COPTIC ROOM (V). Coptic gravestones, architectural fragments, and inscriptions. In the Table Cases are crosses, combs, and other small objects.
ASSYRIAN AND PARTHIAN ROOM (IV). In the Wall Cases are pottery, inscribed tablets, and articles in bronze (in 1 and 48, two shields and finely ornamented metal plates and bowls). In the Table Cases are seals, rings, gems, necklaces, gold jewellery, gold masks. In the Standard Cases are baked clay cylinders (2000-625 B.C.) and seal cylinders (2500-350 B.C.). Note the seal cylinders in gold mounts in Case B. In Case A are tablets from the library of Assur-bani-pal.
BABYLONIAN ROOM (III). Wall Cases 1-10 (West end), Babylonian statues, gate-sockets, inscribed bricks, and memorial stones; 13. Cast of the black basalt stele (in the Louvre) inscribed with the Code of Laws of Khammurabi, King of Babylon (circa 2200 B.C.), from which the laws of Moses are largely derived; 14-20. Inscribed bricks and boundary stones (1700-885 B.C.); 21-29. Inscribed coffers, tablets, slabs, and bricks of Assyrian kings; 30-34. Monuments and bricks of Nebuchadnezzar II. (604-561 B.C.) and glazed terracotta coffins (circa 200 B.C.); 35-43. Inscriptions in Persian, Cuneiform, and Parthian characters. Many of the Babylonian tablets are case-tablets, i.e. tablets in clay envelopes (2300-2000 B.C.). In the Table Cases are Phoenician ivory carvings after Egyptian designs; tablets with state correspondence with Kings Amenophis III. and IV. of Egypt, circa 1450 B.C., found at Tell-el-Amarna; tablets with chronological, grammatical, and magical inscriptions, perhaps designed for educational purposes. In the Upright Cases are inscribed cylinders of the Second Babylonian Empire and its successors, stone steles of the First Babylonian Empire (2400626 B.C.), and bronze statuettes.
The PHOENICIAN ROOMS (II and I) contain antiquities from Phoenicia, from Carthage (a Phoenician colony), from Palestine, and from Palmyra, and also Himyaritic inscriptions.
The Phoenicians occupied all Palestine till the Hebrews (who knew them as 'Canaanites') confined them to the famous cities of Tyre and Sidon and other parts of the seaboard. They were at all times the great traders of the ancient world, penetrating so far as Britain and India, and they were noted for their work in metal. Their alphabet was, through the Greek, the origin of our own.
PALMYRENE ROOM (II). Wall Cases, Busts, inscriptions, and funerary tablets. In the Central Cases are cones, cylinder seals, steatite scarabs, bronzes, and other small objects from Palestine and Syria. From Palmyra, or Tadmor, in Syria, comes a series of busts, representing mainly officials of the Roman period. The Himyaritic inscriptions are from Saba in Arabia.
PHOENICIAN AND HEBREW ROOM (I). In Wall Cases 5 and 3 are shown casts of two very ancient inscribed stones, one the Moabite Stone (circa 900 B.C.), which records the wars of Mesha, King of Moab, against various kings of Israel, including Ahab and Jehoshaphat (2 Kings, chap. iii.); and the other a stone from the conduit which fed the Pool of Siloam (circa 700 B.C.), bearing a description of the making of the conduit, 1200 cubits long, and the meeting of the two parties of miners, who had started from the opposite ends. In Wall Case 12 is a Samaritan inscription, with citations from the Bible. Cases I and XII. Casts of the sarcophagus covers of the kings of Sidon (circa 360 B.C.). In the centre is an obelisk (47) with a Phoenician inscription (circa 380 B.C.).
