujelibeh mound, one of the principal heaps of ruins in the 'enciente' of Babylon, he has discovered a long inscription of Nabonidos, the last of the Babylonian Kings (B. C. 555-538), which contains a mass of historical and other data which will be of greatest value to students of this important period of Babylonian history. The monument in question is a small 'stela' of diorite, the upper part of which is broken, inscribed with eleven columns of writing, and which appears to have been erected early in the King's reign. It resembles in some measure the celebrated India-House inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, but is much more full of historical matter. Its value may be estimated when it is stated that it contains a record of the war of revenge conducted by the Babylonians and their Mandian allies against Assyria, for the destruction of the city by Sennacherib, in B. C. 698; an account of the election and coronation of Nabonidos in B. C. 555, and the wonderful dream in which Nebuchadnezzar appeared to him; as well as an account of the restoration of the temple of the Moon god at Kharran, accompanied by a chronological record which enables us to fix the date of the so-called Scythian invasion. There is also a valuable reference to the murder of Sennacherib by his son in Tebet, B. C. 681."

_American Journal of Archœology, January-March, 1896._

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Persia: French exploration of the ruins of Susa, the capital of ancient Elam.

"In 1897 an arrangement was completed between the French Government and the Shah of Persia by which the former obtained the exclusive right of archeological explorations in the latter's empire, coupled with certain privileges for the exportation of different kinds of antiquities that might be unearthed. Soon afterwards, M. J. de Morgan, late director of excavations in Egypt, who had made archeological researches in the regions east of the Tigris before, was placed at the head of a French expedition to Susa, the ancient capital of Elam, the upper strata of which had been successfully explored by M. Dieulafoy. {18} In the Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions Elam appears as the most terrible foe of the Babylonian empire from the earliest time: and the name of its capital, Susa, or Shâsha, was discovered by the present editor several years ago on a small votive object in agate, originally manufactured and inscribed in southern Babylonia, in the first half of the third pre-christian millennium, several hundred years afterwards carried away as part of their spoil by the invading Elamites, and in the middle of the fourteenth century B. C. recaptured, reinscribed, and presented to the temple of Nippur by King Kurigalzu, after his conquest of Susa. It was therefore evident that, if the same method of excavating was applied to the ruins of Susa as had been applied so successfully by the University of Pennsylvania's expedition in Nippur, remarkable results would soon be obtained, and amply repay all labor and money expended. M. de Morgan, accompanied by some engineers and architects, set hopefully to work, cutting his trenches more than fifty feet below the ruins of the Achæmenian dynasty. The first campaign, 1897-98, was so successful, in the discovery of buildings and inscribed antiquities, that in October of last year the French government despatched the Assyriologist Professor Scheil, in order to decipher the new cuneiform documents, and to report on their historical bearings.

"Among the more important finds so far made, but not yet published, maybe mentioned over a thousand cuneiform tablets of the earlier period, a beautifully preserved obelisk more than five feet high, and covered with twelve hundred lines of Old Babylonian cuneiform writing. It was inscribed and set up by King Manishtusu, who left inscribed vases in Nippur and other Babylonian cities. A stele of somewhat smaller size, representing a battle in the mountains, testifies to the high development of art at that remote period. On the one end it bears a mutilated inscription of Narâm-Sin, son of Sargon the Great (3800 B. C.); on the other, the name of Shimti-Shilkhak, a well-known Elamitic king, and grandfather of the biblical Ariokh (Genesis 14). These two monuments were either left in Susa by the two Babylonian kings whose names they bear, after successful operations against Elam, or they were carried off as booty at the time of the great Elamitic invasion, which proved so disastrous to the treasure-houses and archives of Babylonian cities and temples [see above: BABYLONIA]. The latter is more probable to the present writer, who in 1896 ('Old Babylonian Inscriptions,' Part II, page 33) pointed out, in connection with his discussion of the reasons of the lamentable condition of Babylonian temple archives, that on the whole we shall look in vain for well-preserved large monuments in most Babylonian ruins, because about 2280 B. C. 'that which in the eyes of the national enemies of Babylonia appeared most valuable was carried to Susa and other places: what did not find favor with them was smashed and scattered on Babylonian temple courts.'"

_Prof. H. V. Hilprecht, Oriental Research (Sunday School Times, January 28, 1809)._

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt: Earlier explorations.

For some account of earlier archæological explorations in Egypt,

See, in volume 1, EGYPT.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt: Results of recent exploration. The opening up of prehistoric Egypt. The tomb of Mena. The funeral temple of Merenptah. Single mention of the people of Israel.

"During all this century in which Egyptian history has been studied at first hand, it has been accepted as a sort of axiom that the beginnings of things were quite unknown. In the epitome of the history which was drawn up under the Greeks to make Egypt intelligible to the rest of the world, there were three dynasties of kings stated before the time of the great pyramid builders; and yet of those it has been commonly said that no trace remained. Hence it has been usual to pass them by with just a mention as being half fabulous, and then to begin real history with Senefern or Khufu (Cheops), the kings who stand at the beginning of the fourth dynasty, at about 4000 B. C. The first discovery to break up this habit of thought was when the prehistoric colossal statues of Min, the god of the city of Koptos, were found in my excavations in his temple. These had carvings in relief upon them wholly different from anything known as yet in Egypt, and the circumstances pointed to their being earlier than any carvings yet found in that country. In the same temple we found also statues of sacred animals and pottery which we now know to belong to the very beginning of Egyptian history, many centuries before the pyramids, and probably about 5000 B. C. or earlier.

"The next step was the finding of a new cemetery and a town of the prehistoric people, which we can now date to about 5000 B. C., within two or three centuries either way. This place lay on the opposite side of the Nile to Koptos—that is to say, about 20 miles north of Thebes. At first we were completely staggered by a class of objects entirely different from any yet known in Egypt. We tried to fit them into every gap in Egyptian history, but found that it was impossible to put them before 3000 B. C. Later discoveries prove that they are really as old as 5000 B. C. They show a very different civilization from that of the Egyptians whom we already know—far less artistic, but in some respects even more skillful in mechanical taste and touch than the historical Egyptians. They built brick houses to live in, and buried their dead in small chambers sunk in the gravels of the water courses, lined with mats, and roofed over with beams. They show several points of contact with the early Mediterranean civilization, and appear to have been mainly north African tribes of European type. Their pottery, in its patterns and painting, shows designs which have survived almost unchanged unto the present day among the Kabyles of the Algerian Mountains. And one very peculiar type of pottery is found spread from Spain to Egypt, and indicates a widespread commercial intercourse at that remote day. The frequent figures upon the vases of great galley ships rowed with oars show that shipping was well developed then, and make the evidences of trading between different countries easy to be accepted.

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"An of the above belongs to the age probably before 4700 B. C., which is the age given for the first historical king of Egypt by the Greek history of Manetho. A keystone of our knowledge of the civilization is the identification of the tomb of Mena, the first name in Egyptian history, the venerated founder of all the long series of hundreds of historic kings. This tomb, about 15 miles north of Thebes, was found by some Arabs, and shown to Dr. De Morgan, the director of the Department of Antiquities. It was a mass of about thirty chambers, built of mud brick and earth. Each chamber contained a different class of objects, one of stone vases, one of stone dishes, one of copper tools, one of water jars, etc. And among the things are carvings of lions and vases in rock crystal and obsidian, large hard-stone vases, slate palettes for grinding paint, pottery vases, and, above all, an ivory tablet with relief carvings which show the names of the king. Besides this, M. Amelineau has found sixteen tombs of this same general character at Abydos, which we can hardly now doubt belong to the early kings of the first three dynasties, and some four or five have been actually identified with the names of these kings in the Greek history. So now instead of treating the first three dynasties as half fabulous and saying that Egyptian art and civilization begin full blown at 4000 B. C., we have the clear and tangible remains of much of these early kings back to 4700 B. C., and a stretch of some centuries of the prehistoric period with a varied and distinctive civilization, well known and quite different from anything later, lying before 4700 B. C. To put the earlier part of this to 5500 B. C. is certainly no stretch of probability. …

"We now pass entirely from these early times, with their fascinating insight into the beginnings of things, long before any other human history that we possess, until we reach down to what seems quite modern times in the record of Egypt, where it comes into contact with the Old Testament history. On clearing out the funereal temple of King Merenptah I found in that the upper half of a fine colossal statue of his, with all the colors still fresh upon it. As this son of Rameses the Great is generally believed to be the Pharaoh of the exodus, such a fine portrait of him is full of interest. Better even than that—I found an immense tablet of black granite over 10 feet high and 5 feet wide. It had been erected over two centuries before and brilliantly carved by an earlier king, whose temple was destroyed for materials by Merenptah. He took this splendid block and turned its face inward against the wall of his temple and carved the back of it with other scenes and long inscriptions. Most of it is occupied with the history of his vanquishing the Libyans, or North African tribes, who were then invading Egypt. But at the end he recounts his conquests in Syria, among which occurs the priceless passage: 'The people of Israel are spoiled; they have no seed.' This is the only trace yet found in Egypt of the existence of the Israelites, the only mention of the name, and it is several centuries earlier than the references to the Israelite and Jewish kings in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria. "What relation this has to our biblical knowledge of the Israelites is a wide question, that has several possible answers. Without entering on all the openings, I may here state what seems to me to be the most probable connection of all the events, though I am quite aware that fresh discoveries might easily alter our views. It seems that either all the Israelites did not go into Egypt or else a part returned and lived in the north of Palestine before the exodus that we know, because we here find Merenptah defeating Israelites at about 1200 B. C. Of his conquest and of those of Rameses III in Palestine there are no traces in the biblical accounts, the absence of which indicates that the entry into Canaan took place after 1160 B. C., the last war of Rameses III. Then the period of the Judges is given in a triple record—(l) of the north, (2) of the east of the Jordan, (3) of Ephraim and the west; and these three accounts are quite distinct and never overlap, though the history passes in succession from one to another. Thus the whole age of Judges is but little over a century. And to this agree the priestly genealogies stretching between the tabernacle and temple periods.

"Leaving now all the monumental age, we come lastly to the evidences of the Christian period, preserved in the papyri or miscellaneous waste papers left behind in the towns of the Roman times. Last winter my friends, Mr. Grenfell and Mr. Hunt, cleared out the remains of the town Behnesa, about 110 miles south of Cairo. There, amid thousands of stray papers, documents, rolls, accounts, and all the waste sweepings out of the city offices, they found two leaves which are priceless in Christian literature—the leaf of Logia, or sayings of Jesus, and the leaf of Matthew's Gospel. The leaf of the Logia is already so widely known that it is needless for me to describe it. … The leaf of Matthew's Gospel is of great interest in the literary history of the Gospels. Hitherto we have had no manuscripts older than the second great ecclesiastical settlement under Theodosius. Now we have a piece two ages earlier—before the first settlement of things under Constantine at the council of Nicea. Here, in the middle of the third century, we find that the beginning of the Gospel, the most artificial, and probably the latest, part, the introductory genealogy and account of the Nativity, was exactly in its present form. This gives us the greatest confidence that the Gospel as we have it dates from the time of the great persecutions. Such are some of the astonishing and far-reaching results that Egypt has given us within three years past."

_W. M. Flinders Petrie, Recent Research in Egypt (Sunday School Times, February 19, 1898.)_

In a later article, contributed to the "Popular Science Monthly," Professor Petrie has described more fully the results of recent exploration in Egypt, especially with reference to the discovery and study of prehistoric remains. The following are passages from the article: "The great stride that has been made in the last six years is the opening up of prehistoric Egypt, leading us back some 2000 years before the time of the pyramid builders. Till recently nothing was known before the age of the finest art and the greatest buildings, and it was a familiar puzzle how such a grand civilization could have left no traces of its rise. This was only a case of blindness on the part of explorers. Upper Egypt teems with prehistoric remains, but, as most of what appears is dug up by plunderers for the market, until there is a demand for a class of objects, very little is seen of them. Now that the prehistoric has become fashionable, it is everywhere to be seen. The earlier diggers were dazzled by the polished colossi, the massive buildings, the brilliant sculptures of the well-known historic times, and they had no eyes for small graves, containing only a few jars or, at best, a flint knife.

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"The present position of the prehistory of Egypt is that we can now distinguish two separate cultures before the beginning of the Egyptian dynasties, and we can clearly trace a sequence of manufactures and art throughout long ages before the pyramid builders, or from say 6000 B. C., giving a continuous history of 8000 years for man in Egypt. Continuous I say advisedly, for some of the prehistoric ways are those kept up to the present time. In the earliest stages of this prehistoric culture metal was already used and pottery made. Why no ruder stages are found is perhaps explained by the fact that the alluvial deposits of the Nile do not seem to be much older than 8000 years. The rate of deposit is well known—very closely one metre in a thousand years—and borings show only eight metres thick of Nile mud in the valley. Before that the country had enough rain to keep up the volume of the river, and it did not drop its mud. It must have run as a rapid stream through a barren land of sand and stones, which could not support any population except paleolithic hunters. With the further drying of the climate, the river lost so much velocity that its mud was deposited, and the fertile mud flats made cultivation and a higher civilization possible. At this point a people already using copper came into the country. …

"The second prehistoric civilization seems to have belonged to a people kindred to that of the first age, as much of the pottery continued unchanged, and only gradually faded away. But a new style arose of a hard, buff pottery, painted with patterns and subjects in red outline. Ships are represented with cabins on them, and rowed by a long bank of oars. The use of copper became more general, and gold and silver appear also. … Though this civilization was in many respects higher than that which preceded it, yet it was lower artistically, the figures being ruder and always flat, instead of in the round. …

"The separation of these two different ages has been entirely reached by the classification of many hundreds of tombs, the original order of which could be traced by the relation of their contents. … The material for this study has come entirely from excavations of my own party at Nagada (1895), Abadiyeh, and Hu (1899); but great numbers of tombs of these same ages have been opened without record by Dr. de Morgan (1896-1897), and by French and Arab speculators in antiquities. The connection between these prehistoric ages and the early historic times of the dynastic kings of Egypt is yet obscure. The cemeteries which would have cleared this have unhappily been looted in the last few years without any record, and it is only the chance of some new discoveries that can be looked to for filling up the history.

"We can at least say that the pottery of the early kings is clearly derived from the later prehistoric types, and that much of the civilization was in common. But it is clear that the second prehistoric civilization was degrading and losing its artistic taste for fine work before the new wave of the dynastic or historic Egyptians came in upon it. These early historic people are mainly known by the remains of the tombs of the early kings, found by M. Amelineau at Abydos (1896-1899), and probably the first stage of the same race is seen in the rude colossi of the god Min, which I found at Koptos (1894). … In these great discoveries of the last few years we can trace at least three successive peoples, and see the gradual rise of the arts, from the man who was buried in his goat skins, with one plain cup by him, up to the king who built great monuments and was surrounded by most sumptuous handiwork. We see the rise of the art of exquisite flint flaking, and the decline of that as copper came more commonly into use. We see at first the use of signs, later on disused by a second race, and then superseded by the elaborate hieroglyph system of the dynastic race. …

"Turning now to the purely classical Egyptian work, the principal discoveries of the last few years have given us new leading examples in every line. The great copper statue of King Pepy, with his son, dates from before 3000 B. C. It is over life size, and entirely wrought in hammered copper, showing a complete mastery in metal work of the highest artistic power. … Many of the royal temples of the 19th dynasty at Thebes were explored by the English in 1896. The Ramesseum was completely examined, through all the maze of stone chambers around it. But the most important result was the magnificent tablet of black granite, about 10 feet high and 5 wide, covered on one side with an inscription of Amen Hotep III, and on the other side with an inscription of Merenptah. The latter account, of about 1200 B. C., mentions the war with the 'People of Israel'; this is the only naming of Israel on Egyptian records, and is several centuries earlier than any Assyrian record of the Hebrews. …

"One of the most important results of historical Egyptian times is the light thrown on prehistoric Greek ages. The pottery known as 'Mykenæan' since the discoveries of Schliemann in the Peloponnesus was first dated in Egypt at Gurob in 1889; next were found hundreds of vase fragments at Tell el Amarna in 1892; and since then several Egyptian kings' names have been found on objects in Greece, along with such pottery. The whole of this evidence shows that the grand age of prehistoric Greece, which can well compare with the art of classical Greece, began about 1600 B. C., was at its highest point about 1400 B. C., and became decadent about 1200 B. C., before its overthrow by the Dorian invasion. Besides this dating, Greece is indebted to Egypt for the preservation of the oldest texts of its classics."

_W. M. Flinders Petrie, Recent Years of Egyptian Exploration (Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, April, 1900)._

Still later, in an address at the annual meeting of the Egypt Exploration Fund, November 7, 1900, Professor Petrie summed up with succinctness the gains to our knowledge of early man from the later researches in Egypt. "How many controversies," he said, "had waged over Manetho! And now from the Royal tombs of Abydos we had seen and handled this summer the drinking bowls and furniture of the Kings of the first dynasty, even the property of Menes himself, the first King of United Egypt. The early Kings, whom we had scarcely believed in, even Mena who had been proclaimed a mythical version of the Cretan Minos and the Indian Manu, came now before us as real and as familiarly as the Kings of the 30th dynasty or of Saxon England; and never before had so remote a period been brought so completely before us as it had been in the work this year at Abydos. {21} And how did Manetho and the State history of Seti bear the test? Five Kings we could already identify out of the eight recorded for the first dynasty. Those five are proved to have been recorded in their correct order, although the time of the first dynasty was so remote from even that of Seti that all the names had become slightly altered by transmission. It was to be remembered that the first dynasty was older to Seti than the Exodus was to us. Now that we were no longer afraid of our own rashness in assigning anything to a date before the fourth dynasty, and could deal with the earliest periods back to the first entry of agricultural man into Egypt, we could see more of the perspective of history. We saw palæolithic man scattering his massive flint weapons until the age of Nile mud (beginning about 7000 B. C.) made agriculture possible, and a Caucasian race ousted the palæolithic folks, whose portraits were left us in the figures found in the earliest graves. We saw this oldest race of man to have been of the Hottentot type, but even more hairy than the Hottentot, with the traces of his original Northern habitation not yet wiped off by tropical suns. Then we saw a rapidly rising civilization already knowing metals linked with the modern Kabyle both by bodily formation and by existing products. Next after some dozen generations we could trace strong Eastern or Semitic influence, which carried on this civilization to a higher point in many respects; and then decay set in and the first cycle that we could trace was completed. The next cycle began with the entry of the dynastic race from the Red Sea, possessing the elements of hieroglyphic writing and far more artistic sense and power than the earlier people. In some three or four centuries they had gradually conquered and invaded all the races scattered through Egypt—long-haired, short-haired, bearded and unbearded, clothed and unclothed; and the first King of all Egypt, who founded his new capital at the mouth of the valley, was Mena. The era of consolidation which preceded him was stated by Manetho as the dynasty of ten Kings of Abydos, who reigned for 300 years; it was a time of rapidly increasing civilization, during which most of the main features of Egyptian language, life, and art were stamped for 5,000 years to come. From the Royal tombs of Abydos we could see now how this art rose to its finest age in the middle of the first dynasty, and was decaying and becoming cheaper and more common by the end of that time. Probably we should see that this cycle was fading when some new impetus gave birth to the colossal ages of the pyramid builders. That grand period we now see to have been the third cycle of civilization and art, which was renewed again and again until we might see in the brilliance of the Fatimite dynasty the seventh of the great eras of Egypt. Such was the wider aspect of human history which the work solely of English exploration in Egypt now put before us. It might be safely said that there had never been a greater extension of knowledge of man's past in any decade than the discoveries of the last five years had unfolded. Details yet awaited us, but the main lines were all marked out, and their work of the future was to complete the picture of which we now had the full extent before us. What, now, would occupy the coming winter was the exploration of the remaining Royal tombs."

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt: Discovery of a fragment of the Logia, or Sayings of Jesus.

During the winter of 1896-1897, Messrs. Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt conducted excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund on the site of Oxyrhynchus, which was a flourishing city in the time of Roman rule in Egypt. Large quantities of papyri were found in the rubbish heaps of the town, and among them one fragment of special and remarkable interest,—as thus described by the discoverers, in a brief report, entitled "Sayings of Our Lord," published by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1897: "The document in question is a leaf from a papyrus book containing a collection of Logia or Sayings of our Lord, of which some, though presenting several novel features, are familiar, others are wholly new. It was found at the very beginning of our work upon the town, in a mound which produced a great number of papyri belonging to the first three centuries of our era, those in the immediate vicinity of our fragment belonging to the second and third centuries. This fact, together with the evidence of the handwriting, which has a characteristically Roman aspect, fixes with certainty 300 A. D. as the lowest limit for the date at which the papyrus was written. The general probabilities of the case, the presence of the usual contractions found in biblical MSS., and the fact that the papyrus was in book, not roll, form, put the first century out of the question, and made the first half of the second unlikely. The date therefore probably falls within the period 150-300 A. D. More than that cannot be said with any approach to certainty. … The fragment measures 5¾X3¾ inches, but its height was originally somewhat greater, as it is unfortunately broken at the bottom."

The following is a translation of the fragmentary sayings inscribed on the leaf:

"… and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye."

"Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in no wise find the kingdom of God; and except ye keep the sabbath, ye shall not see the Father."

"Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I seen of them, and I found all men drunken, and none found I athirst among them, and my soul grieveth over the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart. …"

"Jesus saith, Wherever there are … and there is one … alone, I am with him. Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me, cleave the wood and there am I."

"Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him."

"Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill, and stablished, can neither fall nor be hid."

{22}

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:Egypt: New discoveries in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.

In the Valley of the Kings, which extends along the west bank of the Nile, in the Libyan Mountains, opposite Luxor, M. Loret, director of the Egyptian explorations, discovered in 1898 the tombs of Thutmosis III. and Amenophis II., and in the following year made the more important discovery of the tomb of Thutmosis I., "the real founder of the eighteenth dynasty, who made Egypt one of the great empires of the ancient world." Professor Steindorf of the University of Leipsic, writing of this discovery to Professor Hilprecht of the University of Pennsylvania, remarked that its special importance "lies in the fact that Thutmosis I, the earliest king of the eighteenth dynasty, was also the first ruler to depart from the ancient custom of the Pharaohs, that of building in the desert lowland pyramidal tombs. For himself he had a tomb hewn out of rock in the mountains. His predecessor, Amenophis I, according to custom, built his tomb in the plain, near the present site of Drah-abul-negge, as we know from written records. Thutmosis I, on the contrary, chose for his last dwelling-place the lonely and majestic valley in the Libyan Mountains. For centuries the Pharaohs followed his example, and during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties were built those magnificent sepulchers which in Roman times were still among the greatest curiosities of ancient Thebes. …

"Chief among the articles that Mr. Loret found in the tomb is a remarkably well-preserved papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead, with colored pictures finely executed; also a chest in which were kept a draught-board, with a full set of draughtmen, and some garlands; likewise fruit, food, poultry, and beef. The last-mentioned articles, being intended for the sustenance of the dead, each one was wrapped in linen and enclosed in a wooden case, exactly corresponding to its form. Thirteen large earthen beer jars, most of which, with their seals, stood there unmarred, and a large number of other vessels, had contained the beverages necessary for the refreshment of the dead. Weapons, among others two artistically wrought leathern quivers containing arrows, and two beautiful armchairs, completed this strange stock of equipments. The most remarkable piece of all is a large and beautifully preserved couch, the like of which has never been found in any other tomb. It consists of a quadrangular wooden frame, overspread with a thick rush mat, and over this were stretched three layers of linen with a life-size figure of the god of death, Osiris, drawn upon the outer layer. The figure itself was smeared with some material intended to make the under layer waterproof. Over this, mingled with some adhesive substance, soil had been spread, in which barley was planted. The grains had sprouted, and had grown to the height of from two and a half to three inches. The whole, therefore, represented a couch whereon the dead Osiris lay figured in greensward. Verily, a striking poetical idea, the resurrection of the dead symbolized by the picture of the barley springing up. The whole tomb, with its numerous equipments, furnishes a very important contribution to the history of the methods of burial among the ancient Egyptians."

_Sunday School Times, July 8, 1899._

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt: Fall of eleven columns of the great temple at Karnak.

"From Professor Georg Steindorff, of the University of Leipsic, comes the following: 'In the covered colonnade of the great temple at Karnak extensive restorations have lately been undertaken, rendered necessary by a most deplorable accident, which, about a year ago, befell this grandest of all Egyptian edifices. It occurred on the morning of October 3, 1899, in the colonnade which was built by Ramses I, Sethos I, and Ramses II, and which is doubtless familiar to all in engravings and photographs. In the northeastern part of this structure as many as eleven immense columns fell, and were totally wrecked, while several others are leaning over so that they might fall at any time. By this event the magnificent structure has been utterly ruined, and it now presents a dreary aspect. The cause of this catastrophe has not been definitely ascertained. The first thought was of an earthquake, but nothing of the sort was experienced elsewhere in Egypt on the morning of the day above mentioned. It is more likely that during the thirty-two hundred years of the building's existence, the material used in its construction had greatly deteriorated, and that this fact increased the possibility of a collapse. Then, also, in the main hall during recent years, the work of excavation and restoration was carried on with little regard for the dilapidated condition of the temple, which was weakened rather than strengthened by this work. But especially for the last four years, during the inundation of the Nile, the hall, by artificial means, has been flooded in order to extract and remove the salt which had formed. By this periodical flooding and drying of the ground the foundations have been very badly damaged. This, according to Dr. Borchardt, is the prime cause of the ruin. First the ground gave way under a column, which then toppled, and, in falling, brought down the others with it.

"We must recognize the zeal with which the Egyptian Government, especially the department of Egyptian Antiquities, with its Director-General, Professor Maspero, came to the rescue of the ill-fated edifice. To prevent further catastrophe, they first proceeded to remove the architraves from five of the endangered columns, and to reduce the height of the columns to about twenty feet. This was accomplished by filling with sand that portion of the hall in which the columns stood, and then rolling the separate parts down the inclined plane formed by the sand. The north portion of the pylon terminating the colonnade toward the east—that is, toward the Nile—had badly suffered by the disaster. There were cracks in it so large as to cause the fear that it might some day collapse. After prompt and thorough work this danger also was obviated. Later on the ruins of the eleven fallen columns are to be removed, and the foundations of the hall examined. Then everything possible will be done to make the ground solid, and the attempt will be made to erect again the ruined columns. But whether the beautiful colonnade will ever resume its former appearance, whether it will ever again make upon the visitor such an overpowering impression as formerly, may well be a matter of serious doubt. Ancient Thebes has lost one of its most beautiful monuments.'"

_Sunday School Times, December 1, 1900._

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt: Discovery of the Serapeion at Alexandria.

"The excavations by Dr. Botti, the Director of the Alexandrian Museum, in the neighborhood of Pompey's Pillar, have resulted in the discovery of the Serapeion, where the last of the great libraries of Alexandria was preserved. An elaborate account of his researches, with an admirable plan, has been given by the discoverer in a memoir on 'L'Acropole d'Alexandrie et le Sérapeum,' presented to the Archæological Society of Alexandria. … Dr. Botti was first led to make his explorations by a passage in the orator Aphthonios, who visited Alexandria about A. D. 315."

_American Journal of Archœology, January-arch, 1896._

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ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Crete: Recent explorations. Supposed discovery of the Palace of Minos and the Cretan Labyrinth. Fresh light on prehistoric Greece and the origin of the alphabet.

Results of extraordinary importance have been already obtained from explorations in Crete, carried on during 1899 and 1900 by the British School at Athens, under the direction of Mr. D. G. Hogarth, and by Mr. Arthur J. Evans, of the Ashmolean Museum, working with the aid of a small Cretan Exploration Fund, raised in England. The excavations of both parties were carried on at Knossos, but the latter was the most fortunate, having opened the site of a prehistoric palace which is yielding remarkable revelations of the legendary age in Crete. In a communication to the "London Times" of October 31, 1900, Mr. Evans gave the following account of the results so far as then obtained:

"The discoveries made at Knossos throw into the shade all the other exploratory campaigns of last season in the Eastern Mediterranean, by whatever nationality conducted. It is not too much to say that the materials already gathered have revolutionized our knowledge of prehistoric Greece, and that to find even an approach to the results obtained we must go back to Schliemann's great discovery of the Royal tombs at Mycenae. The prehistoric site, of which some two acres have now been uncovered at Knossos, proves to contain a palace beside which those of Tiryns and Mycenae sink into insignificance. By an unhoped-for piece of good fortune the site, though in the immediate neighbourhood of the greatest civic centres of the island in ancient, medieval, and modern times, had remained practically untouched for over 3,000 years. At but a very slight depth below the surface of the ground the spade has uncovered great courts and corridors, propylaea, a long succession of magazines containing gigantic store jars that might have hidden the Forty Thieves, and a multiplicity of chambers, pre-eminent among which is the actual throne-room and council-chamber of Homeric kings. The throne itself, on which (if so much faith be permitted to us) Minos may have declared the law, is carved out of alabaster, once brilliant with coloured designs and relieved with curious tracery and crocketed arcading which is wholly unique in ancient art and exhibits a strange anticipation of 13th century Gothic. In the throne-room, the western entrance gallery, and elsewhere, partly still adhering to the walls, partly in detached pieces on the floors, was a series of fresco paintings, excelling any known examples of the art in Mycenaean Greece. A beautiful life-size painting of a youth, with a European and almost classically Greek profile, gives us the first real knowledge of the race who produced this mysterious early civilization. Other frescoes introduce us to a lively and hitherto unknown miniature style, representing, among other subjects, groups of women engaged in animated conversation in the courts and on the balconies of the Palace. The monuments of the sculptor's art are equally striking. It may be sufficient to mention here a marble fountain in the shape of a lioness's head with enamelled eyes, fragments of a frieze with beautifully cut rosettes, superior in its kind to anything known from Mycenae; an alabaster vase naturalistically copied from a Triton shell; a porphyry lamp with graceful foliation supported on an Egyptianising lotus column. The head and parts of the body of a magnificent painted relief of a bull in gesso duro are unsurpassed for vitality and strength.

"It is impossible here to refer more than incidentally to the new evidence of intercourse between Crete and Egypt at a very remote period supplied by the Palace finds of Knossos. It may be mentioned, however, as showing the extreme antiquity of the earlier elements of the building that in the great Eastern Court was found an Egyptian seated figure of diorite, broken above, which can be approximately dated about 2000 B. C. Below this again extends a vast Stone Age settlement which forms a deposit in some places 24 ft. in thickness.

"Neither is it possible here to dwell on the new indications supplied by some of the discoveries in the 'House of Minos' as to the cult and religious beliefs of its occupants. It must be sufficient to observe that one of the miniature frescoes found represents the façade of a Mycenaean shrine and that the Palace itself seems to have been a sanctuary of the Cretan God of the Double Axe, as well as a dwelling place of prehistoric kings. There can be little remaining doubt that this huge building with its maze of corridors and tortuous passages, its medley of small chambers, its long succession of magazines with their blind endings, was in fact the Labyrinth of later tradition which supplied a local habitation for the Minotaur of grisly fame. The great figures of bulls in fresco and relief that adorned the walls, the harem scenes of some of the frescoes, the corner stones and pillars marked with the labrys or double axe—the emblem of the Cretan Zeus, explaining the derivation of the name 'Labyrinth' itself—are so many details which all conspire to bear out this identification. In the Palace-shrine of Knossos there stands at last revealed to us the spacious structure which the skill of Daedalus is said to have imitated from the great Egyptian building on the shore of Lake Moeris, and with it some part at least of his fabled masterpieces still clinging to the walls.

"But, brilliant as are the illustrations thus recovered of the high early civilization of the City of Minos and of the substantial truth of early tradition, they are almost thrown into the shade by a discovery which carries back the existence of written documents in the Hellenic lands some seven centuries beyond the first known monuments of the historic Greek writing. In the chambers and magazines of the Palace there came to light a series of deposits of clay tablets, in form somewhat analogous to the Babylonian, but inscribed with characters in two distinct types of indigenous prehistoric script—one hieroglyphic or quasi-pictorial, the other linear. The existence of a hieroglyphic script in the island had been already the theme of some earlier researches by the explorer of the Palace, based on the more limited material supplied by groups of signs on a class of Cretan seal-stones, and the ample corroboration of the conclusions arrived at was, therefore, the more satisfactory. These Cretan hieroglyphs will be found to have a special importance in their bearing on the origin of the Phoenician alphabet.

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"But the great bulk of the tablets belonged to the linear class, exhibiting an elegant and much more highly-developed form of script, with letters of an upright and singularly European aspect. The inscriptions, over 1,000 of which were collected, were originally contained in coffers of clay, wood, and gypsum, which had been in turn secured by clay seals impressed with finely-engraved signets and counter-marked and counter-signed by controlling officials in the same script while the clay was still wet. The clay documents themselves are, beyond doubt, the Palace archives. Many relate to accounts concerning the Royal Arsenal, stores, and treasures. Others, perhaps, like the contemporary cuneiform tablets, refer to contracts or correspondence. The problems attaching to the decipherment of these clay records are of enthralling interest, and we have here locked up for us materials which may some day enlarge the bounds of history."

In an earlier communication to "The Times" (September 15), Mr. Evans had explained more distinctly the importance of the clay tablets found at Knossos, as throwing light on the origin of the alphabet: "In my excavation of the pre-historic Palace at Knossos," he wrote, "I came upon a series of deposits of clay tablets, representing the Royal archives, the inscriptions on which belong to two distinct systems of writing—one hieroglyphic and quasi-pictorial; the other for the most part linear and much more highly developed. Of these the hieroglyphic class especially presents a series of forms answering to what, according to the names of the Phoenician letters, we must suppose to have been the original pictorial designs from which these, too, were derived. A series of conjectural reconstructions of the originals of the Phoenician letters on this line were in fact drawn out by my father, Sir John Evans, for a lecture on the origin of the alphabet given at the Royal Institution in 1872, and it may be said that two-thirds of these resemble almost line for line actual forms of Cretan hieroglyphics. The oxhead (Aleph), the house (Beth), the window (He), the peg (Vau), the fence (Cheth), the hand (Yod) seen sideways, and the open palm (Kaph), the fish (Nun), the post or trunk (Samekh), the eye (Ain), the mouth, (Pe), the teeth (Shin), the cross-sign (Tau), not to speak of several other probable examples, are all literally reproduced.

"The analogy thus supplied is indeed overwhelming. It is impossible to believe that, while on one side of the East Mediterranean basin these alphabetic prototypes were naturally evolving themselves, the people of the opposite shore were arriving at the same result by a complicated process of selection and transformation of a series of hieratic Egyptian signs derived from quite different objects. The analogy with the Cretan hieroglyphic forms certainly weighs strongly in favour of the simple and natural explanation of the origin of the Phoenician letters which was held from the time of Gesenius onwards, and was only disturbed by the extremely ingenious, though over-elaborate, theory of De Rougé."

At the annual meeting of the subscribers to the British School at Athens, held in London, October 30, 1900, Mr. Hogarth, the Director, spoke with great enthusiasm of the significance of the Cretan discoveries already made, and of the promise of enlarged knowledge which they gave. He said: "The discovery made 25 years ago [by Schliemann] that no barbarians, but possessors of a very high and individual culture, preceded the Hellenic period in Greece—a culture which could not but have affected the Hellenic—had been developed in various ways since. It had been established that this culture had had a very long existence and development; it covered completely a large geographical area; it developed various local characteristics in art production which seemed to be gathered again into one by the typical art of Mycenae. But the most important historical points remained obscure. Where was the original home of this new civilization; what family did the race or races belong to; of what speech were they and what religions; what was the history of their societies and art during their dominance, and what became of them after? Neither mainland Greece nor the Aegean islands answered these. But there were two unknown quantities, Crete and Asia Minor, with Rhodes. One of these we have now attacked. Crete by its great size and natural wealth, its position, and its mythologic fame was bound to inform us of much. It is too early to say that the questions will all be answered by Crete, but already we have much light. The discovery of written documents and of shrines has told us more than any other evidence of the origin and family. The Knossos frescoes show us the racial type; the Dictaean, Cave, and Knossos houses illuminate the religion. New arts have been discovered, and the relation to Egypt and Asia are already far better understood. It remains now to find the early tombs, and clear the lower stratum of the Palace ruins at Knossos, to know more of the earliest Cretan race, to explore the cast or 'Eteocretan' end of the island, to obtain light on the language and relations to Egypt and Asia, and to investigate the 'Geometric' period, which is the transition to the Hellenic."

Commenting in another place on the discoveries in Crete, Mr. Hogarth has pointed out their effect in modifying the ideas heretofore entertained of the importance of Phoenician influence in the rise of European civilization. "For many years now," he writes, "we have had before our eyes two standing protests against the traditional claim of Phoenicia to originate European civilization, and those protests come from two regions which Phoenician influence, travelling west, ought first to have affected, namely, Cyprus and Asia Minor. In both these regions exist remains of early systems of writing which are clearly not of Phoenician descent. Both the Cypriote syllabic script and the 'Hittite' symbols must have been firmly rooted in their homes before ever the convenient alphabet of Sidon and Tyre was known there. And now, since Mr. Evans has demonstrated the existence of two non-Phoenician systems of writing in Crete also, the use of one of which has been proved to extend to the Cyclades and the mainland of Greece, it has become evident that we have to deal in south-eastern Europe, as well as in Cyprus or Asia Minor, with a non-Phoenician influence of civilization which, since it could originate that greatest of achievements, a local script, was quite powerful enough to account by itself also for the local art.

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"Those who continue to advocate the Phoenician claim do not seem sufficiently to realize that nowadays they have to take account neither only of the Homeric age nor only of even half a millennium before Homer, but of an almost geologic antiquity. Far into the third millennium B. C. at the very least, and more probably much earlier still, there was a civilization in the Aegean and on the Greek mainland which, while it contracted many debts to the East and to Egypt, was able to assimilate all that it borrowed, and to reissue it in an individual form, expressed in products which are not of the same character with those of any Eastern civilization that we know."

_D. G. Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,