Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/286

 254 A History of Art in Ciiald.fa and Assyria. or even two inches long, but they are quite exceptional. 1 The two ends are always quite plain — the engraving is confined to the convex surface. As a rule the latter is parallel to the axis, but in some cases it is hollowed in such a fashion that the diameter of the cylinder is greater at the ends than in the middle (Fig. 130- Nearly every cylinder is pierced lengthwise, a narrow hole going right through it. Those that have been found without this hole are so very few in number that we may look upon them as unfinished. In some cases the hole has been commenced at both ends, but the drill has stopped short of the centre, which still remains solid. The cylinders were suspended by these holes, but how ? In casting about for an answer to this question, the idea that the Fig. 131. — Concave-faced cylinder from Soldi. Fig. 132. — Cylinder with modern mount : from Rawlinson. Babylonian attached the greatest importance to the clear repro- duction, in the clay, of every detail of the design engraved upon his seal, has been taken as a starting point, and a system of mounting invented for him which would leave nothing to be desired in that respect (see Fig. 132). It is a reproduction, in small, of a garden roller ; as a restoration, however, it can hardly be justified by the evidence of the monuments. Examine the terra-cotta tablets on which these seals were used, and you will see that their ancient possessors did not, as a rule, attempt to impress the whole of the scenes cut in them upon the soft clay. 1 The thickest cylinders are found among those that appear the most ancient. I measured one, in the Cabinet des A?itiqiiités, that was barely less than an inch in diameter. On the other hand, there are some very small ones in existence.