NATURE 



[StPTEMEEP. 8, 19 lO 



appears in No. 13 of the Revue gcm'rale dcs Sciences. 

 The author discusses the histories of the compass, the 

 log, and astronomical determination, paving particular 

 attention to such matters as the difference between the 

 magnetic and true north, and illustrating his descriptions 

 with cuts of instruments such as the astrolabe and 

 arbalcstrille. 



Meteoric Fireballs. — The Rev. W. F. A. Ellison, of 

 Fethard Rectory, Waterford, reports that on August 28, at 

 iih. 29m. G.M.T., he was surprised by a very brilliant 

 flash, which on first thought he supposed to be vivid 

 lightning. Instantly looking upwards, however, he saw 

 a bright meteor-streak extending from 330°-)-35° to 

 125° + 75°. It was fully half a degree wide, and part of 

 it remained in sight three or four minutes, and drifted 

 several degrees to the west. 



Mr. Ellison has been very successful in recent years as 

 an observer of fireballs, and describes this one as an 

 exceptionally grand example. Unfortunately, he did not 

 see the direction of its flight, but the radiant must have 

 been either in Sagittarius or the head 01 Ursa Major. 



The Rev. J. C. W. Herschel, at Wellington College 

 Station, Berks, saw a splendid Perseid on September 2 at 

 qh. 5m. p.m. It passed from near the Polar Star to 

 6 Draconis, crossing Herculis, and vanishing in the 

 region of Ophiuchus. The duration was about three 

 seconds, and the meteor projected a streak along the 

 greater part of its course. The probable radiant was near 

 6 Persei, and the height of the object from about 72 to 

 44 miles over Wellingboro' to Yeovil. Its visible trajec- 

 tory covered 125 miles at a velocity of about 41 miles per 

 second. • 



Further observations are, however, required of these fine 

 meteors before trustworthy heights and velocities can be 

 computed. 



RECENT HITTITE DISCOVERY. 

 ""PHE object of the lecture is to show in outline how the 

 memory of the Hittites as an imperial people has 

 been recovered and what their place in world-history was. 

 This recovery dates from the finding in 1834-45 of two 

 prehistoric cities at Boghaz Keui and Uyuk in north- 

 iVcstern Cappadocia. Their sculptures and inscriptions 

 were ultimately recognised by Sayce as belonging to the 

 same family as certain inscriptions and sculptures which 

 had been found at Hamath and elsewhere in Syria after 

 1870, and also some other monuments observed in Asia 

 Minor at Ibriz and near Smyrna. These Syrian monu- 

 ments had been already ascribed to a people which, under 

 the name of Kheta or Khatti, played a large part in the 

 Syrian relations of Pharaohs of the XVIIIth to the 

 XXth Dynasties, and in those of the Assyrian kings ; 

 and this people, it was generally agreed, was identical 

 with the " children of Heth " or Hittites of the Old 

 Testament. If the latter were responsible for the monu- 

 ments in question in Syria, then, too, in some sense, they 

 were responsible for the monuments in Asia Minor ; and, 

 in any case, it was clear that a very peculiar and important 

 civilisation, covering a large area of the Nearer East in 

 the Second Millennium B.C. and the early part of the first, 

 had been forgotten by history. 



Scholars and explorers made continual efforts during the 

 next quarter of a century to elucidate this civilisation, and 

 succeeded so far as to place its origin in Asia Minor, and 

 to fill up, more or less, by the discovery of many new 

 monuments, the geographical gaps dividing those first 

 observed. They found that these lay, roughly, along lines 

 of communication leading from north-western Cappadocia 

 to the south and west, and they established in fact that 

 not only northern Syria but west central Asia Minor 

 showed such monuments in almost every part. But funda- 

 rnental questions — who were the authors of this civilisa- 

 tion? where precisely was its chief focus? and who shared 

 its development? — had still to be left open; and it was not 

 until Boghaz Keui came to be excavated by Winckler and 

 his companions in 1906-7 that they could be answered. 



At the last-named site, known for some years to produce 

 cuneiform tablets partly in Babylonian, partly in an 



1 Discourse delivered at the Sheffield Meeting of the British Association 

 by D. C;. Hosarlh. 



NO. 2132, VOL. 84'. 



unknown tongue, the excavators explored a large megalithic 

 group of ruins in the lower cily and fortifications an,l 

 certain other structures in the upper, besides clearing antl 

 re-examining the long-known religious rock-reliefs of 

 lasily Kaya. Besides several mural sculptures, of which 

 the most interesting shows an armed Amazon, the 

 explorers came on a number of cuneiform tablets, chiefly 

 in the ruins of the earlier portions of the lower megalithic 

 building, which was evidently a palace. These tablets 

 proved to be in the main Foreign Office archives of six 

 generations of kings, who ruled over the Hatti of Boghaz 

 Keui in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. They 

 conclusively prove that the Hatti of Cappadocia w^ere the 

 Kheta who fought with Egypt at Kadesh, and made the 

 famous treaty with Rameses the Great. The first im- 

 portant reign was that of Subbiluliuma, contemporary of 

 Amenhotep IV. ; the last was that of Hattusil II., the 

 " Khetasar " who made the treaty w-ith Rameses. But 

 we know from Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian records 

 that, both before and after these kings, the Hatti were a 

 power in western Asia, and we have to credit them with a 

 history of at least a thousand years. The tablets show 

 that Subbiluliuma extended Cappadocian power over north 

 Syria and even over great part of Mesopotamia, where th'; 

 Mitanni had formerly been dominant ; and that this wide 

 dominion, extending even to the Babylonian frontier, was 

 preserved by his chief successors, Mursil and Mutalla, and 

 not lost until after the reign of Hattusil II., who treated 

 with both Egypt and Babylon as an equal. Startling as 

 this revelation is, we now see that without the existence of 

 such a Hittite power the wide distribution of the Hittite 

 monuments, civilisation, and physical type would have 

 remained inexplicable ; and we recognise in Boghaz Keui 

 the natural focus from which these radiated over Asia 

 Minor and Syria. But we recognise also that many of 

 these monuments and much of the Hittite civilisation were 

 work of other peoples than the Cappadocian Hatti — peoples 

 who had learned of the latter and in many cases oullasted 

 them. Other phenomena, too, are explained by the revela- 

 tions at Boghaz Keui, notably the failure of the .Egean 

 power of Crete to effect a lodgment in Asia Minor, and the 

 long continuance of the Hittite name and fame in Syria. 

 Moreover, they account, as nothing else can, for the 

 Oriental influence which acted on the earliest Hellenic 

 civilisation, especially in Ionian art and religion. For not 

 even the early contact between the Muski-Phrygians and 

 Assyria appears to have resulted in suflicient orientalisation 

 in Phrygia and Lydia to explain the Greek phenomena. 

 The real distributing agency of Orientalism was in Cappa- 

 docia, the art and religion of which were of the required 

 type. 



It is evident, then, that a great, if forgotten, part has 

 been played in the relations between East and West by the 

 civilisation which occupied so long the whole land bridge 

 between Asia and Europe. The long survival and great 

 extension of Hittite influence in Syria has been illustrated 

 by the excavations at Sinjerii and Sakje Geuzi, and by 

 recent discoveries in the basin of the middle Euphrates on 

 both sides of the river. But an iinmense field remains to 

 be explored, and other important sites must be thoroughly 

 examined, notably Carchemish, Marash, and Malatia. 

 When even one of these is dug according to the best 

 modern methods a flood of light will be thrown on Hittite 

 archjpology ; and with the help which the decipherment of 

 the Boghaz Keui tablets not in Babylonian will afford to 

 the decipherment of the Hittite inscriptions, already 

 phonetically interpreted in no small measure by Sayce, 

 the study of the Hittite civilisation will take its place in 

 the field of scientific history. 



THE INTERNATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL CON- 

 GRESS AT GRAZ {AUGUST 15-20, 1910). 

 'THE eighth international congress of zoologists has been 

 a most enjoyable one, even though it has not been 

 marked by any striking pronouncement. No president 

 could have carried out the arduous duties of his office 

 iTiore successfully than Prof, von Graff. To him in a large 

 measure was due the representative character of the meet- 

 ing. The committee under his presidency worked hard to 

 ensure the comfort of the visitors and the smooth conduct 



