HAVING fairly established ourselves in our sepulchral residence, and
made every arrangement for our future comfort that the means at our
disposal rendered possible, we began to examine the remains of the city.
Our attention was at first specially directed to the tombs, in which we
hoped to discover small ornaments, vases, terra-cotta figures, and other
_portable_ objects. We were greatly assisted during our first rambles
over the ruins by an Arab of considerable influence in the Cyrenaica,
Mohammed El Adouly. He was a native of Benghazi, but having married the
daughter of one of the Sheikhs of the Haasa tribe, who occupy the
country in the neighbourhood of Cyrene, he kept his flocks, and spent
the greater part of the year, in that district. One of the letters given
us by the Sheikhs assembled at the Consulate was addressed to him, and
Mr. Crowe, with whom he was well acquainted, had also sent him a special
message regarding us. The day after our arrival at Cyrene he paid us a
long visit, bringing with him the welcome present of a camel-load of
milk and butter. He proved our constant friend during the whole time of
our residence in the country, and on many occasions was of great service
to us. Not being entangled in the perpetual feuds of the rival tribes
around us, he was equally respected by all, so that we could hardly have
had a safer friend. He was, besides, a man of much shrewdness and
intelligence, and had profited greatly by his travels in early life. He
had more than once been engaged in slave expeditions to Mourzook and
Soudan, and had visited Constantinople, Alexandria, and Malta. He was
withal a good Mussulman, although he confessed to having in his younger
days been latitudinarian in his conduct, if not in his creed. In person
he was a man of immense size, and had altogether a most imposing
appearance.
[Illustration: PLATE 39.—MOHAMMED EL ADOULY.
_From a Photograph._]
The day immediately after his first visit he returned to show us the
“lions” of the place. After we had seen a few of the tombs in the north-
eastern cemetery, he took us to the hill beyond the Wady Bil Ghadir,
where he showed us an excavated tomb in which a number of objects had
been discovered by M. Bourville. It was a large square chamber cut in
the rock, with the ruins of some kind of building in front: two marble
statues without heads were lying near it.
[Illustration: Pl. 40.
PLAN OF CYRENE
Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen]
As every _open_ tomb had doubtless been rifled long ago, we were
anxious, if possible, to discover some under the surface of the soil, in
the hope that they might still remain intact. In many of those cut in
the scarped sides of the hills we found the fronts partially covered by
the earth washed down from above, and therefore thought it probable that
others existed which had been wholly covered. We accordingly looked for
a place where such tombs were likely to be found, and at last chose, as
the most promising spot, a heap of ruins lying against an artificial
escarp near the tomb opened by M. Bourville.
The following day, the 27th of December, we commenced our excavations at
this place. At first the work went on but slowly, owing to the
inexperience of the blacks, who were quite ignorant of the use of the
tools, which they now handled for the first time in their lives. For
some time, therefore, we had to do the most of the digging ourselves.
Although it may seem a very simple matter to teach an able-bodied man to
use a pickaxe and a shovel, it is a much more tedious process than may
be supposed. As every railway contractor knows, a “navvy” has to serve a
good long apprenticeship before he is fit to take his place in a regular
gang of excavators.
Our great difficulty, however, with the blacks was to make them
understand the use of a crowbar. When a stone was too heavy to lift, or
was so placed that it could not be rolled, their only resource was to
try to break it. It was long before we could get them to see the power
of the lever, and still longer before they could apply it themselves.
After five days’ hard work, in clearing away the ruins of the building
from the face of the escarp, we reached the rock at the bottom, about
twelve feet below the original surface, but without finding an entrance
as we had expected. As it was evident that nothing was to be discovered
here, we left this place on the 1st of January, 1861, and removed to a
rock-tomb in the Wady Bil Ghadir, where the absence of any remains of
buildings made the work much easier. After a day and a half’s digging we
came to a doorway, five or six feet below the surface, closed by a
single slab of stone, of which one of the upper corners was broken away
sufficiently to allow a man to enter. Inside we found a plain square
chamber with recesses, partially filled with the earth that had been
washed in through the doorway. It was impossible to enter the chamber
without breaking the long, thin stalactites which covered the roof and
almost touched the floor. Nothing, however, remained either in the
chamber or the recesses—a result fatal to our hopes of discoveries in
the tombs, as it proved that this one, at least, had been rifled, not
recently, but before it became buried, a sufficient period having
afterwards elapsed to allow the formation of the stalactites. This being
the case, we concluded that other tombs, even if now covered with earth,
had probably shared the same fate.
For this reason we abandoned the tombs, and turned our attention to the
remains of buildings within the walls of the city. After a careful
examination of several places, we chose a prominent site near the
southern gate, marked in the plan “Temple of Bacchus.” In the centre of
a large oblong platform, enclosed by a massive colonnade and a well-
built _peribolus_ wall, the position of the temple itself was marked by
a low mound of earth, with a few blocks of stone and marble showing here
and there above the surface. The exterior of the two side-walls of the
temple had been partially laid bare by a former excavator, M. Bourville,
as the Arabs informed us. Part of the gateway in the southern
_peribolus_ wall is still standing, and is one of the most conspicuous
objects in Cyrene. The ruins of the colonnade, which is of the Doric
order, are nearly all above ground.
We began work at this temple on the afternoon of the 2nd, by digging
along the outside of the western wall. The earth was filled with
fragments of pottery and blocks of stone belonging to the building.
Among the latter were portions of a frieze with triglyphs, a proof that
the temple was of the Doric order. The stone was the same as in almost
all the buildings in Cyrene,—a friable yellow sandstone, containing a
great many fossil shells.
After finishing a trench along the western side, we began to dig inside
the temple at the western end, going gradually eastward. We were soon
rewarded for our labour by the discovery of a very perfect marble statue
of life size. The head and both hands were gone, but otherwise the
figure was uninjured, the surface being almost without a scratch. It was
lying on the floor of the temple near the north-western corner, about
four or five feet underground. Two days afterwards the figure was all
but completed by the discovery of the head and left hand, near the same
place. The head, that of a youth, wreathed with grapes and vine-leaves,
and the hand holding a cluster of grapes, at once identified the statue,
as one of Bacchus. The drapery falling from the left shoulder across the
right knee left the greater part of the figure nude. This statue is
given in Plate 61. The first thing to be thought of was its immediate
removal to a place of safety, as the Arabs, in their hatred of images,
would have considered its destruction a very meritorious act. But how to
transport it without tackle or other mechanical appliances was rather
puzzling. Meantime we pitched a tent close by, in which the blacks were
stationed to act as a guard, while we made preparations for the work of
removal. Carrying it was out of the question, owing to its great size
and weight; and no vehicle, however rude, existed in the country. Having
finally fixed on a sledge as the only means available, we went to a wood
on the side of the hill beyond the north-eastern cemetery to look for a
tree that would answer the purpose. We selected a good large cedar,
which we felled, after a hard day’s work, with small hatchets, our only
felling-axe having been lost or stolen during the journey from Benghazi.
We then trimmed the trunk and lower branches into a very serviceable
sort of sledge, the under side being cut as smooth as possible, and
grooves made in it for the lashings. We also cut some spars to use as
levers. With these and the coil of small rope we had brought from Malta
we set to work the following day. By placing slings under the shoulders
of the statue, and heaving on them with the spars, we got the figure
into an upright position. The sledge, well covered with mats, was then
lashed firmly to its back, care being taken to have the lashings well
padded, to prevent their chafing the surface of the marble. The sledge,
with the statue attached, was then gradually lowered by means of the
spars, and a drag-rope made fast to it. By dint of hauling and shouting
we got about halfway to our tomb before dark, when we again pitched the
tent and set the guard for the night. Next day we tried the experiment
of yoking in a camel, which proved quite successful. In the course of
the forenoon the statue was safely deposited in our kitchen, where it
was afterwards covered with a tent and walled up. We were not sorry when
our labour was over, as, notwithstanding every contrivance for saving
our hands, they had got sadly torn and blistered.
We completed the excavation of the temple in nineteen days. Besides the
Bacchus, we found two small marble statuettes, and a leopard in stone,
rather smaller than life, with a collar of vine-leaves, but saw no
inscriptions. The temple, very small in size, had no _pteron_, and
consisted only of a _cella_ and _pronaos_, or _portico_. The front,
which was towards the east, contained four columns, the two outer of
which were engaged in the lateral walls. At the western end of the
_cella_ there was a built pedestal, about two feet in height, on which
without doubt the statue stood. The whole of the interior bore traces of
having been faced and paved with thin slabs of marble.
On the 21st of January we removed to the place marked on the plan of the
city immediately above the theatre, on the side of the road leading up
the centre ravine. There were several broken statues lying on the
surface, and another was uncovered in the course of our excavations, but
as they were all of late date and inferior style, we did not think them
worth the trouble of removal. We also came on the bases of some unfluted
marble columns _in situ_, but were unable to follow up the line thus
pointed out, owing to the surrounding ground being sown with barley.
While digging at this place, we turned up a great many thick, square,
flat tiles, with which we paved part of the floor of our tomb.
[Illustration: Pl. 41.
PLAN OF CYRENE To shew the positions from which the plans and Sketches
were made
Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen]
On the 31st of the month we commenced the excavation of the building in
front of the fountain, marked on the plan “Temple of Apollo.” Although
the form of the building could be easily traced, very little of it
remained above ground. We began by clearing out, down to the level of
the pavement, the space between the columns and the wall of the _cella_
along the western and northern sides, on both of which we found parts of
the columns _in situ_ and fragments of the entablature, all of the Doric
order. The stone was the same as that of the Temple of Bacchus. The
building is particularly mentioned by Beechey, who supposed it to be the
Temple of Diana. We were inclined, however, from the first to consider
it the Temple of Apollo, on account of its commanding position
immediately in front of the fountain; and our opinion was confirmed
before we commenced its excavation, by finding two inscriptions among
the ruins, both of which referred to that deity.
Our space for digging was very limited, all the surrounding ground, and
even the eastern half of the temple itself, being covered with crops of
grain. We would, willingly have bought them up, but found it impossible
to do so, owing to the strong religious feeling of the Arabs, who regard
the fruits of the soil as the immediate gift of God, and would resent
their destruction as an act of sacrilege. The soil, once it has received
the seed, becomes sacred, and can no more be desecrated by the excavator
than a Greek church or a Turkish burial-ground.
After digging along the west and north sides as far as we could for the
crops, we commenced inside the _cella_, at the north-west corner.
Cramped as we were for want of space, we were obliged to throw the
_deblai_, as we proceeded, into the trench we had already excavated
outside. The first object we found was a small draped female statue,
unbroken, about 3 feet 6 inches in height. A few days afterwards we
discovered a colossal statue of Apollo himself, lying on the floor of
the temple, about ten feet below the surface of the ground. The head was
broken off, and the body in three pieces; but as the fractures were
clean and sharp, and their edges unchipped, we hoped that the whole
figure might afterwards be put together without difficulty. When this
was actually done, after the arrival of the sculptures in England, the
parts were all found to fit each other so accurately that the fractures
were barely perceptible. The trunk of the tree, the lyre, the serpent,
the bow and quiver, and some of the folds of the drapery, were found
piecemeal, in a great many fragments, which we collected carefully. The
statue, as it now stands, without the slightest restoration, in the
British Museum, is built up of no less than 121 separate pieces. A
Photograph of it is given in Plate 62. Near it was a large square
pedestal on which it had once stood.
Its removal to our tomb proved a most tedious and difficult operation,
on account not only of the great weight of each of the three parts, and
the depth at which they were discovered, but also of the very tender way
in which they had to be handled to prevent the thin sharp edges of the
fractures from being chipped and bruised. Our troubles were increased by
the conduct of the blacks, who thought this a favourable opportunity for
advancing the most extravagant claims for remuneration. Some ridiculous
notions had been put into their heads by the Arabs, during our absence
for a few days at Derna. All our appeals and offers of a compromise were
rejected; and as we would not yield to their absurd pretensions, they
went off, and left us to get the Apollo to our tomb without them. As
this was impossible, we were reduced to the necessity of reburying the
statue to protect it from the Arabs. Our good fortune, however, had not
deserted us. Two days afterwards, three negroes, sent by Mr. Crowe,
arrived from Benghazi, and we were enabled to resume work. With their
assistance and that of some of our Arab friends, we deposited the Apollo
in safety in our tomb, after several days’ very hard work. The sledge
was used as before, and a camel yoked in to help us to drag it. On the
former occasion, when the road was pretty smooth, and for the most part
down-hill, the camel did very well; now, however, the road was rough and
all up-hill, and as the camel, although an excellent beast of burden,
was quite unaccustomed to pulling, he would do nothing when he found he
could not walk away with the load easily. We had, consequently, to
unyoke him, and drag the sledge, foot by foot, ourselves.
Our new labourers, with whom the work of instruction had, of course, to
be recommenced, remained till the 20th of April, when they had to leave
us for harvest-work at Benghazi. We then tried some Arabs, but were soon
glad to get rid of them, as they gave us a great deal of trouble and did
very little work. By this time, however, we had completed the excavation
of the temple, nearly as far as our space allowed. We accordingly
proposed to spend a few weeks in making excursions to different parts of
the country, and to resume operations at Cyrene after the end of the
harvest.
It was evident from the first that many of the ruins at the Temple of
Apollo were of much later date than the building itself. The _Cella_ was
full of rubble walls and arches, roughly built of the materials of the
more ancient building; and the eastern half was paved with coarse
mosaic, about nine feet above the original floor of the temple, and,
consequently, only two or three below the surface of the ground. Under
this pavement there was a horizontal layer of broken columns resting on
others which stood in rows on the floor of the temple.
Near the middle of the _Cella_, a draped male statue, about seven feet
in height, but broken in two, was found lying on the tesselated pavement
(Plate 63). The head, which was of a separate piece from the body, from
which it could be removed at pleasure, fitted into a socket,—a somewhat
barbarous expedient for making the statue of a deceased emperor do duty
as his living successor’s, after the simple change of the head and the
name. Close to the statue we found a broken marble pedestal, on which
the following fragment of an inscription could be deciphered.
αὐτ]οκράτορα [Καίσ]αρ[α
Τρ]αϊανὸν Ἀ[δριαν]ὸν
Σε]βασ[τόν.
It may be presumed from this inscription that the statue represents the
Emperor Hadrian. We also found on this spot a large marble slab, on
which was the inscription, No. 26. We removed it to our tomb, like the
others, by means of the sledge. Imbedded in the earth, between the feet
of the statue, we found a head of Minerva, rather smaller than life,
quite uninjured, with the single exception of the point of the helmet,
which was a little broken. (_See_ Plate 64.)
In the same part of the temple as the Apollo, that is, in the western
half of the _Cella_, we found a head life-size, identified by an
inscription as the portrait of Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the
first Roman proprætor of Cyrene. (_See_ Plate 65.) The inscription (No.
1) was cut on the face of a square block of marble, on which stood a
square pedestal, 10 inches broad and 5 feet high, having at the top a
deep socket, into which the head was fitted. The back of the head was
cut flat, as if it had rested against a wall.
As our workmen had all left, we were unable at this time to complete the
excavation of the interior of the _Cella_. The whole of the eastern
half, between the mosaic pavement and the floor, we had to leave
untouched, until the month of August. One of the most remarkable things
which we then discovered was a bronze portrait head, in an excellent
state of preservation (Plate 66), lying on the original floor of the
temple, 11 feet beneath the mosaic pavement. Near it were some small
bronze fragments of horses, &c., very much injured, as if by fire;
several terra-cotta lamps, and a quantity of fragments of gold-leaf
mixed up with the earth. We also discovered several marble heads of
different sizes, a number of inscriptions, eight small statues, varying
from 2½ to 4 feet in height, and part of a leg of a colossal statue of
very fine style. Of the small statues the most remarkable were a figure
of Jupiter Ammon, a group representing the nymph Cyrene strangling a
lion, and a huntress, probably Diana Venatrix, accompanied by a dog.
The temple was of the usual form and construction, although it might be
remarked that its length was somewhat great in proportion to its
breadth, and that the entrance was not in the west but in the east
front. In these two respects, however, we found all the temples of
Cyrene which we examined, alike. The entrance being in this position,
the statue of the deity must have been placed at the west end facing the
east, contrary to the following recommendation of Vitruvius: “The
temples of the gods should be so placed that the statue, which has its
station in the _Cella_, should, if there be nothing to interfere with
such a disposition, face the west, in order that those who come to make
oblations and offer sacrifices, may face the east when their view is
directed toward the statue; and those who come to impose upon themselves
the performance of vows, may have the temple and the east immediately
before them. Thus the statue they regard will appear as if rising from
the east and looking down on the suppliants.”[3]