Page 221 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART TWO: THE PERIPHERAL REGIONS
iffcrs from that of the Phoenicians; it is more crisp and tight. But it could possibly be
argued that tbs contrast is due, not to locality, but to period; for here we are dealine
with the earliest ivories. However that may be, the designs on the boxes arc related to
the two open-work plaques found at Hamad« Here, too, the flame-like design occurs
on the hind legs of struggling sphinxes and butting bulls flanking a ‘sacred tree’. But the
relief is shallower and finer than that of the boxes, and the layer in which they were
found belongs to the eighth century. Either the plaques of Hama were antiques when
they were buried, or the stylization of the thigh muscles is not a safe indication of a
ninth-century date. The subjects of decoration of the unguent boxes have no parallel
among later Phoenician ivories and recall themes widely used in the Levant during the
second millennium. The enthroned figure which receives food to the sound of the small
orchestra of plate 167B144 recurs on the Megiddo ivories (Figure 75), and, without the
musicians, at Byblos (Figure 76) and at Beth Pcleth in Palestine. The struggles with
animals are popular at Ras Shamra (Figure 68) and at Enkomi in Cyprus (Plate 149B).
The box with the musicians bears on its edge ‘remains of Phoenician or Aramaean let­
ters’.145 It is perhaps most likely that the boxes were made somewhere to the north of
Phoenicia proper.
Some ivories, found in Syria, but at an unknown place, may be tentatively placed in
the ninth century b.c. also (Plate 167A).146 They differ from all other groups, and include
a number of inlays which seem to have been directly fitted into the wood rather than
forming part of a complete plaque. But the sphinxes with dowel-holes above and below
belonged, apparently, to a piece of furniture, distantly recalling those of figure 112, at
least by the cast of their features. They are exceptionally well modelled in the round.
The ivory is stained red and some pieces show traces of gilding.
Among the ivories discovered at Arslan Tash the fine figure of plate 168c was found
so close to the bed of Hazael (see p. 190 above) that it probably formed part of it. It
differs greatly from all the other plaques, but its setting of entwined papyrus stems would
not be strange in Phoenician work.147 Other pieces fotmd near it (Plate i68a and b) are
so close to the ivories from Khorsabad that they cannot be separated from them by 100
years without some compelling reason.148 . -
It is possible that the graceful frieze of palm-trees is also earlier than the majority o
the ivories, since it was found only at Samaria and at Arslan Tash (Figure 93) an at

Frieze of palm-trees, ivory inlays from Arslan Tash
. Figure 93-
192