March 8, 1858.] 
DESERT EAST OF THE HAURAN. 
177 
treatment of the head in ancient Oriental work we find a certain regular out- 
line of the hair ; the hair is plain and straight. Now the lock to the left is 
entirely flowing, and flowing in so graceful a form, though a little exaggerated, 
that it can only belong to a very late period of time. I would say likewise 
that the eyebrows have the trace of the male form, and not the female, inas- 
much as ancient art draws female eye-brows in the form of a semi- circle. 
Here, however, there is a straight connexion of two curves, which is more the 
character of the male head. I would also state that if this is the head of a 
divinity, and not a portrait, it is probably the head of Apollo, an identifica- 
tion of the Roman God of the Sun with the god worshipped in Palmyra. 
That it is supposed to he a woman may arise from the appearance of the filet, 
hut there seems to me to be visible on the forehead nothing but a tuft 
of hair. This head evidently belongs to the period of the amalgamation 
between the East and the West. We have heard of Roman inscriptions found 
in Palmyra, and the connexion between Palmyra and the West is evident ; 
and so it is very natural that Palmyra, which had a great deal of Roman 
civilization within its walls, may have been influenced by it in these matters. 
Therefore I do not think we can lay this head down as an old work. But the 
door evidently belongs to the period when the old cities were built. 
Dr. Truman, f.r.g.s. — I should like to ask Mr. Graham whether he found 
any metallic fastenings to the door, as I see an indication of something like a 
bolt or a lock on it ; and whether he found any specimens of a perfect arch in 
those cities ? 
Mr. Graham. — No doubt that mark is the place where an iron holt once 
went. In every one of the houses I found the marks of such bars. The 
iron of course would have been taken away long ago by the Arabs, for those 
cities have been uninhabited for a considerable period. The hole underneath , 
which is always there, like our key-hole, was no doubt intended for a lock. 
There is no trace of any lock having been fastened on : probably it was some 
apparatus to enable the man from without to open his own door without 
ringing the bell. 
Dr. Truman. — Did you find any specimens of an arch ? 
Mr. Graham. — 1 found many instances of perfect arches. That would be, I 
am told, an argument against the antiquity which I give to those cities. I 
did not find the arch in all of them ; indeed I found the arch almost only 
within El Hauran ; there I found the arch very frequently in houses which 
were decidedly built long anterior to the time of the Romans, because they 
frequently bore a Greek inscription which the owner of the house put over his 
door. In those houses we found such arches, but it has been suggested to me 
that they might have been introduced afterwards. 
Mr. E. Heneage, f.r.g.s. — Perhaps Mr. Graham will be kind enough to 
answer me a question or two with respect to the roofs of these houses. You 
have described numerous large cities in which there are houses that persons 
might almost take possession of in the present day. Are there any roofs, and if 
so in what style of architecture are they ? Secondly, in the walls of the Cyclo- 
pean or any other period are there any gateways, and of what style are they ? 
You have described one public building — was that the only public building 
you saw in all those eities, or have you reason to suppose that those cities 
were destitute of large public buildings, because that would be a most singular 
fact ? Thirdly, with regard to the inscriptions on the stones, you have stated 
that one of them is something like that on a sarcophagus : now in going over 
these plains which were strewn with stones over a very large space, was there 
no appearance of graves or anything that would lead to the supposition that 
these stones might be the tomb-stones of a large public cemetery ? 
Mr. Graham. — First, with regard to the roofs of the houses : in those 
houses, like all Eastern houses, the roofs were flat. The construction of the 
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