DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6641#0066
52 TELL EL YA
the Southern cemetery. It extends northwards
about a quarter of a mile to the village of El
Liqat. After a short space begins the Middle
cemetery, just north of the village, and after
another space the Northern cemetery, lying
between the village 'Arab es Sawaleh and the
cultivated land.
There must have been several hundreds of
tombs in the three cemeteries. We excavated
about fifty. All of them had been broken into,
and one had been opened recently by the Arabs.
Southern Cemetery.—I suppose, from its mixed
tombs and its position, that it is earlier than the
other two. It consists of—
(1.) Square pits, descending vertically about
10 feet, and ending in an oblong cavity. Nothing
found in them.
(2.) Eectangular graves, neatly cut in the
rock, measuring 5x8 feet, with rabbet for
covering slab. Three, side by side, at the back
edge of the rock, amongst those of the third and
fourth class. No bones or antiquities.
(3.) Similar to (4), but the chamber contains
a double row of niches superimposed. Two or
three, ruined, at the south end.
(4.) The plan in PL xvi. is a typical instance
taken from the Middle cemetery. From the level
surface a flight of four or five steep and high
steps leads down to a narrow doorway three feet
high. This opens into a chamber the floor of
which is 3^ feet below the doorway; a further
step is therefore left in the rock on the inside.
In the walls of the chamber, on the same level
as the entrance, are ten rock-cut niches, each six
feet deep.1
1 Tombs at Acre similar to 2 and 4 are described by Herr
Schumacher. P.E. Fund Quarterly Statement, Jan. 1887,
pp. 26, 27.
This description applies exactly to most of the tombs. In
the South Cemetery the entrances usually faced east or west.
In one case two niches were built of red brick and stucco at
the end of the excavated chamber. The heads of the two
tenants, as M. Naville has reminded me, were raised on a
brick and the names TPY<W\INA ©YrATHP, &c,
painted on the stucco over the open entrances of the niches.
The epitaphs of MIKKOC, 0EVAC, €A€AZAP,
and the fragment with LKE were found in this cemetery.
Also a fragment of sculpture with a bunch of grapes.
The antiquities found consisted of a thick glass " lachry-
matory," a spouted jug with strainer in the neck, like the
modern abriq, but of whitish pottery, PI. xvi. 35. Also
three vases like 36, from one tomb, and one 37.
Middle Cemetery, half mile east of the tail of the jezireh,
and therefore most convenient for the inhabitants of the
suburb, while the road from the Tell itself may have led
then, as it does now, from the south-east corner to the
Southern cemetery and the tumuli.
The rock is soft, whitish, with green coppery (?) patches.
The tombs, all of type (4), are so closely packed in about an
acre, that the niches of different tombs often met and had to
be diverted. "We partially or entirely cleared about 25 in
all parts. Of the entrances sixteen faced N., six E., two S.,
and one West towards the city.
The steps were sometimes cut in the rock, but the hard-
ness varied, and often the exposed parts, i.e. the steps, the
sides of the staircase, and the doorposts were of burnt or
crude brick or hard cement. Sometimes a slab of limestone
formed the lintel. The burnt bricks measured about 4| X 9,
the crude brick 5 x 10.
The measurements quoted above applied to most of the
tombs correctly, even in detail; but one carefully made with
three steps led into a very small chamber with three niches
only, one in each side, and the third opposite the door. The
roofs of two chambers, otherwise of the normal type, were
supported by a pillar in the centre. In most cases the roofs
had fallen in.
One with central pillar had been stuccoed, and in it were
found fragments of plaster from the cornice (1) with painted
wave pattern, the colours being green and yellow. In the
chamber were pieces of a friable blue-glazed vessel with
ornament in relief.
Two thick glass " lachrymatories " came from another tomb.
Many slabs of limestone, generally plain, were found close
to the doorway outside, or lying in the chamber. Possibly
they had served to close the entrance. Sometimes there
was a pediment sculptured upon them, sometimes an epitaph
with or without the pediment. The inscriptions included
that of Agathocles and the long metrical one.
Several skeletons were found, but generally they had been
disturbed or destroyed by the damp. One in somewhat
better preservation, but without the skull, lay upon the
remains of a cloth, the upper part turned to the inside of
the chamber. Another was placed similarly, but no traces
of the cloth remained. It also was headless.
The niches had, apparently, never been filled up, or even
the Southern cemetery. It extends northwards
about a quarter of a mile to the village of El
Liqat. After a short space begins the Middle
cemetery, just north of the village, and after
another space the Northern cemetery, lying
between the village 'Arab es Sawaleh and the
cultivated land.
There must have been several hundreds of
tombs in the three cemeteries. We excavated
about fifty. All of them had been broken into,
and one had been opened recently by the Arabs.
Southern Cemetery.—I suppose, from its mixed
tombs and its position, that it is earlier than the
other two. It consists of—
(1.) Square pits, descending vertically about
10 feet, and ending in an oblong cavity. Nothing
found in them.
(2.) Eectangular graves, neatly cut in the
rock, measuring 5x8 feet, with rabbet for
covering slab. Three, side by side, at the back
edge of the rock, amongst those of the third and
fourth class. No bones or antiquities.
(3.) Similar to (4), but the chamber contains
a double row of niches superimposed. Two or
three, ruined, at the south end.
(4.) The plan in PL xvi. is a typical instance
taken from the Middle cemetery. From the level
surface a flight of four or five steep and high
steps leads down to a narrow doorway three feet
high. This opens into a chamber the floor of
which is 3^ feet below the doorway; a further
step is therefore left in the rock on the inside.
In the walls of the chamber, on the same level
as the entrance, are ten rock-cut niches, each six
feet deep.1
1 Tombs at Acre similar to 2 and 4 are described by Herr
Schumacher. P.E. Fund Quarterly Statement, Jan. 1887,
pp. 26, 27.
This description applies exactly to most of the tombs. In
the South Cemetery the entrances usually faced east or west.
In one case two niches were built of red brick and stucco at
the end of the excavated chamber. The heads of the two
tenants, as M. Naville has reminded me, were raised on a
brick and the names TPY<W\INA ©YrATHP, &c,
painted on the stucco over the open entrances of the niches.
The epitaphs of MIKKOC, 0EVAC, €A€AZAP,
and the fragment with LKE were found in this cemetery.
Also a fragment of sculpture with a bunch of grapes.
The antiquities found consisted of a thick glass " lachry-
matory," a spouted jug with strainer in the neck, like the
modern abriq, but of whitish pottery, PI. xvi. 35. Also
three vases like 36, from one tomb, and one 37.
Middle Cemetery, half mile east of the tail of the jezireh,
and therefore most convenient for the inhabitants of the
suburb, while the road from the Tell itself may have led
then, as it does now, from the south-east corner to the
Southern cemetery and the tumuli.
The rock is soft, whitish, with green coppery (?) patches.
The tombs, all of type (4), are so closely packed in about an
acre, that the niches of different tombs often met and had to
be diverted. "We partially or entirely cleared about 25 in
all parts. Of the entrances sixteen faced N., six E., two S.,
and one West towards the city.
The steps were sometimes cut in the rock, but the hard-
ness varied, and often the exposed parts, i.e. the steps, the
sides of the staircase, and the doorposts were of burnt or
crude brick or hard cement. Sometimes a slab of limestone
formed the lintel. The burnt bricks measured about 4| X 9,
the crude brick 5 x 10.
The measurements quoted above applied to most of the
tombs correctly, even in detail; but one carefully made with
three steps led into a very small chamber with three niches
only, one in each side, and the third opposite the door. The
roofs of two chambers, otherwise of the normal type, were
supported by a pillar in the centre. In most cases the roofs
had fallen in.
One with central pillar had been stuccoed, and in it were
found fragments of plaster from the cornice (1) with painted
wave pattern, the colours being green and yellow. In the
chamber were pieces of a friable blue-glazed vessel with
ornament in relief.
Two thick glass " lachrymatories " came from another tomb.
Many slabs of limestone, generally plain, were found close
to the doorway outside, or lying in the chamber. Possibly
they had served to close the entrance. Sometimes there
was a pediment sculptured upon them, sometimes an epitaph
with or without the pediment. The inscriptions included
that of Agathocles and the long metrical one.
Several skeletons were found, but generally they had been
disturbed or destroyed by the damp. One in somewhat
better preservation, but without the skull, lay upon the
remains of a cloth, the upper part turned to the inside of
the chamber. Another was placed similarly, but no traces
of the cloth remained. It also was headless.
The niches had, apparently, never been filled up, or even