Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/436

 396 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. assured of a wide market ; the use of perfumes is one of the most widespread distinctions between civilised and savage man ; but in order to make them even more attractive than they were by nature they were put up in those bottles of oriental alabaster, of glass and of enamelled earthenware, which have been found even in the tombs of Etruria. A few crystal and gold ones have also been found. 1 Ivory was also used for the same purpose. It appears to have been a very favourite material with the Phoenicians ; they imported it from India, from the Persian Gulf, from Chaldsea and Arabia. 2 Africa, too, furnished a substantial supply by way of Egypt. 3 Nearly all the ivory used at Carthage must have been African ; some of it must have come from Cerne, the Carthaginian factory on the west coast. 4 Great quantities were stored in Carthage ; in the spoil carried off by Scipio after the battle of Zama ivory is mentioned together with gold and silver. 5 We have already seen, in our study of Egyptian and Mesopo- tamian art, how many were the uses to which this fine material was put ; 6 one of the most curious examples now extant is afforded by the remains of an ivory case found in the tomb of Esmounazar. 7 These fragments were disengaged one by one from 1 The sepulchre called the Tomb of Polledrara, at Vuld, contained many glazed earthenware phials, the upper parts of which were modelled into women's busts (MICALI, Monumenti inediti, plate iv. figs. 2 and 4). Another has the quite Egyptian form of a gourd, and bears a hieroglyphic inscription (Ib. plate vii. fig. 4). These objects are now in the British Museum, which also possesses an alabastron from Cameiros of exactly the same shape as those from Polledrara ; the former, however, is of alabaster, while the hands of the female, instead of clasping a winged disk, are differently employed ; one hangs down by her side, while the other grasps a flower. 2 EZEKIEL, xxvii. 15. "The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many isles were the merchandize of thine hand ; they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony." According to REUSS the " men of Dedan " were the desert Arabs, and the words of Ezekiel allude to the commerce with India, which was carried on by rreans of Arab caravans passing between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. The islands, of course, are merely distant countries. See also SMEND, Der Prophet Ezekiel erkldrt, etc. (8vo, 2nd edition, 1880). 3 See PERROUD, De Syrticis emporiis (1881, Paris, 8vo), chapter xi., entitled de Commercio. 4 SCYLAX, Periplus, 112. 5 APPIAN, viii. 23. 6 Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. II. pp. 384-390; Art in Assyria and Chaldcza, Vol. II. pp. 319-324. 7 RENAN, Mission de Phenicie, pp. 499-501.