Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Notes from Herr Baurath von Schick
NOTES FROM HERR BAURATH VON SCHICK.
Herr von Schick reports that on the 31st October last the foundation stone for the new German Evangelical Church was laid at the ruins of the Muristan, and that on digging down at the side of the remains of one of the old piers of the ancient church the rock was found 31 feet below the surface, or about the level 2,437 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. Another pier was found so badly built that it has now to be taken out and built up new, A remarkable ancient wall was found running east and west in the centre of the church. It is of large stones, of which some are drafted. The thickness of this wall could not exactly be ascertained, as on its southern side the facing stones no longer exist. The wall is not founded on the rock, but at a depth of about 18 feet rests on earth and débris. It has been thought, Herr von Schick says, that it might have once belonged to the "second wall." He will watch and report if any further discoveries are made in connection with it.
Winged Figure from Palestine.
In the Quarterly Statement for 1893, p. 296, Herr von Schick described, among other antiquities in Baron Ustinoff's collection, a red stone with a
winged female human figure and two Greek inscriptions upon it, and at p. 306 of the same number is a note by M. Clermont-Ganneau on the inscriptions. Herr von Schick has since forwarded a photograph of the object, and remarks that he was mistaken in supposing that the hands and feet terminate in fish tails, that the five fingers on one hand can be counted, and that in the other hand there is "something like a serpent." He thinks the object was painted red and gilded, and that the figure represents Psyche.