544 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



The Palestine Exploration Fund (London) began actual digging 

 at Askalon in September, 1920, under the superintendence of Dr. 

 John Garstang. Camp was pitched at a spot among the ruins where 

 Roman masonry is to be seen and a systematic collection of all frag- 

 ments on or near the surface was made at once. The high commis- 

 sioner came down from Jerusalem and cut the first sod on September 

 10. Askalon has been in mind as a site for work for many years. 

 In 1911 Dr. Duncan Mackenzie made a visit to the ruins which he 

 described in the Quarterly for January, 1913 (p. 20ff), with a plan 

 of Askalon, by Newton, accompanying the article. The city is on 

 the Mediterranean coast, 15 miles north of Gaza and 30 miles south 

 of Jaffa. It had a busy history from the time of Ikhnaton (Amen- 

 hotep IV) of Egypt, about 1370 B. C, until 1270 A. D., when 

 Saladin's was the mighty name in those parts. In the Tell el Amarna 

 collection of letters found in Egypt there is one from Yitia of Aska- 

 lon, whose scribe wrote for him in the fashionable cuneiform of the 

 day. Yitia professes utmost loyalty to his suzerain, says that he is 

 sending tribute to Egypt;? and is standing firm as a staunch sup- 

 porter of the Pharaoh in Palestine. Meanwhile the King of Jeru- 

 salem accused the King of Askalon of treachery to Egypt in aiding 

 the hostile Khabiru. The city of Askalon was rebellious and had to 

 be subdued by the Pharaohs Barneses II and Memeptah, who mention 

 it in their inscriptions. The Peoples of the Sea, who may be the 

 stock from which the Philistines sprang, overran the place, and near 

 that period it begins to be a Philistine stronghold hostile to the 

 Hebrews and, later, to the Jews. It figures in the story of Samson 

 (Judges, 14:19) and "Tell it not in the streets of Askalon" wails 

 forth in the Song of the Bow (II Samuel, 1:20). Sennacherib 

 (703 B. C.) mastered it and it is mentioned on the Taylor Prism. 

 The Scythians reached it in their sweeping raids (630 B. C). Aska- 

 lon was always a nest of anti-Semitism. Herod the Great was born 

 there, which fact was hurled at him in the taunt that he was a 

 Philistine. He was generous in his building program for Askalon. 

 Lately the excavators have turned up Herod's statue in gigantic 

 size. Through Christian, Arab, and Crusading times the city held 

 important place. A Christian bishop had his seat there. 



The nearest remains to the exploring party as they squatted on 

 the site would naturally be the youngest, those left on the oft 

 occupied ground by Crusaders, Byzantines, and Arabs. A Cru- 

 saders' church has been identified. A Byzantine church of the sev- 

 enth century shows remains of one apse and three high but roofless 

 walls. Among the few inscriptions found is " an honorific decree 

 in favor of one of Titus' centurions " who, curiously enough, has 

 been identified with the centurion whose name, with companions, had 

 been scratched on the foot of one of the colossi at Thebes, two years 



