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Tombs
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The remains of funerary architecture
in Bostra are scanty and, for the most part, poor ; yet one must
believe that, in the days of its splendour, the capital of the
Arabian Province boasted monumental tombs in keeping with its
other buildings. Along; the great high road which approaches the
city from the west are countless heaps of ruins which were
undoubtedly tomb structures of greater or less magnificence ;
but these have perished utterly save only one, the round
tower-tomb (111. 244) which is published herewith. On all sides
of the city, and even inside the walls, are inscriptions from
tombs that must have had some architectural features. In one of
them a citizen refers to the tomb which he has erected as
"perfection's fairest flower"". The sarcophagus discovered not
far from the reservoir in the southeast quarter of the tower,
and published with a drawing in Div. Ill,3 must have belonged to
a tomb of considerable importance as a monument. Many tombs seem
to have been marked by cippi, or altar-like shafts, my
drawings of which are also published in Div. III. These were of
various types and of different proportions; one of them is dated
132 A. D. |
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The only built tomb that has been spared, the
round tower-tomb mentioned above, was published with a photograph and
measured drawings by Brunnow. I republish it here partly to complete
my catalogue of Bostrian buildings, and partly to introduce a detail
which I discovered, and which has not been seen before, namely a
lion's head from the cornice. The tomb is a low circular tower (111.
244) with a very perfectly made little dome of cut stone, the crown of
which barely reaches above the cornice which crowns the cylinder that
encloses it. The tower rested upon a square foundation only one course
high.
It had a deep and well drawn base-moulding and a simple but elegant
overhanging cornice. Inside, a simple cyma (c) marked the springing of
the dome, the crowning stone of which was circular with a narrow
moulding about it. The profile of the cornice is interesting, though
the soffit of the corona was not undercut. My drawings show this
detail and the base moulding below as if straight instead of curved in
order to emphasize the profiles. A native of the village of Bosra
showed me in his house |
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a piece of sculpture which he said he had brought
from this tower-tomb. It was a water-spout consisting . of a lion's
head with enough of the mouldings preserved on either side of it to
prove that it had belonged to this cornice. The head is not well
drawn, having lines more suggestive of a wolf than a lion'; but in
execution and style it is not without interest owing to its likeness
to lions' heads found among the ruins at Sic, especially to those
found at the angles of an altar-pedestal dated early in the first
century which is illustrated in Div. IV, Sect, A, under inscr. 101. |
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