are connected with Mesopotamia; inasmuch as the names of O sor-
kon , jargon) T akelo th ( Tiglath), N imrod , and K eromama (Semi-
ramis,) are altogether un-Egyptian, and strongly Assyrian. About
this time (9th and 10th century b . c.) ivory combs, and decorative
sculptures of Assyrian design became fashionable in Egypt,132 and
show that the Assyrian style of art was already fully developed. The
celebrated black marble obelisk of king D iv a n u b a r (Deleboras?), in
the British Museum, belongs to about the same period, being
synchronic with king Jehu of Israel (about 820 b . c.), and bears no
peculiar traces of archaism. The archaic human-headed bull and
lion of Arban, published by Layafd,133 must therefore be placed by
several centuries before the obelisk, and may perhaps belong to the
time of the first contact of Mesopotamia and Egypt under the conquering
kings of the XV 11th and XVUIth dynasties.
“ Their outline and treatment,” says Layard, “ are bold and angular, -with an archaic feeling
conveying the impression of great antiquity. They bear the same relation to the more
delicately finished and highly ornamented sculptures of Nimroud as the earliest specimens
of Greek a rt do to the exquisite monuments of Phidias and Praxiteles. The human
features are, unfortunately, much injured, b u t such parts as remain are sufficient to show
that the countenance had a peculiar character, differing from the Assyrian type. The nose
was fiat and large, and the lips thick and overhanging, like those of a negro.”
To judge by the drawing of Dr. Layard, knowing the correctness
of his designs, we must observe that the head of the Arban bull has
as little of nigritian characters as the head of the colossal sphinx134
before the second Pyramid ; which had formerly likewise often been
compared to a Negro, exclusively on account of the fulness of the
lips, and the defacement of its nose by Arab iconoclasts.135 The face,
however, on both these monuments, has no particular projection of
132 De R otjgé, Notice, p. 16: — established also by B irch , “ On two Egyptian cartouches
found at Nimroud,” 1848, pp. 153-60; abundantly figured in L a y a r d ’s folio Monuments of
Nineveh, 1849.
133 Nineveh and Babylon, p. 276 & f.
i3t [Since the studies of Lenormant (Musée de» Antiquités Égyptiennes, p. 44), and of
L etro n n b (Recueil des Inscriptions Grecques et Latines, II, 1848, pp. 460-86), the epoch heretofore
attributed to the Great Sphinx, viz : to Amosis (Aahmes) of XVIIth dynasty, has also
been carried to the more ancient period of the Old Empire, through the successive explorations
of Lefsios (Briefe, 1852, pp. 42-5), Brugsch (Reiseberichte, 1855, pp. 10-34), and
more than all by M a rie tte , who re-uncovered this rock-colossus in 1853. The enigma of
the “ Sphinx,” through the latter’s researches, has vanished likewise ! I t is but “Hords of
the horizon,” i. e. the setting sun. (De S a u m t , “ Fouilles du Sérapéum de Memphis,” Le
Constitutions! Paris, 9 Dec. 1854: — Madry, Découvertes en Égypte, p. 1074)-f-G. R. G.]
« s [M a k r e e z e e narrates how the nose of the Sphinx was chiselled away by a fanatical
muslim saint, about 1378: — Cf. F ia l in d e P e r s ig h y , then “ détenu à la maison de santé
de Doulens,” (De la Destination et de V Utilité permanente des Pyramides de V Égypte et de la
Nubie contre les Irruptions Sablonneuses du Désert, Paris, 8vo. 1845). — G. R. G.]
the jaws, aud tbe facial angle is open. The fulness of the lips peculiar
to the Egyptian, or negroid type, reminds the man of science only
of Egypt, not of negroes; who, in spite of Count d e G o b in e a u ’s ingenious
hypotheses,136 could not have been the ancestors of the Arian
monarchs of Mesopotamia. Though all the human-headed bulls of
Assyria are royal portraits, just as sphinxes of Egypt were likenesses
of the Pharaohs,137 still, we are scarcely authorized to draw any conclusion
about an Egyptian origin of Assyrian art from the negroid
(perhaps Arab- Cushite) cast of features of the Arban king; for, in all
other respects, the colossus exhibits the marked characteristics of
Assyrian art; for instance, in the elaborate arrangement of the curls
and beard, the architectural peculiarity of the five feet of the bull,
instead of four, together with the exaggeration of the muscles.
Assyrian art, in its earliest known remains, appears entirely national
and independent of Egypt; and it maintains its peculiar type through
the vicissitudes of several centuries down to the destruction of the
empire. We do not mean to say that Egypt exerted no influence
whatever on Assyria; on the contrary, there are some bronze
cups and ivory ornaments and statuettes, in the British Museum,
evidently imitated from Egyptian models; still,' the Egyptian exerted
but a temporary influence on the decorative element of the
Assyrian style, without modifying the art of Assyria, which can hest
be designated by the epithet of “ princely.” The king, according to
the reliefs, sums up the whole national life of Nineveh. Wherever
we look, we meet exclusively with his representations, surrounded
here with his court, there with his army, receiving tribute and concluding
treaties, leading his troops and fighting battles, besieging
fortresses and punishing the prisoners, hunting the wild bull and the
lion of the desert, feasting in his royal halls and drinking wine from
costly cups. Even the pantheon of Assyria is mostly known by the
worship, oblations, and sacrifices of the king. The scenes of domestic
life, and of the sports and occupations of the people, which, in
Egyptian reliefs, occupy nearly as much place as the representations
connected with royalty, are altogether wanting at Nineveh. There
are a few slahs that represent domestic occupations—a servant curry-
combing a horse, a cook superintending the boilers, and the butchers
136 De G ob in eau , in his Inégalité des races humaines, attributes the artistic faculties of any
race to an admixture of Negro or Mongol blood, although he acknowledges that pure Negroes
are unartistic.
13T The union of a human head to a lion in Egypt, and to a bull in Assyria, implies an
apotheosis ; since the lion and the bull were the symbols of Gods, the terrestrial images of
celestial beings.