DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.749#0009
4
INVESTIGATIONS AT ASSOS
sioned by Guizot, then Minister of Public Instruction, to study
the antiquities of Asia Minor. The results of the expedition
were published, at government expense, in three costly
volumes, in the second of which are the plates and letterpress
concerning Assos.1 Texier’s detailed plan of the city, although
carefully engraved, is very inexact, and is evidently done from
a hasty sketch taken from the Acropolis.
By the successive labors of Poujoulat, Huyot, and Texier,
the reliefs of the temple, which lay exposed upon the summit
of the Acropolis and its southeastern slope, appear to have
become regarded as due to France; and the well-known
preparing them for the walls of the Louvre. Shortly before
the reliefs were loaded upon the brig “La Surprise,” of the
French navy, they were seen upon the site by Sir Charles
Fellows, in whose interesting “ Journal ”2 there are drawings
of the most important blocks, as well as a good general des-
cription of the ruins.
The next account was printed by Mr. Pullan, in 1865, in
a work which, so far as it relates to Assos, is a partial translation
of Texier’s text, illustrated by lithographic reproductions of
the French engravings.3
Mr. Abbot, of the British Foreign Office, visited Assos
Fig. 2. Transverse Fortification Wall
Showing Gateways on different levels
archaeologist, Raoul-Rochette, having obtained a formal grant
of the blocks, as a gift of the Sultan Mahmoud II to the
Louvre, they were removed in 1838. Through these remark-
able archaic works of sculpture the attention of every scholar
of Greek antiquity has been attracted to Assos. The best
publications of the sculptures hitherto are in Clarac’s Musee
de Sculpture antique et moderne; ou Description historique et gra-
phique du Louvre et de toutes ses parties, etc. Tome II, seconde
part. Paris, 1841; and in Texier’s work, as noted above.
Texier’s engravings are the best representations of the
sculptures, although they do not include all of the reliefs.
Clarac’s text gives a detailed account of the removal of the
blocks, and of the sawing to which they were subjected in
1 Description de T Asie Mineure, faite par ordre du Gouvernement franpais, de
1843 a 1837, et publiee par le Ministre de TInstruction publique. Par Charles
Texier. Paris. 1849. The eminent architect and archaeologist, Huyot, who
had visited Assos about 1817 and made drawings of the remains, is said to have
directed the attention of Texier to Assos, and to the temple reliefs which laid
exposed on the Acropolis. Huyot is said by Clarac to have attempted to carry
off the sculptured blocks.
subsequently to Mr. Pullan. His description4 is so graphic
and circumstantial that a portion is given below:
When we were at Assos in November, 1864, the Turkish govern-
ment were employing a detachment of soldiers, under the command of
a bimbashi, in quarrying from the ruins all the largest stones for ship-
ment to Constantinople for the construction of the new docks, at the
arsenal there.
Not a vestige remains of the Doric temple which stood on the
Acropolis, except some capitals ranged in a line to form a fence.
M. Texier removed the friezes and all other stones of value; they
are now in the Louvre. Now the very site can hardly be distin-
guished. . . . On the north side, on an artificial platform cut out of
the rock, and overhanging the village of Behrahm, stands a square
building, with a low dome, now used as a mosque. . . . Behind the
mosque is a lofty square tower, loopholed, in good preservation, and
2 A 'Journal written during an excursion in Asia Minor. By Charles Fellows.
London. 1839.
8 The Principal Ruins of Asia Minor, illustrated and described. By R. Pop-
plewell Pullan. London. 1865.
4 Printed in Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Turkey in Asia. Fourth
edition. London. 1878.
INVESTIGATIONS AT ASSOS
sioned by Guizot, then Minister of Public Instruction, to study
the antiquities of Asia Minor. The results of the expedition
were published, at government expense, in three costly
volumes, in the second of which are the plates and letterpress
concerning Assos.1 Texier’s detailed plan of the city, although
carefully engraved, is very inexact, and is evidently done from
a hasty sketch taken from the Acropolis.
By the successive labors of Poujoulat, Huyot, and Texier,
the reliefs of the temple, which lay exposed upon the summit
of the Acropolis and its southeastern slope, appear to have
become regarded as due to France; and the well-known
preparing them for the walls of the Louvre. Shortly before
the reliefs were loaded upon the brig “La Surprise,” of the
French navy, they were seen upon the site by Sir Charles
Fellows, in whose interesting “ Journal ”2 there are drawings
of the most important blocks, as well as a good general des-
cription of the ruins.
The next account was printed by Mr. Pullan, in 1865, in
a work which, so far as it relates to Assos, is a partial translation
of Texier’s text, illustrated by lithographic reproductions of
the French engravings.3
Mr. Abbot, of the British Foreign Office, visited Assos
Fig. 2. Transverse Fortification Wall
Showing Gateways on different levels
archaeologist, Raoul-Rochette, having obtained a formal grant
of the blocks, as a gift of the Sultan Mahmoud II to the
Louvre, they were removed in 1838. Through these remark-
able archaic works of sculpture the attention of every scholar
of Greek antiquity has been attracted to Assos. The best
publications of the sculptures hitherto are in Clarac’s Musee
de Sculpture antique et moderne; ou Description historique et gra-
phique du Louvre et de toutes ses parties, etc. Tome II, seconde
part. Paris, 1841; and in Texier’s work, as noted above.
Texier’s engravings are the best representations of the
sculptures, although they do not include all of the reliefs.
Clarac’s text gives a detailed account of the removal of the
blocks, and of the sawing to which they were subjected in
1 Description de T Asie Mineure, faite par ordre du Gouvernement franpais, de
1843 a 1837, et publiee par le Ministre de TInstruction publique. Par Charles
Texier. Paris. 1849. The eminent architect and archaeologist, Huyot, who
had visited Assos about 1817 and made drawings of the remains, is said to have
directed the attention of Texier to Assos, and to the temple reliefs which laid
exposed on the Acropolis. Huyot is said by Clarac to have attempted to carry
off the sculptured blocks.
subsequently to Mr. Pullan. His description4 is so graphic
and circumstantial that a portion is given below:
When we were at Assos in November, 1864, the Turkish govern-
ment were employing a detachment of soldiers, under the command of
a bimbashi, in quarrying from the ruins all the largest stones for ship-
ment to Constantinople for the construction of the new docks, at the
arsenal there.
Not a vestige remains of the Doric temple which stood on the
Acropolis, except some capitals ranged in a line to form a fence.
M. Texier removed the friezes and all other stones of value; they
are now in the Louvre. Now the very site can hardly be distin-
guished. . . . On the north side, on an artificial platform cut out of
the rock, and overhanging the village of Behrahm, stands a square
building, with a low dome, now used as a mosque. . . . Behind the
mosque is a lofty square tower, loopholed, in good preservation, and
2 A 'Journal written during an excursion in Asia Minor. By Charles Fellows.
London. 1839.
8 The Principal Ruins of Asia Minor, illustrated and described. By R. Pop-
plewell Pullan. London. 1865.
4 Printed in Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Turkey in Asia. Fourth
edition. London. 1878.