
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 111 
mentioned two salt mines, one near Kankari, and the other at Tuz Koi, near Neu 
Shehr. The latter is described as an immense bed of salt, in which a pit was 
originally dug, round which shafts are now sunk. Gypsum quarries are found in 
abundance in this district, as is also marble; but of this substance it appears that - 
no bulls have yet been found, No mines of native silver exist in the country; such 
a mine may have existed formerly, and have been exhausted; but itis more probable 
that the mine was of argentiferous galena, the reduction of which is less difficult 
than of copper ore; and we know that the mode of reducing this was known many 
centuries before the date of this inscription. Such a mine exists at Denek Tagh, 
about eighty miles north of the salt mine. [M. de Tchihatchef mentioned another 
silyer mine, lying between this and Sivas, which he thought more likely to have 
been visited by the Assyrian king.] The other passage in an Assyrian inscription 
is in the annals of Sargon. In Botta’s pl. 83, |. 9, under the 11th year (711 8.¢.), 
when he took Ashdud, the king of which fled to Egypt, there occur the words, 
‘«* Baal Zephon (Bahil Zapuna) the great mine of copper.’’ The preceding and fol- 
lowing words are lost. The earliest known copper mines are those in the peninsula 
of Mount Sinai. A place called Surdbat Hl Khadem attracted much attention some 
years ago. It was believed to be an Egyptian place of pilgrimage. Some pillars 
were found there, containing dates in the reigns of many Egyptian kings, and these 
were believed to be tombstones. At length Lepsius visited the place, and ascer- 
tained that it was a great copper mine; and that the pillars contained records of its 
being worked at the times mentioned, and invocations of Hathor, the Egyptian 
Venus, who presided over the country. This connexion of Venus with copper, in 
the worship of both this country and Cyprus, and in the fancies of the alchemists, 
was noticed as a curious coincidence that required explanation. On the Nimrid 
obelisk are the tributes of five nations, the first and fifth of which offer copper; and 
this was, no doubt, a production of their countries. The name of the first nation is 
Gilzan, probably the Gozan of scripture. The name probably signifies the country 
of the Gele, whom Strabo places on the shore of the Caspian sea. It is 
the modern Ghilan. Here is the celebrated copper mine of Shichterabad, which 
Colonel Monteith says is probably not exceeded by any in existence for richness 
and facility of working. It is near a river which is called at this day Ozan. The 
second tribute is that of Jehu, king of Israel. The third is of a country formerly 
supposed to be Egypt, the name of which very clcsely resembled its name; but it is 
the hilly country to the east of Nineveh, and not very far from it. The fourth tri- 
bute is supposed to be that of a nation on the west of the Persian Gulf. The fifth 
“is, according to Colonel Chesney, that of the people on the opposite coast of the 
Gulf where copper is found. The mode of reading this name is uncertain, the first 
character having different values. Dr. Hincks was disposed to read it Shirutinay, 
identifying it with the Sharutana of the Egyptian inscriptions, or the people of 
Cyprus; but the appearance of the people was, according to Colonel Chesney, so 
decidedly Persian that he would not press this point. He, however, went on to 
state his reasons for believing the Sharutana to be from Cyprus, as it led to some 
interesting conclusions. They are called ‘the Sharutana of the sea,”’ and this is 
analogous to a phrase ‘‘ of the middle of the sea,’’ which, in the Cuneatic inscrip- 
tions, is added to certain names implying insular position. This is one of the few 
points on which Dr. Hincks and Colonel Rawlinson differ. A series of names of 
people are mentioned on a great slab at Nimrdd, as paying tribute to the father of 
Divanubar. This list begins with the Tyrians and ends with the people of Arwad. 
Then comes this phrase, which Colonel Rawlinson supposed to apply to all the 
people, and to mean that they lived on the sea coast; but Dr. Hincks supposes it to 
belong to the last people only, and to imply that they lived in an island. The same 
phrase is appended to two other names; and this difference as to its interpretation 
has led to very different views of what these names apply to. We have the Yavnay, 
who arementioned in several places, and particularly as being employed by Sen- 
nacherib to navigate his vessels, along with Tyrians and Sidonians. Colonel Raw- 
linson makes them to be the people of Jabneh, in Palestine, but Dr. Hincks believes 
them to be the Ionians, or people of the Grecian islands. But what is more inter- 
esting is, that Luli, the king of Sidon, is said to have fled from Tyre to a place 
named, according to Colonel Rawlinson, Yatnan, and supposed by him to be Rhi, — 
