throne; the details of its decoration are precisely similar to those of an Assyrian bronze throne in the British Museum.  The full moon and crescent are not of the familiar form, but are mounted on a standard with tassels.

The detailed history and artistic development of Sam’al and Ya’di convey a very vivid impression of the social and material effects upon the native population of Syria, which followed the westward advance of Assyria in the eighth century.  We realize not only the readiness of one party in the state to defeat its rival with the help of Assyrian support, but also the manner in which the life and activities of the nation as a whole were unavoidably affected by their action.  Other Hittite-Aramaean and Phoenician monuments, as yet undocumented with literary records, exhibit a strange but not unpleasing mixture of foreign motifs, such as we see on the stele from Amrith(1) in the inland district of Arvad.  But perhaps the most remarkable example of Syrian art we possess is the king’s gate recently discovered at Carchemish.(2) The presence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions points to the survival of Hittite tradition, but the figures represented in the reliefs are of Aramaean, not Hittite, type.  Here the king is seen leading his eldest son by the hand in some stately ceremonial, and ranged in registers behind them are the younger members of the royal family, whose ages are indicated by their occupations.(3) The employment of basalt in place of limestone does not disguise the sculptor’s debt to Assyria.  But the design is entirely his own, and the combined dignity and homeliness of the composition are refreshingly superior to the arrogant spirit and hard execution which mar so much Assyrian work.  This example is particularly instructive, as it shows how a borrowed art may be developed in skilled hands and made to serve a purpose in complete harmony with its new environment.

(1) Collection de Clercq, t.  II, pl. xxxvi.  The stele is sculptured in relief with the figure of a North Syrian god.  Here the winged disk is Egyptian, as well as the god’s helmet with uraeus, and his loin-cloth; his attitude and his supporting lion are Hittite; and the lozenge-mountains, on which the lion stands, and the technique of the carving are Assyrian.  But in spite of its composite character the design is quite successful and not in the least incongruous.

     (2) Hogarth, Carchemish, Pt.  I (1914), pl.  B. 7 f.

(3) Two of the older boys play at knuckle-bones, others whip spinning-tops, and a little naked girl runs behind supporting herself with a stick, on the head of which is carved a bird.  The procession is brought up by the queen- mother, who carries the youngest baby and leads a pet lamb.

Such monuments surely illustrate the adaptability of the Semitic craftsman among men of Phoenician and Aramaean strain.  Excavation in Palestine has failed to furnish examples of Hebrew work.  But