Conder (,PEFSt, 1878, p. 31) classifles the rock-cut tombs a* follows :— 1. Kokim tombs. 2. Locidus tombs, 3. Sunk tombg. The first two classes he believes to be of Hebrew and Jewish ori^Mn. but the third more likely to be Christian of the Byzan- tine period. The word kok and its plural kokim desij^nate the pi^^eon-holes or tunnels running in from the side of a sepulchral chamber, each having room for a coq^s'. and nothing more. The designation toeuius {tocui in sepuU'hro) is applied to the shelf, or trough, or bench receptacle for the corpse, which is of later use than the kokim. In many tombs which have been examined there is a mixture of both kokim and loculi, indi- cating a transition period about the Christian era or earlier. 'The kukim tombs, Conder explains, 'are those which have parallel tunnels running in, three or four side by side, from the walls of a rectangular chamber. The bodies lay with their feet towards the chamber, and stone pillars for raising the heatls are often found at the farther end. The kokim vary in number from one or two up to fifteen or twenty, and are of various len;;tbs, from 3 or 4 to 7 ft. There is no system of orientation, and the entrance door is in the face of the cliff, the chamber within being directed according to the lie of the rock. This kind of tomb is certainly the niost ancient in the country, for the kokiiTt are sometimes destroyed in enlarging the tomb on a different system.' These tombs were used by the Jews. This is proved by a rare Hebrew inscription, by a representation of the seven-branched golden candlestick, and by the fact that some of them are sacred to modern Jews as the tombs of their ancestors, and that their measurements agree with the pre- scriptions in the Talmud. The kokim are not sufficiently large, as a rule, to admit of the supposition that the bodies were embalmed or swathed in bandages like those which make the Egjiitian munmiy so bulky when preserved untouched. There is nothing in the sepulchral remains of Palestine any more than in the Bible itself to lead us to believe that the embahning of tlie dead was a Hebrew custom (Conder, Syrian Stotn' Ltir<', p. Vi'i). For another classification of tombs see Benzinger, Lleb. Arch. p. 22.'t, which follows Tobler's in SWP, Volume of Special Papers, p. 2S8 f.
We have seen that the simple tombs belong to the earlier period, and that the portico at tha entrance, with its ornaments, is usually a note of more recent origin. It is to the Herodian Age that the ancient tombs on the east side of the Kidron Valley, Absalom's Pillar (possibly the tomb of Alexander Janna'us), the Tombs of St. Jaiiiea and Zechariah, and the monolith known as tha Egyptian Tomb, are to be assigned. The so-called Toiiib of St. James, now known as the Tomb of the Hene Hazir, with its Aramaic text, Doric pillars, and triglyphs, and inner chamber containing kokim, is perhaps the earliest of the group, and belongs to the Ist cent. B.C. The others are prob
• PEFSt, 1873, p. i«.
SEPULCHRE
SEPULCHRE
457
ebly Inter. Tlie fine monument to the north of Jerusalem, couiinonly called tlie Tombs of the Kings, but known to the natives as Kubfir es- Salattn (Tombs of the bultans), has been identi- fied hy Robinson as the tomb of Helena, queen of Adiabeue. It contains that mixture of kokim and luditi which would seem to date it on the border of tlie Christian era. In one of the lower chambers of the tomb was found a sarcophai^us ■with an Aramaic inscription containinj; the words Sara Meleka. It is not impossible that this was the native name of Helena herself, and that the remains found in the sarco|)hagus were her own.
ii. Masonry Tombs. — 'I hese are rarelj' found in Palestine, SJid thej' are later than the rock-hewn Bepulihres. They are confined to the northern portion of the country. Tlie most famous are described by Sir Charles Wilson (S(rP283). He mentions — (1) a building at Kedes (Kedesh- naphtuli), 34 ft. 4 in. s<niare, with a doorway on its southern side leading to a chamber containing kokim, which have been used for interments down to a late period ; (2) two tombs at Tell l^uni (one of the possible sites for Capernaum), the one of which has 26 kokim, and, being subter- ranean, is closed with a door of basalt, the other of which ha.s lucuU, and is built of coursed basaltic rubble; (3) a tine tomb at Malal, near Nazarelh, with 4 kokim and attached semi-pillars of the Ionic order outside ; (4) a square tomb at Teifislr with three lociili, a domed roof, and pilasters on each side ; (5) the remains of a building at Ain el B'aineh, which had stone over rock-cut tombs. To these Conder has added four more, three ot them at or near Jerusalem.
iii. Sakcophagi. — hetween the 6th and the 4th cent. H.C. the Phoenicians buried in sarcojihagi called anthropoid, having a human head and even an entire recumbent form on the li(^, the body of the sarcophagus being shaped like a mummy case. Such is the famous tomb of Eshmunazar with the celebrated Phoenician inscription. In the great discovery of sepulchral remains made at Beyrout Borne years ago, sarcophagi, njunimy shaped, some in white and some in black marlde, were found. Among the sarcophagi discovered in the excava- tions was a si)leiidid sarcophagus in black stone resembling that of Kshmunazar, and bearing an inscription purporting that it is the tomb of Tab- nitli, priest of Ashtoreth and king of the Sidonians, Bon of Fsliniunazar. Some of those sarcophagi were maile of pottery, recalling the slipper-shaped plnzed earthen coffins found hy Loftus * on the ancient liabylonian mounds at Warka. Although the Hebrews copied from the I'lucnicians in their rock-hewn tombs, they did not follow them largely in the use of sarcophagi. We have already men- tioned the Barcoiihagus of queen Sara found in the Tomb of the Kings. Of others found in Palestine, those di-scovered at Kedes are the most ornamented. The material out of which they are hewn is hard white limestone, almost like marble, ttnd the workmanship is excellent. Some of them had been made for two bodies laid in opposite directions, and at the bottom of the locuU were amall raised pillars to receive the heads. With the exception of those great anthropoid sarcophagi, there is nothin" to show a very marked distinction between the Hebrew and Phccnician tombs from the earliest to the latest age. The history of the Bepulchres found in Phcenici'a agrees perfectly with the chronological series which has been established independently in Palestine.!