366' SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



Friday, September 5, 



Miss D. A. E. Garrod. — Excavations in the Caves of the Wady el-Mughara. 



Mr. 6. HoRSFiELD. — First Excavations at Petra. 



(1) Occupation by pre-historic man, Edomites, Nabataeans, Romans, Byzantine 

 Christians, Arabs and Crusaders. 



(2) Discovery of first Edomite megalithic monument. 



(3) Identification of the earliest Nomad stronghold with El Habis, probably the 

 ' Sela ' of 2 Kings 14. 7. Identification of the Nabatsean citadel, the ' rock ' of 

 Diodones Siculus, with El Biyara. 



(4) Identification of the Nabatseans with the tribe of Nabatu, found on the lower 

 Tigris in the eighth century B.C., and at Teima, half-way across the western desert 

 route, in the sixth century B.C., later dispersing the Edomites. 



(5) Discovery of the Nabatsean walls of the city of the fourth century B.C. 



(6) Dating indicated by pottery. Athenian black-glazed ware of the fourth 

 century B.C. Rhodian wine jar handles from 300 B.C. and a fine painted egg-shell 

 ware of oriental character, peculiar to Petra, and probably influenced by Achsemenid 

 Persia. Several pencils for writing cuneiform were found. 



(7) Differentiation for the first time between tombs and houses. Large residential 

 quarters identified with streets, communicating stairs, houses and cisterns. 



(8) Discovery of a burial in quicklime unique in antiquity. 



(9) Elucidation 'of 90 per cent, of the 100 cult places, previously planned by 

 German expeditions, as houses, quarries and water-catchment areas. 



(10) Identification of the Great High Place, Zibb Atuf, as the central sanctuary 

 of Dushara, the Nabataean sun-god, described by Suidas. 



(11) Discovery of an ancient Dushara sanctuary at El Barid. 



(12) Place-name survey made to clear up confusion of previous topographical 

 name-lists. 



(13) Exploration of copper smelting station at Fenan and discovery of a new 

 one at Sabra, a southern station below Petra. 



Sir Flinders Petrie, F.R.S., and Mr. Eann Macdonald. — Neolithic and 

 PalcBolithic Work in the Beersheba. Basin. 

 The valley of the Wady Ghuzzeh abounds in rolled palseoliths, which in the region 

 of Beth-pelet have been collected by the thousand. The main types are those of 

 Europe — heavy picks for root grubbing and sharp ovates for plant cutting — tools for 

 the winter and summer foods. Some new types appear, such as the skew-handled 

 borer. The surface has also many neolithic settlements, with well-formed hoes, 

 some slightly polished, and the largest scale of flaking known. Pottery is associated 

 in these settlements, like the earliest known in Egypt. The same form of flint hoes 

 continued to be made down to the Israelite period, 1100 B.C. (I hope that the 

 settlements will be described by Mr. Macdonald, who excavated them.) 



Mr. R. F. Parry. — Cheddar Excavations. 



Account of the excavations at the entrance of the Great Cave, Cheddar, during 

 the winter months of 1927-28-29, with a description of the flint and bone implements 

 of Magdalenian Age, including a ' baton de commandement.' This and part of a 

 broken specimen found in the same cave in 1903 are the only specimens found in 

 England. Account of the excavations at Soldier's Hole, near the above, with descrip- 

 tion of the flint and other implements of Magdalenian and Solutrian Age. 



Dr. H. Taylor. — Recent Work of the Spelceological Society. 



Excavations were undertaken in southern Ireland by invitation of the Royal Irish 

 Academy. For the first time in that country human remains were found in association 

 with a Pleistocene fauna ; they were sealed down by a layer of stalagmite, above which 

 debris of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages had accumulated. 



A barrow at Tyning's Farm, Mendip, has been excavated, and work on a second 

 is nearing completion. In all eight vessels have been found, with many associated 

 objects ; the primary burials were of the Middle Bronze Age, the secondary of the 

 transition from Late Bronze to Hallstatt. 



