ARCHAEOLOGY. 



21 



fifth millennium before Christ. Our chronological 

 horizon has thus been considerably widened." 



Cyprus. Following up their excavatior- 

 Amathus in 1*94. the trustees of the British 

 Museum conducted their operations in 1*95 on the 

 f Curium, a place made famous \>y (ieiieral di 

 ( 'cMiola'sdi-coxerie-.. The tomb area here is very ex- 

 tensive, and includes tombs of all ages. A special 

 feature of the season's excavations \vas the dli 

 cry of a neen.jiolis. dating 1 from what is called the 

 Mycemi'an period. In it was found a considerable 

 quantity of rude and primitive pottery of local 

 make, such as is found in Cypriote tombs of the 

 pre-Pho'iiician period Mycena-an vases, of a char- 

 acter made familiar by Dr. Schliemann's discover- 

 :ih a fe\v specimens of remarkable rarity : a 

 sand searal) with Egyptian hieroglyphics, of com- 

 parativeh : a Phoenician cylinder of not 



earlier than <iO<> B. c.; scarabs and scaraboids 

 bearing various designs. In the later or sixth-cen- 

 tury Curium one particular site was rich in gold 

 ornaments. On the site of a temple (probably to 

 Demeter and Kore) was found a Greek inscription 

 written first in ordinary Greek letters, and next in 

 the Cypriote syllabery or local alphabet, in which 

 each sign represents a syllable. 



Palestine. In the tenth report of his excava- 

 tions in Jerusalem. Dr. F. J. Bliss describes his dis- 

 covery of a stone stairway which forms part of a 

 road leading down to the city from the pool of 

 Siloam. The steps. 34 in number, are made of 

 well-jointed stones, polished by the wearing of feet. 

 The discovery is of interest in connection with the 

 :iient in Xehemiah iii. 15. that Shallun re- 

 paired the gate of the fountain, the wall of the pool 

 of Siloam, by the king's garden, "and unto the 

 stairs that go down from the city of David." 



The manner of the destruction of the cities of 

 Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah. and Zeborim. among 

 the earlie- Civilization in the Jordan val- 



ley an event which is one of the fixed facts of the 

 earliest tradition is discussed in the "Journal of 

 the German Palestine Society." by Dr. Max Blanek- 

 enhem. in the light of the results of special re- 

 searches. The author's theory is that the destruc- 

 tion was caused by the sudden break of a valley 

 basin in the southern part of the Dead Sea. result- 

 ing in the sinking of the soil, a phenomenon which 

 was doubtless connected with a 1-atastmphe in na- 

 ture or an earthquake accompanied by such sink- 

 ing of the soil aloni: one or more rents i'n the earth. 

 The occupation of the territory by the Dead Sea 

 naturally followed. The view 'that the I 

 did not exist at all before this catastrophe, or that 

 the Jordan before this period flowed into the Med- 

 iterranean Sea. contradicts all the scientific teach- 

 ings concerning the formation of the whole region. 

 There is no reason for supposing a volcanic eruption 

 or a volcanic outbreak of the soil under the feet of 

 the Sodomites, or for believing that a stream of 

 burning lava destroyed the cities. Having pre- 

 sented his evidence the author concludes his paper 

 by saying that "in this way many of the riddles 

 that are offered by the peculiar character of the 

 Dead Sea and its surroundings are satisfactorily 

 solved. Then. too. all the phenomena of nature 

 which the book of Genesis describes as taking place 

 in connection with the catastrophe of Sodom, the 

 last and only one of the kind experienced by man in 

 the historical period. I think, has been explained suf- 

 ficiently in the preceding discussion." 



Babylonia. Mr. Pinches'? discovery of the 

 names of Chedorlaoinor (Kudur Laghamar) and 

 Tid-'al (Tudghula) in the Babylonian texts (see 

 "Annual Cyclopaedia' 1 for 1895) has been supple- 

 mented by a further discovery made by Dr. Scheil. 

 who has found among the early Babylonian tablets 



'istantinople some letters of Khammurabi (the 

 Amraphel of Genesis xiv. 1. to his vaal Sin-idin- 

 nam of Larsa. Sin-idinnam. it appears, had been 

 dethroned by the Elamites Kudur-Mabug and his 

 Kri-Aku (Arioch). and had fled to the court of 

 Khammurabi at Babylon. For several year- P.aby- 

 lonia remained subject to Elamite suzerainty, the 

 Elamite princes of Larsa being, like Khammurabi 

 himself, vassals of the King of Flam, where the 

 war of independence eventually broke out. which 

 resulted in the overthrow of Elamite supremacy. 

 Sin-idinnam rendered effective aid to the King of 

 Babylon. In return for this, when the foreign yoke 

 was finally shaken off. Sin-idinnam was restored to 

 his principality, ami Khammurabi rewarded him 

 with statues and other p; a "recompense 



for his valor on the day of the defeat of Kiulur- 

 Laghamar." the Elamite king. 



The excavations carried on for the past eight 

 years under the direction of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania at Xiffer. in northern Babylonia, have re- 

 sulted in the discovery of relics of dynasties several 

 hundred years older than that of Sargon and Na- 

 ramsin, whose date is fixed at about 3800 B. c. The 

 principal excavations were in the sanctuary of 

 E-Kur. the old temple of Bel. A platform had 

 been laid bare which was supposed to represent 

 the ground level of the ancient city. 36 feet below 

 the surface. It was then determined to continue 

 the work until bed rock or virgin soil should be 

 reached. The excavations were accordingly car- 

 ried 3d feet deeper. At 23 feet below the platform 

 the most ancient keystone arch known was found. 

 The foundations of the wall of the ancient city 

 were reached by Mr. Haines. who directed the work. 

 16 feet below the level of the desert. The wall it- 

 self was 11 feet high and 45 feet wide. Upon the 

 top of this wall was another of unknown height. 

 These walls were built of bricks '20 inches square. 

 Numerous inscriptions were found upon the broken 

 5, bricks, tablets, and other objects recovered, 

 from which Prof. Hilprecht. who has prepared the 

 account and collated the results of the work, be- 

 lieves it will be possible to write the history of the 

 empire. These objects include between 9.000 and 

 Kt.OitO cuneiform tablets and about 21.iK.tO other in- 

 scriptions, partly completely preserved and partly 

 consisting of fragments. The inscriptions embrace 

 syllabaries, letters, astronomical and hieratic texts, 

 chronological lists, reports and lists of sacrificial 

 gifts to the gods and to sacred shrines, votive tab- 

 lets, business agreements, etc., dating from the 

 reigns of many kings before Sargon and constitut- 

 ing a record earlier than any we have heretofore 

 had of Oriental history. 



An inscription by Nabonidus discovered by 

 Dr. Scheil in the Munjelbeh mound, within the 

 walls of Babylon, and deciphered by him. engraved 

 in 11 columns of writing on a small diorite stfla. 

 records among other events the sack of Babylon by 

 Sennacherib. H. c. 698. and the subsequent war 

 made by the Babylonians in league with the King 

 of the Medes and the devastation of their land. 

 Further facts are the establishment of the date of 

 the Scythian invasion : the murder of Sennacherib 

 by his son. B. c. 681 : the destruction of the temple 

 of the moon god at Kharran by the barbarians. 

 B. c. 609. and its subsequent restoration ; and the 

 coronation of Nabonidus. B. c. 



A collection ' recently presented to the Royal 

 Museum of Berlin includes about 500 clay tablets 

 covered with Babylonian inscriptions which were 

 obtained at Tello. The bulk of the find was recov- 

 ered from the temple archives of Tello, and the in- 

 scriptions date from the reigns of the. south Baby- 

 lonian kings Ine-Sin. Gamil-Sin, and Bur-Sin, who 

 were the sovereigns, about 2500 B. c., of the city of 



