The number of Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions known to us has increased considerably of late years. Unfortunately a large proportion of the texts is either broken or illegible, not infrequently just where a complete text is most needed. Thanks, however, to our increased knowledge, it is now possible to correct former copies and supply in many caṡes missing characters or words. The result is that I can now improve to a large extent upon my old attempts at translation as well as correct mistakes and misreadings. Another result is to show that the fundamental elements in my decipherment are correct; it is true that I have made many mistakes, as is inevitable in pioneering work of the kind, but on the whole it was based on sound principles and a considerable proportion of the phonetic values or ideographic meanings I have attached to the characters turn out to be right. Those who wish to see the evidence for these will find it given in detail in my articles in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archœology. In my present notes I shall give it only where the identifications are either new or corrections of those I formerly proposed.

The preceding article of this series is in the Journal for 1923, p. 406. Mr. H. A. Elsberg of New York has kindly supplied photographs and descriptions of the following Fatimid pieces in his collection and authorized their publication, and Mr. S. Flury has been so good as to give assistance in the decipherment of the inscriptions:—

No. 1. Collection No. 1356.

Among the instruments of Mediaeval Europe that contributed most to the progress of the art of music the lute and rebec stand pre-eminent. That they were introduced into Western Europe by the Arabs is generally admitted, and for that reason the question of their original adoption by the Arabs themselves is of some importance, especially in view of the statements of Miss Schlesinger; not only in the above extract, but in the works to which she refers us.

Kumzāri is a dialect spoken exclusively by certain coastal elements of the Shiḥuḥ tribe, the Kumāzara section, who occupy Kumzār at the head of the Musandam Peninsula of Oman, and are found at Dibah, Khasab, the coastal villages of Elphinstone and Malcolm Inlets and at Larek Island.

That the religious ideas of any epoch tend to flow in the channels dug by the philosophy then prevailing is a commonplace, and it is not surprising, therefore, that in the period between the composition of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad and that of the SK. the various religions which are described in more or less detail in the Upaniṣads and the MBh. are for the most part strongly impregnated with Sāṁkhya doctrines. Not that they accepted the Sāṁkhya scheme wholesale; they accept only so much as is necessary for their purposes and have no hesitation in making modifications or discordant additions of their own. Nevertheless we can discern through the confused welter of systems that the general outlines of the scheme set out by Īśvarakṛṣṇa with its summing up of existence under twenty-five heads were accepted as the standard throughout the period. But how disturbing it would be to all our convictions of historical development if, as has been held, not merely was the outer façade of the Sāṁkhya philosophy maintained intact for all that time, but also there was no change inside. In a lapse of many centuries, during which philosophical speculation was so active and new schools with new ideas and methods were developing, we should expect some change in nomenclature and a great deal of change in the conceptions underlying the apparently unchanging scheme; but there is no general agreement yet about the nature and extent of such changes, if any. Partly, the quality of the evidence is to blame; for we have no exposition of Sāṁkhya teaching which is both certainly authoritative and certainly older than the SK., so that a way is always left open to the retort, when a view other than that contained in the SK.

Mr. Woolley said that the eighth season which they had just finished at Ur had been the most interesting historically and in some ways the most exciting season they had yet had: it was also undoubtedly the most varied. They were able to get plans of buildings, antiquities, etc., illustrating practically every phase in the history of the town of Ur from the 6th century b.c. back to a period which we cannot date, but which we call pictorially the Period of the Flood. Their programme when they started consisted of three principal objects—the first to clear up the plan of the city, tracing out its walls and fortifications which they knew to belong for the most part to the period of 2000 b.c., roughly speaking the period of Abraham. Then they had to go on with the great cemetery which in previous seasons had paid them so richly; and thirdly, they had to enlarge upon the work done in the season before when a trial pit brought to light material evidence of the flood and of a civilization older than the flood and following on after it. Dealing with the town defences he said he could not yet show them a complete plan, but could show a section of the wall and explain the character of what had been found. The whole circuit of the wall is nearly two and a half miles; they followed it all along. The defences consist for the most part of great ramparts of mud brick, solidly built throughout, to a height of 26 ft.