The following were nominated for election :

Edward Thomas Davis, 75, Caversham Road, Camden Road, N.W. Alfred H. Paul, Tetbury.

The Rev. James Robertson, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, Glasgow University.

Mr. H. Villiers Stuart, M.P., in exhibiting a large coloured drawing of the remarkable funeral canopy lately discovered near Thebes, produced some fragments of the original leather, the colours of which were now as bright as the day they were made. He stated that Queen Isi-em-kheb, in whose honour the canopy had been made, was a contemporary of Solomon, being mother-in-law to Shishak, who took Jerusalem after the death of the latter.

He further, as illustrations of the paper by Mr. Lund, exhibited paper squeezes of the heads of Amenhotep IV and Khuenaten, from the figures which respectively occur on the opposite sides of the façade of the tomb, which he himself had discovered and excavated at Thebes.

Mr. Villiers Stuart pointed out that there could not well be a greater contrast between the two heads, although up to the present time Egyptologists had concurred in considering that Khuenaten and Amenhotep IV were the same person, and that the names were nothing more than the earlier and later name of the same disk-worshipping Pharaoh.

He pointed out that on this tomb Amenhotep was represented as being remarkably stout and burly in physique, while on the contrary Khuenaten was a lean, effeminate looking man, just as he is represented in the well-known Tel-el-Amarna sculptures.

Mr. Villiers Stuart called attention to what he thought must be a fatal objection to Mr. Lund's identification. The Bible told us that from the time of Joseph's death and the Exodus, the children of Israel increased from seventy to 1,000,000; and it was remarked that the 430 years assigned by St. Paul to the Egyptian bondage would not be too much time to allow for that increase, and would just correspond

with the interval between Amasis, the founder of the XVIIIth dynasty, and Meneptha, in whose reign the chronicler Manetho dated the Exodus.

A Paper entitled "The Epoch of Joseph: Amenhotep IV as the Pharaoh of the Famine," was read by Mr. L. Lund.

After some introductory remarks, Mr. Lund, to fix the epoch of Joseph, took his starting point from the statements of the Bible (Gen. xlvii, vv. 14-20, 25-26), that Joseph, during the famine, caused the Egyptians to sell, as payment for grain, their treasures, their landed property, and even their persons, to the king; and that, from Joseph's days, the Egyptian king was the owner of the whole. country. This is further explained by some passages from Artabanos (Euseb. "Præp. Evang.," IX, c. 23), indicating that Joseph had diminished or abolished the power of the magnates of the country, a measure that generally is identical with the establishment of an absolute kingdom. The first step must be, consequently, to investigate, from the documents of Egyptian history, whether such a social revolution ever has taken place, and if so at what time.

A comparison between the inscriptions in the tombs, from different epochs, will settle the question. From the ancient reigns, and also from the so-called XIIth, XIIIth, and XVIIIth dynasties, we have a number of inscriptions from tombs of magnates often exhibiting a feeling of content with the honours having been bestowed upon them by their sovereigns, but always maintaining a proud, independent spirit. Quite different is the spirit of documents and inscriptions dating from the so-called XIXth dynasty, when the king often is adulated and exalted in a way before unknown. The earliest documents in which this new spirit is apparent are those from the times of Amenhotep IV (Khunaten). As the magnates are still flourishing under Amenhotep III, at least during the first part of his reign, there are some reasons to suppose that the revolution must have taken place at the end of the reign of this king, or at the commencement of that of his successor. The next step then will be to investigate whether at this time some events may have happened in Egypt like those mentioned in the Bible in connection with the history of Joseph.

From the later years of the reign of Amenhotep III, we have a very important monument in the tomb of Khamhat (or Shamhat), a

magnate and high functionary. (Prisse d'Avennes: "Monuments Égyptiens," pl. 39-42. Lepsius: "Denkmäler," Abth. III, pl. 76, 77.) Here the pictures and inscriptions alike commemorate the fact that the crops were abundant, and that the collection of grain was a chief business of the royal government at that time. "The superintendent of the magazines of grain" is mentioned as being busy in speaking to the landowners to induce them to yield to the king the greatest possible quantity of grain. Further, we receive the information that the king paid for the grain with neck-chains.

A number of official reports mentioning a king Amenhotep, written on pieces of calcareous stone, and preserved in the British Museum, must also date from the later times of Amenhotep III, or the commencement of the reign of his successor (Birch: "Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Character," pl. XII, XIII, XV, and XXVIII. Chabas: "Mélanges," IIIme. Série, Tome I, pp. 202-220). They are four in number, and in three of them grain or granaries are mentioned. In two of them is mentioned also a very high dignitary, and both the king and this dignitary are honoured by an unusual application of the determinative to their titles, and even to verbs or pronouns relating to them, which seems to indicate that the documents date from a time immediately after the establishment of a new state of things. One of these documents (Birch, l.c., pl. XV) states that at the day of the coronation of King Amenhotep, and at other times during the commencement of his reign, workmen broke into houses and stole loaves, cakes, grain, beer, in short victuals of all kinds, which seems to indicate that a famine raged at that time. There are reasons for believing that the king mentioned is Amenhotep IV, and the very high dignitary who is honoured by the determinative, had charge of the magazines of victuals.

In a tomb of the southern necropolis of El Amarna (No. III, by Lepsius: "Denkmäler," Abth. III, pl. 108, 109), a picture is preserved, representing King Amenhotep IV, accompanied by his queen and his daughters, standing on a balcony; a crowd of people are appearing before him, and he evidently is explaining something to his subjects. At the foot of the balcony a high functionary is seen standing in the attitude of giving his orders. Near him a clerk is busy writing something; before this clerk stands a box, in which the people are depositing neck-chains and other valuables, while they at the same time ask for a written receipt from the clerk. Behind

the clerk other people are waiting, listening to the king's words, and bringing with them leather bags and large vases, which were employed to carry grain in, as we know from other documents and pictures. Below, two other clerks are delivering to the people the bags or vases filled; and the people are seen carrying away on their shoulders the large vases and bags, which seem to be heavy. Two guardian clerks stand at the gate through which the people are passing out. This picture seems to be a copy of a bas-relief which adorned some wall of the new temple of Aten, in Thebes, built by Amenhotep IV: at least the king's figure, in the same attitude and with the same ornaments, is found again on a stone originally used in the said temple (cf. Prisse d'Avennes: "Monuments Égyptiens," pl. XI, 4).

In another tomb at El Amarna (No. 1, by Lepsius: "Denkmäler," Abth. III, Bl. 103-105), we meet with a picture which seems to have been executed some few years after the one mentioned. Here the king and the queen, with three daughters, are seen standing on a balcony, throwing out to the people for scrambling all kinds of ornaments and precious things. Foremost in the crowd are seen the possessor of the tomb, Aï (afterwards a king), and his wife Ti, receiving the lion's share of the treasures. Somewhat in the background, and turning his back to the scene described, stands another high dignitary, apparently of still higher rank than Aï; a number of people are urgently asking for something, or imploring him, and kissing his feet. But his attitude is not at all that of a mild benefactor: he rather appears as a diplomate, explaining that only on certain conditions will he grant their requests.

Consequently we have, from the epoch supposed to be that of Joseph, a series of monuments agreeing with the narrative of the Bible concerning him and his work in Egypt. During the latter period of the reign of Amenhotep III grain in great quantities is purchased by the king, and during the first year of the reign of Amenhotep IV the king sells grain to his subjects. Further, everywhere in these documents or pictures, a high dignitary appears, of so high a rank that he is honoured with the determinative of a god, and figured in the tombs of other prominent people. This high dignitary, so unusually honoured, has charge of the granaries, and superintends the sale of grain from the royal magazines. His name is nowhere mentioned, but he fills exactly the place which, according to the account of the Bible, Joseph occupied.

The two pictures mentioned above, from the tombs of El Amarna, perfectly illustrate the narrative of the Bible about the famine. The earlier one agrees with the description of the earlier years of the famine (Genesis, xli, 54-56): Pharaoh said to all Egypt, "Go to Joseph, and do as he says to you." And Joseph opened all the magazines and sold to the Egyptians. (Genesis xlvii, 14): Joseph collected all the valuables that existed in the country . . . for the grain which they purchased, etc.-And the latter picture illustrates the end of the famine (cf. Genesis xlvii, 18): "Nothing is left us to offer to my lord, beyond our persons and our dominions; why shall we die before thy eyes? Take us, ourselves and our dominions, in payment for bread!" Concerning this last mentioned picture, some passages from the so called Targum of Jonathan-ben-Uzziel, and from. the Targum Jerushalmi (to Genesis xlix, 22), also seem to prove that it really belongs to the epoch of Joseph.

In order to fully and firmly establish the new theory, it remains to investigate whether all other documents relating on one side to the history of Amenhotep III and IV, and on the other side to Joseph, are in conformity with it. Mr. Lund announced that he had during some years collected, from different sources, a great number of documents relating to the history of Egypt and the Hebrews during the epoch from Amenhotep III to Rameses II, which are all in har mony with the above conclusions, and which he considered satisfactorily explained the seemingly contradictory statements of the Bible, Eusebius, Syncellus, Abulfaraj, etc. From want of time it was impossible to consider all the material collected; he therefore chose those documents which principally related to the reign of Amenhotep IV, or the history of the famine, such as different monuments or inscriptions, and some passages and narratives from Rabbinical writings, from Manetho, Tabari, Strabon, Diodoros, etc. In conclusion, a sketch was given of the history of Amenhotep IV as it would appear after the results obtained. The following are some of the principal points in this sketch :

During the first part of the reign of Amenhotep III, a magnate, Amenhotep, surnamed Hui, seems to have governed both king and country, like another Richelieu. As his opponent in political as well as in religious questions, appears the queen Tii; the monotheistic movement, so peculiar in this time, seems to have originated many years before Joseph made his appearance in Egypt. The queen