Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/68

 46 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. introduced. The costume is that of Egypt and primitive Phoenicia, but in the style of the figure and especially in the exaggeration and conventionality of the knee there is much to remind us of Assyria. According to the Arab tradition, Amr, son of Lohay, passed through the country of Moab at the beginning of the third century of our era and saw the inhabitants worshipping idols ; when he asked what they were he was answered : " These are gods made in imitation of the celestial bodies and of human figures." Amr begged for one of these gods and they gave him Hobal, whom he took to Mecca and set up on the Caaba. It was a statue in red stone, representing an old man with a long beard, a detail which reminds us of the Assyrian and Babylonish sculptures. 1 The story of the Arab writers at least proves that the Moabitish sculp- tures had won a certain notoriety. They were cut in the volcanic rock which gives the whole of that district such a peculiar physiognomy. Besides this curious relief the country of Moab has furnished the stele of Mesha, the very oldest fragment of alphabetic writing that has survived the centuries. 2 We may therefore hope for new and important discoveries as soon as the monopoly of the Bedouins is broken down. On the other hand there is one part of Palestine beyond the Jordan which appears never to have been inhabited by a sedentary population until the Roman period. This is the Haouran and its dependencies, where a great number of monuments in excellent condition have been discovered, all belonging to the time of the empire and mainly to the second and third centuries. The case of Upper Syria, lying between the gulf of Issus on the one hand and the fords of the Euphrates on the other, is very different. There, among ruins dating from the Graeco-Roman period, from the times of the Seleucids, of Antoninus and Severus, we find the traces of a much older civilization and of an art which vacillated between Egypt and Assyria. In some cases, as, for instance, in that of the head brought from Edessa by Texier (Fig. 41), it is difficult to say which model has been followed. This fragment was found upon the left bank of the Euphrates, to the north of Mesopotamia, which would seem to point to an Assyrian 1 DE LONGPERIER, Musee Napoleon ///., plate xxviii. 2 A facsimile and translation of the inscription will be found in the Notice des monuments provenant de la Palestine of M. HERON DE VILLEFOSSE.