14 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
to the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions. Here we find (p. 25) recorded 
the conclusion previously reached by Caylus (Recueil, 11, p. 27), that the cylinders 
were used not as amulets only, as still used by the Arab women, who wear them 
believing that they have the power to retain the affection of their husbands,* but 
were real seals. This conclusion he bases on the evidence of a cuneiform tablet 
belonging to Mr. Bellino, on which were not only cuneiform characters, but also 
the impression of a cylinder.| This conclusion he strengthens by the fact, observed 
by him and confirmed by the wider observation of Rich, that the writing on the 
cylinders is generally reversed. It is not strange that Grotefend had to depend 
mainly on Persian and Avestan sources for his interpretations of the designs figured 
on the cylinders. 
In 1822 appeared Sir Robert Ker Porter’s two quarto volumes of “‘Travels 
in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, etc.” This work was richly 
illustrated, and two of its plates, Lxx1x and Lxxx, gave four cylinders, of which 
one was Dr. Hine’s fine cylinder of King Ur-Engur, previously published by Dr. 
Dorow from the copy he had received from Rich. Ker Porter had seen it in 
Baghdad. 
In 1817 John Landseer read before the Society of Antiquaries a paper published 
“Archzologia,” vol. xvii, entitled “Observations on Engraved Gems,”’ etc. 
At the suggestion of Sir W. Ouseley and others, this was developed into a quarto 
volume, of which it proved the first chapter, entitled “Sabean Researches, London, 
1823,” consisting of letters written to various persons on the subject of the Oriental 
cylinders, especially those consigned to his care by Captain Lockett, who was 
associated with Rich when he was British Resident in Baghdad.t Ouseley’s antici- 
pation of the permanent value of Mr. Landseer’s studies was hardly justified by 
the handsome volume published four years later. It was full of unsupported 
conjectures of the character suggested by the title, and found in the worship of 
heavenly bodies the explanation of all the designs on the seven cylinders figured 
by him, which had belonged to Captain Lockett and Sir W. E. Rouse Boughton, 
and which are drawn, in a chain, for the title-vignette of the first chapter. They 
include the two figured by Ouseley. Four of these are fully engraved, besides another 
of the Rich cylinders; but no one of them is of special value. Landseer makes the 
absurd suggestion, p. 8, that the concave face of many cylinders was so made ‘ 
adapt their shapes to the convexities of the human form,” as they were worn as 
amulets. He did, however, recognize their use also as seals. 
Grotefend continued to give occasional consideration to the cylinders subse- 
quently to his paper, above mentioned, which he contributed to Dr. Dorow’s “ Die 
Assyrische Keilschrift erlautert.” In 1852 in his “Erlauterung der Keilinschriften 
Babylonischen” he includes a section, pp. 24-28, “Erlauterung einiger Morgen- 
landischer Cylindern,” accompanied by a plate containing four cylinders previ- 
ously unpublished, belonging to Hofbuchhandler Hahn. ‘The cylinders are not 
of special interest. 


* Dorow, p. 24, note, after Rich. 
Doce impressed cylinder is made the title-vignette to Herder’s collected works on Philosophy and History, Dorow, p. 25. 
On the eve of his departure from England, Captain Lockett consigned these Babylonian treasures to the care of Mr. 
Landseer, who has undertaken to conduct through the press his absent friend’s long expected work on the ‘ae ce city of 
Nimrod or Belus, of Ninus and Semiramis; and of his most interesting researches on the plain of Shinar... I shall here 
express my wish that Mr. Landseer may soon extend his own short Memoir, now,part of a miscellaneous work, to a volume which, 
coming from his pen, can not be too long.” Ouseley’s “ Travels,” 1, p. 425,?note. 
