6 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



who was sent expressly to Hamath by the Palestine Exploration 

 Society to obtain genuine copies of the inscriptions. Mr. Eylands, 

 Secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, compiled from the 

 labours of these pioneers a full account of the Hamath inscription, 

 which was published in 1882. The Rev. Dr. "Wright, Captain 

 Condor, and Mr. Campbell, Professor in the Presbyterian College, 

 Montreal, have published everything connected with the inscriptions, 

 and fragments, some of which were found among the ruins of ancient 

 Carchemish, now called Jerabis; the originals are now in the 

 British Museum, others have been found in Asia Minor, Syria, and 

 the valley of the Euphrates, Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe, cities 

 mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. The most recent discovery 

 is at Merah, on the east side of Cappadocia and Cilicia, where two 

 stone lions flank the gateway, the front, and one side of each, are 

 covered with hieroglyphics, in a good state of preservation. It is 

 the oldest Hittite document yet discovered. Its preservation from 

 the destroying hands of the Assyrian conquerors might have been 

 due to the fact that it does not contain any statement derogatory to 

 them, and that it recognises their Sovereignty, as do the monuments 

 of Hamath and Carchemish. The " I^azir Lord of Assyria " is the 

 Assyrian Assurnazirpal, the father of Shalmanezer II. The 

 author of the inscription was one Kapini, who was apparently King 

 of Has, the Rosh of the Bible. Some years ago a convex silver 

 plate, probably the top of a staff or dagger, was offered for 

 sale to the British Museum ; in the centre was the effigy of a 

 standing warrior, surrounded by an inner circle of hieroglyphics, 

 with an outer circle round the rim of the boss, engraved with a 

 cuneiform inscription. From the posture and form of the human 

 figures are seen evidences of recently discovered Hittite art. 

 Professor Sayce has translated this bilingual inscription by the 

 aid of the cuneiform legend. It reads thus " Tarrik-Timme, 

 king of the country of Erme." The forms of the characters 

 seem to refer to the age of the Sargon, not of Agane, who 

 lived about 1,700 to 1,730, B.C. It was in Sargon's time 

 (about 720, B.C.) the deportation of the ten tribes of 



