CHAPTER VIII—PAINTING

“PAINTING” in the ordinary sense of the word to-day, was an art never practised by the dwellers in Mesopotamia: like all Orientals both the Babylonians and Assyrians were fond of gay colours, and they gratified their taste for such in various ways, but as a rule no attempt was made to faithfully represent the objects of nature through the medium of the brush and the employment of colours alone, and the colours which they used on their sculptured reliefs, their stuccoed walls, or their enamelled bricks, were very frequently entirely impossible from the naturalistic standpoint. Thus the lion of brilliant yellow hue (cf. [frontispiece]), the commonest of all pictorial representations in Babylonia, has no counterpart whatever in real life; the effect is pleasing, it catches the eye, it awakens a sense of appreciation in the spectator, but this is due to the general cheerfulness of the colours themselves, certainly not to their fidelity to nature.

The lion itself bears no comparison with the Babylonian lion represented in Fig. [46]. The action is the same in either case—both lions are proceeding with sure and deliberate step, roaring as they go, but there is a vast difference between the artistic merits of each. The Assyrian lion is not indeed entirely lifeless, but it lacks the freedom and spontaneity which characterize the highest forms of art; the body is also somewhat heavy and clumsy compared with the lion of Ishtar’s Gate.

The colours chiefly employed in Babylonian and Assyrian paintings are blue, yellow and white, while green, red and black are of comparatively rare occurrence. The background of the picture is generally a shade of royal blue, the figures, usually animals, being of a brilliant yellow. In Babylonia, the demand for colours in architectural decoration was naturally more pressing than in Assyria, for in the latter country, where alabaster and limestone were easily procurable, the adornment of the interiors of buildings fell to the sculptor, but in the southern country the dearth of stone at once precluded the possibility of covering the walls even of the palaces with the sculptured bas-reliefs so dear to the heart of apparently all Assyrian monarchs. Thus it was that colour was largely made to take the place of sculpture in Babylonian decoration, the sculptor’s chisel being exchanged for the painter’s brush, though in Assyria sometimes the art of the sculptor and painter were both invoked to beautify the walls of the king’s palace, for in some of the halls in the royal residence of Sargon at Khorsabad the sculptured reliefs on the lower part of the walls were painted;[121] while Layard, after describing some of the wall-reliefs found in the north-west palace at Nimrûd, says:[122] “On all these figures paint could be faintly distinguished, particularly on the hair, beard, eyes and sandals,” which rather suggests that the earlier Assyrian sculptures were only partially coloured. Some of the sculptured bas-reliefs from Ashur-naṣir-pal’s palace at Nimrûd still bear traces of colour, the sandals of many of the figures even now showing the faded red and black paint which at one time covered the soles and upper parts of the sandals respectively, while in one case Ashur-naṣir-pal’s bow still retains traces of red paint. At Khorsabad, on the other hand, colour was used more generally, the raiment and head-gear of the king as well as the harness of the horses, the chariots and the trees, being all painted. Layard says that he was unable to ascertain whether the ground as well as the figures, or parts of the figures, were coloured, but Flandin, in regard to the wall-reliefs at Khorsabad, informs us that he could trace a tint of yellow ochre on all parts not otherwise coloured, while the upper parts of the walls upon which the sculptor had lavished none of his art, were often decorated with frescoes.

But walls plastered with stucco also commanded the attention of the painter as well as those lined with stone bas-reliefs, and Layard discovered the remains of paintings on stucco at Nimrûd, specifically in the upper chambers on the west side of the mound, the rooms of which were constructed of crude bricks coated with plaster and elaborately painted.[123] Most of these paintings do not aspire to anything more than designs, simple or complex as the case may be. In one fresco two bulls are portrayed facing each other; their bodies are white, the ground from which the bulls are carefully delineated by a pronounced black outline, being yellow, while dark blue plays a leading part in the purely decorative accessories at the top of the fresco. Other evidence of the extensive use of paint for the ornamentation of interior walls, was forthcoming in the discovery on the floor of a chamber in the north-west palace of Nimrûd, of “considerable remains of painted plaster still adhering to the sun-dried bricks, which had fallen in masses from the upper part of the wall. The colours, particularly the blues and reds, were as brilliant and vivid when the earth was removed from them, as they could have been when first used. On exposure to the air they faded rapidly. The designs were elegant and elaborate. It was found almost impossible to preserve any portion of these ornaments, the earth crumbling to pieces when any attempt was made to raise it.”[124]

The exteriors of buildings were also sometimes decorated with colour, a notable example being the ziggurat at Khorsabad of which three complete stages together with a part of the fourth were found still remaining. The lowest stage was painted white, the second black, the third red, and the fourth white; doubtless the remaining stages were also painted, the colours being emblematic of the seven planets, as in the case of the traditional temple of Belus at Babylon.

The best example of the Babylonian painter’s art is afforded by the city of Babylon itself. As early as the sixties, the French excavators, Fresnel and Oppert, had collected a large number of single-coloured and multi-coloured fragments of relief bricks. The coating of colour, which was always applied to the narrow sides of the bricks, was sometimes from one to two millimetres thick. Unfortunately this valuable collection was lost, but the statements of the explorers are corroborated by the description of a Babylonian palace wall, contained in the works of Diodorus the historian (circ. 44 B.C.) where he refers to “all manner of shapes of animals on rough bricks with colouring very like that of nature”; and he goes on to say that on the towers and walls were “representations of all kinds of animals, and as far as colouring and shape went, well done. The whole represented a hunt, where everything was full of animals of all kinds, and in size more than four yards. In this was also represented Semiramis, on horseback, in the act of throwing the spear after a panther, and a short distance off her husband, Ninus, stabbing a lion with a lance.”[125] Nebuchadnezzar himself further alludes to the pictures of wild oxen and colossal serpents, which he caused to be portrayed on blue enamelled bricks as decorations for the gates. Most of the glazed and coloured tiles found at Babylon resemble coloured bas-reliefs, the figures of the animals standing out in relief on a blue background generally, though sometimes the ground is green. The brick-enameller’s art reaches its climax in the Lion-frieze which adorned the Procession Street of Marduk, at Babylon. One of these clay bas-relief lions is seen in Fig. [46].[126] The ground is dark blue, the monotony of which is varied by the introduction of yellow stripes and the white rosettes already so familiar from the enamelled bricks of Khorsabad. The lion itself, the proportions of which are excellent, stands out in white alabaster clay, and the whole work is more perfect in technique than the Persian lion frieze at the Louvre, which it in some ways resembles. What detracts from the artistic merit of the latter is the disproportion which the body bears to the fore-part and head, both of them being too small, but the Babylonian lion is almost entirely free from this defect. The discovery of the Ishtar Gate at Babylon added another bounteous supply of material for the study of Babylonian painting: here too the coloured representations on the enamelled bricks were in relief. The walls of the gate were found preserved to a height of thirty-nine feet, the whole of the wall being covered with animals, principally bulls and dragons, of which there were at least eleven rows.

Fig. 46.—Enamelled brick relief from Babylon. (After Andrae.)

Fig. 47.—A (after Andrae); B (after Layard).

In Fig. [47], A, we have a black and white reproduction of one of the clay relief bulls which adorned the gate of Ishtar at Babylon. The bull is in the act of walking, and exhibits both grace and dignity in his movements, the slightness of his frame only serving to intensify the agility with which he seems to advance. The proportions are excellent and contrast very favourably with the Assyrian bull from Nimrûd (cf. Fig. [47], B). The latter is hard and conventional, while the posture—in itself a sufficiently natural one—is here rendered in a most wooden and inanimate fashion. The body of the animal is white, but the painter has attempted to make his subject stand out upon its pale yellow background, by edging it with an artificial outline of black. When the bull was coloured blue and thrown on to a white background this device was of course unnecessary (cf. Layard. Ser. I, Pl. 87.) The blue bull here alluded to belongs to the same species as the white one reproduced in Fig. [47], B, and is in the same kneeling position, but he is furnished with the wings of an eagle. It will be observed that in the Babylonian bull, as also in both the Assyrian bulls, the artist has evaded the difficulty of drawing the two horns in perspective by portraying only one, the other being theoretically concealed from view by the horn near the spectator.

But the palace of Nebuchadnezzar itself contained a large number of these coloured reliefs, many pieces of the glazed tiles of which they were composed having been found by Koldewey. The fragments recovered, number literally thousands, and Koldewey says that apparently when the bricks were stolen by later builders, the glazed portions were knocked off in order to make them more useful for the common purposes for which they were destined, and we to-day are the beneficiaries of that lack of appreciation. Amongst the animals portrayed on the palace and temple walls may be mentioned the bull, a mythical monster compounded of “parts of a bird of prey,” scorpions, serpents, panthers and steers, as well as the ubiquitous lion, while some of the fragments recovered show parts of the human body, and birds are also sometimes encountered. The lions form the most interesting study: there are two main types, (1) lions walking to the left, with white skins and yellow manes; and (2) lions walking to the right (a) with white skins and yellow manes, and (b) yellow skins and green manes; while there is a third type characterized by lions running to right or left. Sometimes the tail is portrayed standing out straight behind, sometimes it assumes a curved and less rigid form. Great difficulty has been experienced in fitting the various fragments together, but the assiduous efforts of the Germans have not been without success.

The process by which these coloured clay reliefs are supposed to have been made is as follows: a layer or slab of plastic clay of a fair size was taken, and on this surface the complete picture was modelled in relief, the process thus far being the same as that employed in the ordinary stone bas-reliefs, except that a chisel was in requisition there while here the hands would suffice, though it seems probable that moulds were at all events made for some of the lions, many of which are apparently entirely uniform. However that may be, the slab of clay now bearing in relief the figure determined, is supposed to have been cut up into rectangular blocks of the same size as the ordinary bricks, each rectangle being marked, with a view to simplifying the task of fitting each into its right place in the picture; after this, each piece was painted with a coat of coloured varnish, and then thoroughly baked in the oven—the thoroughness of the baking is attested by the hardness of the enamel—after which the various parts were fitted together. In the same way at Nimrûd, Layard found a large number of enamelled bricks, bearing the figures of animals and flowers as well as cuneiform characters, lying promiscuously upon the floor of the entrance passages to the palace, upon the unpainted backs of which rude designs, chiefly consisting of men and animals, were drawn in black ink or paint, “and marks having the appearance of numbers.” The marks alluded to must have presumably served the purpose of guiding the builder in his attempt to reconstruct the picture on the wall.

Coloured clay reliefs were not however the only species of pictorial representation adopted in the embellishment of the city of Babylon, or the palace of Babylon’s most illustrious king. On the southern side of the Ḳasr, a large number of beautifully glazed tiles stamped with Nebuchadnezzar’s inscription and adorned with flowers, twigs, and in one case part of a human figure—some fourteen inches high—were discovered, together with many sculptured stones bearing similar designs, the workmanship of which however was more perfect than that of the tiles. The latter have a flat surface, but they resemble the relief tiles in general technique. Many other glazed bricks were found on the eastern side of the Ḳasr, painted with various designs and displaying great delicacy—on one of them a human figure is portrayed, clad in a rich garment and holding what appears to be a spear in his left hand—these however Koldewey assigns to the Persian period.

PLATE XXX.

Decorated Arch at Khorsabad
(cf. Place, “Ninive,” Plates, 14, 15)

But colour was further employed, as the handmaid of humbler forms of architectural decoration in Babylonia as well as in the northern country. Thus at Nippur, the walls of many of the rooms were stuccoed with a plaster consisting of mud and straw, and were coloured, the colours used being apparently always solid. The ruins of Nin-makh’s temple at Babylon, excavated by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, similarly showed the remains of white decorations on its walls; while colour played no insignificant part in the decoration of the famous cone-wall at the Wuswas mound of Erech, the cones of which were coloured red or black and then arranged in a variety of geometrical patterns upon a wall consisting of mud and straw.

As we have already seen, enamelled bricks were used for the purposes of architectural decoration in Assyria as well as in Babylonia, though the enamel used is generally inferior in quality, and is more thinly applied, in consequence of which it does not adhere so well to the clay, and it fades sooner. To Place and Botta we are indebted for the finest and largest specimens of the Assyrian enameller’s art as yet discovered. The principal gateways of Dûr-Sharrukîn (Khorsabad) (the town built by Sargon, 722-705 B.C.), which are formed of arches resting on the backs of projecting winged bulls, seem to have been the object of the painter’s peculiar attention. These arches were decorated with a semicircle of enamelled bricks (cf. Pl. [XXX]), the enamel being laid upon one edge of the bricks, the average length of which is about three and a half inches. The ground is blue and the composite winged figures are yellow, while a line of green edges the lower part of the head-gear. The rosettes which form a supplemental decoration are white. These figures which extend over the entire round of the arch are all uniform: they are engaged in some act of worship, or in the performance of some religious ceremony, and at once recall the scenes depicted on the palace wall reliefs, with which they are practically identical. In contradistinction to the method usually employed in Babylonia, these coloured representations are not in relief, the colour being applied to the flat surface of the bricks, the only exception being the central bosses of the rosettes which are slightly raised. Another good example of coloured tile-work was found on a plinth in the doorway of what Place regarded as the harem in Sargon’s palace. The plinth in question is twenty-three feet long and over three feet high. The figures portrayed are the king, standing on one side of the plinth with bare head, while on the other side he wears the usual head-gear, a lion, a bull, an eagle, a tree and a plough, all done in yellow on a blue background, the borders of the whole plinth being decorated with the inevitable rosettes. The leaves of the tree are green, a colour apparently somewhat seldom used by the enamellers of Mesopotamia. Another painted fragment from Khorsabad, interesting for the extreme brilliancy of its colouring (cf. Place, Nineve, Pl. 32), is reproduced in Pl. [XXXI]. The faces of the two human beings are white, the background being green; the frieze at the top is yellow, the circular decorations consisting of an inner circle of green or yellow, while the outer circle is composed of trapezoidal figures of red and white in the case of those with a green inner circle, and red and green in those with yellow centres, arranged in either case alternately.

Layard also succeeded in recovering many glazed and coloured bricks from Nimrûd (Calah) of even greater interest as regards the composition of the scenes depicted than as regards the colours used, which in their present state in no way compare with those from Khorsabad in brilliancy. The most interesting of these (cf. Pl. [XXXI]) is one in which the king, followed by the chief eunuch, is seen receiving his chief officer,[127] a scene so often portrayed on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Above his head there is a “kind of fringed pavilion” and the sole remaining sign of a cuneiform inscription, while beneath him is a spiral design seen more frequently on the so-called Hittite works of art, though it is also found as a decorative accessory on some of the earliest sculptures in Babylonia (cf. Fig. [27]). The predominating colours are black and yellow: the hair and beard of the king and his followers, their sandals, as well as the circular balls found within each link of the spiral chain are black, the background is light yellow, the dress of the various figures being of a deeper shade of yellow, and the royal head-dress white. As Layard says: “This is an unique specimen of an entire Assyrian painting.”

Of the remainder, the most interesting are briefly described by Layard in Discoveries, pp. 166 and 167, and illustrated in colours in his Monuments, Series II, Pls. 53-55. One of these (Pl. 54, 7) contains a picture of four hairless and clean-shaven captives, whose four necks are bound together by means of a rope, the end of which is held by the prisoner in front. Two of the prisoners wear white loin-cloths, while the other two are clad in long white shirts opening in front. As regards the colours, the ground is a pale blue, and the figures are yellow. Another fragment of great interest is that reproduced in Monuments, Pl. 54, 12, on which are portrayed two horses, an Assyrian warrior, and a man holding a dagger. The latter, who is naked with the exception of a blue loin-cloth, has apparently been wounded or killed in battle. The background here is olive-green, while the horses are blue. On another glazed tile (Pl. 54, 13), we see a picture of Assyrian cavalry, again on a ground of olive-green, but in this case the horses are yellow, while the trappings are blue. One of these painted bricks (Pl. 53, 1) presents us with a picture of a blue fish on a yellow background; the scales of the fish however are coloured white, while on the same tile there is a man transfixed by two arrows and girded with a white loin-cloth. On another fragment (Pl. 53, 3), a chariot to which horses are yoked is being dragged over a naked figure, whose neck has been pierced by an arrow. A fillet to which is attached a feather, encircles the man’s head. The horses are blue, their trappings being white, and the wheels of the chariot are yellow. Below are seen the heads together with a portion of the shields of two Assyrian soldiers. The helmets are yellow, but the faces are “merely outlined in white on the olive-green ground,” while the shields are blue, but are edged with alternate squares of yellow and blue. All these belong to the same period, but another fragment was found by Layard (Pl. 53, 6) which appears to be of earlier date: the background is yellow, but the outline is black instead of white, while the figures, the heads of which have been destroyed, are dressed in the same way as the tribute-bearers bringing a monkey and other offerings to Ashur-naṣir-pal, as portrayed on bas-reliefs which were taken from the same building. The outer mantle is blue, the inner being yellow, and the fringes white.

But pottery was also sometimes decorated with colours; thus Captain Cros, De Sarzec’s successor at Tellô, discovered black pottery with incised lines filled in with white paste on this site, a style of pottery well known in Egypt and elsewhere, but not hitherto found in Babylonia. At Nippur on the other hand pottery painted with green and yellow stripes was found, while other vases decorated with black and white discs were also brought to light.

PLATE XXXI

Glazed brick
(cf. Place, “Ninive,” Pl. 32)

Photo. MansellBritish Museum
Glazed Brick, with figure of an Assyrianking pouring out a libation on his returnfrom a hunt

Painted pottery has been similarly found in Assyria: at Nimrûd Sir Henry Layard’s men discovered various fragments of pottery which apparently belonged to the covers of jars; they were decorated with the spiral design, also honeysuckles, cones and tulips, in black on a pale yellow ground. Prehistoric pottery has moreover been found in the course of the recent excavations at Ashur, the clay vessels in question being decorated with red and black geometrical designs. Clay slipper-shaped coffins were also sometimes coloured; many of the sarcophagi discovered at Nippur were covered with a blue glaze, but they belonged apparently to the Parthian period. Glazed sarcophagi were likewise found at Warka (i.e. the ancient Erech) as well as at the city of Babylon, though they also were the products of a late period. Various other terra-cotta objects were not infrequently coated with a vitreous glaze, the colour of the enamel being usually blue or green. Colour was not only used in Babylonia however for decorating buildings, pots and figures, but also apparently for the adornment of the human body, for the German excavations at Fâra revealed the presence of alabaster colour-dishes in the graves, traces of the colour in some cases still remaining. The colours are black, yellow, light green and light red. According to the analysis of the colours of the Babylonian bricks conducted by Sir Henry De la Becke and Dr. Percy, quoted by Layard,[128] “the yellow is an antimoniate of lead, from which tin has also been extracted, called Naples yellow, supposed to be comparatively a modern discovery, though also used by the Egyptians. The white is an enamel or glaze of oxide of tin, an invention attributed to the Arabs of Northern Africa in the eighth or ninth century. The blue glaze is a copper, contains no cobalt, but some lead; a curious fact, as this mineral was not added as a colouring material, but to facilitate the fusion of the glaze, to which use, it was believed, lead had only been turned in comparatively modern times. The red is a sub-oxide of copper.”

CHAPTER IX—CYLINDER-SEALS[129]

OF the smaller relics of Babylonian and Assyrian antiquity there are none so numerous or so pregnant with interest as the engraved seals which kings and commoners of all periods alike possessed. The universality of their usage in later times is attested by Herodotus (I, 195), who tells us that in his day everyone in Babylonia carried a seal as well as a walking-stick, while abundant evidence of their general use in early times is afforded by the vast quantity of seals discovered in the course of the excavations.

The seal, important as it is in our own day, was an even more indispensable convenience of civilized society in primitive times, and was probably one of the first inventions that owed their origins directly to the mutual recognition of private rights of ownership. The purpose which it first of all served was of course the same as that which it serves with us to-day, though the sealing of the mud plaster covering of a jar of wine, of the string of a registered parcel, or the flap of a paper envelope, in no way prevents the thief from robbing the contents in any of these cases, yet it renders it impossible for such a theft to be perpetrated without detection, detection not indeed necessarily of the thief, but of the deed itself, and that after all is the essential preliminary to the successful establishment of any suit at law. Its use in primitive times was, however, far more extensive, for, as Newberry well puts it,[130] “what locks and keys are to us, seals were to the people of the Old World.” If a man left his house for the day, and no occupant remained to keep watch, he probably secured himself and his goods so far as possible by sticking plasters of mud on the door and impressing his seal upon them in such a manner as to make it impossible to enter the house without breaking the seal; at all events Dr. Ward informs us[131] that he saw in a Khan at Hillah, near Babylon, a door of a room containing goods belonging to a merchant who was away from home, carefully sealed up with pats of clay on which the impress of the merchant’s seal had been duly fixed, thereby rendering access to the house dependent on the bursting of the seals, and in the conservative East the customs of to-day are not merely those of yesterday, but generally represent the traditional usage of hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. A few such sealed pats of clay, some of which formed stoppers of jars, have been found, but the principal object for which the cylinder-seal was used, was the authentication of deeds, documents and letters.

Fig. 48.—A, a cylinder-seal, in which the handle has been preserved.
B, a clay tablet bearing a seal impression.xxxxx
xxxxxxxxxC, D, illustrate the variation in size exhibited by cylinder-seals.

The seals employed by the Babylonians and Assyrians differed from those generally employed elsewhere, in shape as well as in the motifs of the engravings. They assumed the form of cylinders or rollers, through the centre of which a single or double piece of wire was inserted, the wire being generally made of copper, though sometimes of gold and silver, while later on, iron also occurs. At one end the wire was clamped, while at the other it was twisted into a loop (cf. Fig. [48], A) through which a piece of thread or twine was passed by means of which the seal could be slung round the owner’s neck, or carried on his wrist, the wire at the same time facilitating the process of rolling the cylinder on the moist clay.

The tablet (K. 382) seen in Fig. [48], B, is a good example of a clay tablet bearing the impress of a cylinder-seal. The tablet, which measures 4-1/8 inches by 2-5/8 inches, contains the terms of a contract. The impression itself shows us a mythological four-winged being, such as is seen so often on Assyrian bas-reliefs. In either hand he holds a bird by the leg. The cylinders by the side of the tablet are reproduced to actual size; A, C, and D (Brit. Mus. Nos. 89319, 89538, 101974) illustrate the divergence of size which the Babylonian cylinder-seals exhibit, (C) being an unusually large specimen, and (D) an exceptionally small example, the vast majority of seals occupying an intermediate position between these two extremes; in (A) we have a cylinder in which the metal handle is still preserved.

The existence of the same kind of seal in Egypt as early as the time of the first dynasty has been used as an argument in support of the theory that the primitive civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia were to some extent interdependent. It is true that cylinder-seals could only be of use where clay was employed as a writing-material, but there is no direct evidence that the practice of using clay for either writing or building purposes was borrowed from Babylonia, while the similarity in shape of early Babylonian and Egyptian mace-heads is an even more uncertain argument whereon to base an otherwise unsupported theory.

The materials used in the manufacture of cylinder-seals were many and various. The earliest known material is shell, but the most frequently occurring is hæmatite. Among other materials used may be mentioned serpentine, marble, quartz crystal, chalcedony, carnelian, agate, jasper, syenite, jade, obsidian, onyx, limestone, schist, mother of emerald, and amethyst. A few flint cylinders have been recovered, but this material was evidently but seldom employed, while glass is of even rarer occurrence, and metal is unknown. The process by which the required device was engraved upon the cylinder depended upon the material of which the latter was made. The softer materials employed in earlier times, such as shell, marble or serpentine, were possibly engraved with tools made of flint, but the harder stones would require an implement made of some more stubborn material. Ward is of opinion that either emery or a certain stone called corundum was used for the purpose. The latter was employed at a very early period in Egypt and in later times in Greece. The earliest seals appear to have been entirely made by hand, the practice of drilling by means of a bowstring not being introduced till a later period. Within the confines of a single chapter it will of course be quite impossible to review all the innumerable types of cylinder-seals used by the Babylonians and Assyrians of different ages, and we can therefore only single out one or two examples of some of the more interesting classes as being fairly representative of the periods to which they belong.

The most ancient seals are generally made of white marble, or shell, and sometimes also of lapis lazuli and serpentine. It is impossible to assign a definite or even an approximate date to the vast majority of cylinder-seals recovered from the ruined mounds of Mesopotamia, as most of them belonged to individuals otherwise unknown, but fortunately a number of seals have been brought to light which belong either to kings or officials whose date can be independently computed, and which therefore give us an illustration of the proficiency to which the art of engraving had been brought at the particular period in which the owners of the seals lived, and a comparison of the style of art exhibited on the otherwise undateable seals with those whose age has thus been fixed, makes it possible for us to assign them with some degree of certainty to the period to which they belong in the history of the art of seal-engraving.

The interest of these small relics of the past is of course centred in the scenes depicted, which are very various, and which throw a flood of light upon the mythology, and elucidate many legendary uncertainties in the theological and religious conceptions of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Where a comparison with royal or official cylinder-seals of certain date is not feasible, the similarity between the style of art exhibited on the particular seal in question and that to which some sculptures of ancient patesis or kings conform afford us the necessary clue, while lastly, when both of these tests fail, if the seal bears an inscription, the character of the writing often enables us to place it in its right class.

Fig. 49.

One of the earliest Babylonian rulers whose seals have been recovered is Lugal-anda, patesi or priest-king of Lagash, and the immediate predecessor of Urukagina, the last king of the first dynasty of Lagash. An impression of one of the seals of Lugal-anda is reproduced in Fig. [49]. Part of the seal is divided into two registers, in the uppermost of which we see the eagle with outspread wings clutching two lions, which together formed the heraldic arms of the city of Lagash. It is noticeable that the lions are treated with the same freedom as on the little block of Dudu (cf. Fig. [27]) the contemporary of Entemena, one of Lugal-anda’s predecessors. Here as in the little block referred to, the lions are treated in a very spirited manner, and in contrast to earlier representations of the device, the lions are gnawing at the wings of their captivator. On the right of the city-arms there is an inscription written in very archaic characters. In the lower register we have two human-headed bulls, a stag, a bearded hero resembling Izdubar, or Gilgamesh as portrayed on other early cylinder-seals, and another figure who is passing his left arm round the stag’s neck and holding one of the fore-paws of the stag in his right hand. Unlike the bearded hero, who is similarly engaged in grasping the fore-paw of one of the human-headed bulls, he is clean-shaven, while his hair is represented by four tongue-shaped projections. On the left of the two registers there is the body and the lower part of the face of a large human-headed bull, while on the right are two lions, one of whom is seen burying his teeth into the neck of a composite creature, half man and half beast. It will be at once obvious that this cylinder-seal of the early Sumerian period, presupposes an indefinite period of artistic development in the practice of engraving.

In the very early seals the scene is of course far less composite and the workmanship infinitely more crude; we frequently find the same eagle-motif, but the animals which he claws are usually goats, bulls, or ibexes, as seen in Fig. [50], the lions only being introduced at a later date. Here we have a very primitive seal in which we see the eagle grasping two ibexes by the horns, while a hero is grasping the same two animals by the leg. Hero, eagle and ibexes are represented in a highly archaic and crude fashion, though in the symmetrically outspread wings of the eagle we seem to have a foreshadowing of the conventionalism of later days. The ibexes have their hind quarters raised in the air, while the eagle grasps them by the horns, the seat of their strength actually as well as symbolically. The seal itself is both thicker and shorter than usual, and has only one register.

But the simplicity which usually characterizes the cylinder-seals of the earliest period sometimes gives place to an altogether overwhelming complexity, as in the seal represented in Fig. [51]. The two registers into which the field of the cylinder is divided encroach on each other in so inordinate a manner that it requires a careful inspection to see that there are two registers. The eagle is the central figure in the upper register, his claws reaching out on the one hand towards a lion attacked by a vulture, on the other towards a lion who appears to be attacking a reversed ibex. Below, a huntsman occupies the commanding position; he is clad in the short Sumerian skirt, the fringe of which is archaically represented by a series of tags, which recall the fragmentary sculptures of the prehistoric period of Lagash (cf. Fig. [25], C), and he is surrounded by a crowd of lions and antelopes. This seal is clearly the offspring of a more developed art than that reproduced in Fig. [50], but this notwithstanding, it is essentially archaic in character, and belongs to the early Sumerian period.

One of the most popular designs for cylinder seals in early Sumerian times is that of one or two seated deities, sometimes accompanied by the eagle. A very archaic example of this class is reproduced in Fig. [52]. The two seated beings are certainly gods, in spite of their being clean shaven and having the same faintly suggested features as the figure in the middle. It will be observed that the fringe of the short Sumerian skirt of one of the deities and also of the worshipper is represented by a series of pointed tags as in Fig. [51].

Fig. 50.Fig. 51.
Fig. 52.Fig. 53.

In Fig. [53] we again have two seated gods, but this time they have a large bowl between them, from which they seem to be drinking by means of tubes. They are apparently seated on camp-stools, while before one of them is a sacred tree. Their dress consists in a long robe, which covers one arm while leaving the other exposed and free, and reaches down to the ankle, the bottom of it being decorated with a fringe, and the body of it by a branch-shaped design.

Sometimes, again, we have a representation of a god seated in a boat as seen in Fig. [54]. It is impossible to say who the god is, though his divine character is clearly demonstrated by the horned cap. From the emergence of branches, or what may be flames of fire and streams of water from his shoulders, it seems a fair assumption on the part of Dr. Ward that the god is none other than Shamash, the sun-god. The boat is being propelled through the river or canal by two oarsmen, who, together with the god, are standing in the boat. The two men have different head-gears, but all three are clad solely in the old Sumerian skirt. Reeds to the height of the occupants of the boat are growing in the water, and a very primitively executed wild-boar is haunting this quaintly depicted marsh. Both bow and stern of the boat are similarly shaped, and are curved upwards to a great height. If the god be Shamash, it seems probable that here, as elsewhere, he is represented as traversing the heavens in his bark.

Another series of archaic cylinder-seals is concerned with the heroic feats of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani, two mythological beings whose conquests over bulls and lions won for them a reputation and a fame which lasted right down to the latter days of Assyrian history. We have an impression of one of the most primitive of the Gilgamesh seals in Fig. [55]. The hero stands between two bisons, one of which is being attacked by a lion and the other by a leopard, while the inhuman and semi-bestial Ea-bani is attacking the lion from behind. The occurrence of the spotted leopard is specially noteworthy, as it hardly ever occurs on later cylinders, while the presence of bisons which only haunt the highlands is an additional archaic touch, and is a further indication of the antiquity of this seal, which must have been engraved at a time when the recollection of his mountain origin was still fresh in the Sumerian’s mind, for in the later period of Babylonian art, the bison gives place to the swamp-loving buffalo. All the details of the seal betray the same primitive characteristics, and, as usual, there is no inscription.

We have already seen one royal seal-impression, and we have in Fig. [56] the seal of a later but far more famous Babylonian king, Shar-Gâni-sharri, king of Agade. In the reign of Shar-Gâni-sharri and his son Narâm-Sin, Babylonian art reached her climax,—the crudeness of the earlier work had passed away, while there is as yet no trace of the conventionalism of later days, and freedom is the keynote of her success. The scene is an oft-recurring one: a hero who to all appearance is Gilgamesh is kneeling on one knee, and holds in his hands a vase, from the overflowing streams of which the buffalo seeks to quench his thirst. The seal is engraved with vigour and precision, the boldness of which is only exceeded by the natural effect produced. Both hero and animal are treated with a freedom and fidelity seldom if ever surpassed in Oriental art, while the strength of the picture lies in the artist’s genius, and is in no way dependent on the subject, which does not lend itself to anything particularly striking or effective.

Fig. 54.Fig. 55.
Fig. 56.Fig. 57.

Fig. 58.

In Fig. [57] we have the impression of another seal in which Gilgamesh and Ea-bani are the prominent actors. Ea-bani is engaged with a lion, but his comrade is fighting with a massive horned-buffalo. This seal belongs to the time of Shar-Gâni-sharri and Narâm-Sin, kings of Agade, its date being fixed alike by the style of art and the purport of the brief inscription, which contains the name of the owner, Bingani-Sharali, king of Agade and the son of Narâm-Sin. This seal, now in the British Museum, was discovered at Cyprus.[132] The movements of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani are portrayed in a life-like manner, though the action of Ea-bani’s left arm is somewhat awkward and ungraceful. The same may be said of the overpowered and ill-designed buffalo, and also of the antelope beneath the inscription, but the lion is decidedly conventional, a fact possibly due to the ubiquity of his presence on the cylinder-seals and monuments of the earliest Sumerian times, from which one may perhaps infer that the perpetual reproduction of the same animal, has in time worn off the freshness with which the artist at first approached his subject. But the Gilgamesh seals probably reach their climax in that reproduced in Fig. [58]. The hero is engaged in mortal combat with a lion, whom he is endeavouring to throw. Gilgamesh is represented full-face and with the various peculiarities which appear to have been proper to his unique person—the long, curly beard, the equally long hair parted in the centre with the three characteristic ringlets on either side, and the body entirely naked but for a narrow girdle. The action is concentrated and focussed into a point—there are no conflicting persons, animals, or even objects in the scene to draw away or divide the attention of the spectator, and the animation with which the subject is treated is ample justification for the isolated and exclusive position that it here holds.

Fig. 59.

Another group of Babylonian seals belonging to different periods show the dramatic conquest of the deity over the winged dragon. One of the earliest, best preserved, and most instructive examples of these, is a shell cylinder preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, also published by Ward[133] (cf. Fig. [59]). The dragon has the wings and hind part of an eagle, while his fore-legs and head are those of a lion; between the wings upon his back stands a nude goddess brandishing lightning in either hand. The dragon is harnessed to a four-wheeled chariot, the front part of which is higher than the back, while a god of disproportionate size is driving the chariot and flourishing a whip in his left hand. The lion-headed dragon is apparently vomiting, and his action recalls that of one of the expiring lions on the bas-reliefs of Ashur-bani-pal. It may, however, be meant to represent the ejection of venom, though if this is the case it has not been very happily rendered. Before this group of supernaturals, stands the worshipper who is in the act of presenting an offering of uncertain character upon an altar.

But sometimes gods and heroes are found side by side on the same seal, as is the case on the seal reproduced in Fig. [60]. The horn-capped and seated deity is Shamash, the Sun-god, from whose shoulders rays of light proceed, while from his lap issue streams of living water.

As we have already seen, the cylinder-seals frequently present us with the pictorial aspect of a legend already known from the literature. One of the most famous legends of the Babylonians was that which told of Etana’s courageous but bootless attempt to ascend to heaven on the wings of an eagle. Higher and higher soared the eagle, till at last heaven’s portals were in sight, but the goal, for some reason not indicated, was never reached, and both Etana and his living aeroplane were dashed to the ground. We have an illustration of this bold flight on some of the seal-cylinders in the British Museum, an impression of one of which is given in Fig. [62]. Etana is seated on the eagle, who is bearing his burden aloft in the sight of an admiring and upward-gazing dog. On the right a shepherd clad in a long garment—his right shoulder being exposed as usual—is driving a horned sheep and two goats towards a primitive looking fence: both Etana and the shepherd wear beards and long hair, while the latter carries a staff in his left hand. In the background is a naked but likewise bearded individual, who is seated beside a large amphora with the contents of which he appears to be entirely preoccupied; he is presumably performing culinary operations of some kind.

The scene on other Babylonian seals is that of a god attacking a humanly conceived enemy; this class comprises cylinder-seals belonging to the archaic period as

Fig. 62. well as those of later date. The impression of one such archaic seal is reproduced in Fig. [63]. In the centre we have the god, mounted on a bull, his left hand raised, his right hand grasping a weapon or a whip; he is trampling on a prostrate and suppliant foe, whose figure is sketched in the roughest and crudest conceivable manner. As Ward says, this seal must date from the time when the horse was unknown, or at all events not used in battle. On the right side of the impression, the god is engaged on foot with an enemy who appears to be armed with a weapon shaped like a boomerang, such as that with which the

Fig. 63. god Nin-girsu is armed on the Vulture Stele. The god holds in his right hand a weapon of uncertain character, while between the two and facing the god is a diminutive worshipper whose hand is raised—doubtless in token of submission—towards his divine lord. On the left the god is stabbing a human-headed bull with a dagger, while from the god’s back, rays, or what appear to be rays, are emitted.

By the time of Gudea, patesi of Lagash, and Ur-Engur and Dungi, kings of Ur, we find a marked change in the artistic merits of the seal-engraver’s products. Speaking generally, they are executed with far greater care, and with a wealth of precision entirely absent in most of the earlier intaglios, but what they gain in care and detailed attention, they lose in the conventionalism to which that care and attention have given birth. We have here no rough sketch of a born artist, but the elaborated painting of a copyist. In Fig. [64] we have an impression of one of Gudea’s cylinder-seals. The god, who is probably Nin-girsu or Ea,[134] is seated on a box-like throne: he holds a vase in either hand, from each of which issue two streams which pour their contents into three vases resting on the ground, these in turn becoming themselves the generators of living springs of water.

Fig. 64. Facing the god is an intermediary deity who is supporting one of the vases with his left hand, and leading the worshipper, probably Gudea himself, with his right. From the shoulders of the intermediary emanate two serpents, the head of the near one exactly resembling the strange reptiles on the vase of the same patesi (cf. Fig. [90]). The identification of the intermediary deity with Ningish-zida is rendered highly probable by Gudea’s allusion to this god in one of his inscriptions, where in his description of the manner in which he was introduced to his supreme god, Nin-girsu, he expressly states that “Nin-gish-zi-da, his god, held him by the hand.”

Fig. 65.

Fig. 66.

In Fig. [65] we have a seal-impression of Ur-Engur, king of Ur about 2400 B.C. The scene depicted is a familiar one: an intermediary god is in the act of introducing a suppliant worshipper to a superior deity seated on a throne. The enthroned god has a lengthy beard and wears a round hat somewhat resembling the turban worn by Gudea (cf. Pl. [XXIII]). He is resting one arm on the back of his throne, while his right hand is extended in apparent invitation to the slowly approaching worshipper. The throne itself, unlike the box-like seats of earlier days, is provided with a back, and the back legs are fashioned after the legs of an ox. The intermediate deities wear the horned cap with which the gods in Gudea’s time were usually covered, while horns appear to rise also from out of their heads, the horns oddly enough being identical in shape with those on the terra-cotta head discovered during the recent excavations in Babylonia.[135] The seated deity is clad in a long simple garment reaching down to the feet, his dress being simpler than that of the attendant deities, or even that of the worshipper himself. The latter wears a long tunic, and a fringed mantle over his left shoulder. Both of the intermediaries are likewise apparelled in lengthy garments, which differ, however, from each other and also from that of the worshipper in being more elaborately worked, the divine introducer wearing the richer robe of the two. The inscription refers to Ur-Engur, king of Ur, who may conceivably be the figure seated on the throne; in support of this theory, it is worth noting that the kings of this dynasty were often deified while yet on earth. Ur-Engur was succeeded by Dungi, the impression of one of whose cylinder-seals is given in Fig. [66]. Both of these seals are preserved in the British Museum. A bearded and horn-capped god is standing before an altar shaped like a high standing vase, from which arises a feathered branch which may be intended to represent the ascending flame, while two long bare stalks with tufted heads hang over the altar on either side. The god holds in his left hand a weapon, the upper end of which is provided with a lateral semicircular handle, similar to that found at Tellô by De Sarzec, and also to that represented on the stone vase of Gudea (cf. Fig. [90]). In his extended right hand he holds a three-stalked flower, which is an exact replica of that found in the hands of mythical beings on later Assyrian bas-reliefs. On the other side of the altar is the suppliant, clad in the same fringed garment seen in Fig. [65], while his right hand is raised in adoration. Behind him is another worshipper whose dress resembles that of the god, and who is similarly crowned with a horned cap, but in spite of this divine distinction he has both hands raised in worship. Dungi was succeeded by Bur-Sin, one of whose cylinder-seals is seen in Fig. [67]. The scene varies little from that found on the seals of his predecessors. A seated god, a worshipper, and another adoring figure wearing a divine head-gear behind. The god wears a turban as in the seal of Ur-Engur (cf. Fig. [65]); he reposes on a very thickly upholstered seat, while both his own feet and those of his throne rest on a small low platform. The worshipper here has his hands clasped in front in much the same way as Gudea’s hands are, in the statues from Tellô, but the third figure, whom Ward somewhat humorously describes as a “flounced goddess,” has both hands raised. An impression of a cylinder-seal of Gimil-Sin, the successor of Bur-Sin on the throne of Ur, is reproduced in Fig. [68]. The turbaned and long-bearded god is again seated on a richly upholstered divan, and is elevated on a little platform. He holds in his right hand a double-handled vase, while his left hand is concealed in the folds of his flounced robe. The garment of the intermediary is exactly the same as that of the seated god, but a horned cap takes the place of the turban. The worshipper behind has one hand raised like his usher, while the fringed garment hanging from his shoulder is arranged so as to allow his left leg to be seen. A seal of Ibi-Sin, the last of the dynasty (cf. Fig. [69]) presents the same subject, while the treatment practically shows no variation. It will have been noticed that the star and crescent find a place on some of these cylinders, while from others they are absent,—from which it may reasonably be inferred that they were mere symbolic accessories, and as such of no vital importance.

All these seals bear inscriptions in contradistinction to those belonging to the earlier period, and a considerable part of the field of the cylinder is occupied with writing instead of scenery. But as time went on this tendency became more pronounced, and during the Kassite period, sometimes nearly the whole of the seal is occupied with an inscription, usually of a religious character. Thus on a cylinder inscribed with the name of Kurigalzu, the Kassite king of Babylonia (circ. 1400 B.C.) (cf. Fig. [70]) the pictorial element is reduced to one single figure, that of the worshipper.

Fig. 67.Fig. 68.
Fig. 69.Fig. 70.

An extremely interesting seal-impression of the Kassite period is published by Clay in The Museum Journal, University of Pennsylvania (I, 1910, pp. 4-6). It is dated in the fourth year of Nazi-Maruttash, king of Babylon (circ. 1330 B.C.) (cf. Fig. [71]). Three bearded men are engaged in ploughing; one is urging on the two humped oxen who are yoked to the ploughshare, the second holds the handles, while the third appears to be pouring grain into a drill attached to the plough.

It has been said that this seal-impression gives us the earliest representation of the Babylonian plough, but that statement must be considerably modified in the light of the early seal-impressions given by Ward (p. 132, Figs. 369, 371, 372). The plough is portrayed on all these three cylinders, and they all antedate the cylinder-seal of Nazi-Maruttash (cf. also the votive-tablet from Nippur, Fig. [25], E).

The Neo-Babylonian Empire (625-538 B.C.) inherited the stereotyped traditions of the long period of Kassite

Fig. 71. supremacy, and though there was a certain reaction in favour of the pictorial as against the literary element in the later cylinder-seals, the style of art remained more or less unchanged, if not unchangeable. A good example of a Neo-Babylonian seal-impression is that found on a tablet dated in the 26th year of Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Fig. [72]).[136] The worshipper stands before a rectangular box which looks like an altar, but which, according to Ward, is the seat of the gods. It supports two emblems, one a dog and the other a thunderbolt of the storm-god Adad. The posture, attitude and general appearance of the worshipper exactly correspond to those found on the Kassite cylinders of Kurigalzu (cf. Fig. [70]), and are a good illustration of the conventionalism to which later Mesopotamian art became so hopelessly enslaved.

The cylinder-seal was employed in Assyria from the earliest periods of her history,

Fig. 72. and continued to be used right down to the time of the Persians, who in turn adopted the same kind of seal. A cylinder-seal belonging to the early Assyrian period, i.e. about 2000 B.C., is shown in Fig. [73]. The workmanship is crude, but in the scene itself we see in embryo the military exploits of the late Assyrian bas-reliefs. A warrior, mounted in his two-wheeled war-chariot, is in the act of dispatching an arrow from his drawn bow; his rival, on foot, is doing exactly the same, and it appears to be a question as to which of the two combatants will get his arrow in first. The chariot is drawn by a bull, an indication that the horse was not as yet used for war purposes, while the four-spoked wheels

Fig. 73. are a further archaic touch—the chariot-wheels of the later Assyrians having eight, twelve, or sometimes sixteen spokes. The bull, in his mad career, is trampling over a prostrate foe, a scene which is frequently represented on the bas-reliefs; it is however interesting to see the symbolical star and crescent of the old Babylonians reproduced on this early Assyrian seal.

We have already seen the winged-dragon on an archaic Babylonian seal (cf. Fig. [59]), but it was apparently not till the Assyrian era that the conflict between “Bel and the dragon” was represented in Mesopotamian art.[137]

Fig. 74. On an early Assyrian cylinder-seal, now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (cf. Fig. [74]), we have a primitive picture of the conquest of Bel-Merodach as the representative and very incarnation of order, system and method, over the dragon—the personification of disorder and tumultuous chaos. The god is drawing his bow—not apparently at a venture, but with the deadly certainty with which the gods can presumably aim. This notwithstanding, the god has taken the precaution of carrying a quiver-full of arrows on his back, while he is further armed with an axe. The winged-dragon of composite character is reared upon his hind legs, his face turned towards his omnipotent adversary, as on the famous Marduk and Tiâmat bas-relief. The god is accompanied by another beast with wings, who is doubtless ready to come to the assistance of his divine lord when called upon. Behind the god we see the winged disc, and what appear to be two eyes, while the

Fig. 75. crescent of Sin, the moon-god, and the star of Ishtar are engraved in front. Behind the dragon is a sacred tree, resembling a palm-tree. The sacred tree played a very important part in Assyrian art, and is one of the most frequently recurring objects on the palace-wall reliefs. It is likewise often to be found on Assyrian seals, a good example of which is afforded by a cylinder-seal in the British Museum reproduced in Fig. [75]. The sacred tree in its most conventionalized form occupies the central part of the picture; on either side stands the king with hand raised in adoration; his dress—for an Assyrian king—is comparatively simple, but his head-gear is a replica of the pointed hat so frequently seen upon the heads of Assyrian kings on the palace wall-reliefs.

Fig. 76. Above the sacred tree is the god Ashur with his winged disc, from which two cords descend which seem to form the outward connecting link between the god and his worshipper, and recall the rays which emanate from the disc of Aten, and terminate in hands bearing the Egyptian symbol of life, on the famous stele of Khuenaten, the so-called “heretic king” of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Behind the king is the winged eagle-headed genius so constantly represented on the bas-reliefs. This strange mythical creature has one hand raised while in the other he carries a basket of the ordinary Assyrian type.

In a number of seals, one of which is reproduced here (cf. Fig. [76]), a man-fish, or a fish-god, resembling the figure found by Layard in sculptured relief at Nimrûd (cf. Pl. [IV]) occupies the most prominent position. Ashur in his winged disc is again casting the shadow of his divine protection over the sacred tree; on either side stands the Dagan-like worshipper with one hand raised and holding a basket in the other. He is followed by an attendant worshipper, while behind, is a warlike-looking personage—possibly the god Marduk—who is

Fig. 77. about to execute vengeance on an ostrich; with his left hand he firmly grasps the ostrich’s long neck, and in his right he holds a scimitar with which he apparently intends to remove the bird’s head.

The seated deity found on Babylonian seals of all periods is also found on the cylinder-seals of the Assyrians. We have a good specimen of an Assyrian seal of the kind referred to in Fig. [77]. A bearded god is seated on a chair with a high back such as is never found on Babylonian cylinders: the legs of the chair are strengthened to support the weighty person of the divine occupant by means of cross-bars, while the back is somewhat grotesquely decorated with balls. In front of the god is a table or stand with double folding legs and covered with a cloth upon which a shallow bowl and two flat cakes of bread are set; above the table is a fish—its head turned towards the god. Behind the enthroned god stands a goddess, from whose body proceed four ray-like projections which terminate in stars, the general appearance of the projections being not unlike that of four starry rockets. Before the loaded table stands the worshipper with one hand raised, while in the field of the cylinder there is an ibex, an eye-shaped design, seven balls and a crescent.