History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
* The remains of the palace of the city of the Pterians, the
present Euyuk, are probably later than the reign of Tiglath-
pileser, and may be attributed to the Xth or IXth century
before our era; they, however, probably give a very fair
idea of what the towns of the Cappadocian region were like
at the time of the first Assyrian invasions.
[Illustration: 216.jpg GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF EUYUK]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
[Illustration: 217.jpg THE SPHINX ON THE RIGHT OF EUYUK]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
Two colossal sphinxes guard the gateway of the principal edifice,
and their presence proves with certainty how predominant was Egyptian
influence even at this considerable distance from the banks of the Nile.
They are not the ordinary sphinxes, with a human head surmounting the
body of a lion couchant on its stone pedestal; but, like the Assyrian
bulls, they are standing, and, to judge from the Hathorian locks which
fall on each side of their countenances, they must have been intended
to represent a protecting goddess rather than a male deity. A remarkable
emblem is carved on the side of the upright to which their bodies are
attached; it is none other than the double-headed eagle, the prototype
of which is not infrequently found at Telloh in Lower Chaldæa, among
remains dating from the time of the kings and vicegerents of Lagash.
[Illustration: 218.jpg TWO BLOCKS COVERED WITH BAS-RELIEFS IN THE EUYUK
PALACE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
The court or hall to which this gate gave access was decorated with
bas-reliefs, which exhibit a glaring imitation of Babylonian art; we can
still see on these the king, vested in his long flowing robes, praying
before an altar, while further on is a procession of dignitaries
following a troop of rams led by a priest to be sacrificed; another
scene represents two individuals in the attitude of worship, wearing
short loin-cloths, and climbing a ladder whose upper end has an
uncertain termination, while a third person applies his hands to his
mouth in the performance of some mysterious ceremony; beyond these are
priests and priestesses moving in solemn file as if in the measured
tread of some sacred dance, while in one corner we find the figure of a
woman, probably a goddess, seated, holding in one hand a flower, perhaps
the full-blown lotus, and in the other a cup from which she is about to
drink. The costume of all these figures is that which Chaldæan fashion
had imposed upon the whole of Western Asia, and consisted of the long
heavy robe, falling from the shoulders to the feet, drawn in at the
waist by a girdle; but it is to be noted that both sexes are shod with
the turned-up shoes of the Hittites, and that the women wear high peaked
caps.
[Illustration: 219.jpg MYSTIC SCENE AT EUYUK]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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