OCR Text |
Show nf Of fe':ri tr-p T is rumored that a Danish r t i expedition is to be sent to V XL explore the wonderful ii srS group of rock-monuments -rn and sites in Central Asia p& Minor which attests the ! yl? short-lived splendor of the ' Phrygian kingdom be tween, say, 800 and 650 B. C. That someone should do this with adequate funds and official support has long been desired devoutly. The extraordinary extraor-dinary and enigmatic character of the monuments, the place which their makers hold in Greek story on the one hand, and, possibly, in Assyrian annals on the other the significance of the position which they occupied on the great east-west roads of pre-Perslan pre-Perslan times the mystery which obscures ob-scures their origin and the uncertainty uncertain-ty of their ultimate fate all these considerations combine to make the excavation of the central site, and a survey of Its neighborhood, most Important Im-portant for archaeologists and historians. his-torians. We know no ancient name for that central site it sems to have been as nameless in the later Greek and the Roman times as now and for want of a better, Ramsay, who has explored the district more thoroughly than anyone else, called it the Midas City. This name was suggested to him by the great tomb if It be one which is the principal monument of the place and of the district and. In Its way. of all Asia Minor. I saw It twenty-five years ago, and still hold it without a rival of its kind. A cliff nearly one hundred feet high has been artificially scarped from top to bottom and cut back to a smooth face, an Interlacing fret design being left standing out in relief over the whole vast expanse. At the foot is a small false door; at the ,top the rock has been shaped into a noble pediment, like that of a Greek temple, and inscribed, In large Greek-looking Phrygian characters, with words among which stands out the name of Midas, son of Lavaltas. The boldness of the whole conception on that great scale, its faultless execution, execu-tion, and the rich simplicity of the decoration produce the most powerful impression. Standing before it, but far enough away to take in the general gen-eral effect, one confesses it is not to be surpassed. And one can imagine the feelings of Martin Leake when, having arrived and camped in the valley val-ley after dark one night in 1800, all-unconscious, all-unconscious, like everybody else In Europe, that such a thing existed, he woke to see the tomb of Midas In the first light of morning. A tomb it should be on the analogy of lesser monuments in the district which have its facade, of something like it, in miniature; but no burial chamber of Midas has been detected. The lesser tombs often show reliefs of human figures, or of lions, or both sometimes of the Phrygian Cybele guarded by ber lions. After the Midas tamb, the most famous are the Lion tombs at Ayazinn, some distance to the south. One of these, now fallen in huge fragmens, has not only magnificent magni-ficent lions of very Asyrian appearance appear-ance on the sides (it was made out of a projecting bastion of rock), but a relief of two warriors in crested helmets attacking a strange Gorgon creature with their leveled spears; the other has two rampant lions guardnig its door, which have often been compared to the rampant beasts over the gate of the citadel at Mycenae. Myce-nae. Some of the smaller tombs in the district also are well worth notice, no-tice, especialy one in the wooden glen of Bakshish, which stands free, fashioned fash-ioned like a house. Altogether these make a singular group of monuments, as much In need of further exploration explora-tion as Is the great citadel above the Midas tomb, with its long ramp flanked flank-ed by carved rock-faces and its inscribed in-scribed rock-altars. We wish to learn many things from this exploration. Of what race were these kings called Midas, who seemed to the Greeks of the west country so godlike, and left such legends of their wealth? How much of the peninsula did they rule? Whence did they derive the art with which their tombs were made, and the letters with which they were inscribed? in-scribed? Were they the same as those kings called Mita, who, according accord-ing to Assyrian annals, marshalled the people of the Muski against Sargon and Ashurbanipal? If they were, they must have been lords of no mean territory; for the 'Muski were undoubtedly un-doubtedly the dominant race in Cappa-docia Cappa-docia too. They had once raided even to Mesopotamia, and brought out an Assyrian king, Tiglath Pileser I., in full strength against them; and, when they retired across the Euphrates, they perhaps continued to hold its western bank with the great fortress of Carchemish. Had they spread also to Phrygia? Mita may be Midas, but it also may be the name of a merely Cappadocian king. It was of old standing in the Mesopotamian east, where had long dwelt the "people of Mita," the Mitannl. Moreover, the Muski seem to have adopted Hatti civilization, art, and leters, while he monuments of Phrygian kings and people are, except in two or three in stances, not of Aatti character but oi anoher, which looks western, and sup-pors sup-pors the Greek story that the Phrygians Phryg-ians had come out of Europe. On the other hand, inscriptions in the same alphabe and language as those cut on the tomb of Midas have been fount (though rarely) in Cappadocia; and one cannot but ask, if Mita of the Muski was not Midas of Phrygia, how comes it that the latter, who was ruler of a people great enough to make such monuments, has passed unmen-tioned unmen-tioned in the annals of those Assyrian Assy-rian kings who concerned themselves with Asia Minor just at the epoch to which, on all grounds, the Phrygian kingdom is to be assigned? To all such questions, and especially especial-ly to that important one whence did the Phrygians get their alphabet? some sort of answer may be expected from excavations at the Midas City On the fiat top of the cliff-ringed aero polls, an extraordinary fortress of lm mense strength, there seemed, when 1 saw it, to be not much earth! but one never knows until one tries, and there Is certainly plenty round the foot oi the cliffs where, presumably, the bulk of the city lay. There are other walled wall-ed fortresses near by, and any numbei of tombs, and thickly wooded labyrinthine laby-rinthine valleys which may well con ceal any number more. I know few districts more likely to repay explor ation, and none more likely to delight the explorer, and keep him in the besi of health. |