REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 83 



of molds of antiquities made during the past 50 years has been 

 properly assembled, classified, and labeled. Considerable time was 

 also devoted to the selection and listing of exchange material, six 

 important series of objects having been sent out or prepared for 

 sending. The work of the division was much increased during the 

 year b}^ the necessity of engaging in the preparation of exposition 

 exhibits. 



Research work was confined to the continuation by the head cura- 

 tor of the preparation of text and illustrations for the handbook of 

 American antiquities which is intended for publication by the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology. Extended studies, however, were 

 made b}^ Mr. Kenneth M. Chapman, of Santa Fe, X. Mex., who is 

 collecting data regarding the evolution of ornamental designs as 

 applied to earthenware, and the examination of specimens by other 

 students was carried on to a limited extent. 



Old Wo7'lcl archeology. — Although limited in number the acces- 

 sions of the year contained a considerable amount of exceptionally 

 valuable material. Most prominent among them, received as a gift 

 from Mr. S. W. Woodward, of Washington, was a drawing in color 

 of a mosaic map of Palestine and adjacent regions, the original of 

 which formed the floor of an old church in Medeba, a town in the 

 former territory of Moab, often mentioned in the Old Testament. 

 The work dates from the fifth or sixth century A. D., and is not 

 only the oldest map of Palestine known, but also the oldest detailed 

 map of any country. Unfortunately, on the occasion of the rebuild- 

 ing of the church in 1896, when the mosaic was discovered, it was 

 much damaged, but the portion preserved includes most of the places 

 connected Avith Bible history from Nablus in the north to the Xile 

 in the south. Of perhaps equal interest was a collection of ancient 

 coins and other objects made by the Rev. C. S. Sanders while living 

 as a missionary in Beirut, Syria, and lent by his daughter, Mrs. 

 John Paul Tjder, of Baltimore, Md. It comprises, among other 

 items, 19 Greek coins of Alexander the Great and his successors in 

 Syria, 66 Greco-Roman coins — that is to say, coins issued by the 

 Greek communities of Syria and Asia Minor under Roman sover- 

 eignt}'^ — 34 coins of the Byzantine Empire, 1 Phoenician coin, 8 

 Armenian coins, 4.5 Mohammedan coins of the Turcoman dynasties 

 of the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries in central and western 

 xVsia, and 1 medal of St. George; besides 3 Persian and 4 Syro- 

 Phoenician seals, 2 Syro-Phoenician bronze animal figurines, and 1 

 Egyptian scarab. A series of Egyptian antiquities presented by the 

 Egypt Exploration Fund, through Mr. S. W. Woodward, a con- 

 tributor to the Fund, includes an Egyptian limestone stele of Neb- 

 sum-menu, measuring 14| by 8^ inches, 3 well-preserved mummies 

 of the ibis, a pithos, 2 other funerary vases, and the eggshell of 

 an ibis. 



