There is, however, no evidence of the presence of the hen in Palestine before the Greek period. Neither hen nor cock is mentioned in the Old Testament. In a tomb discovered by Peters and Thiersch in 1902, near Tell Sandahanna, the Marissa of the Seleucid period and the Moresheth-gath of Micah 1:14, a number of cocks are pictured; (Fig. 94). The tomb, constructed about 200 B. C., contains a number of Greek inscriptions.[169] In agreement with this evidence is also the fact that at Taanach there was found in a late pre-Arabic stratum the skeleton of a hen with an egg.[170] Before New Testament times, then, the hen had become a domestic fowl in Palestine. Every one would accordingly understand the lament of Christ, “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37). The cock was so universally kept at this time that one of the divisions of the night was called the “cock-crowing” (Mark 13:35). It was the mark of the progress of the night afforded by the habits of the cock that was used by Jesus in predicting Peter’s denial (Matt. 26:34; Mark 14:30; Luke 22:34; John 13:38), and it was the recalling of this prediction by the crowing of the cock that brought Peter to repentant tears (Matt. 26:74; Mark 14:68, 72; Luke 22:60; John 18:27). CHAPTER VIII POTTERY IMPORTANCE OF POTTERY. PRE-SEMITIC POTTERY. FIRST SEMITIC POTTERY TO 1800 B. C. POTTERY OF SECOND SEMITIC PERIOD. THIRD SEMITIC PERIOD. ISRAELITISH OR FOURTH SEMITIC PERIOD. HELLENISTIC PERIOD. =1. Importance of Pottery.=--In all parts of the world the making of clay jars and receptacles is one of the earliest arts to be discovered, and Palestine was no exception to the rule. In Palestine such jars were particularly useful, as the water for each family had to be carried from the nearest spring to the house. It was natural that, in a country which had so long a history as Palestine, and over which the influences of so many diverse civilizations swept, there should be a considerable variety in the types of pottery in different periods. Indeed, it is now recognized that the differences in these types are so marked that in the absence of other criteria it is possible approximately to date a stratum of the remains of any ancient city by the type of pottery found in it. Since this is so, a brief outline of the different types is not out of place here, although these differences have little or no bearing upon the interpretation of the Bible. Only a brief statement is here attempted. Those who wish to study the subject more fully are referred to more extended works.[171] The classifications of pottery made by the leading experts differ, as they have been written at different times and as the excavations have continually enlarged the material. The classification presented in the following pages is mainly that of Macalister, based on the work at Gezer and on previous excavations.