Haifa, Dec. 13.—The researches which I have been making into the oldest
authorities, with the view of identifying the sites of the numerous
ancient towns that once formed the homes of the extensive population
which in ages long gone by inhabited this coast, have only served to
reveal to me the enormous difficulty of the task. This difficulty is
created partly by the confusion introduced by the crusading nomenclature
and traditions, partly by the inaccuracy of the itineraries of early
pilgrims and travellers, and to the discrepancies existing in the most
primitive maps, and the contradictions in historical records. Thus
between this place and Tantura, a distance of fifteen miles, I have
visited the ruins of no fewer than nine ancient towns or villages, some
of them of considerable size, not one of which, with the exception of
Tantura, which is the Biblical Dor, has been positively identified. I do
not include in these the ruins of towns a mile or more inland, which
would double the number and convey some idea of the denseness of the
population which once inhabited this section of the country. At the same
time it is possible, from the varied character of these ruins, that some
were far more ancient than the others, and that they may have existed as
traces of a still more early people, when other cities, also now in
ruin, were rich and flourishing. Thus we have on this coast remains of
the early Phœenician period, of the Greek period, of the Roman or
Byzantine period, and, lastly, of the crusading period—the latter too
modern to be of any archæological interest. They consist merely of
constructions built from the materials of the civilizations which had
preceded it. Not content with using up these materials, the crusaders
gave the towns and forts which they built wrong names, refusing to adopt
the Saracen nomenclature, which was generally a corruption of the
original Canaanitish or Hebrew, and attempting to identify them
according to their own ideas of Biblical topography, or reading of Roman
history, thereby introducing inextricable confusion. Thus we have
William of Tyre, one of the crusading historiographers, gravely
informing us that “Duke Godfrey de Bouillon awarded, with his usual
magnanimity, to the generous and noble Tancred the city of Tiberias, on
the Lake of Genasereth, as well as of the whole of Galilee and the
sea-town of Kaypha (or Haifa), which is otherwise called Porphyria.”
The Carmelite monks still cling to this tradition, although modern
research has proved beyond a doubt that the site, at all events of one
Roman city of Porphyrion, was at Khan-Yunis, a ruin, eight miles north
of Sidon, and at least seventy miles from Haifa. To escape this
difficulty some have supposed there were two Porphyrions, and that one
was here, basing their argument on the fact that in the Onomasticon of
Eusebius and Jerome there is a city marked at the point of Carmel,
called Chilzon, and that Chilzon is the Hebrew for the murex, or
shellfish which produced the purple dye found there in great quantities;
hence Porphyrion, or the purple city.
In carefully examining these ruins, and remarking the great quantity of
carved porphyry which is peculiar to them, I have thought it furnished a
stronger argument in favor of what would seem an appropriate
appellation. The crusaders even confounded the Sea of Galilee with the
Mediterranean; thus they supposed a connection to exist between the town
of Caiapha, or Caiaphas (the modern Haifa), which Benjamin of Tudela
asserts to have been founded by Caiaphas, the high-priest, and Cephas,
the Greek name of Simon Peter. Hence near Haifa the crusading clergy
showed the rock where Simon Peter fished, called to this day Tell
el-Samak, or the Mound of the Fish. Laboring under a similar confusion
of idea, they built a fort out of the ruins of a place called at the
present day Kefr Lam, a name which, no doubt, dates back before the
times of the crusaders, and which they twisted into Capernaum, that
place being, as we all know, on the Sea of Galilee. The Capernaum of the
crusaders, however, is a village on the Mediterranean shore, thirteen
miles down the coast from here.
The itineraries of the pilgrims and early travellers are scarcely less
perplexing. They are generally careful to record the distances between
the various places they visit, but rarely with accuracy. Their remarks,
however, are naïve and amusing. I have just been reading the journal of
a certain Antoninus, the Martyr, who travelled in Palestine about the
year A.D. 530. Writing of Tyre, he says:
“The city of Tyre contains influential men; the life there is very
wicked; the luxury such as cannot be described. There are public
brothels, and silk and other kinds of clothing are woven.”
We do not altogether see the connection in this last sentence. Going on,
he remarks:
“Thence we came to Ptolemais (the modern Acre), a respectable city,
where we found good monasteries. Opposite Ptolemais, six miles off, is a
city which is named Sycaminus, under Mount Carmel. A mile from Sycaminus
are the hamlets of the Samaritans, and above the hamlets, a mile and a
half away, is the Monastery of Heliseus (or Elijah), the prophet, at the
place where the woman met him whose child he raised from the dead. On
Mount Carmel is found a stone, of small size and round, which, when
struck, rings because it is solid. This is the virtue of the stone—if it
be hung on to a woman, or to any animal, they will never miscarry. About
six or seven miles off is the city of Porphyrion.”
Now there are as many mistakes as there are sentences in this quaint
account by the holy man. It is a matter of dispute which are the ruins
of Sycaminus. Two ruins claim that honor, and one of these it
undoubtedly is. They are only two miles apart, but the nearest is
thirteen miles from Acre, instead of six, and the other fifteen. A mile
from Sycaminus, he says, are the hamlets of the Samaritans. These have
been identified beyond all doubt as a ruin called Kefr es Samir, two
miles and a half beyond one of the abovementioned ruins, and four miles
and a half beyond the other. The Monastery of Heliseus, the prophet, “a
mile and a half away,” I have described in a former letter. It is the
picturesque gorge and ruin called Ain Siah, but the place where Elijah
met the woman of Sarepta was, if we are to believe the Bible, “at the
gate of that city,” at least fifty miles distant from Carmel. There is
no doubt as to its site, between Tyre and Sidon. As to “the stone of
small size, which, when struck, rings because it is solid,” it happens
to ring because it is hollow. I have an interesting collection of these
geodes, found near Ain Siah, their peculiar shapes having given rise to
the legend that they were melons and other fruits which the proprietor
refused the prophet when he was hungry, and which the latter therefore
blasted with petrifaction. And then comes the final statement about the
unhappy Porphyrion, which he puts six miles off, thus probably
identifying it with Athlit, and making confusion worse confounded. First
we have the Jerusalem Itinerary, distinctly placing it to the north of
Sidon, a position confirmed by other authorities; then we have William
of Tyre identifying it with Haifa, and now we have Antoninus putting it
six miles off.
I will not inflict upon you all my reasons for coming to the conclusion
that the ruin at Tell el-Samak, the Mound of the Fish already alluded
to, is the site of Sycaminum, though I doubt whether a larger population
did not inhabit the city two miles nearer Haifa, where the porphyry
fragments abound. To judge by the fine carvings at both places, they
must have been wealthy as well as populous, and their most prosperous
period was in all probability during the first three or four centuries
of our era. The coins which I have found so far are of that epoch.
Exploring the ruins of what must have been the upper tower of Sycaminus,
distant about four hundred yards from the Fish Mound, and two hundred
feet above it, a few days ago, I came upon a cistern with four circular
apertures. Upon being let down into it I found it was seventy feet long,
hewn out of the solid rock, twenty feet broad, and twelve feet high from
the débris at the bottom, but in reality much deeper. The roof was
supported by three columns, four feet square, also hewn from the living
rock. The cement was still in some places perfect, and the cistern must
have been capable of containing a vast supply of water. It was about
fifteen yards from an angle of a wall composed of rubble, from which the
ashlar had been removed, about four feet thick, and still standing in
places to a height of four feet. In others the foundations of this wall
were easily traceable. As the whole ruin seems to have escaped the
observation of the Palestine Exploration Survey, I measured it, and
found the east wall to be one hundred and twelve yards long, the south
wall sixty-five, the west wall seventy, and an intersecting wall forty.
I could find no traces of a north wall. It was probably a fortress,
which was supplied by the cistern already mentioned. In the neighborhood
were some fine rock-cut tombs, two with six loculi, each in a good state
of preservation. I also picked up a piece of white marble on which was
an inscription in early Arabic characters, but only the word “Allah” and
two or three more letters remained on the fragment.
At Kefr Lam, the crusaders' Capernaum, which I had occasion recently to
visit, I discovered two very remarkable vaults, each forty feet long by
twelve broad and seven high. The roof was supported by five arches, each
arch composed of a single stone four feet broad, on the top of which
huge flat stones had been laid. I have never seen any constructions like
these vaults, and think they probably dated from a very ancient period.
In the immediate neighborhood the peasantry had recently opened an
ancient well, thirty-five feet deep, the water being approached by a
flight of steps round two sides of the well, the shaft of which was
about thirty feet square. There were no fewer than seventeen handsome
rock-cut tombs in the neighborhood of the village, and I regretted that
I had not time to prolong my investigations, as I feel convinced that
the vicinity would repay examination. As it is, I have obtained from the
villagers several good specimens of terra-cotta lamps, two curious
alabaster saucers, some coins, and other antiquities.