36 PKOr. FLINDERS PETRIE^ D.C.L., OX RESEARCHES IN SINAI. 



with a third Biblical name : all these three being, in the Old 

 Testament records, placed in the region l^etween Palestine and 

 Egypt, and that the proof of this should be elicited as soon as ever 

 Egyptian texts situated in the proper region beyond their frontier 

 where they might be anticipated, are scientifically examined. Of 

 course there are scores of other Biblical places and peoples also 

 mentioned in Egyptian records."^ 



Professor Langhorne Orchard. — AVhile very sensible of the 

 great value of Professor Flinders Petrie's work, I must associate 

 myself generally with the criticisms to which we have listened. 

 We cannot go back in human history to 5000 B.C. Dr. Petrie's 

 chronology, apparently following that of ^lahler, is not his strong- 

 point. Borchardt has shown its unreliability.! 



The number of the Israelities at the time of the Exodus, as 

 computed hy Professor Petrie, is surely too small. If we are to 

 translate alf in this connection by " group," the group must have 

 been a very large one ; for when in Egypt the Israelites had 

 increased exceedingly and filled the land, so that Pharaoh was 

 afraid of them. AVhen we consider that the population of America 

 increased in rather more that 120 years from the Declaration of 

 Independence to 60 times its original number,:): we need feel no 

 surprise that in 210 years the number of Israelites had multiplied 

 into something very great. 



In investigating the site of IMount Sinai, account should be taken 

 of the fact that " the people encamped before the Mount " 

 (Numbers xix). This at once negatives the idea that Sinai is Jebel 

 Serbal. Serl^al, though a magnificent mountain, has no plain before 

 it suitable for such a camping ground. A fair review of available 

 evidence points to the conclusion that Sinai is at the rear of lias 

 Sufsafeh. Ras Sufsafeh, with its two valleys — the immense "Wady 



For the Asiatic people known to the ancient Egyptians, see four 

 articles l)y M. Ballerini in the Italian Jovrnal Be'<mrione, 1901, " Zc 

 Trilm Nomadi della Palestina o (hi JSi/tai, Seconda Meynorie ddV Egitto 

 Antico^'^ and an essay by M. Isidore Levy upon the " Horites of Seir and 

 Eijyptian records " in the liecue des Eiudes James, January 1906. 



t Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. xx p. 264. 



X But was not this largely due to imniigratic»u as we as natural 

 increase from births ? — Ed. 



