Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/28

6 isolated rock served as a watch-tower or place for signals.

The lower group is of smaller extent than the upper one, but has its inner walls, doorways, and apertures better preserved. In both groups the space enclosed within the walls is floored over with a rude concrete, composed of gravel and small pieces of stone.

In the upper group I found a block of stone in form like a square Roman altar, on each face of which, within an oblong panel, is a rude relief representing a tree in a basket. Close by this stone is another, on which is carved a rude spiral or volute. In the upper group were also found seven small female figures, cut out of Maltese stone, a skull, a number of human bones, and some stones, shaped like women's breasts. The figures, which are now preserved in the Museum at Malta, range from 1 ft. 8 in. to 1 ft. 2 in. in height.1 Four are entirely nude, the others draped. Two are seated. The heads are broken away. The proportions and execution of these figures are alike barbarous. The enormous hips and breasts, and bulging outlines, suggest the notion that they are of African origin. At any rate the type represented is unlike that of any of the races of the ancient world, so far as we know them through art.

In both groups of enclosures great quantities of broken pottery have been found. Having obtained authority from the Governor, Sir William Reid, to remove this pottery to the Museum at Malta, where it might be properly cleaned and examined, I transported two cartloads of it, and removed at the same