Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/226

 2o8 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. The number and variety of the monuments left by the Phrygians in this district, which was transformed by them into a great reh'gious and poHtical centre, may be the reason why Hittite vestiges are so rarely encountered. For the Phrygians were well known for their fanaticism with regard to their great goddess Matar, and as the most unlikely people to tolerate alien shrines. Hence the old sanctuaries may have been destroyed to make room for the new. However that may be, the Kalaba lion, the figures at Ghiaour-Kalessi, and the hieroglyphs near the tomb of Midas suffice to prove that the Western Hittites crossed the Halys, and were long settled in the valley of the Sangarius or Sakkara. § 3. — Hittite Monuments in Lycaonia. The Hittites of Cappadocia, whose capital was in Pteria, penetrated to the central plateau by the lower course of the Halys and the road which passes through Ancyra. But the flow of immigration was far more active from Cilicia, for on this side the highlands of the Taurus could be reached through the long defile known as Cilician Gates. The movement may also have been due to fresh arrivals, and consequent pressure for elbow-room. In fact, close to this pass at Tyana and Ibreez, and throughout the southern portion of the Anatolian plateau, Hittite monuments are more plentiful than in Phrygia ; and not a few are accompanied by characters of the nature of the Hamathite inscriptions. Dana, or Tyana, was an important place at a remote period. We find its name in Assyrian inscriptions, in the itinerary of Xenophon, and as the chief town of Cappadocia under the Roman empire.^ It stands on the very border of Cappadocia, in a plain which is the prolongation of the broad Lycaonian level. Here Mr. Ramsay, in 1882, noticed in the house of a Greek merchant a slab, with a origin. His opinion and the reasons he adduces may be read in a letter (January 4, 1886, to the same journal) of great interest— for no one better than he is qualified to speak on the subject. He would likewise range in the same category the colossal ram carved upon a rock near the bas-relief reproduced by us. We are reluctant, however, to commit ourselves to a decided opinion, in the absence of an inscription or even a good drawing, which would enable us to judge of the work- manship. ^ The site is only a few miles from Bor, a town marked in Kiepert's map. It is also found in Hamilton's. — Editor.