CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS: THE TREE OF LIFE. 
The designation of the Sacred Tree has become so established that it may be 
used in place of the Tree of Life, which would more definitely express the purpose 
of the presence of human figures or divine figures or animals before a convention- 
alized tree. It is only by the careful inductive study of multitudes of cases in which 
it appears that we can gather what was the idea of this motive in mythologic art. 
Numerous questions will arise, which we desire to answer, avoiding the pre- 
suppositions that have been created by various hypotheses. Such questions are 
these: What was the original species of tree out of which the usual conventional 
tree has developed? In the conventional tree what are the fruits supposed to be? 
Why is the winged disk so frequently above the tree? Is the human figure before 
the tree worshiping it or worshiping the winged disk? Who are the winged figures 
often on one or both sides of the tree? Why do they hold a fruit in one hand? 
What is the purpose of the basket or pail in the other hand? Why should a fish- 
god stand by the tree? What is the relation of various animals to the tree? What 
was the historical origin of this adoration, in what country, with what people, at 
what time? These are questions that still need satisfactory answers. 
In considering this class of cylinders under the head of Assyrian art it 1s im- 
plied that we find them rather in Assyria than in Babylonia; and such 1s the fact. 
Like the fight of Bel and the dragon this belongs to the north, and not at all to the 
early south. There is not a single case to be found in which this worship of the 
sacred tree appears in the early Babylonian art. Perhaps the nearest approach to 
it is seen in the impression of a cylinder on a tablet of 
the age of Dungi, of Ur, shown in fig. 663, where we 
have what may be a tree between two hills. On one 
side is the flounced goddess Aa-Shala, and on the other 
a worshiper. There are also the heraldic eagle and 
three lines of inscription on this very peculiar cylinder. 
In the Assyrian art, however, we find it one of the most frequent and character- 
istic in use. But it covers also the region to the east and especially the west, 
being found in Persia, to some extent, although not often, and is abundant in the 
Syrian region. Evans found it as far west as the island of Crete, and says 
(“Mycenzan Tree,” p. 55) that it is associated with goats and bulls, while lions 
are associated with columns. 
Although this so-called sacred tree is distinctly Assyrian in type, the earliest 
example (fig. 664) of it that we can date is from Babylonia, on the stele of Marduk- 
iddin-akhi, for which we have a date of 1112 B. C., given us by Sennacherib, who 
tells us that he recovered two statues of deities, which Marduk-iddin-akhi, King of 
Babylonia, had captured from Tiglathpileser I., 418 years previously. ‘The stele 
shows the Babylonian king’s garments freely ornamented with the sacred tree, with 
the palm-tree trunk, and already a conventional arrangement of branches with 
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