TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 645 
identify them with their modern equivalents. This is particularly so in the case 
of names of plants, for the Assyrian doctors were not content to use each simply, 
but made compounds of many; and hence arises as great a problem in separating 
the significance of the components as would apply in future ages to some 
archzologist in a similar position trying to ascertain the different plants named 
in the composition of chlorodyne. Nevertheless, several have already long been 
satisfactorily identified, as, for instance, liquorice, the cassia (probably), and 
many garden herbs, and the Assyrian word meaning ‘ hound’s-tongue’ is shown 
by Kichler to be the Plantago major. I believe that I have been able to identify 
two narcotics, one, the ‘ Heart-plant,’ as one of the Hyoscyami, some years 
previously ; the other as the mandrake, to be used in allaying headache by 
continuous application to the head and neck. 
In the tablets relating to eye-diseases, the lish-a-bar is a drug of fairly 
common occurrence, and from its connection with the mineral a-bar (probably 
antimony) I see in it the well-known stibium used by Orientals. Another 
mineral in use for eye troubles is copper dust, in which we may see the fore- 
runner of the more modern sulphate of copper. 
This large collection of medical formule is distinct from the incantation- 
texts; the greater number of the sections consists of simple descriptions of the 
disease followed by a brief receipt for the proper drugs and their use. But 
even here we find curious lapses into pure magic, such as prescriptions for the 
use of white and black wool, &c., with appropriate incantations. 
6. The Female Magician in Semitic Magic. 
By Professor T. Wirron Daviss, D.D. 
7. Recent Discoveries of the British School in Eqypt.? 
By Professor W. M. Fuinpers Perriz, LL.D., D.C.L., F.RS. 
In the previous year a great cemetery of the First Dynasty (5500 B.c.) had 
been partly explored at Tarkhan, about forty miles south of Cairo. This year a 
valley was cleared and found to contain some 800 more graves closely grouped 
on each side of an axial road. These were carefully cleared, all the bones 
measured, the skulls removed whenever possible, plans drawn of each grave and 
of the whole cemetery, and the form of every vase of stone or of pottery exactly 
registered. This forms the most complete record yet made of any cemetery. 
“The conquering tribe of the dynastic people had advanced northward from 
Abydos, subduing the Nile Valley, until Mena founded the new capital of United 
Egypt at Memphis. Here at Tarkhan was a great settlement, beginning one or 
two generations before Memphis, and dying away shortly after the new capital 
was established. What has been uncovered is but a part—probably the smaller 
part—of the cemetery, which is now mainly under water. Thousands of well-to- 
do people were buried here within two or three generations, and we must regard 
this as the pre-Memphite capital of Egypt. This site is therefore the most 
important centre for studying the critical point of the earliest historical race of 
Egypt mixing with the prehistoric peoples. 
The preservation of the tombs in the cemetery of Tarkhan is remarkable. The 
earliest stage of the mastaba and tomb chapel can here be seen in perfection. 
The brick wall which retained the pile of sand above the graves, the little slits 
in it for the soul to come forth to the offerings, the enclosure for the offerings, 
and the stacks of pottery brought to the grave by the relatives and friends with 
food and drink for the dead—all were uncovered exactly as they had been left 
over 7,000 years ago. In the graves were large numbers of alabaster vases, slate 
palettes, and pottery vases, all of which have been drawn; the types of these, 
when compared with those of the royal tombs, serve to date the graves to the 
various reigns shortly before and after Mena. Several blue glazed vases were 
1 Printed in full in the Hxpositor, January 1914. 
2? To be published in the Annual of the British School in Egypt. See also 
“The Earliest Perfect Tombs,’ Man, 1913, No. 85. 
