Page 167 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO: THE PERIPHERAL
REGIONS
an Asiatic origin. Silver vessels were

m Upper Egypt One of these* has a handle like that of the famous gold cups from
Vaplno in the Peloponnese. But there are no exact Aegean parallels for the other vessels
and the hoard as a whole is perhaps best explained as tribute scut from Asia. Like the
cup from Byblos, these vessels would merely reflect Aegean influence on the Levant.”
The uncertainty attaching to the homeland of Aegean derivations is emphasized by
the large number of indubitable imitations of Egyptian objects. In the same tomb at
Byblos which contained the silver vessels, was found a breast-plate of sheet gold which
follows the pattern of the Egyptian ‘broad collar \ When such collars were worn by the
living, they consisted of separate strands of beads and pendants held together by a falcon-
head clasp ’ at cidier end. In sheet gold they were put round the necks of mummies,26
but those from Byblos differ in certain details - the feathering of die big falcons* faces,
and the objects held by the smaller falcon, and must, therefore, have been made locally.
The methods of design of the Byblite goldsmiths can be followed clearly on a dagger
widi a hilt and sheath of embossed and engraved sheet gold (Figure 60). The fig ure on

Figure 60. Gold dagger and sheath, from Byblos

the hilt strikes one as Egyptian in general appearance. Yet it could not be matched on
any genuinely Egyptian monument.27 Not only its excessive slenderness but also the ab­
sence of sceptres or other attributes in its hands is un-Egyptian. The crown recalls the
‘White Crown’ of Pharaoh, but lacks its globular ending; in this case the difference is
not a result of careless copying, since we know that a tall head-dress with a flat flower-
like top was used in Syria.28 Whether this itself represents an imitation of die ‘White
Crown* is another question.29
The design on the sheath includes one unmistakable Egyptian motif: the baboon held
on a rope by a kneeling man. It occurs already in tombs of the Old Kingdom. The dress
of all the men, a short kilt, and also their short hair and beardless faces are derived from
commonplace of design all over the
Egypt, not from Syria. The Hon and antelope is a ...
ancient Near East. The man on the donkey is exceptional, perhaps a native invention;
he carries, at any rate, a scimitar, which is a native weapon. This mounted figur e con-
veniently fills the widest part of the sheath, as the fish fits into its narrow end.
Another example of Syrian metal-work (Figure 6i)» is closely related, on die one
hand to the dagger we have just discussed and, on the other, to the scimitars with bar-
£ L inlaid hieroglyphs from the Byblite tombs. The design on the hi t is convention-
r; Wing-scene, but is evidently composed with an exclusive regard for
o! surface. There can be no doub. rha, rhis dagger, of Syna,

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