Page 283 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

NOTES
„ " Tmadnms‘b c- «»* they rcfcr to ethnic and scribe came not from the Phoenician cities bet
Sai’ ^ Sro«ps- Sidney Smith, ‘The Greek Trade from the Assyrian Court. He rightly observes’ that
at A1 Mina (Ant,queries’ Journal, xxn (1942), Kilamuva is dressed in every detail like an Assyrian
nS trH fern T r r“C°^UrartrV,er 7‘ Thc «««* thorough atte.np! ^
north S> na from about 780-750 B.c. brought thc made by Ekrcm Akurgal (sec above 129, n ,7)
nl toTT rl d“‘ Hlttirs an,d Hl,r" who however, not allowed his belief in eon-
nans to thc tore. This may be so, but the new tinuity to illflllcIlcc his cxccilcnt formal ana,
sculpture started, at Tell I-Ialaf and Zin^irh, 1.1 thc his Spiilhellnlischc Bildkunst he postulates an ‘Alt-
ninth century, and there is little reason to call it spathcthitischc Stufc’ as a transition between
Human even though motifs used in Mitamii (and impCrial and north Syrian art. He assigned to this
111 Middle Assyrian) art arc frequent. For Mitan- thc Lion Gate at Malatya, and thc reliefs from thc
man art was dependent on that of Mesopotamia, water-gate at Carchcmish. Yet lie has shown more
Thc Hurrians (like thc Aramaeans and thc Indo- systematically than anyone else that thc Lion Gate
Europeans) arrived without arts of their own. (See and its reliefs have close affinities with imperial
also ^ below, 11. 41 (p. 256).) When Landsberger, Hittitc art, and if we accept thc consequences of
Sam al, 1, insists that an analysis of thc art should his argument to thc full and assign them to thc
lead to a distinction between ‘Hettitertmn and thirteenth century b.c. (as we have done), there is
‘Hcltitischc Rcichskultur’, lie asks for thc impos- nothing to substantiate the ‘Bliitczcit’ of this
sible, as is clear, for instance, on his pp. 33> 34>u. 68, transitional stage which was alleged to fall between
35 or on p. 9S, where thc 4 Volkstum* he wants to 12oo and 900 b.c. For Akurgal observes that thc
dcfmc lacks all substance. Hittitc culture was not thc other works assigned to this stage show a mixture
sole product of thc Hittitc-spcaking subjects of thc Qf features, some belonging to this, some to thc next
king; it has never yet been possible to translate into (Mittclspathcthitischc Stufc; see, e.g., p. 140; and
y
a cogent argument thc common feeling that certain p. for Zin<;irli). This really means that thc
groups of people are predisposed to one rather than ‘Altspathethitischc Stufc’ is a mere abstraction
another style. Landsberger’s wish to see an4 aprioris- which isolates thc clumsier features of north
tische Erkenntnis dcr Volkstiimcr aus den Kunststilen Syrian art of thc ninth and eighth century. But one
calls up a cliimacra unless one translates Volkstum caimot project features thus isolated into thc
by culture. I say this without denying that some vacuum of thc dark ages. Moreover, thc alternative
such predisposition may exist; but if it does, it is Hittitc or Assyrian ’ docs not exhaust thc possible
one of the imponderabilia of historical develop­ sources of north Syrian sculpture, nor do we need
ment. Sec my Birth of Civilization in the h'ear East to refer to Urartu or other foreign countries
,
R T 1 1
(London and Bloomington, Indiana, 1951). (r37 £)• If it is true that thc stimulus to seek plastic
p. 166 5. . an s Ct ger, Sam al, 1, 13 ffi, 26 ffi, ex- expression derived from Assvria, it is also true that
plains this continuity by assuming that north it led to a sudden outburst of native carving, with
) na \\ as occupied by Luvians, a people from varying degrees of success, as will be shown in thc
south-west Anatolia who spoke a language closely text. Thc lions of Alalakh (plate 151, c and d)
related to Hittitc, and it is this language which is and thc sarcophagus of Aliirain of Byblos (figure
written in the hieroglyphs. These Luvians allegedly 76) show similar local efforts of an earlier age. On
moved south-eastwards as part of thc great migra- the relatively late date of thc water-gate at Car­
rion of thc 4Peoples of thc Sea’. Even for Lands- chemish see 165.
berger these Luvians are, however, a ‘provisional’ S. Thureau-Dongin, Barrois, Dossin, Dunand,
and4 heuristic’concept (op. cit. 14, n. 29, 30). Sidney Arsian Tash, plates iii and vi.
Smith (op. cit 93) also ascribes the use of hiero- Q ^ latcs iv and v.
, c .
^
odvphs in norm Syria to Anatolians driven soudi- 10. On a pifiar base,Syrw(i9-6;» plate 11,figure jO.
timin'-rf
nu •
c
1
1 •
5 ' j l
ward bv thc Pnrveians rather than to a heritage of r p. 167
Imperial Hittitc rule in north Syria. ^ “• Arsla" Tash> PktcS «■ X’^ . /D .
6. Neither inscription is in Aramaean, which does 12. A. Dupont-Sommer, Lt.> -
not seem to have become a written language before of which onJv [he foundations
finoE c Kaparuusesa barbancAssvnan (Meissner, m DUU ; • 1:1
Aus fiinf Jahrtausciiden morgenlandischer Kultiir, Bei- ar_4 preserved the staircaae appears aa a so
heft no I Archiv fur Orientforschung. 72-S). Kila- ot masonry, bo at Zmfirli (figure 148).
inuva’s inscription is in Phoenician, and it has been 14. Plan in Garsrang, hie Hrttiu ■ upm, -
sed bv Landsberger, Sam’al, 1, 45 if., that die figure 29-
suppo
254