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Notes upon late Anatolian Art1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2013
Extract
Phrygia is remarkable for the variety (and number) of its funeral monuments: in one place the sarcophagus, in another the altar, in a third the stele. The last named was fashionable in the land of the Praipenissians, whose ancient centre was Soa in the neighbourhood of Altyn Tash. The Phrygian stele was often of considerable size, six feet or more in height, and fixed upright in the ground or in a socket by a wedge-like tongue, which still remains in some cases.
The central field is filled sometimes by figures of the deceased, often more than life-size, never by ridiculous little dolls such as are found further east. The place of the figures is sometimes taken by a door: in this case the busts of the departed are occasionally sculptured in an arch-shaped pediment above (cf. Texier, Description de I'Asie Mineure, Pls. 38, 51). Otherwise the pediment is filled by various symbolic or decorative subjects—two lions with a prostrate bull or merely its head between them, an eagle with wings “displayed,” dolphins with small fishes in their mouths, and in one case Herakles and Cerberus.
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1898
References
page 80 note 1 The door-slabs have been discussed at some length, by Noack (Athenische Mittheilungen, xix. p. 326): he describes all the utensils represented upon their panels with extreme minuteness. Rightly he rejects a fanciful suggestion of Joubin (Revue Archéologique, xxiv. p. 183) that each of these panels is to be regarded as a room after the fashion of Egyptian monuments. The recurrence of the same objects upon figure stones is decisive against this, as also are the door-handles, etc., which are often carved. Noack himself suggests that their origin is to be found in the façades of Phrygian rock monuments, on which Anderson asks:—“But is the door a prominent feature there? Ramsay seems right in taking the door as indication of the temple (part for whole) [e.g. CB. i. p. 99, ii. p. 367, &c]. Importance of idea of ‘door’ shown by the word being inscribed on other kinds of monuments (altars, &c.).”
page 86 note 1 Stilfragen, p. 273 and foil. Others have noted this too, Bayet and Diehl or example.
page 87 note 1 This latter addition may have included a xenodocheion or a home for the priests, such as we find in some places, or it may have been simply a belfry.
page 88 note 1 The plan of the west front is, I think, quite accurate; except for the measurements quoted in the text I cannot guarantee more than approximate correctness for the rest. For the drawing of the elevation I am indebted to my friend Mr. Charles Clark, but I am myself responsible for the few restorations therein suggested. Mr. Clark has, however, represented more of the north door than really exists.
page 93 note 1 My drawing is so blurred that I cannot be sure of the character of the ends of the volutes.