46 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
chariot drawn by what looks very much like a horse. It is difficult to believe that 
the horse was known at this time to the people of the lower Euphrates or of Southern 
Elam. Although I have regarded it as evidence of the early appearance of the 

horse in Oriental art,* it is yet not unlikely that this animal is rather an ox. There 
is, however, a cylinder (fig. 108) which is archaic and of this general style, and 
which gives us a two-wheeled chariot drawn by an ass. The chariots of a later 
period are usually two-wheeled (except certain Syrian ones), and this chariot differs 
from the very early one seen in fig. 127 drawn by a dragon. 

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Another cylinder of the archaic type is interesting (fig. 120), partly because it 
is so well preserved, although of shell, and partly because it seems to be one of the 
earliest examples in which Gilgamesh, Eabani, and the human-headed bull appear, 
which may be said to rule a somewhat later period. Gilgamesh is holding two 
serpents, like an Oriental Hercules, while Eabani is fighting a lion and a bull. It 
is possible that the objects held in the hands of the figures in the upper register are 
also serpents. Fig. 121 is a very rude, archaic marble cylinder in which Gilgamesh 
is repeated, lifting in each hand a lion by the tail. In fig. 122 the crossed lions attack 
antelopes and the profile Gilgamesh carries a very peculiar weapon. Fig. 123 is a 
lapis-lazuli cylinder, very closely and deeply engraved, with a multitude of figures 
of contests of Gilgamesh and Eabani with lions and bulls. Another example of 
fighting with beasts appears in fig. 124, where we see the hunter between two ibexes, 


124 

* The Horse in Ancient Babylonia. Am. Journal of Archeology, 1898, pp. 159-162. 
