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William Wright (15 January 1837 – 31 July 1899) was an Irish missionary in Damascus and the author of The Empire of the Hittites (1884), which introduced the history of the recently discovered Hittite civilization to the general public. He is the author of the quote Absence of evidence is not evidence. He is the father of father of Australian poet and journalist David McKee Wright.

Publications

• The Empire Of The Hittites, with the Decipherment of the Hittite Inscriptions by Professor A. H. Sayce
• The Brontes in Ireland
• An Account Of Palmyra And Zenobia: With Travels And Adventures In Bashan And The Desert

References

1. "Dictionary of national biography : Stephen, Leslie, Sir, 1832-1904 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
2. Wright, William (1888). "The Empire of the Hittites". Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain. 21. London: The Victoria Institute: 55–64. Retrieved 30 August 2021. p. 59.: It is urged that the Hittites could not have been settled in Southern Palestine because there are few direct references to their southern settlements in the inscriptions. To this I reply, that the absence of evidence is not evidence. The Egyptians marched up the coast of Syria, and turned inland to Megiddo and Kadesh, where they met the Hittites. The inscriptions are full of the doings of the Hittites at Megiddo and Kadesh, because the Egyptians went thither. They have nothing to say of the Hittites of Hebron, because the Egyptians did not go thither. The inscriptions are records of what happened during campaigns in which Egypt must have made great sacrifices. Paper read on January 3, 1887 by the author.
3. Uncovering the Past: A History of Archaeology. Oxford University Press. 1993. p. 114. ISBN 9780195089219. OCLC 1014620260. Archived from the original on 29 November 2019 – via Index. {{cite book}}: External link in |via= (help)

Sources

• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1900). "Wright, William (1837-1899)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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