Chapter 2

stream there is a fall of more than 41 m.; the fall is about equally rapid along the entire extent of the slope to the south of the Acropolis, while the soil is full of small stones. Surely, it would take more than the oft-cited handful of rushes to establish a swamp on such a hillside. We have, however, excellent geological authority that from the lay of the land and the nature of the soil, there never could have been a swamp there. The Neleum inscription[186] can be held to prove nothing further than that, as Mr. Wheeler suggests, the drain from the existing theatre ran through this precinct. We must therefore seek the Limnae elsewhere.

[Footnote 186: _Am. Journal of Archæology_, III. 38-48.]

We know that from time immemorial the potters plied their trade in the Ceramicus, because here they found the clay suitable for their use. The so-called Theseum is 68.6 m. above the sea-level; the present level at the Piræus railroad station, 54.9 m.; at the Dipylum (and here we are on the ancient level), only 47.9 m. Out beyond the gate comes a long slope, extending Page 79 till the Cephissus is reached, at an elevation of 21 m. So the Dipylum is over 43 m. below the present level of the theatre-precinct; and it is the lowest portion of the ancient city. Here, therefore, in the northwest part of the city, is where we should expect from the lay of the land and the nature of the soil to find the marshes. Out in the open plain beyond this quarter of the city to-day, after every heavy rain, the water collects and renders the ground swampy. With the Dipylum as a starting-point, there is no difficulty in supposing that, in very ancient times, the Limnae extended to Colonus Agoraeus, to the east into the hollow which became a portion of the agora in the Ceramicus, and to the west into the depression between Colonus Agoraeus and the Hill of the Nymphs. The exact extent and character of the low ground in these two directions can only be determined by excavating the ancient level, which, as it appears to me, has not been reached by the deep new railroad cutting running across this section north of the so-called Theseum.

The excavations of Dr. Dörpfeld between Colonus Agoraeus and the Areopagus, have shown that the ruins and the ancient street at this point have been buried to a great depth by the débris washed down from the Pnyx. Unfortunately, these diggings have not been extensive enough to restore the topography of the west and southwest slopes of Colonus Agoraeus.

We have abundant notices, besides those already given, of a precinct or precincts of Dionysus in this section. Hesychius speaks[187] of a house in Melite where the tragic actors rehearsed. Photius repeats[188] the statement almost word for word. Philostratus mentions[189] a council-house of the artists near the gate of the Ceramicus. Pausanias (I. 2. 5), just after entering the city, sees within one of the stoas the house of Poulytion which was dedicated to Dionysus Melpomenus. He speaks next of a precinct with various [Greek: agalmata], and among them the face of the demon of unmixed wine, Cratus. Beyond this precinct was a building with images of clay, representing, among Page 80 other scenes, Pegasus, who brought the worship of Dionysus to Athens. This building also was plainly devoted to the cult of the wine-god. In fact, the most venerable traditions in Athens, with reference to Dionysus, centre here. All the various representations here are connected with the oldest legends. Pausanias (I. 3. 1.) says that the Ceramicus had its very name from Ceramus, a son of Dionysus and Ariadne.

[Footnote 187: HESYCH. [Greek: Meliteôn oikos].]

[Footnote 188: PHOTIUS. [Greek: Meliteôn oikos].]

[Footnote 189: PHILOST. _Vit. Soph._ p. 251.]

We have already seen that an orchestra was first established in the agora. Timæus adds[190] that this was a conspicuous place where were the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, which we know to have stood in the agora.

The scholiast to the _De Corona_ of Demosthenes[191] says that the "hieron" of Calamites, an eponymous hero, was close to the Lenaeum. Hesychius words this statement differently, saying that [the statue of] the hero himself was near the Lenaeum. We know that the statues of eponymous heroes were set up in the agora. Here again the new Aristotle manuscript comes to our support, telling us (_Pol_. c. 3) that the nine archons did not occupy the same building, but that the Basileus had the Bucoleum, near the Prytaneum, and that the meeting and marriage of the Basileus' wife with Dionysus still took place there in his time. That the Bucoleum must be on the agora, and that the marriage took place in Limnaean-Lenaean territory, have long been accepted. The location of the Limnae to the northwest at the Acropolis must thus be considered as settled.

Dr. Dörpfeld maintains that the ancient orchestra and the later Agrippeum theatre near by, mentioned by Philostratus,[192] lay in the depression between the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs, but considerably above the foot of the declivity.

[Footnote 190: TIM. _Lex. Plat._]

[Footnote 191: DEMOS, de Corona, 129, scholium.]

[Footnote 192: PHILOSTRATUS, _Vit. Soph._, p. 247.]

From the passage of the _Neaera_ quoted above we know that the old orchestra could not have been in the sacred precinct of Dionysus Limnaeus, for this was opened but once in every year, on the 12th of Anthesterio,[193] while the Chytri and therefore [Greek: o epi Lenaiô] were held on the following day. This involves too that the Pithoigia as well as the "contests at the Page 81 Lenaeum" could not have been celebrated in the sanctuary [Greek: en Limnais], though portions of each of these divisions of the Anthesteria were held in the Lenaeum, which contained the Limnaea _hieron_.

[Footnote 193: See also THUCYDIDES above.]

The Lenaeum must lie [Greek: en Limnais], and therefore on the low ground. A passage in Isæus (8. 35) is authority that the sanctuary of Dionysus [Greek: en Limnais] was [Greek: en astei]; _i.e._, within the Themistoclean walls. So we have it located within narrow limits, somewhere in the space bounded on the east by the eastern limit of the agora in Ceramicus, south by the Areopagus, west by the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs, and north by the Dipylum.

From the neighborhood of the Dionysiac foundations and allusions mentioned by Pausanias immediately upon entering the city, we may be justified in locating this ancient cult of Dionysus [Greek: en Limnais] still more exactly, and placing it somewhere on or at the foot of the southwestern slope of Colonus Agoraeus. More precise evidence of its site we may obtain from future excavation: though as this region lay outside the Byzantine city-walls, the ruins may have been more or less completely swept away.

In view of its position outside of the gate of the ancient Pelasgic city, by the wine-press, we understand why the contest in the Lenaeum was called a contest [Greek: kat agrous]. Because enclosed later within the walls of Themistocles, the Limnae were also referred to as [Greek: en astei]. Situated as they were in the territory of the agora, we see why, although the Archon Eponymus directed the City Dionysia, the Archon Basileus presided[194] over the Anthesteria, and therefore over "the contest at the Lenaeum"; and the agoranomi, the superintendents of the market-place, whose duties were confined to the agora, [Greek: epetelesan tous chutrous].[195]

[Footnote 194: POLLUX VIII. 89, 90. (ARISTOT. [Greek: Athes Politeia].)]

[Footnote 195: MOMMSEN, _Heortologie_, p. 352 note.]

In closing, it may not be without interest to review the picture presented of the most ancient Athens. Behind the nine-gated Pelasgic fortifications lay the city, with its temples, its palace, "the goodly house of Erechtheus," and its dwellings for the people, remains of which can even now be seen within the Pelasgicum. Immediately without the gate stood the Pythium, the Olympieum, the temple of Ge _Kourotrophos_, and Page 82 other foundations. Directly before the entrance, some two hundred paces from the city-walls, was the spring Enneacrounus, whose water was most esteemed by the citizens. Not far from this was the wine-press. Here the people built the first altar, the first temple, the first orchestra, and instituted the first festival in honor of the wine-god, long before the new Dionysian cult was brought in from Eleutherae; and here for centuries were raised every year about the orchestra tiers of wooden seats in preparation for the annual dramatic contests.

JOHN PICKARD, American School of Classical Studies, Athens, 1891.

Page 83

CORRESPONDENCE.

HUNTING DELLA ROBBIA MONUMENTS IN ITALY.

_To the Managing Editor of the American Journal of Archæology:_

_Dear Sir_: Having made a special study of the altarpiece by Andrea Delia Robbia in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, my desire was aroused to examine all the glazed terracotta sculptures of the Delia Robbia school, which form such an important part of Italian Renaissance sculpture. So I sailed for Italy on the 6th of last May, taking with me a good camera and a sufficient number of celluloid films, knowing beforehand that there were many of these monuments which had never been photographed and were consequently imperfectly known. An investigation of this character, which takes one over the mountains and into the valleys, from one end of Italy to the other, may well be described as a hunting expedition; and, though requiring severe labor and constant sacrifices, has in it a considerable element of sport. Although Dr. Bode, of Berlin in various writings has shown a more discriminating knowledge of this subject than other writers, nevertheless the work of Cavallucci and Molinier, _Les Della Robbia_, was more useful to me as a guide and starter. They had catalogued as many as 350 of these monuments in Italy, and briefly described them. But their attributions were uncertain. Prof. Cavallucci told me in Florence that unless he had a document in hand indicating the authorship of a monument he felt great hesitation in making attributions. And I could see, the more I studied his work, that he considered it more important to discover documents than to observe monuments. Here then was a great opportunity to see a large series of monuments, to compare them and allow them to tell their own story in regard to their origin. Having with the aid of geographical dictionaries and government maps located these 350 monuments, I made up my mind to see as many of them as possible. This was no easy task, as they were widely distributed and, as I progressed, the number of uncatalogued monuments constantly increased. I can give here but a bare outline of my trip. Starting at Genoa, I went to Massa and Pisa and Lucca; from Lucca following the valley of the Serchio as far north as Page 84 Castelnuovo. Here I found a fine series of unphotographed monuments, and began to learn that works of the same author and period are very likely to be found in neighboring towns, especially when lying along a valley. Similarly, starting from Pracchia above Pistoia I studied another series of unphotographed monuments at Gavinana, Lizano and Cutigliano. These monuments may prove to be of importance in solving the problem of the authorship of the celebrated Pistoian frieze.

At Prato the monuments of this class have been photographed, and are well known. Florence and its immediate surroundings contain the most important works of Luca and of Giovanni Delia Robbia, but is very poor in examples of Andrea Delia Robbia. Hence the Florentines have a very inadequate notion of Andrea's work, which must be studied at Arezzo, La Verna, Prato, Siena and Viterbo. At Florence I was fortunate enough to find an unpublished document ascribing one of the medallions at Or San Michele to Luca Delia Robbia. Two of these medallions by the elder Luca had never been photographed before, but have now been taken by Alinari. So far as I know, the monuments at Impruneta, ten miles from Florence, are unknown to students of this subject. Three of them have been photographed by Brogi, who gives no attributions. They are not mentioned by Cavallucci nor by Dr. Bode; yet they are amongst the very finest works by Luca Delia Robbia. In the private collection of the Marquis Frescobaldi I recognized a fine Luca Delia Robbia, and in that of the Marquis Antinori an excellent example of Giovanni's work. Less important discoveries made in this region are too numerous to mention. At Empoli, not many miles from Florence, are several uncatalogued monuments and a fine example of a tile pavement, which I identified as Delia Robbia work. I then visited Poggibonsi and Volterra and Siena, and satisfied myself that the beautiful coronation of the Virgin at the Osservanza outside Siena is a chef-d'oeuvre of Andrea Delia Robbia. From Asciano I visited Monte San Savino, Lucignano and Foiano and took photographs of some fine, unrecognized works of Andrea Delia Robbia. Another starting point was Montepulciano for a long drive to Radicofani, a weird Etruscan site, whose churches contained half a dozen unphotographed Delia Robbias, then to S. Fiora, whose monuments have a greater reputation than they deserve, to S. Antimo, a fine Cistercian ruin, and Montalcino. At Perugia I photographed the monuments of Benedetto Buglione, thus laying the basis for a study of his works, a number of which may now be identified. In the case of his pupil, Santi Buglione, I was less successful, as the chapel at Croce dell'Alpe, which contained two authenticated altarpieces of his Page 85 seems to have disappeared, not only from sight, but from the memory of the inhabitants of the neighborhood. So the reconstruction of his style involves a wider stretch of the scientific imagination. At Acquapendente I found a unique glazed terracotta altar signed by Jacopo Benevento, at Bolsena took the first photograph of several monuments, and at Viterbo had photographs made of the important lunettes by Andrea Delia Robbia. At Rome I penetrated the mysteries of the Vatican and discovered there a signed monument by Fra Lucas, son of Andrea Delia Robbia, and found in the Industrial Museum several monuments, which I identified as by the same author. Hitherto Fra Lucas has been known only as the maker of tile pavements. At Montecassiano there is a large monument concerning which a document has been published in many Italian journals, ascribing the authorship to Fra Mattia Delia Robbia. This has been published from a drawing, and my photograph is the first taken from the original monument. On the basis of a very imperfect acquaintance with his style, other monuments are being freely attributed to Fra Mattia. In the Marche there is a series of terracotta altarpieces attributed to Pietro Paolo Agabiti, a local painter of the XVI century. These attributions are purely hypothetical, and the hypothesis that Fra Mattia might have been their author is now being tested by local archaeologists. I travelled over a large portion of this province, seeing some important monuments, but without making discoveries of importance. Umbria in general proved even less fruitful, the terracotta monuments being of poor quality and showing little or no Delia Robbia influence.

A very interesting region comprises Città di Castello, Borgo San Sepolcro, Arezzo and the Casentino. Here Andrea Delia Robbia left his impress strongly marked, especially in the very beautiful altarpieces at La Verna. As we approach Florence we find more by Giovanni and his school, especially noteworthy being the monuments at Galatrona and San Giovanni.

When obliged to return home there remained very few known Delia Robbia monuments in Italy which I had not visited; almost everywhere I found more than had been already catalogued, and my collection of photographs of these monuments is undoubtedly the most complete in existence. Already considerable knowledge has been gained of the differences of style, which characterized the various members of the school, as I hope to show in a series of articles for the _American Journal of Archæology_. In order to complete this work I shall still have to hunt further in the museums and private collections of Spain, Portugal, France, England, Germany and Austria. There are a few Delia Robbia monuments in this country, of which one Page 86 is in Princeton, one in New York, one in Newport, R.I., and several in Boston.

Beside the direct pleasures of the chase and the bagging of game, there are many incidental pleasures in such a hunting expedition.

One learns of the whereabouts of other monuments, acquires a knowledge of the country, of the language, of the people and of all the local surroundings that help explain to us the significance of the past.

Yours sincerely,

ALLAN MARQUAND. Guernsey Hall, Princeton, N.J., Dec, 27, 1892.

Page 87

REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS.

MAXIME COLLIGNON. _Histoire de la Sculpture Grecque._ Tome I. Firmin-Didot et Cie. Paris, 1892.

This is the first volume of what is likely to prove for some time to come the best general history of Greek sculpture. The personal inspection of monuments made during his connection with the French school at Athens, and his training as a lecturer at the Faculté des Lettres at Paris, have given M. Collignon an admirable training for the production of this book. We see in it also a hearty appreciation of more specialized work. This is essentially a history from the archæaeological standpoint, the monuments of Greek sculpture, rather than written documents, being assumed as fundamental material. In this respect he represents a more advanced stage of archæological science than Overbeck. Again we feel in reading the volume the constant assumption that the history of Greek sculpture is a continuous evolution. Even when the development is checked, as by the Dorian invasion, the element of continuity is emphasized. The Dorians construct new forms out of the elements which they find already established in Greece. Thus the connecting links evincing the continuous flow, are not lost sight of when he comes to treat of the different schools. This regard for the general conditions of development tempers his judgment and prevents him from formulating or approving of irrelevant and improbable hypotheses. This is an admirable temper for one who writes a general history. We do not find here remote analogies and startling theories. There is an even flow to the narrative which indicates to us that the knowledge of Greek sculpture is now more connected, and that many gaps have been filled in the list during a few years. Yet M. Collignon is not a literary trimmer, steering a middle course between opposing theories. He merely seeks for near and probable causes, and is not carried away by resemblances which have little historical value. His method is fundamentally the historical method, the four books which compose the first volume treating of the Primitive Periods, Early Archaic, and Advanced Archaic Periods, and The Great Masters of the V century. It is unnecessary to give here the general analysis of the book, as it does not differ essentially from other similar Page 88 histories, but we may notice the systematic method with which he treats his material. At the opening of each new period he briefly notes the general historical conditions, then having classed the monuments by schools he considers the characteristics of a few representative examples, and finally endeavors to summarize the style of the school or period. In doing this he is handling considerable new material which has not yet found its way into general histories. Even to specialists, this general treatment of a subject with which they may be familiar in detail, is valuable. The book is a summary and index to a large number of monographs scattered in French, German, Greek and English periodicals, and we find it much more convenient to have these references at the foot of each page rather than gathered together at the end of the volume as in Mrs. Mitchell's excellent history. Of course it is no easy matter to distinguish sharply the characteristics of different schools in a country as small as Greece, where there was so much interaction, and the formulas, which are laid down now, may require correction in a few years. Still the attempt is well made, and is helpful in consolidating our knowledge.

In a work of whose method we cordially approve, the defects, if there be any, are likely to be in the way of omission of material or under-valuation of that which is taken into consideration. In the direction of omission we find that practically no use whatever has been made of Cyprus as a school of archaic Greek art, yet there is considerable material for this in European museums as well as in the Metropolitan museum in New York. In unduly estimating the value of the material in hand, we find here and there more influence attributed to the Phoenicians, than we should be inclined to allow. For example (p. 43,) the ceiling at Orchomenos, is explained as Phoenician because of the rosettes, and the same design upon Egyptian ceilings at Thebes is explained as Phoenician also. Evidently M. Collignon has not yet learned the grammar of the Egyptian lotus. We commend him to Prof. Goodyear. He is also in error in ascribing the first use of the term "lax-archaic" to Brunn's article in the _Muth. Ath._ vii. p. 117, for it held an important place in Semper's classification of Doric monuments made three years earlier. But these are minor matters. The book is abundantly illustrated, having twelve excellent plates in lithograph and photogravure, and two hundred and seventy-eight in the tone process and photoengraving. We regret that the tone process had not been more extensively used, as the drawings do not and cannot give a sufficiently full impression of the objects. However, is it quite proper that the maker of a tone process plate should sign it as is done here _Petit sculpsit_?

A.M. Page 89

HEINRICH-BRUNN. _Griechische Götterideale in ihren Formen erlüutert._ 8vo. pp. VIII, 110. München, Verlagsanstalt für Kunst und Wissenschaft. 1892.

This is not a systematic treatise, but a series of nine papers, all of which, except the last, have been already published. But we are grateful to Dr. Brunn and to his publishers for having collected these articles, which were scattered in various periodicals and written at wide intervals of time. In their present form they are instructive as revealing to us Dr. Brunn's general habits of mind in approaching his subject, as well as more useful and better adapted to a wide circle of readers. The first of these articles on the Farnese Hera appeared in the _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, in 1846, and is described as the "first attempt at the analytical consideration of the ideal of a Greek God," while the entire series may be taken as evidence that "the intellectual understanding of ideal artistic productions can be reached only on the basis of a thorough analysis of form." For his analysis of sculptural form, and his keen intuitions, Dr. Brunn has long been held in high esteem, and it is interesting to learn what we can of his methods. In considering the Hera head he first examined the original, afterwards a cast of it for many hours, then compared these impressions with observations made upon a human scull. In doing this he brings the work of art to nature, so as to substantiate or correct his impressions. We see him following the same method in the articles upon the Medusa and upon Asklepios. But this reference to nature is for the most part casual and incidental. It is not to nature but to literature that he resorts for help. He is not content to trust himself entirely to the method enunciated in the preface. He does not rest satisfied with the ideals as he reads them in the sculptured faces. He rather assumes that these ideals were fixed before they were expressed in marble. He looks at the heads of Hera and Zeus through "ox-eyed" and "dark-browed" glasses. He accepts the Divine ideal from the pages of Homer, rather than from the marble form, whenever it is possible. His mind is still imbued with doctrines concerning the "eternity of ideas" and "inward necessity," which he must have reached in some other way than by the analysis of external forms.

But while we may regard the method as not consistently applied, we have no fault to find with the method and no sentiment but that of admiration for the fine powers of observation displayed in these articles. There seems to be nothing in the form of the eye that escapes his attention. The slightest variations in the form of the lids, in the positions of the eyeball, he notices Page 90 and assumes that they were made the vehicles of expression. Similarly the forehead, the mouth, the chin, the hair are most attentively studied as vehicles of expression. Surely few, even trained archæologists, can read these pages without having their powers of observation quickened. By far the greater portion of workers in the field of Greek sculpture are concerned at the present time with the morphology of art for the sake of its history. The analysis of forms is utilized to ascertain an historical series, to discover schools, to establish dates. Here we find scarcely a mention of schools or artists, no reference to history and not a date. The analysis of form leads to the interpretation of monuments and the establishment of ideals. It is the physiology, not the history of art. The publishers, who are gaining a world-wide reputation for their photo process reproductions, have added to this book a series of fine phototype plates.

A.M.

Page 91

ARCHÆOLOGICAL NEWS.

SUMMARY OF RECENT DISCOVERIES AND INVESTIGATIONS.

PAGE | PAGE | PAGE ALGERIA, 113 | BABYLONIA, 131 | PERSIA, 134 ARABIA, 131 | CAUCASUS, 146 | SYRIA, 140 ARMENIA, 146 | CHINA, 127 | THIBET, 127 ASIA (CENTRAL), 128 | ETHIOPIA, 111 | TUNISIA, 114 ASIA MINOR, 147 | HINDUSTAN, 118 |

AFRICA.

EGYPT.

TEXTS OF THE PYRAMIDS.--_Biblia_ for November, 1892, contains an article by Dr. Brugsch on "The Texts of the Pyramids." It mentions the opening of one of the smaller pyramids of the Sakkarah group in 1880 by Mariette Pasha and the discovery of a number of hieroglyphic inscriptions beautifully chiseled into the walls of the inner aisles and chamber, which gave the name of the maker of the pyramid as Pepi, and fixed its date at the VI Dynasty or about 3,000 B.C. Prof. Brugsch then gives an account of his own work at the request of Mariette upon a second pyramid opened by Mariette's men at Sakkarah, where the walls of the chamber were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions. A granite coffin, also, was found adorned with hieroglyphics repeating in different places the name of the King. The inscriptions on the walls had been destroyed in a number of places by treasure hunters.

Maspero, Mariette's successor, opened a number of pyramids of the same group and found a great quantity of inscriptions. As a result, new texts were discovered in a number of pyramids of which three belonged to the royal houses of the V and VI Dynasties. Maspero then published a copy of all these inscriptions together with their translation as far as this was possible.

These discoveries establish the important point in the study of the language, that its "iconographic phrase" dates from the most ancient times and goes back even to Menes the first king. The grammar, vocabulary and the construction of words and sentences betray the awkward stiffness of a language in its first literary beginnings, but it is shown in all its youthful strength and pregnance.

A reciprocal comparison of all the texts found establishes the fact that they belong to a collection of texts known as "the Book." This "book" contained all the formulas and conjurations Page 92 used after death, is a guide for the deceased in the unknown future, and a book of charms, in which guise the Egyptian faith made its appearance in the most ancient period of culture, although containing nothing of the philosophy or history of the ancient Egyptians, it gives us much interesting information relating to mythology, geography, astronomy, botany and zoology.

For the ancient Egyptians believed that their earthly districts, cities and temples had heavenly counterparts of the same name; in fact, the whole geography of this world was duplicated in the world to come. The celestial inhabitants consist of the immortal company of the "shining" with the solar god at their head. Each constellation is designated as the abode of the soul of one god benificent or maleficent. In his wanderings the soul of man came in contact with these abodes of the evil gods and the book which covered the walls of his mortuary chamber provided charms which made him proof against harm.

The texts of the pyramids promise to the departed the enjoyment of a new life which he continues to live in the earth, in the body, in heaven, in the spirit. The soul had power to reunite itself to the body at will. We find in the texts mention of Egyptian political institutions at the remotest period, the existence of a high type of civilization. Agriculture was highly developed. All the domestic animals, with the exception of the horse and camel, are introduced, the arts of cooking, of dressing and of personal adornment, all find mention.

The texts of the pyramids then, though they fail to give us any information with regard to the life or history of the kings whose chambers they adorned have still much significance for the universal history of civilization.

THE MARRIAGE OF AMENOPHIS IV.--The Amarna tablets show that Amenophis married other Babylonian princesses besides Thi his first wife who bore the title of "Royal mother, Royal wife, and Queen of Egypt." A large tablet on exhibition at the British Museum with two others in the museum at Berlin and one at Gizeh gives a very entertaining correspondence between Amenophis and Kallima-Sin, king of Chaldea and brother of one of Amenophis' wives and father of two others. The tablet in the British Museum is relative to the alliance with Lukhaite the youngest daughter of the Chaldean king.

Kallima-Sin is reluctant to give his daughter to the Pharaoh and advances various reasons for his indisposition while Amenophis smoothly explains away the various impediments.

Matters take a new turn in the Berlin letter where we find the Babylonian requesting a wife of the Egyptian monarch, the request is curtly refused, whereupon Kallima-Sin replies, Page 93 "Inasmuch as thou hast not sent me a wife, I will do in like manner unto thee and hinder any lady from going from Babylon to Egypt." Another letter however shows that Kallima-Sin finally consented on condition of large emolument to send Lukhaite to Egypt, and this very mercenary and diplomatic alliance was finally made.--_Biblia_, V, pp. 108, 109.

THE DATE OF THE FOURTH EGYPTIAN DYNASTY.--Mr. Petrie's statement in _Medum_ as to the passage-angle of Senefru's pyramid completes a chain of astronomical evidence proving the commencement of the IV Dynasty to have been very approximately 3700 B.C.

The entrance passage of the Medum pyramid has a polar distance (allowing for the azimuth error of the passage) of about 45, and, if intended for observation of a circumpolar star, fixes the date of the structure within not very wide limits. Between 4900 and 2900 B.C. no naked eye star was within this distance of the pole, except the sixth magnitude star 126 Piazzi (XIII) which was so situate about 3820 to 3620 B.C., its minimum distance being about 36'. Allowing an uncertainty of a few minutes of arc, a date fifty years on either side of these extremes would satisfy the requirements of the case.

The passage-angle of the Great Pyramid is 3° 30' below the pole (3° 34' in the built portion, the latest). The Second Pyramid passage has also an angle of about 3° 31' polar distance (Smyth's measures--Perring and Vyse, whose angle measures are not accurate, give 4° 5'). Finally the northern "trial-passage" east of the Great Pyramid has the polar distance 3° 22' + or - 8'. Now at the date 3650 B.C. the star 217 Piazzi (somewhat brighter than that last named) was at a distance of 3° 29' from the pole, increasing to 3° 34' by 3630 B.C.

East of the Great Pyramid there are certain straight trenches (one at the N.E. corner) running respectively 13° 6', 24° 22', and 75° 58' east of North and west of South. At about the date named these trenches pointed very nearly to Canopus at setting and to Arcturus and Altair at rising, the average error of azimuth being less than a degree.

But even these differences of half a degree or so are accounted for. Refraction at the horizon amounts to about 35' of arc; if we assume that the Egyptian (?) astronomers took it roundly at 30', and that they intended to observe the stars on the true and not the apparent horizon, we find the azimuths would have been (3645 B.C.):--

Canopus 13° 3' (W. of S.), Trench 13° 6' Arcturus 24° 23' (E. of N.), " 24° 22' Altair 76° 0' ( " ), " 75° 58'

These figures speak for themselves. The dates 3645 B.C. for the trenches and external works, and 3630 B.C. for the completion Page 94 of the entrance passage, with an interval of fifteen years, accord with the probabilities of the case. It should be remembered that they are deduced quite independently.

The net result is that the three reigns of Senefru, Khuffu, and Kaffra may be definitely assigned to the century 3700-3600 B.C.--G.F. HARDY, in _Academy_, Oct. 29.

THE PETRIE PAPYRI.--A paper was read by Prof. Mahaffy at the Oriental Congress upon "The Gain to Egyptology from the Petrie Papyri."--The first part of the papyri placed in his hands by Mr. Flinders Petrie consisted of classical documents which had already been printed by the Royal Irish Academy in the Cunningham Memoirs. Of these a large volume had appeared, which was exciting vehement controversy in Germany. But in addition to these there was a great mass of private papers which had not yet been printed, but which had been deciphered partly by Prof. Sayce and partly by himself. These papers were in two languages-Greek and demotic, or the popular language of the Egyptians. These were in part hieroglyphs done into cursive. Of these demotic fragments a large quantity had been sent to the British Museum. The Greek papyri still remain in his own hands. Strange to say, only one of these texts is bilingual. These interesting documents might be divided into--(1) legal agreements, of which some were contracts, others receipts, others again taxing agreements; (2) correspondence, partly of a public and partly of a private character. In the former were official reports, petitions, complaints. The private correspondence was especially interesting in showing the condition of society at that date. A large number of Macedonians and Greeks were settled in the Fayum under the second Ptolemy, about 270 B.C. In addition there was a large number of prisoners from Asia, who must have been brought into Egypt after the great campaign of the third Ptolemy, about 246 B.C. This mixed body were the recipients of large grants of land in the Fayum. It was interesting to find that many of these grants were as large as 100 acres, and the occupiers are thus called [Greek: ecatontaronroi]. The farms were divided into three classes of land. First, there was what was called the Royal land, probably fruitful land was meant; the second class was called [Greek: abrochos], or land still in need of irrigation; and the third [Greek: aphoros], or land which would bear nothing. This latter was also called [Greek: almuris], or the salt marsh, which was still common in Egypt. These recipients or allottees of land were called by a name familiar to all readers of Greek history--[Greek clerouchoi]. Prof. Mahaffy had found no native landowner mentioned in the papyri. Page 95 But in many cases the natives had an interest in the crops on something like a _metayer_ system. Among the crops grown were the vine, olives, wheat, barley, rye. There was evidence in the legal papers that alienation of these farms was not allowed. Among the contracts are many between Greeks and natives. The principal officers of the Nome were the Strategos, the Oeconomos, and the [Greek: epimeletes], or overseer. The commissioner of works had charge of drainage and irrigation works. It was amusing to find that two currencies were prevalent at that period, silver and copper. This discovery disposed of the current theory that the copper currency only came in under the late Ptolemies. The phrases for the rate of exchange had long been known--[Greek: chalcos ou allage], but he had now got hold of a later term, [Greek: isonomos] which might be translated 'at par.' These documents were also valuable, as being transcriptions from Egyptian into Greek, with respect to our knowledge of the Egyptian language. As the Egyptians did not write down their vowels, the vocalisation of the language was hardly yet known. But results of much importance were gained--first, of a palaeographical, and, secondly, of a linguistic character. We now know exactly how they wrote in the third century B.C., and we have also learnt what was the Greek used by the respectable classes of that epoch. The Greek was far purer and better than that of the Septuagint would lead us to expect. There was still a large number of papers to be deciphered, and a large addition to our knowledge might be expected.--_Academy_, Sept. 24.

A GREEK PAPYRUS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.--At the Orientalist Congress in London a most interesting document was submitted by the Rev. Professor Hechler. It is a papyrus manuscript discovered a few months ago in Egypt, and is supposed by some authorities to be the oldest copy extant of portions of the Old Testament books of Zachariah and Malachi. These pages of papyrus when intact were about ten inches high and seven inches wide, each containing 28 lines of writing, both sides of the sheet being used. The complete line contains from fourteen to seventeen letters. The sheets are bound together in the form of a book in a primitive though careful manner with a cord and strips of old parchment. The Greek is written without intervals between the words. The papyrus is in fair preservation, and is believed to date from the third or fourth century. It thus ranks in age with the oldest Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament in London, Rome and St. Petersburg. The differences in this papyrus tend to the conclusion that it was copied from some excellent original of the Septuagint, which was first translated about the year 280 B.C. The first summary examination has shown that it has several new readings which surpass some of the other Septuagint Page 96 texts in clearness of expression and simplicity of grammar. It would also appear that it was copied from another Septuagint Bible and was not written, as was frequently the case, from dictation. A second scribe has occasionally corrected some mistakes of orthography made by the original copyist. These are still to be distinguished by the different color of the ink.

Professor Hechler said it was sincerely to be hoped that this papyrus of the Bible, probably the oldest now known to exist, would soon be published in fac-simile.

THE DATE OF THE AEGEAN POTTERY.--Quite a discussion has been carried on between Mr. Flinders Petrie and Mr. Cecil Torr on the subject of the period of the Aegean pottery in Egypt which Mr. Torr regards as having been assigned to too early a date by Mr. Petrie. The recent discovery of such fragments in the ruins of the palace of Khuenaten at Tell-el-Amarna, which existed for little over half a century in the xiv century B.C., would appear to prove beyond doubt the correctness of Mr. Petrie's position.--See _Classical Review_ for March; Academy, May 14 and 21, etc.

A PROFESSORSHIP OF EGYPTOLOGY.--Miss A.B. Edwards has left almost the whole of her property to found a professorship of Egyptology, under certain conditions, at University College, London, The value of the chair will amount to about $2,000 a year. Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie has been appointed to this chair, and no better selection could have been made.

EXCAVATIONS BY DR. BRUGSCH, COUNT D'HULST AND M. NAVILLE.--Dr. H. Brugsch has been excavating during the past spring in the Fayoum. At Hawara he has discovered a considerable number of painted portraits. At Illahun he opened a tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which had not been entered since the mummy was originally deposited in it. Unfortunately the roof fell in before it could be properly cleared out. At Shenhour he came across the remains of a small temple. Since leaving the Fayoum he has been working on the site of Sais.

Count d'Hulst has been excavating at Behbet, near Mansourah, on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund. The ruined temple there is Ptolemaic, but the cartouche of Ramses II has been found in the course of the excavations.

Mr. Naville has returned to Europe. His excavations at Jmei el-Amdîd, the supposed site of Mendes, have been unfruitful, and he has fared no better at Tel el-Baghliyeh.--_Athenaeum_ May 16.

Page 97 EXCAVATIONS BY LIEUT. LYONS AT WADY HALFAH, ABUSIR, MATUGAH.--Lieut. H.G. Lyons has been continuing exploration at _Wady Halfah_. He has cleared out the sand from one of the temples, and found there eleven slabs with figures of a king making offerings to the god Horus of Behen or Wady Halfah in a chamber in front of the Hall of Columns. The names in the cartouches have been erased, and it is, therefore, impossible to identify the king. A second temple, with sandstone pillars and mud brick walls, is inscribed in many places with the name of Thothmes IV. This building had been flooded and filled to a depth of 2 ft. with fine sand. The third temple of Wady Halfah was completely surrounded by a line of fortifications, the flanks of which rest on the river, but of these works only the foundation remains. The discovery of them is, however, decidedly important, for in them we must see beyond doubt the great frontier fortress which marked the limit of the rule of Egypt on the south.

About five miles beyond the rock of _Abusir_, Lieut. Lyons has excavated the large space, about two hundred yards square, which is mentioned in Burckhard's 'Travels in Nubia,' and upon which stand the ruined walls of what has been variously described as a Roman fort or a monastery. He has come to the conclusion that the building is undoubtedly Egyptian, and has traced the site of the ancient stone temple inside it.

He reports that he has discovered old Egyptian fortresses at Halfa and at Matuga, twelve miles south, the latter containing a cartouche of Usertesen III: and has opened three rocktombs at Halfa.--_Academy_, July 16 and Aug. 6.

NOTES BY PROF. SAYCE.--Besides Tel el-Amarna, I have visited El-Hibeh and the little temple of Shishak, which was uncovered there last year. It is, unfortunately, in a most ruinous condition. One of the natives took me to a recently-found necropolis at a place under the cliffs called Ed-Dibân, some two miles distant, which is plainly of the Roman age, and its occupants belonged to the poorer classes.

In the White Monastery near Sohâg, I found a stone with the cartouche of Darius, which had formed part of the ancient temple of Crocodilopolis.

I picked up some fine flint spear-heads near the line of Roman forts on the north side of the Gebel Sheikh Embârak, where I discovered an enormous manufactory of flint weapons and tools three years ago.

Lastly, I may add that at the back of the Monastery of Mari Girgis, about three miles south of Ekhmim, I found that another cemetery of the early Coptic period has been discovered, and Page 98 that it is providing the dealers with fresh supplies of ancient embroideries.--A.H. SAYCE, in _Academy_, Feb. 27.

PRESERVATION OF MOHAMMEDAN MONUMENTS.--The Soc. for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has protested, through Sir Evelyn Baring, against the so-called restoration of the mosque El-Mouyayyed and the mosque of Barkouk. It is proposed to rebuild the domed minaret of Barkouk's mosque and the suppressed bell-tower of the Sultan's mosque, which is to be replaced by a bulbous roof.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 31.

ABU-SIMBEL.--The Council of Ministers has granted £1,000 for the preservation of Abu-Simbel, which is in danger of partial destruction. The rock above the four colossi on the façade, which is of sandstone with layers of clay, had become fissured, threatening an immediate fall. A party of sappers from the army of occupation have been sent to the temple, who, after binding with chains the falling rock, will break it up. Further examination will be made to ascertain whether additional work is required for the protection of this temple.--_Academy_, March 5.

ASSOUAN.--DAM.--A huge dam is to be thrown across the Nile at Assouan: its height will raise the water to the level of the floors of the ruins at Philae, enhancing rather than detracting from their picturesque grandeur. It is said that the structure of the dam will harmonize with the ancient architecture of Philae. The material already cut and lying in the quarries of Assouan will be almost sufficient to complete the dam.--_Biblia_, V. p. 109.

TOMBS.--Some new tombs have been opened, one by the Crown Princess of Sweden and Norway, the other by Mr. James. One of them belonged to the reign of Nofer-Ka-Ra; and, in an inscription found in it, Prof. Schiaparelli has read the name of the land of Pun, which accordingly, was already known to the Egyptians in the age of the dynasty.--PROF. SAYCE in _Academy_.

CAIRO (NEAR). DESTRUCTION OF AN ANCIENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH.--Rev. Greville J. Chester writes (_Acad._ March 19). Permit me to draw public attention to an almost incredible act of vandalism which was perpetrated during the last year in Egypt, close to the capital. The finest Roman ruin in Egypt was the fortress of Babylon, south of Cairo, known also as Mus'r el Ateekeh and Dayr esh Shemma. One of the most interesting sights in that Dayr was the Jewish synagogue, anciently the Christian Church of St. Michael, but desecrated by being handed over in the Page 99 middle ages by an Arab Sultan to the Jews, and thenceforward to the present time used by them as a place of worship. The building was of much architectural interest. The old Christian nave and aisles were preserved intact; but the Jews had destroyed the apse which must have existed, and had replaced it by a square Eastern sanctuary, and over the niche, within which were preserved the Holy Books of the Law, had adorned the wall with numerous Hebrew texts executed in gesso, forming an interesting example of Jewish taste and work in the middle ages. Some of the ancient Christian screenwork of wood was preserved, but was turned upside down, probably because gazelles and other animals formed part of the design. Behind this building, in a sort of court, the very finest portion of the original wall of the Roman fortress was visible, and, what is more important, the inner and most perfect circuit of one of the Roman bastion-towers, which outside looked out on the desert.

All this is now a thing of the past. The Jews have razed the ancient church and synagogue to the ground, and in its place have erected a hideous square abomination, supported internally on iron pillars. Of the fine Roman wall which bounded the property, and with it the bastion-tower, with its courses of brick at regular intervals, and its deeply-splayed windows, not a vestige now remains.

CAIRO.--GIZEH MUSEUM.--M. de Morgan has been appointed director of the Museum in place of M. Grébaut. This will meet with general approval. He is young and energetic, and the work he has done in the Caucasus and in Persia has placed him in the front rank of archaeologists and explorers. Moreover, he is an engineer, and therefore possesses a practical knowledge which, in view of the conservation of the ancient monuments of Egypt, is a matter of prime importance. He has asked the Board of Public Works for £50,000 in order to secure the building against fire; it is built of very inflammable material. During the past summer the museum has been entirely rearranged by him. Of the rooms in the palace, only some thirty-eight contained antiquities last winter; now, however, about eighty-five are used as exhibition rooms, and, for the first time, it is possible to see of what the Egyptian collection really consists. On the ground floor the positions of several of the large monuments have been changed, and the chronological arrangement is better than it was before. In one large room are exhibited for the first time eleven fine _mastaba_ stelæ of the Ancient Empire, (VI. Dyn.) which were brought from Sakkarah during the past summer; they are remarkable for the brightness of the colours, the vigour of the figures, and the beauty of the hieroglyphics. On the same floor are two splendid colossal statues of the god Ptah which have been excavated at Memphis the hieroglyphics. On the same floor are two splendid colossal statues of the god Ptah which have been excavated at Memphis Page 100 during last summer, and many other large objects from the same site. In a series of rooms, approached from the room in which the Dêr el-Bahari mummies are exhibited, are arranged the coffins and mummies of the priests of Amen which were brought down from Thebes two years ago. The coffins are of great interest, for they are ornamented with mythological scenes and figures of gods which seem to be peculiar to the period immediately following the rule of the priest-kings at Thebes, _i.e._, from about B.C. 1000 to 800.

A new and important feature in the arrangement of the rooms on the upper floor is the section devoted to the exhibition of papyri. Here in flat glazed cases are shown at full length fine copies of the 'Book of the Dead,' hieratic papyri, including the unique copy of the 'Maxims of Ani.' and many other papyri which have been hitherto inaccessible to the ordinary visitor. To certain classes of objects, such as scarabs, blue glazed _faïence_, linen sheets, mummy bandages and garments, terracotta vases and vessels, alabaster jars, &c., special rooms are devoted. The antiquities which, although found in Egypt, are certainly not of Egyptian manufacture, _e.g._, Greek and Phornician glass, Greek statues, tablets inscribed in cuneiform from Tel el-Amarna, &c., are arranged in groups in rooms set apart for them; and the monuments of the Egyptian Christians or Copts are also classified and arranged in a separate room.--_Athenæum_, May 14 and Nov. 19.

THE FRENCH SCHOOL AT CAIRO.--M. Maspero analyzed before the _Acad. des Inscr._ (Oct. 28), the recent work and immediate prospects of the French School at Cairo. The _Memoirs_ recently issued show the field that it covers at present. First comes a fascicule of Greek texts, the mathematical papyrus of Akmim, explained and commented by M. Baillet; a long fragment of the Greek text of the Book of Enoch, remains of the apocryphal Gospel and Apocalypse of St. Peter, reproduced by M. Bouriant. All these works are of extreme importance for primitive church history. Arab archæology is represented by memoirs of M. Casonova on an Arab globe, on sixteen Arab steles, and especially by M. Burgoin's great work on Arab art in Egypt. Father Scheil makes an incursion into Assyriology by his publication of some of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, and in this connection M. Maspero states that the intention of the school is to extend their researches to Syria and Mesopotamia and to include the entire East both ancient and modern. In the Egyptian domain, besides the Theban fragments of the Old Testament and the remains of the Acts of the Council of Ephesos, the notable event is the appearance of the first fasciculus of the work on _Edfu_ by M. de Rochemonteix. In it a Page 101 complete temple will be placed before students. The entire Egyptian religion will be illustrated, in all its rituals,--ritual of foundation, of sacrifice, of the feast of Osiris. M. Benedite has commenced in the same way the publication of the Temples of Philae.--_Revue Critique_, 1892, No. 45.

The investigations enumerated above are far from being all. They represent merely the official governmental side of the work. The learned societies have done a great deal; such as the Ecole des lettres of Algiers, the management of historical monuments (Tebessa), and the French School of Rome.

EL-KARGEH.--PLASTER BUSTS.--At a meeting of the _Académie des Inscriptions_, M. Héron de Villefosse exhibited four painted plaster busts from El-Kargeh, in the Great Oasis, which have recently been sent to the Louvre by M. Bouriant, director of the French School at Cairo. They have been taken from the lids of sarcophagi; but the peculiarity about them is that the heads were not in the same plane with the body, but as it were erect. The features have been modelled with extraordinary verisimilitude; the eyes are of some glassy material, in black and white; the hair was modelled independently, and afterwards fitted to the plaster head; the painting is in simple colours--various shades of red for the skin, and black or brown for the hair. M. Héron de Villefosse maintained that they were certainly portraits. The physiognomy of one is Jewish; another recalls a bronze head from Cyrene in the British Museum, which Fr. Lenormant considered to be of Berber type; the third might be Syrian, and the fourth Roman. The date is probably about the time of Septimius Severus. M. Maspero declared that he had never seen anything of the kind in any museum.--_Academy_, July 9.

These busts have been placed on exhibition at the Louvre, in the _Salle des fresques_.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 28.

According to a writer in the _Temps_, two are Greeks, one Syrian and one a Jew. The Greeks are blond with straight hair; the others have dark brown curly hair. All are bearded. The drapery is white.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 30.

The department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre has also received from M. Bouriant two funerary inscriptions found in the necropolis dating from the second century A.D. One is Latin, tha other Greek.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 32.

CHATBI (NEAR).--NECROPOLIS.--M. Botti has discovered between Chatbi and Ibrahimieh a Roman necropolis of the first or second century A.D.. at a depth of fourteen metres. It is excavated in soft calcareous stone and its chambers and corridors are Page 102 reached by a rock-cut staircase.

The bodies are both laid on the floor and placed in jars. They were intact.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 30.

EL-QAB.--Mr. Taylor has been excavating here for the Egypt exploration fund, in continuation of the previous year's work. Prof. Sayce reports, after Mr. Taylor's departure (_Acad._, March 12), that more of the foundations of the old temple which stood within the temple were then visible than the preceding year. The fragmentary remains show that among its builders were Usertesen (xii dyn.), Sebekhotep II (xiii dyn.), Amenophis I and Thothmes III (xviii dyn.) and Nektanebo I (xxx dyn.) In one of the tombs Nofer-Ka-Ra is alluded to as (apparently) the original founder of the sanctuary.

GEBELEN.--TEMPLE OF HOR-M-HIB.--Prof. Sayce writes. "On the voyage from Luxor to Assuan I stopped at Gebelon, and found that the Bedouin squatters there had unearthed some fragments of sculptured and inscribed stones on the summit of the fortress built by the priest-king Ra-men-kheper and queen Isis-m-kheb to defend this portion of the Nile. On examination they turned out to belong to a small temple which must once have stood on the spot. The original temple, I found, had been constructed of limestone by Hor-m-hib, the last king of the xviii dynasty, and brilliantly ornamented with sculpture and painting. Additions had been made to the temple, apparently by Seti I.; since besides the stones belonging to Hor-m-hib, there were other fragments of the same limestone as that of which the temple of Seti at Abydos is built, and covered with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs in precisely the same delicate style of art. Eventually a building of sandstone had been added to the original temple on the west side by Ptolemy VII Philometor. It may be noted that Ra-men-kheper used bricks burnt in the kiln as well as sun-dried bricks in the construction of the fortress, as he also did in the construction of the fortress at El-Hibeh.--_Academy_, March 12."

HAT-NUB.-THE EARLY QUARRY.-This interesting quarry has been recently discovered by Mr. Griffith. Mr. Petrie writes: Allow me to note that in this quarry, described by Mr. Griffith (_Academy_, Jan. 23), and situated ten miles southeast of El Tell in this plain, the main quarry does not contain any name later than the vi Dynasty. The tablet in the thirtieth year being of Pepi II (Nefer-ka-ra), and mentioning the _sed_ festival in that year, this might refer to the Sothiac festival of 120 years falling in that year, and so be important as a datum. There are seven painted inscriptions of Pepi II, containing about fifty lines in all. There are also a great number of incised graffiti.--_Academy_, Feb. 20. Page 103

HAWARA.--MUMMY PORTRAITS.--Among the most important discoveries of the year is that by Dr. Brugsch, of three mummy portraits in the desert of Hawara. These were found, uncoffined, and buried at a very slight depth below the surface.

The first is that of a woman: the portrait is brilliantly executed in tempera, on canvas, and is the most ancient of paintings on canvas known, for its date cannot be fixed later than the first century B.C.

The next portrait was on the mummy of a man but instead of a painting on canvas is a relief in stucco, gilded. The features are carefully reproduced, as are the beard and whiskers.

The third mummy was provided with a beautifully executed portrait on wood which is one of the best examples of ancient painting, though not so rare as the other, for ancient portraits painted on wood have long been known.--_Biblia_, V.P.

HELIOPOLIS.--M. Philippe, the Cairo dealer in antiquities, is, with permission from the Gizeh Museum, carrying on excavations at Heliopolis, which have brought to light some tombs of the Saïtic period.--_Academy_, Nov. 12.

KOM-EL-AHMAR.--"At Kom el-Ahmar, opposite El-Qab, I visited two recently-discovered tombs, which contain the cartouches of Pepi, and are in a fairly perfect condition. The walls are covered with delicate paintings in the style of those of Beni-Hassan, and explanatory inscriptions are attached to them. The early date of the paintings and inscriptions makes them particularly interesting. The tombs are still half buried in the sand, and only the upper part of the internal decoration is visible."--PROF. SAYCE, in _Academy_, April 2.

MEIR.--The authorities of the Gizeh Museum have, on the suggestion of Johnson Pasha, caused excavations to be made at Meïr, near Deirut, in Upper Egypt, which have already resulted in the discovery of some tombs of the XI dynasty. It is intended to continue these excavations.--_Academy_, Nov. 12.

MEMPHIS.--DISCOVERIES BY M. DE MORGAN.--At a meeting of the _Acad. des Inscr._ Prof. Maspero communicated the result of the excavations on the site of Memphis by M. de Morgan. He has discovered among the ruins of the temple of Ptah a number of monuments of importance. First, a large boat of granite, similar to that in the museum at Turin, on which the figures are destroyed; next, several fragmentary colossi of Rameses II, and in particular two gigantic upright figures, dedicated by this king, of Ptah, the god of Memphis, enshrouded in mummy-wrappings and holding a sceptre in both hands; lastly, some isolated figures, arranged in a court or a chamber. The Page 104 importance of this discovery, said Prof. Maspero, will be realised when we bear in mind that we possess no divine image of large size, and that the very existence of statues of gods in Egyptian temples has sometimes been denied.--_Academy_, Sept. 17.

SEHEL.--THE TENTH DYNASTY.--Prof. Sayce reports that he has been finding evidences of the little-known X dynasty in the immediate neighborhood of the First Cataract. "Mr. Griffith and Prof. Maspero have shown that certain of the tombs at Siût belonged to the period when this dynasty ruled in Egypt. I have now discovered inscriptions which show that its rule was recognized on the frontiers of Nubia.

"An examination of the position occupied by the numerous inscriptions on the granite rocks of the island of Sehêl have made it clear to me that we must recognize two periods in the history of the sanctuary for which the island was famous. During the second period the temple stood on the eastern slope of an eminence where I found remains of it two years ago. As I also found fragments of it bearing the name of Thothmes III on the one hand, and of Ptolemy Philopator on the other, it must have existed from the age of the XVII dynasty down to Ptolemaic times. Throughout this period the inscriptions left by pious pilgrims to the shrine all face the site of the temple. So also do a certain number of inscriptions which belong to the age of the XII and XIII dynasties. But the majority of the inscriptions which belong to the latter age, like the inscriptions which are proved by the occurrence of the names of Antef and Mentuhotep to be of the time of the _xi_ dynasty, face a different way. They look southward.

"This winter I have come across a large number of inscriptions on the mainland side of the channel which look northward, that is, towards the island. A few of these inscriptions are of the time of the XII dynasty, but the greater number belong to the XI dynasty, and one is dated in the forty-first year of Ra-neb-kher. It would seem, therefore, that at the epoch when they were inscribed on the rocks the sanctuary of Sehêl stood either in the middle of the southern channel of the river or upon its edge.

"On the island side of the channel there are a good many inscriptions which are shown by the weathering of the hieroglyphs to be older than the age of the XI dynasty. Indeed, the inscription of an Antef is cut over one of them. They all present the same curious forms of hieroglyphic characters, and contain for the most part titles and formulæ not met with in the later texts. Moreover, they are not dedicated like the Page 105 later texts to the divine trinity of the Cataract, Khnum, Anuke, and Sati, but to a deity whose name is expressed by a character resembling an Akhem seated on a basket. Mr. Wilbour and I first noticed it last year.

"One of the early inscriptions contains a cartouche which reads Ra-nefer-hepu, the last element being represented by the picture of a rudder. Now Mr. Newberry and his companions at Beni-Hassan have discovered that one of the groups of tombs which exist there is of older date than the time of the XII dynasty. In this group of tombs occurs the name of a lady who was called Nefer-hepu. She must have been born in the reign of Ra-nefer-hepu, and will consequently belong, not to the age of the XI dynasty, but to that of one of the dynasties which preceded it.

"That this dynasty was the X is made pretty clear by the inscriptions on the mainland side of the channel I have described. Here I have found inscriptions of the early sort mingled with those of the XI dynasty in such a way as to show that they cannot have been widely separated in age. Moreover, in one of them, the name of Khatî is associated with that of Ra-mer-ab; and Khatî is not only a name which characterises the XI dynasty, but it was also the name of the owner of one of the tombs at Siût, which Mr. Griffith has proved to belong to the time of the X dynasty. We were already acquainted with the name of Ra-mer-ab from a scarab; and two years ago Mr. Bouriant obtained a bronze vase which gave the double name of Ra-mer-ab Kherti. Kherti is a king of the X dynasty. By the side of the inscription which contains the name of Ra-mer-ab, I found others with the names of Ra-mer-ankh and Ameni. That Ameni was a king of the X dynasty has already been suspected.

"The inscriptions I have copied this winter, therefore, have not only given us the names of some kings of the X dynasty, one of them previously unknown; they have also shown that the power of the dynasty was acknowledged as far south as the Cataract. Moreover, they indicate that the government must have passed from the X to the XI dynasty in a peaceful and regular manner."

SHAT-ER-RIGALEH.--Prof. Sayce writes: I have visited the famous "Shat er-Rigâleh," the valley a little north of Silsilis and the village of El-Hammâni, in which so many monuments of the XI dynasty have been discovered by Messrs. Harris, Eisenlohr, and Flinders Petrie. To these I have been able to add another cartouche, that of Ra-nofer-neb, a king who is supposed to belong to the XIV dynasty. His name and titles have been carved on the rock at the northern corner of the entrance into the valley by a certain Ama, a memorial of whom was found by Mr. Petrie in the Wadi itself (_A Season in Egypt_, pl. XV. No. 438). Mr. Spicer, whose dahabiyeh accompanied mine, Page 106 photographed the inscriptions in which Mentuhotep-Ra-neb-kher of the XI dynasty is mentioned, as well as the one which enumerates the names of three kings of the XVIII dynasty, Amenophis I, Thothmes I, and Thothmes II. One of the inscriptions of Mentuhotep is dated in the thirty-ninth year of the king's reign. The epithet _mâ-kheru_ "deceased" is attached only to the cartouche of Amenophis I, not to those of the other two kings, proving that they reigned contemporaneously.--_Academy_, March 12.

TEL EL-AMARNA.--EXCAVATIONS BY MR. PETRIE.--Mr. Petrie communicates the following report to the _Academy_: "During the last four months I have been excavating at this place, the capital of Khuenaten. Past times have done their best to leave nothing for the present--not even a record. The Egyptians carried away the buildings in whole blocks down to the lowest foundations, completely smashed the sculptures, and left nothing in the houses; and the Museum authorities, and a notorious Arab dealer, have cleared away without any record what had escaped the other plunderers of this century. I have now endeavoured to recover what little remained of the art and history of this peculiar site, by careful searching in the town. From the tombs I am debarred, although the authorities are doing nothing whatever there themselves, and the tomb of Khuenaten remains uncleared, with pieces of the sarcophagus and vessels thrown indiscriminately in the rubbish outside."

The region of main interest is the palace; and the only way to recover the plan was by baring the ground, and tracing the bedding of the stones which are gone. For this I have cleared all the site of the buildings, and in course of the work several rooms with portions of painted fresco pavements have been found. One room which was nearly entire, about 51 by 16 feet, and two others more injured, have now been entirely exposed to view, and protected by a substantial house, well lighted, and accessible to visitors, erected by the Public Works Department. With the exception of a pavement reported to exist at Thebes, these are the only examples of a branch of art which must have been familiar in the palaces of Egypt. The subjects of these floors are tanks with fish, birds, and lotus; groups of calves, plants, birds, and insects; and a border of bouquets and dishes. But the main value of these lies in the new style of art displayed; the action of the animals, and the naturalistic grace of the plants, are unlike any other Egyptian work, and are unparalleled even in classical frescoes. Not until modern times can such studies from nature be found. Yet this was done by Egyptian artists; for where the lotus occurs, Page 107 the old conventional grouping has constrained the design, and the painter could not overstep his education, though handling all the other plants with perfect individuality. That Babylonian influence was not active, is seen by the utter absence of any geometrical ornament; neither rosettes or stars, frets or circles, nor any other such elements are seen, and perhaps no such large piece of work exists so clear of all but natural forms. Some small fragments of sculptured columns show that this flowing naturalism was as freely carried out in relief as in colour.

Of the architecture there remain only small pieces flaked off the columns. By comparing these the style can be entirely recovered; and we see that both the small columns in the palace, and those five feet thick in the river frontage, were in imitation of bundles of reeds, bound with inscribed bands, with leafage on base and on capital, and groups of ducks hung up around the neck. A roof over a well in the palace was supported by columns of a highly geometrical pattern, with spirals and chevrons. In the palace front were also severer columns inscribed with scenes, and with capitals imitating gigantic jewellery. The surface was encrusted with brilliant glazes, and the ridges of stone between the pieces were gilt, so that it resembled jewels set in gold. An easy imitation of this was by painting the hollows and ridges, and the crossing lines of the setting soon look like a net over the capital. We are at once reminded of the "net work" on the capitals of Solomon, and see in these columns their prototype.

This taste for inlaying was carried to great lengths on the flat walls. The patterns were incrusted with coloured glazes, and birds and fishes were painted on whole pieces and let into the blocks; hieroglyphs were elaborately carved in hard stones and fixed in the hollowed forms, black granite, obsidian, and quartzite in white limestone, and alabaster in red granite. The many fragments of steles which have come from here already, and which I have found, appear to show a custom of placing one stele--with the usual adoration of the sun by the king and queen--in each of the great halls of the palace and temple. These steles are in hard limestone, alabaster, red granite, and black granite. I have found more steles on the rocks on both sides of the Nile, and have seen in all eight on the eastern and three on the western cliffs.

The history of this site, and of the religious revolutions, is somewhat clearer than before. Khuenaten came to the throne as a minor; for in his sixth year he had only one child, and in his eighth year only two, as we learn from the steles, suggesting that he was not married till his fifth year apparently. On his marriage he changed his name from Amenhotep IV (which occurs on Page 108 a papyrus from Gurob in his fifth) to Khuenaten (which we find here in the sixth). A scarab which I got last year in Cairo shows Amenhotep (with Amen erased subsequently) adoring the cartouches of the Aten, settling his identity with Khuenaten. In a quarry here is the name of his mother, Queen Thii, without any king; so she was probably regent during his minority, and started this capital here herself.

The character of the man, and the real objects of his revolution in religion and art, are greatly cleared by our now being able to see him as in the flesh. By an inexplicable chance, there was lying on the ground, among some stones, a plaster cast taken from his face immediately after his death for the use of the sculptors of his funeral furniture; with it were the spoilt rough blocks of granite _ushabtis_ for his tomb. The cast is in almost perfect condition, and we can now really study his face, which is full of character. There is no trace of passion in it, but a philosophical calm with great obstinacy and impracticability. He was no vigorous fanatic, but rather a high bred theorist and reformer: not a Cromwell but a Mill. An interesting historical study awaits us here from his physiognomy and his reforms. No such cast remains of any other personage in ancient history.

According to one view, he was followed successively by four kings, Ra saa ka khepru, Tut ankhamen, Ai, and Horemheb, in peaceable succession. But of late it has been thought that the last three were rival kings at Thebes; and that they upheld Amen in rivalry to Khuenaten and his successor, who were cut very short in their reigns. Nothing here supports the latter view. A great number of moulds for making pottery rings are found here in factories; and those of Tut ankhamen are as common and as varied as of Khuenaten, showing that he was an important ruler here for a considerable time. Of Ai rings are occasionally found here, as also of Horemheb, who has left a block of sculpture with his cartouche in the temple of Aten. So it is certain that he actually upheld the worship of Aten early in his reign, and added to the buildings here, far from being a destructive rival overthrowing this place from Thebes. Afterwards he re-established Amen (as I got a scarab of his in Cairo, "establishing the temple of Amen"), and he removed the blocks of stone wholesale from here to build with at Thebes. Later than Horemheb there is not a trace here; Seti and Ramessu are absolutely unknown in this site, showing that it was stripped of stone and deserted before the XIX dynasty. Hence, about two generations, from 1400 to 1340 B.C., are the extreme limits of date for everything found here. The masonry was re-used at Thebes, Memphis, and other places where the name of Khuenaten has been found. Page 109 The manufactures of this place were not extensive--glass and glazes were the main industries; and the objects so common at Gurob (metal tools, spindles, thread, weights, and marks on the pottery) are all rare here. The furnace and the details of making the coloured blue and green frits, have been found. Pottery moulds for making the pendants of fruits, leaves, animals, &c., are abundant in the factories; and a great variety of patterned "Phoenician" glass vases are found, but only in fragments.

The cuneiform tablets discovered here were all in store rooms outside the palace; they were placed by the house of the Babylonian scribe, which was localised by our finding the waste pieces of his spoilt tablets in rubbish holes. A large quantity of fragments are found of the Aegean pottery, like that of the early period at Mykenae and Ialysos. This is completely in accord with what I found at Gurob, but with more variety in form. The Phoenician pottery which I found at Lachish is also found here, so we now have a firm dating for all these styles. The connexion between the naturalistic work of these frescoes and the fresco of Tiryns and the gold cups of Vaphio is obvious; and it seems possible that Greece may have started Khuenaten in his new views of style, which he carried out so fully by his native artists. The similarity of the geometrical pattern columns to the sculptures of the Mykenae period is striking; hitherto such Egyptian decoration was only known in colour, and not in relief. We have yet a great deal to learn as to the influences between Greece and Egypt, but this place has helped to open our eyes.--W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE in _Academy_, April 9.

CUNEIFORM TABLETS.--Prof. Sayce while in Egypt spent several days at Tel el-Amarna with Mr. Petrie, and examined the fragments of cuneiform tablets which he has discovered there. Among them are portions of letters from the governors of Musikhuna, in Palestine, and Gebal, in Phornicia. The most interesting were some lexical fragments. One or two of these formed part of a sort of comparative dictionary of three (or perhaps five) different languages, one of them of course being Babylonian, in which the words of the other languages are explained at length. The work seems to have been compiled by "order of the King of Egypt." Another work was a dictionary of Sumerian and Babylonian, in which the pronunciation of the Sumerian is given as well as their ideographic representation. Thus the Babylonian _risápu_ and _di_ _kate_ are stated to be the equivalents not only of the ideographic _gaz-gaz_, but also of the phonetically written _ga-az-ga-az_. This confirms the Page 110 views of Professors Sayce and Oppert, expressed long ago, as to the comparatively late date at which _Accado-Sumerian_ ceased to be a spoken language.--_Academy_, May 14.

TOMB OF KHUENATEN OR AMENOPHIS IV.--Prof. Sayce writes to the _Academy_ of Feb. 27. I have been spending a few days at Tel el-Amarna. Mr. Flinders Petrie is excavating the ruins of the old city of Khuenaten, while M. Alexandre, on behalf of the Gizeh Museum, has spent the summer and autumn among the tombs of Tel el-Amarna, and his labours have been rewarded by some important discoveries. At the entrance to one of the tombs, for instance, he has found stelae of the usual tombstone shape let into the wall like the dedication tablets of Greek and Roman times. The removal of the sand from the foot of the great stela of Khuenaten, first discovered by Prisse d'Avennes, has brought to light a most interesting text. This describes the distance of the stelae erected by the Pharaoh one from the other, and thus defines the limits of the territory belonging to the city which he built.

But M. Alexandre's crowning discovery--a discovery which is one of the most important made in Egypt in recent years--did not take place until December 30. It was nothing less than the discovery of the tomb of Khuenaten himself. The tomb is well concealed, and is at a great distance from the river and the ruins of the old city. Midway between the northern and the southern tombs of Tel el-Amarna, in the amphitheatre of cliffs to the east of the ancient town, are two ravines, more than three miles from the mouth of one of them, towards the head of a small valley is the tomb. It resembles the famous "Tombs of the Kings" at Thebes, being in the form of a subterranean passage cut in the rock, and sloping downwards at an acute angle to a distance of more than 100 metres. In front of the entrance is a double flight to steps also cut out of the rock, with a slide for the mummy between them. After entering the passage of the tomb, which is broad and lofty, we pass on the right another long passage, probably intended for the queen, but never finished. Soon afterwards we come to a chamber, also on the right, which serves as an antechamber to another within. The walls of both chambers have been covered with stucco, and embellished with hieroglyphs and sculptures. Among the latter are figures of prisoners from Ethiopia and Syria, of the solar disk, and of female mourners who weep and throw dust on their heads. From the inscriptions we learn that the two chambers were the burial-place of Khuenaten's daughter Aten-mert, who must consequently have died before him. It further follows that Ra-si-aa-ka, Aten-mert's husband, who received the titles of royalty in consequence of his marriage, must have been coregent with Khuenaten. Page 111 Khuenaten himself was buried in a large square-columned hall at the extreme end of the tomb. Fragments of his granite sarcophagus have been found there by M. Alexandre, as well as pieces of the exquisitely fine mummy cloth in which his body was wrapped. At the entrance to the tomb M. Alexandre also picked up broken _ushebtis_, upon which the cartouches of Khuenaten are inscribed. Before the Pharaoh had been properly entombed it would seem that his enemies broke into his last resting-place, destroyed his sarcophagus, tore the wrappings of his mummy to shreds, and effaced the name and image of his god wherever it was engraved upon the wall. The only finished portions of the tomb are the chambers in which his daughter was buried. Elsewhere the tomb is in the same condition as the majority of the tombs of his adherents. The walls have never been covered with stucco, much less painted or sculptured, and even the columns of the magnificent hall in which his sarcophagus was placed remains rough-hewn. It is clear that the king died suddenly, and that he was buried in haste on the morning of a revolution. His followers may have made a stand against their enemies for a few months, but it is difficult to believe from the state in which the tomb has been found that they can have done so for a longer time. Very shortly after Khuen-Aten's death his city must have been destoyed, never to be inhabited again.

Mr. Petrie in a letter to the _Academy_ says: "It has long been known that the Arabs had obtained access to the tomb of the remarkable founder of Tel el-Amarna; the heart scarab of Khuenaten was sold two or three years ago at Luxor, and the jewellery of Neferti-iti, his queen, a year or two before that."

The entrance is like that of the tomb of Seti I at Thebes; but the sloping passage is about half the length of that.--_Academy_, Feb. 6.

COLLECTION IN LONDON.--The collections of sculpture, painting, faience, &c., which Mr. Flinders Petrie brought back from his excavations last winter at Tel el-Amarna have been placed on view at 4 Oxford-mansion, Oxford-circus, W. Their special interest is that they reveal an hitherto unknown form of art, remarkable both for its originality and for its spirited rendering of natural objects. The resemblance to some of the finest objects of Mycenaean work is very striking. The exhibition remained open until October 15.--_Academy_, Sept. 24.

ETHIOPIA.

NORTHERN ETBAI.--EXPEDITION TO THE NORTHERN ETBAI.--A recent scientific expedition to northern Etbai or northern Aethiopia, Page 112 by the order of the Khedive, is the subject of a very interesting paper by Ernest A. Floyer, in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ for October.

The chief investigation of the expedition was devoted to the remains of certain large mining stations which proved to be doubly interesting, as giving evidence of two distinct periods of the mining industry.

Mines have been opened over almost the entire surface, and the remains of numerous towns mark the dwelling places of the miners.

Not only in the mines is found evidence of two methods, one very ancient and another less ancient; but in the settlements above were discovered remains of Ptolemaic construction, together with the stone huts of a race probably aboriginal, and preceding or contemporaneous with but not unknown to the ancient Egyptians.

The Ptolemaic miner seem to have employed the ancient methods to a great extent, so that it would seem that there could never have been any complete cessation of mining for a very long period.

The miners of Rameses' time, too, used methods of great antiquity. In the Wadi Abba stands a rock temple with hieroglyphic inscriptions stating that Sethos, father of Rameses the Great, had discovered gold mines in this region. Golenischeff believes this temple to have been erected by the Ptolemies. At the mines of Sighait is an hieroglyphic inscription recording the visit of a royal scribe and a mine inspector. This is faintly inscribed on the face of a steep rock. At the emerald mines of Sikait may be seen a number of Greek dedications over rock-cut temples. Near the Wadi Khashat, where topazes are found, there stands a square enclosure, the platform of a temple, and numerous ruined structures of apparent Greek origin. It would appear from these remains that the Ptolemies examined all of the ancient mines and reopened a certain number--here they erected their temples, houses and barracks for slaves, here they constructed high roads for their carts and oxen, with caravan service, and post houses built at intervals.

Beside these Ptolemaic ruins are found some traces of the prehistoric miners, and in a few cases as at the mines of the Um Roos these exist alone. The most important traces are the stone huts built of large stones in two lines, and of uniform irregularity. In connection with these huts there is not a single mark or inscription of any kind which might lead to a solution of the problem with regard to their origin.

Their implements, quantities of which are found at Um Roos were as crude as their abodes, in fact the use of some of them cannot be determined. The mines, though extensive, are little more than burrows, and in a few cases it is not known for what Page 113 mineral they were excavated. The writer, after dismissing the Æthiopians, the Kushites and the ancient Egyptians, as the probable pre-Ptolemaic miners, suggests that the Etbai was peopled by a negroid tribe of natural miners, the possible ancestors of the copper miners in the mountains north of Kordofan.

Near the Wadi Sikait, not far from the temples with Greek inscriptions already referred to, is a fine building of apparently later date, and supposed by the writer to have been a church from its construction, for the mines were worked steadily during the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era. The structure has no roof over the main portion, but what was apparently an apse still retains its roof of long slabs of schist. The body is filled with fallen slabs. The walls show a side window and several niches, which features suggested a Christian church.

ALGERIA AND TUNISIA.

M. René de la Blanchère in making, to the _Acad. des Inscriptions_, his report on the excavations and discoveries in Tunisia and Algeria during 1891, calls attention to the new organization of the archæological administration of this region. Up to the present time Tunisia and Algeria had separate organizations, but the following arrangement has now gone into effect: M. de la Blanchère is delegate of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, in Algeria and Tunisia, and the mission under him is at present composed of M. M. Doublet, inspector of antiquities in the Regency; Pradère, conservator of the Museum of Bardo; Wood, attaché at the same museum; Gauckler, historical student, and Marye: it is quite distinct from the local administrations. Although it supplies the greater number of the agents of the Bey's service of antiquities, which it created, it has no connection with its administration any more than with that of similar organizations in Algeria, such as that of historical monuments. Its object is: (1) to keep the Committee of Historic works (of Algeria and Tunisia) informed of all that happens in Africa in the domain of archæology, to transmit to it any documents and to make researches regarding necessary work; (2) to carry on three important publications, two of which have already been partly published; the _Collections du Musée Alaoui, the Musées et collections archéologiques de l'Algérie_, and the _Catalogue général des musées de l'Afrique française_; (3) to hold itself at the disposal of the French ministry and the local authorities for any work deemed necessary, excavations, organization of museums, enterprises of learned societies, explorations, etc. The head of the mission, being a delegate of the ministry, has Page 114 the right to oversee the Tunisian service of antiquities, and has also for both Algeria and Tunisia the permanent inspection of libraries and museums.

By means of this central organization, all the desiderata for African archæology are obtained, and the best methods are put in practice for excavations, the organization of museums, and the publication of antiquities.

TUNISIA.

M. de la Blanchère reports that in 1891 the most urgent need in Tunisia was the classification of monuments that should be preserved. The operation is being carried on under the direction of M. Doublet; enquiry was opened in regard to about 150 monuments, nearly all of great importance, of which 27 are already classified. No excavations were undertaken by the service of antiquities, its funds being all employed on finishing the Bardo museum. It has, however, overseen or authorized the following enterprises, the most important of which will be found described in their alphabetical order: Sfaks; Sousse; Henchir Maatria; Dougga; Teboursouk; Henchir Tinah; Maktar.

CARTHAGE.--M. do Vogüé has communicated to the _Acad. des Ins._ (March 18) a report on the continuation of Father Delattre's excavations at Carthage, which go on giving interesting results which will be fully described in a publication by the explorer himself. At another point a funerary inscription was found of an iron caster. This is the first time the profession is mentioned in Carthaginian texts, which had hitherto mentioned only gold and bronze casters. Of course there was no casting of iron at that time, but only working of the metal.--_Revue arch._ 1892, II, p. 254.

TERRACOTTA MOULDS.--M. Héron de Villefosse communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ (Nov. 11,) the photographs of seventy-two moulds for intaglios, in terracotta, selected from a collection of over three hundred which were found in the lower part of Carthage, between the hill of St. Louis and the sea. They were all executed in antiquity. There are coin, types, a head of Herakles, similar to that of some silver coins attributed to Jugurtha, the fronting head of Silenus of the coins of Kyzikos, the galley of the coins of Sidon, etc., all of the purest Greek style. There are also some female heads, recalling Greek Sicilian coins; standing figures; an Athena, a Pan, a Hermes fastening his heel-pieces, a Marsyas, an amazon, a nude woman fastening her sandal, recalling coins of Larissa in Thessaly; some of groups, a man overthrown by a lion, a lion devouring a horse, a man standing and killing a kneeling woman, an episode Page 115 of the contest of Achilles and Penthesilea; finally some purely Egyptian types, such as scarabs with royal cartouches. This collection of moulds was probably made by a manufacturer with the purpose of reproducing them.--_Rev. Critique_, 1892, No. 47.

CHEMTOU-SIMITHU.--Excavations have been carried on at this site by M. Toutain: they were continued, thanks to a subvention from the _Acad. des Inscriptions_. In a letter to the Academy dated June 16, M. Geffroy gives an account of what had been discovered up to date. Nearly the whole of the ancient theatre was discovered in a few weeks. In the space occupied by the orchestra was a mosaic, with all the shades of Numidian marble, nine metres in diameter. These are interesting peculiarities in the construction and arrangement of the theatre. It is neither adossed to a hill nor completely isolated: the lower part of the hemicycle of steps which was completely buried, is well preserved. M. Toutain had commenced researches in two necropoli of the city hoping to find tombs and epitaphs of the freedmen and slaves employed in the neighbouring quarries. He had begun the excavation of a large building, perhaps a basilica or a curia, which appears to be about 40 metres long.

In a letter to the _Académie_, dated October 16, M. Toutain gives information of further discoveries, principally in the theatre and forum. A square was discovered 20 met. wide by 25 met. long, paved with large slabs of granite of greenish blue schist. It is situated in the midst of the ruins of several important monuments, notably a temple and a basilica, and is certainly the forum of Simithu. It is bounded on the south by a monumental exædra whose substructions of cut stone are still in place, and whose architectural decoration can be reconstructed by means of the bases, fragments, columns, capitals, and pieces of cornice which have come to light. Toward the north the forum is bounded by two structures separated by a narrow paved street.

A mile-stone found is important, as containing the name of Emperor Galerius, and dating from the short period when, after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximianus, Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius were Augusti (May 1, 305, to July 25, 306). It has also a topographic interest as belonging to the cross-road from _Thuburbo majus_ to Tunis or Carthage, passing by Onellana and Uthina. M. Toutain has traced a system of bars, basins and cisterns, to supply with rain water a small Roman city, whose ruins are now called Bab-Khaled. It would appear as if the public buildings of the city were inhabited and made over at the Byzantine period.--_Revue critique_ 1892, No. 44; _Revue arch._, 1892, II, pp. 260, 266-7; _Chron. des arts_ 1892, No. 34. Page 116

CHERCHELL.--M. Victor Waille has communicated to the _Acad. des Insc._ the first results of excavations on the field of manoruvres at Cherchell. Captain Hétet and lieutenant Perrin conducted them. Three mosaic pavements were copied: there was found a dedicatory inscription to the governor C. Octavius Pudens Cæsius Honoratus, and some bronzes, among which were the base of a candelabrum and the handle of a chiseled vase, decorated with a helmeted bust of Roma, of the Byzantine period. The excavations are especially fruitful in small objects, pottery, bronzes, coins, etc.--_Chron. des arts_, 1892, No. 31; _Ami des mon._ 1892, p. 250.

DOUGGA.--The excavations carried on by MM. Denis and Carton, resulted in the clearing of the temple of Saturn; the discovery of the dedicatory inscription showing it to have been erected for the safety of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus; the finding of a large number of native steles; and the clearing of the theatre.

HADRUMETUM.--A small lead tablet covered on both sides with inscriptions, has been found in the Roman necropolis. It is a _tabella devotionis_, to be compared with others found at Hadrumetum, at Carthage and in Gaul. On one side is a series of magic names, accompanied by the figure of a genius with a rooster's head, standing in a boat and holding a torch, on the other side is an adjuration addressed to a certain _deus pelagicus ærius_: infernal maledictions are called down on the horses and drivers of the green and white factions of the circus. There was a god or genius named Taraxippos, "the scarer of horses," as M. Heuzey remarks.--_Rev. arch._ 1892, II, p. 267.

MAKTAR.--M. Border exhumed from the mines of the basilica, next to the amphitheatre, four fragments of an imperial dedicatory inscription, and a most interesting altar bearing a dedication in eighteen lines on the occasion of the sacrifice of a bull and a ram for the safety of an Emperor, whose name is hammered out; M. Doublet conjectures him to have been Elagabalus.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109.

SOUSSE.-In the neo-punic necropolis, on which the camp is situated, two entire vases and 28 fragments of vases were found, decorated with painted inscriptions. In the Roman necropolis, along the Kairwan road, several interesting discoveries were made, among them a hypogeum containing several frescoes in fair preservation, containing curious figures and inscriptions, and also some inscriptions on marble or stucco.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109.

TEBOURSOUK.--MM. Denis and Carton have excavated the megalithic necropolis of Teboursouk, whose tombs are stone circles, with one or more small dolmens in the centre.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109. Page 117

TUNIS.--Hans von Behrs has contributed to the _Vossische Zeitung_ a report on the museum of the Bardo near Tunis. A summary of it is given in the _Berlin Philologische Wochenschrift_, November 19.

ALGERIA.

M. de la Blanchère reports that in Algeria M. Gauckler investigated in 1891 the provinces of Algiers and Constantine, and spent some time at Cherchell whose antiquities he studied and partly published alone or in collaboration with M. de Waille. He planned at the same time an excavation. M. Marye was charged with the plan for organizing, for the first time, a collection of mussulman art, of native industrial art, and of Turkish and Arabic monuments.

The work regarded as most pressing by M. de la Blanchère in 1891 was the publication of African museums. The first series of the _collections du musée Alaoui_ was almost completed: the _musées d'Oran_ and _de Constantine_ were in the press, following the _musée d'Alger_ published in the preceding year. The general catalogue will be drawn up as each establishment is definitively organized. The first place belongs to the Bardo museum whose catalogue had already been partly compiled by M. de la Blanchère. The museum of Oran, under its conservator, Demaeght, has been finally organized, and occupies a fine building given by the city. It has been enriched by several additions, notably the famous inscription of king Masuna. The museum of Constantine has received among other things, the results of an interesting excavation made at Collo, especially some curious vases with female silhouettes. The museum of the Bardo can, however, never be rivalled by any of the museums of Algeria. The immense palace is already nearly full, although the museum in 1891 was but four years old. The large hall is full, with its nine large cases; there are about 500 square metres of mosaics, 50 statues of large fragments, about 1200 inscriptions, and a multitude of small objects.

TIPASA.--The local curate, M. l'Abbé Saint-Gérand, has made some important excavations in an early Christian church. He found that the altar was placed at the end opposite the apse on a kind of platform or _béma_ attached to the wall. Several inscriptions were found set into the mosaic pavement. One is the epitaph of Alexander, a bishop of Tipasa, another the dedication of the construction by him. To this bishop is attributed the merit of grouping about the altar the tombs of certain "righteous ancients," _justi priores_, by whom are undoubtedly meant his predecessors in the Episcopacy.--_Chron. des arts_, 1892, No. 14. Page 118 Professor Gsell assisted in the excavations above described and further details in a communication to the _Académie des Inscriptions_. The building mentioned was a funerary chapel built to the east of Tipasa by Bishop Alexander to contain the tombs of his predecessors. Near by a Christian sarcophagus was found with reliefs of Christ giving the law, Moses striking the rock and other subjects.

In the same locality is the basilica of Saint Salsa erected over her tomb. Built in the fourth century, it was decorated in the middle of the fifth by Potentius, probably a bishop; and enlarged in the second half of the sixth. It was still an object of veneration in the seventh century.--_Chron. des arts_, 1892, No. 28.

ASIA.

HINDUSTAN.

MUHAMMADAN COINS.--Mr. S. Lane-Poole has completed his "Catalogue of the Coins of the Mogul Emperors of Hindustan in the British Museum," dating from 1525, the invasion of Buber, to the establishment of British currency in 1835.

It describes over 1400 coins, chiefly gold and silver, of this splendid coinage. "In his introduction Mr. Lane-Poole deals with various historical, geographical, and other problems suggested by the coinage, and with difficulties of classification presented by the early imitative issues of the East India company and the French compagnie des Indes." This volume, the fourteenth, completes the cataloguing of all the Muhammadan coins in the museum.--_Journal Royal Asiatic Society_ 1892, p. 425.

INDIAN NUMISMATICS.--Mr. Rodgers, Honorary Numismatist to the government of India, has finished his "Catalogue of the Coins with Persian or Arabic inscriptions in the Lahore museum," and practically finished his "Catalogue of the Coins in the Calcutta museum." His own immense collection has now been purchased by the Punjãb government, and he has nearly completed his catalogue of that.

These catalogues will be of very great importance alike for the numismatic and for the modern history of India.--_Journ. Royal Asiatic Society_, 1892, p. 425.

NEW VARIETY OF MAURYA INSCRIPTIONS.--Prof. Buhler has made a very careful study of impressions of nine votive inscriptions from the relic-caskets discovered by Mr. Rea in the ruined stupa of Bhattiprolu in the Kistna District (Madras). He has made out their contents, and has arrived at the conclusion that they are written in a new variety of the Southern Maurya or Làt Page 119 alphabet. Twenty-three letters of these inscriptions agree exactly with those ordinarily used in the edicts of Asoka which have long been held to belong to the first attempts of the Hindus in the art of writing. Four letters are entirely unusual, while the lingual l is introduced, which does not occur in Asoka's inscriptions. Further peculiarities are presented in the notation of the medial and final vowels. The appearance of the letters would indicate that the Bhattiprolu inscriptions probably belong to a period only a few decades later than that of Asoka's edicts. By a comparison of these incriptions with Asoka's edicts, and with the inscriptions of Nâuâgleât, Hathegumplia, Bharhut and Triana, it becomes evident that they hold an intermediate position between the two sets, but are much more nearly related to those of the third century B.C. than those of the second. If this be true, the date of the Bhattiprolu inscription cannot be placed later than 200 B.C., and the inscriptions themselves prove that several distinct varieties of the Southern Maurya alphabet existed during the third century, B.C.

This fact would remove one of the strongest arguments in favor of the theory that writing was introduced into India during the rule of the Maurya dynasty--_i.e._, the absence of local sorts of letters in which the edicts of Asoka were written in places widely separated, for this may be explained by a desire to imitate as closely as possible the character of the original edict.

If then the Bhattiprolu inscriptions show a system of characters radically different from those of Asoka's edicts and at the same time in all probability coeval with them a strong point is gained for the side of those who are of the opinion that the introduction of writing into India took place centuries before the accession of the Maurya Dynasty. It is a curious fact that of all the anomalous letters in the Bhattiprolu alphabet not one bears any trace to the later alphabets of India, all the characters of which are derived from those of Southern Maurya. The language of these inscriptions is a Prakrit dialect and is closely connected with the literary Pali.--_Journ. Royal Asiatic Society_, 1892, p. 602.

THE INDIAN HELL.--In a number of the _Journal Asiatique_ (Sept., Oct., '92), M. Léon Feer publishes an article entitled "_L'Enfer Indien_," in which he confines himself to the Buddhist hells, leaving the Brahmanic hells for another study. He avails himself of all previously printed matter and adds new material. His object is to group together and classify all the ideas on infernal punishments, on the crimes for which they are inflicted and their duration. There are separate chapters on: Page 120 (1) the name and number of hells; (2) the eight large hot hells; (3) the attribution of the hells to distinct crimes; (4) the small hells. There are many questions in connection with them which he leaves unsolved. Then come the cold hells: (1) the Chinese hells; (2) Southern hells; (3) the number and names of the cold hells (of both north and south); (4) the duration of one's dwelling in the various hells; (5) on the non-existence of the cold hells; (6) on the period of time spent in all the hells, etc. The main conclusions are, that: All Buddhists recognize eight burning hells, with ascending intensity, surrounded by secondary hells of numbers varying from four to sixteen. Beside those there are eight cold hells, but only in the North, their names being considered in the South as expressing merely the different periods of sojourn in the eighth hell. The number of hells is at least 12, at most 32.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL SURVEY.--The second volume of the new series of the Archaæological Survey of India is devoted to a catalogue of the antiquities and inscriptions in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, compiled by Dr. A. Fuhrer. No part of India, not even the Panjab, is so crowded with historic spots, associated not only with the life and teaching of Buddha, and with the Hindu theogony, but also with the Muhammadan conquest. Most of the ground has already been worked over by Sir A. Cunningham and his assistants; but there are square miles of ruined mounds still almost untouched. We continually hear of finds of ancient coins made by peasants during the rainy season; but the author is careful to point out that what is now wanted is systematic exploration, like that of Mr. Petrie in Egypt. The present volume is based rather upon printed documents than upon original research, though it shows everywhere the traces of personal knowledge. Its object is to carry out the orders of the Government, by placing on record a catalogue of the existing monuments, classified according to their archæological importance, their state of repair, and their custody. It is arranged in the order of administrative divisions and districts; but copious indices enable the student to bring together any particular line of investigation.--_Academy_, September.

A HISTORICAL DOCUMENT.--Dr. M. Aurel Stein, principal of the Oriental College at Lahore, has now ready for publication the first volume of his critical edition of the Rajatarangini, or Chronicles of the Kings of Kashmir, upon which he has been engaged for some years. This work, which was written by the poet Kalhana in the middle of the twelfth century, is of special interest as being almost the sole example of historical literature in Sanskrit. Hitherto it has only been known

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Page 122 (Missing in the source document.)

Page 123 Near the stûpa is the site of the ancient village and fort; long ridges of earth, in form of a square, mark the position of the walls; within these, various articles have been turned up, large bricks, broken sepulchral urns and grain jars, together with beads of various material and Buddhist lead coins, both round and square; they bear the lion and the dugoba, emblems of the Andhra dynasty. The inscriptions of some are preserved.

II. GHANTASALA.--At Ghantasala is a mound 112 feet in diameter and 23 feet in height; the excavations here disclosed the remains of a stûpa from which the complete plan was determined. In the centre is a solid cube of brick work 10 feet square, enclosed in a chamber 19 feet square with walls over 3 feet in thickness; outside this is a circular wall 3 ft. 6 inches thick, 55 feet 10 inches in diameter, this is enclosed in another circular brick wall 18 feet 3 inches thick, with a diameter of 111 feet; this was the main outer wall of the structure, the exterior surface bore a _chunam_ facing. About the base is a raised procession path 5 feet 7 in. broad, and 4 feet 6 in. high, a projection is found at each of the cardinal points. The inmost squares are connected by walls 2 feet 4 in. thick, running parallel to these sides from the centre and corners, the cells formed by the intersections of these walls are packed with mud.

The fact that the main walls, _i.e._, those of the squares and circles, are thicker than the others may indicate that they were carried up to form stories, or they may have been simply to strengthen the dome, if the exterior wall was carried up in that form. Further excavations in the mound discovered a marble slab carved with the Supada, a piece of a carved top rail panel and a number of carved slabs.

When the brick work was excavated a well 6 inches square filled with earth was found under 3 feet of solid brick work. Among the debris, at the top, were found pieces of a broken _chatti_, and a number of small articles, beads and a coin, which it had probably contained. Just below these was a _chatti_ of red earthenware, 4-1/2 in. in diameter, with a semi-circular lid, filled with black earth. Within this was a glazed _chatti_ 2-1/4 in. in diameter, and 1-3/4 in. in height. It contained numerous leads, bits of bone, small pearls, bits of gold leaf and small pieces of mineral.

A number of marble sculptures have been removed from the stûpa of Ghantasala, and are now in the village. Among them are several pieces carved with lotus flowers, and other ornaments and inscriptions, square and circular moulded vases, a circular base carved with horses, elephants and other animals, an umbrella, a panel with rail and figures, and two carved slabs. Page 124 Other remains found in and near Ghantasala are an "ancient brass _dipa_, with a Telugu inscription and a small brass image of Siva" now in the temple, a "small _chakra_ and a _trisula_, each with pillar base." Brick walls and brick debris are found all about the neighborhood, but so demolished as to make it impossible to determine what the buildings were.

III. BHATTIPROLU.--On the report in the stûpa of Bhattiprolu, a former letter is referred to in which an account is given of certain inscribed caskets, and other relics found in the centre of the dome some time before. The reports continue with the account of further excavations by means of trenches. Those about the exterior discovered an unbroken procession path at the small east quadrant, the face of the dome too at this point is intact to a height of over 5 ft. In the trenches at the north side there was found two pieces of a marble umbrella, having a curve of a radius of 1 foot 6 in., a small piece of a pilaster base from a slab, a pilaster capital with horses and riders, and the half of what had been a large slab carved with the lower portion of a draped figure.

At some distance from the basement, or procession path, the remains of six marble bases of the rail were found standing in position--they are 1 ft. 11., by 12 in., by 1 ft. 10 in., in height, spaced by a distance of 1 ft. 7 in. in each, they are sunk 1 ft. 6 in. below the brick floor, and rest on a broad marble slab.

A large number of ancient sites and mounds were examined in the neighborhood of Repalle. At _Anantaiarum, Buddhâní, Chandavôlu_ and _Puapuâ_. Considerable surface has been excavated for various purposes; the earth, a kind of black mud, is found to be thickly mixed with broken pottery and bones of animals; occasionally a pillar or other building stone is turned up. At Môrakûru, copper, lead and rarely gold and silver coins are found mixed with the broken pottery.

At _Krudarnudi, Maudura, Mûlpûrn_ and _Periarli_, mounds were examined, the earth was found to consist of black mud mixed with pottery and ashes. The mounds differ only in extent, and portions of several have been removed.

BHATTIPROLU.--A BUDDHIST STUPA.--Mr. Rea during last season examined the remains of a stûpa at Bhattiprolu in the Kistna district, the marble casing of which had been used by the Canal engineers; and in it he has made discoveries of very considerable interest.

He found the stûpa had been a solid brick building 132 feet in diameter, surrounded by a procession path about eight feet wide. It must thus have been of very nearly the dimensions of the Amaravati stûpa. Fragments or chips only of the outer Page 125 casing of marble were found in the area he excavated. When the dome and portions of the drum had been previously demolished for the materials, inside the dome there was found "a casket made of six small slabs of stone dove-tailed into one another, measuring about 2-1/2 feet by 1-1/2 by 1 foot; inside this was a clay _chatti_ containing a neat soap-stone casket, which enclosed a crystal phial. In this latter was a pearl, a few little bits of gold leaf, and some ashes." Mr. Rea considered that there might still be another deposit of relics; and having discovered the centre of the original brickwork, he found there a shaft or well 9-1/2 inches in diameter filled with earth, which went down about 15 feet. Following this he found at one side near the bottom a stone box about 11 inches by 8 and 5 inches deep, with an inscription round the upper lip. Inside was a small globular blackstone relic casket, two small hemipsherical metal cups a little over an inch in diameter, with a gold bead on the apex of one, and the bead (fallen out) of the other; another small bead, two double pearls, also four gold lotus flowers 1.2 inch in diameter, two _trisulas_ in thin plates 1.2 by 1 inch, seven triangular bits of gold, a single and a double gold bead--the weight of these gold articles being about 148 grains. There was also a hexagonal crystal 2.56 inches long by 0.88 inch in diameter, pierced along the axis, and with an inscription lightly traced on the sides. The stone relic casket measures 4-1/2 inches each way, the lid fitting on with a groove, and it contained a cylindric crystal phial 2-1/2 inches in diameter and 1-1/4 inches high, moulded on the sides and flat on top and bottom; the lid fitted in the same way as that of the casket. Inside was a flattish piece of bone--possibly of the skull--and under the phial were nine small lotus flowers in gold leaf; six gold beads and eight small ones; four small lotus flowers of thin copper; nineteen small pierced pearls; one bluish crystal bead; and twenty-four small coins in a light coloured metal, possibly brass, smooth on one side and with lotus flowers, _trisulas_, feet, &c., on the obverse. These had been arranged on the bottom and attached in the form of a _svastika_.

Two and a half feet below this was a second deposit on the opposite or north side of the shaft. The central area of the cover, in this case, has an inscription in nineteen lines with two lines round it--the letters being filled in with white. In the lower stone was a receptacle 6-1/4 inches deep, by 7-1/2 in diameter, having a raised rim 1-1/2 inches broad, bearing another inscription of two lines on the upper surface--the letters also filled in with lime. The cavity was nearly filled with earth, and contained a phial 1-5/8 inches in diameter and 2-3/4 inches high, with a lid moulded like a _dagoba_. The Page 126 phial and lid were lying separate, and there was no sign of a relic. Mixed with the earth were 164 lotus leaves and buds, two circular flowers, a trisula and a three-armed figure like a _svastika_, all in gold leaf, two gold stems for lotus flowers, six gold beads, and a small gold ring--weighing, collectively, about 310 grains; also two pearls, a garnet, six coral beads, a bluish, flat, oval bead, a white crystal bead, two greenish, flat, six-sided crystal drops, a number of bits of corroded copper leaf in the shape of lotus flowers, a minute umbrella, and some folded pieces about 2 inches by 1-3/8, showing traces of letters or symbols pricked upon them with a metal point, but too corroded to permit of unfolding or decipherment.

Next, at a slightly lower level on the east side of the shaft, he came upon a third black stone cover, with an inscription of eight lines cut on the under surface in a sunk, circular area in the centre. The lower stone again bears an inscription round the rim of the cavity in one line--the letters being whitened. The receptacle was 5-3/4 inches deep, 7-1/2 wide at the top, and 5 at the bottom. It was also nearly filled with earth, and contained a crystal phial similar to that in the second, the lid lying apart; but close to it was the relic casket, perhaps of chrysolite, less than half an inch each way by three-eighths, in which is drilled a circular hole 0.28 inch in diameter, closed by a small, white crystal stopper with hexagonal top. The neck is covered with gold leaf, and a sheet of the same was fixed outside to the bottom. This unique casket contains three small pieces of bone. With it were found a bluish bead 5/8 inch long, a smaller one, and one of yellow crystal, a small hexagonal crystal drop, slightly yellowish in colour, a flat one of white crystal, a bone bead, six pearls, thirty-two seed pearls--all pierced, thirty lotus flowers, a quatrefoil, and a small figure of gold leaf.

The alphabet of the inscriptions presents features of peculiar interest, which I leave to be discussed by Prof. Bühler.--Jas. Burgess in _Acad._ May 21.

N.B.--Further details are given under the headings "_New variety of Maurya inscriptions_", and also under "_Buddhist Stupas in the Kistna district._"

GAUHATI.--ASSAM.--Mr. Joseph Chunder Dutt has reprinted from the _Indian Nation_ (Calcutta) an account of an archægeological visit to Gauhati, the ancient capital of Assam. The temples, &c., he describes mostly date only from the eighteenth century, as is shown by the inscriptions which he is careful to quote. There are, however, many ruins of older buildings and fragments of sculpture, which would perhaps repay more detailed examination. The destruction of some of these is due to the misdirected activity of British engineers.--_Academy_, Feb. 6. Page 127

PANJAB.--REMAINS OF ANCIENT BUDDHIST TEMPLES.--The _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ for October, 1892, contains a note in "Ancient remains of Temples on the Bannu Frontier," an unfrequented part of the Panjab. The ruins of two temples stand on a hillock rising from the Indus. The tradition with regard to them is that the Paridwas retired here to spend twelve years of exile after being defeated by the Kerwá. A short distance from these ruins is the site of a third temple now completely demolished. This temple was completely demolished. This temple was built of bricks of light pressed (?) clay about 12x9x3 inches in size. On breaking some of the bricks they were found to bear distinctly the impression of tree leaves, and brought under the influence of a petrifying spring which exists not far from the spot.

The remains are undoubtedly of great antiquity, and appears to have been Buddhist temples of the tall, conical kind. Their Buddhistic origin is made certain by the eight-leafed lotus ornaments which characterize the carvings.

THIBET.

Mr. Rockhill, who made himself so well-known by his first expedition to Thibet, is at present engaged in a second journey, in the hope of this time reaching the capital Lhassa.

The Duke of Orleans and his companion have already published the results of their journey undertaken shortly after Mr. Rockhill's first.

CHINA.

THE GAME OF WEI-CHI.--At a meeting in Shanghai of the Chinese Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, M. Volpicelli read a paper on "The Game of Wei-Chi," the greatest game of the Chinese, especially with the literary class and ranked by them superior to chess. Like chess, this game is of a general military and mathematical character, but is on a much more extensive scale, the board containing 361 places and employing nearly 200 men on a side. All of the men, however, have the same value and powers.

The object is to command as many places on the board as possible--this may be done by enclosing empty spaces or by surrounding the enemy's men. Very close calculation is always essential in order that a loss in one region may be met by gains in another, thus employing skillful strategy when the contestants are evenly matched. The game has come down from great antiquity, being first mentioned in Chinese writings Page 128 about B.C. 625. It was in all probability introduced by the Babylonian astronomers who were at that time the instructors of all the East.--_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1892, p. 421.

CENTRAL ASIA.

EXPEDITION OF M. DUTREUIL DE RHINS.--The _Académie des Inscriptions_ sent M. Dutreuil de Rhins some time since on an archæological expedition to Further Asia. Beside the income of the Gamier fund previously accorded to him for the purpose, it has accorded him a grant of 30,000 francs. The last news from him was a report.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 22.

THE ORKHON INSCRIPTIONS.--We quote from the _Times_ the following report of two papers read before the Oriental Congress, in the section of China and the Far East:

"A paper was contributed by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan on 'The Results of the Russian Archæological Researches in the Basin of the Orkhon in Mongolia.' Mr. Morgan drew attention to a splendid atlas of plates presented to the Congress by Dr. Radlof, of St. Petersburg, containing photographs and facsimiles of inscriptions copied by the members of the archæological expedition sent by the Imperial Academy of Sciences to investigate the ruins on the Orkhon. These ruins comprise (1) the remains of an ancient Uighur town west of the Orkhon, (2) the ruins of a Mongol palace to the east of that river, and a large granite monument shattered into pieces. Excavations were also made of the burial places of the Khans of the Tukiu or Turks inhabiting this part of Asia previously to the Uighurs, who drove them out. The earliest inscription dates from 732 A.D.., and refers to a brother of the Khan of the Tukiu mentioned in Chinese history. Additional interest attaches to these inscriptions owing to the fact that some of the characters are identical with those discovered on the Yenissei. The expedition to which the paper referred visited the monastery of Erdenitsu, and found there a number of stones with inscriptions in Mongol, Tibetan, and Persian, brought from the ruins of a town not far off. These ruins have been identified with Karakoram, the capital city of the first Khans of the dynasty of Jenghiz Khan.

"Prof. Donner wished to present to the Congress a publication by the Société Finno-Ougrienne at Helsingfors, containing inscriptions from the valley of the Orkhon, brought home by the Finnish Expedition in 1890. There are three large monuments, the first erected 732 A.D.., by the order of the Chinese Emperor in honour of Kiuèh-Jeghin, younger brother of the Khan Page 129 of the Tukiu (Turks). On the west side it has an inscription in Chinese, speaking of the relations between the Tukiu and Chinese. The Tartar historian, Ye-lu-chi, of the thirteenth century, saw it and gave some phrases from the front of it. On all the other sides is a long inscription of 70 lines in runic characters, which cannot be a mere translation of the Chinese because it numbers about 1400 words, while the Chinese inscription contains only about 800. The other monument has also a Chinese inscription on one side, but greatly effaced. On the other sides are runic inscriptions in 77 lines at least. This monument was erected, by order of the Chinese Emperor, in honour of Mekilikn (Moguilen), Khan of the Tukiu, who died 733 A.D.. About two-thirds of its runic inscription nearly line for line contains the same as the first monument, a circumstance of importance for the true reading of the text. The third monument, which has been the largest one, was destroyed by lightning and shattered into about fifty fragments. It is trilingual--viz., Chinese, Uighur, and runic or Yenissei characters. On comparing the texts they are found to contain many identical words and forms, proving that the languages were nearly identical. M. Devéria thinks that this is the memorial stone which the Uighur Khan, 784 A.D.., placed at the gateway of his palace to record the benefits the Uighurs had done to the Chinese Empire. Concerning the characters of these inscriptions they show small modifications. The tomb inscriptions at Yenissei seem to be the more original; some characters have been altered in the Tukiu alphabet and also in the third monument, representing in that way the three several nations--the Tukiu, the Uighurs, who followed them, and the Hakas, or Khirgiz, at Yenissei. A comparison of the characters themselves with the alphabets in Asia Minor shows that about three-fourths of them are identical with the characters of the Ionian, Phrygian, and Syrian [?]. The other part has resemblances with the graphic systems of India and Central Asia. We can now expect that the deciphering of these interesting inscriptions will soon give us reliable specimens of the oldest Turk dialects."--_Academy_, Sept. 17.

SIMFEROPOL.--At Simferopol Prof. Messelowski has made the most interesting discovery of a Scythian warrior's grave, dating probably from about the second or third century. The skeleton lay on its back facing the east, on the head was a cap with gold ornaments, and little gold plates were also fixed to portions of the dress. Near the head stood two amphoræ and a leathern quiver containing copper-headed arrows. At the feet were the bones of an ox, an iron knife, four amphoraæ and some lances--these were in a very rusty condition. The quiver had a Page 130 fine gold-chased ornament upon it representing a flying eagle gripping in its talons a small animal. It is admirably worked. The skeleton itself fell to pieces immediately.--_Biblia_, Oct., 1892.

SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES.--M. Clermont-Ganneau has published in the _Journal Asiatique_ for 1892, No. 1, a series of the discoveries and investigations made in Semitic epigraphy and antiquities during the year 1891. It is the address by which he opened his course at the Collège de France. He commences with Phornicia and notices besides such discoveries as are reported in the Journal, such books as Goblet d'Aviella's _La migration des symboles_, which is a comparative study of Oriental art symbols, and Ph. Berger's _Histoire de l'écriture dans l'antiquité_, which treats especially of the development of the Phornician alphabet. As an original supplement he describes some antiquities recently sent to him, which had been found in the necropolis of Sidon, _e.g._, a terracotta head of Egyptian style; a smaller head of Cypriote style; a statuette of Bes; two gold ear-rings; bottom of a Greek vase with a Phornician inscription; piece of a diorite scarcophagus cover of Egyptian origin, probably that of a king of Sidon. Another complete anthropoid sarcophagus from the same site at Sidon has been sent to Constantinople. Still another sarcophagus of this type has been found in Spain, at Cadiz, the ancient Gades. Its importance is incalculable, as it proves for the first time the passing of the Phornicians to Spain. Mr. Clermont-Ganneau then takes up Aramean antiquities and inscriptions, especially those of Palmyra. Among them are a number secured by the writer himself; they are three fine monumental funerary inscriptions and six funerary busts of men and women, two of which are finely executed and remarkably well preserved; all are inscribed and several are dated. He notices the publication of the valuable _Journal d'un voyage en Arabie_ (1883-1884) by Charles Huber, in which the five note-books of the traveller are reproduced. It will be remembered that he was treacherously murdered during his journey. Dr. Euting in his _Sinaïtische Inschriften_ publishes 67 inscriptions copied by him in the Sinaitic peninsula. His readings are very careful and accurate. Three of the texts are dated and are important in view of the controversy as to the age of all these inscriptions.

Palestine and Hebrew antiquities are very fully treated. M. Clement-Ganneau reads the famous Lachish inscription [Hebrew: jons] = _ad libandum_; he calls attention to hematite weight with an early inscription found at Sebaste; mentions the vandalism perpetrated in cutting away the famous Pool of Siloam inscription, _etc._ He notes the importance of the discovery by MM. Lees and Hanauer in the subterranean structures at Page 131 Jerusalem called "Solomon's Stables," of the spring of an immense ancient arch, analogous to Robinson's arch. It introduces quite a new element in the complicated problem of the Jewish Temple. Mr. Wrightson, an English engineer, concludes that the two arches or bridges formed part of a continuous system of parallel arches which occupied, between the two east and west walls, the sub-structure of the entire southern part of the esplanade of the temple. Mr. Schick's investigations are carefully noticed. Finally praise is given to the new publication of the Abbé Vigouroux, _Dictionnaire de la Bible_.

ARABIA.

A HISTORY OF YEMEN.--The British Museum acquired in 1886 the MS. of Omârah's 'History of Yemen,' a work of which it was long feared that no copy was at the present day in existence. Omârah's 'History' extends over a period of about three hundred and fifty years. It commences with the foundation of the city and principality of Zabid in the ninth century, and extends down to the eve of the conquest by the Ayyûbites in the twelfth. Mr. Henry C. Kay, a member of the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, has prepared the MS. for publication, together with an English translation, notes and indices. The volume also contains, besides other similar matter, an account and genealogical list of the Imams of Yemen, down to the thirteenth century, derived from the Zeydite MSS. recently added to the British Museum library.--_Athenæum_.

COINS OF THE BENU RASOOL DYNASTY OF SULTANS.--Out of the fourteen sovereigns who composed the Benu Rasool dynasty, we are in possession of the coins of only eight, and these the first eight; their inscriptions are in Arabic, and it is by no means easy to decipher all of them. The mints of these are: Aden, Zebîd, El-Mahdjâm, Thabat, Sana and Taiz, and each is characterized by a particular figure, a fish for Aden, a bird for Zebîd, a lion for El-Mahdjâm, and other symbols. There are also noticed several coins struck by rebels under the Benu Rasool dynasty.--_Revue Numismatique_, III s. tom. 10, III trim. 1892, p. 350.

BABYLONIA.

A BAS-RELIEF OF NARAM-SIN.--At a meeting of the _Acad. des Inscriptions_ M. Maspero exhibited a photograph of a Chaldean bas-relief from Constantinople. It was erected by, and bears the name of King Naram-sin, who reigned over Babylonia about 3800 B.C. Though much mutilated, what remains shows workmanship of a refined kind. It represents a human figure standing, Page 132 clothed (as on the most ancient cylinders) with a robe that passes under one arm and over the shoulder, and wearing a conical head-piece flanked with horns. The general appearance strikingly recalls Egyptian monuments of the same date. The relief is extremely low, the lines clear, but not stiff. There is no muscular exaggeration as is often the case in the cylinders. Naram-sin, like his father, Sargon I, has left the reputation (perhaps legendary) of a great conqueror; a campaign against Magan is attributed to him. M. Maspero was disposed to explain the style of the bas-relief by the Egyptian influence. It differs widely from the sculptures of Telloh, which are less refined and artistically advanced. But these, though of later date, come from a provincial town, not from a capital. M. Menant mentioned that the collection of M. de Clerq contains a cylinder, also of remarkable workmanahip, with an inscription with characters of the same style as those on the bas-relief in question; but it bears the name of Sargani, king of Agyadi, who is several generations earlier than Sargon I. Both of these are examples of an art which was never surpassed in Chaldea.--_Academy_, Oct. 15; _Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 33.

TELLOH.--BABYLONIAN SCULPTURE--The later excavations of M. de Sarzec at Telloh, in so far as they concern sculpture, are treated by M. Heuzey in some communications to the _Acad. des Inscriptions_. M. de Sarzec has reconstructed from some fragments a series of reliefs relating to King Ur-Nina, the ancestor of King E-anna-du, who is commemorated in the _stele of the vultures_. The sculptures of Ur-Nina are of rude and primitive workmanship and belong to the earliest period of Babylonian sculpture. The king is represented more than once, either carrying on his head the sacred basket, or seated and raising in his hand the drinking-horn. Around him are ranged his children and servants, all with their names inscribed upon the drapery. Among them is A-kur-gal, who is to succeed his father, replacing another prince, his older brother. The reunion of these fragments has given us an historic and archæological document of the highest antiquity.--_Revue Critique_, 1892, No. 44.

At a meeting of the _Acad. des Inscr._ M. Heuzey read a paper upon the "Stèle des Vautours." M. de Sarzec has been able to find and piece together several additional fragments, from which it appears that the name of the person who set up the pillar was E-anna-du, king of Sirpula, son of A-kur-gal, and grandson of King of Ur-Nina. He is represented in front of his warriors, beating down his enemies, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a chariot, of which only a trace remains. The Page 133 details of the armor resemble in some respects that of the Assyrians of a much later date. From what can be read of the inscription, it seems that the conquered enemies belonged to the country of Is-ban-ki. There is also mention of a city of Ur, allied with Sirpula. The pillar was sculptured on both faces. On the reverse is a royal or divine figure, of large size, holding in one hand the heraldic design of Sirpula (an eagle with the head of a lion), while the other brandishes a war-club over a crowd of prisoners, who are tumbling one over another in a sort of net or cage. In illustration of this scene, M. Heuzey quoted the passage from Habakkuk (i. 15), describing the vengeance of the Chaldeans: "They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag."--_Academy_, Sept. 3.

THE BABYLONIAN STANDARD WEIGHT.--Prof. Sayce writes: "Mr. Greville Chester has become the possessor of a very remarkable relic of antiquity, discovered in Babylonia, probably on the site of Babylon. It is a large weight of hard green stone, highly polished, and of a cone-like form. The picture of an altar has been engraved upon it, and down one side runs a cuneiform inscription of ten lines. They read as follows:

"One maneh standard weight, the property of Merodach-sar-ilani, a duplicate of the weight which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, the son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, made in exact accordance with the weight prescribed by the deified Dungi, a former king."

The historical importance of the inscription is obvious at the first glance. Dungi was the son and successor of Ur-Bagas, and his date may be roughly assigned to about 3000 B.C. It would appear that he had fixed the standard of weight in Babylonia; and the actual weight made by him in accordance with this standard seems to have been preserved down to the time of Nebuchadrezzar, who caused a duplicate of it to be made. The duplicate again became the standard by which all other weights in the country had to be tested.

The fact that Dungi is called "the deified" is not surprising. We know of other early kings of Chaldaea who were similarly raised to the rank of gods. One of them prefixes the title of "divine" to his own bricks; another, Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon, of Accad, is called "a god" on the seal of an individual who describes himself as his "worshipper. It is possible that in this cult of certain Babylonian kings we have an evidence of early intercourse with Egypt."--_Academy_, Dec. 19.

CATALOGUE OF BRITISH MUSEUM TABLETS.--Stored in the British Museum are some 50,000 inscribed pieces of terracotta or clay-tablets, forming the libraries of Assyria and Babylonia. Page 134 The great impetus given to cuneiform studies has made it necessary that the tablets should be catalogued, and the trustees have now issued a descriptive catalogue of some 8,000 inscribed tablets. The inscriptions in question come from the Kuyuryik Mound, at Nineveh. The tablets embrace every class of literature, historical documents, hymns, prayers and educational works, such as syllabaries or spelling-books, and dictionaries. The catalogues, of which the second is just issued, are prepared by Dr. Bezold.--_Biblia_, Sept., 1892.

ASHNUNNAK.--M. Pognon, French Consul at Bagdad, has announced to the _Acad. des Inscriptions_ that he has discovered the exact location of the region called anciently the land of Ashnunnak. He declares that he is not yet ready to announce his discovery more exactly, but publishes several bricks with the names and titles of several princes of Ashnunnak hitherto unknown. These are Ibalpil, Amil and Nulaku.

PERSIA.

M. de MORGAN'S RESEARCHES IN PERSIA AND LURISTAN.--In a communication to the _Acad. des Inscr._ M. de Morgan gives a report upon his mission in Persia and Luristan, of which the following are a few extracts. "In the valley of the Lar, I made a study of the subterranean habitations excavated in the rock and made a plan of the very ancient castle, Molla-Kölo, which once defended the pass of Vahné. Finally, in the ravine called _Ab-é-pardöma_, I discovered in the alluvion some stone instruments presenting very ancient paleolithic characters. At Amol, I studied the ruins of the ancient city and gathered some interesting collections containing quite a number of pieces of pottery and some bronzes of the xiv century."..... "Near Asterabad there is a mound called _Khaighruch-tépè_. I attempted to make some excavations of this point; unfortunately my work here was arrested by order of the Persian government just when, after twenty days of working with sixty laborers, I had reached a depth of 11½ meters. In this excavation I found some human bones, some pottery, some whorls and some thin objects composed of bronze much decomposed; all in the midst of ashes and cooking-debris. At the bottom was a skeleton stretched upon a very regular bed of pebbles, and I am of the opinion that _Khaighruch-tépè_ was primitively raised as a tomb and afterwards served for the construction of a village, the successive ruins of which coming to increase the importance of the mound. At a depth of 11½ meters I found more cinders and debris, indicating that I had not yet come to the level of the earliest works.".... "The _tépès_ are near together in the Page 135 eastern part of the Mazanderan and in the Turkoman steppe; but in the Lenkoran, the Ghilan and the western Mazanderan they are entirely wanting. It is concluded from this observation that the people who built here were not aborigines of the north of Persia, but that their migration moreover has left traces on the right and on the left of the Caspian. The Scythians of Herodotus present a very satisfactory solution for the problem of the Caspian _tépès_".... "From an archaeological point of view the Lenkoran was absolutely virgin soil and the finding of the first tomb was not an easy task. Finally, after long and minute research in the forests, I discovered the necropolis of Kravelady, composed of dolmens almost completely despoiled, but in sufficiently good condition to permit me to organize the natives in research for burial places of the same sort. I at first encountered much repugnance on the part of the inhabitants to excavate the tombs; finally, with some money and very long explanations, I brought them to terms and, thanks to my tomb-hunters, I found and excavated the necropoli of Horil, Beri, Djon, Tülü, Mistaïl, Hiveri, _etc._ These tombs present, according to their age, very different characteristics; the most ancient and at the same time the largest, contain rude arms of bronze. Those of the period following show the bronze well worked, iron, gold and silver being employed as jewels. Although we saw iron in very small quantities in the tombs of the second period, it is not until the third that it appears as the material of arms; at the same time, the jewels take the forms of animals, which change, as I have shown in the case of Russian Armenia in my preceding mission, indicates the appearance of a strange tribe possessed of special arts. During the last epoch all the arms are of iron. The pottery found in the tombs is glazed.

"As to the form of the monuments, it is very variable at different ages; there are some covered passages or chambers completely closed, some dolmens with openings like those of India. At the very time when my excavations were attaining their greatest importance I was compelled to discontinue them by order of the Russian administration and was obliged to leave the country, having only made a beginning in archaeology. An _ukase_ of the Czar reserves the excavations in all his great empire for the Archæological Society of St. Petersburg. But this interdict did not arrive until after I had excavated about two hundred and twenty tombs, so that we now possess more than fifteen hundred objects, vases, arms, trinkets of gold, bronze, silver, _etc._

"At Moukri, thanks to the kindness of a Kurd chief, I was enabled to excavate a tomb which, although it held no objects Page 136 of value, still contained some interesting relics. I have not yet been able to assign a date to any of them." .... "During my stay at Moukri I set up a map on the scale of 1/250000, and marked upon it all the ruins, mounds and ancient tombs....

"Although blockaded by snow at Hamadan I was able to visit the ancient Ecbatana and there acquired a small collection of Greek jewels and Chaldean cylinders. I found no trace whatever of the ancient palace; they told me that the last debris had been reduced to lime and that houses had been built over the rest. On the other hand, the trilingual inscription of the Elvend, the _Ghendj-nûméh_, is still admirably preserved, but the cold prevented me from taking a squeeze. After having visited and photographed the ruins of Dinâver, Kinghârer, Bisoutoun and several remains encountered on the route, I visited Tagh-é-Bostan, near Kirmanshahan; I took numerous photographs and squeezes of the more interesting fragments, like the pahlavi inscriptions of the smallest monument. At Zohab, I took the inscriptions of Ler-é-poul and of Hourin-cheïkh-khan, made plans of the ruins of Ler-é-poul, those of the Sassanian palace of Kasr-é-Chirîon and of Haoueh-Ruri; drew up a map on a scale of 1/250000 of the gates of the Zagros, and of the country around." ..... "Having arrived at Houleilan,..... I found the remains of a large number of towns and castles of the Sassanian epoch, besides some very ancient _tépès_. At Chirvan, near the fort of the Poncht-é-Kouh, are the ruins of a Sassanian town. I made a plan of it. Near it is a great _tell_ of unburnt brick...... In the valleys, situated near the plain, in the passes are some _tells_, and it is near one of them that I had the good fortune to find more than eight hundred objects carved in flint. Beyond these _tells_ which guard the frontier of the Semite border, the Poncht-é-Kouh does not contain a single ruin. In antiquity, as to-day, it was inhabited by nomads. On leaving the Poncht-é-Kouh, I entered the valley of the Kukha, where I encountered numerous ruins. I then advanced into Louristan, continually finding _tells_, of which the principal ones are those of Zakha and of Khorremâbâd. ..... Finally arriving at Susiana, we again found civilization, but also a country well known and that does not form a part of my mission."--_Journal Asiatique_, No. 2, 1892, pp. 189-200.

COINS OF THE SATRAPS.--1. Money had been invented and was in circulation in the Greek cities of Asia Minor almost two hundred years, when Darius I introduced the daric. The Greek coins in circulation along the coast had not penetrated far from the Mediterranean, even the new Persian coinage was used chiefly in the commerce with the Greeks on the frontier, and Page 137 for the payment of Greek mercenaries, enrolled in the armies of the Great King. The interior of the empire, during the whole period of the Achæmenidæ, continued to employ wedges of precious metals in exchange. The coinage of the Persian empire divides into four clearly defined groups, according to the direct authority of its issue. (1) The coinage of the Great King; (2) The coinage of the tributary Greek towns; (3) The coinage of the tributary dynasties; (4) The coinage occasionally struck for the satraps, chiefs of the Persian army. It is the last category that is described in the paper here summarized. The towns then, and the tributary dynasties, and, under some circumstances, the satraps enjoyed the right to coin money but only in electrum, silver and bronze; the great King reserved the exclusive right to issue coins in gold; and this principle became universally acknowledged, so that gold effectually became the unique standard of the Persian empire. The few departures from this rule are not worthy of consideration. The towns of Asia Minor paying tribute to the great King continued to issue money, just as they had during their independence, retaining their own types, and betraying in no way their subjection. The tributary kings placed under the surveillance of satraps were allowed various degrees of liberty in issuing coinage, according to their countries and to their varying relations to the persian monarch; the dynasties of Caria, of Cyprus, of Gebal and of Tyre, like the tributary cities mentioned above, continued their old coinage, while those of Sidon and of Cilicia placed upon their coins, the figure of the Achæmenidean prince.

Besides the coinage already mentioned there exists a number of coins bearing the names of satraps, and the questions are raised, under what circumstances were these issued, and with what extraordinary powers was a satrap invested, who was permitted to issue money in his own name? The theory is advanced, that the satraps of the Persian empire never held the right to coin money in their capacity as satraps. All the instances we have of satrapal coins were issued by satraps invested with the command of armies. Fr. Lenormant says: "All the pieces known, which bear the names of high functionaries of Persia, mentioned in history, particularly those of Cilicia, should be ranged in the class of military coins; that is, coins issued by generals placed at the head of armies, on a campaign, and not as satraps exercising their regular powers." The only satrapies in which money was coined, before Alexander, are the following. The sixth satrapy, which comprised Egypt and Cyrenaica. The fifth satrapy or that of Syria, comprising Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Phornicia, Palestine and the island of Cyprus. The fourth satrapy or that of Cilicia, which Page 138 acquired in the V century the states north of the Taurus. The first satrapy or that of Ionia, comprising Pamphilia, Lycia, Caria, Pisidia, Ionia and Eolis. The twelfth satrapy, known as the satrapy of Sardis, or of Lydia. The thirteenth satrapy, known also as the satrapy of Phrygia, which comprised, besides the coast of the Hellespont, all the central region of Asia Minor between the Taurus and the Black Sea. This huge province was divided in the fifth century into the satrapies of Greater Phrygia, Lesser Phrygia, and Cappadocia.

2. The coinage in circulation in Egypt, during the Achæmenidean supremacy was all of foreign origin, the staters of the Kings of Tyre and Sidon and the tetradrachmas of Athens. The commerce with Greece, and especially the incessant wars in which Greek mercenaries were largely employed, tended to make Athenian silver popular in the eastern countries. For the pay of these mercenaries, the Persians and Egyptians had recourse to silver money, and especially to those types with which the Greeks were acquainted. Thus the prevalence of Athenian coins in the Orient is accounted for by these circumstances. The generals of the Persian and Egyptian armies made use of the Athenian coins which had long been in circulation in the country. They merely imprinted upon the coin of Attic origin a counter-mark to officially authorize the circulation, and when the original Athenian coins in the country were insufficient to pay the troops, they struck off others as nearly like them as possible--these, however, are easily recognized by the defects of workmanship and altered inscriptions. One sort has in place of the Greek lettering an Aramean inscription. On a certain number of these we find the name Mazaios, the famous satrap of Cilicia, who undertook to subdue the insurgent king of Sidon.

The imitation of Athenian coins and the coins of Alexander was continued in Arabia down to the first century of our era. The Athenian coins were not the only ones copied in Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia. The coinage of the kings of Sidon were frequently imitated by the Aramean chiefs, of whom Bagoas was one. Then, too, the kings of Sidon had supreme command of the imperial fleet and had the paying of the naval army. Later, Mazaios, placed at the head of the Persian army, for a time imitated the Sidonian coins, substituting his name for that of the Sidonian dynasty. Bagoas, in turn, did likewise.

3. In Phornicia and northern Syria, which formed the greater part of the fifth satrapy, a great quantity of coins were struck off by the tributary dynasties. The kings of Tyre, Sidon, Gebal, and Aradus had their own coinage, but there seems to have been no satrapal coinage struck off in Phornicia. In Page 139 northern Syria, when Mazaios added this satrapy to his own, he levied and assembled troops from that entire region; this accounts for the numerous issues of coins in northern Syria at that time.

4. The dynasties of Cilicia coined money under the same conditions as did the cities of Phornicia, Caria and Lydia. The chief mint of Cilicia was at Tarsus, but money was also coined at Soli and at Mallus. About the end of the fifth century a coinage was issued from these mints which is ascribed to uncertain satraps. The distinguishing mark of these coins, according to Mr. Waddington, is the use of the neuter adjective in [Greek: ikon], but this theory is not conclusive. Besides these anonymous coins there were others coined in Cilicia bearing the names of satraps, who were the envoys of the great king to raise armies and equip fleets. The satrap Tiribazus employed the mints at Issus, at Soli and Mallus; the satrap Pharnabazus established his mints in various cities in Cilicia, particularly at Nagidus; Datamus also issued coinage in Cilicia. M. Six holds that Mazaios coined money, not only in Cilicia, but also in Syria and Mesopotamia, and preserved the right to a coinage under Alexander, but always in a military capacity.

5. After the conquest of Alexander, his generals issued coinage under his name in their satrapal authority. These were the coins of Alexander, bearing on one side the particular symbol of the generals who had issued them; there were the eagle of Ptolemy, the demi-lion of Lysimachus or the horned horse of Seleucus. Those of the generals who became kings, in 306, issued coins in their own name, preserving on them the personal emblems which they had employed in their satrapal authority. The generals who did not become kings never issued a coinage in their own names.

6. On the island of Cyprus are found numerous coins which present all the distinctive signs of satrapal money; they are believed to have been struck by Evagoras II, the successor of Nicocles I; but the question arises, Were these satrapal pieces of Evagoras coined on the island? It has been held that they were issued from a mint on the continent, in Caria, because the army of Evagoras was recruited in Asia Minor, and because their weights are Rhodian, but the form of the letters is Phornician, as upon all Cypriote corns; while, on the other hand, in Asia Minor the Semitic money is inscribed with Aramean characters. Moreover, all symbols and types which figure on these coins are essentially Cypriote.--E. BABELON in _Revue Numismatique_, 1892, p. 277.

SASSANIAN COINS.--The Museum of the Hermitage has just come into possession of the collection of coins of General Komarof, Page 140 once governor of Russian Turkistan. It consists of more than two thousand pieces, of which sixty are of gold. The most remarkable coins of this rich collection are: Four Sassanian pieces in gold, unpublished, (one of Hormuzd II and three of Sapor II), a dinar of Nasr I, a dinar of Kharmezi of Tamerlan, a dinar of Abdallah-ben-Khazim, and about fifty unpublished Sassanian silver coins.--_Revue Numismatique_, 1892, p. 348.

PERSEPOLIS.--CASTS OF SCULPTURES.--The English archæologist Mr. Cecil Smith has lately returned from an expedition to Persia. He had with him two Italian makers of casts, and by their means has obtained a valuable series of casts of the sculptures of Persepolis from moulds of a fibrous Spanish paper. Among the casts are those of a long frieze (perron) which decorated the stairway of the main hall or "apadâna," erected by Xerxes; it represents a procession of figures presenting to the king the reports of his governors and the offerings of his subjects. Another cast is that of the famous monolith of Cyrus.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 31. We understand that the collection of casts of the Metropolitan Museum is to receive a copy of all these casts.

SYRIA.

EDESSA.--HISTORICAL SKETCH.--M. Rubens Duval, the eminent Syriac scholar, has been publishing in the _Journal Asiatique_ a history of the city of Edessa under the title: "_Histoire religieuse et litteraire d'Edesse jusqu' à la première Croisade_", (_Jour. As._ t. 18, No. 1 to t. 19, No. 1). This monograph has been crowned by the French Academy. It includes a considerable amount of information concerning the monuments of the city, especially those belonging to the early Christian period, and some idea can be gained of them by the following abridged note. As Edessa was one of the principal cities of the Christian East, the information is of interest. Edessa was from its position a fortress of the first rank and reputed impregnable. The citadel rose on a peak on the southwest angle of the rampart. At the west end there still remain two columns with Corinthian capitals, one of which bears an inscription with the name of Queen Shalmat, daughter of Ma'nu, probably the wife of King Abgar Ukhama. Within the citadel, on the great square called Beith-Tebhara, King Abgar VII built, after the inundation of 202, a winter palace, safe from the river floods, and the nobles followed his example. In the city itself were the porticoes or forum near the river, the Antiphoros or town-hall, restored by Justinian. In 497, the governor of the city, Alexander, built a covered gallery near the Grotto Gate Page 141 and Public Baths, near the public storehouse; both the summer and winter baths were surrounded by a double colonnade. To the south, near the Great Gate, were other baths, and near them the theatre. Within the Beth Shemesh Gate was a hospital and outside it a refuge for old men. North of the city, near the wall, was the hippodrome, built by Abgarus IX on his return from Rome. The city had six gates which still exist under different names.

Edessa is one of the few cities that are known to have had a Christian church as early as the second century. This church was destroyed by the inundation of 201, was then rebuilt, being the only church in the city, suffered from the inundation of 303 and was rebuilt from its foundations in 313 by Cona, bishop of Edessa, and his successor Sa'd. It was called the Ancient Church, "the cathedral," also sometimes the Church of St. Thomas, because in 394 it received the relics of the apostle Thomas. The Frankish pilgrim woman who visited it at the close of the fourth century, or later, speaks of its size, beauty and the novelty of its arrangement. Duval believes her words to relate to Justinian's building, believing in a later date than is usually assigned to the above document. In 525 the church was overthrown by an inundation and then rebuilt by Justinian in such splendor as to be regarded as one of the wonders of the world. It was overthrown by earthquakes in 679 and 718.

The other churches were as follows:

370. The Baptistery is built. 379. Church of S. Daniel or S. Domitius, built by Bishop Vologese. 409. Church of S. Barlaha, built by Bishop Diogenes. 412. Church of S. Stephen, formerly a Jewish synagogue, built by Bishop Rabbula. 435. The New Church, called later the Church of the Holy Apostles, built by Bishop Hibhas. " Church of S. John the Baptist and S. Addasus, built by Bishop Nonnus (died 471), successor of Hibhas. " Church of S. Mar Cona. 489. Church of the Virgin Mother of God, built on the site of the School of the Persians after its destruction in 489. c.505. Martyrium of the Virgin, built by Bishop Peter early in VI century.

Outside the walls were the following churches:

Towards the N. Chapel of SS. Cosmas and Damian, built by Nonnus (middle V century).

E. Church of SS. Sergius and Simeon, which was burned in 503 by the Persian King Kawad. Page 142 W. Church of Confessors, built in 346 by Bishop Abraham, and burned by Kawad in 503. Church of the Monks, near the citadel.

The cliffs to the west had been from early times excavated for burial purposes. In the midst of the tombs rose the mausoleums of the family of the Abgars, especially that of Abshelama, son of Abgarus. They were also honeycombed with anchorites' cells. This mountain received the name of the Holy Mountain and was covered with monasteries, among which were the following: Eastern Monks; S. Thomas; S. David; S. John; S. Barbara; S. Cyriacus; Phesilta; Mary _Deipara_; of the Towers; of Severus; of Sanin; of Kuba; of S. James. Arab writers mention over 300 monasteries around Edessa. Two aqueducts, starting from the villages of Tell-Zema and Maudad to the north, brought spring-water to the city; they were restored in 505 by Governor Eulogius.

Bishop Rabbulas (412-435) built a hospital for women from the stones of four pagan temples which were destroyed. He destroyed the church of the sect of Bardesanes and the church of the Arians, erecting other structures with their materials. After the Persian wars (505) Eulogius, governor of Edessa, rebuilt many of the damaged public monuments. He repaired the outer ramparts and the two aqueducts; rebuilt the public baths, the prætorium, and other structures. The bishop, Peter, restored the cathedral and built the Martyrium of the Virgin, and also covered with bronze one of the cathedral doors. Justinian restored and rebuilt many buildings after the inundation of 524-25. Even under the early period of Muhammadan rule the Christian structures were cared for. Under the Khalif Abd-el-Malik (685-705) the Edessene Christian Athanasius, who enjoyed great political influence, rebuilt the Church of the Virgin, which was on the site of the School of the Persians; rebuilt also the Baptistery in which he placed the portrait of Christ sent to Abgarus and placed in it fountains like those of the Ancient Church, decorating it also with gold, silver and bronze revetments. He also built two large basilicas at Fostat in Egypt. There is an interesting account of an artistic treasure of great value discovered in a house belonging to a noble family of the Goumêaus in 797 and belonging to the Roman and Byzantine period; it is supposed to have been hidden in 609. The churches were often destroyed and rebuilt according to the tolerance or intolerance of the Muhammadan governors. At one period of persecution, c. 825, a mosque was built in the _tetrapylum_ in front of the Ancient Church. It is not important to trace the vicissitudes of the building of Edessa any further. Page 143

COINS OF THE KINGS OF EDESSA.--Marquis de Vogué sends to M.E. Babelon a description of a bronze coin brought from Syria, found either in the province of Alep or of Damas. It bears the name of Abgarus, the name of several of the kings of Edessa. The type is that of the small bronze pieces attributed to Mannou VIII; the character and inscriptions are the same. It must then be attributed to a king Abgarus whose reign approaches as nearly as possible that of Mannou VIII. Mr. Rubens Duval, in his history of Edessa, mentions two kings of this name, Abgarus VIII, whose reign cut into that of Mannou VIII, and Abgarus IX, who succeeded him. It is to one of these two princes that this coin must be assigned. It is possible that this monument may shed some light upon a portion of Oriental chronology, hitherto very dark. Two other coins are described from M. Vogué's collection, one of which, it seems, should be attributed to the same king Abgarus as the preceding; the other bears a name which M. Duval assigns to Abgarus XI, who reigned for two years during a short restoration of the government of Edessa.--_Revue Numismatique_, 1892, p. 209.

SINJIRLI.--SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS.--The German Oriental Committee discovered, as is well known, an ancient city buried under a number of mounds at a place called Sinjirli in the Amanus Mountains. Here were found a number of statues bearing cuniform inscriptions, Hittite inscriptions and two long Aramean inscriptions of the VIII or IX century B.C.

M. Helévy, the well-known French Orientalist, was sent by the Paris Institute to the Museum of Berlin, where these statues are placed, to report upon the inscriptions. M. Helévy finds that the two kings were rulers of Yadi and that their reigns were a century apart. The first statue is that of Panémon, founder of his dynasty--a 40 line inscription relates the events of his reign, the protection of the Jews, _etc._ The second is a king who was a vassal of Tiglath-Pilezer, king of Assyria. The inscription describes wars of his father, his own relations with Assyria, his defeats and victories. It gives an account of his own reign and terminates by invoking the protection of the gods.

M. Helévy says that these inscriptions are not in the Aramean language, as was first supposed, but a Phornician dialect very analogous to Hebrew, which was spoken by the people whom the Assyrians named Hatte, that is to say, Hittites or Hetheim. He adds that the current opinion as to their not being of Semitic race is quite erroneous and that the hieroglyphics discovered in various parts of Asia Minor are of Anatolian and not of Assyrian origin, the few texts of this kind found at Hamath and Page 144 Aleppo being due to Anatolian conquerors, whose domination, however, was very temporary in character.--_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1892, Oct., p. 887.

NAMES OF CITIES AT MEDINET HABU.--Prof. Sayce writes: The list of places conquered by Rameses III in Palestine and Syria, which I copied on the pylon of Medinet Habu, turns out to be even more interesting than I had supposed, as a whole row of them belongs to the territory of Judah. Thus we have the "land of Salem," which, like the Salam of Rameses II, is shown by the Tell-el-Amarna tablets to be Jerusalem, _arez hadast_, or "New Lands," the Hadashah of Joshua (XV. 37), Shimshana or Samson, "the city of the Sun" (Josh. XV. 10), Carmel of Judah, Migdol (Josh. XV. 37), Apaka or Aphekah (Josh. XV. 53), "the Springs of Khibur" or Hebron, Shabuduna, located near Gath, by Thothmes III, and Beth-Anath, the Beth-Anoth of Joshua (XV. 59). The discovery of these names in the records of an Egyptian king, who reigned about 1200 B.C., raises a question of some interest for students of the Old Testament.--_Academy_, April 2.

JAFFA.--The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund have received through Mr. Bliss a squeeze of a long inscription stated to have been recently discovered at a place not far from Jaffa, which appears to contain about 250 letters in the Phornician character.--_Academy_, March 5.

JERUSALEM.--A BYZANTINE BRACELET.--Mr. Maxwell Somerville of Philadelphia has added to his collection a large bronze bracelet found near Jerusalem and bearing a Greek inscription. It was communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ by M. le Blant. At one end of the inscription is a lion _courant_, at the other a serpent _rampant_. On the left end is soldered a small round plaque on which is engraved a subject identical with that found on some of the amulets published by M. Schlumberger in the _Rev. des Études Grecques_ (see under _Byzantine Amulets_ in Greek news of this number). A mounted warrior--whom Mr. Schlumberger identifies as Solomon--pierces with his lance a prostrate female figure who apparently represents the devil, a "Fra Diavalo."--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 23.

RETHPANA-DEAD SEA.--Prof. Sayce has discovered at Medinet Habû the Egyptian name of the Dead Sea. Between the names of Salem and Yerdano and the Jordan comes "the lake of Rethpana." As the Dead Sea is the only "lake" in that part of the world, the identification of the name is certain. Rethpana could correspond with a Canaanite Reshpôn, a derivative from Reshpu, the sun-god, who revealed himself in flames of fire.--_Academy_, May 14. Page 145

TEL-EL-HESY--LACHISH.--CUNEIFORM TABLET.--We quote from a letter written to the Times by Mr. James Glaisher, chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund:--

The excavations commenced two years ago by Dr. Flinders Petrie at a mound in Palestine named Tell-el-Hesy have been continued during the last six months by Mr. F.J. Bliss, of Beirût. The Tell has been identified by Major Conder and Dr. Flinders Petrie with the ancient city of Lachish, an identification which is now amply confirmed.

Mr. Bliss has found among the _débris_ a cuneiform tablet, together with certain Babylonian cylinders and imitations or forgeries of those manufactured in Egypt. A translation of the tablet has been made by Prof. Sayce; it is as follows:--

'To the Governor. [I] O, my father, prostrate myself at thy feet. Verily thou knowest that Baya (?) and Zimrida have received thy orders (?) and Dan-Hadad says to Zimrida, "O, my father, the city of Yarami sends to me, it has given me 3 _masar_ and 3 ... and 3 falchions." Let the country of the King know that I stay, and it has acted against me, but till my death I remain. As for thy commands (?) which I have received, I cease hostilities, and have despatched Bel(?)-banilu, and Rabi-ilu-yi has sent his brother to this country to [strengthen me (?)].'

The letter was written about the year 1400 B.C. It is in the same handwriting as those in the Tell-el-Amarna collection, which were sent to Egypt from the south of Palestine about the same time.

Now, here is a very remarkable coincidence. In the Tell-el-Amarna collection we learn that one Zimrida was governor of Lachish, where he was murdered by some of his own people, and the very first cuneiform tablet discovered at Tell-el-Hesy is a letter written to this Zimrida.

The city Yarami may be the Jarmuth of the Old Testament.

'Even more interesting,' writes Prof. Sayce, 'are the Babylonian cylinders and their imitations. They testify to the long and deep influence and authority of Babylon in Western Asia, and throw light on the prehistoric art of Phornicia and Cyprus. The cylinders of native Babylonian manufacture belong to the period B.C. 2000-1500; the rest are copies made in the West. One of these is of Egyptian porcelain, and must have been manufactured in Egypt, in spite of its close imitation of a Babylonian original. Others are identical with the cylinders found in the prehistoric tombs of Cyprus and Syria, and so fix the date of the latter. On one of them are two centaurs arranged heraldically, the human faces being shaped like those Page 146 of birds. European archæologists will be interested in learning that among the minor objects are two amber beads.--_Academy_, July 9.

The _Quarterly Statement_ of the Palestine Exploration Fund for April contains a detailed report of Mr. F.J. Bliss's excavations at Tell-el-Hesy, the site of Lachish, during last winter, illustrated with several plans and woodcuts. The most interesting objects found were a number of bronze weapons, and fragments of pottery with markings, both from the lowest or Amorite town. Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie adds a note on the weights discovered, almost all of which belong to the Phornician and Aeginetan systems.

ARMENIA.

SEALS OF KING LEO II AND LEO V.--At a meeting of the _Acad. des Inscr._ M. Schlumberger communicated three magnificent bulls or gold seals of Leo II, king of Lesser Armenia. These gold bulls, appended to letters from this king to Pope Innocent III, written early in the XIII century, are preserved in the Vatican archives, and are probably the only examples of the king in existence. Leo II, in royal costume, is on one side; the lion of Armenia on the other. Another royal Armenian seal is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It is that of Leo V, the last king of the dynasty, who died, an exile, in Paris.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No, 6.

CAUCASUS.

THE IRON AGE.--M. Ernest Ghautre has given a statement of his ideas on the iron age in the Caucasus and elsewhere in a pamphlet entitled, _Origine et Ancienneté du premier age du fer au Caucase_, Lyon, 1892. He says: "Necropoli of unequalled richness have been discovered in the Great Caucasus and on several points of Transcaucasia. These necropoli, in which inhumation appears to have been almost exclusively used, should be divided into two large groups. The most ancient corresponds to the Hallstatt period; the later to the Scythian period in the East and the Gallic period in the West. The Hallstatt type or that of the first iron age is met with especially in the most ancient tombs of the necropolis of Kobau, in Ossethia; those of the second iron age are to be found essentially in the necropolis of Kambylte in Digouria and certain localities of Armenia. The first iron age was introduced into the region of the Caucasus between the XX and XV century B.C. by a dolichocephalic population of Mongolo-Semitic or Semito-Kushite and not of Iranian origin. It was transformed toward the VII century by the invasion of a brachycephalic Scythian people of Ural-Altaic origin." Page 147

ANI.--The Russians are excavating at Ani, in Turkish Armenia, the ancient capital. They have found some ecclesiastical and other antiquities.--_Athenæum_, Sept. 3.

ASIA MINOR.

PRIVATE GREEK COINAGE BY REFUGEES.--The Persian kings accorded to certain illustrious Greeks who had sought refuge in Asia Minor on Persian territory the right to coin money. To this they joined the privileges inherent in the title of hereditary despot which was granted to them. The principal coinages are those of Themistokles at Magnesia, of Georgion at Gambrium, and of Euripthenes at Pergamon. M. Babelon read a memoir on the subject before the _Soc. des Antiquaires_, giving genealogical details regarding those families of exiles.--_Chron. des Arts_, 1892, No. 16.

COMPARISON OF HITTITE AND MYCENÆAN SCULPTURES.--M. Heuzey has read before the _Acad. des Inscr._ (Oct. 14) a comparative study on an engraved gold ring found at Mycenæ and a relief in the Louvre which belongs to the series of Hittite reliefs and was found at Kharpout, in the Upper Euphrates region on the frontier of Armenia and Cappadocia. The relief is surmounted by two lines of ideographic inscription. The subject on both is a stag-hunt; the stag is hunted in a chariot, as was always done before the horse was used for riding, that is before the VIII century B.C. The relief is a rustic variant of the Assyrian style; certain details prove it to belong to the IX century. The stag is of the variety called _hamour_ by the Arabs, characterized by horns palm-shaped at their extremities. On the ring the attitudes are far more lively and bold, but the identity of the subject is none the less striking.--_Revue Critique_, 1892, No. 43.

HITTITE INSCRIPTION.--M. Menant has communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ (Aug. 7, 1891,) a new Hittite inscription, noted during the preceding summer, in the pass of Bulgar-Maden, in Asia Minor. It is in perfect preservation and of unusual length, and is therefore of great value for the study of the Hittite language. M. Menant sees at the beginning the genealogy and titles of a prince, some other of whose inscriptions have already been found; then an invocation to the patron divinities of his kingdom; then the main body of the inscription, which will doubtless be the most difficult to decipher; and at the close a re-enumeration of the divinities already invoked.--_Revue Critique_, 1891, No. 35-6.

THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS.--Prof. Sayce writes: "I have, I believe, at last succeeded in breaking Page 148 through the blank wall of the Hittite decipherment. Twelve years ago, with the help of the bilingual text of Tarkondêmos, I advanced a little way, but want of material prevented me from going further. At length, however, the want has been supplied, and new materials have come to hand, chiefly through the discoveries of Messrs. Ramsay, Hogarth, and Headlam in Asia Minor. The conclusions to be derived from the latter are stated in an article of mine which has just been published in the last number of the _Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philogie et à l'Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes_. Since that article was written, I have once more gone through the Hittite texts in the light of our newly-acquired facts, and have, I believe, succeeded in making out the larger part of them."

As in the languages of Van, of Mitanni, and of Arzana, the Hittite noun possessed a nominative in _-s_, an accusative in _-n_, and an oblique case which terminated in a vowel, while the adjective followed the substantive, the same suffixes being attached to it as to the substantive with which it agreed. The character which I first conjectured to have the value of _se_, and afterwards of _me_, really has the value of _ne_.

The inscriptions of Hamath, like the first and third inscriptions of Jerablûs, are records of buildings, the second inscription of Jerablûs is little more than a list of royal or rather high-priestly titles, in which the king "of Eri and Khata" is called "the beloved of the god (Sutekh), the mighty, who is under the protection of the god Sarus, the regent of the earth, and the divine Nine; to whom the god (Sutekh) has given the people of Hittites... the powerful (prince), the prophet of the Nine great gods, beloved of the Nine and of ..., son of the god. The first inscription of Jerablûs states that "the high priest and his god have erected "images" to Sarus- * -erwes and his son. Who the latter were is not mentioned, nor is the name of the son given. Those who have read what I have written formerly on the Hittite inscriptions will notice that I was wrong in supposing that Sarus- * -erwes and his father were the father and grandfather of the Carchemish king to whom the monument belongs.-_Academy_, May 21, 1892.

One of the most curious facts that result from my decipherment of the texts--supposing it to be correct--is the close similarity that exists between the titles assumed by the Hittite princes and those of the Egyptian Pharaohs of the XVIII and XIX dynasties. The fact has an important bearing on which the monuments of Hamath and Carchemish must be assigned. The similarity extends beyond the titles, the Hittite system of writing presenting in many respects a startling parallelism to that of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Thus, "word" or "order" is Page 149 denoted by a head, a phonetic character, and the ideograph of "speaking," the whole being a fairly exact counterpart of the Egyptian _tep-ro_, an "oral communication." It would seem as if the inventer of the Hittite hieroglyphs had seen those of Egypt, just as Doalu, the inventor of the Sei syllabary, is known to have seen European writing. This likeness between the graphic systems of the Hittites and Egyptians has been a surprise to me, since I had hitherto believed that, as the Hittite hieroglyphs are so purely native in origin, the graphic system to which they belong must also be purely native.--_Academy_, May 21.

ARAMEAN COINS OF CAPPADOCIA.--M. Six, enumerating all the coins bearing the names of Datames, mentions only those of the ordinary type of Sinope, with a Greek inscription. M. Babelon finds coins of Datames in Cilicia as well, and reads this name in the Aramean inscriptions which M. Six interprets _Tarcamos_. The name of Datames is historic, but the reading of M. Six has not come down to us. The coins in question bear a striking likeness to those of Pharnabazus, their types being identical. We know that Datames succeeded Pharnabazus in the command of the Persian armies, their coins then must have been struck under the same circumstances and in the same mints, that is, in the ports of Cilicia where preparations were made for the expedition against Egypt. Later, Datames was charged with subduing the rebellious Sinope, here we have an explanation of the coins of Sinopean type bearing the name of Datames. Why may not this man be the same whom Diodorus designates satrap of Cappadocia?

2. There are two similar drachmas, one in possession of the Cabinet des Medailles, the other in the Waddington collection; they are Cappadocian coins of the type of Sinope, like those of Datames. The Aramean inscription on the back of these coins has been given a variety of interpretations which appear to be equally possible. M. Babelon, after careful study, fixes upon _Abrocomou_, the only reading in which we can recognize an historic personage. Abrocomas was one of the principal lieutenants of Artaxerxes II and was a colleague of Pharnabazus in the Egyptian campaign. If we accept this reading of the drachma's inscription we must infer that Abrocomas became satrap of Cappadocia, he was in all probability successor to Datames, his coins plainly of later date; their weight and their style show that they belong to the older coinage of Sinope and they are no less certainly anterior to those of Arianthes, which they somewhat resemble.

3. Arianthes must have been the immediate successor of Abrocomas, the identity of style, of types and of material in these coins point to this conclusion. M. Six places two governors of Cappadocia between Datames and Arianthes, whose Page 150 names he finds on certain coins. M. Babelon shows that the drachma which bears one of these names, is a manifest imitation of the drachmas of Datames; he also points out that the inscription itself is plainly an alteration of the Aramean name of Datames. The other name he proves to be a deformation of _Abrocomas_ and states his belief that neither of these supposed governors of Cappadocia ever existed and cites other instances of the imitation of coins and the alteration of inscriptions.--_Revue Numismatique_, III S. tom. 10. II trim., 1892, p. 168.

HITTITE LETTER OF DUSRATTA.--Among the 300 letters from Tell-el-Amarna is one written to Amenophis III by Dusratta, king of Mitani, the region immediately east of the Euphrates. The letter which was written on both sides of a clay tablet in cuneiform characters begins with an introduction of seven lines in Assyrian, but the remaining 605 lines are in the native language of Dusratta.

The content refers to an embassy sent from Egypt to ask for the hand of his daughter and to recognition of his conquests in Phornicia. The most important parts are those relating to his religion and to the affairs of state. We find that the religion of the Hittites, Armenians and Akkadians was probably the same as well as their language, which was more nearly akin to pure Turkish than to any other branch of Mongol speech. Dusratta was a Minyan and his power seems to have been the chief in Armenia at this time.

From the letter we find that Dusratta was to receive a large portion of Phoenicia and Northern Syria, which he was to rule as a tributary of Amenophis III.

The latter part of the letter refers to the marriage of Yadukhepa, daughter of Dusratta, to the heir of Egypt, with assurances of increased renewal of friendship between the kingdoms.

The letter is especially important because we may obtain from it, in connection with the letter of Laskondam, also written in Hittite, many of the forms of the Hittite language, its grammar and vocabulary of 400 words.

By these it is shown to be clearly a Mongol language, closely related with the Akkadian, though somewhat later.--_Biblia_, Sept., 1892.

ANGORA.--At a meeting of the _Acad. des Inscr_. M.J. Menant exhibited the rubbing of a Hittite bas-relief found at Angora, which is now at Constantinople. It shows two personages, with an inscription in Hittite characters by the side of each. One of them is the god Sandu, to whom a king (with a name not yet deciphered) is making an offering. Page 151

APAMIA.--CHRISTIAN CHURCH.--Mr. G. Weber has published a study of the early Christian church of Apameia (_Une église antique à Dinair_) which he considers to be the earliest of which any remains exist in Asia; he regards it as having been built under Constantine,--_Revue Arch._, 1892, 1, p. 131.

KARIA.--TEMPLE NEAR STRATONIKEIA--A large temple of Hecate was found last year in Caria, near the ancient Stratonikeia (Eski Hissar). Hamdi Bey, the director of the museum at Constantinople, has been carrying on excavations. He has secured about 160 ft. of the sculptured frieze complete, and has repaired the road to the coast ready for its shipment. A member of the _École Française_ has been invited by him to assist him, and the results will be published by the School.--_Athenæum_, Oct. 1.

SEBASTOPOLIS.--M. Leon, the French vice-consul at Siwas, has communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ the discovery of a series of Greek inscriptions copied by him, which have enabled him to fix with certainty the site of the ancient city of Sebastopolis. They also furnish important information regarding its constitution.--_Athenæum_, Feb. 27.

A.L. FROTHINGHAM, Jr.