54 THE LYCIAN OBELISKS. 



they were not. Is it likely that they were ? Is it 

 probable that the people who had the power to 

 execute works of art, such as we find on even 

 the earliest of these triquetras, grotesque though 

 they be, would have omitted to employ the 

 same talent and skill in the sculpture of the 

 beautiful limestone, with which their country 

 abounded, and which we find them elaborately 

 working after a given period % I am sure an 

 examination of these monuments in conjunction 

 with the coins even more cursory than ours 

 was, would be sufficient to lead to the con- 

 clusion that they both owe their origin to the 

 same people, and to the same period, and that in 

 the strict sense of the word period, beginning at 

 the same time, and ending at the same time. 



" Now there are in Lycia, at least four very 

 remarkable Stelae ; two of which have been in- 

 scribed, and one of which has its inscription 

 pretty nearly perfect, and covering its four sides ; 

 this is the obelisk at Xanthus. Two of these 

 four sides contain, in the opinion of Mr. Sharpe, 

 the most ancient relic of the language of which we 

 are speaking, and one of these sides a bilingual 

 edict of eleven lines, — the date of which is 

 known by the mention of the name of Harpagus, 



