Archaeology Magazine - January 1976 - 9

In Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine,
Graeco- Roman influences laid only a superficial
veneer upon the indigenous cultures: in
architecture, as in other spheres, local forms
persisted. The temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem,
for instance - both that of Solomon and its
successor, rebuilt much later by Herod the
Great - was a typical oriental shrine. Even
though it was destroyed by the Romans in a.d.
70 after the unsuccessful revolt of the Jews, it
appears as a symbol of Jewish freedom on the
coinage minted sixty years later by Bar Kochba,
the leader of the second Jewish revolt. These
coins show the temple as it existed before the
Roman destruction: a portico of four columns
leading to the sacred inner sanctuary. As at
Cast of a coin of the Emperor Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-211) Ephesus, the engravers portrayed both the
façade and the inner sanctum; they placed the
depicting the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek.
Ark of the Covenant between the middle two
columns of the façade. In actuality, it was
sheltered deep inside the holy of holies. The flat
finds it hard to remember that here Saint Paul
roof, decorated with crenellations, was typical
of
ancient Near Eastern buildings. Its correct
was reviled by the pagan worshipers with the
is
Diana
of
the
representation testifies to the coins' general
Ephesians."
angry cry: "Great
it
as
once
the
Coins, however, depict
accuracy despite the schematic rendering of the
building
of
its
the
columns
stood,
façade towering
design. The second revolt of the Jews also failed
eight
in marble splendor; indeed, the example shown
and the temple was never rebuilt. Today its
on the cover does more than that, for the artist
remains are lost below the modern city of
has opened the portico. Standing within is the
Jerusalem.
cult statue of Diana herself, the many-breasted
Of the other popular archaeological sites in
In
so
centuries.
for
revered
the Near East, the most spectacular is probably
many
fertility figure
addition the coin shows the pedestal on which
Baalbek, ancient Heliopolis, the city of the sun.
Time has been relatively kind to its buildings,
the image stood; it is engraved with such
whose remains can be easily recognized and
precision that the viewer can even make out
identified. To gain a complete picture of how
Diana's sacred stag. In ancient times the temple
the monuments appeared in ancient days,
was ä place of pilgrimage for tourists as much as
for worshipers. Of the exceptional architectural
however, one must turn to the coins, which
features for which the sanctuary was famous,
portray them in their heyday. They depict the
the most outstanding, according to Pliny, were
temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus, the
monumental portico which led to the fabulous
the sculptured column bases decorated with
complex of sacred buildings, and the recently
figures in relief. Fragments of these survived
identified temple of Mercury standing high on
the continuing vandalism of stone robbers until
a hill outside the town. Although a towered
the
of
the
excavations
found
were
during
they
late nineteenth century. A fairly complete base
gateway to a sacred sanctuary is an oriental
is preserved today as one of the great treasures
convention, the architect at Baalbek
transformed the traditional design into a
of the British Museum. The details of the
the
the
cult
drums,
magnificent example of Roman architecture.
pedestal
image,
sculptured
The lower stone courses in the towers and part
on which it stood, and the extraordinary
of the great stairway can still be seen amid the
pediment are faithfully represented by the
die-cutter who gives us a craftsman's view of the
rubble. The coins alone, however, reveal the
temple as he himself saw it two thousand years ago. structure's original grandeur.
9

Archaeology Magazine - January 1976

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January 1976