Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/320

 298 HISTORY OF ART IN PHCENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. that a Phoenician settlement preceded the Argive colony at Curium, and that long after the Greeks had taken possession of the place it had a numerous Semitic population. This conjecture is to a certain extent confirmed by the fact that in the fifth century, when the chief Grecian cities in the island rebelled against Darius, Stesenor, king of Curium, betrayed the national cause and frater- nized with the Phoenician kings of the south-west and the Persian army. 1 However this may be, we find that at Curium, although a few objects, such as a fine terra-cotta vase and some jewels and engraved stones, are Greek in their origin, the great mass of the treasure is of oriental, i.e. of Cypriot and Phoenician, manufacture. The intaglios in metal and. pietra-dura form one of the richest and most interesting sections of the collection, and by far the larger number of them are of Assyrian, Egyptian, or Phoenician work- manship. From this we may fairly conclude that the influence of Greek taste had scarcely begun to make itself felt in the island, even in many of the Greek colonies, when the vault was closed. Why and when did the closure take place ? This is a difficult question to answer, but it is one which the archaeologist cannot pass over in silence. We agree with General di Cesnola that the treasure cannot as a rule have been kept in the four chambers in which it was found. 2 These are paved with round blueish pebbles set in a bed of cement, beneath which there is a layer of sand. This method of making a floor is still in use in the better houses in the island. But in spite of it the room at Curium must always have been very damp ; most of the vases and other utensils of copper or silver have been reduced to dust. And when a faithful worshipper offered either his own image or some object of value to his deity, it was not that it might be put away in a subterranean cellar, where no one would see it and where it might be forgotten by the god himself. Even in those days men liked their piety and generosity to bring them immediate honour. When Eteandros, king of Paphos, consecrated two heavy golden bracelets (Fig. 217), in the temple of Curium, and engraved his name and title upon them in Cypriot characters, 3 his intention was that his name 1 HERODOTUS, v. 113. 2 CESNOLA, Cyprus, p. 305. 3 The inscription is hardly perceptible in our woodcut because it is traced in the interior of the circle, where the shadow comes.