42 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
in front is clearly shown. ‘The upper register has two seated figures, a worshiper, 
and a gate. Both of these cylinders from the de Clercq collection are of shell (not 
“white marble’) and are badly decomposed. In the cylinders with boats some 
scholars have seemed to see a representation of the passage of Gilgamesh over the 
waters of death, which he was not allowed to touch, and which he passed with 
twelve strokes of the oar. Unfortunately, there is no clear evidence that any of the 
seals present this portion of the Gilgamesh story. 
One of the best examples of this design, and a most surprising one, is seen in 
fig. 108. It is of shell, unusually well preserved, and is in two registers. The upper 
one distinctly gives us a human head and body, perhaps feminine, which ends in a 
fish or serpent. 
Turpiter atrum 
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne. 
The head of the monster, as that of the seated figure, is crowned with the horns 
of a bull (bison); its head has a large queue and the tail ends in a circle with a 
point, possibly suggesting a scorpion. The monster seems to handle an oar. ‘There 
would seem to be rays from the shoulders of the seated figure. It is impossible to 
recognize the animal before the boat, perhaps a lion, so far as the feet and tail are 
concerned. Nor is it easy to understand the meaning of the curved line over the 
animal, which seems to be connected with what might appear, but can not be, 
wings behind the standing man with bull’s horns and carrying a long staff. Nor 
can we make out what is the object over the animal. The lower register is quite 
as interesting. We have a two-wheeled chariot, when a four-wheeled chariot 
would have been expected, as in fig. 127, and in it an archaic figure is seated and 
drawn by an ass. This is the earliest clear case in which we have the ass figured, 

Ly i ay a 






ws AANA 
\SEES SE N 
SANNA ARAN CLS TS 

108% 109 
and for driving, not riding, but compare fig. 119. It can not well be a horse. It 
would appear that the reins are held by a ring in the nose, or a cord about the lip 
of the ass, yet this is not certain. The charioteer is followed by three armed soldiers, 
one of whom carries a spear, one an ax, and one perhaps a sling. ‘There is an ax 
beside the charioteer, and a dog follows. ‘This is certainly a most interesting and 
extraordinary, as well as puzzling, cylinder of importance in the history of domestic 
animals. Very likely the cylinder shown in fig. 108a is of a similar design, but it is 
sadly worn. It is also remarkable for what may be a purely accidental occurrence 
of a rude form of the rope-pattern which belongs to the Hittite period (see fig. 58). 
Another extraordinary example of what simulates a boat is seen in fig. 110. 
Here the long snake-like animal has become a quadruped, not with the human 
head, and seated in it is apparently the goddess Bau with her characteristic bird, 
as seen in figs. 230-234. There is also a second animal, a vase, and probably a plow. 
