Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/397

 Hebrew Archeology and Literature. 367 Comparison of the Jerusalem and Cypriote examples, enables us to place the former among Phoenician fictiles imported from the coast ; and if of local manufacture, it was either under Phoenician supervision or indebted for its forms and ornament to Tyrian models. It is highly probable that vessels (of later date?) were executed at Tyre and Kition, ornamented with vegetable, floral, animal, and human forms ; which future discoveries will enable us to class, if not with certainty, at least with some degree of veri- similitude among Phoenician productions. Meanwhile, much that was obscure when we tried to determine the characteristics of early Greek pottery, is now as clear as daylight ; for we know where to look for the types which served them as primitive models — types which flooded every market open to the Tyrian trades. This incalculable gain is due to half a dozen vase handles, treasured up by the English explorers ; who, mayhap, were not at first aware of the far-reaching importance of their " find "—amounting to a revelation. However great may have been the results of the Pales- tine explorations, they have left problems that cannot be solved by pick or spade. For our part, had they never taken place — with all they imply — we should none the less have lingered about Jerusalem, because, of all Semitic races, the Hebrews are the only people whose ancient records were preserved in texts which could be easily read and translated. Chaldaea and Assyria have certainly left a superabundance of documents of varying length ; most, how- ever, are mutilated ; and all are written in the peculiar arrow- headed characters which are known to very few. Partly owing to the state of the documents, partly from disagreement in regard to certain words, letters or signs, no two decipherments are pre- cisely alike ; so that uncertainty of significance and value exists about many a passage. In respect to the Phoenicians, they were more eager to get rich than trouble themselves about recondite ideas and thoughts that would bring no increment to their coffers. Hence it is, that although Punic inscriptions may be counted by thousands, three or four pages of an ordinary folio would cover all that is not the wearisome repetition of formulas, wherein proper names alone ring the change. Inscriptions, however circumstantial, drawings, plans, etc., however minute, can never give us the amplitude, the fulness, the lifelike vividness of an individual or a people, such as we find in all literary productions. This is the reason why we know comparatively so little of