Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/227

 The Built Tomb. 217 construction, already referred to, should be taken into account ; we allude to the slides that occur in the threshold of the doorway (Fig. 100). Unless we ace mistaken, the observant traveller is dead against the conjectural opinion of the archaeologist. Why all these preparations, if the body was placed in the tower for the sole purpose of embalmment or to be left until it was resolved into its primitive elements ? Had this been the case, the mode of trans- port, as that in use at the present day, would have been a litter, that would have carried the corpses straight to the daJhitas and " laid them, almost naked, across iron bars." On the other hand, the disposition of the threshold explains itself, if we admit that it was resorted to in view of facilitating the movement of heavy stone or wood cases, the coffins in which the dead, protected by a solid ponderous lid, were placed to sleep their eternal sleep. The safest way is to look upon the edifice in question as a variation of the Persian tomb, a variation that in some respects recalls one of the forms of the Lycian sepulchre, or mortuary towers, of which many examples are found at Xanthus (Fig. 268). The analogy is unquestionable ; but is this to be accounted for on the basis of imitation^ and, if so, who was the borrower ? Did a Persian architect, either iie visu or through common report, take his inspiration from Lycian models, in or after the campaign of Harpagus in Asia Minor, or did a satrap, delegated by the king to act as his representative in the west, and who often died at his post, introduce the type in the country of his adoption? We know not the time or for whom the tombs at Pasaigads and Persepolis were built, hence wr are not in a position to answer the questions. Difference of detail is sufficiently marked between Persian and Lycian tombs to banish the idea that they were copied one from the other. Considered as a whole, the shape is simple enough to have been invented at about the same time by two peoples, who both employed stone blocks of large size in their constructions. Is not the idea of imparting some- thing of the aspect of a stronghold to the grave-chamber intended object of the legislator in providing a kind of shanty, or makeshift, was done in view of preserving the domestic abode * from pollutioii; hut as soon as was con- venient, within a month at the outside, the corpse was commanded to be taken to the dakma. print. — Trs. Digitized by Google
 * I have said '* domestic " and not " mortuary " hons^ as it is obviously a mis-