g to be
meddled with; possibly the Egyptian fleet was acting in concert with the
troops on land, and Ramses cared only to lead his forces to some spot on
the north Syrian coast, from whence, if necessary, the ships could
convey them home. Whatever may have been the reason, the fact remains
that Gaza alone of the cities of the Canaanitish coast fell into the
hands of the Pharaoh. It was only in the extreme south, in what was so
soon afterwards to become the territory of Judah, that he overran the
country and occupied the large towns.

With the lists of Ramses III. our knowledge of the geography of
Patriarchal Palestine is brought to a close. Henceforward we have to do
with the Canaan of Israelitish conquest and settlement. The records of
the Old Testament contain a far richer store of geographical names than
we can ever hope to glean from the monuments of Egypt. But the latter
show how little change after all was effected by the Israelitish
conquest in the local nomenclature of the country. A few cities
disappeared like Kirjath-Sepher, but on the whole not only the cities,
but even the villages of pre-Israelitish Canaan survived under their old
names. When we compare the names of the towns and villages of Judah
enumerated in the Book of Joshua with the geographical lists of a
Thothmes or a Ramses, we cannot but be struck by the coincidences
between them. The occurrence of a name like Hadashah, "the New (Land),"
in both cannot be the result of chance. It adds one more to the many
arguments in favour of the antiquity of the Book of Joshua, or at all
events of the materials of which it consists. Geography, at all events,
gives no countenance to the theory which sees in the book a fabrication
of later date. Even the leading cities of the Israelitish period are for
the most part already the leading cities of the earlier Palestine. The
future capital of David, for example, was already called Jerusalem long
before the birth of Moses, and already occupied a foremost place among
the kingdoms of Canaan.

CHAPTER VI

CANAANITISH CULTURE AND RELIGION

We have already learned from the annals of Thothmes III. how high was
the state of civilization and culture among the merchant princes of
Canaan in the age of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty. Artistically
finished vases of gold and silver, rich bronzes, furniture carved out of
ebony and cedar, and inlaid with ivory and precious stones--such were
some of the manufactures of