The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empireSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empire
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Hittites
It was a warm and sunny September morning when I left the little town of
Nymphi near Smyrna with a strong escort of Turkish soldiers, and made my
way to the Pass of Karabel. The Pass of Karabel is a narrow defile, shut
in on either side by lofty cliffs, through which ran the ancient road
from Ephesos in the south to Sardes and Smyrna in the north. The Greek
historian Herodotos tells us that the Egyptian conqueror Sesostris had
left memorials of himself in this place. 'Two images cut by him in the
rock' were to be seen beside the roads which led 'from Ephesos to
Phokaea and from Sardes to Smyrna. On either side a man is carved, a
little over three feet in height, who holds a spear in the right hand
and a bow in the left. The rest of his accoutrement is similar, for it
is Egyptian and Ethiopian, and from one shoulder to the other, right
across the breast, Egyptian hieroglyphics have been cut which declare:
"I have won this land with my shoulders."'
These two images were the object of my journey. One of them had been
discovered by Renouard in 1839, and shortly afterwards sketched by
Texier; the other had been found by Dr. Beddoe in 1856. But visitors to
the Pass in which they were engraved were few and far between; the
cliffs on either side were the favourite haunt of brigands, and thirty
soldiers were not deemed too many to protect my safety. My work of
exploration had to be carried on under the shelter of their guns, for
more than twenty bandits were lurking under the brushwood above.
The sculpture sketched by Texier had subsequently been photographed by
Mr. Svoboda. It represents a warrior whose height is rather more than
life-size, and who stands in profile with the right foot planted in
front of him, in the attitude of one who is marching. In his right hand
he holds a spear, behind his left shoulder is slung a bow, and the head
is crowned with a high peaked cap. He is clad in a tunic which reaches
to the knees, and his feet are shod with boots with turned-up ends. The
whole figure is cut in deep relief in an artificial niche, and between
the spear and the face are three lines of hieroglyphic characters. The
figure faces south, and is carved on the face of the eastern cliff of
Karabel.
It had long been recognised that the hieroglyphics were not those of
Egypt, and Professor Perrot had also drawn attention to the striking
resemblance between the style of art represented by this sculpture and
that represented by certain rock-sculptures in Kappadokia, as well as by
the sculptured image of a warrior discovered by himself at a place
called Ghiaur-kalessi, 'the castle of the infidel,' in Phrygia, which is
practically identical in form and character with the sculptured warrior
of Karabel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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