Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/161

Rh This is built of a casing of travertine blocks, filled in with rubble. Here have been found, at different periods, fourteen coins of Ophrynium, two of Sigeum, three of Ilium Novum, and a fine silver coin of Megiste (Castel Rosso), a small island near Rhodes. It is singular how this last coin, which is of great rarity, could have found its way to a spot so distant from its place of mintage. The form of the ground on this slope seems to have been much altered by landslips, which occur frequently on the sides of the deep ravines. On the shore below these platforms are remains of an ancient mole.

It is evident that a Greek city must have occupied this site: the situation corresponds with that of Ophrynium, as described by Strabo; and the finding of so large a number of coins of this city on the platform renders this all the more probable.$60$

Continuing to explore the shore southward from Renköi, I noticed at a fountain distant about fifty minutes from that place fragments of red pottery and building-stones.

The headland, which stands a little in advance of the supposed site of the ancient Rhæteum, must have served as an Hellenic burial-ground; for on examining the side of the cliff about 8 feet below the surface of the ground, a vein may be traced which contains fragments of small vases, pieces of bone, and cinerary remains. It appears that the dead here were interred in large jars of coarse red earthenware. On the surface of the field above are many fragments of pottery. The ground swells out gradually from the middle of the field towards the edge of the