Show discoveries in sidon BEIRUT syria feb II 11 1853 1855 quite a sensation has been awakened h among ma ng this people by recent disco discoveries verlos in the ancient city of sidon Une qualin population ula tion I 1 in in power po and architectural magnificence to baby daby ion lon and Nineveh tell yeli still till tyre arid iid sidon were in in advance of 0 those renowned cities in in commerce and jetters and were greater bene benei i factors of the human race time has swept away all but their ruins and arid traces whether on the banks ot of the euphrates or the shores of the great sea but has left more on the latter than the former and reserved for these cities a brighter and more honorable page in history the monuments of disinter red nineveh have justly aroused the th world others of hardly less interest and importance are coming to light in sidon not equal in dimensions men nor as imposing to the eye but perhaps of greater value in he history of letters and the disposal of certain questions of sidon is thirty miles south of bierut ani aria contains at present a population of or about ten thousand souls I 1 I 1 it would seem that there have bave long been certain dreamy dready and superstitious notions amon among we th e natives about hurried treasures in the gar dens fields and grave yards just as in america meri merl in in every ten or twenty years individuals have revelations of robert kidds concealed deposits pt sits impelled by the belief of which they dig into river banks and the seacoast if they dol dor not disturb the resting places of the dead under this impulse a dio Alo moslem slem siem as I 1 learn obtained pert peri i t mission some three years ago to dig for buried burled treasures in the old graveyards grave yards in sidon at first his labors were attended with no success in the winter of 1853 4 however if not a vein yet something better was struck and three cop per pots each containing ei eight lit ait hundred pieces of gold met the delighted but surprised eyes of the advento adventurous r ous d diggers I 1 ge rs each esch piece was vas of the value of about five dollars and all bore the name or head of philip or alexander the discovery of so much money while it was fortunate to the moslem Mose rrt dreamer and his big fellow diggers very naturally excited both the curiosity and the cupidity of others in which european europea n red resi dents in the country participated with the natives and ani the operations were continued continue d with greater hope and more liberal expenditure and as now it is ascertained with more important results on the I 1 ath of jany last some men were digging for or more hid treasure in an ancient ce cemetery me on the plain of sidon called Mug horte Tu bloon when at the depth of about twelve feet below the surface and near the walls of the ancient edifice they uncovered a upon the lid iid of which there is a long phoenician inscription the lid is ot of a blue black marble intensely hard and taking a very fine polish the lid is about eight feet long iong by four wido wid the upper end is wrought into the figure of a female head and shot liders of almost a giant bie ble sie size the features are egyptian with large full al mond shaped eyes the nose nose flattened and lips remarkably thick and somewhat after the negro mould the whole countenance is smi skiing ing I 1 and express expressive iye lye beyond anything I 1 have seen in the disinterred monuments of egypt or nineveh the headdress resembles that which appears in egyptian figures while on each shoulder there is the head of some bird above or pigeon and the bosom is covered by what appears to be e a sort of a cape with a deep fringe as of lace on the lid below the figure head is the in inscription consisting of twenty two long lines closely written aten the letters are in perfect preservation and can be read with the utmos utmost tease ease and accuracy and the forms by far the largest and most perfect inscription yet discovered in the most ancient language and character it appears to be mainly a geological history of the person buried in the sarcophagus who as it appears was a king kiny of sidon the names of baal and ashtoreth the well known gods of the Sidon ians lans occur repeatedly in these inscriptions some of the words are madek king while the formo forms of some of the letters are so much like those of the ancient greek as at once to indi indicate tate the relationship letters were nvere invented by the Phoenicia phoenicians ns here we seem to see them dropping from their hands in the first casti castl casting ng journal of commerce |