AN OLD SARCOPHAGUS AT GAZA[41]
The Jerusalem paper, _El-Kuds_, in its issue of February 25, 1910, gave
an interesting account of a discovery made at Gaza, and Prof. R. A. S.
Macalister has kindly forwarded a translation of the relevant portions
of the description. After some remarks on the history of Gaza, the
paper proceeds as follows--
"We have been induced to record the above by our having heard that Musa
el-Burtu and his partner, Ibn Halaweh, of the people of Gaza, bought
land at Gaza for six hundred dollars; and that when Musa went to his
land, and was working and digging in it, he found a little door. He
entered by it into a cave divided into two chambers, and, entering
through the second door, he found a coffin of hard wood. And he opened
it, and in the coffin was another of crystal. And he broke this, and
inside it he found one of the old queens embalmed, and on her head
a crown adorned with precious stones, and on her neck a necklace of
pearls, and three chains besides on her breast; and above her head
was a candlestick of gold with a spout, a metre and a half long, and
another at her foot a metre long. And he collected all these things and
brought them to Beirût, and thence to Egypt; and we have learnt that he
sent to his partner in Gaza to pay to the workmen a sum of five hundred
napoleons.
"And when the Government heard of this they sent, on their part, a
number of people to the said place to preserve and protect it, because
the tomb in which the queen was found is of marble, and her portrait is
carved on it. And there are other graves besides."
We are, fortunately, able to supplement this by an account sent to us
by Mr. Emil G. Knesevich, of Gaza, who has also kindly forwarded a
photograph of the sarcophagus.
"At the commencement of 1910, some men were digging out stones in their
orange garden, about two miles to the north-west of Gaza, and after
reaching a depth of six metres, came upon the ruins of an old door,
which led to a big cave about five metres by six metres, and about
three metres in height. In the floor and walls of this cave, some tombs
were found containing bones, the remains of dead bodies, and a number
of idols resembling men, monkeys, eagles, and dogs. These were made of
clay and plaster of Paris, and were tinged with a beautiful green tint.
In the cave another door was observed; this led to another small cave
about two metres by three metres, and two metres in height, in which
was found the sarcophagus, of which the following is a description--
"The sarcophagus was by itself in the inner cave, strongly fortified by
a sort of a vault built over it of huge stones and plaster of Paris,
to prevent it from being damaged. When the stones were removed there
appeared this beautiful and remarkable sarcophagus. It was made of pure
white marble, and was composed of two pieces, the lid and the coffin.
When the lid was taken away, there was found the mummy of a female in
a fine state of preservation. The coffin was two hundred and twenty
centimetres long, seventy centimetres wide, and seventy-two centimetres
high. Unfortunately, the men who found the mummy destroyed it in
searching the coffin, hoping to find precious antiques, but they assert
that they found nothing, save an artificial tooth attached to a golden
wire. Some people say, however, that a book and some precious things
were discovered. No inscription of any kind was upon the sarcophagus.
"The lid was beautifully and artistically carved in the exact form of
the mummy. Nothing except the head, neck, and shoes were seen, and
the rest of the body was carved so as to appear swathed in bandages
of linen. The head was neatly fashioned, and the eyes and lips were
painted their natural colour. The head was bound with a fillet, the
hair was loose and thrown on both sides of the chest. The head, fillet,
and the nose suggest that the mummy was a Roman, but the shoes, as
carved on the lid, are Egyptian.
"The lower part of the coffin also was cut in the shape of the body,
as shown in the photograph. The place that supported the head was
carved to resemble the head and neck, and the lower part of the coffin,
that rested on the ground, is carved in the shape of the back part
of the body. The local government got possession of the sarcophagus,
and dispatched it to Constantinople, together with the remains of the
mummy, and the above-mentioned idols, on the 26th of May last."[42]
[Illustration: THE MUSLIM MOSQUE--ONCE THE CRUSADERS' CHURCH]
FOOTNOTES:
[41] _Quarterly Statement_ P. E. F., Oct. 1910, pp. 294-6.
[42] "A curious seal was, during 1874, found in the vicinity of Gaza.
It was in possession of Dr. De Hass, a former American Consul, who gave
Lieut. Conder an impression. It represents a human figure with four
wings, seemingly like those of a fly or bee, and with a large misshapen
human head. In each hand the figure holds an animal resembling an ape,
head downwards, being held by the hind leg. Dr. De Haas supposed this
to be an effigy of Baalzebub, god of Ekron, to whom apes were sometimes
offered. The seal is square, about one inch wide, and the figure in low
relief, roughly cut. A similar seal was found some years ago, and is
now in England. It represents a fly or mosquito, with an inscription,
the equivalent of the Arabic 'Allah,' perhaps the symbolical effigy of
the deity of Ekron."--_Quarterly Statement_ P. E. F., Jan. 1875, p. 10.