Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/181

 Bk. n. Ch. 1. INTRODUCTORY. 149 B. c. 2234 to 1520, comprising the ruins at Wurka, Mugheyr, Abu Shahrein, Niffer, Kaleii Sherghat, etc. Temples, tombs, and private -Iwellings, all typical of a Turanian or Scythic race. 2nd. The Assyrian and second Chaldean kingdoms, founded about 1290 B. c, and extending down to the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus, 538 b. c, comprising all the buildings of Nimroud, Koyunjik, Kliorsabad, and those of the second Babylon. An architecture essen- tially palatial, without tombs, and few temples, betokening the existence of a Semitic race. 3rd. The Persian, commencing with Cyrus, 538 b. c, and ending with Alexander, b. c. 333, comprising Passargadoe, Susa, and Perse- polis. An architecture copied from the preceding: palatial, with rock tombs and small temples. Aryan it may be, but of so strangely mixed a character that it is almost impossible to distinguish it from its sister styles. Either it seems to be that Cyrus and his descendants were of Turanian l)lood, governing an Aryan people, or that they were Aryan, but that there was so strong an infusion of Turanians among their subjects that they Avere forced to follow their fashions. Perhaps a little of both ; but taking the evidence as it now stands, it seems as if the first hypothesis is that nearest the truth. These rock- cut tombs, and the splendor of their sepulchral arrangements generally, savor strongly of Scythic blood ; and their gorgeous palaces, their love of art, the splendor of their state and ceremonial, all point to feelings far more prevalent among the Turanians than to anything ever found among kings or people of the Aryan race. None of these styles, however, are j^erfcctly pure, or distinct one from the other. The three races always inhabited the country as they do now. And as at this hour the Turkish governor issues his edicts in Tui'kisli, Arabic, and Persian, so did Darius write the history of his reign on the rocks at Behistun in Persian, Assyrian, and the old Scythic or Median tongue. The same three races occupied the country then as they do now. But each race Avas supreme in the order just given, and the style of eacli predominated during the period of their sway, though impregnated with the feelings and peculiarities of the other two. It is this, indeed, which gives the architecture of the country in that age its peculiar value to the archseologist. The three great styles of the world are here placed in such close juxta- position, that they can be considered as a whole, illustrating and supplementing each other, but still sufficiently distinct never to lose their most marked characteristics. The materials are still, it must be confessed, somewhat scanty to make all this clear; but every day is adding to them, and, even now, no one familiar with architectural analysis can be mistaken in recognizing the leading features of the investigation.