Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/374

 A History of Art in Ciiald.ea and Assyria. lines are very slender, suggesting that they were meant to attract as little attention as possible. They consist of but a single name, that of the maker, or, more probably, the proprietor of the cup. 1 .May we take it that these inscriptions afford a key to the mystery ? that they prove the vases upon which they occur at least to have been made in Phoenicia ? We could only answer such a question in the affirmative if peculiarities of writing and language belonging only to Phoenicia properly speaking were to be recognized on them ; but the texts are too short to enable us to decide to which of the Semitic idioms they should be referred, while the forms of the letters do not differ from those on some of the intaglios (Figs. 156 and 157) and earthenware vases (Fig. 183), and upon the series of weights bearing the name of Sennacherib. 2 The characters belong to that ancient Aramaean form of writing which seems to have been practised in Mesopotamia in very early times as a cursive and popular alphabet. The inscriptions, then, do little to help us out of our embarrassment, and we are obliged to turn to the style of the vessels and their decoration for a solution to our doubts. The conviction at which we soon arrive after a careful study of their peculiarities is that even those on which Egyptian motives are most numerous and most frankly employed were not made in Egypt. In the first place we remember that the Egyptians do not seem to have made any extensive use of such platters ; their libations were poured from vases of a different shape, and the cups sometimes shown in the hands of a Pharaoh always have a foot. 3 Moreover, in the paintings and bas-reliefs of Egypt, where so many cups and vases of every kind are figured, and especially the rich golden vessel that must have occupied such an important place in the royal treasure, we only find the shape in question in a few rare instances. 4 1 Thus, according to M. de Vogué, who has examined the incriptions upon the cups recently cleaned, three of the cups from Nimroud bear respectively the names of Baalazar (Baal protects him), Elselah (El pardons him) and Beharel (El has chosen him). Baalazar was a scribe. 2 See above, p. 220, note 2. 3 See Prisse, Histoire de l'Art égyptien, vol. ii. plate entitled Le Pharaon Khouen- aten servi par la reine. The kind of saucer held by the queen is more like the Assyrian paterae in shape. 4 See in Prisse's Histoire, the plates classed under the head Arts industriels, and