View PDF version of this page

A PHOENICIAN GRAVE 67 caught and surprised my eye as I drove from Larnaca— in plan a rude circle, and at the top absolutely flat. This was the scene of the excavations. By a zigzag path we scrambled up its sloping sides, and an object came in view, which was better than anything Ï had bargained for. It was the ruin of a solitary square tower, the masonry of which, as we ap-proached it, was seen to be of a most singular character. Externally it was rusticated as if by the workmen of Palladio. Inside the stones were entirely smooth, and the jointing was so fine as to be very nearly invisible. My own fortuitous guess would have set it down as Italian, but I was told that there were certain signs about it which proved its extreme antiquity—that it was certainly prœ-classical, and probably early Phoenician. I was anxious to believe, but I confess I was a little incredulous : and looking at the stones, fresh as if cut yesterday, I profanely asked myself if the Phoenicians had ever been in the neighbour-hood. I presently saw that my companions had wan-dered to a little distance, and had joined an English-man, whom I divined to be Mr. St. John—a young and accomplished scholar, a colleague of Mr. Adam. They were all standing in a group, plainly doing something particular, but I could not tell what till I came close up to them, and I then saw that they were peering into a narrow open trench. I caught in their voices a certain note of excitement ; and looking into the trench myself I discovered F 2

View PDF version of this page