Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/245

Assyrian Sculpture. 2 1 Our Plate XII. is an exact copy from a part of the band marked B in the provisional numeration adopted by Dr. Birch. 1 According to the inscription upon it this part of the work commemorates a sacrifice offered by Shalmaneser on the borders of the Lake Van, in Armenia. The figure of the king is not included in our plate, but it contains all the sacred vessels of which he made use for the ceremony. Beginning on the left we find a sort of great candelabrum, a three-legged altar, and two standards upon tripods. Must these be accepted as military ensigns of the same class as that shown in Fig. 46 or as religious emblems of the sun and moon ? The question is hardly one for us to discuss. Next comes a stele raised upon a rock, or perhaps carved upon its surface. Other reliefs of the same series show us that Shalmaneser erected these steles in every country he conquered. Further to the right we see soldiers throwing into the lake the limbs of the animals sacrificed. This must be an offering to the deity of its waters, perhaps to An ou, who was believed to reside in rivers and lakes as well as in the sea. The denizens of the lake seize upon the morsels thus put in their way ; among them we may recognize a large fish, a tortoise, and a quadruped, that may perhaps be an otter. 2 In the lower division we see the Assyrian army on the march. On the right Mr. Pinches recognizes a fortified camp in which horses were left for flight in case of defeat. There is, indeed, one of these fortified walls shown in projection, of which we have already spoken, but the horse is placed upon a clearly indicated arch. What is this arch doing in the middle of the camp ? We ask ourselves whether this circular structure may not be intended 1 We have not copied the uniform dark green tint forced upon the English publication by the necessity for printing in one colour. We have borrowed from the fragments in the possession of M. Schlumberger the broken hues of the patina deposited upon the bronze by age, a patina which has, perhaps, been too much removed by the cleaning to which the pieces in London have been subjected. 2 In page 3 of his Introduction, Mr. Pinches speaks of a " crocodile and a young hippopotamus." I do not think that either of those animals can ever have lived in the cold waters of Lake Van, which receives, in the spring, such a large quantity of melted snow. On the other hand, the argument applied by M. Perrot to architectural forms (see vol. i. pp. 139 (note 2) and 395), may here be invoked by Mr. Pinches. It is more likely that the artist introduced such animals as were to be found in the rivers and meres of Mesopotamia, than that he ascertained how Lake Van was peopled before he began his work. — Ed.