Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/62

 46 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.^a. purely Eastern type in its widest signification/ The conical cap of this goddess suggests Hittite art, and seems to have been the national headdress, for we find it in Khitisar (Fig. 260), and with but slight modifications in nearly all the sculptures that may be attributed to this people.^ On the other hand, the Assyrian helmet sometimes so closely resembles the Hittite cap, that no judgment can be formed in the absence of the monument. This, by this time, has in all probability been broken up to make lime for a new structure ; nor are basalt slabs much more safe in the destructive hands of the ignorant natives. Over the brook, now called Ain-beddar, which once filled the ditch that protected the town, a mill has been erected, and the sculptured slabs which adorned palaces and walls long before the Thothmes and the Shalmanesers brought here their victorious armies, have been used as millstones by the miller delighted to find ready to hand blocks of the required size and thickness. Many more slabs have shared a like fate ; nevertheless, Birejik, Merash, and other places in North Syria still preserve a certain number. Their comparative thinness at once calls to mind the alabaster slabs that lined the inner walls of palaces and doorways in Assyria. The supposition that the Hittite builder used them in the same way is placed beyond doubt by M. Puchstein's dis- covery of a wall near Sinjirli so enriched. This wall, portions of which are still visible at the base of a tell, with traces of ancient buildings, formerly surrounded the whole mound. The longest series of sculptured slabs still exposed to view is to the left, for soon after it turns the angle to the right it disappears in the depths of the mound (Fig. 269).^ The upper courses have disappeared, but it is highly probable that the wall was built throughout with unbaked bricks, as on the banks of the Tigris.* M. Puchstein also ^ Hist, of Art, torn, ii. Figs, i6 and 228; torn, iii, Figs. 150, 321, 379, 380, 417. 2 See Addenda, drawing of this figure. ^ Sinjirli is five hours' walk south-west of Saktchegheuksou, which will be found between Mount Amanus and the Kurdagh in M, Puchstein's map. We hope that the learned doctor will carry out his intended plan of making excavations at both places, which cannot fail to be of great interest from a structural and even a decora- tive standpoint, even though the intrinsic value of the latter may be small. ^ This, Dr. Puchstein writes, is the impression he received on viewing the rubbish accumulated at the base of the wall. But, aware how difficult it is to distinguish unbaked bricks, turned to their original mud, from the clay soil in which they are mixed, he does not care to commit himself to a decided opinion.