Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/23

 Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria. 7 at Aleppo, and George Smith, in the same year, visited some ruins on the right bank of the Euphrates, marked in the map about six hours below the village of Birejik, which they identified as being the site of ancient Garga-mish, Carchemish, so often figured on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments as commanding the minor stream of the great river. The ruins had been described by Maundrell and Pococke and noticed by other travellers, but none of them had suspected that the tell, '* mound," called by the Arabs Kala'at Jerablus, covered the remains of the ancient capital of the Hittites. Some authorities derive Jerablus, or Jerabis, from Hierapolis, holy city," and Kala'at, Kala'ah, fortress," "high." Curious to say, this is the exact meaning it bears with the Arabs. ^ A temple to Ashtoreth stood here during the Roman sway, described by Lucian as one of the finest and most frequented in this part of the world. Hierapolis rose on the ruins of the older city, destroyed by the Assyrians, and, like its predecessor, acquired great importance and became a flourishing place under the Seleu- cidse. Here Mr. Skene and George Smith, at a short interval from each other, were shown fragments of the ancient wall of the citadel, still commanding an elevation of more than thirty metres above the bed of the river, with several well-cut shafts of columns and large blocks of basalt, where, side by side with sculptures which recalled those of Assyria, were inscriptions akin to those at Hamath. In his third and fatal journey, George Smith wrote from Jerablus to the trustees of the British Museum, pointing out the importance of properly exploring the site. They immediately procured a firman from Constantinople, empowering him to begin excavations at once ; but it never reached him, for he died of fever in a few days at Aleppo, where he had gone to wait for it. Mr. Skene had been transferred to some other post, hence his successor, Mr. Henderson, was entrusted to conduct the diggings. The " finds " were duly despatched to the British Museum, where I saw them in 1880; those that were too heavy for transport or of minor interest were left behind.^ Simultaneously with the discoveries at Jerabis, attention was drawn to another monument, first copied by Major Fisher, and Mt is possible that during the Roman rule there was here a stronghold to pro- tect the great Syrian temple and keep in check the Parthians, and afterwards the Sassanides, who occupied the country east of the river. » They are figured in The Empire of the Hittites, Plates VIII. and XIII.