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100 Section 3. BERLIN. Emp. Frederick
The door in the end-wall leads into —
Rooms 11 and 12, in which the *Facade of the Palace op
M'shatta has been erected, a gift of Sultan Abdul Hamid to Em¬
peror William II. M'shatta ('winter-camp') lies about 30 M. to the
E. of the influx of the Jordan into the Dead Sea. The palace was
originally a desert-palace of Ghassanide Bedouins and dates from
the 4-6th cent. A.D. The smooth upper wall and part of the right
side of the chief portal are wanting (comp. the plans and models
exhibited in this room). The part of the facade which has been
brought to Berlin is completely covered with beautiful ornamentation
in pierced work: from vases, beside which stand animals or fabulons
beings, spring vines with birds in the branches. The larger left
half shows an affinity with antique and Byzantine forms, while the
right half, on which are no animals, recalls the Persian art of the
Sassanide period. — Similar ornamentation appears in the casts
from the portals of ecclesiastical buildings in X. Syria, exhibited
beside the door to the small staircase (see below).
The door in the end-wall opens upon the Small Staircase
(PI. 27), from which doors lead into the Basilica and the Cabinet
of Coins. At the sides of the staircase ascending to the picture-
gallery (p. 104) are marble statues of Venus and Mercury by Jean-
Baptist e Pigalle, from Sanssouci (p. 193).
We pass through the door straight opposite into the show-rooms
of the *Cabinet of Coins (PL 15, 16). The collection itself, the stu¬
dents' room, and the technical library are accommodated on the
sunk-floor. Interested visitors may have access to particular sec¬
tions of the collection by personal application to the director.
The collection contains 300,000 coins, comprising 135,000 antique
(100,000 Greek and 35,000 Roman) pieces.
The first room (15) affords a survey of the development of coining.
Near the entrance is a large glass-case containing money-ingots, the preli¬
minary stage before coined money; to the left, by the wall, are specimens
of the earliest Greek coins, and further on is a collection of Roman coins
from the earliest heavy cast bronze ingots to the late imperial epoch.
Other sections comprise mediaeval and modern European coins, German,
Brandenburg, and Prussian coins, Oriental coins, and coins now current.
Room 16. Medals. Nearest the door are Italian medals of the 15th cent¬
ury. In the show-case in the centre are medals of the Hohenzollern family;
further on come those of the other German princes and of private persons,
with numerous matrices in box and pearwood, lithographic stone, and
slate. Among the medals of other countries, the modern French specimens
are most worthy of note. In the small case by the window to the left
are five *Gold medals (rewards of victory, 3rd cent. A.D.) found in Egypt,
with portraits of Alexander the Great, his mother Olympias, and the
Emp. Caracalla.
The door straight in front leads from Room 16 to the last room
of Italian sculpture (PI. 17, see p. 104), and the door to the right
into the German section. The latter gives upon Anteroom 18, con¬
taining a wall-cabinet in which are various smaller works of art.
— Proceeding straight on we enter —