Transactions of section h. 899 



fee regarded as a selection from a syllabary belonging to the same generic group as 

 the Cretan. Such a phenomenon on the Syrian coast is perhaps explained by the 

 settlement there in Mycenaean times of an /Egean island race, the Philistines, 

 whose name survives in that of Palestine. Though later SemitiseH, rheir biblical 

 names of Kaphtorim and Kerethim, or Cretans, sufficiently record their ^gean 

 origin. 



6. On the System of Writing in Ancient Egypt, By F. Ll. Griffith, 



Egyptology has now reached a position among the sciences from which it may 

 contribute trustworthy information for the benefit of kindred researches. Eg-yptian 

 writing consists of Ideographic and Phonetic Elements, the signs serving as 

 — 1, AVord-signs ; 2, Phonograms ; 3, Determinatives. The highest development 

 shown is an alphabet, which, however, is never used independently of other signs : 

 it is apparently not acrophonic in origin; it represents consonants and semi- 

 consonants only, vocalisation not being recorded by Egyptian writing. No 

 advance ca,n be detected in the system from the beginning of the historic period to 

 the end, notwithstanding some improvements in practical working which facilitated 

 the US3 of cursive writing. Phonograms derived from word-signs. The end of 

 the native system was brought about by the gradual adoption of the Greek character 

 — beginning, perhaps, in the second century a.d. If any radical improvement was 

 ever made in the Egyptian form of writing that improvement must have taken 

 place at or after adoption by another people : e.g., some have supposed that our 

 alphabet was derived by the Phoenicians from Egypt ; but any such derivations 

 are at present entirely hypothetical. 



Although the Egyptian system of writing may not be actually a stage in the 

 history of our alphabet, it throws a strong light on the development of the 

 alphabetic system ; and the survival of its pictorial form (for decorative purposes) 

 enables us to recognise the highly ramified connections between the forms and 

 meanings of characters to an extent which is impossible at present in any other 

 system, whether in Mesopotamia, China, or elsewhere. 



Results of recent Egyptian philology : Egyptian originally a Semitic language, 

 though its character changed early. The main lines of the grammar being at 

 length establi.'ihed, the materials for a complete dictionary are now being collected 

 and classified. 



7. Interim Report on Anthropological Teaching. 



8. Report on Anthropological Photographsx—^^QQ Reports, p, 568. 



PHIBATi SUPiEMbEB 7. 



The following f*apet3 were read: — 



1. The Cave qf Psychro in Crek, J]y t>. G. HogartM. 



It has been known for some years that a large cave above the village cf 

 Psychro, in the Lasithi district of Crete, was a repository of primitive votive 

 objects in bronze, terra-cotta, &c As this cave is situated in the eastern flank of 

 the mountain which dominates the site of ancient Lyttos, and is the only import- 

 ant cave known in the neighbourhood, it was conjectured that it was the Lyttian 

 'grotto connected with the story of the birth of Zeu3 ia the legend, whose earliest 



3m2 



