Fig. 153.—Stela at Marash (after Hirschfeld).
According to these examples, two groups of clearly distinguished Hittite monuments may be established in Syria itself: those of Carchemish and the region of the Euphrates, which are colourless copies of Assyrian works; and those of western Syria and especially of Cilicia, which, though also derived from Ninevite art, separate themselves from it to a greater extent, are ruder, and contain elements at once more original and more barbarous. As peculiar characteristics of the Hittites, we will point out the diadem, the high cap of the women, to which a long veil is fitted, and, above all, the shoes with turned-up points. These shoes, worn by men and women, have been described as the chief mark of the Hittite monuments; however, it must not be forgotten that these shoes are still worn, in our own day, not only in Syria but throughout Asia Minor, by the most various races.
§ II. Hittite Monuments in Cappadocia.
A canton of ancient Cappadocia, the Pteria of Herodotus, on the Halys, where the first meeting between Cyrus and Crœsus took place, contains a considerable number of Hittite ruins which have been particularly explored by MM. Perrot and Guillaume, and form a group by themselves in the history of oriental art. The village of Boghaz-Keui, the ancient capital of the Pterians has still, besides its fortifications 3¾ miles in circumference, bas-reliefs carved upon rocks which are called Iasili-Kaïa, “the inscribed stone,” and remains of buildings not completely indistinguishable. The royal palace, almost rased to the level of the ground, is a parallelogram 136 ft. by 185 ft. In the blocks which compose the wall, holes are observed for iron clamps, as in the Achæmenid edifices; as in the latter also, the stones are large but irregular; the upper portion of the wall was of brick-work, as at Nineveh and Persepolis; lastly, the palace of Boghaz-Keui was built on an artificial terrace. In the arrangement of the rooms, details peculiar to princely residences in all oriental countries are to be recognised. The principal door forms an independent structure, to be compared to that of the palace at Khorsabad: it is 58 ft. high; two lions’ heads, original in style, project on each side of the aperture, above monolithic doorposts.
Fig. 154.—The sphinx of Euyuk (from Perrot and Guillaume[71]
The palace of Euyuk, as well as that of Boghaz-Keui, presents striking features of resemblance to those of Nineveh; its terrace, 812 ft. square, still rises to the height of 39 ft. The corners are turned towards the four cardinal points. The principal doorway is 11 ft. broad,[71] and on each side stand two sphinxes, in place of the human-headed bulls. Next to these, all along the façade, was a series of bas-reliefs, the arrangement of which was the same as that upon the façades of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik; only, the sphinx, which is not Assyrian, discloses another foreign influence—that of Egypt. Cappadocian art was able to interpret the Egyptian type, and, on this occasion, did not limit itself to a dull copy. “In Egypt,” observes M. Perrot, “the sphinx, to whatever variety of the type it belongs, is always represented in the reclining posture, never standing as here: instead of being treated as a bas-relief and placed in front of the doorway, it is sculptured in the round and set on both sides of the entrance, perpendicular to the path, towards the axis of which it looks.”[72] Besides, in the sphinxes on the banks of the Nile, the extremities of the hair, on each side of the head, fall straight without forming the curls which we see here. At Euyuk, the Egyptian sphinx is treated in the Assyrian style; the place which it occupies on the sides of the doorway, and the position of its paws, turn it into a sort of compromise between Egypt and Assyria, which vied with one another in this land of Cappadocia, in artistic influence as in political preponderance.