94 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



Assyrian collection in tlie National Museum, under the supervision of Dr. Paul 

 Haupt, professor of Semitic languages, and Dr. Cyrus Adler, assistant in the Semi- 

 tic courses, who will also cooperate in the work of forming the collection and of 

 securing the loan of objects to be copied.* 



Through the courtesy of the Rev. Dr. J. Packard, of the Ei^iscopal 

 Tlieological Seiuinary at Alexandria, Yirginia, the Museum was per- 

 mitted to make molds of two Assyrian slabs of alabaster in the posses- 

 sion of the Seminary, received in 1860 from Dr. H. B. Haskell, mission- 

 ary-i)hysician at Mosul. 



Prof. A. Crawford, of the same institution, x)ermitted the Museum 

 modelers to make a mold from his cast of the black obelisk of Shalman- 

 eser, and of the so-called Egg of Sargon I, for the Cinciunati Exposi- 

 tion, when it became evident that the British Museum could not fur- 

 nish these objects in time. 



The Kev. A. N. Andrus, of Painesville, Ohio, sent for copy an Assy- 

 rian seal purchased in Mardin. 



The entire month of June was devoted to preparations for a contri- 

 bution to the Ohio Valley Centennial Exhibition, to which the section of 

 Oriental Antiquities contributed an exhibit of Biblical archaeology. This 

 special department of study was chosen because in the field of oriental 

 research Mesopotamian and Egyptian antiquities, especially such as 

 bear upon the Bible, are of most interest to the public. By Biblical 

 archaeology is understood the study of the language, history, social life, 

 arts, and religion of the Biblical nationalities. This study is not apart 

 of dogmatic theology ; its results can command the same acceptance 

 accorded to a new fact reported from a physical laboratory; its prob- 

 lems should be faced in the same spirit of fearless investigation into 

 the truth as obtains in other departments of scientific research.! 

 Through it the Bible becomes, in its form and to some extent in its sub- 

 stance, a new book. Many an allusion which hitherto had no meaning 

 or had lain unnoticed, starts into prominence and throws a light over a 

 whole passage.! Nor are these investigators entirely confined to the 

 ancient world. Owing to the intense conservatism of oriental peoples, 

 a careful study of the modern inhabitants of western Asia may exhibit 

 in a new aspect the manners and customs of former times. 



Proper names, dialectic forms, architecture, costumes, and, what is 

 more surprising, considering the numerous changes of faith which cul- 

 minated in Mohauimedanism, even religious practices have persisted in 

 the East through thousands of years. As there may be some objection 

 to the application of the term " archaeology " to so broad a field, it might 

 perhaps be better if the more comprehensive term ^'Biblical science" 

 were employed to designate this study. Nor is the area covered less 



* Compare Oriental Society Proceedings at Baltimore, October, 1887, p. ccxxxiv; 

 Johus Hopkius University Circular, No. 62, January, 1888 ; and an article by Prof. O. 

 T. Mason in the Epoch, February 10, 1888. 



t Compare Twenty-one Years' Work in the Holy Land, p. 8. 



tibid., p. 1(5. 



