[8] For discussions of the identity of the predynastic emblems with gods of the dynastic period, see Budge, "The Gods of the Egyptians," I., p. 30 f., Foucart, "Comptes rendus," 1905, pp. 262 ff., and Reisner, "Naga-ed-Dêr," p. 125; cf. also Legge, "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.," XXXI., pp. 205 ff.
[9] For a reproduction and description of the slate carving, see Legge, "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.," Vol. XXII., pl. vi; cf. also Vol. XXXI., p. 204 f. Whatever view be taken of the ceremonial purpose for which these slates were intended, it is clear that the carving of slate was no new departure in Egypt at this period. Many of the practical slate palettes from Nakâda, on some of which traces have been found of the grinding of malachite and haematite for face-paint (cf. Petrie, "Naqadaand Balias," p. 43), are carved in animal forms. It may be added that the colour-dishes for face or body-paint, which have been found at Fâra, are quite distinct both in form and material from the Egyptian slate palettes. They are of alabaster, with divisions for separate paints, and usually stand on four feet (cf. Andræ, "Mitteil. der Deutsch. Orient-Gesellschaft," No. 17, p. 6); they thus form a closer parallel to the small conical vases of clay or stone, still enclosing paint, which have been found in the lowest stratum of the mound of Susa and belong to the period of its first settlement (cf. De Morgan, "Rev. d'Assyr.," VI., p. 5).
[10] Cf. Meyer, "Geschichte des Altertums," Bd. I., Hft. II., p. 107 f.
[11] See the plate facing p. [138].
[13] It is also possible that to represent the contracted position of his corpses was beyond the power of Eannatum's sculptor. Moreover, the employment of a common grave beneath a tumulus upon the field of battle may possibly have been a modified survival of an earlier practice, its retention having been dictated by convenience. Although no instance of its occurrence has been noted during excavations in Babylonia, we find a very similar form of burial employed at Susa during the period of its first settlement. It would appear that the dead were there buried outside the earthern rampart which marked the city-wall, without any special order or direction, and not enclosed by matting, pot, or sarcophagus. The bodies were placed in a common ditch and covered with earth, others being added from time to time beside or above them, so that sometimes four or five layers of skeletons are found super-imposed. That the corpses here were separately interred would seem to follow from the fact that each is accompanied by its own funerary offerings and furniture placed around the head; see De Morgan, "Rev. d'Assyr." Vol. VII., No. 1 (1909), p. 4 f. It may be added that the Sumerians, like the predynastic and early dynastic Egyptians, did not embalm their dead. The use of oil and honey for this purpose (see King, "Babylonian Religion," p. 49 f.), the latter of which is ascribed to the Babylonians by Herodotus (I., 198), would seem to have been of comparatively late introduction, and suggested by the Egyptian processes of mummification. It is interesting to note that, according to the evidence obtained by M. Naville at Abydos during the season of 1909-10, the contracted form of burial survived in Egypt at least as late as the Sixth Dynasty.
[14] The use of a sun-dried brick made of Nile mud and chopped straw may well have been evolved by the Egyptians themselves. As to the original home of wheat there is little evidence, though it may be noted that traces of cultivated wheat and barley were found in the earliest stratum at Anau in Russian Turkestan; see Pumpelly, "Explorations in Turkestan," p. 39 f.
[15] Negative evidence also points in the same direction. For instance, the extensive use of ivory by the predynastic and dynastic Egyptians is in striking contrast to the fact that not a single object of ivory was found by M. de Sarzec at Tello. With the Sumerians its place was taken by shell; see above, p. [78].
[16] Against the view may be cited the gradual discontinuance of the cylinder in Egypt, suggestive of a foreign origin. Comparatively few wooden cylinder-seals have been recovered. The fact that wood and not stone was the favourite material has, however, been deduced from many of the seal-impressions, in which a raised line runs from top to bottom across the signs. This can only have been produced by a split in the wood of which the cylinder was composed; cf. Petrie, "Royal Tombs," I., p. 27, and Newberry, "Scarabs," p. 48. The earliest form of cylinder-seal may well have been a piece of notched reed.
[17] If the land of Punt may be set in Abyssinia and Somaliland, it is possible that it formed a secondary centre of Semitic influence in this region; cf. King and Hall, "Egypt and Western Asia," p. 40.