are now broken away, leaving the whole of the interior exposed'."

But the interior arrangements are minutely described by the accurate Schultz, as follows. "Amongst the Sepulchres of Jerusalem we find two modes of arrangement, which, however, resemble each other in one respect, that they are both divided into two parts. A low door gives admission to a small vestibule, within which a similar door, opposite to the first, leads to the sepulchral chamber. Thus far the two kinds are alike; but their difference is that in one, the niches (or loculi2) are cut out of the rock with their longest dimension perpendicular to the sides of the apartment, as in the plan fig. A. Thus a moderately sized chamber is sufficient to afford room for ten or twelve bodies.

In the second, narrower niches (or loculi) are hewn out of the two sides of the cavern, on either side one, having the long dimension parallel to the side of the apartment, (as in fig. B.), and in these either the body was laid or a sarcophagus placed. The side of the room opposite to the door has very frequently a little niche that would receive the body of a child, and often a place for a lamp. This latter mode of arrangement,

522.

Robinson, Bib. Res. Vol. I. p.

I employ this word loculus as a convenient general term for the receptacle of the body in a sepulchral

structure, whether that receptacle be a grave, a chest, a cavity in the rock, or any other of the forms that are to be found.

which occurs amongst others in the Tombs of the Kings, was, in my opinion, reserved for the sepulchres of rich and distinguished persons'."

It appears, from this description, that the dead were always deposited in a cavity hewn out of the sides of the chamber, but that in one case they were laid at right angles to the side of the room in a long deep loculus, and in the other case, parallel to the side of the room in a shallow loculus.

These two classes of receptacles are to be found in the rock-sepulchres of other nations. The first kind, however, is by no means so common as the second. The Egyptians appear to have occasionally employed such cavities for the deposit of their mummies, and they occur in the tombs of Petra. Later, in the Christian catacombs of Rome, the discovery of a few loculi of this form in the cemetery of St Ciriaca, is mentioned as a most unusual arrangement 2.

But the second position of the body, which is by far the most usual amongst all the nations of antiquity who employed the sepulchral chamber, is the one which interests us the most, as it was undoubtedly the form of the so-called Holy Sepulchre3.

It is scarcely necessary for me to remind my readers. that the Jews simply laid their dead in the tomb, swathed up in linen, with aromatics, but without employing either the elaborate embalmment of the Egyptians, or their complex coffins. Those Romans who did

1 Schultz, Jerusalem, p. 97.

2 Monumenti primitivi delle Arti Christiani, Rome, 1844, pp. 110, 225.

3 Throughout this dissertation I employ the term "Holy Sepulchre" to

designate that which is exhibited under that title in the church in question, without necessarily assuming it to be the genuine sepulchre of the gospels.

not burn the corpse, deposited it in a coffin, or stone sarcophagus, which was closed with a lid; and this was the practice of the Greeks. But it is also known that the early Greeks, Etrurians, and other nations, deposited their dead, dressed in the armour or robes of state which they wore when living, and simply laid them thus upon a stone or bronze couch, protecting them, like the Jews, from spoliation or from wild beasts only by securing, and sometimes concealing, the doors of the sepulchral chambers.

It is evident that the form and arrangement of these sepulchral chambers must have been designed with especial reference to the manner in which the bodies of their future tenants were intended to be deposited within them. In many instances the sarcophagus, couch, or other resting-place, is hewn out of the solid rock, and thus must have been left standing out from the floor, or projecting from the sides, when this apartment was first excavated. When the stone couch was employed, its surface was either level, or merely hollowed out an inch or two in depth, to afford a resting-place; and a raised part is often left at the head, to serve as a pillow, or a round cavity cut for the same purpose. Such couches are found in the Etruscan rock-tombs, and in those of Greece and Asia Minor. I am not now speaking of the stone benches in such tombs, which served as resting-places, or shelves, for the cinerary urns, &c. In the Jewish tombs of Syria, however, the recess in the side of the chambers appears to have been always employed. But even this admits of great variety. In

Many of the rock sepulchres around Jerusalem belonged to Romans or Greeks, Pagan or Christian, the

inhabitants of the city after its occupation by the Romans, and it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the

its simplest form, it is a rectangular opening or c in the face of the rocky side of the tomb, the tom of it being usually higher than the floor of chamber; and its length and depth just sufficie admit of a human body being deposited in it. its upper surface or soffit is curved into an which is either segmental or semicircular; and too, is its usual form when a sarcophagus is dep in it.

Loculi1 of this description are sometimes cut sides of the chamber, one above the other, in t more tiers.

Lastly, the bottom of the cavity is often exca so as to form a sarcophagus, or stone-coffin, so d to allow a horizontal stone to be placed upon its thus the arrangement practically resembles a sar gus placed in an arched recess sufficiently deep close it completely.

As a Syrian example of this latter form, quote certain rock tombs that exist near Khan rawan, between Sidon and Tyre; for the drawi one of which I am indebted to Mr Scoles.

Fig. X is a plan of this tomb, and fig. Y a s As in Dr Schultz's description, we have first door-way, two feet nine inches square, which w merly closed by a stone-door, the sockets for

genuine Jewish sepulchre from the latter. But to this latter class appear to belong the catacombs on the Hill of Offence south of Jerusalem, which are said to resemble the tombs of Asia Minor, and some of which have Greek inscriptions. Also some at least of the architecturally decorated catacombs and

tombs, of which more below.

The only example of s at Jerusalem is in the so-calle of the Kings," wherein they w in semicircularly arched reces sides of the apartment. Th rule of the Jews appears n been to employ coffins of any

pivots still remain (K). The form of this is a perfectly simple and unornamented square, as shewn in elevation

in fig. Z. This admits to a little vestibule, C, the floor of which is sunk, probably to receive moisture; and from which a second entrance, opposite to, and rather lower than, the first, admits to the sepulchral chamber D, the dimensions of which are but five feet three inches in length, and about four in width. It is only four feet nine high, and is flat-ceiled. Each of three sides, however, has a sepulchral loculus, E, F, F, for the reception of a body. As the three are alike in form, the elevation of one of them, G, in fig. Y, corresponds to the section of the other, H, in the same figure.

VOL. II.

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