THE BULL-ALTAR. 309 
We have a slight variation of the usual style in fig. 972 where the two worshipers 
are kneeling, and there are irregular cross-lines on the “flame.” But we have quite 
a different and important variation on two cylinders, where the cone or “flame” 
over the bull is replaced by a bird as in fig. 978. One of them (fig. 973) is quite 
elaborate and gives us two bulls facing each other, with a table, or altar, between 
them, and three animals below, while also a worshiper approaches a seated deity. 
The other, fig. 974, also has a seated deity with two worshipers, and under the bull 
a dog or lion. Another cylinder which we may doubtfully include here is shown 
in fig. 975. [he general style of cutting is the same, but the bull is not the chief 
object in the design, although there is a worshiper before it and above it is a rabbit. 
The other objects are a seated beardless deity, before her a lion and two worshipers, 
and two small figures under the bull. 
With the exception of fig. 969, none of these cylinders belong to a good style 
of art. They are coarsely cut, on hematite, and suggest a comparatively rude 
period in the district where they were used. It is also noticeable that they carry 



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no inscriptions, although the cuneiform script must have been the prevailing art. 
It is likely that they belong to a period of about 1500 B. C., when the shape and 
size and style of the Middle Babylonian Empire were controlling, but the art was 
debased in outlying provinces. It is quite impossible to identify the object of wor- 
ship represented by the bull, or rather the image of the bull, further than to say 
that it is certainly an image for worship and not an animal that is represented. 
The question has been raised whether we have here a representation of a 
human sacrifice, as suggested by the child (but clothed) under the bull in fig. 966, 
and also the arms in figs. 968, 969. In a paper on “The Image of Moloch,” by 
Prof. George F. Moore (Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. xvi, p. 155), a Jewish 
midrash is quoted, according to which the idol had the head of a calf, on a human 
body; its arms were extended to receive the victim; the image (of metal) was 
hollow, and heated by a fire within till the hands were glowing; the priests took 
the child from the parent and laid it in the arms of the god until it was burned to 
death; the priests meanwhile beating drums loudly to drown its cries. ‘This story, 
Professor Moore believes, was derived by the rabbinic midrash from the tale by 
Diodorus Siculus, of the sacrifice by the citizens of Carthage of two hundred boys 
of noble birth to Kronos, when the city was besieged by Agathocles. The image of 
Kronos was of brass and its arms were stretched out in such a direction that the 
children when laid on its arms would roll off into a pit of fire. It can hardly 
