Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/282

 266 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. FIG. 163. Section of tumulus through south-north line. Present state. Von Olfers, Plate II. yellow mud, and a third of lime mixed up with sand. Measured from the level of the plain, the circular base is twenty-six metres ; it supported the mound properly so called, which had a facing of bricks at least towards the apex (Fig. 164), and ended in a plat- form, where the excavators found one of the boun- dary stones named by H erodotus, lying on one side, but still in situ. Its diameter at the base is 2 m. 85 c. (Fig. 165). In it we recognize a phallus akin to those encountered in the Tantaleis necropolis. Another, one-fourth the size of this, was discovered at the foot of the mound. To judge from the re- spective bulk of the two stones, as well as the situation in which they are found, we may con- clude that the larger was that which once stood in the centre of the platform, whilst the other was one out of the four distributed around it, and which, being close to the edge, rolled over the talus. FIG. 164. Section of restored tumulus. Ibid., Plate IV. FIG. 165. One of the stone termini. Ibid., Plate III. The remaining three cannot be far off, and are, doubtless, buried under accumulated debris. There is no trace of an inscription anywhere about the stones. Herodotus did not actually climb the sepulchral mound of Alyattes ; he was content to see it from Sardes. His mention, therefore, of a stela that should have been somewhere on the outside of the monument may be due to one of two causes. Either he was the dupe of his guide, as every