3-021-499 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Explorations at Jerusalem: a portion of the Haram Wall (east side), 1869. 'There is a mystery about the inscribed letters or marks found upon many of the foundation-stones of the Haram Wall. Some are carved in the stone, but most of them are painted with a red colour, like Vermillion, which is easily rubbed off. What are these letters? They are not Hebrew, but they may be Phoenician; and it is conjectured that they were masons' marks, put on at the quarry, or by the architect, to tell the workmen the place each stone was intended for...There are spots of red, as if they were drops from the brush. On the third stone from the corner, in the second course, is the most important group of these red letters or marks...One gentleman in Jerusalem thinks he can make out the word seal from a Phoenician alphabet...Lieutenant Warren made an effort to photograph the cut letters; but, this not succeeding, he will take casts and send them home. In the mean time, the drawings sent of these letters, which have been carefully done by our Artist, may enable the learned in such matters to study them till the casts arrive in England'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.