Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/253

 GEMS. 229 stands out bare to the front, while the other is covered by a long skirt hanging in a point nearly to the ground. 1 The engraver took his models almost at hazard from the rich accumulations of his neighbours ; he thus built up for himself a secondhand repertory, whose elements he varied according to the impulse of the moment, or rather, perhaps, according to the tastes of the different clients for whom he worked. This industry must have sprung up among the Phoenicians and Syrians of the north very soon after they entered into close relations with Mesopotamia. They did not want seals for their trade with the barbarous tribes on the Mediterranean coast, for that was carried on by barter and without credit, but their com- merce with Nineveh and Babylon was another matter. Every transaction had its documents, which were drawn up by a scribe and formally sealed by the parties interested. When the Syrian merchants established themselves in the bazaars of Mesopotamia, they must have conformed to the customs of the people with whom FIG. 147. Seal. From De Vogiie. FIG. 148. Scarab. From DC Vogiie. they dealt, and provided themselves with those seals by which their persons were represented and their acts attested. These private contracts, of which so many have come down to our time, always begin with a formula implying the possession of a seal by each contracting party. In their texts we find Assyrians and Chaldaeans figuring side by side with people who, from their names and the particulars by which those names are accompanied, must have been Syrians, Jews, and Phoenicians. Sometimes a cuneiform inscription is found over a few words in Phoenician. No doubt the stranger merchants were called upon to put their seals to a bargain as soon as it was concluded, and when they were as yet without the wherewithal, they bought one at the nearest lapidary's, and caused him to put their names upon it. In such a case the engraving of the added letters is much less careful than that of the original inscription ; sometimes they are popped down 1 Art in Chaldeca and Assyria, Vol. II. Figs. 132, 136, 137, 140, 141, &c.