Hittite monuments have been found from the Euphrates through northern Syria to the Egean, and colonies at least seem to have been planted in southern Palestine. It would probably be too much to claim for them this wide dominion for any great length of time, or perhaps at any one time. They were able to obtain from the Egyptian King Rameses II., after the great battle of Kadesh, favorable terms of peace. The treaty was engraved on a plate of silver, and a copy in the Egyptian language is still extant. The original was drawn up by the Hittite commander. The two nations, forming an alliance under this treaty, were able to command the peace of the world. They were a commercial and warlike people, and showed remarkable knowledge of military strategy. They held, also, some advanced ideas upon international law.

In the Preface of Dr. Wright's "The Empire of the Hittites," the author says: "The object of this book is to restore the Empire of the Hittites to its rightful position in secular history, and thus to confirm the scattered references to the Hittites in sacred history."

This pioneer work has not been superceded by later publications. It first gave to the general student copies of the chief inscriptions known at the time, and its map of the Empire far exceeds the limits here suggested.

Mr. Sayce in his compact work The Hittites," does some original work in an effort at decipherment, and sums up the condition of the problem at that time. The writer of this note, using material, much of which had been col lected previous to the appearance of these works, published Old Heroes; the Hittites of the Bible"; presenting, as Mr. Sayce says in a letter to the author, "an excellent account of the present condition of knowledge on the subject.”

Lieut. Conder's "Altaic Hieroglyphs and Hittite Inscriptions" identifies the language of the texts "as belonging to the family of Ugro Altaic dialects, of the which the ProtoMedic and the Akkadian are, perhaps, the oldest known examples." Lieut. Conder endeavors to show "that the symbols are the prototypes whence the cuneiform system has developed," and suggests connection with the Egyptian and Chinese writing and the Cypriote syllabary.

Prof. Campbell in his The Hittites; their Inscriptions and their History" (two volumes), has discovered linguistic evidences of their influence over nearly the whole world. Scholars have not agreed with Lieut. Conder in his deciphorments, much less with Prof. Campbell in his work of vast labor and learning.

Peiser has studied the subject thoroughly and connects the Hittites with the Turanian family. Jensen, in two auticles of very great value in The Sunday-School Lines, connects them with the Armenians. Cuneiform tablets discovered at Boghaz Keui would appear to point to the Iuranian,

We need not fear of a final solution of the problem. Progress has been made toward the goal, but much still remains to be done. Additions are constantly being made to the material available for their study. It is a fascinating problem to the archæologist, but we can not hasten the work of its solution.

PROGRESS OF EGYPTOLOGY.

BY W. C. WINSLOW, D. D., LL. D.

That valued brochure of the Egypt Exploration Fund, its ARCH.EOLOGICAL REPORT, gives us a clear and full idea of the progress of Egyptology during the past Fund year. It is a handsome quarto, illustrated, of 94 pages, with four maps, and costs but 70 cents. As early as possible in each year the Society issues this very useful compendium of discovery and of the progress of Egyptology, including the entire literature upon the subject that has been published during the previous twelve months. The notes upon the books and articles that have appeared are invaluable. This brochure is edited by F. L. Griffith, M. A., with the assistance of Prof. Petrie, Somers Clark, F. S. A.; N. G. Davies, B. D.; B. P. Grenfell, M. A.; A. S. Hunt, M. A.; F. G. Kenyon, M. A.; W. E. Crum, M. A., and W. Max Muller, Ph. D. Such specialists make such a production of the first scientific value, as well as of popular usefulness.

The results from Prof. Petrie's prehistoric work were treated by me in THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN of last November, and again in the March number. But I will add here of the invasion of Egypt by the Libyans at the close of the Twelfth Dynasty, which was discovered by Prof. Petrie, that the invaders inherited many of the ways of the prehistoric people, from whom they were collateral descendants. Their pottery and beads show what was then the level of skill in Libya; and their curious custom of hanging up and decorating the skulls of oxen, goats, gazelles, and sheep, seems connected with the bucrania of Greek architecture. Here, too, is a point, that the elegantly-formed pottery of the West (perhaps from Italy) was brought into Egypt as early as 2000 B. C.

The explorer must always be prepared for the unexpected. This was the case with Mr. Davies, who went to the necropolis of Sakkarah to study the sculptures in the tomb of Ptah-hoteh. He excavated, also, to find that the mastaba contained a series of chambers, and that the chapel of Ptah-hotep was the only room dedicated to him. He then found a T-shaped chamber, which was entered from the central court on the west, and formed the mortuary chapel of one Akhet-hotep, who must have been either father or son to the other occupant of the

This was indeed a discovery. Although much damaged by incrustation and wet, the paint is still bright in many

parts; the corridor has inscriptions in honor of Akhet-hotep; the choicest of the completed designs shows as good work as the best that the Ancient Kingdom affords. "In the liesurely and affluent days which are still to come for Egyptology," Mr. Davies naively remarks, "it is to be hoped that an edition-de-luxe worthy of the charming chapel of Ptah-hotep will reveal its full beauties to the world." He says that the Akhet-hotep hieroglyphs throw altogether new or convincing light on disputed points. For instance, an important geographical term in the inscription of Una has received a complete explanation. Some of the little signs are crowded with archaeology and history, and carry us back in a most vivid way into the details of ancient life.

The last excavations by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in the Fayum, if without dazzling disclosures, are, as a whole, of much interest. Some sites, too, must be examined to determine if something is there, or-nothing. In the northwest of the district. a site known as a source of papyri, Kasr-el-Banât, was delved. It proved to be that of the ancient Euhemesia, or the division of Themistus The Fayûm was anciently divided into three sections, called after the names of Heraclides, Themistus, and Polemo, who were probably the first three governors. As the explorers had previously discovered the division of Heraclides, this additional discovery showed that the remaining division, that of Polemo,Jmust be placed in the southwest. The low mounds of Kasr-el-Banat cover an area of a quarter square mile. The ruined houses excavated proved very shallow; but an astonishing number of square and oblong tiny chambers turned up-book alcoves in which papers lay thickly about. One of these little chambers yielded about twenty-five documents of the time of Tiberius and Claudius.

But I quote a "Pompeian bit":

Many of the houses, especially the more attractive ones, which had plastered walls, had been dug out before our arrival; but most of the others contained a layer of afsh, the peculiar kind of moderately hard earth mixed with straw and twigs, which, for reasons we do rot profess to understand, is associated with papyri. This laver was generally near the surface, below it the earth often became soft and fine strob naim or sebakn in the limited sense) a kind which probably owing to some chemical action, is barren so far as papyri are concerned. In those houses which had been used as places for throwing rubbish, the papyri were usually in a very fragmentary condition, the best preserved documents being discovered in bundings which had simply failen in when the town was abandoned Two rooms in the richest of these vielded upwards st a hundred documents from the correspon lence of its owner, Leucus Bellenus Gemellus, a wealthy Roman citi zen who owned an estate at Euhemeria in the reigns of Domitian and Irajan, while the doorstep of the same house, on being turned over proved to be an inscription with a petition to one of the later Ptolemies concerning the right of asylum in temples.

Another "score" for Kasr-el-Banat. Favum sites have vielded few ostraca; but this one daily revealed these inscribed bits, one even containing as many as seventy ostraca. Terracottas abounded; a great variety of pots were found; coins, domestic objects in iron and bronze, a curious inlaid wooden

box, and the like were among the spolia for museums. In a few chambers of the local temple some demotic and Greek papyri showed that the shrine was dedicated to Sebek and Isis. A large pot contained a bronze incense-burner and other temple utensils. The period was mostly late Ptolemaic.

Messrs. Grenfeld and Hunt excavated a cemetery called Harit, three kilometres to the southeast. Here were three classes of tombs: early Ptolemaic, late Ptolemaic and early Roman, and late Roman, or a range in toto from 280 B. C. to 300 A. D. The details by the excavators are interesting:

In the first class the bodies were generally mummified and placed in plain wooden coffins with rudely-carved heads, either in a bricked-up recess at the side of the tomb, or under an arched covering of bricks. Latterly coffins were also used in the poorer burials, and some of these had a rudelyshaped head. Most of the mummies had an ornamented cartonnage over the head, breast, and feet. This was sometimes composed of cloth, but more often of papyrus, of which in most cases several layers were stuck together in order to obtain a firm background for the plaster, while in others there was only a single thickness of papyrus. The writing belonged to the third or less commonly to the second century B. C. No beads were found, but a gilded plaster scarab and disks were often placed at the head. In one tomb there was a painted cinerary urn and a lamp, but otherwise the only objects found were pots of coarse earthenware.

The tombs of the second class had some points of resemblance to the early Ptolemaic. Pottery coffins and gilded scarabs were common; the bodies were placed under bricks, and the pottery was similiar, though in much greater variety. But instances of mummification were very rare, and there was no cartonnage. Where wooden coffins were used there was no longer any attempt to give them the shape of a mummy, but sometimes they were painted with rude designs. Occasionally plain limestone sarcophagi were used. Small red or black lamps were very common, and in some of the tombs beads and small calcite or alabaster vases were found. What was most remarkable, however, was the number of pots buried in the tombs, sometimes with the bodies, sometimes in the filling of the graves. Most of these were of ordinary dark red earthenware. but there were a few specimens of finer black ware, and some inscribed amphoraæ. For studying the characteristics of Ptolemaic pottery, about which hitherto almost nothing has been known, a large amount of well-dated material is now available.

A

This site was proved to be that of the ancient Theadelphia. The papyri and coin were late Ptolemaic or early Roman. rubbish heap yielded a surprisingly large number of papyri, all of the second century. Two other towns, Wadfa, proved to be the ancient Philoteris, and Kasr Kuran, were explored. The position of Dionysias (near Banât) affords the locale of Lake Moeris. The authors fully confirm the theory of Major Brown that the Birket-el-Karun represents the site of that historic reservoir-lake. Their careful conclusion is of special value. The papyri and ostraca have all been brought to England for examination. Of the 1,000 papyri 300 are complete; there are thirty literary papyri, and the predominance of Homer shows how that poet was the classic idol in Fayùmia.

But I must pause in the very middle of our Archæological Report; perhaps I will continue the story in the next number of THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. The "Report" is itself science. Organization at home of ways and means is not with

out science-but the science in situ! Professor Petrie considers that Egyptian Exploration has created a new science, and he is right, He speaks out in the Popular Science Monthly for April anent the excavations by the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Research Account:

At present most of the above named work is done by a corps of men who have been engaged at it for for many years. They leave their homes and assemble as soon as the winter begins. Any dealing in antiquities or misconduct since the last season excludes them from rejoining. They each know their work, what to preserve, how to leave everything intact in the ground where found, and how best to manage different kinds of excavating. With such men it is always possible to screw more information out of a site, however much it may already have been wrecked in ancient or modern times. And it is far safer to leave such men unwatched, with the certainty that they will receive a fair value for all that they find, than it is to drive a gang under the lash, on bare wages, without rewards to keep them from pilfering. The English system means mutual confidence and good faith; the native and French system of force means the destruction of both information and antiquities.

And yet beside this there is the essential business of observing and re cording. Every hole dug must have a meaning and be understood as to the date of the ground at different levels and the nature of the place. Everything must be spelled out as the work advances; any difficulties that cannot be explained must be tried with all possible hypotheses; each detail must either fall into place as agreeing with what is known, or be built in as a new piece of knowledge.

Twenty years ago nothing was known of the date of any Egyptian manufactures,not even of pottery or beads, which are the commonest. Now, at present, it is seldom that anything is found which cannot be dated tolerably near by, and in some classes of remains the century, or even the reign, can be stated at once without a single word to show it. The science of Egyptian archæology is now in being.

As a bit of additional and impartial science the principle is enforced that all the antiquities brought from Egypt shall not be sold, publicly or privately, but divided among the museums of England and America, where they can be scientifically studied, and where, it is hoped, they can create more popular interest in the progress of Egyptology. The silent "Rameses II." in Boston should here be eloquent. The oldest known. statuary group in the world, placed in Chicago, pleads with those who took so just a pride in their "Court of Honor," presided over with such majesty by Miss Columbia beautiful palm-column in the halls of the University of Pennsylvania reminds all who rejoice in that expanding university that science can bring even beautiful things out of Egypt. The sarcophagus of Tabekenkhonsut, in the Metropolitan Museum of New York intimates to a splendid city that Egyptian archæology is a live topic, especially when it tenders a fresh poem by the dainty and tender Sappho. The progress of Egyptology is as sure as the progress of knowledge.

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