Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/215

 ( 197 ) CHAPTER IV. Art Monuments of Western Hittites. § I. — Plan of Study, The art productions which mark the presence of the Hittites north of the Taurus, and on the left bank of the Halys, may be divided into structural and sculptured. These may be subdivided into mutilated statues, inscribed stones, rock-cut pictures or chiselled slabs ; including small objects, such as clay seals, cylindrical and conical in shape, which still preserve the impress left by the stamp, to which may be added bronze figures and jewellery. With regard to the first class, they could not be removed, and therefore still cover the site on which they were raised. But great difficulty is experienced in trying to localize the others, for as they were intended for exportation, their size, material, and make were such as could be conveniently carried to enormous distances from their native country, hence the exact spot where they were first discovered cannot with certainty by traced. We propose to take up the principal monuments of the first category, whose presence on any given point proves that the race which built them was settled for a longer or shorter period in the district where their ruins are found. Respecting the smaller portable documents, wood, clay, or metal, the origin of which is more or less open to criticism, it will be readily admitted that regions in which they occur in great abundance are more likely to have given them birth than localities where their presence is almost unknown. It should also be noted that we were careful to select such specimens, out of the thousands we possess, as had claims to be considered as types on account of the hieroglyphs and the forms which distinguish them, and which bring them in touch with those of Ptcrium and Northern Syria.