bangles, beads, rings, and ear-rings.

They were in

gold, silver, copper, and brass. Some of the smaller gold ornaments, such as ear-rings, and small plates or beads for necklaces and fillets, were of a tasteful and elegant design.' 2 The finger-rings were coarser, while the toe-rings, armlets, and bangles, were for the most part exceedingly rude and barbarous. Head-dresses in gold, tall and pointed, are said to have been found occasionally; but the museums of Europe have not yet been able to secure any, as they are usually melted down by the finders. Broad ribbons of gold, which may have depended like strings from a cap, are commoner, and were seen by Mr. Loftus. Altogether, the ornaments indicated a strong love of personal display, and the possession of considerable wealth, but no general diffusion of a correct taste, nor any very advanced skill in design or metallurgy.

Of purely æsthetic art art, that is, into which the idea of the useful does not enter at all the Parthians appear scarcely to have had an idea. During the five centuries of their sway, they seem to have set up no more than some half-dozen bas-reliefs. There is, indeed, only one such work which can be positively identified as belonging to the Parthian period by the inscription which accompanies it. The other presumedly Parthian reliefs are adjudged to the people by art critics merely from their style and their locality, occurring as they do within the limits of the Parthian kingdom, and lacking the characteristics which attach to the art of those who preceded and of those who followed the Parthians in these countries.

The one certainly Parthian bas-relief is that which still exists on the great rock of Behistun, at the foot of

the mountain, raised but slightly above the plain.' It seems to have contained a series of tall figures, looking

This monument was seen by Sir H. Rawlinson in 1838, and described in the Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. ix. p. 115. It was carefully copied by M. Coste

and inserted in the great work of M. Flandin (Voyage en Perse, PlanchesAnciennes, No. 119). The accompanying woodcut is taken from this engraving.

Bas-relief of Gotarzes (after Flandin and Coste).

towards the right, and apparently engaged in a march or procession, while above and between them were smaller figures on horseback, armed with lances, and galloping in the same direction. One of these was attended by a figure of Fame or Victory, flying in the air, and about to place a diadem around his brow. The present condition of the sculpture is extremely bad. Atmospheric influences have worn away the larger figures to such an extent that they are discerned with difficulty; and a recent Governor of Kirmanshah has barbarously inserted into the middle of the relief an arched niche, in which he has placed a worthless Arabic inscription. It is with difficulty that we form any judgment of the original artistic merit of a work which presents itself to us in such a worn and mutilated form; but, on the whole, we are perhaps justified in pronouncing that it must at its best have been one of inferior quality, even when compared only with the similar productions of Asiatics. The general character is rather that of the Sassanian than of the Assyrian or Persian period. The human figures have a heavy clumsiness about them that is unpleasant to contemplate; the horses are rudely outlined, and are too small for the men; the figure of Fame is out of all proportion to the hero whom she crowns, and the diadem which she places on his head is ridiculous, being nearly as large as herself! On the other hand, there is spirit in the attitudes of both men and horses; the Fame floats well in air; and the relief is free from that coarse grotesqueness which offends us in the productions of the Sassanian artists.

Another bas-relief, probably, but not quite certainly Parthian, exists in the gorge of Sir-pul-i-zohab, and has been recently published in the great work of

1

M. Flandin. The inscription on this monument, though it has not yet been deciphered," appears to be written in the alphabet found upon the Parthian coins. The monument seems to represent a Parthian king, mounted on horseback, and receiving a chaplet at the hand of a subject. The king wears a cap bound round with the diadem, the long ends of which depend over his shoulder. He is clothed in a close-fitting tunic and loose trowsers, which hang down upon his boots, and wears also a short cloak fastened under his chin, and reaching nearly to the knee. The horse which he bestrides is small, but strongly made; the tail is long, and the mane seems to be plaited. Thus far the representation, though somewhat heavy and clumsy, is not ill-drawn; but the remaining figure-that of the Parthian subject—is wholly without merit. The back of the man is turned, but the legs are in profile; one arm is ridiculously short, and the head is placed too near the left shoulder. It would seem that the artist, while he took pains with the representation of the monarch, did not care how ill he rendered the subordinate figure, which he left in the unsatisfactory condition that may be seen in the preceding woodcut.

A set of reliefs,3 discovered by the Baron de Bode in the year 1841, are also thought by the best judges

1 Flandin, Voyage en Perse, tom. iv. pl. 208.

"If the inscription were copied by a person versed in the character, it is probable that there would be little difficulty in deciphering it. But the differences between several of the Parthian letters are so slight that it is extremely hard for a person unskilled in the character to make a correct transcript. Still the word 'satrap' seems to be

traceable at the commencement of the left-hand inscription.

3 These reliefs were communicated by the Baron to M. Flandin, and will be found represented in the Voyage en Perse, tom. iv. plates 224 and 226. They exist on an isolated mass of black rock, near Tengh-i-Saoulek in the Bakhtyari mountains (Voyage, tom. i. pp. 184, 185).