Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/309

 Sepulchral Architecture. 279 In doing this, however, the pick-axe almost entirely removed a cartouche with enframed inscription over the entrance ; leaving only the two extremities with a couple of letters on the left, one of which is a reck, and the other, much damaged, may be a daleth or a second rech (Fig. 188). 1 Two single characters, one doubtful, will scarcely give us the key to the epigraph of which they are the remnant ; they are important, nevertheless, as being exactly similar to the archaic letters on the speos of Hezekiah. Those v •''! 1, r/i Fig. 189. — Façade of Monolith, after it was cleared. best qualified to pronounce on such matters, agree in considering this sepulchral memorial as the oldest at present known around Jerusalem ; as the sole, perhaps, that can be carried back to a period preceding the exile. There seems to have been on the north face of the chamber a stone bench or table, some 20 c. above the ground, upon which the body was laid (Figs. 185 and 186), but which was done away with when the niches were made. The cutting of these shows a less practised hand than that which worked the primitive entrance, or the table, the walls, the vestibule, and ceiling. Reference to our engraving shows the door 1 m. 30 c. above the ground (Fig. 189). Clermont-Ganneau, Mission en Palestine, 1881. Archives des Missions Scie?itifiqui s and Littéraires, 3 e. série, torn. xi. p. 217.