Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/395

 Hebrew Archaeology and Literature. 365 Phoenician imitations, presenting the peculiar characteristics of either country, as served the turn of these universal adapters ? The sin of Phoenicia has found her out. She grew rich at this trade ; for the people to whom she sold these articles were unable to distinguish genuine from counterfeit objects. Hence the stupendous difficulties experienced by antiquarians in trying to classify these monuments and separate the spurious from the genuine. It not unfrequently happens that in their conscientious fear lest they should assign to one country what of right belongs to another, they abstain to pass judgment and leave as " doubtful " countless objects that may have been elaborated in the work- shops of Phoenicia, testifying to her activity and the briskness of her trade, causing posterity to perpetrate towards her the same injustice that she practised against her contemporaries. It is not by the drawing up of fast and dry rules, obviously inadequate to deal with the whole question, that the student may hope to remove obstacles and uncertainties which beset his path, but by patient observation, keen insight, and swift perception of features that are found more or less accentuated in all Punic creations. Now if Phoenicia scattered her industrial products wherever she found a market for them, if they are met with to-day in almost every part of the ancient world, greater or less difficulty is experienced, according to the district in which they are re- covered, sharply to differentiate those that were made on parent models, from those of a later phase and consequent development, represented by Carthage, where they undoubtedly were native fabrications. When an object is dug up in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, or Italy, until disproved, the presumption is that it was the natural product of local industry which for centuries was so fertile in rich results. The early productions of the two last-named countries, be it jewelry, vessels of all kinds and material, textiles, furniture, and so forth, closely recall Eastern forms and mode of ornament, making it difficult to separate imported objects from those that were made at home on Eastern patterns. Both were exceedingly productive during their imitative and transitional stage, which covered a long space of time, so that the amount of material which confronts the student and upon which he has to decide is well-nigh overwhelming. A large proportion cannot be classified with any degree of certainty ; for arrangement and artistic forms of ornament