In the grounds of the temple, which were once regarded as holy, several jars containing the skeletons of children were unearthed. These had apparently been offered in sacrifice and buried like those found in the high place of Gezer. While the walls of this temple were built of larger and more carefully cut stones than most of the other walls in the city, no effort seems to have been made to give the temple a definite architectural plan. Large towers were found near it, but, as the temple was at the east end of the city, these formed part of fortifications. The fortifications and other buildings crowded upon the temple, so that, had an effort been made to make it architecturally imposing, the effect would have been lost. (2) A Palace Chapel.-The people of Megiddo seem to have been particularly fond of the type of worship represented by this temple, for in a room to the east of the palace of the Hebrew governor was a room containing three "pillars," in which the remains of a number of terra-cotta goddesses were found. This was apparently the private chapel of the palace. This room was almost 40 feet long and 32 feet 10 inches wide; (Fig. 223). Its beginnings antedate the Israelitish period, since they come from the stratum before the conquest. (3) Another Chapel.-What seems to have been still another place of worship equipped with the necessary "pillars" was found in the Hebrew stratum between the governor's palace and the southern gate of the city. It would appear from the connecting walls that this sacred place may also have been intended for the special use of the occupants of the palace. This room was not quite 30 feet long and a little less than 20 feet wide. It contained six stones which Dr. Schumacher took to be "pillars." Like those at Petra and Taanach, they had evidently been shaped with tools. They did not stand in a row or in any regular relation to one another. This might throw some doubt upon the religious significance of the stones. Could they not have been columns used in supporting the roof of the building? Since a small stone object that had religious significance in the high places was found in this room, together with a most remarkable incense burner, it is probable that these were religious "pillars" and that the room was a little chapel. The object was of limestone and about 7 inches long. It was lying at the foot of one of the "pillars." The incense burner was made of a greyish soft limestone. It was a little over 9 inches in height. 2 Ibid., 125-130. 1 Schumacher, Tell el-Mutesellim, 105-110. The diameter of the bowl was 63 inches. The stone was cut so that the bowl rested on a pedestal, which was divided by rings into two portions, each of which was cut so as to represent a circle of overhanging leaves; (see Fig. 225). The whole was decorated with reddish-brown and cobalt-blue paints. The decoration of the rim of the bowl is a geometrical design, that on the bowl itself represents a sort of conventionalized lily blossom, while the leaves suggest those of the palm. These discoveries make it plain that the Canaanite temples of Palestine, which the Hebrews took over, were simply high places in miniature, enclosed in walls and probably roofed over, though the roofs have disappeared. The feeling that led to the change from the open air high place was the same as that underlying the saying of David: "I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains" (2 Sam. 7:2). 10. The Temple to Augustus at Samaria.-The excavations at Samaria1 have brought to light the foundation of the temple erected by Herod the Great in honor of Augustus.2 This was a temple of a very different type. It was patterned on Græco-Roman models and everything was done to make it architecturally impressive. Unfortunately, the results of the Harvard expedition have not yet been given to the public in detail, but from the imposing stairway, discovered during the first season of the excavation, together with the partial plan of the building as then uncovered, and the outlines of its walls as a later season's work disclosed them, one can form some idea of the imposing appearance of this structure. A massive stairway led up to a large platform surrounded by large pillars. This formed the portico. Back of this stretched the walls of the temple. The general form of the building seems to have been similar to that of the large temple at Jerash, which will be described in Chapter XIV.3 At the foot of the stairway leading up to the temple was found a large altar, and near this a fallen statue of Augustus. For outlines of the temple, see Figs. 216 and 221. These ancient places of worship which archæology has brought to light are eloquent witnesses of the pathetic way the men of Palestine "felt after God, if haply they might find him" (Acts 17:27), and the pathos is not lessened by the fact that they thus continued to grope, even after the clearer light was shining about them. 1 See Harvard Theological Review, II, 102-113; III, 248-263. 2 See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XV, viii, 5, and Wars of the Jews, I, xxi, 2. CHAPTER XII THE TOMBS OF PALESTINE BURNING THE DEAD. CAVE BURIALS. CISTERN BURIAL. BURIAL UNDER MENHIRS. EARTH-GRAVES. ROCK-HEWN SHAFT TOMBS. DOORWAY TOMBS. TOMBS WITH A ROLLING-STONE. 1. Burning the Dead.-As noted in a previous chapter,' the cavedwellers of Gezer burned their dead. The Semitic inhabitants of Palestine did not follow this custom, but buried theirs. At Gezer the caves that had formed the dwellings of the first inhabitants were put by the Semites to various uses. Sometimes they, too, lived in them; sometimes they made cisterns of them; and sometimes they utilized them as places of burial for their dead. 2. Cave Burials.-A cave that became a tomb after the Semitic occupation was the one that had been the crematorium of the pre-Semitic inhabitants. All over the floor of the cave above the burned bones was another stratum of bones that had never been burned. These were scattered over the floor of the cave, and, although they had been much disturbed by rats, it appeared that they belonged to that early type of burial in which the body is placed on its side with the knees drawn up toward the chin. These bodies had apparently been deposited in all parts of the cave. Ranged around the sides of the cave was a series of enclosures marked off from the floor by lines of stones. In these, portions of various skeletons were found. These enclosures seem to have been reservations made for persons of distinction. For a time, therefore, the cave seems to have been used as a general place of burial. In some of the other caves of Gezer evidence was found that they had been used as tombs.3 Beautiful pottery and alabaster vessels were found with the bones. Wine and possibly food for the dead had been placed in these. Underneath the pottery in one cave a considerable number of scarabs were found, some of them mounted in 1 See Chapter V, p. 105. 2 See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 286. gold. This must have been, accordingly, the burial place of persons of comparative wealth. Similar cave burials were found by Mackenzie at Beth-shemesh.1 Such cave burials as these at once recall Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah as recorded in Gen. 23. The kind of burial presupposed in that chapter is just that found at Gezer. The mouth of the cave could be closed up and opened at will for later burials. (See Gen. 50: 13.) The custom of placing food or drink or both in the sepulcher was all but universal in Palestine. It is silent testimony to a faith in a kind of after-life. That that life as they conceived it was of a shadowy and an unsatisfactory nature is shown by the references to it in Isa. 14:9-11 and Ezek. 32:22-32.2 Nevertheless, these evidences that the mourners who stood by every ancient tomb provided food for their loved ones to eat in the after-life is eloquent testimony to the fact that even in that age the loving heart found it impossible to believe that the life of its dear ones had been altogether terminated. 3. Cistern Burial.—Another burial at Gezer that must have been connected with some unusual circumstance led to the deposit of fifteen bodies in a cistern,3 and a number of spear heads were found with them. The skeletons were all males except .one, which was that of a girl about sixteen years old, whose spine had been severed and only the upper part of the skeleton deposited in the cistern; (see Fig. 229). The cistern is too deep to favor the supposition that the bodies had been deposited at successive times. Macalister hazards the conjecture that the men died of plague and that the girl was offered as a sacrifice to propitiate the deity. A plague, however, would have attacked women as well as men. Perhaps the men were slain in defending Gezer from the attack of an enemy that had succeeded in severing the body of the girl. The real cause of the tragedy is, however, unknown to us. 4. Burial under Menhirs.-A very old form of burial, still practised by the half-nomadic tribes east of the Jordan, is to place the dead in the earth within one of the prehistoric gilgals or menhirs. How old this form of burial is, it is impossible to tell. It is assumed Palestine Exploration Fund's Annual, II, 42, ff. 2 For a Babylonian parallel, see Part II, p. 423, ff. by some writers that it was practised by the neolithic people who erected these monuments, and who are believed by such writers to have been ancestor worshipers. If, however, these neolithic men were akin to the neolithic cave-dwellers of Gezer, they burned their dead. Another explanation is, accordingly, more probable. All through the history of Palestine the sanctity of certain spots has persisted. A place once considered as holy, if not so regarded by the next wave of conquerors, nevertheless often has enough sanctity clinging to it to make it taboo. No thief will disturb objects left within its precincts, lest the spirit of the place bring disaster upon him. It seems probable that the wandering tribes on the border of the Arabian Desert have utilized the sacred places of these prehistoric men for the burial of their dead, in order that the fear of violating the taboo pertaining to these places may secure the bodies from disturbance. Whatever the reason may be, they still bury their dead in such precincts and place their tribal wasms or marks on such stones.1 5. Earth-graves.-The simplest form of burial was to place the body in the ground without accessory of any kind. In the course of the excavation of Gezer a few burials of this sort came to light.2 The skeleton was in these cases stretched out; sometimes it was lying on its back; sometimes on its side. As these bodies were buried without accessories, so contrary to the custom of the Palestinians who placed food or drink by the dead, the excavator thought that they were probably the graves of murdered persons, who had been hastily concealed in the earth. Another form of burial, when the interment occurred within a city, is illustrated by the five "Philistine" graves found at Gezer.3 These graves were excavations in the earth, lined with cement, and, after the interment, covered with four or five massive stones and earth; (Fig. 226). In these graves the usual deposits of food and drink had been made in beautiful bronze and silver vessels, which show kinship to the art of Cyprus; (see Fig. 137). They are probably, therefore, Philistine. 6. Rock-hewn Shaft Tombs.-A form of tomb of which many examples are to be found in all parts of Palestine is the rock-hewn tomb. The limestone of the country is easily cut, and lends itself 1 See Biblical World, Vol. XXIV, p. 177. 2 See Macalister, Excavation of Gezer, I, 288, f. |