easily be lost as well of the bodies themselves, as of the vases and
urns which contained .the ashes. There appears to have been no
difference whatever in the mode of burial practised by the. Greeks , and
Bomans of Teuchira, since: many: of. the tombs, which are similar
within, have on them the names of one and the otherrnation indiscriminately,
and they; are often seen .mingled together on the same.
I t is probable that the. early tombs would be interesting, and that
they would be found .at the same, time more perfect than the. rest ;
for the; sand has accumulated about them in such heaps as to have
blocked up all access to them for ages. Those most buried are the
tombs which are nearest the town, and they are also, we should
imagine, the.oldest ;>but we had no time to employ in excavating
any of them, although we very much wished to do so.
There is one example of a painted tomb at Teuchira, in very bad
taste, and this was the only one we could perceive that was, so ; it is
probable, however, that most of them have been originally painted, and
that what we see at present are the mere skeletons of the originals*.
Of the buildings contained within the walls of the city, the most
interesting of those whose plans were distinguishable, appeared to us
to be the two Christian churches which will be found, with all the
details we could procure of them, in the plate, page 367. In both
* Plans and sections of some of the tombs will be found in page 367, and we think the
reader will notbe able to trace so much resemblance between' the' stylé of’ Teuchira ’and
that of Cyrene as Signor Della Gella has discovered,. when he-tells us;that “ II fabricate
di Tochira, dello stessissimo stile di quello di Cirene, la stessa copia, e struttura di
tombi, conferma ciocché di, questa città lasciò'scritto Erodoto, che usava } le stessè'leggi
de’ Cirenei.—(Page ,199.)
these i t : will be seen, that the .part devoted to the; altar was on the
eastern side of the building; but the extreme length of one of them1
is much greater than usual, and it is not unlikely that the portion at
its,western extremity, although comprised in the same line of wall,
was part of another building.
Near one of these (that to the eastward of the town) we found
part of an entablature in the worst taste of the lower empire, which
we:conjectured to be the:remains alluded to by Signor Della Celia, as
probably having formed a part of the temple of -Bacchus: it is true
that,they are; mentioned by the Doctor as capitals and not as parts
of the epistylia; but as the fragment is small, it is possible that such
a mistake may .have been made; and if this be not what is alluded to
in the passage below, we confess that nothing else could be found
among the ruins which would at all correspond with the description *.
The streets of Teuchira appear to have been built in squares, and
to have: crossed each other at right angles: One-large street seems
to have passed completely across the town, from the eastern to the
western , gateway; and towards th e . centre of this we found some
columns, and the arch of a gateway which probably stood across
the street., In various parts of the: city, to the .north-east and southwest
of it in particular, there are imposing remains of fallen columns
and entablatures, which have no doubt belonged to buildings of more
than ordinary importance; but without excavation it would not be
* Vi si scorgono pure gli avanzi di un tempio che io credo essere stato dedicato a
Bacco, a giudicarne da’ capitelli, che giaciano affastellati fra le sue rovine, guarniti di
foglie di viti con grappoli pendenti.—(P. 199.)