VECENT RESEARCH
IN BIBLE LANDS

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Edited by

Herman V.Hi lprecht

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RECENT RESEARCH IN BIBLE LANDS.

~

RECENT
RESEARCH IN BIBLE LANDS
ITS PROGRESS AND RESULTS

BY
Professor J. F. McCurdy, Ph.D., LL.D.
Frederick Jones Bliss, Ph.D.
Professor Herman V. Hilprecht, Ph.D., D.D.
Professor A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L.
Professor Fritz Hommel, Ph.D.
William Hayes Ward, D.D., LL.D.
Professor J. P. Mahaffy, D.D., D.C.L.
Professor W. M. Ramsay, LL.D., D.C.L

EDITED BY
HERMAN V. HILPRECHT

PHILADELPHIA
JOHN D. WATTLES & CO.
1896

Copyright, 1696,
BY
JOHN D. WATTLES & CO.

r\G

INTRODUCTION.

The present century has witnessed the deciphering of
the hieroglyphics by Champollion and of the cuneiform
script by Grotefend, two of the most remarkable achieve
ments of human ingenuity. A radical change of our
whole conception of the political and social conditions
in the ancient world was the natural result of these
memorable events. In fact, the rich history of the two
most influential centers of ancient civilization, Egypt and
Babylonia, of which the latter had been forgotten almost
completely, was thereby restored to our wondering and
working age. And now, when the nineteenth century
draws slowly to its close, the stupendous assiduity and
great mental gifts of Jensen of Marburg have forced
the Hittite sphinx to surrender her long-guarded secret.
Asia Minor, the most unexplored and unknown part of
the pre-Christian world, begins to tell us from its own
inscriptions and tombs about the different peoples which
took a leading part in the great movements of the
ancient East.
The Bible student has watched the results of these
researches in Egypt and Babylonia, Palestine and

vi Introduction.
Arabia, Assyria and Asia Minor, with the deepest possi
ble interest. For these very lands, with their numerous
cities and temples, from whose ruins the spade of the
explorer obtained his revolutionizing results during the
last decenniums, were closely connected with the history
of Israel, and were more or less the scene upon which
God in his own providence, and by his own peculiar
means, established a lasting kingdom, not built of stone
and perishable material, but of the living word. Yet, so
far, it has been practically impossible for every earnest
Bible student who did not happen to work, at the same
time, in the very limited circle of the specialists, to
gain a harmonious picture and to acquire a trustworthy
knowledge of what is done year after year by the ex
plorer, decipherer, philologian, and historian, of the
East. The present work, which has grown out of a
series of articles especially prepared by leading special
ists of Europe and America for The Sunday School
Times, is intended to fill this serious gap in our litera
ture. No pains has been spared by the Editor and Pub
lisher of The Sunday School Times to lay the results as
completely and as richly illustrated as possible before
the public. The illustrations are, for the greater part,
unpublished material, which the present editor, through
his close connection with the Babylonian Expedition of
the University of Pennsylvania, through his personal
relation to the Imperial Ottoman Museum in Constan-

Introduction. vii
tinople, and through his own repeated travels and
researches in the East, was enabled to incorporate in
this review of the most important results of recent
research in Bible lands. Everything that in the mass
of acquired results seemed of less importance, or not
well enough established by the investigations of the
specialists, has been excluded from these pages.
Representative scholars of both continents have writ
ten the single chapters of this book with the knowledge
of the specialist, but in such a manner as will make it a
valuable source of information to every educated layman
and Bible student, for whose enlightenment it has, first
of all, been written.
Mr. Henry G. Talmadge and Mr. Montague Cockle,
who have devoted much time to the preparation of the
Indexes, deserve warm thanks for the careful manner in
which they have done their work, and thereby increased
the usefulness of this volume.
H. V. Hilprecht.

On board the steamship " Havel"
New York, March 24, i8g6.

CONTENTS.

Page
Oriental Research and the Bible .... i
Professor J. F. McCurdy, Ph.D., LL.D.

The Mounds of Palestine . ... 29
Frederick Jones Bliss, Ph.D.
Explorations in Babylonia . . ... 43
Professor Herman V. Hilprecht, Ph.D., D.D.
Research in Egypt . . ... 95
Professor A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L.
Discoveries and Researches in Arabia . . .129
Professor Fritz Hommel, Ph.D.
The Hittites  159
William Hayes Ward, D.D., LL.D.
Early Greek Manuscripts from Egypt . . .191
Professor J. P. Mahaffy, D.D., D.C.L.
New Light on the Book of Acts  227
Professor W. M. Ramsay, LL.D., D.C.L.

Contents.

INDEXES.

Topical Index
Scriptural Index
Chronological Index

Page 245
266
267

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The American Expedition at Work in Nuffar . Frontispiece
(The mound in the background is about seventy-five feet high, and was
raised by the expedition from the rubbish carried from the ruins.)
From a photograph taken on the spot by the Babylonian
Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. Page
First Store-Chamber Unearthed in Pithom . . 2
From Xaville, The Store-City of Pithom.
Ur of the Chaldees ... 26
From Loftus, Travets and Researches in Chaldcsa and Susiana.
Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) . . -3°
From a photograph taken by the Palestine Exploration Fund, England.
Tell Beisan (Bethshean) : A Jordan Valley Mound 32
From a photograph taken by the Palestine Exploration Fund, England.
Robinson's Arch  -34
From a photograph taken by the Ordnance Survey of Palestine.
Levels of City Bases at Tell el-Hesy  37
From Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities.
Cuneiform Tablet from Tell el-Hesy (front and back) . . 39
From a cast in the possession of the Editor.

xii List of Illustrations. Page
Northwestern Facade of the First Stage of the Temple in
Nippur ......... 44
From a photograph taken in Nuffar by the Babylonian Expedition
of the University of Pennsylvania.
Marble Vase from Nippur ... 46
From the original in the Archaeological Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania.
Clay Image of Bel .... 50
From the original in the Archaeological Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania.
Clay Image of Bel's Consort, Beltis . ... 50
From the original in the Archaeological Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania.
A Gang of Native Workmen ... . . 51
From a photograph taken in Nuffar by the Babylonian Expedition
of the University of Pennsylvania.
Babylonian Arch of Brick (about 4000 B. C.) ... 58
From a photograph taken in Nuffar by the Babylonian Expedition
of the University of Pennsylvania.
Clay Sarcophagus from Nippur . . 62
From the original in the Imperial Ottoman Museum in Constantinople.
King Ur-Nina of Lagash, Surrounded by his Sons and Pages, 64
From de Sarzec, Decouvcrtes en Chaldee.
Statue of Gudea in Diorite, 1.58 meter high (about 2900 B.C.), 66
From de Sarzec, Decouvcrtes en Chaldee.
Head of a Statue in Diorite (about 3000 B. C.) . 67
From de Sarzec, Decouvcrtes en Chaldee.
Fragment of the Stele of Vultures (about 4000 B. C.) . . 76
From de Sarzec, Deconvertcs en Chaldee.

List of Illustrations. xiii
Page
Round Clay Tablet containing Plan of an Estate ... 83
From Maspero, Recueil de Travaux relatifs a la Philologie et
a I' Archeologie egyptieunes et assyriennes, Vol. XVII.
Bas-Relief of the Time of King Naram-Sin (3750 B.C.) . 87
From a cast in the possession of the Editor.
Door-Socket of Sargon I (from Nippur) . . '93
From the original in the Archaeological Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania.
Great Pyramid of Gizeh and the Sphinx ... 96
From a photograph by J. M. Jordan.
Cartouche of Menes ...... 99
From the table of the kings in the temple of Sety I at Abydos.
Statue of Khephren, in Diorite . . 101
From Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization.
Ruins of Northern Pyramid of Dahshur, built of bricks . 106
From de Morgan, Les Fouilles de Dahchour in Le Monde
Moderne, January, 1895.
Pectoral of King Usertesen II ... . 108
From Maspero, The Dawn of Civilization.
Gumdan Castle, San'a .... . . 130
From Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Part IV.
South Arabian Inscription from San'a . . . 133
From Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Part IV.
Dr. Edward Glaser, accompanied by the Arab Shaykh Naji ibn
Muksin, of the tribe Al Tu'aiman, and his Nephew . 145
From a photograph in the possession of the Editor.

xiv List of Illustrations.

Page

Hittite Relief, with Inscription, from a Mound near Malatia,
found May 23, 1894, and now in the Imperial Ottoman
Museum at Constantinople . . 160
From a photograph in the possession of the Editor.
Ground-Plot and Perspective View of the Gate of the Castle
Excavated at Senjirli . . . 174
From Mittheilungen aus den Orientalischen Sammlungen der
Koniglichen Museum zu Berlin, Vol. XI, Part I.
So-called Hittite Seal . 177
From the original in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Captive Hittite Prince . .179
From W. Max Miiller, Asien mid Europa.
Map of the Hittite Region . 182
After Wright, Empire of the Hittites.
Fragment of the Phaedo of Plato ,92
From Mahaffy, The Flinders Petrie Papyri.
Map of the Fayyum . 197
From Mahaffy, The Flinders Petrie Papyri.
Commercial Document, 257 B.C.; on Papyrus . 200
From Mahaffy, The Flinders Petrie Papyri.
Homer's Iliad, Book XXIII, Lines 441-461 ; on Papyrus 210
From Kenyon, Classical Texts from Papyri in the British Museum.
Herondas, Poem IV, Lines 53-89 ; on Papyrus 217
From Kenyon, Classical Texts from Papyri in the British Museum.
Inscription on the Stone of Cana 239
From a facsimile by M. Cli Diehl, in the Bulletin de Corrcs-
pondaucc helleniquc.
The Stone of Cana, showing the position ofthe Inscription 240
From 3 facsimile by M. Ch. Diehl, in the Bulletin de Corres-
pondance hcllcnique.

ORIENTAL RESEARCH AND THE BIBLE.

ORIENTAL RESEARCH AND THE BIBLE.
BY PROFESSOR J. F. McCURDY, PH.D., LL.D.
Oriental research has affected our knowledge of the
two great divisions of the Bible in very different ways
and degrees. The two covenants belong to widely dis
similar stages in the history of the world, in its political,
moral, and spiritual development. We may mark one
aspect of this difference by saying that the Old Testa
ment is ancient in a sense in which the word cannot be
applied to the New. Accordingly, while archeological
inquiry has not been without value for New Testament
study, it has produced no results in the way of supple
menting, corroborating, and elucidating the sacred record
that are comparable in importance to those which have
been achieved in behalf of the Old. It will accordingly
be proper to confine ourselves, in the present brief sur
vey, to the broad region of investigation from which
light has been shed upon the ancient Scriptures.
How is it that archeological science is brought into
such close relations with the Bible ? A glance at the
contents of the Old Testament answers the question.
3

4 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
The unforced association rests upon the twofold fact
that the ancient revelation is a literature distinctly
Oriental in form and aspect, and remote from our
modern and Western types and ideals, and is at the same
time ever fresh and living, and fraught with the truth
that is regenerating our race. It is a literature human
and universal, for it contains history, biography, legisla
tion, ethical teaching, and a manifold national and reli
gious poetry. Moreover, it has to do with tribes and
peoples that have played a great part in the world's his
tory. Above all, it is concerned with that people to
whom this living truth was revealed, and who typically
illustrated its working in their own lives and fates.
Now these tribes and nations lived their lives and
played their parts in a definite, restricted portion of the
Orient. There are the " Bible lands," the arena upon
which the God of history, of providence, and of redemp
tion, specially displayed his power and grace. The great
primary revelation of his dealings with men is embodied
in the Hebrew literature. These Bible lands have
yielded to us a secondary revelation. It is subordinate,
indeed, to the first, but it is richly supplementary and
illustrative. It is the province of Oriental archeology
to deal with the peoples and countries and languages of
the Bible so as to bring out their true relations to Bible
teaching. They were formerly regarded as the mere
framework of the picture. Now we are learning that

Oriental Research and the Bible. 5
they make up its groundwork, its coloring, and its per
spective. They embrace, in a word, what is material in
the revelation, apart from what is spiritual and ideal.
And these elements, the outward and the inward, are to
us inseparable, as they were in their evolution mutually
involved and interwoven.
It will thus be seen that Oriental studies have to do
with the Old Testament in its two great functions or
aspects of literature and history. As illustrating the Old
Testament literature, or its words and thoughts, arche
ology is concerned with the peoples of the Bible lands,
their local habitations, their languages, their manners and
customs, their political constitution, their mental and
moral characteristics. As auxiliary to Old Testament
history, it considers the same things genetically, in their
bearing upon the preparation of Israel for the place
assigned to it in the order of Providence. But it is more
particularly concerned with the events of Israel's career,
the occasions of these events, their associations with
related phenomena in the kindred communities, and the
forward and upward movement which was the resultant
of all these forces co-operating under a divine impulse
and control.
I may add a word of practical suggestion as to the
scope and methods of archeological inquiry. It is not
merely exploration, — the hunting after manuscripts and
inscriptions as the primary, and works of art and archi-

6 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
tecture as the secondary, material of research. It is the
glory of modern scholarship that it makes all the his
torical sciences subserve the study of men and of human
relations. Any light is welcome from any source that
can make clearer the conditions of life and progress
among the people of the Bible, that can explain any of
its obscure allusions, fill up a gap in its narratives, or
even illustrate its phraseology. To test and amplify the
work of excavation, it is wont to invoke the results of
literary criticism, as well as of comparative sociology
and politics. Its range is limited only by the scope and
the interests of the Bible itself.
Bible lands, in the Old Testament sense, are approxi
mately defined by the two great regions that formed the
seats of the earliest civilizations. Comparatively little is
said of countries east of the Tigris, still less of any locali
ties west of the Nile. Palestine, the permanent home of
the Hebrews, was not their original dwelling-place. Its
soil does not contain the only, or indeed the principal,
outward witnesses to their history or literature. For
these we have to look also to Egypt, Babylonia, and
Assyria. The reasons therefor will at once suggest
themselves. These nations, with their cosmopolitan
culture, political predominance, and literary activity,
furnish many monumental reminiscences of that country
which was of so great strategic and commercial impor
tance to the rival empires on the west and on the east.

Oriental Research and the Bible. J
Israel was also more or less closely connected politically
with one or another of these nationalities from the begin
ning of its eventful history to the close of the exile.
Intermediate localities have, however, furnished useful
items here or there. Arabia is a great storehouse of
illustrations of the manners and customs, the social and
religious usages, of the ancient peoples of Palestine and
Syria. It has also preserved monumental evidence of no
mean value as to certain important epochs and events.
To the biblical archeologist Egypt affords a field for
study that is both wide and fascinating. Its contiguity
to Palestine, its tenacious interest in the whole of the
Syrian coast-land, its social and commercial relations
with the Hebrews and their nearest kindred, give an
antecedent presumption that the peoples of Canaan
would not be unnoticed in its monumental remains.
Moreover, through the unequaled facilities for explora
tion in Egypt, an enormous mass of recovered docu
ments and works of art have brought to our view its long
interrupted and varied civilization. And yet it must be
admitted that comparatively few results of first-class
importance for biblical science have so far been achieved
by Egyptology. Its value for Bible study is indeed
great, but it is rather indirect than direct. It is a train
ing-school, rather than a seminary, of biblical arche
ology. Its discoveries and assured results are interesting
and educative in the highest degree, but they have not

8 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
as yet satisfied the more sanguine expectations of earnest
readers of the Bible. One may perhaps venture to say
that such must continue to be the general character of
the quest. It is apparently impossible that Egypt can
ever be of primary importance in the department of
biblical study. In the first place, the historical records
of the country, while for long periods sufficiently copious,
are very defective in precision and accuracy. Again,
we meet the outstanding fact that Egypt had nothing
more than external .associations with Palestine and its
peoples. Its occasional occupations of territory were
merely of a military character ; and, in spite of its free
dom of communication, it was never at home in Asia,
outside of its natural pendant, the peninsula of Sinai.
Even the residence of the Hebrews in Egypt was not
likely to leave a deep mark upon the national life or his
tory of its people. They lived normally as an isolated
community of shepherds, like many another tribe that
had crossed the isthmus from the desert. Of the two
exceptional episodes, the administration of Joseph and
the exodus, the former may well have been obliterated
from the public records, and the latter never have been
recorded at all. After the exodus we do not hear of
Egyptian interference in Palestine till the raid of Shishak,
about 920 B. C, and thereafter again not for three cen
turies, till the brief domination of Pharaoh Necho. Dur
ing the period of the Hebrew monarch}- it was known

Oriental Research and the Bible. g
as an asylum for Palestinian outlaws and rebels, and as
an intriguer with Israel and the neighboring states
against Assyria or Babylonia. Finally, the Egyptians
had nothing in common with the Hebrews or their kin
dred in speech, in religious or literary traditions, or
in habits of thought, and consequently little is to be
expected from them in the way of illustration of the
Hebrew language and literature.
What, then, are our principal gains from Egyptologi
cal research ? In the foremost rank we have the splen
did vindication of the accuracy of the writer of the
account of Israel's sojourn in Lower Egypt. What is
said in Genesis and Exodus ofthe character ofthe coun
try, its government and its court, and the customs ofthe
people, are shown to be pictures faithfully drawn from
the life. Ample illustration is afforded, by the monu
ments, of the relations between the rulers of Egypt and
shepherd tribes such as those of Israel. Peculiarly in
structive is the exhibition given of the apparently anoma
lous state of affairs which could admit at one time ofthe
oppression of a large class ofthe subject population, and
at another of the elevation of a number of the same com
munity to a position of power in the state. We have an
instance of a Palestinian minister, under Khu-en-aten, at
the end of the fifteenth century B. C, and of a cup
bearer, also Canaanitish, under Rameses III in the
thirteenth. The subjection of tribes and clans from

10 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
southern Palestine and the desert, the descendants of
those who, like the Hebrews, had crossed the isthmus in
search of food and pasturage, was frequent, and, indeed,
inevitable. And the monuments bear repeated testimony
to the " labor with rigor " exacted from such depen
dants, especially in the works carried on in the neigh
borhood of the royal city of Memphis.
The whole subject of the residence ofthe Hebrews in
Goshen must be viewed in connection with the general
fact that, until the era of the expulsion of the Hyksos, at
the beginning of the sixteenth century B. C, the prevail
ing influence in northern Egypt was Palestinian. Wit
ness especially the names of deities worshiped there,
such as Baal, Astarte, and Reshep, the Phenician Vulcan.
Indeed, the successive invasions of Palestine and Syria
which intervened between that era and the exodus were
prompted as much by an instinct of self-preservation as
by dreams of foreign conquest. It is a guiding fact not
easily overestimated, that the relations between Egypt
and Asia were wholly changed between the epoch of the
shepherd princes and the exodus, and that the so-called
" patriarchal period " of Israel falls before and within the
former epoch. As to the exodus itself, the confirma
tion is of the same indirect and yet encouraging kind.
Mention of the event in the records is still looked for in
vain; but the story of the oppression is signally illus
trated by the great discovery of the "treasure city" of

Oriental Research and the Bible. ii
Pithom with its straw-less bricks. Moreover, the same
series of excavations has shown that an inlet of the " Sea
of Reeds " came close to the city of Pithom, so that at
least one main center of Hebrew population is located
within reach of the place of the passage.
Next in importance to these kinds of testimony is the
information afforded by the Egyptian monuments as to
the peoples and lands of Palestine and Syria. Here
again it is the pre-Mosaic rather than the post-Mosaic
times that are most fully illustrated. The evidence fits
in finely with the Babylonian notices of these early days,
to help to fill out the story of the Bible lands between
Abraham and Moses. I can only allude to two classes
of memorials. We have first the long list of Palestinian
and Syrian proper names which abound in the inscrip
tions of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. A
large number of words have been identified with biblical
and modern place-names, such as Salem (Jerusalem),
Joppa, Gaza, Megiddo, Kishon, Shunem, Gath, Ekron,
Hamath, Kadesh, Sidon, Sarepta. Among such terms it
seems surprising to find the names of Jacob and Joseph
coupled with the general name for " a god." Modern^
ized, we have them as Jacob-el and Joseph-el. These are
found in the lists of places in Palestine drawn up by the
great conqueror, Thothmes III, about the beginning of
the fifteenth century. A possible explanation of the
names is that, in course of time, these heroes of early

12 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Hebrew history had been raised to the rank of demi
gods. If this hypothesis is correct, two conclusions
would seem to follow. Since Joseph, whose career was
distinctly Egyptian, is found thus honored in Canaan, it
would seem that the connection of Israel with Canaan
during this era was much closer than has been generally
supposed. Again, since a long time must have elapsed
between the lifetimes of these heroes and their deifica
tions, we have to relegate the age of the patriarchs to a
much earlier date than the fifteenth century. As we shall
see, the Babylonian inscriptions confirm this supposition,
and actually supply us with the date of Abraham.
But the Egyptian records also give us important his
torical notices. They give us a fairly complete con
ception of that eventful era, from the sixteenth to the
thirteenth century, in which Palestine was being pre
pared to become the abode of the chosen people. They
show us how, at the beginning of that period, Syria, as
well as Palestine, was made an appanage of Egypt.
They relate how Egypt was forced to relax her hold in
consequence of local uprisings ; how finally she fully re
trieved her position under the much vaunted nineteenth
dynasty, and that then she was met by the Hittites, and
compelled to call a halt upon the Syrian border. They
demonstrate how the result of the conflict was to prevent
either antagonist from permanently retaining Palestine
for itself, and how it was still kept as a land of promise

Oriental Research and the Bible. 1 3
for the impending occupation by the Hebrews. To this
story of Providence, the wonderful recent discoveries at
El-Amarna have materially contributed. Though found
in the soil of Egypt, three hundred miles up the Nile,
they are nearly all written in a dialect of the Babylonian
language. The fact is typical. For light upon the larger
relations of Israel, and upon the historical motives and
processes that determined its destiny, we must go out
side of Egypt. What has come directly from thence,
illustrates the role which the Bible assigns to the land
of the Pharaohs. It was the cradle and the nursery of
Israel, whose youth and manhood were molded by the
more educative influences of a wider and richer environ
ment. "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and
called my son out of Egypt."
The Arabs are the oldest and purest race of men
in the world, and Arabic is the oldest surviving form of
human speech. Northern Arabia is supposed, on good
grounds, to have been the dwelling-place of the Semites
before their separation. In any case, the Arabic lan
guage is certainly nearer to the primitive Semitic idiom
than any of the sister tongues. This consideration alone
enables us to gauge the antiquity of the peoples with
whom the Bible has most to do.
Two facts may here be noted as suggestive : The
Egyptian language contained a large Semitic element,
which was incorporated many ages before the date of the

14

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

earliest surviving monuments ; and the people them
selves were also in part Semitic. Even more instructive
is the association with Babylonia. The civilization of
that country is at least as old as that of Egypt. Now
at the date of the earliest written monuments (4000
B. C.) its language, derived from the primitive Semitic,
was in an advanced stage of decay, and must have parted
company with the Arabic an unknown number of cen
turies before that time. Thus the most general glance
at Arabia opens up to us as Bible students an indefinite
backward perspective, checked by an illuminating side
light at a date still currently supposed to be that of the
creation of man.
And yet Arabia is but slightly available for antiqua
rian research. It is remarkable that, though writing was
employed for business purposes from very early times, it
was by Christians that Arabic was first used as a written
language for literary purposes. The general statement
that Arabia contains but limited material for biblical
illustration has to be made with two important restric
tions. A large number of inscriptions have been found
in southwest Arabia written in the so-called Sabaean
characters. These have been skilfully interpreted by
the discoverers and other scholars. They show, among
other things, that, besides the famous kingdom of Sheba,
there was another monarchy called Ma'in (hence the
classical and now current term " Minean "). This was

Oriental Research and the Bible. i 5
an empire of great extent, stretching northward to the
peninsula of Sinai, even Gaza in Palestine for a time
having been its tributary. The people themselves are
perhaps alluded to in Judges 10 : 12 and 2 Chronicles
26 : 7. We thus have both authentic information of the
far-famed kingdom of Sheba, and testimony as to the
condition of northern Arabia at the time of the wander
ings of Israel. This region is thus shown to have been
then occupied by a people the very reverse of uncul
tured. Hence the broad inference has been drawn, that
the Israelites, not only in Egypt, but also during their
life in the desert, had an environment which in any case
must have lifted them above barbarism, even if their
ancestors had not themselves been a cultured people,
according to the standards of the East. The bearing of
this conclusion on the literary development of Israel
need not be specially pointed out ; but in this connec
tion I would remind the reader of the social and intel
lectual solidarity of Palestine, Egypt, and the interven
ing region, in the days preceding the exodus.
Now as to the Holy Land itself. One's first thought
here is of the indispensable work of survey and surface
exploration which has made intelligent Bible readers so
much at home in Palestine east and west of the Jordan
and in the desert of the exodus. Magnificent maps
have been made, and many biblical sites identified, —
cities, villages, mountains, valleys, brooks, fountains,

1 6 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
and caves. Apparently now we have nearly reached the
limit of identification by measurement and surface ex
amination. In the supremely important work of excava
tion little has as yet been systematically undertaken.
Many another site may be indubitably fixed by success
ful digging, just as many of the cities of Babylonia and
Assyria have given up their names to the delvers among
their ruins. But it is inscriptional remains that are the
great desideratum in Palestine. It may be said that the
excavations in Jerusalem itself are disappointing in this
respect, though so many unsuspected architectural re
mains have been uncovered, and that even the exact site
of Zion, the city of David, is not yet settled beyond dis
pute. But the fact is that ancient Jerusalem has as yet
been scarcely reached. Inscriptions are not to be ex
pected in large numbers for periods after the time of
Christ, for then the day of brick and stone and wood as
writing-materials was wellnigh past. Inscribed stones
in public buildings form an exception. Such a one was
found by M. Ganneau, which had originally been placed
in the partition between the temple proper and the Court
of the Gentiles.
This only brings us down to what may be called the
Herodian stratum of the city's growth, and doubtless
Hebrew and Canaanitic inscriptions lie beneath. Of
more ancient written documents we have the well-known
stone of Mesha, king of Moab, who threw off the yoke of

Oriental Research and the Bible. ly
Ahab of Israel in the ninth century B. C. This became
at once a classical text for Old Testament history. Add
to this the equally famous inscription in the Siloam tun
nel, probably ofthe time of Hezekiah, and we have what
were until lately the only specimens of lengthy inscrip
tions. But these were found without special under
ground search. We have a pledge of fuller and richer
disclosures in the discovery, in 1892, by Dr. Bliss, in
Tell el-Hesy, the probable site of the ancient Lachish, of
a cuneiform tablet which supplements the El-Amarna
letters from Palestine to Egypt in the fifteenth century
B. C. What will be the value of future revelations from
the soil of Palestine we cannot even approximately esti
mate. Of its successive occupations, only the Babylonian
and the Egyptian are likely to be commemorated by
numerous inscriptions. At best we cannot expect such
a rich harvest as has been gathered from the valleys of
the Nile and the Euphrates. The Hebrews were not in
the habit of recording fully on imperishable materials
their deeds or their traditions. Yet the language of the
Old Testament abounds with references to the art of the
engraver, as well as of the scribe ; and, if we cannot
hope to obtain original lengthy documents ofthe age of
the earlier Scriptures, we may reasonably look for many
brief illuminating references to Bible localities, peoples,
and teachings.
A vast stretch of territory, just opened up at one or

1 8 Recent Research in Bible' Lands.
two points by the explorer's spade, separates Palestine
from the region where modern research has achieved its
greatest triumphs, and the Bible its most complete vin
dication and illustration. The fascinating story of the
explorations in the realms of ancient Babylonia and
Assyria should be told in its outlines to every Bible-class
pupil. Here it will only be possible to indicate some of
their most valuable results. The reader is reminded
that almost the whole of the revelation has come to us
within the last half-century.
I . The land itself, only next in sacredness to Palestine,
has become known to us moderns in its ancient aspect.
We can bring before our mind's eye the powerful and
populous cities of which Babylon, though not the oldest,
became the greatest. The imperial city itself, with all
its suggestiveness of culture and power and pride and
luxury, is unveiled to us ; and now we can appreciate
the numerous biblical references, direct and figurative, to
Babylon the great. We have learned the actual founda
tion of the traditional glory of Babylonia and Assyria,
with their temples and palaces, their commercial and
legal institutions, their observatories, colleges, and fac
tories. 2. There has been given to the world a new language,
closely related to the language of the Old Testament.
Many important biblical terms have received their first
satisfactory explanation from their Assyrian cognates.

Oriental Research and the Bible. 19
These are already numbered by the score, while those
which receive most important illustration from the same
source may be reckoned by the hundred. The very ex
istence of this rich and copious language was unknown
till the middle of this century; and now the "Chaldee,"
which it displaces, is known to be a figment as the name
of a language, though at last fully understood as the
name of a people.
3. Next we have a large and priceless literature, itself
an absolutely new revelation, like the language which
embodies it. The fame of the wisdom of the Chaldeans
is justified and explained. The lore ofthe astrologers,
the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators," is before
us, with the varied intellectual products of a cultivated
and learned society, perpetuated through thousands of
years, revealing to us the long-sought beginnings of
science and of the useful arts. What most engages the
attention of the Bible student are its immemorial tradi
tions, worked up by the imagination of story-tellers and
poets at the very age when the Hebrew patriarchs, hav
ing left Babylonia behind them, were making a home for
themselves in "the land of the Amorites." In highly
artistic poems we have the earliest of the Hebrew records
brought before us in a series of transformations. We
hear the stories of the world's childhood, and of our
own, rehearsed, as it were, in dreamland. In a some
what similar category must be placed the practical reli-

20 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
gious poems or hymns. Some of their expressions recall
in phrase as well as in spirit passages in the Hebrew
psalms, even though these gems of Babylonian thought
and feeling lie scattered here and there among dreary
wastes of magical formula;, incantations, exorcisms, and
the like symbols of an unspiritual superstition.
4. The most valuable of all the monuments of Baby
lonia and Assyria are those which record or illustrate
their history, — annals of kings and their achievements,
descriptions of great public works, business documents
which illustrate a period or an epoch, chronological or
dynastic tables. A brief recital of the most instructive
disclosures may here be given
Standing alone and unapproached in the history of
the nations are the career and fate of Babylonia. It
made the beginning and the ending of the rule of the
northern Semites which lasted at least four thousand
years. During this period it was usually the political
and always the intellectual controlling power of western
Asia. This means much in human history generally.
It means still more to the student of the Bible. For, in
its larger external relations, the career of Israel was an
episode in the history of the northern Semites, of which
Babylonia, with its offshoot Assyria, was the chief de
termining factor. The ruined cities of Babylonia have
only begun to give up their longest hidden secrets; but
already we have learned that the Mediterranean coast-

Oriental Research and the Bible. 21
land was, during ancient times, generally under the con
trol of the empires of the Tigris and Euphrates. To
Babylonia is due, in large measure, the formation of the
political environment of Israel. Many centuries before
the exodus the whole western region as far as the sea
was leavened by its material and mental culture. The
history of Israel, unspeakably interesting and important
as it was in itself, may now be seen in its true external
setting. Its relative outward insignificance is made mani
fest. It was sixteen centuries after the first recorded
expedition from Babylonia to the West, that Abraham,
himself an emigrant from the banks of the Lower
Euphrates, entered the Land of Promise. It was about
a thousand years later that the Hebrews again entered
Palestine, and became a nation. Seven centuries is the
outside limit of their residence in Canaan as an inde
pendent people. During the latter half of this period
they were at the mercy of Assyrians and Babylonians.
Northern Israel was abolished by the one, Southern
Israel was deported by the other. The following are a
few of the points in which the historical and chrono
logical cuneiform records illustrate or supplement the
Old Testament.
1. The date of Abraham's repulse of the eastern con
federacy headed by the Elamites is fixed at about 2250
B.C. The whole of Genesis 14 is now intelligible, even
to the allusion to the " king of Salem." The names of

22 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
the leaders ofthe invasion are found to be quite or nearly
matched in the inscriptions. The motives of the in
vaders are fully explained, and shown to be an incident
in the settled policy of the Babylonian rulers, the first
known expedition having been undertaken about 3800
B. C. with the same intent. The anomalous regime of
the Egyptians in Palestine in the sixteenth and fifteenth
centuries was possible by reason of the division and
conflicts of Babylonia and the ambitious daughter state
Assyria. Similar conditions account for the expansion
of the Hittites. In the same way Israel in Canaan and
the Aramean principalities in Syria found scope and
opportunity for development, because the Assyrians,
having become once supreme from east to west, relapsed
for over a century into feebleness and inaction. The
Book of Kings is now intelligible throughout. Viewed
from our present standpoint, the political motive of the
whole great stream of events is the incessant play and
interaction of the minor currents in the Palestinian states
as determined in direction and destiny by the mightier
sweep of Babylonian and Assyrian enterprise.
2. The tragic and exemplary fortunes of the northern
kingdom are understood as never before. Its relations
in war and peace with the Aramean kingdom of Damas
cus are set in the clearest light. Ahab, in the singular
alliance with Benhadad II, appears, as a member of a
league of the western principalities, against the invasion

Oriental Research and the Bible. 23
of Shalmaneser II of Assyria. Their defeat in 854 gives
us the first sure date in biblical chronology, — a point of
time from which we reckon back to David, Saul, and
Samuel. The mutual repulsiveness ofthe same commu
nities accounts for the perpetual feuds which facilitated
the advance of the Assyrians, and made the weaker states
among them resort to Nineveh for help against the
stronger. Thus we learn from the monuments how the
fierce and tyrannical Jehu became a fawning suppliant
to Shalmaneser, just as, a century later, Ahaz of Judah
invoked the protection of Tiglath-pileser III against the
offensive alliance of Damascus and Syria, which led to
the downfall of both of the aggressors. From the
Assyrian records we learn the significance of such a fatal
appeal. The relations of subject states in their various
grades of subjection need to be generalized from the
detailed instances of the Assyrian annals before we can
understand the gradual effacement of the kingdoms of
Israel and Judah, the harder terms dictated after revolt,
their formal annexation, their final deportation. This
chapter in political science is the master key to the
whole history of the ancient East, and also to that of the
kingdom of God in its Old Testament stages.
3. Samaria is shown by the inscriptions to have been
taken by the soldiers of Sargon II early in 721 B.C.
The principal epochs in the subsequent history of Judah
are amply illuminated. Hezekiah received from Ahaz a

24 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
kingdom mortgaged to Assyria. Egypt, whose noxious
interference had contributed to the fall of Samaria, ap
pears again as a fomenter of insurrection in Palestine.
The misguided patriotic party in Jerusalem disregards
the warning given by the capture of the rebellious Ash-
dod in 711, and, after the accession of Sennacherib in
705, takes the lead in an alliance of disaffected states.
In 701, the offended monarch appears in Palestine. He
almost obliterates the kingdom of Judah, and defeats an
auxiliary force of tardy Egyptians. Hezekiah is about
to lose his city and throne, when a mysterious messenger
of death cuts off the flower of the Assyrian army. The
baffled invader leaves Palestine not to return. But Judah
is too exhausted and chastened to again revolt. The
religious as well as political influence of Assyria asserts
itself strongly in Judah in the evil days of Manasseh.
Egypt is added to the empire of the Assyrians. But
their power at last succumbs to inner decay and external
assault. Egypt now seizes the opportunity. In 609
B. C, the reformer Josiah of Judah, as a faithful vassal
of Assyria, goes out to check the army ofthe Pharaoh in
its march to the Euphrates. Josiah falls in the battle,
and for a brief four years Egypt administers the affairs
of Judah. Meanwhile Nineveh falls, in 608, at the hands
of the Chaldeans, in league with the Aryans of Media.
In Nebuchadrezzar the Chaldean, Babylonia's traditions
of four thousand years find their most fitting exponent,

Oriental Research and the Bible. 25
and her ancient policy its mightiest vindicator. He
appears in the west; the Egyptians are defeated and
vanish over the Isthmus. Her emissaries are still found
in Babylonian Judah. Jeremiah's warnings against re
bellion are unheeded. A series of revolts is ended in
586 by a final deportation of all Jews of consequence to
the banks of the Euphrates. But the old Assyrian harsh
ness is mitigated in the treatment of the colonists. A
great enlargement of the Hebrew spirit takes place.
The wider view of the world's affairs now gives breadth
to the thought of the seer and the poet. The dis
cipline of exile from home and from the national sanc
tuary has purified the conscience of the people. The
sure hope of approaching deliverance stimulates the
imagination of the prophets of the exile. Cyrus the
Persian appears before Babylon. Isaiah and the inscrip
tions unite to celebrate his career, and to describe the
fall of Babylon beneath his invincible arms. The exiles
of Judah are permitted and assisted to return to their
city and ruined temple. The new era of Jewish society
and religion begins, amid the scenes of the old struggles
and failures, under the protection of the same covenant
God who, seventeen centuries before, had called their first
father from "Ur ofthe Chaldees."
Another extremely important topic of archeological
study I can barely mention. I refer to our ever-growing
knowledge of the manners and customs, the political,

Oriental Research and the Bible. 27
social, and religious institutions of the ancient Hebrew
world. The distinctive phrases which give color and
character to the vocabulary of the Bible were based
upon the inner life of the people, and became ever more
charged with their spirit and flavor as the community
changed and developed in its checkered history. Such
terms as " son," '" father," " servant," " family," " cove
nant," " sacrifice," " sanctuary," all embody and record,
as in a spiritual phonograph, the thoughts and feelings
of many generations of men. It is the high function of
linguistic and archeological research, as it turns the
sacred roll, to make these long-silent voices live again,
to give something of their native power and beauty to
the words which " holy men of old spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost."
A few general observations may now close this out
line sketch.
1. While prophecy shows the inner divine motive of
the history of Israel and its environment of nations, and
reveals the moral import of its events, the monuments
are the complement of both, as they exhibit the causal
relations between them and amplify their lessons.
2. The monuments are brought to light just at the
time when we are prepared by scientific knowledge to
understand them, and by the historic spirit to appreciate
them. In any earlier age they would have been lost,
destroyed, or wasted.

28 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
3. It is now in place to use the word " illustrate "
almost exclusively instead of " confirm " in describing
the biblical function of the monuments. The stadium
of needed vindication of the historical accuracy of the
Old Testament is now as good as past in our progress
towards the final goal of truth and knowledge.

THE MOUNDS OF PALESTINE.

THE MOUNDS OF PALESTINE
BY FREDERICK JONES BLISS, PH.D.
The greatest hope for fresh light on the history of
Palestine lies in the mounds scattered over its plains.
The secrets of Assyria and Babylonia have been dis
closed by a search of the mounds of those countries.
Recent investigation of the mounds of Palestine shows
that they contain historical features quite as valuable.
Every buried city is, in a certain sense, a mound.
Ancient Jerusalem is one vast mound, upon which mod
ern Jerusalem is built. The same is true of London.
But the mounds of which I am writing are those called
by the Arabic name of tell. Every traveler in Palestine
has noticed them. Those most familiar to the ordinary
tourist occur in the Jordan valley. As the rider ap
proaches the end ofthe mountain pass, and as the splen
did panorama breaks upon him, he is struck at once by
the tall yellow mounds rising here and there from the
brilliant verdure.
The Syrian tells are not large, varying from twenty to
a hundred feet in height, and from fifty to fifteen hun-
3i

32 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
dred feet in diameter. But the general appearance is the
same in all : a fairly flat summit, sometimes rounding
off near the sides, but more usually with a distinct edge.

Tell Beisan (Bethshean), a Jordan Valley mound.
The sides are steep. Some of them have more than one
summit. Tell es-Sultan, near Elisha's Fountain at Jeri
cho, is really a large platform about fifty feet high, with
three distinct summits rising for fifty feet more near the
edges. Some of the tells are used as modern cemeteries ;
others are under cultivation ; others are covered by Arab
villages. They are usually found near springs or wells,
and occupy some natural swelling of the ground. The
reason is obvious : the first settlers desired two things, —
water, and a position suitable for defense. Their descend
ants, or their conquerors, continued from age to age

The Mounds of Palestine. 33
to occupy the same favorable position, and so the tells
grew. But how did they attain to such a height, and how
did they finally approximate to the appearance of an
ordinary hill ? The answer is short : mud brick. Mud
brick is at once the most destructible and the most in
destructible of building materials. Mud brick is the
great preserver. Mud brick requires no foundation but
itself, so mud-brick town rises upon the foundation of
mud-brick town until the site is finally abandoned, when
the last settlement, being only mud brick, gradually
falls to pieces, crumbles away, is washed by storm, is
smoothed down by the plow, and hence the tell, really
a pile of historical volumes arranged in chronological
order, becomes a green hill, on first view an ordinary,
natural feature of the landscape.
This regular stratification is a tell's unique importance.
Stone-built cities form much debris^ from generation to
generation, but it is largely a debris of chaos. Stone
buildings require solid foundations, often rock founda
tions, hence the intervening debris is disturbed over and
over again. Chronological order becomes confused. It
is preserved, of course, in especial cases.
In search for the pier on the west side of the Tyro-
pean valley on which should rest the span indicated by
" Robinson's Arch," which projects from the west wall
ofthe Temple area, Sir Charles Warren found, not only
3

The Mounds of Palestine. 35
the pier itself, but several voussoirs fallen and resting on
a pavement; below this pavement he found another
voussoir, — sure proof that the original bridge had been
rebuilt at a subsequent period. In my present work here
in Jerusalem, I have found a paved street leading to a gate,
and across the street was built a house, while at the gate
were four door-sills, the lowest buried by the next higher,
and so on. Here various periods are indicated. But these
cases are sporadic. The different stages are limited to a
particular point, and cannot be traced over a large area.
In the tells, however, the rise in level is pretty uniform
over the whole area, during any given period, so that
finally we have a series of superimposed town foundations.
But how to study these mounds? The method of
cutting through a mound by a great trench through the
center is a very dangerous one. It must be remembered
that not only the remains of the houses of the various
town foundations, still in situ, are mud brick, but the
debris between the various town bases is of mud brick,
and the interiors of the houses are also filled with mud
brick. Often the fallen brick appears as undisintegrated
as the brick in situ; often the bricks in situ are so pressed
together by the superimposed mass that the identity of
separate bricks is lost. A cutting through the heart of
a mound may reveal nothing but two great mud preci
pices. The objects found at different levels may furnish
a clew to dates, but it will be found almost hopeless to

36 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
determine the number of occupations. Such a cutting is
often repented of later, when the excavator, working in a
more systematic manner, finds that he has unwittingly
destroyed the most valuable architectural traces. Thus
Schliemann's first work at the mound of Hissarlik was
really destructive of a part of Troy which his further
investigations proved, all too late, to have been a most
important part.
The only way to study a mound thoroughly is to cut
it down in horizontal slices, leave the buildings which
have been exhumed in each layer standing until they
have been mapped and planned, cut these away, and
proceed to examine the layer below in the same wa}-.
This was the method I employed at Tell el-Hesy, a
mound eighteen miles northeast of Gaza, which probably
represents the ancient Lachish. The way had been pre
pared in 1890 by Dr. Flinders Petrie, who, in a masterly
reconnaissance of only six weeks, proved that the hill
consisted of a series of occupations, and determined the
limiting dates. The work of nature favored him, for the
stream running past the tell had eaten a way into its
foundations, thus undermining the surface slope of debris,
and leaving practically exposed a clear section of the
hill. He was able thus to study the hill without any
great horizontal cut. Indeed, he did not touch the top.
His long study of pottery helped him to recognize the
varieties found at the different levels, and led him to a

t< CX

js en
a> ;*»

- =

en (^
•.pen
38 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
chronology of the place which my more extended work
only modified, but did not materially alter.
Naturally, in the short time at his disposal he could
recognize only the general limits, and not the exact
number of occupations. In 1891 I was sent by the
Palestine Exploration Fund to succeed him. Following
his valuable advice, I began to cut down the tell, but
confined myself to one-third of the area, as this seemed
sufficient to determine the stratification, and as to cut
down the whole mound would have involved an im
mense expenditure of time. To make a long story short,
— -my work was spread over almost two years, from the
time I removed the surface bean crop to the time when
the original mother earth was laid bare, — I was able
to furnish the ground plans of the dwellings of eight
mutually excluding occupations, each containing its own
objects, — flints, weapons, tools, scarabs, etc.,^quite dis
tinct from the products of the towns above and below,
and, by a study of the datable objects, I was able to
furnish approximate dates for the different occupations,
quite confirmative, as I have just said, of Petrie's bril
liant theorizing. We agree in believing that the place
was occupied between the seventeenth and fifth centuries
B.C. Nor have our dates been seriously questioned,
except that Major Conder would bring down the last
occupation to the present Christian era. In the vari
ous towns, disentangled from this apparently formless

The Mounds of Palestine.

39

Cuneiform tablet from Tell el-Hesy.
(Front.)

mass of rubbish, I found storehouses, ovens, wine-presses,
a public hall, private dwellings, a smelting -furnace,
and mighty fortifications. The
library, alas ! I did not find,
though how I came across one
booklet from it, in the form of
a precious tablet in cuneiform,
has been described in full in
the columns of The Sunday
School Times by Professor
Sayce, who has shown its con
nection with the famous " Tel
el-Amarna" correspondence
between the courts of the Amenhoteps III and IV and
their consuls and allies in
Palestine and farther east.
The work at Tell el-Hesy
was chiefly valuable for its
lessons of hope. To prove
the undisturbed stratification,
and to know that each layer
contained the objects left
there by the inhabitants of
that level, was a great point
gained. By chance the ob
jects left in Tell el-Hesy were few ; by another chance, the
objects left in other tells may be many. Nay, perhaps,

Cuneiform tablet from Tell el-Hesy.
(Back.)

40 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
in the two-thirds of Tell el-Hesy left standing there may
lie the rest of the library of which we found one small
example. Scores of tells await the excavator, many of
them three times the size of Tell el-Hesy. There is
Tell Ta 'anuk, plainly the Canaanitish Taanach, a grand
mound on the south side of the Plain of Esdraelon. A
few miles to the east of it lies the Tell el-Mutesellim,
hard by good springs, which no doubt represent the
water of Megiddo, so often named in connection with
Taanach. I paced with impatience the summits of these
tells, and thought of the secrets their hearts must con
tain. What lay beneath my feet ? Any relics of the
great world-battles fought at this spot? Any signs of
the various civilizations that met at this point, — He
brew, Egyptian, Babylonian, Syrian ? The spade alone
can give us the answer, and I believe it will be an
emphatic affirmative.
Then there is Gaza; much of it is real tell. There is
a large field to the west of the town buildings which has
the genuine tell slope, and a cutting near its base has
already revealed a splendid mud-brick wall in situ with
early pottery in connection. This I take to be the old
city wall, and doubtless precious remains lie concealed
under the barley-field beyond. Excavations here would
be especially profitable ; for Gaza, even up to the present
day, has always been much influenced by Egypt. Egyp
tian antiquities are always turning up, and, in systematic

The Mounds of Palestine. 41
digging, such well-dated objects would be of great value
in dating the associated local objects.
The Jericho plain, again, furnishes tells of undoubted
antiquity. The ideal tell is one whose altitude indicates
a long occupation, and whose summit shows no signs of
Roman remains. Hence the inference is that the base
of such a tell represents the most ancient times. Tell
es-Sultan I regard as an ideal tell. The great trenches
of Warren here revealed little of interest, and above I
have tried to show the reason why. Last spring I spent
some time at this tell, and was able to recover some of
the oldest, or "Amorite," pottery which we have proved
to be pre-Israelite. In the cuttings I was able to recog
nize mud-brick walls at various levels, which proved to
me that here were superimposed cities as at my own tell.
Near the base, close by the bubbling fountain, a hole has
been recently scooped out, for I know not what purpose,
revealing a mud -brick wall. When it is remembered
that in all probability Tell es-Sultan is on the site of the
ancient Jericho, that this wall had a hundred feet of
debris on top of it, that this debris may be proved by
analogy to represent perhaps a dozen later occupations,
then shall I be accused of rashness when I confess to the
belief that this may be the wall that fell before the eyes
of Joshua, the son of Nun?

EXPLORATIONS IN BABYLONIA.

Northwestern facade of the first stage of the temple in Nippur.

EXPLORATIONS IN BABYLONIA

BY PROFESSOR HERMAN V. HILPRECHT, PH.D., D.D.

I.
AMERICAN EXCAVATIONS AT NUFFAR.
Within the past half- century the deathlike stillness
which long brooded over the scenes of the ancient
Assyrian and Babylonian civilization has begun to dis
appear before the labors of English, French, and German
explorers. The movement started in the deep -scarred
ruins on the swift- flowing Tigris; and now from the
storm-beaten walls of forgotten temples and buried
palaces arises a primitive, long-forgotten world. Mighty
remains of a highly developed civilization leap forth to
the light of day. A unique literature graven in stone
and clay establishes the ancient history of western Asia
for the first time on a sure foundation, and enables us
to write one of the earliest and most important chapters
in the history of our race.
The new science of Assyriology sprang into being.
Born on the ruins of Nineveh and Khorsabad, and nour-
45

46

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

ished in the quiet studies of European scholars, this
youngest daughter of Archeology and Philology has
managed to escape the perils which often threatened her
growth, and to attain to full development with surprising
swiftness. It has absorbed the attention of its devotees as
has scarcely another branch of science, and has constantly
drawn new and enthusiastic disciples under its growing
influence. The privations of
the excavator in the wilder
nesses and marshes of Meso
potamia, and the quiet per
sistence of the scholar in
deciphering the cuneiform
documents, have given afresh
impulse to the study of Se
mitic philology and arche
ology in the Old World as
well as in the New. The
Marble vase from Nippur. future Qf Assyriology and
the importance of its results depend no less on the sys
tematic exploration of, and the acquisition of new material
from, the numerous areas now covered by ruins, than
upon the scientific sifting of what the earth has yielded
us. An American university has therefore placed the
scientific world under lasting obligations by undertak
ing to extricate from the ruins between the Euphrates
and the Tigris the slumbering witnesses of a world

Explorations in Babylonia. 47
that has perished, and to place these at the service of
science. In the summer of 1888, the University of Pennsylvania
fully equipped and sent out the first American expedi
tion to the northern half of the plains of Babylonia to
effect a thorough exploration of the ruins of Nippur —
the modern Niffer, or, more correctly, Nuffar — on the
border of the unwholesome swamps of the Affej, and to
undertake extensive excavations. A few intelligent citi
zens of Philadelphia had met in the house of Ex-Provost
Dr. William Pepper, and formed "The Babylonian Ex
ploration Fund," a short time before this, with the
purpose of effecting a systematic exploration of ancient
Babylonia. What science owes to this unselfish under
taking can be adequately estimated only by posterity.
At any rate, the striking success of this American
expedition is due first of all to the noble disposition
and generosity of those who have spent money, time,
and labor for years past in the service of this great
undertaking. Two professors, Peters and Hilprecht, were entrusted
with the management of the expedition, Dr. Peters as
director, and Dr. Hilprecht as Assyriologist. Mr. J. H.
Haynes, of Robert College, Constantinople, united in his
own person the duties of business manager, commissary,
and photographer, and placed at the expedition's service
his large experience in the explorations at Assos. Perez

48 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Hastings Field, a New York architect ; Professor R. F.
Harper, the Assyriologist of the University of Chicago ;
Daniel Noorian, an Armenian interpreter, who possessed
an intimate acquaintance with the country and its people ;
and a Turkish commissioner, — made up the staff of the
expedition. Dr. D. J. Prince, now professor in the Uni
versity of New York, would have made the eighth, had
he not fallen so seriously sick, during the march across
the Syrian desert, that he had to be left behind at Bag
dad, whence he made his way back to America by way
of India and China.
The other participants in the expedition were not
spared many dangers and disappointments. Even on
the journey from Smyrna to Alexandretta, the large
French steamship which carried half the staff of the
expedition was wrecked on the rocky promontory Ker-
ketevs, on the island of Samos. Prince Alexander of
Samos, vying in hospitality with his predecessor, Poly
crates, liberated the distressed travelers, after a day and
a half, from their unhappy plight, and brought them
safe and sound to his capital Vathy. But hardly had
they landed on the marshy haven, at the foot of the
Amanus chain, a few weeks later, to begin their journey
inland, when there began that series of illnesses and ad
ventures which are never wanting to the larger expedi
tions, but which are pleasing to those who go through
them only when they are things of the past. Not far

Explorations in Babylonia. 49
from Aleppo our architect was saved from the hands of
a highway robber only by the timely arrival of two of
his associates. Below Der, the well-known horse-market
of the Anazeh tribe, while trying to find a watering-
place, another member broke through the steep under-
washed bank ofthe Euphrates, and with difficulty escaped
drowning. After following for some thirty days the course of the
Euphrates, Bagdad was reached. A fortress founded
about 1300 B.C. by King Kurigalzu, in the north of his
kingdom, standing a few miles west from Bagdad, and
still represented by the imposing ruins of Akarkuf, and
the Quai walls of Nebuchadrezzar (B.C. 605-562), were
explored. Thence the expedition proceeded past Abu-
Habbah to Hillah. Two days' journey southeast from
Babylon, a part of it was surprised by an Arab razziah
at its frugal meal, and cut off from the caravan, which
had gone ahead. Thanks to the speed of their horses,
and their own presence of mind, they escaped the
treachery and violence of the marauders. The nearer
they came to the goal of their journey, the more dis
turbed the population.
In the vicinity of Nuffar, where the soil is cut up by
hundreds of old Babylonian canals, which offered end
less difficulties to the advance of a caravan composed of
more than a hundred beasts of burden, a crowd of Arabs
from Hillah, and over forty Turkish irregulars, the whole
4

5o

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

country was inflamed by war. The Bed'ween of the
Shammar and Affej tribes were fighting for the pasture-
lands, were driving away each other's
sheep and camels, and were damming
the waters of the canals. On the sum
mit of every clay tower, which rises for
0 jgr 7 its protection in every Arab village of
"^ that neighborhood, there fluttered a
black rag, and shrilly sounded the warn
ing cries of terrified women and children
over the flat and treeless plain.
The progress along the edge of the
marshes was slow enough.
ciay image of Bel. Qearer anfj clearer on the
horizon rose the mighty ruins of Nuffar,
surmounted by the venerable mound of
the collapsed temple of Bel. Amidst the
cheerful noise of the caravan, and greeted
by the weapon clash and war-cries of
Affej warriors, who watched the approach
of the strange company from a peak of
the weather-torn ruins, they took posses
sion of a long, low hill in the center of
vast fields of ruins, and established a tem
porary camp. It was long before the natives got rid of
their distrust, and satisfied themselves that the Ameri
cans had no intention of erecting a new military station

Clay image of Bel's
consort, Beltis.

Explorations in Babylonia.

5i

out of the bricks of the old walls for the purpose of col
lecting arrears of taxes.
At the same time, the first campaign of the expedition
was, on the whole, a time of disturbance and of agitation.
There were days when every one who left the camp

^rV7/n~— *y

A gang of native workmen.
wore a revolver in his belt. With a handful of trained
Arabs from the neighborhood of Babylon the excava
tors made a beginning. The entire hill and its sur
roundings, with the visible remains of the city walls
Imgur-Marduk and Nimitti-Marduk, were trigonometri-

52 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
cally surveyed ; trenches and experimental ditches were
determined on scientific principles, and driven into the
hill ; a systematic plan of operations was outlined and
discussed, by moonlight or daylight, in all its details.
With tact and skill the excited minds of the neighboring
tribes were quieted, by enlisting in the service of the
expedition members of the most influential branches of
the Affej, who numbered about four thousand warriors ;
and thus new resources were opened to the population
of the land. In this way the number of Arabs we had
at work gradually increased until it reached four hun
dred. While some labored in cutting the experimental
trenches, and others in collecting the literary documents
recovered from the old archives, the work of thoroughly
examining the heap of the vast ruins of the temple was
pushed on with special vigor. The result was satis
factory in every way, and more than two thousand
precious cuneiform documents were secured in the space
of a few months.
It was now proposed to bring the campaign to a close.
The heat, even on the 8th of March, and in the shade
of the tent, rose to 1080 (Fahrenheit). The insects,
multiplying by reason of the proximity of so much
stagnant water, became intolerable, while the scorpions
began to creep out of their corners ; moreover, the
provisions of the expedition began to give out. The
working season closed more quickly than was either

Explorations in Babylonia. 53
wished or expected. One dark night, a well -planned
robbery by Arabs, with especial reference to the horses
of the expedition, led to a skirmish. The sentinels,
who night and day occupied the approach to the camp,
happily defeated the attempt. Much powder was ex
pended on both sides, but they intentionally fired over
each other's heads, to avoid the severe laws of Arab
blood revenge. In spite of this precaution, one of the
Arabs was shot through the heart. The blood-money
offered was proudly rejected by the hostile tribe, and an
old Arab, employed as a go-between, came back from
his mission without effecting anything. But the Ameri
cans were equally prompt in refusing to give up the
" murderer." The days and nights which followed were
full of exciting scenes, and the laborers had to be with
drawn from the trenches to the camp, to make their
lives safe.
On the morning of Thursday in Easter week, before
the sun rose, the whole expedition was in readiness to
vacate the hill, and to force their way to Hillah, when,
through the treachery ofthe powerful Affej shaykh Mu-
koter, an Arab secretly set the camp on fire, and laid the
whole of its straw huts in ashes in the space of five
minutes. Half the horses perished in the flames, and
weapons and furniture, and a considerable sum of
money, fell into the hands of the thievish Arabs. But
all the antiquities were saved, and the expedition, in

54 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
good order, withdrew in two divisions : one on horse
back, past Suk el- Affej and Diwanijeh ; the other on
boats across the swamps to Tagharah, and back to Hil
lah, where the Weli of Bagdad already had taken steps
to come to our assistance with a military force. A few
weeks later the cholera broke out in Babylonia, and car
ried off Mukoter as one of its first victims. During the
summer more than fifteen thousand Arabs were carried
off by this dreadful scourge.
Thanks to the gracious protection which his majesty
the Sultan has always and eminently extended to the
Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsyl
vania, and to the lively and cordial interest which Hamdy
Bey, the Director-General of the Imperial Museum in
Constantinople, has shown in it, the interrupted excava
tions could be resumed in the fall of the same year,
1889, as soon as cold weather set in, and pressed on
with energy and fresh confidence. As a basis of opera
tions had been marked out in the first campaign, there
was, of course, less need for the assistance of the Assyri
ologist in the field than at home, where the sifting of the
material, and the preparations for the publication of the
cuneiform discoveries, claimed his entire attention. Only
the director, the business manager, and the dragoman,
returned to Babylonia, while the architect made use of
his studies to complete, in Paris, a plan in relief of the
body of ruins at Nuffar.

Explorations in Babylonia. 55
The excitement among the tribes on account of one
of their members having been killed by a Turkish soldier
came occasionally to an outbreak in murderous attacks.
Happily, however, to the members of the expedition,
one circumstance proved of priceless value. Among
the Affej tribes there was spread very generally the
notion that the foreigners, being armed with super
natural power, had, in punishment of the treachery
that had been practiced upon them, brought upon
the country the cholera, which was not quite extinct
even in the year following. Several successful treat
ments of sickness among the Arabs whom they em
ployed served to sustain this faith in their power.
When finally, at the proper moment, some rockets and
fire-crackers were set off from the trenches in the ruins
before the assembled multitude, and shot their fiery
sparks through the air as though they had been scat
tered by the hand of a spirit, then, at last, there was a
period of rest from the secret attacks. Fear of the un
canny powers of jinns, or demons, held their minds in
bondage. A young Syrian physician from Beyrout,
whom the expedition had brought with it this time on
account ofthe cholera, fell ill of typhoid fever soon after
its arrival in Nuffar, and had to be sent back, while in a
state of delirium, to Bagdad, where he recovered slowly
in the course of the winter.
In spite of all, not for a moment was the great purpose

56 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
of the expedition lost sight of. The valuable experience
which the members of the expedition had acquired the
first year, the comprehensive oversight of the central
committee in Philadelphia (Mr. E. W. Clark, chairman),
and of the director in the field, and the powerful support
of the Ottoman government, insured a complete success
to the second campaign also. Ever deeper the explorers
penetrated into secrets and riddles of the huge mound
of ruins. Plundreds of graves, clay coffins, and urns,
were opened ; and the ruins of demolished habitations
and storehouses, together with the contents of their
chambers, were explored. In this way thousands of
documents, inscribed bricks, vases, and votive tablets, were
collected. The active life and motion which once pulsated
in the streets of the city, and in the forecourts of its tem
ple, on the palm- and corn- laden banks of the great canal,
were unfolded before the eyes of the restless explorers.
The second campaign came to a more peaceful ending
than did the first. At its close, both Dr. Peters and the
dragoman returned to America, and Mr. Haynes, who
had labored with so much skill in Nuffar for the object
of the expedition, was unanimously chosen its director
to continue the explorations. He went alone to the field
of labor, and since that time has exposed himself to the
rains of winter and the heat of summer almost continu
ously. He has had merely the temporary help and
company of another American, Joseph A. Meyer, Jr., who

Explorations in Babylonia. 57
has rendered great service by his excellent drawings ofthe
ruins, and of objects found in them. But Meyer's weak
ened frame fell a victim, in December, 1894, to the malaria
on the border of the marsh, where even before this the
Syrian physician and the present writer had absorbed
the germs of typhus. In the European cemetery in Bag
dad, on the banks of the Tigris, he rests, having fallen a
stanch fighter in the cause of science. Even if the sand
storms of the Babylonian plains should efface his solitary
grave, what matters it ? His bones rest in classic soil,
where the cradle of the race once stood, and the history
of Assyriology will not omit his name from its pages.
The terraces of the temple of Ekur (that is, " mountain
house ") rose ever more distinctly out of the rubbish mass
which had grown above it through milleniums. The
impressive ruins stood about one hundred feet above the
level of the surrounding plain, while its foundation lay
hidden in the earth's bosom more than a hundred feet
below that level. The platform of the first king of Ur,
who built here about 2800 B. C, was soon reached. But
deeper still sank the shafts of the Americans. " What
for ages no king among the kings had seen," — to speak
with King Nabuna'id, — "the old foundation of Naram-
Sin, that saw I." The numerous bricks bearing the
name ofthe great Sargon, who, 3800 B.C., had extended
his powerful empire to the shores of the Mediterranean,
came forth to the light of day under pickax and shovel.

5S

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

By this the expedition supplied irrefutable proof of the
historical character of this primitive Semitic kingdom,
which has often been doubted. The curse of the king,
which he had engraved in cuneiform characters in the
door- sockets
ofthe entrance.
"Whosoeverremoves this
inscribed stone,
may Bel, Sha-
mash, and Nin-
na root him
out, and de
stroy his pos
terity," had no
terrors for the
science of the
nineteenth cen-
t u r y . N e w
trenches were
cut. At times
the waters of
the god Ea, and the Anunaki, the Babylonian spirits of
the depths, sprang up, and tried to frighten away the
bold explorers ; all in vain, however.
Under the buildings of Sargon and Naram-Sin one of
the largest and most important finds rewarded the labor

Babylonian arch of brick (about 4000 B. C.)

Explorations in Babylonia. 59
that had been expended. An arch of brick, in splendid
preservation, and of nearly the same form as is found in
the later monuments of the Neo-Assyrian empire, was
laid bare, and most carefully photographed. By this
the question long discussed by the historians of archi
tecture, as to the antiquity of the arch, entered upon a
new stage, and its existence in Babylonia about the end
of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth millennium
before Christ was proved. But, although the excavations
have gone already thirty-five feet below the platform of
King Ur-Gur of Ur (about 2800 B.C.), not yet have they
reached the deepest foundations of this venerable sanc
tuary, whose influence for over four thousand years had
been felt by all classes of the Babylonian people. But
in the presence of this fact we begin to have some notion
why Nippur is spoken of as the oldest city of the earth
in the old Sumerian legends ofthe Creation.
Close upon seventy thousand dollars has been spent
on the excavations in Nuffar, to say nothing of the loss
of life and the endurance of trouble by those who have
borne the burden and heat of the day on its fields of
ruins. Great sacrifices of time, money, and personal
devotion, will be needed to carry the exploration to its
end. But what the University of Pennsylvania and its
friends have begun, will be finished.
The classification and editing of the numerous and
important results of the expedition have been entrusted

60 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
by the Committee of Publication (Mr. C. H. Clark, chair
man) to Professor Hilprecht, who has planned their pub
lication in four series of from ten to fifteen volumes each.
Other Semitic scholars of America have been invited
to take part in their publication, and have promised
their assistance for the near future. Two volumes,
prepared by the editor-in-chief, have appeared already,
and three are in the press, while seven others are in
preparation, one of them containing the history of the
expedition by Dr. Peters and Mr. Haynes. It may be
worth while, at this point, to summarize the most note
worthy results.
Over thirty-two thousand cuneiform tablets form the
bulk of what has been recovered. Many of these are of
the time of the dynasty of King Ur-Gur (about 2800
B.C.), and ofthe period ofthe Cassite kings (about 1725
to 1 140 B.C.), which hitherto were not represented by
dated documents. Of the manifold character of these
documents — syllabaries, letters, chronological lists, his
torical fragments, astronomical and religious texts,
inscriptions referring to buildings, votive tablets, dedi
cations, inventories, contracts, etc. — nothing less than an
exhaustive examination can give a clear idea. Most of
the early rulers of Babylonia, who were known to us
only by name, and fourteen of whose very names had been
lost, have been restored to history by this expedition.
Through the abundance of the recovered texts of the

Explorations in Babylonia. 61
earliest Semitic rulers, Alusharshid, Sargon I, and Naram-
Sin, comprising hundreds of inscribed bricks, door
sockets, marble vases, and clay stamps for bricks, our
conception of the power and extent of the Semitic race
of about 3800 B. C. had to undergo a radical trans
formation. Of especial value are the hundred and fifty fragments
of inscribed sacrificial vessels and votive objects belonging
to three kings of the oldest dynasties of Ur and Erech
hitherto unknown, which promise to cast entirely new
light upon the chronology of a difficult period. Besides
this, the first publication showed that the Publication
Committee of Philadelphia were determined to clear up
the entangled questions of Babylonian paleography by
treating them on scientific principles.
Those who have studied the explorations of Loftus
and Layard know what indescribable pains they have
taken to save for the British Museum three clay sar
cophagi, even though they crumbled to pieces on contact
with the air. Thanks to the patient efforts of Haynes,
nine clay sarcophagi have already been excavated at
Nuffar, and conveyed in good condition to the Imperial
Museum at Constantinople, and twenty-five more stand
packed, ready to leave the fields of ruins. Among the
great number of seals and seal-cylinders such as the
Babylonians employed in business transactions, there are
some of every period of their history, and several be-

62 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
longed to kings and governors. Two hundred clay
bowls, closely inscribed in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Man-
dean, allow us a welcome glimpse into the wizardry of
Babylonia, which exerted considerable influence on the
religious teachings ofthe later, post-biblical literature of
the Jews. Thousands of enameled and plain vases of
clay of all sorts, playthings, weapons, weights, gold and
silver ornaments, objects in stone, bronze, and iron,
several very ancient intaglios and bas-reliefs, together
with a collection of human skulls, which offer us help

if

Clay sarcophagus from Nippur.
in the study of the piebald ethnological relations of
Babylonia, complete the rich collection of antiquities
obtained from the ruins of Nuffar.
With regard to the wealth of its results and the scien
tific treatment of the documents it has published, this
Philadelphia expedition takes equal rank with the best
sent out from England or France. The systematic and
careful manner of laying bare the vast ruins of build
ings, and in exploring and depicting them, with a view
to a complete and connected view of the whole, is some
thing without parallel in previous expeditions to Baby-

Explorations iu Babylonia. 63
Ionia. And when the University of Pennsylvania has
completed her great undertaking in Nuffar, there will
belong to her and those who have shared in her expedi
tion the unquestionable credit of having exhaustively
examined one of the vastest ruin-heaps of the Mesopo-
tamian plains. To this institution must be given the
credit of having excavated the most important sanctuary,
and at the same time the earliest terrace temple, of this
land of primitive civilization, and of having made in
telligible, by earnest research, its construction and its
history. II.
THE FRENCH EXCAVATIONS AT TELLO.
At the fifth International Oriental Congress at Berlin, in
1 88 1, the well-known Assyriologist, Jules Oppert, opened
his lecture on the excavations of de Sarzec in Babylonia
with the words : " Since the discovery of Nineveh and
the exploration of the ruins of Babylon, no discovery
has been made which compares in importance to the
recent excavations in Chaldea." For the first time,
indeed, by these French excavations have inscriptions
of considerable length written by kings of that ancient
civilized race called Sumerians been brought to light.
It is to this race that the principal attainments of the
Semitic Babylonians in art, literature, and science, are
to be traced.

Explorations in Babylonia. 65
In spite of the difficulties which these stone docu
ments, in general excellently preserved, offer to their
decipherers, both from a paleographic and a philological
standpoint, the majority of the texts are now intelligible,
and capable of being used as historical sources, thanks
to the labors of Oppert and to the extraordinary efforts
of the late highly endowed savant Amiaud and his suc
cessors, especially Jensen of Marburg.
The director of these excavations was, and is still,
Mr. de Sarzec. From the moment that, in 1877, he was
sent as French vice-consul to Bassorah, on the Persian
Gulf, he has spent most of his time and strength, with
constant risk to his health, in exploring southern Baby
lonia. With several interruptions, he has devoted eight
campaigns (the last of which he made the subject of a
report before the French Academy, October, 1894) to a
thorough and successful exploration of the great group
of mounds known under the name of Tello. The ruins
extend about four English miles, and are situated some
three or four days' journey northwest of Bassorah, twelve
hours east from the old Warka, on the eastern bank of
the canal Shatt el-Hai. They represent a city which is
called Shirpurla in the oldest cuneiform inscriptions, and
Lagash in the later Babylonian literature.
The first grand results, the excavation of the palace
of the priest-king Gudea (about 2900 B.C., or before),
the discovery of the invaluable diorite statues so im-
5

66

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

portant to the history of art, the finding of a great
number of inscribed door-sockets which stood at the
entrance of shrines and ternples, the unearthing of thou
sands of inscribed
clay cones and
bricks, of bronze
figures, metal and
earthen vessels, and,
above all, of the two
great terra-cotta
cylinders of Gudea
with abouttwo thou
sand lines of writing
each, — all these, as
well as the many
other antiquities,
have been so often
described that they
can very properly
be passed over here,
since the results ob
tained from them by
specialists have be
come the common possession of the cultivated.
In Maspero's well-illustrated work, " The Dawn of
Civilization," student and layman alike are provided with
a hand-book from a master who has embodied in his

Statue of Gudea in diorite, 1.58 meter high
(about 2900 B. C).

Explorations in Babylonia. 67
researches the results of these French excavations in
Tello,1 as well as those of the American expedition, so
far as they have been published.2
The view of Maspero, however, of the age of the earli
est kings and priest-kings of Shirpurla, whom, following
Winckler of Berlin, he places
from three hundred to four
hundred years before the rulers
of the so-called first3 dynasty
of Ur, — that is, accepting the
ordinary chronology of Assy-
riologists, about 3200 B.C., —
is certainly wrong.
As Hommel, Heuzey, and Head of a statue in diorite
I have already previously (about 3000 b. c.).
emphasized, these earliest rulers of Lagash belong to a
period before Sargon I and Naram Sin. Upon a further
critical examination of the earliest cuneiform texts from
Tello and Nuffar, I have, in another place, given posi
tive proof of the validity of my theory. We shall not
1 Leon Heuzey 's Decouvertes en Chaldee par Ernest de Sarzec, — not yet
finished. 2 H. V. Hilprecht's The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania, Vol. I, Part i, and Assyriaca.
3 My own recent investigations upon this point have shown that, about a
thousand years before this so-called first dynasty of Ur, there was a still earlier
powerful dynasty of Babylonian kings having their origin in Ur. Conse
quently this earlier dynasty must hereafter be reckoned as the first dynasty.
For a more detailed account, see The Babylonian Expedition of the Univer
sity of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, Part 2 (in press).

68 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
go astray, therefore, if we place the approximate age of
the earliest of these kings, Urukagina, on the thresh
old of the fifth and fourth millenniums before Christ,
or, in round numbers, 4000 B. C. ; in other words, two or
three hundred years before Sargon, — whose age is estab
lished through the well-known passage in the inscription
of Nabonidos, in connection with the discoveries of the
University of Pennsylvania and on the basis of paleo-
graphic reasons.
The four inscriptions of Urukagina, of which, unfor
tunately, only two have been published, came from Tello
and Abu-Habba. Up to this time they have passed as
the most ancient inscriptions of Babylonian kings ; but
this honor they can no longer lay claim to, because, in
the American excavations at Nuffar, older documents
have been recently brought to light.
After years of continuous labor, I at last succeeded,
during the past summer, in bringing order out of a heap
of about four hundred exceedingly small and pretty
badly effaced fragments of marble and sandstone vases.
Among other things, out of eighty-seven fragments
belonging to about sixty different vases, I was able to
restore a large royal inscription of one hundred and
thirty-two lines, and out of thirty-four other fragments
of twenty-odd different vases an inscription of twenty-
eight lines. The author of the longer of the two inscrip
tions lived about the time of Urukagina, while the

Explorations in Babylonia. 69
author of the other cuneiform text must be surely placed
before him, in the fifth millennium before Christ.1
The chronological order of the earliest princes of Tello
after Urukagina has been definitely settled by Mr. Heuzey,
the distinguished curator of the Louvre, to whom science
owes so much for his fundamental studies on ancient
Babylonian art. As a result of his investigations we are
able to establish the following list of rulers for ancient
Tello : Ur-Nina, Akurgal, Edingiranagin, Enanatuma I,
Entemena, Enanatuma II. We know also the names of
the father (Nigal-nigin) and grandfather (Gur-Sar) of
Ur-Nina; but, as they bear no other title, it is scarcely
possible that they played any important role in the his
tory of Lagash.
Judged by his inscriptions, Ur-Nina was a peace-
loving prince, who founded and cared for numerous
temples established within the limits of his extended
city, which was grouped around a number of promi
nent quarters or centers. In addition, he restored and
fortified the walls of Lagash. The principal deity of
the city worshiped by him and his successors was
Ningirsu, or Ninsugir, who in reality is identical with
the Assyrian Ninib, the personification of the parch
ing midday sun. His symbol, serving at the same
1 The detailed proof of this new chronological arrangement, and of all other
points in which, in the course of this article, I differ from the view generally
accepted by scholars, will be found in The Babylonian Expedition of the
University of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, Part 2.

70 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
time as the coat of arms of the city in which his reli
gion prospered, is the lion-headed eagle with outspread
wings. Occasionally it appears in connection with two
lions, which are victoriously clutched in its powerful
talons. Little or nothing is known of Akurgal, the
son and successor of Ur-Nina, because, unfortunately,
none of his own inscriptions have so far been found. In
all probability he was not the oldest, but one of the
younger, of the children of the king.
We are better informed of Edingiranagin. He is one
of the mightiest of the very ancient Babylonian rulers.
The northern part of the country was subject to him ;
at all events, he defeated by force of arms its two
principal warlike kings, and brought rich booty back
to Lagash. Ur and Erech, the two venerable centers
of early civilization in the south, he seems to have
delivered from the hegemony of the north, at the same
time proclaiming himself sovereign ruler. As far as
Elam, which appears here for the first time in cunei
form writings, but from this time forth for thousands
of years constantly remains the sworn enemy of the
border states of Babylonia, threatening their inde
pendence and occasionally devastating its fields and
plundering its richly endowed temples, Edingiranagin
carried his victorious weapons. The powerful and
domineering position attained by Lagash under Edin
giranagin cannot have been long maintained. The

Explorations in Babylonia. yi
Semitic hordes, who at that time were pushing south
ward, and who apparently for a number of years had
warred against the border fortifications of Babylonia,
gradually established themselves in the north, threaten
ing the independence of the south by occasional in
vasions and marauding expeditions. The territory,
divided as it was into numerous small states, among
which now this one, now that one, exercised a passing
hegemony over the others, fell an easy prey to the
youthful strength and valor of the rushing nomads.
The oldest written monuments of Babylonia do not
designate these enemies by any single definite names ;
but the fact that suddenly, and seemingly without any
mediation, an extensive Semitic empire, ready made,
meets us, with its capital city in north Babylonia, and
that we learn of its existence from cuneiform monuments
written in the Semitic language, necessarily presupposes
previous battles between the invading Semites and the
native Sumerians and the defeat of the latter by their
stronger enemies. At all events, the royal title seems to
be extinguished after Edingiranagin. All succeeding
princes bear the title patesi, which is usually translated
" priest-king." It would be more in accordance with the
real facts to call them "prince-priests."
The title characterizes its bearer first of all according
to his religious position, as sovereign lord of a temple
and chief servant of the god worshiped in it. The fact

72 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
that a patesi, in addition, often occupied a position of
political power as king or governor (perhaps originally
by extending his sphere as a patesi), does not inter
fere with this view. From an inscription recently found
in Tello, but misunderstood by Oppert and Heuzey,
we learn that a foreign conqueror, who is already
a king, in addition, states himself patesi of Lagash,
expressly declaring that Ningirsu himself, the highest
god of the city, called him to fill this office. The
condition of affairs is here plain. The conqueror
seeks to represent to the people and to the priest
hood his violent act as having been committed in the
service of their god, and carrying out his decision.
Therefore he does not call himself king — which he
already was — nor patesi, in the sense of our governor,
because he cannot designate himself as his own subject,
but patesi as the highest official of the god Ningirsu, in
the care of his temple and in the administration of that
territory over which Ningirsu ruled ; in other words, as
the legitimate possessor of all the privileges which, up to
the time of his conquest, had been connected with this
title. If we were therefore to write the history of
Lagash, from Enanatuma to Gudea, it would be first of
all necessary to investigate how far, in each individual
case, the sphere of power of the god Ningirsu extended
beyond the limits of his temple or city, in order to deter
mine the relative political independence or dependence

Explorations in Babylonia. 73
of the patesis of Lagash. The supposition that every
one who called himself patesi must have been politically
dependent is by no means correct. The use of the title
patesi, " official of a god," for " official of an earthly
monarch," is the product of a later time.
The recent excavations of de Sarzec brought to light
important new documents, even of the period after
Edingiranagin, among them a beautiful silver vase with
an inscription of Entemena, and they made us, more
over, acquainted with the names of several patesis before
unknown ; but still the most important discoveries are the
following, which relate to the oldest history of Lagash,
just treated.
Urukagina, in addition to the four inscriptions pre
viously known, is represented by a new door-socket.
The inscription is arranged in two columns around the
hole in which the door-pivot moved. But unfortunately
the inscribed part is so effaced that only small fractions
remain. The personality of Ur-Nina, about whom we knew,
until very recently, only through a few badly preserved
fragments of limestone slabs, is brought very much nearer
to us by the later results of de Sarzec. In the years 1 888
and 1889, the French explorer dug up a building, every
brick of which bore the inscription, " Ur-Nina, king of
Lagash, son of Nigal-nigin, has built the house of the
god Ningirsu." In doing so he reached the real theater

74 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
of Ur-Nina' s activity, his temple, and found in this build
ing and its immediate vicinity a large number of valuable
and, for the greater part, inscribed objects. Heuzey, in
his description of the finds,1 counted not less than three
door-sockets, three votive tablets, together with the
bronze statuettes belonging to them, the fragment of an
onyx vase dedicated to the goddess Ba'u, four lion-heads,
two fragments of stone tablets with figures of animals,
and, above all, three bas-reliefs in limestone.
These three bas-reliefs, which are partly square, partly
oval, are of especial interest to us as monuments of the
earliest Babylonian art. They all three represent the
same subject more or less executed, — the king Ur-Nina
surrounded by his children and pages. The largest bas-
relief is forty centimeters high, forty-seven centimeters
broad, and seventeen centimeters thick, and contains this
representation most complete in its details. Like all
other reliefs of the same type, and similar in this respect
to the two intaglios found in Nippur, it is perforated in
the center. Heuzey endeavored to find out the original
purpose of this round hole. I do not believe, however,
that his present view,2 according to which it served to
hold consecrated objects, such as weapons, especially
clubs, in a standing position on the altar, is the correct
one. His erroneous result is closely connected with his
1 Revue d'Assyriologie, III, pp. 13 et seq.
2 Les Armoiries Chaldeenncs, pp. 6 et seq., n et seq.

Explorations in Babylonia. 75
interpretation of certain inscriptions found on such
tablets, which Professor Oppert misunderstood. More
about this will be found in " The Babylonian Expedition
ofthe University of Pennsylvania " (Vol. I, Part 2).
This relief of Ur-Nina is divided into two parts, an
upper and a lower half; upon both the king figures as
the principal person. He stands upon the upper part
with a basket, the symbol of the masons, on his head ;
upon the lower side he is seated, holding a goblet of wine
in his hand, while behind him stands his cupbearer
carrying the wine-flask from which he poured into the
king's goblet. In both cases the king is clothed with a
short garment which covers only the lower half of the
body, the upper half is entirely naked. In order to ex
press the dignity of the king and of his position accord
ing to the ancient idea of both Oriental and classic
people, he is represented as a giant, so that in comparison
with him his children and servants around him appear
like dwarfs. It is characteristic that upon both halves
of this, and also upon similar reliefs found in Tello, the
inscription begins on the head, and in most cases by the
mouth of the king, as though representing words flowing
from his mouth, or spoken by him.
To this class of reliefs belongs also a remarkably well-
executed monument,1 which is not made of stone, but
consists of an artificial mixture of clay and bitumen,
1 Published by Heuzey in Les Armoiries Chaldeennes, at the end.

76

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

afterwards dried in the sun. It is somewhat later than
the one just mentioned, but cannot be exactly placed
chronologically, as it does not now contain the name of
him who presented it to the temple. Evidently the name
stood on the upper corner, near the king's head, which
is now broken off.
By far the most important and interesting monument
which thus far has been found in Tello is the so-called
stele of vultures, set up
by King Edingiranagin.
This monument consists
of "close-grained white
limestone, rounded at the
top, and covered with
scenes and inscriptions
on both its faces." It
received its name from a
flock of vultures, which
carry away the arms, legs,
and decapitated heads of the enemies vanquished by the
king in a fierce battle. Unfortunately, it is preserved
only in a fragmentary manner, and even the pieces dis
covered up to this time are effaced partially, so that it is
extremely difficult to gain an exact understanding of all
its details and to decipher satisfactorily the preserved
cuneiform characters. Nevertheless, Heuzey, by means
of two new fragments, succeeded in explaining to a cer-

Fragment of the stele of vultures
(about 4000 B. C).

Explorations in Babylonia. jj
tain extent the figurative representation in the large
and magnificent work on the French excavations edited
by him. The front side shows — so far as it is preserved
— the following four principal scenes, which stand in a
logical relation to one another :
I. The king, Edingiranagin, with his infantry, is fight
ing a bloody battle.
2. At the head of his troops, and mounted on his
chariot, he pursues the defeated enemies.
3. In connection with the funeral rites, he celebrates
his victory by a sacrifice.
4. He oversees the execution of the captives, and kills
with his own hand one of the conquered chiefs.
Among the gifts which were presented to the temple
of Ningirsu by foreign kings, who at times acquired a
hegemony over Lagash, two inscribed objects deserve
especial attention. The one is a vase fragment, which
belongs to Alusharshid, king of Kish, who left such a
large number of vases in Nippur; and the other is the
fragments of a mace-head or scepter-knob, dedicated by
another king of northern Babylonia to the chief god of
Tello. Still greater importance must be attached to two
votive presents given by two other kings of Kish. The
one is a scepter-knob in stone, the side of which is
adorned with six lions. They are so connected with
each other that each one with his fore paws clutches the
hind paws of the lion ahead of him, at the same time

78 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
burying his teeth in the shoulder of the latter. The
top of the knob contains the well-known lion-headed
eagle, the coat of arms of the god Ningirsu and his city
of Lagash. The inscription itself, which accompanied
this present, was misunderstood by Heuzey.
The other consecrated present is a large lance-head
made of copper or bronze, and is fourteen centimeters
wide and eighty centimeters long. It was fastened to
the lance-shaft by means of a handle with five round
holes. The name of the king is inscribed on the lower
end of the copper or bronze head, and the lance was
hung in the temple so that the head pointed downwards,
as was correctly pointed out by Heuzey. This is shown
by the manner in which the picture of a lion standing
upright is engraved on the metal blade. We already
knew from the inscriptions of Gudea that it was cus
tomary for the rulers to present lances as holy gifts to
the temple of Ningirsu. It is also interesting to know
that a metal tube, three meters long, has been identified
by Heuzey as the ferrule of the end of the shaft of this
lance. This metal tube is at present in the museum at
Constantinople. At its extreme end, and at the same
time terminating the lance, was a knob made of bitumen.
The dimensions of the head and of the shaft's ferrule,
already cited, enable us to estimate the immense size
which these weapons must have had.
Evidently the prevailing belief was that the gods and

Explorations in Babylonia. 79
demi-gods like Gilgamesh were accoutered with such
weapons when they went out to battle.
In spite of the rich discoveries at Tello in the line of
artistic and religious objects whose fundamental impor
tance for the earliest history cannot be doubted, it was
somewhat puzzling that, so far, no clay tablets of any
importance or in large numbers had been brought to
light. While the American Expedition of the University
of Pennsylvania, in Nuffar, laid bare several archives
containing over thirty-two thousand cuneiform tablets,
the results of the French expedition in Tello, until quite
recently, so far as I know, amounted to about several
hundred tablets, which belonged mostly to the third mil
lennium B. C. But at last, even in this respect, de Sarzec's
work and long years of endurance were crowned with an
extraordinary success. About two hundred meters dis
tant from the hill where he uncovered the buildings of
the old princes of Lagash, in a small hill he came upon
a right-angled gallery constructed of unburnt bricks,
which concealed, according to his own estimate, about
thirty thousand baked clay tablets covered with cunei
form writing, and arranged in layers, one above another.
About five thousand of these are in a perfect state of
preservation, although most of the tablets were, naturally,
broken. Their contents, so far as they have been ex
amined, embrace mostly contracts, inventories, and lists
of sacrifices, from the third and fourth millenniums B.C.

80 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
A systematic publication and examination of this great
library, in spite of the narrow field which it embraces, will
bring to view many important details concerning the lan
guage itself and the business life in the temple and the
city. Even the enormous size of some of these docu
ments, which reach a length of forty centimeters, is in
itself remarkable. As there are in the collection, also,
statuettes, clay cylinders, and large inscribed pebbles,
the building uncovered by de Sarzec may be regarded
as a regular literary storehouse or temple archive. It
would take us too far to enter upon a discussion in detail
of all the discoveries of the latest campaign. An extraor
dinarily large number of fragments of vases and sculp
tures, and among them a few complete and well-preserved
statues, also two bull's heads in copper, inlaid with
mother-of-pearl and lapis-lazuli, belong to the most
prominent acquisitions of this recent collection.
Unfortunately, the field of ruins, owing to the tem
porary absence of de Sarzec, seems to have been plun
dered by the thievish Arabs from the neighborhood of
Tello. For, at present, a large number of baked clay
tablets are in the possession of dealers in England,
France, and America. Already about two thousand of
them have been offered for sale to me. After a brief
examination of their contents I could easily determine
that they all come from Tello,
This enormous mound, or, rather, series of mounds,

Explorations in Babylonia. 81
has already yielded important treasures to the indefati
gable French excavator; but, without doubt, it conceals
still other monuments and clay tablets of fundamental
importance. May Mr. de Sarzec be permitted by Provi
dence to explore systematically this entire field of ruins,
and to make his far-reaching results accessible to schol
ars of the whole world through Mr. Heuzey's excellent
publication ! III.
TURKISH EFFORTS IN BABYLONIAN ARCHEOLOGY.
During the years 1 888-1 893, the systematic excava
tions of Babylonian ruins were exclusively associated
with the names of de Sarzec and of the University of
Pennsylvania. But in the course of the year 1893, another
expedition was born in the Orient itself. The epoch-
making results of the French and American explorers
had attracted not only the attention of Assyriologists and
archeologists, but had aroused the personal interest of
the present sultan, Abdul-Hamid.
Under his protectorate, the Imperial Ottoman Museum
in Constantinople had already been re-established, and
placed on an entirely scientific basis by its worthy direc
tor-general, Hamdy Bey, supported in his efforts by his
energetic and equally well-equipped brother, Halil Bey.
The famous sarcophagi from Sidon were scarcely safely
deposited in the new kiosk especially erected for their

82 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
permanent exhibition, when the Sultan placed another
sum of money out of his private purse at the disposal of
his rapidly growing archeological museum, in order that
the ruins of Abu-Habba or Sippara, in northern Babylo
nia, partly excavated by Rassam, might be subjected to
a fresh examination. The carrying out of this scientific
project was entrusted to the French Dominican Father
Scheil, who has distinguished himself as an Assyriolo
gist, and to the Turkish Commissioner Bedry Bey, who
had gained a rich experience in connection with the ex
cavations of Pergamon, Tello, Nuffar, and of other ancient
ruins in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time the
present writer was appointed to complete the organization
of the Babylonian section of the Imperial Museum, begun
by Father Scheil, and to prepare a catalog of the Baby
lonian and Assyrian collections in connection with it.
In the beginning of the year 1894, the first Turkish
expedition to Babylonia reached the place of its destina
tion. The ruins of Abu-Habba are most favorably
situated for excavation, about halfway between Bag
dad and Hillah, and extend in the form of a rectangle,
whose longest side is about one and a half kilometers.
They are not far distant from the Euphrates, lying on its
eastern side. Within a few months the two commissioned
men, strongly supported by the government officials of
the wilayet of Bagdad, were able to execute their task
satisfactorily.

Explorations in Babylonia.

83

According to the notes which Scheil published in vari
ous numbers of the French journal edited by Professor
Maspero, the excavations have produced the following
results : a number of clay vases, among which are several
in the form of animals ; small clay statues of idols, bronze
objects, seal cylinders, and weights, — such objects as are
generally found in all Babylonian ruins, — besides a few
bricks of King Bur-
Sin II, Kurigalzu, and
Shamash - shumukin,
and about five hun
dred clay tablets,
complete or fragmen
tary. So far as their
contents are con
cerned, most of the
tablets are letters and
contracts dated in the
rei^n Of Kins' SamSU- Round clay tablet containing plan of an estate.
ilfana (about 2210 B.C.), the son and successor of Ham
murabi, a ruler ofthe so-called first Babylonian dynasty,
whose Arabian origin only recently has been convin
cingly proved by Professor Hommel of Munich. The
majority of the texts of this period, up to this time,
were to be found only in the British Museum in Lon
don, and in the museum of the University of Pennsyl
vania in Philadelphia. In addition to letters and con-

84 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
tracts, the collection excavated at Abu-Habba contained
some fragments of syllabaries and lists of cuneiform signs,
and several incantations and hymns. Only a small frag
ment of a tablet is of historical interest, as it reveals the
name of a new ruler of Sumer and Akkad, Idin-Dagan
("The God Dagan judges "). Apparently this ruler be
longs to the second dynasty of Ur (about 2500 B. C),
which hitherto was known only through Gungunu, Gimil
(or Kat)-Sin, Bur-Sin II, and the most important member
of this whole dynast}7, Ine-Sin, recently introduced into
history again by myself.
Unfortunately, most of the letters discovered contain,
according to Scheil, only accounts. But, nevertheless,
there are many among them which bring before our eyes
scenes from the daily lives of the ancient Babylonians in
such a realistic manner that we may believe that the
times have changed but little during the past four thou
sand years. For example, an official, stationed in a small
town, Dur-Sin, complains, on a clay tablet, to his father,
that it is impossible to procure anything fit to eat in the
village, and begs him, therefore, to buy with the accom
panying piece of money some food, and send it to him.
But let the writer of this letter speak for himself: " To
my father from Zimri-eramma. May the gods Shamash
and Marduk keep thee alive forever. May all go well
with thee. I send thee [this letter] that I may inquire
after thy health. Please let me know how it goes with

Explorations in Babylonia. 85
thee. I am stationed in Dur-Sin, on the canal Bitim-
sikirim. Where I live there is no food which I am able
to eat. Here is the third part of a shekel of silver, which
I have sealed up, and send unto thee. Send me for this
money fresh fish and other food to eat."
Another letter, addressed to a female by the name
of Bibeya, reads as follows : " To Bibeya from Gimil-
Marduk. May Shamash and Marduk allow thee, for my
sake, to live forever. I write this in order to inquire
after thy health. Let me know how it goes with thee.
I am now settled in Babylon, and, because I have not
seen thee, I am in great anxiety. Send [me] news when
thou wilt come, that I may rejoice at it. At the month
of Arakhsamna [November-December] come. Mayest
thou, for my sake, live forever."
It is clear that this letter is not written to a mother,
sister, daughter, or any other relative, because, according
to the custom of the Babylonian writers, relationship is
generally indicated by a word placed in apposition after
the name of the person to whom the letter is addressed.
Therefore we can scarcely be wrong in regarding this
tablet as a specimen of an ancient Babylonian love-letter
ofthe time of Abraham.
Finally there may be mentioned a small round tablet
of the same period, and from the same ruins, which con
tains, in the Babylonian style, a parallel passage to
Daniel 12 : 3 : "They that be wise shall shine as the

86 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
brightness of the firmament." This tablet contains but
three lines, in the ancient sacred Sumerian language of
that country : I. Ska1 muntila
2. ki-namdupsara-ka
3. laga-gim gena-e
That is, " Whosoever has distinguished himself at the
place of tablet-writing [that is, at the school or univer
sity ofthe Babylonians] shall [literally, "may"] shine as
the light."
In still another manner the reorganization of the
Imperial Museum in Constantinople became of great
significance to scholars. In accordance with the recom
mendations of Hamdy Bey, the government issued orders
to the numerous officials of the provinces in Asia Minor
and Mesopotamia to guard carefully all antiquities that
may exist, to report to the Ministry of Public Instruction
all new discoveries, and, when required, to transport
them safely to Constantinople. In consequence of the
energetic carrying out of this decree, nearly all branches
of archeology have been enriched by valuable additions.
Among the Babylono-Assyrian antiquities which in this
way have come to the knowledge of Assyriologists dur
ing the last few years, and which are now safely housed
in the Museum on the Bosphorus three deserve special
mention. 1 Semitism for Suinerian,^/?/.

Explorations in Babylonia.

87

Of fundamental value for our knowledge of the early
history of art in Mesopotamia, and of the extent of the
earliest Semitic dominion, is the fragment of a bas-relief
in basalt, with the
remains of four
columns in Old
Babylonian cu
neiform char
acters. I n the
first column are
still preserved
portions of the
name of King
Naram-Sin(" Be
loved of the
Moon God"), the
son and succes
sor of Sargon I.
He caused the
monument to be
erected about
3750 B.C. upon a
terrace near Diarbekir, on the Upper Tigris ; for from this
town came the first news of the relief to Constantinople,
and, according to the information obtained by me from
Halil Bey, sub-director ofthe Museum in Constantinople,
this monument was really found in the neighborhood of

Bas-relief of the time of King Naram-Sin (3750 B. C).

88 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
that city in 1892. Pater Scheil, who was in Constanti
nople at that time, published text and relief for the first
time in the French journal referred to above.1 Unfortu
nately this publication is deficient in various respects, as
various characters were not recognized at all, or were in
correctly read. I have therefore published a new and
critical edition of the relief and its inscription in " The
Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania "
(Vol. I, Part 2), and have at the same time had a new-
photograph of the relief prepared for these pages. The
place where the monument was found confirms the cor
rectness of my attempted reconstruction of the oldest
Semitic domain, of which I maintained, on the basis of
other facts, that it extended in the north to the natural
boundary formed by the Armenian mountains. Although
the monument is broken, and the preserved fragment
defaced, yet it shows us that the artisans of that very
ancient time were skilful in using hammer and chisel on
the hardest materials. We are faced with the strange
but undeniable fact, which we also find in studying the
oldest stone vases and seal cylinders, that Babylonian art,
4000 B. C, shows a knowledge of human forms, an obser
vation of the laws of art, and a neatness and fineness of
execution, far beyond the products of later times. The
flower of Babylonian art, indeed, is found at the begin-
1,1 Rccueil de Travanx Rclatifs a la Philologie ct ,} I ' Archcologie Egyp-
tienncs et Assyriennes." (Edited by Maspero. Vol. XV, pp. 62 ff.)

Explorations in Babylonia. 89
ning of Babylonian history. In the succeeding milleni-
ums we find here and there a renaissance, but on the
whole the art of this entire period disports itself in the
grotesque and exaggerated ; it is only the degenerated
epigone of a brilliant but bygone time,
Another interesting discovery, important for the Neo-
Assyrian period, was made in the beginning of 1894 at
Tell-Abta, a mound situated about sixteen miles south
east of Mosul. It is a beautifully preserved alabaster
stele belonging to the chief of the palace, Bel-Harran-
bel-usur (O Bel of Harran, protect the master), who,
according to the so-called Canon of Eponyms, occupied
twice (741 and 727 B. C.) the highest position of state
next to King Tiglath-Pileser III (the Pul of the Old
Testament, 745-727 B. C). As Bel-Harran-bel-usur in
his inscription of thirty lines, expresses himself very in
dependently for an Assyrian official, the stele was prob
ably erected by him in 727, between the death of Tiglath-
Pileser and the accession to the throne of Shalmaneser
IV (727-722 B. C); that is, during the short interval
when it was easy for him to behave like a ruler.1
The founding of a new town, named after him, Dur-
Bel-Harran-bel-usur, gave occasion for it. He founded
this new city in obedience to an oracle of the gods,
and, having adorned it with a richly endowed temple,
1 So Scheil, correctly, in Recueil, Vol. XVI, p. 176 et seq., where he pub
lished this inscription.

90 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
he caused his likeness, carved in stone, and inscribed
with a brief history of his deeds, to be set up in it as
a memorial. Before the statue of this dignitary are
placed several symbols of the gods mentioned in the
inscription, and arranged in the same order. We are
thus enabled definitely to determine the symbols of
Marduk and Nebo, which occur very often in Babylono-
Assyrian works of art. The mound Tell-Abta, in which
the stele was found, probably contains the remains of
the old Dur-Bel-Harran-bel-usur.
Of still greater importance to Assyrian history of the
sixth century B.C., is the stele of Nabonidos recently
discovered at Mujellibeh, near Hillah ; that is, in the old
city boundary of Babylon. It is of basalt, and, unfortu
nately, one half is broken off. Arabs, who utilized the old
walls of Nebuchadrezzar and his successors along the
Euphrates as quarries for new buildings, found this stele
accidentally while at work in the ruins. The now muti
lated cuneiform inscription consisted originally of eleven
long columns, of which the lower part has been preserved.
Nabonidos has left a number of inscriptions, but most of
them refer almost entirely to his excavating and restor
ing very ancient temples and reviving their rites. In this
instance, however, contrary to his usual habit, he inter
weaves a number of important historical events and
chronological data in what he has to tell us of his
temples. The stele is therefore a valuable source for the

Explorations in Babylonia. 91
reconstruction ofthe later Babylonian and Assyrian his
tory of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Among
other things, the king describes briefly the destruction
of Babylon by Sanherib in the year 689 B.C., the mur
der of this king by his own son (comp. 2 Kings 19 : 37),
and the destructive invasion of the hordes of the Manda
in Assyria under their king,1 whose name is not men
tioned, and who therefore cannot be identified with Tuk-
damme, " king of the hordes of the Manda," called by
Assurbanapal (668-626 B.C.) " limb of Satan," and with
Lygdamis, mentioned by Strabo (Sayce). Nabonidos's
allusion to Babylonian conditions under King Erba-
Marduk, and his interesting characterization of his own
immediate predecessors on the throne, are not less valu
able for history, but can be only briefly hinted at here.
The short description of these three monuments sent,
during recent years, by the Turkish officials, to Constan
tinople from Assyria and Babylonia, is sufficient to show
the importance of the above-mentioned government
decree for Assyriology. But I cannot close my review
without mentioning another even more recent attempt
of the Ottoman government to preserve the antiquities
1 Scheil, who published this stele in a recent number of Recueil, read the
name of this king wrongly out of the cuneiform text by connecting the
verbal form iriba with the noun tukte, while Sayce regarded Tukte alone as
the royal name. But the determinative for man is wanting. The historical
connection of the second column seems quite clear. Compare, however,
Sayce's note in The Academy of December 7, 1895, p. 188 et seq.

92 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
of Mesopotamia for science. As Egyptian monuments
have suffered through the vandalism of the native popu
lation, since the dealing in antiquities became such a
profitable branch of commerce, so also the antiquities
hidden in the Babylonian soil for thousands of years
have repeatedly been damaged by the Arabs who
searched the mounds for treasures. On the one hand,
indeed, it cannot be denied that a large number of the
most important literary discoveries in Mesopotamia were
made accidentally by these searching Arabs. On the
other hand, however, it must be acknowledged that, for
the very reason that the place of origin of most of the
relics which are for sale is unknown or intentionally
concealed; that valuable objects which were found intact
have been purposely broken into pieces and sold to
different persons to secure a higher price ; that large
remains of buildings and other objects which cannot
be transported are rudely demolished and forever re
moved from the reach of students ; above all, that, as
has of late occurred repeatedly, mounds of ruins which
were occupied by English, French, and American expe
ditions were partially excavated and plundered during
the temporary absence of their staffs, — great injury to
Assyriology has arisen, to say nothing of the fact that,
for years, in many places of the Orient, — as Kerbela,
Bagdad, Mosul, Der, and Aleppo, — Babylonian an
tiquities have been imitated, and offered for sale as

Explorations in Babylonia. 93
genuine. With reference to this growing nuisance, the
present writer received from Hamdy Bey, in 1894, the
commission to report to the Ottoman Minister of Public
Instruction, and to make proposals as to the best man
ner of protecting the Babylonian relics and mounds.
The desired report was soon made. Still, in the same
year, I have been informed, a permanent commissioner
was appointed, who is to live in Babylonia. His duty
consists in stopping the clandestine business of the
dealers, and in visiting, from time to time, the various
ruins. Valuable as these precautionary measures of the
Turkish government are, nevertheless our principal se
curity for the preservation of these remains, in distant
lands, of an ancient civilization, must consist in an en
larged public interest in Babylonian and Assyrian his
tory, and in sending out new expeditions which will
systematically explore and excavate the hundreds of
ruins, and remove as quickly as possible the works of art
and the literary monuments from the dangerous alluvial
soil and the destructive influences of storm and rain.

Door-socket of Sargon I (from Nippur).

RESEARCH IN EGYPT.

RESEARCH IN EGYPT.
BY PROFESSOR A. H. SAYCE, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L.
Nowhere have excavation and discovery been more
active during the last half- century than in the ancient
land of the Pharaohs. The vast halls of the museum of
Cairo have been filled to overflowing with the treasures
of the past. Europe and America have sent out explorers
to survey and excavate, and the Egyptian government
has annually devoted large sums of money to the excava
tion and preservation of the monuments of antiquity.
Temples long since buried in the sand have been brought
to light; the tombs wherein the Egyptians once buried
their dead have been ransacked, and the work of explora
tion begun by Mariette has been ably carried on by
Maspero and de Morgan. I.
AGE OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.
The valley of the Nile is a veritable treasure-house of
archeology. In Upper Egypt, where rain and frost are
practically unknown, nothing perishes except bythe hand
of man. The sand covers the monuments of the past,
and seals them, as it were, hermetically. And these
7 97

98 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
monuments are almost innumerable. The Egyptians not
only built for eternity, they also buried for eternity.
Every effort was made to preserve forever from decay
both the body of the dead man and the objects that were
buried with him. Moreover, the history of Egypt carries
us back to an earlier period than the history of any other
people, even Babylonia as it now seems, because in the
damper climate of Babylonia the oldest records of its
culture are less likely to have been preserved. In Egypt,
the whole life of the Pharaohs and their subjects is dis
played monumentally before our eyes, at a time when,
elsewhere throughout the world, there was the thick
darkness of barbarism. From the first, too, the Egyp
tians were a reading and a writing people ; their culture
was essentially literary, and the scribe occupied among
them an honored place.
Egyptologists have divided the history of Egypt into
three great periods, known as the Old Empire, the Middle
Empire, and the New Empire. The Old Empire comprises
the first six dynasties, the Middle Empire reached its
climax under the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties, the
New Empire followed the expulsion of the Hyksos for
eigners who had held Lower Egypt for more than five
hundred years, and it consisted of the eighteenth and
following dynasties. Egyptian chronology has still to be
reckoned by dynasties rather than by years. Professor
Mahler, by the help of astronomy, seems lately to have

Research in Egypt. 99
fixed the dates of Thothmes III, the great conqueror of
the eighteenth dynasty, and Rameses II, the famous
monarch of the nineteenth, the former reigning from
March 20, 1503 B. C, to February 14, 1449 B.C., and
the latter from 1347 to 1281 B.C.; but for an earlier
epoch all exact dating is impossible. All we know is,
that Egyptian history and civilization are immensely old,
and that probably a longer period had elapsed between
Menes, the first king of united Egypt, and Rameses II,
than has elapsed between Rameses II and our own day.
No dated monuments of the time of Menes and his
successors of the first dynasty have as yet been discov
ered, though many Egyptologists believe that
the Sphinx of Gizeh was carved out of the rock
before he became king. At present the monu
mental history of Egypt begins with the second
dynasty. The tomb of a priest of two monarchs V/
of this dynasty has been found at Saqqarah, cartouche of
Menes.
the ancient necropolis of Memphis, part of
which is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, while the
other part is in the Museum of Cairo. Two kings of
the third dynasty have left their names on the rocks of
the Sinaitic Peninsula, where they kept the Bed'ween in
check, and worked the mines of copper and malachite.
But it is with the fourth dynasty that our full knowledge
of ancient Egyptian civilization really begins. This was
the age of the great pyramids of Gizeh and of the rock-

cn

100 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
cut tombs that lay at their feet. From these and from
the third-dynasty tombs of Medum have come some of
the finest examples of early Egyptian art that have as yet
been discovered.
The culture and civilization ofthe fourth dynasty con
tinued to progress throughout the age of the fifth and
sixth, and monuments of the sixth dynasty are found
from one end of Egypt to the other. Then came a period
of disaster and decline. The dynasties which followed
were for the most part short-lived and feeble. Their
monuments are scanty, and when Egypt once more
emerges into the light of history under the eleventh
dynasty, we find it divided among a number of great
feudal lords who treated the nominal authority of the
Pharaoh with slight respect. The sort of patriarchal gov
ernment exercised by the Old Empire had been replaced
by feudalism.
One of the most interesting discoveries made of late
in Egypt was in a tomb at Meir, which belonged to an
official who lived in the reign of Pepi II of the sixth
dynasty. Meir lies on the edge of the desert to the
northwest of Assiut. From the tomb has come not only
a large painted figure of its occupant, but also a collection
of small wooden figures representing the trades and
professions of the time. They are all painted, and the
modeling is so lifelike and excellent that they are quite
equal to anything of the kind which is made to-day in

Research in Egypt.

101

India. One of the figures represents a porter who is
carrying a large bale of linen on his back, and a trunk of
the most modern description, with a handle, on one of
his arms. Another is that of a sweetmeat seller who
squats in front of
his basket of sweet
meats, keeping the
flies away from it
with a whisk. It is
difficult to believe
that the models are
of the enormous age
to which we know
that they belong;
they look, indeed, as
if they were molded
only yesterday.
But this is one of
the most striking
characteristics of the
monuments of the
Old Empire, to see
which it is necessary to go to Cairo. Their freshness and
modernness are almost startling. In fact, the art of the
Old Empire is in many respects superior to that of Egypt
at any later period of her history. The combination of
realism and idealism which it displays is difficult to match,

Statue of Khephren, in diorite.

102 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
even in the art of Greece; and the hardness ofthe mate
rials in which the artist worked may well excite our
astonishment. One of the most exquisite of existing
statues, that of Khephren, the builder of the second pyra
mid of Gizeh, is carved out of a stone so hard as to blunt
the sharpest of modern tools. Indeed, Professor Flinders
Petrie has shown that some of the blocks used in the
construction of the great pyramid at Gizeh were cut by
means of tubular drills fitted, if not with diamond points,
at all events with a similar material. The invention was
rediscovered in our own day when the Mont Cenis tunnel
was half completed.
The earliest culture and civilization of Egypt to which
the monuments bear witness was in fact already perfect.
It comes before us fully grown. The organization of
the country was complete, the arts were known and
practiced, and life, at all events for the rich, was not only
comfortable, but luxurious. Egyptian civilization, so far
as we know at present, has no beginning ; the farther
back we go, the more perfect and developed we find it
to have been.
Now this is a fact which is very remarkable. The oldest
monuments testify to a civilization already long estab
lished and highly advanced ; and yet Upper Egypt is
a country where, as has been said, nothing perishes
except by the hand of man. How is it, then, that no
traces have been discovered of the steps which led up to

Research in Egypt. 103
the marvelous civilization of the Old Empire ? How is
it that we nowhere find any evidences even of the primi
tive pictures out of which the elaborate hieroglyphic
system of writing may have grown ? Now and then, it
is true, objects have been met with which indicate a cer
tain degree of barbarism, but they belong to periods
subsequent to that of the Old Empire. Sometimes they
exhibit that decline of art which marks national disaster,
sometimes they are products of the barbarous races who,
from time to time, overran the valley of the Nile. Though
we find flint implements and flakes, they are usually
associated with the pottery and other remains of the
Roman period. The men who were the contemporaries
of Khephren and Kheops were already well acquainted
with the use of metal.
We cannot emphasize the fact too strongly that Egyp
tian civilization is at the very outset full grown. So far
as the monumental testimony is concerned, it has neither
childhood nor youth. Every fresh discovery brings out
the fact into clearer relief. Only a year ago Mr. de
Morgan discovered a fully developed lotiform column in
a tomb of the fifth dynasty at Abusir, thus proving that
an architectural device, which had hitherto been supposed
to have been an invention of the eighteenth dynasty,
really went back to the age of the Old Empire. The
discovery is but an illustration of what other discoveries
have already taught us. The monumental history of

104 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Egypt gives no countenance to the fashionable theories
of to-day which derive civilized man, by a slow process
of evolution, out of a brute-like ancestor. On the con
trary, its testimony points in an opposite direction : the
history of Egypt, so far as excavation has made it known
to us, is a history, not of evolution and progress, but of
retrogression and decay. II.
EXCAVATIONS AT DAHSHUR.
All travelers in Egypt are well acquainted with the
little village of Bedresher, some fifteen miles above Cairo.
It is a typical Egyptian village, with its brown mud-huts
and picturesque pigeon-towers buried in a thick grove
of lofty palms. But its fame rests not on its own merits,
but on the fact that it is the usual starting-place for the
mounds of Memphis, and the tombs of its necropolis at
Saqqarah. A little to the west of it are the scanty re
mains of the great temple of Ptah, whom the Greeks
called Hephaestos, which was visited by Herodotus, and
stood in the center ofthe ancient capital of Egypt. The
sacred lake still exists, over which the bark of the god
was once ferried on days of festival ; and excavations
made two years ago have brought to light the founda
tions of some of the chambers which once rose at the
edge of the lake. But the chief monuments of the tem
ple are still what they were in the days of the Greek

Research in Egypt. 105
traveler Herodotus, two colossi of granite, which origi
nally stood in front of it. The largest has long been
known, and many years ago it was presented to the
British government by Mohammed Ali. The British
government, however, allowed it to remain prostrate on
its face, covered each year with the mud and water of
the inundation, and exposed to whatever injury the vil
lagers might inflict. It is only since the English occu
pation of Egypt that the statue has been raised from its
lowly position, and a shed built round it for protection.
Its face has been found to be practically uninjured, and
a very fine image of Rameses II, the Pharaoh ofthe Op
pression, it turns out to be. Major Bagnold, who raised
it from the ground, discovered at the same time its com
panion statue. This also is a granite image of Rameses
II, but of smaller size than the other. Its workman
ship, however, is excellent, and it is in a good state of
preservation. The tourist, who is hurrying on to the wonders of
Saqqarah, seldom has either the time or the inclination
to see anything more of ancient Memphis than the
sacred lake and the site of the great temple. But were
he to ride to the northern end of the mounds, he would
find a portion of the old wall of the city still standing
intact. Like all the other city walls of ancient Egypt, it
is thick and lofty, built of courses of crude brick, which
are bonded here and there with the stems of palms. At

io6

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

the southern end of the mounds there is also something
to see. Here were the kilns in which the dark-blue
pottery was made which characterizes the later days of
the Roman domination in Egypt. We can still trace

- j.^,—

Ruins of northern pyramid of Dahshur, built of bricks.
the kilns, and pick up the broken or ill-made vases which
were thrown away by their makers.
To-day, however, we will leave the kilns to our left,
and ride through the fields of wheat and clover towards
the south. Our road will eventually lead us to the
desert, not far from the village of Dahshur. Here, on
the desert-plateau, stands a group of pyramids, partly
of stone, partly of brick. During the year 1894, Mr.
de Morgan lived on the spot, and superintended the

Research iu Egypt. 107
extensive excavations he had undertaken there. He
has discovered a vast necropolis of the twelfth and thir
teenth dynasties which clustered round the pyramid
tomb of one of the most famous monarchs of the twelfth
dynasty. This was Usertesen III. The granite sar
cophagus of the king has just been found in the inner
most chamber of the pyramid. But it was robbed of all
its treasures long ages ago, and not even a scrap of
writing now remains to tell us to whom it belonged.
This was made clear by the discoveries of last spring.
On the northern side of the pyramid Mr. de Morgan
discovered two long corridors, cut one above the other
through the rock at a considerable distance below the
surface of the ground. Here and there, to the north,
the corridors give access to small chambers which were
occupied by large sarcophagi of stone. The chambers
had been plundered centuries ago, but the inscriptions
upon their walls showed that they were the last resting-
places of the princesses of the royal house of Usertesen
and Amen-em-hat.
Then came one of those discoveries which have made
Egypt so famous archeologically. When the earth and
dust were cleared away from the stone floor of the cor
ridors, Mr. de Morgan noticed two places in which there
were natural cavities in the rock. On removing the
earth which filled them, he brought to light two mar
velous treasures of early Egyptian jewelry. It had be-

io8

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

longed to the princesses whose sarcophagi had already
been discovered ; but, instead of being buried with their
mummies, it had been hidden, for the sake of security, in
the hollowed rock of the floor. The secret was known
only to those who had placed it there, and to the ka, or
"double" of the dead, and so it escaped the notice of
the robbers who afterward came to spoil the tomb.
The jewels are of exquisite workmanship. They are
made of gold, sometimes inlaid with a mosaic of precious
!• stones, which it is difficult
to distinguish from en
amel, so beautifully is it
wrought. Many of the
beads are in the form of
large sea-shells of solid
gold. On one of the pec
torals the king is repre-
Pectoral of King Usertesen II. sented ill inlaid WOrk,
striking down an Asiatic enemy; on another we have a
picture of hawk-headed lions trampling on the foe. The
work is equal to the best that could be produced by a
modern goldsmith; indeed, the modern goldsmith would
do well to take a lesson from it. When we compare these
jewels of the twelfth dynasty with those of Queen Ah-
hotep of the seventeenth, discovered by Mariette, we see
at once that, excellent as is the workmanship ofthe latter,
it is nevertheless inferior to that of the newly found jew-

Research in Egypt. 109
elry of Dahshur. The intervening centuries had brought
with them, not progress, but retrogression. The lesson
taught us by this latest discovery of the relics of ancient
Egyptian art is thus the same as that which previous
discoveries had already impressed upon us. In ancient
Egypt the earlier culture and art were also the higher ;
as time went on, there was advance in knowledge, in
trade, and perhaps in mechanical science, but there was
retrogression in the finer elements of culture. As the
Old Empire had been in these respects superior to the
Middle Empire, so too the Middle Empire was superior
to the New.
Other relics of the twelfth dynasty brought to light
during 1894 have further emphasized this fact. A
tomb at Assiut has yielded up the models of two bat
talions in the army of the Usertesens and Amen-em-hats,
which are perfectly lifelike in their realism. One of the
battalions consists of Egyptian soldiers armed with
weapons of metal ; the other, of blacks'from the Soudan,
clad in their own special fashion, and furnished with
bows and flint-tipped arrows. The battalions march four
abreast, and that the figures are molded from the life is
evident from their unequal heights, as well as from the
diversity of their features. The figures are of wood,
painted with colors which might have been laid on
yesterday, so bright and fresh do they seem.
Equally artistic is the model of a dahabiyeh of the

1 1 o Recent Research in Bible Lands.
twelfth dynasty, which was also found during the same
summer. In its general character it resembles what
is still the pleasure-boat of the Nile. One half of it,
towards the stern, is already occupied by the dwelling-
house of the owner, which consists of a large saloon sup
ported on a column of wood, with sleeping-apartments
behind. The arrangement is still that of the modern
dahabiyeh, as are also the position of the mainmast and
the handle of the rudder, as well as of the upper deck.
The doors of the rooms are startlingly modern, and the
model is so complete that even the occupants of the
saloon are represented in it.
It is difficult to look at this ancient model and realize
how old it is. The world seems to have almost stood
still since the days of the twelfth dynasty, — at all events
so far as comfortable traveling on the Nile is concerned.
And yet the age of the twelfth dynasty reaches back to
a period when Abraham was not as yet born. When
Abraham entered Egypt, not only were the pyramids
already the monuments of a venerable antiquity, but the
dahabiyeh we have been describing and the wooden
battalions of Usertesen were already hidden under the
ground. Those who had made them were dead, and the
art which they represent was already on the decline.
When last they saw the light of day, the great ancestor
ofthe Hebrew race had not yet left his ancestral home.
It is good to realize this fact, as it embodies one of the

Research iu Egypt. 1 1 1
lessons which a study of Egyptian antiquity has to teach
us. The age of the Hebrew patriarchs is, after all, one
which, as it were, lies exposed to the full glare of his
tory. It is not prehistoric, it does not even belong to
the dawn of civilization. On the contrary, the civiliza
tion of the East was already old when the patriarchs
lived and moved in the midst of it. It was an age whose
monuments are rising up on every side of us, and speak
ing to us in tones which have a very modern ring. We
possess an abundance of contemporaneous records which
enable us to test the truthfulness and credibility of the
narratives that the Old Testament has preserved. And
the narratives fully stand the test. They too bring be
fore our view a civilized and cultured society; they too
tell us of cities and kingdoms and empires, and of the
intercourse that went on between them. The Egypt and
Canaan they describe are, it is true, the civilized Egypt
and Canaan of later times ; but they are also the civilized
Egypt and Canaan which the monuments now assure us
already existed in the patriarchal age. The features of
the civilization presupposed by the Book of Genesis
are not borrowed from the period of the kings or of
the Babylonian exile ; the Egyptian monuments have
proved that they belong to the age of the patriarchs
themselves.

1 1 2 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
III.
THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS OF TEL EL-AMARNA.
Marvelous as some of the archeological discoveries in
Egypt have been, none has been so marvelous as that
of the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna. This has
been so frequently discussed, and its bearing on the
truth and interpretation of the Old Testament records
has been so often brought before the public, that all we
need do at present is to give a general account of the
discovery, and state the most important conclusions to
be derived from it.
Tel el-Amarna is the name of a village on the eastern
bank of the Nile, about midway between the towns of
Minieh and Assiut. It takes its name from a long line
of "mounds" which stand on the edge ofthe desert, and
mark the site of an ancient Egyptian city. The history
of the city was a short one, but it represented one of the
most curious and interesting episodes in the history of
the Pharaohs, and during the brief span of its existence
was the center of high artistic activity.
For several centuries Egypt had been under the
domination of the so-called Hyksos, or Shepherd-kings,
invaders from Asia who had conquered the country, and
then had gradually succumbed to the influence of Egyp
tian culture. But though they adopted the manners
and customs of the subject population, that population

Research iu Egypt. 1 1 3
never forgot that they were foreigners. A struggle for
independence broke out, which, after lasting for three
or four generations, ended in the expulsion of the
Asiatic stranger. The eighteenth dynasty was founded
by Ahmes I, and the war against the Asiatic, which had
begun in Egypt, was carried into the home of the Asiatic
himself. The energetic successors of Ahmes made them
selves masters of Asia as far as the banks of the Eu
phrates ; Canaan became an Egyptian province, and the
Egyptian empire extended from the shores of the Gulf
of Antioch in the north to the Kushites of the Soudan
in the south. Thothmes III (1 503-1449 B.C.), the most
brilliant sovereign of a brilliant dynasty, even penetrated
into Cyprus, and received tribute from the islands and
coasts ofthe ^Egean.
But the conquest of Asia brought Asiatic influences
into Egypt. The court became more and more Asiatic,
and less Egyptian, in character, and the Pharaohs mar
ried into the royal houses of Babylonia and Mitanni, the
Aram Naharaim of Scripture. Syrians and Canaanites
were promoted to the high offices of state, or appointed
governors over the towns of Palestine. Finally, the
throne of Ahmes was occupied by a Pharaoh whose
mother and grandmother had alike been Asiatics, and
who had been brought up in Asiatic habits and in an
Asiatic form of faith.
This Pharaoh was Amenophis IV. He seems to have

114 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
ascended the throne early in life, and at all times to have
been strongly under the influence of his mother Teie.
It was not long before he publicly renounced the faith
of his forefathers, and declared himself a convert to that
Asiatic Baal whose visible symbol was the solar disk.
The worship of Amon, the god of Thebes and of the
dynasty to which the king himself belonged, was pro
scribed throughout the land of Egypt, the name of the
deity was erased wherever it occurred, and the Pharaoh
changed his own name to Khu-n-Aten, — -"the glory of
the solar disk." War to the knife was now declared
between the king and the powerful priesthood of Thebes;
it ended by the retreat of the king and his adherents to
the north, where he built himself a-new city, the ruins of
which are now known as Tel el-Amarna. In its center
rose the temple of the solar disk, modeled after those of
Asia ; and hard by rose the royal palace, gorgeous with
frescoes and inlaid work of gold and bronze, precious
stones, and colored glass. Along with the new religion
there grew up a new school of art, which threw aside
the old conventionalities of Egyptian art, and aimed at
an exact and truthful representation of nature.
The royal archives were carried away from Thebes to
the new capital of the Pharaoh. Some of them form part
ofthe collection of cuneiform tablets which were found
by the fellahin, in 1887, in the ruins ofthe Foreign Office
of Khu-n-Aten. These tablets consist for the most part

Research in Egypt. 1 1 5
of letters and despatches from the Egyptian officers and
vassal princes in Palestine and Syria, as well as from the
independent sovereigns of Babylonia, Assyria, Mesopo
tamia, and eastern Asia Minor. The correspondence
ceases suddenly in the reign of Khu-n-Aten, and probably
with his death.
Excavations, carried on three years ago by Professor
Flinders Petrie, have brought to light fragments of the
dictionaries which were used by the scribes in the Egyp
tian Foreign Office. Among the tablets previously dis
covered were fragments of Babylonian stories, one of
which attempted to account for the origin of sin, and
which had served as reading-lessons to the Egyptian or
Canaanitish student, in the Babylonian language and
script. The discovery has quite revolutionized our con
ception of the Oriental world in the century before the
exodus, and several important conclusions can be de
duced from it.
First of all, it proves how deep and long lasting must
have been the influence of Babylonia in Western Asia.
Before the difficult and complicated cuneiform system of
writing, as well as the Babylonian language, could have
become the recognized medium of literary intercourse,
Syria and Palestine must have been for a very long while
under Babylonian domination. In no other way can we
explain such a complete supremacy of Babylonian cul
ture as is implied by the use of the Babylonian language

1 1 6 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
and script as far as the frontiers of Egypt. The conclu
sion is in accordance with what the inscriptions of
Babylonia itself teach us. We learn from them that
Babylonian conquerors had made their way to Palestine
in the gray dawn of history, and, in the age of Abraham,
a Babylonian monarch still calls himself king ofthe land
ofthe Amorites, the name under which Syria and Pales
tine were known. We could not desire a better con
firmation of the truth of that Old Testament history
which tells us how Abraham, the Chaldean, migrated to
the West, how Babylonian princes ruled and warred in
Canaan in the lifetime of the patriarch, and how, at a
later period, "a goodly Babylonish garment "was among
the spoils of Jericho. Doubts have been cast by a skepti
cal criticism on the fourteenth chapter of Genesis because
it describes a Babylonian campaign in Palestine in the
patriarchal age, but archeological discovery has now
caused the doubts to recoil upon the heads ofthe critics
who uttered them. It was the critics, and not the Bible,
who were ignorant of history.
Secondly, the discovery ofthe tablets of Tel el-Amarna
shows how extensive were the knowledge and use of
writing throughout the East in the time of Moses. From
the banks of the Euphrates to those of the Nile letters
were constantly passing to and fro, sometimes upon
matters of little importance. Canaan, the high road
between east and west, was the center of this literary

Research in Egypt. 1 1 7
intercourse, and the majority ofthe writers ofthe letters
we possess were of Canaanitish descent. Schools and
libraries must have existed all over the land. Not only
was the system of writing of foreign origin, the language
of the correspondence was foreign also. Moreover, the
system of writing was one of the most complicated pos
sible, demanding a good memory and years of study,
besides some acquaintance with the old non-Semitic lan
guage of primitive Chaldea, upon which it was based.
What, then, becomes of all those critical objections to the
credibility of the Pentateuch which are founded on the
assumption that the use of writing for literary purposes
was practically unknown to the Israelites and the people
of Canaan in the age of Moses ? We now know that, so
far from being an illiterate age, it was an age of the
highest literary activity, and it would be nothing short
of a miracle if the Israelites alone, in the midst of literary
populations like the Canaanites, the Egyptians, and the
Babylonians, should have been in a state of intellectual
slumber. And, even if they had been, the archive cham
bers of Canaan were stored with records on imperishable
clay, which would have handed down the history of the
past to a time when the most negative criticism admits
that writing was known to them.
Then, thirdly, we can now understand why no early
inscriptions in the so-called Phenician alphabet have
been found in Palestine. The ancient script of the

1 1 8 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
country was not the Phenician alphabet, but the cunei
form syllabary of Babylonia, and it was not until the
conquests ofthe Hittites cut off the Semites of Babylonia
and Assyria from the Semites of Canaan that its use was
discontinued in the latter country.
Fourthly, we now know what were the causes which
led to the exodus of the Israelites. The religious re
forms of Khu-n-Aten made little impression on the mass
of his countrymen. Religious and civil war broke out,
and shortly after his death the eighteenth dynasty came
to an end. The city he had founded was deserted, the
temple of the solar disk destroyed, and the adherents
of the new faith were banished or slain. But the reaction
against the religious reforms of Khu-n-Aten was only
part of a national uprising against the domination of the
Asiatic foreigner. The Canaanite and other Asiatic
officials were driven out of the country, or, it may be,
put to death, and in Rameses I, the founder of the nine
teenth dynasty, the Egyptians saw a national champion
who was opposed to all things Asiatic. In this war
against Asiatic influence the Israelites were necessarily
included. Their children were destroyed, and their
grown-up men handed over to public slavery. In the
" new king which knew not Joseph " we must therefore
see the founder of the nineteenth dynasty, and we can
now understand why the Pharaoh of the Oppression
should have followed so quickly upon him. Mr. Naville's

Research in Egypt. 1 1 9
discovery of Pithom proved that the Pharaoh of the
Oppression must have been Rameses II, the grandson of
Rameses I.
Lastly, the Tel el-Amarna tablets have thrown an
abundance of light upon the condition of Canaan in the
century before the exodus. In many respects it resem
bled India under the British dominion. The more
important cities, like Gezer and Megiddo, were placed
under Egyptian governors, immediately appointed by
the Pharaoh. Other cities, however, were left under
vassal princes, who were visited from time to time by
Egyptian " commissioners," and whose fidelity was
assured by the presence of Egyptian garrisons. Among
these princes was Ebed-tob of Jerusalem, which already
appears as a leading state in Canaan. A considerable
proportion of the governors were of Canaanitish extrac
tion, and both governors and princes were constantly
quarreling with one another, and sending counter-accu
sations to the Egyptian court. At the same time many
of them intrigued with the foreign rivals or enemies of
Egypt, the Babylonians, the people of Mitanni or Aram
Naharim, and the Hittites who had descended from the
Taurus ranges and were overrunning northern Syria.
In Palestine itself the Egyptian power had to cope with
the attacks ofthe Bed'ween, some of whose chiefs, how
ever, professed to be loyal subjects of the Pharaoh, as
well as with the Khabiri, or " Confederates," who, I

1 20 Recent Research iu Bible Lands.
believe, gave their name to Hebron, but whose identifi
cation is still a matter of dispute. On the eastern side
of the Jordan the authority of Egypt extended through
out the " field of Bashan " as far south as the borders of
Edom, which preserved its independence.
The Egyptian empire in Syria was lost after the death
of Khu-n-Aten, and, though it was partially restored by
Sety I, the father of Rameses II, it was only for a short
while. But it was only while it lasted that Canaan could
be geographically described as a brother of Mizraim or
Egypt, as is done in Genesis 10 : 6. At no later time
was such a description possible. The fall of the Egyp
tian empire in Palestine resulted in disaster to its inhab
itants. City was arrayed against city, princelet against
princelet, while the Bed'ween wasted the open country,
and the Hittite forces pressed forward from the north.
The campaigns of Sety I and his son still farther in
creased the sufferings of the Canaanites, and destroyed
their trade. When the Israelites appeared, shortly after
wards, they found a country that had already been
ravaged by hostile forces, and a population already
exhausted by war. The measure of the iniquity of
Canaan had been filled up, and the time had come when
it should pass into the possession of the children of
Israel. The way had been prepared for them by Egyp
tians and Babylonians, by Hittites and Bed'ween, and by
internal feuds, and the cities of the Amorites, despite

Research in Egypt. 1 2 1
their lofty walls and the iron chariots of their de
fenders, fell a prey to the descendants of " the slaves of
Pharaoh." IV
EXCAVATIONS AT KOM OMBO, LUXOR, AND IN THE FAYYUM.
One of the most picturesque of Egyptian ruins, not
long ago, was the temple of Kom Ombo, a little to the
north of Assuan. Standing on the summit of a lofty
bank of sand, which the river was perpetually eating
away, its half-buried columns and pointed roofs im
printed themselves on the memory of every traveler on
the Nile. At the beginning of the present century there
still existed beside it the remains of a second temple,
which had been erected by Thothmes III of the eigh
teenth dynasty. But these remains have long since
been undermined and destroyed by the river, and the
temple which artists have delighted to paint was of
much later date, having been built by the Ptolemies, and
completed in the age of the Roman emperors.
Shortly after the British occupation of Egypt, the pic
turesque character of the temple was somewhat impaired
by its transformation into a fort, the ancient brick wall
which surrounded it being utilized for the purpose. The
fort has since been abandoned, and for a few years Kom
Ombo resumed its former appearance of picturesque soli-

122 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
tude. It was during this period that I discovered the
necropolis of the town, to which the temple had been
attached, in the low, marly cliff on which now stands
the neighboring village of Shotb. The mummies found
in the tombs, however, all belonged to the late Greek or
early Roman era.
Two years ago, Mr. de Morgan, the energetic director
ofthe department of Egyptian antiquities, determined to
clear the temple of the sand in which it was entombed.
The work was carried on actively, and the result has
been the disinterment of one of the largest and stateliest
of the temples which still exist in the valley of the Nile.
It has sprung, as it were, out ofthe sand at the touch of
a magician's rod, and we have discovered, to our sur
prise, that the portion of the temple previously visible
was but a fragment of the whole edifice, and that deep
underneath the ground on which we trod were vast halls
and corridors, and brilliantly painted columns and walls.
In front of the main body of the temple, and overlook
ing the Nile, was a stately terrace, in the center of which
rose an altar large enough for the sacrifice of an ox.
From the terrace we enter a corridor which runs around
the three other sides of the building, and the southern
and northern walls of which are decorated with car
touches, each containing the name of a foreign country.
These foreign lands were supposed to have been con
quered by Ptolemy Auletes, — a prince who, so far from

Research in Egypt. 123
conquering any country, really lost the possessions he
had inherited, — and they are little else than a medley of
all the various countries and peoples which former kings
of Egypt had claimed to have subdued. Among them,
therefore, we have names which had long since disap
peared from history, and were preserved only on the
monuments of a Thothmes or a Rameses.
There are two names, however, which have never
before been found on any Egyptian monument, and
which possess a special interest for the reader of the
Bible. One of these is Kaptar, the Caphtor of the Old
Testament ; the other is Kasluhet, the Casluhim of
Genesis 10 : 14. The names of Caphtor and Casluhim
have given rise to many conjectures and speculations,
which the discovery at Kom Ombo shows to be baseless.
We now know that the biblical spelling of the names is
exact, and that the attempts hitherto made to explain
them must be given up. The name of Kaptar, or Caph
tor, ends the first line ofthe list in the southern corridor,
and is preceded by those of Persia, Susa, Babylon, and
Pontus. The spelling of the two latter names is espe
cially noteworthy. Pontus is represented by Punt,
which in the days of the Pharaohs denoted, not a dis
trict of Asia Minor, but the coasts ofthe Red Sea; while
Babylon is written Balbal, with an evident play on the
Semitic battel (" to confound "). Kasluhet is the fifth
name in the second line of the list, which begins with

124 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
the people of the Sinaitic peninsula and Syria, and imme
diately after it comes the name of Zoar. It may be
added that in the northern corridor we find the name of
Kana'n, or Canaan.
The excavation of the temple of Luxor has also re
vealed a geographical name well known to us in the
pages of the Bible. In front of the northern pylon or
entrance of the temple, Rameses II, the Pharaoh of the
Oppression, erected six colossal statues of himself, and
recent excavations have shown that on their bases he
caused to be engraved the names ofthe distant lands his
armies had overrun or subdued. Among these names is
that of Moab, — the earliest example of its occurrence
outside the pages ofthe Old Testament.
Quite as interesting is a discovery recently made by
Professor W. Max Muller in a papyrus which was written
in the age of Rameses II. The papyrus contains a sar
castic account of the misadventures met with by a mili
tary commander when traveling through Palestine, and is
generally known as " The Travels of the Mohar." Here
the scribe scoffs at the Mohar for not having seen " Kir-
jath-anab near Beth-Thupar," as well as " Adullam and
Zidipusa," the last of which is placed by Shishak in the
south of Judah. Thupar corresponds phonetically with
the Hebrew sopher (" scribe "), and a careful examina
tion of the text has shown Professor Muller that the
name is preceded by a character which ideographically

Research iu Egypt. 125
denotes " scribe." When we remember that in Joshua
11 : 21 and 15 : 50 Anab is associated with Debir, or
Kirjath-sepher, it seems clear that the Egyptian writer
has interchanged the synonymous terms kirjatli (" city")
and bcth (" house "), and that the towns he refers to are
Beth-anab and Kirjath-sopher. The fact is important,
as it is the first mention yet discovered, on a contempo
raneous monument, of the famous Canaanitish city which
was destroyed by the invading Israelites. Moreover, it
proves that, although the Masorites were wrong in
making the second element of the name seplicr (" a
book "), they were right in the general signification that
they gave to the name. Kirjath-sopher was " a city of
scribes," and therefore one of those centers of Canaan
itish literature and culture which the Tel el-Amarna
tablets prove to have existed there. The attempt to
give another signification to the name, and so to explain
away the testimony it bears to the literary character of
the Mosaic age, has thus shared the fate that it deserved.
But it is not only among the monuments of the Pha
raohs and the Ptolemies that Egyptological research has
been busy. The Egyptian tombs and ruined monas
teries have been yielding up Greek papyri and early
Christian documents of the highest value. At Howara
in the Fayyum, Mr. Petrie found that the cartonnage
of the mummy-cases was composed of fragments of in
scribed papyri, doubtless the contents of the waste-paper

126 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
baskets, which some undertaker had bought. The dates
given on many of the papyri show that the papyri belong
for the most part to the reigns of the second and third
Ptolemies, and that they are therefore the earliest Greek
manuscripts known to exist. From a tomb in the neigh
borhood of Assiut have come other Greek papyri, be
longing to the first century after the Christian era, which
have restored to us some of the lost masterpieces of
antiquity. Christian literature is represented principally by the
fragments of a Greek version of the Book of Enoch, and
of the apocryphal Gospel of St. Peter, which have been
discovered at Ekhmim. The fragments prove what had
already been suspected, that there were two Greek ver
sions of that curious apocalypse, the Book of Enoch, as
they present us with a text which differs considerably
from that from which the Ethiopic translation of the
book was made. The questions raised by the Gospel of
St. Peter are still subjects of discussion, and would re
quire too much space to be adequately treated here ;
there seems little doubt, however, that the Gospel is of
comparatively early date, and that it displays Docetic
tendencies. Thus the cry of Christ on the cross is
transformed into, " My power, my power (*ra/«c), thou
hast left me !" The responsibility, too, for the death of
our Lord, is transferred from Pilate to the Jews.
In connection with the papyri we must not forget to

Research iu Egypt. 1 27
mention the ostraka, or inscribed potsherds, which were
employed for the registration of the public accounts in
the Egypt of the Greek and Roman age. Broken pots
were cheaper than papyrus, and consequently the pay
ment of the taxes was registered upon them, usually in
Greek, more rarely in demotic. At times other matters
are noted upon them, such as letters, lists of persons who
were subject to taxation, records of the height of the
Nile, and the like ; and one from Karnak, of the time of
Augustus, which is now in my possession, has upon it,
" O Isidorus, when you come please bring with you the
commentary on the first book of the Iliad." After the
conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity, ostraka
were used by the Coptic monks for making extracts from
sermons. The oldest Greek ostraka belong to the reign
of Ptolemy Physcon, and, among them, my collection
contains some from Karnak, which show that the office
of tax-gatherer for the sacred domain of the temple of
Amon was held at the time by a Jew, Simon, the son of
Eleazar. Simon himself did not know Greek, and his
accounts were consequently written out for him by one
of his sons. But, as might have been expected, a Jew
who farmed the taxes for a heathen temple was not
likely to continue in the faith of his forefathers, and it is
therefore not surprising to find that his son, who suc
ceeded him in his office, bore the Greek name of Philo-
kles. The history of the family illustrates that Helleni-

128 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
zation of the Jews which went on so rapidly under the
earlier successors of Alexander the Great, and threatened
at one time to obliterate altogether the Jewish religion
and race. It was only the Maccabean revolt which
saved Israel, and brought the nation back to a remem
brance of the mission to which it had been called.

DISCOVERIES AND RESEARCHES IN ARABIA.

DISCOVERIES AND RESEARCHES
IN ARABIA.
BY PROFESSOR FRITZ HOMMEL, PH.D.
Until lately, it has been the general opinion that the
inscriptions found in South Arabia by travelers in the
last decennaries did not date farther back than about
100 B.C. Only the mention of the Sabean Ita'amara in
the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sargon led the
late Frangois Lenormant to the belief that one of the
princes of Saba, Jatha'amir, known from inscriptions,
must be identical with him ; that, at least, both names
must be the same. This observation of Lenormant
resulted in the Sabeists, not long after, drawing the
inference of the date of composition of the oldest Sabean
royal inscriptions. The attention of Oriental scholars
had been since then more closely directed to ancient
Arabia ; and this became still more the case when an
Austrian explorer, Dr. Edward Glaser, who since 1882
has made four journeys to Arabia, brought not only a
large number of new inscriptions from there, but also
tried to prove that a whole series of inscriptions, the so-
called Minean, had to be placed before the Sabean. 131

132

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

According to this assertion, the beginning of our in
formation on the civilization of South Arabia, as derived
from inscriptions, is to be moved backward to the mid
dle of the second millenium before Christ. This suppo
sition, although so far not refuted, is still opposed by
several scholars. Yet it is the lasting merit of Glaser's
researches into the archeology of South Arabia to have
placed the important part Arabia played in the history
of the ancient Semitic nations in the proper light by
means of inscriptions, the Old Testament, cuneiform in
scriptions, and the classics. He did this in his sketch
of the " History and Geography of Arabia " (Vol. II.
Berlin, 1890). Of the first volume, treating of the his
tory of Arabia, unfortunately only the first part has been
published. Glaser has not only distinguished himself
by it as an intrepid and fortunate explorer, but also as a
scholar who understands how to treat his material in an
ingenious and clever way.
But, much as has been done in the last ten years
by Glaser's activity in exploring South Arabia, a great
deal more could have been accomplished if he had been
better sustained financially. With Glaser's incompara
ble knowledge of the country and its people, not only
Marib (the ancient Saba), but also Ma'in and Shabwa,
would have been searched for new inscriptions, if he had
had the necessary means. Our limited knowledge of
the ancient history of Arabia would have been completed

a*1

South Arabian inscription from San'a-

134 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
with some trifling omissions, and much that we can now
only guess at would have been proved in detail.
Before giving to my readers a sketch of the most
important results of Glaser's journeys and works, I
would point out, in connection with the study of the
Bible and cuneiform inscriptions, several facts which
have hitherto received little or no attention. The im
portance of Arabian civilization before the Christian era
will be put in a still clearer light by them.
It had been supposed, for a long time, that the coun
tries Magan and Milukh, often mentioned in the cunei
form inscriptions, were to be looked for in Arabia. In
the second (the geographical) part of his sketch Glaser
has proved beyond doubt that Magan is that part of
Arabia bounding Babylonia (on the Persian Gulf), and
that Milukh represents northwest Arabia (to the penin
sula of Sinai, but not including it). These two domin
ions, including the whole northern part of Arabia, have
always been, even in remote antiquity, in close connec
tion with Babylonia, — a fact clearly brought out by the
inscriptions found by de Sarzec in Tello.
Even the ancient king of Sirgulla, Ur-Ghanna,1 prides
himself on having brought from Magan all kinds of kish-
kanft trees ; namely, palm-trees. These are the same
trees called, later on, musukkau, and, by way of Babylo
nian popular etymology, also mis-Magan (" tree of
1 Most Assyriologists read this king's name " Ur-Nina." — THE EDITOR.

Discoveries iu Arabia. 135
Magan "). Yea, King Naram-Sin of Agadi, who proba
bly lived not long after Ur-Ghanna, and had led an
expedition against Magan, brought, among other things,
a beautiful vase of alabaster as booty. A still more im
portant part Magan and Milukh played at the time of
the renowned priest-king, Gudea of Sirgulla. As Magan
was the principal place whence Gudea brought the
diorite (jtshu stone) which he used for his statues, it is
also mentioned with Milukh, Gubi, and Nituk (Dilmun,
in the Persian Gulf) as producing different kinds of hard
wood used for shipbuilding, while Milukh was especially
noted for its ushil wood and its gold dust. The latter
was also obtained from the Khakhum Mountains ;
namely, Khakh, southeast from Medina. As the Babylo
nians designated Magan also as the Copper Mountains,
and, as the country neighboring Magan is Mash, which
plays such an important part in the " Nimrod Epic," and
forms the high plateau of Central Arabia, the assertion
that the Copper Mountains of Kimash ("land of Mash")
are identical with the Mash Mountains seems not too
bold. The entrance gate to this dark and dreary mountain
region, which Nimrod had to pass in order to reach the
" Isle of the Blessed," the abode of his ancestor Noah,
was guarded by the fabulous scorpion men. "The Gate
of his Ancestor " (Abul-abi-shu) was the name given to
these mountains by the Babylonians. They have this

136 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
name even in the inscriptions of Gudea (Sumerian,
Ka-gal-addd). According to the cuneiform inscriptions,
Milukh was also famously known for its precious stones,
especially the samdu stone, or the shoham of the Bible.
Altogether, the parallelism of Milukh and Havilah, as
already pointed out by Glaser, seems striking : Milukh
with its products of gold dust, samdu stones, and ushii
wood, and Havilah with its gold, shoham stones, and
bedolakh. From all this it follows that since ancient times East
and West Arabia, as far south as the Tropic of Cancer,
and the Westland, Martu, which bounded Milukh on the
north, were under the influence of Babylonian civiliza
tion. The mountains of Martu, called Tidanum, whence
Gudea got his alabaster {shir-gal), are doubtless identi
cal with the Dedan of the Bible and of the Minean in
scriptions, and were situated east of Edom and in the
eastern part of the Jordan region.
Several hundred years later, about 2000 B.C., we find
in Babylonian history a remarkable fact, qualified to cast
a new light on Semitic history. While, in South Babylo
nia, first a Semitic, then an Elamite, dynasty ruled (at
Larsa), which also claimed the supremacy over North
Babylonia, Arabian princes had succeeded in gaining
firm foothold in the city of Babel. Finally they united
the whole Babylonia, and brought it under their scepter,
until they were overthrown after three hundred years, —

Discoveries in Arabia. 137
most likely by the Elamite-Kassite king Gandas. This
represents the well-known first Babylonian dynasty,
which was at its height under the renowned King Kham-
murabi, and whose last king but one was Ammi-zaduga.
As several of the eleven names had a good Babylonian
sound, especially that of the fourth king, Apil-Sin, and
that of the fifth, Sin-muballit, nobody except Pognon1
had so far ever doubted the Babylonian origin of this
dynasty, until, some years ago, the well-known English
Assyriologist Sayce pointed out the identity of the name
of the last king but one, Ammi-zaduga, and that of the
South Arabic (Minean) name Ammi-saduq, whose second
element, sadug, belongs to a root which is not found in
Assyrian. Sayce (" Records of the Past," new series,
Vol. III. 1890. Preface, p. x ff.) besides pointed out the
fact that the bilingual list of kings (Rawlinson's " Inscrip
tions," Vol. I, pi. 54) translates the name Khammu-rabi
by Kimta-rapashtu (" Extended Family"), and the name
Ammi-zaduga by Kimtu-kittu (" Just Family "), — thus
khammu as well as amini by " family." Sayce adds, as
his opinion : " It is more probable that in both instances
it is really the name of a god," referring to such names
of the Old Testament as Ammi-el, Jerob-'am (" Am
1 As early as 1887 this French scholar Pognon claimed Arabian (or Ara
mean) origin for this dynasty (Journal Asiatique, Vol. XI, No. 3, pp. 543'
547). Compare Professor Hommel's own recent statement in Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenl'andischen Gesellschaft, Vol. XLIX, p. 528, Nachschrift.
— The Editor.

138 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
fights;" comp. " Jisra-el "), and the Kedraeo- Arabic
name of the king Ammu-ladin. Although the list of
the eleven kings of this first dynasty, from Number III
to Number XI, has the addition " son of the preceding,"
Sayce concludes that the first five kings must have been
of national Babylonian descent, but that from Khammu-
rabi " nomad Semites on the frontiers of Chaldea " had
seized the dominion.
But Sayce's assertion that we have to deal here with
Arabs had to be considered as doubtful, or, at the
most, as only possible, until it could be proved that the
respective names, which are also found with the He
brews, were really Arabic, and not rather of Canaanite
origin. As we are since informed by Mr. Pinches that
the father of Ammi-zaduga called himself " king of the
large country of Martu," that is, the Westland (com
prising in first line Palestine and Syria),1 it seems most
likely that the dynasty of Khammu-rabi was of Canaan
ite origin.
Notwithstanding this, it can be proved now in detail
that Sayce has recognized with the insight of genius the
correct facts. Not only, however, the kings beginning
with Khammu-rabi, but the whole first dynasty, are of
Arabian and not of Canaanite origin. In the first two
names, Shumu-abi (" Shem is my father ") and Sumu-
' Khammu-rabi was also king of Martu (comp. H. Winckler, Altori-
enta/ischc Forschungcn, pp. 145, 198).

Discoveries in Arabia. 139
la-ilu (" Is Shem not god ? "), we observe the same cir
cumscription of the name of a god so frequent in the
inscriptions of South Arabia ; for example, in the name
Sim-hu-riyami (" His name is my glory "), Sim-hu-'ali
("His name is sublime"), Jada'-sim-hu (" He knows his
name," name of a god of Harim, comp. the Hebrew
Shem-jada', Num. 26 : 32, and first of all Shemu-el, "His
name is God," Samuel). The name of the patriarch
Shem is most likely also only an abbreviation of a
proper name, composed with Shem = god. The third
name, Zabium, is Arabic, evident by the closing m, the
so-called mimation, and, in fact, occurs in inscriptions
from South Arabia (for example, British Museum, 25, 6),
as well as in the lists of the genealogists of North
Arabia ; the significance is " warrior." In regard to the
sixth name, Khammu-rabi, there exists a whole series
of equally formed names of contemporaries, as Samas-
rabi, Sin-rabi, Ramman-rabi, etc. Either these names
signify " Samas, Sin, Ramman," etc., " is my lord," or
" is great " or " multiplied." In both cases, the mode
of expression is Arabic, as the name Jarbi-ilu (the
Babylonians would say Irbi-ilu), a name of the same
epoch, proves. That the Babylonians themselves con
sidered this element rabi to be of foreign origin, proves
their translation of the name Khammu-rabi by Kimtu-
rapashtu. Still more interesting is even the first element
Khammu, which, according to the analogy of the other

140 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
names composed with rabi, must be regarded as the
name of a god. Already the existence of an ancient
Semitic god Am (with a/in, Babylonian pronunciation
Khammu) has been quite correctly inferred by Sayce.
To settle this question absolutely, Glaser informs us
that, according to his newly discovered Catabanian in
scriptions, written in the Minean dialect, the principal god
was called Amm, in consequence of which the Catabanes
were called " children of Amm " {walad 'Amm) by the
Sabeans. The signification of Amm, the name of this
god, is " uncle." To the ancient Semites, god was their
father (abu), uncle {ammu and khdlu), and their cousin or
beloved one (dddu), in one person. Thus the other
names with ' x amini (" my uncle "), — for example, in He
brew, 'Amml-el (" My uncle is god"), — which, however,
also originate from the ancient Mineans in Arabia, where
they were understood and preserved the longest.
Here belong the names of the ninth and tenth kings,
Ammi-satana and Ammi-zaduga. We must not be sur
prised that (according to the analogy of Khammu in
Khammu-rabi) we do not meet with Khammi, even in
these names. The Babylonians rendered the West Se
mitic ajin either by kh or by a spiritus lenis (or, aleph)
only. Thus we find in a contract tablet one and the
same name, Abdi-ilu, written in the beginning Ab-di-ilu,
and, farther on, Kha-ab-di-ilu (Pinches, " Collection of
Sir Henry Peek," No. 13, time of King Zabium).

Discoveries in Arabia. 141
The seventh name, that of the son of Khammu-rabi, is
Samsu-ilu-na ; namely, " Samas is our deity." In Ba
bylonian, this name would be Samsu-ilu-ni (as, for in
stance, Samas-abu-ni, "Samas is our father;" in Canaan
ite it would be Samsu-ilenu. Only the Arabs would
say ilu-na for " our god." The names of the last three
kings (Ammi-satana, Ammi-zaduga, and therewith also
Samsu-satana) having already been examined, there still
remains the name of the eighth king, Abishu, or Ibishu.
The complete writing of it is Abishu'a (A-bi-i-shu'-u-a),
(British Museum, 80, 11-12, 185. Winckler, Altorienta-
lische Forschungen)} This name, it is true, is also met
with among the Hebrews as Abi-shu'a (great-grandson
of Aharon), but in regard to its formation it can only be
understood as Arabic where in the inscriptions it is ren
dered as Abi-jathu'a. The Arabian prince whose like
ness we have in the well-known representation of a tomb
of the twelfth dynasty, is also called Ibsha', or Absha'.
The thirty-seven richly dressed Amu (namely, wor
shipers of Am) who accompanied him offer eye-paint or
mesdem, also a special product of Arabia {itlunid, stibium)}
1 This writing of the king's name is often found on his tablets in the museum
of the University of Pennsylvania. — The Editor.
2 Glaser has identified the Kham [Ham] of the biblical List of Races with
the 'Amu of the Egyptian inscriptions. From this it would follow that the
Hebrew Kham, arisen from the Babylonian Khammu, goes back to the
South Arabic 'Amm. This casts a very interesting side-light on the place of
origin of the earliest Hebrew stories.

142 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Later, at the time of Assurbanapal, we meet with the same
name once more, being that of a prince of the Kedarenes,
but, in the more Aramaic pronunciation, Abijati'.
Not only are the names of the kings of the first Baby
lonian dynasty purely Arabic, but we also find, as it is
natural to expect, in the contract tablets dating from that
period, a whole series of names of private persons of pure
Arabic origin. Such names as Ya'zar-ilu, Natunum, Sa-
masriyami, Jarbi-ilu, Jakbar-ilu, Jakhziru, Makhnubi-ilu,
Makhnuzu, Jamlik-ilu, Jadikhum (J^T), etc., are recog
nized at first sight as pure Arabic, and not Babylonian
formations. It is of no use to -shake the head and to be
astonished. We have to deal with the irrefutable fact
that the most renowned dynasty ofthe Babylonians, the
kings under whose rule Abraham lived (for Amraphel is
Ammu-rapalt, as the Babylonians remodeled the origi
nally Arabic name Khammu-rabi), were of pure Arabian
descent. This makes it comprehensible that old Babylo
nian words (probably already before Khammu-rabi's
time) are to be traced to the Arabic ; as, for instance,
sattukku (sacrificial offering), Sumerian sa-dug to the
Arabic sadaqat) But, on the other side, it becomes
clear whence in the very oldest Arabic idiom, that ofthe
Mineans, whose empire flourished, according to Glaser,
before that of the Sabeans, certain radical linguistic in
fluences originated. They can be traced only to Babylo-
Compare Winckler, Altoricntalische Forschungen , p. 183.

Discoveries in Arabia. 143
nia. To such influence must be referred the fact that the
Mineans always used the causative form sakbal instead of
hakbal, and the suffix of the third person su instead of
hu (in the same way, in the plural, sum instead of hum) ;
also that among their gods they also have Athtar and
Sin, deities of pure Babylonian origin ; that they reckon
according to eponyms, and render the word to write, not
by the West Semitic word katab, but by the Babylono-
Assyrian shatar. Their alphabet, an older sister of the
Phenician, was probably also formed according to Baby
lonian models (which, for other reasons, I had already
formerly believed).
Considering these facts, the magnificent researches
and discoveries of inscriptions by Edward Glaser in
South Arabia are presented in an entirely new light, and
enter into the foreground of our interest for biblical and
Oriental antiquity. Although at present we cannot
state whether as early as the time of Khammu-rabi a
Minean empire existed, and from which part of Arabia
its dynasty came, nevertheless, from a study of the
proper names we can draw the result that, even at that
period, an Arabian civilization existed equal to the
Mineo-Sabean. The fact also that Khammu-rabi and
his successors were at the same time kings of the West-
land, deserves our attention. Through Glaser again we
know that the Mineans had extensive commercial inter
course with Ghaza and Edom (Dedan), and Dedan

144 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
(Tidanum) the old Babylonians considered a part of
Martu. The unlucky expedition of Kedor-laomer (at
the time of Khammu-rabi, who himself was a vassal of
the Elamite king) was directed to the district of the
Dead Sea, and to Elat, — that is, the territory of the
Dedanites. It was Amiaud's supposition already that
Magan, the old name for Eastern Arabia, was possibly
only the Babylonian rendering for Ma'an (Ma'on of the
Book of Judges, chaps. 10, 12). But Ma'an is in all
probability but an older form of Ma'in. Be it as it will,
a country which gave a whole dynasty, attended with so
many other things, to ancient Babylonia, and which itself
vice versa was influenced from there for millenniums, a
country which, since ancient times, had the most cordial
connections, even with the people of Israel,1 deserves our
whole interest, even in its later development.
Almost everything that we possess in the line of new
and important inscriptions, since the acquisition of the
so-called Osiander inscriptions in London, and the un
fortunately often unreliable copies of Halevy in Paris, we
owe to the four exploring tours of Edward Glaser to
Arabia. This is especially true of his third in 1888, and
the fourth from September, 1892, to spring, 1894.
1 I do not refer here only to the well-known episode of the Queen of Saba's
visit to King Salomo, but, first of all, also to the close relation which con
nected the Flebrew Moses, educated in Egyptian wisdom, with the Arabian
priest-king, Jetro ben Reghu-el, of Midian (in South Arabic something like
Watran bin Radwa-il.) Beginning with that period, the South Arabic proper
names referred to, and many other things, seem to have entered into Israel.

Dr. Edward Glaser, accompanied by the Arab shaykh Naji ibn Muksin,
ofthe tribe Al Tu'aiman, and his nephew.

146 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
On account of the remarkable place where they were
found, the numerous, but unfortunately mostly fragmen
tary, inscriptions copied by Julius Euting at el-Oela, in
Northern Arabia, in 1884, and afterwards edited by D. H.
Muller, of Vienna, must also be mentioned. Their real
significance, however, was set forth later by Glaser (in
his sketch, Vol. II). A part of these fragments, like most
of the inscribed stones obtained by Glaser on his second
journey (1885), and afterwards sold to the British Muse
um, belong to the texts written in the Minean dialect,
which, on account of their linguistic character, and prob
ably also the time of their composition, must be regarded
as older than the Sabean, and, according to Glaser, reach
even into the second millennium before Christ.
Through another portion of the fragments from which
Euting took squeezes, we get acquainted with the so-
called Lihyanian inscriptions, which present an entirely
new style and manner of writing. Their language ap
proaches closely the later written dialect of Northern
Arabia, but has still the article in the older form lian-
(or ha-), almost identical with the Hebrew. The writing
is a variety of the alphabet used in Southern Arabia, and
the people are the banii Lihyan, also mentioned by the
Arabian authors. These lived, as Glaser has correctly
stated, originally in the east of Arabia, whence they
probably also brought their writing; then, between the
decline of the Nabatean Empire and the appearance of

Discoveries in Arabia. 147
Muhammad, perhaps about A.D. 300-400, they founded
a little empire in northwestern Arabia, until finally (in
the neighborhood of Mecca) they were absorbed by the
well-known tribe ofthe Hudhailites.
But let us return to Glaser's journeys, the third of
which will be always memorable for his visit to Marib,
the ancient capital of the Sabeans, which he made in
March, 1888, and lasted five weeks. Before him, only
two Europeans had successfully accomplished the dan
gerous trip from San'a, the seat of the Ottoman governor,
to ancient Saba, three to four days' journey distant, and
quite beyond the reach of Turkish authority. These two
were Mr. Arnaud, a French apothecary, who, in 1843,
stayed for three days in Marib, and copied there some
dozens of smaller inscriptions; and Professor Joseph
Halevy of Paris, whose sojourn in Marib in 1871 lasted
but six hours. It was reserved for Glaser to get fully
acquainted with the famous Sabean metropolis, where he
remained for more than a month as the guest of the
sheriff of Marib, and whence he brought a rich collection
of about three hundred inscriptions. In the first part
of his sketch (Vol. I, History), distributed among the
members of the Oriental Congress at Stockholm, but,
unfortunately, not yet published, Glaser spoke of the
most important results of his third journey, and espe
cially of his visit to Marib. This report attracted at that
time much attention, and I am glad to be able to state

148 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
here that before long the first (historical) part of his
sketch will be completed.
The most interesting of the numerous texts from Marib
and its nearest surroundings, and at the same time the
longest of all inscriptions from South Arabia hitherto
known, are the so-called Sirwah inscription, written at
the end of the rule of the Sabean priest-kings (about
700 B. C, or perhaps a few centuries earlier), and the
two steles referring to the famous dam of Marib, the
second of which contains also new historical dates, and,
being dated itself, can be regarded as the latest Sabean
inscription (A. D. 542). It consists of not less than a
hundred and thirty-six short lines, and informs us of the
successfully suppressed revolt against the Ethiopic rule
then established in southern Arabia (since A. D. 525),
and in connection with this fact of a rupture of the dam
just mentioned, which was built about a thousand years
earlier. The Ethiopic king of whom the inscription
speaks, Ramhus (or Ramhis), was so far not even nomi
nally known, although the name of his viceroy, Abraha,
who is also mentioned in the inscription, was familiar to
scholars. Besides, we are informed that when peace was
concluded with the rebels, the two then predominant
powers, Rome (Byzantium) and Persia, and their North
Arabian vassals, the prince of the Ghassanides, Harith
(Aretas) bin Gabalat, and the king of Hira (on the
Euphrates), al-Mundhir, who is mentioned so frequently

Discoveries iu Arabia. 149
in the old Arabic poems from the time before Muham
mad, were represented by ambassadors. Like several
other post-Christian inscriptions, partly known before
Glaser's journeys, this text is dated according to a so far
unknown era, which various scholars had supposed to
be the era of the Seleucides. The year of this era men
tioned in our inscription is the year 657. The researches
of Glaser (to whom I am indebted for the present sum
mary of contents) have, however, proved beyond doubt
that the era in question is not that of the Seleucides, but
an era commencing with the year 115 B.C., and which
is probably national Sabean. • By what event it was
caused we do not know ; perhaps by the first breaking
of the dam, — an accident which, subsequently, repeat
edly occurred, and of which, even at Muhammad's time,
Arabian writers have much to tell. This incident is said
to have caused even the migration of a whole tribe, — a
thing that scarcely can have been a mere figment of the
brain. Accordingly, this inscription was written in
A. D. 542, shortly after the war which Byzantium and
Persia — or, rather, Ghassan and Hira — had carried on
against each other (in A. D. 540).
This inscription, which, from its Christian opening
("in the power of the All-merciful and his Messiah and
the Holy Ghost "), also has a certain significance for
church history, throws light upon the last period of
Sabean history. But the aforesaid Sirwah inscription is

150 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
of greater importance for Semitic antiquity. In part, it
had already been copied by Halevy, but the suspicious
Bed'ween had taken his copy away from him. Glaser,
however, succeeded in copying the whole large inscrip
tion of about a thousand words, — indeed, he even man
aged to take a splendid squeeze of it.
In different passages of his sketch (I, 62 f. ; II, 89, 166,
243, 285, 294, 435, 449, 451, 463 f.) Glaser refers, in a
more or less detailed way, to the contents of this highly
interesting inscription. According to his statements, it
was written by the priest- king (mukarrib) Kariba-il
Watar, son of Dhamar-'ali, who flourished shortly before
the period of the " kings " of Saba. His predecessor
(probably his grandfather, Jada'-il Bayyin) had already
carried on a successful war against the empire of Ma'in
and that of Kataban, in consequence of which the king
of Kataban became an ally of Saba, while Ma'in col
lapsed into ruins, or, at the most, was limited to its
former capital, Karna'u. Kariba-il prides himself on
having a number of towns of the Minean empire, among
them especially the former second capital of Ma'in,
Jathil, surrounded with walls, and consecrated to the
god Almak-hu of Saba. Several other smaller em
pires — as Harim, Nashan, etc. — are mentioned besides as
having been humiliated, and the names ofthe devastated
towns, as well as the number ofthe killed and prisoners,
are stated.

Discoveries in Arabia. 1 5 1
The fortunate discovery of this inscription, and the
study ofthe former Minean inscriptions made known by
Halevy, all of which presuppose a large Minean king
dom situated in the Gof ' of South Arabia, with the two
centers Ma'in (or, Karna'u) and Jathil, have caused
Glaser to draw a conclusion of great historical impor
tance ; namely, that, though Eratosthenes (about 250
B.C., quoted by Strabo) still speaks of four great nations
in South Arabia, the Mineans, Sabeans, Katabanians, and
Hadhramautians, "who are ruled by kings," the Minean
kingdom known from inscriptions must chronologically
be placed before the rise of the Sabean power. Glaser's
chief reason for this theory was the strange absence of
mutual mention of each other, both in the Minean and
Sabean inscriptions. If, notwithstanding this, we should
adhere to the view that the two empires existed con
temporaneously, we should have to assume, in addition,
that after the defeat of Ma'in by Saba (towards the end
of the period of the priest-kings of Saba), Ma'in suc
ceeded once more in effecting a consolidation, — a process
which naturally could not have taken place without a
thorough humiliation of the Sabean rival empire. But
neither the Sabean nor the Minean inscriptions, although
we now possess a considerable number of both, indicate
anything of such an event. Consequently we shall have
1 The long and very fertile valley ofthe river Kharid, north of San'a. and
northwest of Marib, extending from west to east for several days' journey.

1 5 2 Recent Researclt in Bible Lands.
to abide by Glaser's theory, which I, for my part, con
sider one of the most fortunate historical hypotheses.
This theory is of the greatest historical range, inasmuch
as from it it follows that, as the most flourishing period
of the Minean empire, we must consider the centuries
preceding and following iooo B.C., in round numbers
about 1 300 to 700 B. C, or, perhaps more correctly, about
1400 (or 1500) to 800 B.C. By this assumption the
civilization of southern Arabia was contemporary with
the Old Assyrian and the Middle Babylonian, as well as
with the Egyptian of the New Empire. This is at pres
ent the less remarkable, as it is evident, from what has
already been said, that there existed really, as early as
about 2000 B. C, a civilization in Arabia which must
have been very similar to that familiar to us in South
Arabia, and of which, in all probability, this latter was
only a younger branch.
In the second, the geographical, part of his sketch,
which was written and published in the interval between
his third and fourth journeys, Glaser established a num
ber of new facts of historic biblical nature which are not
directly connected with his inscriptions. The most im
portant of them, involving an entirely new conception
of the significance of Arabia for Semitic antiquity, and
radically transforming our old ideas of the Arabian
peninsula, may be briefly stated here. First of all, there
is to be pointed out what appears to me the final location

Discoveries in Arabia. 153
of the famous gold-land Ophir, which, according to
Glaser, is situated nowhere else than in the east of
Arabia, and comprises the coast of the present Bahrein
and its back land, the country of Yemama. In order to
reach it, Hiram's or Solomon's ships had to sail from
Elat around the whole of Arabia, stopping, in all proba
bility, still at a number of ports important for the trade
with India. This explains the long duration of the
whole voyage, which, back and forth, lasted three years.
Glaser proves his theory, among other reasons, by re
ferring to the numerous gold-mines in Yemama, which,
in fact, are known to have still existed in the ninth cen
tury before Christ, and reminding us of the riches of gold
in the same region (the ancient Milukha) at the time of
Gudea, about 2800 B.C. Besides, he recalls the fact
that the opposite coast of Elam (the later Persian shore)
was in ancient times called Apir, — a name identical with
the Hebrew Ophir, and in later times transferred, as he
thinks, to the coast of East Arabia, which at certain
periods was under Elamitic influence.
In connection with this, we must speak of another
very important point of Glaser's new theories ; namely, of
the correct explanation of the spreading of Kush (Kash)
as a name of nations. While Lepsius (in the Introduc
tion of his " Grammar of the Nuba Languages ") reversed
the whole matter by assuming that the Kesh (the later
Kushites of the Bible, and the Kasu of the Assyrians),

154 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
who can be traced back to the twelfth dynasty in Nubia,
were the colonists of Babylonia and Elam, Glaser pro
ceeds from the only correct view, — that in the earliest
time we know of but one people called Kash, that of
Elam, the old neighboring country of Babylonia. The
Babylonian Kassites 1 invaded Babylonia from Elam
about 1700 B.C., and founded there a dynasty which
lasted several centuries. Glaser further proves that since
ancient times the Elamites, succeeded by the Persians,
attempted to colonize East Africa, from which they
brought slaves and ivory. They went there by way of
Arabia. This throws light on several so far isolated
and incomprehensible facts of ancient history ; it ex
plains especially why, in the so-called list of nations
(Gen. 10), a number of tribes of South and East Arabia
appear once as sons of Kush, or Kosh, and another time
as descendants of Shem.2 Several other times, in the
Old Testament, we meet the name of Kush as designating
Arabia; for example, in 2 Chronicles 14, where we read
1 This is the correct name of these intruders, as Oppert rightly emphasizes,
and not Kosseans.
2 It is a similar mixture when once the writer of the List of Nations con
nects Kush with Misrayim (Egypt), and Canaan with Kham, while, on the
other side, he calls the Egyptians and the Semites (especially, however, the
Arabs) 'Amu. Both names — Kham and 'Amu — have, according to Glaser,
the same origin, meaning certainly nothing else than the worshipers of 'Amu,
as I have already pointed out in connection with the divine name 'Amu. In
this case, however, the Hebrews received their Kham through the Babylo
nians, as Kham is the Babylonian rendering of 'Amm (compare Khammu-
rabi).

Discoveries in Arabia. 155
of the campaign of the Kushite Zeraikh against Asa, king
of Judea. The Septuagint reports him to have come
with the Masonites, a tribe of southern Arabia, known
from Ptolemy, and identical with the later banu Mazin,
whom we meet in inscriptions from South Arabia under
the name of Ma'din. The numerous booty taken from
them, and comprising tents, sheep, and camels (2 Chron.
14 : 14), points in itself with necessity towards Arabia.
This is confirmed by the fact that several Sabean priest-
kings and a king of Saba have the very surname Zirrikh
(more exactly, Dhirrih). The land of Kush referred to
in the story of the paradise, around which the second
river, Gikhon, flows, is of course also a part of Arabia.
This leads us to another result very clearly set forth in
the second volume of Glaser's sketch, the chapter on
Paradise. Upon the question where the ancient Semites located
Paradise, Glaser gives us the surprising but well-founded
answer, in the neighborhood of the confluence of the
Euphrates and Tigris, on the Arabian side, There the
sacred palm of the city of Eridu grew ; there, according
to the view of the ancient Arabs, the two large wadies
of Central Arabia opened. The one is the Wady er-
Rumma, or the Gaihan ; and the other is the Wady ed-
Dawasir, — a side wady of which, in the neighborhood of
Hamdani, still bears the name of Faishan (Pishon). This
region (the mountain of Mashu) was also traversed by

156 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Gishdubar1 (Nimrod, who, perhaps, received his sur
name "the Kushite " from this fact), to reach the Isle of
the Blessed. As I have formerly discussed this very
subject in detail in the columns of The Sunday School
Times (Vol. 33, No. 49), I now leave the question of
Paradise, and also the second part of Glaser's sketch,
containing many other interesting details, and turn, be
fore I close this chapter, to the results of his fourth
journey (September, 1892, to spring, 1894), as far as
they have been published.
This last time also Glaser brought back a collection of
original monuments equal in value to those of his former
journeys (at present in the museums of Berlin and Lon
don). It has been sold meanwhile to Vienna, where it
forms a treasure of the Court Museum.2 ' By far the most
important result obtained by Glaser's last journey is the
numerous squeezes of larger inscriptions, taken from
original monuments which could never be removed, and
partly from districts never reached before by any Euro
pean. For scientific purposes they have the same value
as the originals, and it is only to be hoped that some
scientific institute or museum may soon undertake their
publication, and compensate financially, to some extent,
1 On the basis of strong arguments now read Gilgamesh by most Assyri-
ologists. — The Editor.
'L A general survey of the contents of the inscriptions on these stones was
given by me at the last Oriental Congress in Geneva (September, 1894). I
therefore refer to my paper in the Transactions of lhat congress.

Discoveries in Arabia. 157
the intrepid traveler who, for the attainment of his high
aim, sacrificed health, energy, and a large amount of
money. Among these squeezes there are especially two groups
of inscriptions which deserve our attention. For the
first time we have the authentic text of the larger in
scriptions of the Minean kings from the Gof (Ma'in and
Barakish), which only now can be fully utilized for
science, as Halevy's copies were mostly insufficient and
incomplete. Secondly, we now possess about a hundred
texts of an entirely new, and so far unknown, species of
inscriptions ; namely, Katabanian royal inscriptions,
written in the Minean dialect. They are of the greatest
importance for completing the picture which we can
draw ofthe history and civilization of South Arabia. In
the first volume of his sketch, shortly to be published,
Glaser will draw the historical results from all the new
material which we owe to his efforts. But the publica
tion of the complete wording of all these inscriptions,
and their exact paleographical reproduction, so essential
for scientific purposes, will only take place after the
squeezes have been sold.
Shall I, finally, express my own personal view on the
importance of the total result to be gained, or already
obtained, from an investigation of the Arabian inscrip
tions for the study of the Bible ? It is my conviction
that Arabia itself will furnish us the direct proofs that

158 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
the modern destructive criticism of the Pentateuch is
absolutely erroneous. The age of the Minean inscrip
tions runs parallel with that of the so-called code of the
priests. If the former are as old as Glaser believes them
to be, and the Arabian civilization, as I have proved in
the first part of the present sketch, already existed at the
time of Abraham, then the laws of the priests of Israel
are also very ancient. The best proofs for the historical
accuracy of the Old Testament traditions come more and
more from without, from the inscriptions of the surround
ing nations. For this very reason every sum of money
spent for Semitic epigraphy, whether for Assyro-Babylo-
nian excavations, or for the purchase of squeezes of
Minean, Katabanian, and Sabean inscriptions, is well
invested.

THE HITTITES.

Sc31 1
IS

THE HITTITES.
BY WILLIAM HAYES WARD, D.D., LL.D.
The question, Who were the Hittites ? is one of in
terest to the student of the Bible, but equally so, or more
so, to the student of history and civilization, since we
now know that they were one of the important factors in
the production of that civilization in which we have part.
I say that in this civilization they have some part with
us ; for it is a fact that, with all the mighty originality
of the Greek race, from which all true civilization has
descended which the world has since seen, this civilization
yet had its root in the imperfect civilizations — Egyptian,
Babylonian, Phenician, Hittite — that preceded it. Out
from the river Nile there go a thousand channels which
carry fertility to all Egypt, and this distribution of its
water is the practical value of the Nile with which the
agriculturist is concerned ; yet it is no foolish curiosity
that makes us ask what far-distant lakes and branches
contributed to produce that Nile. So the historian of
civilization will not be satisfied to study Greece itself,
and follow the course of its national development from
ii 161

1 62 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Solon to Pericles and the Parthenon, and thence follow
the dividing streams of its influence all over the modern
world ; but he will ask what went before its recorded
history, what combination of forces it was that gave
impulse to the Hellenic people, what were the crude
juices out of which the Greek ferment made wine.
Inasmuch as we inherit our civilization from Greece,
when we ask what was the history, and what the art, of
the Egyptians, the Babylonians, or the Hittites, we are
asking of our own genealogical descent, and trying to
trace our own intellectual ancestry back, not simply to
the Greeks, but to those less gifted peoples whose imper
fect civilization was the necessary condition of Greek
development and accomplishment. The last problem
that has arisen in this line of study — what we might
almost call the latest fad of the archeologist — is that
raised by the discovery that the Hittites, of whom we
first learned from the Bible, once lived, not merely in
Palestine, but occupied all that ancient cradle of human
ity, Asia Minor, and came into the closest contact with
the Greek races in that early Mycenean and Trojan
period when the civilization of that marvelous people
was forming.
In our search for our conclusions as to the race, lan
guage, history, and art of the Hittites, we have to go
to five sources, — the Hebrew Scriptures, the Egyptian
monuments, the Assyrian monuments, the Vannic monu-

The Hittites. 163
ments, and the monuments of the Hittites themselves.
We have space to consider each of these in but the
briefest way before attempting to combine their several
records and unite them in a connected whole.

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The references to the Hittites in the Old Testament
are incidental, and give little indication of the strength
of the people at a time before the Israelites returned to
Palestine from Egypt. Their ancestor, Heth, is men
tioned in the genealogical table of Genesis 10 as if he
were of no more importance than others of Canaan's ten
sons. Sidon is mentioned first, as his first-born, then
Heth, and after them the Jebusites, Amorites, and other
coast tribes ; and we are then told that Canaan's border
was from Sidon to Gaza. This list makes the Hittites
belong to the genealogical stock of the Cushites, and
puts them in Palestine, which is a very restricted field ;
and, even though we know that some of the sons of
Canaan, as the Arvadites, lived far beyond this limit, yet
we would naturally gather that the Hittites were a small
tribe, like the Perizzites, somewhere in Palestine. Such
would also be concluded from the other references to
Heth in Genesis. They are localized in Hebron, in
South Palestine, where Abraham bought the grave for
his wife from the sons of Heth. Rebekah feared that

164 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Jacob would take a wife from the "daughters of Heth,"
who are in the same connection called "daughters of
Canaan." In the time of Moses and Joshua the Hit
tites were still a small tribe, apparently, in Palestine,
feebler than the Amorites, and in the list of conquered
nations, as in that of the league which Jabin made against
the invading Israelites, mentioned after the Canaanites
and Amorites, and before the Perizzites and Jebusites.
Similarly in Ezekiel we seem to have a Palestinian
Hittite people, where we are told that Jerusalem's father
was an Amorite, and her mother a Hittite. But there
is a hint of a larger Hittite people in Judges, where we
are told that the man who betrayed the city of Luz to
the Ephraimites went to the land of the Hittites. In
David's time, Uriah, one ofthe king's chief soldiers, was
a Hittite, and so was his friend Ahimelech ; but they
may have been Palestinian Hittites. But other sugges
tions that there was a larger land of the Hittites than
that about Hebron we get where we are told of the
foreign women whom Solomon took as wives, — Egyp
tians, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and
Hittites, — as if they lived beyond the Sidonians. And
especially do we have in the story of Elisha a clear indi
cation that the Hittites were a strong foreign people,
where we are told that the Syrians fled away from their
siege of Samaria because they heard a rumor that the
king of Israel had hired against them the " kings of the

The Hittites. 165
Hittites " and the kings of Egypt. This shows the Hit
tites to be a strong people, having a confederacy of
cities, but gives no indication of their residence. In
another passage " all the kings of the Hittites " are men
tioned with " the kings of Syria," as those from whom
Solomon's merchants bought horses. These were evi-
dendy no Palestinian Hittites ; but the references to them
are so incidental and vague that they received no atten
tion until, from other sources, we learned that the main
body of the Hittites did not live anywhere about Hebron,
where Abraham found a remnant of them. An almost
certain amendment of the Hebrew text gives one other
mention of these northern Hittites. We are told that
David's census-takers came to Gilead and "to the land
of Tahtim Hodshi." The Septuagint tells us that for
" Tahtim Hodshi " we should read " the Hittites of
Kadesh." From these various indications we learn that the
biblical writers knew of a small Hittite tribe, or rem
nant, in Palestine; and we gather that there was also an
entirely different body of Hittite peoples and kings to
the north, having one of their seats at Kadesh, and
another at a yet unknown town called Luz. But were
it not for the discoveries on Egyptian and Assyrian
monuments, the references in the Bible to the Hittites
would have seemed obscure, and even contradictory.

1 66 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
ON THE EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS.
Our next, but chronologically much the earliest, source
of information about the Hittites, is from the Egyptian
monuments. I confine myself to the briefest synopsis
of these records and the very valuable accompanying
wall-pictures. We learn that the Hittites occupied the
region northeast of Syria, and, later, Syria itself, during
the eighteenth and nineteenth Egyptian dynasties.
Thothmes I, about 1600 B.C., found no Hittites in Pales
tine or Syria. They are not mentioned as taking
part in the great battle of Megiddo, fought by his suc
cessor, the mighty Thothmes III, whose armies reached
the Euphrates, and conquered the people of Naharina,
the biblical Mesopotamia, on its banks, — a people of
whose history and art we wish to know much more. He
did, however, hear of the great land of the Hittites, and
their king sent him presents, not tribute. His land was
beyond the reach ofthe conquests of Thothmes III. A
fragmentary inscription of his grandson, Thothmes IV,
has been thought to imply that his first campaign was
directed against the Hittites, but that is probably an
error. His son and successor, Amenophis III, entered
into a matrimonial alliance with the king of Naharina,
who was now, perhaps, a Hittite. His wife was a woman
of very strong character, and brought with her a large
retinue of attendants. Unlike the princess who not long

The Hittites. 167
ago married the young Tsar of Russia, she kept her
ancestral faith, the worship of the solar disk, which
appears to have been a sort of monotheism, — at any rate
a purer worship than that of Egypt. Her son, Ameno
phis IV, followed his mother's religion, and is called the
heretic king. This excited the hostility of priests and
people, and the rebellions resulted in the weakening of
the power of Egypt and the loss of its Syrian conquests,
and almost the loss of its hold on Palestine and Phenicia.
Accordingly, Rameses I, the head of the nineteenth
dynasty, found himself compelled to enter into a treaty
of peace with the great king of the Hittites, named
Sapalel, and to recognize him as a ruler of equal rank
with himself. At this time the Hittites, as we learn
from the letters written from Phenicia to Amenophis IV,
lately found at Tel el-Amarna, had come down into
Syria, and they had also taken possession of the whole
middle banks of the Euphrates, about Carchemish. It
was from this region, and from what was at this time the
Hittite town of Pethor, that the pagan conjuror Balaam
came somewhat later to curse the children of Israel,
whom Moses had led as far as the land of Moab, on
their way to Canaan.
But the Egyptian power was now rising to its last great
culmination in the reign of Sety I, and his greater son
Rameses II, who enjoyed a reign of sixty years. He
fought his most glorious battles with the king of the

1 68 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Hittites at Kadesh on the Orontes River, where he per
formed prodigies of personal valor, the record of which
he put in hieroglyphs and in pictures on the walls of his
temples. The great poem of Pentaour makes a real Iliad
of this story, dwelling long on the incident, if we may
credit it, when the king was entangled alone in his chariot,
among the Hittite chariots, and fought his way out by
himself, with the sole help of his god. The temples of
Karnak and Abu-Simbel are covered with the illustration
of the battle before Kadesh, when the Hittites were driven
into the Orontes, which flowed about their capital, and
were drowned in its waters. But somehow the wars of
Rameses II ended in a treaty of peace between the Egyp
tians and Hittites as equal powers. The Hittites held
possession of their own territory, which adjoined the
Egyptian satrapies in Palestine and Syria. Their renewed
friendship was again cemented by marriage, and the treaty
was recorded on a silver plate in the Hittite language.
The peace lasted many years, until the next invasion of
Egypt by confederate nations, when the Hittites were
drawn into the league.
It is chiefly from the campaigns of Rameses II that we
know the Hittites in their early history. We find them
first, about 1600 B. C, somewhere beyond the extreme
reach ofthe conquests of Thothmes III, and so nowhere
in Syria, nor near the middle Euphrates. We watch
their descent into this fertile region during the troublous

The Hittites. 169
times about the end ofthe eighteenth and the beginning
of the nineteenth dynasty, when they captured all Syria,
and made them a strong capital at Kadesh. They are
figured by their Egyptian enemies as having a yellow
skin, — not red, like the Egyptians, nor even the lighter
red of the Syrian tribes of Palestine, nor the white of
the blue-eyed Amorites, but a light yellow. Their face
is protuberant, and they wear their hair long, with a
queue. They are not a handsome people, with their pro
truding nose and retreating forehead and chin, their
unshorn hair falling behind, and their beardless face.
It is not the easiest thing in the world to say whether
this means that they really were beardless, or that for
reasons of cleanliness they cut or shaved their beards,
and most of their heads, with a view to the same protec
tion against insect pests which made it necessary for the
long-bearded Jewish priests and kings to keep their heads
anointed with oil. We remember that Greek art generally
represents its young heroes as beardless. A bearded
Apollo or Mars is not usual. And yet it is most likely,
considering color and physiognomy, that the Hittite
figures pictured by the artists of Rameses II represent a
comparatively beardless race, like American Indians or
the Chinese. They could hardly have belonged to a
Syrian or to any Semitic type, and they most approach a
Mongolian type.

170 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
ON THE CUNEIFORM MONUMENTS.
Next we come to the Assyrian monuments. The
Assyrian records follow on where the Egyptian leave us,
with an interval of less than fifty years ; for we may dis
card, as a late interpolation, the mention of the Hittites
in an ancient book of omens attributed to Sargon I about
3800 B. C. We first find them in the annals of Tiglath-
Pileser I, who reigned 1 1 10 B. C. He found the Hittites
in their own apparently ancestral territory in Commagene
and Cappadocia, just west ofthe Euphrates in its nor
thern course, and fought many battles with them, although
he did not venture to attack their southern and nearer
capital, Carchemish, on the Euphrates. It is not easy to
say just what was their northern capital, there are so
many Hittite cities attacked, and at one time and another
captured, in Commagene and Cappadocia. With varying
success the Assyrian kings continued their long series of
wars, lasting four hundred years, until, B.C. 717, under
King Sargon, second of the name, Carchemish was cap
tured, and the Hittite power in the south came to an end,
although for a century or two longer the northern Hittites
may have lingered as a feeble remnant. From this time
the region once held by the Hittites was ruled first by
the Assyrians, and then by the Babylonians ofthe second
empire ; and these were succeeded by the Persians, after
which came the Greek domination under Alexander. At

The Hittites. 1 7 1
717 B. C, less than forty years after the founding of
Rome, more than a hundred and fifty years before the
Lydian empire of Crcesus and the Persian empire of
Cyrus ; a hundred and fifty years before the death of
Solon, the primitive lawgiver of Athens ; and less than
a hundred after the date assigned to Lycurgus, the law
giver of Sparta, who consolidated the customs of the
Dorian invaders, — the Hittite empire had ceased to exist.
At this time the ^Eolian and Ionian people who had
escaped from Greece at the time of the Dorian invasion
had established flourishing colonies, which were confined
to the shores of the Mediterranean and Black seas and
the adjacent islands, but they had not penetrated into the
interior any more than did the Phenician traders. There
was no developed Greek civilization as yet, although,
under the spirit of liberty fostered in the colonies, a new
life had begun to give promise of its great future.
The Assyrian art gives us many representations of
sieges and battles with the Hittites, especially in the
elaborate pictures ofthe campaigns of Shalmaneser II, in
the ninth century B. C, found on the remarkable bronze
gates of Balawat. But they give us no help by which to
judge of the race of the Hittites. The fact is that the
Assyrians were by no means so good artists as the Egyp
tians, and they knew how to draw only one type of face,
the difference being little more than the length of the hair
and beard, and the style of the headdress. They never

172 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
drew their foes beardless or with a queue. One cannot
tell from the physiognomy they give whether one is of
the Semitic or Mongolian stock. They had not the least
power of portraiture. We have to look to other evidence
for an ethnological conclusion.
One other very imperfect source of foreign information
we have as to the Hittites, and that is from their imme
diate neighbors to the east, the people then living in
Armenia about the Lake of Van, and who were called
Vannai. They were themselves of a Mongolian stock,
and their language was Mongolian, although written in
Assyrian characters which they borrowed from their
southern neighbors. They give us the scanty records
of kings of the ninth and eighth centuries before
our era. Two kings of Van, Menuas and his son
Argistis, conducted campaigns to the west, which car
ried them to the land of the Hittites, in a district called
Alzi, where were the cities Surisilis and Tarkhigamas,
belonging to a Hittite prince called Sudahalis. The
regions of Malatiyeh and Palu are mentioned ; and we
judge that the land of the Hittites, invaded by these
Vannic kings, stretched along the upper course of the
Euphrates. Thus briefly may be recorded the story of this mys
terious people, as it is told us in fragments by their
neighbors of Palestine, Egypt, Assyria, and Armenia,
with whom they were at war. They first appeared about

The Hittites. 173
1600 B.C., having invaded Syria and Palestine from the
far north, rose to a strength equal to that of Egypt itself,
became mixed with the predominant Syrian Semitic popu
lation, and disappeared nine hundred years later when
Sargon destroyed their last stronghold. We have found
two of their chief strongholds, — the earlier western
capital at Kadesh, on an island in the Orontes River ;
and the eastern and larger capital at Carchemish on the
western bank of the Euphrates, where it bends farthest
to the west, — yet neither of these capitals in their ances
tral home. THEIR OWN MONUMENTS.
Having taken a brief review of what the records of
other nations, the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Assyrians,
and the ancient Armenians, have to tell us about the
Hittites, we now turn to the monuments of the Hittites
themselves. The great embarrassment in this part of the study
comes from the fact that the inscriptions in the Hittite
characters and language, which are fairly abundant,
have not yet been deciphered. The first of them known
to scholars were on four stones found in Hamath, not far
north from Palestine. In 1873, in the Second Statement
of the American Palestine Exploration Society, I pub
lished exact copies of these four inscriptions, made from
admirable casts and squeezes taken by Professor John A.

174

Recent Research in Bible Lands.

Paine, who was at that time the archeologist of that
society at work in the field, and gave a list ofthe charac
ters, and proved in what direction they were to be read.
From that time to this there has been a rapid series of
discoveries of Hittite monuments, both bas-reliefs and
inscriptions. They cover the regions in which the his
torical sources already considered describe the Hittites
as living, and they extend that territory considerably in

Ground-plot and perspective view of the gate of the castle excavated at Senjirli.
Asia Minor. The old southern Hittite capital at Kadesh
has never yet been explored, and no remains have been
found there, but Hamath is near by. A French ex
plorer carried on some excavations in the island within
the lake of Kadesh during the year 1894, but with
out satisfactory results. The remains of prehistoric walls
were found, but farther labor here and on a neigh
boring mound is desired. Scores of Hittite remains
have been found in the neighborhood of Aintab and
Marash, just inland over the mountains from the Tarsus

The Hittites.

175

of St. Paul. These are nearly all in a black basaltic
stone, and in low relief. In this same neighborhood
two mounds, Senjirli and Gerjin, have been excavated,
and there have been discovered lines of bas-reliefs,
giving hunting scenes, and figures of gods, unmistak
ably Hittite. With them, however, are also some re
markable Assyrian inscriptions, and a large figure of the
Assyrian king Esarhaddon, recording his victories.
With them also are figures and inscriptions, in an
ancient Phenician character and in a language much
like the Phenician and Hebrew, which record the history
of kings whom we may call Aramean, and of the eighth
century B. C. That is, we have here the evidence of
Aramean race and culture which seem to have succeeded
the Hittite, or perhaps to have been coeval with it. This
is but the briefest account of the discoveries made by
German explorers in Hittite Cilicia.
Another great center of Hittite remains is at Car
chemish, now called Jerabis, on the west bank of the
farthest bend westward of the Euphrates. Here is a
very large mound, which has been slightly excavated,
and in which are series of bas-reliefs in the usual style
of the time, and with many Hittite inscriptions, on both
black basalt and alabaster. From the fineness of the
work, which equals the best Assyrian, we should judge
them to be as late as the eighth or ninth century B. C, —
that is, about the time ofthe sculptures of Senjirli.

176 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
We now go farther to the north, far within the depths
of eastern Asia Minor, to the ruins of Boghaz-keui and
Euyuk, where we find important Hittite remains on the
spot which the Greeks called Pterion. Here we seem
to be at the original seat and capital of the Hittites,
from which they went to conquer the south beyond Car
chemish, once even capturing Nineveh, and to the west
to Syria and Palestine. The Egyptian kings in their
wars never reached this fortress of the great Hittites.
It was, however, probably captured by the Assyrians,
although we do not know under what name. At Euyuk
are the remains of a considerable city, while at Boghaz-
keui, near by, are long lines of sculptures on the cliff
which forms a sort of gorge by which was the entrance
to the capital. There are long processions of warriors
and gods, holding standards ; and very remarkable is a
figure of a two-headed eagle.
All these remains belong to the recognized Hittite
region, such as we know it from Assyrian and Egyp
tian monuments. But this is not all. Three important
rock sculptures are found as far to the west as the neigh
borhood of Sardis and Smyrna, almost to the farthest
extreme of Asia Minor. These were well known to the
Greeks, one of them being called the weeping Niobe,
while Herodotus supposes another to represent the
Egyptian Sesostris, who never reached this region.
They are on the side of cliffs, are in the regular Hittite

The Hittites.

177

style, and are accompanied by unmistakable Hittite
hieroglyphs. They prove that the Hittite power and
influence did extend at one time or another over the
whole of Asia Minor, unless it be the northern edge on
the Black Sea. Scattered Hittite sculptures are found
at twenty other places.
One other source of information supplied by the Hit
tites themselves must be mentioned, — their engraved
seals, of which scores are known, some containing Hit
tite characters, and others figures of their gods. They
are a large addition to our knowl
edge of their art and mythology,
but it is difficult to determine their
age or locality.
Before further examining the
Hittite remains so cursorily men
tioned for the answer they may supply to the Hittite
problem, let us consider what must have been the con
dition of Asia Minor at the time when the Hittites were
in power. We want to know what was the population
of Asia Minor from 1000 to 2000 B.C. Was it Aryan,
Mongolian, or Semitic ?

So-called Hittite seal.

THE RACE.

A great deal depends on the answer to the question
From what region came the earlier migrations of the
Aryan race, and where did it originate ? The first great

178 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
Aryan migration that we know of into Europe was that
which carried the ancestors of the Celts, Italians, and
Greeks, into southern Europe. They came into the
peninsulas of Greece and Italy from the north, but it is
not wholly certain what part of Europe or Asia they
came from. Dr. Jebb and others assume that the later
Thessalian and Dorian invaders of Greece came from
Phrygia, in the neighboring western parts of Asia Minor,
and that they crossed the Dardanelles into Europe.
There is more probability in the later views that they
rather came, with their light skin and yellow hair and
blue eyes, from the colder forest-clad north. That is the
Aryan type which has been darkened by mixture of
blood with other pre-existing races. Every Aryan in
vasion of Asia Minor that we know of, from the Ionians
to the Galatians, has been from Europe, and none to
Europe is certainly known. The only apparent excep
tion is the present Armenians, who probably came into
their present territory about 500 to 400 B.C., or later,
but most likely coming south from European Russia
between the Black Sea and the Caspian. So far as we
can see, it is not likely that any Aryan race, speaking an
Aryan language, can have inhabited Asia Minor, except
on the coasts near Greece, before 1000 B.C.1 We cer
tainly know of none.
1 Among those who hold a different view from that expressed by Dr. Ward
may be mentioned Professor D. G. Brinton, in Vol. XXXIV (April 19, 1895)
of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. — The EDITOR.

The Hittites.

179

But the Hittites occupied a part of this territory as far
back, at least, as 1400 B.C., and probably long before.
It is then probable that they were not Aryans, and to
this conclusion the Egyptian pictures of them agree.
They give us a short, stout race, with yellow skin, black
hair, protuberant face, retreating forehead, beardless, and
often wearing a queue. This is Mongolian, apparently.
It is true that the
Assyrian pictures do
not resemble the
Egyptian. They fig
ure the Hittites as a
short- headed people,
often with laced boots
turned up at the toes,
but with features not
differing from those
of Syrians, Arabians,
orElamites. Indeed, Captive Hittile prince-
the Assyrian artists seem to have been able to draw but
one style of face, varying only in the length of the beard
and the shape of the headdress. They have no beard
less men, only beardless women and eunuchs.
But here the Hittite art itself aids us. As the Hittites
drew their own figure, it is short, stout, and with much
of the ugly protuberant profile that we find given in
Egyptian drawing, and often beardless. The features

180 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
are not Semitic, nor are they Aryan. They agree much
better with a Mongolian type. When we add to this
the fact that the proper names of persons and cities re
sist the attempt to reduce them to Semitic triliterals or
to Aryan roots, we may fairly conclude that they belong
to a people who spoke one of that conglomerate of lan
guages which has been called Turanian, which were
spoken by the Mongolian peoples, now represented by
Turcomans rather than Chinese.1 This conclusion is
confirmed by the fact that their next neighbors to the
east, the people of what was afterwards called Armenia,
have left us written records in cuneiform characters but
in a Turanian language. When we also recall that two
of the cuneiform letters found at Tel el-Amarna are as
yet untranslatable because written in a Turanian 2 lan
guage, and that they came from a country on the
1 It must not be forgotten, however, that, so far, we know only a few
words of the so-called Hittite language proper, and most of these words can
be connected with Old Armenian words without difficulty. It is true, all
the proper names known to us do not necessarily indicate either Semitic or
Aryan relation ; in fact, in most cases no satisfactory explanation has been
offered at all. But it is also true that they do not show any linguistic con
nection with any of the Ural-Altaic languages with which Dr. \Yard would
associate them. — The Editor.
2 Dr. Ward apparently broadly assumes that what is not Semitic or
Aryan is Turanian or Mongolian. The language of these cuneiform tablets
above referred to cannot yet be fully analyzed All that we can safely say
about its grammar is lhat it seems to admit of a re-mote relation between
the language in question and Sumerian and Elamitic ; even certain words
would admit of a comparison with Sumerian words, but also with Egyptian,
Semitic, and Indo-European words. There are many possibilities, and,
accordingly, various views held by the different scholars. — THE EDITOR.

The Hittites. 181
Euphrates at the time probably ruled by Hittites, we
have almost conclusive evidence that the Hittites were
themselves Mongolians, speaking a Turahian tongue.
They belonged to that great primitive, or next to primi
tive, Mongolian stock, represented by Iberians and
Basques in Europe, by the old Elamites and Sumerians
of Media and Babylonia, and by successive waves of bar
baric invasions, the last of which was seen in Europe
when the Turks were repulsed from the walls of Vienna,
and whose invasion in the times ofthe Huns left a terri
ble memory, when the populous north poured them
forth " From her frozen loins to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons
Came like a deluge on the south, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands."
These Mongolian Hittites, speaking a barbarous
tongue, now probably quite lost, although Paul heard it
in Lystra of Lycaonia, had their first home in the moun
tainous region of Cappadocia, in central Asia Minor.
They spread about, probably eastward toward Armenia,
certainly westward to Lydia and the coast near Sardis,
and south over Commagene, and over Mesopotamia as
far south, at least, as the mouth of the Habor or Araxes
River. This great fertile plain watered by the Habor,
where was Haran, the stopping-place of Abraham, the
home of Laban, and the later famous cities of Edessa

The Hittites. 183
and Nisibis, was all theirs, and even Nineveh was at one
time taken by them, and its gods carried captive. This
was at least as far back as 1200 B.C. About this time
they took all of Syria, and their southern capitals were
Carchemish and Hamath. Meanwhile their great cen
tral capital was in Cappadocia, in the region ofthe classi
cal Pterion, where its ruins are found. At this time the
predominant state in Asia was Babylonia, which ruled
Assyria, and had occupied Syria and Palestine. An
Elamite dynasty, that of the Kassites, now ruled Babylo
nia; and, of course, Babylonian culture spread to their
territory, carried by all the currents of trade, — for Baby
lonia supplied the world.
WRITING AND LANGUAGE.
It was the extension of their conquests to Syria that
brought the Hittites into contact and conflict with
Egypt, and that profoundly affected their civilization
and art. They gave something to Egypt, gods and
queens, but they received more. The winged disk was
adored in Egypt, but the Hittites received it, put it on
their monuments over their kings, dropped the asps,
and made it a finer, nobler emblem of the supreme God,
and passed it over to the Assyrians ; and then returned
it to Egypt as the one God of the heretic king Khu-n-
Aten. We may believe that whatever remains we have

1 84 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
of Hittite art date from after the period of Egyptian
influence. All their art, though with peculiar features,
yet shows the influence of both Babylonia and Egypt.
We can hardly doubt that the Hittite script had its
origin in an imitation ofthe Egyptian hieroglyphics. In
the time of Rameses II they engraved on an oblong
silver plate, in their own language, the text of their
treaty with Egypt ; and probably their system of hiero
glyphics was invented some time in the two or three
centuries before that, but after they first came in contact
with Egypt. We have had in our own country one
famous example of a Cherokee chief who invented a
system of writing out of an imperfect understanding of
how the English is written ; and a similar African sys
tem was created. Possibly some Hittite merchant
traveling in Egypt, or some soldier in an early con
federacy against Egypt, or perhaps some Hittite genius
at home, who had seen how the Egyptian soldiers sent
back accounts of their battles, determined himself to
construct a similar system for his own people. It was
an independent system, utterly unlike the Egyptian or
any other. We can learn something of the people from
the characters used.
They wrote almost always in raised, not incised, letters,
on stone or silver. This is very strange, and peculiar to
them. Then they wrote downwards, from top to bot
tom like the Egyptians and early Babylonians, and the

The Hittites. 185
Chinese, but only three or four characters thus vertically,
when they began again. Thus their writing is in hori
zontal lines, consisting of a succession of short vertical
columns of hieroglyphs. This, again, is peculiar and
original. Then they write boustrophedon, which means
as the ox turns forward and backward in plowing. The
characters first go one way, all facing in one direction,
and then turn about in the next line and face in the
other direction. This also is peculiar, but was later the
practice of the earliest Greek inscriptions, the style
probably borrowed from the Hittites. The old Egyp
tians did not write boustrophedon, neither did the Babylo
nians nor the Phenicians. It was a rude Hittite trick
which the Greeks soon dropped.
The Hittite characters differ very much from the
Egyptian. There are no lions or other wild beasts such
as we should expect in a warm country. There are
heads of oxen, goats, and hares. There are snowshoes
and mittens. The study of the two hundred known
characters suggests their origin in such a cold and
mountainous country as is Cappadocia. Mountains
themselves appear in their alphabet. These hieroglyphs
have been found all the way from Carchemish to Smyrna,
and are proof, with the accompanying sculptures, that
one culture, if not one language, prevailed through all
the region from Nineveh to the coasts opposite Greece.
We must believe that as early as 1000 B.C., and we

1 86 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
know not how much earlier, the Hittites were the pre
vailing people in Asia Minor, and that they ruled it in
the Pelasgic or Mycenean period, and at just the time
when the Greeks were awakening to intellectual life, and
were planting their maritime colonies all about the coast.
More than this, the Hittites probably had something to
do with the Greek alphabet. I have said that the Greeks
probably learned from the Hittites to write boustrophedon,
but that could have been only when they were just
adopting the Phenician letters. From the Phenicians
the Greeks took all but their last five letters. Where
did those five come from ? If not from their neighbors
the Hittites, we do not know whence. Greeks quite as
far off, the people of Cyprus, had got a curious syllabary
of their own, which was almost certainly borrowed from
the Hittites. Probably the last five Greek letters came
from the same source, as did certain other obscure
scripts of Asia Minor.
The reading of the Hittite inscriptions is the great
puzzle now before 'Oriental scholars. The way is not
yet clear to its achievement, although we cannot doubt
it will yet be accomplished, just as soon as we can dis
cover a bilingual inscription of any length, perhaps
before, for the cuneiform Persian was deciphered without
the aid of a bilingual. The trouble is that the language
is probably neither Semitic nor Aryan ; and such lan
guages differ so utterly in their roots that the knowledge

The Hittites. 187
of one hardly offers any clew to the decipherment of
another. The most extraordinary hypotheses have been
offered. Several enthusiasts have given full translations,
but utterly imaginative. The language has been called
Aryan, Turanian, and Semitic. It has been put into
every possible family by good scholars and bad. All we
can conclude is that neither Jensen1 is right, who is the
latest scholar to make it Aryan, nor Halevy, who makes
it Semitic ; much less those who find a key in the
Mayan or Peruvian of America, or the Japanese. First
Lenormant tried to find clews from some clay impres
sions of Hittite seals found in Nineveh, and then Sayce
got a more hopeful clew in the short bilingual of Tarkon-
demos, and in a comparison of certain Cypriote charac
ters. Yet we must admit that thus far only a very few
characters are plausibly identified, and no sentence can
be read, nor even a proper name. Professor Sayce says
he has tried every possible and impossible combination
1 The Editor holds the opposite view. Ever since Professor Jensen pub
lished his deciphering in the columns of The Sunday School Times (March
25 and April I, 1893), and in Vol. XLVIII of the Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft , he has been convinced of the correctness of
Jensen's method and principal results. The relation claimed by Jensen for
the language of the monuments in question with Old Armenian he also re
gards as an established fact. For various reasons, however, he prefers to
retain the name Hittite (coined by Wright and Sayce) or Khatish (Jensen),
as over against the proposed term Cilician (Jensen). Of European scholars
who more recently expressed ,l view in favor of Jensen's decipherment,
Schwally (in Theologische Literalurzeitung), 1895, No. 11, coll. 273-276, may
be mentioned. — THE EDITOR.

1 88 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
that has come to his mind, and that, until we can dis
cover a bilingual text of some length, we shall not be
able to read any connected Hittite text phonetically ;
although, thanks to the employment of ideograms, it
may be possible to get a general idea of the signification
of an inscription.
We must look upon these Hittites who ruled Asia
Minor as a people with a vigorous genius. They had a
peculiar art which has given something to the world,
and was a valuable teacher of Greece. The famous lions
of Mycenae were borrowed from the Hittites, and similar
lions facing each other are found in Hittite Asia and on
the Hittite seals. What is called the gitillochc, or rope
pattern, is first met on Hittite seals, and thence passed
to Greece, and is common now in ornament. The Hit
tites loved it, as Ruskin says the Greeks loved triglyphs,
and of the two I prefer the rope pattern. The Greek
forms of the sphinx came rather from the Hittites than
from Egypt, and so did the harpies and chimeras. The
two-headed eagle ofthe Hittites became the standard of
the Seljukian Turks, and afterwards of the Austrians
and Russians. The Hittites were a mediating influence
between Babylonia and Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and
Europe. Diana of the Ephesians was probably a Hittite
goddess. The Amazons seem to have been Hittite
priestesses. Dionysus and his panther were copied from
a Hittite god. The Hittites were the early- tutors ofthe

The Hittites. 189
Greeks in writing and sculpture. But the masters, the
intermediaries, passed away, and were forgotten ; and
when the Greeks went to Sardis they saw the Hittite
god and goddess on the cliff, and they called the one
Sesostris and the other Niobe. Similarly, every one for
got that the Hittites even reached Palestine, and that
the wife of a Hittite was an ancestress of our Lord. All
we know of them has been recovered since the first Hit
tite inscriptions were published in this country in 1872.
But one ancient Hittite mound has yet been examined
with any care, that at Senjirli. Half of that ancient city
has been carefully excavated. In it is a settled date, in
the eighth century B.C., for its art and inscriptions.
The art is late in style, and the inscriptions are Aramean
and in raised letters, the style copied from the Hittite
writing. Older art, apparently five hundred years older,
is found, with the physiognomy wonderfully resembling
the Egyptian figures of the Hittites of the twelfth and
thirteenth century B.C. Senjirli provides us inscrip
tions in the old Hittite and the later Assyrian and
Aramean. Perhaps in the unexcavated portion the
desired bilingual is preserved, and awaits the spade. If
not there, then in Kadesh or Carchemish, or in Boghaz-
keui, where a French explorer has just found some
cuneiform inscriptions, not yet published. M. Chantre
says these inscriptions are partly in the later Persian
cuneiform, and partly in an unknown language. But

190 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
being cuneiform, they can at least be read, which is one
step towards their being translated, and we cannot doubt
that their language is Hittite. He says that he finds
that the ruins of the neighboring capital of Euyuk are
Pelasgic, which, if true, will not surprise us by connect
ing the Hittites with the earliest civilization of Greece,
Italy, Cyprus, and the whole seacoast, on .which the
civilization of the later Hellenic invaders was engrafted.
It is now the decided tendency of scholars to connect
the Hittite civilization, and perhaps language, with those
of the long nebulous Pelasgic of Greek tradition. A
large and learned volume by the Jesuit De Cara has
just been published, entitled, " Gli Hethei - Pelasgi,"
devoted to showing the identity of the two. A large
collection of Mycenaean or supposed Pelasgic objects of
pottery from Cyprus is in the Metropolitan Museum at
New York, as well as half a dozen specimens of Hittite
sculpture. We are on the eve of great discoveries in the
early history of the world, which only await the enter
prise ofthe spade, and the spade only awaits the enterprise
of wealth intelligent enough to set it at work.

EARLY GREEK MANUSCRIPTS FROM EGYPT.

Jai
<4&l*.r>iril*t\

JAN/1 .. u*»^i,..|..

,-?r4'

riM

*-r*. | *-f w--p»*

-'-' rrv-^i '*A!*.»pL),a=r!."v».;r-sA}vV!cr ,* —
A>"rre ah ".-.¦rri-f^iijMi-f^fK.i ;.. — r
:,-:..¦ ,,.^.. „^.. . ^'r^P'-'i'v8'..-^. ¦ULi'£*~Mt"-e^\fi.*y*7

Fragment ofthe Pliaedo of Plato.

EARLY GREEK MANUSCRIPTS FROM EGYPT.
BY PROFESSOR J. P. MAHAFFY, D.D., D.C.L.
In attempting to give a general survey of the kind of
documentary evidence upon which our Greek books, and
therefore our knowledge of Greek language and litera
ture, depend, I must first seek what division or divisions
this vast and complicated subject will admit. If we wish
to call it by its official name, it is Greek paleography ;
and we had better sever it at once from the very kindred
Egyptian and Latin paleographies, for, as the earliest
Greek manuscripts we possess are often found together
with Egyptian documents, written, not only on the same
materials, but even on the same sheet, so the medieval
monks, who copied for us many Greek books, were often
men who wrote Latin, and even sometimes scratched or
rubbed out a Greek text to write a Latin over it upon
the same page. This is what is called a palimpsest.
There was a day when Greek paleography had its
battle to fight; for about the year 1600 the Jesuit Huet,
who found that a large number of charters and titles to
13 193

194 Recent Research iu Bible Lands.
property had been forged by the monks for their own
advantage, began to suspect all so-called ancient manu
scripts, and even went so far as to assert that all our
Greek classics were forgeries of the middle ages. He
must have had a very great idea of the genius of these
obscure copyists, or a very small sense of literary excel
lence, when he thought them competent to compose
Homer or Thucydides ! Still, in those days Greek
paleography had to seek for evidence that some of the
extant manuscripts, especially of the Holy Scriptures,
were older than the monks, and so beyond suspicion.
The task of paleography is now changed. We have
ample evidence of antiquity; we rather seek so to dis
tinguish the small peculiarities of ancient handwritings
as to tell their age approximately when the writer has
affixed no note of his own time. And this we can do
with wonderful certainty, because almost every century
has its own hand so distinctly that even the man who
attempts to copy older fashions can easily be detected
by his want of freedom. Years ago I was shown, in the
great library at Naples, a manuscript of this kind, ap
parently of the tenth century. After a few minutes'
examination, though I had never before seen such a
thing, I told the librarian that it seemed to me a careful
copy of an old hand by a laborious scribe of later date.
He was surprised, but then showed me, what he had
intended to conceal, a note at the end dated 1450, show-

Early Greek Manuscripts. 195
ing that my guess was correct. This anecdote is quoted
to show that the freedom of the hand, as well as the
shape of the letters, must be carefully estimated by the
paleographer. By using a good microscope, unsteadi
ness of lines will become apparent which escape the
naked eye ; and this is now well known to those who
have studied the detection of forgeries in criminal cases.
But to return to our division. It is very convenient,
on account of a curious gap in our evidence about the
first centuries B.C. and A. D., to divide our studies of
Greek paleography into those of manuscripts before the
Christian era and those after it. When we come to the
second period, we shall naturally separate them into
sacred and profane, the studies of the former being
much more complete and satisfactory than those of the
latter. As regards the gap, or want of manuscripts in
our collections, affecting the period from, say, 60 B.C.
to A.D. 100, it is a mere accident, which may be — nay,
which will be — filled up gradually by further discoveries.
The remaining charred rolls from Herculaneum, now
lying in the museum of Naples, and only occasionally
subjected, one by one, to the delicate process of unrolling,
would give us additional specimens of that date; for
though we have found there books written long before
the destruction of the town (79 A. D.), there must be
others which were then quite recent, such as are the
tracts of the philosopher Philodemus about music and

196 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
other subjects. For that Epicurean writer was not only
alive at the time, but probably living in the very house
where the library was found.
We turn, then, to the manuscripts of the time before
Christ, premising that manuscripts differ from inscrip
tions in being on papyrus, parchment, or paper, while
the latter are on stone, metal, or wood, and almost all
cut in, not written on the surface. The crowd of in
scriptions painted in red on the walls of the temples of
Dakkeh and Kalabsheh in Nubia are an intermediate
thing, but they are of little importance from a literary
point of view, and are usually, and rightly, reckoned
among inscriptions. So are the numerous accounts, etc.,
written on potsherds or fragments of limestone. We
have thousands of them painted on such terra cotta or
stone surface in Coptic or in Greek. But these also,
both on account of the patinal and on account of their
non-literary character, are commonly classed among in
scriptions. But of manuscripts all our oldest are upon
papyrus, of which the nature and manufacture has been
often described. This excellent writing-material keeps
forever in a dry climate, and can even be thoroughly
soaked in water for a time without danger to the texture
or the writing upon it, which recover again, when dried,
their former condition.
Among the extant papyri in Egyptian writing, — hiero
glyphic or hieratic, — we have some enormously old

Early Greek Manuscripts.

197

specimens ofthe "Book ofthe Dead," and even of moral
treatises, — 2000 B. C. is not an extravagant age to assign
to the oldest of these wonderful books. In Greek, how
ever, we have no manuscript older (for certain) than the
Greek occupation of Egypt by Alexander, — say, than
330 B.C. From this time (approximately) we had only
one document, the so-called "Imprecation of Artemisia,"

29°3o'

Map of the Fayyum.
now preserved at Vienna, in which a forsaken woman
invokes the vengeance of Oserapis upon the man who
has deserted her and her child. The lapidary character
ofthe writing — that is to say, its likeness to much older
inscriptions — decided the learned to place it in the fourth
century B. C. But since the Petrie papyri from Gurob
in the Fayyum came to light, which I had the privilege
to decipher and publish, the whole case is altered. In
that unique collection of fragments there are some stray

198 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
pages of the Greek classics, — two or three from the
" Phaedo " and from the " Laches " of Plato, and one
from the "Antiope" of Euripides, which were at once
acknowledged as of the same early date as the " Impre
cation." But these were book hands, very neat and
small, and in capitals, not in the cursive hand of every
day business papers.
These very interesting book hands — there are three of
them, with small but distinct peculiarities in each — are
specimens of the type of Greek books prepared and sold
by booksellers at and before 300 B.C. They are, as I
have said, written in small and separate capitals, and are
the ancient precursors, not only of our manuscripts of
the Greek Bible, but of the printed books of the present
day. For we know now that the cursive hand of the
third century B. C. was very different, almost as different
as are our handwritings from a printed page.
Among the Petrie papyri were many fragments of
private letters, petitions, complaints to officials, minutes
of business, accounts, — all of which date from about the
middle of the third century (265-235 B. C), which give us
very complete evidence of the average writing, at least in
Greek Egypt, at that day. And as the Greek population
had come together from the four winds of the Hellenistic
world, and represented the culture of every Greek city,
from Athens and Sparta down to the remotest Greek or
Macedonian colony, we have good reason to believe that

Early Greek Manuscripts. 199
in the rest of the Greek-speaking world, conditions of
writing were not dissimilar. Even since the publication
of the Petrie papyri, another great business paper has
come to light, which I may here describe more closely,
as it is the largest Greek papyrus ever yet found, as its
date is the oldest of any business document we have,
and as it has not yet been published ; so that my readers
will have the benefit of its novelty as well as its curi-
ousness. In the near future, Mr. Grenfell (of Queen's
College, Oxford) and I hope to publish it ; then it will be
the common property of all. But now it is still in our
hands, undergoing, or, rather, making us undergo, the
labor of piecing together the tattered scraps, guessing at
the missing letters, supplying the gaps, and endeavoring
to make a consistent and intelligible thing out of it. Had
it come to us whole, the labor would not have been
great ; for the writing is in the large official cursive
hands of the period just named, and, though it requires
practise to make it out, and an ordinary Greek scholar
from college would doubtless stare at it as hopeless, a
few months' habit of reading the former Petrie papyri, or
the autotypes of them, removes most of the difficulty.
The date was at first mistaken, as it required some
conjecture to fill in missing letters. But now we know
for certain that it was written out in the twenty-seventh
year of King Ptolemy Philadelphus, the best known of
the dynasty, and therefore dates from 258 B.C. The

200 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
document, which is about forty-four feet long, was rolled
up pretty tight, found by some native doubtless in a jar
in the Fayyum, and sold to Mr. Petrie. Unfortunately
the roll, which was exceedingly dry and brittle, had been

Commercial document, 257 B. C.
broken across in the middle, very likely in the struggle
to secure it among the finders; for these people now
know the money value of old papyri. So we have now
a gap in the middle of each column, — there being seventy-
two columns, side by side, so that the reader, unrolling
with the right hand, and rolling up with the left, could
always have a column before him, the writing being,
of course, at right angles with the length, or across the
roll from top to bottom. In two or three places this

Early Greek Manuscripts. 201
note is added, " Look outside ; " and when you turn over
the roll, you find on the back a sentence or two amplify
ing what is said in the text. The whole of it concerns
the farming of taxes. This state device is now almost
unknown in the civilized West. It was universal among;
the Hellenistic monarchies, and passed from them to the
Romans, as my readers well know from many allusions
in the New Testament. We have something not unlike
it in the present concession of the Sultan to his European
bondholders to levy some of the taxes in Turkey, in
order to pay the interest on the money lent by them to
the Sultan. But its real importance in old Egyptian
days lay in the fact that the king was regarded as the
real proprietor of all the lands in his kingdom, so that
all private owners owed him a rent in kind from their
produce. To estimate and to collect such a tax in wine,
oil, wheat, dates, figs, cattle, was an enormous affair; for,
after discovering the amount and obtaining it, it had to
be brought to market and sold, unless it could be stored
(as wheat was) for the feeding of a garrison in the king's
pay. Hence the crown fell into the habit of making a
contract with a private person to receive a rent from him,
and give him authority to claim, exact, and sell, all the
produce of a certain district. This was the Greek telones,
or buyer of taxes (at a public state auction), the publi-
canus of the Romans, — a most unpopular and usually
oppressive person, but necessary to the ancient mon-

202 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
archies, and liable to bankruptcy, as well as to the chance
of making a large fortune by the profits which the state
allowed him. How oppressive these imposts were in the
age of which we are treating, will appear from the curi
ous letters from two rival Syrian kings to Jews, quoted
both by Josephus and in that excellent historical docu
ment the first Book of Maccabees.1
This is the condition of things elucidated by the new
papyrus. But never yet have we had such minute detail
about the management of this sort of tax. When Jo
sephus tells us of his early namesake, who obtained from
the third Ptolemy the farming of the taxes of Palestine,
all he demands is authority to levy them, and an armed
force to support him, and all he undertakes is that he will
send the king yearly at least so much money. The tax-
farming in Egypt was only differently managed. In the
first part of the papyrus, there appear to be regulations
affecting the government officials and their relations to
the tax-farmers, and among these one seems plain, — no
government official is, under any circumstances, to bid
for or undertake the collecting of a tax. That must be
done by private individuals. The state issues a notice
that such tax will be sold by auction on such a day.
Perhaps, indeed, the price was fixed, but the state made
choice between various applicants. This point is not
clear. But when these people bid for the contract, they
1 i Mace. 10 : 25-35.

Early Greek Manuscripts. 203
were by no means allowed to exact what they could
above the rent they paid to the state. On the con
trary, the whole process was watched and guarded, so
that in the first place the state should not suffer; in the
second, the publicani should not suffer ; last, that the peas
ants should not be ruined. For this purpose the latter
parts of the great papyrus give minute directions regard
ing the growing of wine and oil throughout the country.
There is an accurate census in each district of the land
under cultivation. The vines seem not limited in either
direction. But as regards oil, the two plants which pro
duced it, the sesame and the croton plant, must be sown
in certain quantities. Even the seed is supplied, if neces
sary, by the state. The peasant is on no account to
gather his crop or press his grapes without supervision.
All the oil-presses are under the control of the publicani.
The retail price to the local dealers in oil is fixed, as well
as their profit. The whole thing is so minutely super
vised that we can only suppose the peasant so burdened
that any straining of his condition produced ruin, and so
loss to the state.
But this curious document, which is here by no means
exhausted, has already occupied us so long that I must
now proceed to a discussion ofthe remainder ofthe pre-
Christian Greek manuscripts. A large body of docu
ments, almost all from Egypt, has reached us from the
second and first centuries before Christ. One great col-
27

204 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
lection of them, now scattered through many museums,
was found in an earthen pot near Memphis thirty or
forty years ago. And this is not the only case of old
manuscripts being preserved in this way. Recently, Mr.
Petrie found in such a pot two complete and magnifi
cently written late Greek documents, the deeds of a
transfer of property between two Coptic monks ; and
my readers will no doubt remember, in the prophet Jere
miah, " Take these evidences ... of the purchase ; . . .
and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may con
tinue many days " (Jer. 32 : 14).
The great group, however, found at Memphis, con
tains the correspondence of a certain Ptolemy, son of
Glaukias, a Macedonian settler in Egypt, which is inter
esting from various points of view. The many letters he
writes and receives are dated in years running from 170
to 140 B.C. ; that is to say, in the middle of the second
century B. C. We owe most of them to the fact, other
wise unknown, that he belonged to a class of monks or
recluses who shut themselves up in the great religious
foundation called the Serapeum at Memphis, under vows
not to leave the precincts of that great temple, or collec
tion of temples, which included many shrines and hostel-
ries, like a great medieval monkery. We know that he
remained there at least fifteen years under his vow. But
his devotions did not kill his interest in worldly affairs ;
nay, rather, he must have spent much of his time in

Early Greek Manuscripts. 205
drawing up petitions to the crown officials at Memphis,
complaining of damage to his property during his en
forced absence ; applying for a post in a regiment for his
younger brother ; telling of violences committed within
the temple by Egyptian soldiers, who came under pre
tense of searching for malefactors ; sometimes (but sel
dom) thanking the authorities for justice received. He
even takes up the cause of his friends, and patronizes
twin Egyptian girls who had been appointed priestesses
of Isis in the Serapeum, and were defrauded by the
officials of their maintenance in bread and in oil ; for
many salaries were paid by the state in kind, as taxes
were collected from the peasants in produce, rarely in
money. The main outlines of this correspondence have been
given in the recent volume published by the British
Museum, with a splendid adjunct of photographs of the
Greek papyri of that noble collection. But only some
of the letters are there ; others are in Paris, Leyden,
Rome. It is interesting, also, to note that this recluse of the
Serapeum was no solitary instance of a monk before
Christendom, but that other Greeks in Egypt used this
means of escaping from troubles and dangers, and dis
appeared from their homes, to the great perturbation of
their families. Two letters are extant — one at Rome,
and the other in the British Museum — where a man's

206 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
relations complain pathetically of this treatment. I am
sure my readers will be pleased to read a version of one
of these letters. I need only premise that the man's
wife calls herself his sister, according to an old and
widely spread custom, not only among Egyptians, where
brothers and sisters might marry, but among other Ori
ental nations where they might not. There are traces
of this in our Scriptures, namely, in the fuller Esther of
the Septuagint the king raises up the fainting Esther in
his arms, and says, " What is it, Esther, am I not thy
brother ?" (Esther 5:15), and again in the Song of Solo
mon, " How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse " (4 : 10).
This by the way. Now for the letter of the deserted
wife, which is incorrectly and illegibly written, and there
fore not clear in all its details.
" Isias to Hephsestion, her brother, greeting. If you
are well, and all your condition as you like it, my prayers
to the gods are answered. I too am well, and the child,
and all in the house, living in constant remembrance of
you. On receiving your letter by the hand of Horus, in
which you explain that you are in retreat in the Sera
peum at Memphis, I forthwith thanked the gods that
you were safe, but am grieved at your not coming
home, seeing that all the others who were detained there
have returned; for since you disappeared I have been in
great straits to keep myself and the child, on account of
the dearness of bread, and I hoped that even now, if you

Early Greek Manuscripts. 207
came, I should gain some relief. But you have never
considered about coming home and looking into our sad
condition. For even when you were here we were in want
of everything, not to say when you were so long absent
in such bad times, and never sent us anything. More
over, when Horus, who brought the letter, said that you
were set free from your seclusion, I am quite in despair.
But since also your mother is very ill, you will do well,
for her sake as well as ours, to come back to the town,
unless something more urgent detains you. Good-by,
and take care of your health. Year 9, Epeiph the 30th."
This letter comes from the year 172 B.C. The cir
cumstances by which Hephaestion and others were de
tained or arrested, and from which he escaped into the
refuge of the Serapeum, are unknown to us.
Here, then, is a good specimen of the correspondence
we find. But a far larger number of our papyrus frag
ments are dry accounts, — stewards' bills, lists of persons
taxed, entries made by clerks of the royal ranks, assess
ments of property for taxing purposes. The arithmetic
in these papers is very sound, and the signs for figures
not unhandy, except that all the fractions (except %) are
supposed to have unity for numerator. This compels
them to subdivide larger numerators, and gives a series
of fractions where we use one. There is also a difficulty
about the currency, which was bimetalist (silver and
copper). These matters, however, are only of interest to

208 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
specialists. The writing of all the documents is cursive,
more or less good, according to the education and care
of the writer, but often exceedingly illegible and very
badly spelled. Our friend Ptolemy has left us some
rough drafts of his letters which are scandalously bad.
He must have had some one to help him in the carefully
revised copies which he has kept of the actual documents
he forwarded. Many a time, in the accounts, we have a
receipt signed for a farmer or for a donkey-boy, " because
he does not know his letters."
There is another group of these papers coming from a
pot at Thebes, of which I shall only note one, which is
complete, containing three hundred and eleven lines of
text in eleven columns, and giving a most careful report
(in 117 B.C.) upon a trial held concerning a house and
garden, which the plaintiff, a very old soldier stationed at
Ombos, brings against a corporation of people engaged,
not exactly in embalming the dead, but in the religious
ceremonies connected with that occupation. He says that
while his father and himself were serving, these people
took gradual possession of his premises, and even defiled
the neighborhood with their offensive business. They
reply that they had gradually acquired the property
from the co-heirs of the plaintiff, and that their trade
was not only innocent but honorable. The judges, who
are enumerated, draw up a report as perfect as any
printed in the present day, stating the case, giving the

Early Greek Manuscripts. 209
arguments of counsel on either side, citing documents in
proof of sales, and finally giving their decision against
the plaintiff. This thoroughly business-like document
does much to save us from the feeling engendered by the
correspondence of the Serapeum, that red tape was even
then rampant, and that the law's delays were even worse
than they now are. But Ptolemy had to deal with the
passive and dogged resistance of apparently guilty sub-
officials. A good many more legal documents — com
plaints, official orders — are extant, extending down to
about 100 B. C, but there, by some curious accident, they
stop. I am not aware of a single business papyrus dated
with the celebrated Cleopatra's years.
But if there be this curious gap in the every -day
writing, we now begin to have before us fragments of the
classical authors who were the favorites in education and
among the reading public. As these books are not fur
nished with dates by the scribe, we can only infer from
the character of the writing the century or half-century
in which they were written, and I will not say that mis
takes in such inferences do not occur. He would be a
bold paleographer who would assert positively that a
given fragment of Homer was written 50 B. C, and not
50 A. D. However, there is no doubt that some of the
classical fragments we possess come from the century
before Christ. So do some of the philosophical tracts
found in the charred library at Herculaneum. We know,
14

210 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
from the comparative frequency of its occurrence, that
Homer was, as we could have foretold, the book of all
others read by the Greeks of Egypt, and, no doubt, of
other lands. His poems, or the poems attributed to him,
took the place, in those days, which the English Bible

. .- ' i ¦- ~

Homer's Iliad, Book XXIII, lines 441-461.

does in Protestant nations now, but with one difference.
While our Bibles all over the world are in strict agree
ment as to the text, while we tolerate no variations in
reading without the strongest reasons, we find that the
current copies of Homer presented both slovenly, inaccu
rate, and varying texts. I have already commented on

Early Greek Manuscripts. 2 1 1
the startling variations of the oldest scrap which has been
found (in the Petrie papyri) from our now received texts.
The later pieces, some of which date from the first cen
tury B. C, seem rather to show inaccuracy and haste
than these large differences. For by this time the learned
men of the museum at Alexandria, notably Aristarchus,
whose activity reached down to about 143 B. C, had
established a critical text by careful revision and correc
tion, so that most popular copies conformed to their
views. But the copyists were ignorant, and made so
many mistakes that the careful vellum manuscript ofthe
Iliad preserved at Venice, and known to scholars as Codex
Marcius Vcnctus A, though it dates from a thousand
years later, is a far better authority for the text of any
disputed passage. I beg my readers to keep this fact in
mind, as I shall recur to it when discussing the author
ity of the early manuscripts ofthe Scriptures. In addi
tion to Homer, we know that Hesiod, Euripides, and the
orators (Demosthenes and Hypereides), were much in
use. There were also books of elegant extracts, or wise
sayings from the poets, of which specimens were found
even in the far earlier Petrie papyri.
So far as we can judge from the absence of any depart
ment from so imperfect and small a set of specimens, we
are led to think that the recent and fashionable Alexan
drian poetry, which made such a stir at Rome, and was so
largely imitated by the Roman poets, was not popular in

212 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
the co untry parts of Egypt. For, as yet, Alexandria, lying
deep under the rubbish of centuries, if not under modern
buildings, has yielded us nothing. But so far as we can
tell, there is a singular absence of scraps of Callimachus,
Apollonius, Theocritus, and the rest of this epoch of
Alexandrian work. Still more strange is the absence of
Menander, whose " genteel comedy " was certainly very
popular, and whose polished plays should have been as
common, at least, as those of Sheridan are in English-
speaking lands.
In the charred library of Herculaneum, there is, more
over, a marked absence of literary masterpieces. All that
we have discovered there as yet are tracts on Epicurean
philosophy. So much of this sort of thing has disap
pointed the labor of the unrollers, that public interest
seems asleep regarding the many untouched rolls of
the collection which still lie in the museum of Naples.
Yet we have surely no reason to assert that any one of
these blackened papyri does not contain some master
piece to which Philodemus, or whoever was the owner,
may have gone for spiritual relief after the dreary dul-
ness of his materialistic philosophy.
As regards business documents, we now find that in
Egypt a vast number of receipts for money, and other
short texts, were written upon ostraka, or potsherds of red
clay, unglazed, and of any shape. There is a whole
literature concerning these potsherds, of which many

Early Greek Manuscripts. 213
hundreds have been brought to Europe. Mr. Sayce has
a great collection of them in his boat on the Nile. But I
am not aware that they were used for any literary pur
poses. The Coptic monks living in the great necropolis
over against Thebes, where M. Naville has recently been
making his discoveries, used pieces of white limestone in
the same way for brief business notes, and many of these
are now in the British Museum. But we need not take
account of them in treating of Greek manuscripts which
regard literature.
We come now to consider the specimens of Greek
writing preserved to us from the first generations of the
Christian era. As I said before, the materials for the
century 50 B. C. to A. D. 50 are very scanty. We have
very few papyri — I am not sure that we have any — dated
during these years. That is a mere accident, which may
be remedied any day by a lucky find. We have a good
many fragments of authors such as the orators Hyperei-
des and Demosthenes, or the immortal Homer, which
may have been written then ; but in the present twilight
regarding that particular epoch, and considering that
book hands often follow older models, we do not feel
safe in setting down any of them to this exact period.
Until the discovery of the autotype process used in the
reproduction of such texts by the British Museum, there
was little use in writing about these things to the general
reader. He could not follow the argument without

2 1 4 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
having seen the originals. But now that the art of
photography has overcome the great difficulties of repro
ducing a yellow surface and a wrinkled surface without
showing shadows, any one may buy, for a moderate
price, the volumes of facsimiles published during the last
five years by that museum, and make himself as accom
plished a Greek paleographer as any of us who have
discovered and deciphered these difficult hands. For
example, the volume called " Classical Texts from
Papyri," etc. (189 1), gives a great many interesting speci
mens, along with the texts to which they belong, and is
a short and handy volume. The volume called " Greek
Papyri in the British Museum" (1893) is a larger work,
and has as a pendant a magnificent folio volume of fac
similes. This great book ought to be in every public
library in America, as in its large collection of complete
reproductions specimens of all sorts, from the third cen
tury B. C. down to the eighth A. D., may be found. But
be it understood that the late documents in the volume
are not book hands, but cursive, — letters, contracts, etc.
Fortunately we have one great document dated in the
year A. D. 78-79 (reign of Vespasian), which affords us at
least a starting-point. It is a long series of the accounts
of a land steward, which, were it not for gaps, would
give us the whole round of duties and the whole catalog
of produce on an Egyptian farm, the price of labor, the
method of keeping accounts. The deciphering even of

Early Greek Manuscripts. 215
the text as printed in the larger volume referred to
(pp. 170 seq) will show at once the difficulties of the
task. The writing is mostly in abbreviations, some of
which are only to be filled out by conjecture. Some day
a full commentary on this account will make a most
interesting and instructive volume. But the importance
of this long roll of papyrus only begins here. The three
sheets of which the remaining account consists were
presently stuck together by the possessor of them, in
order to form a long roll, on the verso or back of which
was copied out a long-lost classical text, the account of
the Athenian constitution by Aristotle ! My readers
will wonder that the recto should not contain the book,
and the verso the accounts. There are, however, clear
indications that this is not so ; for we know that writers
on papyrus preferred to write along the fibers, rather
than across them, so that in hundreds of cases, where
only one side of a sheet is used, we can assert that the
former is the front side of the paper. It was always
made by laying two layers of fibers across another at
right angles, the horizontal fibers running the whole
length of the roll on the front side, the vertical fibers run
ning from top to bottom of the roll on the back side.
From this, and also from the pasting together of some of
the accounts out of their proper order, we can say with
certainty that the writers used up the backs of old sheets
of accounts for this literary purpose.

216 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
This text of Aristotle is therefore subsequent to A. D.
78, but how many years ? Probably but a few, yet we
cannot be quite sure. At all events, we may set this
writing down as first-century writing, the accounts on
the other side being demonstrably so. And what shock
ing hands they are ! Any one who cares to look into
the facsimile (published in a separate volume by the
British Museum) will be astonished that Mr. Kenyon or
anybody else could read it. Of course, it is impossible
to enter here upon the curious problems raised by the
discovery of this text. Though it certainly represents
what Plutarch and many of the old Greek grammarians
considered as Aristotle's work, — over fifty-five of their
citations from that work reappear in the papyrus, — it is
so full of statements inconsistent with what we know
from Herodotus and Thucydides that some scholars
hold the people who quoted the book in old days to have
been deceived by a spurious title, and to have taken the
work of some second-rate and inaccurate person for that
of the " master of those that know." Such are the new
questions raised by almost every fresh discovery.
When I was in the Fayyum, in 1894, I purchased
some scraps of papyrus for our library in Trinity College.
Among them was a column (originally sixt)' lines) from
an unknown Greek novel, which seems, both to Mr.
Kenyon and to me, to date from the end ofthe first cen
tury. It is not yet published, but contains the narrative

Early Greek Manuscripts. 2 1 7
of two companion ships starting on a journey into the
sea between Crete and Asia Minor, where they were
overtaken by a terrific storm. As the narrative is in the
first person plural, the narrators were represented by the
author as having escaped. But if the writing is indeed
so early, then this form of literature, now so popular,
and of which we have several late Greek specimens

-«.m4i ^'t p^AJr

^.ov.>.>n ti

-

>-T-*J-i

».»o-. .n tn

"JWiWN

,UfS

vs-mc*, u,

v,jim .;a

ir -¦<-*•

Kjojcia*-,

¦ tfrf - ,

- --

r-AV-JJj-rfc*-

-fe»0-rT>4i..
aYx^Axo*'
»r*<jetr« :J
f-w-rttn-v^.
fl^J^HTCl-
OJj^jvJJ-O-l^
¦ ¦- m
Herondas, Poem IV, lines 53-89.
(fourth century A. D.), must have been much older than
our evidence hitherto led us to suppose.
Coming to the second century (and very possibly the
fragment just described is not older), the main document
of classical interest is the text of the satirical poet Heron
das, published by the British Museum in text (1891) and
in facsimile (1893). He gives us dramatic sketches of
low life, and in some respects very bad life, such as Swift
2 1 8 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
might have done in verse if he had not preferred prose
for his greater efforts. As studies in dialect, in the talk
of the lower classes in Cos or in Alexandria in early
Ptolemaic days, these satirical idyls or sketches are most
valuable. The hand of the papyrus is in this case a
regular book hand, and therefore perfectly easy to read
where the roll is not broken. Thus an author of the
third century B. C, whom we only knew by name and
by the scantiest citations, has found his resurrection
after a sleep of more than two thousand years !
The same thing is true to a great extent of Hypereides,
the rival of Demosthenes in eloquence, and his accuser
in the state trial which led to his disgrace and exile.
We had some few remains of him, and used to deplore
the fact that when the Turks stormed Pesth, and de
stroyed the library of Matthias Corvinus, a complete
copy of this orator's works, with Greek marginal notes,
had disappeared. Now we are recovering his speeches,
bit by bit, from papyri of the first and second centuries,
found in Egypt during the course ofthe last forty years;
so that the remains of this once great personage now fill
a small volume of Greek text, and give us the light we
sought on the further development of Attic oratory from
the lessons of its greatest masters.
The last group of specimens of this period which may
here be mentioned are the papyri found at Herculaneum.
As this town, however, was engulfed by lava and ashes in

Early Greek Manuscripts. 219
A. D. 79, — the very year when some of the accounts on
the Aristotle papyrus were being written, — whatever we
have there recovered must necessarily belong, at latest,
to the first century. But, seeing that the great majority
are works of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, who
was Cicero's contemporary, it is very probable that many
of the actual rolls were written during his lifetime, and
therefore in the century preceding the destruction of
the city. On again looking through the twenty volumes
of facsimiles published at Naples during the hundred
years ending with 1876, I was struck with the fact that
the treatises of Epicurus and of Metrodorus among them
are even in much older hands, possibly the third century
B. C, but that the Philodemian tracts, being written in
several different hands, are not, what some have sup
posed, the autographs of the philosopher himself or his
single amanuensis. There are also some fragments
which certainly look later, and cannot be dated long
before the destruction in A. D. 78. But here again,
though we have the titles of most of these writings on
the back of the roll, showing on the outside, and so the
major limit given by the author's name, and though we
often have the number of lines of the book noted beneath
the name by the scribe, — as the first printed books gave
the number of sheets, by way of security to the buyer, —
yet in no case have I found the date of the writing.
Still the whole collection is quite the most valuable

220 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
group of documents to show us the book hands of the
period about the time of Christ ; and it is much to be
desired that we could procure an autotype facsimile of
the principal hands, for no engraver, however accurately
he copies on steel, can reproduce the freedom of the
actual handwriting. It will ever be a matter of regret
that, when we did come upon an ancient library, we
found but that of a specialist, and of one devoted to the
poorest and shabbiest of the ancient systems of philoso
phy. But who knows whether among the remainder,
which is yet to be unrolled, we may not find some price
less relic ?
Although we have but few dated manuscripts from
the centuries immediately following the Christian era,
yet there are a good many scraps in cursive writing,
running from the second century onward, which came
from the great collections of the Fayyum, and are now
preserved either at Berlin or Vienna. Of these, Pro
fessor Wilcken of Breslau has published a volume of
facsimiles, with German text (1891); but his plates are of
little use to the learner, for he does not condescend to
transcribe more than a line or two of each into print,
though most of the hands are very difficult. But if we
examine the specimens of book -writing in the same
volume, — that is, the careful writing in capitals, called
(most improperly) uncials, — we find that all the dates he
assigns to them are mere guesses. Paleographers think

Early Greek Manuscripts. 221
they can see a development in this, as in other writing,
and so have attempted to reason backwards from hands
dated a long time later. But how uncertain are these
inferences ! and how can we guarantee that all the
various schools of writing in various places will develop
at the same rate? May not any scribe of the sixth
century, for example, have been able to copy a hand of
the second sufficiently well to pass muster with us as
the original ?
We are, on the whole, rather unfortunate in not pos
sessing some cursive manuscripts of our sacred books
from an early date ; for I cannot but hold that this kind
of writing is much more surely datable from collateral
specimens. It is not the least likely that any one would
copy an older cursive scrawl, though he was most likely
to do so when he found before him a stately piece of
calligraphy. But so it is that even the very early Chris
tian documents come to us in rather late books. The
Didache of the Apostles, lately found at Constantinople,
is a book not older than the eleventh century, though we
believe the composition of the work goes back to very
early Christian days.
So there is in Wilcken's Plates (above referred to, No.
Ill) a scrap from the Shepherd of Hermas. But though
the professor holds it to be a very early hand, the only
manuscript very like it is dated in the eighth century.
My colleague Dr. Bernard and I put together a quantity

222 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
of most brittle fragments, which Mr. Petrie brought from
the Fayyum, written in a fine large hand, and in capi
tals, which Dr. Bernard most acutely identified as from
the tract " On Adoration " by S. Cyril. But the very-
parallel hand of the Codex Marchalianus , beautifully fac
similed, and published at Rome in 1892, leads us to
ascribe it to the sixth century. Mr. Grenfell has just
brought from Egypt, and will publish next year in
Hermathena (the journal of Trinity College, Dublin),
fragments on papyrus of the prophet Ezekiel, which
seems to be quite the oldest piece of any part of the
Scriptures that has yet been discovered. But as I have
not yet seen the actual text, I put forth this statement
with reserve.
These are the doubts and the difficulties which I feel
around me when I come to speak of the three famous
manuscripts of our Scriptures which are the basis of
almost all our textual criticism of the New Testament.
I mean the Vaticanus, the Alexandrinus, and the Sinaiticus,
all of which are to be obtained in excellent facsimile. The
originals are in the Vatican Library, the British Museum,
and the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg, respectively.
Our best authorities have declared that the Vatican
manuscript comes from the earlier portion of the fourth
century, and the Alexandrian from the late fourth or
early fifth.
As regards the Sinaitic, its discoverer Tischendorf,

Early Greek Manuscripts. 223
was disposed, as all discoverers are, to. overrate the value
of his treasure, and to make it at least as old as the
Vatican book. But a very great authority, the late Pro
fessor Cobet of Leyden, told me that he had grave doubts
on the subject, and was disposed to bring it down to the
sixth century. This I mention as corroborating the atti
tude I assume on the question, — that of reserve as regards
these ancient undated books until we can get a certain
number of dated specimens with which to compare them.
There are good internal reasons — that is, the divisions
into sections and references to the Eusebian canons — for
dating the Alexandrian manuscript after the rest. But
whether it too belongs to the fifth or the sixth century
no man can tell with certainty. There is a fragment of
Euripides's play, called Melanippe, on parchment at
Berlin, which looks to me as old as any of the three.
But we must also remember that, with the introduction
of parchment (instead of the papyrus, which was grow
ing scarce and dear), there was a considerable change in
writing. The great early manuscripts ofthe Bible show
a marked improvement upon earlier scripts, owing partly
to this cause, partly, also, to the reverence with which
early scribes treated the inspired text. It would occupy
us too long to enter upon the contents of these books.
That is a question of the fixing of the canon, and is to
be discussed by theologians, not by paleographers.
We have, I believe, but one early dated book in uncial

224 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
characters, and that is the botanical work of Dioscorides
(at Vienna), written for the Empress Juliana Anicia, as
the scribe tells us, and therefore certainly early in the
sixth century. It has illustrations, too, — a portrait ofthe
empress, and colored drawings of plants, insects, etc., —
altogether a splendid book. I saw a copy of it (I be
lieve), but much later, at the Monastery of Lavra on Mt.
Athos. It is from a comparison of this with our biblical
manuscripts that some have inferred their early dates.
I would not, however, let these critical doubts of mine
mislead any reader into thinking that our authorities for
the text of the Septuagint and of the New Testament are
not excellent. I know of no Greek classical work which
rests upon authority anything like so good. While for
Homer, ^Eschylus, Sophocles, etc., we are obliged to
trust to manuscripts a thousand years and more later
than the authors, we have, for the New Testament, inde
pendent and careful copies dating at most three hundred
years after the books were written. The tradition, there
fore, as regards antiquity, is excellent, and there can be
no reason to expect that any future discoveries will alter
in any but the most trivial points the text of our New
Testament Bible. Not that antiquity is by any means a
conclusive proof of excellence in a manuscript. Our
papyrus fragments of Homer, dating from before the
time of Christ, are not at all so good as the manuscript
preserved at Venice, which was written in the tenth cen-

Early Greek Manuscripts. 225
tury. A new discovery of my friend Professor Blass of
Halle shows that sometimes a late manuscript may pre
serve traditions lost in the earlier copies ; for he has
shown that the variants in a later codex (Beza) of the
Acts of the Apostles, hitherto despised, apparently con
tain the notes and alterations of the writer himself, and
point to a separate recension of the book, which has left
no trace in history but this solitary manuscript. He
has printed a critical text, and set forth his opinions in
Hermathena (June, 1895).
It is not till we come to the ninth century — and late
in that century — that we begin to have dated books more
common ; and in the tenth century a new modification,
the medieval cursive or minuscle writing, came into
vogue. A good many fine specimens, dated shortly
before and after A. D. 900, are extant ; and from hence
onward Greek books are preserved in plenty, but are
not — to me, at least — of the same interest. Nor could
they be described without many details not suited to
this sketch. But one remark on early printed Greek I
must allow myself before I close.
The first attempts to represent Greek in types were in
books which contain Greek quotations, like Macrobius,
like Cicero's Letters, etc. The early Italian printers,
especially the famous press at Subiaco, imitated good
tenth-century handwritings, and even aimed at repro
ducing their Greek in neat capitals, or, at least, separate
15

226 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
letters. Then came (1476) the first Greek grammar, the
beautiful Florentine Homer (1488), the Milan Isocrates
(1493), — all admirable specimens, easy to read and
stately to look upon. But by and by Aldus, the famous
Venetian printer, to whom we owe so many beautiful
books in what are called italics, undertook to publish
Greek books also, and, most unfortunately, instead of
choosing for the model of his type some fine old manu
scripts of the ninth or tenth century, he took the cranky
contracted hands of his own time, when men had copied
so many Greek books that they began to scribble with
sundry difficult abbreviations. The result was that an
Aldine Greek text is an ugly and cramped thing, very
difficult for modern people to read, and lamentably in
ferior to the pre-Aldine Greek books. His reputation
for printing Latin and Italian was so justly great that it
has radiated to this other branch of his business, and
Aldine Greek texts have been sought out and praised by
people who thought themselves judges of books. Any
one who will compare the Aldine Aristophanes (1499)
with the Milan Isocrates or the Florentine Homer, will
agree with me when I assert that it shows a great deca
dence in Greek printing. Still worse, this untidy bad
type became the mode for Froeben of Basle, Etienne in
Paris, Elzevir in Holland, and it is only in such rare
books as those of Parme (1740-50) that the finer tradition
is preserved, until we reach the present century.

NEW LIGHT ON THE BOOK OF ACTS.

NEW LIGHT ON THE BOOK OF ACTS.
BY PROFESSOR W. M. RAMSAY, LL.D., D.C.L.
The discoveries which have been made in Asia Minor
in recent years, and which bear on the interpretation,
the historical authenticity, and the date of composition
of the Acts, do not include any striking or sensational
finds, but in their entirety they go far to constitute a new
era in the understanding and the criticism of the parts
of Acts concerned. To the commentators and scholars
of former days, the travels of Paul, Barnabas, and Silas,
in the inner country, were like the voyage of a ship in
the sea, which left no trace behind to mark their pas
sage. Names like Lystra and Derbe were scattered on
the map by guess ; and, though the modern names of
the sites where Iconium and Pisidian Antioch stood were
known, yet their relative position and their connection
with other places were in many respects erroneously
conceived. Discussion for the future must take a new method : it
must follow the apostles on their exact line of road, and
229

230 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
point to the exact place where, obedient to the directions
of the Holy Spirit, they turned from their intended
course to take another. Those elongated loop-lines in
red ink, running free through the space of the map,
which mark the second journey in the older books, must
disappear, and be replaced by an indication which de
pends not on fancied probability, but on reasoned proof.
What I have now said is equivalent to asserting the
exact historical authenticity of the narrative, and that
is the great result of recent discovery. It has already
ceased to be possible for a rational criticism to maintain
that the narrative of these journeys is a free second-cen
tury composition ; and it is rapidly ceasing to be possible
to regard it as a series of first-century scraps, pieced
together by a second-century compiler for his own pur
poses. Only a narrative written with full mastery by an
eye-witness, or by one who was in communication with
eye-witnesses, and able to use their accounts with deli
cate precision, could stand the minute study that is now
demanded and applied. That minuteness is not re
stricted to geography, but extends to every department
of interpretation. It is not a new discovery that the
perplexing variety of titles for governors and magistrates
of cities is correct in every case throughout the book ;
but it is now becoming far clearer than before, that the
duties, powers, and character of the officials are all cor
rectly delineated. Recent discoveries are enabling us to

iVezu Light ou the Book of Acts. 231
conceive precisely what these officials were in actual
life ; and each new step in our knowledge only makes
the narrative of Acts more luminous.
The fixing of Lystra with absolute precision by Pro
fessor Sterrett, of Amherst College, Massachusetts, and
his approximate localization of Derbe (made more pre
cise in my " Church in the Roman Empire "), were two
great steps, which every one will appreciate. Far less
striking in appearance were such minor points as that
Lystra was a Roman colony, that Derbe was honored
with the name of the emperor Claudius, that Derbe was
the limit of the Roman world, beyond which lay the in
dependent " Realm of Antiochus," and a great number
of such small points, which it would be merely weari
some to enumerate one by one, but which, taken all to
gether, have changed central Asia Minor from a terra
incognita to a land whose topography, roads, political and
social conditions, during the first century after Christ, are
as well known as those of almost any other part of the
Roman Empire, and far better known than those of such
a province as Britain. When a narrative that contains
so many details as that of Acts is examined in the light
of the fuller knowledge now accessible, there is abundant
opportunity for applying to it those tests with regard to
date and historicity that are recognized in all other de
partments of criticism. At this point, however, when I
try to write an impartial and statistical account of recent

232 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
discovery, a serious difficulty faces me. If the common
and almost universally accepted conceptions with regard
to the direction of the journeys across Asia Minor is
accepted, the application of these tests would, so far as I
can judge, go far to show that the narrative is, in many
respects, inconsistent with ascertained facts ; but, on the
other hand, when certain modifications are made in
the geography of the journeys, the narrative fulfils all the
tests, and takes its place (apart from any religious char
acter) as the most picturesque, detailed, and important
authority for the antiquities and society of the country
and period that has come down to us.
At the present stage, therefore, any account of recent
discovery, that is to be a fair one, must state the two
sides in a controversy which is still being maintained.
It is still under discussion, and no agreement has been
reached, what will be the representation given in fu
ture books to the Pauline journeys across Asia Minor.
But the question, on the whole, takes this form : Are we
to cling to the old view (with more precision in some of
the details), or are we to adopt the view stated in the
" Church in the Roman Empire " ? The reader has
probably been familiar from childhood with the old view,
and the best service to him is to state what is claimed for
the new view, as based on recent discovery.
The new view sets before us Paul as the Roman citizen,
going to the great centers (or, at least, the active centers)

New Light on the Book of Acts. 233
of Roman government and organization (the sole excep
tion is Berea, which came in his course incidentally),
traveling amid the surroundings of the first century;
mentioning certain political divisions that existed only
from A.D. 41 to A. D. 72, and never at any other period in
history ; classifying his newly founded churches accord
ing to the recognized divisions of the empire ; accepting
the existing political facts, as was natural for one who
exhorted servants to " count their own masters worthy
of all honor'' (1 Tim. 6 : 1), and who inculcated in his
pupils that " the proper rule of life is to accept the
world's facts, not as in themselves right, but as indiffer
ent" ("Church in the Roman Empire," p. 246), and
adapting himself to them, as was natural in the mission
ary who " became all things to all men, that he might by
all means save some" (1 Cor. 6 : 22).
Again, this view claims to bring the narrative of Acts
into far closer relations to the Pauline Epistles. " It
recognizes in Acts a work written to explain, to supple
ment, and to render more thoroughly intelligible, the
Epistles." In particular, the Epistle to the Galatians is
generally considered to have been unknown to the
author of Acts, though it is hard to believe that the
intimate friend, disciple, and medical adviser of Paul
for many years, was not acquainted with that Epistle.
On the new view, it is claimed that the two explain
each other in such a marked way as to show that the

234 Recent Research in Bible Lands. ,
one book was intended to be read alongside of the
other. Finally, this view exhibits the narrative as standing
in close relations with the popular colloquial language
of the districts traversed ; in several cases, the name used
in current colloquial slang is employed in place of the
formal official designation. The very language of Acts
is that of a person who had traveled in the country, and
not of one who had gathered his knowledge from books.
But, so far as the writer may judge, the very facts and
words which stamp Acts as a genuine first-century com
position, when the traveler's journeys are supposed to lie
in one region, stamp it as inaccurate, and out of harmony
with the known facts, when his journeys are supposed to
lie in a different region (according to the current view).
In this unsatisfactory and uncertain result, the present
resume must end. Every reader must study and judge
for himself.
All of the discoveries alluded to here have been made
on the surface. There has been a complete lack of ex
cavating in recent years on any site that was likely to
illustrate the Acts. The writer proposed to excavate the
site of Lystra in 1894 or 1895, but funds were not forth
coming. It is greatly to be desired that systematic and
thorough excavation should be made on such sites as
Derbe and Lystra. Derbe in particular is an enticing
site, as it is absolutely uninhabited, and therefore both

New Light on the Book of Acts. 235
promising and inexpensive. Lystra is in many respects
more interesting, as bulking so' much more largely in
the Acts ; the temple of Jupiter " before the city " should
be easily discovered, and there are points in the narra
tive that cannot be clearly understood until the topog
raphy of the city and the situation of the temple are set
tled. Even that little point of grammar, the use of the
name " Lystra " in the second declension dative and the
first declension accusative, might be proved by inscrip
tions to have been a local usage, in which case this little
peculiarity (which has been treated by some critics as a
sign that the narrative is founded on two older docu
ments, which declined the name " Lystra " in different
ways) would be added to the accumulating proofs of the
author's intimate acquaintance with local names and
usages. Iconium and Antioch are, for various reasons,
less suitable for a scheme of excavation ; but, as education
progresses in the two cities which stand on (or close to)
their sites, accidental discoveries are sure to be made in
the course of building operations, which may prove in
teresting and important. In another year, Iconium will
probably be on a railway line.
The Christian antiquities in Asia Minor of the second
and third centuries bear indirectly on the interpretation
of Acts. In one of the earliest Christian inscriptions, the
epitaph of Avircius Marcellus, a prominent figure in the
history of the second century (whose tombstone has

236 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
recently been brought to Rome, and deposited in the
Lateran Museum), Paul is referred to as his chief guide
and counselor, whom he always carried with him where-
ever he went. To give some idea of the rich material
that has been recently discovered in this subject, the
best way is to quote a few sentences from the Preface to
my "Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia" (Vol. I, 1895):
" Perhaps the most important part of this book will be
found in the chapters on the early history of Christian
ity in the country. The questions that were agitating
society, the currents of development, the transforming
policy of the Roman government, the conservative re
sistance of the old religious hierarchy, the original co
operation of Pauline Christianity with the Roman policy,
the later alliance between the empire and the native
religions against the growing power of the Church, the
steps by which the adherents of the new religion, begin
ning as members of the general society of the country,
gradually differentiated themselves from it, and created
a new form of society, — all these topics will, it is hoped,
receive elucidation; and a series of pre-Constantinian
inscriptions, such as cannot be matched in any other
country, will be arranged so as to throw light on the
relations between the Christians and their non-Christian
fellow-citizens." In Greece, undoubtedly the most interesting point in
recent investigation is the suggestion made by Professor

Nezv Light on the Book of Acts. 237
Ernst Curtius with regard to the speech of Paul in
Athens. Every one who visits Mars Hill, to inspect the
scene where the speech was delivered, must be struck (as
the writer was in 1882) with the unsuitability of the situa
tion for delivering an oration to a large audience. Mars
Hill is a small rock with a flat top, capable of accommo
dating at the utmost a close-packed audience of a hundred
persons; and this rock surmounts a rather steep slope
that leads down towards the market-place and the city.
Paul "stood in the middle of Mars Hill," — and it seems
impossible to take any other meaning from this except
that he stood in the middle of the flat space on the top
of the hill. In such a position, he could not possibly
make himself heard by even a moderately large audience.
I believe that any one who goes and investigates the
localities will come to the conclusion that there is no way
of adapting the description to the localities, except by
taking it in a quite vague and loose fashion, which is
very different from the precise, business-like accuracy of
the details in such a scene as the one at Ephesus, and
which is quite out of keeping with the delicate and ready
way in which the Apostle in his speech seizes the inci
dents and characteristics of Athenian life, and adapts
them to his own purposes. To omit several other reasons,
the student of Athenian literature and life knows that,
beneath their flippancy and recklessness in divine mat
ters, there lay a pride in their race, their origin, and their

238 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
national gods and national history, which would have
regarded as an impiety and an insult the conducting of a
foreign babbler to what was perhaps the holiest and the
most historic spot in Athens, in order to satisfy the curi
osity of an idle crowd. These considerations would lead
one to doubt the accuracy of the narrative; but they are
avoided by Ernst Curtius, who points out that the name
" Areopagus " here denotes, not the hill, but the court
which derived its name from the hill.1 This court sat on
the hill-top only when it was judging cases of homicide,
according to the ancient fashion ; on ordinary occasions
it acted as judge in certain matters of common life, and
sat in the "King's Stoa" beside the market.
But Curtius has left some difficulties. He has not
clearly explained the apparent want of accusation and
accuser and result, if Paul was taken before a bench of
judges to defend himself. I think, however, that Curtius
has partially failed only because he did not go far enough.
The scene is full of the words of Athenian current slang,
and it lies amidst one section of Athenian life, the most
important section at that time, — namely, the University.
Paul was subjected by the " Professors of the University"
to an inquiry into his methods of teaching, his claims to
1 Professor Blass of Halle, in his recent great edition, denies that the name
" Areopagus " could ever be used to designate the court ; but in a letter to the
present writer he admits that he has gone too far, and that examples occur
(the most striking being quoted by the writer in a review of Professor Blass's
edition in The Expositor, February, 1895).

ATcw Light ou the Book of Acts. 239
be permitted to teach, and the effect of his teaching on
the young, before the court which had jurisdiction in
cases affecting the relation between the state and the
University; and the result of their inquiry was an ad
journment ofthe case for further hearing. The scene is
unique in Acts, but it is, like the other incidents, photo-
A\A£AC0 TTOV

TO XA 00 P0\ NOTA
. ... - 1^ ,
Inscription on the Stone of Cana.

mwCQ^d

rote*

graphed from the life; and, in order to be properly
understood, it must be examined like a photograph.
A discovery of much interest was made in the course
ofthe French excavations at Elatea in Phocis, — namely,
a very large flat stone (about 8X2X1 ft), with the
inscription in Greek, "This is the stone from Cana
of Galilee, where our Lord Jesus Christ made the water
wine." Towards the end of the sixth century, the pil
grim Antoninus of Piacenza visited Cana, and mem-
tions that he saw there two of the water-jars in which
the water had been changed, and the couch on which the
Lord had reclined at the table. Antoninus took the

240 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
opportunity, like a true and pious tourist, of reclining
on this couch, and of writing the names of his parents
upon it. The inscription still remains (part, however,
having disappeared), scratched in faint letters on the
upper surface near the place where a person would natu
rally write if he were reclining on his left side on the
stone: " [Remember, O Lord, the father] and the mother
of me Antoninus." It is remarkable that Antoninus

; • * e < s -r

The Stone of Cana, showing the position of the inscription.
though an Italian, scrawled this graffito in Greek, adopt
ing the language of the country where he was. This
great stone was carried to Elatea at some time after the
sixth century ; and M. Diehl, from whom I quote, thinks
that probably it was taken first to Constantinople, whither
many other Palestinian relics were carried, and brought
thence to Elatea by some Frankish lord after the capture
of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, and the forma
tion ofthe Frankish principalities in Greece.
An interesting and important point in connection with
St. Paul's situation during his imprisonment in Rome
has recently been brought out by Professor Theodore

Nezu Light on the Book of Acts. 241
Mommsen. It has hitherto been understood that Paul,
when he reached Rome, was given over into the charge
of the commander (or one of the two commanders) of
the pretorian guard, and by him entrusted to a soldier.
This is not stated in Acts, which merely says, " Paul was
suffered to abide by himself with the soldier that guarded
him " (Acts 28 : 16) ; but it has been inferred from Philip-
pians 1 : 12, 13: " My bonds became manifest in Christ
throughout the whole pretorian guard." Mommsen,
however, points out that it would be entirely inconsistent
with the position and duties of the pretorian commander
that he should take any charge of, or responsibility for,
prisoners ; and he explains the words of Philippians as
referring to the actual trial (which was now in progress,
at the conclusion of Paul's long detention in prison, when
he wrote to the Philippian church) before the pretorian
commanders as judges, with their numerous assessor and
subordinate officials. The pretorian commanders acted
as judges, not as jailers.
Now comes the remarkable discovery. A certain num
ber of Greek manuscripts (not considered as of the high
est authority), a corrector of a Syriac version, and an
early-Latin version, name the officer under whose charge
Paul was delivered (Acts 28 : 16); and they name, not
the pretorian commander, but another officer, the prin-
ceps peregrinorum castrorum, who is very rarely alluded
to, and whose very name is omitted in most of the trea-
16

242 Recent Research in Bible Lands.
tises on Roman antiquities. That officer is commonly
thought to be an institution of the latter part of the
second century ; but, according to Mommsen, he must
have been instituted by Augustus. It formed a part of
his duties to receive and be responsible for prisoners
brought from the provinces to Rome. Thus, at one
stroke, the accuracy of Acts is vindicated, the original
form of the text as written by Luke restored after it had
been lost from the great manuscripts, and an addition
made to our knowledge of Roman antiquities by the evi
dence of Acts. Incidentally, it was noticed by Momm
sen that this name for the officer was a colloquial term,
and not a proper official name, in the first century ; and
hence it was not used in inscriptions (which are official
documents) until near A. D. 200. But, as we have seen
in Asia Minor, the language of Acts is the language of
the traveler familiar with, and guided by, educated collo
quial usage.
The moral of this imperfect sketch of recent discovery
is that research on the scenes of Paul's career should be
pressed on vigorously, and should be completed by ex
cavation.

INDEXES.

TOPICAL INDEX.

Ab-di-ilu, 140.
Abdul-Hamid, Sultan : his interest in Baby
lonian research, Si f.
Abi-jathu"a, Arabic for Abi-shu'a, 141.
Abijati, prince ofthe Kedarenes, 142
Abishu, great-grandson of Aharon, 141.
Abishu'a. See Abisku.
Abraha, viceroy, 14S.
Abraham : earlier date assigned to, 12 ;
migration of, 21, 116; his repulse of
eastern confederacy, 21 ; time of, 85,
no, 142, 158 ; purchase of a burial-
place in Hebron by, 163 ; bis meeting
with Hittites, 165.
Absha'. See Abisku.
Abu-Habba: references 10,49,68; ruins
of, 82; archeological finds in, 82 f . ;
tablets from, 83 ; literary and histori
cal objects found in, 84. See, also,
Sipfara.
Abul-abi-sAu," The Gate of his Ancestor/'
135-
Abu-Simbel, illustrations in temple of, 168.
Abusir, lotiform. column of fifth dynasty
found in, 103.
Accounts, registration of, in Egypt,^27.
Acts, Book ot : variants in, 225 ; new
light on, 220, 235 f. ; historical au
thenticity of narrative, 230 ; titles
for governors and magistrates invari
ably correct, 230 ; its relation to the
Pauline Epistles, 233 ; facts which
stamp it as genuine, 234 ; language
of, 234, 242 ; author's intimate ac
quaintance with local names and
places, 235 ; vindication of text by
remarkable discovery, 242 ; author
ship of, 242.
Adullam, 124.
iEgean islands, 113.
./Eolia, flourishing colonies of, 171.
^Eschylus, 224.
Affej : explorations near, 47 ; tribe, 50 ;
excavators, 52.
Africa, East, attempt to colonize, 154.
Agadi, Naram-Sin of, 135.
Age of manuscripts : determined by hand
writing, 194 ; difficulty of determin
ing, 221.
Ahab : of Israel, 17 : his singular alliance
¦ with Benhadad II, 22.
Aharon, great-grandson of, 141.
Ahaz: and Hezekiah, 23 ; and Tiglath-
pileser III, relations of, 23.

Ah-hotep, Queen, jewelry of time of, 108.
Ahimelech, Hittite friend of David, 164.
Ahmes I : successors of, masters of Asia,
113 ; throne of, occupied by Asian
descendant, 113.
Aintab, 174.
Akarkuf, imposing ruins of, 49.
Akkad and Sumer, ruler of, 84.
Akurgal : ruler of ancient Tello. 69 ; proba
bly younger son of Ur-Nina, 70.
Alabaster : stele of, 89 ; vase of, 135 ; from
Tidanum, 136; bas-reliefs of, 175.
Aldine Greek text, 226.
Aldus, Venetian printer, 226.
Aleppo, 49, 92.
Alexander, Prince, of Samos, 48.
Alexander the Great: references to, 128,
170; occupation of Egypt by, 197.
Alexandretta, 48.
Alexandria : museum at, 211 ; unsearched
sitein,2i2; lower classes in, 218.
Alexandrian : poetry, 211 ; age, lack of
literary works In, 212.
Almak-hu, god of Saba, 150.
al-Mundhir, king of Hira, 148.
Alphabet: Phenician, 117; Minean, 143.
Altar, before temple, 122.
Alusharshid : recovered texts of, 60 f. ;
king of Kish, 77.
Alzi, campaigns against Hittites in, 172.
'Am : ancient Semitic god, 140; Babylo
nian Khammu, 140 ; worshipers of, 141.
Amazons, the, Hittite priestesses, 188.
Amen-em-hat : tombs of princesses of, 107 ;
models of battalions in army of, icg.
Amenhoteps. See AmenopAzs.
Amenophis III,: reference to, 39: his
matrimonial alliance with king of
Naharina, 166.
Amenophis IV: references to, 39, 113;
adopts name Khu-n-Aten, 114; mother
of, 114 ; renounces faith of his fore
fathers, 114; retreat of, 114; his war
with priesthood of Thebes, 114 ; heretic
king, 167.
American dealers in possession of clay
tablets from Tello, 80.
American expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania, 67 f., 79.
American expeditions : plundering of ruins
excavated by, 92 ; in Egypt, 97.
American Indians, 169.
American Palestine Exploration Society,
J73- 245

246

Topical Index.

Amiaud, cited, 65, 144.
' Amm : meaning of, 140; the Babylonian
for Kham, 154 n.
" 'Amm, children of," 140.
'Amm and Ham, identity of, 141 n.
Ammi-el, 137, 140.
Ammi-saduq identified with Ammi-zaduga,
J37-
Ammi-satana, 140 f.
Ammi-zaduga: 137, 140 f. ; father of, 138.
Ammi-zaduga, Ammi-saduq, Kimtu-
Kittu, identity of, 137.
Ammonite wives of Solomon, 164.
Ammu-ladin, 138.
Ammu-rapalt, 142.
'Amu, inapplicable as name for Egyptians
and Semites, 154 n.
Amon : god of Thebes, 114 ; temple of, 127.
" Amorite" pottery found at Tell es-Sul
tan, 41.
Amorites: land of, 19; Babylonian mon
arch styled king of, 116; cities of, 120;
reference to, 163 f.
Amraphel, Ammu-rapalt (Babylonian),
Khammu-rabi (Arabic), 142.
'Amu : meaning of, 141, 154 n. , thirty-
seven richly dressed, 141.
'Amu and Ham, or Kham, identity of,
141 n.
Anab, reference to, 125.
Anicia, Empress Juliana, 224.
Animals, figures of, 74.
Antioch: 113 ; Gulf of, 235.
Antioch, Pisidian, 229.
" Antiope " of Euripides, 198.
Antiquities, profitable branch of commerce,
92. See, also, Babylonian, Ckristian,
Egyptian, etc.
Antiquity, lost masterpieces of, restored,
126.
Antoninus of Piacenza, 239 f.
Anunaki, 58.
Apil-Sin, 137.
Apir, identified with Ophir, 153.
Apollo, 169.
Apollonius, 212.
Arab superstition regarding American
explorers, 55.
Arabia: storehouse of illustrations of man
ners and customs, 7 ; preserved monu
mental evidence in, 7; slightly
available for antiquarian research, 14 ;
ancient, 131 ; campaigns of Dr. Glaser
in, 131 (.; many new inscriptions
brought from, 131 ; our limited knowl
edge of its ancient history, 132 ; its
importance in history of ancient Se
mitic nations, 132, 152; influenced by
Babylonian civilization, 136; ancient
Mineans in, 140 ; Kush frequently used
for, in Old Testament, 154.
Arabia: Central, reference to, 135; two
large wadies of, 155.
Arabia, East: Magan old name for, 144;

coast of, under Elamitic influence, 153 ;
tribes of, called sons of Kush, 154.
"Arabia, History and Geography of," by
Dr. Edward Glaser, 132.
Arabia, Northern : dwelling-place of Sem
ites, 13 ; once occupied by cultivated
race, 15 ; reference to, 139.
Arabia, South : inscriptions from, 131, 148 ;
exploration of and researches in, 132,
143; civilization of, 132, 152, 157;
reference to, 139 ; four great nations in,
151 .' tribes of, 154 ; history of, 157.
Arabian civilization : importance of, 134 ;
reference to, 143 ; early, 152 ; coeval
with time of Abraham, 158.
Arabian inscriptions, biblical importance
of, 157-
Arabian origin of ruler of first Babylonian
dynasty, 83.
Arabian peninsula, our old ideas of, trans
formed, 152.
Arabian princes, reign and overthrow of
rule of, in Babylonia, 136.
Arabic : oldest surviving form of human
speech, 13 ; first used as written lan
guage for literary purposes, 14 ; mi-
mation in, 139 ; Minean, very oldest,
142; original source of old Babylonian
words, 142. See, also, Names.
Arabs : oldest and purest race in the world,
13 ; thievish character of, 80 ; dis
covery of stele of Nabonidos by, 90 ;
most important literary discoveries in
Mesopotamia, made by, 92 ; vandal
ism by, 92.
Arakhsamna, month of, 85.
Aram Naharaim, 113, 119.
Aramaic, clay bowls inscribed in, 62.
Aramean: principalities in Syria. 22 ; king
dom, 22; culture, 175 ; kings, 175:
race, 175 ; inscriptions found at Sen
jirli, 189.
Araxes River. See Habor.
Arch of fourth millennium, 59.
Archeological research: aspect of two Tes
taments in, 3; design of, 5 f . ; dis
coveries in Egypt, 112 ; skeptical criti
cism in light of, 116 ; of South Arabia
by Dr. Glaser, 131 f. ; money spent
for, 158.
Architecture. See Greek ornament.
Architectural device of fifth dynasty, 103.
Archive chambers of Canaan, 117,
Archives : in Nuffar containing 32,000 tab
lets, 79 ; royal, carried away from
Thebes, 114.
" Areopagus : " what it denotes, 238.
Argistis, campaigns of, 172.
Aristarchus, 211.
Aristophanes, the Aldine, 226.
Aristotle : Athenian constitution by, 215 f,,
219.
Arithmetical calculations as found in papy
rus documents, 207.

Topical hide

H7

Armenia: Vannai of, 172; ancient people
of, records by, 180 ; reference to, 181.
Armenia and Hittites, 172.
Armenian mountains, 88.
Armenians, date of settlement in Asia
Minor, 178.
Arnaud, Mr. : cited. 147.
Art : finest examples of early Egyptian,
found in Medum, 100; combination
of realism and idealism in, in ancient
Egypt, ior ; of Old Empire superior
to later Egypt, 101. See, also, Assy
rian. Babylonian, etc.
"Artemisia, Imprecation of," in Vienna,
197.
Arts, beginnings of useful, 19.
Arvadites, reference to. 163.
Aryan invasions of Asia Minor, 178.
Aryan migration, origin and advance of,
177 f.
Aryan type, complexion of, 178.
Aryans in league with Chaldeans, 24.
Asa, campaigns of Zeraikh against, 155.
Ashdod capture of rebellious. 24.
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, old Egyp
tian tomb in, 99.
Asia : and Egypt, relations between, ro ;
Western, Babylon controlling power
of, 20 ; Hyksos, invaders from, 112;
conquest of, by successors of Ahmes I,
113 ; sway of Babylonia in, 115.
Asia Minor: officials of provinces, ordered
to guard all antiquities, etc., 86; re
ference to, 123 ; the cradle of humanity,
162 ; at one time or another, wholly
under Hittite power, 177; race popu
lation at time of Hittite power, 177;
no Aryan race inhabited, before 1000
B.C., 178 ; early inhabited by Hittites,
179; Hittites prevailing race in, 1000
B.C., 185 f. ; obscure scripts of, 186 ;
discoveries made in, 229 ; topography
and social conditions of, during first
century A.D., 231 f . ; Pauline jour
neys across, 232 ; Christian antiqui
ties in, 235,
Asiatic : invaders, expulsion of, from
Egypt, 113 ; foreigner, in Egypt, na
tional uprising against dominion of,
118 ; influence in Egypt, 118 ; offi
cials, 118.
Assiut : references to, 100, 112, 126 ; treas
ures of tomb found at, 109.
Assos, 47.
Assuan. 121.
Assurbanapal, 91. 142.
Assyria : witness of, to Hebrew history, 6 ;
explorations in, 18; historical monu
ments of, 20 ; reierences to, 22, 31, 89;
religious and political influences of, 24 ;
hordes of Manda in, 91 ; hundreds of
ruins to be explored in. 93 ; Semites of,
118 ; under Babylonian rule at height
of Hittite power, 183.

Assyria and Hittites, 172.
Assyrian: antiquities, 86 f; history, 91,
93; art, 171, 175; artists, 179; pic
tures, 179. See, also, Cuneiform.
Assyrian civilization, old, 152.
Assyrian empire, Egypt added to, 24.
Assyrian monuments : light on Hittites,
162, 165 ; records of, following Egyp
tian, 170.
Assyrian ruins, climatic and other influen
ces destroying, 93.
Assyrians : Israel at mercy of, 21 ; rule
over region of Hittites, 170.
Assyriologists, 81, 86.
Assyriology : birthplace of, 45 ; decree of
Ottoman government for, 91.
Astarte, worship of, in Egypt, 10.
"Astrologers, star-gazers and prognosti-
cators," 19.
Astronomical help in fixing dates, 98 f.
Astronomical texts found in Nuffar, 60.
Athenian constitution by Aristotle : recov
ery of text of, 215 ; inconsistent state
ments of, 216 ; reference to, 219.
Athenian current slang, 238.
Athenian life and characteristics, 237 f.
Athens : reference to, 198 ; Mars' Hill in,
237 f.
'Athtar, Minean god, 143.
Attic oratory, further development of, 218,
Augustus, 127, 242.
Austrian explorer. Dr. Edward Glaser, 131.
Austrian standard, origin of, 188.
Baal : worship of, 10 ; symbol of, 114.
Babel, rule of Arabian princes in, 136.
See, also, Babylon.
Babylon : powerful and populous cities of,
18 ; references to, 18, 63, 85, 123 ;
taken by Cyrus, 25 ; destruction of,
by Sanherib, 91 ; old city boundary
of, 90. See, also, Balbal.
Babylonia : witness of, to Hebrew history,
6 : Hebrew patriarchs leaving, 19 ;
hidden secrets of ruined cities of,
20; historical monuments of, 20;
power of western Asia, 20, 115, 183;
expedition to, 47 ; border states of, in
time of Edingiranagin, 70; temples
of, 70 ; border fortifications of, 71 ;
divided into numerous states, 71 ;
hegemony exercised by one state
over another, 71 ; excavations among
ruins of, bi ; hundreds of ruins to be
explored in, 93 ; royal houses of, 113 ;
Semites of, 118 ; reign and overthrow
of rule of Arabian princes in, 136;
colonists of, 154 ; invasion of, by Baby
lonian Kassites, 154 ; ruled by Kas-
sites, 183.
Babylonia and Assyria, exploration of, 16.
Babylonia and Egypt, ancient history of,
98.
Babylonia, Middle, civilization of, 152.

248

Topical Index.

Babylonia, Southern, exploration of, 65.
Babylonian : occupation of Holy Land,
17; incantations, 20; symbols of
superstition, 20; Judah, 25; rulers,
60 ; paleography, 61 ; monuments, 71 ;
relics and mounds, 83, 93 ; ancient
love-letter, 85 ; writers, 85 ; artisans,
88; history, 89, 01,93, I36." conditions
under King Erba-Marduk, 91 ; exile,
in; dominion, 115; stories, 115;
conquerors, 116 ; princes, 116. See,
also, Cuneiform, Names.
Babylonian antiquities : reference to,86f.,
93 ; imitated and offered for sale, 92 f. ;
principal security for preservation of,
93-
Babylonian art : study of, 69 ; earliest
monuments of, 74 ; of 4000 B.C., 88 ;
at beginning ot Babylonian history,
88 f. ; in declining period, grotesque
and exaggerated, 89 ; renaissance of,
So.
Babylonian civilization : as old as Egyp
tian, 14; in Palestine, 40; supremacy
of, 115 ; Arabia under influence of, 136 ;
spread of, 183.
Babylonian dynasty : first, kings of, 67 n.,
137-141 ; first so called, Arabian origin
of rulers of, 83 ; names of kings of,
purely Arabic, 142 ; most renowned,
142.
Babylonian expedition : to West, 21 ; first
known, 22 ; first Turkish, 82; cam
paign in Palestine, 116.
" Babylonian Expedition of the University
of Pennsylvania, The," excavations
of, 51, 59 f., 62, 67 n., 69 n., 75, 88.
" Babylonian Exploration Fund, The,"
organization of, 47.
Babylonian kings : powerful dynasty of,
67 n. ; most ancient inscriptions of, 68 ;
new chronological arrangement of,
69 n. See, also, Babylonian dynasty.
Babylonian language : decay in. 14 ; and
script, 115 f. ; old words to be traced
to Arabic, 142.
Babylonian Publication Committee of
Philadelphia. 61.
Babylonian ruins : objects generally found
in, 83 ; climatic and other influences
at work destroying, 93.
Babylonians: Semitic, 63; ancient, daily
lives of, 84 ; relationship of, how indi
cated, 85 ; university of, 86 ; a literary
people, 117, 162 ; succeed Assyrian
rule over region of Hittites, 170 ; refer
ence to. 119; in Canaan. 120.
" Babylonish garment, a goodly," 116.
Babylono-Assyrian antiquities : 86 f,,9o.
Bagdad : 48 f. , 54,92 ; wilayet of, 82.
Bagnold, Major ; cited, 105.
Bahrein, coast of, 153.
Balaam at Pethor, 167.
Balawat, bronze gates of, 171.

Balbal, meaning of, 123.
Balbel, Semitic, " to confound," 123.
Barakish, 157.
Barbarism in Egypt after Old Empire, 103.
Barnabas, travels of, 229.
Basalt, stele of, 90.
" Bashan, field of," 120,
Basket as symbol of masons, 75.
Basques in Europe, 181.
Bas-relief: purpose of hole in center, 74 ;
of Ur-Nina, description of, 74 f. ; of
time of Naram-Sin, 87.
Bas-reliefs, Hittite, 174 f.
Bassorah, 65.
Ba'u, goddess, 74.
Beads of gold found in Egypt, 108.
Beardless race, Hittites pictured as, 169,
Bedolakh, 136.
BedreshSr, 104.
Bedry Bey, cited, 82.
Bed'ween : at war with American ex
plorers, 53 ; campaigns of Egyptians
against, 99 ; chiefs loyal subjects of
Pharaoh, 119; hordes of, 120; refer
ence to, 150.
Bel-Harran-bel-usur, Assyrian official and
ruler, 89.
Bel : temple of, at Nuffar. 50 ; god, 58, 89.
Benhadad II, Ahab's alliance with, 22.
Berea, 233.
Berlin: museums of, 156 ; reference to, 220.
Bernard, Dr. : cited, 221 f.
Beth-anab, 125.
Beth-Thupar, 124.
Bibeya, letter to, 85.
Bible : archeological science in close rela
tions with, 3 ; need of light on people
of, 6 ; references to Hittites in, 165 ;
early manuscripts of, 221-223 ; pos
sibly oldest MS. fragment in exist
ence of, 222.
Bible study : indirect value of results of
Egyptology for, 7 f. ; discovery of
interest in, 123 ; facts hitherto little
attended to in, 134; light on, from
Arabian inscriptions, 157.
Bilingual: list of kings, 137; of Tarkon-
demos, 187.
Bitimsikirim. canal of, 85.
Bitumen and clay, monument of, 75 f.
Black basalt, Hittite remains of, 175.
Black Sea, 17T, 178.
Blass, Prof, of Halle : cited, 225, 238 n.
Bliss. Dr. F. J. : his discoveries in Tell
el-Hesy, 17.
Blood revenge among Arabs. 53.
Boghaz-Keni : ruins of, 176.
Book of Enoch : Ethiopic translation of,
126 ; Greek versions of, 126.
" Book of the Dead," 197.
Books, undated until ninth century. 209,
225.
Bosphorus, Museum on. See Imperial
Ottoman /Museum.

Topical Index

249

Boustrophedon writing, meaning of, 185 f.
Brick arch of fourth millennium, 59.
Bricks. See Cuneiform.
Brinton, D. G., Prof. : cited, 178 n.
Britain, 231.
British dominion in India compared to
that ot Canaan, 119.
British Museum : references to, 61, 83, 139,
141, 146, 156, 205, 213, 222; publica
tion of facsimiles of papyri texts in,
214. 217.
Bronze ; objects found in Babylonia, 62,
83 ; figures, 66 ; statuettes, 74 ; or
copper, large lance-head of, 78 ; refer
ence to, 114.
Brother, ancient usage of word, 206.
Brothers and sisters, marriage of, among
Egyptians, 206.
Bull's heads in copper found at Lagash, 80.
Bur-Sin II. 83 f.
Byzantium (Rome), 148 f.
Cairo : monuments of Old Empire in,
101 ; reference to, 104.
Cairo, Museum of: ancient treasures of,
97 ; tomb of second dynasty in, 99.
Callimachus, 212.
Cana of Galilee, 239.
Canaan : in monumental remains of
Egypt, 7 ; subdued by Egypt, 113 ;
center of literary intercourse, 116 f. ;
archive chambers of, 117 ; Semites of,
118 ; condition of, before exodus, 119 ;
as it appeared to the Israelites, 120 ;
described as brother of Mizraim, 120;
measure of iniquity of, 120 ; or Kana'n,
124; references to, 163, 167.
" Canaan, daughters of," 164.
Canaanites : promotion of, to high offices
of state, 113 ; literary people, 117;
sufferings of, 120 ; reference to, 164.
Canaanitish : cupbearer under Rameses
III, 9 ; inscriptions in Jerusalem, 16;
student, 115; writers of letters, 117;
officials, 118 ; governors, 119 ; origin of
kings of first Babylonian dynasty,
138.
Canaan's ten sons, 163.
Canals of Nuffar, 49.
Canon of Eponyms, 89.
Caphtor : biblical spelling of, exact, 123 ;
the modern Kaptar, 123.
Cappadocia : ancestral home of Hittites,
170, 181 ; references to, 183, 185.
Carchemish : references to, 167, 176, 183,
185, 189; Hittite capital, 170, 173;
Hittite remains at, 175.
Cartonnage of inscribed papyri, 125.
Casluhim : biblical spelling of, exact, 123 ;
the modern Kasluhet, 123.
Caspian Sea, 178.
Cassite kings, cuneiform of, period of, 60.
Cassites. See Kassites.
Catabanes, " children of 'Amm." 140.

Catabanian inscriptions written in Minean
dialect, 140. See, also, Katabanian,
Cenis, Mont, tools used in constructing
tunnel through, 102.
Chaldea : importance of recent excava
tions in, 63 ; references to, 117, 138.
Chaldeans : explanation of fame of wisdom
of, 19 ; capture of Niueveh by, 24.
" Chaldee." 19.
Chantre. M. : cited, 189.
Cherokee system of hieroglyphic writing,
j84.
"Children of *Ainm," name given to
Catabanes by Sabeans, 140.
Chinese, resemblance of Hittites to, 169.
Cholera, ravages of, among Arabs, 54.
Christ: his cry on cross, 126; ancestress
of, wife of Hittite, 189 ; reference to,
239-
Christian : use of Arabic as written lan
guage, 14 ; documents, 125 ; literature
in Egyptian research, 126; antiquities,
235 ; inscriptions, 235.
Christian era : few inscriptions of, 16 ;
Arabian civilization before, 134 ; Greek
writing of first generations of, 213 f, ;
few dated manuscripts after beginning
of, 220 ; book hands of, 220.
Christianity: conversion of Egyptians to,
127 ; early history of, 236.
Chronological lists found in Nuffar, 60.
Chronological order of earliest princes of
Tello, 69.
Chronology : of Old Testament, 23
promise of light on difficult, 61
Egyptian, reckoned by dynasties, 98
Minean, reckoned by eponyms, 143
difficulty in determining, 209.
Church history, light on, from Sabean
inscription, 149.
" Church in the Roman Empire," by Prof,
W. M. Ramsay, 231 f., 233.
Cicero : reference to, 219 ; Letters of, 225.
Cilicia, Hittite, 175.
" Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," by
Prof, W. M. Ramsay, 236.
" City of scribes, a," 125.
Civil war in reign of Khu-n-Aten, 118.
Civilization : early, two venerable centers
of, 70 ; in Egypt, date of beginning
of, 102; earliest, of Greece, Italy,
Cvprus, etc., contemporaneous with
that of Hittites, 190. See, also, Ara
bian, Assyrian, etc.
Claudius, Emperor, 231.
Clark, C. H., reference to, 60.
Clark, E. W., reference to, 56.
Classical books without dates, 209.
Classical text, recovery of long-lost, 215.
" Classical Texts from Papyri," etc., pub
lished by the British Museum, 214.
Clay: stamps for bricks. 61 ; and bitumen,
monument of, 75 f. ; tablets, see Cunei
form.

250

Topical Index.

Cleopatra, no business papyrus of time of,
209.
Cobet, Prof.: cited, 223.
Code of priests parallel with age of Minean
inscriptions, 158.
Codex Alexandrinus, 222 f.
Codex Beza, 225.
Codex Marchalianus, 222.
Codex Marcius Venctus A, 211.
Codex Sinaiticus, 222 f.
Codex Vaticanus. 222 f.
Coffins of clay unearthed in Nuffar, 56,
Colleges of Babylonia and Assyria, 18.
Commagene : ancestral home of Hittites,
170 ; reference to, 181.
Commercial institutions of Babylonia and
Assyria, 18.
Conder, Major : cited, 38.
Cones. See Cuneiform.
"Confederates," or Khabiri, 119.
Constantinople : references to, 86-88, 91 ;
capture of, by Latins, 240. See Im
perial Ottoman Museum.
Contract tablets. See Cuneiform.
Copper : large lance-head of, 78 ; bull's
heads of, 80.
Copper-mines of Sinaitic Peninsula, 99.
Copper Mountains, name given to Magan
by Babylonians, 135.
Copper Mountains of Kimash, identifica
tion of, 135.
Coptic inscriptions on terra cotta, 196,
Coptic monks, 127, 204, 213.
Corvinus, Matthias, library of, 218.
Cos, lower classes in, 218.
Court of Gentiles, inscribed stone found
in, 16.
Court Museum of Vienna, 156.
Creation, old Sumerian legends of, 59.
Crete, 217.
Criticism : skeptical, in light of archeo
logical discovery, 116 f. ; of veracity
of Pentateuch, 158.
Croesus, 171.
Cuneiform : inscriptions, 12, 65, 68, 70,
72 f., 89 f., 116, 175, 189, etc. ; inscribed
bricks, tablets, clay cones, door
sockets, vases, pebbles, etc., 39, 46,
52, 56-58, 6of.,65 f., 68, 73 f.,77, 79 f.,
83-86, 112, 114 f . ; inventories, lists,
letters, plans, contracts, dedications,
incantations, hymns, etc., 60, 79, 83-
85 : characters, syllabaries, signs,
script, and text, 58, 60, 65, 67, 69, 83 f.,
87 f., 115 f., 117 f., 172; inscriJed
steles, statues, bas-reliefs, cylinders,
monuments, 66, 71, 74-77, 80 f., 87-91,
170 : misrenderings, 72, 75, 78, 91 n. ;
in Turanian or unknown tongue, 180,
189; Persian, 186, 189. See, also,
Tel el-Amartia tablets.
Cursive manuscripts, 221.
Cursive writing: of Greek papyri, 208 ;
reference to, 220.

Curtius, Ernst, Prof. : cited, 236-238.
Cushites. See KusAites.
Custom : of Babylonian writers, 85 ; sin
gular, among Egyptians and other
Oriental nations, 206.
Cypriote : characters compared with Hit
tite, 187 ; syllabary borrowed from
Hittites, 186.
Cyprus : advance of Thothmes III into,
113; earliest civilization of, contem
porary with Hittites, 190 ; Pelasgic
pottery from, 190.
Cyrus the Persian, 25, 171.
Dahabiyeh, ancient model of, found in
Egypt, 109 f.
Dahshur : ruins of, 106 ; jewelry found at,
108 f.
Dakkeh, temple of. red inscriptions in, 196.
Dam of Marib, 148 f.
Damascus: Aramean kingdom of, 22 ; and
Syria, 23.
David, references to, 23, 164 f.
" Dawn of Civilization, The," by Maspero,
66 f.
Dead Sea, 144.
Debir, 125.
De Cara, Jesuit : cited, 190.
Dedan : site of, 136 ; (Edom) 143 ;
(Tidanum) 143 f.
Dedanites, territory of, 144.
Dedications in Babylonian tablets, 60.
Demi-gods, 79.
Demosthenes, 211, 213, 218.
Demotic character, 127.
Der. 49, 92,
Derbe : 229 ; site of, 231 ; named after
Emperor Claudius, 231 ; as limit of
Roman world," 231; necessity for ex
cavations in, 234.
Dhamar-'ali, 150.
Dhirrih. See Zirrikh.
Dialect of lower classes in early Ptolemaic
period, 218.
Diana of Ephesians probably Hittite god
dess. 188.
Diarbekir. 87.
Dictionaries found at Tel el-Amarna, 115.
Didache of the Apostles, 221.
Diehl, M. : cited, 240.
Dilmun or Nituk, 135.
Dionysus and his panther copied from
Hittite god, 188.
Diorite statues, 65, 135.
Dioscorides, botanical work of. 224.
Diwanijeh, 54.
Documents, early Christian, 125.
Door-sockets. See Cuneiform.
Dorian : invasion, 171 : invaders, 171, 178.
Dtir-Bel-Harran-bel-usur : founding of,
89 f. ; old, 90.
Dur-Sin, 84 f.
Dwellings in Lachish, plans of, 38.
Dynasties basis of reckoning in Egypt, 98.

Topical Index.

251

Ea, god, 58.
Eagle: lion-headed, symbol of Ningirsu,
70 ; reference to, 78 ; two-headed, Hit
tite standard, 176, r88.
Ebed-tob, 119.
Edessa, 181.
Edingiranagin, ruler of ancient Tello, 69;
his might and victories, 70 ; references
to, 71, 73, 77; stele of vultures set up
by, 76.
Edom : independence of, 120 ; reference
to, 136; (Dedan), 143.
Edomite wives of Solomon, 164.
Egypt : its witness to Hebrew history and
literature, 6 ; mass of recovered docu
ments in. 7 ; unequaled facilities for
exploration in, 7 ; defective histori
cal records of, 8 ; relations with Pales
tine, 8 ; asylum for outlaws during
Hebrew monarchy, 8 f. ; interference
in Palestine of, 8, 24 ; references to, 8,
123, 127, 161, 163, 173 ; intriguer with
Israel against Assyria and Babylonia,
9 ; northern. Palestinian influence in,
10 ; and Asia, relations between, 10 ;
forced to relax hold on Palestine
and Syria, 12 ; Palestine and Syria
as appanages of. 12 ; checked in cam
paigns by Hittites, 12 ; administers
affairs of Judah, 24; added to Assy
rian empire, 24 ; influence over Gaza,
40 ; its monuments damaged by natives,
92 ; beginning of monumental history
of, 99 ; early decline and recovery of,
100; under feudal lords, 100; luxurious
living in earliest history of, 101 ;
Roman dominion in, 106 ; civilization
of, 111 ; archeological discoveries in,
112; conquered by Hyksos, 112; sub
dues Canaan, 113 ; national uprising
against dominion of Asiatics in,
113,118; new religion in, 114; new
school of art in, 114; worship of
Amon proscribed in, 114 ; enemies of,
119; its region of authority in Pales
tine, 120; British occupation of, 121 ;
weakening of power of, 167 ; winged
disk of, adopted by Hittites, 183 ;
Greek occupation of, 197; tax -farming
in, 201 f.
Egypt, Lower : Israel in, 9 ; under Hyk
sos, 98.
Egypt, Upper, preservation of monuments
in, 102.
Egyptian : interference in Palestine after
exodus, 8 ; rulers, 9 ; language, 13 ;
occupation of Holy Land, 17; gov
ernment, large sums for exploration
given by, 97 ; temples, 97 ; chronology,
98; art, iot f., 114; soldiers, 109,205;
antiquity, lessons from, no ; city,
ancient, 112 ; court, 113, 119 ; student,
115; power, 119; "commissioners,"
garrisons and governors, 119 ; ruins,

picturesque, 121 ; wisdom, 144 n. ;
wives of Solomon, 164 : satrapies in
Palestine and Syria, 168 ; drawing
and pictures, 179 ; Greek and Latin
paleography, 193 ; writing of forty
centuries ago, 196 f. ; king regarded
as proprietor of lands, 201 ; girl
priestesses of Isis, 205 ; farm, 214.
Egyptian antiquities : found in Gaza, 40 f. ;
director of department of, 122.
Egyptian civilization: in Palestine, 40;
essentially literary, 98 ; of fourth dy
nasty, full knowledge of, 99 ; without
known childhood or youth, 103 ; refer
ences to, 112, 152, 161.
Egyptian empire: extent of, 113; fall of,
in Palestine and Syria, 120.
Egyptian hieroglyphics, 184.
Egyptian history : antiquity of, 98 ; divi
sion of, into three parts, 98 ; in relation
to evolution theories, 103 f.
Egyptian monuments : reference to, 92 ;
oldest, testify to high civilization, 102 ;
discovery of names not hitherto found
on, 123 ; light on Hittites from, 162,
165.
Egyptian records: giving important his
torical notices, 12 ; followed by
Assyrian, 170.
Egyptian tombs : ransacked, 97; reference
to, 125.
Egyptians : held nothing in common with
Hebrews, 9 ; defeated by Nebuchad
rezzar, 25 ; built and buried for eter
nity, 98 ; literary people, 98, 117 ;
opposed to all things Asiatic, 118;
in Canaan, 120 ; conversion of, to
Christianity, 127 ; history and art of,
162 ; receipts and other texts written
upon ostraka by, 212.
Egyptology : training-school of biblical
archeology, 7 ; gain from, 9 ; views
regarding the Sphinx, 99 ; recent re
searches in, 125.
Ekhmim, discovery at, 126.
Ekron, ii.
Ekur, temple of. terraces of, 57.
Elam : first mention of, in cuneiform
writings, 70 ; enemy of border states
of Babylonia, 70 ; opposite coast of,
anciently called Apir, 153 ; colonists
of, 154.
El-Amarna tablets : written in dialect of
Babylonian language, 13 ; cuneiform
from Tel el-Hesy supplementing, 17.
See, also, Tel el-Amarna.
Elamite dynasty, rule of, in Babylonia, 136
Elamite-Kassite King Gandas, 137.
Elamites : reference to, 21 attempt of,
to colonize East Africa, 154 : old, 181
Elamitic influence over East Arabia, 153.
Elat, 144, 153.
Elatea, 239 f.
Eleazar, 127.

252

Topical Index.

Elisha. 164.
Elisha's Fountain at Jericho, 32.
el-Oela, 146.
Elzevir of Holland, 226.
Enanatuma I, 72 ; and II, rulers of ancient
Tello, 69.
English : dealers in possession of clay tab
lets from Tello, 80; plundering of
ruins excavated by, 92 ; occupation
of Egypt, 105.
Enoch. See Book of Enoch.
Entemena : ruler of ancient Tello, 69 ;
inscription of, 73.
Epeiph, month of, 207.
Ephesus, 237.
Ephraimites, 164.
Epicurean philosopher, Philodemus, 196,
212, 219.
Epicurean philosophy, tracts on, in library
of Herculaneum, 212.
Epicurus, treatise of, 219.
Eponyms: Canon of, 89; of Mineans, 143.
Era of Seleucides, 149.
Eratosthenes, reference to, 151.
Erba-Marduk, king, 91.
Erech : votive objects belonging to dy
nasty of, 61 ; reference to, 70.
Eridu, 155.
Esarhaddon, victories of, 175.
Esdraelon, Plain of, 40.
Esther, Book of, 206.
Ethiopia, king of, 148.
Ethiopic rule in Southern Arabia, revolt
against. 148.
Etienne of Paris, 226.
Euphrates : references to, 17, 46, 49, 82,90,
155, 166 f., 172 f. ; Lower, 21 ; Jews
deported to banks of, 25 ; country of,
ruled by Hittites, 181.
Euripides : references to, 198, 211 : frag
ment of his play, Melanippe. 223
Europe : first great Aryan migration into,
178; no Aryan invasion of, 178.
European : and American explorers to
Egypt, 97; bondholders allowed to
levy taxes in Turkey, 201.
Eusebian canons, 223.
Euting, Julius : cited, 146.
Euyuk, ruins of, 176, 190.
Evolution theories and Egyptian monu
ments, 103 f.
Excavations in Holy Land, 15 f.
Exodus : references to, 8, 10 ; century
before, 115, 119; causes which led to,
118
Eye-jiaint, or tnesdem, 141.
Ezekiel: reference to Hittites in, 164;
fragments on papyrus of, 222.
Factories of Babylonia and Assyria, 18,
Fayyum : excavations at, 121 ; references
to, 125, 200, 216, 220, 222 ; Petrie
papyri in, 197.
Fellahin, cuneiform found by, 114.

Feudalism replaces patriarchal govern
ment in Egypt, 100.
Feuds, internal, in Canaan, 120.
Field, P. H., reference to, 47 f.
*' Field of Bashan," 120.
Fifth International Oriental Congress at
Berlin, 63.
Fish mentioned in Babylonian letter, 85.
Flint implements of Roman period, 103.
Florentine Homer printed, 226.
Food, scarcity of, mentioned in Babylo
nian letter, 84 f.
Foreign office of Khu-n-Aten, 114 f.
Fort, Temple of Kom Ombo, transformed
into, 121.
Frankish principalities in Greece, 240.
French Academy, report of de Sarzec to,
on campaigns in Tello, 65.
French dealers in possession of clay tab
lets from Tello, 80.
French excavations : at Tello, 63, 67, 79 ;
reference to, 77 ; at Elatea, 239.
French exploration in Boghaz-keui, 189.
Froeben of Basle, 226.
Funeral rites, 77.
Gaihan, or Wady er-Rumma, 155.
Galatians : reference to, 178 ; Epistle to,
and author of Acts, 233.
Gandas, overthrow of Arabian rule in
Babylonia by, 137.
Ganneau, M. : inscription discovered by,
16.
"Garment, a goodly Babylonish," 116.
" Gate of his Ancestor. The," 135 f.
Gath, n.
Gaza : references to, n, 36, 143. 163 ; once
tributary to Ma'in, 14 f. ; in great part
a tell, 40 ; city wall of mud-brick. 40 ;
Egyptian antiquities constantly found
in, 40 f.
Genesis, Book of : faithfully drawn pic
tures from, 9 ; reference to, in.
Geneva, 156.
Gerjin, mound of, 175.
German explorers in Hittite Cilicia, 175.
Gezer, 119.
Ghassan, reference to, 149.
Ghassanides. prince of, 148.
Ghaza. reference to, 143. See, also, Gaza.
Gikhon, river, 155.
Gilead, 165.
Gilgamesh : reference 1.0, 79 , (Gishdubar)
156 n.
Gimil (or Kat) -Sin, 84.
Gimil-Marduk, letter from. 85.
Gizeh : pyramids of, dating from fourth dy
nasty, 99 ; builder of second pyramid
of, 102.
Glaser, Dr. Edward : journeys to Arabia
in 1882-1894, 131, 144, 146, 156 ; his
sketch of Arabia, 132, 146-148, 150,
152, 155, 157 f. ; scholar and explorer,
132 ; his researches, 132, 149 ; cited,

Topical Index.

253

132, 134, 136, 140, 141 n., 142 f., 154;
important historical conclusion of,
151 ; his theories, 152 f. ; his explora
tions of unknown districts, 156 ; re
sults obtained by, 156.
Glaukias, Macedonian settler in Egypt,
204,
"Gli Hethei-Pelasgi," by De Cara, 190.
God : conception of, by ancient Semites,
140 ; Hittite emblem of, 183.
God : Astarte, 10 ; Phenician Vulcan,
10 ; Reshep, 10 ; Baal, 10, 114 ; Anu-
naki, 58 ; Ea, 58 ; Shamash, 58, 84 f. ;
Bel, 58. 89 ; Ninib, 69 ; GUgamesh,
79 ; Ningirsu or Ninsugir, 69, 72 f.,
77 f. ; Dagan, 84 ; Marduk, 84 f. ;
Moon, 87; Nebo, 90; Amon, 114,
127 ; Jada'-sim-hii, 139 ; Shem, 139 ;
'Am, 140: 'Amm, 140; Samas, 141 ;
Athtar, 143 ; Sin, 143 ; Almak-hu,
150 ; Apollo, 169 ; Mars, 169.
" God, official of a," 73.
Goddess: Ninna, 58; Ba'u, 74; Diana of
Ephesians, 188.
Gods : and demi-gods, 79 ; oracle of, 89 ;
Hittite, 177.
Gof, valley of, 151, 157.
Gold : and silver ornaments found in
Babylonia, 62 ; jewelry set with pre
cious stones of early Egypt, 108 ; ref
erence to, 114 ; from Khakhum
Mountains, 135 ; from Milukh, 135 f.,
153 ; mines in Yemama, 153.
Gold-land of Ophir, 153.
Goshen, residence of Hebrews in, 10.
Gospel of St. Peter, apocryphal, Docetic
tendencies of, 126.
Governors and princes of Egypt, quarrels
of, 119.
"Grammar of the Nuba languages," by
Lepsius, 153.
Graves found in Nuffar, 56.
Greece : references to, 161, 171 ; Aryan
migration into, 178; Thessalian and
Dorian invaders of, 178.
Greek : art, 101 f., 169 ; era, 122 ; papyri,
i25f, 208,213 ; versions of the Book of
Enoch, 126; manuscripts, 126, 193 f.,
197, 203, 241; age, ostraka employed
for registration of public accounts
in, 127; language, 127, 193; civiliza
tion, 162, 171, 186,190; inscriptions,
185 f., 196; alphabet, 186; ornament,
188 ; writing and sculpture, 189 ;
deeds of transfer of property, 190 ;
paleography, 193, 214 ; classics, 194,
197 f. ; Bible, 198 ; Egypt, 198 ; books,
198,225 ; papyrusrecently discovered,
199 ; letters, 204, 205 f. ; documents
found in earthen pot, 204, 208 ; texts,
213, 226 ; novel, on papyrus, from
Fayyum, 216 ; early printed, 225 f. ;
first grammar, 226.
" Greek papyri in British Museum," 214.

Greeks : references to, 104, 162, 199 ; suc
ceed Persians in Hittite region, 170;
Hittite sculptures well known to,
176.
Grenfell, Mr., of Queen's College, Oxford,
references to, 199, 222.
Gubi, 135.
Gudea, priest-king: excavation of palace
°f> 65 f. ; great terra-cotta cylinders
of, 66 ; references to, 72, 135, 153 ; in
scriptions of, 78, 136.
Guilloche, or rope pattern, in Greek orna
ment, 188.
Gungunu, 84.
Gur-Sar. grandfather of Ur-Nina, 69.
Gurob, Petrie papyri from, 197.
Habor, or Araxes River, 181.
Hadhramautians, the, 151.
Halevy, Prof. Joseph : cited, 144, 147,
150 *"-, i57. 187.
Halil Bey: cited, 81, 87.
Ham, identified with Egyptian 'Amu,
141 n.
Hamath: references to, n, 183; Hittite
inscriptions from, 173 f.
Hamdani, 155.
Hamdy Bey: cited, 54, 81, 86, 93.
Hammurabi, reference to, 83. See, also,
KAammu-rabi.
Handwriting: reference to, 218; of time
of Christ, 220; early imitation of, in
printing, 225. See, also. Writing,
Script.
Haran, stopping-place of Abraham, 181.
Harim : god of, 139; empire of, subjugated,
150.
Harith (Aretas) bin Gabalat, prince ofthe
Ghassanides, 148.
Harper, Prof. R. F. : cited, 48.
Harran, 89.
Havilah: products of, 136; and Milukh,
striking parallelism of, 136.
Haynes, J. H. : cited, 47, 56, 60 f.
Hebrew : literature, primary revelation
of God's dealing with men in, 4 ;
monarchy in Palestine, 8 ; inscriptions
in Jerusalem, 16; patriarchs, 19;
world, growing knowledge of ancient,
27 ; civilization in Palestine, 40 ; clay
bowls inscribed in, 62 ; stories, place
of origin of, 141 n.
Hebrews living as isolated community of
shepherds in Egypt, 8.
Hebron: origin of name, 120 ; Hittites in,
163 ; bulk of Hittites not residents of,
165.
Hellenic : people, 162, 198 ; monarchies,
farming out of taxes in, 201.
Hepha^stion, letter to, 206 f.
Hephasstos, Greek for Egyptian Ptah,
104.
Herculaneum : charred rolls from, 195 ;
destruction of, 195, 218 f.; library at,

254

Topical Index.

209 ; absence of literary masterpieces
in, 212 ; facsimiles of papyri found at,
218 f.
Hermathena, journal of Trinity College,
Dublin, 222, 225.
Herodian stratum of Jerusalem excavated,
16.
Herodotus : his visit to ancient capital of
Egypt, 104 ; references tu, 105, 176,
216.
Heroes of early Hebrew history deified,
11 f.
Herondas : poem by, 217 f. ; his works
destroyed by Turks, 218 ; his resur
rection to literature, 218.
Hesiod, 211.
Heth : ancestor of Hittites, 163; reference
to, in Genesis, 163 ; sons of, 163 ;
daughters of, 164.
Heuzey, Leon : cited, 67 n., 74, 75 n.,
81 ; his work for science, 69 ; his
interpretation of stele of vultures,
76/.
Hezekiah : reference to time of, 17 ; and
Ahaz, 23 ; and Assyrian army, 24.
Hieratic writing, old specimens of, 196 f.
Hieroglyphics : origin of, 103, 184 ; Afri
can system, 184; old specimens of,
106 f.
Hillah : references to, 49, 82, 90 ; burning
of camp at, 53.
Hilprecht, Prof. H. V. : cited, 47, 60; ref
erences to, 67 n., 82, 84, 93.
Hira, king of, 148 f.
Hiram, ships of, 153.
Hissarlik, mound of, 36.
Hittite : wife of Solomon, 164 ; power,
170, 177 ; empire, ceased to exist,
171 ; invasions of Syria and Pales
tine, 173 ; epigraphy, advance made
in, by Prof. John A. Paine, 173 f. ;
monuments. 173 f. ; territory, extent
of, T74 ; remains, 174 f. ; capital cities,
174, 183; sculptures, 176 f., 185;
standard, two-headed eagle as, 176,
188 ; seals, 177, 187 f. ; problem, 177 ;
mythology, 1 77 ; gods and goddesses,
177, 188 f. ; drawing compared with
Egyptian, 179 ; conquests, 183 ; em
blem of the supreme God, 183 ; script,
origin of, 184 ; treaty with Egypt of
time of Rameses II, 184; sphinx
adopted by the Greeks, 188 ; influence
upon Greek literature and art, 188 f. ;
mounds, 189 ; sculpture in Metropoli
tan Museum, 190.
Hittite art : compared with Assyrian,
175 ; in engraved seals, 177 ; refer
ence to, 170 ; date of, 184 ; influence
of Babylonia and Egypt upon, 184.
Hittite characters : and language, 173,
185 ; generally in raised letters on
stone or silver, 184 ; unlike Egyp
tian, 184 ; likened to Chinese, 184 f. ;

peculiar manner of reading, 184 f. ;
figures representing animals inhabit
ing cold region, 185 ; source of five
Greek letters, 186 ; compared with
Cypriote, 187 ; small progress made in
deciphering, 187.
Hittite civilization : reference to, 161 ;
antedating that of Greece, Italy,
Cyprus, 190 ; and art, affected by
Egypt, 183; and language, contem
porary with Pelasgic of Greek tradi
tion, 190.
Hittite hieroglyphics, Hittite hieroglyphs.
See Hittite characters.
Hittite inscriptions : abundant, but unde
cipherable, 173 ; many found at Car
chemish, 175 ; puzzle to scholars, 186 ;
hopes of deciphering still entertained,
186 ; extraordinary translations of,
187 ; date of, first published in
America, 189; from Senjirli, 189.
Hittite language ; reference to, 173 ;
probably neither Semitic nor Aryan,
180, 186 ; its relation to Old Armenian,
180 n., 187 n. ; now lost, although
familiar to Paul, 181 ; various names
given to, by scholars, 187.
Hittites : expansion of, 22 ; conquests of,
118; from Taurus ranges, 119; in
Canaan, 120 ; advance of, 120; his
tory and art of, 162 ; Bible references
to, 162 165 ; of stock of Cushites,
163 ; in light of Egyptian monuments,
165 ; of Kadesh, 165 ; in northeastern
Syria, 166 ; supposed campaign of
Thothmes IV. against, 166 ; Sety Ts
victories over, 167 f. ; drowning of,
in River Orontes, 168 ; earliest men
tion of, 168 ; their conquest of all
Syria, 168 ; yellow race approach
ing Mongolian type, 169 ; mention t»f,
in book of omens attributed to Sar
gon I, 170 ; reference to, 171 ; suc
ceeded by Aramean race, 175;
original seat and capital of, 176 ; early
populating Asia Minor, 179 ; features
and complexion of, 179 f. ; as Mon
golians speaking Turanian tongue,
181 ; extensive spread of population
of, 181 ; first settled in mountainous
region of Cappadocia, 181 ; deify
winged disk of Egypt, 183 ; prevail
ing race in Asia Minor about 1000
B.C., 185 f. ; mediating influence of,
between neighboring peoples, 188 ;
of twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
B.C., 189.
" Hittites, kings of the," 164 f.
Holy Ghost, mention of, in Sabean in
scription, 149.
Holy Land. See Palestine.
Homer : references to, 194, 209 f., 213,
224; varying texts of, 210 f. ; critical
text of, by Aristarchus, 211 ; papyrus

Topical Index.

=55

fragments of, dating from before
Christ, 224 ; the Florentine, 226.
Hommel, Fritz, Prof. Dr. : cited, 67, 83,
i37n.
Horus. 206 f.
Howara, 125.
Hudhailites, tribe of, 147.
Huet the Jesuit, 193.
Human skulls found in Babylonia, 62.
Huns, invasion of Turks in times of,
181.
Husband, calling himself brother, 206.
Hyksos, or shepherd-kings, expulsion
of, 10, 98, 113; invaders from Asia,
112.
Hymns from Abu-Habba, 84.
Hypereides, 211, 213, 218.
Iberians, 181.
Ibishu, Ibsha". See Abz'shu.
Iconium, 229. 235.
Idin-Dagan, 84.
Idols, in clay, 83.
Iliad : first book of, commentary on, 127 ;
reference to, 168 ; Codex Marches
Venetus A, 211. See, also, Homer.
Imgur-Marduk, survey of, 51.
Imperial Library at St. Petersburg, 222.
Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constanti
nople, references to, 54, 61, 78, 81,
86 f. ; organization of Babylonian
section, 82.
" Imprecation of Artemisia " at Vienna,
197 f.
Incantations from Abu-Habba, 84.
India: references to, 101, 153; under
British dominion, compared to that
of Canaan, 119.
Ine-Sin, ruler of second dynasty of Ur,
84.
Inscribed stone, found by M. Ganneau,
16.
Inscriptions : restored from fragments of
marble and sandstone vases, 68 ; in
Phenician alphabet, 117; many en
tirely new, 157 ; in old Hittite, later
Assyrian, and Aramean, 189. See,
also, Arabian, Canaanitish, Cata-
banian, Christian, Cztneiform, etc.
Intaglios found in Nippur, 74.
Inventories. See Cuneiform.
lonians : their flourishing colonies, 171 ;
reference to, 178.
Irbi-ilu, 139.
Iron objects found in Babylonia, 62.
Isaiah and Cyrus the Persian, 25.
Isidorus, letter to, 127.
Isias, letter from, 206.
Isis, priestesses of, 205.
" Isle of the Blessed : " abode of Noah,
135 ; reference to, 156.
Isocrates. the Milan, 226.
Israel: references to, 5, 120 ; close relations
between Canaan and, 12 ; in Canaan,

22; and Judah, gradual effacement of,
23 ; and Maccabean revolt. 128 , and
Balaam, 167.
Israelites : their sojourn in Lower Egypt,
historicity of, 9 ; their environment
in Egypt and wilderness. 15 ; their
career as episode in history, 20 ,
deported by Babylonians, 21 ; their
political environment due to Baby
lonia, 21; as literary people, 117;
Egypt's opposition to, 118 ; prepared
for entrance into Canaan, 120 ; Kir
jath-sopher destroyed by, 125 ; refer
ence to, 163 ; Jabin's league against,
164.
Ita'amara, identified with Jatha'amir,
13I-
Italian printers, early, 225.
Italics, books printed in, 226.
Italy: Aryan migration into, 178 ; earliest
civilization of, contemporary with
Hittites, 190.
Ivory brought from East Africa by
Elamites, 154.
Jabin's league against Israelites, 164.
Jacob : raised to rank of demi-god, 11;
and " daughters of Heth," 164.
Jacob-el and Joseph-el, 11.
Jada'-il Bayyin, 150.
Jada'-sim-hu, 139.
Jadikhum, 142,
Jakbar-ilu, 142.
Jakhziru, 142,
Jamlik-ilu, 142.
Jarbi-ilu, 139, 142.
Jatha'amir, prince of Saba, identified with
Ita'amara, 131.
Jathil : former capital of Ma'in, 150; ref
erence to, 151.
Jebb, Dr. : cited, 178.
Jebusites, 163 f.
Jehu and Shalmaneser, 23.
Jensen, Prof. Peter : cited, 65 : his work
of deciphering Hittite inscriptions,
187 n.
Jerabis, modern name for Carchemish,
175-
Jeremiah, reference to, 25.
Jericho : reference to, 32 ; Tell es-Sultan
supposed site of, 41 ; tells of antiquity
found in plain of, 41.
Jerob-'am, 137 f.
Jerusalem : ancient, not yet reached by
excavators, 16 : inscriptional and
architectural remains in, 16 ; refer
ences to, 24, 164 ; built on mound of
ancient city, 31 ; regular stratification
of ruins in, 35; early leading state in
Canaan, 119.
Jetro ben Reghu-el, Arabian priest-king,
144 n.
Jew, office of tax-gatherer for temple of
Amon held by, 127.

256

Topical Inde.

Jewelry, early Egyptian : marvelous
treasures of. 107 ; equal to best work
of modern goldsmith, 108.
Jewish priests, 169.
Jews : deported to banks of Euphrates,
25 : reference tc, 226 ; Hellenization
of, 127 f. ; letters of Syrian kings to,
202.
finns, or demons of Arabs, 55.
Jisra-el, 138. See, also, Israel.
Joppa, 11.
Jordan : valley of, mounds familiar to
travelers in, 31 ; river, 120.
Joseph : administration of, in Egypt, 8 ;
raised to rank of demi-god, 11 ;
honored in Canaan, 12 ; reference to,
118.
Josephus on farming out taxes, 202.
Joshua : reference to, 41 ; time of, 164.
Josiah checks army of Pharaoh Necho,
24.
Judah : epochs in history of, 23 ; in days
of Manasseh, 24 ; return of exiles of,
from Babylon, 25.
Judges, reference to Hittites in, 164
Ka, or " double " of dead, 108.
Kadesh: references to, 11,189; Hittite
capital of, 165, 169, 173 f. ; battle
with Hittites at, 168 ; lake of, 174.
Ka-gal-adda, " The Gate of his Ances
tor," 136.
Kalabsheh, temple of, painted inscriptions
in, 196
Kaptar, Caphtor of Old Testament, 123.
Kariba-il Watar, priest-king, 150.
Karnak : reference to, 127 ; illustrations
in temple of, 168.
Karna'u, former capital of Ma'in, 150 f,
Kash, See Kush.
Kasluhet, the Casluhimof Old Testament,
123.
Kassites : of Babylonia, 154, 183 ; incor
rectly called Kosseans, 154 n. See,
also, Cassite.
Kasu. See Kesh.
Kataban empire, war against, 150.
Katabanian inscriptions, 157 f. See, also,
Catabanian.
Katabanians, 151.
Kedarenes, prince of, 142.
Kedor-laomer, expedition of, 144.
Kenyon, F. G. : cited, 216.
Kerbela, 92.
Kesh, Kushites (of Bible), Kasu (of
Assyrians), 153.
Kha-ab-di-ilu, 140.
Khabiri, or " Confederates," 119.
Khakhum mountains, gold from, 135.
Kham : identified with Ham, 141 n. ;
Hebrew for 'Amm, 154 n. ; not con
nected with Canaan, 154 n.
Khammu : god, 139 f. ; analogy of, in
Khammu-rabi, 140 ; Babylonian for

'Am, 140 ; identified with Kham,
141 n.
Khammu-rabi : identified with Babylo
nian Kimtu-rapashtu, 137, 139 ; origin
of dynasty of, 138 ; king of Martu;
138 n. ; analogy of, in Khammu, 140;
son of, 141 ; Arabic form for Am-
raphel, 142 ; references to, I43f., 154m
See, also, Hammurabi.
Kharid river, 151 n.
Kheops, contemporaries of, 103.
Khephren : statue of, 102; contemporaries
of, 103.
Khorsabad and Nineveh, birth of Assyri-
ology in, 45.
Khu-en-aten. See Khu-n-Aten.
Khu-n-Aten : Palestinian minister under
Egyptian ruler, 9 ; adopted name of
Amenophis IV, meaning of, 114 ;
cuneiform from Foreign Office of,
114 ; his new capital, 114 ; palace of,
114; correspondence to, 114 f . ; his
city deserted, 118 ; religious and civil
war in reign of, 118 ; religious reforms
of, 118 ; references to. 120, 183.
Kimash : Copper Mountains of, 135 ;
" land of Mash," 135.
Kimta-rapashtu. See Kimtu-rapashtu.
Kimtu-kittu. See Ammi-zaduga.
Kimtu-rapashtu. See Khammu-rabi.
" King of the hordes of the Manda," 91.
" Kings of the Hittites," 164 f.
" King's Stoa," 238.
Kirjath-anab, reference to, in Papyrus,
124.
Kirjath-sepher. See Kirjath-sopher.
Kirjath-sopher : meaning of, 125 ; first
mention of, on contemporaneous
monument, 125.
Kish, kings of, 77.
Kishkanu, or palm-trees, 134.
Kishon, 11.
Kom Ombo : excavations at, 121 ; tem
ples of, 121 f. ; necropolis of, 122 ;
reference to, 123.
Kosh. See Kush.
Kosseans, correctly called Kassites, 154 n.
Kurigalzu, King, 49, 83.
Kush (Kash) : spreading of, as name of
nations, 153 ; but one people in earli
est time, 154 ; frequently standing for
Arabia in Old Testament, 154; or
Kosh, sons of, as descendants of
Shem, 154: not connected with Mis-
rayim, 154 n. ; land of, 155.
" Kushite, the," surname of Nimrod,
156.
Kushites, 113, 153, 163.
Laban, home of, 181,
" Laches " of Plato, 108.
Lachish : discoveries in, 17; site of an
cient, 36 ; great work of excavation
at, 36 f.

Topical Index.

257

Lagash : later name for Shirpurla, 65 ;
references to, 66, 77 : earliest rulers
uf, 67; principal deity of, 69; walls
restored and fortified by Ur-Nina,
69; under Edingiranagin. 70: coat
of arms of, 70, 78 ; conqueror of, 72 ;
Ningirsu. highest god of. 72 : patesi
of. 72 . oldest history of, 73 ; Ur-
Nina, king of. 73; numerous tablets
found in, 79: literary store-house or
temple archive discovered at, 80. See,
also, Tello.
Lance-head of copper or bronze dedicated
to Ningirsu. 78-
Language. See Arabic. Babylonian, etc
Lapis-la2uli, among finds at Lagash. 80.
Larsa, rule of Semitic and Elamite dynas
ties at, 136.
Lateran Museum at Rome, 236.
Latin paleography. 193.
Lavra, monastery of, 224.
Law's delays referred to in papyrus docu
ment, 209.
Laws of priests of Israel, antiquity of,
158-
Layard, Sir Austen H., explorations of,
61.
Legal institutions in Babylonia and As
syria, 18.
Legal proceedings, account of, in papyrus
document, 208 f.
Lenormant, Francois : cited, 131 ; his at
tempts to decipher Hittite inscrip
tions, 187.
Lepsius, Karl R. : cited, 153.
Letters : extensive transmission of, in time
ofMoses,n6; written upon Egyptian
potsherds. 127. See, also, Cuneiform,
Greek tetters, Greek manuscripts,
etc.
Leyden, city of, 205.
Libraries in time of Moses, 117.
Lihyanian inscriptions and language,
146.
"Limb of Satan," 91.
Limestone bas-reliefs of Ur-Nina, 74.
Lion, picture of, engraved on lance, 78.
Lion-heads of Ur-Nina's temple, 74.
Lions : not used as characters in Hittite
inscriptions, 185; Hittite figures of,
188.
Literary storehouse or temple archive,
found at Lagash, 80.
Literature : valuable collections of, 19 ;
advanced state of, in time of Moses,
116 f. : Canaanitish, 116 f., 125; Chris
tian, 126.
Loftus, William K., explorations of, 61.
London : built on mound of ancient city,
31 ; museums of, 156. See, also,
British Museum.
Love-letter, ancient Babylonian, 85.
Luxor : excavations at, 121 ; temple of,
124.

Luz, city of: betrayer of, 164 ; one of
Hittite capitals, 165.
Lycaonia, 181.
Lycurgus, 171
Lydia : empire of, 171 ; reference to, 181.
Lygdamis, 91.
Lystra : references to, 181, 229; site of,
231 ; Roman colony of, 231 ; proposed
excavation 0^234; local use of name
in Acts, 235.
Ma'an : the Ma'on of Judges, 144; older
form of Ma'in, 144; Babylonian ren
dering of Magan, 144. See, also,
Main.
Maccabean revolt, 128.
Macedonian colony, 198.
Mace-head or scepter-knob dedicated to
Ningirsu, 77.
Macrobius, reference to, 225.
Ma'din. See Mdzin.
Magan : dominion of, 134 ; designated
Copper Mountains, 135 ; expedition
of Naram-Sin against, 135 ; diorite
from, 135 ; Babylonian rendering for
Ma'an, 144; old name for Eastern
Arabia, 144.
" Magan, tree of," mis-Magan, 134.
Mahaffy, Prof. J. P., reference to, 199.
Mahler, Prof.: cited, 98.
Ma'in: once extensive empire, 14 f.; ref
erences to, 14, 132, 157 ; later form of
Ma'an, 144; war against, 150 ; former
capital of, 150; defeat of, 151; or,
Karna'u, 151. See, also, Minean.
Makhnubi-ilu, 142.
Makhnuzu, 142.
Malachite mines of Sinaitic Peninsula, 99.
Malatiyeh, region of, 172.
Manda, hordes of, 91.
Mandean, clay bowls inscribed in, 62.
Manuscripts and inscriptions contrasted,
196. See, also, Greek manuscripts.
Ma'on. See Ma'an.
Marash, 174.
Marble vases from Babylonia, 61, 68.
Marcellus, Avircius, epitaph of, 235.
Marduk : god, 84 f.; symbol of, 90.
Marib : ancient capital of Sabeans, 132,
147; large number of inscriptions
from, 147 ; sheriff of, 147 ; visited by
only two Europeans prior to Glaser,
147; texts from, 148; famous dam of,
148 ; reference to, 151 n.
Mariette-Bey, A. : cited, 97, 108.
Marriage alliance : between the Pharaohs
and foreign royal houses, 113 ; be
tween Amenophis III with king of
Naharina, 166 ; between Hittites and
Egyptians, 168.
Marriage of brothers and sisters among
Egyptians, 206.
Mars, god, 169.
Mars' Hill, 237.

17

258

Topical Index.

Martu : mountains of, 136 ; country of,
Westland, 138 ; reference to, 144.
Mash, country neighboring Magan, 135.
Mash Mountains, identification of, 135.
Mashu, mountain of, 155.
Masonites and banu Mazin 01 Ma'din,
identity of, 155.
Masons, basket symbol of, 75.
Masorites, mistake made by, 125.
Maspero, Prof. G. : cited, 66 f., 97;
journal edited by, 83, 88 n.
Mazin (Ma'din) identified with Masonites,
I55-
Meander : his " genteel comedy," 212.
Mecca, 147.
Medina, 135.
Mediterranean : coast control of Baby
lonia and Assyria, 20 f.; references to,
57» I7I-
Meduin tombs of third dynasty, 100.
Megiddo : references to, n, 119 ; water
of, 40 ; no Hittites in battle of, 166.
Meir, discovery of tomb at, 100.
Melanippe, fragment of, on parchment at
Berlin, 223.
Memphis : royal city of, 10 ; tomb of
second dynasty found at, 99 ; mounds
of, 104 ; ancient, ruins of, 105 ; kilns
for dark-blue pottery at, 106 ; Sera
peum at, 204 ; crown officials at, 205.
Menes : first king of united Egypt, re
mote age of, 99 ; no dated monument
of time of, 99.
Menuas, king of Van, -campaigns of, 172.
Mesdem, or eye-paint, 141.
Mesha, king of Moab, inscribed stone of,
16.
Mesopotamia : references to, 46, 92 ; offi
cials of provinces in, ordered to guard
all antiquities, etc., 86; art in, 87;
most important discoveries in, made
by Arabs, 92 ; conquest of, 166.
Messiah, mention of, in Sabean inscrip
tion, 149.
Metal: vessels of, found at Lagash, 66;
ancient Egyptians acquainted with
use of, 103 ; inscriptions on, 196.
Metrodorus, treatise of, 219.
Metropolitan Museum, at New York, 190.
Meyer, Joseph A., Jr.: cited, 56 f.
Microscope : its use in detecting forgeries
in manuscripts, 195.
Middle Babylonian civilization, 152.
Middle Empire period in Egyptian his
tory, 98, 109.
Midian, Arabian priest-king of, 144 n.
Milan Isocrates, 226.
Milukh : dominion of, 134 ; noted for
ushit wood, and gold, 135 f., 153 ; and
Havilah, striking parallelism of, 136.
Milukha. See Milukh.
Minean : classical term for Ma'in, 14 ;
kingdom, antecedent to rise of Sabean
power, 151 ; kings, 157.

Minean empire : early history of, 143 ;
numerous towns of, 150 ; and Sabean
empires, not contemporaneous, 151 ;
period of supremacy of, 152.
Minean inscriptions: references to, 131,
136, 151, 157; age of, parallel with
code of priests, 158.
Minean language : Catabanian inscrip
tions in, 140, 157 ; oldest Arabic, 142 ;
older than Sabean, 146.
Mineans : ancient, in Arabia, 140 ; exten
sive commerce of, 143; reference to,
151-
Mineo-Sabean civilization, 143.
Minieh, 112.
Minuscle writing, 225.
Mis-Magan, " tree of Magan," 134 f.
Mitanni : royal houses of, 113 ; people of,
119.
Mizraim, 120. See, also, Egypt.
Moab : earliest example of name, outside
of Holy Writ, 124 ; reference to, 167.
Moabite stone as classical text for Old
Testament history, 16 f.
Moabite wives of Solomon, 164.
Models, Egyptian, 109 f.
Mohammed Ali, obelisk presented to
British government by, 105.
" Mohar, The Travels of the," 124.
Mommsen, Prof. Theodore : cited, 240 f.
Monastery of Lavra, 224.
Mongolian language : spoken by Vannai,
172 ; in Assyrian characters, 172.
Mongolian race : Hittites most approach,
169; reference to, 177; represented
by Turcomans. 180; primitive, 181 ;
See, also, Hittites.
Monks : medieval, Greek books copied
by, 193 ; their solitary seclusion com
plained of, 205 f. ; of Serapeum, 204.
See, also, Coptic monks.
Monument of clay and bitumen, 75 f.
Monuments : compared to prophecy, 27 ;
discovered when world was prepared
for them, 27 ; innumerable in Upper
Egypt, 97 f. ; of sixth dynasty found
all over Egypt, 100. See, also, Assy
rian, Babylonian, Egyptian, etc.
Morgan, Jacques de : cited, 97, 103, 106 f.,
122.
Moral treatises forty centuries old. 197.
Moses : advanced state of literature in
time of, 116 f. ; references to, 144 n.,
164 ; and children of Israel, 167.
Mosul, 89, 92.
Mother-of-pearl among finds at Lagash,
80.
Mound : every buried city <i, 3T ; in
Arabic. tell, 31.
Mounds : how to study them. 35 f. ; pro
tection of, 93 ; of Tel el-Amarna, 112.
Mount Athos, Monastery of Lavra on,
224.
Mountain of Mashu, 155.

Topical Index

259

Mud and stone constructed towns com
pared, 33.
Mud-brick material of tells, 33.
Mud-brick walls of Tell es-Sultan, 41.
Muhammad, references to, 147, 149.
Mujellibeh, old boundary of Babylon, 90.
Mukoter. shaykh, reference to, 53 f.
Muller, D. H. : cited. 146.
Muller, Prof. W. Max. discovery by, 124.
Mummies of late Greek or early Roman
era, 122.
Mummy-cases, cartonnage of, composed
of inscribed papyri, 125.
Museum : of the University of Pennsyl
vania, 83, 141 n. See, also, Alex
andria, Ashmolean, Berlin, British,
Cairo, Court, Imperial Ottoman,
Lateran, London, Metropolitan, Na
ples.
Musukkati trees. 134.
Mycenae, famous lions of, borrowed from
Hittites, 188.
Mycenean period : reference to, 162 ; rule
of Hittites in, 186.
Mythology, Hittite, 177.
Nabatean empire, decline of, 146 f.
Nabonidos ; inscriptions of, 68, 90 ; stele
of, 90; reference to, 91. See, also,
Nabuna'id.
Nabuna'id, King : his discovery of old
foundation of Naram-Sin, 57.
Naharina ; conquest of, 166 ; king of, his
alliance with Amenophis III, 166.
Name : of nations, explanation of spread
ing of Kush as, 153; Egyptian custom
in addressing one by, 206 ; person
unable to sign, mentioned in papyrus
document, 208.
Names, family, ancestral, paternal, patri
archal, god, and other, 135, 137-142.
Naples : great library at, 194 ; museum
of, 195, 212 ; facsimiles of papyri pub
lished at, 219.
Naram-Sin: foundation of, 57; inscribed
bricks of, 61 ; reference to, 67 ; mean
ing of, 87 ; son and successor of Sar
gon I, 87 ; bas-relief erected by, 87 f. ;
his expedition against Magan, 135.
Nashan empire, subjugation of, 150.
Natunum, 142.
Naville, M. : discovery of Pithom by,
118 ; cited, 213.
Nebo, symbol of, 90.
Nebuchadrezzar : Chaldean campaigns
of, 24 f. ; Quai walls of, 49 ; old walls
of, utilized as quarries, 90.
Necropolis : of Kom Ombo, 122 ; temple
attached to, 122 ; near Thebes, 213.
Neo-Assyrian period, 89.
New Empire period in Egyptian history,
98. 109, 152.
New Testament : archeological aspect of,
3 ; reference to farming out taxes in,

201; text of, 224; tradition regard
ing its antiquity, 224.
Niffer. See Nuffar, Nippur.
Nigal-nigin : father of Ur-Nina, 69 ; refer
ence to, 73.
Nile: references to, 6, 17, 112, 121, 161 ;
traveling on, no ; tables of rise of
recorded upon Egyptian potsherds,
127.
Nile, valley of: treasure house of arche
ology, 97 ; barbarous races which
overran, 103 ; one of stateliest of tem
ples in, 122.
Nimitti-Marduk, survey of, 51.
Nimrod : gate he had to pass through to
reach " Isle of the Blessed," 135 ; sur
named the " Kushite," 156.
"Nimrod Epic," 135.
Nineveh : references to, 23, 63, 185 ; fall
of, 24 ; and Khorsabad, birth of
Assyriology in, 45; captured by Hit
tites, 176, 183.
Ningirsu, or Ninsugir : identical with
Assyrian Ninib,69 ; symbol of, 69 f. ;
principal deity of Lagash, 69, 72 ;
territory and sphere of power of, 72 ;
temple of, 73, 78 ; gifts presented to
temple of, 77 : coat of arms of, 78.
Ninib. See Ningirsu.
Ninna, goddess, 58.
Niobe : the weeping, 176 ; Greek name
for Hittite goddess, 189.
Nippur; explorations in ruins of, 47;
believed to be oldest city on earth, 59 ;
reference to, 74 ; large number of
vases in, 77. See, also, Nuffar.
Nisibis, city of, 183.
Nituk or Dilmun, 135.
Noah, abode of, 135.
Noorian, Daniel, reference to, 48,
Novel, unknown Greek, from Fayyum,
216.
Nubia: reference to, 154 : painted inscrip
tions in temples of, 196.
Nuffar : different spellings of, 47 ; canals
of, 49 ; cost of excavations in, 59 ;
reference to, 67 : great age of docu
ments found at, 68 ; archives in, con
taining thousands of tablets, 79 ; ruins
of, 82. See, also, Nippur.
Obelisk, Alexandrian, or Cleopatra's
Needle, 105.
Observatories of Babylonia and Assyria,
18.
Oil-presses in Egypt under control of
publicani, 203.
Old Armenian, Hittite words traceable to,
180 n., 187 n.
Old Empire : period in Egyptian history,
98 ; patriarchal government of, 100 ;
"modern" things in, 101 ; architec
tural discovery of, 103 ; marvelous
civilization of, 103 ; reference to, 109.

260

Topical Index.

Old Testament : and New contrasted, 3 ;
literature, and history of, 5 ; refer
ences to art of engraver in, 17 ; cunei
form records illustrating, 21 ; its need
of vindication past, 28 ; historicity of,
confirmed, in f., ti6 ; proofs for his
torical accuracy of traditions of, 158 ;
references to Hittites in, 163.
Ombos, town of, 208.
"On Adoration," by S. Cyril, 222.
Onyx, inscribed vase of, 74.
Ophir: identified with Apir, 153 ; location
of, 153-
Oppert, Prof. Jules : quotation from, 63 ;
labors of. 65 ; cited, 72, 75, 154 n.
Oriental Congress : at Berlin, 63 ; at
Stockholm, 147; at Geneva, 156 n.
Oriental studies, functions of, 5.
Oriental world before exodus, 115.
Orontes River, references to, 168, 173.
Oserapis, invoking vengance of, 197.
Osiander inscriptions, 144.
Ostraka: oldest Greek, 127 ; various uses
made of, in Egypt, 127, 213 ; refer
ence to, 212.
Ottoman : Empire, ruins in, 82 ; Ministry
of Public Instruction, 86; Minister of
Public Instruction, 93 ; governor,
seat of, at San'a, 147.
Ottoman government : protection of
American explorers by, 56 ; measures
taken by, for protection of archeo
logical remains, 86, 93 ; importance
of its decree for Assyriology, 91 f.
Paine, Prof. John A. : his work in de
ciphering Hittite inscriptions, 173 f.
Palace : of priest-king Gudea, 64 ; of King
Tiglath-Pileser III, 89; royal, of
Khu-n-Aten, 114.
Palaces of Babylonia and Assyria, 18.
Paleographers, errors made by, 220 f.
Palestine : permanent home of Hebrews,
6; and Egypt, relation between, 7;
military occupation of, by Egypt, 8;
Egyptian subjection of tribes from, 9 ;
influence of, in northern Egypt, 10;
successive invasions of, 10 ; testimony
of monuments as to peopleof, n;
and Syria, as appanages of Egypt, 12 ;
and Egypt, social and intellectual,
solidarity of, 15; Hebrews' residence
as independent people in, 21 ; hope
for historical light in mounds of, 31 ;
consuls of Amenhoteps III and IV in,
39; references to, 113, 124, 138, 162-
165; correspondence found at Tel el-
Amarna from, 115 ; under Babylonian
dominion, 115 ; under what name
known to Babylonians, 116; Babylo
nian campaign in, 116; ancient script
of peopleof, ii7f. ; rule and overthrow
of Egyptian empire in, 119 f. ; and
Hittites, 163, 172; Hittite invasion

of, 173 ; occupied by Babylonia, 183 ;
taxes farmed out in, 202.
Palestine Exploration Fund : its two years'
work at Lachish, 38.
Palimpsest documents, 193.
Palm, sacred, of city of Eridu, 155.
Palm-trees, or Kishkanu trees, 134.
Palu, region of, 172.
Paper, manuscripts of, 196,
Papyri : inscribed, forming cartonnage of
mummy-cases, 125; belonging to first
century, A. D., 126; found at Hercu-
laneum, 212, 218 ; date of writing
never^given in, 219. See, also, Greek
Papyri.
Papyrus : written in age of Rameses II,
124 ; broken pots employed instead
of, 127; its lasting qualities, 196;
nature and character of correspond
ence on, 207-209 ; date of latest, 209 ;
containing Egyptian land steward's
accounts, 214 f. ; method employed
in writing on, 215 ; replaced by parch
ment, 223.
Paradise, location of, 155 f.
Parchment; manuscripts of, 196; intro
duction of, for writing purposes, 223.
Paris, reference to, 205.
Parme, books printed by, 226.
Parthenon, the, 162.
Patesi, title of " priest-king," 71 f., 73.
" Patriarchal period " of Israel, 10.
Paul : hearing Hittite tongue while in
Lystra of Lycaonia, 181 ; travels
of, 229 ; his journeys across Asia
Minor, 232 f. ; guide and counselor
to Marcellus, 235 f. ; on Mars' Hill,
237 ; his teachings subjected to in
quiry, 238 f. ; his imprisonment in
Rome, 240-242 ; importance of archeo
logical search in solving difficulties
about his career, 242.
Pauline Epistles: their relation to the
Acts, 233.
Pebbles, inscribed, found at Lagash, 80.
Peek, Sir Henry : cited, 140.
Pelasgic : period, rule of Hittites in, 186 ;
pottery from Cyprus, 190; ruins at
Euyuk, 190.
Pennsylvania. See University of Pennsyl
vania,
Pentaour. reference to great poem of, 168.
Pentateuch, criticism of, 117, 158.
Pepi II, tomb of reign of, 100.
Pepper, Dr. William, reference to, 47.
Pergamon, ruins of, 82.
Pericles, 162.
Perizzites, 163 f.
Persia, 123, 148 f.
Persian empire, 171.
Persians : their attempt to colonize East
Africa, 154; they succeed Babylo
nians, 170.
Pesth stormed by Turks, 218.

Topical Index.

261

Peters, Prof. John P., references to, 47, 56,
60.
Pethor, Balaam at Hittite town of, 167.
Petrie, Dr. W. M. Flinders : references to,
36, 38, 102, 125, 201, 204,222; excava
tions by, 115.
Petrie papyri : from Fayyum, 197 ; nature
and character of contents of, 198 ;
publication of, 199 ; reference to, 211.
" Phado " of Plato, reference to, 198.
Pharaoh : slight respect for his authority,
100.
Pharaoh Necho : his domination in Pales
tine, 8 ; his march to Euphrates
checked by Josiah, 24,
Pharaoh of the Oppression. See Rame
ses II.
Pharaohs, the : whole life of, displayed on
monuments, 98 ; references to, 112,
123, 125; marriage alliances of, with
Babylonia and Mitauni, 113.
Phenicia, reference to, 167.
Phenician: civilization, 161; traders, 171.
Phenician alphabet : inscriptions in, 117 ;
not ancient script of people of Pales
tine, 117 f. ; Minean alphabet older
than, 143 ; ancient characters of, 175 ;
letters of, adopted in Greek alphabet,
186.
Philadelphia : citizens of, organize " The
Babylonian Exploration Fund," 47.
See, also, Museum of University of
Pennsylvania .
Philippian church, Paul's letter to, 241
Philodemian tracts, 219.
Philodemus : his tract on music, 195 ;
Epicurean philosopher, 196, 212, 219.
Philokles, son of Simon, 127.
Phocis, 239.
Phrygia, references to, 178, 336.
Piacenza, Antoninus of, 239.
Pilate, reference to, 126.
Pinches, Theophilus G.: cited, 138, 140.
Pishon river, 155.
Pisidian Antioch, 229.
Pithom : treasure city of, zof. ; discovery
of, 119.
Plato, reference to, 198.
Playthings found in Babylonia, 62.
Plutarch, reference to, 216.
Poems, earliest Hebrew records in artistic,
19.
Pognon, M. : cited, 137.
Polycrates, reference to, 48.
Pontus. See Punt.
Population of Asia Minor from 1000 to
2000 B. C., 177.
Portrait of occupant of tomb of sixth
dynasty, 100.
Post-Christian inscriptions, 149.
Potsherds : inscribed, use made of, in
Egypt, 127 ; inscriptions on, 196 ; ref
erence to, 212.
Pottery : found in Gaza, 40 ; of pre-

Israelite period found at Tell es-Sul
tan, 41; remains of Roman period, 103.
Pre-Aldine Greek books, 226.
Pre-Christian Greek manuscripts, 203.
Precious stones, references to, 114, 136.
Pre-Constantinian inscriptions, 236.
Pretorian commanders: Paul's trial be
fore, 241 ; position and duties of, 241.
Pretorian guard, in charge of Paul, im
portant discovery concerning, 241 f.
Priest-king, patesi, 71-73, mukarrib, 150.
Priest-kings of Saba, references to, 148,155.
Prince, Dr. D. J., reference to, 48.
Prince of Ghassanides, 148.
" Prince-priest," rather than " priest-
king," 71.
Princeps peregrinorum castrorum, omis
sion of, in treatises on Roman anti
quities, 241 f.
Princes: of Tello, 69; succeeding Edin
giranagin bear title ot patesi, 71 ; of
Lagash, 79 ; vassal, 115, 119; Baby
lonian, 116; and governors of Egyptian
provinces, quarrels between, 119.
Printer, Aldus famous Venetian, 226.
Printers, early Italian, 225.
Printing, first attempts to represent Greek
in type for, 225.
" Professors of the University," Paul
before, 238.
Prophecy, what it shows, 27.
Ptah, remains of great temple of, 104.
Pterion, ruins of, 176, 183.
Ptolemaic period, dialect of lower classes
in, 218.
Ptolemies, the : temple built by, 121 ; ref
erence to, 125.
Ptolemy II [Philadelphus], papyrus of
time of, 126, 199.
Ptolemy III, references to, 126, 202.
Ptolemy VII [Physcon], Greek ostraka
of time of, 127.
Ptolemy XI [Auletes], possessions lost by,
122 f.
Ptolemy, Claudius, reference to, 155.
Ptolemy, son of Glaukias, 204 f., 208 f.
Publicanus of Romans, references to,
201, 203.
Pul, of Old Testament, reference to, 89.
Punt, district of, 123.
Pyramids ; builder of, 102 ; of brick and
stone, 106 ; monuments of antiquity
when Abraham entered Egypt, no.
Quai walls of Nebuchadrezzar, 49.
Quarries, old walls of Nebuchadrezzar
utilized as, 90,
Queen of Saba, her visit to King Salomo,
144 n.
Rameses I : reference to, 118 f. , his
treaty with Hittites, 167.
Rameses II : fixing date of famous
monarch, 99 ; granite image of, 105 ;

262

Topical Index.

the Pharaoh of the Oppression, 105,
118 f., 124 ; grandson of Rameses 1.,
119 ; campaigns of, 120 ; discovery of
papyrus of age of. 124 ; six colossal
statues of, 124 ; powerful reign of,
167 ; treaty between him and Hittites,
168, 184; reference to, 169.
Rameses III, reference to, 9.
Ramhiis or Ramhis, reference to, 148.
Ramman-rabi, meaning of, 139.
Ramsay, Prof. W. M., quotations from,
233, 236.
Rassam : cited, 82.
Rawlinson's "Inscriptions," 137.
Reading-lessons in Babylonian language,
and script, 115.
" Realm of Antiochus," 231.
Rebekah, 163 f.
" Records of the Past," reference to,
J37-
Red Sea, Punt of days of Pharaohs, 123.
Red-tape formalities, common in legal
proceedings of ancients, 209.
Religion, change of, in Egypt, 114.
Religious : texts found in Nuffar, 60 ; re
forms of Khu-n-Aten, 118 ; war in
reign of Khu-n-Aten, 118.
Reshep, Phenician Vulcan, worshiped in
Egypt, 10.
" Robinson's Arch," 33.
Roman: remains, 41 ; dominion in Egypt,
106; emperors, 121; poets, 211 f . ;
empire, limit of, 231 ; government,
transforming policy of, 236 ; antiqui
ties, importance of, 242.
Roman age : implements of, in Egypt,
103 ; mummies belonging to early,
122 ; ostraka employed for registra
tion of public accounts in, 127,
Romans, farming out taxes among, 201.
Rome : Byzantium, 148 f. ; founding of,
171 ; references to, 205, 211.
Rope pattern or guilloche, borrowed from
Hittites, 188.
Rulers, names of Babylonian, restored to
history, 60.
Ruskin, John : cited, 188.
Russian standard, origin of, 188.
Saba ; Ita'amara or Jatha'amir, prince
of, 131 ; ancient, the modern Marib,
132, 147 ; Queen of, her visit to King
Salomo, 144 n. ; king of Kataban, as
ally of, 150; " kings " of, 150 ; Almak-
hu, god of, 150; defeat of Ma'in by,
151. See, also, Sheba.
Sabxan. See Sabean.
Sabean: characters, 14; language, ante
rior to Minean, 146 ; metropolis, 147 ;
priest-kings, 148, 155; history, light
on, 149 ; and Minean empires, not
contemporaneous, 151 ; power, rise of,
subsequent to Minean rule, 151.
Sabean inscriptions : oldest royal, 131 ;

date of latest, 148 ; references to,
151, 158.
Sacred lake, 104.
Sacrificial ; vessels, inscribed, found in
Babylonia, 61 ; lists, 79 ; offering, 142.
St. Cyril: his tract "On Adoration,"
222.
St. Paul : Tarsus of, 175. See, also, Paul.
St. Peter, apocryphal Gospel of. See
Gospel of St. Peter.
St. Petersburg, Imperial Library at, 222.
Salem: reference to, 11; " king of," 21.
Salomo. See Solomon.
Samaria : fall of, 24 ; taken by Sargon II,
23 ; reference to siege of, 164.
Samas, god, 141.
Samas-abu-ni, 141.
Samas-rabi, meaning of, 139.
Samasriyami, 142.
Samdu stone, shoham of Bible, 136.
Samos, shipwreck off, 48.
Samsu-satana. 141.
Samsuiluna, King, Samsu-ilu-ni (Babylo
nian), Samsu-ilenu (Canaanitish), 83,
141.
Samuel, references to, 23, 139.
San'a, 147.
Sanca, 151 n.
Sanctuary, oldest, in world, 59.
Sandstone vases, 68.
Sanherib : Babylon destroyed by, 91 ;
murdered by his son, 91. See, also,
Sennacherib.
Sapalel and Rameses I, treaty between,
167.
Saqqarah : tomb of priest of second dy
nasty found at, 99 ; reference to, 104 ;
wonders of, 105.
Sarcophagi : of clay found at Nuffar, 61 ;
from Sidon, 81.
Sardis : Hittite rock sculptures of, 176;
references to, 181, 189.
Sarepta, 11.
Sargon I : bricks bearing name of, 57; re
covered texts of, 60 f. ; references to,
67, 87; age of, established, 68; book
of omens attributed to. 170.
Sargon II: inscriptions of, 131 ; Carche
mish captured by, 170, 173.
Sarzec, Ernest de : excavations of, in Baby
lonia, 63, 65, 81 ; French vice-con
sul at Bassorah, 65 ; campaigns of, 65,
80; results of his later discoveries. 73,
80 ; his labors crowned with success,
79 ; cited, 134.
Saul, reference to, 23.
Sayce, Prof. A. H . : reference to, 39;
cited, 91 n., 137 f. ; his success in de
ciphering Hittite characters, 187 f. ;
his large collection of potsherds, 213.
Scepter-knob dedicated to Ningirsu, 77.
Schiel, Father : organization of Babylo
nian section of Imperial Ottoman
Museum begun by, 82 ; excavation

Topical Index.

263

of ruins of Abu-Habba by, 82; cited,
83 f., 88 f., 91 n.
Schliem.inn, Dr H. : cited, 36.
School of art. new, in Egypt, 114.
Schools in time of Moses, 117.
Schwally : cited, 187 n.
Scorpion men, fabulous, who guarded
" The Gate of his Ancestor," 135.
Scribe, honored place of, in Egypt, 98.
" Scribes, a city of," 125.
Script: Babylonian, 115 f.; ancient, in use
in time of Moses, 117 f.
Scripture references. See page 266.
Sculptures: found at Lagash, 80; Hit
tite, 175-177
" Sea of Reeds," 11.
Seal cylinders, 61, 83, 88.
Seals : Babylonian, 61 ; Hittite, 177.
Seleucides, era of, 149.
Seljukian Turks, origin of standard of,
188
Semites : Northern Arabia as dwelling-
place of, 13 ; rule of, 20 ; defeat
Sumerians, 71 ; reference to, 118 ;
nomad, 138 ; ancient, their concep
tion of God, 140.
Semitic : rulers, recovered texts of earliest,
60 f . ; race, 61, 177; Babylonians,
attainments of, 63 ; hordes, 71 ;
empire, 71, 87 f ; language, 117 ;
nations, ancient, 132 ; dynasty, rule
of. in Babylonia, 136 ; antiquity, sig
nificance of Arabia for, 152 ; epig
raphy, 158 ; type, Hittites not of, 169.
Senj irli : sculptures of, 1 75 ; art and inscrip
tions of. 189 ; Hittite mound at, 189.
Sennacherib : his campaign against Judah
and Egyptians, 24. See, also, San-
herib.
Septuagint: references to, 155, 206;
authoritative text of, 224.
Serapeum : at Memphis, 204, 206 f., 209 ;
priestesses of Isis in, 205.
Sermons, ostraka used for making extracts
from, by Coptic monks, 127.
Sesame and Croton plants, their cultiva
tion in Egypt, 203.
Sesostris, 176, 189. See, also, Rameses II.
Setv I : campaigns of, 120; father of
Rameses II, 120 ; power of, 167.
Shabwa, 132.
Shalmaneser II : of Assyria, invasion of,
22 f. ; campaigns of, 171.
Shalmaneser IV, reference to, 89.
Shamash, sun god, 58, 84 f.
Shamash-shumukin. 83.
Shammar tribes, 50.
Shatt el-Hai, canal of, 65.
Sheba, kingdom of. 14 f- See, also. Saba.
Shekel of silver mentioned in Babylonian
letter, 85.
Shem : reference to. 138 f. ; descendants
of, as name of tribes of Arabia, 154.
Shem-jada, reference to, 139.

Shemu-el See Samuel.
Shepherd of Hermas, 221.
Shepherd princes, epoch of, 10.
Shepherd-kings. See Hyksos.
Sheridan, Richard B. B., reference to,
212.
Shipbuilding in time of Gudea, 135.
Shipwreck of The Babylonian Expedition,
48
Shirpurla : ancient name for Lagash, 65 ;
kings and priest-kings of, 67. See,
also, Sirgulla.
Shishak, king of Egypt : raid of, in Pales
tine, 8 ; reference to, 124.
Shoham stone, 136.
Shotb, village of, 122.
Shumu-abi, 138.
Shunem, reference to, 11,
Sidon: references to, 11, 163 f . ; famous
sarcophagi from, 81
Sidonian wives of Solomon, 164.
Signs. See Cuneiform.
Silas, travels of. 229.
Siloam inscription of time of Hezekiah, 17.
Silver : ornaments found in Babylonia, 62 ;
vase found at Lagash, 73 ; plate en
graven with Hittite treaty with Egypt,
184.
Sim-hu-'ali, 139.
Sim-hu-riyami, 139.
Simon : son of Eleazar, 127 ; son of, called
Philokles, 127.
Sin, Babylonian story of origin of, 115.
Sin, Minean god, 143.
Sin-muballit, 137.
Sin-rabi, meaning of, 139.
Sinaitic Peninsula : references to, 8, 124 ;
names of kings of third dynasty on
rocks of, 99.
Sippara, ancient name for Abu-Habba, 82.
Sirgulla, reference to, 135. See, also,
Shirpurla.
Sirwah inscription, 148-150.
Sister, ancient usage of word, 206.
Slaves brought from East Africa by Elam-
ites, 154.
Smelting-furnace and public hall found in
Lachish, 39.
Smyrna: references to, 48. 185; Hittite
rock sculptures near, 176.
Solar disk, symbol of Asiatic Baal, 114.
Solomon : reference to, 144 n ; his ships,
153 ; Hittite wife of, 164 ; his dealings
with kings of Hittites, 165
Solon : reference to, 162 ; lawgiver of
Athens I7I-
"Son of the preceding," appellative of
earliest Babylonian kings, 138.
Sophocles, 224
Soudan, the, 113.
Sparta, 198.
Sphinx : of Gizeh supposed to antedate
King Menes, 99: Greek form of, taken
from Hittites, 188.

264

Topical Index.

Squeezes : of Lihyanian inscriptions taken
by Euting, 146; taken by Glaser, 150,
156 f ; of Minean, Katabanian and
Sabean inscriptions, 158; of Hittite
inscriptions taken by Prof. Paine,
173 f
Standard of two-headed eagle, origin of,
176, j 88.
Statues: found at Lagash, 65,80; of dio
rite, 135.
Statuettes: of bronze, of Ur-Nina, 74;
found at Lagash, 80.
Stele : of Vultures, 76 f. ; erected by
Naram-Sin, 87 ; of alabaster belong
ing to Bel-Harran-bel-usur, 89 ; of
Nabonidos, 90 f.
Steles referring to famous dam of Marib,
148.
Sterritt, Prof: his localization of Lystra
and Derbe, 231.
Stockholm, Oriental Congress at, 147.
Stone : objects found in Babylonia, 62 ;
documents of, difficulties in decipher
ing, 65 ; vases of, 88 ; for statue too
hard for sharpest modern tools, 102 ;
inscriptions on, 196 ; of Cana, 239.
Storehouses : in Lachish, 39 ; in Nuffar,
Stories, Babylonian, 115.
Strabo, references to, 91, 151.
Student: Canaanitish, 115 ; Egyptian, 115.
Subiaco, famous Italian press at, 225.
Sudahalis, reference to, 172.
Suk el-Affej, 54.
Sultan : Turkish, his protection extended
to explorers, 54 ; concession to Euro
pean bondholders, 201. See, also,
Abdul Hamid.
Sumer and Akkad, ruler of, 84.
Sumerian : legends regarding Nippur, 59 ;
inscriptions, discovery of, 63 ; lan
guage, 85 f.. 136.
Sumerians : defeat of, 71 ; of Media and
Babylonia, 181.
Sumu-Ia-ilu, 138 f.
Sun.Ninib personification of, 69.
Sunday School Times, The, references to,
39, 156, 187 n.
Surisilis, city of, 172.
Susa, 123
Swift, Jonathan : cited, 217.
Syllabaries. See Cuneiform.
Symbol : of Ningirsu, 6q f. ; of Nebo, 90 ;
of Marduk, 90; of Asiatic Baal, 114.
Syria : successive invasions of, 10 ; testi
mony of monuments as to people of,
11 ; and Palestine as appanages of
Egypt. 2 ; correspondence found at
Tel el-Amarna from, 115 ; under Baby
lonian dominion. 115 ; under what
name known to Babylonians, 116 ; Hit
tite occupation of northern, 119, 166 ;
Egyptian empire in, lo<;t, 120; ref
erences to, 124, 138; no Hittites found

by Thothmes I in, 166 ; Hittite inva
sion of. 172 ; taken by Hittites, 183 ;
occupied by Babylonia, 183.
Syrian; tells small in size, 31 ; civilization
in Palestine, 40 ; conquests lost to
Egypt, 167 , type, H ittites not of, 169 ;
Semitic population and Hittites, 173 ;
kings, their letters to the Jews com
plaining of oppressive taxation, 202.
Syrians : promotion of, to high office? of
state, 113 ; their flight before the kings
ofthe Hittites, 164 f.
Taanach : and water of- Megiddo, 40.
See Tell Ta'anuk.
Tablet containing Bible parallel found in
ancient Sumerian, 85 f. See, also,
Cuneiform.
Tagharah, reference to, 54.
Tahtim Hodshi, 1(5.
Tarkhigamas, city of, 172.
Tarkondemos, bilingual of, 187.
Tarsus of St. Paul, 174 f.
Taurus ranges, 119.
Taxes: gatherer of, at temple of Amon,
127 ; payment and records of, made
upon potsherds, 127 ; farming of,
127. 201 ; paid in kind, 201, 205.
" Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," 221 .
Teie, mother of Amenophis IV, 114.
Tel el-Amarna : origin of name, 112 ; vil
lage of, 112; once center of high
artistic activity, 112 ; founder of, 114:
ruins of, 114. See, also. El-Amarna.
Tel el-Amarna tablets : containing cunei
form correspondence from Egyptian
subjects in Palestine and the East, 39,
115, 167 ; historicity of Old Testa
ment records confirmed by, 112, 119 ;
references to, 112, 125 ; show writing
general in time of Moses, 116; dis
covery of two, written in Turanian
language, 180. See, also, Cuneiform.
Tell, Arabic name for mound, 31.
Tell-Abta : discover}' of stele at, 89 ;
the remains of old Dur-b el- H arran -
bel-usur, 90.
Tell el-Amarna. See Tel el-Amarna.
Tell el-Hesy: cuneiform from, 17; exca
vations at, 36, 39 ; unrecovered
librarv of. 40.
Tell el-Mutesellim. 40.
Tell es-Sultan : reference 10,32; as site of
ancient Jericho, 41.
Tell Ta'anuk : not yet excavated, 40 ;
the Canaanitish Taanach. 40.
Tello : French exploration of, 63, 67, 79;
campaigns of de Sarzec in, 65;
mounds of, 65, 80 f. ; American expe
dition to. 67 ; inscriptions from. 68,
72, 134 ; ancient, list of rulers of, 69 ;
princes of, 69; reliefs found in, 75;
references to, 76, 82 ; few important
tablets found at, 79 ; discoveries at,

Topical Index

rich in artistic and religious objects,
79 ; clay tablets from, on sale, 80 ;
ruins of, 80, 82. See, also, Lagash,
Shirpurla.
Tells : covered by Arab villages, 32 ;
used as cemeteries, 32 ; usually found
near springs, 32 ; scores of, unexca-
vated. 40.
Telones of Greeks, buyer of taxes, 201.
Temple : of Bel, references to, 50, 52 ; lord
of, 71 ; of Ur-Nina, 74 ; of Ningirsu,
77 f ; of Ptah, 104; of solar disk, 114,
118; erected by Thothmes III, 121 ;
of Kom Ombo, 121 f. ; attached to
necropolis, 122 ; of Luxor, 124 ; of
Amon, 127 ; of Karnak, 168 ; at
Memphis, called Serapeum, 204 ; of
Jupiter, 235.
Temples : of Babylonia and Assyria. 18,
70 ; ancient, repair of, under Naboni
dos, 90 ; one of stateliest of, 122.
Terra-cotta : cylinders of Gudea, 66 ; in
scriptions in Coptic and Greek on,
196.
Thebes : royal archives of, carried away,
114 ; god of, 114 ; priesthood of, 114 ;
reference to, 208 ; necropolis at, 213,
Theocritus, 212.
Thessalian invaders of Greece from
Phrygia, 178
Thothmes I, no Hittites in Palestine or
Syria found by, 166.
Thothmes III : references to, 11, 121, 166,
168 ; date of, 99 ; levies tribute on
islands and coasts of ^Egean, 113 ;
brilliant reign of, 113 ; in battle of
Megiddo. 166.
Thothmes IV, inscription of, 166.
Thucydides, 194, 216.
Thupar and Hebrew sopher compared,
124.
Tidanum : name for mountains of Martu,
136 ; (Dedan) 143.
Tiglath-Pileser I, mention of Hittites in
annals of, 170.
Tiglath-Pileser III : and Ahaz of Judah,
23 ; death of, 89 ; Pul of Old Testa
ment, 89.
Tigris, references to, 6, 45, 57, 87, 155.
Tischendorf, Dr. Constantin von : cited,
222 f.
Trades and professions represented in
painted models found at Meir, 100.
Traditions : of Chaldeans, immemorial,
19 ; Old Testament, best proofs for
historicity of, 158 ; preserved in late
MS., while omitted in earlier, 225.
" Travels of the Mohar, The," 124.
Trial, papyrus document containing re
port of, 208.
Tribute levied by Thothmes III upon
islands and coasts of ^Egean, 113.
Trinity College, Dublin, library in, 216.
Trojan period, 162.

Tropical heat in March in Nuffar, 52.
Troy, reference to excavation of, 36.
Trunks in ancient Egypt, 101.
Tsar of Russia, reference to, 167
Tubular drills used in constructing pyra
mids, 102.
Tukdamme, king, 91.
Turanian language, untranslatable cunei
form in, 180.
Turkey, farming out taxes in, 201.
Turkish : expedition to Babylonia, first
inaugurated, 82 ; officials, 91 ; author
ity, reach of, 147. See, also. Otto-
?nan.
Turks : repulsed from Vienna, 181 ;
storming of Pesth by, 218.
Tyropean valley, reference to, 33,
Uncials : meaning of, 220 ; but one early
dated book in, 223 f.
University of Pennsylvania : its explora
tions in Babylonia. 47, 81 ; references
to, 63, 68. See, also, Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania.
University of the Babylonians, 86.
Ur: references to, 25, 61, 70; first king
°f, 57, 59; first dynasty of, 67 n.;
ruler of second dynasty of, 84.
Ur-Ghanna, ancient king of Sirgulla, 134 f.
See, also, Ur-Nina.
Ur-Gur, king of Ur, 57, 59 f.
Ur-Nina: ruler of ancient Tello, 69; peace-
loving prince, 69 ; his father and
grandfather, 69 ; his son, 70 ; person
ality of, 73 ; theater of his activity,
73 f. ; valuable archeological finds of,
74 ; bas-relief of, 74 f. ; represented as
giant, 75. See, also, Ur-Ghanna.
Ural-Altaic languages, 180.
Uriah the Hittite, 164.
Urns found in Nuffar, 56.
Urukagina: earliest Babylonian king, 68;
inscriptions of, 68 ; reference to, 69 ;
new cuneiform of, 73.
Usertesen III, pyramid tomb of, 107.
Usertesens, references to, 107, 109 f.
UsAu : stone, or diorite, 135; wood
brought from Milukh, 135 f.
Van, lake of, 172.
Vandalism by Arabs and others, 92.
Vannai of Armenia, 172.
Vannic : monuments on Hittites, 162 ;
language, written in Assyrian charac
ters, 172.
Vase : of silver with inscription of Ente-
mena, 73 ; of onyx dedicated to god
dess Ba'u, 74 ; of Alusharshid, king of
Kish, 77; of alabaster from Magan,
I35-
Vases : from Babylonia, 56, 62 ; discovery
of numerous fragments of, 68, 80.
Vassal princes in Palestine and Syria,
115, 119.

266

Topical Index.

Vathy, capital of Samos, 48.
Vatican Library, 222,
Venice, vellum maunscript of "Iliad"
preserved at, 211.
Vespasian, emperor, 214.
Vienna, Greek manuscript preserved at,
197, 220.
Votive presents. See " tablets," under
Cuneiform .
Vulcan, Phenician, 10.
Wady ed-Dawasir, 155.
Wady er-Rumma, or Gaihan, 155.
Wady Faishan (Pishon), 155.
War : over pasturage near Nuffar, 49 f. ;
religious and civil, in reign of Khu-n-
Aten, 118.
Warka, old, 65.
Warren, Sir Charles : cited, 33, 41.
Watran bin Radwa-il, 144 n.
Weapons : flints, tools and scarabs found
in Lachish, 38 ; found in Babylonia,
62.
Weights from Babylonia, 62, 83.
Weli of Bagdad, 54.
Westland, or Martu, country of, 136, 143.
White limestone, monument of, 76.
Wife calling herself sister, 206.
Wilayet of Bagdad, 82.
Wilcken, Prof. : cited, 220 f.
Winckler, H. : cited, 67. 138 n., 141, 142 n.
Wine and oil culture in Egypt, 203.

Winged disk of Egypt deified by Hittites,
. 183.
Wizardry of Babylonia, 62.
Wood : hard kinds of, brought from
Milukh, etc., 135; inscriptions on,
196.
Worship : revival of, under Nabonidos,
90; of Amon proscribed throughout
Egypt, 114.
Wright, Dr. William : cited, 187 n.
Writers, Babylonian, custom of, 85.
Writing : employed for business purposes
very early, 14 ; general, in time of
Moses, 116 ; system of, as revealed
by Tel el-Amarna tablets, 117; de
motic, 127 ; date of, difficulty of
determining from script, 221 ; medi
eval cursive, or Minuscle, 225. See,
also, Cursive.
Ya'zar-ilu, 142.
Yellow race of Hittites, 169.
Yemama, gold-mines in, 153.
Zabium, king of, 139 f.
Zeraikh, campaigns of, against Asa, 155.
Zidipusa, mention of, in papyrus docu
ment, 124.
Zimri-eramma, letter from, 84.
Zirrikh or Dhirrih, surname of king of
Saba, 155.
Zoar, 124.

SCRIPTURAL INDEX.

TEXT PAGE
GENESIS.
10 154, 163
10 : 6 . 120
10 : 14 . 123
14 . 21, 116

26 : 32

11 : 21
'5 : 5°

EXODUS.
NUMBERS. JOSHUA. JUDGES.

118139

125

Ml 15
144

SONG OF SOLOMON.
4 : 10 . 206
JEREMIAH.
32 : 14 . . . 204

TEXT PAGE
1 KINGS.

TEXT PAGE
1 MACCABEES.

19 : 37 91

10 : 25-35 . . 202

2 CHRONICLES.
14 • !54

MATTHEW.
27 : 46 . 126

14 : 14 155
26 : 7 15

MARK.

15 : 34 . 126

ESTHER.
5 : 15 (Sept.) . 206

ACTS.
28 : 16 . 241

1 CORINTHIANS.
6 ". 22 . 233

PHILIPPIANS.
: 12, 13 . 241

TIMOTHY.

CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX.

Page
69. — Inscription excavated by American Expedition in Nippur,
dating
88. — Babylonian art at its height
76. — Stele of vultures
67 1. — King Urukagina, earliest ruler of Lagash
14. — Earliest written monuments of Egypt
$7, 170. — Date assigned to Sargon I
87. — King Naram-Sin
65 f., 153. — Gudea, priest-king of Shirpurla . .
57, 59 f. — Ur-Gur, founder of first dynasty of Ur
84. — Idin-Dagan, ruler of second dynasty of Ur
21. — Abraham's repulse of eastern confederacy
83. — King Samsuiluna, son of Hammurabi .
196 f. — Extreme date assigned to existing Egyptian papyri
152. — Civilization in existence in portion of Arabia .
136. — Rule of Arabian princes in Babylonia .
60. — Rule of dynasty of Cassite kings . cir
1^4. — Invasion of Babylonia by Babylonian Cassites .
10. — Expulsion of Hyksos kings ... . .
168, 173. — First mention of Hittites in Egyptian history
99, 113. — Reign of Thothmes III
132. — Civilization of South Arabia, beginning, of .
I-2. — Supremacy of Minean Empire . cir.
I79> — Hittites in occupation of part of Asia Minor .
99. — Reign of Rameses II
49. — Fortress founded by King Kurigalzu
Tg^ — Xineveh captured by Hittites .
I7o. — Hittites mentioned in annals of Tiglath-Pileser I
185 f. — Hittites prevailing race in Asia Minor .
8.— Raid of Shishak, of 22d Egyptian dynasty
16 f. — Mesha king of Moab .
22 f, 171. — Defeat of Ahab by Shalmaneser II of Assyria

B.C.
cir. 4500
cir. 4000
cir. 4000
. cir. 4000
cir. 4000
cir. 3800
cir. 3750
cir. 2900
cir. 2800
cir, 2500
cir. 2250
cir. 2210
cir. 2000
cir. 2000
cir. 2000
. 1725-1140 cir. 1700
16th cent.
cir. 1600
1503- 1449
cir. 1500
1500 to 800
cir. 1400
1347-1281 cir. 1300
cir. 1200
cir. 1 1 10
cir. 1000
cir. 920
9th cent. 854

267

701

268 Chronological Index.
Page B.C.
175. — Hittite inscriptions dating .  . cir. 8th cent.
89. — Tiglath-Pileser III 745-727
89. — Bel-Harran-bel-usur, Assyrian official . 741 and 727
89. — Shalmaneser IV . . 727-722
23. — Samaria taken by Sargon II . . . 721
170 f. — Carchemish captured by Assyrians, and Hittite empire ended 717
24. — Ashdod captured . . 711
24. — Accession of Sennacherib . ... 705
24. — Memorable invasion of Palestine by Sennacherib, and )
miraculous defeat of Assyrian army J
148. — Date of so-called Sirwah inscription . cir. 7th cent.
91. — Babylon destroyed by Sennacherib . . . 689
91. — Assurbanapal, king of Assyria . . 668-626
24. — Nineveh taken by Chaldeans . . . 608
49. — Reign of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylonia . 605-562
90. — Stele of Nabonidos . . . cir. 6th cent.
25. — Deportation of Jews to banks of Euphrates 586
178. — Settlement of Armenians in Asia Minor . . cir. 500 to 400
197. — No Greek manuscript extant earlier than 330
197. — Egypt occupied by Alexander the Great . . . 330
198. — Greek publications become common . . 300
198. — Age of Petrie papyri . cir. 265-235
151. — Eratosthenes . . 250
217. — Papyrus containing poem by Herondas . . . cir. 2d cent.
206 f. — Letter from Isias to Hephsestion . 172
149. — Beginning of national Sabean era . . . 115
209. — Papyrus documents cease cir. 100
A.D.
216. — Text of Aristotle entitled The Athenian Constitution cir. 78
214. — Greek papyri of land steward of Egypt 78-79
195, 218 f. — Destruction of Herculaneum 79
147. — Founding of little Lihyanian empire . . 300-400
148. — Revolt against Ethiopic rule in South Arabia cir. 525
149. — War between Ghassan and Hira . 540
148 f. — Date of latest Sabean inscription . . 542
225. — Dated books begin to come into use . . . cir. 9th cent.
240. — Constantinople captured by Latins . . 1204
226. — First Greek grammar . ... . 1476
226. — Florentine Homer printed  . . 1488
226. — Milan Isocrates printed  1493
226. — Aldine Aristophanes printed  . . 1499

Chronological Index. 269
Page A.D.
147. — Marib visited by Mr. Arnaud  1843
147. — Marib visited by Halevy of Paris . . . . 1871
189. — First Hittite inscription published in America . . 1872
65. — M. de Sarzec sent as French vice-consul to Bassorah . . 1877
131. — First journey of Dr. Edward Glaser to South Arabia 1882
146. — Inscriptions from el-Oela copied by Julius Euting 1884
146. — Second journey of Dr. Edward Glaser to South Arabia . 1885
114. — Finding of cuneiform tablets at Tel el-Amarna . . . . 1887
144, 147. — Third journey of Dr. Edward Glaser to South Arabia . 1888
47. — American Babylonian Exploration Fund inaugurated . 1888
81 f. — Exploration of Babylonian ruins by M. de Sarzec, the ] 1888-1894
University of Pennsylvania, and Sultan Abdul-Hamid
54, 56. — Second campaign of American Babylonian Exploration
Fund of University of Pennsylvania
36. — Excavation of TeU el-Hesy by Dr. Flinders Petrie

38
144 89
93
156 65
174

— Exploration of Tell el-Hesy by Dr. F. J. Bliss . 1891
156. — Fourth journey of Dr. Edward Glaser to South Arabia . 1892-1894
— Stele belonging to Bel-Harran-bel-usur, found at Tell-Abta . 1894
--Request of Ottoman Minister of Public Instruction for) „
means to protect Babylonian relics and mounds J "**
-Oriental Congress in Geneva .... . 1894
-Report of M. de Sarzec upon his campaign in Tello to 1 „
French Academy j "
-French Hittite explorations in Kadesh . . . . 1894

106 f. — Excavations of Dahshur by Jacques de Morgan 1894

4978