CHAPTER LXVI. 
ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 
In an appendix to S. I. Curtiss’s “ Primitive Semitic Religion To-day,” I have 
treated of the earliest representations of altars and sacrifices on the Babylonian 
cylinders. In the present chapter the subject will be continued into the later period. 
In the most archaic art two forms of altar are to be recognized. One of these 
is a square altar, reduced on one side near the top by a step, so that it constitutes 

1230 
two shelves. Perhaps the most archaic example we have of this is seen in fig. 1229, 
here repeated from fig. 127. On the upper shelf of the altar are what appear to 
be two cakes or flat loaves of bread, while an object which may be a vase is on the 
lower shelf. Over the altar a worshiper pours a libation from a cup. A similar 
altar we have in fig. 1230, where 
on the upper shelf there is a cup, 
or vase, and on the lower a pile of 
cakes, above which seems to be 
the form of an animal. Again, 
in fig. 1231 there is a cup on the 
<n ie | lower shelf) ingwhich) appears to 
be burning oil, toward ay and the worshiper, the goddess reaches out her hand. 
In fig. 1232 we have the altar ane no offering upon it. But we here seem to gather its 
construction, as if not of brick or stone, but of reeds fastened together, or stems of 
palm-leaves, after the fashion of seats so common at present in southern Babylonia. 




Inert Abit, 
val a Ml 

1233 1234 
The finest example of this form of altar, and the last I know of, is fig. 1233, 
the famous Rich cylinder. Here again the altar appears to be made of wicker- 
work, or possibly of brick. On the lower shelf is a vase, with the flame of burning 
oil rising from it, and on the upper shelf the head of an animal, perhaps represent- 
ing the whole animal and probably a ram. Here we have a further detail, the 
360 
