Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/214

 194 HISTORY OF ART IN PIKKNICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. neighbourhood of Solunte ; from all that we know of the facts, it appears certain that the tombs in which these two sarcophag were found were intact up till the moment of discovery. 1 As to the comparative age of these sarcophagi, we cannot think that those upon which heads, arms, and feet are sculptured give the older of the two types. Notwithstanding what has been said, we must assert that the modelling of those parts of the body which are visible has nothing either Egyptian or Assyrian about it." Both kinds of anthropoid sarcophagus were, in fact, made at one and the same time ; the criterion to which we must look for help in establishing a chronological series is the shape of the lower half of the coffin and the relation it bears to its prototype, the mummy-case. Looked at from this point of view, the specimens of this second group must be placed towards the middle of the series formed by the whole collection of these anthropoid sarco- phagi. 3 We arrive at a similar result if we ask how things passed in Egypt. There the type in which the arms are shown is later than that in which we see nothing but the head. 4 None of the anthropoid sarcophagi have any inscription, and yet no surface could be better fitted for such a thing than these smooth lids, where, at first sight, it looks as if all ornament had been forbidden on purpose to leave free scope for the cutter of epitaphs. But the absence of anything of the kind ceases to surprise us when we remember that the anthropoid sarcophagi of Sidon were coloured over the whole of their surfaces. If they had any inscriptions at all, those inscriptions must have been painted on them like the vertical labels on the mummy-cases, which give, as a rule, the name of their occupants. Neither must we forget that these sarcophagi were not tombs, but marble 1 RENAN, Mission, p. 406. D'ORVILLK, Sicula, plate A, gives a section 01 one of these tombs. A flight of steps gives access to a square chamber in which three sarcophagi are shown, one facing the door, the two others at the sides. 2 DE LONGPERIER thought he could recognize something in common between the sarcophagus of Mugharet-Abloun and the Assyrian sculptures of the reign of Assurnazirpal ( Mus'ce Napoleon ///., plate xvii.). We believe that for once in a way that fine connoisseur was mistaken. But the similarity between that monument and the Palermo sarcophagi is great, and the execution of the latter is of such a. kind that d'Ondes Reggio is inclined to ascribe them to the period of Alexander the Great. 3 RENAN, Mission, p. 419. 4 MARIETTE, Notice du Musce de Boulak, second edition, p. 43.