Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/318

 "96 HISTORY OF ART IN PIKKNK IA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. in the partly explored passage at the end seven bronze kettles or cauldrons. Even more precious, however, than the materials employed is the great variety of methods in vhich they are used, showing that all these objects are by no means identical in their local origin. 1 Some scarabs in steatite seem to be of Egyptian provenance ; upon one of them we may recognize the oval of Thothmes III. A certain number of cylinders are certainly Assyrian and Chal- dajan. Several, by their symbols and cuneiform inscriptions, appear to belong to the epoch of the Sargonids, that is, to the seventh century before our era. Others, to which by their execution, symbolism, and mounting, a Phoenician origin may be certainly ascribed, are very numerous. Many of the intaglios may fairly be placed among the oldest and most curious produc- tions of the glyptic artists of Greece. The jewels proper often show much invention, combined with an astonishing finesse and delicacy of execution ; some of them are so graceful that they deserve a place among the masterpieces of the oriental goldsmiths, and of those of Greece in her archaic period. We shall have an opportunity hereafter of studying these things more carefully. Our present object is to give an idea of the number, value, and variety of the treasures contained in this curious depot. They were not placed there to amuse amateurs or to edify archaeologists, but none the less do they constitute a veritable museum, in which artists may compare the styles of various schools, may admire fine workmanship and grasp the secret of the processes by which it is turned out. Until these chambers were explored we only knew the temple treasures from those documents engraved upon marble, in which an inventory of the votive objects contained in some of chief Grecian sanctuaries, at Athens for example, and Delos, is drawn up. Succinct as they are, these lists enabled us to realise how greatly those sacred collections must have favoured the development of art and taste ; how much more, then, should we be able to learn from the objects themselves, now that they can be closely examined, weighed, and described ! The value of the temple collections as schools of art can 1 See, in the appendices to Cyprus, the description given by C. W. KING, of Trinity College, Cambridge, of the intaglios upon metal and stone contained in this treasure (The Rings and Gems in the Treasure at Curium}.