Murray, Alexander S.; Smith, Arthur H.; Walters, Henry Beauchamp: Excavations in Cyprus: bequest of Miss E. T. Turner to the British Museum (London, 1900)

H

are all bearded, including the attendant with the axe and the Hittite helmet, whereas
the Hittites who fought against Rameses are all beardless. Whether this circumstance
indicates a difference of date, and is to be traced to the later influence of the conquests
of Sargon, is a question on which there may perhaps be two opinions. Yet the fact
remains that the sculptor employed by Rameses at Medinet Abou, while correct as to
the shape of helmet, does not give the Hittites, or whoever they were, beards. It is
true that on one of our ivory fragments—a man slaying a gryphon (PI. II, No. 883)—the
man is beardless, and has a strap to his helmet coming under the chin, like the Hittite
warriors opposed to Rameses. But that also may have been a survival of ancient usage.

Among the Nimroud ivories (850—700 B.C.) is a fragmentary relief of a chariot in
pursuit of a lion to the left, with dog running alongside the horses as at Enkomi, the
harness of the horses being also similar. The principal differences are that the Nimroud
driver is beardless, and that the style of the sculpture there is more archaic than on the
Enkomi casket, as may be judged by comparing the conventional manner in which the
heads of the dog and the horses are rendered, particularly the very formal shape of the
eyes. In the Enkomi ivory there is no such formalism ; the work may be rough, but
it is free and unconventional, and therefore suggestive of a later date.

Among the other ivories figured on PI. II. may be noticed Nos. I339AB, forming

11 as

Fig. 21.

1563

Fig. 24.

,IN

the two sides of a small mirror handle and representing in the one case a stag lying
down with its head thrown back and its antlers spread so as to fill the space above the
back of the deer, a type which survives among the gold ornaments from Kertch.1 On
the other side is a Cretan goat, also lying down. PI. II, No. 1126, is a very interesting
example of a sphinx wearing a crown and being led by a halter—unfortunately only
the arm of the figure leading her remains. This is a fragment of a cylindrical box, as
is also the accompanying Fig. 20. PI. II, No. 995, is the handle of a knife in the form
of a bull's leg, on which are to be seen remains of the iron blade. PI. II, No. 1340, a
head wearing a tiara, resembling the ivory head found in the Mycenaean tomb at Spata
in Attica,2 in which also were found several instances of sphinxes in ivory wearing a high

1 Compte-Rendu for 1876, pi. 3, fig. 18, and for 1877, pi. 3, fig. 24; compare also the silver
stag, 1876, pi. 4, fig. 1. " Athenaion, vi. pi. 1, fig. 1.