Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 16.djvu/40

xxxiv. the strength of this conjecture, M. Naville, in February last, commenced excavations at Tel-El-Maskutah; and before lie bad been many weeks at work he had laid bare a vast enclosure, about 200 metres square, divided into square chambers built of large bricks, principally made without straw; all the chambers were without doors, and were evidently intended not for dwelling-rooms, but for storehouses or granaries. This was in fact the Temple of Tum, and the monuments found in the enclosures point clearly to its having been founded by Rameses II., although added to in the 22nd dynasty.

The Egyptian city "Thuku" had already been identified with the Succoth of the Bible; but now the missing link in the chain of identification was to be supplied. Certain inscriptions on statues referred to "Pe Tum in the city of Thuku," that is, "Pithom in the city of Succoth;" in other words, Pithom was the name of the temple from which the city, which was also called Succoth, took its name. Thus, in the words of Mr. Stanley Lane Poole, "Not only do we see the actual storehouses which the children of Israel are related to have built, but we now know "the first station on their journey from Egypt to Palestine," when, as we read in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, they "journeyed from Rameses to Succoth." In this way, by the explorations of a party which had only been at work for a few weeks, the identification of Pharaoh the oppressor with Rameses II. has been almost established, and the authenticity of the biblical narrative strongly confirmed; and every student of archæology will watch with the deepest interest the further investigations of those who have begun with so remarkable a success.

With regard to the excavations in the Troad, however, the result of the latest investigations has been rather to lead us to modify conclusions formerly arrived at than to add to the list of archæological discoveries. Until a few years ago, the site of Homer's Troy was disputed—some placing it on the spot now known by the name of Hissarlik, others at the modern Village of Bunárbashi, about six miles to the south, others again maintaining that Troy never had any existence except in the poet's imagination. Dr. Schliemann, nearly ten years ago, astonished the literary world by announcing that, having carefully examined both places, he had proved that there were no relics of antiquity worth mentioning at Bunárbashi, but that at Hissarlik he had unearthed the ruins not only of the Homeric City, including the Palace of King Priam, the Scæan Gate, the great surrounding wall, and the great Tower of Ilium, but even the still earlier town which had been destroyed by Hercules!