DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.748#0078
INVESTIGATIONS AT ASSOS, 1881. 63
is said to have been sacked by Achilles,1 in connection with
the piratical expedition of the hero to Lesbos, during which
Thebe and Lyrnessos, also upon the Gulf of Adramyttion, and
Chrysa, near Lecton, were ravaged. He speaks of Pedasos as
in the country " opposite to Lesbos," and, if weight be at-
tached to this testimony, the city can hardly be elsewhere
placed than at Assos.
The importance of the Southern Troad in the progress of
the arts during pre-historical ages is indicated by the Greek
legend of the Dactyls upon the heights of Ida, rich in the
metals employed by those primitive artisans, whose names—
Kelmis, Damnameneus, and Acmon; that is, hammer, tongs,
and anvil — designate cunning workers in iron and bronze,
This personification points to the empaistic art of the Phoeni-
cians, — an art which appears to have been practised in several
mining lands exposed to the influence of that people, as Crete
and Rhodes (Telchinae). The significance of the conven-
tionalized relief-sculpture upon the archaic temple of Assos,
as affected in its style by the Asiatic overlaying of wood-
carvings with sheets of beaten metal, will be referred to else-
where.
One of the most important and interesting chapters of the
early history of the Troad and of Assos to be filled out by
future researches is that relating to the influence of the great
Mesopotamian civilization upon the coast lands of the ^Egean.
— an influence of subtile and far-reaching character, affecting
alike the politics and the art of the early Asiatic Greeks.
The recorded history of the Assyrians in the Troad consists
of a few scattered passages in Greek writers, — the cuneiform
inscriptions, hitherto deciphered and published, affording no
direct information concerning a land which appears to have
been beyond the borders of the Mesopotamian Empire even at
1 Iliad, xx. 90-92.
is said to have been sacked by Achilles,1 in connection with
the piratical expedition of the hero to Lesbos, during which
Thebe and Lyrnessos, also upon the Gulf of Adramyttion, and
Chrysa, near Lecton, were ravaged. He speaks of Pedasos as
in the country " opposite to Lesbos," and, if weight be at-
tached to this testimony, the city can hardly be elsewhere
placed than at Assos.
The importance of the Southern Troad in the progress of
the arts during pre-historical ages is indicated by the Greek
legend of the Dactyls upon the heights of Ida, rich in the
metals employed by those primitive artisans, whose names—
Kelmis, Damnameneus, and Acmon; that is, hammer, tongs,
and anvil — designate cunning workers in iron and bronze,
This personification points to the empaistic art of the Phoeni-
cians, — an art which appears to have been practised in several
mining lands exposed to the influence of that people, as Crete
and Rhodes (Telchinae). The significance of the conven-
tionalized relief-sculpture upon the archaic temple of Assos,
as affected in its style by the Asiatic overlaying of wood-
carvings with sheets of beaten metal, will be referred to else-
where.
One of the most important and interesting chapters of the
early history of the Troad and of Assos to be filled out by
future researches is that relating to the influence of the great
Mesopotamian civilization upon the coast lands of the ^Egean.
— an influence of subtile and far-reaching character, affecting
alike the politics and the art of the early Asiatic Greeks.
The recorded history of the Assyrians in the Troad consists
of a few scattered passages in Greek writers, — the cuneiform
inscriptions, hitherto deciphered and published, affording no
direct information concerning a land which appears to have
been beyond the borders of the Mesopotamian Empire even at
1 Iliad, xx. 90-92.