Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/321

 Religious Architecture. 291 Ammonites, were worshipped (2 Kings xxiii. 13). They are all built of rude stones and without inscriptions ; but, as religious symbols of the early Semitic races, they will be found of peculiar interest, whether they be considered in themselves, or in reference to contemporaneous or older structures of the same nature among more civilized people. It should not be inferred (because these monuments show no trace of implements having been used) that the people who erected them were unfamiliar with metals. We have alluded earlier in this volume to the universal prejudice that seemed to attach to a steel blade or tool in connection with the altar and the sacrifice. Thus the Egyptian embalmer used none but Hint knives, albeit he had others at home ; * whilst Jehovah says to Israel, " And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone ; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it ; neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar." 2 If, when the law was written, the idea was still current among the Israelites that dressed stone was unacceptable to the Lord, it was universal at the earlier time of their arrival in the Jordan valley. 3 Thus, for instance, we find Jacob erecting a cromlech, perhaps one of a heap which had served him as pillow the night before, and pouring oil upon it {Gen. xxviii. 10-19; xxxv. 14). At Gilgal, near Jordan, were "pitched stones," or menhirs, which a later tradition connected with the twelve pillars from Jordan, and regarded as emblems of the tribes. They were no doubt great blocks of basalt or porphyry which the affluents of Jordan on the east side slowly undermined from the cliff and rolled down into the main stream during the rainy season {Josh. iv. 8-24). In studying the Moabitic and Ammonite groups, it becomes clear that many of them were sepulchres (Fig. 177), whilst others, such as bilithons and trilithons, standing on the stony surface of 1 Herodotus and Diodorus allude to this custom. See also De l'Age de pierre en Egypte, p. 136, in Recueil des travaux relatifs à la Philologie et à V Archéologie Egyptiennes et Assyriennes, tom. vii., 1886. 2 Exod. xx. 25. This prohibition is found in chap. xx. -xxiii., perhaps the oldest portion of the so-called Mosaic law. The verse that we have quoted and some others savour of the teachings of the northern " thora ; " they read like a covered protest against the innovation introduced in the temple by Solomon. See also Deut. xxvi. 5, 6-12. 3 Maurice Vernes, " Les plus Anciens Sanctuaires des Israelites " {Revue de V Histoire des Religions, tom. iii. pp. 22-48, 1882).