Page:The Hittites - the Story of a Forgotten Empire.djvu/142

140 were of light make, and rested on two wheels, usually-furnished with six spokes.

The army was well-disciplined and well-arranged. Its nucleus was formed of native-born Hittites, who occupied the centre and the posts of danger. Around them were ranged their allies and mercenaries, under the command of special generals. The native infantry and cavalry also obeyed separate captains, but the whole host was led by a single commander-in-chief.

We have yet to be made acquainted with the details of their domestic architecture. The ground-plan of their palaces has been given us at Boghaz Keui and Eyuk, at Carchemish and Sinjirli, and we know that they were built round a central court of quadrangular form. We know too that the entrance to the palace was, like that to an Egyptian temple, flanked by massive blocks of stone on either side, and approached by an avenue of sculptured slabs. We have learned, moreover, that the palace was erected on raised terraces or mounds; but beyond this we know little except that use was made of a pillar without a base, which had been originally derived from Babylonia, the primitive home of columnar architecture.

About the Hittite dress we have fuller information. Apart from the snow-shoes or mocassins which have helped to identify their monumental remains, we have found the Hittites wearing on their heads two kinds of covering, one a close-fitting skull-cap, the other a lofty tiara, generally pointed, but sometimes rounded at the top or ornamented, as at Ibreez, with horn-like ribbons. The pointed tiara was adorned with perpendicular lines of embroidery. At Boghaz Keui the goddesses have what has been termed the mural crown, resembling as it does the fortified wall of a town.