DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0069
46
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Phoenician anthropoi'de style, fitted to the shape of the embalmed body. There are also
sarcophagi in lead, such as are constantly found in the villages east of the city. Those in the
vaulted grottoes are generally of pottery, and those in the decorated tombs are square, profusely
decorated with garlands and other sculptured ornaments. About ten minutes south-east of the
Acre Gate of Sidon is the Mugharet Abliin, or Cave of Apollo, where, in 1855, was
discovered the beautiful black basalt sarcophagus now in the museum of the Louvre in Paris.
The Phoenician inscription of nine hundred and ninety words on its lid is well cut and
perfectly preserved. European scholars have made several translations of it, which agree in
the essential features.
" In the month Bui, in the 14th of my reign, King Ashmunazar, the king of the Sidonians, son of Tabnith, king of the Sidonians, grandson
of King Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, spake, saying, I am snatched away before my time, like the flowing of a river......
" Every royal person, and every man who shall open this funeral couch, or who shall take away the sarcophagus of this funeral couch, he
shall have no funeral with the dead, nor be buried in a sepulchre, nor leave behind them son or posterity .... and the holy gods shall
cut off that royal person, nor shall his root be planted downward, nor his fruit spring upward, for I am Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians,
son of Tabnith, king of the Sidonians, grandson of Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, and my mother, Immiastoreth, priestess of Astarte, our
sovereign queen, daughter of King Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians......
" It is we who have built this temple of the gods—in Sidon by the sea, and the heavenly powers have rendered Astarte favourable. It is we
who have erected the temple to Esmuno and the sanctuary of Ene Delil in the mountain .... the temple of Baal Sidon, and the temple
of Astarte, the glory of Baal, lord of kings, who bestowed on us Dor and Joppa and ample corn lands which are at the root of Dan
This inscription is written in the Phoenician character, and is one of the most important
Phoenician inscriptions yet discovered, the next in interest being that of Mesha on the
Moabite stone, the Siloam tablet,* and a tariff of sacrifices of Punic origin. The various
Phoenician cities possessed rich archives and regular records, preserved with care from the
most ancient times, the most valuable of which is the Grseco-Phoenician work of Sanchoniathon
the Beirut scholar, and dedicated to Abi Baal, king of Beirut. It is the opinion of Professor
Sayce, that remains of the old Phoenician libraries must still exist somewhere in the unexcavated
ruins of Syria. The gardeners of Sidon are constantly on the watch for new treasures, as
they plough the soil or dig foundations for building. The citadel of Sidon, called by the Arabs
KuTat el Mezzeh, is an ancient tower, said to have been built by Louis IX. in 1253. Near
its base two colossal statues were recently exhumed. The KuTat el Bahr, or Castle on the Sea,
stands on a small island connected with the land by a bridge of nine arches. It was built
in the thirteenth century, the large blocks belonging to a more ancient structure. The
* As the " Siloam tablet " had not been discovered when Colonel Wilson wrote his description of the Conduit and Pools of Siloam (see page
102 et seq., vol. i.), a few words respecting it must be added here. The inscription was first observed, in June, 1880, by a pupil of Herr Schick, an
architect who has long resided in Jerusalem. He was wading along the rock-cut channel which conveys water from the Fountain of the Virgin to
the Upper Pool of Siloam, when he suddenly slipped and fell into the water ; as he rose he noticed " some marks which looked like letters " on
the rocky wall of the channel, which in this part is not more than two feet wide ; its length is one thousand seven hundred and eight feet, but
the direct distance from the Fountain to the Pool is only one thousand one hundred and four feet, for the channel deviates considerably from
a straight line. The inscription is in a recess at the lower end of the conduit, and about nineteen feet from the place where it opens out into the
Upper Pool of Siloam (see page 78, vol. L). Before the inscription could be copied it was necessary to reduce the level of the water till the stream
was not more than six inches in depth ; but in this the copyist was obliged to crouch down in a cramped attitude, for the last line was still only-
just above water. Nevertheless Herr Schick and Professor Sayce each made a copy, and Lieut. Conder afterwards obtained a squeeze of the
inscription from which casts were made for distribution, and thus many independent translations (which only slightly vary) have been made.
The language is primitive Hebrew, the characters are Phoenician of the sixth to the eighth century B.C. The record implies (according to Professor
Sayce and others) that the channel was excavated from both ends, and that the workmen met in the middle. "Behold the excavation ! Now
this is the history of the tunnel. While the excavators were lifting up the pick, each towards the other, and while there were yet three cubits
to be broken through, the voice of one called to his neighbour, for there was a (crookedness ?) in the rock on the right. They rose up ... .
they struck in the west of the excavation, each to meet the other, pick to pick ; and there flowed the waters from their outlet to the Pool for a
distance of a thousand cubits, and (three-fourths ?) of a cubit was the height of the rock over the head of the excavation here."—[M. E. R.]
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Phoenician anthropoi'de style, fitted to the shape of the embalmed body. There are also
sarcophagi in lead, such as are constantly found in the villages east of the city. Those in the
vaulted grottoes are generally of pottery, and those in the decorated tombs are square, profusely
decorated with garlands and other sculptured ornaments. About ten minutes south-east of the
Acre Gate of Sidon is the Mugharet Abliin, or Cave of Apollo, where, in 1855, was
discovered the beautiful black basalt sarcophagus now in the museum of the Louvre in Paris.
The Phoenician inscription of nine hundred and ninety words on its lid is well cut and
perfectly preserved. European scholars have made several translations of it, which agree in
the essential features.
" In the month Bui, in the 14th of my reign, King Ashmunazar, the king of the Sidonians, son of Tabnith, king of the Sidonians, grandson
of King Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, spake, saying, I am snatched away before my time, like the flowing of a river......
" Every royal person, and every man who shall open this funeral couch, or who shall take away the sarcophagus of this funeral couch, he
shall have no funeral with the dead, nor be buried in a sepulchre, nor leave behind them son or posterity .... and the holy gods shall
cut off that royal person, nor shall his root be planted downward, nor his fruit spring upward, for I am Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians,
son of Tabnith, king of the Sidonians, grandson of Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians, and my mother, Immiastoreth, priestess of Astarte, our
sovereign queen, daughter of King Ashmunazar, king of the Sidonians......
" It is we who have built this temple of the gods—in Sidon by the sea, and the heavenly powers have rendered Astarte favourable. It is we
who have erected the temple to Esmuno and the sanctuary of Ene Delil in the mountain .... the temple of Baal Sidon, and the temple
of Astarte, the glory of Baal, lord of kings, who bestowed on us Dor and Joppa and ample corn lands which are at the root of Dan
This inscription is written in the Phoenician character, and is one of the most important
Phoenician inscriptions yet discovered, the next in interest being that of Mesha on the
Moabite stone, the Siloam tablet,* and a tariff of sacrifices of Punic origin. The various
Phoenician cities possessed rich archives and regular records, preserved with care from the
most ancient times, the most valuable of which is the Grseco-Phoenician work of Sanchoniathon
the Beirut scholar, and dedicated to Abi Baal, king of Beirut. It is the opinion of Professor
Sayce, that remains of the old Phoenician libraries must still exist somewhere in the unexcavated
ruins of Syria. The gardeners of Sidon are constantly on the watch for new treasures, as
they plough the soil or dig foundations for building. The citadel of Sidon, called by the Arabs
KuTat el Mezzeh, is an ancient tower, said to have been built by Louis IX. in 1253. Near
its base two colossal statues were recently exhumed. The KuTat el Bahr, or Castle on the Sea,
stands on a small island connected with the land by a bridge of nine arches. It was built
in the thirteenth century, the large blocks belonging to a more ancient structure. The
* As the " Siloam tablet " had not been discovered when Colonel Wilson wrote his description of the Conduit and Pools of Siloam (see page
102 et seq., vol. i.), a few words respecting it must be added here. The inscription was first observed, in June, 1880, by a pupil of Herr Schick, an
architect who has long resided in Jerusalem. He was wading along the rock-cut channel which conveys water from the Fountain of the Virgin to
the Upper Pool of Siloam, when he suddenly slipped and fell into the water ; as he rose he noticed " some marks which looked like letters " on
the rocky wall of the channel, which in this part is not more than two feet wide ; its length is one thousand seven hundred and eight feet, but
the direct distance from the Fountain to the Pool is only one thousand one hundred and four feet, for the channel deviates considerably from
a straight line. The inscription is in a recess at the lower end of the conduit, and about nineteen feet from the place where it opens out into the
Upper Pool of Siloam (see page 78, vol. L). Before the inscription could be copied it was necessary to reduce the level of the water till the stream
was not more than six inches in depth ; but in this the copyist was obliged to crouch down in a cramped attitude, for the last line was still only-
just above water. Nevertheless Herr Schick and Professor Sayce each made a copy, and Lieut. Conder afterwards obtained a squeeze of the
inscription from which casts were made for distribution, and thus many independent translations (which only slightly vary) have been made.
The language is primitive Hebrew, the characters are Phoenician of the sixth to the eighth century B.C. The record implies (according to Professor
Sayce and others) that the channel was excavated from both ends, and that the workmen met in the middle. "Behold the excavation ! Now
this is the history of the tunnel. While the excavators were lifting up the pick, each towards the other, and while there were yet three cubits
to be broken through, the voice of one called to his neighbour, for there was a (crookedness ?) in the rock on the right. They rose up ... .
they struck in the west of the excavation, each to meet the other, pick to pick ; and there flowed the waters from their outlet to the Pool for a
distance of a thousand cubits, and (three-fourths ?) of a cubit was the height of the rock over the head of the excavation here."—[M. E. R.]