British Museum
4th May 1871
My dear Sir,
My Inaugural address is to be printed not actually by the Society but in a review – which will give a 100 copies to be distributed amongst the members. It will not appear till July. The Society will be very glad to have any more papers that you can write, and passed at the last Council a resolution ordering the Secretary to obtain specimens and inquire about the expence of Proceedings and Transactions. My own impression is that it would be best to commence with Proceedings and give short papers in them in extenso – We had at the last meeting a paper on some recent discoveries in Cairo of a new tablet of Alexander II son of Alexander the Great <1> published in the Zeitschrift <2> and some notes on Himyaritic Inscriptions <3> – with a paper on the supposed origins of A’ιγυπτος by Dr Goldschmidt of Copenhagen. <4> We have added to our members which are now about 80 and there seems a prospect of our obtaining more papers. I am going to translate a paper by M. Clermont Ganneau <5> on a Phœnician inscription found in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem It is of the time of the King’s or Ante Maccabean <6> – and has in it the name of Baal <7> showing that it was made by the Baalites. But it is important as showing that the Ph œnician not the square Hebrew was in use at the period. This might indeed have been conjectured from the inscribed stones found at Jerusalem but its proof comes from the recent discovery of M. Ganneau.
Believe me Yours very Truly
S Birch
H. Fox Talbot EsqeNotes:
1. Son of Alexander the Great (356–323).
2. Zeitschrift der Deutsche-Morgenländische Gesellschaft.
3. See Doc. No: 00217.
4. Egypt. Birch has probably made a mistake here by referring to a Dr Goldschmidt instead of Prof Johan Henrik Gamst Valdemar Schmidt (1836–1925), Danish Egyptologist, who was a correspondent of WHFT. [See Doc. No: 09663].
5. Charles Simon Clermont Ganneau (1846–1923), archaeologist. [See Doc. No: 09621].
6. Probably a reference to the Maccabean (pertaining to Judas Maccabeus) revolt when Priests quit Jerusalem.
7. God worshiped by ancient Semitic people.