Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/175

 The Palace. Eyuk. 157 the action of time, of man, notably of the cattle grazing on the slopes, has broken the edge at several places. Large stones strew the ground on the western face, and may possibly have belonged to a second gateway. In one of them were holes, such as we had noticed on blocks about the palace at Boghaz-Keui. Our time was too short to attempt exploring on this side'; nor was it necessary for our purpose, which was to make a plan of the structure and find out its probable destination. The regular outline of the tumulus, and its smooth level top, made us suspect that it was not due to nature. To make sure of this, we had shafts sunk to a certain depth, but nothing except loose soil was encountered, and nowhere did we light upon the rock ; whilst its slopes, cut by the winding footpath which leads to the village, revealed the same fact, and confirmed our first impression that, as at Khorsabad, Kojunjik, and Nimroud, we had here an artificial mound formed by the crumbling of unbaked bricks. Its sides, like those of the tells of Mesopotamia, face the cardinal points.^ We may assume, therefore, that these are the remains of a palace, built for a native prince, on a plan that closely resembles that of the Ninevite builder. The southern gateway, if not the only one that was let Into the walls of the structure, was undoubtedly the main or royal entrance ; and as such, more elaborately enriched — perhaps the only one upon which the chisel of the sculptor had been required. What tends to confirm this supposition Is that here, but nowhere else, do we find stones projecting beyond the heaps of dust which have accumulated about them. Had dressed or sculptured blocks existed at any other point, like the monoliths of the gate-posts, and the huge stones or lion avenue ranged in front of the entrance, after the fashion of Egyptian " dromos," all traces of them would not have disappeared. Nor would entire blocks, such as one we found near the fountain, eight metres from the foundation wall, and a second on the same line, but 82 metres beyond, besides worked fragments which had evidently belonged to the same series, and which strew the ground on this side, have escaped our search for them. Lack of time obliged us to confine our efforts to the gate as the portion which even in its present ruinous state testifies to the ' JJist. of Arty torn. ii. pp. 524-527.