Absalom's Place. Monument of Annas. ing profession. (For Fullers' Field and Monument, see article.) (Wars v. iv: 2.) ABSALOM'S PILLAR, PLACE, OR HAND.-We learn that "Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance:' and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day Absalom's Place." (2 Sam. xviii. 18.) We are informed by Josephus that this marble pillar was two stadia from the city; and from a Talmudic note we learn that the part of the royal dale in which it was erected was its lower portion, called Motsa. A comparison of these facts with those stated under the article Tantour Pharoun, which tradition confidently points out as Absalom's Pillar, will clearly evince their non-identity. Nor is there any other monument in all the King's Dale, nor anywhere else, answering the description of this pillar. MONUMENT OF ANANUS, or Annas, or Annanias, the high priest.The late lamented Schultz has quite satisfactorily identified the sepulchre of that notorious high priest with the traditionary Aceldama. It is fully described in the account of the Sepulchres of Hinnom. (Wars v. xii: 2.) There remains not a single ascertainable vestige of the monuments of Absalom, Herod, Alexander, Hyrcanus, Simon Maccabeus, or the Fullers and though the underground work of those of Helena and Ananus may be reliably indicated, yet there is certainly not a single stone of their cippi, stela, or other superstructure remaining. Of course we are entirely ignorant of their architecture, execution, and general design. Their types, however, may be found amongst some of the well-preserved existing sepulchral monuments of Kedron; which, though they may not claim coëval origin with all of those just mentioned, were nevertheless their contemporaries in part, and may at least serve to give a sufficiently correct idea of their general character, design, and appearance. CHAPTER VIII. TOMBS AND SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS. "Strong vaulted cells where martyr'd secrs of old Where lies the cypress shade so still and deep. Th' unearthly thoughts have passed from earth away, Thy footsteps all, in Zion's deep decay, Were blotted from the holy ground. Yet dear Is every stone of hers. For Thou wert surely here." WELL did the expatriated cup-bearer of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when soliciting the office of Tirshatha of Jerusalem, style the capital of his father-land "the place of his father's sepulchres"-for no expression could more forcibly characterize the Holy City than the term necropolis-its rocks being everywhere perforated with tombs, and its soil covered with grave-stones. Most ardently does every Jew still desire a final resting-place in the Holy City, and especially in the Valley of Jehosaphat, not only because he dreads the underground passage (should he die abroad), but because he believes that the Lord will there finally plead for "his people" and judge the nations. It is a much cherished belief amongst the Jews that beneath the adjacent mountain all their dead are inhumed, and shall there be raised. "When the dead shall live again," say they, "Mount Olivet is to be rent in two, and all the dead of Israel shall come out thence: yea, those righteous persons, who died in captivity, Sepulchres-Jewish and Roman. shall be rolled under the earth, and shall come forth under the Mount of Olivet"-so declare the Rabbins. These myriads of sepulchres, though originally designed, almost without exception, for the interment of the dead of Israel or their proselytes, have, in turn, served also for the sepulture of various other races subsequently occupying the devoted city-Pagan, Moslem, and Christian; and not only have these rock-hewn sepulchres been tenanted by the Gentile dead, but by the living also. Thousands of Cenobites have had no other dwelling at Jerusalem than these cold, damp, dark habitations of the dead. And even down to the present day the Arabs of Siloam occupy, either wholly or in part, the catacombs of the Hill of Offence—though generally having a small anteroom in front of the tomb. And in the Turkish burial field, on the hill to the right of Damascus Gate, called Turbet esZahara, or Mount of Tombs, the order of nature is exactly reversed by these Troglodytes-the dead being above the living. This was, until recently, the quarantine station; and many a Frank traveller has been compelled to share this revolting species of temporary inhumation with the Turks and Arabs. The process of quarrying and blasting is so much facilitated in cliffs perforated and intersected with tombs, that the sepulchres immediately around the city are rapidly disappearing before the hands of the mason, the dark habitation of the dead being thus converted into lighted residences for the living. On the east side of Olivet and the southern slope of Scopus, I discovered a few sepulchres precisely resembling some that I saw at Rome; instead of large loculi for sarcophagi, mummies or corpses like the Jewish tombs, they have a great many small recesses in the sides of the room, barely large enough to contain a small cinerary urn or lachrymary vessel. But with this exception, nearly all the excavated rock tombs of Jerusalem are undoubtedly of Jewish origin. The Jewish sepulchres, although regulated by one general principle, yet differ very much in point of capacity, finish, and internal arrangement. Lazarus seems to have been interred in a mere natu Construction of Sepulchres. ral cave with a small mouth—such as still abound in the vicinity of Jerusalem and Bethany. And the cave of Macpelah was unquestionably in its natural condition when first used for the burial of Sarah. In the sides of some of these natural grots, loculi or roughly executed receptacles for the dead, are still to be found; but it is probable that in the earlier periods of the Jewish age the corpses were often merely laid on the floor swaddled in the windingsheet. Indeed there is abundant proof that such a burial has been practised in quite modern times. Usually, however, the Jewish sepulchre is a small room excavated in the solid rock and provided with several receptacles for the dead. They are occasionally provided with an anteroom, and susceptible of unlimited enlargement, which is effected by adding room to room, literally, in the rear, on the sides, or below. A perpendicular surface is generally sought through which a small door is cut; but the position of this door in reference to the room is very irregular-the workmen having evidently paid more regard to the grain and flaws of the rock than to the symmetry of the room. The rock being much more homogeneous and seamless far down than it is near the surface, the sepulchre is occasionally excavated very deep; and hence the entrance to such tombs is cut far below the general surface, and is reached by a narrow passage cut through the solid rock, either with or without steps, according to the degree of declination. The removal of the occluding rock from the door at the extremity of a steep passage of this kind would, of course, be no easy matter. And hence we can well sympathize with the women who were early at the sepulchre of the Lord on the morning of the resurrection—so anxiously inquiring "who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre"-for it was very rank owned large subterranean recesses or caverns, either the work of nature or merely artificial excavations of the earth cut out It is well remarked by Jahn (the great archæologist) that "the sepulchres of the common people were, without doubt, mere excavations in the earth, such as are common from rocks." at the present day. Persons of a higher Tombs and fixtures. great. It is generally assumed-in order to account for the fact that the Apostles stooped down to see the "linen clothes and napkin" that the tomb of Joseph had an anteroom; and that, the door of this intermediate wall being low, they were compelled to stoop in order to see into the tomb proper. But this, and all the other circumstances of the narrative, are perfectly explicable upon the supposition that the tomb was entered by an inclined passage. Such doors as were situated in the perpendicular cliff far above ground could not, of course, be closed by rolling a stone against them-neither could very large doorways resting upon the level of the ground-they, however, may have been closed by one or more stone plugs, by movable masonry, or even by a wooden door; though no such fixtures are now to be seen. But though usually situated very near, if not below, the general surface of the ground, yet they were sometimes disposed to exalt them very high, as we frequently observe on the sides of high cliffs, as well as learn from the rebuke administered by Isaiah to Shebna the treasurer. (Is. xxii. 16.) Several tombs at Wady Farar are more than a hundred feet above the valley; and in the " Mount of Tempta. tion" they are several hundred above the base of the mountain: it is not certainly known, however, that these were ever used as tombs. It is supposed by some that they are mere cells for eremite monks, excavated during the reign of the Franks in Palestine. The outer door is generally without the least ornament; but in tombs of superior order is provided with jambs, lintels, and handsomely sculptured pediments, and still more rarely with a portico and façade. A receptacle for water was also excavated within a few feet or yards of the door. Considerable diversity prevailed within, in relation to the arrangement of the loculi or various kinds of receptacles for the individual corpses. They are generally simple rectangular cavities, but sometimes arched-seven or eight feet in length, and two or three in breadth and height, penetrating into the rock their entire length endwise; in other cases, however, they are excavated laterally, and occasionally a shallow arch or narrow |