Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/305

 Sepulchral Architecture. 2 75 modern tombs of Siloam, it is a straggling hamlet, whose grey houses are scarcely distinguishable from the cliff against which they lean (Fig. 182). A steep path, with loose sharp stones, caused our horses to slip or stumble at every step. It descends to the Kedron, where a little below its junction with the Tyropoeon, stood the king's pleasure grounds, now converted into well-watered and cultivated plots. The inhabitants are market gardeners, and supply the city with the finest vegetables seen anywhere. They live in wretched hovels or in the sepulchres of their forefathers, some of which are used as general stores. The only tomb in good preservation is to the left of our engraving surrounded by walls (Fig. 182). 1 It has been recently acquired by the Russian government, and thus saved from further deface- ment at the hands of the ignorant fellahîn. The interior, which used to be choked up with miscel- laneous objects, has been cleared ; and the façade which lay half buried in the silt and accumulated rubbish gathered about its base, is now seen for the first time, imparting to the monument a novel aspect. At our request, a minute description of this sepulchre was kindly forwarded to us by brother Liéven ; whilst the annexed plans are from Benoit Vlaminck, his able coadjutor (Figs. 184- FlG. 183. — Cornice of Monolith. De Saulcy, Voyage, Plate XLII. whose opinion may be relied upon on the subject under discussion (Palestine Survey). Had not the wish of identifying Timnath with the place of burial of the great leader been uppermost in the mind of the promoter of this theory, the idea of ante-dating one tomb similar to hundreds of others, which cannot be carried further back than the Maccabees and Herod, would never have been heard of. Nor do the flint knives, found in this sepulchre, go for much, for they have been descried in several other monuments which cannot lay claim to be contemporary with Joshua (Quarterly Statements, pp. 198-200, 1880). If the Septuagint states that they buried with Joshua the flint knives with which the rite of circumcision had been performed upon the whole assembled congregation, no such expression is to be read in the Hebrew text (Josh. xxiv. 30). It is probable that the tomb was built for a local magnate ; and that the returned exiles, finding an important memorial near a city belonging to the tribe of the patriarch, identified it with his name. Myths soon gathered around it; it became the centre of pilgrimage; lamps ranged along the wall of the vestibule were kept burning night and day, and the flint knives recently discovered may have been the offering of the pious, who deposited them in the tomb as a memory of the rite over which Joshua had presided. 1 The general view (Figs. 182, 191) was taken before the clearing away of the rubbish.