Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/271

 GEMS. 247 about his head and chin. Finally, in a seal from which M. Renan took an impression when he was in Syria, we find an exact copy of those employed in Babylon, under the second Chaldaean Empire (Fig. 1 79).* The priest's costume and attitude are the same ; so are the shapes of the altar and of those strange candelabra or other appendages with which it is provided. M. Renan thus translates the inscription : (Seal) of Hinnomi. FIG. 178. Scarabseoid.* FIG. 179. Hexagonal seal.* The lapidary by whom a fine cone, acquired by M. Lortet in Syria in the valley of the Nahr- Ibrahim,* was engraved has also made use of a current Assyrian type (Fig. 180). How often have we not met with this group of three, in which a man struggles against two rampart animals, now upon cones and cylinders, now upon the royal embroidery of a king's robe ! 5 But we do not think the gem is Assyrian ; and for this reason. Although the FlG. 180. Chalcedony seal. From Lortet. drapery which hangs about the limbs and leaves the right leg exposed is quite Assyrian in its character, the torso above it is nude, after the fashion of Egypt, making of the whole one of 1 See Art in Chaldxa and Assyria, Figs. 155 and 160. 2 From RENAN, Mission de Phenicie, p. 144. 8 Ibid. 5 Art in Chaldaa and Assyria, Vol. II. Figs. 115, 133, 141, 253, 254, &c.
 * LORTET, La Syrie daujourd'hui, p. 633.