(1) "New Archaeological Lights on the Origins of
Civilization in Europe," British Association, Newcastle-on-
Tyne, 1916.

(2) The necessary omission of plates, representing the
slides shown in the lectures, has involved a recasting of
most passages in which points of archaeological detail were
discussed; see Preface. But the following paragraphs have
been retained as the majority of the monuments referred to
are well known.

Some of the most famous monuments of Semitic art date from the Persian
and Hellenistic periods, and if we glance at them in this connexion it
is in order to illustrate during its most obvious phase a tendency of
which the earlier effects are less pronounced. In the sarcophagus of the
Sidonian king Eshmu-'azar II, which is preserved in the Louvre,(1)
we have indeed a monument to which no Semitic sculptor can lay claim.
Workmanship and material are Egyptian, and there is no doubt that it was
sculptured in Egypt and transported to Sidon by sea. But the king's own
engravers added the long Phoenician inscription, in which he adjures
princes and men not to open his resting-place since there are no jewels
therein, concluding with some potent curses against any violation of his
tomb. One of the latter implores the holy gods to deliver such violators
up "to a mighty prince who shall rule over them", and was probably
suggested by Alexander's recent occupation of Sidon in 332 B.C. after
his reduction and drastic punishment of Tyre. King Eshmun-'zar was not
unique in his choice of burial in an Egyptian coffin, for he merely
followed the example of his royal father, Tabnîth, "priest of
'Ashtart and king of the Sidonians", whose sarcophagus, preserved at