Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/300

256 Cistern IV is partitioned off by a low wall at the bottom. Both cisterns are large at the top, like Cisternal. They are all plastered; the plaster seems to be in two coats, the inner coat being a cement of rougher lime with pottery fragments.

Whatever may have been the original date of these various rock cuttings they were evidently utilised in Byzantine times, where the chamber belongs. The pottery we found in connection with them was later than most of the pottery found at other points of the excavations. I have very little to say about the objects found in general. The coins occurred in general débris, usually near the surface. I intended to have described them in this report, but they have not been studied yet. None of them were found under circumstances which would make them valuable in fixing dates. Coins found on a deserted site, even in a dust heap, are of great value in determining the limits of occupation. In Jerusalem débris, coins of any date may be expected: it is the conditions of finding them that give them value, as, for example, a great depth, occurrence in the rubbish inside a room, or under a pavement, &c., &c. However, I regret that I cannot report on our coins till next time. A great part of our work has been the following of the scarp. Unfortunately we found no objects near its base, save broken pottery. This appeared to belong principally to pre-Christian types, including the thick Jewish developments of the graceful Phœnician open lamps; the brittle purplish ware, found in the top third of Tell-el-Hesy, &c., &c. This points to the probability that the scarp was covered with débris in early times. Among the later pottery found in other places are Christian lamps, some lamp fragments with Greek inscriptions of the well known type, small vases, &c. One find was most tantalising: it was a life-size thumb of beautiful workmanship. The stone out of which it was carved is the hard native limestone. Ex pede Herculem. Where is the rest of the noble statue, which, if so much care was spent in the thumb, must have been beautiful indeed? Was it carved by a Jerusalem sculptor for the palace of Herod, and when broken up dumped in the débris, outside the city? Shall we ever find the head, or even the torso?

Since my last report on June 6th we have worked steadily through the summer to September 12th, the present date of writing. Only one day did we stop on account of the heat. Out of the 83 week days we worked 71, the remaining 11 days may be thus accounted for: 4 were government holidays, when, out of compliment to the authorities, who always assist us so kindly, I thought it best to stop work; one day at the end of the quarter the men got a holiday while their master, who had worked far into the night before, got his balance sheet of accounts ready for the post; two may be set down to sickness; and the remaining four may be called general holidays, including, however, the day of great heat mentioned above. All the nights but nine I have spent in my ^tent. Our camp has remained in the same place, except that the Effendi has twice had his tent moved away from the encroaching excavations, while the tunnels have gone under two of the other tents! The usual fever has