DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3349#0025
PERSIAN, SUMERIAN, INDIAN AND SCYTHIAN
U
knees raised, and a scarf over the left shoulder. These
attitudes are familiar in Indian art.
Now there has been a strong feeling that as dated
material has not been obtained in India before Asoka,
therefore Indian civilisation was not of much import-
ance in earlier days. But that is merely a result of
the early prevalence of wood-work, owing to which
stone monuments were not yet erected. The magni-
ficent stone pillars and carvings of Asoka prove that
a long growth of art and skill had preceded them ;
and the account of the country at the time of
Alexander shews that a high civilisation existed then.
As early as Darius, about 500 B.C., the India subject
to the Persians was the most populous province of
that empire, and yielded 360 talents of gold yearly.
The Indians fought in Greece with Xerxes 480 B.C.,
and when Mardonius picked the flower of the army
to stay in Greece, he took the Persian Immortals,
Medes, Sacae, Bactrians, and Indians. The contact
of India with Europe dates then to the early years
of the Persian empire.
Settlements of Indians appear at Nippur in
Babylonia, as early as 425 B.C., and in the Aswan
papyri in Egypt.
In view of these connections there seems no
difficulty in accepting the Indian colony in Memphis
as being due to the Persian intercourse from 525 to
405 B.C. And the introduction of asceticism, already
in a communal form by 340 B.C., points also to the
growth of Indian ideas. To date these solid modelled
figures, 35, 37-40, to the Vth century B.C., and the
hollow moulded figure, 36, to the Illrd century B.C.,
in accord with the general dating of the other figures,
seems therefore the most reasonable result. The im-
portance of such tangible remains of India, as bearing
on the Indian colony, and the spread of Indian ideas
in the West, will be obvious to all students.
51. PI. XL. The other extreme of the Persian
empire is seen in the figures of Scythians. The
tall pointed hood, the bushy beard, and the riding
on horseback, all shew that we have here the Sacae
cavalry of the Persian army. For comparison see
the head of a Scythian, 41, from the silver vase
found at Koul-oba in the Crimea. These figures are
all moulded, but solid, and therefore intermediate
between the modelled solid figures and the moulded
hollow figures. The roughest of them, 46, was found
with the pottery in PL XLVI, and is dated therefore
to about 300 B.C. It seems not improbable that these
Scythians belong to the second Persian occupation,
342 to 332 B.C.
52. PI. XLI. These heads seem to be more
western in type. 47 is like the Roman figures,
with the toga worn over the head, as in sacrificing,
and as the Fratres Arvales. 48 recalls some of
the wizen faces of the Roman republican busts. 50
should be compared with a glazed head found at
Naukratis {Nauk. ii, xvii, 11), and the coins of
Ptolemaic queens ; it is perhaps a Macedonian.
PI. XLI I. Here are distinctively Greek figures.
SS may be Attys; 56 is of the archaic Greek
type of face and hair, but not made by a Greek of
that age ; it is rather the Egyptian version of an
early Greek. The graceful little figure, 57, is of a
usual type ; the instrument played upon is the Syrian
kinyra. The other figures are also well known.
57 to 60 are all modelled hollow.
PI. XLIII. These are later Greek works, some
apparently grotesque, as 64, 66, 67, 69. Such are
often found in Ptolemaic sites. All of the foregoing
heads are kept at University College, London, for
study with others that may be found.
PI. XLIV. The group at the top left is of painted
pottery, with black, red and yellow colours. These
come from the Merenptah temple, and seem to be
Mediterranean work of pre-classic time. They are
now in the British Museum, Graeco-Roman Depart-
ment.
The group of heads at the top right shew the
rougher examples, most of which can hardly be
identified as distinct types. Two of them are also
published enlarged, 52, 53.
The horses and seated figures of the " snow-man
style " at the bottom left hand, are a class well known
at various other sites (Tell el Yehudiyeh, Hyksos and
Israelite Cities XIX D ; Naukratis, etc.) Their origin
is yet unknown.
The rising handles of craters with Bacchic heads
are usual elsewhere {Naukratis i, 42 ; Hyksos Cities
XIX D). The types here with the thunderbolt,
rosette, and lion's head are peculiar.
Plates XLV to LIV are already described in
the previous chapter.
CHAPTER VIII
THE INSCRIPTIONS.
By Dr. J. H. WALKER.
53. PL. V. This inscription is unfortunately in
too fragmentary a condition to allow of any running
translation. It contains a list of endowments, which
3
U
knees raised, and a scarf over the left shoulder. These
attitudes are familiar in Indian art.
Now there has been a strong feeling that as dated
material has not been obtained in India before Asoka,
therefore Indian civilisation was not of much import-
ance in earlier days. But that is merely a result of
the early prevalence of wood-work, owing to which
stone monuments were not yet erected. The magni-
ficent stone pillars and carvings of Asoka prove that
a long growth of art and skill had preceded them ;
and the account of the country at the time of
Alexander shews that a high civilisation existed then.
As early as Darius, about 500 B.C., the India subject
to the Persians was the most populous province of
that empire, and yielded 360 talents of gold yearly.
The Indians fought in Greece with Xerxes 480 B.C.,
and when Mardonius picked the flower of the army
to stay in Greece, he took the Persian Immortals,
Medes, Sacae, Bactrians, and Indians. The contact
of India with Europe dates then to the early years
of the Persian empire.
Settlements of Indians appear at Nippur in
Babylonia, as early as 425 B.C., and in the Aswan
papyri in Egypt.
In view of these connections there seems no
difficulty in accepting the Indian colony in Memphis
as being due to the Persian intercourse from 525 to
405 B.C. And the introduction of asceticism, already
in a communal form by 340 B.C., points also to the
growth of Indian ideas. To date these solid modelled
figures, 35, 37-40, to the Vth century B.C., and the
hollow moulded figure, 36, to the Illrd century B.C.,
in accord with the general dating of the other figures,
seems therefore the most reasonable result. The im-
portance of such tangible remains of India, as bearing
on the Indian colony, and the spread of Indian ideas
in the West, will be obvious to all students.
51. PI. XL. The other extreme of the Persian
empire is seen in the figures of Scythians. The
tall pointed hood, the bushy beard, and the riding
on horseback, all shew that we have here the Sacae
cavalry of the Persian army. For comparison see
the head of a Scythian, 41, from the silver vase
found at Koul-oba in the Crimea. These figures are
all moulded, but solid, and therefore intermediate
between the modelled solid figures and the moulded
hollow figures. The roughest of them, 46, was found
with the pottery in PL XLVI, and is dated therefore
to about 300 B.C. It seems not improbable that these
Scythians belong to the second Persian occupation,
342 to 332 B.C.
52. PI. XLI. These heads seem to be more
western in type. 47 is like the Roman figures,
with the toga worn over the head, as in sacrificing,
and as the Fratres Arvales. 48 recalls some of
the wizen faces of the Roman republican busts. 50
should be compared with a glazed head found at
Naukratis {Nauk. ii, xvii, 11), and the coins of
Ptolemaic queens ; it is perhaps a Macedonian.
PI. XLI I. Here are distinctively Greek figures.
SS may be Attys; 56 is of the archaic Greek
type of face and hair, but not made by a Greek of
that age ; it is rather the Egyptian version of an
early Greek. The graceful little figure, 57, is of a
usual type ; the instrument played upon is the Syrian
kinyra. The other figures are also well known.
57 to 60 are all modelled hollow.
PI. XLIII. These are later Greek works, some
apparently grotesque, as 64, 66, 67, 69. Such are
often found in Ptolemaic sites. All of the foregoing
heads are kept at University College, London, for
study with others that may be found.
PI. XLIV. The group at the top left is of painted
pottery, with black, red and yellow colours. These
come from the Merenptah temple, and seem to be
Mediterranean work of pre-classic time. They are
now in the British Museum, Graeco-Roman Depart-
ment.
The group of heads at the top right shew the
rougher examples, most of which can hardly be
identified as distinct types. Two of them are also
published enlarged, 52, 53.
The horses and seated figures of the " snow-man
style " at the bottom left hand, are a class well known
at various other sites (Tell el Yehudiyeh, Hyksos and
Israelite Cities XIX D ; Naukratis, etc.) Their origin
is yet unknown.
The rising handles of craters with Bacchic heads
are usual elsewhere {Naukratis i, 42 ; Hyksos Cities
XIX D). The types here with the thunderbolt,
rosette, and lion's head are peculiar.
Plates XLV to LIV are already described in
the previous chapter.
CHAPTER VIII
THE INSCRIPTIONS.
By Dr. J. H. WALKER.
53. PL. V. This inscription is unfortunately in
too fragmentary a condition to allow of any running
translation. It contains a list of endowments, which
3