CALIFORNI 269 1886.] The Work of the German Palestine Society. To the division of original research belong, further, the reports of archæological discoveries in Palestine. The most important of these was the accidental discovery in June, 1880, by boys who were bathing in the pool, of the six-line inscription in the so-called Siloam tunnel. The first copies and squeezes of this inscription which architect Schick with great difficulty obtained in the low and almost entirely dark hole-eight metres from the southern outlet of the tunnel - made the high antiquity of the character at once apparent, but gave little hope of the possibility of deciphering a connected text. It was only after Schick had drawn off the water from the place by emptying the conduit, and so uncovered the inscription, that he succeeded in making a copy from which the writer was able to decipher a number of words, and even short clauses.2 The copying of the inscription was taken in hand again by Professor Guthe soon after his arrival in Jerusalem. After he had carefully traced all the recognizable characters against all contingencies, he ventured upon the experiment of cleansing the inscription with muriatic acid. The attempt succeeded beyond all expectation, as the plaster casts taken by Professor Guthe show. All the characters which had not long since been destroyed by a crack in the left side of the slab are reproduced with all the distinctness that could be desired. We were thus able in the fourth volume of the Journal to publish simultaneously with the copy of the inscription and the remarks of Professor Guthe3 a fac-simile prepared by Professor Socin, and an attempt at decipherment by the present writer. The results of the further discussion about the inscription, in which especially the eminent Orientalists Nöldeke and Gildemeister took part, were given in volume v., as Supplementary Matter on the Siloam Inscription. Unfortunately, the inscription is not dated, and referring as it does exclusively to the construction and measurements of the tunnel gives otherwise no means of fixing more definitely The view which puts it about 700 B. c. has, however, met no serious contradiction, and in any case the inscription is the oldest monument of specifically Hebrew writing and language. As such it is of the highest importance. It has materially furthered our knowledge of the development of the so-called Phoni 1 VII. 293. 2 IV. 102 ff. 8 IV. 250 ff. cian alphabet, and the main thing-it gives us a documentary guarantee that the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, which was definitely fixed so many centuries later, rests in all that concerns the character of the language with exception, of course, of the voweling upon trustworthy tradition. Of the other archæological notices which the Journal contains we can speak more briefly. Victor Schultze writes of ancient Christian sarcophagi and gravestone inscriptions found in Jerusalem;1 Professor Guthe of a large torso dug up at Gaza, probably a statue of Zeus,2 as well as of a tripod from Nabulus with figures and Greek inscriptions; 3 the latter are interpreted, with the accompaniment of a good fac-simile, by Dr. Th. Schreiber, of Leipzig. Various Greek inscriptions from Jerusalem and the Hauran are communicated by J. H. Mordtmann in Pera; 5 a Georgian inscription, discovered in 1879 by architect Schick on a corner of the wall of the great Greek monastery in Jerusalem, was deciphered by Professor Zagarelli in St. Petersburg. A brief sketch of the numismatic history of Palestine is given by Adolf Erman, who also gives an account of the find of coins in Jerusalem April 5, 1872.8 There were discovered at that time, on the grounds of the Order of St. John (belonging to Prussia), an earthenware lamp with 41 golden and 118 silver coins of the caliphates, of dates from 771-937 a. d. Professor Stickel describes the collection of Jewish copper coinage made by architect Schick, and now in the grand-ducal numismatic cabinet in Jena.9 A guide to archæological investigations is given by Professor Fr. Rziha in Vienna, in his Instructions for the Collection of Mason's Marks; 10 as well as in similar introduction to the study of the Roman or Romanesque towers, with entrances high up in the wall for defense.11 Studies in natural science are represented by the observations of missionary Gatt on the temperature of Gaza in different seasons, according to which the mean temperature for 1882 was 67° Fahr.; maximum 89°; minimum 25°.12 The distinguished geologist O. Fraas discusses the sulphur found in the Jordan valley in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. Fraas here as elsewhere contests on geological grounds the volcanic origin of this sulphur.13 P. Ascherson in Berlin gives a notice of Barbey's "Herborisation au Levant," and of Dr. O. Kersten's botanical collections, which, after having been scientifically determined in Berlin, were returned in 1881 to the Palestine Museum in Jerusalem.1 In this connection it may be remarked that the society has received as a gift from Mr. Duisberg, a tradesman in Jerusalem, a tastefully arranged collection of the ninety-five varieties of wood which are worked in Palestine. A very valuable contribution to the climatology of modern Palestine is made by Dr. Leo Anderlind, in his investigation of the influence of the mountain forests in northern Palestine on the frequency of the rainfall. The author, after a thorough survey of the extent and character of the modern forests, comes to the conclusion that such an influence is in reality demonstrable, and discusses the economic importance of the fact. Of eminent importance are, finally, the original papers to be found in the Journal on the native population of modern Palestine. Among these the first place is easily held by the Communications respecting the Life, Manners, and Customs of the Fellahs in Palestine, by the missionary F. A. Klein.3 Equipped for the task by a twenty-six years' residence in Palestine, with fine faculties of observation, and the most exact knowledge of modern Arabic, Klein has given us in these articles, in a very vivid style, a wealth of ethnographical observations of particular interest for a knowledge of the customs and language of the people, so that it is greatly to be desired that the author may not be prevented by his recent removal to Cairo from continuing a series of papers which have been received on many sides with the warmest gratitude. Of high interest are also the Contributions to the Knowledge of Superstitious Customs in Syria, which Eyub Abēla, German vice-consul in Sidon, has furnished in the form of two hundred and fifty brief notes. Missionary Gatt writes from his own observation of the industries of Gaza, pottery and weaving.5 The editorial management of the Journal have put themselves in direct communication with the leading men of the different religious confessions and missions in Palestine, with the view to obtaining from them trustworthy statistics. To these efforts the 1 VI. 219 ff. 8 III. 100 ff., iv. 57 ff., vi. 81 ff. 2 VIII. 101 ff. 4 VII. 79 ff. Remarks and contributions to the same by M. Grünbaum, viii. 80 ff. 5 VIII. 69 ff. Journal is indebted thus far for articles by Pastor Dr. Reinicke in Jerusalem, now assistant director of the Seminary for Preachers in Wittenberg, on the History and Statistics of Protestant Missions in Palestine since 1821;1 by Christopher Paulus, assistant president of the Templars, on the Templar Colonies in Palestine,2 and by K. Schnabl, formerly rector of the Austrian pilgrim-house in Jerusalem, on the Roman Catholic Church in Palestine. 3 Other historical and statistical articles are projected. From the original relations, the long series of which we have passed in review, we distinguished above such articles as are based in the main on learned investigation of the historical tradition. 4 At the first general meeting of the society at Trier, September, 1879, the urgent need of a collection of the geographical notices in the Targums and the older Arabic writers was recognized and dwelt upon. The latter part of the task Professor Gildemeister in Bonn has undertaken in a model way, and has published extracts from Ya'kubi Ibn Abd rabbih, Istakhri and Ibn Haukal,5 Mukaddasi and Idrisi, in German translation, accompanied by the Arabic text edited by him, and printed at his expense. Of the writings of Palestine pilgrims the Journal has contained "The Account of the Pilgrimage of Duke Frederick II. of Liegnitz and Brieg" (1507), and the "Descriptio templi domini," of Philippus of Aversa, both edited by scholars who have rendered distinguished service as editors of the pilgrim literature, H. Meisner and R. Röhricht. Professor A. Leskien has contributed to the Journal a translation from the Russian of the "Pilgrimage of Abbot Daniel to the Holy Land (1113-15)."9 Dr. W. Erman proves two pretended German pilgrimages of the fifteenth century to be forgeries; 10 the alleged journey of a Jost Artus is compiled from that of Felix Fabri; that of Hans Rainiger is taken from Breitenbach; Vulpius of Weimar is probably to be regarded as the author of both forgeries. 8 The well-known Berlin scholar Dr. M. Steinschneider furnishes contributions to the knowledge of Palestine from modern Jewish sources, namely, from the “Darke Zion,” published in Jewish German by Moses Porjes in 1650, and from the "Shaalu shelom Yerushalaim" of a certain Gedalia, of Semiecz, printed in Berlin 1 VI. 13 ff. 4 IV. 85 ff. 7 VIII. 117 ff. 9 VII. 17 ff. 2 VI. 31 ff. 5 VI. 1 ff. 8 I. 101 ff. and 177 ff. 10 IV. 200 ff. 3 VII. 263 ff. 6 VII. 143 ff., 215 ff. in 1716; lastly, from the "Shaare Yerushalaim" (Warsaw, 1873), describing the journey to Palestine of a Galician Jew in the year 1866, and containing many details concerning the condition of the Jewish population of Palestine.2 In the Bibliography of Palestine literature, one of the founders of the society, Professor A. Socin, has rendered a most useful service by the Review of New Publications in the Field of Palestine Literature, furnished by him since 1878 yearly. No less than 1,531 books and articles, -- in part from very out-of-theway periodicals, covering the whole field of Palestine research, have been noted in the seven reviews which have thus far appeared. The titles have been given with the greatest attainable accuracy, and to a very large part critical or other remarks have been added. This bibliography, the preparation of which involves much self-denying labor, has a double value from the fact that it has given occasion to an almost absolutely complete supplement to the famous "Bibliographia Geographica Palæstinæ " of Titus Tobler. This venerable master of Palestine research, who lived to greet the foundation of the society with warm interest, and to honor it by becoming a member of the larger committee,3 had in his principal work (1867) brought the bibliography down to 1860, to which some additions appeared in 1875. Professor Socin's annual review begins with 1877. The gap between the two was filled in 1880 by the supplements and additions, of nearly one thousand numbers, which Röhricht and Meisner appended to their edition of the German Pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Further contributions to the bibliography of Palestine literature were made by Professor Neumann, of Vienna, in the Journal, in a notice of the German Pilgrimages just named. In Socin's annual reviews the work of other German and foreign Palestine societies receives attentive consideration. A special notice of the Orthodox Palestine Society in Russia (founded 1882), based upon the first annual report of the society, was furnished by Professor Guthe in volume vii., p. 299, of our Journal. Among the historico-topographical articles, those on Jerusalem hold the first place both in extent and importance. The former Prussian consul in Jerusalem, Baron von Alten, maintains the opinion that the Akra and the Antonia were at the northwest of 2 IV. 207 ff. 1 III. 220 ff. See the necrological notice by Pastor C. Furrer, in the Journal, vol. i. p. 47 ff. 4 IV. 224 ff. |