394 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
were not a people of great architectural genius. Large numbers of 
Byzantine and Crusading buildings were examined, and many 
structures previously attributed to an earlier period were clearly 
proved during the course of the survey to belong to the late times 
of Christian domination in the country. 
With exception, indeed, of the rock-cut tombs and of the great 
walls of the Jerusalem Haram, not a single building was found 
which could be attributed to an origin earlier than the times of 
Herod the Great. The walls of Masada, the aqueducts of Caesarea, 
the colonnade at Samaria, and the great building at Herodium, 
appear to be the work of this monarch ; but the idea which finds 
expression in many books on Palestine, that all masonry with a sunk 
channel or draft round the stones is of Jewish or Phoenician origin, 
was plainly disproved by the observations taken during the course 
of the survey. 
The ancient sepulchres formed a study of the greatest interest 
and importance, as serving to indicate roughly the date of ruins 
where they occur. The earliest Jewish tombs with Kokim or 
narrow graves running in from the walls of the chamber, were found 
to have been superseded about the time of Christ by another form 
of sepulchre, in which a rock-cut sarcophagus was excavated at the 
side of the chamber, while a cylindrical stone took the place of the 
older hinged or sliding door. The rock-cut tombs of the Christian 
period, fitted for the burial of two bodies — man and wife — are again 
quite distinct in form, consisting of graves sunk in the flat rock and 
covered with a great stone. Dated inscriptions were found on many 
of these tombs, with Christian emblems and leaden coffins. 
Some light has also perhaps been thrown on the vexed question 
of the length of the Jewish measure called Ameh or cubit, by the 
careful measurements of the synagogues and of the Temple build- 
ings at Jerusalem. 
According to the Talmudists the cubit measured the length of 48 
barley corns, which by measurement of barley corns in Palestine 
would represent 16 English inches very closely. 
It was found that the pillars of the synagogues had in many 
cases a total height of 160 inches, or 10 cubits of 16 inches, 
the bases being 16 inches (1 cubit), the capitals 8 inches 
(half a cubit). In 1873 I was so fortunate as to discover a part of 
