Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/183

Tin-; PHOENICIAN TOM 15. just above the walled- up door of the coffin chamber (Fig. 104). In the first case the wells are, of course, found empty, but as a rule they are filled with earth. They had apparently to be cleared every time a burial took place. 1 Compared to those of Egypt, these Sidonian pits are shallow, because the stratum of rock in which they are excavated has an average thickness of hardly more than thirty feet, while it rests upon sand impregnated with sea water. Sometimes, as at Amrit, a tomb has been re-arranged and a flight of steps added (Fig- 105). These tombs have neither sarcophagi nor niches. In some the dead are placed on the floor of the chamber, in others arranged in FIGS. 103 and 104. Wells in a tomb at Sidon. From Rtnan. a. Vegetable earth. b. Dcor of tomb chamber. c. Well. d. Slab. e. Sand. large and carefully-excavated graves. In both cases they rested upon beds of sand, the pelvis raised ten or twelve inches above the head and feet by a little heap of pebbles carefully arranged. Next come the tombs in which the chamber is surrounded by niches for coffins, and those in which the more important people, the heads of the family perhaps, repose in sarcophagi placed in graves cut in the floor of the sepulchre. 2 The fine series of anthropoid sarcophagi in the Louvre was found in tombs of this kind. Judging from the style of the heads on these marble coffins, we are inclined to ascribe the oldest among them to the 1 REXAN, Mission, pp. 496, 497. 2 Ibid. p. 482.