Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/252

222 Recent Excavations at Carthage. Tunis are, no doubt, chiefly built out of its ruins. In 1837 Sir Thomas Reade, then English Consul at Tunis, discovered some marble columns with sculptured capitals, and numerous fragments of statues and architectural decorations,* some of which have found their way to the British Museum. In 1843 a colossal female head, about six feet high, was discovered by M. de la Porte in making the foundations of the chapel of St. Louis, b and now adorns the Louvre. The remains of sculpture brought to light by Mr. Davis are not very nume- rous. The most remarkable of them is a female statue of grey Parian marble, obtained near El Mersa. Several portions of statues seem to represent Apollo ; and a fragment of a bas-relief in a fine style, and boldly sculptured, may be referred to the same divinity, and possibly ornamented a Roman temple. III. Mosaic Pavements. Among the remains of Roman buildings there are few objects of greater interest than the tessellated work with which the floors were decorated. The materials of which they are composed suffer but little from the effects of time, and offer but few temptations to the spoiler ; so that frequently the mosaic floor has survived the walls and architectural decorations, and is the sole trace that remains to indicate the elegance of the structure that once occupied the spot. Several such pavements have at various times been brought to light at Carthage, and many more must have been destroyed unnoticed. Falbc discovered in 1824 a mosaic, about thirty feet square, near the sea-side, but the jealousy of another European suggested to the Key that treasures were probably concealed beneath it, and caused the destruction of the whole. About 1838 an association was formed for the purpose of making excavations in Carthage, which led to the discovery of another house near the sea-side, ornamented with paintings in the Pompeian style, and with mosaics representing men and animals ; c some of these seem to have been transported to France. It was as one of the subscribers to this enterprise that Mr. Hudson Gurney, then a Vice- President of our Society, obtained a fine fragment of a mosaic, which, with his usual liberality, he presented to the British Museum in 1844. It is the lower part of the head of a marine deity, of colossal size, and has been executed with great skill and breadth of design. An engraving of it may be found in Monumenti Inediti, vol. v., tav. xxxviii. Dr. Emil Braun, who has Bullet, del Inst. di Corrisp. Archajol. 1837, p. 47. " Bullet, del Inst. di Corrisp. Archawl. 1853, p. 60. Engraved in Revue Archeol. torn. be. pi. 184, p. 88 c Bullet, del Inst. di CorrUp. ArchsjoL 1838, p. 76.