Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Notes on Mr Davis' Paper
NOTES ON MR. DAVIS' PAPER.
By Major C. R Conder, R.E.
The author having kindly showed me this paper, and asked me to add any remarks that occurred to me, I venture to make a few, though little can be added to such a scholarly explanation of the Siloam text—a subject never as yet fully treated in the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The word נקבה sense of a "rock cutting," survives to the present day in Palestine, in the term Nukb (masc), for artificial passages cut in cliffs, as will be seen in the Name Lists of the Survey Memoirs.
There can be no doubt that the translation of the sixth line of the inscription is at present very uncertain. It must have recorded something important in connection with the levels or measurements—perhaps the difference of level of the two galleries where they met.
The hieroglyphic origin of the alphabet is not disputed by any scholar. The Egyptian origin was always denied by the late Dr. Robertson Smith, and seems to present many difficulties. All attempts to trace a derivation directly from the Cuneiform have failed, and there only remains one other known source, namely, the hieroglyphic system of Syria, usually called "Hittite." My impression is that this system developed first the syllabary known in Cyprus, and afterwards—either independently or directly—the Syrian Alphabet and the larger Ionian Alphabet, which is closely connected with the Cypriote. This view is supported by the resemblances between ה and the Cypriote E; ו and the Cypriote u; ח and the Cypriote Khe; כ and the Cypriote Ke; מ and the Cypriote Mi; ע and the Cypriote â; פ and the Cypriote Pe; ר and the Cypriote Ra; ש and the Cypriote Se.
As regards the hieroglyphic origin, there seems little doubt that Aleph represents a "bull's" head and horns, and the Cuneiform sign noticed by Mr. Davis (No. 232) is also, in its oldest form, the bull's head. The same sign occurs often on Hittite monuments.
The suggestion as to Gimel is novel, as is also that about Zain (supported by the peculiar form of the letter as appearing on the Siloam text). The sign for Yod, "the open hand," and that for Caph, "the closed hand," both resemble signs used in Hittite. The sign for Resh is also exactly like one of the most peculiar of the Hittite hieroglyphs. These comparisons have the advantage of accounting for the names of the letters, which have never been explained by the theory of Egyptian origin.