IN PALKSTINE IN RELATION TO THE BIBLE. 



241 



2500 B.C. All the excavations point to the same conclusion — a 

 l)rolonged and intimate connection between Palestine and Egypt. 

 As to a North Arabian Miizri, about which so much has been 

 written, no single archaeological fact from Palestine can be 

 brought forward to support this theory, which on geographical 

 grounds alone appears so fantastic. 



With regard to Babylonian iniluence, the discovery at Tell cl 

 Hesy of one tablet, which is really part of the Tdl d Amariut 

 correspondence, and the finding at Tell Tct'anuk a small library of 

 other cuneiform tablets, consisting of communications between 

 Palestinian towns at much the same period as tlie above men- 

 tioned correspondence, both witness to the wide diffusion of 

 cuneiform writing, and to the once great predominance of 

 Babylonia in the atfairs of Canaan. The two cuneiform contract 

 tablets found at Gezer, relating to the local sale of estates, can 

 be absolutely dated to the years 651 and 649 B.C. tln^ough the 

 names of the Assyrian Eponyms. They are witnesses to the 

 unexpected degree of organisation of the government which 

 Ashurbanipal had established in his recently conquered 

 territory. With regard to discoveries tiikowing light on 

 DEFINITE historical EVENTS, reference has already been made 

 to the sudden increase in the size of the population of Gezer at 

 a time when from Bible facts we should date the arrival of the 

 Israelites. At a later period it was found that there w^as a 

 stratum of remains at Gezer in which the buildings by no means 

 covered the wdiole area within the walls ; in other words, 

 the population of that period was much reduced. Tlie date of 

 this time, from the pottery and other remains, brings us to the 

 time of Solomon or tliereabouts, and the inference is that the 

 reduction of the population was due to Pharaoh, his iather-in- 

 law, capturing the city and slaughtering the inhabitants. 



The repairs of the walls in the Maccabean period have already 

 been referred to, but a much more interesting and definite 

 relique of that age is the great palace built by Simon (i Mace, 

 xiii, 43-53), the walls of which have been excavated. Although 

 surmised to be this place when its massive walls were laid bare, 

 the finding of an inscription made the surmise a certainty. 

 This inscription was a rough graffito scrawled on the outer 

 wall — 



irafxirpa (?) Hl/xojvo^ KareTrdyr] (?) 7r{vp ?) (SanXeLov 



which seems to mean " Pamphras, may he bring down (fire) on 

 the palace of Simon." The words " Palace of Simon " are sure, 

 so that the identity of the building is beyond question. 



