Phoenician funerary practices

The Phoenicians emerged as a distinct culture on the Levantine coast in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550 – c. 1200 BC) as one of the successor cultures to the Canaanites.^[6][7] They were organized into independent city-states that shared a common language, culture, and religious practices. They had, however, diverse mortuary practices, including inhumation and cremation.^[8]

Scholars studying funerary practices in Iron Age Phoenicia (c. 1200 – c. 500 BC) note the absence of ancient texts describing beliefs about life after death and funeral rituals.^[9] However, various finds provide information that Phoenicians, like other peoples of the ancient Near East, believed in life after death and the immortality of the soul. The afterlife was referred to as the "House of Eternity," and the dead were thought to continue living in the underworld.^[10][9] Archaeological finds complement the limited written records; in Iron Age Phoenicia, burial sites were usually located outside settlements. Various types of tombs were found, such as earth pits, cist tombs, rock-cut tombs, some with shafts, and ashlar masonry-built tombs. In inhumation practices, the deceased was buried intact, laid directly on the floor, placed on a wooden plank or bench, or inside a coffin. The more affluent deceased was sometimes embalmed and wrapped in a shroud or clothed, and offerings like food and drink placed in pottery vessels, amulets, masks made of various materials, terracotta figurines were placed in the sepulture.^[11] Funerals were accompanied by lamentations, as attested on the Mourning women sarcophagus found in the Ayaa royal necropolis, and the Ahiram sarcophagus discovered in the royal necropolis of Byblos. Grief was expressed by crying, beating one’s chest, and tearing one’s clothes.^[12]

Archaeological evidence of elite Achaemenid period burials abounds in the hinterland of Sidon. These include inhumations in underground vaults, rock-cut niches, and shaft and chamber tombs in Sarepta,^[13] Ain al-Hilweh,^[14] Ayaa,^[15][16] Mgharet Abloun,^[17] and the Temple of Eshmun.^[18] Elite Phoenician burials were characterized by the use of sarcophagi, a consistent emphasis on the integrity of the tomb,^[19][20] and evidence of mummification,^{[lower-alpha 2]} suggesting Egyptian influence on elite funerary customs.^[25] Surviving mortuary inscriptions invoke deities to assist with the procurement of blessings, and to conjure curses and calamities on whoever desecrated the tomb.^[26]

Hellenistic influence

Greek culture had a significant but lesser influence on Phoenician religion compared to Egyptian culture. Peaceful trade connections between the Phoenicians and Greeks began in the second millennium BC and continued to grow. Greek influence on Phoenician culture, including religion and art, became more pronounced from the 5th century BC, even while Phoenicia was under Persian rule. The Sidonian elite admired Greek art and architecture, as evident in the incorporation of Greek mythological scenes in their monuments. They also accepted the identification of their gods with Greek counterparts, such as Eshmun with Asclepius and/or Apollo and Melqart with Heracles. The Phoenician educated elite started learning Greek, delving into Greek mythology and philosophy.

Classical era Phoenician royal tombs in Sidon revealed the use of marble in the making of anthropoid sarcophagi imitating elite Egyptian basalt sarcophagi. These anthropoid sarcophagi gradually adopted increasingly realistic faces owing to Hellenistic influence.^[12]

Previous discoveries in Sidon

Consecutive discoveries in the 19th century of necropoli in the hinterland of Sidon gave rare insight into the city's past. The remains of the ancient city were built over by a dense matrix of narrow medieval Souks and densely populated residential quarters. The first record of the discovery of an ancient necropolis in Sidon was made in 1816 by English explorer and Egyptologist William John Bankes.^[27][28] Bankes, who was the guest of British adventurer and archaeologist Hester Stanhope, visited the vast necropolis that was accidentally discovered in 1814, in Wadi Abu Ghiyas at the foot of the towns of Bramieh and Hlaliye, northeast of Sidon. He sketched the layout of one of the sepulchral caves, made faithful watercolor copies of its frescoes, and removed two fresco panels which he sent to England.^{[lower-alpha 3][28]}

On 20 February 1855, Antoine-Aimé Peretié, the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut and amateur archaeologist was informed by treasure hunter Alphonse Durighello, of an archaeological find in a hollowed-out rocky mound that was known to locals as Magharet Abloun 'The Cavern of Apollo'.^{[29][30][2][31]} Durighello had taken advantage of the absence of laws governing archaeological excavation and the disposition of the finds under the Ottoman rule over Lebanon and had been involved in the lucrative business of digging up and trafficking archaeological artifacts. Under the Ottomans, it sufficed to either own the land or to have the owner's permission to excavate. Any finds resulting from the digs became the property of the finder.^[32] To perform digs in the site of the cavern, Durighello bought the exclusive right from the land owner, the then Mufti of Sidon Mustapha Effendi.^[32][33] Durighello, who is referred to as Peretié's "agent" in de Luynes' account, unearthed the Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II in an underground vaulted hypogeum and sold it to Peretié.^{[29][30][33][34]}

Discovery and removal to Istanbul

At the beginning of 1887, Mehmed Cherif Effendi, the owner of a piece of land known as Ayaa, obtained a permit from the local authorities to exploit it as a quarry. One of Cherif Effendi's workmen uncovered a shaft and chamber tomb.^[35][36] At nightfall, Cherif's workman made his way to American Presbyterian minister William King Eddy's home, a Sidon resident, to inform him of the find. The two men lowered themselves with a rope into the deep shaft, where Eddy realized upon inspecting the tomb that it was of considerable significance. He was the first to report this find to the media, and consequently, according to the American missionary narrative, is credited with the discovery.^[36][37] Eddy had informed the English Orientalist William Wright who wrote an article in The Times imploring the British Museum to "take immediate measures to secure these treasures and prevent their falling into the hands of the vandal Turk".^[37]

On 2 March 1887, Cherif reported to the Kaymakam of Sidon, Sadik Bey, of the shaft and chamber tomb. Sadik Bey examined the site and spotted through a hole in the eastern wall of the shaft two sarcophagi. He escalated the matter to the Vali of Syria, Rashid Nashid Pasha, and the Governor of Beirut Nassouhi Bey, and entrusted the well to the care of Essad Effendi from the gendarmerie of Sidon.^[35]

Sadik Bey uncovered the entrance to two additional burial chambers to either side of the first one, both containing sarcophagi. Nachid Pacha was updated with the findings and had the work suspended due to the delicate nature of the finds until the arrival of Bechara Effendi, the chief engineer of the Vilayet of Syria. On March 15, Bechara Effendi arrived in Sidon and opened a total of seven burial chambers, all of which contained at least one sarcophagus. He wrote a summary report to the Ministry of Public Instruction in Istanbul, based on which, Sultan Abdul Hamid, tasked the new curator of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Osman Hamdi Bey with excavating the necropolis, and transporting valuables back to Istanbul.^[38]

Hamdi Bey left Istanbul on 18 April 1887, accompanied by Demosthenes Baltazzi Bey the director of the archaeological service of the Vilayet of Aidin.^[39] They arrived in Sidon 12 days later.^[40][37] Hamdi Bey paid Mehmed Sherif Effendi, the owner of the land, 1500 Ottoman Liras at the behest of the Sultan.^[39]

On 1 May 1887, Hamdy Bey initiated the excavations: He oversaw the construction of a ladder to retrieve sarcophagus fragments through the surface shaft and supervised the excavation of a sloping trench that began from the adjacent grove known as Bostan el-Maghara, and extended into one of the necropolis' subterranean vaults.^[41] The trench was completed on the evening of 13 May.^[42] He had the vaults closed off to deter curious locals and looters, had guards stationed on site, and built tramway tracks that provided easy access to the necropolis to facilitate the retrieval of the sarcophagi.^[43] Once unearthed, he had a frigate brought from Istanbul and had the sarcophagi loaded onto it through openings cut in its side.^[44]

A group of people rode from Beirut to visit the site and see the collection, and one sarcophagus was found to contain a well-preserved human body floating in a fluid.^[44] During the transportation however, and while Hamdi Bey was at lunch, the workmen overturned the sarcophagus and poured the fluid out, such that, according to Jessup, the "secret of the wonderful fluid was again hidden in the Sidon sand". Notably, after the "peculiar fluid" left the sarcophagus, the body started to decompose.^[44][45] Hamdy Bey noted in 1892 that he had kept a portion of the sludge that remained in the bottom of the sarcophagus.^[46]

Bechara Effendi is credited with discovering new burial chambers and with devising transport mechanisms and superintending the transit of the massive troves to a frigate bound for Constantinople's museum.^[47][48]

All tombs had been violated in antiquity^[49] except for N17.^[50] Hamdi Bey believed that all the interred were related. ^[49]

Commissioning of the Museum

On 17 August 1887, the Ottoman authorities announced that:

Because the solidity and weight of the antiquities recently found in Sidon makes their entrance into and their protection within the Imperial Museum impossible, [it has been decided that] there is a need for a new hall.^[52]

French-Levantine architect Alexandre Vallaury, who an architecture scholar at Hamdi Bey’s School of Fine Arts who had previously designed the Yıldız Palace, was appointed to design the new building.^[39] Construction began in 1888, was expanded to two-floors in 1889, and opened on 13 June 1891. The design of the museum included a number of architectural elements borrowed from the Ayaa sarcophagi. The Ottoman magazine Servet-i Fünun repeatedly described the new museum as having reached the level of the great museums of Western Europe.^[53]

The new museum building housed the Ayaa sarcophagi alongside other sarcophagi and stelae that the museum had previously collected. The Ayaa sarcophagi was the museum’s “first large-scale and relatively complete archaeological collection from a single site”. The 1893 museum catalogue describes how each of the sarcophagi surpassed its equivalents, and that they provide and ability to visualize the development of such art forms over time though “an uninterrupted series from primitive Ionian art to Byzantine art”; the Tabnit sarcophagus showcased Egyptian funerary art, subsequently adapted into Phoenicians anthropoidal sarcophagi, both later supplanted by Greco-Roman style, such as the Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women and the Alexander Sarcophagus.^[54][55]

Vault I

On the eastern wall of the vestibule, lay the entrance to the first rock cut chamber dubbed Vault I by Hamdi Bey. Vault 1 had a low-ceiling measuring 1.8 m (5.9 ft) in height, and was accessible though a 1.7 m (5.6 ft) high and 1.6 m (5.2 ft) wide door. The entrance to this tomb had been walled shut, but the intruders had removed several masonry stone to enter. The vault measured 4.25 m × 3.35 m (13.9 ft × 11.0 ft), gradually widening towards the back to reach a width of 3.9 m (13 ft). Vault 1 contained three sarcophagi. Sarcophagus 1, named the "Sarcophagus of the mourning women", was made of white marble in the Ionic style. It was adorned with sculptures depicting mourning women. Sarcophagus 2, also made of white marble, was much smaller in size and devoid of any decoration.^[59]

Both sarcophagi had been violated: Sarcophagus 1's lid was broken at the southwest corner and the lid of sarcophagus 2 had been raised, and held in place by a piece of a damaged decorative pilaster from Sarcophagus 1. Hamdi Bey observed looters had not suspected the presence of a third sarcophagus (dubbed Sarcophagus 17) in the same chamber. This latter was made of black basalt, and was of Egyptian origin; it was located beneath Sarcophagus 1 and was discovered later during the clearing of the hypogeum.^[59]

Vaults II and III

Facing this first tomb, on the western wall of the well, there was a second chamber (Vault II), measuring 3.6 m × 3.4 m (12 ft × 11 ft). This tomb's entrance was also walled up, and breached by looters. The height of the Vault II was 2 m (6.6 ft). In the middle of the vault, a rectangular pit was excavated, measuring 1.5 m × 3 m (4.9 ft × 9.8 ft), and 2.35 m (7.7 ft) deep. At the bottom of this first pit, lay another smaller rectangular pit, measuring 0.6 m × 1.1 m (2.0 ft × 3.6 ft), and 0.35 m (1.1 ft), and was filled with human bones.^[60] North of these pits, a very small originally sealed rock cut niche was found, barely accommodating a white marble anthropoid sarcophagus (Sarcophagus 3) that was also looted. This niche measured 2.35 m × 1.2 m (7.7 ft × 3.9 ft), and had a height of 1.2 m (3.9 ft). The large pit leading to this small tomb had initially been filled with soil, over which a regular layer of rectangular stones was placed to level tomb II.^[59]

The south of Vault II, gave access to a third chamber (Vault III) through a 2.4 m (7.9 ft) wide door. This vault was the finest, and the largest, measuring 6.1 m (20 ft) in width at the entrance and narrowing to 6 m (20 ft) at the rear. Its length was 6.4 m (21 ft), and the ceiling height was 2.75 m (9.0 ft). A small groove was carved into the floor surrounding the walls to collect seepage water. On the walls, a horizontal red line was visible, indicating symmetrically spaced rectangular openings. These openings were likely meant for accommodating large beams horizontally placed across the tomb, possibly to secure the sarcophagus lids using ropes. Like all the other tombs, the original entrance had been walled up, but the entrance of this specific tomb displayed more intricate craftsmanship. Two massive, finely cut stone blocks, measuring 1.75 m × 0.55 m (5.7 ft × 1.8 ft) served as architraves. This tomb housed four sarcophagi (Sarcophagus 4, 5, 6, and 7), all looted. The largest and finest among them was Sarcophagus 7 (the Alexander Sarcophagus), adorned with exceptional bas-reliefs that impressively retained their polychrome paint. The three others, of the same shape as the Alexander Sarcophagus, were almost identical but were simple and lacked any sculpted figures on their troughs.^[61]

Vault IV

The south wall of the vestibule opens to Vault IV which was carved 2 m (6.6 ft) lower than the previous chambers and contained two sarcophagi. Vault IV was 3.5 m (11 ft) high, and measured 4 m (13 ft) wide at the entrance, widening to 4.5 m (15 ft) at its far end. The entrance to this chamber was 2.9 m (9.5 ft) high and 2.1 m (6.9 ft) wide. The first sarcophagus (Sarcophagus 8) was carved from black basaltic rock and of simple design. Sarcophagus 9, dubbed the Lycian sarcophagus was made of Parian marble.^[62]

Vaults V, VI and VII

The north wall of the vestibule opens to Vault V, which itself served as a vestibule leading to vaults VI and VII . Vault V measured 2 m × 3 m (6.6 ft × 9.8 ft) and was carved 2.1 m (6.9 ft) below the level of the main vestibule. Its North wall housed a niche, carved at a height of 1.8 m (5.9 ft). This niche was 1.2 m (3.9 ft) deep, 2.7 m (8.9 ft) wide, and 1.6 m (5.2 ft) high. The niche housed Sarcophagus 10, crafted from plain limestone and featuring a simple design, which was also looted. An intact alabaster vase was found next to this sarcophagus.^[63]

Vault VI was accessible through a door on the west wall of Vault V. It measured 4.7 m × 4.4 m (15 ft × 14 ft) and had a height of 2.7 m (8.9 ft). Inside, there were four sarcophagi, all made of white marble and labeled as Hamdy Bey Sarcophagus 13, 14, 15, and 16. Among them, Sarcophagus 16, known as the Sarcophagus of the Satrap, was adorned with sculptures, while the other three had a simple yet elegant design. All the sarcophagi from this vault were looted.^[64]

Vault VII, which opens to the east of Vault V, is the smallest of all. It measures 3.2 m (10 ft) in length and 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in width, with a ceiling height of only 1.8 m (5.9 ft). Like the previous vaults, this vault was walled up. It contained two looted sarcophagi (sarcophagi 11 and 12); Sarcophagus 11, is an anthropoid sarcophagus made of white marble. The other, simple in design, is also made of white marble, is similar in shape to sarcophagi 2, 10, and 14.^[65]