SYRIA: THIRD AND SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C.
The excavations of M. P. Montet at Byblos (Djebail to-day, 3okm. to the north of Beyrouth) have thrown some light on the archaeology of Phoenicia at the dawn of history. About 300o B.C. the kings of Egypt maintained regular relations with Byblos; they held in peculiar veneration the local goddess of the place, the "Baalat Gebal," i.e., the "Lady of Byblos," and sent her offerings. In 1926 a piece of an alabaster vase was found bearing the name of Khufa, the Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid of Giza (c. 3oth century B.C.).
During the 2nd millennium B.C. relations between Egypt and Phoenicia had not lessened in any way; Virolleaud and Montet have discovered at Byblos a hypogeum of the local kings, con temporary with the Pharaohs of the i 2th dynasty. The king of Egypt was then overlord of the city ; he sent presents, such as perfume vases made of obsidion set with gold, to the local petty kings, who, in imitation of Egypt, had made locally breast-plates in cloisonné, or in wrought gold. They wrote their names clumsily in Egyptian hieroglyphics on the arms, which were the insignia of their authority (that called the harpe is of Babylonian origin, and the ancestor of the oriental scimitar).
Kaf er-ed-D j arra.—In the vicinity of Sidon, at Kaf er-ed D jarra, several burial areas have been excavated, first by Dr. Contenau and then by M. Guigues. The tombs, in the form of a baker's oven, contain a great deal of pottery. A 12th dynasty Egyptian faience balsam vase was discovered there, as well as scarabs of the Hyksos type, with an imitation of Egyptian wax in which designs derived from the spiral play a large part. Further, many types of pottery, some Egyptian, but more of ten copies of Aegean pottery, have been found there.
The Tomb of Ahiram.—Another hypogeum, also discovered at Byblos by M. P. Montet, dating from the end of the 2nd millennium B.C., contains a sarcophagus with the oldest Phoeni cian inscription known at present, in the name of Ahiram, a vassal of the Pharaoh. The tomb of Ahiram represents on its four sides funeral scenes in a border of lotus blossom ; the bearers of offerings for the dead and the lamenting mourners. A certain number of objects found in the tomb, bearing the name of the Pharaoh, Rameses II., give the date of the tomb of Ahiram and its inscription as the 13th century B.C. This date has been dis puted ; but even if it should be ascribed to the extreme end of the millennium (and indeed it cannot be later), the inscription still remains the oldest in the Phoenician language known up to the present time.
The explorations of Pezard on the site of Tell=Nebi-Mend, near Homs, the ancient Kadesh, a strong place of the Hittites against the Egyptians, came to a premature end owing to the death of the excavator, and nothing has been done at Homs itself, at Damascus or at Aleppo, which, history tells us, passed under Hittite dominion in the 1st century of the 2nd millennium B.C. The researches of Du Mesnil du Buisson at Mishrifeh, in northern Syria, near Homs, show that Egyptian in fluence (a sphinx of the r 2th dynasty has been discovered there) had reached there. Cuneiform tablets record the inventory of the treasures of the Mesopotamian goddess, Ninegal, who had a sanctuary there, and from them we learn that the old name of the site was Katna. Mesopotamian influence can be traced also in several monuments at Mishrifeh (heads of statues) and at Damascus and its neighbourhood (the lion of Cheik-Saad in the museum of Damascus, a bas-relief of Salihiyeh representing a warrior, in the British Museum). But it is by no means the only influence. The Anatolian art has had an effect, and for this reason the term Syro-Hittite must be given to this art. This corre sponds to historic fact, for the Hittites in the and millennium had settled in Palestine. This view is strengthened by the great number of cylinder seals of the period found in this region. Their general style is a development of the style of the Cappadocian cylinders ; on profound examination they betray the distant in fluence of Sumerian art ; but in detail—the types, attitudes, cos tumes of the people—they continue the tradition of Boghaz Keui.
