362 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
conventionalized. ‘This is a cylinder copied from its impression on a tablet, and it 
is probable that it is a goddess and not a god, as here represented. (See discussion 
of it under fig. 421.) 
A variation of this altar gives it contracted near the top instead of in the 
middle. Such a case is shown in fig. 1241. Here I would like to believe that the 
worshiper is making a libation of oil and that the flaming oil is falling over the edge 
of the altar, but it is more probable that we have here the plant of life. This cylinder 





















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1243 J244 
is of the age of Dungi, king of Ur, whose name it bears. Somewhat similar, but 
more elaborately carved, is the altar, also on a cylinder of Dungi, seen in fig. 1242. 
Yet another case of such an altar appears in fig. 1243, where there seems to be a 
cloth over the altar and possibly cakes above it, but it may be that it is poorly 
drawn. Ménant did not find it in the Museum of The 
Hague, to which Lajard credits it. 
Sometimes the altar is contracted below the middle and 
flares above. Such a case we see in fig. 1244. Here the 
worshiper is both pouring out the oil and bringing a goat as 
offering. Here we need to notice the other offerings. One 
worshiper carries a basket or pail by the handle, and it is of precisely the same 
shape as the altar. Another worshiper brings a gift held high over her head. 
On a bas-relief from Nippur (fig. 1245), imperfectly preserved and of great 
antiquity, is an altar above which seem to be flames. ‘The seat of the goddess 
apparently has the body of a bird. A worshiper with a goat is led to the deity from 

