numerous fragments of decorated and plain soapstone
bowls which we found, most of them deeply buried
in the immediate vicinity of the temple on the
fortress ; and these bring us to consider more closely
the artistic capacities of the race who originally
inhabited these ruins. The work displayed in executing
these bowls, the careful rounding of the edges,
the ¡exact execution of the circle, the fine pointed
tool-marks, and the subjects they chose to depict,
point to the race having been far advanced in artistic
skill—a skill arrived at, doubtless, by commercial in-
BOWL W IT H Z EB RA S
ter course with the more civilised races of mankind.
Seven of these bowls were of exactly the same size
and were 19‘2 inches in diameter,1 which measurements
we ascertained by taking the radii of the
several fragments. The most elaborate of these
fragments is a bowl which had depicted around its
outer edge a hunting scene; it is very well worked,
and bears in several points a remarkable similarity
to objects of a rt, produced by the Phoenicians.
There is here, as we have in all Phoenician patterns,,
the straight procession of animals, to break
the continuity of. which a little man is intro-
1 Equal to two Egyptian spans of 9‘58 incites.
duced shooting a zebra with one hand and holding
in the other an animal by a leash. To fill up a
vacant space,, a bird is introduced flying, all of which
points are characteristic of Phoenician work. Then
the Phoenician workmen always had a great power of
adaptability, taking their lessons in art from their
immediate surroundings, which is noticeable all over
the world, whether in Greece, Egypt, Africa, or Italy.
Here we have
the same characteristic,
namely,
a procession of
native African animals
treated in a
Phoenician style—
three zebras, two
hippopotami, and
the sportsman in
the centre is ob- f r a g m e n t o f s o a p s t o n e b o w l w i t h
P R O C E S S IO N
viously a Hottentot.
The details in this bowl are carefully brought
out, even the breath of the animals is depicted by
three strokes at the mouth. There is also a fragment
of another bowl with zebras on it similarly treated,
though somewhat higher and coarser. The fragments
of a large bowl, which had a procession; of bulls
round it, is also Phoenician in character.1 The most
noticeable feature in the treatment of these bulls is
that the three pairs of horns we have preserved to ns
are all different. ' ' '" ' ; ,;!L ’
1 Vide illustration, p. 162.