SEATED ASSYRIAN DEITIES. 241 
in worship. What the god holds in his other hand is not clear, possibly two axes; 
and neither is it clear what protrudes in front of him. It looks like the extension of 
his chair into a lounge or bed. The whole style of the seal is barbarous, the beard 
of the god, the Phrygian caps, and the fire- 
altar. It may possibly be that this is very 
late Parthian, or Sassanian, for the ruder the 
style the less possible it is to fix a date—but 
the thunderbolt seems to fix its period as 
Assyrian. A better-drawn cylinder, but of 
a similar type, we seem to have in fig. 722. 
The altar is more accurately drawn, and we 
see the bearded god, the worshiper with the 
emblem of Belit on his wrist, and a stand 722 
with two vases. A cylinder of special interest is that in fig. 669. It is in two 
registers, and so rich is its design that it may as well be classed elsewhere. In the 
upper register the bearded god, holding a bow, stands before a frame on which are 
not less than three amphoras. The winged disk is over a sacred tree, and on each 
side of the tree a standing figure grasps the streamer that falls from each side of the 
winged disk. As is so often the case in other cylinders, there is a small slender tree. 
In the lower register a lion attacks a cow attended by her calf, and there are a 
worshiper, a second animal, a star, a crescent, seven dots, and the ashera of Marduk. 

aie G 
(9 

125 

Another of those serpentine cylinders which appear to go back to an early 
Assyrian period is shown in fig. 723. Here are two standing figures, one a bearded 
deity, with a club, and the other a worshiper. Between them is a high stand on 
which rests an amphora, over which the worshiper waves his fan. Behind the god 
are two small trees and a star. The club or a weapon would seem to suggest a 
very early period, as such clubs are hardly seen in Babylonian art after 2500 B. C. 
Almost precisely similar is fig. 724, except that the god is seated in a chair and that 
there is but one small tree. Another male deity appears seated in fig. 725, where 
with him are simply a standing worshiper and a palm-tree. 
16 
