Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/308

 292 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. between the two countries. In the preceding period, Lydia had been unacquainted with the Delta, and her art had no other repertory to draw from than that of Syro-Cappadocia. Another hypothesis which has nothing improbable about it may still be adduced ; namely, that the jewellery we are considering might, after all, be of Punic fabrication. The points of resemblance it presents with those admirable pieces that came out of a tomb at Camiros are both striking and numerous. 1 There is the same mingling of human and animal forms, of heads wreathed in the klaft; whilst the situation given to the female image on one of the pieces from Camiros and another from Aidin, is precisely similar to that of our goddess, save that there it is full face, quite nude, and half dressed here. The image is supposed to be the Asiatic goddess Qadesh, who appears on Egyptian monuments with so peculiar a physiognomy. 2 Whether these ornaments were fashioned in the kingdom of Croesus, or brought by an adventurer from Syria or Egypt, matters little, and does not preclude the fact that their exquisitely fine workmanship could not but render them objects as rare as they were costly. Long before Lydian craftsmen were capable of executing pieces as complicated as these, jewellery whose chief value resided in the material of which it was made, must have been turned out by much simpler and more expeditious methods. By means of a mould of some hard stone, personal ornaments, pieces to be sewn on to garments, small figures or amulets, could be cast in vast numbers. The mould of serpentine figured on next page was used for making pieces of this kind (Fig. 209). It was found a few years ago near Thyatira, and placed in the Louvre collection. 3 That the slab, 15 centimetres thick, is a jeweller's mould, is proved from the fact of the gutters that appear upon it, and which can only have been used to receive or drain the liquid metal. Similar moulds have been found in Assyria ; but the interest that attaches to this particular one is the size and character of the 1 The gold objects in question are due to the excavations of M. Salzmann. They form part of the Louvre collection, and an account of them will be found in Revue arche., 2 e Serie, torn. viii. pp. 1-6, Plate X. 2 PIERRET, Le Pantheon egyptien, p. 46. 3 A circumstantial account of the mould in question, discovered by M. S. Reinach, may be read in his paper, "Deux moules asiatiques en serpentine" (Revue, arche., 3 Se'rie, 1885, torn. v. pp. 54-61). The memoir has been republished in a separate volume, under the title Esyuisses archeologiques (8vo, Leroux, 1888), pp. 44-51.