PALESTINE 



PALESTINE 



English Miles 



Palestine. Map showing the chief cities and ports of the country, administered 

 by Britain under a mandate from the League of Nations, confirmed in 1922 



especially in May and June, and 

 raids on settled villages. 



There is a considerable flow to 

 and fro of emigration and immigra- 

 tion. Of the immigrants, by far the 

 most numerous are the Jews. It is 

 estimated that between 1880 and 

 1914, 40,000 Jews went into Pales- 

 tine. The total emigrating from all 

 Syria was 250,000 in 30 years. 



Basil Mathews 



ARCHAEOLOGY. Material remains 

 of the human occupation of Pales- 

 tine, unearthed since 1870, greatly 

 elucidate and extend the biblical 

 history. Many thousands of worked 



flints attest the presence of upland 

 hunting communities at the palaeo- 

 lithic, and perhaps even the eolithic, 

 level of culture. 



Early neolithic implements, still 

 more abundant, come largely from 

 the lower lands, better suited for 

 primitive tillage and herding, on 

 both Jordan banks, the Shephelah 

 tells, and the coastlands. They 

 include spear-heads, arrow-heads, 

 saws, chisels, sickle-points, polished 

 axes, millstones, and boneware. 



During the 3rd millennium B.C. 

 immigrant waves of nomad Semites 

 began to overrun the aboriginal 



PALESTINE 



settlements, aided by an advanced 

 culture showing familiarity, direct 

 or indirect, with Egyptian metal - 

 working and the potter's wheel. 

 It was apparently during this first 

 Semitic or Amorite period, marked 

 by the overlap of stone and metal, 

 that there came into the south- 

 lands, from Moab across to the 

 maritime plain, taller, stronger 

 peoples, the biblical Rephaim and 

 Anakim, to whom are ascribable 

 the megalithic dolmens, menhirs, 

 and stone-circles, which abound 

 especially E. of Jordan. 



The pre-Israelite civilization of 

 Canaan, revealed by excavations 

 at Gezer, Megiddo, and Taanach, 

 shows from the outset the charac- 

 teristic forms of early Semitic 

 worship, marked by high-places, 

 mazzebas, and asheras or sacred 

 posts. It exhibits also the Semitic 

 incapacity for creative art, the in- 

 digenous crafts being based upon 

 imported models and ideas, with 

 indifferent workmanship. 



To the general Hellenistic stream 

 which followed upon the break-up 

 of Alexander's empire are attribut- 

 able the edifices erected before and 

 during the time of Christ, as illus- 

 trated by the excavations at 

 Tiberias and Capernaum in 1920, 

 and at Ascalon in 1921. Of all 

 these, as well as of the later in- 

 fluences, Byzantine, Arab, Crusa- 

 der, and Ottoman, substantial ex- 

 amples have been found, associated 

 with pottery, glass, terra-cotta, 

 metal-work, and other forms of in- 

 dustrial art. E. G. Harmer 



HISTORY. About 3300 B.C. the 

 Nile cities and villages became 

 one empire; about 2500 B.C. the 

 Egyptian kings crossed the Sinai 

 peninsula and the desert, broke 

 through Gaza and Beersheba, and 

 held Palestine. A thousand years 

 later an account by Thothmes III 

 of his invasion forms the first piece 

 of detailed historic record ; Canaan - 

 ites occupied the land. Thothmes 

 marched across the desert via 

 Gaza up the coastal plain to 

 Carmel, and thence across the hills 

 to Megiddo, where he defeated the 

 Canaanites. Driven back a cen- 

 tury later from Syria by the 

 Hittites, Egypt still held Palestine 

 loosely. About 1200 B.C., by a 

 treaty between the Hittites and 

 Egyptians, Palestine fell to Egypt 

 and Syria to the Hittites. 



A series of tidal waves of immi- 

 gration about this time brought 

 (a) Arameans from Arabia, whose 

 language was used for more than 

 1,000 years in many parts ; (b) 

 Khabiri from Arabia ; (c) Philis- 

 tines from over the sea, and last, 

 but by far the most important, 

 (d) Hebrews from the Southern 

 desert. 



