Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/335

 INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 319 It would be vain to multiply examples of this kind ; those we have cited suffice to show that if the Carians and Leleges were not solicitous, as only the Greeks have been, to impress upon whatever work came from their hands, even to a simple wall, a mark of beauty and grace, they nevertheless knew how to use materials of such size and solidity, as to have withstood the neglect of thousands of years. INDUSTRIAL ARTS. The physical formation of Caria is very similar to that of Lydia, and potter's clay of equally excellent quality is plentiful ; hence, one of its towns, Tralles, was famous for its pottery, which it largely exported. 1 Pliny wrote that in his time the brick palaces of Attalus and Mausolus were still standing ; the former in this same city of Tralles, the latter at Halicarnassus. 2 Recent excavations have confirmed the testimony of the Roman writer ; they have proved that baked clay was applied in this district to many and diverse uses that the)' were not content to fashion vases of every size and shape for domestic purposes, but had their coffins made out of it as well. Thus, within recently ex- plored necropoles, we sometimes find ashes in large clay jars ending almost in a point below, and at other times in chests or sarcophagi of the same substance. 3 But whether these vases were put within jars and sarcophagi, or set in the tumulus-chamber or the grave against the coffin, a sufficient number has been found to enable us to gain some idea as to the habits and taste of the Carian potters. As in Lydia, the clay is a rich reddish yellow, fine in texture and well prepared. The lightness of the handles and the variety of types show that the artisan was already proficient in his craft. The vast majority of vases were decorated, and the form is obviously meant in those whose surface is covered with a coating of a dark brown pigment ; su:h would be a kind of bowl which, along with other vases, came out of a necropolis hard by Tshangli, near, it is supposed, the ancient site of Panionion (Fig. 226). Most of the pieces have ornamental designs, composed of ring- 1 PLINY, Hist. Nat., xxxv. 46. a Ibid., 49. 8 W. R. PATON, Excavations in Caria, pp. 70, 73, 75-79; F. WINTER, I'asen am Karien, pp. 226, 227.