tional types of the inhabitants of the Persian empire; as we see
plainly on the reliefs of the tomb of king Darius Hystaspes, which
he had excavated in the mountain Eachmend, near Persepolis. The
king is represented here in royal attire before the fire-altar, over
which hovers his guardian angel, in the form of a human half-figure
rising from a winged disc. This group, grand in its simplicity, is
placed on a beautifully decorated platform, supported by two rows
of Caryatides, sixteen in each row, representing the four different
nationalities subject to this king,-,—besides the ruling Persians, who
occupy a more distinguished position, flanking the composition on
both sides, and typified by three spearsmen of the royal guard, and
by three courtiers who raise their hands in adoration.
This relief of the sepulchre of Darius in Persia, is one of the most
valuable documents of ethnology, second in importance only to king
M e n e ph t h a h s (S e t i I.) celebrated tomb at Thebes recording four
types of man.146 We see here first the sculpture of a Chaldean, stand-
Fig. 85A« n c B a
Lydian. Scythian. Negeo. Chaldee.
ing for Assyria and Babylonia; it is so striking that it cannot be mistaken.
A ext to the Chaldean stands the negro for the Egypto-
.Æthiopian empire added by Cambyses to the Persian. It was on the
Nile that Persia became first acquainted with negroes, and therefore
chose them for the representatives of Africa ; though the empire of
the Achæmenidæ, ceasing in Nubia and the western Oases, never
extended over Negro-land, or the Soodàn proper. The third supporter
of the platform can be none else than the representative of
the Scythian empire of Astyages. His peculiarly-round skull, which
still characterizes the pure Turkish and Magyar blood, designates
him as belonging to a Turanian race. The last figure in the group
wears the Phrygian cap, and personifies the Lydian empire of
Croesus, of which Phrygia, on account of its rich gold-mines, was
the most important province.
Thus, in the rock-hewn tomb of Darius, (about 490 b . c.) at a time
1« Types of ManJcind, p. 85, fig. I ; and pp. 247-9.
1« Texiee , L’Arménie et la Perse, II., pl. 126, “ Persépolis—Tombeau dans le roc.”
C U N E I F O R M "WRITING. 151
when Greek art was still archaic, Persian sculpture preserved
five characteristic types of. mankind in an admirable work of art,
as evidencea of the constancy of the peculiar cast of features of
human races. The monumental negro resembles the negro of to-day;
the Arian features of king Darius and his guards are identical with
those we meet still in Persia and all over Europe; the Turanian (or
Scythian) bears a family resemblance to many Turks and Hungarians
; the identity of the Assyrian and modern Chaldean physiognomy
has been mentioned and proved above; and the Phrygian
represents the rriixed population of Asia Minor, a modification of the
Arian type by the infusion of foreign blood—Iranian, Scythic, and
Shemitish interminglings.
Persian art, as a branch and daughter of the Assyrian, never rose
to a higher development than under Darius and Xerxes. The dissensions
and the profligacy of the royal house checked the progress
of art, which remained stationary until Alexander the Macedonian
destroyed the independence of the empire, and tried to Tiellenize the
subdued Persians. His endeavors, continued by the first Seleucidse
of Syria, were not devoid of results; because, even when Persia
recovered its independence and re-appeared in history as the Parthian
empire, all its coins bear Greek inscriptions and imitations of
Grecian types. We ought not to forget, notwithstanding, that the
Parthians were probably not Persians proper, but an unartistical Turanian
tribe, held in subjection by the earlier Persians under their
Achaemenian kings, which, in its turn, revolting from the yoke, ruled
the Persians for above four centuries.
Some specimens of a peculiar style of art have been lately discovered
within the boundaries of the old Persian empire, v iz : at Pte-
rium and Nymphas. They were published by Texier;148 and it has
been suggested that they might be Median. The bas-reliefs certainly
present nothing to suggest any relation to the art of that race which
originated the cuneiform writing; nor is a perceptible affinity conspicuous
between them and the Egyptian style. Nevertheless, the
artists who chiselled them knew of the productions of Greek genius.
The breath of Hellenism has passed over them, as we perceive from
the following male [36] and female [37] heads. They are, therefore,
by many centuries posterior to the great Median empire. Still, it
would be presumptuous to attribute them to any determinate nationality,
since none of the highlands flanking Asia Minor, inhabited then
by aboriginal tribes, were ever completely hellenized; although they
were powerfully affected by the genius of Hellas, whose progress
148 Asie Mineure, Pl. 61, 78,—“ Bas-relief taillé dans le roc. L’Offrande”—et seq.