178 THEO. G. PINCHES, ESQ., NOTES UPON SOME OF THE 



It was this change which at first rendered it so difficult to under- 

 stand the hieroglyphic meaning of the emblems. 



My interest is chiefly in the light which these and other texts 

 cast on the Hittite question. The Hittite and Cuneiform were 

 separate scripts ; yet there can be little doubt that both, with 

 the Chinese and probably the Egyptian, sprang from one original 

 source — a rude system of picture writing — although they 

 developed separately, so that the signs used as grammatical symbols 

 — verb and noun endings, &c. — have no connection. I believe 

 that at least 70 out of some 200 emblems used at Tell Loh may 

 be recognised as having had the same sound and meaning with 

 similar emblems used by the Hittites. These include the signs 

 for "water," "sprout," "bird," "bull," "yoke," "ship," "run," 

 " city," " eye," " heart," " wind," " take," "put," "go," "sheep," 

 "key," "star," " throne," " altar," " town," "footprint," "plant," 

 "no," "sun," the plural emblem, "heaven," "stag," "dog," 

 " tablet," " tree," and " arrow ;" but when we come to pronouns 

 and case endings the two systems show no connexion at all. 



The character of the sculpture at Tell Loh, rude as it is, is 

 superior to that of the Hittite monuments, which are perhaps of 

 the same age or even older. As regards the language there is now 

 every reason to suppose that Akkadian and Hittite were cognate 

 dialects. At Tel-el- Amarna a letter has been found, nearly 1000 

 years less ancient than the Tell Loh texts, addressed by a Hittite 

 prince to Amenophis III., and written in a dialect very like 

 Akkadian — as has been recognised already in Germany. This 

 fully confirms the theory I proposed in 1887 as to the Hittite. 

 There is also a letter by Dusratta, king of Mitani, written in 

 the language of Mitani — a region in Mesopotamia, east of the 

 Euphrates and opposite the Hittite city of Carchemish. This 

 dialect, as I hope to show in a paper now in print for the Palestine 

 Exploration Fund, was also akin to Hittite and Akkadian, by aid 

 of which it can easily be read. 



Now on these views Mr. Pinches' inscription from Tell Loh 

 casts most important light. We see that the Akkadian prince 

 Gudea ruled from the South Sea (Persian Gulf) to the North Sea 

 (or Mediterranean near Alexandretta) and cut cedars on Amanus, 

 the northern mountain of the Lebanon chain. Hence we 

 perceive that in 2500 B.C. the Akkadians were already extending 

 into the Hittite country west of the Euphrates. They have never 



