Page 284 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

NOTES
15. The building is so badly preserved that we 20. So called by Gordon Loud, Revue d'Assyrio- p. 168
cannot be certain. See Woolley and Barnett, Car- logic, xxxm (1936), 153-60; idem, Kliorsabad, ir, 11
chemish, ill (London, 1952), 179-184, and plates 38- and plate 86.
2i. Hence our reconstruction of the palace at
41.
16. Bittcl and Naumann, Boghazkdy, n, 18-20 '» Tell Asmar (Figure 19), where the stairs likewise arc
have tentatively reconstructed fragmentary foun- joined to the first rooms. The palace of Mari has a
dadons of a building in Boghazkcuy to tally with throne base in the first room, but no stairs adjoining
the plan described in our text. The actual remains it.
shown, op. cit. plate iii, simply present an oblong 22. Remains of such a wagon have been found
central hall or court surrounded by rooms - an at Tell Halaf. (See M. von Oppenheim, Tell Halaf,
almost ubiquitous arrangement in Near Eastern plate lviii(b), and Naumann, Tell Halaf, 11, plate
architecture. The remains in no way recall the I2> 45 ff.)
peculiar North Syrian plan, and would never have 2^ This is established Assyrian usage. At Kliorsa-
been reconstructed to agree with one, but for the kacj tjircc stone slabs were let into the floor of the
belief in continuity between north Syrian and tlironcroom (Loud,Kliorsabad,:, 56 ff.). AtNimrud
Hittitc architecture. It has been shown that the the throne room had stone rails (Layard, Nineveh
word hilani comes from the Hittitc and means gate and its Remains, 11, 14 ff and plan 4). The dironc
house (Joh. Friedrich, in Zeitsemift Jiir Assyrio- r0oms were the first rooms reached from the court,
logic, xxxvn, 179; A. Goetze, op. cit., xli, 246. as was room xxiv in thc Assyrian palace at Til
Bossert, Archiv fur Oricntforsclmng, ix (i933~34), Barsip, which also had stone rails for a hearth
127), has drawn attention to the shape of the
(Thurcau Dangin ct ai, Til Barsip, plan B).
hieroglyph which seems to stand for this *bit- 24. R. Naumann, Tell Halaf, 11, figures 23-4; 40. p. 169
hilani*; it shows a gate house with a round door­
way and a window in the wall above it. There 25. American Journal of Archaeology, xli (1937),
figure 5.
arc no columns, and the sign confirms that the
typical north Syrian building which the Assyrians 26. Bittcl and Gutcrbock, Klcinfunde aus Bog-
(and we after them) call bit-hilani has no connexion hazkoy, plates 2, 3; E. Akurgal, Spathcthitische
with Anatolian architecture, but was evolved in Bildkunst, figures 27-9.
Syria and only1' named there, as it seems, with a 27. Antiquaries’ Journal, xxx (1950), plate vi. It
Hittitc word meaning gate or gate house. One may was out of place when found,
object to our use of the term bit-hilani for the whole 28. F. von Luschan, Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli
of the north Syrian palace with its two long rooms (Koniglichc Musccn in Berlin, Mittheilungen aus
and portico, but it is convenient, since we need a den oricntalischcn Sammlungcn, xi-xiv, Berlin,
designation for this distinctive type of building. The j 893-1911).
extensive literature on the subject is quoted by 29. hi thc foreground of figure 81 are two per- p. 170
Bossert, loc. cit, n. 1.
forated stones closed with stoppers; these closed a
17. These various arrangements can also be ob­ drain which took off water rushing downhill
served in the north-west complex of the Citadel, during a rainstorm through a channel constructed
where the layout is more complicated since Barre- underneath the pavement of thc gate.
kub added bit-hilani K, and outbuildings L to the
30. Landsberger, Sanial, p. 50, n. 128, assigns it p. 171
existing bit-hilani J of Kilamuva, which was in some to Kilamuva on thc strength of thc building inscrip­
way which cannot be ascertained (denudation
below level of doorsteps) connected with a square tion of Barrekub.
building behind it. See Von Luschan, Ausgrabungen 31. F. von Luschan, Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli,
in Sendschirli, plate L. 259, sees in them a Men’s Lodge and a Women’s
.
r
,
18. Naumann, in a very thorough study of the Lodge. At Arslan Tash, too, there were two sepa-
,
extant bases and ancient representations of columns ratC SlUtCS SltUatcd at thc COmCr °f a COUrt ( our
(Jahrbuch Jiir kleinasiatischc Forschung, 11 (1953), %urc 36)-
246-61), concludes that columns of the Cretan 32. Von Luschan, op. cit.s 135.
type, wider at the top than at thc base, survived in 33* Von Luschan deduces the original position of
some north Syrian buildings in thc ninth century the building-inscriptions in a manner which seems
B.C., thus establishing another link with thc second to me quite unexceptional: Ausgrabungen in Send-*
millennium. schirli, 377.
ip- See above, p. 147.
34. These arc seen in thc detailed plan, Von
255