ALTARS AND SACRIFICES. 363 
behind. Unfortunately the personages before her are lost in the fracture. This 
probably belongs to the very earliest period and shows the primitive use of this 
altar. A cylinder of quite an early period is seen in fig. 1246, where the altar takes 
much the same shape and a flame arises from it. ‘The altar stands before the 
monster usually on later seals related to Marduk; but this is much older than 
Marduk appears and the animal may originally have belonged to the elder Bel 
and be a form of Tiamat. 
There are three cylinders in which the altar stands before the serpent-bodied 
god. In one case there is a very thick altar of the hourglass shape (fig. 1247); the 
worshiper stands before the god. In another 
case (fig. 1248) the altar flares at the top and 
there are uncertain objects upon it and a deity & 
sits on each side, probably the god and his 
consort. We may think of them as enjoying 
the offerings of their worshipers. Similarly 
there are the two deities before the altar in ‘7 
fig. 1249, but here the altar, from which arise i 
flames, appears as if made simply of a pile of bricks. For comparison with these 
altars see those from Sinai, of a very early period, figured in Petrie’s “ Researches 
in Sinai, “plate 142. 
A very peculiar altar, of a quite early period, is seen in the remarkable cylinder 
(fig. 1250) which shows the conquest of Nergal over Allat. The altar consists of 
a large deep bowl resting on a tripod of oxen’s feet. The goddess sits before it 
and seems to be reaching out her hand to the smoke of the oil, or incense, and 
enjoying its sweet savor. 
These are the principal cases known to me in which the altar, in any form, 
appears in the early Babylonian art. I have not included the cases in which there 



is a stand before the seated deity, or between the two deities, on which is a vase 
from which they seem to be drinking through a tube. 
The literary sources, which tell us much of the sacrifices, give us very little 
information as to the nature of the early Babylonian altars. A large stationary 
altar is described in Hilprecht’s “Old Babylonian Inscriptions,” Vol. 1, part 2, p. 
24, but it gives us no help as to these altars figured on the cylinders, which seem— 
at least most of them—to have been portable. 
There are a number of early cylinders, showing offerings presented to the gods, 
on which there are no altars. Of all, the most frequent was the goat presented by 
the worshiper. This continued down to the middle period, when the altar was no 
