36 



ARCHAEOLOGY. (GEECIAN.) 



look upon Tel-el-Mashkutah as the site of the 

 Egyptian town which bore the sacred name of 

 Pithom and the profane one of Thuku-t." 

 And Dr. Ebers and M. W. Pleyte, of Ley den, 

 do not hesitate to affirm that the arguments 

 of Lepsius are more than met by the evidence 

 produced by M. Naville in his book. It is also 

 said that Lepsius had not seen the whole of 

 M. Naville's evidence when he wrote his arti- 

 cle. Among the most positive points of this 

 evidence is the discovery of what may very 

 likely have been the store-houses built by the 

 Hebrews, in the remains of a series of chambers 

 having no communication with one another, 

 and to which access could be had only by the 

 roof, and corresponding in their construction 

 exactly with the representations of corn-maga- 

 zines found on the monuments. This would 

 lend a striking confirmation to the identifica- 

 tion of the site with that of one of the treasure- 

 cities. Another evidence corroborating the 

 exact identification with Pithom is afforded 

 by a stela of the Ptolemaic period found there, 

 which bore the inscription, ** When under his 

 Majesty it was proclaimed, now the sanctuary 

 of his father Turn of the good god of Thekut 

 was completed, on the third of the month of 

 Athyr, the king himself came to the district of 

 Heroopolis (in the presence or into the house) 

 of his father Turn," etc. The name Thekut in 

 this inscription corresponds with the profane 

 name (Thuku-t) of the place as given by Dr. 

 Ebers, and is regarded by M. Naville as the 

 ! Succoth of the Exodus ; the Egyptian th being 

 represented in several instances by s in other 

 languages. Further confirmation of the sup- 

 position that Thekut and Pithom are the same 

 is afforded by a passage in the Anastasi papy- 

 rus, where King Menephthah tells in writing 

 of having permitted the Shasu of Atuma to 

 cross the fortress bearing his name, which was 

 also called Theku, " in the direction of the 

 ponds of Pithom of the King Menephthah, 

 which is, or is called, Theku." 



M. Narille's Search for Goshen. A monolithic 

 shrine in black granite was found about twen- 

 ty years ago at the village called Saft-el-Hen- 

 neh, about six miles east of Zagazig, and was 

 broken to pieces by order of the pasha, with 

 the expectation of finding treasure within it. 

 Two of the fragments of the shrine were car- 

 ried to the museum at Boolak, and two were 

 left on the spot. From a study of the frag- 

 ments at Boolak, Herr Brugsch learned that 

 the shrine was of the reign of Netanebo II, of 

 the thirtieth dynasty, and that it was dedicated 

 to the god Sopt, the chief god of the nome of 

 Arabia, whose name still survives in Saft, the 

 name of the village. Several authorities say 

 that the nome of Arabia was the site of the 

 land of Goshen, and that land is called in the 

 Septuagint IW/* 'Apaias-, Gesem of Arabia. 

 We also find in the hieroglyphic lists that 

 describe the nomes the mention of Kesem ot 

 the East as one of the localities of the nome ot 

 Arabia. This Kesem has been considered by 



most Egyptologists as the land of Goshen. M. 

 Naville visited Saft during his explorations of 

 the Delta, in December, 1884, and, examining 

 the fragments of the shrine that were still 

 left there, found on one of them a dedicatory 

 inscription, in which were the recitals, " The 

 king came to Kes in order to make offerings to 

 the venerable god Sopt on his throne," and 

 that " the images of the gods of Kes, together 

 with this shrine, were created under the reign 

 of the king." The name Kes being regarded 

 as a variant of the Kesem of the Ptolemaic lists, 

 M. Naville considers that the facts fix the site 

 of the land of Goshen as being in the coun- 

 try around this place. The town of Fakoos, 

 twelve miles north of Tel-el Kebir, has gener- 

 ally been regarded as the Goshen of the Bible, 

 from the similarity of the name with Phacusa, 

 which Ptolemy gives as the name of the capi- 

 tal of the Arabian nome. But M. Naville refers, 

 as against this view, to a statement of Strabo, 

 that Phacusa was the starting-point of the 

 canal that ran from the Nile to the Red Sea. 

 No trace of a canal has ever been found in the 

 region between Fakoos and the Red Sea; 

 while if Phacusa was in this neighborhood, ex- 

 plored by M. Naville, the starting-point indi- 

 cated by Strabo would be only a few miles east 

 of that given by Herodotus, and the canal 

 mentioned by him could only be the same that 

 is described by Diodorus, Pliny, and others. 



(Grecian.) The Acropolis of Athens. Excavations 

 on the Acropolis of Athens have resulted in 

 the discovery of various sculptures and archi- 

 tectural fragments belonging to the older Greek 

 art. Among them are dedications and names 

 of sculptors of the pre-Euclidean period, and 

 works that were originally richly decorated 

 in color. At different points have also been 

 uncovered portions of the old Pelasgic wall and 

 joinings of the same with the walls of Cimon, 

 and remains of the old walls of Themistocles. 

 Among the inscriptions brought to light is one 

 containing the reception of the different prop- 

 erties of the precincts of the temples of Ath- 

 ens. In digging for the foundations of a new 

 house to the south of the Acropolis, on the site 

 of the city of Athens, previous to the improve- 

 ments made by Themistocles, an inscription, 

 belonging to the fifth century B. o., was found 

 entire. It was an order for an inclosure to be 

 made around the Temple of Codrus, and for 

 some two hundred olive-trees to be planted 

 within it. The inscription is of interest as 

 conveying the first information that there 

 was a temple in Athens dedicated to Codrus. 

 Excavations have been begun in behalf of the 

 Society of the Dilettanti on the site of the Tem- 

 ple of Zeus Olympics. The foundations of the 

 pillars of the temple have been reached in sev- 

 eral places and found to be in a condition of 

 great disorder, having been in some points 

 ruthlessly thrown down and in other cases 

 completely obliterated. Excavations were be- 

 gun in July on the site of the ancient Agora of 

 Athens. 



