Of ancient Judæa we possess as yet very scanty archæological monuments indeed before the fall of the monarchy. The so-called Tombs of the Kings are now, I believe, generally considered to belong to the Herodian period. Of the Temple of Jerusalem, the holy place of the Tabernacle of the Most Highest, not one stone is left upon another. And we may well conceive that nothing less than its destruction would effectually convince the world of the great truth that an hour had arrived in which neither that holy mountain on which it was built, nor any other in the whole world, was to be the scene of the exclusive worship of the Father. The sites of the Holy Places, however, have naturally excited much attention, and have been well illustrated by several distinguished resident members of our University, and also by a foreign gentleman who for some time resided among us. Dr Pierotti had the singular good fortune to discover the subterranean drains by which the blood of the victims, slaughtered in the Temple, was carried off; and this discovery afforded valuable aid in determining various previously disputed matters in connexion with the Temple. He likewise came upon some masonry in the form of bevelled stones below the surface, which was not unreasonably supposed to belong to Solomon’s Temple; but it now appears that this opinion is doubtful. Besides these, we have the sepulchres of the patriarchs at Hebron, guarded with scrupulous jealousy; and tanks at the same place, which may be as old as the time of David, and perhaps one or two things more of a similar kind. We may well hope that the explorations which are now being set on foot for bringing to light the antiquities of Palestine may add to their number.
In the relation of Jewish archæology to Jewish history we have a case quite different to all those that have gone before it: there the native archæology was more or less extensive, the independent native literature scanty or non-existent; here, where the archæology is almost blotted out, is it precisely the reverse. We have in the sacred books of the Old Testament an ample literary history: we have scarcely any monumental remains of regal Judæa at all. With regard to the New Testament the matter is otherwise; archæological illustrations, as well as literary, exist in abundance, and some very striking proofs from archæology have been adduced of the veracity and trustworthiness of its authors. My predecessor bestowed great attention on the numismatic and other monumental illustrations of Scripture, and herein set a good example to all that should come after him. Archæology is worthily employed in illustrating every kind of ancient literature; most worthily of all does she occupy herself in the illustration and explanation and confirmation of the sacred writings, of the Book of books.
The antiquities of Phœnicia need not detain us long. Opposite to Aradus is an open quadrangular enclosure, excavated in rock, with a throne in the centre for the worship of Astarte and Melkarth; this is the only Phœnician temple discovered in Phœnicia, except a small monolithal temple at Ornithopolis, about nine miles from Tyre, of high antiquity, dedicated apparently to Astarte. I wish however to direct your attention to the characteristic feature of Phœnician architecture, its enormous blocks of stone bevelled at the joints. You have them in the walls of Aradus and in other places in Phœnicia. They are also found in the temple of the Sun at Baalbec, and may with great probability, I conceive, be regarded as Phœnician; though the rest of the beautiful architectural remains there are Greco-Roman of the Imperial period, and perhaps the best specimens of their kind in existence. Among other Phœnician antiquities we have sarcophagi, and sepulchral chambers for receiving them, also very beautiful variegated glass found over a good part of Europe and Asia, commonly called Greek, but perhaps more reasonably presumed to be Phœnician. Most of the remains found on the sites of the Phœnician settlements are either so late Phœnician, or so little Phœnician at all, as at Carthage, that I shall make no apology for passing over both them, and the few exceptions also, just alluding however to the existence of a remarkable hypæthral temple in Malta, which I myself saw nearly twenty years ago, not long, I believe, after it was uncovered. With regard to the strange vaulted towers of Sardinia, called Nuraggis, they may be Phœnician or Carthaginian, but their origin is uncertain. “All Phœnician monuments,” says Mr Kenrick, “in countries unquestionably occupied by the Phœnicians are recent[[12]].” He makes the remark in reference to the Lycian archæology. Whether the Lycians were of Phœnician origin or not, their rock-temples and rock-tombs, abounding in sculptures (illustrative both of their mythology and military history), shew that they were not much behind the Greeks in the arts. With the general appearance of their Gothic-like architecture, and of their strange bilingual inscriptions, Greek and Lycian, we are of course familiarised by the Lycian Room in the British Museum. With regard to the relation of Phœnician and Lycian archæology to the history of the peoples themselves, it must be sufficient to say, that their history, both literary and monumental, is quite fragmentary; in the case of Phœnicia the literary notices perhaps preserve more to us than the monumental; in regard to Lycia the remark must rather be reversed.
[12]. Phœnicia, p. 88. London, 1855. See also Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography, s. v. Phœnicia and Lycia.
From Phœnicia, which first carried letters to Greece, let us also pass to Greece. But Greece, in the sense in which I shall use it, includes not only Greece Proper, but many parts of Asia Minor, as well as Sicily and the Great Greece of Italy. And here I must unwillingly be brief, and make the splendid extract from Canon Marsden, quoted before, in some degree do duty for me. But think for a minute first on its architecture, I do not mean its earliest remains, such as the Cyclopian walls and the lion-gate at Mycenæ, and the so-called treasury of Atreus, which ascend to the heroic ages or farther back, but its temple architecture. Before I can name them, images of the Parthenon, the Erectheum, the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius at Ægina, the temple of Apollo Epicurius at Phigalia or Bassæ, that of Concord (so-called) at Agrigentum, the most perfect in Sicily, the three glorious Doric temples of Pæstum, the Ionic ruins of Branchidæ, will, I am confident, have arisen before your eyes. Many of us perhaps have seen some of them; if not, we all feel as though we had. Think of its sepulchral monuments, which are in the form of temples; and first of Queen Artemisia’s Mausoleum, the most splendid architectural expression of conjugal affection that has ever existed, the wonder of the world, with its colossal statue of her husband and its bas-reliefs by Bryaxis and Scopas and other principal sculptors; and remember that we have these in our national museum. Various fine rock-tombs, likewise in the form of temples, occur in Asia Minor, e.g. that of Midas at Nacoleia, the Lion-tomb at Cnidus, the necropolis at Telmessus.
The transition from temples and tombs to statuary is easy, as these were more or less decorated with its aid. Although we still possess the great compositions of some of the first sculptors and brass-casters, for example, the Quoit-thrower of Myron, the Diadumenos of Polycleitus, (i.e. a youth binding his head with a fillet in token of an athletic victory,) and perhaps several of the Venuses of Praxiteles; yet it is needless for me to remind you that these with few exceptions are considered to be copies, not originals. But yet there are exceptions. “The extant relics of Greek sculpture,” says Mr Bunbury, “few and fragmentary as they undoubtedly are, are yet in some degree sufficient to enable us to judge of the works of the ancient masters in this branch of art. The metopes of Selinus, the Æginetan, the Elgin, and the Phigaleian marbles, to which we now add the noble fragments recently brought to this country from Halicarnassus, not only serve to give us a clear and definite idea of the progress of the art of sculpture, but enable us to estimate for ourselves the mighty works which were so celebrated in antiquity[[13]].” Of bronzes of the genuine Greek period, which we may call their metal statuary, the most beautiful that occur to my remembrance are those of Siris, now in the British Museum. They are considered by Brönsted to agree in the most remarkable and striking manner with the distinctive character of the school of Lysippus. But most of the extant bronzes are, I believe, of the Roman period, executed however, like their other best works, by Greco-Roman artists.
[13]. Edinburgh Review for 1858, Vol. CVIII. p. 382. I follow common fame in assigning this article to Mr Bunbury; few others indeed were capable of writing it. Besides the sculptures named by him we have in the British Museum a bas-relief by Scopas, as it is thought, who may also be the author of the Niobid group at Florence; likewise the Ceres (so-called) from Eleusis, and the statue of Pan from Athens, now in our Fitzwilliam Museum. For other antique statues and bronzes and for the later copies see Müller’s Ancient Art, passim.
With the Greek schools of painting, Attic, Asiatic, and Sicyonian, no less celebrated than their sculpture, it has fared far worse. There is not one of their works surviving; no, not one. Of these schools and their paintings I need not here say anything, as I am concerned only with the archæological monuments which are now in existence. But the loss is compensated in some degree by the paintings on vases, in which we may one day recognise the compositions of the various great masters of the different schools, just as in the majolica and other wares of the 16th and following centuries we have the compositions of Raffaelle, Giulio Romano, and other painters. “The glorious art of the Greek painters,” says K. O. Müller, the greatest authority for ancient art generally, “as far as regards light, tone, and local colours, is wholly lost to us; and we know nothing of it except from obscure notices and later imitations;” (referring, I suppose, to the frescoes of Herculaneum and of Pompeii more especially;) “on the contrary, the pictures on vases with thinly scattered bright figures give us the most exalted idea of the progress and achievements of the art of design, if we venture, from the workmanship of common handicraftsmen, to draw conclusions as to the works of the first artists[[14]].” But of this matter and of the vases themselves, which rank among the most graceful remains of Greek antiquity, and are found over the whole Greek world, I shall say no more now, as they will form the subject of my following lectures. We have also many terra cottas of delicate Greek workmanship, mostly plain, but some gilded, others painted, from Athens, as well as from a great variety of other places, of which the finest are now at Munich. Relief ornaments, sometimes of great beauty, in the same material, were impressed with moulds, and Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, wishes for such typi from Athens, in order to fix them on the plaster of an atrium. Most of those which now remain seem to be of Greco-Roman times.
[14]. Ancient Art and its Remains, p. 119. Translated (with additions from Welcker) by Leitch. London, 1852. This invaluable work is a perfect thesaurus for the student, and will conduct him to the most trustworthy authorities on every branch of the subject.
Of the art of coinage invented by the Greeks and carried by them to the highest perfection which it has ever attained, a few words must now be said. The history of a nation, said the first Napoleon, is its coinage: and the art which the Greeks invented became soon afterwards, and now is, the history of the world. Numismatics are the epitome of all archæological knowledge, and any one who is versed in this study must by necessity be more or less acquainted with many others also. Architecture, sculpture, iconography, topography, palæography, the public and private life of the ancients and their mythology, are all illustrated by numismatics, and reciprocally illustrate them.