ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: THE SEATED DEITIES. 39 
Here we have a two-horned seated deity apparently drinking from a vase through 
a tube. Before him comes a hero presenting a rampant lion, which he holds by the 
head and tail. Behind the deity is a gate and above the figures are two serpents 
moving in opposite directions, and so drawn as to suggest an origin for the rope- 
pattern which we observed in fig. 58 and which is also shown in fig. 507. Another 
peculiar, if not unique, example of this archaic style with the seated deity appears 
in fig. 97. Here the deity, a goddess if we can judge uncertainly from the coiffure, 

holds a branch in one hand, probably a vase in the other, and two soldiers, each 
armed with an ax, bring to her a prisoner with his hands tied behind him. It would 
be easy to conjecture, if there were any other trustworthy evidence of the practice, 
that these prisoners were brought as a human sacrifice. In fig. 98 we have a very 
archaic cylinder on which three scenes are depicted, all of conflict between warriors. 
In two cases there are two men represented as if fighting, while in the third group 
one of them is taken prisoner by the other, but the victor is symmetrically repeated. 
In fig. 99, from an archaic shell cylinder, we 
have two similar deities seated before a vase but not 
visibly drinking from it, while a third similar figure 1s 
seated behind them. In the lower register the lions 
attack a reversed ibex. In fig. 100 we seem pretty 
certain to have a case of a libation before a deity, the 
vase of wine or oil being poured out by one of the 
naked servants of the worshiper, while a second 
brings perhaps another vase or offering. Above a gate is the eagle of Lagash. 
A very interesting cylinder, whose ownership is unknown to me, is shown in 
fig. 101 and is drawn from inked impressions which I obtained in Baghdad from 
a dealer there. It does not appear to be of the most archaic period, but yet to 
follow that style. In the upper register are three seated figures, one of whom holds 
a kind of lyre. There are five other standing figures, one of whom is incased in a 
gateway or frame. In the lower register are two seated figures and six others, of 
which one is holding an amphora on a stand. 

