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
If these bronzes are to be regarded as the highest efforts of Hittite
metallurgic work, it is not to be regretted that they are few in number.
But it is quite different with the engraved gems which we now know to
have been of Hittite workmanship. Many of them are exceedingly fine; a
hæmatite cylinder, for instance, which was discovered at Kappadokia, is
equal to the best products of Babylonian art. The gems and cylinders
were for the most part intended to be used as seals, and some of them
are provided with handles cut out of the stone, the seal itself having
designs on four, and sometimes on five faces. These handles seem to be a
peculiarity of Hittite art, or at least of the art which derived its
inspiration from that of the Hittites. Another peculiarity noticeable in
many of the gems, consists in enclosing the inner field of the engraved
design with one or more concentric circles, each circle containing an
elaborate series of ornaments or figures, or even characters, though the
characters are usually placed in the central field. Thus two gems have
been found at Yuzghât, in Kappadokia, so much alike, that they must have
been the work of the same artist. On the larger an inscription has been
engraved in the centre, round which runs a circle containing a large
number of beautifully-executed figures. The winged solar disk rests upon
the symbol of 'kingship,' on either side of which kneels a figure, half
man and half bull. On the right and left is the figure of a standing
priest, behind whom we see on the left a man adoring what seems to be
the stump of a tree, while on the right are a tree, two arrows and a
quiver, a basket, a stag's head, and a seated deity, above whose hand
is a bird. The two groups are separated by the picture of a boot--the
symbol, it may be, of the earth--which rests, like the winged solar
disk, on the symbol of royalty. The smaller seal has a different
inscription in the centre, encircled by two rings, one containing a row
of ornaments, and the other the same figures as those engraved on the
larger seal, excepting only that the arrangement of the figures has been
changed, and a tree introduced among them. What is curious, however, is
that a gem has been found at Aidin, far away towards the western
extremity of Asia Minor, containing a central inscription almost
identical with that of the smaller Yuzghât seal, though the figures
which surround it are not the same.
These circular seals must be regarded not only as characteristic of
Hittite art, but also as a product of Hittite invention. We meet with
nothing resembling them in Babylonia or Assyria.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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