Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/271

 ( 253 ) CHAPTER V. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HITTITE CIVILIZATION. The journey which we have accompHshed from the banks of the great river to the shores of the ^gean, on the track of the people we have called Hittites, was a long one. On the way, we have assigned, as their handicraft, all such monuments as were accom- panied by signs which they seem to have been the first to use, as well as bas-reliefs with or without inscriptions, but characterized by their peculiarities of style, dress, and manipulation. These we were careful to note and dwell upon, inasmuch as they permit us to recognize the monuments under discussion as due to one civilization ; and we were equally mindful to draw attention to differences existing here and there. Albeit they are all distin- guished by a strong family likeness, and points of touch are multitudinous between them, we are far from assuming that they were brought to light in one period or the creation of a single people. The art, the broad outlines of which we have essayed to define, had attained its greatest degree of perfection a thousand years, before the enterprising sons of Hellas became the dominant race in the peninsula. It will be readily admitted, therefore, that, in that long interval, diversities, which have been likened to art- dialects, were unfolded ; and tribes and principalities sprung up and adopted the themes and forms created by the vigorous race which had preceded them, modifying them in the borrowing. Within these limits we persist in the belief that we did not err, when on our return from Asia Minor, some twenty-five years ago, we collated these monuments and ranged them into one group, although divided by enormous distances of time and space one from the other. The comparison which we then instituted was taken up and prosecuted by others ; and, thanks to recent discoveries, the