Chaldwan and Assyrian.— The civilization that was contemporary with Egypt was that of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley. Civilization of Chaldwa and Assyria alternately ruled in this valley until the conquest by the Persians. Its art and architecture was predominately royal. Extravagence and splendor marked the con struction of palaces, especially those of Assyria, and the temples were comparatively moderate compared with the hieratic monuments of Egypt. Scarcity of timber and the difficulty of obtaining good stone for structural use forced the Mesopotamian monarchs to evolve a structural system adapted to the use of the available material. The solution of their struc tural problem developed the arch. To roof corridors or rooms, baked clay bricks were as sembled on a curved form of wood. The bricks being inelastic material and in compres sion exerted lateral pressure or thrusts which were ultimately transmitted to walls or abut ments. The thickness of the wall is propor tionate to the amount of the arch thrust, and in the case of the Mesopotamian edifices, these superimposed weights were very great, hence the walls that held the load in check had to be enormously thick. The repetition of the arch, i.e. continuous arch formed a vault and the vault upon the circular base produced the dome. The column did not appear in Mesopotamian architecture as a constructive element. Palace architecture at Nineveh, Koyvndjic, Kharsabad and Nimroud exemplify the character of the Chaldwo-Assyrian palace. The religious archi tecture, exemplified by the ruins at Mugheir, Warka and Nippur, indicate terraced temples constructed with crude brick faced with burnt brick carefully set and often coated with enamel. Sculpture and relief, together with tile decoration, were used in the embellishment of the constructions of Chaldwa and Assyria. Winged bulls carved in high relief appear fre quently as decorations of the jambs of arched gateways. Wall slabs of alabaster exquisitely carved in relief depicting subjects of war and hunting or of the king doing worship to his gods ornamentated the state apartments of the palaces. Individuality in design and ornamenta tion is lacking. The architecture throughout has the sombre stamp of officialdom. Expressing as it did the civilization with which Greece, Rome and Byzantium were in sympathy, Meso potamian art became a fountain head of in spiration and influence for the arts of the Occident. That miracle of Justinian, the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople had its origin in Mesopotamia.
Persia.—The mountain races of Persia, previous to Cyrus, developed no architectural monuments. From the latter part of the 6th century, however, until the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander, 334 sc., an architecture of terraced palaces and columned halls, laid out upon terraces and platforms, served to splendidly house the royal court and dependencies of the Persian monarchs, Cyrus the Great and his Achaememidre successors. At Pasargadae, Persepolis and Susa, are ruins scarcely yielding in point of decorative mag nificence and impressive monumentality to the master works of Assyria and Chaldrea. The notable detail of Persian architecture is the capital and shaft, perhaps best expressed in the form employed in the palace at Persepolis. This capital was composed of the head and fore legs of recumbent hulls or lions between whose arched heads rested the beam that supported a timber roof. While it is a notable fact that the
Persian bull kept his place unique in the his tory of architecture and is without derivatives, the supported entablature, developed after the wooden prototypes used by the ancestors of the Persians in constructing their huts, gave us the elements of the classic Ionic and Corinthian entablatures.
Hittites.— The source of many oft-repeated motifs in Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Minoan arts, certainly not originated by these civiliza tions, was the Hittites, from whose capitals at Kadesh and Carchemish, Western Asia and the .7Egwan were controlled. The power of the race was overshadowed by the conquering arms of the Assyrians in the 8th century B. c. The architecture and art forms of this people are hardly known to us as yet. The curious pic torial records found in many places of Asia Minor are still the subject of much study by the Oriental philologist. It is certain, how ever, that many forms that appeared in the architecture of Medieval and Renaissance times had their origins in the building activities of this race. At Senjirli extensive ruins of a fortified palace have been excavated. The gateway was planned as a portico. A guard room, the ceiling of which was supported by columns, intervened between the moat and the keep. The lower part of the walls of this room was decorated with reliefs of hunting scenes, and figures of gods, unmistakably Hittite. The columns were supported upon the backs of animal grotesques. In a relief at Boghaz-Keny the deities are represented as being supported by the symbols of temporal and mystic power. The lion, the king of beasts, represents in the most satisfactory way the idea of physical supe riority. The double-headed eagle presents the idea of supernatural control. The two heads indi cates the ability to gather all experience from the past and to forecast the future, in fine, a pictograph of omniscience. The persistency of artistic tradition is well illustrated in the way these Hittite forms have been transmitted from nation to nation, long ago having lost their significance in imagery, but ever striking in effect. The column carried upon the backs of animals was carved by the Assyrians in their decorative reliefs and the Etruscans carried the motif to Italy. The portal of the Romanesque cathedral at Verona exhibits its employment. In both the lower and upper colonnades of the entrance broadly treated grotesques support small Corinthianesque columns. All through northern and eastern Italy this imported Hittite motif was used. In designing ecclesiastical fur niture this seemingly popular form was used continually. The Prior's Door of Ely cathedral, England, illustrates the introduction of the Hittite column form into English Norman work. In Italy, again, the pulpit that Nicolas Pisano carved for the Baptistry of • Pisa, gave Renaissance expression to the ancient Hittite theme. So far researches among the scattered fragments in the rubbish heaps of Asia Minor oblige us to look upon the Hittites as the origi nators of an individual and vigorous art, the effect of which has been lasting and wide spread. Art history, in part, must be rewritten and a place made for this virile nation. Im portant as their original contributions were, the greatest credit of the Hittites was in the fact that they were the principal mediating influence between Mesopotamia and Egypt in the East, and Greece, Etruria and Rome in the West.