Various passages in the Bible enumerate the ornaments of the priests, such as the ephod, which, in certain cases, signifies the liturgical vestment; in others a sort of sacred casket, containing two talismanic cubes, called urim and thummim. The priestly costume of Aaron is an embroidered garment in which gems are set, according to the Book of Exodus. As early as the period of Genesis, we see the children of Israel making use of seals of precious stone, precisely as their neighbours the Egyptians and Chaldæans did. A certain number of gems carved in intaglio have come down to us which bear names apparently Jewish: Shebaniah, Nathanyahu, Hananyahu, Obadyahu. These seals for the most part only bear the name of their possessor; they have neither ornament nor symbol.
§ III. Civil Architecture.
The temple of Jerusalem, in which the national life of the Jews was concentrated, was also, as we have said, the summary of their art and industry. In vain have many archæologists, during the last sixty years, made efforts to discover in Palestine, or in the other regions of southern Syria, and even in the heart of Arabia, traces of an art which might have flourished in these regions before the arrival of the Greeks and Romans. Travellers have indeed observed at Ala-Safat, at Jebel-Musa, in the land of Moab, on the Bahr-el-Huleh in Galilee, near Hesban, and in many other places, dolmens and upright stones, analogous to those in Africa, in Brittany, and on Salisbury Plain, and remains of walls of Cyclopean masonry, no doubt built by those giants, the Rephaim and the Anakim, who, as the Bible tells us, were the first inhabitants of these regions. Certain circles of great blocks, like those of Minyeh and Deir Ghuzaleh in the land of Moab, may have marked the bounds of sacred enclosures, temples in the open air, that is to say, of those bâmoth, or “high places” of which the Scriptures so often speak. But these barbaric remains, like the borders of certain wells at which, perhaps, the flocks of the patriarchs slaked their thirst, have little interest for the history of art. No idea can be formed of civil architecture except by imaginary restorations. Solomon’s palace, which communicated with the temple and was situated to the south, upon Ophel, was demolished and rebuilt twenty times with incessant modifications, until its final ruin. The principal building, standing in the middle of a spacious court, enclosed by supporting walls which bounded the hill like the temple-enclosure, was called the House of Lebanon, after the place whence the timber was brought of which it was partly constructed. It was 100 cubits long, 50 broad and 30 high; its walls were built of large blocks; forty-five cedar columns were counted in it, divided into three rows, and supporting architraves of the same sweet-smelling wood.[89] This edifice was used as an arsenal: like the monarchs of Nineveh, the kings of Judah had a magazine of weapons in their palace.
Behind were the royal apartments, consisting of a hall of columns, and another room panelled with cedar, called the throne-room; in front of the former stood a porch 50 cubits long by 30 broad. There were also the selamlik and the hareem, arranged as in all oriental palaces. The offices communicated with the city by means of the Horse Gate; the Upper Gate gave access to the temple-enclosure. This is the extent of our information upon the subject of Solomon’s palace.
The palace of Hyrcanus, at Arak el-Emir, and the fortifications of Jerusalem and of the Tower of Antonia, are purely Græco-Roman, and do not come within the sphere of our work. However, the English explorers discovered by their soundings on the slope of Ophel, above Kedron, a fortified wall which presents several kinds of masonry one above the other; the lowest masonry is perhaps earlier than the rebuilding of the ramparts by Nehemiah after the Babylonian captivity: in this case it would date, if not from the reigns of David and Solomon, at least from the time of Jotham and Manasseh. The base of the quadrangular bastions is formed of very regular courses, sometimes rusticated; the blocks are 8 ft. long by 3 ft. 3 in. high; the marginal draft is even found in places. This tradition of bevelled masonry has been already noticed in the Herodian substructure of the Temple; it is also to be seen in the wall of Hebron ([fig. 183]).
In a country which generally lacks drinking water, the building of cisterns is a matter of importance, and this is the case in Judæa. One of the most remarkable works of this kind is that which carries the waters of the Fountain of the Virgin to the Pool of Siloam. In the tunnel an inscription has been found which enables us to fix the date of the work about the reign of King Hezekiah, and teaches us by what methods this subterranean canal, 1,750 ft. long, was successfully hewn in the rock. Two bands of workmen attacked the mountain on both sides at once, and the miners, after numerous windings, which increased the labour and the length of the tunnel, at last struck “pick against pick,” says the inscription, “and heard one another shout” on each side of the barrier. Thus the water was carried along a passage not more than 2 ft. broad and of a height which varies from 1 ft. 5½ in. to 14 ft. 7½ in. But bold as this work may appear in the hands of Jewish engineers, who possessed neither compass nor exact geometrical instruments, it teaches us nothing from the point of view of art, any more than the aqueducts hewn in the rock which are found in other parts of Palestine.
Fig. 183.—The tomb of Abraham at Hebron (after Vogüé, p. 119).