The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1880-10-27
4 FORGOTTEN EMPIRE.
An Ancient Rival Of Egypt Unearthea u
the Forests Of Asia Linor-Nothing
New Under the Sun.
"a. II. sayce, in Frazer's ATagazine.j
CURIOUS COUNTRY.

II was 3 warm sunny morning towards the
end Of September when | LETT the little town
Of NiInphi under the protection OF an escort
OF soldiers, and set out for the once rifle
district Of Ephesus, near where IS 8 place
called by the Turks Kara-su, or Black For
est, which conceals some OF the most curious
and interesting monuments IL The world,
monuments that take us back TO d long ter
gotten day, when as yet the Greeks were
destitute Of culture and art. Gyges had not
founded his dynasty hard by at sardes, Or
Kroesus ruled over the Lydian empire.
They have risen up from the dead, as it
were, during the last two years to tell us CT a
powcr which had its seat far away on the
banks Of the Fuphrates, but which carried
its armies to the very shores Of the Agean
Sea and helped The Ph@nicians id commun-
n~icating to the nations Of the west the civil
zation % Assyria and Babylon.
In the year 1889 the Rev. J. G.. Renouard
discovered, high up above the path On the
eastern side Of the valley, 8 carving in the
rock. The stone has been followed out into
o niche within which stands the figure Of q
man, six feet high. with TIC n1hrygian cap IN
the head, boots with tugn-up ends on the feet,
D culver slung at the bank, and 8 spear IN
the left hand. The whole carving is Of q
very marked and peculiar character, and the
art to which it t~estfies must Of had a long
and independent development.
But, as we now know, it does not stand
alone. Step by step, region by region, We
can trace it along the two highroads that
traversed Asia Minor and met IN the Lydian
capital, the one running from the Hays
through Phrygia, the other passing the
Cilician Gates and the rugged mountains Of
Lykaonia. At a place called Ghzaur-Kalessi,
'sthe fortress for the infdel, I" near the vii
lagos Of Hoidja and Kara-omerlua, about
nine hours to the southwest Of Angora, the
ancient Ancyra, and upon the old line Of road
which led from Armenia to Lydia, M. Par
rot has discovered an
ANCIENT FORTRESS,
And beside it q rock.mrVed into the
likeness of two men, nine feet in height, who
reproduce even to the. smallest details the
art and peculiarities of the scSd1le-ure.of Kara
bel. Here, too, each figure -cahres his
spear and CULVER, wears the same shoN tunic
and Phrygian cap, is shod with the Same
curious kind Of 'tip-tilted,, boot, and has the
same thick limbs and stunted growth. The
walls Of the fortress also that stand hard by
have q style Of architecture quite their own.
The stones Of which they are composed are
polygona!!, but the lateral joints and external
faces are dressed. The architecture, IN fact,
il that termed the third %polygoaal. The
an style of building characterizes the
walls Of another pre- historic fortress at
Boghaz Keui, supposed to represent the an
cient Pteria, about fifty miles to the east Of
the loWer Hays. at Boghaz Keui, too,
there are sculptures which the first glance
will show us belong to the same peculiar
style of art, and were perhaps the work Of
The same people, as the sculptures Of Karabel
and Ghiaur-Kalessi. But they are on q far
larger scale, and are intended to represent
diVinitie5 rather than men. The flat surface
Of an amphip.Aeatre Of rock has been COW
cred via these remarkable figures. There
tha.y stand, figure after figure, as it We're in
a triumphal procession, the goddesses
crowned with mural CROWDS, the feet of
some among them resting On leopards and
lions, like certain deities on the carved gems
Of ancient Babylonia, while the gods appear
in lofty tiaras or Phrygian caps, and all
bear in their hands the symbols of their at
tributes and divinities.
But the rocks Of Boghaz Keul bear upon
them something more precious than even
these scnlptured deities and their strange
symbols. At one place an inscription of
ten or twelve lines has been cutin relief upon
the stone, while close to each divinity are
other inscriptions CIT in q similar way and
containing the names Of the gods to whom
they are attached. The Inscriptions are
composed Of q number Of curious hieroglyph.
les, some resembling
THE HIERoGLYPHICs OF EGYPT,
Others altogether peculiar, such as tip
tilted shoes, tiaraed human heads, or the
heads of animals in profile, while others
again have lost al likeness to the objects Of
which they were originally the pictures.
These hieroglyphics, though still under,
ciphered, have already let US into the secrets
Of the sculptures they accompany. The
figures at Karable has exactly the same
h~ieroglYphics, cut in relief, attached to it
Texier first detected them, but his drawing