Jessup, 1910, p. 507a. : "On the 14th of March a letter came from Mr. Eddy of a wonderful discovery in Sidon of ancient tombs, containing some white polished marble sarcophagi of exquisite beauty and marvellous sculpture. Mr. Eddy had been into the tombs hewn in the solid rock thirty feet below the surface and had measured and described all the sarcophagi of white and black marble with scientific exactness. On the 21st Dr. Eddy received from his son an elaborate report on the discovery which was intended to be sent to his brother Dr. Condit Eddy in New Rochelle. I obtained permission to make a copy for transmission to Dr. William Wright of London, and sent it by mail the next day. Dr. Wright sent it to the London Times with a note in which he expressed the hope that the authorities of the British Museum would "take immediate measures to secure these treasures and prevent their falling into the hands of the vandal Turk". The Times reached Constantinople. Now it happened that the department of antiquities at that time as now was under the charge of Hamdi Beg, a man educated in Paris, an artist, an engineer, and well up in archaeology. When he saw that article of Mr. Eddy's in the Times and Dr. Wright's letter, he said to himself (as he afterwards told us), "I'll show what the 'Vandal Turk' can do!" Jessup, Henry Harris (1910), Fifty-Three Years In Syria2, Fleming H. Revell Company.
Jessup, 1910, p. 507b. : "One sarcophagus, when the lid was opened, contained a human body floating in perfect preservation in a peculiar fluid. The flesh was soft and perfect in form and colour. But, alas, while Hamdi Beg was at lunch, the over-officious Arab workmen overturned it and spilled all the precious fluid on the sand. The beg's indignation knew no bounds, but it was too late and the body could not be preserved, and the secret of the wonderful fluid was again hidden in the Sidon sand." Jessup, Henry Harris (1910), Fifty-Three Years In Syria2, Fleming H. Revell Company.
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Context of Scripture 2.56, P. Kyle McCarter, "The Sarcophagus Inscription of Tabnit, King of Sidon", Brill Online, 2014
Hamdi Bey, 1892, pp. 101–103. :"Alors seulement nous pûmes enfin voir l'intérieur du sarcophage. Une couche de sable jaunâtre et humide de laquelle émergeaient la face décharnée, les clavicules, les rotules, ainsi que le bout des pieds auxquels manquaient les doigts, remplissait le fond de la cuve jusqu'à 25 centimètres de ses bords... Débarrassé du couvercle, je fis d'abord tirer de la cuve le corps du roi et j'ordonnai de l'étendre sur une planche pour l'emporter dehors et le confier au docteur Mourad Effendi, médecin municipal de Saïda, que j'avais chargé de le mettre en état d'être transporté à constantinople; car tous les muscles des parties postérieures ainsi que tous les organes internes du thorax et de l'abdomen étaient parfaitement conservés. Apres avoir fait vider la cuve, je conservai une portion de la boue formée de sable et de pourriture qu'elle contenait, et je fis passer le reste à travers un crible quand cette boue eut été, au préalable, délayée dans l'eau. Rien n'y a été trouvé, si ce n'est quelques fragments d'anneaux en argent." Hamdi Bey, Osman; Reinach, Théodore (1892), Une nécropole royale à Sidon(en francés). (editio princeps)