the second century B.C., and (3) that of Wernicke, who assigns it to the first century after Christ. Rayet's theory was enunciated before the figured capitals and Gorgon frieze came to light. These have strong Pergamene affinities, and reinforce Haussoullier in assigning the façade to the second century. In my opinion he is wrong in relegating the frieze and dentils to the time of Caligula. In style and spirit they belong to the same period as the vases and capitals. Wernicke compares the Zeus head from the façade at Didyma with the sculptures by Damophon. But the analogy is far from close, and Damophon's date is quite as problematical as that of the façade of the temple, if not more so. Evidence has not yet been presented to justify so late a period for this temple.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30. 3 P.M.

Mr. Edward Robinson, Director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Vice-President of the Institute, presided.

1. Professor G. Frederick Wright, of Oberlin College, The Physical Conditions in North America during Man's Early Occupancy. (Published in Records of the Past, IV, 1905, pp. 15-26; 10 figs.)

The oldest definite evidence of man in America connects him with the waning stages of the glacial period. Such evidence is found in the valley of the Delaware at Trenton, N.J.; in the valley of the Ohio at Brilliant, near Steubenville; at Newcomerstown on the Tuscarawas River; at Madisonville, near Cincinnati, on the Little Miami; and at Lansing, on the Missouri River, near Leavenworth, Kan. Farther to the north they are credibly reported in deposits connected with the glacial period at Little Falls, Minn.; near New London, O.; and on the old beach line surrounding Lake Ontario.

The climatic conditions, however, were not so unfavorable as might at first seem, being far less rigorous than those in Greenland, where man exists at the present time. Protecting forests of cedar and other evergreens flourished up to the southern edge of the icesheet; while the mammoth, the Greenland reindeer, the moose, and the musk-ox roamed through the forests, and the walrus frequented the inlets of the middle Atlantic coast.

The implements found are in gravel deposits laid down by immense floods of water produced by the melting of the ice sheet. Primitive man witnessed annual floods of 100 feet in the Delaware, 150 feet in the Ohio, and 200 feet in the Missouri.

All along the watershed between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi valley he also witnessed that remarkable change in the course of the streams which took place when the ice had melted back from the watershed to open the present channels of northward flowing streams. There was a time during man's early occupancy of this watershed when the streams flowing over the many waste weirs into the Mississippi valley suddenly began to flow northward toward the Red River of the North, the St. Lawrence valley, and the valley of the Mohawk. In all this there are many scenes which can be worked up to good effect by some novelist who shall lay his plot ten thousand years ago and familiarize himself with the evidence of the natural events which then took place.

2. Professor Lewis B. Paton, of the Hartford Theological Seminary, Some Excavations on the Supposed Line of the Third Wall of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem at the time when it was besieged by Titus was protected by three walls on the north. The course of the first, or inner, wall is certain from the description of Josephus and from archaeological discoveries. It ran due east from a point near the present Jaffa Gate to the west wall of the temple. The courses of the second, or middle, wall, and of the third, or outer, wall cannot be determined from the account of Josephus, and the archaeological evidence is still uncertain. Only one fact is clearly established, namely, that an ancient wall followed the line of the present north wall of the city from the Jaffa Gate to the Damascus Gate. The determination whether this was the second or the third wall described by Josephus is one of the fundamental problems of Jerusalem archaeology.

The theory which identifies this wall with the third wall appeals to the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre inside of this wall. Christ was crucified outside of the second wall, hence it is claimed that this wall cannot be the second. Unfortunately, the genuineness of the sepulchre rests upon too slender historical evidence for its location to be a decisive argument in the case. It is also claimed that remains of the second wall are found inside of the Church of the Sepulchre, but a careful examination of these remains makes it very doubtful whether any of them ever belonged to a city wall. The wall laid down by Schick on the basis of these remains follows an inconceivably bad course, running on low ground all the way, and making three rectangular bends without reason. It does not correspond with Josephus's description of it as KUKλovμevov, and

if it had made the singular inward bend at the Church of the Sepulchre that Schick assumes, Josephus must have mentioned this fact. Moreover, the identification of the present north wall with the third wall does not do justice to Josephus's statements in regard to the distance between the third wall and the second, the size of the city, its large population, and the distance of the third wall from the monument of Helena and from Scopus.

Accordingly, we are forced to conclude that the remains along the line of the present north wall cannot be identified with the third wall of Josephus, but must belong to the second wall. In that case the third wall must be sought at some distance to the north of the present city wall. In 1838 Robinson found numerous traces of this wall and was able to determine its course for a considerable distance. Since that time the spread of the city toward the north has obliterated all signs of this wall, so that now people are able to assert that it never existed and that Robinson was mistaken.

During my stay in Jerusalem I made diligent search for this wall. The only remains that I could find above ground were some immense drafted stones in the side of a cistern about a third of a mile north of the Damascus Gate. These were not noticed by Robinson, but they were slightly examined by Wilson in 1865 and by Schick in 1875. Schick regarded them as part of a tomb. Conder supposed that the stones had belonged to the third wall, but that they had been moved from their original position. It seemed worth while to make them the object of a more thorough investigation, and I obtained permission to excavate. Examination showed that the stones were native rock, cut to imitate masonry, and revealed no traces of the tomb that Schick declared would be found under them. These stones are a rock ledge that has been cut into steps in order to allow a wall to be built upon it, and that has been dressed to match the masonry of this wall. The most likely hypothesis is that it served as a foundation for the third wall of the city that was built by King Agrippa.

3. Professor James M. Paton, of Wesleyan University, The Death of Thersites on an Amphora in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

According to our literary sources, Thersites was murdered by the fist or spear of Achilles, because of his ill-timed insults after the death of Penthesilea. The representation of the murder on the Tabula Iliaca is too indistinct to show clearly the version of the early epic. The vase in Boston—a Tarentine amphora from

near Bari-presents several novel features. Thersites has been beheaded, and lies among overturned vases and other vessels. Diomedes is hurrying to avenge him, but is restrained by Menelaus. Agamemnon also is hurrying to intervene. This version is probably not derived from the epic, nor can any literary source be named with certainty. It is possible that it refers to a story that Thersites was killed by Achilles for stealing the sacred vessels of Apollo. If so, it accords well with Usener's explanation of the original nature of Achilles and Thersites, and of their enmity.

4. Professor Samuel Ball Platner, of Western Reserve University, The Rostra.

This paper was a résumé of the latest theory of O. Richter, published in his monograph, Die Römische Rednerbühne, Berlin, 1903. This theory is based on recent study of the existing remains, which seems to show that the curved portion behind the rectangular Rostra, commonly called the Hemicycle, is older instead of younger than the other, and dates from the time of Julius Caesar. Richter therefore believes that this Hemicycle was the Rostra erected by Caesar and dedicated in 44 B.C. by Antonius. Trajan built the rectangular structure in front, and joined the two together, making one wide platform, approached by a curved flight of steps from the rear. Additional evidence for this view is afforded by a coin of Palicanus and the marble balustrades.

5. Professor Theodore F. Wright, of Cambridge, Mass., Lamps with Christian Inscriptions.

Hundreds of lamps have been found in tombs in Palestine and many of them show letters encircling the opening in the centre. It has been difficult to decipher these until it was seen that one sentence, WC XY PENI TTACIN, is the basic common inscription, but put on in various ways. The letters are sometimes not in proper order, and again a few of the letters may be repeated so as to fill the whole space. Some of these lamps are figured in Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1904, January, p. 24; October, pp. 327, 349; Excavations at Jerusalem, 1894-97, pl. xxvi. In Recueil d'Archéologie Orientale (1888), Vol. I, p. 171, M. Clermont Ganneau has treated of another common inscription, ΛΥΧΝΑΡΙΑ ΚΑΛΑ, and regards it as also Christian because of two lamps described in the Revue Biblique, October, 1898, p. 485, which have WC XY ENI TACIN KAAH, 'the light of Christ shines beautiful for all.' He believes these lamps to represent the

descent of the holy fire at the Greek Easter because these words are found in St. Basil's Liturgy, used at that time. They are derived from John i. 5, 9, and 1 John ii. 8.

6. Dr. Paul V. C. Baur, of Yale University, A Terra-cotta Tityrus in the Cincinnati Museum.

A terra-cotta statuette, 4 in. high, representing a combination of animal and man, was discussed. The figure stands upright and is human with the exception of the head and the feet. The head is that of a goat, and instead of human feet the creature has cloven hoofs. It was probably found in the Kabirion, Thebes, and is now in the Cincinnati Art Museum. As attributes it holds an unidentified object in its right hand and a horn of plenty in its left. From the cornucopia and the fact that this goat-demon is ithyphallic, we may safely conclude that he belongs to the attendants of the Thracian Dionysus, the most prominent of the group being Satyrs, Pans, Titans, Corybantes, and Curetes. All of these are essentially deities of procreation, and were, as Kaibel proved, closely allied to the Phrygian Mother of the Gods. Originally, however, they were phalli.

The name Tityrus seems to the writer of the paper to be the most appropriate appellation of this goat-demon, especially in view of Bücheler's explanation of the Greek titos and the Latin titus as meaning bird used metaphorically for phallus, an explanation accepted by v. Wilamowitz and others.

7. Dr. Oliver S. Tonks, of Columbia University, Exekias: a Master of the Black-figured Style.

Exekias is interesting because of his technique and because he belongs in the period just preceding the red-figured style. He signs ten times as maker and twice as maker and painter. On the neck of the signed deinos is a Sicyonian dedicatory inscription, which Brunn (Bull. d. Inst. 1865), dating it about 600 B.C., believed archaistic. Helbig (Bull. d. Inst. 1876), more rationally admitting a later date for the dedication, is wrong in placing the vase early in the fifth century B.C. With the rest of the works of Exekias it belongs about 550-540 B.C. This time reconciles the dates of the dedication and

the signature.

The style of Exekias, free so far as is possible in the black-figured style, is marked by a fineness of execution comparable with that of the François vase. The characteristics peculiar to our artist are