to certain illustrious Greeks who had sought refuge in Asia
Minor on Persian territory the right to coin money. To this
they joined the privileges inherent in the title of hereditary
despot which was granted to them. The principal coinages are
those of Themistokles at Magnesia, of Georgion at Gambrium, and
of Euripthenes at Pergamon. M. Babelon read a memoir on the
subject before the _Soc. des Antiquaires_, giving genealogical
details regarding those families of exiles.--_Chron. des Arts_,
1892, No. 16.
COMPARISON OF HITTITE AND MYCENÆAN SCULPTURES.--M. Heuzey has
read before the _Acad. des Inscr._ (Oct. 14) a comparative
study on an engraved gold ring found at Mycenæ and a relief in
the Louvre which belongs to the series of Hittite reliefs and
was found at Kharpout, in the Upper Euphrates region on the
frontier of Armenia and Cappadocia. The relief is surmounted by
two lines of ideographic inscription. The subject on both is a
stag-hunt; the stag is hunted in a chariot, as was always done
before the horse was used for riding, that is before the VIII
century B.C. The relief is a rustic variant of the Assyrian
style; certain details prove it to belong to the IX century.
The stag is of the variety called _hamour_ by the Arabs,
characterized by horns palm-shaped at their extremities. On the
ring the attitudes are far more lively and bold, but the
identity of the subject is none the less striking.--_Revue
Critique_, 1892, No. 43.
HITTITE INSCRIPTION.--M. Menant has communicated to the _Acad.
des Inscr._ (Aug. 7, 1891,) a new Hittite inscription, noted
during the preceding summer, in the pass of Bulgar-Maden, in
Asia Minor. It is in perfect preservation and of unusual
length, and is therefore of great value for the study of the
Hittite language. M. Menant sees at the beginning the genealogy
and titles of a prince, some other of whose inscriptions have
already been found; then an invocation to the patron divinities
of his kingdom; then the main body of the inscription, which
will doubtless be the most difficult to decipher; and at the
close a re-enumeration of the divinities already
invoked.--_Revue Critique_, 1891, No. 35-6.
THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS.--Prof. Sayce
writes: "I have, I believe, at last succeeded in breaking
Page 148 through the blank wall of the Hittite decipherment. Twelve
years ago, with the help of the bilingual text of Tarkondêmos,
I advanced a little way, but want of material prevented me from
going further. At length, however, the want has been supplied,
and new materials have come to hand, chiefly through the
discoveries of Messrs. Ramsay, Hogarth, and Headlam in Asia
Minor. The conclusions to be derived from the latter are stated
in an article of mine which has just been published in the last
number of the _Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philogie et à
l'Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes_. Since that article
was written, I have once more gone through the Hittite texts in
the light of our newly-acquired facts, and have, I believe,
succeeded in making out the larger part of them."
As in the languages of Van, of Mitanni, and of Arzana, the
Hittite noun possessed a nominative in _-s_, an accusative in
_-n_, and an oblique case which terminated in a vowel, while
the adjective followed the substantive, the same suffixes being
attached to it as to the substantive with which it agreed. The
character which I first conjectured to have the value of _se_,
and afterwards of _me_, really has the value of _ne_.
The inscriptions of Hamath, like the first and third
inscriptions of Jerablûs, are records of buildings, the second
inscription of Jerablûs is little more than a list of royal or
rather high-priestly titles, in which the king "of Eri and
Khata" is called "the beloved of the god (Sutekh), the mighty,
who is under the protection of the god Sarus, the regent of the
earth, and the divine Nine; to whom the god (Sutekh) has given
the people of Hittites... the powerful (prince), the prophet of
the Nine great gods, beloved of the Nine and of ..., son of the
god. The first inscription of Jerablûs states that "the high
priest and his god have erected "images" to Sarus- * -erwes and
his son. Who the latter were is not mentioned, nor is the name
of the son given. Those who have read what I have written
formerly on the Hittite inscriptions will notice that I was
wrong in supposing that Sarus- * -erwes and his father were the
father and grandfather of the Carchemish king to whom the
monument belongs.-_Academy_, May 21, 1892.
One of the most curious facts that result from my decipherment
of the texts--supposing it to be correct--is the close
similarity that exists between the titles assumed by the
Hittite princes and those of the Egyptian Pharaohs of the XVIII
and XIX dynasties. The fact has an important bearing on which
the monuments of Hamath and Carchemish must be assigned. The
similarity extends beyond the titles, the Hittite system of
writing presenting in many respects a startling parallelism to
that of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Thus, "word" or "order" is
Page 149 denoted by a head, a phonetic character, and the ideograph of
"speaking," the whole being a fairly exact counterpart of the
Egyptian _tep-ro_, an "oral communication." It would seem as if
the inventer of the Hittite hieroglyphs had seen those of
Egypt, just as Doalu, the inventor of the Sei syllabary, is
known to have seen European writing. This likeness between the
graphic systems of the Hittites and Egyptians has been a
surprise to me, since I had hitherto believed that, as the
Hittite hieroglyphs are so purely native in origin, the graphic
system to which they belong must also be purely
native.--_Academy_, May 21.
ARAMEAN COINS OF CAPPADOCIA.--M. Six, enumerating all the coins
bearing the names of Datames, mentions only those of the
ordinary type of Sinope, with a Greek inscription. M. Babelon
finds coins of Datames in Cilicia as well, and reads this name
in the Aramean inscriptions which M. Six interprets _Tarcamos_.
The name of Datames is historic, but the reading of M. Six has
not come down to us. The coins in question bear a striking
likeness to those of Pharnabazus, their types being identical.
We know that Datames succeeded Pharnabazus in the command of
the Persian armies, their coins then must have been struck
under the same circumstances and in the same mints, that is, in
the ports of Cilicia where preparations were made for the
expedition against Egypt. Later, Datames was charged with
subduing the rebellious Sinope, here we have an explanation of
the coins of Sinopean type bearing the name of Datames. Why may
not this man be the same whom Diodorus designates satrap of
Cappadocia?
2. There are two similar drachmas, one in possession of the
Cabinet des Medailles, the other in the Waddington collection;
they are Cappadocian coins of the type of Sinope, like those of
Datames. The Aramean inscription on the back of these coins has
been given a variety of interpretations which appear to be
equally possible. M. Babelon, after careful study, fixes upon
_Abrocomou_, the only reading in which we can recognize an
historic personage. Abrocomas was one of the principal
lieutenants of Artaxerxes II and was a colleague of Pharnabazus
in the Egyptian campaign. If we accept this reading of the
drachma's inscription we must infer that Abrocomas became
satrap of Cappadocia, he was in all probability successor to
Datames, his coins plainly of later date; their weight and
their style show that they belong to the older coinage of
Sinope and they are no less certainly anterior to those of
Arianthes, which they somewhat resemble.
3. Arianthes must have been the immediate successor of
Abrocomas, the identity of style, of types and of material in
these coins point to this conclusion. M. Six places two
governors of Cappadocia between Datames and Arianthes, whose
Page 150 names he finds on certain coins. M. Babelon shows that the
drachma which bears one of these names, is a manifest imitation
of the drachmas of Datames; he also points out that the
inscription itself is plainly an alteration of the Aramean name
of Datames. The other name he proves to be a deformation of
_Abrocomas_ and states his belief that neither of these
supposed governors of Cappadocia ever existed and cites other
instances of the imitation of coins and the alteration of
inscriptions.--_Revue Numismatique_, III S. tom. 10. II trim.,
1892, p. 168.
HITTITE LETTER OF DUSRATTA.--Among the 300 letters from
Tell-el-Amarna is one written to Amenophis III by Dusratta,
king of Mitani, the region immediately east of the Euphrates.
The letter which was written on both sides of a clay tablet in
cuneiform characters begins with an introduction of seven lines
in Assyrian, but the remaining 605 lines are in the native
language of Dusratta.
The content refers to an embassy sent from Egypt to ask for the
hand of his daughter and to recognition of his conquests in
Phornicia. The most important parts are those relating to his
religion and to the affairs of state. We find that the religion
of the Hittites, Armenians and Akkadians was probably the same
as well as their language, which was more nearly akin to pure
Turkish than to any other branch of Mongol speech. Dusratta was
a Minyan and his power seems to have been the chief in Armenia
at this time.
From the letter we find that Dusratta was to receive a large
portion of Phoenicia and Northern Syria, which he was to rule
as a tributary of Amenophis III.
The latter part of the letter refers to the marriage of
Yadukhepa, daughter of Dusratta, to the heir of Egypt, with
assurances of increased renewal of friendship between the
kingdoms.
The letter is especially important because we may obtain from
it, in connection with the letter of Laskondam, also written in
Hittite, many of the forms of the Hittite language, its grammar
and vocabulary of 400 words.
By these it is shown to be clearly a Mongol language, closely
related with the Akkadian, though somewhat later.--_Biblia_,
Sept., 1892.
ANGORA.--At a meeting of the _Acad. des Inscr_. M.J. Menant
exhibited the rubbing of a Hittite bas-relief found at Angora,
which is now at Constantinople. It shows two personages, with
an inscription in Hittite characters by the side of each. One
of them is the god Sandu, to whom a king (with a name not yet
deciphered) is making an offering.
Page 151
APAMIA.--CHRISTIAN CHURCH.--Mr. G. Weber has published a study
of the early Christian church of Apameia (_Une église antique à
Dinair_) which he considers to be the earliest of which any
remains exist in Asia; he regards it as having been built under
Constantine,--_Revue Arch._, 1892, 1, p. 131.
KARIA.--TEMPLE NEAR STRATONIKEIA--A large temple of Hecate was
found last year in Caria, near the ancient Stratonikeia (Eski
Hissar). Hamdi Bey, the director of the museum at
Constantinople, has been carrying on excavations. He has
secured about 160 ft. of the sculptured frieze complete, and
has repaired the road to the coast ready for its shipment. A
member of the _École Française_ has been invited by him to
assist him, and the results will be published by the
School.--_Athenæum_, Oct. 1.
SEBASTOPOLIS.--M. Leon, the French vice-consul at Siwas, has
communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ the discovery of a
series of Greek inscriptions copied by him, which have enabled
him to fix with certainty the site of the ancient city of
Sebastopolis. They also furnish important information regarding
its constitution.--_Athenæum_, Feb. 27.
A.L. FROTHINGHAM, Jr.