[Illustration: Versa1]




PUBLISHERS' NOTE

It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell & Co., of
London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
issued by them.




PREFACE

The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
publication of Prof. Maspero's _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
l'Orient Classique_, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has