Page 142 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

ASIA MINOR AND THE HITTITES

stance, the number of rooms and the position of the hearth varied. Nevertheless, it is
clear that the popular dwellings of north-west Anatolia and the Balkans supplied the
scheme which the purposeful architects of a later age transmuted into an art-form.
The plastic arts make their appearance in Asia Minor after 2500 b.c. At that time a
wealth of metal - copper, silver, and gold - became available for weapons, tools, and
ornaments, not only in Anatolia but throughout the mountain ranges; at Hissarlik in
the west, at Ala^a Hiiyiik in Cappadocia; in the Kuban valley north of the Caucasus,
and, near the south-eastern shores of the Caspian, at Tureng Tepe near Astrabad and at
Tepe Hissar near Damghan. Everywhere the products of the smiths and jewellers betray
a greater or lesser dependence on the brilliant achievements of die Tliird Early Dynastic
Period in Sumer (Plates 27-32). The absence of ores in Mesopotamia called for a con-
tinuous importation of metal, in whatever form; and it seems that the trade which
supplied the Sumerian craftsmen with their raw materials broke down the comparative
isolation of the highlanders. Their ores or ingots may occasionally have been obtained
in exchange for finished products from the Mesopotamian workshops. However this
may be, the influence of southern prototypes is noticeable in all the sites which we have
named, although they were not slavishly copied.
In the second city of Hissarlik (Troy) several hoards of jewellery were buried before
the town was sacked. They were recovered by Schlicmann and include pins and brace­
lets (Figure 44, A and d) decorated with spectacle spirals of gold wire soldered on a smooth
background of sheet gold. Ear pendants (Figure 44, B and c) were made of gold wire,
decorated with rosettes and with minute chains from which ornaments of gold-foil were
hung. These are sometimes shaped like leaves, sometimes like a human figure, and de­
corated with patterns of punched dots. There were also diadems with a thick fringe of
such little chains and ornaments, short in the middle and long at the sides, so that the
gold would cover the hair on either side of the face. Some elements of these composite
ornaments have Mesopotamian prototypes, but their combination is quite new and the
Trojan hairpins, ear-pendants, and diadems have, in fact, a distinctly barbarian original­
ity. The total absence of natural representations bespeaks the persistence of prehistoric
idiosyncrasies.
If we disregard the coarse clay figurines of animals and women, which resemble those
found throughout the Near East and elsewhere at widely differing periods, we may
say that the earliest works of representational art in Anatolia arc die copper deer and
oxen of plate 123. They were found at Hiiyiik, east of Ankara, in tombs richly
equipped with weapons, ornaments, and gold vases. The objects in our plate seem to
have been fastened to the top of poles, and are therefore called standards.6 Some of them
arc open-work disks; others are diamond-shaped and show swastikas instead of the usual
criss-cross pattern. Small disks or diamond-shaped pendants are sometimes attached to
the outer edge. In some cases a stag or a bull pierces the disk which surrounds it like a
halo (Plate 123D). It is evident that the relation between animal and disk is a close one,
for even where the beast is omitted, the disk is mounted upon a pair of horns (Plate
123c). Where, however, there is no disk, the animal stands within a circular band (Plate
I23b); and where even this frame was absent (Plate 123D) separate standards with disks

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