GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE MUSEUM. 17 



W. H. Hooper, E. Lane, E. Whymper, and C. W. Sherborn, 

 and a smaller group of lithographs and drawings by Charles 

 Conder; while the Museum is indebted to the liberality of 

 many artists and publishers for accessions to its collections of 

 contemporary art. These and other benefactions are recorded 

 in the Keeper's report printed below. 



In the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities 

 a large number of miscellaneous objects have been acquired, 

 notably a valuable tomb-group from a pre-dj'nastic cemetery 

 in Upper Egypt ; a collection of MeroVtic antiquities from 

 the island of Faras ; three cylinders of JMebuchadnezzar and 

 Nabonidus ; 214 tablets from Lagash, of the third millennium 

 B.C. ; a collection of scarabs and pottery from Gezer in 

 Palestine ; and a number of cylinder seals of various periods. 



The acquisitions of the Department of Greek and Roman 

 Antiquities have mostly been in the category of small objects, 

 including several fine gems, a plasma head of the emperor 

 Claudius, an Etruscan statuette of Athena in bronze, with 

 other bronze objects, and several vases of rare types. In 

 addition, a large number of vases, statuettes, and fragments 

 were obtained from the Greek Government, in exchange for a 

 cast of the Elgin Caryatid from the Erechtheum, to replace one 

 previously presented by Lord Guilford, which had suffered 

 damage. Additions were also made to the collection of 

 casts. 



The accessions to the Department of British and Mediaeval 

 Antiquities and Ethnography range, as usual, over a wide field. 

 Among them may be mentioned a bronze-gilt case of mathe- 

 tical instruments, made by Bartholemew Newsum, probably for 

 Queen Elizabeth ; a series of pottery vessels from early Chinese 

 graves ; a series of Persian glazed pottery from the 10th to the 

 15th centuries ; a steel figure of a peacock, said to be associated 

 with the Yezidi worship ; a fine silver bowl of Sassanian work ; 

 a large ethnographical series from Abyssinia, with the gold 

 ring and silver cup of King Theodore ; and some rare and 

 important collections of early pottery from Peru and Argentina. 

 The majority of these accessions were the result of gifts from 

 many liberal friends of the Museum, whose names are recorded 

 below. 



The Department of Coins and Medals had perhaps the most 

 remarkable accession of the year, in the two finds of Roman 

 gold coins from Corbridge, on the Roman Wall. These finds,^ 

 consisting respectively of 48 coins of the fourth century and 

 160 of the first and second, were claimed by the Treasury as. 

 treasure trove, and were transferred intact to the Museum, 

 where they wil be kept together as the largest hoards of gold 

 coins hitherto discovered in Great Britain. Other important 

 accessions included the Bleazby Collection of Mohammedan 

 coins of Afghanistan, and a fine medal in lead by Pisanello. 



Gifts of Museum publications, including reproductions of 

 prints by Old Masters, and sets of electrotypes of British 

 Historical Medals, have been made to many Free Libraries, 

 0.44 B 



