Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/314

 (84 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jimu'.a. being easily sealed, whilst every available space could be used ; one, too, which we described in our volume upon Phoenicia, and which continued down to the beginning of our era. There is no need, therefore, for a detailed description of it in this place. We will content ourselves with reproducing the beautiful example recovered by Sir C.Warren in the Kedron Valley, half a mile below Bir-Eyûb (Fig. 192), selected among a whole number because of its symmetrical ar- rangement. It con- sists of a rectangular court with a vestibule, out of which three narrow passages lead to three arched cham- bers ; the lateral ones containing eleven niches apiece. The third, facing the en- trance, has but eight tunnels, four on each side, owing to the end wall having a door which opens into a fourth and larger room, evidently the more important of the series, and intended for the head of the family or clan. The niches, to the number of thirty, occupy the whole wall except in the passage preceding the last chamber, where there is still room for a tunnel on either side. It seems probable that the royal tombs, so often specified in the Old Testament, were built on something like the same prin- ciple as this ; whilst the chronographer clearly points to a family vault, when he repeats at the end of each reign : " The king slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David" (1 Kings xiv., xv., xxii.). The only explanation that can be offered as to fifteen rulers with their wives and children having been buried (down to 640 b.c.) in the vaults of David and Solomon, Fig. 192.— Jewish Tomb. Pla Section. Recovery, p. 257.