2 6o EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 



a clay prism acquired by the British Museum. 1 It is dated in the year 694 B.C. and 

 includes records of two campaigns to the north-west in the years 698 and 695 B.C. The 

 former was undertaken to suppress a revolt in the Taurus, and the new text confirms the 

 traditions preserved by Alexander Polyhistor and Abydenus with regard to Sennacherib's 

 conquests in Cilicia and his rebuilding of the city of Tarsus. It also gives new and 

 valuable information on the topography of Nineveh, enumerating the names and posi- 

 tions of its fifteen gates; and it contains the earliest record of the cultivation of cotton, 

 which Sennacherib succeeded in acclimatizing for a time at Nineveh, so that the Assyri- 

 ans were able to use it for the weaving of garments. The plant was probably not the 

 tree-cotton of India (Gossypium arboreutri), mentioned by Herodotus, but the annual 

 plant G. herbaceum, which, in Sir George Watt's opinion, originated in Arabia, whence it 

 eventually spread northwards to the shores of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. 2 



(LEONARD W. KING.) 

 EGYPT 3 



In the past three years the study of ancient Egypt has been progressing in every 

 branch, and in Nubia especially large extensions have been made. The results will 

 be most easily referred to if stated in their historical order. 



Prehistoric. The most northern cemetery of the second prehistoric age (s.D. 

 50-70) was found at Gerzeh about forty miles south of Cairo, and excavated by Mr. 

 Wainwright. 4 It showed that the various products which are known some hundreds 

 of miles to the south extended also to this region, and that the civilisation was general. 

 The main result was finding iron beads alternately with gold on a necklace: these had 

 certainly been metallic iron (probably native iron), and date between s.D. 53-63, or 

 probably about 6500 B.C. This is by far the oldest wrought iron known,, the next 

 being in the IVth Dynasty; another new instance is in the XHth Dynasty (see below). 

 Another cemetery in the South, at Mahasneh near Abydos, was excavated by Mr. 

 Ayrton 5 ; it extended over nearly all the prehistoric civilisation, but did not give any 

 new ideas. 



Earliest Dynasties. Two cemeteries of this period, and the most northerly known, 

 are those of Turah (7 miles S. of Cairo) recorded by Dr. Junker, 6 and Tarkhan (37 

 m. S. of Cairo) recorded by Prof. Petrie. 7 The objects found at Tarkhan have shown 

 much of the civilisation, owing to the perfect condition of the woodwork, baskets and 

 clothing. The general result is that the size of graves and wooden coffins, and amount 

 of copper tools, was greatest in the age of Mena and the kings just before him, and 

 dwindled throughout the 1st Dynasty. This accords with the decay seen in the series 

 of Royal Tombs, and shows that such a change was general. The whole of the burials 

 were contracted in position; and though the prehistoric have head to south, and the 

 historic the head to north, yet no progressive change went on during the three or four 

 centuries examined. At Abydos the Tombs of the Kings have been re-excavated by 

 Dr. Naville, 8 but no further facts have been obtained, nor was any other tomb found 

 in the area which had already been fully searched by Prof. Petrie in 1901. 



In Nubia a thorough clearance of the cemeteries has been in progress in order to 

 secure their contents before the region was submerged by the reservoir. The results 

 published by Dr. Reisner and Mr. Firth 9 show that the prehistoric civilisation of 

 Egypt extended over Nubia in much the same style, the pottery and the art being 



1 King, Cuneiform Texts in the Brit. Mus., xxvi, pp. 7 ff., and Journal of Hellenic Studies, 

 xxx (1910), pp. 327 ff. 



2 King, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., xxxi, pp. 339 ff., and Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxx, 

 p. 331 f., n. 14. 



3 Sec E. B. ix, 65 el seq. 



4 Wainwright in The Labyrinth Gerzeh and Mazghuneh. 



5 Ayrton, Predynastic Cemetery of El Mahasneh. 



6 Junker, Bericht iiber die . . . friedhof in Turah, K. Akad. Wiss., Wien. 



7 Petrie, Tarkhan. 



8 Griffith, Archaeological Report, 1910-11. 



9 Reisner, Archaeological Survey of Nubia. 



