But the hills were occupied by other edifices besides the " fenced cities." The tiny white domes which stand perched here and there on the summits of the eminences, and mark the holy ground in which some Mohammedan saint is resting — sometimes standing alone, sometimes near the village, in either case surrounded with a rude enclosure, and overshadowed with the grateful shade and pleasant color of terebinth or carob — these are the successors of the "high places" or sanctuaries so con- stantly denounced by the prophets, and wliich were set up "on every high hill and under every green tree" (Jer. ii, 20 ; Ezek. vi, 13). See Hill.
(6.) In the preceding description allusion has been made to many of the characteristic features of the Holy Land. But it is impossible to close this account with- out mentioning a defect which is even more character- istic— its lack of monuments and personal relics of the nation who possessed it for so many centuries, and gave it its claim to our veneration and affection. When compared with other nations of equal antiquity — Egypt, Greece, Assyria — the contrast is truly remarkable. In Egypt and Greece, and also in Assyria, as far as our knowledge at present extends, we find a series of build- ings reaching down from the most remote and mysteri- ous antiquity — a chain of which hardly a link is want- ing, and which records the progress of the people in civilization, art, and religion as certainly as the build- ings of the mediaeval architects do that of the various nations of modern Europe. We possess also a multi- tude of objects of use and ornament, belonging to those nations, truly astonishing in number, and pertaining to every station, office, and act in their official, religious, and domestic life. But in Palestine it is not too much to say that there does not exist a single edifice, or part of an edifice, of which we can be sure that it is of a date anterior to the Christian a>ra. Excavated tombs, cis- terns, flights of stairs, which are encountered every- where, are of course out of the question. They maj' be — some of them, such as the tombs of Hinnom and Shiloh, probably are — of very great age, older than any- thing else in the country. But there is no evidence either way, and as far as the history of art is concerned nothing would be gained if their age were ascertained. The only ancient buildings of which we can speak with certainty are those that were erected by the Greeks or Komans during their occupation of the country. Not that these buildings have not a certain individuality which separates them from any mere Greek or Roman buiUling in Greece or Eome ; but the fact is certain that not one of them was built while the Israelites were masters of the country, and before the date at which \^'ostern nations began to get a footing in Palestine. As with the buildings, so with other memorials. With one exception, the museums of Europe do not possess a single piece of pottery or metal-work, a single weapon or household utensil, an ornament or a piece of armor, of Israelitish make, which can give us the least conception of the manners or outward appliances of the nation be- fore the date of tlie destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The coins form the single exception. A few rare speci- mens still exist, the oldest of them attributed — though even that is matter of dispute — to the Maccabees, and their rudeness and insignificance furnish a stronger evi- dence than even their absence could imply of the total want of art among the Israelites.
It maj' be said that Palestine is now only in the same condition as Assyria before tlie recent researches brought so much to light. But the two cases are not parallel. The soil of Babylonia is a loose loam or sand, of the description best fitted for covering up and pre- serving the relics of former ages. On the other hand, the greater part of the Holy Land is hard and rocky, and the soil lies in the valle^-s and lowlands, where the cities were very rarely built. If any store of Jew- ish relics were remaining embedded or hidden in suit-
able ground — as, for example, in the loose mass of debris which coats the slopes around Jerusalem — we should expect occasionally to find articles which might be recognised as Jewish. This was the case in Assyria. Long before the mounds were explored, Rich brought home many fragments of inscriptions, bricks, and en- graved stones, which were picked up on the surface, and were evidently the productions of some nation whose art was not then known. But in Palestine the only ob- jects hitherto discovered have all belonged to the West — coins or arms of the Greeks or Romans.
The buildings already mentioned as being Jewish in character, though carried out with foreign details, are the following : The tombs of the kings and of the j iidgcs ; the buildings known as the tombs of Absalom, Zecha- riah, St. James, and Jehoshaphat; the monolith at Silo- am — all in the neighborhood of Jerusalem ; the ruined synagogues at Meiron and Kefr Birlm. But there are two edifices which seem to bear a character of their own, and do not so clearly betray the style of the West. These are the enclosure round the sacred cave at He- bron, and portions of the western, southern, and eastern walls of the Haram at Jerusalem, with the vaulted pas- sage below the Aksa. Of the former it is impossible to speak in the present state of our knowledge. The latter will be more fully noticed under the head of Tl;,'mi>le ; it is sufficient here to name one or two considerations which seem to bear against their being of older date than Her- od. (1.) Herod is distinctly said by Josephus to have removed the old foundations, and laid others in their stead, enclosing double the original area (A nt. xv, 11,3; War. i, 21, 1). (2.) The part of the wall which all ac- knowledge to be the oldest contains the springing of an arch. This and the vaulted passage can hardly be as- signed to builders earlier than the time of the Romans. (3.) The masonry of these magnificent stones (absurdly called the "bevel"), on which so much stress has been laid, is not exclusively Jewish or even Eastern. It is found at Persepolis ; it is also found at Cnidus and throughout Asia INIinor, and at Athens — not on stones of such enormous size as those at Jerusalem, but similar in their workmanship.