Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/241

 HiTTiTE Monuments in Lycaonia. head is a mural crown.^ The top figure, on the other hand, wears a short tunic, conical tiara, and four raised bosses are carved in front. The right arm is raised as though in command ; the left is bent, and carries some indistinct object. The face is broad, the eyes round and protruding, the ears large. The feet were omitted as a superfluous detail ; for when the stone was in place they could not be seen from below. Some idea may be formed of the truly gigantic proportions of these portraits, when we state that the cap of the upper figure is i m. 20 c. in height. There is every reason to believe that the subject represented on this stela was a divine couple, as that which moves at the head of the procession at Boghaz-Keui, with this difference, that the figures are superimposed, instead of standing side by side (an arrangement imposed upon the artist by the narrow field at his command) ; that the lions which generally support the goddess, recognizable by the mural crown she wears, are on the same plane, one on each side of her.^ But the dress and attributes which are seen here are precisely the same as at lasili-Kaia. It is much to be wished that a good drawing or cast may soon be obtained of this interesting monument ; or, better still, that the actual stone may be conveyed to Europe and placed in one of our museums, where it would be accessible to the whole world. As will have been observed, Lycaonia seems to have had pecu- liar attractions for the Hittites; and both in the neighbourhood of the silver mines of the Bulgar-Dagh, as in the broad levels, are found numerous instances of their presence. These, as we pointed out, sufficiently resemble Syrian and Cappadocian sculp- tures to warrant the theory of a common origin. The inhabitants of Lycaonia were removed from the Greeks of the coast by broad masses of lofty mountains and deep morasses ; whilst the hilly district to the south-east about Isauria was held by predatory tribes, whose usual occupation was to harry the land of their ' Opinions are divided with regard to the head-gear under notice : M. Sterrett sees in it a helmet, and Mr. Ramsay, who visited Fassiler a few months ago, is equally positive as to its being a mural crown, like that worn by the goddess and her train at Boghaz-Keui. His letter (Aug. 8, 1886), which was accompanied by a sketch of the same nature as M. Sterrett's, reached me too late to be reproduced, had I wished to do so. " Mr. Ramsay is at one with us in viewing difference of arrangement solely in the light of a curious variant. Wholly improbable is the belief held by M. Sterrett, that both were male figures.