ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE SEATED DEITIES. 37 
of adoration, and a second figure stands as porter by the gate. In this instructive 
cylinder we may fairly presume that the worshiper between the deities is the same 
personage as the hunter or hero in the lower register, while the porter standing by 
the gate in the upper register suggests very strongly that one of the seated deities 
is a Sun-god and that behind him is the gate of the morning from which he emerges. 
Similar cylinders are seen in figs. 62 and 62a. 



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In fig. 81 the gate appears to have two handles in place of two wings. This 
recalls M. Heuzey’s brilliant suggestion that the object held by a figure like 
Gilgamesh, at times when he seems to act as a warder or attendant, is the post of 
a door, or gate, with the handle as shown in fig. 648. Here the two deities sit 
facing each other, each apparently holding an object in his hand. The lower 
register shows two ibexes and a branch. 
In fig. 83 we have another case of the two seated deities with the gate in the 
upper register, while the eagle of Lagash, with the two small bulls crowded under 
its wings, appears in the lower register. The two deities in the upper register here 
appear to be drinking through tubes from the large bowl, or crater, between them. 
It might be possible to interpret this scene otherwise, as if the deities were enjoy- 
ing the smoke or odors from an offering. In another case, however (fig. 84), the 


two seated figures have a distinct vase between them, with a slender neck, and it 
seems difficult to interpret it in any other way than that they are drinking through 
a tube. We have here the two lions crossed, a device which we shall often meet 
in the cylinders of a little later period. Other cases of this design will be seen in 
figs. 85, 86, 87, 88. In the last case the design is repeated in two registers and the 
cylinder is of lapis-lazult. 
In many cases the principal design on these apparently most archaic cylinders 
is more simple, consisting of one or two seated figures, doubtless deities, and one 
