A Snake Goddess and Her Companions a Problem in the Iconography of the Early Second Millennium B.C.

Author(s): Briggs Buchanan Source: Iraq, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Spring, 1971), pp. 1-18 Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4199906 . Accessed: 08/10/2011 14:04
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A SNAKE GODDESS AND HER COMPANIONS

A PROBLEMIN THE ICONOGRAPHYOF THE EARLY SECOND MILLENNIUMB.C.'
By
BRIGGS BUCHANAN

A SNAKE goddess accompaniedby a winged acrobaticfigure is alone shown LI. (Plate I a) in repeated cylinder seal impressions on a tablet dated year 9 of the reign of Warad-Sinof Larsa, i 826 B.C. by the middle chronology, 34 years before the first year of Hammurabiof Babylon. Though the tablet originated at Larsait seemed that the seal with its lovely but mysterious couple must be of Syrianorigin.2 So far as can be discernedin the impressionsthey are renderedwith a grace and delicacy that at least equal the best Old Babylonianwork. Hair extended behind the head as on both of them finds its closest contemporary comparisons in hair styles common in Syrianwork (Plate I b). In the latter, however, the effect is of definiteshaping whereas here the hair looks almost wind-blown. Acrobats too occur quite often in Syrianglyptic, but not apparentlyin the pose of ours. To this we must return. Winged human figures had not before been noticed in Old Babylonian seals.3 Yet, unquestionablyhuman, winged figures apparentlyappearedin art for the first time several hundred years before in Akkadian cylinder seals, conspicuously in a few representationsof the war-like Ishtar. In all of these she is shown full-face with her wings before weapons at about shoulder level.4 A winged god subduing smallerhumans is depicted in Boehmer but the 333, details under his robe are too uncertainto be sure that he does not have bird talons. The winged figure with divine crown in closely analagousposition in
1 Expanded from a paper presented to the Oriental Club of New Haven November I3, I969. Valuable suggestions were made by numerous scholars at the meeting, in particular Professors William W. Hallo and Richard S. Ellis of Yale University. The author also wishes to acknowledge the important contributions of R. D. Bamett and E. Soliberger of the British Museum, and to thank Sir Max Mallowan for assuming the task of editor.
2 A Syrian origin for the design was too hastily advanced by the author at the 1960 meeting of the American Oriental Society. A brief comment to the same effect was included in an unpublished memorandum he sent to somc of the scholars interestcd in

the problem of classifying cylinder seals (AfO 2o

(I963), i25, I28).

a One that seems to have escaped attention occurs to the left in the contest scene of Berlin,472 (= Frankfort, pl. 29e); a seal that by its quasi-modelled style should be of the igth century, since some modelling occurs in Early Old Babylonian but becomes much less well defined in the course of the following century. Apparently we have here a miniature version of our snake goddess. ' M. Barrelet, Syria 32 (1955), 222-37, pl. 21 (though no. 3 is a fake based on no. 2). Boehmer, p. 66ff.; figs. 377 (wings slightly tilted up), 379(upcurved), 382 (horizontal), each seal seeming progressively more mature.

BRIGGS

BUCHANAN

Boehmer is clearlya bird from the waist down. In both of these matureAkka340 dian seals the divine figure is in profile but his wings sweep up from below his armson both sides. In the second sealthereis also a bird tail justabove the bird's legs, as in the case of the otherwisewingless andusuallyuncrownedZu bird(socalled by Frankfort,but simply a bird demon to Boehmer).5 'Zu' most often appearsas a prisonerbefore the god, Ea, but occasionallyhe carriesvegetation in scenes showing the boat with a human prow (Boehmer, 473, 476). Twice bird demons with not very erect shoulder wings are accompaniedby human guards in relatively early Akkadian seals (Boehmer, 276, 393). A connection with the scenes showing 'Zu' seems very possible. Much less certain is the close relationshipargued by Frankfortbetween the 'Zu' demon and the bird of prey apparentlyin Ea's grasp in the famous scene showing Ishtarpresumably rescuing Shamashfrom his grave, possibly to fructify the date palm.6 Bird demons are also attested earlier. One type has wide-spread wings (Amiet, I396, I398), but their only human characteristicseems to be a long robe drawn up at the waist on one side, an Early Dynastic II type of garment that recurs occasionally in Akkadian times.7 These bird demons are clearly related to the ever-popular spread-wingedeagle. Somewhat later, an Early Dynastic III impressionfrom Susa shows a bird-likecreaturethat by its spread wings and human posture recallsthe earlierdemons.8 Of greatly varied characterare the squat bird-menof EarlyDynastic III with human head and largely bird body, the tail of which is stressed, but other wings meagre,if presentat all.9 The two types of bird demon were undoubtedly very differentin Old Sumeriantimes. It is only with the Akkadian stress on human featuresthat there was a tendency to merge them, though this is clearly manifest only in Boehmer, in which as alreadynoted a god-bird has both a 340, tail and wide-spreadshoulder wings. Both types of bird demon belong to the same mythologicalway of thinking as a numberof other Early Dynastic combinationsof animaland man or animal and animal, such as the scorpion-man,the bull-man, the human-headedbull, the lion-headedeagle.10 A few such creatureseven go back to the Protoliterate period; winged lions, lion-bird dragons, lions with serpentinetails, but they are limited in range and not very common.11Only one examplepertainsto our particularinquiry, a curious and apparentlyunique representationshowing creatureswith a lion's body, a human-likehead with asses' earsand wide-spread wings at the shoulders.12 It is curious that these odd creationsshould appear in the earliestcylinderswhich otherwise presenta naturalismnot matcheduntil
5 Frankfort, p. I07, I32ff.; Boebmer, p. 87ff., dated to all phases of Akkadian. s Boebmer,377, p. 67; more broadly interpreted, Frankfort, p. o05ff. 7 Botbmer,307, 377, 390, all relatively early. ' Frankfort, fig. 71, p. 233 ('griffiin'); Elam, fig. I 56, p. zio-ii 9 Amiel, p. i44ff. for a somewhat different point of view; also p. I55, figs. 1399-1402 and, associated

with the human-prowed boat,

10 Amiet,

1439-1442;

compare

the Akkadian examples cited above (n. 5). 1 Amiel, pP. 75, 84f., 12 Moore, 1, p. 22.
p.
131ff.

I07.

('winged

genius').

A SNAKE

GODDESS

AND

HER

COMPANIONS

the Akkadian period and then in a very differentstyle. It is less curious that such creatures do not seem to occur in the simplified world of prehistoric glyptic, not even when inticatelyinterwoven forms occur. Except for accidents that can be attributed to crudeness, the chief abnormalitiesthen are human figures with animal characteristics,probably sorcerers,'3 or animals with multiple heads,'4all of late prehistorictimes. This survey of older periods serves to emphasize the importance of the human or quasi-humanfigures in the Akkadianperiod. appearanceof winMged Wide-spreadwings as sometimes at the shoulders of a goddess in Akkadian glyptic recur as a common feature in Syrian seals 500 years later, not only on goddesses but occasionally on gods, as well as on monsters or demons with pronouncedlyhumanchracteristics.'5This greatlyexpandedsurvival or revival of an Akkadianinnovation, in what was to a large extent an alien glyptic, is a feature to which attention will be called again. Strangelyenough winged human figures rarely occur in the Neo-Sumerian successors of the Akkadian style in Babyloniaitself. In a post-Akkadianseal (Plate I c) a figure, presumablya deity, with up-slantedsideways wings drives a chariot drawn by an ass-like creaturethat somewhat resemblesthe Akkadian (Boehmer, ioof.), though in a very different,ratherenigmatic, p. serpent-dragon scene. Behind the chariot is a row of humans bearing on standardsa spreadwinged eagle, a water bird and a snake (?).16 However, the only clear example of a winged deity in the period, known to the writer, appearssomewhat later in a seal impressionof the third dynastyof Ur (PlateI d). It shows a procession headed by a beardeddeity with hair protruding,as if wind-blown, from below a kind of skull cap. He has small extendedwings at his shoulders,is wearing a tunic, and holds a sword with curved blade (scimitar?)before him 'in his left hand. Next comes a goddess reachingupwardsfor rain, who has a small clump of hair extendedbackwards,also possibly wind-blown. This wind-blown effect in the hair of both the goddess and the preceding warriorgod recalls, though it does not exactly resemble, the treatmentof the hair of our snake goddess. After these figures there is a weather god standing behind the wings on a firespitting lion-griffon's back. The scene parallels a number with the same 362-73). A conspicuous difference generaltheme in Akkadianglyptic (Boebmer,
13 Amiet, 117-23, R. D. Barnett notes 146-53. that women occur in symmetrically arranged groups with apparently wind-blown hair, dating as early as the Samarran period, see JNES 3 (I944); R. Braidwood et al., p. 48ff., figs. 28o, 292.
4

Hogarib, 94-5, 101.

15 M. Barrelet, Syria 32 (i95 5), 237-43; but date her Syrian groups I-2 together, I 85o-i6o B.C. For some winged divine Syrian figures of similar date see (only CANES cited): (god) 965, (armless goddesses, wings up and down in front) 991, (demons or mons-

ters, wings varied) 92!, 932-3, 936, 979, 984, 998. Other exceptional placing of wings on deities: (sideways at waist), Louvre,II, A. 9I8; (up and down in front) Ward, 8I3. See also the unusual Syro-Cappadocian scene showing a goddess with wide-spread wings in a shrine on a bull, E. Porada in The Aegean and the Near Bat, Locust Valley, New York, 1956, pl. x8g, p. 2x1, New York Public Library (= Ward,93ga).
16In Parrot, 25o, post-Akkadian, a beast of uncertain character draws a chariot containing a winged figure apparently like the one in Plate I c.

BRIGGS

BUCHANAN

is that in the latter a deity, if mounted on such a dragon, stands between, ratherthan behind, the dragon'swings. A hero in tunic with a curved weapon, it 367.17 Presumably is the same but wingless, leads the procession in Boebmer, 369, stabs a bull, thus creating a downpour of divine hero who in Boehmer, rain about the goddess above. As alreadynoted, winged human figures do not seem to have been recorded in Old Babylonianseals.18 Becauseof her possible connectionwith earlierconceptions in Mesopotamia,the winged nude snakegoddess of Plate I a especially
invites our attention. First to be noticed is the position of her wings. Unlike

those so far cited, they are attachedto her back viewed in profile. This placing becamequite popularin laterperiods, though it was never as common as wings on either side. A winged nude goddess does appearoccasionallyon Old Babylonianterracottas.19 She may be shown in profile with her hands, as in Plate I a in the gesture of the suppliantgoddess,20but more often she appearsfull-face, with her hands raised on either side as if in benediction,2lor less commonly placed on her breasts. Usually she wears the horned crown of deity, but not always. Her distinguishingfeaturesare that her wings hang down from her shoulders to below her waist, sometimes to her ankles, and that in all clearly preserved examples she has bird talons for feet in frontal or sideways position. She has not so far been certainly identified in cylinder seals,22but our recent experiencewith the snake goddess suggests that she will be. It has been argued that this figure stands for Ishtar as an inhabitantof the land of death23. Nevertheless, despite her often-horrendousclaws, her whole attitude is one of beneficentblessing of the beholder. Though her nudity fits the mythic conditions of her visit to hell, it also aligns her with a small class of nude females who are markedas divine by their crown,24but more important with the innummerable ordinarynude femalesof cylindersealsand terracottas.25 Such nude females may be relatedto Ishtarin her sexual aspect, but their chief
17 A very crude seal, Louvre,II, A. 153 (== Boelmer, no. 942), shows before the weather gods a strangc figure, part human, part bird. The seal was acquired in i85o, but as Ward points out (P. So, his fig. 131) its authenticity would certainly be doubted except for its early accession. 18 The glyptic of the early i8th Century at Mari in Eastern Syria, though predominantly Old Babylonian in character, presents scattered Syrian traits, as well as a few seals wholly Syrian in style. One seal of mixed style shows a goddess with wings sideways in the Syrian manner, but less up-tilted than usual, Mari II, 3, pI. 41-2, p. I89f. 1'IM. Barrelet, Syria 29 (1952), 287ff., figs. 4-10; Opfiiciux,p. 72ff., no. 208-I3 ("naked winged goddess"); NippurI, p. 92, pl. I34.6-8 ("winged goddess". 20 M. Barrelet, op. cit., fig. 4; Opiflcius,fig. 208; Nippurl. pi. 134.6.
21 A goddess, like the others here described, appears incised on a vase from Larsa, M. Barrelet, op. cit., 290, fig. 8. 22 One Old Babylonian seal, De Clercq,229, contains a nude female, executed in a peculiar linear-outlinc manner. She has a line hanging down from each elbow. These lines may have depicted drooping wings, though this is not suggested in the text. Furthermore she holds a tambourine-like object at her chest. It would seem then that she is a nude musician in a cape, an unusual treatment of a subject well known in Babylonian terracottas. 23 M. Barrelet, op. cit., 29Iff.; cf. n. I9. 24 25

OpefiCiuf,op. cit., p. 71f. ("naked Ishtar").

For terracottas see Opius,

I42-154;

op. cit., p. 37-60, figs.

29-140,

index p. 442. Figurines, M. Barrelet,

Seal examples are too numerous to cite.

PLATE 1

a (left). YBC 5698. Right side (enlarged)of grain contract from Larsa;seal, Old Babylonian.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

r __
'9A d

b. NBC 8929. Impression from haematitecylinder; fully

E

|^

developed Syrian.

j*,*<

<

C. YBC IZ583. Impression from steatite cylinder; Post<ieSAkkadian.

d. Left side (enlarged) of tablet case; seal, Neo-Sumerian.

e. BM.

I134773.

Impression(enlarged)from haematitecylinder; Old Babylonian.

PLATE II

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A SNAKE

GODDESS

AND

HER COMPANIONS

appealat least to men must have been that they stood for the temple prostitute or for women who prostitutedthemselvesin the temple as an act of devotion.28 This is clear from the increasingly discovered examples, often taken from hiding in the storerooms of museums, in which nude women are depicted in sexual intercourse. The intercourseis commonly anal, a sure method of birth control. This would be an importantfactor if the later stories are true that an act of prostitution in the temple was expected of all Babylonian women. Unfortunatelyour evidence is not such that we can decide to what extent the of few representations more normal intercoursedepict scenes in the temple or are of a more private nature.27 It might be thought that the nude female was sometimes depicted as divine, even as a winged being from Hades, in order to counteractany tendency to regardthe overtly sexual scenes as obscene. However this may be, a connection between the nude female, even as divine, and such representationsseems certain, since in at least one terracotta with a winged nude female there is an erect phallus on either side of her.28 At least as importantas the wings on our goddess in Plate I a are the tightly entwined snake coils that make up her body below the navel and apparently end like two snakes. Mrs.van Burenhas discussedentwinedserpentsas a symbol of fertility, associated with springs and hence related to the underworld and the 'waterof life.' She found that this motif in its simplestnaturalform largely ended in the time of Gudea (earlyNeo-Sumerian).29Amiet tended to minimize the sexualimplicationsof the entwined serpentin his treatmentof Old Sumerian glyptic; instead he emphasizes the importance of the serpent through its connection with water for the fertility of vegetation and mythologically for its relation with underworldbeings and astralobjects.30 A deity, the lower part of whose body is a coiled snake, figures prominently in Akkadianseals, but since he is always seatedand always male any connection with our snake goddess seems remote.3' A later relative of the seated snake god, however, does exist in seal impressions of I7th century date from Susa showing a god enthronedon a coiled snake. Elamite counterpartsof the same theme in sculpturehave been dated as late as the I3th century.32 Another possible connection with our snake goddess is offered by a few showing a bull-earedfullrepresentativeson seals and many on terracottas,33 face god who seems to be enclosed in a sarcophagus. The 'sarcophagus'is
More modestly put in Frankfort, p. 17in. For intercourse or suggested intercourse see e.g. Nippur, pl. I37.4, 6-7 (with adjoining notes); cf. review AJA 73 (I969), 374; M. Barrelet, Figurine, figs. 527, 59T, 675, 744. It seems probable that all forms of intercourse were permitted, presumably with temple prostitutes, in the Middle Assyrian Temple of Ishtar at Assur; see the lead reliefs, WVDOG 58, pI. 45, 46n., p. io3f. 28 NippurI, pl. 134.8; pl. I27.6, p. 89, has similar phalli, but the nude female is not taken for winged.
26 27

29 AfO 10 (I935), 53ff; her one exception, a presumably-later magical amulet, Pbiladelphia,IO 2 (not i oo).

30Amiet, p. I34f. "IFrankfort,p. ii gff. For possibly related figures of Old Sumerian times see Amic, p. 136f.
3 Elam, p. 320, fig. 239 A-B; for later monuments: p. 341; p. 379, fig. 286; p. 387, fig. 295.
33 M. Barrelet, Figuriner, nos. I 32-9, 5 4-9, 745-50, p. I8If.; Opificiur, nos. 29I-310 ('underworld god')

BRIGGS

BUCHANAN

normallydecoratedwith weapons or vessels set in rows separatedby horizontal borders and often has as its base a bracketmounted on sharppoints like talons or claws. When the internal separatorsare arranged diagonally they have, perhapsintentionally,the appearance twisted serpents.34 of A more direct connection with snakes is manifestin a cylinderthat has been classifiedas Syrian35,but the style shows more stylizing and simplificationthan that; the decorative "tree" to one side must be regardedas Cypriote,presumably one of the rareexamplesfrom the island of the late i6th centuryin which decadent Syrian is mixed with local features.36 It shows a full-face figure, possibly male, with large ears and perhapsa horned crown. He grasps a long snake on either side, the top end of which is posed like the 'lion' scimitarheld by the bull-earedgod (n. 34). His body may perhaps be wrapped in snakes. Though this is doubtful, he otherwise recalls the snake goddesses (attestedin Crete at about the same time) who hold snakes before them and have them wrapped about their persons.37 But neither in this cylindernor in the Cretan examplesdoes the snake become part of the body as in our Plate I a.
"1 CANES, 386, p. 47 ('apparently wrapped in rope coils'). Vard, p. 129 suggested that the coils were serpents. Mrs. van Buren thought the same (Iraq I (1934), 75, Plate Xe). She also regarded the horizontal lines on the bull-eared god in BN, I36 as snake coils. Both seals have a talon-like bracket at the base of the god and there are lines connecting his hips and wide-spread elbows giving the effect of an enclosed body. BN, 136 is too indistinct to tell whether the weapons on the god's shoulders are 'lion' scimitars as in CANES, 386. A bull-eared god appears in an undoubted sarcophagus, except for its angled 'feet', in Newell, 2I 3 (cf. Frankfort, p. I68, g). However, the horizontal lines inside are clearly not snake coils since a row of vessels rests on the top one. The scenes of all three seals otherwise vary considerably, except that in each there is a fly or flies beside the enclosed god, and, in CANES, 386 and BN, i36, fish. An impression of c. x8oo B.c. at Yale, YBC 4217, shows the bull-eared god much as in BN, 136, except that he holds no weapons. By contrast in another impression, YBC 3285, the god is barely recognizable because executed in the typical schematic drilled style of the end of the Old Babylonian period. Chiefly surviving are his bull's ears, his arms akimbo, and the coffin shape below ending in a point. For the first see the Yale Universioy Library GazetIe 45 (Oct. 1970), 57, fig. 7a; for the second, 65, fig. 23b. A full-face, bull-eared god also appears in a cylinder seal that is certaily Old Babylonian at the latest. It came from Tell Judaidah near Antioch (Arcbaeolog 123 (I960), 25, fig. 23). The god shoulders "lion" scimitars apparently badly scrtched), his legs are crossed and his feet have claws. There seem to be no snake coils, but markings of sarcophagus character on his upper legs might be so interpreted. Beside him is a

fly (?); also a bull-man with a flowing vase and fish. Clearly he belongs with the others cited above and again a connection with snakes is no more than mcrely possible. " CANES, 990, p. I34, 'snake wrapping'; compare CANES, 386, there regarded as ropes (see note 34). The heavy outlines of the figure in CANES, ggo, vaguely recall the massive edges of the garment in a number of earlier copper-bronze figurines from Syria; H. Bossert, Alt Syrien, 1951, 570, 576, 585-7; also in the related limestone stele from Palestine, AASOR I7 (I938), 42f., pI. 2ia, and n. 26. The latter was regarded by Albright as depicting a snake goddess; but the presumed snakes there and in the figurines must rather be part of the garment as is also indicated by the similar garments in Fully Developed Syrian cylinders. Alt Syrien, 570, 576, from Ras Shamra have been discussed by Schaeffer (Ugaritica I, ch. IV, i26ff.). He suggests that the heavy borders depicted fur and rejects the possibility that they were snakes since no heads or tails are shown. Furthermore in the case of the goddess the piece at her shoulder was held in place by a thin line on her chest. He dates them Ig-I8th centuries because of the indications of their find spot, but a date c. 1700 B.C. would fit the evidence just as well and correspond to the apparent date of the related cylinders. 34For the late i6th century date of some Cypriote seals, none as it happens quite like this one, see Ash. C, pp. I68, I86. On the Cypriote 'sacred tree', generally taller than here, see E. Porada, AJA a2 (5948), pl. 8.xx (= BM.W., I16); also her groups III, V, pp. I88, I89. 7 PM.I, p. 495ff., see especially frontispiece and figure 377.

A SNAKE GODDESS

AND

HER COMPANIONS

More clearlyrelatedto our snake goddess is a winged figure of indeterminate sex in a Syriancylinderthat by its linear detail and apparentlack of developed modelling could date to before i 800 B.C.38 The head is in profile, the wings droop slightly on either side and there seem to be no arms. Most important, the lower part of the figure's body consists of a series of connected circular 'snake' coils that end in widespread claws. The centre of each set of coils seems to be open, whereas our original snake goddess is tightly coiled. The open arrangementof the coils recalls a number of representationson cylinder seals of somewhat later date. In all but one instance the lower extremitiesare twisted human legs ratherthan snake coils, though in one the legs clearlyend in claws instead of feet. Except for an early Middle Assyrian example of the 14th century, all are Mitannian, a period dating roughly from the late i6th to the early 14th century. Possibly the earliest of the group is Nu.i, 72O39, an impression showing a four-winged figure, perhaps female, who holds a mace (?) on either side in outstretched hands. Below a kilt her legs become snakes, tightly entwined (at least doubly), ending in bird claws. There are two winged griffons (?) beside her.
Ward, 954,40 a cylinder probably of the I 5th century, presents a crowned,

but nude, Janus-headedfigure, possibly female, her arms beside two drooping wings, her human legs thrice crossed. She stands under an arch (in the underworld?) beside which and holding it is a demon with both an antelope and a stag head. Ward,955,41 of similar date, has a crowned nude goddess, her legs doubly crossed. Her two wings droop, but her arms, supported by two 'heroes,' are raisedto touch or support the wings of a disc. A related goddess appearsin Louvre,I, D 57,42 which by its plumper style may be slightly later than those just cited. She has four wings, between each pair of which she reachesout towards a winged bull, while her doubly twisted legs rest on the backs of two lying antelopes. In another variant of similar style, Louvre,II, A 607,43 she is apparently wingless, but above her legs she wears a narrow 'skirt' striped like a wing. Each of her legs is crossed with the one visible leg of a winged bearded god seated on a lying bull. The legs of all three figures end in bird talons. The
38 F. Chapouthier in Le Trisorde Tdd,F. Bisson de la Roque, Cairo, 1953, 40f., fig. 14 (drawn)3" Nuti, 720, also pl. LIII, p. S7 and n. ioz; p. I35, dated to early Te1ip-tilla, i.e. c. I 5 o B.C. as implied by M. B. Rowton, CAH I revised, ch. VI, 59f.; or 50 years later, according to the shorter chronology, Beran, ZA NF. i8 (1957), 205f.

'0Frankfort, fig. 87, p.

27I.

4 E. Herzfeld, AMI 9 (x938), fig. 132, p. 5, no. 62. Frankfort, fig. go, p. 275 ff. argues that the winged

disc stands for the firmament instead of being simply the winged sun as in Egypt. Notice that he incorrectly treats his so-called Second Syrian style as following Mitannian instead of preceding it. 42 E. Herzfeld, op. cit., fig. 125, p. 2. For a seal closely resembling this in style and subject see M. -L and H. Erlenrmeyer,Or z6 (1957), pl 30.56, p. 336 (= Anlike KumstI, 1958, pl. 28.8, p. 58), except that in it the goddess also reaches out toward a human-headed sphinx on the right. 43 E. Herzfeld, ibid., fig. 130, p. 4, no. 6o.

BRIGGS

BUCHANAN

goddess holds in each raised hand a snake that is also held below by one of the gods. The latest of this quite coherent group, Ward,956,4 must be early Middle Assyrianof the i4th century. In it a full-facefemale, wearing a collar but otherwise nude, has twice-crossed human legs. Like the similarly twisted figures above she must be a goddess, though wingless. She is lifted at feet and arms by two crowned bearded nude 'heroes' whose heads she touches. There is a goat-fishon either side of her head. Beside her a four-winged full-face god with the feet of a bird of prey (compare the monstrous gods in Louvre,II, A 607) lifts a sphinx on either side while standing on two others, bearded and goathorned. Moore,159, a ratherworn cylinder, probably from the I3th century Levant, can be related to the group in that it shows a winged goddess with doubly twisted legs, much as on the kudurruof similardate cited in n. 44, though in the seal the wings are upswept. Here she holds a long object, presumably an animal, in one hand, while a connection with the underworld is suggested by the fact that she stands on a long undulating serpent. The serpent is under attack by a hero in a pointed hat of Hittite character. Whether the goddess is being freed from the reptile or whether she is simply an accessory remains uncertain. This seal tends to confirm the conclusion to be drawn from the earlier group, that she is a goddess of the underworld as originally indicated by entwined snakes serving for legs. The group also shows the stages by which she was brought into contact with the heavens while her legs became human though still twisted. A relationship between the goddess with twisted legs and the snake goddess of Fig. i seems clear. Only one problem arises, this from an Old Babylonian cylinder, Louvre,II, A 387, which by its linear charactershould be somewhat later than our Fig. i. In it between a personageand a suppliantsnakegoddess,thepair so popular in the period, there is a dwarf with doubly (?) crossed legs who has been described FIG. I. YBC 5698, seal impression, drawn by Mrs. Dale Osterle. as juggling, but who may hold lightning
E. Herzfeld, op. cit., fig. 124, 44De Clercq, 357 p. Iff., no. 59; for comparison he cites a goddess with two downswept wings and doubly twisted legs on a kudurru of the time of Melisipak II, c. I200 B.C., fig. I26 (n. i, p. 3, should readpl. XXXb); also Old Sumerian scorpion-men, fig. I 27a-b, the Akkadian seated snake-god, fig. 128, and an Etruscan stele, fig. I29. Added to the group of presumably related seals is fig. I31, p. 5, no. 6i (Berlin 6io), Late Babylonian of the ioth-8th century, which shows four almost identical gods, except that two have bull-like lower parts, over two lion-griffins. However, this piece shows no more than a superficial relationship with the others.

A SNAKE

GODDESS

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HER COMPANIONS

symbols in each raised hand. Though the extreme bowlegs with which the dwarf was usually depicted invite crossing in a crowded composition as here, the possibility that he may hold lightning suggests comparison with the underworldfiguresof our group in their relationto the heavens. If so the dwarf could be an as yet isolatedvariationon the ideas expressedby the snake goddess and her ever more exalted descendants. The problems connected with the snake goddess were so numerous and so particularto her that it seemed best to treat them first, but to discuss properly the winged 'acrobat' who appears with her in Fig. i, we must consider a magnificent haematite cylinderin the British Museum, BM. 134773, (Plate I e). In the latterboth the snakegoddess and the 'acrobat'recuralong with two more major figures as well as a multitude of filling motifs. At first there must have been some doubt about the genuineness of this piece. First because all of the principal figures are winged; second because of the peculiarstyle in these figures whereby modelling is indicatedby a series of ever-deeper squared-offcuts. However, the discussion above has shown that winged human figures, though rare in the period, do occur; while the pseudo-modelling cited in the second is a characteristicof early Old Babylonian, though hardly ever engraved with such regularityin vertical section. The integrityof the piece is especiallyclearfrom the consistentuse of the same kind of elaboratelineardetail in the secondarymotifs as in the principalfigures. Comparethe treatmentof the wings of the miniaturelion-dragonin the middle with that of the wings of the principalfigures beside it. The pseudo-modelling produced by cutting in ever-deeper levels is also visible in Plate I a, in the arm and leg of the 'acrobat'in the rolling above and in the joined arm and wing of the goddess below. The differentlevels are so conspicuous that at first the author thought they were caused by uneven rolling, but the British Museum cylinder indicates that this cannot have been the case. In short, both the impressionand the seal are in the grandestmanner of the Old Babylonianperiod, namely that of its early phase when the realistic style of the best Ur HI 'portraiture'was fused with a new taste for elaborate linear detail. The author was also mistaken in entertainingthe thought that the British Museum seal made the impression, believing it possible that the filling motifs had been added to the seal later. But though the goddess and the 'acrobat' were depicted much the same in both, there are numerous small differences. Thus the acrobat'swings differ as to their angle, while his beard curves back more in the seal. If in the impression the acrobat's head were made up of masses of snake coils topped by a reptile'shead a further significantdifference would be attested. Furthermorethe goddess' 'feet' seem to have snake endings in the impression, whereas in the seal they are clearly talons or claws. Lastly in the seal the navels of both figures are defined by distinctly cut circles; not so in the impression. Clearlythe two are differentversions of the same subject

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by a single artist. Unfortunatelythere is no way to tell whether the other principalfigures were much the same in the seal that made the impression. To study the principal figures it seemed desirable to show them without the subsidiarymotifs (Plate II a). From left to right there is first a tall bearded god who like the 'acrobat'has his arms in the midst of his wide-spreadwings, a very rare arrangement.45There is no indication that they were attachedto the wings. He wears a tunic and, like the 'acrobat',his feet are possibly human. He looks right as does a young man also in a tunic, who apparentlylacks a beard, though the lower outline of his face is strongly marked. The latter holds a dagger at his waist in his left hand while reachingacross with his right towards the snake goddess facing him. Like the latter his two wings extend behind him. Like her too the forwardarm,her left, his right, seems to continue along the top of the wing in front. Is this arrangementsomehow related to the arms in the midst of wings discussed above? Also like the goddess his feet are clawed. Most important,his serpentinetail identifieshim as a scorpionman, a rare figure in the period.46 The goddess wears bracelets on her right wrist. Except for a belt, the 'acrobat'is nude. Only by his nudity and his posture can he be distinguished from the beardedgod to the left. Becauseof the suggestions of the underworld in the central figures, the scorpion-man and the snake goddess, it might be thought that the figure to the left stood for a god of the nether regions, but his resemblance to the 'acrobat' suggests rather that he is the 'acrobat' before going into action, or at least a mate who needs only to strip to perform. A conspicuous feature of all these figures is that their hair is swept back behind their heads as if wind-blown. In this they recall the winged male with a scimitarand the rain goddess of the weather scene in Plate I d, though in the latter the back-swept hair is not as copious as here. Also in Plate I d appears a weather god on a lion-dragon who does not carry a weapon but
6 For arms adhering to wings see the kudurru cited under n. 44 and a drawing of similar date, E. Herzfeld, AMI 8 (1937), fig. 44a, p. I22.
"6 Compare the worn scorpion-man in Berlin, 395, of mature Old Babylonian style. He is in the position usually given an attacking lion on the other side of a goat menaced by a lion-drgon. He has a tail like our figure and wears a tunic, but he lacks the flowing hair, while his visible arm is completely separated from backward-sweeping, but divided wings. A silver goblet, acquired by the Louvre along with other similar objects presumably from the region south-west of the Caspian Sea, shows a figure resembling our scorpion man except that he lacks wings. Trhe hair of his head extends massively in a downward direction. He has a short beard. A semicircular tail projects from his tunic, while his legs are described as feline. Repeated thrice, each time he

and his partner, a bull-man, hold between them a standard; P. Amiet, Syria 45 (I968), pL. IS, p. 149ff., especially p. 253ff. As suggested this goblet could date to c. I200 B.C. like the kudurru cited n. 4-5. Similarly dated, also with presumably archaizing features, is a gold bowl, probably from the same area as the goblet, that features a two-headed lion demon with the-to us-familiar twisted snake legs ending in bird claws; E. Porada, Art of Anciet Iran, BadenBaden, i965, pl. 22b, p. goff., especially p. 94f. Possibly carlier than the scorpion(?)-man on our goblet is the comparable demon on the lower part of the I3th century stele of Untashgal of Elam. This figure has mouflon horns and tightly curling hair at the back of his head, but otherwise resembles our man in the treatment of his arms; he likewise grasps a standard and his tail is of similar character except that it curves out at the end; Elam, pI. 282, p. 374.

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otherwise closely resemblesthe god on a similat mount in our cylinder. Here he wields a scimitar and holds a lightning fork. However, by relative size he must be regarded as a secondary motif. Nevertheless his position in the middle of the scene suggests that he was of greater importance to the artist thanthe manyother secondarymotifs which do not seem particularly significant, though strikingly executed. He may therefore reinforce the suggestion of a weather motif alreadygiven by the possibly wind-blown hair of the principal figures. Furthermorethe 'acrobat', though connected with the underworld by his bent-over posture, indicates a concern for the heavens by looking up. The posture of the 'acrobat' has no earlier Western Asiatic precedents, except in a provincial seal from Susa which is probably slightly older.47 However, the figure in the latter, very possibly female, is bent over so that her head touches the ground. She may be a dancerand consequentlyhave no necessary connection with the menacing lions above her. It has been pointed out that her posture recalls that of the 'bridge' formed by certain acrobaticdancers in Egypt of about the same time.48 It may be, therefore, that the posture of our 'acrobat' derived from Egypt where acrobatic figures in various positions had a long history. In any case the posture survived into Mitannian times, when, however, the 'acrobat' was given a scorpion's tail. Thus the scorpion-man and the 'acrobat' of our seal fused in the later period. All examples known to the writer come from Nuzi in northern Iraq from a region southeast of Assyria proper; all are impressionsdating to c. I 500 B.C. or slightly later. The scorpionman is best shown in Plate II b, where a pair of them arebent over, theirhorned crowns almost touching.49 They have long beards but, unlike Plate I e, bull's ears. The upper parts of their arms are in contact with their wide-spread wings, but of the lower parts, the right arm reaches towards the heavens, the other towardsthe earth. The scorpion tail is decoratedwith spiralcoils resembling those that form a kind of kilt or tunic below.50 Apparentlytheir (bird?) feet also end in spirals. Significantlythe right hands point towards a winged disc from which wavy rays descend. These rays which they may be about to grasp, could representrain.5' Confirmingthis as a weather scene there stands
47 RA 28 (193I), 43, no. 7 (= RA 4 (19) pl. 6.52). Published as fig. 241 in Elam, i7th century, (compare fig. 240-2, p. 321-3, of similar date), that is at least 50 years later than Hammurabi. Here all are taken to be of the Igth century because of the relation;hip with Gappadocian glyptic of the earlier time. 468E. Porada, Nuti, II9, n. 255; however, vcry athletic, if not acrobatic, humans are quite common in Syrian glyptic; for example, Newell, i65, 345, 348 (for Syrian acrobats, see Part II). E. Brunner-Trau, Der TanrZ Alten Egypt, Hamburg, I938, fig. i6, im p. 39, dated Middle Kingdom; figs. 22-5, p. 49ff., New Kingdom. For an Old Kingdom Egyptian figure in a pose like ours but in a war scene, see mid-

right, W. Smith, Interconnections the Ancient Near in Eait, New Haven, i965, fig. 14. '" T. Beran, ZA (= Plate II b here).
NF

I8 (1957),

212f.,

fig.

IIO

"OA similar treatment of the upper legs is to be seen on other figures in Nuzi impressions: on a fourwinged deity amidst animals, T. Beran, op. cit. fig. III, p. 213; on a full-face bearded figure attacked on either side, NuZi, 728, p. 6o. "INewell, 4I6, a post-Kassite seal, shows wavy rays undoubtedly water flowing from the arms of a winged disc to pots below.

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to the left a weathergod who holds what could be a double axe and a lightning fork, both symbols of storm. A similarscene appearsin Nt?zi, 730,52 in which, though indistinct,it seems possible that the scorpion-man'swings are both up while his head is down, perhaps touching the ground. To the left a weather god astride a winged lion-dragon holds a lightning fork attachedto the monster, while above there is a bull with a curious circulartail. A more crowded scene appears in the impression of a royal seal53which has as its most conspicuous mythological figure a weather god on a dragon, much as in NuZi, 73o. Below on the left is our acrobaticfigure, his bearded head turned up, his widespreadwings up and down, apparentlywithout arms. Circlesor volutes are attachedbelow his tunic and his feet have bird-likeclaws, but his tail looks like that of the traditionallion-dragonas in Plate I e instead of resemblingthe scorpion tail of other contemporary'acrobats'. A scorpiontail does occur, however, on a U-shaped figure with spreadwings, one drooping, who holds a lightning fork and wears a long scaly garment. These curious creatures,perhapsall of the others in the scene except the worshipper,must be associated with the activities of the weather god. Yet both of the creatures suggest an earthy,even an underby their posture and by their appurtenances world connection. Our 'acrobats' then, whether marked as scorpion-men or not, can only indirectly be related to the scorpion-men who in the Epic of Gilgamesh, at least in the Assyrian version, guard the places where the sun rises and sets.54 More applicableto the seals of our concern may be the role of the scorpionman as a kind of Atlas-figure. It has been argued that he played this role in some Old Sumerianart as he certainly did in Late Assyrian.55 Only for our Plate II b, however, does the suggestion seem directly relevant, and then only as an unlikely possibility. The goddess with entwined legs in Ward, 955, discussedabove, may with more probabilitybe taken for a kind of Atlas-figure, since she could be regarded as the support of the winged disc above her. Nevertheless it is more likely that she, like the rest of her group and like the between the heavens 'acrobatic'men, can be best explained as an intermediary and the netherworld. The source of these creatures, the snake goddess and her associates, so strange in Old Babylonianart, remainssomething of a mystery. A hint as to the answer may be supplied by the appearancea little later of closely related figures in the Mitannianseals of Nuzi and its environs, a centre of Hurrian culture. A suggestion is also provided by Plate I d, an Ur III seal showing
f2
63

Nuti, 6i; see also 56f. and n.

99-IOI.

64 J. Pritchard ed., Ancieni Near Eastern Texts, Frankfort, Princeton, I969, 88, tablet IX, ii, i-I2. 68. 210. 56Amiet,

pI. 3.2-3, fig. 107.

E. Lachemann, Excavations at Nuti, V, pt. 11, 5.4-5, p. xiii. T. Beran, op. cit., 204f.,

33f. A connection of certain Mitannian designs with the Atlas figure is suggested in NuZi, 67f.

A SNAKE GODDESS

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COMPANIONS

13

weather deities. It has alreadybeen noted that the wings of the leading male and the wind-blown hair of the first two figures in this seal may indicate a relationship with the wings and hair of the principals in Plate I e. In both cases, too, the lion-dragon,the mount of the weathergod, looks much the same. The Ur III seal belonged to the scribe of one of the great dignitariesof the period, who at the time was governor of Simurrum for the Third Dynasty. This district, a regular source of trouble for the dynasty, was located just south of the Nuzi areaand possibly had a large Hurrianpopulation even then, 500 years before the Nuzi seals.56 The artist, though working in the best Ur III style, may have thereforetried to get supportfor a rule regardedby manyof the provincialsas alien by drawingon some local traditionsfor his iconography. The lion-dragon as carrierof the weather god in Akkadianseals was largely replacedby the bull in traditionalOld Babylonian,but continued in the north. and This was certainlytrue of Cappadocian earlyAssyrianseals, but as Plate I d of somewhatearlierdate shows, also furthersouth. Similarlythe rareappearance of the creaturein Old Babylonianart as in Plate I e can probably be attributed to the upper limits of the realm.57 Likewise a northern source, very possibly Hurrianinspired, may be argued for the wings and the hair in the same seal. Our analysishas thus revealed that the way the various parts of the design were executed indicates a similar stylistic characterin both the seal (Plate I e) and the seal impression (Plate I a). Furthermorethe subsidiarymotifs are all specificallyOld Babylonian. Despite the execution in Old Babylonian style, however, the principalactors reveal the influenceof a foreign hand, indicated especiallyby winged figuresthat reflectan alien manner(PlateII a). It has been suggested that they could be of more northern origin, very possibly Hurrian inspired. That they are unique in Old Babylonianart is shown by the absence of closely analogous themes. On the other hand the very few similar subjects treatedin Syrianart(PartII, PlateII c; cf. above, n. 38) though locallyrelatedto a western iconography fixed on winged figures, reveal enough differences to suggest that there too one must seek an alien source for the snake goddess. A northernorigin has alreadybeen argued by the appearance the weather of god on his earlier traditional mount, the dragon. Though playing only a minor role in Plate I e, perhapseven coincidental,the storm god could nevertheless serve as an indirectconnection emphasizingthe concern of the principal figures for the relation between the heavens and the underworld. It is thus that the origin of our strange cast of characterscan perhaps be explained, that and a brilliantand original artist.
Il D. Edzard in J. Bottero et al, The Near Eat, the Early Civili.zafionr, London, x967, '43; cf. E. Weidner,

AJO I S

(I945-5I),

notes that Nuzi (then Gasur) was still Akkadian under the Akkad dynasty, but must have come under Hurrian influence by c. 2000 B.C. On a Hurrian presence in the Akkadian period in the Khabur valley

75ff. D. Edzard, op. cit.,

146,

see J. Nougayrol, Syria 37 (I960), zx3f. and n. 3-4. " E. Porada, NuZi, 56f. and nn. 99-1io. However, Newell, 2zo, cited as Cappadocian,seems more probably mature Old Babylonian in style. It may be regarded as of northern origin by the lion-dragon serving as mount for the weather god in it, but it shows no other provincial characteristics.

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II. The Snake Goddess and the War Game. The Date of the Syrian Style. The snake goddess appears in the Syrian style design (Plate II c) of one 14 on of the cylinderseal impressions a tabletdatedHammurabi (I779 B.C.). the affairsof a priestess at Sippar, an importantnorthThe tablet deals with western centre of Babyloniantradeto the west. However, the Syriancharacter of this particulardesign must not be given undue local significancesince as it happensthe many other impressionsshown from the site are either Babylonian or relatedthereto. The importanceof our new snake goddess lies ratherin the broader implications of her appearancein an otherwise completely Syrian setting. The principal scene shows a chariot and driver, with the snake goddess placed horizontallyover the 'horses', the lower part of her snake coils ending above the driver's extended right arm in which the reins are held. Since the seal was irregularlyimpressed, the 'horses'' forelegs and heads appearto the right, and over them, barely discernible at right angles, are the wide-spread wings, the head in profile and even part of the headdressof the goddess. Her nose is especiallyprominent. Unfortunatelyall of that part of the design has registeredso poorly, that only becausethere is no evidence of a beard, can the winged figure be takenfor female. Most of the relatedsnakedeities cited above are certainlyfemale. The Syriancylinder(above, n. 38), which must be somewhat earlier than the impression, has a snake deity who may be female too, of though calledindeterminate sex above. 'Her' wings droop; in the impression raised. 'She' seems to lack arms; here the arms are perhapsinside the they are wings as with two of the strangebeings in Plate I e. 'Her' snake coils are open; here they are tightly twisted and apparentlyturn back at the bottom instead of being outspread. Nevertheless the two undoubtedly represent the same type of creature,whatever the decision as to sex. The most intriguing problem concerns the relation of the goddess to the main scene in the impression. However, the precise characterof the so-called horses must first be considered,since where their forepartsappearon the right it looks as though they have spreading horns on their heads. This suggests that in front they were depicted as stags, despite the manes and longish tails behind. Though confusion about the precise characterof the beasts pulling the chariot occurs often in Syrian glyptic, such a combination need not be accepted here because of the confused nature of much of the impression. In any case their harnessis elaborate. So too is the body of the chariot, though its wheels seem to be of the common four-spoked type. Under the 'horses', or ratheralmost certainlyon the far side of them, lies a man whose arms and legs are in an actively protective posture. The driver dressed in princely fashion holds the reins in his right hand, a weapon or whip in his left. Under the whip a lion attacksa goat, a typical Syriansecondarytheme. Below there is a guilloche above a row of marching men. Such a row is usual in Syrian chariot scenes, often in a subordinateposition, but normally not as part of a

A SNAKE GODDESS AND HER COMPANIONS

15

secondary motif. The men have an appendage between their legs, garb for which Cretan comparisons have been suggested.58 Apart from the main scene but looking towards it, appears a fill-size semi-nude goddess who extends an axe-like object in her right hand while holding a spear diagonally before her in her left.59 Except for the snake goddess all of these figures are well attested in Syrian glyptic. For the significanceof the scene however, others must be examined. Two seals at Yale (Plate II d) show a chariot scene followed by marchingmen. In both there is an acrobatvaulting over the horses and another lying on the ground behind them. That they are acrobatsratherthan dead strewn in the field is indicated, not only by their postures but by their resemblanceto the acrobats playing the bull game in a Syrian cylinder of the Fully Developed style.60Obviously this is not a war scene but a spectacular paradewith decorated harness, a fancy chariot, athletic performers and marchers in perfect step.6' Some variantsshow the same theme though less realistically. Thus a seal once in the British Museum(Plate II e) with the usual chariot and marchershas two men leaping over the horses while under the latter are a human head, a hand and a fish, together giving the effect of the acrobat on the ground. Sidney Smith almost hit the correctsolution of the scene by calling it a paradeprobably not for war but to go hunting.62 A similar design appears in Ash. C, 892 (p. I74), showing an acrobatin the air over the horses' heads, another before the heads making the first step of his leap and under him another who has completed his leap. A human head before the horses' legs and a scorpion under them can hardlybe a schematicversion of anotheracrobat. The apparent duplication of ideas suggests that the present author was correct in thinking that the seal had been anciently recut. It follows that the head and other objects under the horses in Plate II e may have been a surviving theme schematicallyapplied to a new concept, that of performing acrobatswith one prone on the ground.63 It would seem that the quite numerous chariotseals showing
S8 B. Buchanan, JCS II (1957), 47ff. (esp. 48-9); cf. H. Seyrig, Syria 33 (1956), x69ff. (who unfortunately uses Frankfort's no longer tenable dating).
' E. Porada, JNES x6 (I957), I93 (on a semi-nude winged goddess with two spears). Dr. P. R. S. Moorey reports the unique find of an axe from Eastern Syria, which is very like the one held by the goddess in our impression. It comes from a tomb dated to about the same period (Du Mesnil du Buisson, Baghou, Leiden, 1948, pl. 47, drawn pl. 45, text P-53-4).

scene is stressed. His presence therefore remains enigmatic. For other references to this important article see n. 62-63. 1E. Porada, Nuri, 117f., n. 249.
62 Though there is no obvious reason to connect this scene with hunting, hunting scenes in Syrian glyptic are known thanks once more to Seyrig's eye for the unusual, P. Amiet, op. cit. (n. 6o), fig. 8-9, p. 6f. They show an archer shooting at animals from a chariot, the most popular theme of later chariot scenes.

"OH. Seyrig, Syra 32 (195 S) pl. 4.2, p. 34ff.

Sur-

prisingly enough a figure very like the upper acrobat appears over the 'horses' in the chariot scene on a Cappadocian tablet, P. Amiet in Ugaritica VI, I969, fig. 1-2, p. Iff. He is strangely caled a cadaver, though otherwise the processional character of the
(17004)

63A detached human head appears between the 'horses' and the reins in the Cappadocian impression cited n. 6o. Such heads were common motifs in Cappadocian glyptic.
B

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only a man on the ground under or beside the horses must belong to the same type of scene, called above the war game. In the impressionthe SnakeGoddess obviously replacesthe vaulting acrobat above. The author toyed with the idea that the goddess must therefore be connected with the acrobats. Since the acrobats can be related to others 'playing' the bull game and since a Cretanconnection is suggested for all of them; it was tempting to relate the goddess to the snake priestessesor goddesses of Crete. However, this is regarded above as tenuous at best. Her precise role in our scene must thereforeremainuncertain. The impression also has important implications for the date of the Syrian style.64 It completely confirms the general dating now commonly accepted. The only problems of this nature remaining concern certain unusual pieces like Ash. C, 898 which may fall outside the time limits of the rest, though in the case cited this is most unlikely. But the impression also brings some more particularproblems to the fore. In it the pronounced modelling of the principal figures is combined with a more linear treatmentof the little men. The latter is particularlyvisible in the tunic of the fourth man in the row. Thus the engraving falls between the early more linear phase of the style and the exaggeratedmodelling of the late phase, but with the modelled tendency predominant. It thereforetends to support the dates proposedfor the different phasesof the style in Ash. C,65 except perhapsas noted above. The heavymodelling manifest here could imply that the Fully-Developed phase, that in which modelling was exaggerated,should perhapsbe somewhat earlierthan the early i7th century as given in the book. Though mature Old Babylonianof the years about i8oo B.C. substantially lacks the modelling of mature Syrian, the two styles are in their different but not too dissimilarways quasi-naturalistic. However, in Babyloniaabout I700 B.C. the old tradition began to be replacedby a revolutionarystyle based on schematic drilling.66 In the event the new style dominatedWestern Asia through the Dark Ages of the i6-I 5th centuries. Becauseof the close relationship of the two regions it seems possible that Syriafelt the same revolutionary impulses in art as Babylon at about the same time. If this were the case the date of the Fully Developed Syrian style might have to be revised to before 1700 B.C. ratherthan after. However, the Syrianevidence is too slight and too late (perhapsc. i650 B.C.) to justify the proposed change.67
64 Galled Old Syrian style, Ash. C, p. 9, x65ff., to match contemporary Old Babylonian, but since the Levant produced no comparably grand, closely integrated style again it would seem that Syrian is the term to be preferred for ordinary use. 65

Ash. C, p. x65.

tion shown in this article will appear with numerous additions in vol. I of the Yale seals (forthcoming). The latter extends through the Old Babylonian period, including both seals and seal impressions, and deals with the peripheral as well as the traditional. Eventually vol. II will carry the story from after the Old Babylonian through the Sassanian period.
67

66 B. Buchanan, Yale Library GaZeIIe 45 (Oct. 1970), 53ff. The seal impressions of the Babylonian Collec-

B. Buchanan, JCS

I I, 1957 p. 5 If.

on Alalakh

I2B.

A SNAKE GODDESS

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Abbreviations The abbreviationsused are as in Buchanan,Catalogue AncientNear EasternSealsin theAshof molean Museum, Oxford, 1966, xv if. (=Ash); to which add:P. Amniet, Elam, Auvers-sur-Oise, I966 (=Elam). M. Barrelet,Figurines reliefsen terrecuitede la Misopotamie et antique Paris, I968 (=Barrelet, I, Figurines). R. Boehmer, Die Entwicklung Glyptikwdhrend Akkad-Zeit, Berlin, i965 (=Boehmer); der der illustrations by number only, catalogue items (p. I41 ff.) given in full. In both text and notes only the number of the seal is normally cited after the reference. D. McCown et al., Nippur I, Temple Enlil, Scribal,Quarters, Soundings, LXXVIII, of and OIP Chicago, 1967 (=Nippur I). R. Opificius, Das altbabylonische Terrakottarelief, Berlin, i96i (=Opificius). Notes to the Plates The illustrations were all taken from unpublished photographs in the Yale Babylonian Collection or the BritishMuseum,except for Plate II e which appearedin the latter's Quarterly though only briefly in the museum, and Plate II b published under Harvardauspices but too important to exclude here. Plate I a. YBC 5698. Date, Warad-Sinof Larsa, year 9 (i 8z6 B.C.). Published YBT. v. iz8 (design not shown). The design also appearson the reverse of the tablet. It is 2I mm. high (23 with cap marks above). The owner of the seal cannot be identified. On other parts of the tablet appearimpressions of the inscriptionfrom a differentcylinder(z6 mm. high) belonging to one of the witnesses. Seal Old Babylonian. Plate I b. NBC 89z9. Haematite cylinder. Fully developed Syrian. Plate I c. YBC I2583. 'Steatite' cylinder. Yale University LibraryGa-ytte(July I960), 28, no. 47 (not shown). Post-Akkadian. Plate I d. NBC. 56I3 Date, Amar-Sin of Ur, year 6 (204I B.C.). BIN III, 6z7 (drawn). Seal of servant of Sellug-dagan,ensiof Simurrum(see Goetze, JCS I7 (I963), I3f.). Impressed all over case but not on tablet. Seal, Neo-Sumerian. Plate I e. BM I34773 (I966-z-18.34). From E. G. Spencer-Churchill Collection. Haematite. 28 x i6 I/2/I 5 mm. (concave). Reported by Capt. Spencer-Churchill having been acquired as by Herzfeld near Borsippa. Probablythe seal cited by the latter, AMI 9, (I938), I, under S9, as being related to De Clercq357 (note 44 here) and unpublished. If so the relationship is certainlyindirect. Old Babylonian. Photograph by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. Plate II a. Principal figures from Plate I e. The filling motifs were painted out of the negative by David Richards,Audio Visual Center, Yale University. Plate II b. SMN I428. E. Lacheman,Excavations NuZi V, pt. II, Cambridge, 1950, pl. at III.270, p. xiii. New photograph supplied through the kindness of Dr. E. Lacheman. Enlarged. Seal, Mitannian. Plate II c. BM i68 I sa (upper left reverse). Enlarged over z/I . Cuneiform Texts,OldBabylonian Nadi-t Records, H. H. Figulla, 47, I967, P1. I4, zza (case), seal 3, drawn. Tablet dated Hammurabi 14 (for full date formula see H. de Genouillac, Kich II, pl. 33, D14-reference A. Goetze). Overlapping our impression to the left, the partial rolling of an Old Babylonian cylinder. Seal, Syrian. Photograph by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.

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Plate II d. NBC 893I. Enlarged. Haematite. zo i/z X Ii i/z. Bought. The other Yale seal is Newell 343. Both Syrian. Plate II e. Now Gulbenkian Museum, Durham University. First cited: BAIQ (1940), 1i pl. ga, S. Smith, p. z7ff (p. 3o-the kilts somewhat resemble Cretanones). Quoted as North. 2404, haematite, zo x Io (-). Syrian. Photograph by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.