CLASSIFICATION OF CYLINDERS. 29 
Babylonian or the Persian period, with a few of an earlier period. We must also 
mention the seals on tablets of the Kassite period published by A. T. Clay in his 
*“Cassite Rulers.” 
CHANGES OF STYLE. 
We know from a multitude of inscriptions, both on clay tablets and cut in 
stone, what was the style of the writing from the earliest Chaldean period until 
that of the Seleucida. ‘The very earliest writing is yet of a somewhat pictorial 
character. Then followed the linear writing, in vertical columns, to be followed 
by writing in lines from left to right and made to conform, even on stone, with 
the wedge-shaped writing on clay. The wedge writing of Gudea’s time is more 
complicated than that of the Middle and Later Empire, except as in late times 
an archaizing style was sometimes affected. Also the northern Assyrian style 
came to differ considerably from the Babylonian, being simpler. All these appear on 
the cylinders and afford a reliable test of the period to which the cylinders belong. 
Besides these primary and conclusive tests of the period to which a cylinder 
belongs, may be mentioned some others that are perfectly satisfactory, but of a 
less immediate source of evidence. Thus, in the cylinders of the earliest period 
the art is of an archaic character not to be confounded with the scratchings of later 
incompetence. The profile face is mainly a great eye and a prominent nose, giving 
the head a marked likeness to that of a bird, so that it has sometimes been supposed 
that bird-headed human figures were intended. The garments are much simpler 
and shorter, and the figure is more often nearly naked. In this earliest period 
and that which immediately succeeded it the general design was usually freer and 
more artistic, while in the Middle kingdom, from the time of Gudea and Ham- 
murabi, a certain fixity and conventionality characterized the designs. Again, the 
Assyrian period was marked by new conventions and by a different style of dress. 
The gods had wings and other dress and weapons, while a fresh body of symbols 
was adopted. 
But before the Assyrian kingdom arose the Kassite period had changed the 
shape and size of the cylinder. It affected long religious inscriptions, with often 
only a single figure in the attitude of worship accompanied by symbols. ‘The 
Second Empire of Nebuchadnezzar retained pretty much the style and designs 
of the Kassite dynasty, but developed the design and reduced the inscription. 
In the immediately succeeding period of the Achezmenian kings of Persia we find 
a fresh style, occasionally with more liberty, while the dress of men represented 
was of a new and peculiar style suggesting trousers. There is a paucity of design, 
the most frequent being that of a god fighting one or two lions. 
Similarly the cylinders of the Syro-Hittite period have usually a family likeness. 
The rope-pattern is extremely common, hardly found elsewhere. . The work is mostly 
fine, the figures delicate, and part of the design is often in two registers, in which 
are seen sphinxes, lions, etc., facing each other, while a new series of deities appears 
in many cases. All these characteristic and differentiating marks will be fully 
illustrated as the various classes of cylinders are described. 
