Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/261

 GEMS. 237 image which is a cone beneath and a roughly-suggested woman above (see Vol. I. Figs. 29, 199, 232, and the tail-piece to Chapter IV.). We think that something of this kind may be recognized in the lower left-hand corner of Fig. 153, and the same emblem is to be found high up in the field of the impression repro- duced in Fig. 156. On this cylinder three people are shown apparently hand in hand ; perhaps they are engaged in one of the sacred dances we have already encountered (Fig. 123). FIG. 155. Jasper cylinder. From A. di Cesnola. 1 On the cylinder last described, the bull's head appears twice over ; it is very common on these Cypriot seals. The question as to whether it has a meaning, or is nothing but ornament, can only be answered by further research. It seems to have been one of the signs of which the alphabet used in the upper valley of the Orontes and upon both slopes of the Amanus, the Hittite alphabet, was composed. Other symbols from the same writing have been found on these cylinders, such as the serpent and the object FIG. 156. Steatite cylinder. From A. di Cesnola. 2 shaped like a dagger with a large triangular blade. 3 It has also been noticed that in some of these intaglios the people wear foot coverings turned up at the ends, like those worn by all the figures in the so-called monuments of Hittite art. 4 Here we can do no 1 Satamtnia, p. 121. 2 Ibid, plate xii. 3 This has been pointed out by Mr. SAYCE. See Salaminia, pp. 118, 119, 121, 125. 4 This detail is very noticeable in figs. 4 and 6 of Mr. Alexander di Cesnola's Catalogue.