Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

The existing walls of Teuchira have undoubtedly been constructed at a period when architecture had attained great perfection; the mode of building adopted in them is uniform and regular, well calculated from its nature to save labour and expense, and is such as could only have been successfully employed where the blocks of stone used were large and heavy. Two ranges of stone, longitudinally placed, form the outer and inner surface of the structure; and these are crossed by a single block at regular intervals the length of which is the thickness of the wall: a space is left between the longitudinal ranges, about equivalent to the breadth of the stones which compose them; and this is filled up with what is usually termed rubble, (which here appears to be the refuse of the material employed,) and occasionally with a single stone. Little or no cement has been used in the building (so far at least as we were able to discover); and, indeed, the weight of the several blocks, with the pressure upon them, would seem to render it wholly unnecessary.

Six and twenty quadrangular turrets contribute at the same time to the strength and the defence of the wall; and two gates flanked with buttresses, projecting inwards, by which the entrance is defended, and placed opposite to each other on the east and western walls, are the only approaches to the town[2]. The entrance through these (as is usual in ancient towns) is by means of a narrow passage formed by the buttresses mentioned above; but the gate itself is not placed within the line of the walls, as we find to have been the case with that of Mycenæ, but ranges with them. Nearly in the centre of the southern wall there are two turrets of considerably larger dimensions than the rest, which are at the same time of a more recent construction, and immediately opposite to them is an outer wall of a semicircular form. We naturally searched here for another entrance to the town, but could find no appearance of there ever having been one: yet, except it were for the defence of a gateway, there does not seem to be any sufficient reason why these turrets should be larger than the rest; and if there were no entrance through them to the town there has been none on the south side at all[3]. On the north side of Teuchira (it will appear in the plan) no part of the city wall is remaining, and it is probable that it has been undermined by the sea which appears to have here advanced (as it has on other parts of the coast) beyond its original bounds.

The line described by the walls, although somewhat quadrangular, is by no means a regular figure—a diagonal drawn from the opposite corners, at the north-east and south-western angles, would be a line of about three thousand two hundred English feet; while that which would pass through the north-west and south-eastern angles would be about nine hundred feet shorter. The circuit of the walls has been estimated by Signor Della Cella at about two miles; but we found it, by measurement, to be less than a mile and a half; being comprised in a line of eight thousand six hundred English feet[4]. On the interior of the wall, as we have already stated, there are a good many Greek inscriptions; but we were not fortunate enough to find their contents quite so interesting as Dr. Della Cella has supposed they might have been, when he tells us, that “all the annals of the city might perhaps be found registered on its walls[5].” We examined the whole space, however, very attentively and found only a collection of names, which we should scarcely have thought it worth while to copy had not the Doctor’s assertion made it necessary to shew what portion of information the inscriptions actually contained. They will be found, with other inscriptions from the excavated tombs of Teuchira, in page 386; and it will be seen that the names are chiefly Greek, and the character, for the most part, Ptolemaic; but no other dates could be found, on any part of the surface mentioned excepting the few which appear in the plate. The inscriptions alluded to by Signor Della Cella, on a quadrangular building towards the centre of the city, consist also wholly of names and dates; they are encircled by a wreath, and it will be seen by the plate that these names are for the most part Roman. A few names, within a similar enclosure, were also visible on the wall of a turret, one of which (the most legible) we have copied.

The excavated tombs in the neighbourhood of Teuchira contain a vast number of Greek inscriptions; but these also afford only names and dates, of different countries and periods; and the most interesting piece of information that we were enabled to derive from them, was the proof which they afford of the Egyptian names of months having been in general use in this part of the Cyrenaica.

Many of the tombs, and it is probable also most of the earliest, are now buried under a mass of drifted sand; and among these it is not unlikely that dates might be found of very considerable antiquity. From the wreck of materials, also, which encumber the city, some valuable inscriptions might possibly be obtained, but the labour of clearing the ground to search for them would perhaps be too great to be undertaken with propriety, on the mere chance of such discoveries.

Of the tombs at Teuchira into which we were able to penetrate, (we mean such as are not buried in sand,) there are none, that we could find, of any particular interest. They appear to have been at all times very rude, compared with those of Egypt and Cyrene, and the inscriptions upon them are in many instances very rudely cut. Most of them have only one chamber, three sides of which are sometimes occupied by places cut into the wall for the reception of bodies. Some have only two, and others again only one of these places, in which case (we mean the latter) it is usually found opposite to the door. In several of the tombs there are no places discernible for bodies, and rudely-cut columbaria are all that can be perceived in them; in others again we find both, but seldom placed in the same position with regard to each other.

We may infer from these circumstances, that some of the bodies were burnt, the ashes only being deposited in the tomb, and that others were buried entire after being, most probably, embalmed: and here we have a mixture of the Greek and Egyptian modes of burial, as might naturally, indeed, be expected[6].

Not a trace of the mode in which the bodies had been embalmed, nor indeed of any bodies at all, could we perceive either at Teuchira or Ptolemeta. Not a single fragment, either of any cinerary urn or of vases of any description. The dampness of the climate, in the winter season, would no doubt contribute very materially to the destruction of the bodies when the covers were once removed from the excavated places which contained them; but it is at the same time somewhat remarkable that not a single fragment of linen or bone could be met with (though we searched for them with great attention) by which the mode of burial could be ascertained. The cause of this is most probably the occupation of the tombs by the Arabs who, as we have stated above, make use of them occasionally as places of residence for themselves and their cattle; and would naturally throw out any similar remains when they chanced to be seized with a fit of cleanliness or industry.

The pottery would also very speedily disappear before the repeated attacks of the children; and such urns or vases as were found at all perfect would be employed by the women for culinary purposes, and depôts of various kinds, and would naturally be broken in the course of time however carefully they may have been preserved. The fragments thrown out would soon be buried in sand blown up into the quarries, in heaps, from the sea; and thus all traces might easily be lost as well of the bodies themselves, as of the vases and urns which contained the ashes. There appears to have been no difference whatever in the mode of burial practised by the Greeks and Romans of Teuchira, since many of the tombs, which are similar within, have on them the names of one and the other nation indiscriminately, and they are often seen mingled together on the same.

It is probable that the early tombs would be interesting, and that they would be found at the same time more perfect than the rest; for the sand has accumulated about them in such heaps as to have blocked up all access to them for ages. Those most buried are the tombs which are nearest the town, and they are also, we should imagine, the oldest; but we had no time to employ in excavating any of them, although we very much wished to do so.