Butler, Howard Crosby: Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899 - 1900 (Band 2): Architecture and other arts (New York, 1903)

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DJEBEL HAURAN

Shehba. bust. We found but one monument of Christian figure sculpture in the
Djebel Hauran. This was outside the east gate of the city of Philippopolis. It is a

small relief, presumably from the upper part of a grave-
stone, and represents the figure of a man from the waist
up. The face has been completely broken away. The
upper part of the body is wrapped in drapery crudely
wrought, which falls in straight lines from the shoulders,
and is drawn in regular curves across the body. The right
hand, which could have no possible anatomical connection
with the body, rests upon the breast in the attitude of bless-
ing, the fore and middle fingers being straight, and the
others bent into the palm ; the thumb is not in evidence,
It is this position of the hand and the extreme crudeness
of the whole relief that suggest a late and Christian period
of sculpture in the Hauran. In the same locality there were numerous fragments of
sculpture, some of which no doubt belonged to the ornament of the city gate; others
were probably fragments of stelae, for there seems to have been a Christian necropolis
outside the east gate of the city.