Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/286

 26S A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. ling the hero or nation beyond the narrow limits of the home that up to that time had seemed all sufficient. As stated, the roadway on the south and east was almost impassable ; but no obstacles existed towards the west. From this side they spread, therefore, throughout Asia Minor ; they subdued all the tribes they met in the country ; some few clans in the fastnesses of the Olympus range being alone left unmolested. When this migration took place, the Khiti had this immense advantage over the aborigines, that they were acquainted with the art of working metals. Whether the knowledge they thus carried with them was learnt of the Chalybes, a northern Hittite tribe (which in early Greek tradition are de- scribed as the Cyclops of Asia Minor), or from Chalda^a and Egypt, it is impossible to say. That the oldest Hittite inscriptions were upon plates of metal may be inferred, says Professor Sayce, from the nature of their written characters.^ Nor is this mere conjecture, for we know that the copy of the treaty made with Ramses H. of Egypt was engraved on a plate of silver, and that the boss of Tarkondemos was of the same precious metal (Fig. 262). Silver was supplied to the Hittites from the rich mines of the Bulgar- Dagh, which are worked at the present day under the name of Gumush-Maden.^ The use of bronze, as might be expected, was far more general, for Hittite bas-reliefs, and Egyptian monuments representing the battles around Kadesh and Carchemish, show us bronze vases and bronze chariots. We may assume, therefore, that the Hittites, in their first encounters with the inland tribes, were already possessed of those swords, stout clubs ending in a huge ball, double-headed axes, and scimitars, which we find at Boghaz-Keui ; whilst the cutlasses, arrow-heads, and axes of the latter were flint. Superiority of arms, it is needless to say, was a primary cause in their obtaining a foothold among the semi- barbarous aborigines, whose secluded position had enabled them to preserve their independence. Though they had lived away from all outward movement, they were shrewd enough to understand that they could never hope to withstand soldiers who had held ^ Sayce, T/ie Monuments, p. 251. ^ Upon the silver mines of the Bulgar-Dagh, consult Reclus, Geographic Universelle, torn. i. p. 475 ; as well as Hamilton, Researches, torn. i. pp. 234-238. !PR0FESS0R Sayce {The Monuments, p. 307) likewise mentions having discovered old mines in the Gumush-Dagh, or Silver Mountains, on the north side of the Mseandrian plain, which were probably worked by the Hittites.