Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Marble Fragment from Jebail
MARBLE FRAGMENT FROM JEBAIL.
By F. J. Bliss, M.A.
I send a photograph of a marble fragment found at Jebail, now in the museum of the Syrian Protestant College at Beyrout. Anything found at Jebail is interesting, from the extreme antiquity of this Phœnician site. The inhabitants are probably mentioned in 1 Kings, v, 18, as engaged in hewing stones for the Temple of Solomon. It is interesting to note that even to the present day certain villages of this district are famed for certain crafts; for example, the inhabitants of Shweir in the Lebanon are largely masons, and ply their trade as far as the Hauran.
In the collection of letters from Tell-el-Amarna in the British Museum there are thirteen letters from Rib-Adda, the Egyptian Consul in Gebal. As in the case of so many other Syrian sites, the name given to this place in Græco-Roman times never thoroughly supplanted the old name, which in course of centuries was restored. By the time of the Crusaders, the Greek name Byblos had disappeared, and the place was called Giblet. The modern name is even more like the original.
Philo, of Byblos, gives a free translation of a work by the Phœnician Sancthoniathon, who wrote probably in the second or third century B.C. Gebal is represented as being the oldest city in the world, having been built by the God El, at the beginning of time. It seems very probable that Gebal exercised the hegemony, at first, over the other Phœnician cities until it was over-topped by the importance of Sidon. It, however, was always a strong religious centre, and Renan called it the "Jerusalem of the Lebanon." In Græco-Roman times the mysteries of Astarte and Adonis were celebrated here. The older Phœnician worship passed over to Grecian types, as shown by the statues. I have seen in a private house in London a piece of Phœnician sculpture from the Lebanon: a beautiful Venus, entirely Greek, with her hand on the head of a priest of the pure Phœnician type, as shown in the ungraceful Cypriote art.
MARBLE FRAGMENT FROM JEBAIL.
The fragment under consideration in this note seems to belong to the transition period. It seems to be part of a pillar. First there is a plinth 3 inches high, 18 inches long in front, and 12 inches at the side. On this there rises a plain pedestal, set back one-half an inch from the edge of the plinth (which is chamfered), 512 inches high, and 8 inches across the front. Standing on the plinth at the sides of this pedestal are two bulls; they are fairly well executed, one fore foot is advanced, the heads are gone, but it is clear that the bulls were not winged; they measure 10 inches from the plinth to the top of their backs, hence they rise above the plain pedestal. From the pedestal rises the pillar, which appears to have been carved as a female statue; the lower part consists of drapery from under which appear the toes of two feet, placed close together. The ten toes are excellently carved, and are not at all stiff. Above the few inches of drapery the pillar is divided into panels by bands at right angles, the panels in front being much broader than the rest. On the lower front panel is a lion's head, similar to the lion's head decoration on the stone Greek and Roman sarcophagi found at Sidon, which are doubtless the development of the metal plaques, in the same form found on Phœnician coffins of wood at the same place. On the panel above are three small busts in high relief. These are somewhat damaged, but it is clear that two, and perhaps the third, are of female figures: the style is Greek or Græco-Roman. The other panels are ornamented with rosettes, and shapes like these—
The circumference of the pillar increases as it rises. In the rear it is shaved off, so that the back panels occupy a flat surface. From the plain back of the pedestal it is clear that this part at least stood against a wall, but as the flat back of the pillar is ornamented, the wall may have been a low one.
It is the naturalistic treatment of the feet which appear from under the drapery that leads me to suppose that the pillar was in the form of a caryatid, with the main portion of the drapery about the lower limbs conventionally ornamented. That a pillar with an ordinary capital should terminate in a few inches of drapery with a pair of feet seems improbable. I may mention, however, that the open hand occurs as a symbol on a stile from Carthage, figured on p. 263 of the first volume of Perrot and Chipiez's "History of Art in Phœnicia," &c.
From the well-carved bulls and the busts, I am inclined to refer this fragment to the Greek period. The photograph is kindly furnished by my friend Mr. Moore, of the College.