Page 174 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE LEVANT IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C.
toilet vase with a, handle shaped like a duck’s head and neck; Hittitc influence by a frag­
mentary inlay with a griffin bearing a lion’s head on its breast (see above, p. 131) and by
a disk with the ‘signe royal’;48 Aegean influence by the handle of a small tool with a
Mycenaean scroll pattern.49 Most of these ivories were found in the palace of king Niq-
mepa who acknowledged Shaushattar of Mitanni (about 145° b.c.) as his overlord.50
There was, apparently, no sculpture in stone of the quality of the head of Yarimhm.
The pieces which survive do not possess any common features. A statue of King Idrimi
of Alalakh bears an important historical inscription which covers most of the figure but
is a most clumsy and primitive piece of carving.51 If it had not been for the text it would
probably have been ascribed to the third millennium. At Tell Fekkeriyah, near Tell
Halaf, on the Kliabur, two alabaster statuettes painted red were found which arc equally
primitive but quite dissimilar to Idrimi’s statue.52 And at Alalakh, in Niqmepa’s palace,
a number of small stone figures turned up, so coarse that they seem mere fetishes.53
These heterogeneous works represent the unaided attempts of the Syrians. There was no
native tradition of stone carving comparable with those of the minor arts, especially
work in metal and in ivory. But a single headless statue found at Ras Shamra betrays
Mesopotamian influence in the composition. The feet are placed together, and on either
side stone is left standing between the base of the statue and the lower edge of the gar­
ment, so that the figure is strengthened and less likely to snap at the weakest place, about
the ankles. The dress consists of a mantle or shawl with a very heavy edge, a covering
well known from seals and bronzes (Plate 142).
Architecture in north Syria possessed a sound tradition, and the palace of Niqmepa
continued in the style of Yarimlim’s architects, although it dispensed with terraces built
at different levels (Figure 67). It used wood, moreover, in' a most lavish fashion, proof
of die abundance of timber on the Amanus, and on the hills in the plain of Antioch
which are now so sadly deforested. The building stands on stone foundations; the lower
parts of the walls, up to almost three feet, consisting of coursed rubble outside and basalt
orthostats within. Next follows a construction of wood and bricks: beams, sometimes
as much as a foot in diameter, are laid flush with the inner and outer faces of the walls,
and support short timbers lying across the wall at intervals of two to four feet. The inter­
stices are filled with sun-dried bricks. These are followed by more beams supporting
timbers, and so on. This use of wood is extravagant and out of all proportion to its use-
fulness. The mode of construction was invisible, for the wall was plastered, but it sur-
vived atTellTayanat, the eighth-century successor to Alalakh, and also at Zin^rli (p. 169
and Figure 83 below).
The plan shows two distinct parts: a main section (rooms 1-10), and a later addition,
built as a separate unit round the north and east sides of the main building and accessible
only through the latter. The forecourt of the palace was irregular because of the older
buildings round it. One entered it from the north-west corner, and followed a path of
baked bricks which would not get slippery and muddy in rainy weather like the remain­
ing stamped-clay floor of the court. The palace entrance was a portico with two columns
on limestone bases, placed at the top of a short flight of steps. To the right was a
guardroom through which one entered the annexe of die palace. To the left another

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