CHAPTER XLV. 
SYRO-HITTITE CYLINDERS: BABYLONIAN TYPES. 
It is evident that the Syro-Hittite cylinders were derived from the Babylonians, 
and that at a period not of extreme antiquity. Whether they were preceded, accom- 
panied, or followed by the use of the rude round or rectangular seals of soft 
serpentine, which are so common, is not wholly easy to determine, as these have 
not yet been fairly studied. On not a few of the cylinders the designs are not 
specially Hittite, and there may be some confusion among them; certain peculiar- 
ities in the cutting or in the pose or clothing of the figures will usually betray them. 
Such a one is seen in fig. 823. Here is a seated god, much in the Babylonian 
type, holding a cup, and before him a star, an ape, and the sun in a crescent, all 
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: 824 
Babylonian. Before him is a worshiper, still Babylonian, except that he carries in 
his hand two serpents (hardly lotuses) grasped by the neck. Behind the seated 
god is Gilgamesh, de face, lifting a lion over his head. The remaining space is 
taken by a worshiper with a cup, a sphinx which is not at all Babylonian in 
style, and over these a bird, a bull, and a bull’s head. ‘There is also a “libra” 
without its accompanying vase. Here the two serpents, the sphinx’s headdress, 
the headdress of the small worshiper, and the arrangement of the small objects, 
ally this cylinder with the Hittite art, while the main types are Babylonian. It is 
to be noticed that the Assyrian motives which came in as early as goo B. C. are not 
to be looked for on these cylinders. Their date is then to be placed in the period 
between 2500 B. C. and goo B. C., but chiefly in the latter five centuries, as the 
Egyptian influence will show. 
Probably the cylinder shown in fig. 824 should be regarded as Syro-Hittite, 
although it might be classed as purely Babylonian. Three deities are figured. Sha- 
mash does not hold his usual weapon. We know him from his foot on a mountain, 
but his weapons are peculiar. Over his left shoulder he carries the ax, and in his 
right hand he holds as a scepter what appears to be a modification of the rod and 
ring of the Babylonian gods. The ring is but half a circle and seems attached to 
the rod, and the summit of the rod ends with a surprisingly small crescent, which 
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