ANTIQUITIES FROM ARMENIA.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1250, 9 March 1878, Page 3

ANTIQUITIES FROM ARMENIA.

Mr Layard, Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople, whose name is so closely connected with Assyrian explorations, has found time, among his many and arduous duties, to rescue from the oblivion of battle-fields in Armenia a series of most interesting antiquities. These have just arrived at the British Museum, and are found to bo of very great interest, both from an artistic and a philological point of view. The objects forwarded to England by Mr Layard are a series pf bronze architectural ornaments forming portions of the decorations of some royal palace of the Armenian monarch, and as they are the sole relics of the art of that ancient kingdom at present discovered, they will be much increased in value, and worthy the consideration of all students of Assyrian and Asiatic art. The first object, and the most jnteresting from an artistic point of view, is a bronze model of a winged bull. This figure is about inn. in height and 6in. jn length, and is modelled in an extremely fine bronze, containing a large proportion of cojjper, and is in very good' preservation. The wloje of the hind quarters and the forelegs and breast are those of a bull, whjlo the head is that of a human being, with the torso and arms complete. The head of the figure has tho hair plaited and dressed in the conventional style of Assyria, but the face is missing. This at first appears strange, but an examination of the vacant space shows that the fape of the figure was that of a human being, and was probably made of gold, and cemented to tho bronze by a layer of bitumen. The figure, unlike the majority of the ringed and human headed bulls from ]£oyunjik and Nimroud, has arms, which are folded across the breast?, with the hands clasped, The whole of this figure has been most richly decorated with gold, and the feathers' of tho wings and the horns of the head inlaid with ivory. On the head of this figure, as a species of adjunct to the horned cap which adorns it, is an ornamental pedestal of a small column which rested onjthe figure, and which supported some light superstructure. Round the arms of the figure are a pair of bracelets ornamented with a square pattern resembling the Greek ornamepts. The next object of importance in tho fo.UvCtion }S a bro»«e figure oifabviicouohunt,

which, unlike the figure just described, is entirely animal in its character, and is minutely accurate in the production of the animal form. It stands about 4in. high and is about 4iin. in length. The head has the single pair of horns of the bull, and not the conventional triple-horned cap of the humanheaded figure ; but the face in this example also is missing. The minute accuracy in the modelling of the feet and hoofs of this animal, as well as the ears and horns, shows that the artist was a more attentive student of nature than were his Assyrian neighbors. Both the above objects bear strong indications of being executed upon Assyrian lines, the artificial decoration of the hair and the horned cap, as well as the pedestal, on the head of the human-headed bull, all indicating them as copies of Assyrian models. The aouchant bull is, however, fari more true to life than any antique from Nimroud. The next object of interest in the collection is a bronze foot of an altar or seat, which is of most massive and well-deeigned workmanship, and which represents the conventional form of the paw of a lion. The upper portion is decorated with a panel, on which is the winged circle, a decoration common to both Assyria and Egypt. The upper portion of this fragment has been richly decorated with inlaid ivory and embossed ornaments on the bronze. It is about 7in. in height and about 4in. in breadth, and the material is of a most solid nature. One point of minor interest connected with this object is the fact that it evidently bears indications of having in ancient time undergone repair. Among the other objects in the collection may be noticed a curious bronze panel, which represents a house or palace with castellated battlements similar to those figured on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Several other fragments are of architectural importance—portions of a bronze altar, all of which bear strong marks of Assyrian copying. On examining these objects the question most naturally arises as to the date to which we are to assign them, a question we are fortunately enabled to solve by means of an inscription on one of the fragments. This inscription bears the name of a Monarch named Argistis, and a dedication to the god Haldis, the chief deity of the Armenian Pantheon. In the reign of the Assyrian King, Shalmanesar 111. (b.c. 850), the kingdom of Mannai or Van, to the north-east of Assyria, began to be a powerful opponent of the Assyrian rule, and wars were waged between the Minneans and the Assyrians. It was at this period that the Minneans adopted the cueciform mode of writing, and as Kalak or Nimroud was then the Assyrian capital, they copied the heavy style of art of that period. But the kingdom of Van came into most direct and continuous contact with Assyria during the reigns of Sargou (b.C. 721) and his successors ; and Sargou gives among his opponents the king whose name is found on one of Mr Layard's bronzes, and we may therefore place him about B.C. 715. Mr Layard, during his former travels in the Armenian regions, copied a number of the socalled Van inscriptions, and although a few cuneiform scholars are able to read the proper names, no one has yet deciphered the texts, although there is no doubt that they would be of great use to the histdry of the late dynasties of Assyria. The city of Van, from which Mr Layard obtained these antiquities, is one of very ancient date, having certainly been in existenco as early as the tenth century before the Christian era. The close connection between its foundation and Assyria is borne out by the local legend, which attributes its foundation to the Queen Semiramis, from whom it derived an ancient title of Schamiramfard. Here the Assyrian Queen was said to have founded a palace with luxurious gardens and streams. Here she spent the summer months among the cool and pleasant hills on the banks of Lake Van, returning, to Nineveh in the wicter. This legend is evidently but an echo of the true, close connection between Assyria and Armenia. The monarchs of Van style themselves in their inscriptions Kings of Mannai and Nalvic, which indicates that their their rule once extended further south than the Armenian ranges. In one triumphant text of this King Argistis, Babjlon is mentioned as a tributary. It was the Minneans who, in conjunction with the Medes and the Gimmerreans, overthrew Nineveh in B.C. 609 and ended the Assyrian Empire. Van was an important city under Persian rule, and there are inscriptions of Persian kings in its neighbourhood. But it appears to have fallen into decay, and was not of much importance until the second century 8.C., when the Monarch, Vagharschag, the first king of the Arsacian dynasty of Armenia, rebuilt it and made it the strongest city of the Empire. In the 11th century it was caeded by the family of Ardzroumis to the Greek Emperors; and after a Turkish capture it was sacked by Tamerlane in AD. 1392. We hope that Mr Layard may find time to continue his researches in the field with which his name is so closely associated.