Abstract
OWING to the operation of the Antiquities Law of Palestine, none of the objects excavated at Gaza during the last season by the British School of Archæology in Egypt has been allowed to leave the country. Sir Flinders Petrie accordingly announces that the usual exhibition of antiquities at University College, London, will not take place this year, Lantern lectures on the year's work of the School were delivered at the College on June 14, 16 and 19. The main work of the expedition, of which a preliminary account was given in a letter from Sir Flinders Petrie in the Times of Juno 14, was directed to clearing an area of about four acres along the river side, from which a large number of objects was recovered. One of the most noteworthy results was the large number of gold ornaments obtained from burials and from goldsmiths' hoards. These included ear-rings of granular goldwork of unique type. The prominence of Irish goldsmiths' work is again obvious. On the other hand, in a burial of a little girl, the gold-work is on the Egyptian weights standard and it included pendants of hippopotamus and of Horus. The most marked feature of the finds as a whole is their varied provenance, pointing to the importance of this ancient port, to which the presence of more than 200 haematite weights testified. Persian trade is indicated not only by a dagger from Lauristan, but also by an abundance of Persian weights, in number half as many as those from Egypt. Relations with the Caucasus are indicated by daggers of bronze, while the use of the toggle pin, of which specimens were found in all the deposits, belongs to the Caspian. The most considerable building unearthed is of middle Hyksos age and may be a temple.
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Excavations at Gaza, 1933–34. Nature 133, 942 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133942a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133942a0