Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/220

 2oo HISTORY OF ART IN PIKKNICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. destruction. Hut if we suppose that after a few hundreds of years t )inhs belonging to extinct families were reopened for use a second time, the state in which this chamber was found is to be readily explained. The slow action of the centuries had reduced the cedar planks to dust; the ironwork had fallen to the ground, and I-'K.. 137. Lion's mask. Uron/e. Louvre. Diameter 22 inches. the new visitors to the tomb collected it together with all that was left of the bodies of the first proprietors of the sepulchre. As they refrained from carrying off the bronze ornaments, we may suppose that they treated those remains with respect and gave them a new asylum before they prepared the chamber for the reception