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 650–600 B.C. It would thus be of approximately the same age as the writing on the colossus at Abu-Simbel, and would rank among the very oldest specimens of Greek writing known to exist. I may remark that for beta, which this old inscription shows to have been early Naxian, had already been proved for Paros, Siphnos, Thasos, and Ceos. The form for gamma had been proved for the same islands,—also as one (the latest?) of three Cretan forms, and as a form used at Athens both before and after the adoption of the matured Ionic alphabet in 403 B.C.

The object of the foregoing pages has been twofold: first, to arrange the facts derived from the new researches in a general survey of Delian history; secondly, to mark the chief results in special departments, with such comments as they suggested. I have elsewhere sketched for English readers the system of the French school at Athens It is well exemplified by these labours on ground which demanded so much skill and so much perseverance. Two successive directors, M. Burnouf and M. Dumont, encouraged the efforts of two successive explorers; the work of M. Lebégue in 1873 was completed by that of M. Homolle in 1877, 1878, and 1879. An English society for the promotion of Hellenic studies has a wide field open to it. It might do good service by undertaking the