Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/20

 4 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. secondary movement and created the monuments that we propose to describe and classify in the next chapter. We shall call to our aid recent discoveries which have thrown floods of light upon this obscure question, the importance to which, in France at least, has not been justly apprehended. § 2. — Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria. In 1812, the celebrated traveller Burckhardt was in Syria hard at work learning Arabic, preparatory to visiting Mecca in the guise of a pilgrim. Whilst at Hamath, now Hamah, he noticed a stone embedded in the angle of the wall of a house, " with signs and figures which were certainly hieroglyph, but different from the Egyptian."^ His work was read at the time by every one who felt interested in Syria, and wished to know something of her past and present condition. But, curious enough, nobody seems to have noticed the words just quoted, and no subsequent explorer tried to rediscover the monument. Indeed, so little was known about the place that only a few years ago (1865) Murray's Hand- book declared, " There are no antiquities at Hamath." ^ In 1870, Mr. J. Augustus Johnson, Consul-General U.S. at Damascus, and the Rev. S. Jessup, of the Syrian Mission, visited Hamath, and during their short stay heard of the stone seen by Burckhardt, and of other inscriptions of the same nature. Their attempt to obtain a copy was frustrated by the fanaticism of the natives, which is perhaps nowhere so rampant as in this part of Syria, and which obliged them to desist. The consul dared not repeat the experiment, and was fain to be content with such copies as could be obtained from a " native artist," as he somewhat pom- pously styles him, and these he forthwith despatched to Damas- cus. The following year (July, 1871), he published a fac-simile of one of the inscriptions — that seen by Burckhardt — in the First Statement of the Palestine Exploration Society. The copy, though imperfect, did much to awaken public interest to the in- scriptions, and had the happy effect of stimulating others, who presently succeeded. In 1871, the English Palestine Exploration Society sent out Mr. ^ Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, p. 164. ^ Handbook f 07' Syria, torn. ii. p. 588, 1868.