Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/19

 How Oriental Civilization spread Westward. 3 distance from the great river to the Mseander had never been crossed by the Chaldees and Assyrians, who, at the time of their greatest prosperity, had not ventured beyond the Halys and the Taurus. Trade and its acting influence on the manners and ideas of nationalities were adduced to explain these importations. Caravans, it was urged, had included in the bales which they brought to Sinope, Miletus, and EphesuSj these peculiar types and plastic forms, which the lonians with their marvellous facility had used to so splendid a purpose. Trade had no doubt its share in this movement ; but, however active we may imagine it, it will not account for the many-sided discoveries upon which the attention and acumen of archaeologists have been directed of late. The vast plain which stretches from the Euphrates to the coast, on which rose the first Ionian cities known to the world, cannot be considered as a mere open waste. This is so far from being the case, that the vast region divided by the Taurus in two unequal parts, everywhere bears traces of inde- pendent and original development. Thus, in the valley of the Orontes, and the central plateau of Asia Minor, are monuments resembling in some of their details those of Mesopotamia, yet preserving a character of their own. This is evidenced in the outline of their figures, and more particularly in their hieroglyphs, which are distinct from Chaldaean wTiting, and seem to have been used from the Euphrates to the Hermus and Mseander, whilst we have positive proof that they were known east and west of the Taurus range, until they were replaced by the Phoenician alphabet. The dress, weapons, and religious symbols figured on these bas-reliefs, side by side with inscribed characters, point to rites and customs as peculiar and distinct as the actual hieroglyphs. We cannot imagine that the people to whom they belong were content to act the subordinate part of conveyers and agents during the lapse of a thousand years. It is undeniable that certain elements of their art were borrowed from Egypt and Mesopo- tamia, but these they elaborated and transformed to a certain extent by personal efifort, giving them the impress of their own individuality. The question that presents itself to the historian, is to know which of the races interposing between Babylon and Miletus may be credited with sufficient inventive genius, to have led this