Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/280

 Royal Buildings at Pasargad/E. 271 clamps. That above this kind of plinth the wall was of crude brick may be implied from the fact that one hce of the pillars was deeply concave, far more so than at Persepolis ; it constituted veritable mortises, into which enteredi tenon-like, the soft compact mass of clay.' It is not only because of what we learn as to the constructive processes employed from that day in Persia, that the side pilasters merit our attention ; for the cuttings at the top permit us to re-establish, as we have done at Persepolis,* the timber frame, of which the ends rested on the notches in question —the woodwork, in fact, that formed the ceiling of the hypostyle hall, and upheld the flat roof. These set-offs, each coiiresponding with the extremity of a beam, are figured below (Fig. '35)- "The rectangle A, B, c, D, shows the bed cut for receiving the lower face of the architrave : g, e, a, d, p, H, the bed for a second row of beams, upon which rested the joists, the exposed heads of which formed the den- ticulated cornice ; whilst the indentation g, l, k, i, represents the place reserved for the planks destined to enframe and keep in place the bed of constituting the flat roof. On the last notch, M, N, P, T, s, R, reposed the beam which completed the frame about the porch, found in the vertical salience of the pilasters beyond the brick walls.^ If the timber frame allows itself to be restored with the utmost certainty,* the plan of the edifice offers too many doubtful and obscure portions to make it expedient attempting a restoration of the unit, in that certain important elements of the elevation are missing ; so that we know not how the capital was made, and all we can say of the sculptures that decorated the door-frame is that they once existed. In such conditions as these the use and Fig. 135.— Fatoce of Cjmn. Upper put of one of the pQlan. DisuLAPuv, ilifff «afftfiM; torn. f. F^. 30. DiBULAPor, /4K-. at., torn. L p. 33, 34. ' IHd,, Plate XVI. Digitizeu l> ^oogle
 * of Ar/f torn, v, pp. 474-477.
 * Ibid.y tom. V. pp. 480-486.