CHAPTER XXxIX. 
SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 
The cylinders to be considered in this chapter comprise some others besides 
those which represent a seated deity; nor is there in all cases a stand, table, or altar 
before the deity, and the deity may be either male or female, although more usually 
the latter. They form a class of their own, which, however, runs into that con- 
sidered in the succeeding chapter. It is probable that they are not of pure Assyrian 
origin; or, if so, they come mostly from an early period when the worship was more 
completely that of such neighboring regions as Nairi or Mitani. The cylinders are 
usually large, the length from two to three times the diameter, very frequently of 
soft serpentine. It is seldom that any inscription is found upon them. The large 
serpentine cylinders seem to form a class by themselves, which represents a rude art 
which is not skilled in cutting the harder stones and is not very familiar with writ- 
ing. In one case (fig. 793), as will be seen in our study of the Hittite cylinders, they 

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ST THKywyrs 
KY AW LY 
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bear a Hittite inscription. The soft blackish-green serpentine is of a texture much 
inferior to the harder black or green serpentine which was affected by the early 
Babylonians, but which went nearly or quite out of use from the time of Gudea. 
We may perhaps conjecture that these Assyrian cylinders were in use as early as 
from 2000 to 1000 B.C. Three such are shown in fig. 1 on a stopper to a jar, 
made of bitumen. 
In fig. 716 it will be noticed also that the sign for god 1s not the later Assyrian, 
but is the older Babylonian star of four wedges. As connected with the other sign 
it may represent the god Sin. Equally old, for Assyrian, may we consider the 
border, a succession of angles sometimes of this shape and sometimes with chev- 
rons, as in fig. 723. Similar is the border ornament shown in Petrie’s “ Researches 
in Sinai,” plate 147. The god wears a curious, square, perhaps feathered, head- 
dress, and lifts a cup from the offerings presented to him. ‘These are all drink- 
offerings. On a stand are three slender vases, and two other single vases are on 
stands, one above and the other beside the principal stand. ‘The worshiper, who 
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