Its branches were glorious to the sight;
The twigs were crystals;
It bore fruit costly to the sight.
One of the rarest and most significant specimens illustrating the use of valuable stones for religious ceremonial purposes in the pagan world is in the Morgan-Tiffany collection. It is an ancient Babylonian axe-head made of banded agate. So regular, indeed, is the disposition of the layers in this agate that one might be justified in denominating it an onyx. Its prevailing hue is what may be called a “deer-brown”; some white splotches now apparent are evidently due to the action of fire or that of some alkali. This axe-head bears an inscription in archaic cuneiform characters, and presumably in the so-called Sumerian tongue, that believed to have been spoken by the founders of the Babylonian civilization. The form of the inscription indicates that the object dates from an earlier period than 2000 B.C.
BABYLONIAN AXE HEAD.
Agate, with inscription. Morgan collection, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
While the characters are clearly cut and can be easily deciphered, the inscription is nevertheless exceedingly difficult to translate. It is evident that the axe-head was a votive offering to a divinity, probably on the part of a certain governor named Adduggish; but whether the divinity in question was Shamash (the sun-god), or the god Adad, or some other member of the Babylonian pantheon, cannot be determined with any finality. The French assyriologist, François Lenormant, who first described this axe-head in 1879, and Prof. Ira Maurice Price, of the Semitic Department of Chicago University, both, admit that it may have been consecrated to Adad. As the weather-god, the thunderer, the axe-symbol would have been more especially appropriate to him in view of the usage, almost universal among primitive peoples, of associating stone axe-heads or axe-shaped stones with the thunderbolt, and hence with the divinity who was believed to have launched it toward the earth.
This Sumerian axe-head measures 134.5 mm. in length (5.3 inches), 35.5 mm. in width (1.4 inches), and 31 mm. in thickness (1.22 inches). It was originally secured by Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731-1804), for some time secretary of the College of the Propaganda in Rome, who probably acquired it from some missionary to the East. From the cardinal’s family it passed for 15,000 lire ($3000) to the Tyszkiewicz Collection, and when the objects therein comprised were disposed of at public sale, the writer purchased it for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, April 16, 1902.[352]
At Alicante, in Spain, cut upon the pedestal of an ancient statue, supposed to have been that of Isis, was found an inscription giving a list of the offerings dedicated by divine command, by a certain Fabia Fabiana in honor of her granddaughter. Evidently the fond grandmother had given of her best and choicest jewels which were used to adorn the statue. They consisted of a diadem set with a “unio” (a large round pearl) and six smaller pearls, two emeralds, seven beryls, two rubies, and a hyacinth. In each ear of the statue was inserted an ear-ring bearing a pearl and an emerald; about the neck was hung a necklace consisting of four rows of emeralds and pearls, eighteen of the former and thirty-six of the latter. Two circlets bound around the ankles contained eleven beryls and two emeralds, while two bracelets were set with eight emeralds and eight pearls. The adornment was completed by four rings, two bearing emeralds, while two, placed on the little finger, were set with diamonds. On the sandals were eight beryls.[353]