The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-10-07
Ancient Carchemish.--The Unearthing
Of the Hittite Capital.

OF the Hittite Capital.
The discovery of the ancient City of
Carchemish, the Hittite capital, on the
west bank of the Euphrates, twenty
miles below the Arab town of Beredijik,
has opened up a new chapter in the his
| tory of art and civilization. 1t is iden-
| titled with the Roman city of Hierapolis,
which was largely built out of the ruins of
Old Carchemish, and was first visited by
j. H. Skene, the British Consul at Aleppo,
/ in the winter of 1915. During the
previous spring, while visiting some
| Bedouin Arabs, Mr.. Skene heard that
ancient stones had been found among
the ruins at Kalaat Jerablus. He i'm
mediately went to the spot and took
measures for the protection of the curl
Gus sculptures that had been unearthed.
/ When the late George Smith passed
| through Aleppo, on his way to Nineveh,
he visited the site, copied the inscrp-
| tions and communicated the news of the
discovery to the British Museum. He
was as fully convinced as Mr.. Skene
| had been that these ruins marked the
/ site of Carchemish, the capital of the
| Hittite kingdom. The evidence which
established this Identification was MAIN
ly founded on data furnished by Assy-
rian historical inscriptions, which re-
cord most accurately the situation of
the various cities visited by the Assyri-
an monarchs. The evidence reached
the point of certainty when an Assyrian
| inscribed brick was discovered bearing
the name and titles of Sargon (B. c.
| 72D, who captured and annexed Car
/ chemish to AsSyria, and built there
palace for his Viceroy. The bronze
! gates from the temples of the war-gOd
at Ballawat are covered with representa-
| tions of the cities which were besieged
by the Assyrian conqueror. Shall
maniSer Ill, twenty-seven centuries
ago, and among the Hittite cities oc-
ours the capital Carchemish. In this
representation the mound built acrOpo-
| lis, which is already identified among
the recently discovered ruins, is clearly
to be seen, crowned with stately edi-
fees and exhibiting much skill and iD-
! genuity in their construction. This
acropOlis rises at an angle of about fifty
| degrees from the river and is protected
at its base by a massive substructure, in
part natural, in part artificial. The
! builders at Carchemish, like those at
! Nineveh, chose a site where vein or
bed of conglomerate rock rises above
the surface of the earth. Partly by
using this natural rock platform, partly
by thanking wall of almost cyclopean
construction, a firm foundation was Sc
cured, against which the strong current
of the Euphrates has surged for centu-
ries with no effect The acropOlis on
the river face was thus impregnable.
This was reconstructed during the RO-
man occupation. The ruins within the
inclosure of the walls are said to present
an utter chaos. Masses of stone, pillars
and cOrnices, fallen and broken, walls
with mounds of earth rising here and
there, confuse the eye and render it
difficult to discern any regular plan of
work. Upon the receipt of letters from
Mr.. Smith, describing the curious sculp
lures and the nature and character of
the ruins, the trustees of the British
Museum obtained a tirman to make eX
plorations on the site, but his death ar
rested the work, which had been car
ried on by the British Consul at Aleppo,
with the difficulty that he is himself
ninety miles from the spot and is
obliged to intrust the operations to 4
native overseer. But the work, pur-
sued under all these difficulties, has
yielded some fruit. The shafts sunk
down thirty-hve feet into the palace
mounds have chiefly unearthed traces
of Roman art, though one of them
uncovered a brick bearing an in
scription in cuneiform characters,
of Sargon, King of Assyria. Near
an interesting role of Hittite art has
been found, monolith of black baSalt,
cut on the back with curious hero
glvphic characters, while on the pre-
pared face is carved a bas-relief full
face representation of priest. The
priest is represented as clad in a long
robe, resembling the Arab shirt, ap-
parently striped and decorated with
embroidered roSettes. Around the
waist is a broad band, also embroid~
cred. A cloak, resembling an ecclesi-
astical chasuble, covers his shoulders
and falls almost to the heels behind.
The statue is supposed to be that of
some ruler of Carchemish in his priestly
character, holding in his hand the pome-
granate, which is the usual emblem in
Hittite inscriptions. At another point
chamber has been found, the walls of
which were decorated with sculptures,
a room sixty feet in length, and eigh-
teen feet in breadth. The chamber is
in the form of corridor, and along its
west wall were arranged series of
Hittite sculptures in bas-relief, repre-
senting the worship and alteration of
the Syrian Venus, by a priesteSs at
tached to the temple. The goddess is
here represented as a nude figure, in
full face; and the figure is of great
archaeological interest as an early eX-
ample of the representation of the
Asiatic goddess whose worship spread
from Babylon to Asia Minor and Greece.
At several other points, sculptures of
NEUROLOGICAL character have been dis
covered bearing inscriptions which as
vet no one has shown the skill to in
terpret. The excavations already made
also show that, since the primitive Hit
titeS built their fortress on the banks
of the Euphrates, Egyptian, Assyrian,
Babylonian, Greek, Roman and Arab
have successfully occupied the site,
each throwing down and burning with
fire the work of his predecessor. If
these ruins are explored as the ruins at
Olympia have been explored, not sim
ply dug over, it is likely that they may
reveal secrets concerning an unknown
period as important in their way as
those disclosed at Nineveh or Olympia,
but the best method of investigation
has not yet been adopted.-BoSton Her.
aid.
Mr.. Holyoake, the Englishman, in
-. &c /.