ARCHAIC CYLINDERS: CONTESTS WITH WILD BEASTS. 47 
one of which is reversed. This well-preserved cylinder is of limestone. The upper 
register shows archaic, seated deities. A rude archaic cylinder composed entirely 
of crossed animals and monsters is shown in fig. 125. Here the two crossed bulls 
have but a single human head with horns. 
Very peculiar and unusual is the black serpentine cylinder shown in fig. 126. 
Here it is an eagle that is attacked by two heroes, while a third holds a staff. We 
have also a very old and infrequent designation of a deity, the star connected with 
what, in the worn cylinder, looks like a trident, and the connecting line crossed 
by two short lines. We see the same in fig. 254. In this design we seem to see a 
reversal of the usual subjection of two animals to the eagle, for here the eagle is 
conquered. 



In the study of the archaic cylinders we have found that certain types prevail, 
such as the eagle of Lagash; the seated deities apparently sucking some brewage 
through a tube from a large vase; and the human-headed boat. Other designs, 
such as the approaching worshipers and the fighting with wild beasts, continue in the 
succeeding period. Thus Gilgamesh, Eabani, and the human-headed bull we find 
already developed, and they continue to be favorite designs. ‘These archaic cylinders 
can not all be distinctly marked off and separated from some with other designs, 
and especially from those which give us figures of Gilgamesh and Eabani. Yet 
in a measure they represent an earlier type and group, not fully developed and 
differentiated. They show us the beginnings of Chaldean or Elamite art and the 
early phases of religious worship, as also of writing. When we come to the period of 
Sargon of Agade and of the rulers of Ur, we shall find art as fully developed as at 
any subsequent period, and the center of culture in southern Babylonia rather than 
in Elam. And yet it would appear that the origin was rather in Elam than in 
Chaldea. 
