Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/387

 FUNERARY ARCHITECTURE. call acroteria. These, in Fig. 264, from a tomb at Myra, are repre- sented by rude balls ; whilst a facade at Pinara displays, in the same situation, the horns and ears of a bull (Fig. 265). Was this ornament designed to bring to mind the sacrifice offered to the dead at the time of his entombment, or does it testify to a custom dear to the Lycians, in common with many country people at the present hour, of setting over the doorways of their houses or enclosures the head of a bull, of a horse, or other animal ? Be that as it may, it was prac- tised in Greece, where it was allied to a religious idea j 1 and from it may have been derived the device known as " bucrane " or bu- cranium. The feet of the side pieces of the curvilinear roof are comprised between the beams, which not only kept down the beds of clay, the real covering of the house, but prevented the main rafters from spreading. Here, again, every detail lends itself to the conjecture that we are confronted by a faithful copy of a model once familiar to every eye ; moreover, we have reasons for supposing that a certain number of these Lycian chalets had a pointed loft just large enough for a top room or store, in which wood, forage, etc., could be stowed away, very similar to the triangular attics of the Swiss chalets. This last class of loft 1 With regard to the above question, read what Benndorf has to say about it in Reisen, torn. i. p. 52, n. 3. FIG. 265. Tomb at Pinara. Benndorf, torn. i. Fig. 33.