1897.] on Palestine Exploration. 347 



scripts — the 400 hieroglyphics of the monuments, the hieratic, or 

 running hand of the papyri, and the later demotic. The Hittite 

 characters are quite distinct and number at least 130 characters, 

 used in Syria and Asia Minor from 15 B.C., or earlier, down to 

 about 700 B.C. The study of these characters is in its infancy. The 

 syllabary of Cyprus was a character derived from these Hittite hiero- 

 glyphics, and used by the Greeks about 300 B.C. It includes some fifty 

 characters, and was probably the original system whence the Phoenician 

 alphabet was derived. As regards alphabets, the explorer must study 

 the early i'hoenician, and the Hebrew, Samaritan and Moabite, with 

 the later Aramean branch of this alphabet, whence square Hebrew is 

 derived. He must also know the Ionian alphabet, whence Greek and 

 Eoman characters arose, and the early Arab scripts — Palmyrene, 

 Nabathean and Sabean, whence are derived the Syriac, Cufic, Arabic 

 and Himyaritic alphabets. 



As regards languages, the scholars of the last century had to deal 

 only with Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic and Greek, but as the 

 result of exploration we now deal with the Ancient Egyptian whence 

 Coptic is derived, and with various languages in cuneiform script, 

 including the Akkadian (resembling pure Turkish) and the allied 

 dialects of Susa, Media, Armenia and of the Hittites ; the Assyrian, 

 the earliest and most elaborate of Semitic languages; and Aryan 

 tongues, such as the Persian, the Vannic and the Lycian. 



The art and architecture of Western Asia also furnishes much 

 information as to religious ideas, customs, dress and history, 

 including inscribed seals and amulets, early coins and gems. The 

 explorer must also study the remains of Greek, Eoman, Arab and 

 Crusader periods, in order to distinguish these from the earlier remains 

 of the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Egyptians and Assyrians, 

 as well as the art of the Jews and Gnostics about the Christian era, 

 and the later pagan structures down to the fourth century a.d. 



The monuments actually found in Palestine are few though 

 important. The discovery at Tell el Amarna of about 150 letters 

 written by Phcenicians, Philistines and Amorites — and in one case 

 by a Hittite Prince — to the kings of Egypt, proves, however, the use of 

 cuneiform on clay tablets by the Syrians as early as 1500 B.C., and 

 one such letter has been recovered in the ruins of Lachish. The 

 oldest monuments referring to Syria and Palestine are found at 

 Tell LoTi, on the Lower Euphrates, and date from 2700 B.C. Next to 

 these are the Karnah lists of Tbothmes III. about 1600 B.C., record- 

 ing the names of 119 towns in Palestine conquered after the defeat 

 of the Hittites at Megiddo. These lists show that the town names 

 which occur in the Bible are mainly Canaanite and were not of 

 Hebrew origin. The Canaanite language of this period was practi- 

 cally the same as the Assyrian, excepting that of the Hittites, which 

 was akin to the Akkadian. In the next century the Tell el Amarna 

 tablets show that the Canaanites had walled cities, temples, chariots, 

 and a fully developed native art. They record the defeat of the 



