ARCHAEOLOGY. 



Hebrew inscription ascribed to the age of Heze- 

 kia, in the tunnel connecting the Virgin's well 

 with the pool of Siloam, Sir Charles Wilson 

 formed an opinion that there might have been 

 another and older aqueduct connecting the two 

 fountains. Such an aqueduct has been discov- 

 ered by Herr Schick, at three points where he 

 sunk shafts. It is roughly hewn in the solid 

 rock and covered with slabs, where it is not 

 filled with mud and rubbish. No inscription 

 has yet been found upon it. It is supposed to 

 be as old as the time of Solomon. 



Egypt. Egypt Exploration Fund. At a special 

 general meeting of the supporters of the Egypt 

 Exploration Fund, held in London July 6, the 

 chairman laid on the table the first part of the so- 

 ciety's forthcoming publication on the excava- 

 tions and researches at Naukratis, and pointed 

 out that of the five great temples mentioned 

 by the Greek literary authorities four had 

 now been discovered, two in the present sea- 

 son and two in Mr. Petrie's previous explora- 

 tions. This year the cemetery had also been 

 found, but the part of it that could be exca- 

 vated contained only the graves of a later 

 period, whereas the best time of Naukratis 

 was the sixth century B. o. These graves 

 contained coffins of tile and of wood, the latter 

 decorated with terra- cotta ornaments, gorgo- 

 neia, etc., many of which had been recovered. 

 The burials were always after the Greek cus- 

 toms, and no traces of embalming had been 

 found. In the temenos, or shrine of the Dios- 

 curi, the plan of a temple built of unbaked 

 brick, faced with plaster, had been recovered. 

 In front of it were pillars of the same mate- 

 rials. The Temple of Aphrodite consisted only 

 of mud-brick walls, inclosing one, or, in the 

 earlier temple, two chambers. In front of it 

 was a great altar, built of ashes, held together 

 with a mud-brick casing. The yard of the 

 temple was covered with a layer of fragments 

 which had yielded a great number of vases 

 and statuettes, more or less perfect. These 

 were all of an early period, and many were in- 

 scribed in the characters of the sixth century 

 B. o. The temenos of the Samian Hera had 

 also been found, but had not been rich in re- 

 sults. Some smaller articles had been found 

 in the town, including a beautiful portrait- 

 head of the period of Berenike II, in blue por- 

 celain. It did not seem advisable to continue 

 the work at once, as no result might ensue, 

 but rather to watch the site till fresh remains 

 were uncovered by the Arabs. Up to the 

 present moment much had been gained. A 

 most valuable series of inscriptions served, not 

 only to throw light on the early history of the 

 Greek alphabet, but also to decide the age of 

 many classes of vases and sculptures whose 

 date had previously been matter of conjecture. 

 By ascertaining the real nature and importance 

 of the colony of Naukratis, its position in his- 

 tory was established. It was merely a trading 

 emporium, but owing to the surroundings that 

 prevented its growing in size or prosperity, its 



art and handicrafts were stimulated by emu- 

 lation. Its influence on Greece in the sixth 

 century must have been of great importance. 



Excavations at Tell Nebesh. The excavations 

 of the Egypt Exploration Fund were resumed 

 in the Delta at the beginning of the season of 

 1885-'86, under the direction of Mr. W. M. 

 Flinders Petrie, Mr. F. Llewellen Griffith, and 

 Mr. Ernest A. Gardner. Leaving Mr. Gardner 

 to pursue the investigations at Naukratis, Mr. 

 Petrie and Mr. Griffith proceeded to make ex- 

 cavations at a new site in the neighborhood of 

 Tanis. The mound at which they worked is 

 called variously, Tell Nebesheh, after the name 

 of the village, Tell Bedawi, or the mound of 

 the Bedouin, and Tell Farun, or the mound 

 of the Pharaoh. It is the site of a vast and 

 very ancient cemetery, the level of which has 

 been raised from age to age by successive stra- 

 ta of interments. Besides the cemetery, the 

 mound contains the remains of two ancient 

 towns and the site of a temple. The temple 

 occupies the eastern extremity of the mound, 

 and was formerly surrounded by a sacred in- 

 closure about 600 feet square. The line of the 

 walls can still be traced. Near the northeast 

 corner stands the remains of a monolithic 

 shrine in red granite, fourteen feet high by 

 nearly eight feet wide. At the northern end 

 of the mound is a broken sphinx in black 

 granite, which appears to belong to the H} k- 

 sos period. The cemetery is very unlike the 

 cemeteries of Memphis, Thebes, and Abydos, 

 and is described by Mr. Petrie as consisting of 

 "an immense number of small chambers, or 

 groups of chambers, placed isolated and irregu- 

 larly all over a sandy plain. These were built 

 of unbaked brick, and roofed with barrel-vault- 

 ing. Some were larger, and cased or lined, if 

 subterranean, with limestone. In later times 

 in the sixth century B. c., and after large 

 blocks of about a dozen chambers became fre- 

 quent. These tombs have nearly all been pil- 

 laged in early times, so that in a hundred only 

 half a dozen bodies have been found ; and not 

 only did the chambers fall to decay, but they 

 were leveled and others built on them, so that 

 three or four successive occupations of the 

 same ground may be traced." In some of the 

 vaults quantities of bones were found indis- 

 criminately piled. Among other monuments 

 and relics are a black granite altar of the reign 

 of Amenemhat II of the twelfth dynasty, much 

 scaled by the action of the salt in the soil, 

 bearing an erased inscription of 'a "royal 

 friend, seal-bearer, and chancellor " ; two 

 thrones of life-size royal statues of the twelfth 

 dynasty, much mutilated ; a limestone statue 

 dedicated apparently to Harpocrates; a frag- 

 ment of a statue of Phthah in black granite, 

 highly polished, bearing an inscription of Ra- 

 meses II; several sculptured blocks of some 

 building earlier than the temple ; and a head- 

 less sphinx, in black granite, supposed to be 

 originally of the twelfth dynasty, on which the 

 cartouches of successive kings have been in 



