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or year of brilliant discovery, like some past years, but it may be 

 ranked with those of steady and substantial progress. As in 

 former years, so again, I should like to notice the finds or notices 

 *in foreign countries, and from thence return to Britain and close 

 with things of our own locality. 



China and Japan, in the Far East, have supplied some curious 

 bone carvings similar to those found in prehistoric Europe — it 

 is stated that these graphic inscriptions rank as amongst the 

 oldest yet found, and a date of not less than 2,000 B.C. may be 

 assigned to them. As one of the results of the great 

 Imperial Durbar at Delhi and in honour of the accession 

 of the new Emperor, King George V., our national 

 collection of Indian coins has been enriched by some 

 most magnificent gifts, and made the finest in existence — 

 as illustrating the ancient history of India, they will be most 

 valuable. From Tibet and Turkestan, those lands of romance 

 in Central Asia, come rumours of discoveries of forgotten cities 

 and races that must await confirmation. The long unrest in 

 Persia has not been favourable to the explorer, but, in Assyria 

 and Babylonia, the American, British and German savants have 

 made interesting finds — such as the Kis tablets of early Assyrian 

 history before the capture of Isin — or, in plain figures, reaching 

 back to the 3rd or 4th millennium B.C. In Palestine, there is 

 still progress made, although the desecration scare of last year 

 proved a myth, yet it became a hindrance — now we are told that 

 the French explorers did not touch the Haram area, but a settle- 

 ment just beyond its south-eastern corner, at Ophel of prehistoric 

 Jerusalem, of B.C. 2,500 or thereabouts. In Central Palestine, 

 the Palace Temple of Ahab, at Sebaste, or ancient Samaria, has 

 been re-opened, and some amphora handles that may have con- 

 veyed wine from Naboth's vineyard, once more brought to light. 

 In Syria proper, the older Hittite Empire has furnished fresh relics 

 of that mighty race, who wore boots and drove their iron chariots 

 from the Euphrates to the Dardanelles, and whose colossal stone 

 figures are covered with inscriptions now being deciphered. In 

 Africa, from Egyptian ruins and deserts, come relics of p re- 

 dynastic times — more remote than Menes of the (so-called) 1st 

 Dynasty, and, near Abydos, Professor Naville thinks he has 

 found the tomb of the historic Osiris. One good result of the 

 miserable war in Tripoli has been the discovery of the ruins of 

 Leptis, the birthplace of the Emperor Severus. As regards South 

 and Central Africa, the Zimbabwe ruins and citadels of Rhodesia 

 are yet undated, although opinions are now more modest, and 

 assign these erections nearer the Christian Era. The two 

 Americas need not detain us long. The Mexican parallels, with 

 Ancient Egypt found in North America and the more mysterious 

 relics undestroyed by the Spaniard on the slopes of the Andes in 

 South America want careful study and collation, and then, 

 perhaps, we may arrive at the startling fact that Phoenician or 



