Tomb I Hunting 2

Photo Comments

A wreath runs along the upper portion of both of the long walls of the tomb.  Below the wreath is a hunting scene.

In this portion of the freeze, we have a huge bull, collapsed on bent forelegs, with blood running from its mouth.  To the left of the bull writhes a large snake.  To the left of the snake are a giraffe facing left and a boar, facing right.

Kloner, Amos.  "Mareshah (Marisa) — The Lower City." Pages 951–57 in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land - vol. 3. Edited by Ephraim Stern, Ayelet Lewinson–Gilboa, and Aviram. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

In this tomb there are 41 burial chambers (loculi), many of which are visible on the right and left sides of the image.  Three steps lead up to the central burial chamber that is in the form of a Greek Temple and is flanked by two large amphorae.  On the sidewalls, note the painted band above the loculi on both walls.

Look carefully on the left and right walls and note the thick, painted, modern fiberglass panels that have been attached to the original walls.  These were installed in 1993 and are clearly visible here.

This was the Tomb of Apollophanes who was the head of the Sidonian colony at Marisa for 33 years.  It was constructed in the late third century BC and was used by subsequent generations.  The name is known from one of the inscriptions found inside the tomb.  See below for the discovery of the tomb and its reconstruction in 1993.

Tombs I and II were discovered in 1902.  Local Muslims had looted the tombs defacing the human images that were painted on the walls of the tombs.   At that time hasty drawings of the tombs I and II were made and, under difficult conditions, black and white photographs were taken.  Scholars from the École Biblique in Jerusalem visited the caves and also made sketches along with watercolor paintings and they recorded the inscriptions.  These were published by the PEF in 1905.