Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/144

120 rest. On the lower front panel is a lion's head, similar to the lion's head decoration on the stone Greek and Roman sarcophagi found at Sidon, which are doubtless the development of the metal plaques, in the same form found on Phœnician coffins of wood at the same place. On the panel above are three small busts in high relief. These are somewhat damaged, but it is clear that two, and perhaps the third, are of female figures: the style is Greek or Græco-Roman. The other panels are ornamented with rosettes, and shapes like these—



The circumference of the pillar increases as it rises. In the rear it is shaved off, so that the back panels occupy a flat surface. From the plain back of the pedestal it is clear that this part at least stood against a wall, but as the flat back of the pillar is ornamented, the wall may have been a low one.

It is the naturalistic treatment of the feet which appear from under the drapery that leads me to suppose that the pillar was in the form of a caryatid, with the main portion of the drapery about the lower limbs conventionally ornamented. That a pillar with an ordinary capital should terminate in a few inches of drapery with a pair of feet seems improbable. I may mention, however, that the open hand occurs as a symbol on a stile from Carthage, figured on p. 263 of the first volume of Perrot and Chipiez's "History of Art in Phœnicia," &c.

From the well-carved bulls and the busts, I am inclined to refer this fragment to the Greek period. The photograph is kindly furnished by my friend Mr. Moore, of the College.

February 14th, 1894.



Quarterly Statements for the years 1887 and 1888 contained accounts of some very remarkable and beautiful sarcophagi which had then recently been found in a sepulchre at Sidon, and a monogram on the subject is now in course of publication at Paris by His Excellency O. Hamdy Bey, Director of the Museum of Antiquities at Constantinople. The sarcophagi have been placed in a room built for the purpose in that Museum, and have attracted a great deal of attention from antiquaries and others. The learned Canon Curtis, of Constantinople, kindly permits us to publish a paper on these most interesting objects which was read by him before the British Institute of that city.

The paper is reprinted from the "Levant Herald," by permission of the editor. 