Page 225 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PAUT two: the peripheral
REGIONS
they brought before me in Babylon and they kissed my feet.’™ It was ashrewd and pru­
dent act, and they no doubt arranged for a stele of Sargon inscribed with the words just
quoted to be set up in their lands, but it would be quite wrong to suppose that the event
made a change in the relations between Cyprus and Phoenicia.
The discoverers of the Arslan Tash ivories assigned them to ‘ un artPhcnico-Chypriot’,
but tins term merely evades the issue, which is to know whether Phoenicia or Cyprus

[

Figure 94. Gold bracelet, from Cyprus

was the original home of tliis hybrid art. I have given some reasons why I consider
Phoenicia their land of origin, and other reasons will appear as we proceed. Meanwhile
the gold bracelet of figure 94 may serve as an emblem of the artistic links between
Cyprus and Phoenicia; for the pattern of the four main elements of the bracelet has been
called the ‘ Cypriot palmette’, and it certainly was much in evidence on the island, being
even used for the capitals of stone pilasters (Figure 95).179 But it is also a standard design

^uniiiiiniiiiiiiiiininmun.
j n 1 t 7 j n 1 u i n 7 ] i miiniiniT
wMyuui 111n Tin11111) 11111 j n u ] 111) v

Figure 95. Cypriote capital of a pilaster
on the Phoenician ivories: it encloses the griffins of pl«c 17M and the infantHorns on an
from Samaria'« and forms part of the 'sacred tree’ on many of them - for m
tvory ’ equally common on Phoenician bowls, for instance figure 97-
Stance m plant Idto. ^ Jctually folmi Cyprus; an older group »
These beo S where Uyard discovered them in the north-west palace, the co
rent™/wU* date » the reign of Sargon. It is quire possible that older p.eces were

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