History of Ancient Art Part 3

The ruins of Hillah, Casr, Mudjelibeh, and Jumjuma give even less information concerning the palace buildings than the hill of Bors-Nimrud does concerning the form of the Chaldaean temple. These ma.s.ses of masonry have for centuries served as quarries, and, as far distant as Bagdad, bricks, bearing the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar, betray that the material has been transported from the ruins of Babylon. Though the supply is by no means exhausted, this excavation has rendered much unrecognizable, and has so greatly increased the destruction that Layard held it impossible to discover a clew to the plan of the palace structure in the confusion of its overthrown and rifled rubbish. Oppert a.s.sumes the hill of Jumjuma, or Amran-ibn-Ali, as it is called from the Mohammedan chapel now standing upon it, to be the remains of the celebrated Hanging Gardens known as those of Semiramis, the wonder of the ancient world.

But, plausible as his supposition is, it will hardly be possible to prove by existing remains the correctness of the description given by Diodoros of the Hanging Gardens, in itself more probable than the report followed by Strabo. Diodoros speaks of the Gardens as a terraced structure, the side of the square plan being about 120 m. in length, with separate steps which ascended from the land side, while upon the banks of the river a steep wall formed the back of the highest terrace, measuring 15 m. vertically, and closing the gardens towards the water.

The steps were constructed by the help of thirteen thick parallel walls, each being higher than the one next below it. They left between them twelve narrow corridors, the ceilings of which, like those over a.s.syrian ca.n.a.ls, were probably vaulted, and were then covered with rushes and bitumen, burnt brick pavements and lead sheathing, so as to bear the stairways which connected the different terraces, the reservoirs for cascades and fountains, and the imposed garden--earth with large trees, etc. Pumping works in the highest of these covered corridors supplied the garden with the necessary water from the Euphrates.

The ruined terraces of Mudjelibeh (Babil), avoided by the Arabs as the scene of the punishment of the fallen angels, are so completely overthrown that it is not possible to determine whether the remains are those of a temple or of a palace. It is probable that they had some connection with the great pyramidal tomb of Belus, a structure which may be a.s.sumed to have been much like the stepped pyramid of Nimrud to be described below. The monument of Mudjelibeh was destroyed as early as the time of Xerxes II. It has since served as a quarry for the neighboring cities Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and has been demolished to the lowest terrace.

The enormous river embankments and dikes which protected Lower Mesopotamia from flood and drought, though now only to be traced by inconsiderable remains, are of the greatest importance and interest. The neglect of these invaluable works, and of the sluices and irrigating ca.n.a.ls in connection with them, has reduced to a deserted and pestilential swamp that most fertile land known to Herodotos--where once a harvest of two and three hundredfold was returned to the tiller of the soil. Though there are vestiges of some ancient bridges in the land, it is not possible to decide whether the account given by Diodoros of the great tunnel constructed by Semiramis be true or fabulous.

There seems to have been no reason for the erection of such tall edifices in the vastly extended Babylon as the three and four storied houses described by Herodotos, and no a.n.a.logy to such a peculiarity exists in the great modern cities of the Orient. It must be remembered in this connection that the crumbling bricks to which the Mesopotamians were restricted would, in such high buildings, have demanded clumsily ma.s.sive substructures and lower-story walls.

Though the ruins of Babylon have only recently been thoroughly examined, their existence has long been known. Benjamin of Tudela speaks of Bors-Nimrud as the Biblical Tower of Babel, and this local tradition has been handed down to the present day. The palace ruins of the great city have always been readily recognizable, and the one has been called Babel, the other Casr (palace), from time immemorial.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 42.--Plan of Babylon. (According to Rich.)]

It is otherwise with the second great centre of Mesopotamia--Nineveh, the famed capital of the kingdom of a.s.syria, in the upper land of the great streams. As early as the beginning of this century, Carsten Niebuhr expressed the conviction that the remains of the overthrown city were to be sought among the hills of rubbish which lie opposite the present Mosul, beyond the Tigris; but the energetic Rich, who devoted so much time and labor to the barren ruins of Babylon, paid no attention to the site. Nineveh had entirely disappeared, and was only traditionally known from the Book of Jonah and from the legend of Sardanapalos. It was during two visits to Mosul, in the years 1840 and 1842, that the eminent English traveller and statesman Sir A. H. Layard conceived the plan of undertaking investigations in the vicinity. He expressed his convictions at the time to the French consul, M. P. E. Botta, and in 1843 that gentleman commenced the excavation of the hill Coyundjic, which lay next to Mosul. The natives, becoming aware of the nature of the search, directed his attention to the hill of Corsabad, situated at a distance of about twenty-five kilometers from Mosul; the excavations were removed thither, and carried on with most gratifying results. A few days'

digging laid bare a number of walls reveted with huge slabs of alabaster. The wonderful sculptures in relief upon these excited redoubled activity, and soon entire chambers of the palace structure were freed from the overthrown rubbish which had covered it for well-nigh three thousand years. The French government purchased the entire village of Corsabad: in M. V. Place was provided a worthy successor to M. Botta. The inscriptions discovered have proved the ruins to be those of a palace founded by Sargon about 710 B.C. in the city Kisr-Sargon or Dur-Sargina.

In the year 1845, Layard obtained, through Sir Stratford Canning, then amba.s.sador to Turkey, the necessary means for the English government to take part in the promising undertaking. He at first directed his attention to Nimrud, a hill of ruins about a day's journey south of Mosul, the great size of which promised the existence of important remains. An immense terrace platform was there found to have supported a number of palaces, several of which were excavated, the more valuable sculptures and other objects of interest being transported to the British Museum. At Nimrud were discovered the most ancient and the most modern of a.s.syrian buildings known--namely, the northwestern palace, temple, and tower built by a.s.sur-n.a.z.i-pal shortly after 885 B.C., as well as the Temple of a.s.sur-ebil-ili, presumably the last a.s.syrian king, dating to about 610 B.C. Besides these, there were the southeastern and central palaces built by Shalmaneser II. after 860, the latter having been restored by Tiglath-pileser II., from 745 to 727, as Sargon rebuilt the northwestern palace after 722; and, finally, there was the southwestern palace of Esar-haddon, from 681 to 668 B.C. The city itself (Calah) corresponded in grandeur and extent with the palace terrace. It was founded by Shalmaneser, and long rivalled Nineveh, especially after its reconstruction by a.s.sur-n.a.z.i-pal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 43.--Plan of Nineveh.]

It is now beyond a doubt that the chief capital of the country is buried beneath the hills of Coyundjic and Nebbi-Jonas, the latter so called from a Mohammedan chapel to the prophet Jonah which traditionally marks the site of Nineveh. Both these mounds of ruins were examined by Layard.

In the southwestern palace of Coyundjic, built by a.s.sur-bani-pal, from 668 to 626 B.C., was discovered the most extensive among these dwellings of Oriental despots. The most elaborate of a.s.syrian palaces was the northern one of this site, built by a.s.sur-bani-pal about 640 B.C., a monarch who devoted certain chambers of the southwestern palace, originally erected by his grandfather, to the reception of inscribed clay tablets--an inexhaustible wealth for the study of a.s.syrian history, of which hardly a third part seems to have been recovered intact. In Nebbi-Jonas were found traces of the palaces of Vulnirari III., from 812 to 783; of Sennacherib, from 705 to 681; and of Esar-haddon, from 681 to 668 B.C. The line of the city walls, still recognizable among the hills of rubbish, is shown by the plan at _Fig._ 43. These fortifications could hardly have enclosed the entire city, and it is probable that only the inner town, with the palaces and public buildings, was thus protected, and that the dwelling-houses of the many inhabitants formed suburbs which extended far around the enclosed centre, gradually losing themselves in gardens and groves of date-trees, as is the case with modern capitals of the East. The comparatively small walls of Babylon, at variance with the report given by Herodotos, lead to the same conclusion in regard to that city.

The ruins of Calah-Shergat, situated about 100 kilometers down the stream from Nineveh, are identified with a.s.sur, the oldest capital of the land, which maintained its pre-eminence until Nineveh, in the fourteenth century B.C., became the great centre of power. Reson is thought to be recognized in the ruins of Selamiyeh, lying between Nimrud and Nineveh, and Erbil in Arbola. These sites have not been sufficiently examined to be of direct importance in the history of art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 44.--Palace of Kisr-Sargon, Corsabad.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 45.--Ornamented Pavement from the Northern Palace of Coyundjic.]

It is plain from the ruins already mentioned that the dwellings of the kings took the most prominent place among the creations of a.s.syrian architecture. The despotic element had in Mesopotamia the same superiority as the hierarchy in Egypt: in the former country the palace was as much in the foreground as was the temple in the latter. In ancient Chaldaea the two elements, and consequently the two cla.s.ses of monuments, were more equally represented. Still, in most points of view, the relation of Chaldaean and a.s.syrian architecture is very close, and the differences arose chiefly from the superior material at the builders' disposal in Upper Mesopotamia. The terraces of a.s.syria, like those of Chaldaea, were solidly constructed of sun-dried bricks and stamped earth, but the neighboring mountains provided stone for the complete revetment of these ma.s.ses with quarried blocks. Carefully hewn slabs existed upon the terrace platform of Sargon's palace, and upon the substructure of the pyramid of Nimrud, while there was rough Cyclopean stone-work employed in the construction of the city walls at Kisr-Sargon. The facing of brightly glazed tiles and stucco-paintings, universal in Chaldaea, is restricted upon a.s.syrian masonry of the same brick materials to the upper part of the wall, the lower half being sheathed and protected by sculptured slabs of alabaster. The appearance of the whole gained greatly by this change, the revetment of reliefs in place of the painted figures giving a more imposing and durable character to the walls. The palace architecture of a.s.syria is best exemplified by the plan of the royal dwelling of Kisr-Sargon (_Fig._ 44), the isolated position and clear disposition of which are adapted to show the general character of these structures. The platform terrace consisted of two divisions, the broader (P) being inside the limits of the city fortifications, while the remainder (T) projected beyond them.

A double flight of steps (A) led to the chief portal (B), ornamented by gigantic winged human-headed bulls, which here not only stood on the sides of the pa.s.sage itself, as at all princ.i.p.al entrances, but laterally upon the front walls, within and without. These figures are among the most characteristic creations of a.s.syrian art; they will be treated more in detail in the following consideration of the sculpture of the country. The triple gateway opened into the first and largest enclosed court (C). Upon the left of this, one narrow pa.s.sage led to the chambers of the harem, which were ranged around six smaller courts (D to H). Upon the right of the first enclosure were the household offices (J), with eight courts and numerous halls, magazines, kitchens, cellars, stables, etc. The side opposite the chief entrance was formed by the private apartments of the monarch (M) and by the great hall of the palace--a group of chambers not presenting its chief front to the first court (C), with which it was connected only by subordinate entrances--but to a second enclosure of almost equal extent (K), which may be regarded as the chief open s.p.a.ce of the royal dwelling. An inclined ascent (R) led to the right wing of the inner terrace, by which the king, approaching in a chariot or borne by attendants in a sedan-chair, could enter his seraglio without pa.s.sing the first court (C) or the entrance to the household offices (J). The encroaching line of the city wall (P) made it impossible for the portal to the second court (S) to be arranged in the central axis of that enclosure; but strict symmetry of plan was not adopted even when there were no such obstacles. The inner apartments of the king were entered by a magnificent triple gateway (L) from the court of the seraglio; these were, in certain measure, regularly planned, being so grouped around a smaller court (M) that oblong halls, as long as this was square, were upon three of its sides. The hall upon the south opens into a number of intricate chambers, probably used as baths, sleeping-apartments, and rooms for the immediate body-guards of the king and for the temporary families of the harem. Upon the north a wing was added to the building, projecting almost to the outer border of the terrace, and dividing this (T) into a northern and a western court. The addition was the most richly ornamented portion of the entire palace; it was probably here that the halls of reception were placed. The walls of other parts of the seraglio were reveted upon their lower part with sculptured slabs of alabaster; but this treatment was not elsewhere so freely applied, nor was it as richly decorated as in this northwestern wing. In the first hall, which is 35 m. long and 10 m. broad, the walls are ornamented with continuous scenes representing, as in a procession, the homage and punishment of prisoners-of-war. In other rooms and in smaller courts these reliefs, divided by a band of cuneiform inscriptions, are of smaller dimensions and less pretentious execution, though of marked interest as forming, with their copious inscriptions, chronicles of historical events.

The s.p.a.cious terrace at the west has in its centre an oblong hall (N), generally supposed to be the temple or chapel of the palace, but which may with more probability be considered as a hall of state. The scanty remains of this structure make a sure determination of its purpose impossible. They consist chiefly of the foundations of solid unburnt brick masonry, faced with slabs of black basalt. The cornice of this substructure is of gray limestone, in form much resembling the characteristic scotia of Egyptian architecture. (_Fig._ 46.)

A small terraced pyramid (O) at the southwest is a more remarkable structure. Four of its steps, with their facing of white, black, orange, and blue enamelled tiles, are still remaining. These lead, from a.n.a.logy with the pyramid of Borsippa, to the a.s.sumption of three further steps, tiled with the red, silver, and gold a.s.signed to the remaining planets.

The vertical panelling of the sides is somewhat similar to that of the remains at Warka; it is not here restricted to the walls of the lower terrace, like that upon the ruins of Mugheir and Borsippa. The square platform at the top of the terraces, the side of which could have measured little more than 10 m., received either an altar or a small cella, not longer than 6 m. Ascent to the top of the pyramid was provided by an inclined plane, which wound from step to step in a rectangular spiral. The destination of the pyramid as the palace chapel seems reasonably certain, from its similarity to other terraced temples of a.s.syria.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 46.--Cornice of the Temple Substructure at Corsabad.]

The palaces. .h.i.therto discovered show the greatest freedom of detailed arrangement. The variations among the plans may be ill.u.s.trated by a comparison of those of the northwestern palace of Nimrud (_Fig._ 47), the palace of Esarhaddon (_Fig._ 49), and of that of Sennacherib at Coyundjic. The methods of construction adopted for their erection are more similar. All have walls built of burnt or unburnt brick and of stamped clay; those of the larger chambers are reveted in their lower half with slabs of alabaster or with brightly enamelled tiles, and ornamented by paintings upon stucco above. All the princ.i.p.al halls are so narrow in proportion to their length as to resemble corridors--a peculiarity arising from technical difficulties of ceiling.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 47.--Plan of the Northwestern Palace of Nimrud.]

The manner of lighting and roofing adopted in a.s.syrian palaces is not directly evident from the existing remains; none of the walls, the highest of which reaches 9 m. above the ground, showing traces of any window-like openings. Some authorities a.s.sume that all the light of the interior was admitted through the doors. That this may, in some instances, have been barely possible is evident from the plan of Sargon's palace at Corsabad (_Fig._ 44), where the princ.i.p.al chambers were entered directly from the open courts, or, in exceptional instances, were preceded by narrow ante-rooms which could not greatly have interfered with the light. But it is plain from the plan of the northwestern Palace of Nimrud (_Fig._ 47) that twelve chambers in such unfavorable positions as those shown upon its eastern side could not have received the slightest light through the two narrow pa.s.sages leading from the confined court. It is futile to deny the necessity of light and air for the dwellings of man; and theories which suppose these enormous s.p.a.ces left in darkness, or unventilated and lighted artificially, are certainly untenable. Other scholars are of the opinion that light and air were procured through horizontal openings in the ceiling and roof; but this imperfect and unpractical arrangement is particularly ill adapted for inhabited rooms, and is rendered extremely improbable by the fact that upon the pavements there did not exist the slightest arrangement for leading off the water which must have fallen upon them had the roof been an inefficient shelter. The floors were rarely of stone slabs, like the carved fragments shown in _Fig._ 45, and in other places the sun-dried bricks would have been rapidly reduced to mud by the furious rain-storms of Mesopotamia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 48.--Relief from Coyundjic.]

The present condition of the ruins, the walls of which nowhere rise to the full height of the chambers, does not, however, exclude the possibility of openings for light having existed just beneath the ceiling. The form of such orifices cannot surely be determined; high windows could not have existed, and there must have been low openings in the top of the wall, separated by piers, between which stood small columns, as is evident from a relief of Coyundjic, given in _Fig._ 48 to serve as an argument for this manner of illumination. Light and air could thus have been freely admitted, without inconvenience to the dwellers within. The high position of the apertures, immediately under the somewhat projecting roof, prevented the entrance of rain, and shut off the interior from the view of those without, just as this same manner of lighting to-day protects the harems of the East. The small shafts, which were introduced as supports between these windows, appear to have been the only representatives of columnar architecture in the a.s.syrian palace. If columns had been used, in their customary function, as upholders of the roof,--as members which bore an important entablature,--some traces of these would certainly have been preserved; their material could hardly have been more perishable than the sun-dried brick of the walls. The entire arrangement of plan shows that their a.s.sistance was not relied upon. The chambers were disproportionately narrow, plainly to render it possible to cover them without the introduction of intermediate supports. The beauty and fitness of the corridor-like s.p.a.ces were so sacrificed to this narrowness that its universal appearance can be regarded only as a constructive necessity.

It is well ill.u.s.trated by the cramped princ.i.p.al hall of the palace of Esar-haddon at Nimrud (_Fig._ 49), where a greater width than that permitted by the span of ceiling timbers was only to be obtained by the erection of a division wall to provide a subsidiary support for the beams. So helpless a make-s.h.i.+ft, destroying the unity and grandeur of the hall, could have been adopted only in entire ignorance of the opening and supporting element of the column, apparently never recognized in a.s.syria.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 49.--Plan of the Palace of Esar-haddon at Nimrud.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 50.--Various Forms of Capitals and Bases, from a.s.syrian Reliefs.]

The form of the small columns, which stood in the openings allowed for light in the upper walls, can be approximately determined from the representations upon reliefs. The shafts were cylindrical, and probably without flutings; they had a roundlet, or at least a projecting fillet, at either end. The base consisted solely of a high tore, sometimes notched upon the top, or placed upon the back of a striding lion.

(_Fig._ 50.) The most common form of the capitals was a peculiar conjunction of two spiral scrolls, similar to a doubled Ionic capital, with an echinos-like roundlet beneath and a stepped abacus above. It is hardly to be doubted that this was the prototype of the Ionic capital, although it cannot be determined from the reliefs whether a lateral roll corresponded to the volute of the front, or whether the helix was repeated upon all four sides, as is the case with the capitals of Persian columns. The small scale of the representations upon reliefs, and their careless execution, do not permit a sure understanding of any part of the capitals. A table (_Fig._ 51) upon a relief of Coyundjic better determines the form of the volutes; it has distinct spirals in place of the rosettes, wrongly shown by Layard's drawing.[D] There is reason to suppose that the double helix was not the primitive and normal form of the a.s.syrian capital, but was rather an abbreviation of the leaved calyx so frequently met with in Phnicia, Palestine, and Cyprus, and that the rolled ends of the leaves, shown by two of the examples in _Fig._ 50, originally suggested the volutes of the capital and the various spiral forms occurring upon carved a.s.syrian furniture, as in _Fig._ 81. The question will be considered more at length in the section upon Syrian architecture.

The columns of a.s.syria were employed only in this subordinate position, and the dimensions and shape of larger enclosed s.p.a.ces were dependent upon the limited span of the wooden ceiling beams. a.s.syrian palaces were, in these respects, unable to fulfil the demands of a monumental architecture. It can only be surmised how roof and ceiling were constructed in detail. The beams were naturally so placed as to require the least possible length to span the clear width; the sinking in the middle, to which the elastic trunks of palm-trees so much inclined, and the acc.u.mulation of water in the hollow thereby formed, were thus avoided as well as might be. The constructive details of the roof-platform are not surely known; it is probable that a layer of clay and earth was placed upon the beams, being rolled down compactly after every rain. The exterior representation of roof and ceiling, the wall entablature, may have consisted of a painted wooden sheathing, bearing ornaments of the character displayed by the pavement. (_Fig._ 45.) It was divided, like the Egyptian entablature, into two parts; in neither case was there a marked distinction between roof and ceiling. The imitations of building-fronts upon reliefs make it probable that stepped battlements rose above the main cornice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 51.--Table upon an a.s.syrian Relief.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 52.--Mouth of a Channel under the Northwestern Palace, Nimrud.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 53.--Channel under the Southeastern Palace, Nimrud.]

The fundamental principles of vaulted construction, as of columnar architecture, were known in a.s.syria, but neither the column nor the arch was worthily recognized and developed into an important feature capable of exercising an influence upon the extent or form of the enclosed s.p.a.ces. The palace terraces were pierced by narrow vaulted channels, still to be traced among the ruins. This was the case with the most ancient structure of a.s.syria, the northwestern palace of Nimrud. (_Fig._ 52.) Though it cannot be proved that the a.s.syrians were the original inventors of the arch of wedge-shaped stones, there are certainly no earlier instances of this manner of building known than those of that country. Round arch barrel-vaults were not exclusively used for such channels; an ogive appears upon the same terrace of Nimrud, in the somewhat later southeastern palace. (_Fig._ 53.) Though the key-stone of the latter is undeveloped, the vault is yet built upon the principle of the Gothic pointed arch. It is not impossible that this form may have descended in uninterrupted tradition from Mesopotamia to the Arabs, being brought by them to Europe, where, effecting a change in the round Romanesque arch, it exercised a decisive influence in the development of mediaeval manners of building. The bricks of these vaulted a.s.syrian channels are carefully moulded to the more or less marked wedge-form determined by the size of the arch--a greater refinement than is practised by modern masons, who use only rectangular bricks, effecting the curve by the wedge-shape of the mortar-joint. Yet, perfected as vaulted construction appears in these channels, its application seems to have been almost restricted to them; a.s.syrian builders hesitated to apply vaulted ceilings to s.p.a.ces of much greater span than gates and window apertures. Reliefs show arched portals alternating with horizontally covered openings; and in the fortification walls of Kisr-Sargon, the city adjoining the palace-ruins of Corsabad, traces of a barrel-vaulted entrance have been discovered where the arch, of 4.5 m.

clear, rested upon the backs of the winged monsters referred to as the guardians of all important gateways. A vaulted corridor, considerably less in span, will be noticed at the temple pyramid of Nimrud. Among the numerous palace chambers remaining, only a few narrow cells show traces of vaults; the opinion of some recent investigators, that the customary horizontal ceilings of smaller rooms were surmounted by cupolas of beaten earth, does not appear plausible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 54.--Restoration of an a.s.syrian Palace.]

From the chief points gained by this consideration, it is evident that the restoration given in _Fig._ 54, a variation of the reconstruction by Layard and Fergusson, cannot greatly misrepresent the once existing structures. The a.s.syrian palace was, upon the whole, a more satisfactory building than the Egyptian temple. The outlines and ma.s.ses of its composition were grand; it was richly ornamented, perhaps even overladen, with sculptured and colored decoration. The ma.s.sive and unpierced walls of the lower half bore a kind of open loggia, consisting of light columns between powerful piers which were fully capable of upholding the ceiling. The entire edifice being elevated upon a terrace, upper stories were not necessary to secure an imposing height. The existence of one lower story alone is indicated by the ruins; no large staircases, or other means of ascent to an upper floor, were provided.

The apparent duplication of the stories of houses upon reliefs is owing to a fault of perspective common to the primitive representations of all nations: things are shown as above and upon, instead of behind and beyond, one another. The ground-chambers, of which sixty-eight have been counted in the Palace of Sennacherib at Coyundjic, and over two hundred in the Palace of Sargon, were surely ample in number and extent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 55.--Terraced Pyramid. Relief from Coyundjic.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 56.--Plan and Section of the Terraced Pyramid of Nimrud. 1. Vaulted Corridor. 2. Modern Shafts. 3. Revetment Wall of Cut Stone. 5. Solid Brick Masonry. 6. Great Palace Terrace. 7. Temple.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 57.--Relief from the Northern Palace of Coyundjic.]

Though the royal dwellings of a.s.syria chiefly attract attention in considering the architecture of the country, there are also many remains of sacred buildings in the lands of the Upper Tigris. But we are acquainted only with those places of wors.h.i.+p which stood in immediate connection with the palaces, no traces of edifices for general and popular wors.h.i.+p having been discovered up to the present time. Even were we without knowledge of the ruins, it would be natural to suppose the temples of a.s.syria similar to those of Mesopotamia; that is to say, pyramidal terraces, with high lower stories. (Compare _Fig._ 41.) A relief from Coyundjic, the upper portion of which is unfortunately destroyed, confirms this view, showing a terraced structure of three or four steps situated upon a natural elevation. The lower terrace is decorated, like Chaldaean works of the kind, with pilasters in low-relief; before it are pylon towers. (_Fig._ 55.) This specifically Mesopotamian type is to be recognized in the most prominent ruins of a.s.syrian sacred architecture--namely, in the terraced pyramid which occupied one corner of the great palace platform of Nimrud. It is also to be observed in the more fragmentary remains at Kileh-Shergat, which time has buried beneath shapeless hills of rubbish, without entirely obliterating the original disposition. The ruins at this site have not been thoroughly investigated; those at Nimrud showed the lower part of the pyramid at least to have been solidly built of bricks, reveted with a wall of quarried stones. (_Fig._ 56.) In the height of the main palace terrace was a shaft, the purpose of which is uncertain, as it was without entrance, and empty; it is interesting in architectural respects from the admirably executed barrel-vault of brick masonry which formed its ceiling. The ruin, for the greater part destroyed, offered beyond this corridor but few peculiarities. The stone revetment has been almost entirely carried away, and every trace of the temple cella which must have surmounted these terraces, as it did those of Chaldaea, has disappeared. The better-preserved but much smaller terraced temple of the palace at Kisr-Sargon has already been mentioned. Two interesting reliefs show the general form of such cellas, though in these instances the structures represented are not raised upon artificial elevations.

(_Figs._ 35 and 57.) They are small temples in antis, rectangular buildings, three sides of which are formed by walls; while, in the open fourth, two columns support the entablature and roof. In one case the ends of the walls upon each side of the columns are undecorated; in the other the pilasters, though without a base, are crowned with a member similar to the capitals of the columns. The simple entablature projects in an oblique line; it is terminated by stepped battlements, in which the Mesopotamian type of the terraced pyramid is repeated in outline and adopted as a merely decorative detail. Such temple cellas were erected not alone upon extensive terraces, but in the plain; perhaps, also, like the similar structures of Phnicia, in the midst of sacred lakes. The reliefs given in the cuts show the chapels to have stood at the foot of natural elevations, as well as upon them. Another form of sanctuary, with gabled roof and lanceolate acroteria, is represented upon a relief of Corsabad. (_Fig._ 71.) The building remotely resembles a h.e.l.lenic peripteros. Its constructive peculiarities cannot well be understood from the relief, as these considerations were probably not clear to the sculptor himself. It is possible that the architectural form was one foreign to the country,--perhaps the imitation of a temple in Southern Asia Minor. Another variety of these palace chapels appears upon the terrace of Nimrud, the forms there differing but slightly from those of the dwelling-chambers; the sacred cellas are distinguished only by the exclusively mythological character of the reliefs, and by the altars and offerings placed at the entrance. (_Fig._ 58.) It is possible, however, that these s.p.a.ces were used as the dwellings of priests rather than as sanctuaries, especially as the two examples known are situated near the base of the great temple of Nimrud, being in this respect admirably adapted to the uses of the sacerdotal officers in the royal household.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 58.--Entrance to one of the so-called Temples, Nimrud.]

The forms of a.s.syrian altars are ill.u.s.trated by reliefs. (_Figs._ 35 and 57.) The rectangular shaft, at times furrowed, rests upon a plinth, and bears a projecting slab, bordered by stepped battlements. A tripod was found before the entrance to the so-called Temple of Nimrud (_Fig._ 58); and upon reliefs are represented fire-altars, upholding by a single support a basin for burnt sacrifices. These altars and the bronze tables for offerings were not treated as architectural details, but more resembled the chairs and thrones variously represented upon reliefs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 59.--Obelisk from Nimrud.]

The a.s.syrian obelisks were of greater importance; though they cannot be compared to the gigantic wonders of Egyptian mechanical skill, they yet represent the typical forms of a.s.syrian art as characteristically as do the Egyptian shafts the architecture of that land. A small specimen carved in black basalt, 2.1 m. high and 0.6 m. broad at base, was discovered in Nimrud and has been transported to the British Museum.

(_Fig._ 59.) The gently diminished pier is crowned with a terraced pyramid, thus giving the princ.i.p.al monumental form of Mesopotamia, on a small scale, as distinctly as the termination of Egyptian obelisks does the more strictly geometrical pyramid of the Nile land. The steps and part of the shaft are carved with cuneiform inscriptions, and with reliefs which represent an act of homage--the presentation to the king of various gifts, animals, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 60.--a.s.syrian Dwellings. Relief from Coyundjic.]

Rich as are the results of scientific investigations in regard to the palaces of a.s.syria, they are deficient in everything concerning the cities, which could have been but mean and insignificant in comparison with the royal dwellings. Only scanty traces of the fortification walls around Coyundjic, Corsabad, and Nimrud have been preserved. From reliefs these appear to have been provided with projecting galleries for defence, with square or circular loop-holes, and with battlements of rectangular or oblique outline. As before mentioned, there have been preserved at Kisr-Sargon (Corsabad) the remains of a round-arched city gate, flanked with winged lions. (A skilful restoration of this is given by Viollet-le-Duc in his _Entretiens_.) The small hills of rubbish within the city did not tempt the closer investigation of excavators, who found such inexhaustible rewards for their labors at the palace terraces. Private dwellings, which were not, like the chambers of the kings, constructed with hewn and sculptured stones as a revetment of the weak masonry of unburnt bricks, are now in so complete a state of destruction that an understanding of their original form is hardly possible. The known reliefs are not adequate to convey satisfactory information in regard to them. Among the clearest of these is a relief of Coyundjic (_Fig._ 60), which shows buildings with hemispherical and oval cupolas, much like those still customary in some parts of Syria.

The openings for light and air are distinctly indicated in the summit of the vaults. On the other hand, dwellings like that shown in _Fig._ 61, which often occur in great numbers within the enclosure of fortification walls, are of most perplexing construction, unless a.s.sumed to be tents.

Some interior views indicate this character, and the surrounding walls might accordingly be considered the fortifications of an encampment. The plan-like ill.u.s.trations of walled towns, where the houses are repeated in conventionalized forms, give no definite information concerning the peculiarities of a.s.syrian domestic architecture. (_Fig._ 62.) They remind us rather of the topographical usage prevalent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of our era, when, in similar manner, approximate representations of houses and cottages were typically employed to designate a village, a town, or a city, upon maps from which no conception of the nature of the structures could be obtained. But it may be concluded from these views that a majority of the dwellings consisted of a higher and a lower division, each being provided with an independent platform.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61.--Tent-like Dwelling. Relief from Coyundjic.]