Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/300

 2 70 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/EA. It is evident that menhirs, whether singly or in groups, and dolmens, were not always connected with places of burial ; but that they had several uses. But until excavations are made, so long will it be impossible to decide which of the menhirs were head stones, and which of the dolmens cover the illustrious dead ; and this we may safely predict will not happen until the land shall have passed into different hands. Meanwhile, it is only by analogy that dolmens described in the land of Moab as being possessed of a small aperture in the end slab, through which food was let in, and of a table upon which the body was laid, have been classed among sepulchral me- morials. The annexed wood- cut (Fig. 178) shows another class of "pillar," more properly "hand," " cippus ; " examples of which are not rare in Moab. It is exceedingly archaic, and bears a distant resemblance to an open palm. The only at- tempt at decoration is a trans- verse grove half way up the block. 1 The stela of Absalom in the Kedron Valley was in all probability in front of a rock- cut vault, which may have been erected, like the present tomb, to perpetuate the memory of the son of David (2 Sam. xviii. 1 7, 1 8). 2 The opinion long held by archaeologists, respecting the com- paratively modern date of the monumental tombs about Jerusalem, has been strengthened by the recent discoveries in North Arabia of MM. Doughty and Euting. About the beginning of our era, the country was held by semi-civilized tribes, living almost exclusively under the tent. They owned allegiance to the Nabathsean kings, whose kingdom comprised the whole region between Petraea and Palestine, the Hauran bounding it to the north, and the Nejed and Hejaz to the east and south-east, with 1 De Luynes, Voyage d Exploratioft à la mer Morte, torn. i. pp. 156-159. Our version of the Bible has "pillar," but, as in other instances of the same kind, it should be "hand." Fir,. 178.— The Raised Stan De Luynes, torn. Hujr-vl-Mansiib, p. 156.