ARCHAEOLOGY. (SYRIAN.) 



are still visible. The 320 tombs which have so 

 far been discovered are disposed in groups, 

 around the tumuli, near the Roman quarry, and 

 on both sides of the Roman roads. The exca- 

 vations during the past year have been carried 

 on under the direction of the Spanish Govern- 

 ment and the Royal Academies of History and 

 the Fine Arts of Madrid. They have brought 

 to light near the Roman roads, a columbarium 

 and three large triclinia for the funeral ban- 

 quets, in each of which a deep channel is pro- 

 vided, into which the guests threw the liba- 

 tions. The largest of the triclinia contains 

 three tables with their couches, the one for 

 winter use being in a halJ, another in the sun, 

 and the third, for the snmmer, in the shade. 

 Besides these were found an altar, a tomb with 

 its cinerary urns, a kitchen, a bath, a well, and 

 a sanctuary in which is a stone statue. About 

 three thousand objects of interest were found, 

 and some of considerable value. 



Neolithic Polishing-Stones at Nemonrs. Several 

 stones, on which the neolithic men polished 

 their implements, have been observed near 

 Nemours, in France. They are a fine-grained 

 sandstone with calcareous cementing material, 

 and are marked by depressions of various 

 shapes and sizes; some, narrow, deep, and 

 pointed at either end, appear to be the grooves 

 in which the hatchet-edges were sharpened ; 

 others, broader and nearly hemispherical, were 

 adapted to the polishing of arms broadside. 

 There are about a dozen of these stones at the 

 Gu6 du Beaumoulin, on the right bank of the 

 Loing river, bearing some fifty grooves and 

 twenty-five cup-shaped depressions, and sug- 

 gesting that a considerable businesss was car- 

 ried on at the place. The site is not more than 

 a metre above the present level of the river, a 

 fact that shows that the waters did not at that 

 time rise much, if any, higher than now. 

 Another polishing-stone, in the wood of La- 

 veau, has eight parallel grooves from 60 to 

 80 centimetres long, together with several 

 plain or slightly concave places, which have 

 been worn down by the rubbing of the sides of 

 the hatchets. Another polisher, a megalith, near 

 the mouth of the Loing, has but one groove and 

 one cup, but is remarkable for being of the 

 same stone as the larger polisher of Beaumoulin, 

 and evidently came from the same spot. 

 Another stone, called the Devil's Rock, is asso- 

 ciated in popular belief with a curious legend 

 of the devil playing at quoits. 



Syria and Palestine ; Syrian School of Archaeology. 

 Arrangements have been made for the es- 

 tablishment of a " School of Biblical Arche- 

 ology and Philology " in connection with the 

 Syrian Protestant College at Beirut. Its pur- 

 pose will be to afford students the opportunity 

 of studying the Bible in the country where it 

 was written ; to promote the study of all the 

 Semite languages, and to afford facilities for 

 research among the ruins and antique relics of 

 the country. It wns intended to open the 

 school in October, 1887. 



The Rock-cut Tombs of Sidon. Some quarrymen 

 working in March, about a mile northeast of 

 Sidon, discovered a shaft, open at the top, about 

 30 feet square and 35 or 40 feet deep. When 

 this was cleared out, doors were found in each 

 of the perpendicular walls, leading to four 

 chambers, in addition to which other chambers 

 were afterward discovered. The walls of the 

 shaft were perfectly oriented. The whole WES 

 excavated out of the white limestone ; but the 

 walls separating the chambers from the main 

 shaft were built up. The excavation and ex- 

 amination of the chambers were conducted 

 under the direction of Hamdi Bey, of the Im- 

 perial Museum at Constantinople. In the south- 

 east chamber lay a large sarcophagus, with a 

 conically gable-roofed lid, of the same shape 

 with seven sarcophagi which had been pre- 

 viously discovered at different times in the 

 province of Lycia. This sarcophagus was dec- 

 orated with elaborate and artistic sculptures 

 of two winged sphinxes on the rear pediment; 

 a pair of centaurs at either end, the one pair 

 quarreling over a captured stag, and the other 

 pair pouring jugs of water over each other ; 

 on the sides, four-horse chariots driven by 

 Amazons, and a boar-hunt. In the east cham- 

 ber were two sarcophagi, the principal one of 

 which is in the form of a Greek temple, with 

 a gable-roofed cover. Its sculptures include 

 groups of female mourners on the pediments ; a 

 hunting-scene on the panel that skirts the base, 

 in which are portrayed wild boars, panthers, 

 lions, bears, bucks, and hyenas ; a representa- 

 tion of the funeral scene on the panels extend- 

 ing along the upper edge of the sides ; Doric 

 pilasters at the corners, and Ionic columns 

 around the whole, between which are mourn- 

 ing damsels, eighteen in all, each differing from 

 all the others in pose, features, and expression. 

 The north chamber contained two white-mar- 

 ble sarcophagi in the Egyptian style, of the 

 shape known as anthropoidal sarcophagi, hav- 

 ing all the variations in the contour of the hu- 

 man form represented. Two other chambers 

 opened out from this one at a lower level, the 

 northwestern of which contained four sar- 

 cophagi, only one of which was sculptured. This 

 bore figures dressed in the Assyrian style, with a 

 funeral scene, in which the deceased, stretched 

 upon a funeral-couch, wears an Assyrian 

 tiara. He is guarded by servants, and watched 

 by his wife, and food and drink are offered to 

 him. The west chamber contained one mum- 

 my-cased sarcophagus. The southwest cham- 

 ber, more remote from the entrance, was larger, 

 richer in contents, and more elaborately ar- 

 ranged than the others. It contained in the 

 hither side three white-marble sarcophagi, 

 of the Greek temple shape, covered with rich 

 cornices, and' ornamented with a tracery of 

 yellow-leaved vines upon a purple background. 

 Beyond there was a fourth sarcophagus, which 

 is described as being one of the most remark- 

 able specimens of ancient art yet brought to 

 notice anywhere. It is 3 - 30 metre long, 1*70 



