Abstract
A DISCOVERY of special interest at Teleilat Ghassul in Palestine is reported by the Rev. J. G. Duncan in the current issue of Ancient Egypt (Pt. 3, 1932). On this site, which is conjecturally identified with the ancient Sodom, three buildings, evidently not temples or palaces, but dwelling-houses, have been brought to light which date, at the latest, from 2,000 B.C., when the city was finally destroyed. In two of them the room-walls proved unexpectedly large, being 19ft. and 20ft. in length respectively. It was not known previously that dwellings of this size were in use in Palestine at this early stage of civilisation. What, however, was of even greater interest was the fact that these walls had been decorated with paintings, a single subject covering the whole wall, thus arguing developed artistic skill. With the exception of a cistern at Ophel, attributed doubtfully to the Byzantine age, wall paintings had not been discovered previously in ancient Palestine. The paintings, which are on plaster, have suffered from various causes, including the damp soil, which may explain the apparent absence of wall-paintings on excavated sites. It is just possible to make out the subject of two of the paintings. One is apparently a religious scene and shows several, six or seven, human figures gazing towards a shining object in front of which stands a smaller figure, facing the others; and the second is a landscape or hunting scene, in which the only well-preserved figure is a bird, painted with a master's touch. The colours, light and dark red, brown in various shades, black, yellow and white are the same as appear in the painted pottery. The site, which is being excavated by P. Mallon, is somewhat obscure in its cultural and chronological relations. It appears to be of late neolithic or early copper age date.
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Paintings in Ancient Palestine. Nature 130, 992 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130992b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130992b0