The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-18

fourth. city, represented a taller race,
the average height being about five
feet six inches, and the maximum five
inches more. They were more strongly
built, their faces longer. their noses
more prominent, and their skulls
slightly more circular.
Probably they belong to the earliest
wave of Semitic immigration; that is,
to the primitive Amerites. A consider
able quantity Of pottery has been
found. That belonging to the earlier
race is coarse and rude, that of the fol-
lowing one being better chapel: but
neither conforms with Egyptian or
Phoenician designs. Jars and other
objects of wrought stone Were also
found, with some Clipped flint tools.
The pre-Semitic people who burned
their dead apparently were unaquaint
ed with metal; those who buried them
possessed good weapons of copper and
bronze. This is remarkable, for in
western Europe cremation came in
with the bronze age. Yet here, also,
the earlier and shorter race. survivors
of which may still be detected in the
Bacque country, Brittany, and parts of
our own islands, had longer skulls than
the better-equipped invaders, who
| drove them out, and continued the
building of Megalithic structures. Such
structures, though they occur over a
| large extent of Europe, in northern AZ
RIGA and in parts Of Asia, are far from
common in Palestine, so that the dis
! tn sn4f N,. Nth he
folk that erected them, forms a Valua-
| BILE addition to knowledge.
Parts Of the site remain unexplored,
! and an appeal is made for funds to car
ry on this most important investiga-
ton, but the evidence already obtained
leads to the following conclusion: The
first inhabitants Of the hill fortress
were a Neolithic people, who burned
their dead. Next came primitive Sc
mite race of the copper and early
bronze age These encircled the origi-
nal fortress with the outer and stronger
wall. Probably the first-possibly the
second-race practiced human sacrifice.
Two later Semitic occupations followed,
the former of which, if the evidence of
scarabs be trusted, were in possession
not less than two thousand years B. c.
They occupied in turn the ancient hill
fortress, which they did not recon-
struct, but remains of their dwellings
and possessions occur in the higher
strata of debris. other relics, besides
those just mentioned, prove some COM
munication with Egypt, and one clay
cylinder indicates a direct or indirect
trade with Babylon.
The former is not surprising, for it
had been a great and mighty nation for
centuries before the age of Abraham,
and the noted Tell-el-Amarna tablets
show that some sixteen centuries be-
fore the present era Egyptian COVER
nors had authority over many towns of
Palestine, Syria and even Babylonia, by
whom reports were duly sent to their
Lord. In one of these the name of &C.
ger actually occurs. But the scarabs
and seals found there probably belong
to date much prior to the Amarna
tablets and the Egyptian occupation.
1t is also interesting to note that the
pottery found at Gezer is generally
distinct in shape and ornamentation
from the older Egyptian, and from
that dug up at Tell-el-Hesy (the an
cient Lachish), which is referred to as
Phoenician art, The excavations on
the site of Gezer, therefore, have
proved not only the presence Of an alb
original race which dwelt in Palestine
before it was touched by the first wave
of the Semitic influx, but also that the
hill fortress had been occupied for at
least several centuries before 1t was
cacked by the Hebrews under Jushua.--
London Standard