Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/313

Sepulchral Architecture. 283 shrine built by Solomon for the Egyptian princess ; ' a conjecture scarcely borne out by its inner details, which are markedly those of a tomb. It is not easy to imagine how religious rites could have been performed in a gloomy chamber, to which access was only obtained by a small opening more than 12 feet above ground, lacking in fact the very features we naturally expect to find in a public place of worship. Moreover, the Punic or archaic Hebrew characters of the inscription are out of place, to say the least of it, over the façade of an Egyptian temple, where the cartouche would have displayed the hieratic writing proper to the Nile Valley. Whatever the truth may be, the fact remains that we have here an hypogée, showing a decided progress over the natural caves and the dolmens, in which the early Semitic races used to bury their dead. The rock caverns, which the Israelites found in great abundance all over the country on their first arrival, were deemed insufficient when the more favourable circumstances of a settled life caused them to multiply exceedingly. By that time, moreover,-they had learnt the use of various implements, evidenced in their rock-cut canals to bring water to their cities, their cisterns to collect rainfall, their vast stores for grain and forage, and, as a natural consequence, sepulchres for the wealthy. In those early days the body wrapped in linen, to which were added spices, was laid on the floor of the vault, just as it had been in that of the rude cavern. 2 Here and there a stone bench or trough, parallel to the wall, may have been used ; 3 but as a rule the arrangement was a chamber, with " kokim," or tunnels for single bodies, running in from the walls — three or four on each side of the chamber as required. 4 It was a type of sepulchre that had the advantage of 1 De Saulcy, Voyage, torn. ii. pp. 312, 313. 2 The Hebrews did not embalm their dead, but laid them carefully bandaged in their graves, together with myrrh, cassia, and other perfumes, as may be gathered from the history of Lazarus. 3 One part of the Talmud, the Baba Bathra, is taken up with minute directions as to the way the grave should be dug, and might stand as a description of a large number of the tombs about Jerusalem, so exactly do they coincide. The tunnelled chamber is believed by the best authorities (Conder, Wilson, Drake, Tobler; see also Quarterly Statements, p. 66, 1869, pp. 23-141, 1873, p. 71, 1874, pp. 177, 178, 1875) as the early mode of Jewish burial, long before Hellenism supervened. 4 Sometimes the sepulchre is walled up, as at Amwâs for instance ; where, a few years ago, two kokim were found to have been closed with a compound made of ashes, dipped in oil, which had hardened into an extremely hard cement (Clermont- Ganneau, Revue Critique, torn. xvi. p. 194).