Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/201

 Industrial Arts in Pteria. 183 § 7. — Indush'ial Arts in Pteria. The nature of the stone documents recovered in Pteria bears on too narrow a plane to do more than to aid us to form some small idea of its military, civil, and religious architecture. For although its statuary is represented by upwards of a hundred figures, these — except here and there, in attitude and costume — were conceived and executed on precisely the same pattern. Metal, wood, and terra-cotta objects, found in such abundance in the old graves and sites of ancient buildings of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria, which were so helpful in gauging the industrial arts of those countries, and which enabled us to pick out imported from among native pro- ductions, are hard to find in this instance. Besides, these pictures, as we observed, lacked from the outset the sharp, fine outline, the precision of detail which the Ninevite artist was able to impart to the more delicate material he had to work upon. Such as they are, however, they and they alone can tell us what was the dress, the weapons, furniture, and personal ornaments in vogue with the old Pterians. The costume undoubtedly belongs to a people whose civilization had reached the stage when classes are sharply defined — evidenced in difference of apparel — albeit these natives lagged far behind the Assyrians in taste, luxury, and habits of daily life. The popu- larity which the short tunic seems to have enjoyed (Figs. 313 and 315) was no doubt due to its being found convenient in a mountainous district ; but how inferior to the elegant magnificence of the Assyrian mantle, with its deeply fringed embroidered border ! The only ornament about the priestly robe is a plain band ; sometimes, indeed, as also in the female dress — scarcely less simple — the skirt of the high priest and winged genii was plaited (Plate VIII. D). Nor was the headdress less plain; it consisted of a tight-fitting cap, or a pointed tiara, the latter with variants already referred to (Plate VIII. B, and Figs. 313, 314); whilst a tall circular cap, without a single exception, seems to have been the female head-gear. As at the present day, one and all were in all likelihood of felt, the manufacture of which is still in favour in this goat-rearing district ; the hair or wool is used in their fabrication, as well as in the making of abbas, carpets, and the like, in hand looms set up anywhere — a shed, courtyard, or