68 DI CESNOLAS DISCOVERIES AT CURIUM. 



the spot where the other was for many years standing, and in view of every 

 passer-by. 



"Although in the southern slope of the hill of Amathus there are great 

 many tons of stones which have once served to the construction of ancient 

 buildings, yet very seldom are found among these debris any architectural 

 or sculptured remains. 



"Nevertheless, during my absence from Cyprus, in 1873, fragments of a 

 colossal statue, cut out of the calcareous stone of the island, were exhumed 

 there. Its style is very archaic. The head has a beard trimmed after the 

 Assyrian fashion. It holds a lion without a head by the hind-legs. It has 

 all the appearance of being the titulary divinity of Amathus, namely, 

 'Melkart,' the Phoenician Hercules (probably used at a later period for deco- 

 rating a public fountain, as the head of the lion was cut, and a square hole 

 pierced through the neck of the animal for the introduction of a metal 

 pipe). After great deal of official correspondence between the British con- 

 sul at this place, who pretended to have claims upon that monument, and 

 the Governor- General of the island, the latter got the best of the argument, 

 and at a cost of nearly $500 in gold it was shipped to Constantinople, and 

 is now deposited in the 'Imperial Ottoman Museum of St. Irene.' 



"At Amathus there are different localities where tombs abound, but the 

 greater portion lie along the sea-shore. These tombs are oven-shaped, and 

 excavated in a sandy soil at a depth varying from three to five feet. Most 

 of them contained but one body. The objects therein discovered were 

 glass, always broken, but with beautiful iridescence (this being generally 

 the case when the tombs are near the sea), terra cotta lamps of the first 

 and second century of our era, large amphora? similar in shape to those 

 found at Pompeii; seldom gold ornaments of any value. 



"Another kind of tombs are those, cut in the rock, on the adjacent hills 

 west of Amathus. They are oblong, and cut horizontally in irregular tiers; 

 none are over seven feet in length, and the majority of them measure 

 scarcely six feet. They were all opened centuries ago. 



"The third group of tombs is situated in a field northeast of Amathus, 

 encircled by low hills, forming, as it were, a natural amphitheatre, and 

 contain sarcophagi made either of white marble imported from abroad, or 

 of calcareous stone of this island. 



"These sepulchres are all built with finely cut stones, and are the hand- 

 somest I have discovered in the island. I examined many of them. They 

 are found by digging at a depth of forty to fifty-five feel below the surface 

 of the ground, and it is quite difficult to get at them, as the entrances of 

 these tombs are not all facing in the same direction. Some of them have 

 but a single room, others have two, and some four. Their chambers are all 

 built with large stones, some measuring twenty feet in length, nine feet in 

 width, and three feet in thickness. But their average size is the following: 

 length, fourteen feet; width, seven and a half feet; thickness, two feet. 



"These tombs are of two different shapes; one with a flat roof and 



