History of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, Syria, And Asia Minor

8/12/2019 History of Art in Sardinia, Judaea, Syria, And Asia Minor

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Presented to the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTOLIBRARY

by the

ONTARIO LEGISLATIVELIBRARY

1980


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HISTORY OF ART IN SARDINIAAND JUD^A.


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HISTORY OF^\i ill ^iirdiraa^ JuMa, ^gvm,

and i^sia Mritor.FROM THE FRENCH

OFGEORGES PERROT,PROFESSOR IN THE FACULTY OF LETTERS, PARIS ; MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE,

ANDCHARLES CHIPIEZ.

ILLUSTRATED WITH FOUR HUNDRED AND SIX ENGRAVINGS, ANDEIGHT STEEL AND COLOURED PLATES.

/JV TWO VOLUMES.~VOL. 11.TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY

I. GONINO.

ILonUon: CHAPMAN A \M) IIAI.I., [jMiiiiITeU) JJork: A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON.

1 890.

[all rights RESRVE1).]


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CONTENTSTHE HITTITES.

NORTHERN SYRIA AND CAPPADOCIA.

CHAPTER I.THE HISTORY AND THE WRITING OF THE HITTITES. PAGE

I. The spread Westward of Oriental Civilization by Overland Routes i4 2. Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria ' . 415 3. The History of the Hittites from Biblical, Egyptian, and AssyrianDocuments 1529 4. The Writing of the Hittites 2936

CHAPTER II.NORTHERN SYRIAEASTERN HITTITES.

I. Boundaries and Character of the Country occupied by the Hittites 3743 2. Architecture 4458 3. Sculpture 5879

CHAPTER III.ASIA MINORWESTERN HITTITES.

I. Boundaries, Climate, and Natural Divisions 80 loi 2. The Pteria of Herodotus loi 105 3. The City of the PteriansCivil and Military Architecture . . 105125 4. The Sanctuary lasili-Kaia 125 153 5. The Palace Eyuk 153178 6. The Necropolis 178182 7. Industrial Arts in Pteria 183 196


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VI Contents.

CHAPTER IV.ARTISTIC MONUMENTS OF THE WESTERN HITTITES. PAGE

I. Plan of Study 197 2. Hittite Monuments in Phrygia 198208 3. Hittite Monuments in Lycaonia 208226 4. Hittite Monuments in Lydia 227239 5. Bronzes and Jewels " 239 243 6. Glyptic Art 244 252

CHAPTER V.General Characteristics of Hittite Civilization .... 253278Additions and Corrections 279283Index .285


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.PLATE.

PAGECappadocia, Pterium (Boghaz-Keui), figured decoration of main chamber . 144

FIG.254. Hittite hieroglyph . g255. Hittite hieroglyph 10256. Hittite inscription at Jerabis u257. ViewofKadesh 19258. LakeofKadesh ^ 21259. Hittite war chariot 25260. King Khitisar 27261. Silver tablet of the treaty ^o262. Boss of Tarkondemos 30263. Comparative table of Hittite and Cypriote characters . . 32264. Passes of the Amanus range , . 38265. Plain of Cilicia 39266. Silver coin of Tarsus 40267. Bronze coin of Tarsus 41268. Old sculptured lion. Merash 43269. Sculptured stones at Sinjerli 47270. Plan of Deunuk-Tach 49271. Massive block in courtyard. Deunuk-Tach 50272. Doorway. Deunuk-Tach 51273. Bronze coin of Tarsus 52274. Doorway. Aseli-Keui 57275. The Merash lion ^9276. Bas-relief. Carchemish 60277. Bas-relief. Carchemish 61278. Royal stela 62279. Hunting scene 65280. Votive stela 67281. Votive stela 68282. Votive stela 69283. Fragment of stela 71284. 285, Syrian sli])])er and boot 73286. Pointed shoe on Cypriote vase 74287, 288, 289. Stamps on clay 7O290. Fragment of bas-relief 77


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viii List of Illustrations.FIG. PAGE291. Mount Tmolus and Plain of Sardes 87292. The town of Amasia (south-west view) 91293. Map of Pteria 106294. View of remains of palace at Boghaz-Keui . . . 109295. Plan of palace 11 1296. Plan of throne 113297. Front view of throne 113298. Side view of throne 113299. Sari-Kale 116300. Principal outer gateway 119301. Perspective view of main gateway 119302. Longitudinal section of main gateway 120303. Lion's head on gateway 120304. Subterraneous passage. Transverse section 121305. Longitudinal section 121306. Entrance to subterraneous passage 121307. Plan of entrance 121308. Restored section of entrance 122309. lasili-Kaia. Perspective view of main court 123310. Plan of lasili-Kaia 127311. Bas-relief in main chamber .128312. Another bas-relief in main chamber. Letter A in plan 129313. Principal decoration of main chamber. E in plan 135314. A bas-relief in main chamber 136315. Picture at the beginning of passage 137316. Second picture at the beginning of passage 137317. Face N in passage 137318. Face P in passage 138319. Figured decoration in passage 139320. Bas-relief in passage 143321. Another bas-relief in passage 145322. General view of mound at Eyuk i^i323. General view of ruins i^^324. Plan of ruins 1^8325. Elevation of ruins i^^326. Longitudinal section . . . . . . jcq327. Sphinx on left hand of doorway 160328. A bas-relief at Eyuk i5i329. Picture of sacred bull 162330. Another sculptured bull 163331. A bas-relief at Eyuk j5.332. Another bas-relief at Eyuk i5c333. A procession scene ; j55334. Bas-relief. Eyuk 167335. Bas-relief. Eyuk . . jQg3^^. Bas-relief. Eyuk .^ .... 169337. Seated goddess. Eyuk iy2338. Bas-relief Eyuk jy3339. Sacrificial bull. Eyuk ly^


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List of Illustrations. ixFIG. I'AGE340. Sculptured lion. Eyuk 174341. Front view of lion. Eyuk 175342. Lion in Dromos. Eyuk i75343. Two-headed eagle. Eyuk 176344. Perspective view of Gherdek Kaiasi i79345. Plan . . '8346. Longitudinal section under the porch 180347. Transverse section 180348. Some Hittite hieroglyphs. lasili-Kaia 192349. Hittite warriors 195350. The Kalaba lion 198351. Plan of Ghiaour-Kalessi 199352. Wall of fortress and figures carved on the rock at Ghiaour-Kalessi . . 203353. Carving at Doghanlou-Deresi . 207354. The Ibreez bas-relief 210355. Silver coin of Tarsus 211356. Monument of Eflatoun-Bounar 215357. Side view of Eflatoun-Bounar 219358. Corner figure of Eflatoun-Bounar 221359. A stela at Iconium 224360. South view of the Karabel Pass, and figure carved on the rock . . . 225361. The Karabel bas-relief after Texier 228362. The same, showing character in front 229363. The second Karabel picture 233364. Hittite characters in the field of the same 233365. The pseudo-Niobe of Mount Sipylus 235366. Inscribed characters in front of the statue 238367. Bronze statuette. Louvre 240368. Bronze statuette. Louvre 242369. Another bronze (sacred bull). Louvre 243370. Golden bracelet of Chaldsean or Hittite origin. Louvre .... 243371. Intaglio with Hittite characters. Layard 244372. Clay seal. Wright, The Empire 245373. Clay seal. Wright, The Empire 245374. Clay seal. Wright, The Empire . . . 245375. Double-sided seal. Wright, 27ie Empire . . . 245376. Faces of intaglio, shown side l)y side 246377. Cylinder, sides of, juxtaposed 247378. Cylinder, sides of, juxtaposed 247379. Cylinder, drawn out 248380. Cylinder, drawn out 248381. Cylinder 249382. Cylinder, drawn out. Louvre 250383. Four-faced cylinder 250384. Its four panels dispkiyed 250385. Cylinder. Louvre 251386. Showing the whole decoration of cylinder 251387. Hittites from Carchemish paying tribute to Shalnianezer (seen on the

extreme right) 259


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List OF Illustrations.I'iG. 1'Ai;e388. Hittite prisoner, from Egyptian monuments 258389. Conical rocks, near Utch Hissar 265390. Decorated stones at Jerabis 279391. Another bas-relief at Jerabis 280392. View of mound at Jerabis 281393. Plan of ruins at Jerabis 282394. Plan of excavations at Jerabis '. . . 282

TAILPIECES.Clay seal with Hittite characters 196Cone with Hittite characters 278Additions and Corrections , . . 279 283Coin of Simon Giaora . 283Jewish Head from figured decoration, representing the surrender of I^akhis

to Sennacherib. British Museum 284Clay seal with Hittite characters 284Clay seal with Hittite characters 284Coin of Ananus 284Phoenician earring. British Museum 284Gold pendant. Louvre 284


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A HISTORY OF ART IN SARDINIAAND JUD^A.THE HITTITES.

NORTHERN SYRIA AND CAPPADOCIA.

CHAPTER I.THE HISTORY AND THE WRITING OF THE HITTITES.

\.Hozu Oriental Civilization spread Westward by OverlandRoutes.

The Phoenicians were not the only people which in remote agesacted as intermediate agents between the East and the West, or,to speak more accurately, between the older civilized races of theEuphrates and the Nile valleys on the one side, and on the otherthe as yet savage tribes of the islands and the countries borderingon the ^gean. The germs of culture deposited in the sisterpeninsulas of Greece and Italy, which were to blossom out withso much vigour, far removed from the hot zones where they hadfirst come to maturity, were not wholly due to the ubiquitous lightcrafts of the SIdonians. The social habits engendered by polishedlife, with the handicrafts, the processes, and the needs they Involved,were likewise propagated by overland routes, wherever theirdiffusion was not arrested by Impassable arid wastes, the ungenlalclimate of denuded uplands and high mountain ranges coveredwith snow during part of the year, as towards the east and north.No such obstacles existed to the westward of Mesopotamia, and

VOL. ir H


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2 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judtea.the north-west of Syria, where from the Euphrates to the foot ofthe Amanus, the land is almost everywhere open to cultivation,and in some places, around Damascus, for instance, it may beranked among the most fertile in the world. These plains were,doubtless, occupied in very early days by pastoral tribes thatfound here abundant grass to graze their flocks, the smallestamount of manual labour ensuring comparative ease, almostwealth, for the overflowing of the rivers and winter rains havedeposited everywhere a layer of rich soil. The Amanus, notwith-standing its steep rocky sides, and even the snowy-peaked Taurus,have at all times been crossed by numerous passes. Beyond thedefiles of the Amanus are not forbidding parallel ranges, as inKurdistan, which must be successively scaled, but the broad plainof Cilicia ; and as soon as the narrow gorges of the Taurus aregot over, plateaux covered with vegetation are seen everywhere,presenting an agreeable contrast with the naked aspect of themoimtains around, dotted here and there with habitations whichtestify to the improved conditions of nature. Valleys, as so manyroads prepared by nature, intersect these gently undulatingplateaux towards the west, yielding easy ascent for the circulatingof man and ideas.Owing to this happy combination of circumstances, a civilizing

stream must ever have flowed from northern Syria to the mouthof the Hermus and the Maeander, a stream which, although remotefrom its head source, had sufficient vitality to cross the -^geanwithout being confounded with its azure waters, causing its shoresto blossom forth wherever they were kissed by its flood. Com-parative philology, archaeology, and numismatics, have enabledmodern historians to remove the landmarks of civilization thou-sands of years further back than was formerly done by the solelight of classic writers. In the early art of Greece, especiallyIonia, where native genius first showed itself, were certain elementswhich it was vaguely felt could not be derived from a Phoeniciansource, and which indicated that other influences had been at workin bringing about this development. The question, who was thepeople that had been instrumental in effecting this progress, wasnot easily answered ; for it was evident that this borrowed art wasmuch older than the Eastern empire, which by the conquest ofPersia, had extended its limits to the Euxine, the Propontis, andthe y^gean. On the other hand, it was well known that the


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How Oriental Civilization spread Westward. 3distance from the great river to the Mseander had never beencrossed by the Chaldees and Assyrians, who, at the time of theirgreatest prosperity, had not ventured beyond the Halys and theTaurus. Trade and its acting influence on the manners and ideasof nationalities were adduced to explain these importations.Caravans, it was urged, had included in the bales which theybrought to Sinope, Miletus, and EphesuSj these peculiar types andplastic forms, which the lonians with their marvellous facility hadused to so splendid a purpose.Trade had no doubt its share in this movement ; but, howeveractive we may imagine it, it will not account for the many-sideddiscoveries upon which the attention and acumen of archaeologistshave been directed of late. The vast plain which stretches fromthe Euphrates to the coast, on which rose the first Ionian citiesknown to the world, cannot be considered as a mere open waste.This is so far from being the case, that the vast region divided bythe Taurus in two unequal parts, everywhere bears traces of inde-pendent and original development. Thus, in the valley of theOrontes, and the central plateau of Asia Minor, are monumentsresembling

in some of their details those of Mesopotamia, yetpreserving a character of their own. This is evidenced in theoutline of their figures, and more particularly in their hieroglyphs,which are distinct from Chaldaean wTiting, and seem to have beenused from the Euphrates to the Hermus and Mseander, whilstwe have positive proof that they were known east and westof the Taurus range, until they were replaced by the Phoenicianalphabet.The dress, weapons, and religious symbols figured on thesebas-reliefs, side by side with inscribed characters, point to ritesand customs as peculiar and distinct as the actual hieroglyphs.We cannot imagine that the people to whom they belong werecontent to act the subordinate part of conveyers and agents duringthe lapse of a thousand years. It is undeniable that certainelements of their art were borrowed from Egypt and Mesopo-tamia, but these they elaborated and transformed to a certainextent by personal efifort, giving them the impress of their ownindividuality.The question that presents itself to the historian, is to knowwhich of the races interposing between Babylon and Miletus maybe credited with sufficient inventive genius, to have led this


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4 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.secondary movement and created the monuments that we proposeto describe and classify in the next chapter. We shall call to ouraid recent discoveries which have thrown floods of light upon thisobscure question, the importance to which, in France at least, hasnot been justly apprehended.

2.Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria.In 1812, the celebrated traveller Burckhardt was in Syria hard

at work learning Arabic, preparatory to visiting Mecca in theguise of a pilgrim. Whilst at Hamath, now Hamah, he noticed astone embedded in the angle of the wall of a house, " with signsand figures which were certainly hieroglyph, but different fromthe Egyptian."^ His work was read at the time by every one whofelt interested in Syria, and wished to know something of her pastand present condition. But, curious enough, nobody seems tohave noticed the words just quoted, and no subsequent explorertried to rediscover the monument. Indeed, so little was knownabout the place that only a few years ago (1865) Murray's Hand-book declared, " There are no antiquities at Hamath." ^

In 1870, Mr. J. Augustus Johnson, Consul-General U.S. atDamascus, and the Rev. S. Jessup, of the Syrian Mission, visitedHamath, and during their short stay heard of the stone seen byBurckhardt, and of other inscriptions of the same nature. Theirattempt to obtain a copy was frustrated by the fanaticism of thenatives, which is perhaps nowhere so rampant as in this part ofSyria, and which obliged them to desist. The consul dared notrepeat the experiment, and was fain to be content with such copiesas could be obtained from a " native artist," as he somewhat pom-pously styles him, and these he forthwith despatched to Damas-cus. The following year (July, 1871), he published a fac-simile ofone of the inscriptionsthat seen by Burckhardtin the FirstStatement of the Palestine Exploration Society. The copy,though imperfect, did much to awaken public interest to the in-scriptions, and had the happy effect of stimulating others, whopresently succeeded.

In 1871, the English Palestine Exploration Society sent out Mr.^ Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, p. 164.^ Handbookf07' Syria, torn. ii. p. 588, 1868.


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Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria.Tyrwhitt Drake, the joint author of Unexplored Syria, as theirrepresentative, with instructions to make copies of the stones.His perfect knowledge of the country and of the Arabs was in-valuable in dealing with them. After a good deal of manoeuvring,he contrived to take a photograph and copy of the most importanttext ; but it soon became known, and the other stones had to beabandoned, for fear of a general uproar. Captain Burton, thenBritish consul at Damascus, also visited Hamath. He managedto see all the monuments, noting carefully their position and size ;but he too was obliged to be content with copies made by aGreek, Kostantin-el-Khuri by name. These he published, in tensheets, in Unexplored Syria, at the same time warning the publicthat, in places, '' the imagination of the * painter ' had run wildwith him." His attempt to purchase one of the stones was unsuc-cessful, owing to the greed of the owner of the house in which thestone was embedded, who began by asking a hundred napoleons.Further negotiations led to no better result, for Levantine dealersbegan to barter for the monuments, in the hope of selling them inEurope at enormous profit. Fears began to be entertained lestthese stones, which had lain forgotten and been held of no accountfor so many ages, but which had suddenly acquired a fabulousvalue and importance in the eyes of the natives, since they hadseen them coveted by those who were supposed to know, shouldshare the fate of the Moabite tablet. Nor were these apprehen-sions ill-founded, for in 1872 Messrs. Smith and Drake, in theirvisit to Aleppo, lit upon a basalt slab similarly engraved, of whichthey made an indifferent copy ; the following year, wishing toobtain a proper cast, they discovered that the stone had beenbroken up by the natives. At this juncture, an opportunity, whichwas promptly accepted, offered itself to Dr. W. Wright, of theEnglish Mission at Damascus, to visit Hamath. The results ofthis expedition were presently published in book form, entitledThe Empii^e of the Hittites, from which we shall freely borrow inthe sequel of these pages. ^

During his residence at Damascus he had become acquaintedwith the Governor-General of Syria, a post then filled by SubhiPasha, of Greek extraction, a man of rare intelligence and integrity.

^ Second edition, Nisbct and Co., 1886, i vol. in 8vo, xxxiii.-246 pages, and 26plates ; with decipherment of Hittite inscriptions by Professor Sayce, a map by SirC. Wilson, and a complete set of Hittite inscriptions revised by Mr. W. H. Rylands.


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6 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.His fine collection of coins and engraved gemssubsequently-sold to Englandhad made him known to Western scholars, withsome of whom he was in correspondence. He at once recognizedthe importance of the inscribed stones, and, unwilling that hiscountry should be deprived of them, he telegraphed to the Sultanto have them securely deposited in the museum at Constantinople.The Waly's offer to Dr. Wright to accompany him on a journeyof inspection included Mr. W. Kirby Green, British consul atDamascus. Hamath stood on the list of places that were to bevfsited. Here the two Europeans lost no time in discovering thelocality of the inscribed stones. They next persuaded the pashato have them taken to the seraigovernor's palacethat theymight have leisure to take good casts of them undisturbed.The removal of these peculiar monuments produced a great com-motion among the green and white turbans of the place. Thenext day, a deputation, consisting of all the more influential membersof the Moslem community, waited on the Waly to urge a restora-tion of the stones. The account of this interview and the finaldiscomfiture of the ulemas should be read in Dr. Wright's graphicnarrative, where he recounts by what skilful managementa com-bination of good-humour and firm policySubhi Pasha not onlysucceeded in quelling the disturbance, but sent away the deputationsatisfied and comforted.The Hamah stones, five in number,^ are far away the most

important monuments of this class that have as yet been dis-covered. Messrs. Wright and Green, to guard against accidents,of frequent occurrence among Turkish officials, took two sets ofcasts in plaster of Paris ; one was sent to the Government for thePritish Museum and the other to the Palestine Fund, where every-body may study them, their excellence making them as good asthe actual originals.^The copy that had been made of the Aleppo inscription, althoughvery imperfect, served to prove that similar characters were notconfined to Hamath, but were to be found in other parts of thecountry.^ Soon after (1874 and 1875), Mr. Skene, British consul

^ See Salomon Reinach, Catalogue du Musee Imperial [Constantinople] d'Anti-quttes, p. 83, 1882.^ The Plates I-V., " Hamath Inscriptions," in Dr. Wright's book, were repro-duced from the casts sent to England.^ These copies were reproduced in Plates V., VI., VII., in Dr. Wright's Empire.


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Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria. 7at Aleppo, and George Smith, in the same year, visited some ruinson the right bank of the Euphrates, marked in the map about sixhours below the village of Birejik, which they identified as beingthe site of ancient Garga-mish, Carchemish, so often figured onEgyptian and Assyrian monuments as commanding the minorstream of the great river. The ruins had been described byMaundrell and Pococke and noticed by other travellers, but noneof them had suspected that the tell, '* mound," called by the ArabsKala'at Jerablus, covered the remains of the ancient capital ofthe Hittites. Some authorities derive Jerablus, or Jerabis, fromHierapolis, ''holy city," and Kala'at, Kala'ah, ''fortress," "high."Curious to

say,this is the exact meaning it bears with the Arabs.

^

A temple to Ashtoreth stood here during the Roman sway,described by Lucian as one of the finest and most frequented inthis part of the world. Hierapolis rose on the ruins of the oldercity, destroyed by the Assyrians, and, like its predecessor, acquiredgreat importance and became a flourishing place under the Seleu-cidse. Here Mr. Skene and George Smith, at a short intervalfrom each other, were shown fragments of the ancient wall of thecitadel, still commanding an elevation of more than thirty metresabove the bed of the river, with several well-cut shafts of columnsand large blocks of basalt, where, side by side with sculptureswhich recalled those of Assyria, were inscriptions akin to those atHamath. In his third and fatal journey, George Smith wrotefrom Jerablus to the trustees of the British Museum, pointing outthe importance of properly exploring the site. They immediatelyprocured a firman from Constantinople, empowering him to beginexcavations at once ; but it never reached him, for he died offever in a few days at Aleppo, where he had gone to wait for it.Mr. Skene had been transferred to some other post, hence hissuccessor, Mr. Henderson, was entrusted to conduct the diggings.The " finds " were duly despatched to the British Museum, whereI saw them in 1880; those that were too heavy for transport orof minor interest were left behind.^

Simultaneously with the discoveries at Jerabis, attention wasdrawn to another monument, first copied by Major Fisher, andMt is possible that during the Roman rule there was here a stronghold to pro-

tect the great Syrian temple and keep in check the Parthians, and afterwards theSassanides, who occupied the country east of the river.

They are figured in The Empire of the Hittites, Plates VIII. and XIII.


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8 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/EA.subsequently by the Rev. E. J. Davis, from whose drawing aplate was published in 1876 in the Transactions of the Biblicaland Archceological Society. It was found at Ibreez, or Ibris, inancient Lycaonia, near Kuleth Boghaz, the Cilician gates ofclassic times. The bas-relief, rock-cut, consists of two figures, aking, or god, and his worshipper, with hieroglyphs, many of whichwere identical with those on the Hamath, Aleppo, and Jerabisstones.^ This monument is interesting, inasmuch as it showsthat the peculiar system of characters first noticed at Hamathextended over a far greater area than had at first been supposed ;traces being found throughout central Asia Minor, and about themouth of rivers that carry their waters to the ^gean. Otherrock-cut sculptures were noticed at Boghaz Keui, in the uplandsformerly known as Pteria, and at Eyuk, both east of the Halys ;whilst near Smyrna the " Nymphi warrior, the pseudo Sesostris,and the so-called Niobe," had been described. In 1882, a Germanmission, headed by Dr. Puchstein, visited the vast tract that liesbetween the Euphrates and the Pyramus. They discoveredmonuments with figures of the type always seen side by side withhieroglyphs that have been called Hamathite ; but from the verymeagre- official report that was issued, we cannot determine theirreal character.^ Recently too at Merash, ancient Germanicia, onthe Pyramus in Cilicia, a lion was found built in the wall of acastle, entirely covered with characters resembling those atHamath and Aleppo.^These signs were not only used in monumental inscriptions onthe mountain side, or on the massive foundations of temples andpalaces, but were likewise introduced in political and commercialtransactions ; with this difference, that the type became smallerand more cursive, as may be ascertained in all public collectionswhere numerous clay seals or casts are preserved. Hundreds ofsimilar seals were found by Sir H. Layard in the archive room ofSennacherib's palace at Kujunjik;* and others are also reportedfrom Asia Minor.^ Finally, Sorlin-Dorigny presented cylinders to

1 Loc. cit, Plates XXVI., XXVII , p. 162.2 Berichie uber eine Ruse im Kurdistan. Otto Puchstein {Sitzungsberichte der

Academie, Berlin, 1882, p. 845, and following).^ This lion is now in the museum at Constantinople.Editor.^ Wright, The Empire.^ We have published a whole series in the Revue Archeo/ogique, tom. xliv. p. 333,under the title, " Sceaux Hittites en terre cuite appartenant a M. G. Schlumbero-er."


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Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria. 9the Louvre of peculiar make, wherein ideographs and figuresrecall those at Hamath.Our space forbids giving more than a few specimens of these

inscriptions, but those who should wish to study the whole serieswill find them in the Transactions of the Biblical and Archceo-logical Society, where they have been admirably reproduced, withnotes by the secretary, Mr. Rylands. The woodcuts published in

Fig. 254.Hittite Hieroglyph. Actual size. St. Elme Gautier.

Dr. Wright's work were copied from these, thus completing andsupplementing the letterpress. A primary fact to be deduced inregard to these ideographs, signs, and figures, is that they wereof native invention, different from Egyptian hieratic writing, andin many instances with a physiognomy of their own. As far backas Rosellini,^ and, after him, all the Egyptologists who visited theThey were drawn by Mr. Rylands for the Biblical and Archaeological Society, andreproduced by Mr. Wright, Plates XVI., XVII.

* Rosellini's view is quoted by Kiepcrt in his paper ujjon the Nymphi monument,tom. i., Archcuologische Zeitung, pp. 33, and following. Consult also Maspero,Histoire Anciemie des Peuples a Orient^ 4' edit. p. 247.


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lO A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.pseudo Sesostris/ on examination of the characters carved in reliefbetween the head and the spear, which at one time were supposedto be a royal cartouche, were unanimous in declaring them unlikethe hieroglyphs of Egypt. To-day, when inscribed monuments ofthis class abound, affording ample scope from which their distinctmanipulation and outline can be traced, it is hard to realize thatthey should ever have been confounded with Egyptian writing,which is decidedly finer and more realistic than the ruder Hama-thite characters. The hieroglyphs which are now generally called" Hittite," whether in Northern Syria or Asia Minor, with twoexceptions, are carved in relief; a disposition which has only beennoticed in the oldest known Egyptian monuments. What is arare occurrence at Memphis, forms the rule at Carchemish,

Kadesh, Eyuk, andBoghaz-Keui. Onlooking at them, wefeel that they weretraced by a sturdyrace more accus-tomed to handle thespear than the pointof the graver, andthat when theycarved these charac-ters they were stillat the stage whenart had not beenconventionalized bylong practice, andthat time was notgiven them to pro-gress beyond a real-istic rendering ofnature. Hence some

of these images, despite awkward manipulation, bear a lifelike^ Herodotus, ii. io6. We published an article as far back as 1866, to demonstrate

that the rock-cut figure in the Karabel Pass was not of Assyrian nor yet of Egyptianorigin, but the result of an art peculiar to Asia Minor (" Le Bas-relief de Nymphi,d'apr^s de nouveaux renseignements," Revue Archeologique^ torn. xiii.). This articlewas reproduced in our Mmoires d'Archeologie^ d'Epigraphie et dJIistoire, in 8.Didier, 1875.

Fig. 255.Hittite hierqglyph, Actual size, St- Elme Gautier,


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Recent Discoveries in Northern Syria. 13resemblance to the objects they represent, such as is neverseen on the monuments of Egypt. Note, for instance, the twoconies, figured among a number of other characters to the rightof the Merash Hon (Figs. 254, 255).^ Could anything be con-ceived more truthful than the action of the two timid creatures,which seem to have been surprised by a sportsman ; one hasalready taken to flight, whilst the other is preparing to followits companion. We could almost imagine that the artist hadchalked them down as he came upon them by the woodside.This faithful portraiture applies to the human form as well asthe heads of animals ; the former is generally placed at thecommencement of the inscription, with one arm raised to hismouth, as if to emphasize his words, or prepare us for what is tofollow. Rough though the art may be, it is so instinct with truthand sincerity, that we are never puzzled as to the intention of theartist (Fig. 256). These inscriptions, about four inches apart, arecarved within horizontal lines, also in relief, except where only twoor three signs occur. Some occupy the whole division, whilst thesmaller are ranged in two or more rows, so as to fill up the wholespace. This arrangement, irregular in detail, produces uniformityof outline, and is more satisfactory to the eye than the haphazarddisposition of Egyptian hieroglyphs.As scholars began to transcribe and collate these texts, foundon so many points widely apart from each other, they naturallyinquired who were the people that had traced these mysteriouscharacters. As so often happens, when a problem of unusualinterest engages the attention of the learned, persons in differentparts of the globe came almost simultaneously to the same con-clusion. To Professor Sayce, however, must be assigned themerit of having perceived it plainly and clearly from the outset,and of having invested the subject with an amount of verisimilitudeas to be almost equivalent to certainty.^ Archibald H. Sayce,

^ Our attention was called to a cast of this charming monument in the Trocad^ro,from which our draughtsman, through the kindness of Dr. Hamy, made the spiriteddrawing of the woodcuts (Figs. 254, 255).

^ On the bearing of Professor Sayce's works, see our article in the Reime dcs DeuxMondeSy 15 Juillet, 1886, entitled " Une Civilisation Retrouvee. Les H^tdens,leur dcriture, et Icnr art." The Principles of Cofupar.itivc Philology^ more than anyother of Professor Sayce's works, hcl|)ed to make his name known on the Continent.It has been translated into French by F>nest Jovy, with a preface by Michel Ureal,in-i2, 1884, Delagrave. It was owing to this work that he was nominated Assistant-Professor to the Orien'al Chair, illuslnilcd by Max Miillcr. Professor Sayce is the


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14 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.M.A., Fellow of Queen's, Deputy-Professor of Comparative Philo-logy of All Souls, Oxford, stands in the foremost rank among theprogressive men of our time. To the wide range of inquiry whichrecent discoveries have added to the domain of science, he bringsa mind singularly receptive, and of Attic rather than Anglo-Saxonvivacity. The origin and decipherment of the inscribed charactersin Northern Syria and Asia Minor seem to have had peculiarfascination for him. For nearly a decade, he has done more, withhis ready pen, than any other man, to. substantiate and popularizethe theory which identifies the Kheta (Hittites), with theseideographs. Their name is of as frequent occurrence in the epicof the Theban poet, Pentaur, as Ramses, the hero he celebrates :the beloved of Ammon, whose fabulous courage and invincibilityfar outweigh those of the Homeric champion.^author of a work on Siemitic philology ; and at one time ran a pretty close race onthe study of Assyriology with our lamented Stanislas Guyard. At first, he was solelyconcerned in trying to decipher the obscure language represented by the cuneiforminscriptions. He soon enlarged the circle of his researches at Van, in Armenia, butduring his frequent visits to the East, whither he was obliged to repair for the sakeof his health, he has followed with keen interest all the explorations that have beenmade during the last fifteen years in Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Argolid, andother localities in Greecei The results of his investigations have appeared innumerous articles published by learned societies and leading English reviews. Thechief of his pubhcations are: "A Forgotten Empire in Asia Minor" (Frase/sMagazine* August, 1888); ''The Monuments of the Hittites," with capital map,plates, and figures {Bibl. and Archct. Soc, vol. vii. pp. 248-293); "The BilingualHittite and Cuneiform Inscription of Tarkondemos," with plate, loc. cit., pp. 294-308.The Proceedings of the Biblical and Archceological Society contain sundry notesfrom his pen, brimful of facts and ideas, which, eVen When we cannot endorse them,are always suggestive. The result of his journeys and researches were publishedin 1883, under the title, The Ancient Empires of the East. Herodotus /, III., withnotes, introductions, and appendices, in 8, London, Macmillan. In his introduction,he seems to us to do scant justice to the father of history ; the best part of the work,however, is an appendix, which, besides chronological tables, contains a substantialand brilliant resume of the history of Eastern empires brought up to date.

^ Long extracts from Pentaur's poem will be found in MM. Maspero andLenormant's Ancient Histories. In this part of our work we have adopted M.Maspero's transcriptions of names of peoples and cities. Literal translations ofPentaur's poem may be seen in Records of the Past, ii. 61; and in Brugsch's,Egypt under the Pharaohs, ii. 56*

* Eraser's Magazine ceased to exist in 1888, and its successor, Longman's, hasno such paper during that year.Editor.


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The History of the Hittites. 15

3. The History of the Hittites from Biblical^ Egyptian^ andAssyrian Documents.

The recitals of battles and the bulletins of victories which maybe seen on the walls of Theban temples and the palaces at Nineveh,Avere the instances that led us to infer the place which the warlikerace variously called Kheta, Khati, and Khatti, whose history weare about to summarise, had occupied for centuries in the Easternworld, so far at least as translations made by Egyptologists andAssyriologists of the various texts will enable us to reconstitute it.But long before these had been deciphered we read their namein the Old Testament, where they appear as Hitti, pi, Hittim ;Bene-Heth, son of Heth ; whilst in the Septuagint we find thevariants Xer, IL^TTiVy XeTfirj, Xeratoii whence the French Hdtdens.The initial letter is the Hebrew n, ch, always pronounced with anaspirate guttural sound, and the double r is a strong terminaldental. These, it will be seen, are the same, whether we find themin Hebrew texts, Egyptian or Assyrian inscriptions. The vowels,it is well known, have but a relative importance in those languages,and were seldom noted in writing ; hence some degree of un-certainty must always exist as to their full value.The power of the Hittites was already on the wane when theHebrews crossed the Jordan. They had ceased to occupyadvanced outposts in the south, and had concentrated their forcestowards northern Syria, where their cities were far beyond thefarthest limits ever attained by the Israelites under David andSolomon to render a conflict between the two races possible.Hence it is, that in the Bible their name occurs as though fromhearsay rather than personal knowledge. But, however meagreour information from this source may be, it coincides in a marvel-lous manner with Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions. Aidedby these, mere biblical allusions become rich in suggestive mean-ing, and enable us to read aright many a passage that had beenobscure and a dead letter in reference to the Hittites, who at onetime made their influence felt almost over the whole of Syria.Thus, in Genesis (x. 15, 16), they head the list of the sons ofCanaan, coming immediately after Sidon. When Abraham came toHebron as a wanderer, he found the Hittites among the settledand peaceful inhabitants of the country ; clearly evidenced by the


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t6 a History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.purchase of the field with the cave of Machpelah (Gen. xxili. 3-18 ;XXV. 9). Again, after the death of Moses, the Lord spake toJoshua to assure Him of the fulfilment of His promise, saying:" From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the greatriver [Euphrates] all the land of the Hittites, and unto the greatsea [Mediterranean] towards the going down of the sun, shallbe yours" (i. 4). When the spies sent to reconnoitre the landreturn to Moses, they describe the Hittites, together with theAmorites and the Jebusites, as '' dwelling in the mountains " [Numb.xiii. 29, 30). A little later, when the Hebrews had crossed Jordan,they figure among the Canaanite tribes banded together to opposethe invaders (Josh. ix. i).^ About this time, the growing power ofEgypt, under the Theban dynasty, obliged the Hittites to fall backnorthwards ; but under the degenerated Pharaohs of this race,Upper Egypt fell, whilst Lower Egypt rose in wealth and in im-portance with the new kings of Tanis and Bubastis. The rivalparties were too busy at home striving for mastery to think offoreign conquests. During these years the Hebrews had graduallydefeated the Canaanites, and gained possession of a large part ofthe country. Under David and Solomon they made their power feltfrom the Great River to the Nile, and such of the Hittites as hadremained in the country were reduced to a servile condition, forwe find them among the press-gangs employed in the building ofthe temple, together with the Amorites, the Jebusites, the Hivites,and the Perizzites, whom the Israelites had failed to destroy.^

After that time, no more reference is made in Hebrew writers toHittites lingering in the Land of Promise. On the other hand,there are allusions to independent tribes occupying the countryeast and west of the Orontes, which can have been no other thanHittites. Evidence of their friendly relations with the Jewishempire may still be traced ; some of their princes owned allegianceand were among David's vassals.^ Solomon numbered among his

^ Under the early Judges the Hittites are enumerated with the other Canaanitetribes amidst which the Israelites found a footing {Judg. iii. 5).

^ Reference to these tribes is indeed found in Ezek. xvi. 3, where the prophetrebukes Jerusalem for her pride : "Thus says the Lord unto Jerusalem, Thy birthand thy nativity is of the land of Canaan ; thy father was an Amorite, and thymother an Hittite." But all the passage proves is that the names of Amorite andHittite were still used as terms of reproach, synonymous with heathen in generalparlance.

^ This is deducible from a passage in 2 Sam. xxiv. 5-7, relating to the missionentrusted to Joab and his staff to number the people of Israel. " And when they


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The History of the Hittites. 17foreign wives daughters of the Hittites, Moabites, Ammonites,Edomites, and Sidonians (i Kings xi. i). He brought up horsesand chariots out of Egypt for the kings of the Hittites and thoseof the city of Aram (i Kings v. 29). We read that the Syrianswhilst besieging Samaria fled panic-stricken, because the Lordcaused the noise of chariots and horses to be heard in their camp(2 Kings vii. 6). The inference to be deduced from this passageis that their might, Hke that of Egypt, lay in the number of theirchariots, coinciding with what we know of them from Assyrianand Egyptian monuments, where they are represented fightingfrom cars. To Egyptian and Assyrian paintings and sculptureswe are indebted for our main information concerning the Hittites ;whom Jewish writers only mention in ignorant wonder, as ofshadows vaguely perceived in the blueish distance of an almostboundless horizon.The Kheta first appear in the history of Egypt under Manetho

I. (eighteenth dynasty); from that date until Ramses HI. theyconstantly figure on the mural paintings along with the Khar andthe Ruten. At the outset, they are scarcely distinguished from otherSyrian tribes ; but a little later, they are described as a warlike,powerful racesometimes indeed as the " vile enemy from Kadesh"fiercely disputing the possession of Syria with the Egyptians.The name of this place was first brought into notice by the laboursof Champollion. In the great battlefield pictures of Egypt, Kadeshis represented as a fortress situated south of Hamath on Orontes,surrounded on all sides by water, so as to form an island, twobridges and causeways connecting it with the mainland. A doublewall encircled it, between which was a deep ditch or channel fedby the river. ^

passed over Jordan, they pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth inthe midst of the river of Gad, and towards Jazer : then they came to Gilead, andto the land of Tahtim-Hodshi," or Hodsi. Tahtim-Hodshi has not been identified, butthe Abb' Vigoureux is of opinion that the proper reading may be restored from somemanuscripts of the Seventy, where we read : koX y)kBov eis FaXaaS koX cis yr/u Xctrrt/itXaSy^s : " And they came to Gilead and to the land of the Hittites of Kadesh." TheHebrew text has Hahitim, not Tahtim ; the slight difference between the than andthe /^^ causes them to be frequently confused in the manuscripts {Les Hctccns de laBible dans la Revue des Questions Historiques^ torn. xxxi. pp. 58-120).^ This may be inferred from the picture in the temple of Ipsamboul, which por-trays the battle fought by Ramses (Roskllini, Monumenti Sforici, Thite CX. ;Lepsius, Denkmceler, Pt HI., Plate CLXIV.). There can be no doubt about theidentification of this city, for its name, " Kadesh,'' is carved on the wall. This detail,

VOL. II. c


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1 8 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jvdala.The sculptures and paintings at Thebes and Ipsamboul, record-

ing the battles fought by Ramses II. around Kadesh, show theOrontes in the upper compartment. It surrounds the walls of thefortress on three sides, widening out at one point, the outflow beingto the right of the picture (Fig. 257).Kadesh has disappeared without leaving a trace, its very sitebeing a matter of dispute. It was rebuilt about two hours fromthe river by the Greeks, who gave it the name of Emesa, nowHoms, but the lake formed by a dam at its north end still exists,and on its banks must be sought the remains of the Hittite citadel.The American traveller, Robinson, was the first who noticed thislake, the excavation of which local tradition ascribes to Alexanderthe Great, and which in Egyptian sculptures, commemorating thisgreat battle, is represented as close to the fortress. Owing to thepersistency of popular custom, not unusual in the East, the oldname of Kadesh, now Kades, still survives in the lake which wasonce its chief defence. The island, topped by a tell, or mound, isto the south,^ and, were it explored, would doubtless disclose thewalls so often stormed by the Egyptians. Conder, on the contrary,would recognize Tell Neby Mendeh as the site of Kadesh, which,though much shrunk from its former size, has still an elevation of60 m , and is situated 5500 m. south of the lake (Fig. 258).^ Theomitted in Rosellini, is reproduced in Lepsius' drawing, which we have copied in ourwoodcut taken from RoselUni's admirable sketch.

^ Major Conder mentions the island now called Tell-el-Baheirah, and the lakemound.^ Il?iW., Quarterly Statements, Palestine Exploration Fund^ pp. 163-175, 1881 ;Heth and Moab, chap. i. I can scarcely conceive how he can refuse to acknowledge

that the " widening of the river " under the walls of Kadesh looks for all the worldlike a lake. Excavations he thinks would be productive of the happiest results, theground around Neby Mendeh being strewn with pottery and chips that fell fromslabs cut out of calcareous stone and basalt. The natives, he states, apply the nameof Kades to foundation walls, which may be seen on the southern slope of the tellon a level with the ground, whilst they restrict the name of Neby Mendeh to itssummit, occupied by a mosque. Mr. Tomkins, in the Quarterly Statements, p. 47,1882, combats this view, and places Kadesh in the centre of the lake, about half amile each way from the mainland.The conclusion reached by M. Ary Renan, who visited Northern Syria in 1886,with regard to the moot site of ancient Kades, is in accord with Major Conder'shypothesis. He argues that the islet identified by Robinson as covering the ruinsof Kadesh is so small as to have scarcely yielded sufficient space for a tower,excluding therefore the possibility of having been the site of an important place,such as the capital of the Hittites must have been; moreover, no accumulation ofdebris is to be seen on its narrow surface, such as we should expect around a great


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I'lc. 257.Vitw of Katlcsh, Aficr Egyptinn luunumcMits.


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The History of the Hittites. 21natives, according to Robinson, do not apparently know the reasonwhy the lake Is called Kades. Whatever may be the truth, thequestion Is one easy of solution, for the two sites are very little wayfrom each other. We 51-50 East of Fan's

Nauke7rcK

pe*

ZeToli

14*I0- East of Greenwich 54*25

know now that Robin-son was not misled bymispronunciation or asound imperfectly heard.Before him, Abul Fedahhad mentioned the lake,which he calls Kedes,and which he consideredowed Its existence tothe hand of man.^Thothmes III. Is the

first Pharaoh whose lineof march is known tous, but the route fol-lowed by the Egyptianarmies for five hundredyears, from Thothmes I.,must always have beenalong the coast held bythe Phoenicians and thePhilistines. At Megiddo, Thothmes III. encountered the Kingof Kadesh and with him all the Syrian tribes, including thePhoenicians. The allies were defeated, and, leaving their chariots,took refuge within the walls of the city, unhindered by the enemy,centre. On the other hand, the Tell Neby Mendeh fulfils the conditions requisitein a fortified place. It rises about 6o m. above the level of the surroundingplain, and its base is sufficiently large to support the village on its slopes. Itcould be easily surrounded by water, for it is comprised in an angle formed bythe Orontes and an arm on its right bank which joins the river a little below. Thelow ground around the hill is soft and marshy, and a dam would turn it in no timeinto a lake. Thus was obtained the Lake Homs, which is nothing but a shallowsheet of water, and probably not so old as recounted by local tradition, if we areto rely on a passage of the Talmud, cited by Ncubaur, which runs thus : " Whyshould not the waters of Hems be numbered among the seas ? Because they weredue to the union of several rivers by the Emperor Diocletian" {Geography of theTalmudy p. 24).

* Upon Upper Syria, consult the Mtmoircs of I'Abb^ Vigoureux, from which wehave freely borrowed.

Fig. 258.Lake of Kadesh. After Conder.


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2 2 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judjea.intent upon the rich plunder. Pharaoh tried to storm the place,but lack of war-engines obliged him to raise the siege andgraciously to pardon the kings, soothing his pride with layingwaste the country that lay before him. The effect of each succes-sive expedition was to drive the confederates further north. Inhis sixth campaign, some years later, the Egyptian Pharaoh seemsto have found no resistance in his onward progress until hereached Kadesh, behind whose walls a small remnant that hadnot lost all discipline were entrenched. Here they hoped to keepthe Egyptians at bay, but the place had to surrender before thereinforcements which they expected enabled them to accept battle.The allies were dispersed, and the Egyptians, flushed with theirvictory and loaded with spoils, easily captured Hamath, Aleppo,Patina, and Batnse, whence only a short march divided them fromCarchemish on the Euphrates.A tombal inscription, put up to one of the generals that fell inthis siege, records, m^er alia, the stratagems resorted to by thebesieged to retard the fall of the city into the hands of the enemy.The Hittites figure among those that were obliged to pay tribute,consisting of precious stones, gold, silver, cattle, chariots, and evenmen, native and negro, who were sold as slaves or enlisted in theEgyptian ranks.

Syria enjoyed a respite during the last Pharaohs of this dynasty.Ramses I., founder of the nineteenth dynasty, again led his forcesacross the isthmus, when, doubtless to ensure possession of thesouthern provinces, he concluded a defensive and offensive treatywith Sapalil, king of the Hittites, on equal terms. It was brokenby the latter, and hostilities began afresh under Seti, successorof Ramses. The chief episodes of this campaign are carved in thegreat hall at Karnac. Seti is represented with long processions ofthe tribes he has subdued ; the Hittite warriors, generally three inone chariot, are distinguished by lighter complexions from theirswarthy Semite confederates. That no mistake, however, shouldoccur as to their identity, the sculptor was careful to write, " Thisis the perverse race of the Kheta, whom the king has destroyed."But such official boasting and contemptuous epithets, applied tothe Hittites, were scarcely borne out by actual events. Seti wasobliged to enter into an alliance with Maura-Sira, son and successorof Sapalil, which was maintained during the life of the former.The Hittites were now at the height of their power ; their influence


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The History of the Hittites. 23was felt over the whole of the neighbouring populations ; they occu-pied the Naharaim, 'Mand of the two rivers" (the Orontes andEuphrates), and formed an almost impassable barrier against thePharaohs on their line of march against Mesopotamia. From thisdate, the frontiers of Egypt, even under the most warlike princes^did not extend beyond Orontes, Palestine, and Phoenicia. In theirformer conflicts with Egypt, the Hittites could only reckon on thesupport of adjoining tribes; but in the time of Ramses H., theywere able to summon to their help the Masu or Mysians, the Dar-dani of the Troad, with their towns, Iluna or Ilion, and Pidasa orPidasus, as well as the Lycians or Leka, the Carians or Akerit,and the Colchians ; in a word, Phoenicia, Syria, Asia Minor andChaldaea, were brought together to oppose, and certainly in thehope to plunder, the mighty host of the Egyptians. If theKheta were able to show so bold a front, it was no doubt dueto the fact that they had used the opportunities afforded themduring the long intervals of peace to consolidate their power inAsia Minor. It is uncertain, however, whether we are to considerthese auxiliaries as vassals of Kheta-Sira, the new king of Kadesh,or tribes, many of whom may have been bound to the chief com-mander by no stronger tie than the hope of plunder, caring littleto quit themselves as soldiers, so that they carried away goodlyspoils. This supposition would account for the Hittites havingbeen so easily routed, the actual number that stood the brunt of apitched battle having, in all probability, always been very small.Even allowing for Egyptian exaggeration, to increase the impor-tance of the victory, there is reason to suppose that the allied forcesfar outnumbered those of their opponents. One of the confederatesalone was able to bring into the field 18,000 men, that fought inregular ranks, and 2500 war chariots fell to the Egyptians. Theadvantages of undivided counsels and better discipline told infavour of Ramses. At first, the odds were against the youngPharaoh, who with but a small following had marched far inadvance of his army, when he was surrounded and had almostfallen into the hands of the Kheta. In his distress, he called uponhis father, Amu-Ra, reminding him of the temples he had built inhis honour, of the altars ever a-smoke with the fat of victims,beseeching him to deliver him from the vile Kheta. Amu-Ra heardhis prayer, and sent astray the darts of the enemy, ue. he wasjoined by his army, and the Syrians were obliged to fall back, whilst


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24 A History of Art in Sardinia and ]\jdjea.the second day their Hnes were forced at all points and completelybroken. The account of the tnore than heroic courage displayedby Ramses on this occasion must be received with a large grain ofsalt or rather salinus. He is represented rushing single-handedamong the serrated ranks of the Kheta, and to have hewn themdown : *' I was alone," he declares ; '* none of you stood by me whenI was surrounded by thousands of chariots; but, with the help ofAmmon, I destroyed them all " (Fig. 259).Then Kheta-Sira, after twenty years of struggle with Ramses,concluded a treaty of peace upon equal terms with the Egyptianking. A marriage with the daughter of the Hittite prince contri-buted no doubt to the maintenance of friendship between the twonations, Kheta-Sira soon after conducting his daughter to Egypt,to be present at the celebration of her marriage, w^hich took placein the thirty-fourth year of Ramses' reign (Fig. 260). Theastonishment of the population at the strange dress and differentcast of countenance of the Kheta gave way to feelings of gratitudewhen they beheld their late bitter foe turned into a friend andstaunch ally of their monarch. The treaty was maintained byhis successor, Menephtah H. ; but his feeble successors were obligedto relinquish Syria, or at least only to retain the southern provinces.A stela, recording the alliance entered into between Ramses andKheta-Sira, was discovered by ChampoUion on the outer wall ofthe temple at Karnac. From it we learnalbeit some lines havedisappearedthat the treaty was offensive and defensive, it pro-vided for the extradition of criminals and deserters, and may beconsidered as the earliest diplomatic document that has come downto us.^The natural boundaries of Egypt, which keep her separated

from the rest of the world, cannot but have had a large sharein moulding the character of her inhabitants, which were assharply divided by castes as though oceans and sandy wastes hadinterposed, rendering them little prone to stretch out the hand offellowship or to assimilate with aliens. Hence it came to passthat the hold of Egypt upon Syria was precarious and loose atbest ; for the moment the back of the conqueror was turned the

1 A translation of this treaty by De Rouge may be read in Egger's work entitled,Etudes historiques sur les traites publics chez les Grecs et les Ro??iains, pp. 243-252,1886, in-8. See also JKecords of the Past, vol. iv. p. 27, containing a translation byMr. Goodwin.Editor.


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i

oIU

I


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The History of the Hittites. 27storm-bell was sounded, and the whole country rose up in arms, asit did in our times against Mehemet AH and Ibrahim Pasha.A new confederacy was formed, consisting chiefly of tribes fromAsia Minor, of which the Kheta, from some unexplained reason,had not the leadership. As usual, all were eager for plunder, andthey advanced as far as Pelusa on the very borders of Egypt, whereRamses III., the last great Pharaoh, awaited them. Once againsuperior discipline and organiza-tion triumphed over mere bar-barous numbers ; the invadinghordes were repulsed, and Ramsesentered Syria as a conqueror.But, threatened at home by arising on the Libyan frontier, hewas obliged to renounce the fruitof his victory and his intendedmarch upon Kadesh, contentinghimself with the allegiance ofPhoenicia and Philistia. Hence-forth Egypt ceased to concernherself about what might happenbeyond the mountains of Judaea.At first sight, it seems as if thewithdrawal of Egypt from Syriashould have been the Hittites'opportunity ; but whatever desirethey may have had to possessthemselves of the provinces latelyvacated by the Pharaohs waschecked by the growing ascen-dency of Assyria. The balanceof power so long wielded byEgypt had migrated to theregions watered by the two great rivers of Western Asia; andthe first place to be attacked was undoubtedly Carchemish onthe Euphrates, where the river is fordable during the best partof the year. It was not to be expected that the kings of Kalahand Nineveh would neglect to occupy a point that offered so manyadvantages. In fact, Tiglath-Pileser, towards the end of the twelfthcentury a.c, moved through the upper part of Syria, and reached

Fig. 260.King Khitisar. Lepsius, DenkmaUttiii., Plate CLXVI.


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28 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.the Mediterranean near Arad. We cannot determine whether hecrossed the river at Carchemish, and consequently stormed theplace ; but we know that his grandson was routed here by theKhetas for attempting it. Then ensued a long interval of peace,which lasted two hundred years ; but towards 877 A.c. they wereagain invaded, by Assur-nat-sirpal, who overran the whole countrywashed by the Orontes and the Euphrates. Either throughselfishness or stupid jealousy of each other, they did not unite inopposing the invaders ; so that whatever chance they might havehad as a body was lost, and Assur-nat-sirpal easily defeated themin detail. Sangara, the king of Carchemish, was compelled toopen the gates of his city and to pay tribute, and Phoenicia,uncovered in her rear, submitted to the conqueror. The provinceswrested by Assur-nat-sirpal were retained by his no less fortunateson, Shalmanezer 1 1. The only opposition which he encounteredwas from Benhadad, the able ruler of Damascus, who hadgathered around him Samaritans, Arabs, and Egyptian mercenaries,together with 10,000 foot from Hamath, doubtless Hittites. Herea battle was fought, and, owing to the overwhelming numbers ofthe Assyrians, irretrievably lost (854). A century later, Damascuswas captured, and the population transported to Mesopotamia.The Hittites, however, had lost their former importance longbefore the final overthrow of Damascus. The '' abasement ofGreat Hamath" is alluded to in Jewish writings; and Pisiris, theking of Carchemish, figures in Assyrian inscriptions among thevassals paying tribute. With the death of Tiglath-Pileser andthe advent of Sargon, a mere youth, Pisiris had deemed the momentfavourable for throwing off the yoke under which he groaned, butto no purpose. Carchemish was taken, himself loaded with chainsand removed, with the population, beyond the Euphrates, whilst theold HIttite capital was colonized by Assyrians (717). The fall ofCarchemish is recorded in Isaiah (x. 9, 11), in the following words :''Is not Calno as Carchemish ? Is not Hamath as Arpad } Is notSamaria as Damascus ? . . . Shall I not, as I have done untoSamaria, and her idols," etc. ?

Carchemish did not disappear ; thanks to the natural advantagesof its position, in Semitic hands It again became the centre of tradebetween Eastern and Western Asia, The " mina of Carchemish "was the current money with merchants throughout Asia Minor,and became the standard according to which coins were subse-


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The Writing of the Hittites. 29quently struck. The people, however, that had founded anddefended it to the last had no hand in its new prosperity ; and,with Pisiris, the name of the Hittites disappears from history.

4. The Writing of the Hittites,Were the warlike energetic tribes, whose political existence thuscame to an end, the inventors of the system of signs which have

been called " Hamathite," from Hamath, once the very centre oftheir power .^ It cannot be demonstrated with absolute certainty,but many instances lead to that conclusion. In the first place,there was no other people at that time in Syria that could haveunited all the tribes of western Asia under one command, implyingaptitude for organization such as can only exist in a settled con-dition of life. On the other hand, the data we possess do notcarry us back beyond the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whenwe find them in full possession of the country, able to withstandEgypt in her might, and contend with Assyria, not always to thelatter's advantage. Can any one point to any people in that partof the world that could have played the part ascribed to themunder the kings of Kadesh and Carchemish 1 If possession con-stitutes the nine points of the law, we have strong overwhelmingevidence to go to the jury.

Egyptian inscriptions tell us that Hittite princes had scribeswho accompanied them in their campaigns, to record their deeds.Among the notable Khetas killed in the battle of Kades werethe chief eunuch, the arm-bearer, and Khalepsar, the '* writer ofbooks," who was, doubtless, the official chronicler.^ Fifteen yearslater, another scribe, Khirpasar, drew up the treaty which was toestablish a lasting peace between Khitisar and Ramses, the con-ditional clauses having previously been discussed and settledbetween the two princes. Ambassadors were sent to Egypt bear-ing with them the text of the treaty engraved upon a silver plate,to have it ratified by Ramses. This has disappeared, but a copy,in the form of an oblong stela, with a top ring as if for the purposeof suspension, is to be seen on the wall of the temple of this kingat Karnac (Fig. 261). Though not formally specified, the contextscarcely allows room for doubt but that the treaty was couched

* The figure of Khalepsar, with legend denoting his business in life, will be foundin Lepsius, Denlamelcr^ Pt. III., Plate CLXV. It is in the middle of the penultcompartment, under the body of Ramses* horse.


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.^o A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.

flFig. 261.

in the Kheta language and hieroglyphs, since it contained theenumeration of Hittite gods, male and female, whose names andattributes no Egyptian was likely to know. This stela, albeitmuch defaced, allowed us to read the following words : " The

central figure of this silver tablet represents theimage of the god Sutekh embracing the image of thegreat king of the land of Kheta," with an inscription

Stela bearing arouud the figure : '' This is the [figure] of the godreay. g^^^j^j^^ ^j^^ j^jj^^ ^ heaveu and [earth]." What apiece of luck for the learned world were Egyptian explorerssome day to light upon this silver tablet, which in that dry soilwould doubtless have preserved images and text intact. Dif-ferences would only exist in the formulas relating to the deitiesof the two nations, but these, with the evidence at our disposal,would be easily distinguished, whilst the actual treaty being pre-cisely the same in the twin documentslike the Rosetta stone

would constitute a bilingual text, andfurnish us with the key to the deci-pherment of all the other Hittitemonuments.If this may seem too much to ex-pect, even in an age that has seenso many wonders, we may point toAssyria, where, in the palace of Sar-gon, gold and silver leaf, recordinga dedication in fine characters, wasfound by M. Place, and is now in theLouvre.^ If Egypt should have

another such surprise in store for us, bare justice would require thatProfessor Sayce should be the fortunate discoverer, for no one sofully deserves to be the Champollion of the Kheta language.A bilingual inscription has already opened the way ; but, unfor-tunately, it is too short to allow of much progress being made.The history of this remarkable object is briefly as follows :Some twenty-seven years ago, the British Museum was offereda convex silver plate, something like the skin of half a small orange(F'ig. 262).^ The concave surface was occupied by a figure repre-senting a warrior standing erect in the middle, holding a spear in

^ Ninive et PAssyrie, torn. iii. pp. 303-306, and torn. iii. Plate LXXVII.^ Its diameter is o m. 045 c.

Fig. 262.Silver Boss of TarkondemosWright, The Enipire^ p. 65.


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The Writing of the Hittites. 31his left hand, with symbols on each side of it, which one couldsee were unlike any characters hitherto known. A border, withletters similarly incised, surrounded the boss. The singularappearance of these hieroglyphs roused suspicions of the genuine-ness of the piece, and caused it to be refused ; not before, however,M. Ready had taken an impression by electrotype. This copylay forgotten in a drawer of the museum, when Professor Saycehappened to read an article, bearing on this very plate, by the lateDr. Mordtmann, who was inclined to identify the lettering of theborder with the Vannic cuneiform inscriptions. What speciallystruck Professor Sayce was the curious fact that the '' obelisks "on the plate were stated to resemble the peculiar shafts of rockwhich are seen in the volcanic district of Caesarea, in Cappadocia,whilst the central figure was characteristic of Hittite art. Theprofessor could not rest until he had procured a copy of thisinteresting silver boss, which seemed to come to him as therealization of his long-cherished hopes, confirming what had beenmere guess-work. In a letter to the Academy, he asked if anyof its readers were acquainted with the localization of the original.Replies soon came, first from Mr. B. V. Head, of the BritishMuseum, informing him that an electrotype fac- simile had been inthe Museum for the last twenty years, enclosing at the same timea cast of it. This was followed by M. Fr. Lenormant, who alsosent a fac-simile of the one he had taken from the original in i860,when he had found it in the possession of M. Alexander lovanoff,the well-known numismatist at Constantinople, who had obtainedit at Smyrna. The collection of M. lovanoff has been dispersed,but the impressions we have agree in every particular, and forthe purposes of science are as good as the original itself.The disappearance of these *' curios " from public investigationhas been adduced in proof of the spuriousness of the silver tablet;but, to our mind, the suspicion is hardly justified. To have createdthe type of the figure and the ideographs about it in i860, i,e.long before the Hamath inscriptions had been transliterated andHittite hieroglyphs were known to exist, we must suppose theforger to have been endowed with supernatural power, a theorytoo absurd to be discussed.Professor Sayce being satisfied with the perfect agreement of thecasts he had obtained, found no difficulty in reading the legend :" Tarik-timme [or dimmej, king of the country of Erme." The


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32 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a.existence of this king was unsuspected, but not the name, whichis mentioned as that of a leading man of CiUcia who lived at thebeginning of our era. In its subject form, Ta/o/coz^Se/xo? is metwith on numerous coins, as well as in Plutarch ; and we read of aTa/o/coSt/xaro?, Bishop of ^gae in Cilicia/ The frequent occurrenceof this name in a province which was so thoroughly Greek at thetime we are treating, may have been due to ancestral reminiscence ;perhaps of a benevolent prince, whose graciousness lingered in theplace that had witnessed his good deeds. However this may be,Erm4 the country over which Tarik-timme is supposed to haveruled, has been identified with Arima of the Greek geographers.Assyriologists are at one with Professor Sayce in the rendering ofthe legend around the border, and in referring the characters tothe age of S argon. ^The first question that arises, when we try to decipher the innerhieroglyphs with the aid of the cuneiform inscription, is whetherthey are the exact reproduction one of the other. In the presentstate of our knowledge, it would be rash to give a categoricalanswer ; but to judge from other bilingual inscriptions, such acorrespondence between the two legends, if not certain, is at leastprobable. The relative number of hieroglyphs in the twin legendstends to confirm this view ; for if there are nine cuneiform letters,and only six in the other, this is easily explained from the fact thatthe Hittite writing was not so far advanced in phonetic values asthe cuneiform ; a whole word, or group of words, being expressedby a single character, such as Tarik-timme ; whereas in the Assyrianhieroglyphs we should find the name divided into syllables : Tar-rik-tim-me-sar-mat-Er-me-e, the long e being noted by extracuneiform lettering. As to the words sar, " king," mat, " country,"they are figured by an almost identical ideograph in all systemsakin to that under discussion.

If similarity between the Assyrian and Hittite text be admitted,we have six characters at least of which the values cannot be con-tested. For the rest, we shall not follow the ingenious line ofargument by which Professor Sayce tries to establish the values of

^ Theodoret, Hist. Ecdesiastique, P- 539-^ See Sayce's, The Bilingual Hittite and. Cuneiform Inscription of Tarkondemos.M. Theo. Pinches proposes a different interpretation for Erme (Wright, TheEmpire, p. 220), whilst concurring with Professor Sayce in the reading of the propername and kingly title.


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The Writing of the Hittites.other thirty hieroglyphics, which to some may not always appearwell founded.^ In all fairness, however, it should be stated thatcertain renderings are only tentative ; his method of going to workis always eminently suggestive, whilst the Cypriote syllabarymost opportunely gave him the means to check and prove histheorem.The curious complicated outline observable in some of the

letters which occur on the older Cypriote inscriptions, coins, andcontract-tablets had long puzzled scholars, but without beingable to offer a solution for them. The late George Smith, byanalogy of other bilingual scripts, was the first to surmise, andfinajly to establish, that such characters were remnants of an oldersyllabary, or rather the survival of an extremely ancient mode ofpicture-writing, which was connected with the ^olian group ofdialects, and that in conservative Cyprus they had been preserveddown to the first Ptolemies, along with the ordinary Greek writing.The older alphabet consisted of about sixty signs, of which fivewere vowels (a, e, l, o, v), and twelve consonants (ac, t, x i"-* ^> K p,F,J, cr, f, Q, most of these being capable of assuming a differentform before each different vowel, for instance, /ca, ko, ke, kl, kv.In all probability/, f, and ^, had fewer signs. There were seem-ingly no aspirates, at least they were not noted in writing. The factof the ruder Cypriote alphabet having been retained side by sidewith the simpler Phoenician was dueas already statedto theconservative spirit which obtained in a country separated by theocean from the rest of the world. The primitive syllabary waslooked upon with reverence as an ancestral relic ; it became thehieratic writing made use of in all public deeds. Like Egypt,Cyprus was proud to own a system of hieroglyphics.^The Cypriote system of writing was at first supposed to havebeen derived from the Assyrian characters introduced into theisland in the age of Sargon ; but the hypothesis was overthrownby comparison of the various inscriptions where this peculiar modeof epigraphy occurs. Thus legends in Cypriote letters were foundin the lowest strata, seemingly of great antiquity, by Dr. Schlie-mann, in his excavations at Hissarlik;'' and the alphabets of Caria,

* Wright, T/te Empire^ ch. xi.* On Cypriote writing, consult Hist, of Ar/, torn. iii. pp. 493, 494, 496, Figs. 347,

348.* J/ios. J. Murray, London, 1884. In Appendix III., Professor Sayce draws theVOL. II. D


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34 A History of Art in Sardinia and ]ut>jea.Lycia, PIsIdIa, Pamphylla, and other localities, preserved a con-siderable number of the characters of the old syllabary, in order toexpress sounds not provided for by the Phoenician. All theseinstances put together enable us to look back upon a time whenthe primitive ideographs represented by the Hamathlte inscribedcharacters were common to the whole peninsula ; if they werepreserved in their complete homogeneous state in Cyprus alone,they yet left deep traces in localities where they had once reignedsupreme, until they were finally superseded by the Phoenicianalphabet. But the latter had started on its voyage round theworld ages before the conquests of Sargon and Assur-nat-sirpalhad made Assyrian influence felt in the basin of the Mediterranean.

Setting aside therefore comparison of the different modes ofwriting, it is not likely that the Aslanic alphabet, as Professor Saycecalls it, waited to constitute itself until Assyria, already in posses-sion of a cuneiform syllabary, came in contact with the variouspopulations of Asia Minor. The characters adopted by these tosuit their different dialects, had come to them from Northern Syria,or perhaps Cappadocia, whence they gradually spread. But incourse of time they were found too unwieldy for the purposes oftrade and daily life, and as a natural consequence underwent com-plete change. The date In which these profound modificationstook place stretched over a long period, and cannot now beascertained ; but, could we do so, such a procedure would exceedthe narrow limits we have prefixed to ourselves. This much iscertain, they coincide with HIttite preponderance in those pristinedays when their battle-cry was heard from the Orontes to theHermus and the Maeander.The Cypriote alphabet, with only sixty characters representing

a syllable each, is but a much-reduced copy of the HIttite, w^hlchaccording to Professor Sayce has about 125 distinct signs. In theHamathlte inscriptions a considerable number of Ideographs werepreserved, bearing witness to the primitive age when they wererude representations of the actual objects. They did not pass Intolater syllabaries, which only received phonetic signs with prettymuch the values they had In the original writing.conclusion that the inscriptions found at Hissarlik represent an earUer system ofwriting than the Cypriote syllabary, and that it was derived straight from Hittitehieroglyphics, which did not pass on to Cyprus until long elaboration had simplifiedthe form and reduced the number of the signs. A resume of this paper will befound in an appendix to Comparative Philology^ entitled " Asianic Syllabary."


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TF^R Writing of the Hittites. 35

IIITTITE


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2,6 A History of Art in Sardinia and Juimca.form. These characteristics of their art, together with theirpecuHar mode of writing, they carried to all the peoples subjectedto them. Northern Syria, being the nearest country, received themin their primitive form, abundantly proved by the frequent recur-rence of living images on all its monuments.The alphabets therefore derived from Hittite hieroglyphics,once used over so vast an area, must of necessity exhibit similarityof manipulation in some of the outlines of the figures and cha-racters. This should be particularly noticeable in those syllabarieswhich belong to the early style, before the action of Greek art wasfelt in the interior of the peninsula ; such as Hamath, Carchemish,and the towns generally of Northern Syria. Hence, a special, avital interest attaches to the rare fragments which have been andmay be discovered in that part of the world ; they alone can revealto us the character and real value of the pictorial art of a nationwhose history we have summarized in this chapter. The largestnumber of Hittite inscriptions are met with east of the Halys, inthe Naharaim and Cappadocia. In the latter are the best-pre-served and, in size at least, most important monuments, notexcepting the districts washed by the Orontes and Euphratesrivers. The Hittites do not seem to have made a long stay westof the Halys, at any rate inscriptions here are insignificant andexceedingly rare, albeit characterized by the same stamp oforiginality which is distinctive of all Hittite art. We will proceedto give a table, as complete as possible, of such monuments aswere recovered in the very centre of Hittite power, together witha circumstantial description of rock-cut and other sculptures inCappadocia, which it was our fortune to examine in place ; illus-trating the result of our excavationswe fear not so complete aswe should have desiredby careful and reliable representations ofthem, so that those who devote their energies to this subject mayhave ample scope to form a just estimate of the whole series ofdocuments.


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J/

CHAPTER ILNORTHERN SYRIA EASTERN HITTITES.

I.Boundaries and Character of the Country occupied by theHittites.

The vast region once under Hittite sway seems carved out by-nature to hold an important place in the history of man. Thelength of line of its coast is protracted far inland by numerous armsof the sea, the most important, perhaps, being the Cillclan bay tothe north-east of the Mediterranean. Here, amidst unhealthylagoons, rises

Alexandretta or ''small Alexandria," with a crosscommunication of three highways ; one leading to Constantinopleby an oblique cut across Asia Minor, the second coasting the seato Arabia and Egypt, whilst the third takes the caravans to theOrontes, following its banks for awhile, until at the height ofAntioch it strikes out to meet the Euphrates at the long curveit describes towards the Mediterranean above Issus Bay, asthough for the very purpose of irrigating this part of Syria.^ Werewe to take the whole line of country which extends betweenAlexandretta and the delta, it would be impossible to name aspot to equal the solitude and dreariness of the small flat levelwhich begins at Alexandretta and stretches to the foot of theAmanus range, or an area of the same dimensions where thepresence of man is so rarely seen. Notwithstanding its manydisadvantages, its deadly climate, which renders the place unfitfor human habitation during six months in the yearnotwithstand-ing its lack of roads and insecure harbour, through the eternalfitness of things, Alexandretta is destined, sooner or later, todraw to itself the tide of human activity. Even now the numberof camels that yearly travel between it and Aleppo averages io,cx>D ;

^ Reclus, Nouvelle Ghgi'aphic^ loni. ix. pp. 766, 767.


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38 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/EA.whilst the returns for 1882 showed that merchandise to the valueof ^1,280,000 was shipped from its small port.^ Here, railway-engineers place the terminus of the line which is to connect thecoast with the Euphrates Valley, over the same route now takenby caravans. But instead of painfully climbing- the Amanus upthe Beilan Pass, the supposed classic *' Syrian Gates," 700 m. high,a short tunnel will land passengers in a few minutes on the other

East of Greenwich 56- 35-&0Fig. 264.The Defiles of the Amanus Range. From Reclus.

side (Fig. 264). Other roads, traces of which were recently noticedby travellers, ran from the valley of the Orontes, over the moun-tains to the coast.^ If to the south the way is obstructed by theformidable escarpments of Cape Ras-el-Khanzir, or wild boar'stusk, no such difficulties are encountered on the north side, thepass called " Little Gates*' or Jonas's Pillars, affording easy access tothe sea by a road which crosses the plain washed by the Pyramusand the Saros (Fig. 265). Cilicia is thus a natural dependency ofNorthern Syria ; its rich loamy soil, which only requires the hand

^ Reclus, loc. at. p. 759.^ Marmier, "Les Routes de TAmanus" {Gazette Archeologique^ pp. 40, 50. 1884).


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b Character of Country occupied by the Hittites. 39of the husbandman to become one of the most fertile districts inthe world, is bound on the west and north by the almost perpen-dicular rocks of the Taurus range, which will always secure itshappy possessor against foreign inroads.The battle of Nazib, in 1836, gave Syria and Mesopotamia toMehemet Ali ; his son Ibrahim, conscious of the importance ofKulek-Boghaz, the " Cilician gates " of the ancients^ had it fortifiedand guarded. It is the only pass to which pieces of artillery canbe brought from the coast. Behind the walls of this stronghold,its garrison was secured against attacks from the Turkomans in

Fium Map of English Admiralty CPecror*

From o to 25 m. From 25 to 50. From 50 attd beyond.Fig. 265.Plain of Cilicia. From Reclus.

their raids on the central plateau ; but as soon as they retired thegarrison, to keep its prestige, would sally forth with great bravado,frightening the inhabitants into passive quietude. The politicaland military frontier of Syria therefore is not Issus Bay, but theTaurus range, which, having no passes through which the enemycan pour down their forces, opposes an impassable barrier, whichcan be held by a handful of men.A glance at the map will show the soundness of our view,corroborated by historical facts. It is well known that Syrian

centres contended with Egypt for the palm of antiquity, and thattheir language, art, and religion, outwardly at least, were unin-


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40 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judâ.fluenced by Greece until Alexander. A tradition, still current atthe end of the old era, declared Heracles the founder of Tarsus ; â supposed older tradition, soothing to the national pride, namedSamdam, the Asiatic Heracles, as its real builder;^ again, a thirdmaintained that it was erected by Sarda-nat-sirpal ; ^ finally, a lateraccount, with pretensions to historical truth, stated that it wasraised by Sennacherib and enclosed on the pattern of Babylon.*Whatever the truth may be, Assyrian inscriptions tell us thatCilicia was among the provinces conquered by the kings ofBabylon; and in one of them Shalmaneser HI. boasts of havingtaken Tarzi.^ Perhaps no other city of equal size exceeds thenumber of coins that were struck in its name, bearing witness tothe intimate relations that existed for centuries between it and thecountries east and south of the Amanus mountains. Aramaean

legends do not disappear from thecoins of Tarsus until the Seleucidae,and occur far more frequently thanGreek legends in the two centuriespreceding that era.^ During the wholearchaic period the ornament on thesepieces is of a decidedly Asiatic charac-tera character preserved to a certainextent even under Roman rule ; when,

if the style and make had nothing to distinguish them from count-less other contemporary objects of the same class, the subjects, as arule, were still those dear to the Phoenician artist. The stirringincidents of the chase were replaced by more peaceful occupations ;instead of the traditional hero, holding a sword which he is aboutto plunge into the side of the animal (Fig. 266), a local deity isfigured. But even he has undergone modification to suit the tasteof the time. In early daysas on the bas-reliefs of Cappadociathe god with high headdress, and bow or quivers slung behindhis back, or holding a double-headed axe in one hand and a scourgein the other, stood erect on the back of some fabulous animal,

^ NoNNOS, Dionysiaques^ xli. 85,^ Dion Chrysostom, xxxiii. torn. ii. pp. i, 23. Reiske's edition.^ Ammien Marcellin, xiv. 8. Samdam^ signifies "strong," "i:)owerful."^ Clearque do Soli, quoted by Athenius, xii. p. 599.^ Eusebius, Chron. p. 25. Mai's edition, after Abydinus.^ MenANT, Annales des Rois dÂssyrie, p. 10 1.^ See Hist, of Art, torn. iii. Fig. 285, showing a Tarsus coin.

Fig. 266.Silver Coin of Tarsus.Waddington. Melanges, 1861,p.