ON THE NAMES ON THE LIST OF THOTHMES III. 325 



work of the Piilestine Exploration Fund would have been three times as 

 difficult as it has been. This paper, cominj^c as it does after the recently- 

 completed papers on and maps of Western Palestine, has a very much 

 increased value in comparison with the statements publisbed by M. Mariette. 

 There are one or two identifications which are particularly interesting-. 

 That of Astaroth Karnaim is one which carries us back to a very early 

 period of Jewish history, and is interesting in regard to the record of 

 the worship of the two-horned Astoreth on the eastern side of Jordan. 

 That worship, we know, was common throughout the East. One figure 

 which struck me particularly amongst those I saw at lerabis was that 

 evidently of that Asiatic goddess with the crescent-horns upon her 

 head. The description given of the battle of Megiddo, when applied to 

 the site on which it was fought, appears to be extremely accurate, and 

 furnishes another proof of the value of these records when studied in the 

 East. The account v/as evidently written by a man who was either an eye- 

 witness or who had the accounts of soldiers who took part in the fighting, 

 and you have only to ask xVssyrian scholars to read the inscriptions they 

 have, such as that on the bronze gates of Ballawat, or the account of the 

 battle of Karkar, which was probably fought in the narrow part of the 

 Orontes valley, to see how accurately these scribes endeavoured to 

 describe battles, and how their descriptions correspond with the ground 

 itself. The value of this paper does not come out fully until you study it 

 with the Bible and maps ; but it is a very valuable one to this Society, 

 especially as it comes from such a man as M. Maspero, who, being so very 

 careful in his identifications not to rush to rash conclusions, and, being 

 a scholar, knowing most of the languages with which he deals, gives to 

 his work the impri.natur of one speaking with very great authority. 



The CiiAiRMAX. — I entirely agree that we are very much obliged to that 

 great Egyptologist, M. Maspero, for his valuable paper, and must also add 

 our thanks to Sir Charles Wilson for the contributions he has made to this 

 subject to-night. These investigations have a practical bearing on Biblical 

 scholarship. Recently, we, in the Bible Society, began to publish maps in 

 our Bibles. When these maps go cut to the islands of the sea, the people 

 look at them and say, " But does Jerusalem exist at the present day? Is 

 there such a place as Nazareth ? " They have in their own lands traditional 

 myths which refer to names and places, but nothing now exists which 

 corresponds to those names and places. When they see our maps, they say, 

 " Here are the names of certain places where certain events occurred"; and 

 this gives a new and realistic value to the historical parts of the Bible. It 

 is extremely interesting to find the old names that occur in the Bible, and 

 some of which are identified as having the same names at the present day, 

 in an Egyptian record dating back to the seventeenth century before Christ. 

 What a marvellous confirmation of the Biblical narrative this is ! Take the 

 chief names here. There is no doubt whatever about them. For instance, 

 ' we have Qodshu on the Orontes, and we have Megiddo. I do not think 

 many will agree with Captain Conder that the true site of Megiddo is not 



