Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1913 — The CITY of MODAS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The CITY of MODAS

C""'l» Tis rumored that a Danish ~| ■7~~\ expedition is to be sent to jrj explore the wonderful v] group of rock-monuments w and sites in Central Asia 3 Minor which attests the y; short-lived splendor of the ™ Phrygian kingdom be-

tween, say, 800 and 650 B. C. That someone should do this with adequate funds and official support has long been desired devoutly. The extraordinary and enigmatic character of the monuments, the place which their makers hold In Greek story on the one hand, and, possibly, in Assyrian annals on the other —the significance of the position which they occupied on the great east-west roads of prePersian times —the mystery which obscures their origin and the uncertainty of their ultimate fate —all these considerations combine to make the "dScaviiHFn of fKe cenHlLr iirs, antra survey of its neighborhood, most important for archaeologists and historians. We know no ancient name for that central site —it sems to have been as nameless in the later Greek and the Rofnan times as now—and for want of a better, Ramsay, who has explored the district more thoroughly than anyone else, called it the Midas City. This name was suggested to him by the great tomb —If it be one—which is the principal monument of the place and of the district and. in its way. of all Asia Minor. I saw it twenty-five years ago, and still hold it without a rival of its kind. A cliff nearly one hundred feet high has been artificially scarped from top to bottom and cut back to a smooth face, an interlacing fret design being left standing out in relief over the whole vast expanse. At the foot is a small false door; at the top the rock haß been shaped into a noble pediment, like that of a Greek temple, and inscribed, in large Greek-looking Phrygian characters, with words among which stands out the name of Midas, son of Lavaltas. The boldness of the whole conception on that great scale, its faultless execution, and the rich simplicity of the decoration produce the most powerful impression. Standing before it, but far enough away to take in the general effect, one confesses it is not to be surpassed. And one can imagine the feelings of Martin Leake when, having arrived and camped in the valley after dark one night in 1800. allunconscious, like everybody else in Europe, that such a thing existed, he woke to see the tomb of Midas in the first light of morning. A tomb it should be on the analogy of lesser monuments in the district which have its facade, of something like it, in miniature; but no burial chamber of Midas has been detected. The lesser tombs often show reliefs of human figures, or of lions, or both —sometimes of the Phrygian Cybele guarded by her lions. After the Midas tamb. the most famous are the Lion tombs at Ayazinn. some distance to the south. One of these, now fallen in huge fragmens, has not only magnificent lions of very Asyrian appear ance on the sides (it was made out of a projecting bastion of rock), but a relief of two warriors in crested helmets attacking a strange Gorgon creature with their leveled spears; the other has two rampant lions guardnig its door, which have often been compared to the rampant beasts over the gate of the citadel at Mycenae. Borne, of the smaller tombs In

the district also are well worth notice, especialy one in the wooden glen of Bakshish, which stands free, fashioned like a house. Altogether these make a singular group of monuments, as much in need of further exploration aB is the great citadel above the Midaß tomb, with its long ramp flanked by carved rock-faces and its inscribed rock-altars. We wish to learn many things ljrom this exploration. Of what race were these kings called Midas, who seemed to the Greeks of the west country so godlike, and. left such legends of their wealth? How much of the peninsula did they rule? Whence did they derive the art with which their tombs were made, and the letters with which they were inscribed? Were they the same as those kings called Mita, who, according to Assyrian annals, marshalled the people of the Muski against Sargon and Ashurbanipal? If they were, they must have been lords of no mean territory; for the Muski were undoubtedly the dominant race in Cappadocia too. They had once raided even to Mesopotamia, and brought out an Assyrian king, Tlglath Pileser 1., in fhll strength against them; and. when they retired across the Euphrates, they perhaps continued to hold its western bank with the great fortress of Carchemlsh. Had they spread also to Phrygia? Mita may be Midas, but it also may be the name of a merely Cappadocian king. It was of old standing in the Mesopotamian east, where had long dwelt the “people of Mita," the Mitanni. Moreover, the Muski seem to have adopted Hatti

civilization, art, and leters, while he monuments of Phrygian kings and people are, except in two or three instances, not of Aatti character but oi anoher, which looks western, and sup pors the Greek story that the Phrygians iad come out of Europe. On the other hand, inscriptions in the same alphabe and language as those cut on the tomb of Midas have been found (though rarely) in Cappadocia; and one cannot but ask, if Mita of the Muski was not Midas of Phrygia, how comes it that the latter, who was ruler of a people great enough to make such monuments, has passed unmentioned in the annals of those Assyrian kings who concerned themselves with Asia Minor Just at the epoch to which, on all grounds, thePhrygian kingdom is to be assigned? To nil such questions, and, especially to that important one—whence did the Phrygians get their alphabet?— some sort of answjer may be expected from excavations 'at the Midas City. On the flat top of the cliff-ringed acropolis, an extraordinary fortress of immense strength, there seemed, when I saw it, to be not much earth! but one never knows until one tries, and there is certainly plenty round the foot of the cliffs where, presumably, the bulk of the city lay. There are other walled fortresses near by, and any number of tombs, and thickly wooded labyrinthine valleys which may well conceal any number more. I know few districts more likely to repay exploration, and none more likely to delight the explorer, and keep him in the best of health.