Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/399

 Sculpture in Media and Susiana. 377 back upon a long and brilliant past of autonomous and distinct ex- istence. Henee the question has been broadied as to whether Median dvilizatbn may not be even older than that of Chaldaea. Whatever may be thought of the ethnic affinities of the Susians, it is dear that their monumental history started into being long before the Achaemenidae came to the front When the latter made Susa one of their favourite residences! the royal fortress, figured in the bas-reliefs of Assyrian conquerors, had been standing for centuries in the middle of the plain (Fig. 1 76). In the upper layers of the tumulus, Loftus and Dieulafoy discovered remains of edifices erected by Darius and Artaxerxes, but the huge mound still contains* buried in its capacious flanks, fragments of older buildings along with terra-cotta bas-reliefs which served to decorate them. The French explorer even thinks that some of his trenches uncovered portions of walls and enamels which he would ascribe to the Elamite kings.* In the work he is preparing for publication he will tell us the reasons which have led him to assign a very great age to a number of fragments (bas-reliefs on terra-cotta or stone?) he has collected. What tends to give colouring to his assertion is the fact that rock-cut sculptures of unquestionable antiquity are said to exist at many other points of Susiana. Such would be the bas-reliefs, accompanied by long inscriptions, that have been found on the plateau of Malamir, not far from the town of that name, on a forbidding site called Kale Pharan (Fortress of Pharaoh).* We selected two of the least damaged out of the collection to enable the reader to gain an idea of the peculiar character of these monuments (Figs. 183, 184). Both seem to represent a god receiving the homage of his worshippers. As in the Ibriz bas-relief of Syio-Cappadocia, he stands erect, and is known by his stature, which far exceeds that of the surrounding figures. The attitude and dress, however, are not uniform. In the one picture the god appears sunk in meditation, his hands folded on his breast (Fig. 183) ; in the other they are • Dieulafoy, Premitr Rapport^ p. 65. they are &tthfal images of the bas-reliefs referred ta They w«e described, but without illustrations, long ago by Sir H. I-^yard, who counted five dbtinct pictures, making up 340 figures, from 2 m. to 25 c in height. Part of the texts which he copied appeared in vol. i. of Cuneiform Inscri/Hions of Western Asia, Consult also DiEULATor, Revm anki., 3* s^rie, torn. vi. pp. 834-337, and Plate XXIV. (our Fig. T83). Digitized by Google
 * We are indebted to M. Houssaf for the illiutratioiu figured below (Fig. 1 83, 1 84) ;