SYRIA.
EDESSA.-- HISTORICAL SKETCH.--M. Rubens Duval, the eminent Syriac scholar, has been publishing in the Journal Asiatique a history of the city of Edessa under the title: "Histoire religieuse et litteraire d'Edesse jusqu' à la première Croisade", (Jour. As. t. 18, No. 1 to t. 19, No. 1). This monograph has been crowned by the French Academy. It includes a considerable amount of information concerning the monuments of the city, especially those belonging to the early Christian period, and some idea can be gained of them by the following abridged note. As Edessa was one of the principal cities of the Christian East, the information is of interest. Edessa was from its position a fortress of the first rank and reputed impregnable. The citadel rose on a peak on the southwest angle of the rampart. At the west end there still remain two columns with Corinthian capitals, one of which bears an inscription with the name of Queen Shalmat, daughter of Ma'nu, probably the wife of King Abgar Ukhama. Within the citadel, on the great square called Beith-Tebhara, King Abgar VII built, after the inundation of 202, a winter palace, safe from the river floods, and the nobles followed his example. In the city itself were the porticoes or forum near the river, the Antiphoros or town-hall, restored by Justinian. In 497, the governor of the city, Alexander, built a covered gallery near the Grotto Gate and Public Baths, near the public storehouse; both the summer and winter baths were surrounded by a double colonnade. To the south, near the Great Gate, were other baths, and near them the theatre. Within the Beth Shemesh Gate was a hospital and outside it a refuge for old men. North of the city, near the wall, was the hippodrome, built by Abgarus IX on his return from Rome. The city had six gates which still exist under different names.
Edessa is one of the few cities that are known to have had a Christian church as early as the second century. This church was destroyed by the inundation of 201, was then rebuilt, being the only church in the city, suffered from the inundation of 303 and was rebuilt from its foundations in 313 by Cona, bishop of Edessa, and his successor Sa'd. It was called the Ancient Church, "the cathedral," also sometimes the Church of St. Thomas, because in 394 it received the relics of the apostle Thomas. The Frankish pilgrim woman who visited it at the close of the fourth century, or later, speaks of its size, beauty and the novelty of its arrangement. Duval believes her words to relate to Justinian's building, believing in a later date than is usually assigned to the above document. In 525 the church was overthrown by an inundation and then rebuilt by Justinian in such splendor as to be regarded as one of the wonders of the world. It was overthrown by earthquakes in 679 and 718.
The other churches were as follows:
370. The Baptistery is built.
379. Church of S. Daniel or S. Domitius, built by Bishop Vologese.
409. Church of S. Barlaha, built by Bishop Diogenes.
412. Church of S. Stephen, formerly a Jewish synagogue, built by
Bishop Rabbula.
435. The New Church, called later the Church of the Holy Apostles,
built by Bishop Hibhas.
" Church of S. John the Baptist and S. Addasus, built by Bishop
Nonnus (died 471), successor of Hibhas.
" Church of S. Mar Cona.
489. Church of the Virgin Mother of God, built on the site of the
School of the Persians after its destruction in 489.
c.505. Martyrium of the Virgin, built by Bishop Peter early in VI
century.
Outside the walls were the following churches:
Towards the N. Chapel of SS. Cosmas and Damian, built by Nonnus
(middle ν century).
E. Church of SS. Sergius and Simeon, which was burned
in 503 by the Persian King Kawad.
W. Church of Confessors, built in 346 by Bishop Abraham,
and burned by Kawad in 503.
Church of the Monks, near the citadel.
The cliffs to the west had been from early times excavated for burial purposes. In the midst of the tombs rose the mausoleums of the family of the Abgars, especially that of Abshelama, son of Abgarus. They were also honeycombed with anchorites' cells. This mountain received the name of the Holy Mountain and was covered with monasteries, among which were the following: Eastern Monks; S. Thomas; S. David; S. John; S. Barbara; S. Cyriacus; Phesilta; Mary Deipara; of the Towers; of Severus; of Sanin; of Kuba; of S. James. Arab writers mention over 300 monasteries around Edessa. Two aqueducts, starting from the villages of Tell-Zema and Maudad to the north, brought spring-water to the city; they were restored in 505 by Governor Eulogius.
Bishop Rabbulas (412-435) built a hospital for women from the stones of four pagan temples which were destroyed. He destroyed the church of the sect of Bardesanes and the church of the Arians, erecting other structures with their materials. After the Persian wars (505) Eulogius, governor of Edessa, rebuilt many of the damaged public monuments. He repaired the outer ramparts and the two aqueducts; rebuilt the public baths, the prætorium, and other structures. The bishop, Peter, restored the cathedral and built the Martyrium of the Virgin, and also covered with bronze one of the cathedral doors. Justinian restored and rebuilt many buildings after the inundation of 524-25. Even under the early period of Muhammadan rule the Christian structures were cared for. Under the Khalif Abd-el-Malik (685-705) the Edessene Christian Athanasius, who enjoyed great political influence, rebuilt the Church of the Virgin, which was on the site of the School of the Persians; rebuilt also the Baptistery in which he placed the portrait of Christ sent to Abgarus and placed in it fountains like those of the Ancient Church, decorating it also with gold, silver and bronze revetments. He also built two large basilicas at Fostat in Egypt. There is an interesting account of an artistic treasure of great value discovered in a house belonging to a noble family of the Goumêaus in 797 and belonging to the Roman and Byzantine period; it is supposed to have been hidden in 609. The churches were often destroyed and rebuilt according to the tolerance or intolerance of the Muhammadan governors. At one period of persecution, c. 825, a mosque was built in the tetrapylum in front of the Ancient Church. It is not important to trace the vicissitudes of the building of Edessa any further.
COINS OF THE KINGS OF EDESSA.--Marquis de Vogué sends to M.E. Babelon a description of a bronze coin brought from Syria, found either in the province of Alep or of Damas. It bears the name of Abgarus, the name of several of the kings of Edessa. The type is that of the small bronze pieces attributed to Mannou VIII; the character and inscriptions are the same. It must then be attributed to a king Abgarus whose reign approaches as nearly as possible that of Mannou VIII. Mr. Rubens Duval, in his history of Edessa, mentions two kings of this name, Abgarus VIII, whose reign cut into that of Mannou VIII, and Abgarus IX, who succeeded him. It is to one of these two princes that this coin must be assigned. It is possible that this monument may shed some light upon a portion of Oriental chronology, hitherto very dark. Two other coins are described from M. Vogué's collection, one of which, it seems, should be attributed to the same king Abgarus as the preceding; the other bears a name which M. Duval assigns to Abgarus XI, who reigned for two years during a short restoration of the government of Edessa.--Revue Numismatique, 1892, p. 209.
SINJIRLI.--SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS.--The German Oriental Committee discovered, as is well known, an ancient city buried under a number of mounds at a place called Sinjirli in the Amanus Mountains. Here were found a number of statues bearing cuniform inscriptions, Hittite inscriptions and two long Aramean inscriptions of the VIII or IX century B.C.
M. Helévy, the well-known French Orientalist, was sent by the Paris Institute to the Museum of Berlin, where these statues are placed, to report upon the inscriptions. M. Helévy finds that the two kings were rulers of Yadi and that their reigns were a century apart. The first statue is that of Panémon, founder of his dynasty--a 40 line inscription relates the events of his reign, the protection of the Jews, etc. The second is a king who was a vassal of Tiglath-Pilezer, king of Assyria. The inscription describes wars of his father, his own relations with Assyria, his defeats and victories. It gives an account of his own reign and terminates by invoking the protection of the gods.
M. Helévy says that these inscriptions are not in the Aramean language, as was first supposed, but a Phœnician dialect very analogous to Hebrew, which was spoken by the people whom the Assyrians named Hatte, that is to say, Hittites or Hetheim. He adds that the current opinion as to their not being of Semitic race is quite erroneous and that the hieroglyphics discovered in various parts of Asia Minor are of Anatolian and not of Assyrian origin, the few texts of this kind found at Hamath and Aleppo being due to Anatolian conquerors, whose domination, however, was very temporary in character.--Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1892, Oct., p. 887.
NAMES OF CITIES AT MEDINET HABU.--Prof. Sayce writes: The list of places conquered by Rameses III in Palestine and Syria, which I copied on the pylon of Medinet Habu, turns out to be even more interesting than I had supposed, as a whole row of them belongs to the territory of Judah. Thus we have the "land of Salem," which, like the Salam of Rameses II, is shown by the Tell-el-Amarna tablets to be Jerusalem, arez hadast, or "New Lands," the Hadashah of Joshua (XV. 37), Shimshana or Samson, "the city of the Sun" (Josh. XV. 10), Carmel of Judah, Migdol (Josh. XV. 37), Apaka or Aphekah (Josh. XV. 53), "the Springs of Khibur" or Hebron, Shabuduna, located near Gath, by Thothmes III, and Beth-Anath, the Beth-Anoth of Joshua (XV. 59). The discovery of these names in the records of an Egyptian king, who reigned about 1200 B.C., raises a question of some interest for students of the Old Testament.--Academy, April 2.
JAFFA.--The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund have received through Mr. Bliss a squeeze of a long inscription stated to have been recently discovered at a place not far from Jaffa, which appears to contain about 250 letters in the Phœnician character.--Academy, March 5.
JERUSALEM.--A BYZANTINE BRACELET.--Mr. Maxwell Somerville of Philadelphia has added to his collection a large bronze bracelet found near Jerusalem and bearing a Greek inscription. It was communicated to the Acad. des Inscr. by M. le Blant. At one end of the inscription is a lion courant, at the other a serpent rampant. On the left end is soldered a small round plaque on which is engraved a subject identical with that found on some of the amulets published by M. Schlumberger in the Rev. des Études Grecques (see under Byzantine Amulets in Greek news of this number). A mounted warrior--whom Mr. Schlumberger identifies as Solomon--pierces with his lance a prostrate female figure who apparently represents the devil, a "Fra Diavalo."--Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 23.
RETHPANA-DEAD SEA.--Prof. Sayce has discovered at Medinet Habû the Egyptian name of the Dead Sea. Between the names of Salem and Yerdano and the Jordan comes "the lake of Rethpana." As the Dead Sea is the only "lake" in that part of the world, the identification of the name is certain. Rethpana could correspond with a Canaanite Reshpôn, a derivative from Reshpu, the sun-god, who revealed himself in flames of fire.--Academy, May 14.
TEL-EL-HESY--LACHISH.--CUNEIFORM TABLET.--We quote from a letter written to the Times by Mr. James Glaisher, chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund:--
"The excavations commenced two years ago by Dr. Flinders Petrie at a mound in Palestine named Tell-el-Hesy have been continued during the last six months by Mr. F.J. Bliss, of Beirût. The Tell has been identified by Major Conder and Dr. Flinders Petrie with the ancient city of Lachish, an identification which is now amply confirmed.
"Mr. Bliss has found among the débris a cuneiform tablet, together with certain Babylonian cylinders and imitations or forgeries of those manufactured in Egypt. A translation of the tablet has been made by Prof. Sayce; it is as follows:--
'To the Governor. [I] 0, my father, prostrate myself at thy feet. Verily thou knowest that Baya (?) and Zimrida have received thy orders (?) and Dan-Hadad says to Zimrida, "0, my father, the city of Yarami sends to me, it has given me 3 masar and 3 ... and 3 falchions." Let the country of the King know that I stay, and it has acted against me, but till my death I remain. As for thy commands (?) which I have received, I cease hostilities, and have despatched Bel(?)-banilu, and Rabi-ilu-yi has sent his brother to this country to [strengthen me (?)].'
"The letter was written about the year 1400 B.C. It is in the same handwriting as those in the Tell-el-Amarna collection, which were sent to Egypt from the south of Palestine about the same time.
"Now, here is a very remarkable coincidence. In the Tell-el- Amarna collection we learn that one Zimrida was governor of Lachish, where he was murdered by some of his own people, and the very first cuneiform tablet discovered at Tell-el-Hesy is a letter written to this Zimrida.
"The city Yarami may be the Jarmuth of the Old Testament.
"'Even more interesting,' writes Prof. Sayce, 'are the Babylonian cylinders and their imitations. They testify to the long and deep influence and authority of Babylon in Western Asia, and throw light on the prehistoric art of Phœnicia and Cyprus. The cylinders of native Babylonian manufacture belong to the period B.C. 2000-1500; the rest are copies made in the West. One of these is of Egyptian porcelain, and must have been manufactured in Egypt, in spite of its close imitation of a Babylonian original. Others are identical with the cylinders found in the prehistoric tombs of Cyprus and Syria, and so fix the date of the latter. On one of them are two centaurs arranged heraldically, the human faces being shaped like those of birds. European archæologists will be interested in learning that among the minor objects are two amber beads."--Academy, July 9.
The Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund for April contains a detailed report of Mr. F.J. Bliss's excavations at Tell-el-Hesy, the site of Lachish, during last winter, illustrated with several plans and woodcuts. The most interesting objects found were a number of bronze weapons, and fragments of pottery with markings, both from the lowest or Amorite town. Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie adds a note on the weights discovered, almost all of which belong to the Phœnician and Aeginetan systems.