Page 168 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE LEVANT IN TPIE SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C.
workmanship, but it was found in a tomb in Egypt, where a
man with the Semitic name of Abd was buried; and the in­
scription on the handle names the Hyksos king Apcpi and his
retainer. The handle aptly illustrates the permanence of the
Syrian style of design, which arose when Egypt dominated the
Levant, and continued after the collapse of the Middle King­
dom, when the Asiatic Hyksos overran Egypt, in the eighteenth
century b.c. a
But in north Syria the decline of Egypt created a vacuum
which was filled by an intensification of the age-old influence of
Mesopotamia. Its impact can be observed with particular clarity
at Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, situated in the plain of Antioch
at the point where the road from Aleppo to the coast crosses the
Orontes.32 ^s/wv\
A palace was founded at this site by one Yarimlim, who was B
in correspondence with Hammurabi of Babylon and Zimrilim '/m
of Mari (Figure 62). It rose on tliree terraces above the town,
and is more interesting as a link in the chain of architectural
developments than because of its intrinsic value. There is little Figure 61. Dagger hilt,
purposeful planning. It lacks monumentality and is essentially ^rom ^a<l<Iara
an elaborate dwelling. But in the northern part we find for
the first time basalt orthostats used as a revetment for the lowest part of the walls, a
usage found later in Anatolian Hittitc and in Assyrian buildings. The door-sills, too,
were made of basalt. Wood was extensively employed to strengthen the mud-brick
upper portions of the walls and also for door-frames and for the pillars in the colonnade
between two rooms (5 and 5a on the plan). By all these devices the northern part of the
palace was adapted to the representative functions of kingship. The southern part, on the

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FEET

Figure 62. The palace of Yarimlim, Tell Atchana
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