SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Boots of The wed: as hare not been reserved for review in other formal
Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries. By I,. W. King, M.A., and H. R. Hall, MA. (S.P.C.K. 10s.)—This work may be described as a supplement to the work of Professor Maspero published by the Society under the editorship of Pro- fessor Sayce a few years back. It is in the main an account of discoveries made since that publication. Excavators have been increasingly busy during this period, and no one could be better qualified than Messrs. King and Hall, who have themselves been busy in excavating work, to give an instructive summary of results. The first discovery dealt with is that of prehistoric Egypt. The reader, if he is to understand this remarkable addi- tion to our knowledge of the Land of the Nile, must begin by forming a quite new conception of the country. The Nile Valley was a jungle ; the inhabitants of the country occupied .the edge of the desert plateau, and lived mainly by hunting in the riverside tracts. The Egyptian Stone Age was a discovery of M. de Morgan, dating from 1895. Professor Flinders Petrie largely increased our knowledge by his excavations at Dendera. The objects discovered belong to the Neolithic time ; seine are in excellent style. A copper weapon is sometimes found among them. The prehistoric section, however, does not extend very far. Researches, covering a very large portion of Egyptian history, are here summarised. We have anaccount of discoveries relating to the last period of independence,to the reigns, i.e., of Apries and Amasis. We even come down to the explorations of Drs. Grenfell and Hunt, and to Philae, which belongs to the Romano-Egyptian time. (Many people talk of it as if it were one of the most ancient and precious of Egyptian antiquities.) Nor is Egypt the only country treated of. There much about the older and the younger Babylonian Empires, about . the Sumerian city in the spot now known as Tellop, and other matters full' of interest. The volume -is well illustrated throughout.
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