the striking event which immediately preceded them, or in other words the inland campaign VIII.

But it is to be noticed, that Asy differentiates herself in two ways from the other two; in the first place by her failure to feel the effects of the inland campaign so urgently as did Kheta and Singara. This leads to the presumption, that she was not so near the seat of war as were the latter two. In the second place she differentiates herself from the two inland powers by hurrying to bring her presents, as soon as the conqueror makes his next appearance on the coast. The fear was not so much that Thothmes would invade her from the land side in campaign VIII, as he had turned away east; but that having once shown himself attentive to the far North, when next he appears on the sea-coast-only one year afterwards there is quite a possibility that he may be meditating a corresponding northerly campaign along the coastline.

§ 27. A glance at the map will show that a state north of Arvad and anywhere to the north-west of Lebanon must have looked upon the Egyptian doings with considerably more apprehension after campaign VIII than it did before. Now such a state was actually hemmed in both on the East and South, whereas up to the present it had been quite outside the Egyptian sphere, and was merely brought into the neighbourhood of Egyptian aggression by an advance from one direction only-the South-, and even then the results of that advance would be necessarily circumscribed owing to the nature of the country. This state of affairs however could not affect Cyprus.

Such a position as this will explain why Asy came during campaign IX rather than during campaign VIII, although there is nothing to show that Thothmes menaced her in any way. In fact, he appears to have confined himself to the coast of Phoenicia about S. Lebanon in the Tyre and Sidon district1). This was well within his own boundary, being far to the south of Simyra, Ullaza, and Arvad which had been subdued in campaigns V, VI and VII). Hence campaign IX can have nothing to do with the apprehension of Asy, and we are referred back to campaign VIII for a cause.

Neither this connection with the inland Kheta and Singara, nor yet the differentiation from them would have any force, if Asy were situated in Cyprus. Both are however entirely explained by the position assigned to Asy on the monuments, that is to say in the neighbourhood of Tunip, Tikhsi, Naharain etc. This neighbourhood must be understood in its natural sense to satisfy the connection, while the differentiation is satisfied by the information that Asy was a western land with connections with the coast of Cilicia.

Asy being now hemmed in on every side naturally thought it desirable to keep on as friendly terms as possible with her formidable neighbour, and we find that she again sent presents in the thirty eighth (?) year1). Once more she appears in connection with a far inland and Mesopotamian nation of the far North-the Arrapachitis, which has been mentioned above. For the third time she sent presents probably in the fortieth year), but the inscription is fragmentary, and she is here isolated, hence there is nothing to be deduced from it.

§ 28. We find that, just as Alashia, in our main source of information about her appeared as a mainland country, so in the Annals, Asy appears as a mainland country, subject to the same influences as are other mainland countries. We also find that the two nations with whom she first makes her appearance are Kheta and Singara, with which pair we have already seen Alashia to be especially bound up, and with which pair Asy is found on the monuments.

Besides showing that Asy's interests are continental and not island, this analysis makes it probable that Asy is on the sea-coast.

It is evident that Asy cannot be very far inland or else she would have felt the effects of campaign VIII as soon as Kheta, and would have appeared with this land in that same year, and not a year late. Moreover had she been inland and therefore in an easterly position Thothmes must almost certainly have invaded her, but Asy is not named in the list of conquered nations.

Therefore quite apart from the mention of her as a typical western land, an eastern position for her appears to be out of the question.

Other pieces of evidence are that (1) she shews herself to be affected by a menace to the coast-line, and (2) that her first appearance is along with maritime lands Keftiu3), Byblos and Sektu, which sent ships to meet Thothmes in the ports of Phoenicia. By these two pieces of evidence she assimilates herself to the coast nations, hence is herself probably a coast country. To this supposition agree both the improbability of her being situated at all in the east of the possible area assignable to her, and the western attributes which are especially hers.

Therefore of this district to which Asy is confined a coast-line must. be selected for her position.

§ 29. It has already been seen that Alashia is on the sea-coast north of Arvad, and in § 23 that Asy was north of Alashia. This position would postulate a stretch of land somewhere about the mouth of the Orontes. We know from the position of Alashia that Asy cannot stretch much to the south of this, and the copper will show that she probably does not stretch much further north, for the coast north of the Orontes 1) BAR II, § 511. 2) BAR II, § 521. 3) BAR II, §§ 492. 493.

valley is formed by the Amanus Mountains. Now whether copper may happen to occur here and there in the Amanus Mountains is difficult to discover, but a search in the geological maps and an enquiry among geological friends reveal the fact, that this range is unlikely to produce anything of the sort. Some support is lent to the belief in the absence of copper from these mountains, for we find that the northern range of Cypriote mountains, though of a different composition to the Amanus, does not produce this metal, which is entirely found in the hilly country in the middle of the island. This of course is a vague guide, but it should be remembered that Cyprus is just a continuation of the Amanus Mountains, and the position of the Cypriote copper mines is well known. Hence it is improbable that the land of Asy was situated in the Amanus Mountains, but was more likely to have been confined to the district just to the south of this range, which forms the valley of the Orontes, after it has turned to the sea. If the Cypriote parallel can be trusted the hills about this region should produce copper, for it is in the hilly country to the south of the range corresponding to the Amanus Mountains, and separated from it by the wide depression of the Mesaoric plain, corresponding with the swampy Kara-Su valley on the mainland, that copper is found in Cyprus, and this protracted on to the mainland will become the region of the lower course of the Orontes River.

This region then would fill all requirements in the Land of Asy. It is on the coast north of Alashia; not far removed from Kheta and other inland nations; to the west of the Egyptian dominions; nearer than the other Syrian coastlands to the far western Mallus; probably produces copper; and is in the neighbourhood of the lead-producing countries.

Is it therefore only a co-incidence that at this very spot such a name still exists to day as that given by the Arabs to the Orontes River, which they call1) (el asy), which in ancient times was also called "Ağtos)?

Further particulars of Asy and Alashia.

§ 30. It has thus been shown that everything points to the position. both of Asy and also of Alashia as being on the mainland, and that there is nothing distinctive of an island in either of them. As is natural in lands so closely situated there is practically no difference in their products. How similar the two actually are will appear from the following table of exports3). 1) Belot, Dict. Français-Arabe. Beyrouth 1890, p. 962. 2) Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie. Axios.

3) The numbers on the right of the columns refer, in the case of Asy to sections in Breasted, Ancient Records II; in the case of Alashia to letters in Winckler, Tell el Amarna Letters 1896 edn.; and the Alasa information is culled from Rec. de Travaux X, p. 209. 210.

Of these exports the copper, lead and ivory have already been treated in §§ 3. 14. 15. 18. 20. Of the others, the lapis lazuli, as khesbed is translated, is seen to be peculiar to Asy. This however cannot be of any weight for though lapis-lazuli is peculiarly distinctive of the presents from the nations of the extreme east-Assyria, Babylon, Mitanni, Singara1),

1) Assyria's presents in Thothmes' second campaign consist almost entirely of lapis lazuli, a specially fine quality of which is designated fine lapis lazuli from Babylon (BAR II, 446). Asshur-uballit sends a seal of blue-stone (Tell el Amarna Letters 15) and Burnaburiash of Babylon also sends lapis-lazuli, as does Dushratta of Mitanni (Tell el Amarna Letters 7. 9. 10. 17. 19. 22. 23), while the king of Singara's present so far at is remains to us consists exclusively of lapislazuli (BAR II, 484) amongst which figures once more the quality described as Babylonian.

yet it also forms a not uncommon part of the presents of Syria 1) in the Annals and paintings.

The wood, horses, liquids, slaves and asses are inconclusive not being distinctive of any particular land, while the gay clothing is suggestive of the blue and purple from the isles (coasts) of Elishah“ 2), which both suggests the blue and red (purple) striped and tasselled dresses so distinctive of the Syrians in the wall paintings of the Egyptian tombs, and the rolls of this cloth which these Syrians bring among their presents. The part of a ship, which is sent down into Egypt testifies to the maritime nature of the land that sent it. Unfortunately, this tablet is badly damaged, and the address of the sender is missing. However a comparison of its contents with those of the definitely Alashian letters leaves no doubt as to whence it originated.

Silver and gold are entirely absent from this list of exports both from Asy and also from Alashia3), but in a late geographical text of the time of Rameses II) the products of both Asy and Alasa are named as copper and silver. The scribe who composed this text has shown himself a somewhat unsafe guide in his allocation of the various materials mentioned by him, as for instance, when he makes Coptos provide stibium, Singara silver, and Kheta lapis-lazuli. Stibium is otherwise known as a product of Punt according to Müller, and the products of Singara and Kheta are not in accord with the Annals. Therefore this one mention of silver in a late inscription, when the Egyptians can have had very little direct intercourse with either Asy or Alasa can hardly be of much weight as against the unanimous evidence of the Annals and the Tell el Amarna Letters, both of which are likely to be much letter informed. The absence of silver is comparable to the request twice repeated by the king of Alashia") that the Pharaoh would send him this commodity. It is noteworthy that it is silver which is asked for in contradistinction to the gold so urgently desired by Dushratta of Mitanni. This would suggest that the standard of value in Alashia was silver rather than gold, and this again would point rather to a western connection for Alashia, i. e. with the silver producing Colchis, Cappadocia, and Chalybes 6).

1) See BAR II, 447. 459. 462. 509. 518. 536 (?) and the paintings of Rekhmara and Menkheperrasenb.

2) Ezekiel XXVII, 7.

3) This absence of gold and silver from Asy and Alashia differentiates these lands from the Yatuan (said to be Cyprus) which sent both gold and silver to Sargon. (Winckler, Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons I, p. 65, 11. 383–388.)

4) Max Müller, Egyptological Researches II, pp. 90–92.

5) Winckler, Tell el Amarna Letters 25. 26.

6) Strabo I, 2. 39; XI, 13, 8; XII, 3. 19.