Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/191

Rh enemy, or early inscriptions even of the time of Solomon. To illustrate this subject he called attention to what had actually been discovered quite recently, by German explorers, at Samala, in the extreme north of Syria, and to the importance of their explorations as connected with the Bible history. These results were as yet very little known in England; but the statues which they had brought home were among the chief treasures of the Imperial Museum in Berlin. There was no doubt that this important field would be further worked by German scholars; and George Smith long ago called attention to its interest and value. It was to be hoped that we might yet find Englishmen co-operating with the Germans in the recovery of its treasures. Samala lay east of Issus and south-west of Merash, where several very important Hittite inscriptions had been found. But the antiquities of Samala were not Hittite, but represented the civilisation of the Syrian race, which worshipped Hadad, the god of Damascus, and which used the Phœnician alphabet almost as early as the time of the Moabite stone. A circular enclosure, some 800 yards in diameter, with three gates, here enclosed an acropolis on a hillock in the plain. The great south gateway of the acropolis was built apparently about 730 and adorned with 40 bas-reliefs cut in hard basalt, in a rude imitation of the Assyrian style. Men with captives, a bowman, a horseman, and a soldier with an axe were represented, with bulls, deer, and lions; also mythological figures—-a lion-headed man, a winged lion ramping, and a sphinx. A statue close by had a Phœnician text of 34 lines in relief. It represented the head and body of a gigantic bearded figure with a round cap, and the inscription was on the columnar pedestal. He had not seen any translation of this text as a whole, but it was of much value as showing the beliefs of the Syrians about 800 B.C. Touching the bearing of Palestine exploration on the study of the New Testament, they might look, the lecturer said, to valuable results in this respect, and some had, indeed, been already obtained. Much that was of interest regarding the early history of Christianity in the East in the second and third centuries had also been brought to light, and more remained, no doubt, to be found, especially at Cæsarea and at Ascalon. In conclusion, he said that much remained to be worked out, and they must be up and doing. Twenty years ago the Palestine Exploration Fund stood almost alone. Schliemann's work was only beginning to be noticed, and many important Egyptian discoveries were still in the future. But now the movement had spread in every direction. The French and the Germans were busy in Greece and in Syria; the Egyptologists had added immense stores of valuable material to our collections. The members of the Palestine Exploration Fund must not allow others to outstrip them or neglect one of the most hopeful and important fields of research. (Cheers.)

Sir Your Royal Highness, my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, I have been requested to propose the first resolution which will be submitted to you to-day, and I need hardly say that it is the expression of our cordial thanks to Major Conder for his deeply interesting lecture. (Hear, hear.) The Palestine Exploration Fund, under whose auspices we meet here to-day, make their fresh departure under circumstances of no ordinary advantage. They are now about, as you have heard, to enter upon a new field of exploration in Jerusalem, with the full sanction of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, who has always shown a highly-enlightened interest in this work, and 2