IDENTIFICATION OF MORE ANCIENT CITIES OP THE PHARAOHS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2242, 18 August 1891, Page 3

IDENTIFICATION OF MORE ANCIENT CITIES OP THE PHARAOHS.

Dr Naville, the discover of Bubastis and of the Treasure City of Pithom, has just given to the world the results of his work in identifying other cities and districts in Egypt, more especially some connected with the Exodus of the Israelites : and at the , end of the month of June he presented these results before one of the largest meetings ever held by the Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, of Adelphi Terrace, London, the great hall in which the meeting was held being so crowded that many had to be accommodated in the vestibule. The chair was taken on the occasion by the President, Sir Gabriel Stokes, Bart., past President of the Royal Society, and the present occupant of Sir Isaac Newton’s Professorial Chair at Cambridge Universiyt. The business of the evening was commenced by Captain F. Petrie, the Honorary Secretary, readthe Report, which showed that the Institute’s members and Associates in England, India, Australia, China, and other parts of the world had now risen to 1,400; a number which was being added to by the almost daily applications to join. The'valua of the transactions was shown ! by the increasing number of languages ( into which foreign members translated them, especially those scientific papers

showing the error of those who argued that Science ill any way contradicted the Bible. Sir Joseph Fayrer, K. 0.5.1., F.R.S., moved, and Dr Moule, who had just arrived from China, seconded the first resolution, after which Dr Naville’s address was gh on. He illustrated his remarks by referring to an elaborate map of his surveys. He said he had found that Succoth was not a city as some had supposed, but a district; from a remarkably valuable inscription discovered at Pithom, there was no longer any doubt that it was that Greek Heroopolis, from whence, as Strabo, Pliny, Agathemeros, and Artemidorous described merchant ships sailed to the Arabian Gulf. This fact coincided with the results of modem scientific surveys, which showed, that there had been a gradual rising of the laud, and that the Red Sea once extended up to the walls of Pithom; this must have been the case about 3000 years ago, and Sir William Dawson and the French engineer Linant held that it went even further north. The next place noted by M. Naville, was Baal Zephon, and in identifying this, he had been aided through some recently discovered papyri, which proved that it was not a village or city, but an ancient shrine of Baal and a noted place of pilgrimage. Other places were Migdol and Pi Hahiroth, and here again a papyrus had helped him; it seemed probable that the Serapeum was the Egyptian Maktal or Migdol, and it was greatly to be regretted that a bilingual tablet discovered there a few years ago had been destroyed before being deciphered. The bearing of his identifications was of no small interest to the students of History, both sacred and other. Sir John Goode, K.C.5.1., who had surveyed the canal for the British Government, moved a vote of thanks to M. Naville, and the other authors of papers read during the year, namely, Sir W. Dawson, F.R.S., Professor Hull, F.R.S.,Lord Grimthorpe, Mr. T. Pinches, and Mr. Boscawen, the Assriologists, Surgeon-General Gordon, C. 8., of Indian fame, and others. A vote of thanks to the President concluded the proceedings. A Conversazione was then held in the Museum.