8 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
Red carnelian is another variety of chalcedony, used in much the same way as 
sapphirine for both cylinders and cone seals, but which seems to have come into 
use at a somewhat earlier period during the Middle Empire. 
A gate is yet another variety of chalcedony of various shades of banded color, 
often used in later times. The carnelian and sapphirine may have been the core of 
an agate pebble. 
Rose quartz: Some cylinders are found of this material, but rather late and 
probably from the north. 
Syentte: Some very archaic cylinders are in this material. 
‘fade: A very few cylinders are in jade. They are all late and seem to relate 
themselves to Asia Minor; but the quarry is unknown, as in the case of most of 
the other choice stones. Jade was somewhat frequently used by the prehistoric 
inhabitants of Asia Minor as a material for implements of the Smooth Stone Age.* 
Glass: Very rarely glass cylinders appear of a very late period. They are of 
the white glass, not of the deep green, like emerald, of which one cone seal is known, 
belonging to the Metropolitan Museum. This museum has two glass cylinders. 
T erra-cotta: The Egyptian cylinders are of terra-cotta, mostly glazed green, 
but a number of them from Asia Minor are in stone, generally serpentine. 
Composition: The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, has one cylinder made of a 
composition said to be of “sulphur and resin.”” (See Chabouillet’s “Catalogue.’’) 
This cylinder is No. 723. It is a reddish-gray material, with what look like small 
bubble-holes. The engraving appears to be of the period of Gudea. I know of no 
other cylinder that is likely to be of a composition, although a plaque of this period, 
if genuine, is of a composition of bitumen and clay or sand (see Heuzey, “Cata- 
logue des Antiquités Chaldéennes,” p. 125). This also is unique as to material 
for an object of art, and the design is very peculiar. I presume the cylinder is a 
late cast, like those distributed by Tassie. 
Slaty stone: A number of cylinders of a middle and late period are of such a 
stone. / 
Flint: A very few seem to be of this stone. 
Obsidian: In the Kassite period obsidian began to be used, but it was never 
common. ‘lwo fine cylinders of this material are in the Bibliothéque Nationale, 
and there are two or three in the Metropolitan Museum. Obsidian prehistoric 
knives and saws are found in Asia Minor, and it is likely that the material for these 
cylinders came from that region. 
Among peculiar and unusual stones may be mentioned a siliceous petrified 
coralline stone, with red circles of the coral, also another with abundant branching 
dark patches which look like seaweed (“Louvre, M. N. B., 1907’’). 
Red marble: A soft red marble is found employed, as well as the white marble, 
for the thick cylinders. 
Amazon stone: ‘This material came into use in the Kassite period and was 
evidently much valued for its clear green color. It is a little softer than the quartz- 
ites, being a feldspar, and its lamellar crystalline structure makes it brittle. It has 
been described in catalogues as beryl or emerald, but I have seen only a single 
cylinder that seemed to be of a bluish beryl. The Amazon stone, as also the green 

ry 
*Indentified as “jadeite” by M. Gennard, “un de nos minéralogistes les plus éminents,” and used for “ haches” 
(Chantre, “ Mission en Cappadoce,” pp. 79, 131). A number of such celts have come into my possession from the same region. 
