Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/145

 134 I-IiSTORY OF Art in Antiquity. presence is not only fitting but necessary, in accordance, too, with Chaldaeo- Assyrian architecture, which is allied to the Persian by. so many links. Hence it is that they appear at the summit of all our buildings (see Plates III., V., VI., IX., and X.). That Assyrian edifi^ were surmounted by crenelations is proved by the bas-reliefs that have been discovered at Nine- veh, representing sedicula the top« most member of whose cornice is a serrated embattled edge.' which somewhat resembles that of the edifices of Iran. Gradini would seem to have been of frequent use in Persia, for they not only appear about staircases, but they form the summit of fire-altars, some of which are perhaps older than the palace at Perscpolis.' At Susa they invariably ornamented enamelled bricks (Fig. 62). They reappear later in a cer- tain class of buildings that unquestionably belong to the Sassanid period. Such would be the facade of the hypogeum known as Tagh-i-Bostan (Fig. 63). Again we find them at about the same epoch embroidered on Persian robes, thus testifving once more to the persistency of habits associated with a remote past, whilst the head-covering of the priests, something in the shape of the Egyptian gorge, terminates in a mural crown.' Tdxier, one among the architects who have tried their hand at restoring the palaces of Persia, crowned all his lofts with the grand Egyptian cavetto. That the moulding was largely em- ployed at Persepolis admits of no doubt, but its presence was restricted to the minor parts of the building — over the doorway, for example. It may also have been applied to brick walls of medium height, not made to carry complicated timber frames, such as appear at the summit of lofty colonnades ; but it is hard to understand how a junction could be effected between the gorge and those enormous wood lofts which we have described. In this case it would have been necessary to endow it with great ' Flandin and Costs, Perse tuuieiutet Plate CLXXX. • Plate CLXXXfl. FlO, 62. — Susa. Crenelated enamelled faficlc. Louvre. Drawn by St. £lme Gautier. Digitized by Google
 * See Hist. 0/ Ari, torn, il Figs. 41, 49.