CHAPTER LAXIII. 
SABEAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
It has already been stated, in the discussion of the Syro-Hittite cylinders, that 
it is at present impossible to classify, by localities, the seals which were used in 
an extensive territory which was covered by the Syrian and Hittite culture. Indeed, 
the culture was composite and represents successive waves of population or con- 
quest or trade. Similarly, no attempt can be made to localize the cylinders con- 
sidered in this chapter. All we can do is to gather the few cylinders which carry 
a Sabean inscription and observe their peculiarities of art, if they have any, without 
attempting to say where or when they were used. We have the same difficulty as 
with cylinders carrying Phenician or Aramaic inscriptions, but which may never- 
theless be, in their art, Assyrian or Persian. ‘Their number is so small that we can 
hardly classify them, but can only figure and describe them separately, remember- 
ing that, so far as they represent a Sabean region, there may be many others not so 
recognized, which carry no inscriptions. Such a one Hommel finds in fig. 1080, 
where a hunter rides on a camel (see Hommel “ Die Siidarabischen Altertiimer,”’ 
Eduard Glaser Sammlung, p. 35). The term Sabean is used in a general sense, 
with no exclusion of Lihyanian or other allied forms. 
A single cylinder with Sabean inscriptions which has long been known 1s pre- 
sented in fig. 1207 and has also been shown in fig. 768. It is of a bluish chalcedony; 
it was obtained by Felix Jones at Anah, on the Euphrates, and was first described by 
Rawlinson. There are two lines of inscription, the two words in the second line being 
divided by two dots like a colon. The inscription ° 
has been read by many scholars, of whom the 
first were Rawlinson, Osiander, Levy, Halévy, 
and D. H. Miiller. In Hebrew letters it reads: 
xp 
IE le 
G Aré a’ Sin N \ SSD) Li 

son of Barik. 

31207 = 
Miller says (“Epigraphische Denkmaler aus Arabien”) that the characters 
are rather Lihyanian than Sabean. ‘The design shows us in the center a god, 
corresponding to the Syrian and Assyrian Adad, in a square hat ornamented with 
feathers, with a long garment, but with one bare leg advanced, with bows and 
quivers rising from his shoulders, one hand raised to receive his worshiper, and the 
other carrying a thunderbolt. At his foot is the bull of Adad. Behind him is a 
second figure, dressed in precisely the same way, but beardless. We may suppose 
her to be the corresponding goddess, as Shala accompanies the Babylonian Adad- 
Martu and Ishtar accompanies the Assyrian Adad. One hand is raised and the 
other carries what looks like a branch, but may possibly be a distaff. Facing the 
two is a worshiper dressed precisely like the two deities, except that he wears a 
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