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.

Though much Roman glass from Palestine and Syria exists in museums and collections, there are very few instances in which we know anything about the circumstances of its finding, and in still fewer instances are groups from the same tomb still preserved together. In recent years some tomb-groups of the early and later Roman period have been published in the Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, and I myself was recently enabled, through the kindness of Mr. Henri Seyrig, to publish two groups of the later 1st century A.D. from Yahmur, near Bairut. These are the only published examples known to me from this area, and it therefore seems worth while to add two other probable groups to the list, one from Tyre and the other from Galilee. Both are late Roman, probably 4th century A.D.

This group was given to the Ashmolean Museum by the late Mr. C. D. E. Fortnum in 1888. It consists now of eight glasses (A.M., Fortnum collection, G. 22–29). In a MS. catalogue prepared by Mr. Fortnum himself nine pieces are mentioned, but one, described as a “cup, semi-globular of pale green glass of similar character to no. 23 [see below] but smaller” is now missing and I do not believe it ever reached the Museum. Fortnum adds in his catalogue: “The above nine pieces were found, presumably together, in the neighbourhood of Tyre, where I bought them.” He therefore believed them to be a group, and since, with one exception [see G. 29 below], they look thoroughly homogeneous both in ware and in date we may well accept them as such.

It is a curious fact that though remarkably little has survived of the jewellery worn by the women of Palmyra in the first centuries of our era, we know enough from sculptured representations of it to hasard the statement that it provides important evidence of the wide-flung commercial relations of that city at the zenith of its activity. For several decades past there have been coming into the museums of Europe and America large numbers of sculptured busts from the ruins of the desert city, each standing out in high relief on a square or oblong slab of stone, which also bears, to right or left of the head, a brief inscription in Palmyrene. The details of clothing and jewellery represented on these busts, the dressing of the hair and of the men's beards, the objects held in the hands, all are well worth study for the light they throw on the life and fashions of the times, and particularly on the commercial relations of the caravan city with other lands to east and west.

The inscriptions, in whose incised characters traces of the red paint with which they were originally embellished often still remain, are remarkably uniform: a formal word of regret, best translated as ‘Alas !’, and the name and genealogy carried back through the male line for two, and occasionally three or more, generations. Typical inscriptions read: ‘Alas ! Jarḥai, son of Jedī‘bel, son of Simon, (son of) Argan’; ‘Alas ! Elahsā, son of Taimisā, son of Samsigeram, (son of) Ḥabbazi’. A considerable number of Jewish names occur, and a sprinkling of Persian, Nabataean, Phoenician and other names, There are yet others of Greek and Roman form, of which the latter would appear to have been freely adopted by Palmyrene citizens of the later periods, e.g., the brothers Narqaios and Qallistus, sons of Šalman Marcellus. Occasionally the date was added, reckoned from the official beginning of the Seleucid era, October 7, 312 B.C. The inscription on one such dated bust reads: ‘Alas ! ‘Aha, daughter of Ḥalaftā, son of Bar‘ā, (son of) Zabd'atā … Month of September, 473’ (=A.D. 161).

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.

Anatolian prehistory has had great pioneers: Myres, Ormerod, Frankfort, Götze and others. Yet, in its present form, it is one of the youngest branches of archaeology. We might say that it was born when the Alişar excavations were in progress, round about 1930, on which reckoning it is less than twenty years old. Unfortunately for us in England, it grew with the rapidity of adolescence between 1939 and 1945 when our attention was otherwise engaged.

During the war Turkish scholars were extremely active, and made some very important discoveries. German scholars were active too, at first in the field, later in research. The fresh material, like the comments thereon, has been published mainly in Turkish or in German works, the former being accessible but not always translated, the latter for the most part not available in England. Therefore a person whose opportunities and obligations have led to the study of both Turkish and German periodicals should try to make the results available: hence this paper. It is not, of course, confined strictly to the chronological and linguistic limits just mentioned, nor is it purely objective. For not only is a summary of facts needed, but also indications of the manner in which they might modify preconceived notions. Those indications may prove to be wrong. And whether much modification is needed depends on the notions. On almost every question one should keep an open mind, since excavation and exploration are still being carried on intensively, and new factors are continually introduced.

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.