234 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES^ ESQ., LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 



at some future time. Papers upon the pronunciation of 

 Hebrew were not wanting, as that of Professor Guidi, of Pome, 

 and Dr. Ginsburg, of London, on the paseks, showed. Perennial 

 with Professor Halevy is the question of the Semitic character 

 of the Babylonian syllabary, which, strange to say, notwith- 

 standing that, at the Congress of Paris, many " anti-Akkadists " 

 or " anti-Sumerists " declared themselves, was listened to in 

 chilling silence, thougli several of those erstwhile " anti- 

 Sumerists " were present at the meeting. 



Of considerable interest was the account of the excavations 

 by the German Palestine Fund at Ta'annek, by the explorer. 

 Professor Sellin, of Vienna. It was described as an important 

 Canaanitish city, which was destroyed by the Assyrians, and is 

 not again mentioned until the fourteenth century. The ruins 

 excavated are three hundred metres long, and they lie near a 

 village bearing the old name, Ta'anach, consisting of a mosque 

 and about twenty huts. The pottery of the site has the usual 

 black concentric lines, and bronze implements and figures of 

 Astarte were found. Of special interest was a black cylinder- 

 seal with the Babylonian name Atanah-ili, servant of the god 

 Nergal, similar to the numerous examples belonging to the 

 period of the dynasty of Hammurabi. Among the graves 

 excavated were some regarded as being those of sacrificed 

 children, and altars, thought to have been used in connection 

 with the rites attending these sacrifices, were found. In the 

 south portion a destroyed room, with amulets and human 

 remains, were likewise discovered. An ornamented altar among 

 the ruins was described as being exactly like the Mosaic altar 

 of incense. 



In view of the interest attaching to Professor Friederich 

 Delitzsch's two lectures entitled Babel und Bihel, and the 

 German Emperor's decision thereon, a short paper upon the 

 name of Yahwah (Jehovah) by Professor Bezold, will probably 

 be regarded as of greater interest than most of the other com- 

 munications, though it cannot be said that it settled the point 

 in question, namely, whether the name occurs or not either one 

 way or the other. All the possible ways of reading the 

 supposed original form of Jehovah were quoted, and the 

 question aroused a certain amount of discussion. The names in 

 which this divine appellation occurs are contained in inscrip- 

 tions copied by me for the Trustees of the British Museum, 

 and published by them in the series of inscriptions they are 

 now issuing, entitled, Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets^ 

 parts iv and viii. The transcription of one of these names does. 



