sant, -would in all probability be broken in pieces; the 'moment it
became an object of particular notice. The style of! architecture itt-i
which the monumental tombs have been constrtìctéd' varies according;
to the dates of the building, and apparently, also, to* thè consequence
of the persons interred in them ; the order employed is almost always
Doric, particularly in the earlier examples. I t seeihs probable that
the custom of burying the entire body obtained very generally in
Cyrene and other cities of the Pentapolis; and this is one of the few
instances in which we perceive any analogy between the customs of
the Cyreneans and those of the Egyptians. I t is certain, however,
that the practice of burning the bodies, and of preserving the ashes
in urns, prevailed also among the inhabitants of the Cyrenaica as it
did in other Grecian states *. At the present day there are no
remains either of bodies or of cinereal urns in any of the tombs with
which we are acquainted, one of them only excepted : in which a leg
and foot, which appeared to have been rather dried than embalmed,
was found in a very perfect state. There are places formed in the
* Each of these customs (as practised by the Greets) had well-founded claims to
great antiquity; for interment appears to have been in use in the time of Gecrops, and
burning must at any rate be allowed to have been practised by the Grecians, as far back
as the Troian war, if we rely upon the testimony of Homer. The custom of burning was
perhaps the most peculiar to the Greeks, of the two modes in question ; for Lucian,
in enumerating the various methods resorted to by different nations in the disposal of
their dead, expressly assigns burning to the Greeks, and interment to the Persians
Sislionsvoi yuna. sffvn t as rirlpir, ò /tsv"ExXev smkwev, 5 5s ITsgsw e 8 « 4 sv (vs?i »svffm/r, § 21.)
Some, however, considered the former as an inhuman custom, and philosophers were
divided in their opinions on the subject : each sect esteeming that method the most reasonable
by which bodies would, according to their tenets, be soonest reduced to their
first principles.—See Potter’s Archseologia, voi; ii. p. 207-8, dec.
wklljiat ithc extrpipi,ty ;qf qne. of the cell® in an excavated tomb, for
the reception, apparently, of cinereal urns, as will be seen in the eleva-
tipipjve h a v e giyfftjcf it; but this is the only example of the kind
we have met with,- and we are left to determine, in other cases,
from the dimensions of the cell®, whether they contained bodies or
ashes. The reason of this is that (from whatever cause) all the tombs,
whether excavated or constructed, have been opened and rifled of
their contents; and we never saw a single instance in which this had
not been the case. In the constructed tombs, when the cover was
too heavy to remove without a great deal of labour, a hole was
always found knocked in the side of the sarcophagus; and the tablets
or slabs of stone or marble which closed the cell® and the places for
the bodies, in those which were excavated, were in no instance found
in their places entire by any individual of our party. The tombs of
persons of distinction, at Cyrene, appear to have been erected in
conspicuous positions without any regard to order or arrangement;
at the will, perhaps, of the deceased themselves, or of those at whose
expense they were interred : but the sarcophagi of those of inferior
consideration were ranged in line, whenever the ground would allow
of it, so as to take up as little space as possible, and to present an
appearance of regularity; the sizes of the latter very seldom varied
materially, and their forms were usually alike. The arrangement of
the sarcophagi was not always the same; but they were almost
invariably placed at right angles, in the manner represented (page
464) in the ground-plan and elevation which we have given of them.
The sarcophagus itself was generally composed of a single block of