REPORT ON THE SECTION OF ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES 



IN THE U. S, NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



By Cyrus Adlek, Assistant Curator. 



The word "oriental," as usually understood in museum administra- 

 tion or in philological or archaeological circles, covers a broad held. 

 India, China, Japan, Siam, Armenia, Persia, Phoenicia, and Cyprus, 

 Palestine and the Jews, the Samaritans, Arabia and Mohammedanism, 

 Syria and Egypt are included within the range of the American Orien- 

 tal Society, or of the Poyal Asiatic Society. The scope of the Interna- 

 tional Congress of Orientalists, held in 1889, is indicated by the follow- 

 ing division into sections : 



First. Semitic and Islam : 



a. Languages and literatures of Islam. 



b. Semitic languages, other than Arabic ; cuneiform texts and 



inscriptions, etc. 



Second. Aryan. 



Third. African, including Egyptology. 



Fourth. Central Asia and the Far East. 



Fifth. Malay and Polynesia. 



Much of the material which would find place in a department estab- 

 lished with such a scope, had been collected for the Museum and in- 

 stalled in other departments before the organization of a section espe- 

 cially devoted to Oriental Antiquities was contemplated. 



The establishment of this section was due originally to a desire to 

 collect in the National Museum copies of the smaller Assyro-Babylouian 

 objects preserved in this country. These objects (principally seals) are 

 of much importance in connection with the history of the Assyro-llalty 

 Ionian religion and art, and the Museum has devised a plan for copying 

 them which facilitates their study and exhibition. It is hoped that 

 among other results there will grow from this work a catalogue of all 

 the Assyro-Babylouian objects preserved in this country. 



The Section of Oriental Antiquities, in view of the limitations upon 

 its scope and resources, is practically devoted to Biblical Archaeology — 

 to the history, archaeology, languages, arts and religions of the peoples 

 of Western Asia and Egypt. Material is ehosen which especially illus- 

 trates Biblical history, and labels are prepared from this point of view. 



289 



II. Mis. L>2], pt. 2 IP 



