Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/80

 64 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud^a. Carchemish or any other centre, has been made the subject of systematic excavations. Were these once brought to light, even though the inscribed signs continued to be a sealed book, we should find no difficulty in making out the general signification of the subjects represented. Such are the three slabs from Saktchegheuksou, which repre- sent a royal hunt, where we come in at the death ; in which the king, recognizable by the solar disc over his head, and two more sportsmen are engaged (Fig. 279).^ The peculiar arrangement of the animal figures, cut by the joints of the stones already referred to, leaves no doubt but that the stones were intended to decorate the base of a wall, like those still found in place at Sinjirli (Fig. 269). On the two sinister slabs are three figures that follow each other in one direction ; whilst those on the dexter stones — whether the archer preparing to let go his arrow at a huge stag, which he has missed, but has hit the female in front, or the winged quadruped erect on his hind legs, or the male figure with tiara or long-handled mattock — are all turned the other way. Finally, round the corner, on the last stone, only partially un- covered by the explorers, a horse's head appears, and meets the last procession, clearly showing that here was the end of the frieze. A certain degree of thought was bestowed upon carved stones that were meant to be applied to a wall, notably at Saktchegheuk- sou, which were rectangular and ornamented with a border, as against stelas than which nothing could well be ruder or more irregularly cut. Fig. 280,^ from an excellent photograph of Dr. Gwyther, portrays two women sitting upon primitive low-backed chairs, with footstools cut out of the same wooden block, upon which the feet are placed. A table is between them, with three quaint platters and a vase. The posture, the dress, and high cap with striped or quilled border, are precisely alike in both figures. Each has a hand raised, and holds one a patera, the second a vase or cup ; and each presses the remaining hand against her breast, with some object not easily determined, perhaps a vase or pome- ^ This bas-relief is reproduced after a photogravure plate of MM. Heumann and Puchstein's work. ^ A good impression sent us by Dr. Gwyther enabled us to add the inscribed characters to our drawing, scarcely visible in the photograph. Casts of all these stelas are in Berlin.