How to Observe in Archaeology Part 11

a.s.syrian Cuneiform. Arabic, in Cufic script.

Hebrew, in ancient script. Arabic, in modern script.

Hebrew, in square character. Armenian (in mosaic Phoenician. pavements, also graffiti Moabite. in Church of Holy Aramaic. Sepulchre).

Tables of the chief alphabetic and numeral forms of the West Semitic scripts are given in Ill.u.s.trations X & XI; for the Greek, see Ill.u.s.tration IV.

3. The traveller should have had practice in making measured drawings of buildings.

4. For some branches of work a good knowledge of Arabic is indispensable--not the miserable pidgin jargon usually spoken by Europeans, nor yet the highly complex literary language, which is unintelligible to the ordinary native, but the colloquial of the country, spoken grammatically and properly p.r.o.nounced. Work done through dragomans is never entirely satisfactory, because it requires the unattainable condition that the dragoman should be as much a scientific student of anthropology and of archaeology as the traveller himself.

5. The student for whom these pages are written should not attempt any excavation, unless he has been trained under a practical excavator, and has learnt how work, which is essentially and inevitably destructive of evidence, can be made to yield profitable fruit. There is plenty of work that can be done on the surface of the ground without excavation.

[Ill.u.s.trations X & XI: Table of West Semitic Alphabets & Numerals.]

II. Sites of Towns and Villages.

1. Nomenclature.

The sites of ancient towns and villages are usually conspicuous in Palestine, and are recognized in the local nomenclature. They are denoted by the words _tall_, plural _tulul_, meaning 'mound', and _khirbah_, plural _khirab_ meaning 'ruin'. These words are commonly spelt in English _tell_ and _khirbet_ (less correctly _khurbet_) and we use these more familiar forms here. As a rule, though not invariably, the sense of these terms is distinguished. A tell is a site represented by a mound of stratified acc.u.mulation, the result of occupation extending over many centuries, and easily recognizable among natural hillocks by its regular shape, smooth sides, and flat top. A khirbet is a field of ruins in which there is little or no stratification. Nearly all the sites of the latter type are the remains of villages not older than the Byzantine or Roman period.

2. Identification of ancient sites.

This is a task less easy than it appears to be, and many of the current identifications of Biblical sites call for revision.

Similarity of name, on which most of these identifications depend, is apt to be misleading; in many cases sites identified thus with Old Testament places are not older than the Byzantine Period. [1] This similarity of name may sometimes be a mere accident; it may also sometimes be accounted for by a transference of site, the inhabitants having for some special reason moved their town to a new situation.

In such cases the tell representing the older site may perhaps await identification in the neighbourhood. In attempting to establish identifications, the date of the site, as determined from the potsherds, and its suitability to the recorded history of the ancient site in question, are elements of equal importance with its name.

[1] An example is Khirbet Teku'a, long identified with the Biblical Tekoa.

Note: The traveller should be cautioned against embarking on the study of place-names, identification of scriptural sites, &c., before mastering the principles of Arabic phonetics. Many of the attempts made at rendering the names of Palestinian place-names in European books are simply grotesque. The following are the chief pitfalls:

(1) Confusion of the vowels, the p.r.o.nunciation of which is obscure.

(2) The consonant _'ain_, to which the untrained European ear is deaf, and which in consequence is often omitted. Less frequently it may be over-conscientiously inserted in a place where it does not exist. Sometimes the _'ain_ and its a.s.sociated vowel are transposed (as _M'alula_ for _Ma'lula_) making unp.r.o.nounceable combinations of consonants.

(3) The letter _kaf_, often dropped in p.r.o.nunciation, and therefore often omitted.

(4) The letter _ghain_, which an unaccustomed ear confuses with either _g_ or _r_.

(5) The reduplicated letters, which a European is apt to hear and to write as single.

(6) The nuances between the different _d_, _h_, _k_, _t_, and _s_ sounds.

3. Surface-exploration of a tell.

The stratification can rarely be studied on the surface only: superficial indications of this are obscured by the plough, weather, vegetation, and the activities of modern natives who grub for building-stone and for the chance of buried treasure. Only by trenching can the strata be exposed. An exception to this rule is afforded by _Tell el-Hesy_ (Lachish) explored by Dr. Petrie in 1890- 1: here the erosion of a stream had exposed enough of the strata for a reconnaissance. In the majority of cases the most that a visitor can hope to do is to pick up stray antiquities on the surface of the ground, and ascertain therefrom the limits of date.

The chief clue is afforded by the pottery (see below, V), sherds of which, large and small, are strewn in considerable numbers on every ancient site. Scarabs, seals, bronze implements, iron fragments, beads, bone ornaments, and the like may also be noticed. A trained eye is essential even for such surface finds: one man may walk over a mound and find nothing, another may walk in his steps and gather quite an interesting harvest of small objects.

Surface indications of buried buildings (or rather foundations) may be noted both on the top and on the sides of a tell. Lines of wall may not infrequently be traced. Often the vegetation growing on the surface indicates the presence of structures underneath (either by burnt-up patches amid luxuriant growths, or vice versa).

4. Surface exploration of a khirbet.

The task here is, generally sneaking, simpler. In a khirbet there is usually no great depth of acc.u.mulation; indeed, the bare rock frequently crops up in the middle of such a site. There is, therefore, as a rule only one historical period represented.

Potsherds, coins (Roman, Jewish, Byzantine, early Islamic, sometimes Crusader), tesserae of mosaic pavements, fragments of iron nails, beads, minute metal ornaments (as bronze wire finger-rings) are to be picked up on khirbet sites.

The remains of walls are usually more easily traceable in khirbet than in tell sites, though much damage has been done by quarrying for modern buildings. These walls should be carefully examined: buildings other than mere houses (churches, synagogues, baths) may sometimes be detected. Cisterns should be noted. Some of these are not very obvious and the traveller should be on his guard against falling into them.

All stones should be examined, as there is a chance of finding inscriptions.

5. In all work on ancient sites the investigator must make a point of noting everything, irrespective of its apparent importance, and of carefully training a critical judgement in interpreting his observations. It is impossible to lay down general principles that govern every case completely: every site presents its own individual problems.

III. Rock-cut Tombs.

1. All Palestine is honeycombed with rock-cut tombs, which form a fascinating and inexhaustible field of study. Unfortunately all that are in the least degree visible have long ago been rifled, and in recent years those pests, the curio-hunting tourists, have done incalculable harm by stimulating the native tomb-robber and dealer.

2. The explorer of rock-cut tombs must be indifferent to mud, damp, evil smells, noxious insects, and other discomforts, and he must be prepared to squeeze through very narrow pa.s.sages, much clogged with earth. He is recommended to be on his guard against scorpions and snakes.

3. A plan and vertical section of the tomb should be drawn. The measurements should be taken carefully, not only for the sake of the accuracy of the plan, but also for metrological purposes.

4. The rock outside the entrance of the tomb-chamber should be examined. It often shows rebating or other cutting, designed to receive the foundations of a masonry mausoleum (resembling in general style the rock-hewn monuments in the Kedron Valley at Jerusalem). As a rule such structures have been entirely destroyed for the sake of their stones.

5. The tool-marks of the tomb-quarriers should be examined, as they sometimes reveal interesting technical points.

6. Every inch of the surface of the excavation, inside and out, must be examined for ornaments, symbols, or inscriptions. These may be either cut or painted, and often are very inconspicuous. Ornaments are usually floral in type, though in late tombs figure-subjects are occasionally to be found. Symbols are either Jewish (the seven- branched candlestick) or Christian (the cross, A-omega, or the like).

Inscriptions are not necessarily formally cut: they are sometimes mere scratched graffiti, which would be sure to escape notice unless carefully looked for (as in the so-called 'Tombs of the Prophets' on the Mount of Olives).

7. Dating of tombs.

The savage rifling to which Palestinian tombs have been subjected has much reduced the material available for dating them. The following general principles apply to Southern Palestine: those in Northern Palestine and Syria still await a more exact study:

The earliest tombs known in the country were mere natural caves, into which the dead were cast, often very unceremoniously.

In the Second Semitic Period (circa 1800-1400 B.C.) hewn chambers began to be used. These are in the form of cylindrical shafts with a doorway at the bottom leading sideways into the burial-chamber.

Natural caves are still frequently used.

In the Third Semitic Period (circa 1400-1000 B.C.) the shaft: form disappears and an artificial cave, rudely hewn out, takes its place.

The entrance is in the side of the chamber, though not necessarily at the level of the floor. Rude shelves for the reception of the bodies are sometimes, but not always, cut in the sides of the chamber.

In the Fourth Semitic Period (circa 1000-550 B.C.) the tomb- chambers are of the same kind, but are as a rule smaller.

In Southern Palestine the well-made tomb-chambers, such as are to be seen in great numbers around Jerusalem, are all post-exilic. There is an immense variety in plan, some tombs being single chambers, others complications of several chambers. The late excavation absurdly called the 'Tombs of the Kings' at Jerusalem is quite a labyrinth of rockcut chambers. In exploring such a structure a careful search should be made for devices for deluding thieves: special precautions are sometimes taken to conceal the entrance to inner groups of chambers. There are some interesting examples of this in the cemetery in the _Wadi er-Rababi_, south of Jerusalem. However, all tombs of this period fall into two groups, _kok_ tombs and _arcosolium_ tombs.

In the former the receptacles for bodies are of the kind known by the Hebrew name _kokim_--shafts, of a size to accommodate one body (sometimes large enough for two or three) driven horizontally into the wall of the chamber. In the normal _kok_ tomb-chamber there are nine _kokim_, three in each wall except the wall containing the entrance doorway. But there are many other arrangements. In the 'Tombs of the Judges' there is a double row of _kokim_ in the entrance chamber. The explorer should not forget that a _kok_ sometimes contains a secret entrance to further chambers at its inner end. In _arcosolium_ tombs the receptacles are benches cut in the wall, like the berths in a steamer's cabin. These are sometimes sunk, so as to resemble rock-cut sarcophagi.

The late tombs round Jerusalem are in the form of caves driven horizontally into the hill-sides. Further south, e.g. in the region round Beit Jibrin, they are more frequently sunk vertically, the entrance being in the roof of the burial chamber, or approached by a square shaft (a reversion to the Second Semitic form, except that these latter have _round_ shafts).

IV. Caves.

The history of the artificial caves hewn in the soft limestone of Palestine, is quite unknown. The caves of the neighbourhood of Beit Jibrin provide ample material for several months' exploration.

Though the caves are labyrinthine there is little fear of an explorer losing his way: he should, however, be well provided with lights, as it would be extremely awkward to be left in the innermost recess of a cave consisting of ten or a dozen chambers united by narrow creep- pa.s.sages, without adequate illumination. There are occasionally unexpected and dangerous pitfalls: and hyenas and serpents often shelter in the caves. The present writer has explored many of them entirely alone, but this is, on the whole, not to be recommended.

Besides planning the cave, its walls should be searched for inscriptions, &c. It should be remembered, however, that these may have been added at any time and do not necessarily belong to the original excavation. Symbols, apparently of a phallic nature, are sometimes cut on the walls, as well as crosses and other Christian devices, and Cufic inscriptions. Frequently the walls are pitted with the loculi of a columbarium, which, however, appear to be too small to receive cinerary urns and must be intended for some other purpose.

V. Pottery.

Owing to the importance of the subject a special section on Pottery is given here, and the two accompanying plates (XII) show some of the commonest types of vessels. But the student cannot learn all he will need to know of Palestinian pottery from a few pages of print. A representative series of specimens will be found in the Jerusalem Museum: he may supplement his study of these by the perusal of reports on excavations, such as Petrie, _Tell el-Hesy_ (pp. 40-50); Bliss, _A Mound of Many Cities_ (pa.s.sim); _Excavations in Palestine_ (pp. 71-141); Macalister, _Excavation of Gezer_ (vol. ii, pp.

128-239; and plates); Sellin, _Jericho_; Schumacher, _Tell et-Mutasellim_.