The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1

by Various

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.