THE EXCAVATIONS OF CARTHAGE. 605 



proved with what care this tomb had been executed to the slightest 

 detail. And in the silence of the funeral chamber, in the midst of the 

 usual furnishings of these tombs, the skeletons of two Carthaginians, 

 husband and wife, still guard the remains of the jewels with which 

 they had been adorned. 



The tombs vary greatly in their contents, yet nearly all present cer- 

 tain minor objects, which form the obligatory and ritualistic part of 

 the equipment. Near the head, or in a small niche in the wall, are two 

 vials, always the same; a lamp, still blackened with smoke, which 

 probably burnt near the head after the closing of the tomb; then, often, 

 at his side a scent box, which was meant to be held in the hand, but 

 which had rolled to the ground on the crumbling of the bones. 



The dead are laid, not in a lateral niche, as in certain other necropo- 

 lises, but on the ground, in the midst of all the objects with which the 

 respect of their family had surrounded them. There was no coffin. 

 They were lowered through the shaft by cords on a board which served 

 as a funeral couch. Close-riveted handles and large brass nails bear 

 witness to the manner of adjusting those pieces of wood. 



Sometimes the body seems to have been covered with two planks, 

 forming a roof over it. In the more recent sepulchers are large pointed 

 amphorse, and stone chests containing ashes or calcined bones. Often 

 skeletons and cinerary urns are found in the same tomb. This indi- 

 cates that cremation gradually displaced burial. 



Besides the stationary objects, there lay on the ground or leaned 

 against the wall vases of very different forms and dimensions. Some- 

 times unadorned, sometimes decorated with fringes and black and red 

 circular lines; vases of black Rhodesian earth covered with friezes of 

 animals or scenes from mythology; vases in the form of baby bottles, 

 called bazzula by the natives; large clay amphorse of rude workman- 

 ship; oinochoes, elegantly shaped; alabaster pieces; goblets; vials, on 

 which the Phoenician painter had allowed his fancy free play, some in 

 the form of animals, others representing a crouching woman, or a 

 baboon holding another vase shaped like a frog's head. Ostrich eggs, 

 painted red and yellow, figure extensively in these sepulchers — often 

 several are found in one tomb. In the tomb of Iadamelek an egg, still 

 intact, served both as a receptacle and as stopper to a larger vase. 

 Elsewhere there were only simple rowdelles, rudely painted with human 

 features. Again ? there were Egyptian figurines ; statuettes; terra-cotta 

 masks; objects having symbolic or religious significance, as well as 

 articles of daily life; small chairs and tables, looking like toys; bone 

 or ivory pieces artistically worked; the whole series of arms and metal 

 utensils; and, finally, scattered around the dead, the remains of his 

 ornaments; innumerable beads for necklaces, of paste, of precious 

 stones, or of gold; rings; bracelets — the whole of life transported to 

 the tomb, the expression, as it were, of the identity of the dead. 



All this yields but one thought. The continuation of life in the tomb 



