Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/394

 564 A History of Art in S a rim ma and Jud.f.a. complete as possible, that it might supplement our researches respecting Phoenicia. The civilization of the latter, owing to the circumstances that were dwelt upon in the preceding volume, left more traces abroad than in the mother country, which merely served as basis for her trading operations. If we follow the shores of the Mediterranean from one end to another, we shall gain a pretty accurate idea as to the range over which the influence of Phoenicia was exercised, and the deep roots that she threw out wherever she went. Evidence of her wide spread is to be found in abundance in classic writers, confirming the testimony of monuments ; whilst almost every day discoveries are made which add to the store we already possessed, and by comparison enable us to estimate each at its real value. We now come to the ques- tion that was raised in the course of this inquiry, but which was left unanswered ; namely, how far did Punic industrial centres make their action felt in the interior of the Asiatic continent ? Classic literature will not help us to solve the problem, for until Alexander the Greeks knew very little of the rolling, boundless plains which stretched beyond their limits. Hebrew writers give us some information with regard to the all-embracing trade of Tyre, but they leave us as completely in the dark in other respects, as if it had never existed. For instance, it will be remembered how delicate, not to say impossible, a matter it was to discern metal pieces in high relief, figured or engraved, which from their characteristics might have been executed in Mesopotamia, as they might have issued from a Punic workshop. This applies with equal force to chiselled ivory, one of the chief articles of the industry of Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage ; on the other hand, pro- digious quantities have been found in the Tigris Valley. Then, too, by what sign manual are we to recognize Syrian glass from that which was manufactured in the delta ? We know how freely Phoenicia borrowed from nationalities older than herself in the march of civilization, but we have no evidence by which to estimate what she gave in return, when she was sufficiently instructed to set up factories and workshops of her own, filling her stores with all manner of precious woods, wine, wrought iron, spices, wool, and all the riches of the East, which she sold at high prices to the rest of the world. One and all are distinguished by Eastern forms and Eastern workmanship, but who shall declare whether they were originally executed in Assyria, in Egypt, or were mere