240 DR. E. W. G. MASTERMAN^ OX EECENT DISCOVERIES 



many objects of art, and more particularly so many skilled 

 workmen, which led to the great artistic development which arose 

 in Egypt just after these military conquests. 



The walls of Lachish {Tell el Hesi/) were examined by Pro- 

 fessor Petrie and Dr. Bliss, and though not followed round their 

 whole circumference proved to have been no mean defences. 

 The earliest wall was dated by Petrie as certainly before 1700 B.C., 

 and probably it was considerably earlier. It was 16 feet thick, 

 with massive towers of sun-dried brick. Above this were many 

 re-buildings and repairs. We read that Kehoboam (ii Chron. 

 xi, 9) rebuilt and re-fortified Lachish, but there must have 

 been many destructions and restorations in the stormy years that 

 followed ; the excavations show us that this was the case. At 

 last came Sennacherib, who, as we learn from that wonderful 

 bas-relief in the British Museum, captured and destroyed the city. 

 Of this event there are abundant traces in the scattered rude 

 buildings which, for a time, alone occupied the site. The walls 

 were once again raised, probably by Manasseh (660 B.C.), to resist 

 Egypt, but were finally overthrown (590 B.C.) by Nebuchadnezzar 

 (Jer. xxxiv, 7), after which the site was left for two and a half 

 millenniums to the wandering bedawin. More interesting than 

 the walls, because much more definite in date, is the great layer 

 of ashes, in places 5 feet thick, which, according to Petrie, 

 represents the long desertion of the site between the arrival of the 

 Israelites when, as we read in Josh, x, 32, " the Lord delivered 

 Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day 

 and smote it with tlie edge of the sword and all the souls that 

 were therein," and the rebuilding in the days of Itchoboam 

 (ii Chron. xi, 9). Everything found in these cities, Gezer, Me- 

 giddo, and Lacliish, confirms what we know about them from the 

 Scriptures, and the greatness of their walls and fortifications can 

 only be described as astonishing. 



Perhaps the most surprising and pregnant of facts whicli the 

 excavations, especially those at Gezer, have revealed is the 

 intimate connection which existed at an early period between 

 Canaan and Egypt. The Tell el Am/irna tablets have disclosed 

 how close was the link during the XVIIIth dynasty, and we have 

 abundant evidence for dynasties that followed, but this earlier 

 connection belongs to the days of the mysterious Hyksos, or 

 shepherd kings, who are supposed to have been themselves of 

 Syrian oi'igin. More Hyksos scarabs have been found than 

 any others, and almost the last discovery made before the 

 enforced closure of the work at Gezer was that of an Egyptian 

 cave cemetery dating from tlie Middle Empire, say, about 



