[245] One cylinder bears his name.
[246] Lib. i. c. 195. As a written signature is of no value, except in particular cases, in the East, and as all documents to be valid must be sealed with seals bearing the names of the parties to them, the engraved signet is of great importance, and the trade of an engraver one of considerable responsibility. The punishment for forging seals is very severe, and there are many regulations enforced for securing their authenticity.
[247] Compare Job, xxxviii. 14. “It is turned as clay to the seal.”
[248] Compare 1 Kings, xix. 16. and 2 Kings, ix. 2.
[249] Sargon is called on the monuments of Khorsabad, “the conqueror of Samaria and of the circuit of Beth Khumri.” (Dr. Hincks, Trans, of the R. Irish Acad. vol. xx.)
[250] 1 Kings, xix. 15.
[251] Colonel Rawlinson suggests about 930 B. C.
[252] Especially if, as Egyptian scholars still maintain, the name is found on Egyptian monuments of the 18th dynasty.
[253] See my Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 155, where this genealogy was first pointed out.
[254] Discovered during the first expedition. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 83.)