228 DR. E. W. G. MASTEKMAK^ ON KECENT DISCOVERIES 



tablet found at Tell d Hcsy was found to be one of tlie Tell el 

 Amarna series and contained references to Zimirida,the Governor 

 of Lachish (of which Tell el Hesy contains the remains) at the 

 time of Amenhotep IV., while we learn from a letter of the 

 same series from the governor of Jerusalem that this man was 

 killed at Lachish by the servants of the Egyptian king. The 

 collection of tablets found in a crumbling box at Ta'aimk belong- 

 apparently to the same period, but the two Assyrian contract 

 tablets found at Gezer are very much later. 



It is impossible to give here in any but this scanty outline 

 the various data by which it is now possible to assign to their 

 historic periods the strata of a tell, but it may be considered a 

 settled question that the remains of a given city, belonging 

 to any historic time, can be dated with assurance within a 

 century. 



In describing the main I'esults of these investigations, as 

 bearing on the Holy Scriptures, it will be convenient to do so 

 under those headings — (I) The religious beliefs ; (II) The con- 

 dition of culture and social life ; and (III) The light thrown on 

 definite historical events recorded in sacred history. 



I. Tlie reli(jious helicfs of the early inlicihitants of Palestine. 



The evidence is gathered from two sources : — 



{a) the tombs, 



{h) the High places. 



{a) All the facts w^e can gather from the early interments in 

 Palestine point to a belief in the survival of the spirit after 

 death. It is without doubt something very different from the 

 " hope of immortality " and " a joyous resurrection," but it is 

 evidence of a fundamental instinctive belief in the idea of an 

 after-life. This is important, because some would maintain that 

 the Israelites and their racial allies had no belief in an after-life 

 until quite a late stage in tlieir religious development. The first 

 inhabitants of Gezer, in the prehistoric time, were a non-Semitic 

 race,* who, like the leading people of Babylonia in early times, 

 cremated their dead. The crematorium which was unearthed 

 was a cave skilfully arranged with a draught-chimney, by which 

 cremation could be accom})lislied thoroughly and speedily. The 



As proved by Ihe bones examiued bv Prof. Macalist^r, F.R.S. See 

 Stat. P.E.F., 11)02, pp. 30,3-354. 



