V. — DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES
Plate I, figs. A-D and plate II, figs. C-E. — Copy and photographs of an inscribed wedge-shaped monument now lying in the courtyard of the serai at Albistan in southeastern Cappadocia. The wedge is made of coarse limestone and slightly rounded at the apex : its height is 8 feet 2 inches : its broad faces (B, D) 1 foot 7 inches wide, and its narrow faces (A, C) 10 inches wide. The symbols are eut in high relief, show much surface détail, and in gênerai character resemble those on the lower inscribed rock at Gyunin : they are larger and less crowded on the narrow faces than the broad. A belt of decay runs round the wedge, due probably to its use at some period as a thresholdstone.
It was conveyed to its présent position from Izgin, aTurkman village six miles E-N-E. of Albistan, situated near the confluence of the Khurman Su and Jihan (Pyramus). A few years ago it was standing as a head-stone in a graveyard near the village and was seen by the late Mr. Marsden of Marash, who caused it to be carried to a house, but did not copy it. Professer Sitlington Sterrett, although he was at Izgin in 1884, was prevented by illness from finding the monument, which the villagers had begun to guard jealously. Shortly before our arrivai (as was reported to us) a '' Frank" had attempted to buy the monument; the villagers refused to come to terms, but a rumour of the affair was bruited abroad and reached the ears of the local officiais, who confiscated the ''written stone" and had it deposited at Albistan, preparatory to its conveyance to Constantinople. On the long and difficult joumey to the capital it has not yet started.
Permission was accorded by the minor officiais of the serai to Hogarth and MuNRO to photograph or draw it in the early morning of July 8^**. As they had good reason to fear that the governor, when he should come down from his private résidence, might revoke this faveur, they worked at high pressure, but still claim for the copy, published on Plate I, a fair degree of fidelity, made as it has been after comparison of two independent drawings and excellent photographs of three faces of the wedge (A, B, D). Most unfortunately in their haste they unconsciously omitted to photograph face C and did not discover the mistake until the négatives were developed in England.
Plate I
Tk\
^mw^Km
:^MV IfeMfp
pMO=^^.i;
eiNA^ IV^
«^juv
ir
^ "''Jjf' *r ti
Ljst^»^
i:ul
Plate II
te^^". -t- ■V.
fe"« —
lA,.-»
PRE-HELLENIC MONUMENTS OF CAPPADOCIA 95
The relative position of the inscribed panels on faces A, B, D (being easily seen on the photographs) may be relied upon as correctly represented in the drawing on Plate I ; no two contiguous faces hâve the same number or disposition of panels, and it seems therefore probable that the text is to be read from top to bottom, face by face. The fact that only on face D does the text begin at the very apex of the wedge, and that the symbol of the '' speaking head " occurs on the right of Une 1 makes it probable that the text begins there and is to be read at first right to left. Face D has been placed accordingly on the extrême right of the Plate and the other faces successively as they would be seen by anyone walking round the wedge right to left.
It does not appear that there are any symbols below panels 15 of A or 16 of D : probably therefore we hâve ail the inscribed portion of the wedge preserved, and hâve not lost much of B, C. The monument is a good deal worn at the edges. The panels are divided by horizontal Unes in relief, but the several faces are not divided by any perpendicular Unes.
Plate III, figs. A-C. — Copy and photographs of a fragment of a rude statue in basait, now lying by a spring near Palanga, a chijlik of the Armenïan village of Ashode from which it is distant about three miles S. On the right of the main gâte of the chijlik is a small Uon of black basait * similar in character to the lions of Arslan Tash, three miles S-S-W. (see Plate II, fig. A).
The fragment represents the lower portion of a draped figure; it is a mère shapeless column without feet, but a double protubérance of the stone at the end of the first Une of the inscription is evidently intended to represent the buttocks. The drapery consi^ts of an underskirt, plain except for a short séries of perpendicular pleats down the middle of the back, and an upper garment thrown round the left side, the folded edges almost meeting under the Une of the right arm. This mantle or cloak reaches down below the level of the knees; its vertical edges are fringed with a border of narrow lappets or tags yery simUar to those represented on the terracotta statuette from Cyprus (Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. XII, pi. IX). The inscription extends from the front of the figure round the left side to the centre of the back, and covers in ail nearly two thirds of the circumference. It is written in a much conventionalized incised script, disposed in four horizontal bands on the upper garment, the lowest band being much broader and less carefuUy eut than those above it. In gênerai character the symbols resemble those of the Andaval stone {Recueil, t. XIV, pi. I, 4) : they are carefuUy finished and arranged, not deeply eut and much decayed on the right. The right of band 1 appears not to hâve been inscribed. The fragment stands 4 feet 4 inches high and in the upper part is 4 feet 7 inches in circumference : the lower part swells a little.
The figure suggests many interesting analogies. The columnar form, the flat treatment of the drapery, and the ribbed pleats of the underskirt irresistibly recall the Hera of Samos in the Louvre, although the Palanga statue need not hâve been féminine, and there are différences in détail and in technical skill. The rendering of the zigzag folds at
(1) See Sterrett, Epigraphical Journey^ p. 302.
96 PRE-HELLENIC MONUMENTS OF CAPPADOCIA
the edges of the cloak, and the buttocks, might readily be paralleled from early Greek art, e. g. among the archaic statues in the Acropolis Muséum at Athens. But perhaps the most complète parallel may be found in certain Cypriote statues; and in particular some of the large terracotta figures recently discovered at Salamis must hâve closely resembled the Palanga fragment both in form and in the gênerai disposition of the drapery. Thèse resemblances are of so great interest, as bearing not only on the history of Greek sculpture, but also on the probable date of the incised script, that we are juslified in hoping that the first travellers who may visit tlie district with sufficient appliances will not omit to take a cast of the stone.
This monument was first seen by the Rev. A. W. Hubbard of Sivas, but no copy or photograph of it has been published. We found it on August 5^** almost buried in mud near the spring; the villagers use it as a stepping stone to enable them to approach the pool, and no représentations on our part availed to prevent them rolling it back into the mud, as soon as our copies and photographs had been taken.
Plate II, fig. A. — Photograph of two lions of hard limestone, one erect, the other fallen on its left side, at Arslan Tash, a spot marked by a small wayside graveyard on the right of the track from Albistan to Derende, and about a mile E of the Kurdish village of Yeni-Koi. The ground near the lions has a " hummocky " appearance, but no other remains of antiquity appear above the soil.
The lions are of rude workmanship, the legs not being disengaged from the block ; the tails, also not disengaged, curl forward under the bellies in a way which suggests a réminiscence of the fifth leg of the Assyrian lions. Some attempt has been made to foUow nature in the curves of the hind-legs, but none in the fore-legs. As in the small hon at Palanga, the ruff of the mane is very strongly marked, and might at first sight easily be mistaken for the lower jaw. A rough incision has been made on the right side of the fallen lion under the belly, either by the sculpter, who began to eut away the block but did not persévère, or more probably by some seeker af ter the gold which ail ancient monuments are popularly supposed to contain. Certain rude lines and circles hâve been scratched in modem times hère and there on the stone.
The dimensions are :
(1) The erect lion, Rump to lip 8 feet4 inches.
Crown to right fore-paw 5 feet 9 inches, Across the muzzle 2 feet 4 inches.
Across the rump 1 foot 8 inches.
(2) The fallen lion. Rump to lip 7 feet 9 inches, and other measurements as in n° 1. The existence of thèse lions was reported by Von Vincke^ (Ritter, Erdkunde.
vol. XIX, p. 13). Sterrett saw them in 1884 but has published no photograph : he compares them with certain lions preserved near Birejik in Mesopotamia, and they bear also a strong family likeness to the Marash lions, now in the Muséum at Constantinople.
(1) Stbrrbtt (Epigraph. Journcy, p. 299) by a curious slip ascribes their discovery to Von Moltkb, who records nothing about them in his * Letters '.
LE ROI NEHASI 97
They probably flanked a doorway after the manner of the sphinxes of Eyuk : and considering their great weiglit and the mountainous character of the région in which they lie. it is most probable that they are still almost in situ. ^
Plate II, fig. B. — Fragment of a black basai tic statue now in the Catholic Armenian seminary at Marash, but where found originally is not known. The appended text is evidently the first part of a long inscription : the symbols are boldly eut in relief and are similar in every way to those from Jerabîs, now is the British Muséum. The fragment is rounded, and apparently formed part of a hollow figure. Owing to difficulties raised by the Catholics, the fragment was taken away from Hogarth, as soon as he began to copy it, and, when at last the owners were brought to terms, he was unable to go to the church again as he was suflfering from a sprained ankle. The text therefore rests on Munro's copy only.
LE ROI NEHASI
PAR
Edouard Naville
Dans les grandes buttes qui marquent l'emplacement des anciennes villes égyptiennes, les découvertes les plus intéressantes se font souvent d'une manière tout à fait fortuite. Des Fellahs, creusant pour le a sebakh », découvrent une statue ou une stèle que dans l'antiquité on avait enlevée au temple voisin, et brisée pour en faire un angle de mur, un seuil de porte, un haut d'escalier, ou même une presse à huile. Des trouvailles de ce genre sont purement affaire de chance. Rien n'indique à l'archéologue, sur une étendue recouverte par les restes de milliers de maisons, qu'autrefois tel habitant plutôt que tel autre est allé piller les ruines du vieux sanctuaire, pour en employer les matériaux à son usage. Il faut laisser faire les gens du pays, et nous pouvons espérer que, surtout dans le Delta, bien des emplacements que l'on croit épuisés nous causeront d'heureuses surprises et nous apporteront des documents précieux. C'est là ce qu'on peut attendre en particulier des endroits où le temple antique a complètement disparu, et où toutes les pierres dont il était bâti ont été enlevées et dispersées, quand elles n'ont pas servi à faire de la chaux.
Une découverte de ce genre fut faite à Tell-Mokdam en 1860. Dans les restes d'une maison, les Fellahs trouvèrent la base d'un colosse assis en granit noir. Mariette signala ce monument à l'Académie dans une lettre adressée à M. Alfred Maury en date du 26 février 1861 Ml le décrit en ces termes : u Au premier abord, rien ne recommande » ce fragment à l'étude de l'archéologue, et, en effet, il est difficile, quand on ne l'a pas » examiné à fond, d'y voir autre chose qu'une statue royale ornée sur toutes les faces de
(1) Rcpue Archéologique, 2« série, t. III, p. 337.
98 LE ROI NEHASI
» son siège d'hiéroglyphes profonds qui révèlent le nom de Ménephtah. Mais lorsqu'on » rétudio de près, on no tarde pas à reconnaître que Ménephtah, ici comme à San, est » un usurpateur, et que ce fragment a une origine bien plus ancienne. C'est un roi de la » treizième dynastie, dont le nom est malheureusement méconnaissable, qui Ta érigé. » c'est un roi pasteur qui l'a recueilli et qui, de chaque côté des pieds, a fait graver ses » cartouches, cartouches difficiles à lire, il est vrai, à cause de l'état de mutilation du » bloc, mais qui laissent encore voir le nom du dieu Sutekh employé dans la formation » du nom royal. » C'est à cause du premier signe du cartouche où il croyait reconnaître le nom de Sutekh, que Mariette considérait le roi qui avait usurpé la statue comme étant un Hyksos.
Mariette envoya des estampages des cartouches du prétendu roi pasteur à Dévérîa, qui en publia le fac-similé dans sa « Lettre à M. Aug. Mariette sur quelques monuments » relatifs aux Hyksos* ». Dévérîa aussi croyait voir dans le premier signe l'animal typhonien assis, qui est l'emblème de Set ou Sutekh, et son opinio n a été génér alement
admise. Ebers ' rétablit par conjecture le nom sous cette forme : ( \A ^ ^ ^ 1/ et en
fait le roi Salatis, connu par les auteurs grecs. Le fac-similé a été publié une seconde fois dans la collection des Monuments divers recueillis en Egypte et en Nubie* , commencée par Mariette, et achevée par M. Maspero. L'examen de ces deux publications montre qu'il' y a trente ans la statue était en meilleur état qu'aujourd'hui. Elle ne s'est pas bien trouvée d'avoir été abandonnée aux Fellahs pendant si longtemps. Tout ce
qui était le long du pied gauche a été brisé. L'inscription s'arrête au disque appartenant à l'expression "^^ qui précède le cartouche. Celui-ci a donc entièrement disparu avec ce qui suivait. D'après les fac-similés publiés, c'était le plus indistinct, il était même absolument illisible*; mais, ce qui est plus regrettable, ce sont les signes n ^ \^ qui terminaient l'inscription et qui suivaient le nom également effacé du dieu dont le roi était Tadorateur. La qualification de maître de Hauar indiquait, à n'en pas douter, que ce dieu était Set. Il est d'autant plus fâcheux que ces mots aient disparu que, du côté droit, tandis que le cartouche a été conservé, ce qui vient après est indéchriffrable, il n'y a rien à en tirer. Il était urgent de conserver à la science ce qui reste de ce précieux monument. Il est maintenant au Musée de Gizèh, où il a été transporté par les soins et aux frais de la Société Egypt Exploration Fund.
L'étude de ces cartouches était l'une des principales raisons qui m'engageaient à tenter des fouilles à Tell-Mokdam. Après un examen attentif, aidé de plusieurs estampages, la lecture du nom m'est apparue parfaitement claire. Ce nom se lit Nehasi, le nègre. Ce qui a égaré Mariette, Dévérîa et après eux Ebers, c'est l'idée que ce roi devait être un Hyksos, et qu'ainsi son nom devait commencer par Set, l'animal typho-
(1) Retuc Archéologique, £• série, t. IV, p. 259.
(2) Ebrhs, /Egypten und die Bâcher Moses, p. 202; Lauth, Aus jEgyptens Vorzeit, p. 229; Ed. Mbyer, Set-Typhon, p. 56.
