302 The Fundamentals. The Assyrian monuments also bear abundant testimony to the prominence of the Hittites north and west of the Euphrates, of which the most prominent state was that with its capital at Carchemish, i n the time of Tiglath-pileser I., about 1100 B. C. In 854 B. C. Shalmaneser II. included the kings of Is rael, of Ammon, and of the Arabs, 11mong the "Hittite" princes whom he had subdued, thus beari.ig most emphatk testimony to the prominence which they assumed in his estimation. The cuneiform inscriptions of Armenia also speak of nu merous wars with the Hittites, and describe "the land of the Hittites" as extending far westward from the banks of the Euphrates. Hittite sculptures and inscriptions are now traced i n abun dance from Kadesh, i n Coele Syria, westward to Lydia, i nAsia Minor, and northward to the Black Sea beyond Marsovan. Indeed, the extensive ruins of Boghaz-Keui, seventy-five miles southwest of Marsovan, seem to mark the pri-ndpal capital of the Hittites. Here partial excavations have already re vealed sculptures of high artistic order, representing deities, warriors and amazons, together with many hieroglyphs which have not yet been translated. The inscriptions are written i n both directions, from left to right, and then below back from right to left. Similar inscriptions are found i n numer- 0us other places. No clue to their meaning has yet been found, and even the class of languages to which they belong has not been discovered. But enough is known to show that the Hit tites exerted considerable influence upon the later civilization which sprung up in Greece and on the western coasts of Asia Minor. It was through them that the emblem of the winged horse made its way into Europe. The mural crown carved upon the head of some of the goddesses at Boghaz-Keui also passed into Grecian sculpture ; while the remarkable lions sculp tured over the gate at Mycenae are thought to represent Hittite, rather than Babylonian art. It is impossible to overestimate the value of this testimony
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