3ue j'ai faites pendant un scjour de cinq mois ans le pays, je n'ai pu dccouvrir aucun monu- ment ant^rieur au rfegne d'Hdrode. II y a sans doute des habitations grossiferement construites en pierres brutes, des cavemes ferrates par une aevantnre en pierres sfeches, qui peuvent 6tre de toutea les ipoques, et dont <juelques-unes sont peut-6tre fort anciennes, mais, je le r^pfete, il n'v a
Sas trace de civilisation rdgulifcre, de temples, 'Edifices publics, avant le ri-gne d'Hiirode.' And the majority even of such buildings, he adds, are later than this, and belong to the period be- tween Trajan and Justinian. The caves and tunnel-like dwellings, described by Wetzstein, however, can hardly be the strongly fortilied cities mentioned in Dt. Whether the low privnte dwellings, built with ' ponderous blocks of roughly hewn stone,' on the antiquity of which Porter iDamasni.f", pp. v, 257) insists, are identical with the ' haV)itations grossifcrement construites en pierres brutes,' which Waddington allows may be ancient, can hardly be determined by one who has not visited the country. t On the whole, it mav be safely conclu<lcd that the existinij deserted cities are not those of the ancient Argob; J though it does not seem imjirobable that some of the cities built in the Gr.Tco-Roman period may have stood upon the sites of cities belonging to a far earlier age, and that in their construction the dwellings of the ancient cities of 'Og may have been, in some cases, utilised and preserved. Perhaps future explora- tion may prove the substructures to be of earlier date than has been hitherto suspected. §
The site of Argob cannot be determined with certainty. Guthe {ZDPV, 1890, p. 237 f.), in- ferring from l»t 3'* that Argob extended to the W. as far as Geshur and Ma'acah. places it, though not without hesitation, in the country aViout Der lit (Erfre'i), and nortliwards as far as Nuwil, in which he says that there are sullicient ruing of
• Cit?d at length in .Merrill, Eiut of Jordan, p. 63.
t Heber-Pcn-y. pp, fi*.J, 05, Btalfft that ftl Itoiim(E. of ^anaw&t) he found niinii fiilTurent from anv whirh he Im'i hitherto ni-en, vit a villai;e conBinting of one-8torie<i houwH, built almost entirely of rouifh unhewn etonee ; he thought that thia had been a village of pea.'uinta.
t 80 also fl. A. Smith, Gtcjr. p. 024 f.
I W. Wright {Palmyra and Ztnntiia, p. 2.11) mentions that he descended some ltt-18 ft. in Hunik. anil found tlie w*11h there to consist of enormous uodressed stones, unUke lliose on the turf ace.
ancient sites to justify the biblical description. The inference based on Dt 3'* is perhaps doubtful : the verse seems to be written with a harmonistic motive (see Comin., and Jair), and hardly says distinctly that Argob reached to Geshur and Ma'acah. Dillm. suggested a site more towards the E., between Edie'i and 'Ashtaroth, and J. Hauran. If there is rea-son in the supposition that the deserted cities referred to above stand upon the site of the ancient cities of 'Og, the part of Bashan in which they are most numerous would seem to be the W. declivities of J. Hauran, N. of Salchah (the S.E. limit of Bashan), the soil of which — a disintegrated lava — is rich and fertile (Wetzst. p. 40 f.), such as might be described by a deriva- tive of 3J^. *
LrrBRATTRB.— On the cities of Hauran, Bee further (besides the works already quot^Hj), Merrill, Eaelof Jordan, l&iil, chs. ii.-v.; and for inscriptions, Wetz-stein, AwtyewiUiUe irnt:ch. und Lat. IiigchriJUn getainmelt av/ Reigen in den Trachonen und uin da» Haurdngebirge, in the Abhandlungen of the Berlin Academy, 1863, pp. 255-388; Waddington, op. cU. Nos. 2071- 2o48 ; Clemionl-Ganneau, liecueU d'A rchiol. Orient, i. (1866) pp. 1-23 ; O. A. Smith, Critical Remew, 1892, p. 65 tf. ; \V. EwinK in the PEFSt, 1895, p. 41 ff., 131 ff., 2(i5ff., 340 9. ; de Vogue, Syrie Centrale, Inscriptvmt Simitiquei, 1868, chs. ii.-iii. p. 89 ff.; the CIS II. i. fasc. 2, Nos. 162-193 (chielly repeated from de Vogue). The best map of the district is that of Fischer (ciistructed chiefly oq the basis of Stul)cr3 Sur^-ey) in the ZDPV, 1890, Heft 4. S. R. DkIVEK.
ARIDAI (•i-'K Est 9»), the ninth of Haman's sons, put to dealu by the Jews. The name is prob. Persian, perhaps hariJayas, 'delight of Hari' (Ges. Tlies. add.) ; but LXX has a diilerent text.
H. A. White.
ARIDATHA (koiik Est 9»), the sixth son of Hainan, put to death by the Jews. The name is perhaps from the Persian Hariil/ita, ' given by Hari ' ; but the LXX has 4>apa5d(?a, this name coming fourth. H. A. WHITE.
ARIEH (T^xn, with def. article, 'the lion').— Mentioned with Argob in a very obscure passage (2 K 15^). See Ari:ob. C. F. Buiiney.
ARIEL (Sx-!!*, 'ApiiJX).— 1. The name of one of Ezra's ' chief men,' Ezr 8". It doubtless signifies here ' lion of God.' 2. The name, in UV (so LX.X and mo.st modems), of a Moabite who.se two sons were slain by Benaiah, one of David's mighty men, 2 S 23",t 1 Ch ll*" (LXX, in later passage, has roi'u Svo api-qX). 3. A name, in Is 29'''-' (four times), for Jerusalem. The original meaning is quite uncertain. It may be (see UVm) either (1) ' lion (or lione.ss) of God,' so, among others, Ewald, Cheyne (Vomm.), Dillm.; or (2) 'hearth of (iod,' so the Targum, Del., Orclli, W. R. Smith {OTJC p. 3.'j(i), Konig {Lehrgcb. d. Heb. Spr. ii. 1, p. 410). The latter seems the more probable, in view of ""K-iK (God's hearth = altar, RV 'altar hearth'), F'zk 43", and Skhk with the same signification on the stele of Mcsha (1. 12). Duhm (C'i>m;n. in loc.) takes ^ as a formative letter, and suggests* aryal as original form (=Bacrificial hearth). Cheyne {In- trod, to Is. p. 187, n.) now favours this, and writes Arial. A. R. S. KEN.NliUV.