Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/95

 FUNEREAL ARCHITECTURE. 79 mounds have been traced. 1 Professor Ramsay, in a letter to the Athenceum, dated December 27, 1884, thus describes the one specimen he was able to examine with some care : " The tumulus is bounded by a circle of square blocks, half imbedded in the ground, which have fallen from the top and sides of the mound. I was informed by a native that one of the stones had graven characters upon it, and with the help of four villagers, a pickaxe, and wooden poles to serve as levers, we succeeded in setting up the block, when it turned out that the signs were akin to the hieroglyphs of Cappadocia." 2 The tumulus in question is south of the village of Bey Keui, in the pass marked 28 in the map. The finding of Hittite characters in the bowels of a tumulus might be taken as conclusive evidence that cognate monuments met with in Phrygia are anterior to the time when its inhabitants elaborated an alphabet which they derived from the Phoenician. However remarkable the discovery may be, it would be rash to advance an opinion from one solitary instance, and it is well to wait until the remaining mounds shall have been examined. We may regret that the explorations were allowed to stop here, and that no attempt was made to find out whether such mounds contain chambered graves. However that may be, the fact remains that, speaking generally, tumuli in Phrygia form the exception, not the rule. If the first owners of the soil, the Syro- Cappadocians, or, after them, the early bands of Phrygo immigrants who occupied the district, made use of this mode of sepulture, the habit did not last. All Phrygian tombs are hypogeia. Of all the monuments in this district, the most famous is certainly that which since 1824 is known by archaeologists under the name of the Midas tomb 3 (Fig. 48, 9 in map). Its size, 1 Hell. Studies, 1882, p. 18. 2 RAMSAY, Athenaum, p. 884. It seems strange that the author should never have published the inscription. 8 Leake brought the monument to the knowledge of the world in 1800. TRS. See Professor Ramsay's observations in respect to our cuts, Figs. 48, 49. Whilst acknowledging that our general view of the Midas rock is far away the best that has been published, he still finds it inexact in some respects. The explanations he puts forward as to the character of the meander displayed on the Phrygian tombs are too long for reproduction, and we refer the reader to Hell. Studies, x. pp. 149- 156. Here more than ever the need is felt of having the image as understood by Professor Ramsay placed side by side with that which he criticises. Knowing the sureness of hand and the pains taken by M. Guillaume when at work, we are loth to believe his drawing faulty, as affirmed by Professor Ramsay.