ARCHAEOLOGY. (PALESTINE.) 



31 



feet could not be found. It is admirably carved, 

 and the face of the king is nearly perfect. 



Tombs at Slont. The rock-cut tombs of Siout, 

 ancient Lyeopolis, have been re-examined by 

 Mr. F. Llewellen Griffith, who made careful 

 transcripts of all the extant inscriptions. Mr. 

 Griffith determined the date of the great tomb 

 known as Stahl-Autar. having found that it 

 was excavated in the reign of Usertesen I. of 

 the twelfth dynasty. He also discovered that 

 the upper ranges of tombs in the same clitf be- 

 long to the hitherto unrepresented dynasties 

 of Herecleopolis (the ninth and tenth dynasties 

 of Mauetho). 



Book of the Dead Ani Papyrus. A hiero- 

 glyphic papyrus containing a recension of the 

 Book of the Dead, which was written for the 

 royal scribe Ani, in the early part of the nine- 

 teenth dynasty, has been acquired for the Brit- 

 ish Museum. It is in excellent preservation, 

 and, except for the absence of a character 

 here and tiiere, is complete, and contains some 

 vignettes of rare beauty. The fact that it con- 

 tains a chapter, the one hundred and seventy- 

 fifth, which has not been found complete any- 

 where else, gives it an extraordinary value. 



Early Christian Sculptures. Many specimens of 

 early Christian sculptures from Egypt show 

 traces of the ancient pagan styles, and of the 

 adaptation of them to the purposes of the 

 Christian faith. In a very primitive presen- 

 tation of the Virgin and Child, with a figure 

 dressed in a dalmatica standing before them, 

 from the Fayoum, the two principal figures 

 are entirely nude, and are described as simply 

 reproducing the well-known group in Egyptian 

 art, of Isis suckling Horus; even the chair in 

 which the Virgin is seated is of the same fash- 

 ion as the chairs of the twenty-sixth or ear- 

 lier dynasties. In a representation of a saint 

 standing in a niche, the colon nettes are de- 

 signed after columns of purely Egyptian tem- 

 ples. A bass-relief of St. George slaying the 

 dragon has its counterpart in figures of Horus 

 slaying Set. In a collection of Coptic textiles 

 centaurs, sirens, cupids, and other fabulous fig- 

 ures from the pagan mythology appear as com- 

 mon ornaments. Of this character are a com- 

 position of the Triumph of Bacchus in the Mu- 

 seum of Lyons, and three embroidered pieces 

 at South Kensington containing half-length 

 figures of Apollo, Hermes, and Hercules, with 

 their names inscribed on the background. In 

 an alto-rilimo representing Christ and his 

 apostles, also from Akhmin, and assigned to 

 the period of Theodosius II or Marcian, the 

 figures are arranged, standing in line, without 

 attempt at artistic grouping, dressed in the 

 style of Roman sculpture, and separated by a 

 simple ornamental motive. Each of the heads 

 is surrounded by a nimbus, that of our Lord 

 being distinguished by a cross inside of the 

 circle. These various objects combine, in the 

 view of those who have examined them, to il- 

 lustrate the artistic activity of the period form- 

 ing the link between ancient and modern art. 



Palestine. The Pool of Bethesda. The Pal- 

 estine Exploration Fund has announced the 

 discovery by Ilerr Conrad Schick, near the 

 Church of St. Anne. Jerusalem, of what may 

 in all probability be identified with the Pool 

 of Bethesda. An apparently uninterrupted 

 chain of evidence from A. D. 333 to the year 

 1180 speaks of the Prolatica piscina as near 

 the church of St. Anne. The place spoken of 

 is said by the earliest writers to have formerly 

 had five porches, then in ruins. Recently the 

 Algerian monks laid bare a large tank or cis- 

 tern cut in the rock to the depth of thirty 

 feet, lying nearly under a later building, a 

 church with an apse at the east end. The cis- 

 tern is 55 feet long from east to west, and 12^ 

 feet in breadth from north to south. A flight of 

 24 steps leads down into the pool from .the east- 

 ern scarp of rock. This pool was not, however, 

 large enough to supply the first requisite for the 

 Pool of Bethesda that it should be possible to 

 have five porches; but Sir Charles "Wilson had 

 pointed out that this condition could be ful- 

 filled if there were a twin pool lying by the 

 side of this one, so that the two pools could 

 have one portico on each of the four sides, 

 and one between them on the wall of separa- 

 tion. Such a pool has been since discovered 

 by Herr Schick. It is 60 feet long, and of the 

 same breadth with the first pool. The pool is 

 therefore concluded to be undoubtedly the one 

 pointed out by the writers as the Piscina Pro- 

 latica ; and it affords ample room for the five 

 porches spoken of in the Gospel, as well as for 

 the five porticos which were probably the 

 same -which are spoken of by the ' Bordeaux 

 Pilgrim " as being then there in ruins. 



The Walls of Jerusalem. The topography of 

 ancient Jerusalem has been difficult to make 

 out. and the site of the sepulchre of the kings 

 of Judah remains unknown. But the problem 

 has been simplified by recent excavations, the 

 bearing uf which was explained in the British 

 Association by Mr. George St. Clair. We now 

 for the first time know the contours of the 

 rock and the features of hill and valley before 

 the 80 feet of debri* began to accumulate. The 

 Akra of the Maccabees being defined, it is 

 seen how, by the recorded filling np of the 

 Asmonean valley, the two parts of the Lower 

 City became joined into one crescent, lying 

 with its concave side toward the Upper City, 

 according to the description of Josephus. The 

 investigations of Sir Charles Warren show that 

 the temple must be placed on the summit of 

 Moriah, with Solomon's palace southeast of it, 

 leaving a vacant square of 300 feet where now 

 we have the southwest quarter of the Haram 

 area. From the southeast quarter of the Haram 

 inclosure extends the wall of Ophel, discovered 

 by Warren, running 76 feet to the south, then 

 bending toward the southwest. Further, it is 

 found that from the Gate of the Chain, in the 

 west wall of the Haram inclosure, a causeway, 

 with complicated structures, extends westward 

 toward the Jaft'a Gate. Having this ground- 



