The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1880-10-27

CarlaK the ieXl OF ID ibaiJ n11o - -
Egyptian monarch RanIses T., the sesostrls
Of Herodotus, vita the king Of the Hittltes,
after long years Of inglorious struggle. Inc
Hittites entered into alliance with Egypt upon
equal terms, and the two monarchs agreed
not to punish the political offenders who
may have fled from the one country 70 the
other during the period Of mutual conflict.
The Hittite text Of the treaty, we are told,
was engraved upon a tablet OF silver; and
although this was done more than
THREE THOUSAND al AGO,
It is not beyond the bounds Of possibility
that the tablet may yet be found.
For the modern capital Of the Hit1ite prince
has been discovered, and is now being exca-
waited at the expense of the British museum.
It was called By the Hittites Carehenish, the
city which commanded the forGs Of the
Euphrates, on the highroad from Assyria to
the west, and the spot where Pharaoh Necho
was foiled by Acknowledgements ii his attempt
to vim for Egypt the sovereignty Of western
Asia. Its ruins are now called Jerabls Jera-
blus, 81 Arabic perVersion Of the Greek
Hierapolia, Ssthe sacred city, Of the Asiatic
goddess. Here, about sixteen miles to the
south Of the modern Birejik, was the chief
scat Of Riftite capital power and wealth,
down TO the time when its last king, Pisiris,
was overcome by the armies Of SaTgon, and
the Hlttite capital became the seat Of an
Assyrian governor.
The inscriptions disinterred at Carchemish
are not the only ones that have come from
the territory Of the Hittites. Another exists
at Aleppo, and i've others IN q hieratic form
Of the characters were noticed as long ago as
1912 by Busckhardt, built into the walls Of
houses at Klamath, where careful copies Of
them have since been made. Clay impress
sions of adals, too, were discovered by Sir 4.
Fl. Layard in the record-chamber Of Sen
nacherib's palace, inscribed with strange
characters, which long remained a mystery.
But when attention was at length directed to
the hieroglyphics Of Klamath it turned out
that the strange characters were Hittite HER
%oglyphics, and that the seals on which
they were inscribed had probably seen at
tached to treaties signed by Hittite kings.
The "Paschal Chronicle, z too, has pre-
served q curious passage, quoted probably
from a writer Of Asia Minor, which states
that
A FIGURE OF PERsEUs,
Carved in the rock, existed just outside the
walls Of Ikonium in Lykaonia, once called
Amanda. It was in this same Ikonium that
q legend was preserved of an ancient hero,
Nannakos, who, like the Biblical Enoch,
lived before the age of the flood; and here,
TOO, IL. Texier saw the eolored image of q
warrior, half Hittite, half Greek, in style,
beneath which are the fragments OF an in
scribtion il Kypriote characters.
But perhaps the most remarkable of all
these Hittite monuments are the sculptures at
Eyuk, near Boghaz Keui, first discovered by
Hamilton and since photographed by Parrot.
Here on the slope Of a low hill are the re-
mains Of a palace, built not Of limestone,
like the other monuments of Asia Minor, but
Of dark granite. Ruined as it II, sufficient
is leftto show thatit was modelled N the
plan Of the palaces Of Assyria. At its en-
trance are two huge monolIths, with the
faces carved into the likeness Of %sphinXes.
But the sphinxes, though inspired by the art
Of Egypt, are profoundly different from the
sphinxes of the valley Of the Nile, and only
their feet and faces are heWn out Of stone.
One OF the monoliths futher bears upon it
the same double eagle that is portrayed on
the rocks Of Pteria; but this double eagle
once supported the figure Of 8 god. The
monoliths were fanked by walls, one of
which is still fairly preserved. Along it runs
a line Of sculptures which carry, each one Of
them, the impress Of Hittite art. Here we
may see
TIE HITTITE ARR
In his peculiur dress, there the Hittite
priest robed as he is at Boghaz Keui. Else
where the building Of the palace itself is
brought before our eyes, and the Workmen
are represented ascending q ladder, or other
wise assisting in the work. Elsewhere,
again, it is q bull, mounted on a sort Of pc
destal, and drawn with the skill that charac-
terizes the delineation of the animal forms
occurring among the Hittite characters, o.
again, it is q musician and a snake-charmer.
Hard by is q man leading . monkey, 8 pic
ture we might think somewhat out Of place
IN SO cold and northern . country. But,
curiously enough, it IS with monkey stha'
the Assyrian monuments associate the kins