This catalogue contains illustrations and descriptions of the majority of cylinder seals excavated in Palestine or acquired by the Jerusalem Museum through various channels. The material was collected before the war and the catalogue has been completed under difficulties which have made it impossible to consult all recent publications, and I am well aware of several omissions. Certain seals have been omitted because I could not locate them, others because I was unable to obtain photographs, which are indispensable for any proper or useful study of this material.

The seals excluded are a number from Gezer in the Istanbul Museum published by Macalister, seals from Balata and Taanach in the Vienna Museum, seals from T. ’Ajjul and Beth Pelet, published by Professor Petrie.

In the summer of 1947, we made a journey through South-Eastern Turkey, from Cilicia to Lake Van, to see the antiquities of the region. We hoped to find there traces of some types of early pottery, which would give an indication of the range of the civilizations to which they belonged. In the course of our investigations, we sketched potsherds from some thirty mounds of village ruins throughout the area, and recorded some complete vessels in the Van Museum. This account gives briefly our conclusions.

Our first concern was with the well-known painted wares of the Near East, generally labelled Chalcolithic, and thought to belong to a period before the invention of the potter's wheel, and before the common use of metals. There were three important sites where, about the turn of the century, these potteries were found for the first time in a stratified context. All three excavations—Susa, Anau and Tall Halaf—were in country of a similar and very particular character. To describe this landscape may give a clue to the nature and origins of the civilizations which flourished there in these early times.

The cylinder seals and seal impressions from Brak have an importance out of proportion to the quality of their workmanship. All the circumstances of their discovery are scrupulously recorded, a great help in determining the approximate date of each piece, and a sure guaranty against any suspicion of forgery. They may not all be of outstanding artistic merit, but a few seem to be unique in the choice of subjects reptesented, and almost every one of them can show some detail or peculiarity which is well worthy of study. Professor Mallowan in his catalogue describes and discusses these works of glyptic art, and his extensive knowledge of the subject, and his diligent researches enable him to make illuminating comparisons and to give suggestive explanations of the more difficult problems. He has, indeed, given us all the essential information and much more besides in his valuable and penetrating discussion. The seals, however, were only a small part of the immense mass of material which he, as excavator, had to set in order, study and describe. It is because his harvest is so rich and abundant that it seemed worth while to gather up stray gleanings dropped from his full sheaves, Knowing well that the few observations which can be contributed, will only render more evident the value and importance of what he has given us.

Now that Palestinian archaeology is subjected to a period of enforced inaction it would appear to be an appropriate moment to publish a short résumé of what is known of Palestinian temple plans.

The development of Palestinian shrines seems to follow a certain consistent plano The earliest recorded shrine appears to be that of Jericho, Stratum XL It consisted of a single inner chamber entered through a narrow ante-room from a columned portico (Fig. 1). Only the post-holes remained, so the posts were probably of wood; in the centre of the inner chamber were two similar holes probably to hold posts to support the roof. The building had plastered walls and mud floors; the floors were laid upon a bed of limestone chippings several centimetres deep, and both the walls and floors were finished with a smooth lime surface coloured brown or red and burnished by rubbing with a smooth stone. Within the entrance and extending beyond the precincts were found numerous plastic clay and mud figurines representing chiefly domestic animals, among which can be recognised cows, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs (?). Other models suggest a cobta's head, the male organs, small cones and a model pillow. In the forecourt were a number of trap-like openings which resemble sheep-pens. This shrine had been rebuilt more than once—Garstang has suggested as many as five times; which shows that once an area was sacred it tended to be regarded as such by future generations.

The following study is a continuation of my earlier essay on swords and daggers (Iraq, VIII, 1946) and was undertaken with the help of a research grant from the Central Research Fund of London University. This has enabled me to examine at first hand the material in the Louvre and the Musées Royaux at Brussels as well as the collections in the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, and the Institute of Archaeology, London, and I am indebted to the authorities of all these Museums for permission to publish many of the axes in their collections. These collections and the mass of scattered material in both excavation reports and special studies form the basis for this essay, which must be regarded merely as the outline for a typological scheme which, when more stratified material is available, will no doubt have to be modified and developed.

The Iraq Government excavations at ‘Aqar Qūf (Dûr-Kurigalzu) resulted in the recovery of over one hundred inscribed clay tablets of the Kassite (Middle Babylonian) period, which are now in the Iraq Museum. Through the generosity of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq and the courtesy of the Direct or-General of Antiquities I was able to study the whole of this material in Baghdad during the early months of 1948. Fifteen of these interesting texts are published in the present article, and it is hoped to publish the remainder in subsequent numbers of this journal. I wish here to express my gratitude to the Director-General for permission to publish the texts in Iraq, and to the Curator of the Iraq Museum and his staff for theit unfailing helpfulness throughout.