In this table it appears, that Alashia is not the only country that brings copper1), but is only one among a number, which are quite in keeping with those said by the monuments to be her neighbours; Arrapachitis being in the East near Singara; Tunip being in the North in the neighbourhood of Aleppo; Lebanon being in the neighbourhood of Arvad: and Rutennu being practically the Amorite Land. Alashia shows herself to be in touch with these lands by her correspondance mentioning Hatti and Singara near to Arrapachitis and Canaan just to the South of the Amorite Land and Rutennu.

§ 15. The copper has already been seen § 2 not to be distinctive of Cyprus as opposed to N. Syria; and now on a closer examination the copper not only fails in this respect, but it ceases even to be distinctive. of Alashia as opposed to her neighbours, but becomes common to a group of lands of N. Syria surrounding the site, to which it is proposed to restore Alashia, and among which Alashia is conspicuous by its large production. Thus fact is found to be in accord with the mineralogical possibilities quoted in § 2, and it is here made quite certain, that the ancient peoples of the XIV and XV cents B. C. availed themselves of the opportunities of obtaining copper, presented to them by this part of the world. That the much-copper-producing Alashia should be found in this continental company, is in accord with the results arrived at independently from a study

1. of the Geographical Lists,

2. of her interests as deduced from the Tell el Amarna Letters.
3. of the position suggested for the Biblical Elishah, which appears
to be the same land as Alashia.

1) In the Tell el Amarna Letters copper is hardly mentioned outside of the letters from Alashia. Dushratta of Mitanni in Letter 21, 1. 90 names copper or bronze apparently in a manufactured form. Ribaddi of Gebal names it once in a text that is unfortunately damaged (Knudtzon, letter 109, 1. 64).

In conclusion then it seems difficult to doubt, but that the old position assigned to Alashia, on the coast of N. Syria near the mouth of the Orontes, is the true one.

Asy.

§ 16. On approching the subject of the land of Asy and its position, it is necessary to call to mind the fact, that much that has been said of Alashia stands good for Asy also. Therefore to save unnecessary reiteration, the reader must be referred back to §§ 2. 3. 4, where he will find the statement of the distribution of copper, and its effect on any question in which the copper-producing qualities of Cyprus are concerned. A statement of the production of ivory of N. Syria will also be found there, and the effect, which the new information about the copper has on the hitherto difficult question of the export of ivory tusks form Asy, seeing that it was accepted as Cyprus.

The name Asy has been variously rendered into English as Asebi, Sebynai, and Masinai. These are owing to confused readings of the sign. The second two are no doubt a transference of the form obtained from the Canopus Stone, which will be discussed below.

§ 17. The land of Asy has now for some time been considered as Cyprus without demur1). The foundation) from which this belief grew was partly a comparison of the copper produced by Asy, and that produced in classical times by Cyprus, and partly a confusion between the XVIIIth

dynasty land

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m

113 iw (n)

wn sb The island of Seb") sbynai „The island of Sebynai" 4). Now these places are both called islands, and are both brought into immediate connection with Cyprus. For on the one hand the Island of Seb is brought into direct connection

4

with the Asiatic copper of the island of Р M. Iufrus, or as Müller suggests Kufrus Kégoos"). On the other hand the expression the island of Sebynai" is used in the hieroglyphic version of the Canopus Decree, to translate the Demotic name Salamina and the Greek Kéлoos.

There can therefore be no doubt whatever, but that these were Ptolemaic names of Cyprus, but they cannot be shown to have anything 1) See for instance the article signed A. E. Berlin, published in The Owl. Nicosia. Science Literature and Art Supplement, no. 3. Sat. Sept. 29. 1888. 2) See Maspero, The Struggle of the Nations, 1896, p. 201, note 3. 3) Brugsch, Rec. de Mons. IV, pl. LXVII, no. 8.

4) The Canopus Stone see Budge, The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus III, pl. opp. p. 35 1. 9. J. Krall, Demotische Lesestücke II, Tafel I, 1. 6.

5) Asien und Europa, p. 336.

to do with the XVIIIth dynasty name Asy, with which the first only has one sign in common and the second two signs. Unless there be more proof than this forthcoming, they can only be considered as quite different names. The name Sebynai appears from its form to be connected with the Salamina of the demotic1).

But supposing that these Ptolemaic names could be proved to beconnected with the XVIIIth dynasty name Asy, even this would not prove that the old Asy meant Cyprus, because by Ptolemaic times Cyprus would have become famous for its copper, and on the strength of this alone the Ptolemaic scribes might easily have considered as modern archaeologists have done that the name of a land, which in the XVIIIth dynasty produced as much copper as did Asy must in those ancient days have been the name of the land which they themselves knew as famous for its copper i. e. Cyprus. Had such been the case when translating the Greek or Demotic original into hieroglyphs, they would naturally have used this name for Cyprus.

§ 18. The evidence of the copper as pointing to Cyprus has been shown in §§ 2 and 14 and not to be of the weight originally supposed, for this metal, which was distinctive of Cyprus in classical days. was in the time of the XVIIIth dynasty distinctive, not of Cyprus, but of a group of nations in N. Syria, whence came the epithet applied by the Egyptians—Asiatic. By taking the table of copper as drawn up in § 14 and substituting Asy for Alashia we get:

1) Hall has suggested that by a slight emendation this name

and hence may be the same as the Assyrian Yatnan. Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 163, note 1. This however would only prove that Yatnan was Cyprus, and not that Asy was Cyprus. This emendation however is only possible on the strength of the first copy of the Canopus Stone, where the sign is badly written In the second copy the sign appears to be written correctly.

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Asy is here found to fit into the copper producing series of countries just as well as did Alashia, and perhaps she does not show such a preeminence among them in this respect as the afore-named country. Hence just as Alashia shewed no definite signs of being the island Cyprus, but did show signs of being a mainland country, so does Asy, perhaps even to a less extent, distinguish herself from this mainland group and place herself in Cyprus.

$ 19. We have now seen that the foundations of this equation between Asy and Cyprus1) are not sufficiently firm to resist an attempt to locate this land in the neighbouring county of N. Syria. Further it may be noticed that various authorities, who were not in possession of the new information about the copper-and hence felt obliged to accept the equation of Asy and Cyprus,-did not feel that it was quite satisfactory. Thus Max Müller) says: "Wunderlich ist nur, daß, während die Orientalen sonst überall in fernen Küsten Inseln sehen wollen, die Ägypter nie in alter Zeit dieses Land als Insel erwähnen. Die Identifikation des Namens 'Asiy mit Cypern ist also nicht unbedingt sicher, doch scheint die Tradition hier immerhin mehr Vertrauen zu verdienen als sonst."

Again Oberhummer in his monograph on Cyprus feels obliged to sum up: Freilich genügt das Alles nicht, um die Gleichung Asebi Cypern sicher zu stellen, welcher bis jetzt im besten Falle nur ein hoher Grad von Wahrscheinlichkeit zukommt“ 3).

1) No support to this equation is afforded by the list of conquered peoples of Rameses III at Medinet Habu, (Brugsch, Hist. of Egypt under the Pharaohs, Vol. II, p. 152; Daressy, Rec. de Trav. 1898, p. 116) which is an unusual one. In it Brugsch sees a number of Cypriote towns with Asia Minor and Syrian places. There is no reason against this as it is at the time of the Sea-Raids, in which the inhabitants of the towns on this island may well have taken part. But then again there is nothing to connect this list of Cypriote towns with Asy. Asy is not mentioned in this list.

2) Asien und Europa, 1893, p. 337.

3) E. Oberhummer, Die Insel Cypern, 1903, p. 4.

Another writer says1): „To the present date in the older Egyptian inscriptions, no reference to Cyprus has been discovered).“

Moreover Müller notes that in the Egyptian inscriptions the ruler of Asy is always referred to as the Prince of Asy-in the singular and not in the plural-though later Sargon found seven princes in Yatnan3) (Cyprus).

§ 20. Apart from this variation between the Asy of the XVIII th dynasty and the later Cyprus, the products of the land present two actual difficulties in the acceptance of Asy as Cyprus. These are:

1. The export of ivory tusks.

2. The export of lead.

The question of the tusks has been largely dealt with in §§ 3 and 4. When a people exports raw material like this, it is natural to suppose it to be a product of the country. But while we have seen above, that elephants were at least fairly common on the mainland, it seems hard to believe that they existed in any numbers in Cyprus at so late a date as the XIVth or XVth cents B. C.

Lead is a considerable export from Asy for she sends on one occasion 5x blocks of lead 1200 nws (? pigs) of lead, and then again she sends 1 block. Nws is a doubtful word 4), but anyhow a large quantity is indicated. Now lead does not appear to be a product of Cyprus, and has not yet been proved in the island"). But on the other hand it occurs in the Annals as tribute from Syria some seven times apart from this mention from Asy.

1) „Older" refers to the New Kingdom as opposed to the Ptolemaic times. The article is signed only by the initials A. E., but as it is dated Berlin 1888, it is no doubt by Prof. Adolf Erman. The Owl. Nicosia. Science Literature and Art Supplement, no. 3. Sat. Sept. 29., 1888.

2) I see that in his new book The Ancient History of the Near East Hall also rejects the Asy Cyprus equation and suggests the Syrian coast north of Phoenicia, p. 243, note 1.

3) H. Winckler, Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons, I, p. 65, 1. 383 et passim.

4) Translated "pigs" by Breasted, but from its use in the Great Harris Papyrus, it would appear the rather to be a weight, for one reads for instance, „Real lapis-lazuli: a statue of the Nile God nusa 6, 784", BAR IV, 302.

5) Oberhummer, Die Insel Cypern, pp. 182, 183.

Klio, Beiträge zur alten Geschichte XIV 1.

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