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pair of silver-plated bracelets with gilt rams' heads and an engraved hematite scarab deserve mention. Two probably early limestone capitals may also be noticed." Additions were made to the materials for the study of Cypriot epigraphy.

Detailed accounts of the work carried on by the Cyprus Exploration Fund during the two seasons in which its operations have been prosecuted, have been published in the "Journal of Hellenic Studies." The antiquities obtained have been distributed between the British Museum, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, various public schools, and other institutions. The committee propose, in continuing the work, to begin during the next season 1889-'90, a thorough exploration of the ruins of Salamis. Among the considerations by which the choice of this site has been determined are that it was the largest and most important city of Cyprus; its foundation is ascribed by a constant legend to Teucer, who crossed from Asia Minor to Carpass; it was a royal city in the eighth century B. C., and from that period till the end of the fourth century ruled over a tract of country more extensive and fertile than that possessed by any other town; it was never Phoenician, but obtained a Hellenic character under the influence of Evagoras, and from that period until late Byzantine times was the center of civilization in the island; its great shrine of Zeus was accounted of equal splendor with that of Aphrodite at Paphos.

Persian.-Special galleries have been allotted in the Museum of the Louvre to the relics

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FIG. 4.-FIRE-ALTAR IN ENAMELED WARE OF THE PARTHIAN EPOCH.

fire altar in blue-enameled ware of the Parthian or Sassanian epoch. It was only about sixteen inches high, and is supposed to have been used in

domestic devotion. Besides the monumental remains, the excavations have yielded large numbers of objects in ivory, bronze, alabaster, and earthenware. Among them are Chaldean, Elamite, and Persian seals, in hard stone, that fill two cases in the museum. They are usually very finely engraved. Figure 5 reproduces in relief, the engraving of an archaic Chaldean cylinder of dio

FIG. 5.-CHALDEAN CYLINDER IN DIORITE, REPRESENTING rite, representing an offering, with an archaic inscription. A two-headed capital of great dimensions from the palace of Artaxerxes is complete, some parts of it being almost as well preserved as if they were of yesterday. The bulls are regarded as exceptionally fine specimens of ornamental sculpture. A complete model of the palace of Darius is under execution for the Susianian galleries. The importance of this monument is set forth in the following description by M. Dieulafoy :

The royal constructions were elevated upon a nearly rectangular platform about 17 or 18 metres high, rising clear upon the Elamite tumulus. The northern coast of the defenses was brought to a level with the floor of the palace, so that the sovereign could from the threshold of his house view the whole chain of the Baktyaris mountains and the plain and city of Susa. The southern face of the platform of the Apadana formed one of the sides of the parade-ground between the citadel and what is called the Elamite mound. The chief entrance to the parade-ground was situated on a line with the axis of the throne

room on the east and at the foot of the walls of the citadel. Without considering the lateral constructions, all anterior to Darius, we will pass over this gate and direct ourselves toward the palace of Artaxerxes. In front rises a gigantic staircase, occupying the center of the southern face of the Achemendian platform and resting with its lateral extremities on two towers attached to the fortifications. Like the staircase of the Takhté Jemchid, it is composed of four flights grouped into two systems. Ascending the steps, which were gradual enough to be climbed by a horse, we reach the outer court, which is bounded on the east and the west by the ramparts. The middle of the aisles is occupied by hypostyle porticoes decorated by fanciful animals. In front of the staircase, a wide bay opens itself, which is included between two piers like the pylons of the portico Viçadayon at Persepolis. The Susian pylons were covered with white and rose mosaic and topped with the magnificent procession of lions. Before crossing the threshold of the second court, we perceived the thronehall, open like the talars of the Persian palaces.

The Apadana was isolated from all the surrounding buildings; on the south by the inner court; on the east and west by a ditch 22 metres broad, at the bottom of which, on a firmly built roadway of gentle grade, rolled the royal chariots in going up from the plain to the palace. On the east, looking toward the throne-hall, was a newer portico, commanding the

entrance to a second staircase and the road laid out on the ramparts for the use of the king when going

from the harem on the Elamite tumulus to his official apartments. I sought in vain for a third staircase which was demanded by the arrangement of the plan. It had been completely destroyed. But traces of the substructure of a portico symmetrical with the eastern one were found on the west of the Apadana. The three colonnades of the palace and their bicephalous pillars might escape the notice of visitors unless they should perceive them through the large

bays at their ends. Otherwise one might spend all the time admiring the elegance and majesty of the porticos before penetrating into the royal inclosure. The throne-hall dominated the fortifications on the north by its whole height, and upon that grand pedestal offered itself to the pious admiration of the people of Elam. . . . The isolation of the colonnades, their exceptional prominence, and their brilliant ornamentation, indicate that the king reserved to himself the exclusive use prerogatives attached to the sovereign of that part of his palace. Of all the power this was the most enviable, for one could not dream of a spectacle comparable with that which unfolded itself before the eyes of the sovcreign when from his throne he beheld Susiana laid out at his feet.

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AN OFFERING.

Syrian.-Three inscriptions of series, discovered at El Heiyat in the Hauran, relate the dedication by Proklos, the son of Aumos, of a Ganymede, a Hermes, and an Aphrodite, for each of his two sons and his daughter respectively. The name of the divinity is not given, but two parallel Phoenician inscriptions found at a site southeast of Tyre records similar dedications to Moloch Astarte and to the Lord Baal of the heavens. The inscriptions show that traces of the ancient worship of Baal survived down to near the time of Christianity and suggest how the ancient devotion of the children themselves as sacrifices to the God yielded to the substitution of figures resembling them and bearing the names of divinities to whom they might be likened.

Assyrian and Babylonian. The Earlier Babylonian Dynasties.-Mr. G. Bertin, seeking to retrace the earlier Babylonian dynasties from the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, has found a series of Semitic and Akkadian kings, of whom the names only until the time of Sargon are known, while their dates are uncertain. The Babylonians placed the beginning of the historical period at the time of the first Kassite invasion under Hammurabi I, 6200 The second Kassite dynasty was succeeded by a Semitic period, B. c. 4000 to 2371, during which the cities the remains of which have been explored were predominant.

B. C.

Amraphel, King of Shinar.-The date of King Hammurabi, the sixth ruler in the first Babylonian dynasty, who is identified by Dr. Schrader with the biblical Amraphel of Shinar, one of the four kings against five, appears to be fixed by a cylinder of Nabonidus, relating to the rebuilding of the temple Bit-Samas. The inscription relates that a strong wind blowing away the mud disclosed the foundation stone of the temple, and made visible "the writing of the name of Hammurabi, the old king, who seven hundred years before Burnaburyas, had erected

Bit-Samas and the tower over the old foundation for Samas."

The era of Burnaburyas is fixed by the synchronistic history and the tablets of Tell-el Amama in the first half or not later than the middle of the fifteenth century, B. C. Adding seven hundred years to this, would give the date of Hammurabi, and also of Abraham, whose contemporary he was, as, in round numbers, 2150. The results of the recent studies of Dr. Jules Oppert have led him to fix the era of Hammurabi some two centuries earlier than this, or from 2394 to 2339 B. C. Unless, therefore, there were another Burnaburyas of whom there is no historical indication the date of Khuen-Aten will have also to be set back two hundred years. Such an adjustment of the chronology would allow ample time for the four hundred years of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt and for the four hundred and eighty years from the exodus to the beginning of Solomon's temple.

Babylonian and Hebrew Analogies.-An analogy has been found by Mr. W. St. C. Boscawen between the Cherubim with flaming swords whom the Lord set to guard the gate of Eden and the scorpion-men, "consuming in their terribleness and their aspect of death," that the hero Ghizdubar found guarding the gates of the sun at the mountains of Masu. As in the narrative of the Garden of Eden, beyond these scorpion-men lay a beautiful garden which is described as equal to the trees of the gods in aspect, bearing emeralds as its fruit, where branches bend not to uphold the crystal covering they bear as foliage," and "pleasant to the sight"-just as the Garden of Eden-contained "every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." The guardians of the garden also exclude Ghizdubar from it and prevent his reaching the tree of Life.

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Mr. Theodore G. Pinches, of the department of Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum, declares that he has recognized in certain Assyrian and Babylonian proper names elements representing the Hebrew Ya and Yaveh. These people were thus acquainted with the Hebrew Jehovah and recognized his divinity, as they did that of other foreign gods; and the occurrence of such combinations as Assur-Aa, Nergal Aa, Samas-Aa-Assur is Ya, Nergal is Ya, Samas is Ya -etc., identified some of their deities of foreign origin with Ya, as different manifestations of one god. From other features in the structure of these names the author concludes that the Assyrians employed Ya from the earliest time as a word common to them and their kindred and neighbors, and became acquainted with Yaveh at a later period.

Egypt. Pyramids of Hawára and Illa. hûn.—Mr. W. F. Petrie began the exploration of the pyramid of Hawára, which stands by the supposed site of the Labyrinth, in the season of 1887-88, and succeeded during that season in tunneling a passage from the north face of the structure as far as the stone casing of the central chamber, which proved to be so massive as to resist all his efforts. Returning to the work in November, 1888, he made various trial excavations at points round the base of the pyramid, in hopes of discovering the original entrance. It was not found. Then masons were employed to quarry down through the roof of the central chamber, and three weeks were spent in cutting

a small vertical shaft through the fifteen thicknesses of stone. From the central chamber the clew to the original entrance was disclosed. It was from a point outside the pyramid, and apparently at some distance from it The passage, which is underground, strikes the south side of the pyramid at some distance from the southwest corner, and is intricate in its windings. According to Mr. Petrie's description:

It does not run straight into the chamber, but slopes down northward for some distance. Then a branch passage leads eastward, the main line continuing on, as a blind. The branch passage (still going eastward) ends blank, but the issue from it is by a large trap-door in the roof. This trap-door opens into an upper passage leading north, which presently turns off to the west. Here it again ends blank, and another roof-trap gives access to another upper pas sage running farther west. This passage ends in a well leading to a short passage southward, which erds in another well now full of water. This well, I imagine, must lead to another short passage going eastward, whence a last well would ascend into the

chamber.

The chamber had been entered through a forced opening made from the second roof-trap into the sepulchral chamber, and whatever of portable value it contained had been carried away. There were evidences also of fire, and it is supposed that the mummies and their cases had been burned. Remains of Roman amphora indicate that the violation of the tomb had been committed at least as early as the Roman dominion. The chamber measured inside 22 feet by 8 feet. The floor and the four sides up to a height of 6 feet (inside measurement) had been hollowed out of a single block of sandstone. The chamber contains one large and one smaller sarcophagus of polished sandstone both plain and uninscribed, the base of the larger one being bordered by a projecting plinth decorated with paneled ornaments. The second sarcophagus had been contrived by the insertion of a head and a foot slab between the large one and the wall, and had been closed by a narrow lid. It appears to have been an afterthought. There were also two boxes of polished limestone in the chamber decorated around the base with the same paneling as the large sarcophagus. Many fragments of alabaster vases and bowls were found, some inscribed, others not, representing the funeral vessels of the buried Pharaoh. One of these bore the throne name of Amenemhat III, confirming the other circumstances that contribute to identify the pyramid with the tomb of that king. The smaller sarcophagus was found to belong to the Princess Ptahnefru, daughter of Amenemhat III. This was established by the inscriptions on two objects that were found in the passages. One was an alabaster vessel, 18 inches in length, carved in the shape of a trussed duck, on which was engraved the hieroglyphic legend, "The royal daughter Ptahnefru." The other was an alabaster table of offerings, surrounded by fragments of nine alabaster duck-vases. It is a rectangublock, 264 inches long by 16 inches broad and 9 inches thick, bordered by a funerary invocation of the ordinary type, praying for oblations of food and drink for the Ka" of the royal daughter Ptahnefru, while the inclosed surface is carved in low relief with 110 miniature representations of vases, bowls, cups, plates, loaves,

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cakes, birds, fruits, and the like. Each object has its name engraved beside or above it, thus giving a list of between seventy and eighty varieties of wines, poultry, cakes, etc., and the complete schedule of a royal funerary feast of the period. It is remarked that the ducks, geese, and other birds are represented without legs. Except for a flake off from one corner, this block is perfectly preserved. The discovery of calcined fragments of quartz and mica, together with a lapis lazuli inlay carved in the form of a false beard of the kind represented on the chins of gods and Pharaohs, is regarded as evidence that the destroyed mummy cases had been decorated with mosaic ornamentation in fine stones. The chamber was filled with water to the depth of three feet. After completing the examination of this pyramid Mr. Petrie began operations at the pyramid of Illahûn, which stands at the gate of the Fayoum, in the position commanding the spot that must have been occupied in ancient times by the locks by which the influx of the Nile into the lake was regulated. He had not succeeded in finding the entrance to the pyramid chambers when the working season closed at the end of May, but he made many other discoveries of great interest. The ruins of the pyramid chapel and the shattered remains of a shrine adjoining the pyramid yielded many fragments of the cartouches and "Ka-name" of Usertesen II. The building, erected most probably by this king, had been pulled down in the time of Rameses II and the granite removed to build a sanctuary at Heracleopolis, leaving the place to be identified by traces of the limestone boundary wall and a square area of limestone chips. The site had again been used as a Christian cemetery in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era. This cemetery yielded numerous specimens of clothing in a fine state of preservation. Digging below the Christian graves and the bed of limestone chips, Mr. Petrie discovered in a square hole sunk in the bed-rock the foundation deposits of Usertesen II. The hole had been fitted with two blocks of stone as stoppers, both of which were cut with rope-grooves for lowering them into place. Beneath them appeared a bed of mixed sand and stone-flakes about a foot deep, and below this a mass of smashed pottery, four pairs of sandstone corn-rubbers, eight bronze knives with pointed blades, eight with ordinary blades, four small chisels, four large chisels, four bar chisels, four axe-heads, four pieces of ore, and twelve strings of carnelian beads of a rich, translucent red color. The threads connecting the beads had rotted away, but the beads lay in lines. The use of the beads has not been determined. Mr. Petrie suggests that they may be bead-money-the earliest examples yet discovered-or that some mystic meaning may have attached to them.

An Ancient Village.-Adjoining the pyramid temple, and built square with it, were the remains of a town of the same period. It was symmetrically laid out in parallel rows of storehouses and chambers, the chambers being planned to round numbers of cubic measurements, as two by five, four by three, and the like. The whole was evidently planned at one time, and was in all likelihood designed for the architects, artists, workmen, and officers employed in the

construction of the temple and pyramid. Somewhat similar structures have been found elsewhere, as at Ghizeh. In some of the chambers masons' tools were found, carpenters' tools in others, and plasterers' tools in others. "Thus, for the first time, a complete, untouched, and unincumbered settlement of the twelfth dynasty is brought to light." The decorations and furnishings, domestic objects, and manner of life of the people of the remote age of the Usertesens are illustrated by other objects discovered in these chambers. A style of pottery, with incised patterns in imitation of basket-work, found here was hitherto unknown. Very many papyri of the period were found almost perfectly preserved. Some of them were still rolled up and sealed with clay impressions of scarabs of early patterns. One bears the seal of an officer of one of the Amenemhats. Some of the material of these papyri is described as being of "marvelous" quality, and the texture as thin as "foreign note paper.' Some new-born infants were found buried under the floors of the chambers, in very careless fashion. The cemetery of this town extended for some distance around the base of the pyramid, but the ancient graves had been plundered. The ground was also occupied as a cemetery from the twenty-first to the twenty-fifth dynasties, but the later interments afforded little of historical or archæological value. The name of the town appears from seals attached to some of the papyri to have been Ha-Usertesen-Hotep, or, "the Votive Temple of Usertesen." The site is now called Tell Kahun.

Village at Tell Gurob.-A few miles distant from Illahûn, on the other side of the Bahr Yusûf, Mr. Petrie discovered the remains of another town of the latter part of the eighteenth or early part of the nineteenth dynasty. It was surrounded by a wall, and outside of the wall was the necropolis. The modern name of the place is Tell Gurob; the ancient name has not been ascertained. The earliest relics gave the names of Thothmes III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, while the place had apparently ceased to be occupied in the reign of Seti II, the son of Menephthah (the Pharaoh of the Exodus). The cemetery, however, continued in use for a much longer time, for mummies of the Ptolemaic age were exhumed from it. The head cases of the later mummies were made of a cartonnage built up of papyri instead of the usual thicknesses of linen, and the layers were easily separated, in good condition, by soaking. By this process, Mr. Petrie obtained a considerable number of Ptolemaic documents in pieces as large as one's hand. Among them were fragments of royal decrees, beginning, "King Ptolemy to greeting, etc."; an ephemeris, or daily record of court affairs and regulations of the fourteenth year of Ptolemy Philadelphus; letters, including part of an epistle from a youth at college, telling his father how he was getting on and saying that he at last understood mensuration and could draw a plan of a house; and a letter from one of the royal goose-herds, saying that he could not supply twelve geese for King Ptolemy's festival. The bronzes, including knives, chisels, axe-heads, mirrors, etc., are described as being the finest in the way of domestic objects yet found in Egypt. Two inscribed shallow pans-votive offerings—

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OBJECTS FROM TELL KAHUN (TWELFTH DYNASTY).

1, Wooden statuette of a dancer or mummer. 2, 3, Ivory castanets found with the image No. 1. 4. Mummer's mask. 5, Toy boat of flint. 6, Fire-stick. 7, Wooden spoon. 8, Sling. 9, Hippopotamus in flint. 10, Ball. 11, Plummet. 12, Brick-mold. 13, Wooden hoe. 14, Plasterer's float. 15, Sickle. 16, Boy playing on two pipes. 17, 18, 19, Alphabetic inscriptions.

OBJECTS FROM TELL GUROB (EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY).

20, Figure in pottery. 21, False-necked vase. 22, Carved head from coffin (in wood, 1300 B. C.). 23, Similar head of a later period.

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