Page 214 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

ARAMAEANS AND PHOENICIANS IN SYRIA
The funerary stele of the queen of Zin$irli98 is closely related to the relief of plate 162.
The lady is shown at table, a servant with side-locks waving his fly-whisk over the
dishes. She holds a drinking-cup, like the statues found in the tomb chapels at Tell Halaf
(Plate 158c). A number of tomb steles have been found at various places, especially at
Marash.99 They arc often crude works, showing the dead at table, with cups in their
hands, and sometimes associated with other persons or objects. A woman may support
her child on her knee, a pomegranate in one hand and a lute in the other. In figure 91
the two women hold pomegranates, the smaller one (possibly the daughter) a mirror,
the man an car of corn and a cup. The man’s facial type, and the way in which he has
dressed liis hair and beard, shows that the Aramaeans were well established even at the
very foot of the Taurus Mountains. The car of corn, and probably the pomegranates, are
symbols of resurrection or rejuvenation which we have not, so far, met in Syria.
The relief of plate 164 shows that the influence of north Syrian art had penetrated
even beyond the Taurus range.100 In this relief, which is eighteen feet high and was cut
in the rocks near Ivriz, King Urpallu of Tyana stands before the god Sandas. Both
figures have the stocky build, the curved nose, fleshy nostrils, large eyes, and abundant
hair which distinguish the Assyrians, and suggest a strong Armenoid strain in the popula­
tion. When the Aramaeans are depicted in the same manner, the question arises whether
their physical appearance resembled that of the Assyrians or whether it is merely due to

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Figure 91. Tomb stone, from Marash

the training of their sculptors. The rock relief of Ivriz poses that question even more in­
sistently; for there were certainly no Assyrians and perhaps no Aramaeans in this region.
It has been said that we have at Ivriz an example of early Phrygian art.101 Urpallu is
known to have made submission to Tiglathpilesar III in 738 B.c., and in 690 b.c. the
Phrygians were ruined by the invasion of the Cimmerians from the north. The king’s
robe is certainly not Assyrian nor Hittite nor Aramaean. The god Sandas retains modi­
fied features of Hittite dress: the shoes with upturned toes, the tunic with the peculiar
stylization of the lower edge which elsewhere characterizes Hittite costume (e.g. Plate
133B), and a pointed cap surrounded by two bands to which horns are attached. He holds

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