INTEREST in the Near East is maintained, and a useful lead was given in 1913 by the Cyprus Government, who entrusted Professor Myres, assisted by the Keeper of the Cyprus Museum and Mr. L. H. D. Buxton, with a good round sum to conduct excavations in the island. The results were described at length and illustrated on the screen, the most notable discovery being a ruined sanctuary containing a collection of stone statues with many of the painted surfaces in brilliant preservation, ranging in date from the seventh century B.C. to Greco-Roman times. Elsewhere many antiquities of the Bronze Age were brought to light, but at present there are few, if any, traces of a Stone Age in the island. The first stratified series of Cypriote pottery was provided by a complete section of the Bamboula Hill at Larnaca, and the situation is full of promise.
A marble statuette, now in the Ashmolean Museum, was the text of Professor Langdon's discourse, and gave scope for surmise as well as scholarship. It was found by the 14th Sikh Regiment when entrenching before the battle of Istabalat, eight miles below Samara on the Tigris. The object originally carried on the head has disappeared, but the standing figure still holds a "boomerang" or sceptre, and the dress was made in imitation of the fleece, a fashion to which Aristophanes is supposed to refer in the Wasps, perhaps three thousand years later. Various prehistoric specimens from England exhibited to the Society have an interest of their own, but cannot compete with relics from the cradle of civilisation, and at present the watch-word is Ex oriente lux.
THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND
The third of a series of lectures arranged by the Egypt Exploration Fund (to which we referred in our December number) was given at the rooms of the Royal Society at Burlington House on January 23rd, by Professor T. Eric Peet. The subject of the lecture was "El Amarna, the City of Egypt's Heretic King." The lecturer said that from the evidence of the mummy generally supposed to be his, Amenhotep IV. appears to have been little more than a boy when his father died. Nevertheless, as early as the fourth year of his reign, he introduced the worship of the Aton, the Disk of the Sun, and did his utmost to establish it as the State religion, and to suppress the worship of Amon and all other Egyptian gods. The new religion was purely monotheistic in character, for the Aton was regarded as the creator, not of Egypt only, but of the world. The new deity was represented in the art of the period by a picture of the disk of the sun, from which emanated numerous rays, each terminating in human hands, some of which are holding out the sign of life to the worshippers. The king changed his own name from Amenhotep ("Amon is content") to Akhenaton ("The Disk is pleased"), and he shifted his capital from Thebes to El Amarna.
Excavations at El Amarna have brought to light remains of a temple dedicated to the Aton, and a palace erected for the use of the king, with beautifully painted floor, fragments of which show a freedom of drawing and lack of convention which distinguish this period from most other Egyptian art. The remains of many private houses have also been discovered, and from these it is comparatively easy to gather the size, design, and general construction of the houses of the nobles of that time. Most of them seem to have been built on the same plan, and comprise a central hall, with small apartments surrounding and leading from it. Some of these smaller rooms were used as workrooms, and in one house excavated a number of plaster casts were found, obviously taken from living models, proving that the Egyptians of this period were experts in this work. There were also many finished and unfinished statues of the Royal family, some of which were in very natural positions, quite unlike the usual Egyptian statues of other sites.
The tombs of the officials of the Court were discovered in the cliffs behind the town, their walls being covered with sculptured scenes depicting the everyday life of the capital.
At the close of the lecture the Chairman, Colonel H. G. Lyons, F.R.S., pointed out the extreme importance of systematic and scientific excavations in Egypt and other countries, and the gains which might accrue to science.
THE GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION
At the meeting held at University College, Gower Street, W.C.1, on Friday, December 5th, 1919, the following lecture was delivered: "Geological Work on the Western Front," by W. B. R. King, B.A., F.G.S. A short description was given of the geology of that part of Belgium and France over which military operations were conducted by the British Armies between 1915 and the summer of 1918. It was mainly confined to the lithological divisions and did not deal with the palæontological side of the subject. The main physical features were taken, showing how they are connected with the geological structure. The effect of the geology and geological structure on certain questions of military operations was dealt with, notably with regard to water supply and military mining and dug-out construction. Particular attention was paid to the problem of obtaining water from boreholes in the Landenien (Thanet) sands, the causes and effect of the seasonal variation of water-level in the chalk, and the problem of the military mines near Messines, Givenchy-les-la-Bassée, and Souchez. The lecture ended with a description of certain maps which were prepared for the armies in France, and notes on several other problems which had to be dealt with by the geologists attached to General Headquarters.
On Friday, January 2nd, 1920, Dr. A. E. Trueman, F.G.S., read a paper on "The Liassic Rocks of the Cardiff District." The author said that the greater part of South Glamorganshire, from Cardiff westwards to beyond Bridgend, consists of lower Liassic rocks (Hettangian and Lower Sinemurian), which are well seen in some 20 miles of magnificent cliff sections. Only meagre descriptions of these rocks have been hitherto published. A detailed study has been undertaken, first because nowhere else in this country are such continuous sections of these rocks available, and, secondly, because the normal deposits consisting of limestones and shales seen near Cardiff, when traced westwards, pass into a littoral facies of massive limestones and conglomerates. In the present communication an account of the normal Liassic rocks of the Cardiff district is given, as this will form a basis for the correlation of the modified deposits further west. The lecture was illustrated by lantern-slides and specimens.