ends of the beams that run through the building; the copy is perfect in every detail; thus where a closed door is represented, not only are the panels indicated, but frequently the nails also that studded the original; even the knocker. (See ill. 19). One door, or, if large, part of one, is left open, to serve as 19. LYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT TELMESSUS, entrance into the grave-chamber behind, which, from the height at which these excavations are hewn in the quite, or nearly, perpendicular rocks, can have been reached only by means of ladders, except where steps. have been cut for the purpose. There is no doubt but that the entrance was closed with a well-fitting slab or block, but the rapacity of generations of plunderers and conquerors was sure to be attracted by these retreats of the dead, which might well be supposed to contain valuables of various kinds, and in no case have the modern explorers found the rock 20. LYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT TELMESSUS. (The block has been detached at some time, and slid down to the foot of the mountain.) chambers occupied by their silent tenants. These rock-hewn house fronts vary much in elaborateness, ranging from plain timberwork (see ill. 19 and 20) to highly ornamented porches, the architectural character and figure decorations of which betray a late and thoroughly Greek period of art. (See ill. 21 and 22.) It is easy to see that these differences cover a span of many centuries; nor can one help surmising that each particular rock-tomb may have been a conscious imitation of the deceased's own dwelling. This original variety of sepulchral monuments found imitators not only among the Greeks, but among the Persians. (See further on, Chap. XIII.) Some of these monuments stand isolated, presenting copies of entire wooden houses, not façades only (see ill. 18, left side), or assuming the form of towers. Such is the famous tower-shaped monument at Xanthus, in Lycia; it rises above the graves, which, though rock-hewn, have been cleared by cutting away and removing the blocks immediately surrounding them; and the four sides are covered with sculptures referring to the fate of the soul after death. The winged death-goddesses, the Harpies, carry the soul away in the shape of a new-born child, and above the opening of the grave-chamber we see the sacred cow, the emblem of life-giving nature, a grateful and consoling reminder. (See ill. 23.) Some few of the isolated tombs represent a sarcophagus (the model being, like the houses, evidently of wood.) The sculptured lid shows four handles, in the shape of lion heads. (See ill. 24.)* *It seems scarcely credible that a certain style of building should endure in the same locality through thousands of years; yet that such is the case in Lycia, is proved by ill. 25, 26, and 27, representing rural and excessively rude constructions, but of a character unmistakably identical with that of the dwellings reproduced in the earlier rock-tombs. |