16 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
lections and of all early Babylonian engraving, both for its art and its antiquity. 
The heliogravures by Dujardin are as nearly perfect as possible from the impres- 
sions of the cylinders, taken on molding wax, hardly equal to the plaster casts 
made by Mr. Ready at the British Museum. The publication of this work gave 
most important new material to scholars, and still remains, with Lajard’s “Culte 
de Mithra,” their chief source of material for the investigation of the engraved 
art of the early East. 
While Ménant was carrying on his studies of the material so freely supplied 
by de Clercq, he did not fail to examine all the other collections of cylinders which 
could be reached. The result of this study he put in his most valuable “Les Pierres 
Gravées de la Haute-Asie; Recherches sur la Glyptique Orientale,” the two 
volumes of which appeared in Paris, 1883-86. ‘This is thus far the only important 
work, indeed the only one of any sort, devoted specifically to the explication of the 
engraved stones of Babylonia and the allied regions. It is illustrated abundantly 
with plates in heliogravure, by Dujardin, and with a multitude of wood engravings 
inserted in the text. Ménant classified intelligently the cylinders and cone seals, 
recognizing their national origin, their subjects and styles of art. “The soundness 
of his judgment was aided by his studies of the literature and writing of the cunei- 
form texts, on which he published important works. But while he edited the first 
large list of cuneiform characters and the first collection of translated historical 
texts, his best work was done in the study of these engraved stones of High Asia, 
where he was the teacher of all subsequent scholars. In the present work there 
will be constant occasion to refer to the “Pierres Gravées”’ of this scholar, as well 
as to his “Catalogue” of the de Clercq collection, and his contributions to the 
scientific periodicals, which will be mentioned in their place.* 
It is not necessary here to cite the multitude of minor papers on the cylinders 
which have appeared during the last forty years. ‘Those that are of special value 
will be cited later. But mention must be made of a few catalogues of minor public 
or private collections which are accompanied by plates. Such are, particularly, 
Ménant’s “Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux du Cabinet Royal des Meédailles 
de La Haye,” 1878, which embraces 35 cylinders belonging to the Museum of The 
Hague, besides other Assyrian and Sassanian seals. Among them are several 
important ones, especially the royal Armenian cylinder (fig. 42). 
Another is the collection of Cypriote cylinders brought from Cyprus by Gen. 
L. P. di Cesnola, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, of which 32 are 
figured in General di Cesnola’s “Cyprus: its Ancient Cities, ‘Tombs and Temples,” 
1878; and in the same author’s folio “Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection 
of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York” (vol. 111, 
plates CXIX to CXXI, 1903). 
A. collection of “Babylonian and Assyrian Cylinder-Seals in the possession of 
Sir Henry Peek, Bart.,” was described by Dr. T. G. Pinches in 1890. This col- 
lection contains 22 cylinders. 
Under the title “Ueber Babylonische Talismane (Cylinder und andere For- 
men) aus den historischen Museum im Steierisch-landschaftlichen Joanneum zu 


* Ménant also found time, notwithstanding his duties as conseiller 4 la Cour d’Appel, to pursue investigations in Persian 
and Avestan antiquities, which have been continued by his daughter, Mlle. Delphine Ménant, in a work crowned by the 
French Institute. 
