Lieut.-Col. Conder says that the requirements for exploration demand a
knowledge not only of Syrian antiquities, but of those of neighboring
nations. It is necessary to understand the scripts and languages in
use, and to study the original records as well as the art and
architecture of various ages and countries. Much of our information
is derived from Egyptian and Assyrian records of conquest, as well as
from the monuments of Palestine itself. As regards scripts, the
earliest alphabetical texts date only from about 900 B. C., but
previous to this period we have to deal with the cuneiform, the
Egyptian, the Hittite and the Cypriote characters.
The explorer must know the history of the cuneiform from 2700 B. C.
down to the Greek and Roman age, and the changes which occurred in the
forms of some 550 characters originally hieroglyphics, but finally
reduced to a rude alphabet by the Persians, and used not only in
Babylonia and Assyria, but also as early as 1500 B. C. in Asia Minor,
Syria, Armenia, Palestine and even by special scribes in Egypt. He
should also be able to read the various Egyptian scripts--the 400
hieroglyphics of the monuments, the hieratic, or running hand of the
papyri, and the later demotic.
The Hittite characters are quite distinct, and number at least 130
characters, used in Syria and Asia Minor from 1500 B. C. or earlier
down to about 700 B. C. The study of these characters is in its
infancy. The syllabary of Cyprus was a character derived from these
Hittite hieroglyphics, and used by the Greeks about 300 B. C. It
includes some fifty characters, and was probably the original system
whence the Phenician alphabet was derived. As regards alphabets, the
explorer must study the early Phenician and the Hebrew, Samaritan and
Moabite, with the later Aramean branch of this alphabet, whence square
Hebrew is derived. He must also know the Ionian alphabet, whence Greek
and Roman characters arose, and the early Arab scripts--Palmyrene,
Nabathean and Sabean, whence are derived the Syriac, Cufic, Arabic and
Himyaritic alphabets.
As regards languages, the scholars of the last century had to deal
only with Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic and Greek, but as the result
of exploration we now deal with the ancient Egyptian whence Coptic is
derived, and with various languages in cuneiform script, including the
Akkadian (resembling pure Turkish) and the allied dialects of Susa,
Media, Armenia and of the Hittites; the Assyrian, the earliest and
most elaborate of Semitic languages; and Aryan tongues, such as the
Persian, the Vannic and the Lycian.
The art and architecture of Western Asia also furnish much information
as to religious ideas, customs, dress and history, including inscribed
seals and amulets, early coins and gems. The explorer must also study
the remains of Greek, Roman, Arab and Crusader periods, in order to
distinguish these from the earlier remains of the Canaanites,
Phenicians, Hebrews, Egyptians and Assyrians, as well as the art of
the Jews and Gnostics about the Christian era, and the later pagan
structures down to the fourth century A.D.--Nature.
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