Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/180

 14« BABYLONIA AND ASSYBIA. Pakt I. feel liow comitletely the Ionic order was a Grecian refinement on the wooflen and soniewliat Barbaric orders of the Euphrates valley. It is equally, or pei'haps almost more, important to know that in Chaldea we are able to trace the origin of those Buddhist styles of art which afterwards pervaded the whole of Eastern Asia, and it may be also the germs of the architecture of Southern India.^ These affinities, however, have not yet been worked out, hardly even hinted at ; but they certainly will one day become most unportant in tracing the origm of the religious development of the further East. In these researches neither the literature nor the language of the country avail us much. If the affinities are ever traced, it will be through the architecture, and that alone ; but there is every prospect of its ])roving sufficient for the ]iur})ose when properly explored. It will hardly be necessary even to allude to the decii)herment of the mysterious written characters of the Chaldeans. There is pro- bably no one now living, who has followec^ up the course of the inquiry with anything like a proper degree of study, who has any doubt regarding the general correctness of the interpretation of the arrow-headed inscriptions. Singularly enough, the great difficulty is with regard to proper names, which as a rule were not spelt pho- netically, but were made up of symbols. This is provoking, as these names afford the readiest means of comparing the monuments with our histories ; and the uncertainty as to their pronunciation has induced many to fancy that the foundation of the whole system is unstable. But all this is becoming daily less and less important as the history itself is being made out from the monuments themselves. It may also be true that, when it is attempted to translate literally meta- physical or astrological treatises, there may still be differences of ojunion as to the true meaning of a given passage ; but plain his- torical narratives can be read with nearly as much certainty as a cliaptcr of Herodotus or of Plutarch; and every day is adding to the facility with Avhich they can 1k' deciphered, and to the stock of materials and facts with which the readhigs may be checked or rectified. From the materials already collected, combined with the chro- nology above sketched out, we are enabled to divide the architectural liistory of the Middle Asiatic countries, during the period of their ancient greatness, into three distinct and well-defined epochs. 1st. The ancient Baljylonian or Chaldean period, ranging from 1 When tlip " II;infll)ok of Architec- ture" was i)ul)li.slie(l in 1855. there ex- isted iin (lata from which tliosc atliiiilies r'--. 1,0 traced. Il is to tiie explorations of Sir Heniy Rawlinson and Messrs. 'J'aylor and Loftus that we owe what we now know on the subject; but even tliac is only an instalment.