Page 197 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO:
the PERIPHERAL regions

in the first paragraph of
ihis sceUQn the bh-hilani is peculiar to north Syrian buildings
mentnrTT ^ I*®™ 0lfCrVC in McsoPot:»™ a somewhat similar arrange­
ment picvails. In the Assyrian palaces the standard reception suiteconsists likewise of
two long, narrow rooms with their main axis parallel to the %ade and a staircase ad-
jomrng the first room. But tins last is not here an antechamber, but the most important

Figure So. The Upper Palace, Zin^irli

room, and in palaces the throne room, as is proved by the niche with the throne base
before it.21 There are no pillars here, but there are often three doors. In contrast it is
equally certain that in north Syrian buildings the second room was the more important
of the two. In the Upper Palace of Zin^irh (Figure 80) die portico (6) of one bit-
hilani is provided with flagstones leading up to the entrance of the second room (7). In
the other bit-hilani the importance of the second room (2) is demonstrated by the orna­
mental pivot stones of its doors, on the Assyrian model, and by two stone ‘rails’ let into
the pavement, upon which a movable iron hearth on bronze wheels, a veritable fire
wagon, could be conveyed.22 When, on the other hand, an Assyrian palace was built in
Svria, at Arslan Tash (Figure 36), the same distinctive features - rails for the hcartli and
;
ornamental pivot stones - marked the first room, not the second, as the most important 1
£ the private apartments.23 The differences between the Assyrian and north Syrian
■
therefore, at least as important as the common features. They can hardly go
plans are, die differentiation already existed at die beginning
back to a common prototype, since l
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