Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/318

 288 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.ra. to a late period, and whose site, within a few feet, is even now ascertained. But a few years sufficed to cover their aperture with a little soil and turf, so that explorers may be constantly walking over them, unconscious that a thin sod divides them from the long- lain treasures that have mysteriously passed away without leaving a trace (Figs. 192 and 193). If our conjectures are correct, these sepulchres will sooner or later be brought to light, perhaps through the merest chance, or when a thorough exploration of Mount Ophel is made, as was done for the Acropolis at Athens and the palace of the Caesars at Rome. Whether part of the treasures, said to have been placed there by Solomon and his successors, will be found in them is exceedingly problematical ; nor have we much faith in the three thousand talents of silver taken thence by Hyr- canus, nor in the gold jewellery which aided Herod to defray some of the outlay incurred in the building of the temple and other improvements in the city. 1 They must be relegated, we fear, among the myths that are sure to collect in the East around any old tombs, for there exists no passing allusion to such a deposit in the Old Testament. But, had there been, it would long before that time have been used by the kings of Judah in their day of trouble ; nor would Hezekiah, to satisfy the Assyrians, have deprived the doors of the temple of their gold plating, had he been able to draw from the royal treasure ; and finally, it would not have escaped the greed of the Chaldee (2 Kings xviii. 15, 16). Whether these sepulchral memorials contained precious objects or not, their site was known at the time of the Babylonian conquest, for we read in Jeremiah that they were opened and rifled (viii. 1), a statement corroborated by Baruch, who wrote after the exile : " Thou didst satisfy, O Lord, the words that Thou hadst pro- nounced by the mouth of Thy servants the prophets, namely, that the bones of the kings, and the bones of our fathers, would be thrown out of their graves " (ii. 24). The explorer, therefore, who should prosecute his researches to the very bowels of the earth in quest of the royal tombs, until, like Herod, flames bursting from the soil should arrest his progress, would not be likely to find weapons, vessels, gold, jewels, and pottery of all kinds, as did Schliemann at Hissarlic and Mycenae. On the other hand, he may alight upon inscriptions left upon the rock, like that of the speos of Hezekiah, or the characters of the 1 Josephus, Ant. Jud., VII. xv. 3 ; XIII. viii. 4 ; XVI. vit. 1 ; Bell., I. ii. 5.