4 REV. A. H. SAYCE, M.A., LL.D. 



to. We already knew that Egypt had been invaded by the 

 great Chaldsean monarch; and, since the forms of the characters 

 found upon the tablets belonged to the Babylonian and not 

 to the Assyrian variety of cuneiform script, it appeared 

 necessary to see in M. Bouriant's tablets relics of Nebuchad- 

 nezzar's Egyptian campaign. The Boulaq Museum already 

 possessed three cylinders, which came from the neighbour- 

 hood of the Suez Canal, probably from Tel Defenneh or 

 Tahpanhes, and bore the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar. 



One difficulty, however, stood in the way of ascribing the 

 tablets of Tel el-Amarna to so late a date. On one of those 

 belonging to M. Bouriant, the name of Gimti or Gath occurs, 

 and it is pretty certain that Gath had ceased to exist before 

 the sixth century B.C. 



After my departure from Egypt, the question was finally 

 cleared up. More than 160 tablets had been offered for sale 

 at Vienna, and eventually bought by the Museum at Berlin. 

 Here they were examined by two young Assyriologists, Drs. 

 Winckler and Lehmann, who soon discovered that they con- 

 sisted of letters and despatches sent to Amenophis III. and 

 his son, Amenophis IV., thus explaining how it was that they 

 had been disinterred at Tel el-Amarna. Another collection 

 of 82 tablets was subsequently acquired by the British Museum, 

 and, during the past winter, the courtesy of M. Grebaut and 

 Dr. Brugsch-Bey has afforded me every facility for copying 

 and examining the collection in the Boulaq Museum. This 

 includes not only the tablets which I had failed to see the 

 preceding spring, but others also which had been afterwards 

 obtained by M. Grebaut. 



My visit to Tel el-Amarna, last January, confirmed M. 

 Grebaut's belief that no other tablets now remain there. 

 The collection was found together in one place, which was 

 pointed out to me, and the discoverers have been careful not 

 to leave a fragment behind them. It is possible, however, 

 that a few pieces may still be in the hands of native dealers; 

 but, substantially, the whole body of tablets is now in European 

 hands. We know, consequently, what they have to tell us. 



And the tale is indeed a wonderful one. We learn that in the 

 fifteenth century before our era, a century before the Exodus 

 active literary intercourse was going on throughout the 

 civilised world of Western Asia, between Babylonia and 



_/pt and the smaller states of Palestine, of Syria, of 

 Lesopotamia, and even of Eastern Kappadokia. And this 

 intercourse was carried on by means of the Babylonian 

 language, and the complicated Babylonian script. It implies 

 that, all over the civilised East, there were libraries and schools, 



