Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward : $b in MDCCCXXI. and MDCCCXXII., comprehending an account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica; and of the ancient cities composing the pentapolisBeechey, Frederick William
History
Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward : $b in MDCCCXXI. and MDCCCXXII., comprehending an account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica; and of the ancient cities composing the pentapolis
Beechey, Frederick William
Sidra, Gulf of (Libya); Tripoli (Libya) -- Antiquities; Tripoli (Libya) -- Discovery and exploration
The inscriptions alluded to by Signor Della Cella,
on a quadrangular building towards the centre of the city, consist
also wholly of names and dates; they are encircled by a wreath, and
it will be seen by the plate that these names are for the most part
Roman. A few names, within a similar enclosure, were also visible on
the wall of a turret, one of which (the most legible) we have copied.
The excavated tombs in the neighbourhood of Teuchira contain a vast
number of Greek inscriptions; but these also afford only names and
dates, of different countries and periods; and the most interesting
piece of information that we were enabled to derive from them,
was the proof which they afford of the Egyptian names of months
having been in general use in this part of the Cyrenaica.
Many of the tombs, and it is probable also most of the earliest,
are now buried under a mass of drifted sand; and among these it
is not unlikely that dates might be found of very considerable
antiquity. From the wreck of materials, also, which encumber the
city, some valuable inscriptions might possibly be obtained, but
the labour of clearing the ground to search for them would perhaps
be too great to be undertaken with propriety, on the mere chance
of such discoveries.
Of the tombs at Teuchira into which we were able to penetrate,
(we mean such as are not buried in sand,) there are none, that we
could find, of any particular interest. They appear to have been
at all times very rude, compared with those of Egypt and Cyrene,
and the inscriptions upon them are in many instances very rudely
cut. Most of them have only one chamber, three sides of which are
sometimes occupied by places cut into the wall for the reception
of bodies. Some have only two, and others again only one of these
places, in which case (we mean the latter) it is usually found
opposite to the door. In several of the tombs there are no places
discernible for bodies, and rudely-cut columbaria are all that
can be perceived in them; in others again we find both, but seldom
placed in the same position with regard to each other.
We may infer from these circumstances, that some of the bodies
were burnt, the ashes only being deposited in the tomb, and that
others were buried entire after being, most probably, embalmed: and
here we have a mixture of the Greek and Egyptian modes of burial,
as might naturally, indeed, be expected[6].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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