Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/90

 Construction. 77 which columns, doorways, and windows are the sole relics ? Of these, the doors and windows are sometimes monoliths, oftener made up of four or five blocks of enormous size fitted without mortar. They now lie scattered on the ground like so many isolated monuments unconnected with each other, or with the wall to which they once belonged (Figs. 14, 22). If the latter was built of laige blocks, how is it that fragments equal in size to those of the doorways and niches have not been discovered in some comer or other? All we find between the openings is a kind of foundation of well-squared units of never more than two or three courses. It is the plinth of a wall that has vanished. Had its composition been akin to that of the sub- structures, some of its remains, like the splintered shafts and capitals, would be seen around the palaces. But neither in the depth nor at the sides of the doorways have well-prepared stones been found. Will it be urged that all the units that went to the making of the wall have been taken away to the last one since antiquity, to be re-used in building the villages of the neighbourhood ? The conjecture by itself is most improbable, but we have another reason for discarding it. On looking at the lateral edges of the door-frames (Fig. 22), we perceive that the stone was roughly squared with the chisel, whereas blocks of great dimensions have their joints everywhere dressed with as much care as the faces. Nor was the core made of small unsquared stones ; for had they been heaped here in such enormous quantities as this implies, recent excavations could not have failed to light upon them, buried under banked-up earth and rubbish, like the bases of the supports about these very buildings. At the present day, from one end of Iran to the other, brick, baked or crude, forms the body of every structure, whether palace, hut, or mosque ; and it also furnishes our architects the staple of their building materials, with the exception of the thresholds, window and door frames. Our business, however, is to find out whether crude or burnt bricks were employed here. The latter have left but very feeble traces on the platform, albeit diligent search was made for them ; and yet we know how indestructible is clay that has been fired/ the rubbish which chokes up the eastern portico of the palace No. 2 at PersepoHs. M. Dieula.'by collected a few chips about the Hall of a Huadred Columns (iii. p. 11).
 * Stouv. {n< rm,-rku»gen) slates having picked up fragments of baked bricks out of