308 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
of such sacrifice in this cylinder is, however, a mere matter of conjecture. With 
this we may compare fig. 967, where what [ call the bull-altar is over a lion and 
behind the two is an upright serpent, while three worshipers approach. 
Another peculiar case of this same “bull-altar,’’ in which we may see some- 
thing other than the bull, is shown in fig. 968. Here the object has, besides the 
four legs, two arms and hands reaching out in front, on which, if an altar, an offer- 
ing could be put, after the style in which we are told that children were placed for 
the sacrifice to Moloch. The condition of the cylinder does 
not allow us certainly to understand what was the shape of 
the composite animal’s head, but it does not seem to be that 
of a bull. The conical object which seemed like a flame is 
here so drawn as almost to suggest the turbans, or tiaras, of 
the principal gods as they are figured over the divine thrones 
on the so-called “boundary stones.”’ The accessories of this seal are the worshiper 
in front, a female figure, perhaps the goddess in the form of Aa or Shala behind, 
a star and another small uncertain object over the animal, and, what is important, 
the rope-pattern or guilloche under the bull. ‘This definitely connects the seal 
with the influence of the northern and western region and the Syro-Hittite art, 
although there is nothing else particularly Hittite about this cylinder. 
Another cylinder in which the bull shows the arms in front is seen in fig. 969. 
Unfortunately the upper part of this cylinder has been broken so that the heads of 
the figures are lost. Before the bull-altar, which is shaded with unusual care, is a 
table or stand, and below it a dog (?) and a worshiper. We have then a goddess, 
probably, whose seat is a quadruped of some sort, and under it are two lions. These 
rest on a platform which is supported by the hands of two Gilgamesh-like figures, 
between whom is a Hittite two-headed eagle. Before the goddess we see a vase and 
perhaps a goat-fish, and behind her two small birds. We then have the god Adad, 
or Teshub, with his foot on a bull led by a cord, and in his other hand a serpent 
held by the neck, while before him is a curious animal and a small nude figure. 
There remains another seated deity, or more likely the same, with her seat supported 
by two lions. She holds a vase in her hand and before her is a worshiper with a 
vase and also a columnar altar with a round object on it. This unusually compli- 
cated cylinder seems more Hittite than Syrian, and hardly shows Egyptian influence. 
It is a thick cylinder, and seems to belong to the earlier period of its class. 
But more distinctly of the Syro-Hittite origin appears to be fig. 978, which 
we may probably call fairly Syrian. ‘This we shall have to consider again when we 
come to treat of the goddess in the chariot. ‘The goddess is drawn by four horses 
in a four-wheeled chariot. Before her, in two registers, are two “bull-altars” facing 
each other, with a bird above each, also two bulls crossed and a head or mask, 
and in the lower register four marching figures, two of them meeting the other two. 
A succession of such small figures is characteristic of Syro-Hittite seals. The table- 
altar between the two “bull-altars’’ is to be observed. If the style of this cylinder 
suggests that it is Syrian we have other evidence in the case of fig. 970, a cylinder 
reported to have been found in Antarados, in Phenicia. Here the bull-altar is 
over an ibex and three worshipers approach a seated beardless deity, before whom 
is the sun in a crescent. In fig. g71 three worshipers approach the bull-altar, which 
stands on a platform, as also in the next figure. 





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