Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/150

 134 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud/EA. following : (od) ^), considered by Professor Sayce as a determina- tive prefix to denote the names of different deities/ Now this sign, albeit obliterated in many places, is seen in front of sundry figures in these groups (Plate VIII.). Sometimes it is a simple oval ring crossed by a vertical bar at the extremity of a slender stem ; sometimes the stem is furnished with a leaf on each side, or a flower forms a pleasing device ; at other times it crowns a puppet god or a small figure a span high (Fig. 313).^^ If Professor Sayce's conjecture is correct, each group of charac- ters which begins with this peculiar sign must be the determina- tive prefix of a deity ; and, as a matter of fact, it occurs in most inscriptions of Hittite origin. Nor is this the only indication which should warn the observer to be on his guard against ascrib- ing these sculptures to the Medes. Laying aside the nature of their connection with Cappadocia, which we know was transitory, there is not a single detail in these figures, be it of dress or arms, which recalls in the remotest degree the Median costume, as de- scribed by Greek writers or seen in the monuments of Persia and Media. But we find here many an adjustment, many an acces- sory, which are encountered nowhere else, except at Eyuk, some little distance from here, and which, though different in manipulation from those at lasili-Kaia, betray community of school and traditions. In presence of instances such as these, will anybody be found bold enough to urge that the remarkable bas-reliefs at Eyuk were the creation of the Medes, and that stone and brick palaces, sub- terraneous tombs, sculptures cut in the solid rock, and the like, were not due to the race called by Herodotus Leuco-Scythlans, whose capital was Pteria (Boghaz-Keui) ? It Is not to be supposed that because they acknowledged the supremacy of the Medes, by paying a tribute until the sixth century, and occasionally also to Assyria In preceding ages, that they would have gone out of ^ Variants of this hieroglyph will be found in the Carchemish inscription (Fig. 256) ; as well as in Plates V. and VIII. of Wright's Empire, where it occurs without the stem. '^ We have said in another place (see Vol. i ) that we were formerly inclined to view the two corresponding leaflets as the capsules of the mandragora; a fruit connected by Eastern natives with aphrodisiac and fecundating qualities. As symbol of life and its various phases, the mandragora seems to have played an important part at lasiU-Kaia. Those interested in the subject may read our conjectures— for they do not amount to more— duly set forth in our Galatia, pp. 332-334.