320 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
Sphinxes and griffins are very common on these cylinders, but generally they 
are found in reduced size in the registers. Occasionally they occupy the main space. 
Such a case appears in fig. 1305c, where below the interlace two seated sphinxes 
face each other, each lifting a foot, and between them, above, is a winged disk, 
and below the head of the goddess Belit-Ninkharshag. ‘There is also a star, and 
the goat’s head of the god Tarkhu is under a rabbit. With this may be compared 
a pyramidal seal of approximately the same age, seen in fig. 1016. 
It is worth while to call attention to fig. 1017 for the emblems of the column 
surmounted by a human head protected above and behind by a covering, as this 
seems to have entered into the Hittite hieroglyphic system and is occasionally to 
be seen on the cylinders. A figure somewhat like Shamash stands before the column 
and two other figures may represent a god and a goddess. Fig. 1018 may be observed 
for the somewhat rude cutting and the type of the protuberant faces, more like 
what we find on the Hittite bas-reliefs. “There are two gods, one something like 
Shamash in his attitude, and one more like Teshub, and before each is a worshiper. 
One observes that the headdress of the worshipers is simpler than that of the gods. 
Fig. 1019 is of interest particularly for the shape of the altar, which was in use 
in Assyria at least to the time of Sargon, for one of alabaster, with his name, is in 
the British Museum. ‘This is an out large cylinder (44 mm. in length) of 
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1018 1020 
hematite. Quite unusual is the design in fig. 1020 where a god—for he carries in 
the same hand a form of the Babylonian caduceus and an animal—attacks a lion. 
The four registers which fill most of the space are unusually elaborate. In the upper 
one are rabbits and heads; in the second an ibex, a lion, a man lying on his back, 
and a bird; the third is a guilloche; and in the fourth a dragon, a seated female 
figure, and a kneeling figure carrying an animal on his shoulder. 
Fig. 1021 1s peculiar in the style of its cutting, quite unlike almost anything 
else. ‘Iwo such scorpions, cut very deep on the hematite and yet well cut, can 
hardly find a parallel. The columns, with their crossed pineapple tops and the 
closely crossed bodies of the goats, are equally peculiar, not to speak of the stars 
in couples flanking the bottom of the columns. It is impossible to guess with any 
degree of assurance as to the provenance of this seal. Fig. 1022 may perhaps 
belong to the same facture. “I'wo lions attack an ibex, and there are two uncertain 
animals in a heraldic attitude before a column. Fig. 1023 is peculiar in that the 
design runs around the cylinder instead of standing vertically upon it in the usual 
way. Itisin two registers. In one the short-skirted god is duplicated symmetrically, 
fighting a lion. His long queue is to be noticed. In the other register we have the 
winged disk resting on a column, with the worshiper symmetrically standing on 
each side. 
From the earliest times the Babylonian art was familiar with the spouting vase, 
as we have seen in Chapter x1. It was to be expected that this vase with its streams 
