§ IV Tombs
Palestine and the north-east of Arabia are covered with sepulchral monuments, but there are few which date from the pre-Hellenic epoch. Abraham bought a cave called Machpelah from the Hittites of Hebron for 400 shekels of silver, and was buried there, as well as the other patriarchs of his race. The site of the cave is at the present day covered by a mosque, and in the crypt of this mosque the bodies of the patriarchs are supposed to lie. Now, the wall of the crypt, a superb piece of masonry of imposing appearance, is incontestably contemporary with Herod; there is the same marginal draft that we have studied in the enclosure of the temple built by that prince. The tomb called Absalom’s is also a small building not earlier than the time of the Seleucids, and if it preserves, like the Palestinian structures of the same epoch, a few architectural reminiscences of Phœnician art, it has columns, capitals, and mouldings which are entirely Greek. We need not, therefore, occupy ourselves with these monuments, or with the tomb of the Maccabees at Modin, or with the not less celebrated hypogæa known under the name of Kebûr-el-Melûk, or “Tombs of the Kings,” Tomb of Jehoshaphat, of Saint James, with its Doric portico, or Tomb of Zacharias: sepulchral chambers which are visited by pilgrims in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and the date of which Saulcy has in vain tried to place even farther back than the Babylonian captivity. The tomb of Joshua, among the ruins known under the name of Khirbet-Tibneh, north-west of Jifneh (Gophna), does not seem to be more ancient.
In Arabia, at Medaïn Salih, several tombs have been observed hewn in the rock, the façade and inner arrangement of which are identical with those of the Palestinian caves. There are Greek columns, pediments and mouldings mixed with a few traditional motives, the original birthplace of which is in Assyria or on the banks of the Nile; cavities for sarcophagi are arranged around the chambers as in the Jewish tombs. The inscriptions obtained at Medaïn Salih prove that these burying-places were formed during the first eighty years of our era.
However, at the village of Siloam, near Jerusalem, there is a tomb, known under the name of the Egyptian Monolith, which seems to be far earlier than all those of which we have spoken; there are some who would even assign it to the epoch of Solomon. This trapezoidal monolith, Egyptian in style, is 13 ft. high, and the platform measures 19 ft. 10 in. by 17 ft. 10 in. The door which looks westward gives access to a square ante-chamber which leads into a room 8 ft. long on each side. The ceiling of the chamber is slightly convex, like many Egyptian hypogæa; two large niches are contrived in the walls. Outside, the monument is provided with an Egyptian cornice. All tends to demonstrate that this tomb is earlier than the Babylonian captivity, in spite of the architectural alterations to which it has been subjected at a relatively modern period. Besides, to whatever date the sepulchral caves of Palestine belong, they are all conceived in accordance with the same traditional type, which is also that of Phœnicia, and which we shall find at Carthage; there is always a speos hewn in the rock, a façade with Egyptian, Assyrian, or Greek ornaments, according to the date, then a vestibule giving admission through a low, narrow doorway into a sepulchral chamber.
From this chamber the visitor penetrates through one of several apertures into other rooms; and round these more or less numerous chambers the cavities for sarcophagi are cut. Thus the cave of Machpelah at Hebron must have been arranged as early as the time of Abraham, and in the same fashion, without doubt, the sepulchral cavern was formed in which the ashes of the kings of Jerusalem were deposited. The discovery of the hypogæum containing the sarcophagi of the princes of the house of David would doubtless be more important for epigraphy than for archæology properly so called. It would only confirm the verdict pronounced upon Jewish art: that it is entirely wanting in variety and originality in every instance except in the Temple of Jerusalem.