Sidon through the Ages

Description

LebanonPostcard presents Sidon through the Ages by Nina Jidejian – Hard-book with cover, 28.3×22.5 cm, 292 pages – Check entire Nina Jidejian Books

SIDON, the residence of Persia’s powerful satraps and kings during the sixth to fourth centuries B.C., surpassed all other Phoenician cities in wealth, commercial initiative, and religious zeal. Pilgrims came from far and near to immerse themselves in the miraculous waters of the temple of Eshmun, the shrine of Sidon’s god of healing. Marble statuettes of young children found in a sacred canal in the temple enclosure bear dedications in Phoenician to Eshmun beseeching his indulgence for the cure of the child each represents. Among these is the statue of a young prince. The inscription on the statue’s base reveals the names of his ancestors, kings of the Ba’alchillem dynasty, who probably reigned during the fifth century B.C.

Sidon differs from other Phoenician cities in that clandestine excavations during the last century have brought utter despoliation to many of her rich necropolis and ancient structures.

Valuable works of art found their way to the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Topkapi Sarayi Archaeological Museum in Istanbul, and other museums in Europe. Discovery in 1887 of the world’s most famous sarcophagus, the “Alexander sarcophagus”, in a rock-cut royal necropolis north of Sidon provides a fantastic story.

This monumental marble artwork, a solitary example of the historical relief of the Hellenistic age, illustrates Greek genius in sculpture and polychromy at its height. Burial grounds of Sidon have yielded Egyptian mummy cases of two Sidonian kings of the famed Eshmunazar dynasty. The largest known collection of stone anthropoid sarcophagi of Sidon’s nobility and upper classes, presently in Beirut National Museum, is yet another treasure that this important city has given.

Nina Jidejian in Sidon Through the Ages, her third study of the Phoeniciancity-states, has blended archaeological material and literary sources into a fascinating story of Sidon. The city emerges into the light of history during the Tell el-Amarna age in the fourteenth century B.C. and enjoyed great prosperity until its destruction by Mameluke armies in 1291.

This volume based on a careful examination of archaeological and inscriptional material, classical texts, and the findings of modern scholarship presents an up-to-date survey of Sidon for the scholar and layman alike.

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