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 by 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 by Mr. Kenneth M. Chapman, of Santa Fe, N. 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 World archeology—Although limited in number the acces- 
sions of the year contained a considerable amount of exceptionally 
valuable material. Most prominent among them, received us a gift 
from Mr. 8S. 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 with Bible history from Nablus in the north to the Nile 
in the south. Of perhaps equal interest was a collection of ancient 
coins and other objects made by the Rev. C. 8S. Sanders while living 
as a missionary in Beirut, Syria, and lent by his daughter, Mrs. 
John Paul Tyler, of Baltimore, Md. It comprises, among other 
items, 19 Greek coins of Alexander the Great and bis successors in 
Syria, 66 Greco-Roman coins—that is to say, coins issued by the 
Greek communities of Syria and Asia Minor under Reman sover- 
eignty—34 coins of the Byzantine Empire, 1 Phoenician coin, 8 
Armenian coins, 45 Mohammedan coins of the Turcoman dynasties 
of the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries in central and western 
Asia, 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. 8. W. Woodward, a con- 
tributor to the Fund, includes an Egyptian limestone stele of Neb- 
sum-menu, measuring 143 by 84 inches, 3 well-preserved mummies 
of the ibis, a pithos, 2 other funerary vases, and the eggshell of 
an ibis. 
