Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/225

 SARCOPHAGI AND SEPULCHRAL FURNITURE. 205 felt as in Egypt. The Phoenicians were without the speculative genius ; a nation of merchants, they were occupied with the affairs of this world rather than with those of the next. We shall have to return to the Phoenician terra-cottas to examine their style and fact 'ure ; at present we must be content with point- ing out their sepulchral character, and indicating their principal subjects. Among those which compose the rich collection in the Louvre there are some, no doubt, from temples, where they must have arrived as votive offerings ; but all those archaeologists who have a personal knowledge of Phoenicia are agreed that in the main these objects come from the cemeteries. 1 FIG. 140. Baal-Hammon. Terra-cotta. Louvre. Height 4! inches. They all appear to be figures of gods. Among others have been recognized Baal-Hammon, sitting on his throne between two rams 2 (Fig. 140) ; Bes, whose image was in Egypt an emblem of 1 HEUZEY, Catalogue des Figurines antiques de Terre cuite du Musce du Louvre, 1882, pp. 55, 67. 77. REXAN, Mission, pp. 461, 475, 476, 484. M. PERETIE Chancellor to the French Consulate at Beyrout, has been exploring in Phoenicia for the last forty years, and it is mainly by excavation in the cemeteries that he has succeeded in forming his rich collection. As M. Heuzey remarks, the good con- dition of most of the terra-cottas which have come to the Louvre from M. Peretie is enough to prove that those figures belong to the class of objects to which the tomb gave a comparatively secure shelter. 2 HEUZEY, Catalogue, Phcnicie, 190. DE LONGPERIER, Musce A T apolcon III., pi. xxiii. Fig. 3. We have already reproduced (Fig. 25) a much better example of the same type, of which, however, the exact provenance is unknown ; the specimen here figured was found in Northern Phoenicia, near Tortosa.