are brought to light of a very ancient semi-civilization, in which we
find stone weapons and implements, besides pottery, often elegant in
contour, but for the most part coarse in texture and execution. These
remains, however, are not accompanied by any monument of definite
characteristics, and they yield no information with regard to the
origin or affinities of the tribes who fashioned them.* The study of the
geographical nomenclature in use about the XVIth century B.C. reveals
the existence, at all events at that period, of several peoples and
several languages. The mountains, rivers, towns, and fortresses in
Palestine and Coele-Syria are designated by words of Semitic origin: it
is easy to detect, even in the hieroglyphic disguise which they bear
on the Egyptian geographical lists, names familiar to us in Hebrew or
Assyrian.

* Researches with regard to the primitive inhabitants of
Syria and their remains have not as yet been prosecuted to
any extent. The caves noticed by Hedenborg at Ant-Elias,
near Tripoli, and by Botta at Nahr el-Kelb, and at Adlun by
the Duc de Luynes, have been successively explored by
Lartet, Tristram, Lortet, and Dawson. The grottoes of
Palestine proper, at Bethzur, at Gilgal near Jericho, and at
Tibneh, have been the subject of keen controversy ever since
their discovery. The Abbé Richard desired to identify the
flints of Gilgal and Tibneh with the stone knives used by
Joshua for the circumcision of the Israelites after the
passage of the Jordan (_Josh._ v- 2-9), some of which might
have been buried in that hero's tomb.

But once across the Orontes, other forms present themselves which reveal
no affinities to these languages, but are apparently connected with one