[300] Taylor, Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer, p. 270 (in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv.).
[301] Layard, Discoveries, p. 563.
[302] A few cylinders of fine stone dating apparently from the early monarchy, are exceptions to this rule. M. Ménant quotes a cylinder of sapphirine chalcedony, which he ascribes to the reign of Dungi, the son of Ourkam (Essai sur les Pierres gravées, pp. 141–143); elsewhere he mentions an onyx cylinder in the Cabinet des Antiques (No. 870), which bears an inscription proving it to have been the seal of the scribe or secretary who served the son of Karigalzu, whom he places at the end of the fifteenth century B.C. We also find jasper cylinders that appear, so far as their execution and the costume of the figures engraved on them may show, to have come from the same workshops (ibid. p. 123) as those of the softer materials. This, we acknowledge, is a difficulty. But in the first place they may have now and then succeeded, even in the early years of the art, in fashioning materials harder than those with which they were familiar, by redoubling the patience and time spent upon the work; and, secondly, several kings separated from each other by centuries must have borne the same name, and it is perhaps a little bold to determine the age of a monument from the fact that it is engraved with this or that royal name. Who can say that none of these little monuments were reworked in the time of Nebuchadnezzar? Archaism was then in fashion. The writing of the early monarchy was imitated in official documents. Is it not probable enough that, while they were in the vein, they copied the seals of the old and almost legendary kings? They would reproduce them in their entirety, both images and texts, but in obedience to the taste of the day, they would execute the copies in those harder and more precious materials which his increased skill permitted the workman to attack. In spite of a few doubtful instances, we may repeat the general rule we have laid down: That the great majority of those cylinders that bear incontestable marks of a high antiquity, are cut from materials inferior in hardness to the precious stones, or even to the quartzes.
[303] E. Soldi, Les Cylindres babyloniens (Revue archéologique, vol. xxviii. p. 147).
[304] Ibid. p. 149.
[305] The three pages in which M. Soldi sums up the result of his inquiries, may be studied with advantage (Les Arts méconnus, pp. 62–64).
[306] See J. Ménant, Observations sur trois Cylindres orientaux (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, December, 1879).
[307] Or, more correctly, Dioscurides (Διοσκουρίδης), according to the texts.—Ed.
[308] As to the connection of the Greek Heracles with Izdubar, see a passage quoted from Sayce by Mansell (Gazette archéologique, 1879, pp. 116, 117?). The New York cylinder is only 1.52 inches high. It has been slightly enlarged in our woodcut, so that its workmanship might be better shown.
[309] Upon the exploits of these two individuals, and the place they occupy upon the cylinders, see Ménant, Essai, &c., pp. 66, et seq.