304. SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
Curious are the figures, with wings rising from their shoulders, which we find 
in fig. 951. Two of the three figures are winged and all are animal-headed. ‘The 
wingless figure, with the head of an antelope, carries in one hand a branch with a 
triple end, like the Persian baresma, and in the other a bent rod under a four-rayed 
emblem of the sun, which suggests the crossed emblem which we have seen in the 
Kassite seals as in fig. 532. The winged figure with the head of a bird lifts two 
antelopes by the hind leg and the other winged figure lifts an uncertain animal. 

a winged figure with an Egyptian headdress lifts a gazelle, and facing him is a 
bull-headed figure. Two other figures face each other, one a winged human-headed 
bull and the other a bird-headed flounced figure holding a scimitar in his hand. 
The Egyptian influence is accentuated by the crux ansata. Yet another parallel 
case is shown in fig. 953. Here a winged two-headed figure lifts an animal with each 
hand, and on each side stands a worshiper, apparently aiding in lifting it. Another 
figure holds a club in one hand and with the other lifts the head of an animal. 
I would call attention here to fig. 1212, with its human figures with double animal 
heads and a Sabean inscription. 

A very peculiar cylinder is shown in fig. 954. Arched in an angular guilloche 
a beardless figure, duplicated, de face, is provided with wings falling from the hips 
and an extra joint in the legs, so that they may be fantastically twisted. Alternating 
with this figure, and duplicated, is another in a short skirt and having two heads, 
one of a stag, the other of an antelope. This extremely bizarre design has hardly 
any relation to the general art of the region or period, and except for the guilloche 
might suggest a Gnostic origin, if it were not found on a cylinder. In connection 
with this we may consider fig. 956a with its three two-headed figures, its tree of life, 
lion and ibex, and other smaller emblems. But how these cylinders should be classed 
is not clear. With these may be compared the cylinder shown in fig. 956, where we 
